The record-union., 1891-11-14
Especial Correspondence of RECORD UNION.
Copyright, 1911
CRICK, England, November 2, 1891.

CRICK, England, November 2, 1891.
Here in this little ancient English vii
1age, six miles of sunny way from the no
BILE school town of Rugby, lives one of
the most noted and, certainly, one of the
worthiest men of England. / am his
friend and guest.
1t is an humble abode, three three-cent-
ury old cabins merged into one, with ga
bled roof, huge fireplaces, low ceilings,
tiny windows, and all manner of mystic
rious cubby holes, hooks and passages,
and with three of the sweetest women in
England, mother and two lovely maid
ems, to give the quaint old place unceas-
ing light and joy.
1t is not the first time / have been here
at Crick. 1t is my only home-spot in a
foreign land. When tired of wandering
up and down the face of Britain, here is
where / come for rest. There are both
rest and delight in old, old Crick; rest,
because it is one of the few of English viii
lagos which stands just as it always stood;
where the roar OF the Workaday worlds
activities never comes; where the old
parish church, the graveyard, the de-
cayed manor-hOuSe, the huge stone dove
cotes which house 500 families of doves,
the thatched farm laborers' cottages, the
1Yles and messy walls, and the simple vii
lage folk, ali invite to repose; and of de-
light because, with my host and friend,
George Smith of CoalVille, sage, philoso-
pher and philantbropist, we wander
among English lanes, find old paths over
English fields, hunt out English antiqui-
ties, visit English battle grounds, talk of
and visit the gypSieS, and all the other
lowly we both know and love, and alto
gether lead life, for the few days we are
happily together, unmixed with envy,
untainted by ambition and idyllic in
the loftiest friendship and humblest con-
tent.
All good men and women whs believe
IN the bettering of the world through the
saving OF its man-torsaken and almost
God-torsaken children, should know
something of this man, George Smith of
COalyllle, as he is everywhere in England
called. No other Englishman. perhaps
no other man, ever accomplished so much
for helpless children. He was born to a
brick-worker's life in 1881. His father
before him was a brick-worker. The
boy grew up in the misery and drudgery
OF the English brickyards. While still a
Lad OF years his labor, like thousands of
other brickyard children, was to contin-
uaIly carry forty pounds of clay on his
head from the brick pile to the table on
which the bricks were made. Before his
father had reached Is years of age he had
travelled nearly four times the distance
around the earth In the same toll.
He realized the brutality and misery
which he suffered, and with which all
brickyard children were surrounded.
with a purpose. With every cuff, kick
and oath administered was again clinched
determination to emancipate himself
and his kind. From the extra fee secured
by watching the brick-kilns two nights
Of each week, he got four years of night
schooling and a few books. When he
had reached mans estate he became the
George Smith Cf Coalville," whose
name all England now knows almost as
a household word, by securing the
management of a small red brickyard at
that place. He made the owners rich,
but eventually lost his position through
his ceaSelesS agitation in behalf of the
brIckyard children. 1t is a long, heart
breaking story, that of his starvation,
suffering, contumely and sacrifices, until
he made all England hear him. His grand
battle for these helpless ones was made
along all lines in marvellous and sympa-
thetic simplicity, but with the tremend-
GUS force of personal conviction from per-
sonal suffering. He will carry to his
grave the scars of hurt and wrong that the
children for whom he pleaded We're en-
during lie had soIIething to tell Of on
goings in English brickffelds and brick
yards, and he ''bulked it OUT" as he him
self says in his work, "The Cry of the
Children from the Brickyards of Eng
land, in all ''its largeness and shame"
In brief, he found, as a lad of years.
thirty thousand girls and bows, MANY
more youthful than himself. in a condi-
ton of abuse, horrible slavery, vice. ig-
norance and misery impossible for the
pen of even genius to describe. He
worked, starved and battled thirty years
for these children, and finally on the 10th
of August, 1871 heard the voice of the
Of 10 NJ
out, The ayes have it," on the passage
OF a bill, which became the fifth clause of
the Factory and Workshops Amend
ment Act" gave him the enthusiastic
congratulations of the greatest men of
England, led Lord Salisbury to ex-
claim, "Bless God for his grace on your
efforts" and had achieved for him the
first great victory of his life. Alone and
unaided, one brickyard graduate had res
cued thirty thousand fellows from the
slavery and degradation of this incon-
ceivably brutal and blighting form of
child labor, while the actual result was
to send, on January l, 1872, 10000 half
naked children out of the brick and tile
yards to school, and forever prohibited
girls under 16 beng employed in this
form of labor
But George Smith of Coalville had only
begun. His second crusade was in be-
half OF the canalboat children. AS q boy
slave he had toiled in brickyards abut-
ting the canals In these boats and barges
he saw thousands more children en-
pIoyed in drudgery equally murderous.
and living in condition infinitely more
degrading. Perhaps lbs, 900 persons, men,
women and children, were emploved in
navigating some $4,000 boats, nearly 5. 600
miles of canals and navigable rivers in
England. They did not throng railway
stations. They were in secluded places
and even literature had woven a poetic
glamor about them. Their poor children
had dropped out Of sight. They were
growing up in the stuhy cabins almost
like wild beasts. Thrashed, kicked.
beaten with ropes, sticks and heavy iron
boots, many became as stupid as the
asses which they drove. Blasphemy,
drunkenness, thieving, incest and incon-
celYable degradation among these folk
We're universal. This children's friend
determined to rescue these lost heath
ems as he had rescued the canalboat chill
dren.
He wrote thousands of letters and cir
cularS; tramped hundreds of miles along
canal banks; stormed the newspapers and
besieged Parliament, and all the while
himself and family were numberless
times suffering for bread. Finally in
1915, he managed to publish his book,
Our Canal Population" With this he
made England stand still and listen again
In 1876 he had succeeded in enlisting
the Government so far that it instituted
official inquiries and took evidence, and
tnen he was asked to frame bill. This
was blocked" in all manner of ways in
committee, and for time the measure
seemed lost; but on the final day of the
session of Parliament in August, 1877.
but not until Home Secretary Cross had
been called TO Osborne House for an in
terVlew concerning the matter with the
Queen, who has always been sympatheti-
tT.asnl1 ~