Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-29
THE POTTERY TOWNS
GROUP OF CITIES IN NORTH STAT
YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND.
Smoky Atmosphere-Chimneys Rise to
Great Height - Skilled Laborers
With Art Temperament.

From the London Mail.
The chimneys of the pottery towns have
the appearance of monstrous. obese cham
payne bottles. 1t Is impossible for the eye
to escape them as one looks around. Smoke
is for ever reekng from them. Indeed, 1t
must be confessed that the first sight OF
the towns is hardly celebrating. The Gu
riousy-shaped, reeking chimneys and the
dull, damp-looking sky above them are apt
to produce depression In the mind of the
traveller whose eye feasts upon them tor
the first time.
But this, of course, is not the fault of the
towns. They are, practically, workshops
inland, manufacturing places-and 1t u.s.
therefore, not possible for them to possess
the bright. clean and CHEEKY aspect of sea-
side resorts. For the making of pottery It
is necessary to have furnaces, and for fur
naces fire is necessary, and where there is
fire there is bound to be smoke. The genius
who is to do away with smoke has not yet
graced this planet with his presence.
Unreasonable Visitors.
Visitors come to the pottery towns, and
quite often they feel injured because these
towns possess not the clear. luminous skies
of towns on the Adriatic And some
times they state this obvious fact in vivid,
highly-colored prose. To use an 1rishism,
they paint the dullness of the towns and
the sky above and the champagne-bottle
chimneys in the most glowing colors. They
fill whole columns of newspapers with bril-
liant, glittering condemnation.
The potteryites don't like this. They take
great pride in their towns. Their eyes have
become used to the smoke. They have
learned to gaze upon it with philosophy. L
go at length into this because when l was
in the potteries I was approached by nu-
npOD1a subject. One
all of them averred that the press had
never been fair to the pottery towns. There
had been too much eagernesS to get eff
fective, smoked-glaSS descriptions. / dis
cussed the subject with the working pot
tiers themselves, and l found that they
were as sore about the way the towns had
been described as were the masters who
employed them. Even the local journalists
have taken the matter to heart
And it was deftly suggested to me that
1 should take upon myself the task of set
ting the towns in their fair and proper place
before the world. They intimated to me
that the time was ripe for the dissipation
of the erroneous impressions that had got
abroad concerning them.
The Dog Fight.
1 will begin at the beginning. The potter
les first got their bad name through a pow
erful and soul-stirring description of a
man-a nd-dog fight This man-and-dog
fight was alleged to have taken place in
Hanley, and all the people of England
shuddered at the thought that Englishmen
should be so low and brutal to engage
in such q thing-or allow such a thing to
happen. 1t is thirty years or more ago
since the description of this alleged man
and-dog fight appeared. A generation has
gone by since the advent of that powerful
and soul-stirring article. But the fact of
it's having appeared is still burning Ques-
ton in the potteries. 1t is one of the first
things that is threshed out for the benefit
of the stranger within the gates. Old men
get excited when they talk about it. Young
men burn with Indignation as they listen
to the oft-told story of its appearance in
the press. Did this man and-dog fight ever
take place? All the people in all the pot
terry towns say, no! From Tunstall to
Longton the cry goes up. no! The manu-
facturers are willing to bet their potteries
and the potters are willing to bet pots OF
ale that no such fight ever occurred. They
swear that 1t never occurred either in Han
ley or in any other town or part of the
potteries. The willingness of the people of
the pottery towns to back up their asser-
ton by bets of various sizes is as active
now as 1t was thirty years ago. Did this
man-and-dog fight ever take place? My
mind, alas! shivers before the task of de-
Gliding.
Not the Black Country.
Another thing that the people of the pot
terry towns object to is the fact that many
people confound the potteries with the
black country Upon this point can shed
the light of an expert knowledge, for I
walked between the potteries and the
black country. The potteries are in North
Staffordshire, the black country is in South
Staffordshire, and the distance between the
two Is thirty-one miles. The stretch Of
country through which one passes on the
journey is as beautiful as any In England
There is also another point. The people
Of the potteries assert that the dangers
arising from working at the pottery trade
are much exaggerated. l was careful as to
to see the representatives Of the men about
it. They agreed with the masters as to the
er-statement of the dangers of the trade
by outside people. And there was another
thing that struck me. There seemed to be
hardly any friction between the workers
and the employers. 1t may have been that
l had CHANGED upon peaceful era. but
whatever was the cause the fact remained.
The pottery towns are Tunstall to the
ncrth Burslem Hanley Stoke and Long
ton to the south. Five towns in all. But
they practically form one great town, with
grouped together in the form of an oval
between eight and nine miles long. A serv-
ice of tramway cars runs right through
them. The artistic side of the workers in
the potteries is highly developed. You will
see the signs Of this in the faces of the
doubtless comes from the work In which
they are engaged, for pottery making has
its beautiful and interesting side. Practi-
cally all the labor attending the making of
1t is skilled.
Dogs'of War.
Erovp no Artnv nd