The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

ton S return rom CamDrldge w no Hdu done this Alton's heart leaped within
 him as the name of Lillian sprang to his thoughts. Not long after came an
 other uplifting of the soul of Alton Locke. His book of poems was actually published. The volume was well re- ceived--it sold, 1t was reviewed. Dean
 Winnstay invited him to dinner at his
 town house, and there Alton was intro
 duced to many men of name and fame as the author of the poems we were
 talking about last night by the dean Golden and splendid were the visions
 which now opened upon the mind of the tailor boy. He would be a great re- | former; he would lead the people and the nation to higher and better things. , Yea, all humanity would he uplift He | was now heart and soul in the Charist movement. By written document all | the old abuses were to be swept away | by pen and ink mankind was to be re- modelled Alton felt equal to the task | mentally. though physically his franc was beginning to show the effects Of | "consumptive Hall" and the hard mar | row, stinted life of his boyhood. Eleanor Winnstay had married that young lord for whom Alton had corrected manu- | script at Cambridge. The young arlsto- crat's father had died and now he was Lord Ellerton. He had gone in for philanthropy and that sort of thing;
 had sold one large estate in order to improve the larger estate which re-
 mained to him and was by way becom- D,,it ;.l, ir;h cpCb a
 thing be possible-at least that was
 his ambition; and his wife was inordin-
 ately proud of him and his good works as proud apparently as he was of him self of the same things.
 Lillian Alton he found to be still un- married. and it was her fair hand that poured the coffee when he was summoned to dine with the great of the earth at the house of the dean. But while the publica- tion of Alton's poems brought him much
 notice and credit from those who sat in
 the seats of the mighty they brought him only distrust and disfavor among his own class. It was seen at once that he had
 omitted from his published volue those violently radical poems which had espe-
 cially appealed to the Chartists. Cross
 thwait and Mackaye stood by him, but the many accused him of "backslding ' The mere radical organs of the tharlists openly accused him of having sold out to
 the mobility and the clergy and fierce ly attacked him.
 So he struggled on, helplessly enmeshed in the complications which enmesh every one who tries sincerely to labor for his fellow man. One day, when he was par ticularly downhearted and despairing, when he felt that the people of his own class and the people of the poor classes alike distrusted him. Crossthwait said to him: "There is a rising down in. the
 country--or rather it Is now an 'agricul- tural disturbance l want TO send q dep-
 utation down to see how far they will go
 and let them know that we up in London
 are with them T will go." cried Alton,
 starting up, they shall see that ! still
 care for the cause. Where is the pace?"
 "It is about ten miles from D-----,'' answered Crossthwait. Alton's heart sank
 within him. The place was in the neigh borhood Of Dean Winnstay's country seat But it was too late to turn back
 At all costs he felt he must prove his
 loyalty to the cause
 So Alton made his second journey into
 the country and arrived at desolate
 place where the great meeting of agricul- itural laborers was held. It was, as he
 had feared, in the neigrborhood of the
 deans home. What if violence should
 break out and that stately home be at tackled? Men and women flocked to the
 meeting-men and women who showed by
 their pinched faces and squalid and soanty dress that the wrongs of which
 they complained were not entirely mag
 mary. They stared suIlenly at the Lon doner and his London-made clothes.
 | A man was standing on a big stonc making a speech of complaints ano
 platitudes when Alton arrived ant l pushed his way through the crowd |,
 the place appointed for the orators
 Many speeches by the Morl<men, ramp l ling and largely incoherent. did Altor lhaye to listen to before it came his
 turn to address the meeting. Then he