The employers, nevertheless, pursued their original design. They
repaired the school-house, and endeavoured to increase the efficacy of
the teaching. They believed that nothing was better calculated to remove
ignorant infatuation than increased schooling. In a great many
instances, the heads of the families had previously been engaged as
hand-loom weavers, or in some pastoral pursuit; and it became evident
that in course of time the exercise of their minds in the details of a
new pursuit awakened their intelligence, and their general demeanour
indicated marks of a higher cultivation.

The New Eagley Mills being situated in a narrow valley, several miles
from Bolton, and the property being in the possession of the owners,
they forbade the opening of any tavern or beerhouse on the estate; so
that the district became distinguished for the order and sobriety of the
inhabitants. A man of intemperate habits has little chance of remaining
in the Ashworth villages. He is expelled, not by the employers, but by
the men themselves. He must conform to the sober habits of the place, or
decamp to some larger town, where his vices may be hidden in the crowd.
Many of the parents have expressed how much gratification they have
felt, that by reason of the isolated situation they enjoyed as a
community, they had become so completely separated from the corrupt
influences of music saloons and drink-shops.

The masters have added to their other obligations to the workpeople, the
erection of comfortable cottages for their accommodation. They are built
of stone, and are two-storied; some have two upper bedrooms, and others
have three. On the ground floor there is a sitting-room, a living-room,
and a scullery, with a walled courtyard enclosing the whole premises.
The proprietor pays the poor-rates and other local charges, and the
rentals of the houses vary from 2_s_. 4_d_. to 4_s_. 3_d_. a week.

The regularity of their employment, accompanied with the payment of
wages on Friday night, doubtless promoted their local attachment to the
place. Many of the descendants of the first comers remain on the spot;
their social relations have been promoted; intermarriages have been
frequent; and during the whole period there has not been a single
prosecution for theft. The working people have also thriven as well as
their masters. Great numbers of them are known to possess reserved funds
in savings banks and other depositories for savings; and there are
others of them who have invested their money in cottage buildings, and
in various other ways.

But have not the men risen above their lot of labouring spinners? They
have. Such of them as possessed skill, ability, and the faculty of
organization, have been promoted from the ranks of labourers, and have
become mill managers. "About _thirty_ of these," says Mr. Henry
Ashworth, "have been reckoned on the spur of the moment, and _ten_ of
them have become business partners or proprietors of mills.... Many
manufacturers," adds Mr. Ashworth, "are to be found who have done a
great deal to ameliorate the condition of those they have employed; and
no one will doubt that they have been prompted, not by hopes of gain,
but by emotions of goodwill."[1]

[Footnote 1: The greater part of the above information is contained in
the statement by Mr. Henry Ashworth, in the Reports on the Paris
Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. vi., pp. 161-163.]

Manufacturers such as these do not, like Plugson of St. Dolly Undershot,
gather up their fortunes and run away, leaving a groat each to their
workpeople to drink their healths. They remain with them from generation
to generation. The best and the noblest amongst them--the Ashworths of
Turton, the Strutts of Derby, the Marshalls of Leeds, the Akroyds of
Halifax, the Brooks of Huddersfield, and many others,--have continued to
superintend their works for several generations. The Strutts were the
partners of Arkwright, who was almost the beginner of English
manufacture. In fact, it is only since Arkwright took out his patent for
the spinning machine, and Watt took out his patent for the steam engine,
that England has become a manufacturing country.

Where would England have been now, but for the energy, enterprise, and
public spirit of our manufacturers? Could agriculture have supported the
continuous increase of population? Is it not more probable that this
country would have become overrun by beggars,--or that property would
have been assailed and the constitution upset, as was the case in
France,--but for the extensive and remunerative employment afforded to
the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts? The steam engine
has indeed proved the safety-valve of England. It enabled the kingdom to
hold its ground firmly during the continental wars; and but for it, and
the industries which it has established, England would probably by this
time have sunk to the condition of a third or fourth-rate power.

It is true, the great manufacturers have become wealthy. But it would
certainly have been singular if, with their industry, energy, and powers
of organization, they had become poor! Men of the stamp of the Strutts,
Ashworths, Marshalls, and others, do not work for wealth merely, though
wealth comes to them. They have not become great because they were rich,
but they have become rich because they were great. Accumulations of
wealth are the result of exceptional industry, organization, and thrift,
rather than of exceptional gain. Adam Smith has said: "It seldom happens
that great fortunes are made by any one regularly-established and
well-known branch of business, but in consequence of a long life of
industry, frugality, and attention."

But it is not always so. For instance, Mr. Lister, of Bradford, after
inventing the combing machine,--or at least combining the inventions of
others into a complete combing machine of his own,--proceeded to invent
a machine for using up silk waste (then cast away as useless), spinning
it into silk of the finest kind, and by means of the power-loom to weave
it into velvet of the best quality. The attempt had never before been
made by any inventor; and it seemed to be of insuperable difficulty. Mr.
Lister had already made a fortune by the success of his combing machine,
such as to enable him to retire from business, and live in comfort for
the rest of his life. But, urged by the irrepressible spirit of the
inventor, he went onward with his silk machine. As he himself said, at a
recent meeting at Bradford,[1]--"They might judge how hard he had worked
to conquer the difficulties which beset him, when he told them that for
twenty years he had never been in bed at half-past five in the morning;
in fact, he did not think there was a man in England who had worked
harder than he had." The most remarkable thing was, that he threw away
an immense fortune before there was any probability of his succeeding.
"He had almost brought himself to ruin, for he was ВЈ360,000 out of
pocket before he even made a shilling by his machine; indeed, he wrote
off a quarter of a million as entirely lost, before he began to make up
his books again. Since then, his patent for the manufacture of silk had
turned out one of the most successful of the day."

[Footnote 1: The meeting was held to receive the transfer of Mr.
Lister's fine Park at Manningham, which he had presented to the
Corporation of Bradford, "to be a People's Park for ever."]

In the Park presented by Mr. Lister to the people of Bradford, a statue
was recently erected by public subscription. It was unveiled by the
Right Hon. W.E. Forster, who, in closing his speech, observed: "I doubt,
after all, whether we are come here to do honour to Mr. Lister, so much
as to do honour to ourselves. We wish to do honour to those working
faculties which have made our country of England a practical, and
therefore a great and prosperous, and a powerful country. It is this
untiring, unresting industry which Mr. Lister possesses, this practical
understanding, this determination to carry out any object which he is
convinced ought to be carried out, and his determination to fear no
opposition and to care for no obstacle--it is these practical faculties
that have made England what she is. What is it especially that we are
honouring? It is the pluck which this man has shown; it is the feeling
that, having to do with the worsted trade, he said to himself, 'Here is
something which ought to be done; I will not rest until I have found out
how it can be done; and having found out how it can be done, where is
the man who shall stop my doing it?' Now it was upon that principle that
he fought his long struggle; and so when we read the story of his
struggles, ever since 1842, in those two great inventions, we raise this
statue to the man who has successfully fought the battle, and hope that
our sons and the sons of all, rich and poor together, will come in
after-days to admire it, not merely because it gives them the form and
features of a rich and successful man, but because it gives them the
form and features of a man who was endowed with industry, with
intellect, with energy, with courage, with perseverance,--who spared
himself no pains in first ascertaining the conditions of the problems he
had to solve,--and then whose heart never fainted, whose will never
relaxed, in determining to carry out those conditions."

Great men are wise savers and wise spenders. Montesquieu has said of
Alexander: "He found the first means of his prosperity and power in the
greatness of his genius; the second, in his frugality and private
economy; and the third, in his immense liberality to accomplish great
objects. He spent but little on himself; but for public purposes his
hand was always open." It was also said of the first Napoleon, that he
was economical like Charlemagne, because he was great like Charlemagne.
Napoleon was by no means a spendthrift, except in war; but he spent
largely in accomplishing great public undertakings. In cases such as
these, economy and generosity are well combined. And so it is in the
cases of all men possessed of energy, industry, and great powers of
organization.

It may seem out of keeping to compare great producers with great
commanders. Yet the manufacturer often requires as much courage, as much
genius, as much organizing power, as the warrior. The one considers how
he shall keep his operatives in working order; the other how he shall
keep his soldiers in fighting order. Both must be men of enterprize, of
boldness, of keen observation, and close attention to details. And the
manufacturer, from his position, needs to be the most benevolent man of
the two. Viewed in this light, we regard Sir Titus Salt not only as a
Captain of Industry, but as a Field-Marshal of Industry. He has been
called the Prince of Manufacturers.

Titus Salt is a son of a Yorkshire wool-stapler. In the early part of
his life he was a farmer near Bradford, and his inclination for
agricultural pursuits was such, that it was thought he would continue to
pursue this vocation. Being, however, a partner with his father in the
wool business, and observing that manufactures were rapidly extending in
the neighbourhood, he withdrew from the partnership, and commenced
business at Bradford as a wool-spinner. He was one of the first to
observe the uses of Alpaca wool. Large quantities of that material were
stored at Liverpool,--imported from the Brazils. But the wool found no
purchasers, until at length Mr. Salt bought a quantity, and spun it into
an entirely new fabric. He then proceeded to buy up all the Alpaca that
was to be found at Liverpool; made arrangements for purchasing all that
came into the market; went on spinning Alpaca; and eventually
established the manufacture. This was the foundation of Mr. Salt's
fortune.

At length, after about twenty years' labour as a manufacturer, Mr. Salt
thought of retiring from business, and again betaking himself to his
favourite agricultural pursuits. He intended to retire on his fiftieth
birthday, but before that time had arrived (having five sons to provide
for) he reversed his decision, and resolved to continue in business a
little longer, and to remain at the head of the firm. Having come to
this determination, he made up his mind to leave Bradford. The borough
was already overcrowded, and he did not like to be a party to increasing
the population. He looked about for a site suitable for a manufacturing
establishment, and at length fixed upon a large piece of ground in the
beautiful valley of the Aire. An extension of the Leeds and Bradford
Railway was in front, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal behind it, so
that there was every convenience for bringing up the raw materials, and
of sending away the manufactured goods. On that spot Saltaire was
erected--a noble monument of private enterprise, liberality, and wisdom.

It is not necessary to describe Saltaire. The buildings connected with
the new works cover six and a half acres. The principal room is five
hundred and fifty feet long. The weaving shed covers two acres. The
combing shed occupies one acre. Everything is large, roomy, and
substantial. The cost of constructing the factory, and the dwellings for
the workpeople, amounted to more than a hundred and forty thousand
pounds.

On the opening day, Mr. Salt dined three thousand five hundred persons
in the combing shed. At the dinner, he said: "I cannot look around me,
and see this vast assemblage of friends and workpeople, without being
moved. I feel greatly honoured by the presence of the nobleman at my
side. I am especially delighted at the presence of my workpeople.... I
hope to draw around me a population that will enjoy the beauties of this
neighbourhood,--a population of well-paid, contented, happy operatives.
I have given instructions to my architects that nothing is to be spared
to render the dwellings of the operatives a pattern to the country; and
if my life is spared by Divine Providence, I hope to see satisfaction,
contentment, and happiness around me."

This promise has been amply fulfilled. Mr. Salt has been influenced
throughout by his sense of duty and responsibility. When he was applied
to by the French Government for information as to his factory, he
replied: "What has been attempted at Saltaire arose from my own private
feeling and judgment, without the most remote idea that it would be made
the subject of public interest and inquiry." With respect to the factory
itself, little need be said. The object of its construction is to save
time in the process of production. Not a minute is lost in pushing the
material from one department to another. Every horse-power of steam is
made to do its utmost, every moment of time is economized, and the
productive capabilities of the factory are thus greatly increased.

We prefer to speak of the immense improvement which Mr. Salt, or rather
Sir Titus Salt, has effected in the physical and moral condition of his
workpeople. The plan of the works shows that Saltaire has been provided
with a church, a Wesleyan chapel, and a Literary and Philosophical
Institution. Large schools have been provided for boys, girls, and
infants, with abundance of play-ground. For young men as well as old,
there is a cricket-ground, bowling-green, and croquet-lawn, surrounded
by pleasure-grounds. There is also a large dining-hall, baths and
washhouses, a dispensary, and almshouses for pensioners.

About three thousand persons are employed in the works; and seven
hundred and fifty-six houses have been erected for their accommodation.
The rents run from two and fourpence to seven and sixpence a week,
according to the accommodation. Some of the houses are used as
boarding-houses. The rents include rates and water supply, and gas is
sold at a low price. The cottages are built of stone, lined with
brickwork. They contain a parlour or long room, a kitchen or scullery, a
pantry and cellar, and three bedrooms. Each house has a separate yard,
with the usual offices. The workpeople are well able to pay the rents.
Single workmen earn from twenty-four to thirty-five shillings a week. A
family, consisting of a father and six children, earn four pounds four
shillings a week, or equal to a united income of over two hundred and
twenty pounds a year.

The comfortable houses provided for the workpeople have awakened in them
that home feeling which has led them to decorate their dwellings neatly
and tastefully,--a sure sign of social happiness. Every visitor among
the poor knows how such things combine to prevent vice and disease, to
elevate the moral tone of working people, and to develope their
intellectual powers. A man in a dirty house, says Mr. Rhind, the medical
attendant at Saltaire, is like a beggar in miserable clothing. He soon
ceases to have self-respect, and when that is gone there is but little
hope.

Great attention is paid in Saltaire to education, even of the higher
sort. There are day schools, night schools, mutual improvement classes,
lectures, and discussions. Music--one of the most humanizing of
pleasures--is one of the most favourite studies. "In almost every house
in the town some form of musical instrument is found; and indeed, the
choral and glee societies, together with the bands, have become
household names." There is one full brass band for men, and another
drum-and-fife band for boys; and concerts, vocal and instrumental, are
regularly given by the workpeople in the dining-hall. The bands have
instructors provided by the firm.

Besides taking part in the musical performances, a large number of the
skilled workmen devote their leisure hours to various scientific
amusements,--such as natural history, taxidermy, the making of
philosophical instruments, such as air-pumps, models of working
machinery, steam-engines, and articles of domestic comfort,--while some
have even manufactured organs and other musical instruments.

There is no drinking-house in Saltaire, so that the vices and diseases
associated with drunkenness are excluded from the locality. The diseases
peculiar to poverty are also unknown in Saltaire. Everything is attended
to--drainage, cleansing, and ventilation. There are baths of all
kinds--plunge baths, warm baths, Turkish baths, and douche baths; and
the wash-house, to enable the women to wash their clothes away from
their cottages, is a great accommodation,--inasmuch as indoor washing is
most pernicious, and a fruitful source of disease, especially to the
young.

The workpeople are also thrifty. They invest their savings in the Penny
Bank and Saving's Bank; whilst others invest in various building
societies, gas companies, and other lucrative undertakings. In fact,
they seem to be among the most favoured of human beings. With every
convenience and necessity, as well as every proper pleasure provided for
them,--with comfortable homes, and every inducement to stay at
home,--with fishing clubs, boating clubs, and cricket clubs,--with
schoolrooms, literary institutions, lecture-hall, museum, and
class-rooms, established in their midst; and to crown all, with a
beautiful temple for the worship of God,--there is no wonder that
Saltaire has obtained a name, and that Sir Titus Salt has established a
reputation among his fellow-men.

There are large numbers of employers who treat their workpeople quite as
generously, though not in such a princely manner, as Sir Titus Salt.
They pay the uniform rate of wages; help and encourage the employed to
economize their surplus earnings; establish Savings Banks and Penny
Banks for their use; assist them in the formation of co-operative
associations for the purchase of pure food at a cheaper rate; build
healthy cottages for their accommodation; erect schools for the
education of their children; and assist them in every method that is
calculated to promote their moral and, social improvement.

Mr. Edward Akroyd, formerly M.P. for Halifax, is another manufacturer
who has exercised great influence throughout Yorkshire, by his
encouragement of habits of thrift amongst working people. In his own
district, at Copley and Haley Hill, near Halifax, he has built numerous
excellent cottages for his workmen, and encouraged them to build their
own houses by investing their spare earnings in building clubs. He has
established co-operative clubs, to enable the men to purchase food and
clothing at cost price. He has built excellent schools at his own
expense, and provided them with a paid staff of teachers. He has built
and endowed the very fine church of "All Souls" (Sir Gilbert Scott,
architect), to which a large district, inclusive of the works, has been
assigned. He has provided for his workpeople, both at Haley Hill and
Copley, a Literary and Scientific Society, a Mutual Improvement Society,
a Working Men's Library (to which he has presented more than five
thousand books), a Working Men's Club and Newsroom, a Choral Society,
supplied with an excellent library of music; a Recreation Club, provided
with a bowling green; and a cricket ground, with quoits, and gymnastic
apparatus, Mr. Akroyd has also allotted a large field to his workmen,
dividing it into small gardens varying from a hundred to two hundred and
forty square yards each. The small rent charged for each plot is
distributed in prizes given at an annual flower-show held in his
grounds, for the best growers of flowers, plants, and vegetables. Hence
the Haley Hill Horticultural and Floral Society, one of the most
thriving institutions of the kind in the neighbourhood. In short, Mr.
Akroyd has done everything that a wise and conscientious master could
have done, for the purpose of promoting the moral and spiritual welfare
of the four thousand persons employed in his manufactories, who have
been virtually committed to his charge.

But although Mr. Akroyd has done so much as a master for the men and
women employed by him, he has perhaps done still more as a public
benefactor by establishing the Yorkshire Penny Bank for Savings. As
early as the year 1852, Mr. Akroyd instituted a Savings Bank to enable
his workpeople to deposit sums of from one penny upwards. The system was
found to work so well, and to have such a beneficial effect in making
people provident, that he conceived the idea of extending its operations
throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire. Having obtained the
co-operation of several influential gentlemen, the scheme was started in
1856, and an Act of Parliament was obtained for constituting the
Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank as it now exists.

Mr. Akroyd has recently furnished an Introduction to the narrative of
the Yorkshire Penny Bank, from which we extract the following passage:--

"The way by which thoughts, or chance suggestions, enter into the minds
of men, is sometimes passing strange! They may be the offspring of
wayward fancy; or they may be the whisperings from a higher source. To
the latter cause I am willing to attribute the idea which flashed across
my mind during the present year to give to the public something beyond
the bare outline of the scheme, in which, for years, many of them have
taken a warm personal interest.

"It occurred in this wise. When in town, I occasionally attended, during
Lent, the services at Whitehall Chapel, for the sake of hearing a Lenten
sermon preached by one of Her Majesty's chaplains. One remarkable sermon
of the series was delivered by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, on the 12th of
March, on behalf of the Supplemental Ladies' Association of the London
Society of Parochial Mission Women. In the sketch which the preacher
gave of this excellent institution, he referred to a book entitled 'East
and West,' in which the benefits derived by the London poor from the
association are clearly set forth; but he dwelt chiefly on the wide
separation which divides rich from poor, class from class, in London;
and on the dangers which threaten Society from this cause, as was
recently exemplified in France. Such was the impression made upon me by
the sermon, that, before many days had elapsed, I had purchased 'East
and West,' and given the book a careful perusal.

"From previous observation I had been struck with the sad contrast
between the luxurious lives of those who reside at the West End of
London, and the struggle for a hard, wretched existence which the
crowded poor at the East, or in close purlieus elsewhere, are obliged to
maintain until death closes the scene. How to bridge over the wide chasm
intervening between the extremes of high and low in society, without
injury to self-respect on either side, was the puzzling question, the
problem to be solved. Yet, from the admirable introduction to this most
useful little work, by the Countess Spencer, it appeared that a lady of
high rank, and her noble-minded associates, had in some measure solved
the problem, and bridged over the chasm.

"Hence I was led to reflect how much easier it is to discharge our duty
to our neighbours, and to fulfil the leading object of the Parochial
Mission Women Association, to 'help the poor to help themselves,' in
provincial towns and in the country, where we are personally acquainted
with each other, than in London, where we do not know our next-door
neighbour. _To help the poor to help themselves_ is the cardinal
principle of the Yorkshire Penny Bank."[1]

[Footnote 1 e Yorkshire Penny Bank, a Narrative; with an Introduction by
Edward Akroyd, M.P.]

The business of the bank commenced on the 1st of May, 1859. At the end
of the year, when the bank had been in operation seven months,
twenty-four branches had been opened. It went on increasing in the
number of branches and depositors, and in the amounts deposited. In
1874, about two hundred and fifty branches had been established, and the
amount of investments in the names of trustees had reached nearly four
hundred thousand pounds.

The Yorkshire Penny Bank does not interfere with the Post Office Savings
Bank. It has a special function, that of teaching the young of either
sex _the habit of saving_. It is also convenient to the adult worker as
a convenient receptacle for his savings. Many have been induced to save,
in consequence of the banks having been brought almost to their very
doors. One of the most remarkable facts connected with the history of
Penny Banks is the sympathetic influence of juvenile thrift upon
paternal recklessness and intemperance. The fact is well worthy the
consideration of Temperance advocates, who would probably effect much
greater practical good by enabling working people to save their money in
the Penny Banks, than by any speech-making agency. Take, for instance,
the following illustrations from Mr. Akroyd's narrative:--

An actuary says: "All the juvenile depositors seem inclined to take care
of their pence by depositing them in the bank; and the grown-up people
have become of the same turn of mind,--rather than carry their loose
money to the public-house, or spend it foolishly. Some factory
operatives have saved sufficient to buy stock and commence farming."

Another actuary says: "A drunken father being shamed out of his
drunkenness by the deposits of his children, now deposits half-a-crown a
week in the bank. A notoriously bad man, a collier, became a regular
depositor himself, as well as depositing money in the name of his child;
all his spare money having previously been spent in drink. From the date
of his beginning to save, a perceptible improvement took place in his
conduct and character. In another case, two boys prevailed upon their
father, also a collier, to allow them to deposit a shilling a week,
until they had saved sufficient to buy themselves each a suit of new
clothes. Before then, all their father's earnings, as well as their own,
had been spent in drink."

An actuary of another branch says he has seen fathers and mothers, who
have been drunkards, send their children with money to the bank, He
says: "My heart was made to rejoice when I saw a boy, who never had a
suit of new clothes in his life, draw out his money, and in less than
two hours return well clad, to take his place in the school to practise
singing for Good Friday. At the meeting of the Band of Hope on Good
Friday, he asked the parents and children to signify by holding up their
hands whether or not the bank had been beneficial to them; when many
hands were instantly raised,--one poor mother exclaiming, 'I will put up
both my hands for my two bairns!'"

"A miner, the father of a family, reclaimed from drunkenness, saved his
money in the bank until, with the aid of a loan from a building society,
he built two houses at a cost of four hundred pounds. The bank has been
to many people what the hive is to the bee--a kind of repository; and
when the wintry days of sickness or adversity befall them, they have
then the bank to flee to for succour."

A missionary says: "I met a man and his wife about two years ago--both
drunk. I got them to sign the pledge, and since then to invest their
money in our bank. The pawnbroker had got the greater part of their
goods; but I am happy to say that they have got all the articles out of
pawn, and can bring a little money almost every week to the bank; and
when putting in the money, the man says that it is better than taking it
to the public-house. Their home is now a very comfortable one."

A drunkard one night came to the bank, and flinging down a shilling for
a start, said, "There! that is the price of six pints of beer; but I
promise the landlords that they shan't have as much of my money as they
have had." This man has become sober; and continues a regular depositor.

In another bank, a man who had been a reckless and desperate fellow was
induced by his wife to deposit a few coppers in the bank. He did so, and
his weekly deposits increased; while at the same time his visits to the
public-house decreased. In the course of a short time he had a
respectable balance to his credit; and this induced him to take a share
in a building society, and then a second share. After continuing to pay
upon these shares for some time, he purchased a piece of land, upon
which he built two houses. One of these he occupies himself, and the
other he lets. Besides this, he is now a respectable tradesman, having
two or three journeymen and an apprentice working for him. He is sober
and steady, and much respected by his friends and neighbours.

Many other cases of the same kind might be mentioned. In one case a boy
saved sufficient money to buy a suit of clothes for his father, who had
spent all his earnings in drink, and reduced himself and his family to
poverty; in other cases, sons and daughters maintain their infirm
parents without resorting to the parochial Board for assistance. Some
save for one thing; some for another. Some save to emigrate; some to buy
clothes; some to buy a watch; but in all cases frugality is trained,
until saving becomes habitual.

One of the Yorkshire actuaries of the Penny Bank tells the following
anecdote as conveying a lesson of perseverance and encouragement to
branch managers. "Mr. Smith was one of our first managers, but after
attending two or three times he left us, saying it was 'childish work.'
My answer was, 'It is with children we have to do.' A short time after,
I met him, and in the course of conversation I observed that I sometimes
got _down in the mouth_, and did not know whether we were doing any
good, and felt disposed to give up the bank; on which he warmly replied,
'For God's sake, you must not let such an idea get into your head; you
little know the good you are doing; we have not a man about our place
but either himself or some members of his family are depositors.'" The
actuary adds, "If Colonel Akroyd ever despairs, I give him the above
answer."

Savings banks have thus been the means of doing an immense amount of
good. They have brought peace, happiness, and comfort into many
thousands of families. The example of Mr. Akroyd should be largely
imitated, and there ought not to be a county in the kingdom without its
organized system of Penny Banks.




CHAPTER XI.

THE CROSSLEYS--MASTERS AND MEN (CONTINUED).


"The sense to enjoy riches, with the art
 T' enjoy them, and the virtue to impart."--_Pope_.

"My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
 Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
 Upon the fortune o' this present year."--_Shakespeare_.

"The roughest road often leads to the smoothest fortune."--_Franklin_.

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The
heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no
need of spoil.... She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with
her hands.... She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold
the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth
forth her hands to the needy.... Strength and honour are her clothing;
and she shall rejoice in time to come.... Her children arise up, and
call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."--_Proverbs of
Solomon_.


There are several large employers who have endeavoured to combine the
principle of co-operation with the business of manufacturing; and to
furnish to the men who have contributed to their past prosperity the
opportunity of sharing in their future profits. The object of these
masters has been to obviate the antagonism between capital and labour,
and to spread the spirit of contentment among the operatives. Workmen
who have saved their earnings, and stored them in savings banks, are in
this manner enabled to become partners in the concerns in which they
have formerly employed their labour.

The two principal manufacturing concerns of Halifax, those of James
Akroyd and Son, and John Crossley and Sons, have thus become converted
into joint stock companies. They have been so converted with the primary
design of receiving the co-operation of the managers, workmen, and
others associated with them; and with that view the directors have in
all cases given them the priority in the allotment of the shares.

We have already referred to the philanthropic work accomplished by
Edward Akroyd in the county of York. We have now to refer to the
Crossley firm, whose carpets are known throughout the world. We refer to
them with the greater pleasure, as their history contains a story which
may possibly add to the interest of this book,--which, however useful,
some readers may consider to be rather dull to read.

The founder of this firm was John Crossley. He belonged to an old
Yorkshire family. His grandfather, who lived at King's Cross, near
Halifax, was born of respectable parents, and had a good education, yet
he was by no means fond of business. In fact, he spent the greater part
of his time in hunting and shooting. His wife was, however, of a very
different character. She was industrious, energetic, and an excellent
household manager. She not only maintained herself, but her husband and
her family. She did this by means of a boarding school which she
kept,--one of the best in the neighbourhood of Halifax.

One of her sons, the father of John Crossley, was brought up to
carpet-weaving. He learnt his business with Mr. Webster, of Clay-pits,
one of whose daughters he afterwards married. John Crossley himself also
became a carpet-weaver with his uncle; and when his apprenticeship was
finished, he went to weave for Mr. Currer, a large carpet manufacturer
at Luddenden Foot. While working at this factory, his master built a
large fine house to live in. He thought he had money enough saved for
the purpose, but circumstances proved that he had not. Mr. Currer told
his foreman that he had kept an account of its cost until he had spent
ВЈ4,000, and then he became so disgusted that he burnt the memorandum
book, although the house was not nearly finished. He said "he had done
all that to please a woman,"--meaning his wife. Although Mr. Currer was
an excellent man of business, his wife was too fond of show, and the
large fine house in which she was to live proved her husband's ruin. He
died shortly after it was finished, and then the whole of his
establishment was broken up.

After leaving Mr. Currer, John Crossley removed to Halifax to take the
management of Mr. Job Lees' carpet manufactory in Lower George Yard,
Halifax. He began to look out for a wife, and the history of his
courtship is curious as well as interesting. The Crossleys seem to have
had the good fortune to fall in with excellent wives; and the prosperity
of the family is quite as much due to the Crossley women as to the
Crossley men.

Martha Crossley, the future wife of John Crossley, was born at Folly
Hall, near the Ambler Thorn Bar. Her great-grandfather, Thomas Turner,
was a farmer. He lived at the Upper Scout Hall, Shibden, and the
farm-house which he occupied, at the head of the Shibden Valley, is
still in existence. The eldest son was brought up to his father's
business. The youngest son, Abraham, was brought up to farming, weaving,
and combing. He married, and had three children--Abraham, Thomas, and
Martha. Abraham, the eldest, was father of Mrs. John Crossley, _nГ©e_
Turner.

Abraham was also brought up to farming and manufacturing; but it must be
remembered that manufacturing was in those days conducted on a very much
smaller scale than it is now. He afterwards went into partnership with
his brother Thomas, to make worsted goods, but after his marriage the
partnership was dissolved. He then became the proprietor of the Scout
Farm, and there brought up his family.

Although Abraham Turner was a landed proprietor, he did not think it
beneath him to allow his daughter Martha to go out to service. When
about fifteen years old she went as a servant to Miss Oldfield at
Warley. In that service, in her own person, she did the work of
kitchenmaid, housemaid, and cook, and in addition to that, she milked
four or five cows night and morning. She remained about ten years with
Miss Oldfield. Her wages were at first fifteen-pence a week; after two
years, they were increased to eighteen-pence; and after nine years'
service, they were increased to six guineas a year. Yet during that time
Martha Turner saved thirty pounds by sheer thrift.

John Crossley, the founder of the Crossley firm, and the husband of
Martha Turner, was originally a carpet-weaver. One night, when working
at the loom, he was taking his "drinking," and on laying down his black
bottle it fell and broke. In trying to catch the bottle, he cut his arm
so severely that it was thought he would have bled to death. He could
not work at the loom any longer, and he was going about with his arm in
a sling, when his employer, Mr. Currer, said to him, "John, do you think
you could tie up a loom, as you cannot now weave?" John replied that he
thought he could. He tried, and proved so expert that his master would
not allow him to go back to the loom. John Crossley used to regard the
accident to his arm as the turning-point in his life.

In the meantime he was going on with the business of courtship, though
it was very much against the wish of the proud farmer--the father of
Martha Turner. He declared that he would never allow his daughter to
marry a weaver, or even a foreman of weavers. Perhaps the story of their
courtship is best told in Martha's own words.

"When I went to the gate one evening, there was a young man standing
there, who asked me if I wanted a sweetheart. I answered, 'Not I, marry!
I want no sweethearts.' I then went into the house, and left him. I saw
the same young man frequently about, but did not speak to him for years
after. His name was John Crossley. When my mistress ascertained his
object, she did all she could to set me against him. She told me that
when she was a girl, she had gone to a boarding-school kept by a Mrs.
Crossley,--that her husband's name was Tom Crossley, the grandfather of
this very man that was courting me,--and that a wilder, idler scapegrace
she never knew. She always said, when she saw him coming, 'There's young
Crossley come again.'

"One day I received a love-letter from him, which I could now repeat
word for word. I had several other suitors, but none were so persevering
as John Crossley. He pressed me very much to have him. At last he sent
me a letter to say that a house was vacant in Lower George Yard, close
to the works he was managing, and that it was a great chance to meet
with one so convenient. I told him that I was going home to spend the
5th of November, and would pass that way and look at the house, which I
did. When I got home I asked my parents for their consent. They did not
object much to it at the time; but I had not been at Miss Oldfield's
more than a day or two, before they sent over my sister Grace to say
that they would not give their consent to the match, and that if I
insisted on being married to John Crossley, they would never look me in
the face again.

"So soon as my sister was gone, I retired in a most distressed state of
feeling to my bedroom, and opened my book that was the preparation for
the sacrament, and the first place at which I opened I read these words:
'When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take
thee up.' This comforted me very much. I felt that the Lord was with me
in this matter, and I could no longer doubt which was the path of
duty.... I decided to accept John Crossley's offer, and we were married
on the 28th day of January, 1800."

Mr. Crossley never did a better day's work than in marrying his
excellent and noble wife. From that day forward she was his helper, his
co-worker, his consoler. She assisted her husband in all his struggles,
and in a certain sense she was the backbone of the Crossley family.

After the death of Mr. Job Lees, whose carpet manufactory he had
managed, Mr. Crossley entered into partnership with two other persons,
to take the plant and carry on the business. Some difference having
occurred with the partners, he left the firm, and took a lease of Dean
Clough Mill, where he entered into another partnership with his brother
Thomas, and James Travers. There they carried on the business of worsted
spinning. At the same time, John Crossley continued to spin and dye the
yarns and to manage the looms of the firm which he had left. In fact,
the dyeing and spinning for the old firm formed a considerable part of
the business of the new one. Then came a crisis. The old firm took away
their work: they sent the wool to be spun and the yarn to be dyed
elsewhere. This was a great blow; but eventually it was got over by
extra diligence, energy, and thrift,--Mrs. Crossley herself taking a
full share in the labours and responsibility of her husband.

"In addition to the carpet making," she says in the Manuscript Memoir of
her life, "we carried on the manufacture of shalloons and plainbacks,
the whole of which I managed myself, so far as putting out the warps and
weft, and taking in from the weavers. We had at one time as many as a
hundred and sixty hand weavers on these goods. We sold the principal
part of them in London. We had also about four looms making brace webs
and body belts. The produce of these looms I sold principally to the
Irish, who made them up into braces and hawked them about the country. I
also made and stitched, with assistance, all the carpets that we sold
retail. I used to get up to work by four o'clock in the morning, and
being very diligent, I have usually earned two shillings before
breakfast, by the time that my neighbours were coming downstairs."

The partnership of Crossley, Travers, and Crossley, lasted for twenty
years. When the term had expired, the partners shared their savings;
they amounted to ВЈ4,200, or fourteen hundred pounds to each. This was
not a very large sum to make during twenty years' hard work; but Dean
Clough Mill was then but a small concern, and each partner did his own
share of handiwork in spinning, dyeing, and weaving. Mrs. Crossley says
that "the fourteen hundred pounds came in very useful." In fact, it was
only a beginning. John Crossley eventually bought the Dean Clough Mills
out and out. He had a family of eight children to provide for; and he
put his sons for the most part into his business. They followed the
example of their parents, and became thrifty, useful, and honourable
men.

John Crossley, the founder of the firm, has observed, that in the course
of his life he was a keen observer of men and things. He says he noticed
many of the failures of his neighbours in bringing up their children.
Some fathers were so strict with their children, keeping them so
constantly at home, and letting them see so little of the world in which
they lived, that when the fathers died and the children were removed
from all restraint, they came forth into the world like calves, and
found everything entirely different from what they expected. Such
unguided young persons, Mr. Crossley found, soon became wild, lost, and
ruined. Then he observed the opposite extreme,--where the fathers
indulged their children so much, that they became quite unfitted to
endure the hardships of the world,--and, like a vessel that is sent to
sea without a helm, they soon became stranded on the shores of life.

Hence Mr. Crossley endeavoured to steer clear of both extremes, and to
give to his sons as much knowledge and experience of life as possible.
When at home, he always had one of his sons near him; or when he went
from home, he always took one of them with him. Thus they gained a great
deal of practical knowledge of life, and knew something of the good and
evil in the world; and as they grew older, they were all the better able
to turn their own lives to the best account.

It is not necessary to follow the history of the Crossley family
further. John Crossley died in 1837, after which the firm was conducted
by John, Joseph, and Sir Francis Crossley, Bart. The latter represented
the West Riding of the county of York at the time of his death, a few
years ago. In 1857 he purchased a splendid piece of ground, which he
presented to the Corporation of Halifax, to be used as a People's Park
for ever. In the speech which he made on the occasion of presenting it,
he said, amongst other things, that he had often discussed with his
friend the Mayor the philosophy of money. "I recollect very well," he
said, "once entering into the question with him, when I was twenty years
younger than I am now, and saying that I saw a great deal of emptiness
about this money-getting; that many were striving for that which they
thought would make them happy, but that it was like a bubble upon the
water--no sooner caught than burst.... Had I," he afterwards said, "been
of noble birth, or traced my origin (like some in this room) to those
who came in with William the Conqueror, however true it might be, it
would not have been good, it would even be boastful to have done so.[1]
But since I am of humble birth, perhaps it will be allowed me to say a
little of those who ought to share the honour which is heaped upon me.
My mother was the daughter of a farmer who lived upon his own estate,
and although it was not large, it had been in the family for many
generations. Her father made the same mistake that Jacob made,--Jacob
made too much of Joseph, and her father made too much of Mary. My mother
was seventeen, and quick in disposition. She said that right was not
done to her at home, and she was determined to make her own way in the
world, whatever the consequences might be. She went out to service,
contrary to the wish of her father. I am honoured to-day with the
presence of one who has descended from the family who engaged her as
servant: I mean Mr. Oldfield, of Stock Lane, vice-chairman of the
Halifax Board of Guardians. In that service, in her own person, she did
the work of kitchenmaid, of housemaid, and of cook; and in addition to
that she regularly milked six cows every night and morning. Besides
which, she kept the house, which was as clean as a little palace. But
this was not enough to employ her willing hands. Her mistress took in
wool or tops to spin, and she could do what scarcely any in Warley could
have done,--she spun that wool to thirty-six hanks in the pound, and
thus earned many a guinea for her mistress, besides doing all her other
work."[2]

[Footnote 1: Those who "came in with William the Conqueror" are not the
oldest but the youngest of British families. They are the most recent
occupiers of British soil. The Angles and Saxons, whose lands the
Normans divided amongst themselves, occupied Britain many hundred years
before the arrival of the Conqueror. In the remote dales of Yorkshire
and Lancashire, the ancient race still exists. And thus the Crossley
family may have a much longer pedigree, could they but trace it, than
any of those who "came in with William the Conqueror." The latter are
able to trace their origin because their numbers are so small, their
possessions so large, and their introduction as English proprietors
comparatively so recent.]

[Footnote 2: In these snobbish days, when rich people are so often
ashamed of their fathers and grandfathers, and vainly endeavour to make
out their ancient 'nobility,' it was honest and manly on the part of Sir
Francis Crossley thus publicly to relate these facts; and to share with
his mother the honour of conferring his splendid present of the People's
Park on the townsmen of Halifax.]

Sir Francis went on to relate the history of his father (as given above
from his own manuscript), until the time when he took the Dean Clough
Mill. "My mother," he says, "went thither with her usual energy. As she
was going down the yard at four o'clock in the morning, she made this
vow: 'If the Lord does bless us at this place, the poor shall taste of
it.' It is to this vow, given with so much faithfulness, and kept with
so much fidelity, that I attribute the great success which my father had
in business. My mother was always looking how she could best keep this
vow. In the days that are gone by, when it was a dreary thing to give
employment to a large number of people, the advice that she gave to her
sons was, 'Do not sell your goods for less than they cost, for it would
ruin you without permanently benefiting any one; but if you can go on
giving employment during the winter, do so, for it is a bad thing for a
working man to go home and hear his children cry for bread, when he has
none to give them.'"