Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-15

I
at that place. He made the owners rich
but eventually lost his position through his
| ceaseless agitation in behalf of the brick.
| yard children. 1t is long, heart breaking
story, that of his starvation, suffering. con.
tumely and sacrifices, until he made all
| England hear him. His grand battle fol
these helpless ones was made along al
lines in marvellous and sympathetic sim
| plicity, but with the tremendous force OF
| personal conviction from personal suffer
ing He will carry to his grave the scar.
OF hurt and wrong that the children for
whom he pleaded were enduring. He had
something to tell of ongoings in English
brick-felds and brickyards; and he ''bulked
1t out, as he himself says in his work.
1.-THE Cry of the Children from the Brick.
yards of England" in all Its largeness and
shame.''
In brief, he found, as lad of seven years,
10000 girls and boys, many more youthful
than himself, in a condition of abuse, hor-
rible slavery, vice, ignorance and
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
speaker of the house of comm ons ring out,
''The ayes have it," on the passage of a
Bill, which became the fifth clause Of the
factory and workshops amendment act :"
gave him the enthusiastic congratula-
tons OF the greatest men of England !;
led Lord SALISBURY tie exclaim,
BLESS God for his grace on your eff
forts" and had achieved for him the
first great victory of his life Alone and
unaided one brickyard graduate had res
cued 10000 fellows from the slavery and
degradation of this inconceivably 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 tileyards to school, and forever
prohibited girls under sixteen being en-
ployed in this form of labor.
But George Smith of Coalville had only
begun. His second crusade was in behalf
of the canal-boat children. AS boy slave
he had tolled in brickyards abutting the
canals. In these boats and barges he saw
thousands more children employed in
drudgery equally murderous, and living in
condition infinitely more degrading. Per-
haps 125,OO0 persons, men, women and chill
dren, were employed in navigating
some $4,000 boats, over nearly 5000 miles
of canals and navigable rivers in England
They did not throng railway stations.
They were IN secluded places; and even
literature had woven 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 stu
pid as the asses which they drove. Bias
phemy, drunkenness, thleving, incest, and
inconceivable degradation among these folk
We're universal This children's friend de-
ternined to rescue these lost heathens as
he had
RESCUED THE CANAL-BOAT CHILDREN.
He wrote thousands of letters and circu-
lars; tramped hundreds of miles along canal
banks; stormed the newspapers and be-
sieged parliament; and all the while him
self and family were numberless times suf-
fering for bread. Finally in 1875, he man
aged to publish his book, '.Our Canal Popu-
lation." With this he made England stand
still and listen again. In 1876 he had sue
ceeded in enlisting the government so far
that it instituted official inquiries and
took evidence; and then he was
asked to frame bill. This was blocked in
all manner of ways in committee, and for a
time the measure seemed lost; but on the
final day of the passage of parliament in
August, 1877, but not until Home Secretary
Cross had been called to Osborne house for
an interview concerning the matter with
the queen, who has always been sym
pathetically and practically a friend
of this unlettered philanthropist, his
second great triumph for England's
lowly children was achieved, and the bill
was almost unanimously passed-while,
half fainting with anxiety, and with not a
in his pocket, he sat in the speak
er's gallery thanking God for what had
been accomplished.
Briefly, this bill provided for the regis
tration of canal-boats in England by the
sanitary authorit ; precisely the same as
any residence habltation, which absolutely
abolished the former abominable disease
breeding and carrying character of the tiny
crafts 1t brought all the 10000 canal-boat
children under the education act, so that
by system of pass-books they We're
enabled to attend any school where they
might be temporarily tarrying. 1t abolished,
by inspection on the part of local au-
of canal-boat folk who had heretofore been
under no authority and surveillance. 1t
limited the number of occupants in the
diminutive cabins, and it resulted in plac-
ing three-fourths of the entire canal-folk of
England in homes along the canal banks
Evils, of course, still exist; but the change
for the better has been of marvellous
character.
George Smith of Coalville not only
brought about both the great brickyard and
canal boat reforms, but he has been rs per-
sistent an agitator in seeing that the pro-
visions of the two bills were carried out,
He has tramped thousands of miles in do
ing this; his long flowing white hair and
beard, his kindly smiling, fatherly face, his
powerful inquire, MS benign InOugn piercing
eyes which seem to instantly penetrate the |
very marrow of incidents, home-lore and
secrets of waterside, brickyard and Gypsy
being familiar everywhere in |
England among the lowly. His face, form |
and figure are just as familiar in the streets |
IF London among the haunts of the rich,
where he comes with blunt words and ways |
10 make the fortunate |
HELP THE UNFORTUNATE; |
Ind he gets it, too. And no man within the |
walls of parliament-house is more known, |
noted and beloved, even by those who OPP |
pose his efforts in behalf of children, than |
S the man who has no actual right to any |
If the countless privileges which are his; |
Who refuses to be sent to parliament by |
hose who would be proud to give him /
eat: but who, by general and genial suffer-
lnce from lords and commoners, is prac-
ically the Hon. George Smith of Coalville, |
member for Everywhere, and representing
! constituency more powerful than any |
statesman or leader-the millions of British
hildren whom billions of British capital
would otherwise remorselessly enthrall.
One cannot speak of the English canal
ok without telling of this unique and
rand personality. Tramp from one end of