Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-04-16
Joseph Arch.

49, sAo bhNe VI 1oi ioL0f dOd1
Warwick, where he now owns pleasant
little cottage and garden, Joseph Arch
was born about forty-fve years ago. He
was born to the life that in England most
nearly recalls the inscription over the In
ferno-" All hope abandon, ye who enter
here" 1t is very little, comparatively
when an English artisan rises in the social
scale and attains education and wealth;
but any similar ascent from the rank of
the farm laborers is so nearly impossible
that the English agricultural laborer finds
not even myth, such as other working
classes have In Wilmington, to tell his
children of farm hand transformed. In
this valley without horizon Joseph Arch
was born, and he has at least been able to
show his comrades that if their case does
not admit OF culture, wealth, or social ad-
vancement, it may admit that light which
the mansions cannot polize-the light
which comes OF the 6 low of human sym
pathy. While laboring in the field Arch
taught himself to read, and the compan-
ions of his toll ever after were the Bible
and the newspaper. He was married at
the age of twenty five, and had two chill
dren at the time when he first felt the
terrible pressure of want. He was getting
Is. I'D. per day, and he struck. From
that time he never took regular employ
ment, but worked by the job. He was an
excellent hand, especially in hedge plant
ing. This caused him to live a somewhat
nomadic life, which enabled him also to see
the many varieties Of condition among
those suffering under a common oppres.
sion. For years he wandered about doing
piece-work from farm to farm, and from
county to county, often finding his nights
lodging in some old barn or under the
hedgerow. So. His supper N might IT., be a.: a dry
by which to study bis Bible and to read
his newspaper. Almost insensibly he be-
gan preaching. He had been from early
life connected with the Primitive Method
ist connection (which then differed from
the Wesleyan body in having the largest
power in It's government in the hands of
the laity,) and he was ordained as a loca
preacher. He preached with great accept
ance to the poor, among whom he asso
ciated and by his high conduct and his
abstinence from drink did much to elevate
their moral as we'll as physical condition
in many places.
For twenty years, as he told me, he
brooded over the heavy wrongs of the
laboring classes in the rural districts. He
made tremendous efforts to raise his fine
children out of the slough of county serf-
dom, and has to-day the pleasure of seeing
his eldest son, at the age Of twenty, a
sergeant in the army, with fair prospect
of promotion. His industrious wife and
an intelligent daughter do much to assist
him in the great work to which his life is
now devoted.
To-day the wealthiest peer of the realm
grows pale at the name of Joseph Arch.
And any one who has looked into his eye
or heard his voice will not wonder that it
should be so. The weary voices of mill
ions who are hopeless are heard through
his simple eloquence. Ages of patient
suffering, and generations that have long
groaned in the prison of Giant Despair,
find their first morning ray lin the fire of
his eye. Amidst scowling nobemen aud
angry landlords this man has for some
time journeyed through the length and
breadth Of Englan seeking to form " un-
ions'' of farm laborers, and to combine
these unions into vast national organiza.
tion. His journeys, even in this limited
| area, have been such as to recall the labors
Of Catholic missionaries in earlier times.
During each day he visits the homes of
| the laborer., and learns their exact condi
tion I; he takes care to visit all who have
suffered wrongs by eviction; and every
evening he speaks to the assembled labor
ers with force which never fails, and a
perseverance which never grows weary.
He has been the means of organizing
England into some twenty-five districts,
each of which includes many d fferent
uuions-all together representing kind Of
! United States of Labor. Already in these
regions wages have risen aud it is say
ing that where Arch goes starvation flies
The poor women cry out as he passes,
God bless you Our children never had
meat until you came" But Joseph Arch
is not the man to be contented because the
lords fears lead him to gild his sert's
chain; he has settled purpose and plan,
with which he is steadily carrying not the
farm laborers only, but the sympathy Of
the disinterested intelligence of the coun.
try, though that plan surely contains a
revolution of the land laws OF Great
Britain.-M. d. CONWAY, in Harper's
Magazine for April.
The world is at last supplied with an