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diff --git a/17299-h/17299-h.htm b/17299-h/17299-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5fb082 --- /dev/null +++ b/17299-h/17299-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8316 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland, by Joseph Tatlow</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, +Scotland and Ireland, by Joseph Tatlow + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland + + +Author: Joseph Tatlow + + + +Release Date: December 13, 2005 [eBook #17299] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS OF RAILWAY LIFE IN +ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>This eBook was prepared by Les Bowler.</p> +<h1>FIFTY YEARS OF RAILWAY LIFE IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND</h1> +<p>by Joseph Tatlow</p> +<p>Director Midland Great Western Railway or Ireland and Dublin and +Kingstown Railway; a Member of Dominions Royal Commission, 1912-1917; +late Manager Midland Great Western Railway, etc.</p> +<p>Published in 1920 by The Railway Gazette, Queens Anne’s Chambers, +Westminster, London, S.W.1.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/tatlow.jpg"> +<img alt="The Author" src="images/tatlow.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<p>I. Introductory<br /> +II. Boyhood<br /> +III. The Midland Railway and “King Hudson”<br /> +IV. Fashions and Manners, Victorian Days<br /> +V. Early Office Life<br /> +VI. Friendship<br /> +VII. Railway Progress<br /> +VIII. Scotland, Glasgow Life, and the Caledonian Line<br /> +IX. General Railway Acts of Parliament<br /> +X. A General Manager and his Office<br /> +XI. The Railway Jubilee, and Glasgow and South-Western +Officers and Clerks<br /> +XII. TOM<br /> +XIII. Men I met and Friends I made<br /> +XIV. Terminals, Rates and Fares, and other Matters<br /> +XV. Further Railway Legislation<br /> +XVI. Belfast and the County Down Railway<br /> +XVII. Belfast and the County Down (continued)<br /> +XVIII. Railway Rates and Charges, the Block, the Brake, and Light +Railways<br /> +XIX. Golf, the Diamond King, and a Steam-boat Service<br /> +XX. The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland<br /> +XXI. Ballinasloe Fair, Galway, and Sir George Findlay<br /> +XXII. A Railway Contest, the Parcel Post, and the Board +of Trade<br /> +XXIII. “The Railway News,” the International Railway +Congress, and a Trip to Spain and Portugal<br /> +XXIV. Tom Robertson, more about Light Railways, and the +Inland Transit of Cattle<br /> +XXV. Railway Amalgamation and Constantinople<br /> +XXVI. A Congress at Paris, the Progress of Irish Lines, +Egypt and the Nile<br /> +XXVII. King Edward, a Change of Chairmen, and more Railway Legislation<br /> +XXVIII. Vice-Regal Commission on Irish Railways, 1906-1910, and the +Future of Railways<br /> +XXIX. The General Managers’ Conference, Gooday’s +Dinner, and Divers Matters<br /> +XXX. From Manager to Director<br /> +XXXI. The Dominions’ Royal Commission, the Railways +of the Dominions, and Empire Development<br /> +XXXII. Conclusion</p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> +<p>The Author<br /> +George Hudson, the “Railway King”<br /> +Sir James Allport<br /> +W. J. Wainwright<br /> +Edward John Cotton<br /> +Walter Bailey<br /> +Sir Ralph Cusack, D. L.<br /> +William Dargan<br /> +The Dargan Saloon<br /> +Sir George Findlay<br /> +Sir Theodore Martin<br /> +The Gresham Salver</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAPTER +I.<br /> +INTRODUCTORY</h2> +<p>North-West Donegal. A fine afternoon in September. The +mountain ranges were bathed in sunshine and the scarred and seamy face +of stern old Errigal seemed almost to smile. A gentle breeze stirred +the air and the surface of the lakes lay shimmering in the soft autumnal +light. The blue sky, flecked with white cloudlets, the purple +of the heather, the dark hues of the bogs, the varied greens of bracken, +ferns and grass, the gold of ripening grain, and the grey of the mountain +boulders, together formed a harmony of colour which charmed the eye +and soothed the mind.</p> +<p>I had been travelling most of the day by railway through this delightful +country, not by an express that rushed you through the scenery with +breathless haste, but by an easy-going mixed train which called at every +station. Sometimes its speed reached twenty-five miles an hour, +but never more, and because of numerous curves and gradients—for +it was a narrow gauge and more or less a surface line—the rate +of progress was much less during the greater part of the journey.</p> +<p>The work of the day was over. My companion and I had dined +at the Gweedore Hotel, where we were staying for the night. With +the setting <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>sun +the breeze had died away. Perfect stillness and a silence deep, +profound and all-pervading reigned. I had been talking, as an +old pensioner will talk, of byegone times, of my experiences in a long +railway career, and my companion, himself a rising railway man, seemed +greatly interested. As we sauntered along, the conversation now +and again lapsing into a companionable silence, he suddenly said: “Why +don’t you write your reminiscences? They would be very interesting, +not only to us younger railway men, but to men of your own time too.” +Until that moment I had never seriously thought of putting my reminiscences +on record, but my friend’s words fell on favourable ground, and +now, less than a month since that night in Donegal, I am sitting at +my desk penning these opening lines.</p> +<p>That my undertaking will not be an easy one I know. My memory +is well stored, but unfortunately I have never kept a diary or commonplace +book of any kind. On the contrary a love of order and neatness, +carried to absurd excess, has always led me to destroy accumulated letters +or documents, and much that would be useful now has in the past, from +time to time, been destroyed and “cast as rubbish to the void.”</p> +<p>Most autobiographies, I suppose, are undertaken to please the writers. +That this is the case with me I frankly confess; but I hope that what +I find much pleasure in writing my readers may, at least, find some +satisfaction in reading. Vanity, perhaps, plays some part in this +hope, for, “He that is pleased with himself easily imagines that +he shall please others.”</p> +<p>Carlyle says, “A true delineation of the smallest man, and +his scene of pilgrimage through life, is capable of interesting the +greatest man; that all men are to an unspeakable degree brothers, each +man’s life a strange emblem of every man’s; and that human +portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the welcomest on human +walls.”</p> +<p>I am not sure that portraits of the artist by himself, though there +are notable and noble instances to the contrary, are often successful. +We rarely “see oursels as ithers see us,” and are inclined +to regard our virtues and our vices with equal equanimity, and to paint +ourselves in too alluring colours; but I will do my best to tell my +tale with strict veracity, and with all the modesty I can muster.</p> +<p>An autobiographer, too, exposes himself to the charge of egotism, +but <!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>I +must run the risk of that, endeavouring to avoid the scathing criticism +of him who wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p> “The egotist . . . . . . .<br /> +Whose I’s and Me’s are scattered in his talk,<br /> +Thick as the pebbles on a gravel walk.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Fifty years of railway life, passed in the service of various companies, +large and small, in England, Scotland and Ireland, in divers’ +capacities, from junior clerk to general manager, and ultimately to +the ease and dignity of director, if faithfully presented, may perhaps, +in spite of all drawbacks, be not entirely devoid of interest.</p> +<h2><!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>CHAPTER +II.<br /> +BOYHOOD</h2> +<p>I was born at Sheffield, on Good Friday, in the year 1851, and my +only sister was born on a Christmas Day.</p> +<p>My father was in the service of the Midland Railway, as also were +two of his brothers, one of whom was the father of the present General +Manager of the Midland. When I was but ten months old my father +was promoted to the position of accountants’ inspector at headquarters +and removed from Sheffield to Derby. Afterwards, whilst I was +still very young, he became Goods Agent at Birmingham, and lived there +for a few years. He then returned to Derby, where he became head +of the Mineral Office. He remained with the Midland until 1897, +when he retired on superannuation at the age of seventy-six. Except, +therefore, for an interval of about three years my childhood and youth +were spent at Derby.</p> +<p>My earliest recollection in connection with railways is my first +railway journey, which took place when I was four years of age. +I recollect it well. It was from Derby to Birmingham. How +the wonder of it all impressed me! The huge engine, the wonderful +carriages, the imposing guard, the busy porters and the bustling station. +The engine, no doubt, was a pigmy, compared with the giants of to-day; +the carriages were small, modest four-wheelers, with low roofs, and +diminutive windows after the manner of old stage coaches, but to me +they were palatial. I travelled first-class on a pass with my +father, and great was my juvenile pride. Our luggage, I remember, +<!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>was +carried on the roof of the carriage in the good old-fashioned coaching +style. Four-wheeled railway carriages are, I was going to say, +a thing of the past; but that is not so. Though gradually disappearing, +many are running still, mainly on branch lines—in England nearly +five thousand; in Scotland over four hundred; and in poor backward Ireland +(where, by the way, railways are undeservedly abused) how many? +Will it be believed—practically none, not more than twenty in +the whole island! All but those twenty have been scrapped long +ago. Well done Ireland!</p> +<p>From the earliest time I can remember, and until well-advanced in +manhood, I was delicate in health, troubled with a constant cough, thin +and pale. In consequence I was often absent from school; and prevented +also from sharing, as I should, and as every child should, in out-door +games and exercises, to my great disadvantage then and since, for proficiency +is only gained by early training, and unfortunate is he whose circumstances +have deprived him of that advantage. How often, since those early +days, have I looked with envious eyes on pastimes in which I could not +engage, or only engage with the consciousness of inferiority.</p> +<p>I have known men who, handicapped in this way, have in after life, +by strong will and great application, overcome their disabilities and +become good cricketers, great at tennis, proficient at golf, strong +swimmers, skilful shots; but they have been exceptional men with a strong +natural inclination to athletics.</p> +<p>The only active physical recreations in which I have engaged with +any degree of pleasure are walking, riding, bicycling and skating. +Riding I took to readily enough as soon as I was able to afford it; +and, if my means had ever allowed indulgence in the splendid pastime +of hunting, I would have followed the hounds, not, I believe, without +some spirit and boldness. My natural disposition I know inclined +me to sedentary pursuits: reading, writing, drawing, painting, though, +happily, the tendency was corrected to some extent by a healthy love +of Nature’s fair features, and a great liking for country walks.</p> +<p>In drawing and painting, though I had a certain natural aptitude +for both, I never attained much proficiency in either, partly for lack +of instruction, partly from want of application, but more especially, +I believe, because <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>another, +more alluring, more mentally exciting occupation beguiled me. +It was not music, though to music close allied. This new-found +joy I long pursued in secret, afraid lest it should be discovered and +despised as a folly. It was not until I lived in Scotland, where +poetical taste and business talent thrive side by side, and where, as +Mr. Spurgeon said, “no country in the world produced so many poets,” +that I became courageous, and ventured to avow my dear delight. +It was there that I sought, with some success, publication in various +papers and magazines of my attempts at versification, for versification +it was that so possessed my fancy. Of the spacious times of great +Elizabeth it has been written, “the power of action and the gift +of song did not exclude each other,” but in England, in mid-Victorian +days, it was looked upon differently, or so at least I believed.</p> +<p>After a time I had the distinction of being included in a new edition +of <i>Recent and Living Scottish Poets</i>, by Alexander Murdoch, published +in 1883. My inclusion was explained on the ground that, “His +muse first awoke to conscious effort on Scottish soil,” which, +though not quite in accordance with fact, was not so wide of the mark +that I felt in the least concerned to criticise the statement. +I was too much enamoured of the honour to question the foundation on +which it rested. Perhaps it was as well deserved as are some others +of this world’s distinctions! At any rate it was neither +begged nor bought, but came “Like Dian’s kiss, unasked, +unsought.” In the same year (1883) I also appeared in <i>Edwards</i>’ +Sixth Series of <i>Modern Scottish Poets</i>; and in 1885, more legitimately, +in William Andrews’ book on <i>Modern Yorkshire Poets</i>. +My claim for this latter distinction was not, however, any greater, +if as great, as my right to inclusion in the collection of <i>Scottish +Poets</i>. If I “lisped in numbers,” it was not in +Yorkshire, for Yorkshire I left for ever before even the first babblings +of babyhood began. However, “kissing goes by favour,” +and I was happy in the favour I enjoyed.</p> +<p>I may as well say it here: with my poetical productions I was never +satisfied any more than with my attempts at drawing. My verses +seemed mere farthing dips compared with the resplendent poetry of our +country which I read and loved, but my efforts employed and brightened +many an hour in my youth that otherwise would have been tedious and +dreary.</p> +<p><!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>Ours +was a large family, nine children in all; nothing unusual in those days. +“A quiver full” was then a matter of parental pride. +Woman was more satisfied with home life then than now. The pursuit +of pleasure was not so keen. Our parents and our grandparents +were simpler in their tastes, more easily amused, more readily impressed +with the wonderful and the strange. Things that would leave us +unmoved were to them matters of moment. Railways were new and +railway travelling was, to most people, an event.</p> +<p>Our fathers talked of their last journey to London, their visit to +the Tower, to Westminster Abbey, the Monument, Madame Tussauds; how +they mistook the waxwork policeman for a real member of the force; how +they shuddered in the <i>Chamber of Horrors</i>; how they travelled +on the new Underground Railway; and saw the wonders of the Crystal Palace, +especially on fireworks night. They told us of their visit to +the <i>Great Eastern</i>, what a gigantic ship it was, what a marvel, +and described its every feature. They talked of General Tom Thumb, +of Blondin, of Pepper’s Ghost, of the Christy Minstrels. +Nowadays, a father will return from London and not even mention the +Tubes to his children. Why should he? They know all about +them and are surprised at nothing. The picture books and the cinemas +have familiarised them with every aspect of modern life.</p> +<p>In those days our pleasures and our amusements were fewer, but impressed +us more. I remember how eagerly the coloured pictures of the Christmas +numbers of the pictorial papers were looked forward to, talked of, criticised, +admired, framed and hung up. I remember too, the excitements of +Saint Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday, April Fool’s Day, +May Day and the Morris (Molly) dancers; and the Fifth of November, Guy +Fawkes Day. I remember also the peripatetic knife grinder and +his trundling machine, the muffin man, the pedlar and his wares, the +furmity wheat vendor, who trudged along with his welcome cry of “Frummitty!” +from door to door. Those were pleasant and innocent excitements. +We have other things to engage us now, but I sometimes think all is +not <i>gain</i> that the march of progress brings.</p> +<p>Young people then had fewer books to read, but read them thoroughly. +What excitement and discussion attended the monthly instalments of <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>Dickens’ +novels in <i>All the Year Round</i>; how eagerly they were looked for. +Lucky he or she who had heard the great <i>master</i> read himself in +public. His books were read in our homes, often aloud to the family +circle by paterfamilias, and moved us to laughter or tears. I +never now see our young people, or their elders either, affected by +an author as we were then by the power of Dickens. He was a new +force and his pages kindled in our hearts a vivid feeling for the poor +and their wrongs.</p> +<p>Scott’s <i>Waverley Novels</i>, too, aroused our enthusiasm. +In the early sixties a cheap edition appeared, and cheap editions were +rare things then. It was published, if I remember aright, at two +shillings per volume; an event that stirred the country. My father +brought each volume home as it came out. I remember it well; a +pale, creamy-coloured paper cover, good type, good paper. What +treasures they were, and only two shillings! I was a little child +when an important movement for the cheapening of books began. +In 1852 Charles Dickens presided at a meeting of authors and others +against the coercive regulations of the Booksellers’ Association +which maintained their excessive profits. Herbert Spencer and +Miss Evans (George Eliot) took a prominent part in this meeting and +drafted the resolutions which were passed. The ultimate effect +of this meeting was that the question between the authors and the booksellers +was referred to Lord Campbell as arbitrator. He gave a decision +against the booksellers; and there were consequently abolished such +of the trade regulations as had interdicted the sale of books at lower +rates of profit than those authorised by the Booksellers’ Association.</p> +<p>Practically all my school days were spent at Derby. As I have +said, ours was a large family. I have referred to an only sister, +but I had step-sisters and step-brothers too. My father married +twice and the second family was numerous. His salary was never +more than £300 a year, and though a prudent enough man, he was +not of the frugal economical sort who makes the most of every shilling. +It may be imagined, then, that all the income was needed for a family +that, parents included, but excluding the one servant, numbered eleven. +The consequence was that the education I received could not be described +as liberal. I attended a day school at Derby, connected with the +Wesleyans; why I do not know, as we belonged to the <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>Anglican +Church; but I believe it was because the school, while cheap as to fees, +had the reputation of giving a good, plain education suitable for boys +destined for railway work. It was a good sized school of about +a hundred boys. Not long ago I met one day in London a business +man who, it turned out, was at this school with me. We had not +met for fifty years. “Well,” said he, “I think +old Jessie, if he did not teach us a great variety of things, what he +did he taught well.” My new-found old schoolmate had become +the financial manager of a great business house having ramifications +throughout the world. He had attained to position and wealth and, +which successful men sometimes are not, was quite unspoiled. We +revived our schooldays with mutual pleasure, and lunched together as +befitted the occasion.</p> +<p>“Jessie” was the name by which our old schoolmaster was +endeared to his boys; a kindly, simple-minded, worthy man, teaching, +as well as scholastic subjects, behaviour, morals, truth, loyalty; and +these as much by example as by precept, impressing ever upon us the +virtue of thoroughness in all we did and of truth in all we said. +Since those days I have seen many youths, educated at much finer and +more pretentious schools, who have benefited by modern educational methods, +and on whose education much money has been expended, and who, when candidates +for clerkships, have, in the simple matters of reading, writing, arithmetic, +composition and spelling, shown up very poorly compared to what almost +any boy from “old Jessie’s” unambitious establishment +would have done. But, plain and substantial as my schooling was, +I have ever felt that I was defrauded of the better part of education—the +classics, languages, literature and modern science, which furnish the +mind and extend the boundaries of thought.</p> +<p>“Jessie” continued his interest in his boys long after +they left school. He was proud of those who made their way. +I remember well the warmth of his greeting and the kind look of his +mild blue eyes when, after I had gone out into the world, I sometimes +revisited him.</p> +<p>But my school life was not all happiness. In the school there +was an almost brutal element of roughness, and fights were frequent; +not only in our own, but between ours and neighbouring schools. +Regular pitched battles were fought with sticks and staves and stones. +I shrunk from fighting but could not escape it. Twice in our own +playground I was forced to <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>fight. +Every new boy had to do it, sooner or later. Fortunately on the +second occasion I came off victor, much to my surprise. How I +managed to beat my opponent I never could understand. Anyhow the +victory gave me a better standing in the school, though it did not lessen +in the least my hatred of the battles that raged periodically with other +schools. I never had to fight again except as an unwilling participant +in our foreign warfare.</p> +<h2><!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>CHAPTER +III.<br /> +THE MIDLAND RAILWAY AND “KING HUDSON”</h2> +<p>In the year 1851 the Midland Railway was 521 miles long; it is now +2,063. Then its capital was £15,800,000, against £130,000,000 +to-day. Then the gross revenue was £1,186,000 and now it +has reached £15,960,000. When I say <i>now</i>, I refer +to 1913, the year prior to the war, as since then, owing to Government +control, non-division of through traffic and curtailment of accounts, +the actual receipts earned by individual companies are not published, +and, indeed, are not known.</p> +<p>Eighteen hundred and fifty-one was a period of anxiety to the Midland +and to railway companies generally. Financial depression had succeeded +a time of wild excitement, and the Midland dividend had fallen from +seven to two per cent.! It was the year of the great Exhibition, +which Lord Cholmondeley considered <i>the</i> event of modern times +and many over-sanguine people expected it to inaugurate a universal +peace. On the other hand Carlyle uttered fierce denunciations +against it. It certainly excited far more interest than has any +exhibition since. Then, nothing of the kind had ever before been +seen. Railway expectations ran high; immense traffic receipts, +sorely needed, ought to have swelled the coffers of the companies. +But no! vast numbers of people certainly travelled to London, but a +mad competition, as foolish almost as the preceding <i>mania</i>, set +in, and passenger fares were again and again reduced, till expected +profits disappeared and loss and disappointment were the only result. +The policy of Parliament in encouraging <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>the +construction of rival railway routes and in fostering competition in +the supposed interest of the public was, even in those early days, bearing +fruit—dead sea fruit, as many a luckless holder of railway stock +learned to his cost.</p> +<p>Railway shareholders throughout the kingdom were growing angry. +In the case of the Midland—they appointed a committee of inquiry, +and the directors assented to the appointment. This committee +was to examine and report upon the general and financial conditions +of the company, and was invested with large powers.</p> +<p>About the same time also interviews took place between the Midland +and the London and North-Western, with the object of arranging an amalgamation +of the two systems. Some progress was made, but no formal <i>engagement</i> +resulted, and so a very desirable union, between an aristocratic bridegroom +and a democratic bride, remained unaccomplished.</p> +<p>Mr. Ellis was chairman of the Midland at this time and Mr. George +Carr Glyn, afterwards the first Lord Wolverton, occupied a similar position +on the Board of the London and North-Western. Mr. Ellis had succeeded +Mr. Hudson—the “<i>Railway King</i>,” so christened +by Sydney Smith. Mr. Hudson in 1844 was chairman of the first +shareholders’ meeting of the Midland Railway. Prior to that +date the Midland consisted of three separate railways. In 1849 +Mr. Hudson presided for the last time at a Midland meeting, and in the +following year resigned his office of chairman of the company.</p> +<p>The story of the meteoric reign of the “<i>Railway King</i>” +excited much interest when I was young, and it may not be out of place +to touch upon some of the incidents of his career.</p> +<p>George Hudson was born in 1800, served his apprenticeship in the +cathedral city of York and subsequently became a linendraper there and +a man of property.</p> +<p>Many years afterwards he is reported to have said that the happiest +days of his life passed while he stood behind his counter using the +yardstick, a statement which should perhaps only be accepted under reservation. +He was undoubtedly a man of a bold and adventurous spirit, possessed +of an ambition which soared far above the measuring of calicoes or the +retailing of ribbons; but perhaps the observation was tinged by the +environment of later and less happy days when his star had set, his +kingly reign come to an <!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>end, +and when possibly vain regrets had embittered his existence. It +was, I should imagine, midst the fierceness of the strife and fury of +the <i>mania</i> times, when his powerful personality counted for so +much, that he reached the zenith of his happiness.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/hudson.jpg"> +<img alt="George Hudson" src="images/hudson.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Whilst conducting in York his linendraper business, a relation died +and left him money. The railway boom had then begun. He +flung his yardstick behind him and entered the railway fray. The +Liverpool and Manchester line and its wonderful success—it paid +ten per cent.—greatly impressed the public mind, and the good +people of York determined they would have a railway to London.</p> +<p>A committee was appointed to carry out the project. On this +committee Mr. Hudson was placed, and it was mainly owing to his energy +and skill that the scheme came to a successful issue. He was rewarded +by being made chairman of the company.</p> +<p>This was his entrance into the railway world where, for a time, he +was monarch. He must have been a man of shrewdness and capacity. +It is recorded that he acquired the land for the York to London railway +at an average cost of £1,750 per mile whilst that of the North +Midland cost over £5,000.</p> +<p>On the 1st July, 1840, this linendraper of York had the proud pleasure +of seeing the first train from York to London start on its journey.</p> +<p>From this achievement he advanced to others. He and his friends +obtained the lease, for thirty-one years, of a rival line, which turned +out a great financial success. His enterprise and energy were +boundless.</p> +<p>It is said that his bold spirit, his capacity for work and his great +influence daunted his most determined opponents. For instance, +the North Midland railway, part predecessor of <i>the</i> Midland, was +involved in difficulty. He appeared before the shareholders, offered, +if his advice and methods were adopted, to guarantee double the then +dividend. His offer was accepted and he was made chairman, and +from that position became chairman, and for a time dictator, of the +amalgamated Midland system. Clearly his business abilities were +great; his reforms were bold and drastic, and success attended his efforts. +He soon became the greatest railway authority in England. For +a time the entire railway system in the north was under his <!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>control, +and the confidence reposed in him was unbounded. He was the lion +of the day: princes, peers and prelates, capitalists and fine ladies +sought his society, paid homage to his power, besought his advice and +lavished upon him unstinted adulation.</p> +<p>In 1845 the railway mania was at its height. It is said that +during two or three months of that year as much as £100,000 per +week were expended in advertisements in connection with railway promotions, +railway meetings and railway matters generally. Scarcely credible +this, but so it is seriously stated. Huge sums were wasted in +the promotion and construction of British railways in early days, from +which, in their excessive capital cost, they suffer now. In the +<i>mania</i> period railways sprang into existence so quickly that, +to use the words of Robert Stephenson, they “appeared like the +realisation of fabled powers or the magician’s wand.” +The <i>Illustrated London News</i> of the day said: “Railway speculation +has become the sole object of the world—cupidity is aroused and +roguery shields itself under its name, as a more safe and rapid way +of gaining its ends. Abroad, as well as at home, has it proved +the rallying point of all rascality—the honest man is carried +away by the current and becomes absorbed in the vortex; the timid, the +quiet, the moral are, after some hesitation, caught in the whirlpool +and follow those whom they have watched with pity and derision.”</p> +<p>Powers were granted by Parliament in the year 1845 to construct no +less than 2,883 miles of new railway at an expenditure of about £44,000,000; +and in the next year (1846) applications were made to Parliament for +authority to raise £389,000,000 for the construction of further +lines. These powers were granted to the extent of 4,790 miles +at a cost of about £120,000,000.</p> +<p>Soon there came a change; disaster followed success; securities fell; +dividends diminished or disappeared altogether or, as was in some cases +discovered, were paid out of capital, and disappointment and ruin followed. +King Hudson’s methods came under a fierce fire of criticism; adulation +was succeeded by abuse and he was disgraced and dethroned. A writer +of the day said, “Mr. Hudson is neither better nor worse than +the morality of his time.” From affluence he came to want, +and in his old age a fund was raised sufficient to purchase him an annuity +of £600 a year.</p> +<p><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>About +this time, that most useful Institution the Railway Clearing House received +Parliamentary sanction. The <i>Railway Clearing System Act</i> +1850 gave it statutory recognition. Its functions have been defined +thus: “To settle and adjust the receipts arising from railway +traffic within, or partly within, the United Kingdom, and passing over +more than one railway within the United Kingdom, booked or invoiced +at throughout rates of fares.” The system had then been +in existence, in a more or less informal way, for about eight years. +Mr. Allport, on one occasion, said that whilst he was with the Birmingham +and Derby railway (before he became general manager of the Midland) +the process of settlement of receipts for through traffic was tedious +and difficult, and it occurred to him that a system should be adopted +similar to that which existed in London and was known as the Bankers’ +Clearing House. It was also said that Mr. Kenneth Morrison, Auditor +of the London and Birmingham line, was the first to see and proclaim +the necessity for a Clearing House. Be that as it may, the Railway +Clearing House, as a practical entity, came into being in 1842. +In the beginning it only embraced nine companies, and six people were +enough to do its work. The companies were:—</p> +<blockquote><p>London and Birmingham, Midland Counties, Birmingham and +Derby, North Midland, Leeds and Selby, York and North Midland, Hull +and Selby, Great North of England, Manchester and Leeds.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Not one of these has preserved its original name. All have +been merged in either the London and North-Western, the North-Eastern, +the Midland or the Lancashire and Yorkshire.</p> +<p>At the present day the Clearing House consists of practically the +whole of the railway companies in the United Kingdom, though some of +the small and unimportant lines are outside its sphere. Ireland +has a Railway Clearing House of its own—established in the year +1848—to which practically all Irish railway companies, and they +are numerous, belong; and the six principal Irish railways are members +of the London Clearing House.</p> +<p>The English house, situated in Seymour Street, Euston Square, is +an extensive establishment, and accommodates 2,500 clerks. As +I write, the number under its roof is, by war conditions, reduced to +about 900. Serving with His Majesty’s Forces are nearly +1,200, and about 400 have been <!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>temporarily +transferred to the railway companies, to the Government service and +to munition factories.</p> +<p>In 1842, when the Clearing House first began, the staff, as I have +said, numbered six, and the companies nine. Fifty-eight railway +companies now belong to the House, and the amount of money dealt with +by way of division and apportionment in the year before the war was +£31,071,910. In 1842 it was £193,246.</p> +<h2><!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>CHAPTER +IV.<br /> +FASHIONS AND MANNERS, VICTORIAN DAYS</h2> +<p>The boy who is strong and healthy, overflowing with animal spirits, +enjoys life in a way that is denied to his slighter-framed, more delicate +brother. Exercise imparts to him a physical exuberance to which +the other is a stranger. But Nature is kind. If she withholds +her gifts in one direction she bestows them in another. She grants +the enjoyment of sedentary pursuits to those to whom she has denied +hardier pleasures.</p> +<p>During my schooldays I spent many happy hours alone with book or +pen or pencil. My father was fond of reading, and for a man of +his limited means, possessed a good collection of books; a considerable +number of the volumes of <i>Bohn’s Standard Library</i> as well +as <i>Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, +Butler’s Hudibras, Bailey’s Festus, Gil Blas, Don Quixote, +Pilgrim’s Progress, the Arabian Nights, Shakespeare</i>, most +of the poets from <i>Chaucer</i> down; and of novels, <i>Bulwer Lytton’s, +Scott’s, Dickens</i>’ and <i>Thackeray’s</i>. +These are the books I best remember, but there were others of classic +fame, and I read them all; but not, I fear to much advantage, for though +I have read many books it has been without much method, just as fancy +led, and study, memory and judgment have been little considered. +Still, unsystematic reading is better than no reading, and, as someone +has said, “a phrase may fructify if it falls on receptive soil.”</p> +<p><!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>I +never in my boyhood or youth, except on short visits to relatives, enjoyed +the advantage, by living in the country, of becoming intimate with rural +life. We resided at Derby in a terrace on the outskirt of the +town, much to my dislike, for monotonous rows of houses I have ever +hated. One’s home should be one’s friend and possess +some special feature of its own, even in its outward aspect, to love +and remember. As George Eliot says: “We get the fonder of +our houses if they have a physiognomy of their own, as our friends have.”</p> +<p>In my schooldays, country walks, pursued as far as health and strength +allowed, were my greatest pleasure, sometimes taken alone, sometimes +with a companion. The quiet valley of the Trent at Repton, Anchor +Church, Knoll Hills, the long bridge at Swarkestone, the charming little +country town of Melbourne, the wooded beauties of Duffield and Belper, +the ozier beds of Spondon; how often have I trod their fields, their +woods, their lanes, their paths; and how pleasantly the memory of it +all comes back to me now!</p> +<p>In those days fashions and manners differed greatly from those of +to-day. Ladies wore the crinoline (successor to the hoop of earlier +times), chignons and other absurdities, but had not ventured upon short +skirts or cigarettes. They were much given to blushing, now a +lost art; and to swooning, a thing of the past; the “vapours” +of the eighteenth century had, happily, vanished for ever; but athletic +exercises, such as girls enjoy to-day, were then undreamed of. +Why has the pretty art of blushing gone? One now never sees a +blush to mantle on the cheek of beauty. Does the blood of feminine +youth flow steadier than it did, or has the more unrestrained intercourse +of the sexes banished the sweet consciousness that so often brought +the crimson to a maiden’s face? The manners of maidens had +more of reserve and formality then. The off-hand style, the nod +of the head, the casual “how d’ye do,” were unknown. +Woman has not now the same desire to appear always graceful; she adopts +a manly gait, talks louder, plays hockey, rides horseback astride, and +boldly enters hotel smoking rooms and railway smoking compartments without +apology.</p> +<p>When walking with a lady, old or young, in those days, the gentleman +would offer his arm and she would take it. The curtsey was still +observed but gradually disappearing. When about nineteen years +of age, I remember <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>being +introduced to one of the young beauties of the town, who I had long +secretly admired. She made me a profound and graceful curtsey—feminine +homage to my budding manhood. The first curtsey I remember receiving, +except of course in the stately ceremonies of the dance. For many +a day afterwards my cheek glowed with pleasure at the recollection of +that sweet obeisance. She became my sweetheart, temporarily; but +a born butterfly, she soon fluttered away, leaving me disconsolate—<i>for +a time</i>!</p> +<p>Women then wrote a sloping hand, delicate penmanship, to distinguish +them from men; crossed and re-crossed their letters, and were greatly +addicted to postscripts.</p> +<p>The men? Well, they wore mutton chop whiskers, or, if Nature +was bountiful, affected the Dundreary style, which gave a man great +distinction, and, if allied to good looks, made him perfectly irresistible. +They wore “Champagne Charley” coats, fancy waistcoats, frilled-fronted +shirts, relic of the lace and ruffles of Elizabeth’s days; velvet +smoking caps, embroidered slippers, elastic-side boots and chimney pot +hats.</p> +<p>At eighteen years of age I had my first frock coat and tall hat. +Some of my companions, happy youths! enjoyed this distinction at sixteen +or seventeen. These adornments were of course for Sunday wear; +no weekday clothes were worn on Sundays then. My frock coat was +of West of England broadcloth, shiny and smooth. Sunday attire +was incomplete without light kid gloves, lavender or lemon being the +favourite shade for a young man with any pretension to style.</p> +<p>Next in importance to my first frock coat ranked my first portmanteau; +it was a present, and supplanted the carpet bag which, up to then, to +my profound disgust, I had to use on visits to my relatives. The +portmanteau was the sign of youth and progress; old-fashioned people +stuck to the carpet bag.</p> +<p>Man’s attire has changed for the better; and woman’s, +with all its abbreviations and shortcomings, is, on the whole, more +rational; though in the domain of Fashion her <i>vagaries</i> will last +no doubt as long as—woman is woman; and if ever that shall cease +to be, the charm of life will be over.</p> +<p>With man the jacket suit, the soft hat, the soft shirt, the turn-down +collar, mark the transition from starch and stiffness to ease and comfort; +<!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>and +Time in his course has brought no greater boon than this; except, perhaps, +the change that marks our funeral customs. In those days, hatbands, +gloves and scarves were provided by the bereaved family to the relatives +and friends who attended the obsequies; and all of kinship close or +remote, were invited from far and near. Hearse and coaches and +nodding plumes and mutes added to the expense, and many a family of +moderate means suffered terrible privation from the costliness of these +burial customs, which, happily, now are fast disappearing.</p> +<p>Beds, in those days, were warmed with copper warming pans, and nightcaps +adorned the slumbering heads of both sexes. Spittoons were part +of ordinary household furniture. To colour a meerschaum was the +ambition of smokers, swearing was considered neither low nor vulgar, +and snuffing was fashionable. Many most respectable men chewed +tobacco, and to carry one’s liquor well was a gentlemanly accomplishment.</p> +<p>Garrotters pursued their calling, deterred only by the cat-o’-nine +tails, pickpockets abounded and burglaries were common.</p> +<p>The antimacassar and the family album; in what veneration they were +held! The antimacassar, as its name implies, was designed to protect +chairs and couches from the disfiguring stains of macassar oil, then +liberally used in the adornment of the hair which received much attention. +A parting, of geometrical precision, at the back of the head was often +affected by men of dressy habits, who sometimes also wore a carefully +arranged curl at the front; and manly locks, if luxuriant enough, were +not infrequently permitted to fall in careless profusion over the collar +of the coat.</p> +<p>Of the family album I would rather not speak. It is scarcely +yet extinct. A respectable silence shall accompany its departing +days.</p> +<p>Perhaps these things may to some appear mere trivialities; but to +recall them awakens many memories, brings back thoughts of bygone days—days +illumined with the sunshine of Youth and Hope on which it is pleasant +to linger. As someone has finely said: “We lose a proper +sense of the richness of life if we do not look back on the scenes of +our youth with imagination and warmth.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>CHAPTER +V.<br /> +EARLY OFFICE LIFE</h2> +<p>In the year 1867, at the age of sixteen, I became a junior clerk +in the Midland Railway at Derby, at a salary of £15 a year.</p> +<p>From pre-natal days I was destined for the railway service, as an +oyster to its shell. The possibility of any other vocation for +his sons never entered the mind of my father, nor the mind of many another +father in the town of Derby.</p> +<p>My railway life began on a drizzling dismal day in the early autumn. +My father took me to the office in which I was to make a start and presented +me to the chief clerk. I was a tall, thin, delicate, shy, sensitive +youth, with curly hair, worn rather long, and I am sure I did not look +at all a promising specimen for encountering the rough and tumble of +railway work.</p> +<p>The chief clerk handed me over to one of his assistants, who without +ceremony seated me on a tall stool at a high desk, and put before me, +to my great dismay, a huge pile of formidable documents which he called +<i>Way Bills</i>. He gave me some instructions, but I was too +confused to understand them, and too shy to ask questions. I only +know that I felt very miserable and hopelessly at sea. Visions +of being dismissed as an incompetent rose before me; but soon, to my +great relief, it was discovered that the Way Bills were too much for +me and that I must begin at more elementary duties.</p> +<p>A few weeks afterwards, when I had found my feet a little, I was +promoted from the simple tasks assigned to me in consequence of my first +failure <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>and +attached to the goods-train-delays clerk, a long-bearded elderly man +with a very kind face. He was quite fatherly to me and took a +great deal of trouble in teaching me my work. With him I soon +felt at ease, and was happy in gaining his approbation. One thing +found favour in his eyes; I wrote a good clear hand and at fair speed. +In those days penmanship was a fine art. No cramped or sprawling +writing passed muster. Typewriting was not dreamed of, and, at +Derby, shorthand had not appeared on the scene.</p> +<p>One or two other juniors and myself sedulously practised imitating +the penmanship of those senior clerks who wrote fine or singular hands. +At this I was particularly successful and proud of my skill, until one +day the chief clerk detained me after closing time, gave me a good rating, +and warned me to stop such a dangerous habit which might lead, he said, +to the disgrace of forgery. He spoke so seriously and shook his +head so wisely that (to use Theodore Hook’s old joke) “I +thought there must be something in it,” and so, for a long while, +I gave up the practice.</p> +<p>Office hours in those days were nominally from nine till six, but +for the juniors especially often much longer. In 1868 or 1869, +1 do not remember which, a welcome change took place; the hours were +reduced to from nine till five, and arrangements made for avoiding late +hours for the juniors. This early closing was the result of an +“appeal unto Cæsar.” The clerical staff in all +the offices had combined and presented a petition in the highest quarter. +The boon was granted, and I remember the wave of delight that swept +over us, and how we enjoyed the long summer evenings. It was in +the summer time the change took place.</p> +<p>Combined action amongst railway employees was not common then, not +even in the wage-earning class, but Trade Unionism, scarcely yet legalised, +was clamouring for recognition. Strikes sometimes occurred but +were not frequent.</p> +<p>In 1867 Mr. James Allport was general manager of the Midland Railway, +Mr. Thomas Walklate the goods manager and Mr. William Parker head of +the department in which I began my railway life. Ned Farmer was +a notable Midland man at that time; notable for his bucolic appearance, +his genial personality, and, most of all, for the well-known songs he +wrote. He was <!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>in +charge of the company’s horses, bought them, fed them, cared for +them. He was a big-bodied, big-hearted, ruddy-faced, farmerlike +man of fifty or so; and the service was proud of him. He had a +great sense of humour and used to tell many an amusing story. +One morning, he told us, he had been greatly tickled by a letter which +he had received from one of his inspectors whose habit it was to conclude +every letter and report with the words “to oblige.” +The letter ran: “Dear Sir, I beg to inform you that Horse No. +99 died last night to oblige Yours truly, John Smith.” He +wrote the fine poem of “<i>Little Jim</i>,” which everyone +knew, and which almost every boy and girl could recite. His then +well-known song, “<i>My old Wife’s a good old cratur</i>,” +was very popular and was sung throughout the Midlands. The publication +of his poems and songs was attended with great success. His Muse +was simple, homely, humorous, pathetic and patriotic, and made a strong +appeal to the natural feelings of ordinary folk. Often it was +inspired by incidents and experiences in his daily life. His desk +was in the same office as that in which I worked, and I was very proud +of the notice he took of me, and grateful for many kindnesses he showed +to me.</p> +<p>After spending twelve months or so in Mr. Parker’s office, +I was removed to another department. The office to which I was +assigned had about thirty clerks, all of whom, except the chief clerk, +occupied tall stools at high desks.</p> +<p>I was one of two assistants to a senior clerk. This senior +was middle-aged, and passing rich on eighty pounds a year. A quiet, +steady, respectable married man, well dressed, cheerful, contented, +he had by care and economy, out of his modest salary, built for himself +a snug little double-breasted villa, in a pleasant outskirt of the town, +where he spent his spare hours in his garden and enjoyed a comfortable +and happy life.</p> +<p>Except the chief clerk, whose salary was about £160, I do not +believe there was another whose pay exceeded £100 a year. +The real head of the office, or <i>department</i> it was called, was +not the chief clerk but one who ranked higher still and was styled <i>Head +of Department</i>, and he received a salary of about £300. +Moderate salaries prevailed, but the sovereign was worth much more then +than now, while wants were fewer. Beer was threepence the pint +and tobacco threepence the ounce, and beer we drank but never whiskey +or wine; and pipes we smoked but not cigars.</p> +<p><!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>This +chief clerk was an amiable rather ladylike person, with small hands +and feet and well-arranged curly hair. He was quick and clever +and work sat lightly upon him. Quiet and good natured, when necessity +arose he never failed to assert his authority. We all respected +him. His young wife was pretty and pleasant, which was in his +favour too.</p> +<p>The office was by no means altogether composed of steady specimens +of clerkdom, but had a large admixture of lively sparks who, though +they would never set the Thames on fire, brightened and enlivened our +surroundings.</p> +<p>There was one, a literary genius, who had entered the service, I +believe by influence, for influence and patronage were in those days +not unknown. He wrote in his spare time the pantomime for a Birmingham +theatre; and there constantly fluttered from his desk and circulated +through the office, little scraps of paper containing quips and puns +and jokes in prose or verse, or acrostics from his prolific pen. +One clever acrostic upon the office boy, which has always remained in +my memory, I should like for its delicate irony (worthy of Swift himself) +to reproduce; but as that promising youth may still be in the service +I feel I had better not, as irony sometimes wounds. For some time +we had in the office an Apollo—a very Belvidere. He was +a glory introduced into railway life by I know not what influence and +disappeared after a time I know not where or why. A marvel of +manly strength and grace and beauty, thirty years of age or so, and +faultlessly dressed. Said to be aristocratically connected, he +was the admiration of all and the darling of the young ladies of Derby. +He lodged in fashionable apartments, smoked expensive cigars, attended +all public amusements, was affable and charming, but reticent about +himself. Why he ever came amongst us none ever knew; it was a +mystery we never fathomed. He left as he came, a mystery still.</p> +<p>There was an oldish clerk whom we nicknamed <i>Gumpots</i>. +This bore some resemblance to his surname, but there were other reasons +which led to the playful designation and which I think justified it.</p> +<p>There was another scribe of quite an elegant sort: a perambulating +tailor’s dummy; a young man, well under thirty. He was good-looking, +as far as regularity of features and a well-formed figure went, but +mentally not much to boast of. He lounged about the station platform +and the town <!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>displaying +his faultlessly fitting fashionable clothes. They always looked +new, and as his salary was not more than £70 a year, and his parents, +with whom he lived, were poor, the story that he was provided gratis +by an enterprising tailor in town with these suits, on condition that +he exhibited himself constantly in public, and told whenever he could +who was his outfitter, received general credence, and I believe was +true. He was never known to hurry, mingled little with men and +less with women, but moved along in a stiff tailor-dummy fashion with +a sort of self-conscious air which seemed to say, “Look at my +figure and my clothes, how stylish they are!”</p> +<p>I remember a senior clerk in the office where I first worked to whom +there was a general aversion. He was the only clerk who was really +disliked, for all the others, old or young, serious or gay, steady or +rackety, had each some pleasant quality. This unfortunate fellow +had none. He was small, mean, cunning, a sneak and a mischief +maker. He carried tales, told lies, and tried to make trouble, +for no reason but to gratify his inclinations. He was a dark impish +looking fellow, as lean as Cassius and as crafty and envious as Iago. +The chief clerk, to his credit be it said, gave a deaf ear to his tales, +and his craft and cunning obtained him little beyond our detestation.</p> +<p>In our own office about half our number were youths and single men +and about half were married. Our youngest benedict was not more +than eighteen years of age, and his salary only £45 a year. +On this modest income for a time the young couple lived. It was +a runaway match; on the girl’s part an elopement from school. +They lived in apartments, kept by an old lady, a widow who, being a +woman, loved a bit of romance, and was very kind to them. He was +a manly young fellow, a sportsman and renowned at cricket, and she was +amiable and pretty, a little blonde beauty. The parents were well +to do, and in due time forgave the imprudent match. At this we +all rejoiced for he was a general favourite.</p> +<p>Looking back now it seems to me the office staff was in some ways +a curious collection and very different to the clerks of to-day. +Many of them had not entered railway life until nearly middle-age and +they had not assimilated as an office staff does now, when all join +as youths and are brought up together. They were original, individual, +not to say eccentric. Whilst our office included certain steady +married clerks, who worked hard and lived <!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>ordinary +middle-class respectable lives, and some few bachelors of quiet habit, +the rest were a lively set indeed, by no means free from inclinations +to coarse conviviality and many of them spendthrift, reckless and devil-may-care. +At pay-day, which occurred monthly, most of these merry wights, after +receiving their pay, betook themselves to the <i>Midland Tap</i> or +other licensed house and there indulged, for the remainder of the afternoon, +in abundant beer, pouring down glass after glass; in Charles Lamb’s +inimitable words: “the second to see where the first has gone, +the third to see no harm happens to the second, a fourth to say there +is another coming, and a fifth to say he is not sure he is the last.” +Some of the merriest of them would not return to the office that day +but extend their carouse far into the night; to sadly realise next day +that it was “the morning after the night before.”</p> +<p>I do not think our ladylike chief clerk ever indulged in these orgies, +but I never knew more than the mildest remonstrance being made by him +or by anyone in authority.</p> +<p>Pay-day was also the time for squaring accounts. “The +human species,” Charles Lamb says, “is composed of two distinct +races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.” This was +true of our office, but no equal division prevailed as the borrowers +predominated and the lenders, the prudent, were a small minority. +A general settlement took place monthly, after which a new period began—by +the borrowers with joyous unconcern. “Take no thought for +the morrow” was a maxim dear to the heart of these knights of +the pen.</p> +<p>Swearing, as I have said, was not considered low or vulgar or unbecoming +a gentleman. There was a senior clerk of some standing and position, +a married man of thirty-five or forty years of age, who gloried in it. +His expletives were varied, vivid and inexhaustible, and the turbid +stream was easily set flowing. Had he lived a century earlier +he might have been put in the stocks for his profanity, a punishment +which magistrates were then, by Act of Parliament, empowered to inflict. +He was a strange individual. <i>Long Jack</i> he was called. +He is not in this world now so I may write of him with freedom.</p> +<p>No one’s enemy but his own, he was kindly, good-natured, generous +to a fault, but devil-may-care and reckless; and, at any one’s +expense, or at any cost to himself, would have his fling and his joke.</p> +<p><!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>It +was from his lankiness and length of limb that he was called “<i>Long +Jack</i>.” He stood about six feet six in his boots. +He must have had means of his own, as he lived in a way far beyond the +reach of even a senior clerk of the first degree. How he came +to be in a railway office, or, being in, retained his place, was a matter +of wonder. Sad to tell, he had a little daughter, five or six +years of age; his only child, a sweet, blue-eyed golden-haired little +fairy, who, never corrected, imitated her father’s profanity, +and apparently to his great delight. He treated it as a joke, +as he treated everything. <i>Long Jack</i> loved to scandalise +the town by his eccentricities. He would compound with the butcher, +to drive his fast trotting horse and trap and deliver their joints, +their steaks and kidneys to astonished customers, or arrange with the +milkman to dispense the early morning milk, donning a milkman’s +smock, and carrying two milk-pails on foot. I remember one <i>Good +Friday</i> morning when he perambulated the town with a donkey cart +and sold, at an early hour, hot cross buns at the houses of his friends, +afterwards gleefully boasting of having made a good profit on the morning’s +business. In the sixties and early seventies throughout the clerical +staff of the Midland Railway were many who had not been brought up as +clerks, who, somehow or other had drifted into the service, whose early +avocations had been of various kinds, and whose appearance, habits and +manners imparted a picturesqueness to office life which does not exist +to-day, and among these. <i>Long Jack</i> was a prominent, but +despite his joviality, it seems to me a pathetic figure.</p> +<h2><!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>CHAPTER +VI.<br /> +FRIENDSHIP</h2> +<p>Delicate health, as I have said, was my lot from childhood. +After about eighteen months of office work I had a long and serious +illness and was away from duty for nearly half a year. The latter +part of the time I spent in the Erewash Valley, at the house of an uncle +who lived near Pye Bridge. I was then under eighteen, growing +fast, and when convalescing the country life and country air did me +lasting good. Though a colliery district the valley is not devoid +of rural beauty; to me it was pleasant and attractive and I wandered +about at will.</p> +<p>One day I had a curious experience. In my walk I came across +the Cromford Canal where it enters a tunnel that burrows beneath coal +mines. At the entrance to the tunnel a canal barge lay. +The bargees asked would I like to go through with them? “How +long is it?” said I, and “how long will it take?” +“Not long,” said bargee, “come on!” “Right!” +said I. The tunnel just fitted the barge, scarcely an inch to +spare; the roof was so low that a man lying on his back on a plank placed +athwart the vessel, with his feet against the roof, propelled the boat +along. This was the only means of transit and our progress was +slow and dreary. It was a journey of Cimmerian darkness; along +a stream fit for Charon’s boat. About halfway a halt was +made for dinner, but I had none. Although I was cold and hungry +the bargees’ hospitality did not include a share of their bread +and cheese but they gave me a drink of their beer. The tunnel +is two miles long, and <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>was +drippingly wet. Several hours passed before we emerged, not into +sunshine but into the open, under a clouded sky and heavy rain which +had succeeded a bright forenoon. I was nearly five miles from +my uncle’s house, lightly clad, hungry and tired. To my +friends ever since I have not failed to recommend the passage of the +Butterley tunnel as a desirable pleasure excursion.</p> +<p>When I returned to work my health was greatly improved and a small +advancement in my position in the office made the rest of my time at +Derby more agreeable, though, to tell the truth, I often jibbed at the +drudgery of the desk and the monotony of writing pencilled-out letters +which was now my daily task. Set tasks, dull routine, monotonous +duty I ever hated.</p> +<p>About this time shorthand was introduced into the railway. +A public teacher of Pitman’s phonography had established himself +in Derby, and the Midland engaged him to conduct classes for the junior +clerks. It was not compulsory to attend the classes, but inducements +to do so were held out. A special increase of salary was promised +to those who attained a certain proficiency, and a further reward was +offered; the two clerks who earned most marks and, in the teacher’s +opinion, reached the highest proficiency, were to be appointed assistants +to the teacher and paid eight shillings weekly during future shorthand +sessions, in addition to the special increase of salary. It was +a great prize and keen was the contest. I had the good fortune +to be one of the two; and the praise I got, and the benefit of the money +made me contented for a time. My companion in this success, I +am glad to know, is to-day alive and well, and like myself, a superannuated +member of society. In his day he was a notable athlete, at one +time bicycling champion of the Midland counties; and his prowess was +won on the obsolete velocipede, with its one great wheel in front and +a very small wheel behind.</p> +<p>A shorthand writer, my work was now to take down letters from dictation, +a remove only for the better from the old way of writing from pencilled +drafts.</p> +<p>Now it was that I made my first sincere and lasting friendship, a +friendship true and deep, but which was destined to last for only ten +short years. Tom was never robust and Death’s cold hand +closed all too soon a loveable <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>and +useful life. Our friendship was close and intimate, such as is +formed in the warmth of youth and which the grave alone dissolves. +To me, during those short years, it lent brightness and gaiety to existence; +and, in the days that have followed, its memory has been, and is now, +a rich possession.</p> +<p>With both Tom and me it was friendship at first sight, and nothing +until the final severance came ever disturbed its course. He came +from Lincoln and joined the office I was in. He was two years +my senior and had the advantage of several years’ experience in +station work which I had not. We were much alike in our tastes +and habits, yet there was enough of difference between us to impart +a relish to our friendship. Indifferent health, for he was delicate +too, was one of the bonds between us. We were both fond of reading, +of quiet walks and talks, and we hated crowds. He was a good musician, +played the piano; but the guitar was the favourite accompaniment to +his voice, a clear sweet tenor, and he sang well. I was not so +susceptible to the “concord of sweet sounds” as he was, +but could draw a little, paint a little, string rhymes together; and +so we never failed to amuse and interest each other. He was impulsive, +clever, quick of temper, ingenuous, and indignant at any want of truth +or candour in others; generous to a fault and tender hearted as a woman. +I was more patient than he, slower in wrath, yet we sometimes quarrelled +over trifles but, like lovers, were quickly reconciled; and after these +little explosions always better friends than ever.</p> +<p>At Derby, for three years or so, we were inseparable. What +walks we had, what talks, “what larks, Pip!” Dickens +we adored. How we talked of him and his books! How we longed +to hear him read, but his public readings had ended, his voice for ever +become mute and a nation mourned the loss of one who had moved it to +laughter and to tears. Tom had a wonderful memory. He would +recite page after page from <i>Pickwick, David Copperfield, Barnaby +Rudge</i> or <i>Great Expectations</i>, as well as from <i>Shakespeare</i> +and our favourite poets. He was fond of the pathetic, but the +humorous moved him most, and his lively gifts were welcome wherever +we went.</p> +<p>Our favourite walk on Saturday afternoons was to the pleasant village +of Kedleston, some five miles from Derby, and to its fine old inn, which +to us <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>was +not simply the <i>Kedleston Inn</i> and nothing more but Dickens’ +<i>Maypole</i> and nothing less. We revelled in its resemblance, +or its fancied resemblance to the famous old hostelry kept by old John +Willet. Something in the building itself, though I cannot say +that, like the <i>Maypole</i>, it had “more gable ends than a +lazy man would like to count on a sunny day,” and something in +its situation, and something in the cronies who gathered in its comfortable +bar, and something in the bar itself combined to form the pleasant illusion +in which we indulged. The bar, like the <i>Maypole</i> bar, was +snug and cosy and complete. Its rustic visitors were not so solemn +and slow of speech as old John Willet and Mr. Cobb and long Phil Parkes +and Solomon Daisy, “who would pass two mortal hours and a half +without any of them speaking a single word, and who were firmly convinced +that they were very jovial companions;” but they were as reticent +and stolid and good natured as such simple country gaffers are wont +to be.</p> +<p>I remember in particular one Saturday afternoon in late October. +It was almost the last walk I had with Tom in Derby. The day was +perfect; as clear and bright, as mellow and crisp, as rich in colour, +as only an October day in England can be. We reached the <i>Maypole</i> +between five and six o’clock. No young Joe Willet or gipsy +Hugh was there to welcome us, but we were soon by our two selves in +a homely little room, beside a cheerful fire, at a table spread with +tea and ham and eggs and buttered toast and cakes—our weekly treat.</p> +<p>When this delightful meal was over, a stroll as far as the church +and the stately Hall of the Curzons, back to the inn, an hour or so +in the snug bar with the village worthies, who welcomed our almost weekly +visits and the yarns we brought from Derby town; then back home by the +broad highway, under the star-lit sky—an afternoon and an evening +to be ever remembered.</p> +<p>The <i>Kedleston Inn</i>, I am told, no longer exists; no longer +greets the eye of the wayfarer, no longer welcomes him to its pleasant +bar. Now it is a farmhouse. No youthful enthusiast can now +be beguiled into calling it <i>The Maypole</i>; and, indeed, in these +unromantic days, though it had remained unchanged, there would be little +danger of this I think.</p> +<p>Soon after this memorable day Tom left the service of the Midland +for a <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>more +lucrative situation with a mercantile firm in Glasgow, and I was left +widowed and alone. For six months or more we had been living together +in the country, some four miles from Derby, in the house of the village +blacksmith. It was a pretty house, stood a little apart from the +forge, and was called Rock Villa. I wonder if the present Engineer-in-Chief +of the Midland Railway recollects a little incident connected with it. +He (now Chief Engineer then a well grown youth of eighteen or nineteen) +was younger than I, and was preparing for the engineering profession +in which he has succeeded so well. He lived with his parents very +near to Rock Villa, and one day, for some reason or other, we said we +would each of us make a sketch of Rock Villa, afterwards compare them, +and let his sister decide which was the better, so we set to work and +did our best. In the matter of correct drawing his, I am sure, +far surpassed mine, but the young lady decided in my favour, perhaps +because my production looked more picturesque and romantic than his!</p> +<p>When Tom had gone I became dissatisfied with my work, and a disappointment +which I suffered at being passed over in some office promotions increased +that dissatisfaction. I was an expert shorthand writer and this +seemed to be the only reason for keeping me back from better work, so +at least I thought, and I think so still. My sense of injustice +was touched; and I determined I would, like Tom, if the opportunity +served, seek my fortune elsewhere. The chance I longed for came. +I paid a short visit to Tom, and whilst in Glasgow, obtained the post +of private clerk to the Stores Superintendent of the Caledonian Railway, +and on the last day of the year 1872, I left the Midland Railway, to +the service of which I had been as it were born, in which my father +and uncles and cousins served, against the wish of my father, and to +the surprise of my relatives. But I had reached man’s estate, +and felt a pride in going my own way, and in seeking, unassisted, my +fortune, whatever it might be.</p> +<p>What had I learned in my first five years of railway work? +Not very much; the next few years were to be far more fruitful; but +I had acquired some business habits; a practical acquaintance with shorthand, +which was yet to stand me in good stead; some knowledge of rates and +fares, their nature and composition, which was also to be useful to +me in after life; some <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>familiarity +with the compilation of time-tables and the working of trains; but of +practical knowledge of work at stations I was quite ignorant.</p> +<p>Thus equipped, without the parental blessing, with little money in +my purse, with health somewhat improved but still delicate, I bade good-bye +to Derby, light-hearted enough, and hopeful enough, and journeyed north +to join my friend Tom, and to make my way as best I could in the commercial +capital of “bonnie Scotland.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>CHAPTER +VII.<br /> +RAILWAY PROGRESS</h2> +<p>Before entering upon any description of the new life that awaited +me in Glasgow, I will briefly allude to the principal events connected +with the Midland and with railways generally which took place during +the first five years of my railway career.</p> +<p>Closely associated with many of these events was Mr. James Allport, +the Midland general manager, one of the foremost and ablest of the early +railway pioneers, regarding whom it is fit and proper a few words should +be said. Strangely enough I never saw him until nearly two years +after I entered the Midland service, and this was on the occasion of +a visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Derby. We clerks +were allowed good positions on the station platform to witness the arrival +of their Royal Highnesses by their special train from London. +Mr. Allport accompanied them along the platform to the carriages outside +the station. Probably the chairman and directors of the company +were also present, but our eyes were not for them. Directors were +to us junior clerks, remote personalities, mythical beings dwelling +on Olympian heights.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/allport.jpg"> +<img alt="Sir James Allport" src="images/allport.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>It was a great thing to see the future King and Queen of England, +and our loyalty and enthusiasm knew no bounds. They were young +and charming, and beloved by the people; but, hero worshipper as I was, +our great general manager was to me even more than royalty. I +little thought, as I looked on Mr. Allport then, that, twenty years +later, I should appear before <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>him +to give evidence concerning Irish railways, when he was chairman of +an important Royal Commission.</p> +<p>The great abilities which enable a man to win and hold such a position +as his fired my fancy. I look at men and men’s affairs with +different eyes now; but Mr. Allport was a great personality, and youthful +enthusiasm might well be excused for placing him on a high pedestal. +He was tall and handsome, with well-shaped head, broad brow, large clear +keen eyes, firm well-formed mouth, strong nose and chin, possessed of +an abundant head of hair, not close cropped in the style of to-day, +but full and wavy, and what one never sees now, a handsome natural curl +along the centre of the head with a parting on each side. This +suited him well, and added to his distinctive individuality. When +I entered the Midland service he was fifty-six years of age and in the +plenitude of his power, for those were days when the company was forcing +its way north and south and widely extending its territory. He +was the animating spirit of all the company’s enterprises. +No opposition, no difficulties ever daunted him. His nature was +bold and fitted to command, and to him is due, in a large degree, the +proud position the Midland holds to-day. It was not until late +in life, 1884 I think, when he had reached the age of seventy-two, that +his great qualities were accorded public recognition. He then +received the honour of knighthood but had retired from active service +and become a director of his company.</p> +<p>There was another personality that loomed large, in those years, +on the Midland—Samuel Swarbrick, the accountant. His world +was finance, and in it he was a master. So great was his skill +that the Great Eastern Railway Company, which, financially, was in a +parlous condition and their dividend <i>nil</i>, in 1866 took him from +the Midland and made him their general manager, at, in those days, a +princely salary. Their confidence was fully justified; his skill +brought the company, if not to absolute prosperity, at least to a dividend-paying +condition, and laid the foundation of the position that company now +occupies.</p> +<p>His reputation as a man of figures stood as I have just said very +high, but, whilst I was at Derby, and before he moved to the Great Eastern, +he was prominent also as the happy possessor of the best coloured meerschaum +pipes in the county, and this, in those days, was no small distinction. +But <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>a +man does not achieve greatness by his own unaided efforts. Others, +his subordinates, help him to climb the ladder. It was so with +Mr. Swarbrick. There was a tall policeman in the service of the +company, the possessor of a fine figure, and a splendid long sandy-coloured +beard. His primary duty was to air himself at the front entrance +of the station arrayed in a fine uniform and tall silk hat, and this +duty he conscientiously performed. Secondarily, his occupation +was to start the colouring of new meerschaums for Mr. Swarbrick. +Non-meerschaum smokers may not know what a delicate task this is, but +once well begun the rest is comparatively easy. The tall policeman +was an artist at the work; but it nearly brought him to a tragic end, +as I will relate.</p> +<p>Outside Derby station was a ticket platform at which all incoming +trains stopped for the collection of tickets. This platform was +on a bridge that crossed the river. One Saturday night our fine +policeman was airing himself on this platform, colouring a handsome +new meerschaum for Mr. Swarbrick. It was a windy night and a sudden +gust blew his tall hat into the river, and after it unfortunately dropped +the meerschaum. Hat and pipe both! Without a moment’s +hesitation in plunged the policeman to the rescue; but the river was +deep and he an indifferent swimmer. The night was dark and he +was not brought to land till life had nearly left him. He recovered, +but lost his sight and became blind for the rest of his life. +Mr. Swarbrick provided for him, I believe, by setting him up in a small +public house, where, I am told, despite his loss of sight, he ended +his days not unhappily.</p> +<p>In 1867, compared with 1851, the Midland had made giant strides. +It worked a thousand miles of railway against five hundred; its capital +had doubled and reached thirty-two millions, about one-fourth of what +it is to-day; its revenue had risen from about a million to over a million +and a half; and the dividend was five and a half compared with two and +five-eighths per cent.</p> +<p>The opening of the Midland route to Saint Pancras; the projection +of the Settle and Carlisle line; the introduction of Pullman cars, parlour +saloons, sleeping and dining cars; the adoption of gas and electricity +for the lighting of carriages; the running of third-class carriages +by all trains; the <!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>abolition +of second-class and reduction of first-class fares; and the establishment +of superannuation funds were amongst the most striking events in the +railway world during this period.</p> +<p>On the first day of October, 1868, the first passenger train ran +into Saint Pancras station, and the Midland competition for London traffic +now began in earnest, and from that time onward helped to develop those +magnificent rival passenger train services between the Metropolis and +England’s busy centres and between England and Scotland and Ireland, +which, for luxury, speed and comfort, stand pre-eminent. Prior +to this, the Midland access to London had been by the exercise of running +powers over the Great Northern Railway from Hitchin to King’s +Cross. The Great Northern, reluctant to lose the Midland, and +fearing their rivalry, had, a few years previously, offered them running +powers in perpetuity. “No,” said Mr. Allport, “it +is impossible that you can reconcile the interests of these two great +companies on the same railway; we are always only <i>second-best</i>.” +Second-best certainly never suited the ambitious policy of the Midland, +and so the offer was rejected, and their line to London made. +It was at that time thought that the Midland headquarters would be removed +from Derby to London, and I remember how excited the clerical staff +and their wives and sweethearts were at the prospect. The idea +was seriously considered but, for various reasons, abandoned.</p> +<p>The Settle and Carlisle line, perhaps the greatest achievement of +the Midland, was not completed until sometime after I left their service. +It was opened in the year 1875. In 1866 they obtained the Act +for its construction. For some years their eyes had been as eagerly +turned towards Scotland as the eyes of Scotchmen had ever been towards +England, and for the same reason—the hope of gain. The Midland +had hitherto been excluded from any proper share of the Scotch traffic, +but now having secured the right to extend their system to Carlisle, +they hoped to join forces with their allies, the Glasgow and South-Western, +and secure a fair share of it. But “there’s many a +slip ’twixt the cup and the lip,” and in 1869 in a fit of +timidity—a weakness most unusual with them—they nearly lost +this valuable right. The year 1867 was a time of great financial +anxiety; the Midland was weighted with heavy expenditure on their London +extension, the <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>necessity +for further capital became clamant, the shareholders were seized with +alarm, and a shareholders’ consultative committee was appointed, +with the result that, in 1869, the company, badgered and worried beyond +endurance, actually applied to Parliament for power to abandon the Settle +and Carlisle line, and for authority to enter into an agreement with +the London and North-Western for access over that company’s railway +to Carlisle. That power and authority, however, Parliament, <i>in +its wisdom</i>, refused to give.</p> +<p>The financial clouds, as all clouds do, after a time dispersed; the +outlook grew brighter, the Midland made the line, and it was opened, +as I have said, throughout to Carlisle in 1875.</p> +<p>In the autumn of 1872 Mr. Allport visited the United States and was +greatly impressed with the Pullman cars. On his return he introduced +them on the Midland, both the parlour car and the sleeper. About +the same time the London and North-Western also commenced the running +of sleeping cars to Scotland and to Holyhead. To which company +belongs the credit of being first in the field with this most desirable +additional accommodation for the comfort of passengers I am not prepared +to say; perhaps honors were easy.</p> +<p>But the greatest innovation of the time were the running by the Midland +of third-class carriages by all trains; and the abolition of second-class +carriages and fares, accompanied by a reduction of the first-class fares. +The first event took place in 1872, but the latter not till 1875. +The first was a democratic step indeed, and aroused great excitement. +Williams, in his book <i>The Midland Railway</i>, wrote, “On the +last day of March, 1872, we remarked to a friend: ‘To-morrow morning +the Midland will be the most popular railway in England.’ +Nor did we incur much risk by our prediction. For on that day +the Board had decided that on and after the first of April, they would +run third-class carriages by all trains; the wires had flashed the tidings +to the newspapers, the bills were in the hands of the printers, and +on the following morning the Directors woke to find themselves famous.” +At a later period, Mr. Allport said, if there was one part of his public +life on which he looked back with more satisfaction than another it +was the time when this boon was conferred on third-class passengers.</p> +<p>When we contemplate present conditions of third-class travel it is +hard <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>to +realise what they were before this change took place; slow speed, delays +and discomfort; bare boards; hard seats; shunting of third-class trains +into sidings and waiting there for other trains, sometimes even goods +trains, to pass. Mr. Allport might well be proud of the part he +played.</p> +<p>Another matter which concerned, not so much the public as the welfare +of the clerical staff of the railways, was the establishment of Superannuation +Funds; yet the public was interested too, for the interests of the railway +service and the general community are closely interwoven. Up till +now station masters and clerks had struggled on without prospect of +any provision for their old age. Their pay was barely sufficient +to enable them to maintain a respectable position in life and afforded +no margin for providing for the future.</p> +<p>At last, the principal railway companies, with the consent of their +shareholders, and with Parliamentary sanction, established Superannuation +Funds, which ever since have brought comfort and security to their officers +and clerical staff, and have proved of benefit to the companies themselves. +A pension encourages earlier retirement from work, quickens promotion, +and vitalises the whole service. On nearly all railways retirement +is optional at sixty and compulsory at sixty-five.</p> +<p>The London and North-Western was the first company to adopt the system +of superannuation, the London and South-Western second, the Great Western +came third, the Midland fourth, and other companies followed in their +wake.</p> +<p>In 1873 the Railway Clearing House obtained Parliamentary power to +form a fund for its staff, with permission to railway companies not +large enough to successfully run funds of their own, and also to the +Irish Railway Clearing House, to become partners in this fund. +The Irish Clearing House took advantage of this, as also have many railway +companies, and practically the whole of the clerical service throughout +the United Kingdom can to-day look forward to the benefits of superannuation.</p> +<h2><!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>CHAPTER +VIII.<br /> +SCOTLAND, GLASGOW LIFE, AND THE CALEDONIAN LINE.</h2> +<p>On the last day of December, in the year 1872, between seven and +eight o’clock in the evening, I arrived at Glasgow by the Caledonian +train from Carlisle, and was met at Buchanan Street Station by my good +friend Tom.</p> +<p>After supper we repaired to the streets to see the crowds that congregate +on <i>Hogmanhay</i>, to make acquaintance with the mysteries of “first-footin’,” +and to join in ushering in the “guid new year.” It +was a stirring time, for Scotchmen encounter their <i>Hogmanhay</i> +with ardent <i>spirits</i>. They are as keen in their pleasures +as in their work. Compare for instance their country dances with +ours. As Keats, in his letters from Scotland says, “it is +about the same as leisurely stirring a cup o’ tea and beating +up a batter pudding.” The public houses and bars were driving +a lively trade, but “Forbes Mackenzie” was in force, and +come eleven o’clock, though it were a hundred <i>Hogmanhays</i>, +they all had to close. We met some new-made friends of Tom’s +and joined in their conviviality. I was the dark complexioned +man of the party, and as a “first-footer” in great request. +We did not go home till morning, and reached there a little hilarious +ourselves, but it was our first <i>Hogmanhay</i> and may be forgiven.</p> +<p>Dear reader, did you ever lie in a <i>concealed bed</i>? It +is a Scottish device cunningly contrived to murder sleep. At least +so Tom and I found it. It was my fate to sleep, to lie I should +say, in one for several weeks. Its purpose is to economise space, +and like Goldsmith’s chest of drawers, it is <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>“contrived +a double debt to pay,” a sleeping room by night, a sitting room +by day.</p> +<p>Whilst Glasgow is a city of <i>flats</i> its people are resourceful +and energetic. Keen and canny, they drive a close bargain but, +scrupulous and conscientious, fulfil it faithfully. Proud of their +city and its progress, its industries and manufactures, its civic importance, +they are a little disdainful perhaps, perhaps a little jealous, of their +beautiful elder sister, Edinburgh. Glasgow is the Belfast of Scotland!</p> +<p>Self-contained houses are the exception and are limited to the well-to-do. +The flat, in most cases, means a restricted number of apartments, insufficient +bedroom accommodation, and the <i>concealed bed</i> is Glasgow’s +way of solving the difficulty.</p> +<p>Tom and I did not take kindly to our hole in the wall, and soon found +other lodgings where space was not so circumscribed, and where we could +sleep in an open bed in an open room.</p> +<p>Our new quarters were a great success; a ground-floor flat with a +fine front door; a large well-furnished sitting room with two windows +looking out on to the street, and an equally large double-bedded room +at the back of the sitting room. Our landlady, a kind, motherly, +canny Scotchwoman, looked after us well and favoured us with many a +bit of good advice: “You must be guid laddies, and tak care o’ +the bawbees; you maun na eat butchers’ meat twice the week; tak +plenty o’ parritch and dinna be extravagant.” Economy +with the good old soul was a cardinal virtue, waste a deadly sin. +I fear she was often shocked at our easy Saxon ways, though Tom and +I thought ourselves models of thrift.</p> +<p>Once, it was on a Sunday, Tom and I, with a party of friends, had +had a very long walk, a regular pedestrian excursion, thirty miles, +there or thereabouts, to use a Scotticism, and poor Tom was quite knocked +up and confined to bed for several days. Our good old landlady +was greatly shocked; a strict Sabbatarian, she knew it was a punishment +for “breakin’ the Sabbath; why had na ye gane to the kirk +like guid laddies?” We modestly reminded her that we always +did go, excepting of course on this particular Sunday. “Then +whit business had ye to stay awa on ony Sabbath?” We had +nothing to say in answer to this. The dear old creature <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>was +really shocked at our backsliding; but she nursed Tom very tenderly +all the same.</p> +<p>When the sultry heat of summer came we found Glasgow very trying, +and though sorry to leave our good landlady, moved into the country, +to Cambuslang, a village some four miles from the city, which was then +becoming a favourite residential resort.</p> +<p>At Cambuslang I made the acquaintance and became the friend of <i>Cynicus</i>, +the humorous artist whose satirical sketches have, for many years, been +well-known and well sold in England, in Scotland and in Ireland too. +He was then a youth of about twenty. Longing to see the world +and without the necessary means, he emulated Goldsmith, made a prolonged +tour in France and Italy supporting himself not by his flute nor by +disputations, but by his brush and palette. For a few weeks at +a time he worked in towns or cities, sold what he painted, and then, +with purse replenished, wandered on. He and I were living “doon +the watter,” at Dunoon, on the Clyde, one summer month. +A Fancy Dress Bazaar was on at the time. The first evening we +went to it, and he, unobserved, made furtive sketches of the most prominent +people and the prettiest girls. We both sat up all that night, +he working at and finishing the sketches. Next morning by the +first boat and first train, we took them to Glasgow, had six hundred +lithographic copies struck off; back post-haste to Dunoon; in the evening +to the Bazaar, and sold the copies at threepence each. It was +an immense success; we could have disposed of twice the number; every +pretty girl’s admirer wanted a copy of her picture, and the portraits +of the presiding “meenister” and of the good-looking unmarried +curate were eagerly purchased by fond mammas and adoring daughters. +We had our fun, and cleared besides a profit of nearly four pounds sterling. +This financial <i>coup</i> would not have come off so well but for the +warm-hearted co-operation of our railway printers, McCorquodale and +Coy. They, good people, entered into our exploit with a will, +did their part well, and made little if any profit, generously leaving +that to <i>Cynicus</i> and myself.</p> +<p>To his mother, like many another clever son, <i>Cynicus</i> owed +his talent. She was a woman of great intellectual endowment, with +highly cultivated literary tastes. Her memory was remarkable and +her conversational powers <!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>very +great. She read much and thought deeply. In a modest way +her parlour, which attracted many young people of literary and artistic +leanings, recalled the <i>Salons</i> of France of a century ago. +She entertained charmingly with tea and cakes and delightful talk. +Of strong, firm, decided character, she might, perhaps, have been thought +a little deficient in womanly gentleness had not genuine kindness of +heart, motherly feeling, and a happy humour lent a softness to her features +and imparted to them a particular charm. She exercised an authority +over her household which inspired respect and contrasted strikingly +with the easy-going parental ways of to-day. There were other +sons and there were daughters also, all more or less gifted, but <i>Cynicus</i> +was the genius of the family—its bright particular star.</p> +<p>The various lodgings of my bachelor days was never quite of the conventional +sort. The Cambuslang quarters certainly were not. The house +was large and old-fashioned. Originally it had been two smallish +houses: the two front doors still remained side by side, but only one +was used. The rooms on the ground floor were small, the original +building composed of one storey only, but another had been added of +quite spacious dimensions. We had two excellent, large well-furnished +rooms upstairs. The landlady was an interesting character and +so was her husband. She was Irish, he Scotch; she about seventy +years of age, he under fifty; she ruddy, healthy, hearty, good-looking; +he, pale, nervous, shy, retiring. But on the last Thursday of +each month he was quite another man. On that day he went to Glasgow +to collect the rents of some small houses he owned; and generally came +home rather “fou” and hilarious, when the old lady would +take him in hand, and put him to bed.</p> +<p>They had an only child, a son, a grown up man, an uncouth ill-looking +ungainly fellow, who did no work, smoked and loafed about, but was the +idol of his mother. He resembled neither parent in the least, +and, except that such vagaries of nature are not unknown, it might have +been supposed that some cuckoo had visited the parental nest.</p> +<p>A gaunt, hard-featured domestic completed this interesting family, +and she was uncommon too. By no means young, what Balzac calls +“a woman of canonical age,” she resembled Père Grandet’s +tall Nanon. Like Nanon, she had been the devoted servant of the +family for nearly a quarter of a century, <!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>and +like her, had no interest outside that of her master and mistress. +She was always working, rarely went out, spoke little, but ministered +to the wants of Tom and myself, and waited on us with unremitting attention.</p> +<p>Despite all drawbacks, however, they were fine lodgings. The +old lady was a wonderful cook and had all the liberality of her race.</p> +<p>New Year’s Day, the great Scotch holiday, Tom and I spent in +Edinburgh, and returned much impressed with its stately beauty.</p> +<p>The next morning I entered upon my work at St. Rollox, where the +stores department of the Caledonian Railway is situated. The head +of the department was styled Stores Superintendent. I thought +him the most impressive looking man I had ever seen. He overpowered +me; in his presence I never felt at ease. He was a big man, and +looked bigger than he was; good-looking too; ruddy, portly, well-dressed +and formal. An embodiment of commercial energy and dignity. +In his face gravity, keenness, and good health were blended. Soon +after I joined his staff he left the Caledonian to become General Manager +of Young’s Paraffin Oil Company, and subsequently its Managing +Director. Success, I believe, always attended him. No position +could lose any of its importance in his hands. When he left St. +Rollox a great blank was felt; he filled so large a space. He +has lately gone to his rest full of years and honors.</p> +<p>I fear he never liked me, nor had any great opinion of my abilities. +This was not to be wondered at, for I am sure I did not display any +excessive zeal for the work on which I was then employed, and which +I found monotonous and uninteresting.</p> +<p>He confided to his chief clerk, who was my friend, that one day he +had seen me, in business hours, in the city, smoking a cigarette and +looking at the girls, and was sure I would never do much good. +He had very strict business notions. I confessed to the cigarette, +but not to the graver charge. It was a wholesome tonic, however, +and pulled me up. I wanted to get on in life; ambition was stirring +within me; and I formed some good resolutions which, as time went on, +I kept more or less faithfully.</p> +<p>At St. Rollox one’s daily lunch was a matter of some difficulty. +It was a district of factories, and the only restaurants were the Great +Western Cooking Depots, where one could get a steak and bread and cheese +for <!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>fivepence, +but the rooms and tables and accessories were, to say the least, unappetising. +Hunger had to be satisfied, however, and I had to swallow my pride and +my five-pennyworth. I varied this occasionally by bringing with +me my own sandwiches and eating them seated on a tombstone in Sighthill +cemetery, which was less than a quarter of a mile distant from the stores +department.</p> +<p>My work, as I have said, was monotonous enough: writing letters from +dictation, an occupation which gave but little exercise to one’s +faculties. I obtained some variation by occasionally taking a +turn through the various stores and getting into touch with the practical +men in charge. They were always very civil and ready to talk of +their business, and so I learned something of the nature, quality, uses +and cost of many things necessary to the working of a railway, which +I afterwards found very useful. Occasionally also I visited the +laboratory, in which an analytical chemist was regularly engaged.</p> +<p>The event which, in my short service of two years with the Caledonian, +seemed to me of the greatest moment, was that, after six months or so, +I became a taxpayer! This was an event indeed. In the offices +at Derby it was only, as a rule, middle-aged or old men who attained +this proud distinction; and here was I, not yet twenty-two, with my +salary raised to £100 a year, paying income tax at the rate of +<i>threepence</i> in the pound on forty pounds, for an abatement of +sixty pounds was allowed. Until I got used to the novelty I was +as proud as Lucifer.</p> +<p>The office in which I now worked had no Apollos, no literary geniuses, +no Long Jacks, no boy benedicts, such as adorned our desks at Derby, +but it rejoiced in one <i>rara avis</i>, who came a few months after +and left a few months before me. He was a middle-aged, aristocratic, +kind, good-hearted, unbusinesslike man, and was brother to a baronet. +He professed a knowledge of medicine and brought a bottle, a bolus or +a plaster, whichever he deemed best, whenever any of us complained of +cold or cough, of headache or backache or any ailment whatever. +When he left we all received from him a parting gift. Mine was +a handsome, expensive, red-felt chest protector. I wore it constantly +for a year or two and, for aught I know, it may be that by its protecting +influence against the rigour of Glasgow winters, <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>the +bituminous atmosphere of St. Rollox and the smoke-charged fogs of the +city, I am alive and well to-day. Who can tell? It is certain +that I then had a bad cough nearly always; and this I am sure was what +decided the form of his parting gift to me.</p> +<p>It was about this time that I attended my first public dinner and +made my first speech in public. Several days before the event +I was told that, being in the Volunteer Force, I had been placed on +the toast list to reply for the Army, Navy and Volunteers. It +was a railway dinner, for the purpose of celebrating the departure to +England, on promotion, of the chief clerk in the Midland Railway Company’s +Scottish Agency Office. The dinner was largely attended. +The idea of having to speak filled me with trepidation. But to +my great surprise I acquitted myself with credit. Once on my legs +I found that nervousness left me, words came freely and I even enjoyed +the novel experience. To suddenly discover oneself proficient +where failure had been feared increases self esteem and adds to the +sum of happiness. At this dinner I also made my first acquaintance +with that “Great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race,” +the <i>Haggis</i>, which deserves the pre-eminence it enjoys.</p> +<p>One night, towards the end of December, in 1874, when skating by +moonlight, not far from Cambuslang, I chanced to meet a young friend, +a clerk in the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, who, like myself, +was enjoying the pleasures of the ice. Tom was not with me, for +he, poor fellow! was not well enough to be out o’ nights in winter. +My young friend gave me, with great eagerness, a rare piece of news. +Mr. Johnstone, the Glasgow and South-Western general manager, was retiring +and Mr. Wainwright was to succeed him! Well, that did not excite +me, and I wondered at his earnestness; but more was to follow. +Mr. Wainwright, as general manager, required a principal clerk and there +was, it seemed, no one in the place quite suitable. He must be +good at correspondence, and expert at shorthand. I was, my young +friend said, the very man; I must apply. Mr. Wainwright was English, +so was I; I came from the Midland, and the Midland and the Glasgow and +South-Western were hand and glove. How lucky we had met; he had +not thought of me till this very moment. It was fate. Would +I write tonight? By this time I was as eager as himself. +No more skating for me that night. I hurried home, Tom and I composed +a careful and judicious <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>letter. +I posted it in Her Majesty’s pillar box hard by; went to bed, +but was too excited to sleep. An answer soon came, and an interview +with Mr. Wainwright followed. I received the appointment, at a +salary of £120 a year to begin with; and in the early days of +the new year, two years after my first appearance in Scotland, entered +upon my duties, not at Saint Enoch Station, where the headquarters of +the Glasgow and South-Western now are, but at Bridge Street Station +on the south side of the river, where the office staff of the company +was then accommodated.</p> +<h2><!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>CHAPTER +IX.<br /> +GENERAL RAILWAY ACTS OF PARLIAMENT</h2> +<p>Such unromantic literature as Acts of Parliament had not, it may +be supposed, up to this, formed part of my mental pabulum. I knew +that an Act was a necessary preliminary to the construction of a railway, +and this was all I knew concerning the relations between the railways +and the State. Whilst a little learning may be a dangerous thing, +in my new situation, I soon discovered that a general manager’s +clerk would be the better of possessing some knowledge of the numerous +Acts of Parliament that affected railway companies. Almost daily +questions arose in which such knowledge was useful; so I determined +to become acquainted with them, and in my leisure hours made as profound +a study as I could of that compilation which, in railway offices was +then in general use—<i>Bigg’s General Railway Acts</i>. +I found the formidable looking volume more readable than I had imagined +and less difficult to understand than I had expected.</p> +<p>Governments have ever kept a watchful eye on railway companies. +Up to 1875, the year at which we have now arrived, no less than 112 +general Acts of Parliament affecting railways had been placed on the +Statute Book of the realm. They were applicable to all railways +alike, and in addition to and independent of the special Acts which +each company must obtain for itself, first for its incorporation and +construction, and afterwards for extensions of its system, for the raising +of capital, and for various other purposes.</p> +<p>Many of the general Acts have been framed upon the recommendations +<!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>of +various Select Committees and Royal and Vice-Regal Commissions, which +have been appointed from time to time since railways began. From +1835 down to the present year of 1918 some score or more of these Committees +and Commissions have gravely sat and issued their more or less wise +and weighty reports.</p> +<p>What are these numerous Acts of Parliament and what are their objects, +scope, and intentions?</p> +<p>Whilst neither time nor space admit of detailed exposition, not to +speak of the patience of my readers, a few observations upon some of +the principal enactments may not be inapposite or uninteresting.</p> +<p>Pride of place belongs to the <i>Carriers’ Act</i> of 1830, +passed in the reign of William IV., five years after the first public +railway (the Stockton and Darlington) was opened. This Act, although +in it the word <i>railway</i> does not appear, is an important Act to +railway companies, and possesses the singular and uncommon merit of +having been framed for the <i>protection</i> of Common Carriers. +It is intituled “<i>An Act for the more effectual Protection of +Mail Contractors, Stage Coach Proprietors, and other Common Carriers +for Hire, against the Loss or Injury to Parcels or Packages delivered +to them for Conveyance or Custody, the Value and Contents of which shall +not be Declared to them by the Owners thereof</i>.” The +draughtsman of this dignified little Act it is clear was greatly addicted +to <i>capitals</i>. Probably he thought they heightened effect, +much as Charles Lamb spelt plum pudding with a <i>b</i>—“plumb +pudding,” because, he said, “it reads fatter and more suetty.” +At the time this Act came into being, railways in the eye of Parliament +were public highways, upon which you or I, if we paid the prescribed +tolls, could convey our traffic, our vehicles, or ourselves. In +the years 1838-1840 many of the companies obtained powers enabling them +to act as public carriers; and in 1840 questions having arisen in Parliament +as to the rights of the public in this respect the subject was referred +to a Select Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee’s +report disposed of the view which, until then, Parliament had held, +and expressed the opinion that the right of persons to run their own +engines and carriages was a dead letter for the good reason, amongst +others, that it was necessary for railway trains to be run and controlled +by and under one complete undivided authority.</p> +<p><!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>After +the <i>Carriers’ Act</i>, which applied to all carriers as well +as to railways, the first general railway Act of importance was the +<i>Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act</i> of 1838. This Act enabled +the Postmaster-General to require railway companies to convey mails +by all trains and to provide sorting carriages when necessary, the Royal +Arms to be painted on such carriages, and in 1844, under the <i>Railway +Regulation Act</i>, it was further enacted that the Postmaster-General +could require, for the conveyance of mails, that trains should be run +at any rate of speed, <i>certified to be safe</i>, but not to exceed +27 miles an hour!</p> +<p>As I have said, the Select Committee of 1840 reported against the +right of the public to run their own engines and carriages on railways. +They made recommendations which led to the passing of the <i>Railway +Regulation Act</i> of that year, and in that Act powers were, for the +first time, conferred upon the Board of Trade in connection with railways. +It was the beginning of that authority, which since has greatly grown, +but which the Board of Trade have in the main exercised with an impartiality, +which public authorities do not always display. The Act empowered +the Board, before any new railway was opened, to require notice from +the railway company. This power was repealed by an Act of 1842, +and larger powers granted in its place, including the right to compel +the inspection of such railways before being opened for traffic. +The Act of 1840 also required the companies, under penalty, to furnish +to the Board of Trade returns of traffic, as well as of all accidents +attended with personal injury; and to submit their bye-laws for certification.</p> +<p>Of the <i>railway mania</i> period I have spoken in a previous chapter. +For a time enormous success attended some of the lines. Amongst +others the Liverpool and Manchester and the Stockton and Darlington +enjoyed mouth watering dividends; the former ten, the latter fifteen +per cent.! Said the Government to themselves, “’Tis +time we saw to this,” and accordingly they passed the <i>Railway +Regulation Act</i> of 1844. This Act provided that if at any time, +after twenty-one years, the dividend of any railway should exceed ten +per cent., the Treasury might revise the rates and fares so as to reduce +the profits to not more than ten per cent. This expectation of +high dividends, I need hardly say, has not been realised, and the Act +in this respect has been a dead letter. The Act also conferred +an option on the Treasury to acquire <!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>future +railways at twenty-five years purchase of the annual profits; or, if +such profits were less than ten per cent., the price was to be left +to arbitration.</p> +<p>It is interesting now, when, owing to the war, the railways of the +land are under temporary Government control, and their future all uncertain, +to remember that, on the Statute Book to-day, there is an Act which +provides for State purchase of the railways of the country. Whether +a solution of the difficulty will be found in State purchase or in State +control it is hard to say, but it is clear that some solution of the +problem will become imperative when the war is ended and normal conditions +return. Justice and reason demand it.</p> +<p>In the year 1845 three long Acts of Parliament came into force; the +<i>Companies Clauses</i>, the <i>Lands Clauses</i> and the <i>Railway +Clauses Acts</i>. Between them they contained no less than 483 +sections. Each Act was a consolidating measure. The first +contained provisions usually inserted in Acts for the constitution of +public companies, the second the same in regard to the taking of land +compulsorily, and the third consolidated in one general statute provisions +usually introduced into Acts of Parliament authorising the construction +of railways.</p> +<p>The <i>Railway Clauses Act</i> authorised railway companies to use +locomotive engines, carriages and wagons; to carry passengers and goods, +and to make reasonable charges not exceeding the tolls authorised by +their special Acts. Since then the whole of the trade of transit +by rail has been conducted by the companies owning the lines.</p> +<p>The gauge of railways in Great Britain was not fixed upon any scientific +principle. At first it followed the width of the coal tram-roads +in the north of England, which was adopted simply on account of its +practical convenience (five feet being the usual width of the gates +through which the “way-leaves” led) and so four feet eight +and a-half inches became the ordinary gauge, but in the early days it +was by no means the universal gauge. Five feet was chosen for +the Eastern Counties Railway; seven feet for the Great Western and five +feet six was used in Scotland. The Ulster Company in Ireland made +twenty-five miles of the line from Belfast to Dublin on a gauge of six +feet two, while the Drogheda Company, which set out from Dublin to meet +the Ulster line, adopted five feet two. When the <!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>Ulster +Company complained of this, the Irish Board of Works, it is said, admitted +that it was a little awkward, but added that, as it was not likely the +intervening part would ever be made, it did not much matter. The +subject was, I believe, in Ireland referred to a General Pasley, who +consulted the authorities (who were many) throughout the kingdom. +He ultimately solved the question by adding up the various gauges the +authorities favoured, and recommended the mean, which was five feet +three inches; and so, for Ireland, five feet three became the standard +gauge.</p> +<p>“The battle of the gauges,” as it was styled at the time, +was lively and spirited. Eventually it was decided by Parliament, +which in the year 1846 passed the <i>Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act</i>. +This Act ordained that in Great Britain all future railways were to +be constructed on a gauge of four feet eight and a-half inches, and +in Ireland of five feet three inches, excepting only certain extensions +of the broad gauge Great Western Railway.</p> +<p>Up to this time no action at common law was maintainable against +a person who by his wrongful act, neglect or default caused the immediate +death of another person, and an Act (known as <i>Lord Campbell’s +Act</i>), “for compensating the Families of Persons Killed by +Accidents,” became law. This enactment was due principally +to the railway accidents that occurred. They were relatively more +numerous than they are now, for the many modern appliances for ensuring +safety had not then been introduced. The Act provided that compensation +would be for the benefit of wife, husband, parent and child of the person +whose death shall have been caused. The Act did not apply to Scotland. +Perhaps it was because the laws of the two countries differed more then +than now, and the life of the railways in Scotland was young, England +being well ahead. Probably England thought she was doing enough +when she legislated for herself by passing this Act. It must be +observed, however, that the Act applies to Ireland as well as England.</p> +<p>In the year 1854 Parliament considered that <i>regulations</i> were +necessary to further control the companies and passed an important statute, +the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>. Known, for short, in +railway parlance, as “the Act of ’54,” its main provisions +dealt with:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Reasonable facilities for receiving and forwarding traffic<br /> +The subject of undue preference, which was forbidden<br /> +<!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>Railways +forming part of continuous lines to receive and forward through traffic +without obstruction<br /> +The liability of railway companies for loss of, or damage to, goods +or animals</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and it preserved to railway companies the <i>protection</i> of the +<i>Carriers’ Act</i>, to which I have referred.</p> +<p>The Select Committees of 1858 and 1863 sat on the subject of the +great length of time and the immense cost which railway promotion in +those days entailed, when Bills were fiercely contested, and protracted +struggles before Parliamentary Committees took place. Two Acts +resulted from their deliberations: the <i>Railway Companies’ Powers +Act</i>, 1864, and the <i>Railway Construction Facilities Act</i> of +the same year. These Acts empowered railway companies to enter +into agreements with each other in regard to maintenance, management, +running over or use of each others lines or property and for joint ownership +of stations. They also enabled powers to be obtained from the +Board of Trade to construct a railway without a special Act of Parliament, +subject to the conditions that all the landowners concerned agreed to +part with the requisite land, and that no objection was raised by any +other railway or canal company. Little use has ever been made +of this well-intentioned enactment. Landowners have rarely been +disposed to accept terms which the companies thought fair; and rival +railways, in the days gone by, dearly loved a fight.</p> +<p>By the <i>Companies Clauses Consolidation Act</i> of 1845 railway +companies were required to keep full and true accounts of receipts and +expenditure, but it was not until the year 1868 that Parliament placed +upon the companies an obligation to keep their accounts in a prescribed +form. This form was scheduled to the <i>Regulation of Railways +Act</i>, 1868. It provides for half-yearly accounts, and is the +form which has been familiar to shareholders for many years. This +Act (1868) also ordained that smoking compartments be provided on all +trains, for all classes, on all railways, except on the railway of the +Metropolitan Company. Up to then the railway smoker had to obtain +the consent of his fellow passengers in the same compartment before +he could light up, or brave their displeasure; and many were the altercations +that ensued. The Act also imposed penalties on railways who provided +<!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>trains +for attending prize fights, which was hard on companies of sporting +instincts. A clause provided for means of communication between +passengers and the servants of the company in charge of trains running +twenty miles without stopping; and another clause gave the companies +power to cut down trees adjoining their line which might be dangerous. +Prior to 1868, although railways had then existed for three and forty +years, the accounts of one company could not usefully be compared with +those of another, for scarcely any two companies made up their accounts +in the same way. Variety may be charming, but uniformity has its +advantages.</p> +<p>The Board of Trade, in 1871, was endowed with further powers. +By the <i>Regulation of Railways Act</i> of that year, they were given +additional rights of inspection; authority to enquire into accidents, +and further powers in regard to the opening of additional lines of railway, +stations or junctions. And by this statute the companies were +required to furnish the Board of Trade with elaborate statistical documents, +annually, in a form prescribed in a schedule to the Act.</p> +<p>The only other important Act down to the year 1875 is the <i>Regulation +of Railways Act</i> of 1873. This Act was passed for the purpose +of making “better provision for carrying into effect the <i>Railway +and Canal Traffic Act</i> of 1854, and for other purposes connected +therewith.” In 1872 a Joint Committee of both Houses sat +and, following upon their report, this Act was passed. It established +a new tribunal, to be called the <i>Railway and Canal Commission</i>, +to consist of three Commissioners, of whom—one was to be experienced +in the law, one in railway business, and it also authorised the appointment +of not more than two <i>assistant</i> Commissioners. As to the +<i>third Commissioner</i>, no mention was made of qualifications. +This tribunal, though styled a <i>Commission</i>, conducted its work +as if it were a court; and a regularly constituted court in time it +became. By the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>, 1888, the +section in the Act of 1873 appointing the Commission was repealed and +a new Commission established consisting of two appointed and three <i>ex +officio</i> Commissioners, such Commission to be “a Court of Record, +and have an official seal, which shall be judicially noticed.” +One of the Commissioners must be experienced in railway business; and +of the three <i>ex officio</i> Commissioners, one was to be nominated +for England, one for <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>Scotland +and one for Ireland, and in each case such Commissioner was to be a +Judge of the High Court of the land. Under the Act of 1873, the +chief functions of the Commissioners were: To hear and decide upon complaints +from the public in regard to undue preference, or to refusal of facilities; +to hear and determine questions of through rates; and to settle differences +between two railway companies or between a railway company and a canal +company, upon the application of either party to the difference. +The Act of 1888 continued these and included some further powers.</p> +<p>In my humble opinion the Railway Commissioners have done much useful +work and done it well. For more than forty years I have read most +if not all the cases they have dealt with. On several occasions +I have been engaged in proceedings before them, and not always on the +winning side.</p> +<h2><!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>CHAPTER +X.<br /> +A GENERAL MANAGER AND HIS OFFICE</h2> +<p>January, 1875, was a momentous time for me. In the second week +of that month I commenced my new duties at Glasgow and bade farewell +for ever to the tall stool and “the dry drudgery of the desk’s +dead wood.” Before me opened a pleasing prospect of attractive +and interesting work, brightened by the beams of youthful hope and awakened +ambition. I was now chief clerk to a general manager. Was +it to be wondered at that I felt proud and elated if also a little scared +as to how I should get on.</p> +<p>Mr. Wainwright assumed the office of general manager on the first +day of the year. I say <i>office</i>, but in fact a general manager’s +office scarcely existed. His predecessor, Mr. Johnstone, a capable +but in some respects a singular man, performed his managerial duties +without an office staff, wrote all his own letters, and not only wrote +them but first carefully drafted them out in a hand minute almost as +Jonathan Swift’s. A strenuous worker, Mr. Johnstone, like +most men who have no hobby, did not long survive his retirement from +active business life.</p> +<p>Mr. Wainwright, who, like myself, was born in Sheffield, was twenty-three +years my senior. His early railway life was passed in the Manchester, +Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (now the Great Central), of which +the redoubtable Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Watkin was then the lively +general manager.</p> +<p>A different man to his predecessor was Mr. Wainwright. Unlike +Mr. <!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>Johnstone +he was modern and progressive. <i>He</i> never scorned delights +or loved, for their own sake, laborious days; pleasure to him was as +welcome as sunshine; and work he made a pleasure.</p> +<p>As I have said, no general manager’s <i>office</i> existed. +Of systematic managerial supervision there was none. What was +to be done? Something certainly, and soon. Mr. Wainwright +concurred in a suggestion I made that I should visit Derby, see the +general manager’s office of the Midland there, and learn how it +was conducted. This I did. E. W. Wells, a principal clerk +in that office, who was married to my cousin, showed and told me everything. +I returned laden with knowledge which I embodied in a report and my +recommendations were adopted. Several clerks were appointed and +the general manager’s office, of which I was chief clerk, soon +became efficient.</p> +<p>Wells afterwards became Assistant General Manager of the Midland, +and Frank Tatlow, my cousin and brother of Wells’ wife, is now +its General Manager, in succession to Sir Guy Granet. I am not +a little proud that the attainments of one who bears the name of Tatlow, +and is so nearly related to myself, have enabled him to reach the topmost +post on a railway such as the Midland Railway of England. He commenced +as a junior clerk in the General Manager’s office and worked his +way step by step to that eminent position. No adventitious circumstances +helped him on.</p> +<p>I became fond of railway work, which it seems to me for interest +and variety holds a high place among all the occupations by which man, +who was born to labour, may earn his daily bread. My duties were +certainly arduous but intensely interesting. The correspondence +with other railway companies regarding agreements, joint line working, +Parliamentary matters, and many other important subjects, conducted +as it required to be, with skill, care and precision, was for me a liberal +education. The fierce rivalry which, in those days, raged in Scotland +for competitive traffic culminated often in disputes which could only +be settled by the intervention of the general managers, and these brought +much exciting work into the office. Again, the close and intimate +relations between the Midland and the Glasgow and South-Western involved +interesting communications, meetings and discussions, and the keeping +of certain special accounts which it fell to me to supervise.</p> +<p><!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>The +Midland and the Glasgow and South-Western alliance was regarded by the +West Coast Companies (the London and North-Western and the Caledonian) +with much disfavour. In their eyes it was an attack upon their +hen roost, and it certainly resulted in the loss to them of a large +share of through traffic between England and Scotland which the West +Coast route had previously had all to itself. To carry on the +competition successfully necessitated a large expenditure of capital +by the Glasgow and South-Western, and the Midland, of course, had to +help in this. The original cost of Saint Enoch Station for instance +was nearly one and three-quarter millions sterling, and a considerable +outlay was also necessary for goods stations and other accommodation. +There was in those days much doing between the general managers’ +offices of the Midland and Glasgow and South-Western companies, and +it was all delightfully new and novel to me.</p> +<p>A Committee of Directors of the two companies, called the <i>Midland +and Glasgow and South-Western Joint Committee</i>, was established. +This committee, with the two general managers, met periodically either +at Derby, London, Carlisle or Glasgow. Mr. Wainwright acted as +secretary and I kept the minute book and papers relating to the business +of the committee.</p> +<p>Pullman cars had been introduced on the Midland and were run on the +through trains between Saint Pancras and Saint Enoch. The cars +were the property of Mr. Pullman, but the Midland kept them in repair, +the Glasgow and South-Western relieving them of a proportion of the +cost corresponding to the mileage run over their line. Mr. Pullman +received as his remuneration the extra fare paid by the passengers—three +shillings each for drawing-room cars and five shillings each for sleeping +cars. Other through carriages on these trains were jointly owned +by the two companies. The interesting accounts connected with +these arrangements were supervised by me. I commenced work with +Mr. Wainwright on a Monday. The following Saturday afternoon, +before leaving the office, to my great surprise and delight, he presented +me with a first-class station to station pass over the railway. +With what pride I showed it to Tom that evening! Six months later +my salary was increased, and the pleasant fact was announced to me by +my kindly chief, coupled with the expression of a wish that he and I +might long work together.</p> +<p><!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>On +the Scottish railways the financial half-years ended, not in June and +December, as in other parts of the United Kingdom, but at the end of +July and January. This was for the better equalisation of receipts, +taking a month from the fat half-year to the lean, and giving, in exchange, +a month from the lean to the fat. Soon after the first-half-year +was concluded and the accounts published, which was in the month of +September (my first September with the Glasgow and South-Western), Mr. +Wainwright handed to me a large sheet of closely printed figures, giving +a detailed analysis and comparison of the accounts of five of the principal +English and the three principal Scottish railways in columnar form, +with a request that I should take out the figures and compile for printing +a similar statement for the past half-year, from the accounts of the +eight companies. I trembled inwardly for I had never yet looked +at a railway account, but I took them home, and, as in the case of the +Acts of Parliament, found them simpler than I thought; and, with less +trouble than I expected, succeeded in accomplishing the task.</p> +<p>Mr. Wainwright was himself a skilful statistician and tested everything +he could by the cold logic of figures. I was soon surprised to +find that I too had a taste for statistics and acquired some skill in +their compilation. Up to this I had always imagined that I disliked +everything in the shape of arithmetic. At school I was certainly +never fond of it, and since school my acquaintance with figures had +been little more than the adding up of long columns in huge books at +the half-yearly stocktaking in the stores department at St. Rollox, +a thing I detested, and which invariably gave me a headache. Well +pleased was Mr. Wainwright to see that statistics took my fancy. +As general manager he had not much time himself to devote to them, but +the office was now well manned and we were able to establish, and keep +up, tables, statistics and returns concerning matters of railway working +in a way which I have not seen surpassed. These statistics were +of much practical use when considering questions of economy and other +matters from day to day.</p> +<p>My first year as general manager’s clerk was, I have always +thought, the most important in my railway life. Certainly in that +year I learned much and acquired from my chief business habits which +have stood me in good stead since. Mr. Wainwright was a man of +no ordinary nature, as all who <!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>knew +him will admit. He was a pattern of punctuality and promptitude, +never spared himself in doing a thing well and expected the same thoroughness +in others, though he would make allowance for want of capacity, but +not for indolence or carelessness. Straightforwardness, honesty +and rectitude marked all he did. His word was his bond. +His disposition was to trust those around him, and his generous confidence +was usually justified. High-minded and possessing a keen sense +of honor himself, he had an instinctive aversion to anything mean or +low in others. A man of great liberality and generous to a fault +he often found it hard to say no, but when obliged to adopt that attitude +it was done with a tact and courtesy which left no sting. In all +business matters he required a rigid economy though never at the expense +of efficiency.</p> +<p>Intellectually he stood high, as I had ample opportunity of judging, +but if asked what were his most striking qualities I should say <i>goodness</i> +and a charm of manner which eludes description, but irresistibly attracted +all who met him. In appearance he was tall and portly, and his +bearing, carriage and presence were gentlemanly and refined. He +was of fair complexion, was possessed of a delightful smile, and had +side whiskers (turning white) continued in the old-fashioned way under +the chin, and yet he was so bright and debonair that he never looked +old-fashioned. Like myself he was a great lover of Dickens, and +I think his most prized possession was a small bookcase which had belonged +to Dickens’ study and which he purchased at the sale at <i>Gad’s +Hill</i>. His directors esteemed him highly, and the officers +of the company were all sincerely attached to him. In his room +he held almost daily conferences. Correspondence formed but a +small part in his method of dealing with departments. He believed +in the value of <i>viva voce</i> discussion, and discouraged all unnecessary +inter-departmental correspondence. In this he was right I am sure. +The daily conferences were cheerful and pleasant, for he had the delightful +faculty of “mixing business with pleasure and wisdom with mirth.” +I consider that I was singularly fortunate at this period of my life +in finding myself placed in close and intimate association with such +a man as Mr. Wainwright, in enjoying his confidence as I did, and in +being afforded the opportunity of benefiting by his kind precepts and +fine example.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/wainwright.jpg"> +<img alt="W. J. Wainwright" src="images/wainwright.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>In +Glasgow there was a weekly paper of much humour and spirit called <i>The +Bailie</i>. With each issue it published an article on some prominent +man of the day under the title of <i>Men You Know</i>, accompanied by +a portrait of the person selected. It is the Glasgow <i>Punch</i>. +It was established in 1873,and “<i>Ma Conscience</i>!” is +its motto. It still, I am glad to hear, runs an honorable and +profitable course, which its merits well deserve. In its issue +of September 13th, 1882, Mr. Wainwright was <i>The Man You Know</i>, +and, at the request of the Editor, I wrote the article upon him. +In it are some words which, penned when I was with him daily, and his +influence was strong upon me, are, perhaps, more true and faithful than +any I could at this distance of time write, and so I will quote them +here, and with them conclude this chapter.</p> +<p>“He (<i>The Man You Know</i>) is one upon whom responsibility +rests gracefully and lightly, who accomplishes great things without +apparent effort, and whose personal influence smoothes the daily friction +of official life. He rules with a gentler sway than many who are +accustomed to other methods of command would believe possible. +He believes in Emerson’s maxim that if you deal nobly with men +they will act nobly, and his habit towards everyone around him, and +its success, lends force to the genial truth of the American philosopher.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>CHAPTER +XI.<br /> +THE RAILWAY JUBILEE, AND GLASGOW AND SOUTH-WESTERN OFFICERS AND CLERKS</h2> +<p>The 27th day of September, 1875, was the Jubilee of the British Railway +System. It was celebrated by a banquet given by the North-Eastern +Railway Company at Darlington, for the Stockton and Darlington section +of the North-Eastern was, as I have mentioned before, the first public +railway. A thousand guests were invited. No building in +Darlington could accommodate such a number, and a great marquee, large +enough to dine a thousand people, was obtained from London. My +chief attended the banquet and I remained at home to hear the news when +he returned. Dan Godfrey’s band was there, and Dan Godfrey +himself composed some music for the occasion. The <i>menu</i> +was long, elaborate and imposing; equalled only by the <i>toast list</i>, +which contained no less than sixteen separate toasts. It was a +Gargantuan feast befitting a great occasion. Could we men of to-day +have done it justice and sat it and the toast list out, I wonder. +It took place over forty years ago, when the endurance of the race was, +perhaps, greater than now; or why do we now shorten our banquets and +shirk the bottle?</p> +<p>The Stockton and Darlington Railway is 54 miles long, and its authorised +capital was £102,000—a modest sum indeed, under £2,000 +per mile, less than half the outlay for land alone of the North Midland +line and not one twenty-fifth of the average cost of British railways +as they stand to-day, which is some £57,000 per mile. The +railway owed its origin to George Stephenson and to Edward Pease, the +wealthy Quaker and manufacturer of Darlington, <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>both +burly men, strong in mind as body. The first rail was laid, with +much ceremony, near the town of Stockton, on the 23rd of May, 1822, +amid great opposition culminating in acts of personal violence, for +the early railways, from interests that feared their rivalry, and often +from sheer blind ignorance itself, had bitter antagonism to contend +with.</p> +<p>The day brought an immense concourse of people to Darlington, all +bent on seeing the novel spectacle of a train of carriages and wagons +filled with passengers and goods, drawn along a <i>railway</i> by a +<i>steam</i> engine. At eight o’clock in the morning the +train started with its load—22 vehicles—hauled by Stephenson’s +“Locomotion,” driven by Stephenson himself. “Such +was its velocity that in some parts of the journey the speed was frequently +12 miles an hour.” The number of passengers reached 450, +and the goods and merchandise amounted to 90 tons—a great accomplishment, +and George Stephenson and Edward Pease were proud men that day.</p> +<p>Seven years from this present time will witness the <i>Centenary</i> +of the railway system. How shall we celebrate <i>it</i>? +Will railway proprietor, railway director and railway manager on that +occasion be animated with the gladness, the pride and the hope that +brightened the Jubilee Banquet? Who can tell? The future +of railways is all uncertain.</p> +<p>A word or two regarding the railway system of Scotland may not be +inappropriate.</p> +<p>Scotland has eight <i>working</i> railway companies, England and +Wales 104, and Ireland 28. These include light railways, but are +exclusive of all railways, light or ordinary, that are worked not by +themselves but by other companies. Scotland has exhibited her +usual good sense, her canny, thrifty way, by keeping the number of <i>operating</i> +railway companies within such moderate bounds. Ireland does not +show so well, and England relatively is almost as bad as Ireland, yet +England might well have shown the path of prudence to her poorer sister +by greater adventure herself in the sensible domain of railway amalgamation. +Much undeserved censure has been heaped upon the Irish lines; sins have +been assumed from which they are free, and their virtues have ever been +ignored. John Bright once said that “Railways have rendered +more service and received less gratitude than any institution in the +land.” This is certainly true of Ireland, for nothing has +<!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>ever +conferred such benefit upon that country as its railways, and nothing, +except perhaps the Government, has received so much abuse. On +this I shall have more to say when I reach the period of the Vice-Regal +Commission on Irish Railways, appointed in 1906.</p> +<p>The average number of miles <i>operated</i> per working railway company +in Scotland compared with England and Wales and Ireland, are:—</p> +<pre>Scotland 477 +England and Wales 156 +Ireland 121</pre> +<p>and the mileage, capital, revenue, expenditure, interest and dividends +for 1912, the latest year of which the figures, owing to the war, are +published by the Board of Trade, are as follows:—</p> +<pre> Average rate + of interest + and dividend. + Per cent. + Miles. Capital. Revenue. Expenditure. + £ £ £ +England + and Wales 16,223 1,103,310,000 110,499,000 70,499,000 3-58 +Scotland 3,815 186,304,000 13,508,000 7,882,000 3-07 +Ireland 3,403 45,349,000 4,545,000 2,842,000 3-83</pre> +<p>The General Manager of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway and +his office I have described, but I have not spoken, except in a general +way, of the other principal officers, with whom, as Mr. Wainwright’s +assistant, I came into close and intimate relationship. They, +alas! are no more. I have outlived them all. Each has played +his part, and made, as we all must do, his exit from the stage of life.</p> +<p>Prominent amongst these officers was John Mathieson, Superintendent +of the Line, who was only twenty-nine when appointed to that responsible +post. We became good friends. He began work at the early +age of thirteen, had grown up on the railway and at nineteen was a station +master. He was skilful in out-door railway work, and an adept +in managing trains and traffic. Ambitious and a bit touchy regarding +his office, all was not always peace between his and other departments, +particularly the goods manager’s. The goods manager was +not aggressive, and it was sometimes thought that Mathieson inclined +to encroach upon his territory. Often angry correspondence <!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>and +sometimes angry discussion ensued. Yet, take him for all in all, +John Mathieson was a fine man with nothing small in his composition. +Soon his ambition was gratified. In 1889 he was appointed Chief +Commissioner of the Railways of Queensland; and after a few years occupation +of that post was invited by the Victorian Government to the same position +in connection with the railways of that important State. In 1900 +he left Australia and became General Manager of the Midland Railway; +but his health unfortunately soon failed, and at the comparatively early +age of sixty he died at Derby in the year 1906. In his early days, +on the Glasgow and South-Western, Mathieson was a hard fighter. +Those were the days when between the Scottish railway companies the +keenest rivalry and the bitterest competition existed. The Clearing +House in London, where the railway representatives met periodically +to discuss and arrange rates and fares and matters relating to traffic +generally, was the scene of many a battle. Men like James MacLaren +of the North British, Tom Robertson of the Highland, Irvine Kempt of +the Caledonian, and A. G. Reid of the Great North of Scotland were worthy +of Mathieson’s steel. Usually Mathieson held his own. +Irvine Kempt I cannot imagine was as keen a fighter as the rest, for +he was rather a dignified gentleman with fine manners. To gain +a few tons of fish from a rival route, by superior service, keen canvassing, +or by other less legitimate means, was a source of fierce joy to these +ardent spirits. The disputes were sometimes concerned with through +traffic between England and Scotland, and then the English railway representatives +took part, but not with the keenness and intensity of their northern +brethren, for the Saxon blood has not the fiery quality of the crimson +stream that courses through the veins of the Celt. Now all is +changed. Combination has succeeded to competition, alliances and +agreements are the tranquil order of the day, and the Clearing House +has become a Temple of Peace.</p> +<p>Between David Dickie, Goods Manager, and John Mathieson, Passenger +Superintendent, as I have said, many differences arose. I sometimes +thought that Mathieson might well have shown more consideration to one +so much his senior in years as Dickie was. Poor Dickie! +Before I left Scotland he met a tragic death. He was a kind-hearted +man, a canny Scot, and died rich.</p> +<p>James Stirling was the Locomotive Superintendent. He and Mathieson +<!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>did +not always agree, and the clash of arms frequently raged between them. +Mr. Wainwright’s suavity often, and not infrequently his authority, +were required to adjust these domestic broils, but as all deferred to +him willingly, the storms that arose were usually short lived.</p> +<p>In 1878 Mathieson and I took a short holiday together and crossed +to Ireland. It was our first visit to that unquiet but delightful +country, in which, little as I thought then, I was destined a few years +later to make my home.</p> +<p>It was in January, 1879, that the headquarters of the company were +removed from the old and narrow Bridge Street Station to the new palatial +St. Enoch, and there a splendid set of offices was provided. This +was another advantage much to my taste. St. Enoch was and is certainly +a most handsome and commodious terminus. Originally it had one +great roof of a single span, second only to that of St. Pancras Station. +Other spans, not so great, have since been added, for the business of +St. Enoch rapidly grew, and enlarged accommodation soon became necessary. +In 1879 it had six long and spacious platforms, now it has twelve; then +the number of trains in and out was 43 daily, now it has reached 286; +then the mileage of the railway was 319, now it is 466; then the employees +of the company numbered 4,010 and now they are over 10,000. These +figures exemplify the material growth of industrial Scotland in the +forty years that have passed. St. Enoch Station was not disfigured +by trade advertisements, and it is with great satisfaction I learn that +the same good taste has prevailed to this day. Not long after +it was opened a great grocery and provision firm, the knightly head +of which is still a well-known name, offered to the company a large +annual sum for the use of the space under the platform clock, which +could be seen from all parts of the station, which the directors, on +the representation of their general manager, declined; and I am proud +to remember that my own views on the subject, pretty forcibly expressed, +when my chief discussed the subject with me, strengthened his convictions +and helped to carry the day in the board room. The indiscriminate +and inartistic way in which throughout the land advertisements of all +sorts crowd our station walls and platforms is an outrage on good taste. +If advertisements must appear there, some hand and eye endowed with +the rudiments of art ought to control them. In no <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>country +in the world does the same ugly display mar the appearance of railway +stations; and considering what myriad eyes daily rest on station premises +it is well worth while on æsthetic grounds to make their appearance +as pleasant and as little vulgar as possible. The question of +revenue to the companies need not be ignored for proper and efficient +control would produce order, moderation, neatness, artistic effect—and +profit.</p> +<p>With the principal clerks of the office staff my relations were very +pleasant. The consideration with which I was treated by my chief, +and the footing upon which I stood with him, gave me a certain influence +which otherwise I should not have possessed. Till then there had +been absent from the company’s staff any gathering together for +purposes of common interest or mutual enjoyment. The <i>Railway +Benevolent Institution</i> provided a rallying point. I had been +appointed its representative on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway +and we held meetings and arranged concerts in its aid. Then, after +a time, we established for the principal clerks and goods agents and +certain grades of station masters, an annual day excursion into the +country, with a dinner and songs and speeches. “Tatlow is +good at the speak,” said publicly one of my colleagues, in his +broad Scotch way, and so far as it was true this I daresay helped me. +I was made permanent president of these excursions and feasts, and often +had to “hold forth,” which I must confess I rather enjoyed. +We christened ourselves <i>The Railway Ramblers</i>. The fact +that I became the Scotch correspondent of the <i>Railway Official Gazette</i>, +a regular contributor to the <i>Railway News</i>, and had access to +the columns of several newspapers, enabled reports of our doings to +appear in print, and diffused some pleasure and pride throughout the +service. Also I became a weekly contributor of <i>Scotch Notes</i> +to the <i>Montreal Herald</i>. In the <i>Railway Official Gazette</i> +was a column devoted to short reviews of new books which were sent to +the editor. For a time, from some reason or other, I undertook +this reviewing. Possession of the books was the only recompense, +though for all other work payment in money was made. It was a +daring thing on my part and I am sure many a reader of the paper must +have smiled at my criticisms. I forget why I soon gave up the +duty; probably from incompetence, for I am sure I was not at all qualified +for such a task; but what will the audacity of youth not attempt? +This journalistic <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>work +occupied much of my spare time, but it supplemented my income, a consideration +of no little importance, for in October, 1876, I had entered the married +state. My wife came from the Midlands of England. My friends +became her friends, and other friends we made. Children soon appeared +on the scene; my bachelor days were over.</p> +<p>Societies amongst the staff of a railway company, whether for the +purpose of physical recreation, for mutual improvement or for social +enjoyment are to be much commended. The assembling together of +employees of various ages, filling various positions, from the several +departments, from different districts, freed from business, and mixing +on equal terms for common objects, promotes good feeling and good fellowship, +provides pleasant memories for after life, gives a zest to work, and +adds to the efficiency of the service.</p> +<p>Amongst all my fellow clerks I remember one only who resembled as +a borrower some of my quondam associates at Derby. But this was +in Scotland where more provident ways prevailed. He was a married +man, about 30 years of age, with a salary of £100 a year. +By no means what one would call a nice fellow, he had nothing of the +<i>bonhomie</i> or light-hearted good nature that distinguished my Derby +friends. He possessed a good figure, wore fierce moustaches, and +affected a military air. One suit of well-made, well-cut clothes +by some means or other he managed to keep in a state of freshness and +smoothness nothing short of marvellous. Borrowing was his besetting +sin, and he was always head over ears in debt. Duns pursued him +to the office and he sometimes hid from them in a huge safe which the +office contained. It was a wretched life, but he brazened it out +with wonderful effrontery, and, outwardly, seemed happy enough. +From all who would lend he borrowed, and rarely I believe repaid. +Once I was his victim, but only once. I lent him £3, and, +strange to say, he returned it. Of course he approached me again, +but I had read and digested the <i>master’s</i> wisdom and determined +to “neither a borrower nor a lender be.”</p> +<p>Prominent amongst the principal clerks was David Cooper. When +I left Glasgow he succeeded me as assistant to the general manager. +Now he is general manager of the company himself. Recently he +celebrated his 50th year of railway service. Like me, he entered +railway life in 1867; but, <!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>unlike +me, has not been a rolling stone. One company only he has served +and served it well, and for nearly a quarter of a century has filled +the highest office it has to bestow. He and I have been more fortunate +than many of our old-time colleagues. In the list of officers +of the Glasgow and South-Western to-day I see the names of two only, +besides David Cooper, who were principal clerks in those days—F. +H. Gillies, now secretary of the company, and George Russell, Telegraph +Superintendent.</p> +<p>In railways, as in other departments of life, ability and industry +usually have their reward; but alone they do not always command success. +Other factors there are in the equation of life and not least luck and +opportunity. In those distant days, in the pride of youth, I was +too apt to think that they who succeeded owed their success to themselves +alone; but the years have taught me that this is not always so, and +I have learned to sympathise more and more with those to whom opportunity +has never held out her hand and upon whom good luck has never smiled.</p> +<h2><!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>CHAPTER +XII.<br /> +TOM</h2> +<p>In the last few chapters I have made but little mention of Tom. +The time was drawing nearer when I was to lose him for ever. Until +early in 1876 we lived together in the closest intimacy. We pooled +our resources, and when either ran short of money, which often happened, +the common purse, if it were not empty, was always available. +Similar in height and in figure, our clothes, except our hats, boots +and gloves, in each of which I took a larger size than he, were, when +occasion required, interchangeable. We standardised our wardrobe +as far as we could. We rose together, ate together, retired together, +and, except during business hours, were rarely apart. I being, +he considered, the more prudent in money matters, kept our lodging accounts +and paid the bills. He being more musical, and a greater lover +of the drama than I, arranged our visits to the theatres and concert +halls. I was the practical, he the æsthetical controller +of our joint menage. Once I remember—this occurred before +we left Derby—we both fancied ourselves in love with the same +dear enchantress, a certain dark-eyed brunette. Each punctually +paid his court, as opportunity offered, and each, when he could, most +obligingly furthered the suit of the other; and this went on till the +time arrived for Tom’s departure to Glasgow, when I was left in +possession of the field. Then I discovered, to my surprise, that +I was not so deeply enamoured as I had imagined; and, curiously enough, +Tom on his part had no sooner settled in Scotland than he made a similar +discovery.</p> +<p><!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>The +climate of Glasgow never suited Tom’s health and in 1876, on the +advice of his doctors, he decided to return to England. For a +time he seemed to regain his health, but only for a time. Soon +he relapsed, and before another year dawned it became evident, if not +to himself, to his friends, that his years on earth were numbered. +With what grief I heard the news, which came to me from his parents, +I need not say. Bravely for a while he struggled with work, but +all in vain; he had to give in, and return to his parents’ home +in Lincolnshire. That home he never again left, except once, in +the summer of 1877, to visit my wife and me, when he stayed with us +for several weeks. Though greatly reduced and very thin, and capable +only of short walks he was otherwise unchanged; the lively fancy, the +bright humor and the sparkling wit, which made him so delightful a companion, +were scarcely diminished. He himself was hopeful; talked of recovery, +planned excursions which he and I should take together when his health +returned; but his greatest pleasure was in recalling our Derby days, +our <i>Maypole</i> visits, our country rambles, our occasional dances +and flirtations, and our auld acquaintances generally.</p> +<p>Tom was remarkable for the quickness of his observation, for keen +penetration of character, and for happy humorous description of particular +traits in those he met. He possessed, too, a wonderfully retentive +memory. It is largely due to his lively descriptions of our interesting +fellow clerks at Derby that I have been able, after the lapse of half +a century, to sketch them with the fidelity I have. His humorous +accounts of their peculiarities often enlivened the hours we spent together, +and impressed their personalities more forcibly on my mind than they +otherwise would have been.</p> +<p>When his visit came to an end, and he returned to his home, I too +indulged in the hope that he might regain some measure of health, for +he seemed much improved. But it was a temporary improvement only, +due in part, perhaps, to change in environment, and in part to the exhilaration +arising from our reunion, heart and mind for a time dominating the body +and stimulating it to an activity which produced this fair but deceptive +semblance of health. His letters to me breathed the spirit of +hope till almost the last. We never met again. The intention +I had cherished of going to see him was never fulfilled. The illness +of my wife and the death of one of <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>our +children, and other unfortunate causes, prevented it; and in little +more than a year and a half from our farewell grasp of the hand at the +railway station in Glasgow my dear and beloved friend breathed his last. +Often and often since I have heard again the music of his voice, have +seen his face smiling upon me, and have felt</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>His being working in mine own</i>,<br /> +<i>The footsteps of his life in mine</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>CHAPTER +XIII.<br /> +MEN I MET AND FRIENDS I MADE</h2> +<p>Ten years I served the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company +as chief clerk, or as Mr. Wainwright euphemistically called it, <i>assistant</i> +to the general manager. In that position I met from time to time, +not only many prominent railway men, but also other men of mark.</p> +<p>Amongst these, two stand out with great distinction because of the +effect they had upon me at a memorable interview I had with each. +I never forgot those interviews, and nothing that ever occurred in my +life tended to strengthen in me the quality of self-reliance so much +as they did. Their effect was sudden, inspiring and lasting. +These well-remembered men were Mr. John Burns (afterwards the first +Lord Inverclyde), head of the shipping firm of G. and J. Burns, and +chairman of the Cunard Line, and Mr. John Walker, General Manager of +the North British Railway. The interviews occurred, as nearly +as I recollect, during the second or third year of my Glasgow and South-Western +life, and took place within a few weeks of each other.</p> +<p>John Burns was one of the largest shareholders in the Glasgow and +South-Western Railway, his steamers plied between Greenock and Belfast, +and his relations with the company were intimate and friendly. +At the time I speak of some important negotiations were proceeding between +him and Mr. Wainwright concerning the company and his firm, and whilst +they were at their height Mr. Wainwright was unexpectedly summoned to +London <!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>and +detained there. Now Mr. Burns was a man who greatly disliked delay, +and I was told to see him and, if he wished, discuss the business with +him, and, if possible, further its progress. It was the way in +which Mr. Burns received me, young and inexperienced as I was, the manner +in which he discussed the subject and encouraged me, and the respect +with which he listened to my arguments, that surprised and delighted +me. I left him, feeling an elation of spirit, a glow of pride, +a confidence in myself, as new as it was unexpected. It is a fine +trait in Scotchmen that, deeply respecting themselves, they respect +others. Difference of class or position does not count much with +them in comparison with merit or sterling worth—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>The rank is but the guinea’s stamp</i>,<br /> +<i>The man’s the gowd for a’ that</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Burns was a striking personality; strong and vigorous, mentally +and physically. He had a good voice, and was clear, decided and +emphatic in speech. He was a doughty champion of the Glasgow and +South-Western Company, with which at this time, affairs, like the course +of true love, did not run smooth. The dividend was down and discontented +shareholders were up in arms. Bitter attacks were made on the +directors and the management. Not that anything was really wrong, +for the business of the line was skilfully and honestly conducted, but +the times were bad, and “empty stalls make biting steeds.” +The very same shareholders who, when returns are satisfactory, are as +gentle as cooing doves, should revenue and expenditure alter their relations +to the detriment of dividend, become critical, carping and impossible +to please, though the directors and management may be as innocent as +themselves, and as powerless to stem the tide of adversity. At +shareholders’ meetings Mr. Burns was splendid. He rose after +the critics had expended their force, or if the storm grew too violent, +intervened at its height, and with facts and figures and sound argument +always succeeded in restoring order and serenity. An excellent +story of him appeared about this time in <i>Good Words</i>. He, +Anthony Trollope and Norman Macleod were once at a little inn in the +Highlands. After supper, stories were told and the laughter, which +was loud and long, lasted far into the night. In the morning an +old gentleman, who slept in a room above them, complained <!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>to +the landlord of the uproar which had broken his night’s rest, +and expressed his astonishment that such men should have taken more +than was good for them. “Well,” replied the landlord, +“I am bound to confess there was much loud talk and laughter, +but they had nothing stronger than tea and fresh herrings.” +“Bless me,” rejoined the old gentleman, “if that is +so, what would they be after dinner!”</p> +<p>In the entrance hall of the North British Railway Company’s +Waverley station at Edinburgh stands the statue, in bronze, of Mr. John +Walker. As far as I know this is, the whole world over, the only +instance in which the memory of a railway general manager has been so +honoured. It is of heroic size and eloquently attests his worth. +He was born in Fifeshire in 1832, and died with startling suddenness +from an apoplectic seizure, at the age of fifty-nine, at Waterloo station +in London. When he left school he was apprenticed to the law, +but at the age of nineteen entered the service of the Edinburgh, Perth +and Dundee Railway. This railway was in 1862 amalgamated with +the original North British, which was first authorised in 1844, and +extended from Edinburgh to Berwick. His exceptional ability was +soon recognised and his promotion was rapid. He became treasurer +of the amalgamated company, and in 1866 was appointed its secretary. +In this office he rendered great service at a trying time in the company’s +affairs, and in 1874 was rewarded with the position of general manager.</p> +<p>The North British Railway has had a chequered career, has suffered +great changes of fortune, and to Mr. Walker, more than to any other, +is due the stability it now enjoys. On the occasion of his death, +the directors officially recorded that, “He served the company +with such ability and unselfish devotion as is rarely witnessed; became +first secretary and subsequently general manager, and it was during +the tenure of these offices that the remarkable development of the company’s +system was mainly effected.”</p> +<p>His capacity for work was astounding. He never seemed to tire +or to know what fatigue meant. Ordinary men are disposed to pleasure +as well as to work, to recreation and social intercourse as well as +to business, but this was not the case with Mr. Walker. It must +be confessed that he was somewhat exacting with his staff, but his own +example was a stimulus to exertion in others and he was well served. +One who knew him well, and for many <!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>years +was closely associated with him in railway work, tells me that his most +striking characteristics were reticence, combativeness, concentration +and tenacity of purpose, and that his memory and mastery of detail were +remarkable. Deficient perhaps in sentiment, though in such silent +men deep wells of feeling often unsuspectedly exist, he was, by those +who served under him, always recognised as fair and just, and no one +had ever to complain of the slightest discourtesy at his hands. +Like Lord Byron, he was lame from birth, and while this may have affected +his character and pursuits, it never, I am told, in business, which +indeed was practically his sole occupation, impeded his activity. +On the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank, in 1878, which involved +in ruin numbers of people, he lost a considerable fortune. He +was a large shareholder of the bank, and the liability of the shareholders +was unlimited. He faced his loss with stoical fortitude, as I +believe he would have confronted any disaster that life could bring.</p> +<p>On a certain day Mr. Walker came to Glasgow by appointment to discuss +with Mr. Wainwright some outstanding matters which they had failed to +settle by correspondence. In the afternoon Mr. Wainwright had +an important meeting of his directors to attend. The business +with Mr. Walker was concluded in time, all but one subject, and Mr. +Wainwright asked Mr. Walker if he would let me go into this with him. +Without the least hesitation he consented; and he treated me as Mr. +John Burns had done, and discussed the matter with me as if I were on +an equal footing. This was the interview that strengthened and +confirmed that self-reliance which Mr. Burns had awakened, and which +never afterwards forsook me. Great is my debt to Scotland and +to Scotchmen.</p> +<p>Amongst the most prominent railway men I have met were Sir Edward +Watkin, Chairman of the South-Eastern Railway, and the following general +managers:—Mr. Allport, Midland, the exalted railway monarch of +my early railway days; Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Oakley, Great Northern; +Mr. Grierson, Great Western; Mr. Underdown, Manchester, Sheffield and +Lincolnshire; and Mr. (afterwards Sir Myles) Fenton, South Eastern. +Of Sir Edward Watkin a good story was told. When he was general +manager of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (he was +Mr. Watkin then) many complaints had arisen from coal merchants on the +line that coal was being <!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>stolen +from wagons in transit by engine drivers. Nothing so disgraceful +could possibly occur, always answered Mr. Watkin. Down the line +one day, with his officers at a country station, a driver was seen in +the very act of transferring from a coal wagon standing on an outlying +siding some good big lumps to his tender. This was pointed out +to Mr. Watkin, who only said—“The d---d fool, <i>in broad +daylight</i>!” When Mr. Allport learned that I came from +Derby, and was the son of an old Midland official, he treated me with +marked kindness. Mr. Oakley came in the year 1880 to Glasgow, +where he sat for several days as arbitrator between the Glasgow and +South-Western and Caledonian Railway Companies, on a matter concerning +the management, working, and maintenance of Kilmarnock Station, of which +the companies were joint owners, and I learned for the first time how +an arbitration case should be conducted, for Mr. Oakley was an expert +at such work. This experience stood me in good stead, when, not +many years later, I was appointed arbitrator in a railway dispute in +the North of Ireland.</p> +<p>In the front rank of the railway service I do not remember many beaux. +General managers were men too busy to spend much time upon the study +of dress. But there were exceptions, as there are to every rule, +and Sir James Thompson, General Manager, and afterwards Chairman of +the Caledonian Railway, was a notable exception. Often, after +attending Clearing House meetings or Parliamentary Committees, have +I met him in Piccadilly, Bond Street, or the Burlington Arcade, faultlessly +and fashionably attired in the best taste, airing himself, admiring +and admired. We always stopped and talked; of the topics of the +day, the weather, what a pleasant place London was, how handsome the +women, how well dressed the men. At the Clearing House we usually +sat next each other. I liked him and I think he liked me. +Do not think he was a beau and nothing more. No, he was a hard-headed +Scotchman, full of ability and work, and as a railway manager stood +at the top of the ladder. Next to him Sir Frederick Harrison, +General Manager of the London and North-Western Railway, was, I think, +the best dressed railway man. Both he and Sir James were tall, +handsome fellows, and I confess to having admired them, perhaps as much +for their good looks and their taste and style, as for their intellectual +qualities; and I have often thought that men in high positions would +not do amiss to pay <!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>some +attention to old Polonius’ admonition to his son that, “the +apparel oft proclaims the man.”</p> +<p>In the friends I made I was fortunate too. They included two +or three budding lawyers, a young engineer, a banker, a doctor, two +embryo hotel managers, an auctioneer, and one or two journalists; and, +as I have mentioned before, my artist friend <i>Cynicus</i>. We +were, most of us, friends of each other, met often, and the variety +of our pursuits gave zest and interest to our intercourse. First +amongst these friends ranked G. G., one of the young lawyers, or <i>writers</i>, +as they are called in Scotland. He was my closest friend. +We have not met for many years, but the friendship remains unweakened; +for there are things that Time the destroyer is powerless to injure. +Like myself, G. G. comes of the middle class. His parents, like +mine, were by no means affluent, but they were Scotch and held education +in veneration, and were ambitious, as Scottish parents are, for their +sons. They gave him a University education, and afterwards apprenticed +him to the law. He became, and is still, a prosperous lawyer in +Glasgow.</p> +<p>Then came J. B., a young lawyer too, who blossomed into the pleasant +and important position of Senior Deputy Town Clerk of the City of Glasgow. +He, too, had sprung from the great middle class. Well versed in +classical lore he was a delightful companion. He had travelled +much and benefited by his travels; was a sociable being, exceedingly +good-natured, and peered through spectacles as thick as pebbles, being +very short-sighted, and without his glasses would scarcely recognise +you a yard off. Yet he could see into the heart of things as well +as most men, for he was a shrewd Scotchman, and had a pawky humour. +If he possessed a fault it was a love for a game of cards. We +played <i>nap</i> in those days, and when a game was on it was hard +to get him to bed. He has gone over to the majority now. +His sudden death a year ago came as a great blow to his family and a +large circle of friends. Next to G. G., as intimate friends, came +H. H. and F. K. They were in the company’s service though +not in the railway proper, but connected with the management of the +hotel department. Of foreign birth, sons of a nation with whom +we are now, alas! at war, they were youths of fine education, disposition +and refinement, and I became greatly attached to each. H. H. preceded +and F. K. followed me to Ireland, where he (F. K.) <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>still +resides, honoured and respected, as he deserves to be. He and +I, throughout the years, have been and are the closest of friends. +Once, not very long ago, in a grave crisis of my life, when death seemed +near, he stood by me with the devotion of a brother. My auctioneer +friend (G. F.) was, perhaps, the most interesting man of our circle; +certainly he possessed more humour than the rest of us put together. +Fond of literature, with a talent for writing, he was a regular contributor +to the Glasgow Punch, <i>The Bailie</i>. But his greatest charms +were, his dear innocence, his freshness of mind, his simple inexpensive +tastes, his enjoyment of life, and his infectious laugh. In years +he was our senior, but in worldly knowledge junior to us all. +He lives still and is, I believe, as jocund as ever. Another of +these Glasgow friends I must mention—a poet, and like Burns, a +son of the soil. His name was Alexander Anderson. When first +I met him he was in the railway service, a labourer on the permanent +way, what is called a surfaceman in Scotland, a platelayer in England +and a milesman in Ireland. Self taught, he became proficient in +French, German and Italian, and was able to enjoy in their own language +the literature of those countries. A Scottish nobleman, impressed +by his wonderful poetical talent, defrayed the expenses of a tour which +he made in Italy and an extended stay in Rome, to the enrichment of +his mind and to his great enjoyment. On his return to Scotland +he published a book of poems. In an introduction to this book +the Revd. George Gilfillan wrote, “The volume he now presents +to the world is distinguished by great variety of subject and modes +of treatment. It has a number of sweet Scottish verses, plaintive +or pawky. It has some strains of a higher mood, reminding us of +Keats in their imagination. But the highest effort, if not also +the most decided success, is his series of sonnets, entitled, ‘In +Rome.’ And certainly this is a remarkable series.” +A remarkable man he was indeed; simple and earnest in manner, with a +fine eye, a full dark beard and sunburnt face. Tiring, however, +of a labourer’s life and of the pick and shovel, he left the railway +and became assistant librarian of Edinburgh University, and three years +afterwards Secretary to the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh. +He afterwards became Chief Librarian to the Edinburgh University. +He died in the summer of 1909. He stayed with me in Glasgow once +for a week-end, and on the Sunday afternoon we <!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>together +visited a friend of his who lived near, a literary man, who then was +engaged in writing a series of lives of the Poets for some publishing +house. An interesting part of our conversation was about Carlyle +with whom this friend was intimate, had in fact just returned from visiting +him at Chelsea. He told us many interesting stories of the sage. +I remember one. He was staying with the Carlyles, when Mrs. Carlyle +was alive. One evening at tea, a copper kettle, with hot water, +stood on the hob. Mrs. Carlyle made a movement as if to rise, +with her eye directed to the kettle; the friend, divining her wish, +rose and handed her the kettle. She thanked him, and, with a pathetic +and wistful gaze at Carlyle, added, “Ay, Tam, ye never did the +like o’ that!”</p> +<p>My first trip abroad was in 1883, and my companion, G. G. We +went to Paris via Newhaven, Dieppe and Rouen, and at Rouen stayed a +day and a night, and spent about a fortnight in Paris. We were +accompanied from London by a friend I have not yet named, one who was +well known in the railway world, Tony Visinet, the British Engineering +and Commercial Agent of the Western Railway of France; a delightful +companion always, full of the charm and vivacity that belong to his +country. He took us to see his mother at Rouen, who lived in an +old-fashioned house retired from the road, in a pleasant court-yard; +a charming old lady, with whom G. G. was able to converse, but I was +not. Tony Visinet’s life was full of movement and variety. +He had lodgings in London, and a flat in Paris, traversed the Channel +continually, and I remember his proudly celebrating his fifteen hundredth +crossing.</p> +<p>From childhood I had longed to see something of the world, and this +excursion to Paris was the first gratification of that wish. Paris +now is as familiar to me almost as London, but then was strange and +new. Rouen and its cathedral we first saw by moonlight, a beautiful +and impressive sight, idealised to me by the thought that we were in +sunny France. Little I imagined then how much of the world in +later years I should see; but strong desires often accomplish their +own fulfilment, and so it came to pass.</p> +<h2><!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>CHAPTER +XIV.<br /> +TERMINALS, RATES AND FARES, AND OTHER MATTERS</h2> +<p>Of course it was right that Parliament, when conferring upon the +railway companies certain privileges, such as the compulsory acquisition +of land and property, should, in the public interest, impose restrictions +on their charging powers. No one could reasonably complain of +this, and had it been done from the beginning in a clear, logical way, +and in language free from doubt, all might have been well and much subsequent +trouble avoided. But this was not the case. Each company’s +charging powers were contained in its own private Acts (which were usually +very numerous) and differed for different sections of the railway. +It was often impossible for the public to ascertain the rights of the +companies, and well nigh impossible for the companies themselves to +know what they were. These powers were in the form of tolls for +the use of the railway; charges for the use of carriages, wagons, and +locomotive power, and total maximum charges which were less than the +sum of the several charges. In the Acts no mention was made of +terminals, though in some of them power to make a charge for <i>services +incidental to conveyance</i> was authorised, and what these words really +meant was the subject of much legal argument and great forensic expenditure.</p> +<p>In addition to the tolls and charges, the Acts usually contained +a rough classification of goods to which they applied. These were +divided into from three to five classes, and comprised some 50 to 60 +articles. The railway companies, however, had in existence, for +practical everyday use, a general <!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>classification +called The Railway Clearing House Classification, and this contained +over 2,700 articles divided into seven classes.</p> +<p>The tolls and charges in the Companies’ Acts were fixed originally +in the old belief (to which I have before alluded) that railway companies, +like canal companies, would be mere owners of the route; and when they +became carriers and provided stations, sidings, warehouses, cranes, +and all the paraphernalia appertaining to the business of a carrier, +the old form was not altered, the charging powers remained as originally +expressed in subsequent Acts, and the same old model was followed. +For several years prior to 1881 complaints by merchants, traders and +public bodies against railway rates and fares had become very common. +The cry was taken up by the public generally, and railway companies +had a decidedly unpleasant time of it, which they bore with that good +temper and equanimity which I (perhaps not altogether an unprejudiced +witness) venture to affirm generally characterised them. The complaints +increased in number and intensity and Members of Parliament and newspaper +writers joined in the jeremiad.</p> +<p>Parliament, as Parliaments do, yielded to clamour, and in 1881 a +Select Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into +railway charges, into the laws and conditions affecting such charges, +and specially into passenger fares. It was a big committee, consisted +of 23 members, took 858 pages of evidence, and examined 80 witnesses. +At the end of the session they reported that, although they had sat +continuously, time had failed for consideration of the evidence, and +recommended that the committee be re-appointed in the next session. +This was done, and the committee, enlarged to 27 members, took further +evidence, and submitted a report to Parliament.</p> +<p>The gravest issue was the right of the companies to charge terminals, +and the committee found that the railways had made out their case, and +recommended that the right of the companies to station terminals should +be recognised by Parliament. Further, the committee, on the whole +of the evidence, acquitted the railway companies of any grave dereliction +of their duty to the public, and added: “It is remarkable that +no witnesses have appeared to complain of ‘preferences’ +given to individuals by railway <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>companies +as acts of private favour or partiality.” As to passenger +fares, the committee reported that the complaints submitted to them +were rather local than general, and not of an important character, but +thought that it might be well for the Railway Commissioners to have +the same jurisdiction in respect to passengers as to goods traffic.</p> +<p>The railway companies thus emerged from this searching inquiry with +credit, as they have done in the many investigations to which they have +been subjected, and no high-minded and aspiring young railway novice +need ever blush for the traditions of the service.</p> +<p>Before the committee Mr. James Grierson, General Manager of the Great +Western, was the principal witness for the railway companies, and yeoman +service he rendered. He presented the railway case with great +ability, and his views were accepted on the important terminal question. +In 1886 he published a book on <i>Railway Rates</i>, which was warmly +welcomed by the Press and, in the words of <i>Herepath’s Journal</i>, +was “an exhaustive, able, and dispassionate <i>résumé</i> +of all the conflicting statements, claims, and interests verging round +the much vexed question of railway rates.” Certainly he +did much towards the ultimate settlement of the matter. Mr. Grierson +was, perhaps, the ablest witness before Parliamentary Committees the +railway service ever had, which is saying much. A leading counsel, +during the luncheon interval, once said to him, “We feel small +when we are cross-examining you. You know all about the business, +and we can only touch the fringe of it.” The great secret +of Mr. Grierson’s success was his mastery of, and scrupulous regard +for, facts and his straightforwardness. Of his book he himself +said, “My conclusions may be disputed, but no one shall dispute +the facts on which they are based.”</p> +<p>The committee recommended that Parliament, when authorising new lines, +or extending the powers of existing companies, should have its attention +drawn by some public authority to the proposed, and in the case of existing +companies, to the existing rates and fares. They also recommended +that one uniform classification of merchandise be established by law; +that the Court of Railway Commissioners be made permanent; and that +the amalgamation of Irish Railways be promoted and facilitated. +Thus the great inquiry ended; but public agitation did not cease. +One or two attempts <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>at +legislation followed, but from one cause or another, fell through; and +it was not until 1888 that the subject was seriously tackled by Parliament. +In that year the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>, of which I shall +later on have something to say, was passed.</p> +<p>On the appearance of the Report in 1882, it was recognised in railway +circles that something <i>must</i> happen regarding the eternal rates +question, and the companies began to prepare themselves as best they +could. It fell upon me to examine the many Acts of Parliament +of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, to collate the provisions +relating to tolls, charges and maximum powers, to compare those powers +with actual rates, to work out cost of terminal service, and to draw +up a revised proposed scale of maximum conveyance rates and terminal +charges. Deeply interesting work it was, and led, not very many +years afterwards, to unexpected promotion, which I valued much, and +about which I shall have more to say.</p> +<p>In the year 1880 a Scotch branch of the Railway Benevolent Institution +was established. Mr. Wainwright was made its chairman, and I was +appointed secretary. He and I had for some time urged upon the +Board in London the desirability of a local committee of management +in Scotland. The Institution had a great membership in England, +and was generously helped there in the matter of funds by the public. +The subscription payable by members was small, and the benefits it bestowed +were substantial; but railway men in Scotland looked at it askance: +“the Board in London kenned little aboot Scotland and Scotch claims +wouldna get vera much conseederation.” Well, all this was +changed by what we did. Soon a numerous membership succeeded to +the few who on Scottish railways had previously joined the Institution, +and we had much satisfaction in finding that we were able to dispense +substantial aid to many old and needy railwaymen and to their widows +and orphans. Mr. Wainwright remained Chairman of the Branch till +his death, and I continued Secretary until I left Scotland.</p> +<p>In 1883, after my return from Paris, I grew restless again, with +a longing for more responsibility and a larger and freer life; with, +perhaps, an admixture of something not so ennobling—the desire +for a bigger income. Never was I indifferent to the comforts that +money can bring, though never, <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>I +must confess, was I gifted with the capacity for money making or money +saving. The pleasures of life (the rational pleasures I hope) +had always an attraction for me. I could never forego them, or +forego the expense they involved, for the sake of future distant advantages. +What weighed with me, too, was the fact that I was undoubtedly overworked +and my health was suffering. It was not that my railway duties +proper were oppressive, but the duties as Secretary of the Railway Benevolent +Institution in Scotland added considerably to my office hours, and at +home I often worked far into the night writing for the several papers +to which I contributed. Too much work and too little play was +making Jack a very dull boy. I envied those officers, such as +John Mathieson, whose duties took them often out of doors, and gave +them the control and management of men.</p> +<p>My chief was as kind and considerate as ever, and I confided to him +the thoughts that disturbed me. Warm-heartedly he sympathised +with my feelings. He himself had gone, he said, through the same +experience some twenty years before. The prospect of promotion +at St. Enoch, he agreed, seemed remote; the principal officers, except +the engineer, were young or middle-aged; and he himself was in the prime +of life. He did not want to lose me, but I must look out, and +he would look out too. At last the opportunity came, and it came +from Ireland. The Belfast and County Down Railway Chairman, Mr. +R. W. Kelly, and a director, Lord (then Mr.) Pirrie, were deputed to +see half a dozen or so likely young applicants in England and Scotland. +I was interviewed by these gentlemen in Glasgow, was selected for the +vacant post of general manager, and in May, 1885, removed with my family +to Belfast, and entered upon my duties there.</p> +<p>Lord Pirrie is a great shipbuilder of world-wide fame. I was +not long at the County Down before I discovered his wonderful energy, +his marvellous capacity for work, his thoroughness, and keen business +ability. I always thought that at our interview at Saint Enoch +he was as much impressed with the order and method which appeared in +the office of which I had charge as by anything else. I showed +him everything very freely, and remember his appreciation and also his +criticism, of which latter, as I afterwards found, he was at times by +no means sparing, but if sometimes severe, it was always just and salutary. +How little one foresees events. Not long had I left <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>Glasgow +before unexpected changes occurred. In 1886, Mr. Wainwright took +ill and died; soon after Mathieson went to Queensland; and in less than +eight short years three general managers had succeeded Mr. Wainwright.</p> +<p>They were good to me when I left Glasgow. I was presented with +a valuable testimonial at a banquet at which Mr. Wainwright presided +and at which my good friend, G. G., made a fine speech. It would +be idle for me to say that the warm congratulations of my friends, the +prospects of change, and the sense of new responsibilities, did not +delight and excite me. But a strong measure of regret was mixed +with the pleasurable draught. I was greatly attached to my chief, +and keenly felt the parting from him. He felt it too. When +it came to the last handshake words failed us both.</p> +<p>The Nestor of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway was Andrew Galloway, +the chief engineer. A Nestor he looked with his fine, strong, +grave features, abundant hair, and flowing beard. He was a very +able engineer, but had many old-fashioned ways, one of which was an +objection to anyone but himself opening his letters, and when absent +from his office they would at times lie for several days untouched. +If remonstrated with he was quite unmoved. He had a theory that +most letters, if left long enough unanswered, answered themselves. +In me he always showed a fatherly interest, and sometimes chided me +for talking too freely and writing too much. His last words when +he bade me farewell, and gave me his blessing were, to remember always +to think twice before I spoke once. On the very day I was assured +of my appointment as general manager for the County Down Railway I discarded +the tall silk hat and the black morning coat, which for some time had +been my usual business garb, as it was of many serious-minded aspiring +young business men in Glasgow. Mr. Galloway asked me the reason +of the change, which he was quick to observe. “Well,” +said I, “I have secured my position, so it’s all right now.” +Never since, except in London, have I renounced the liberty I then assumed; +the bowler and the jacket suit became my regular business wear, and +the other habiliments of severe respectability were relegated to churchgoing, +weddings, christenings, and funerals and other formal occasions.</p> +<h2><!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>CHAPTER +XV.<br /> +FURTHER RAILWAY LEGISLATION</h2> +<p>In Chapter IX., at the outset of my Glasgow and South-Western service, +I reviewed the public Acts of Parliament passed since the beginning +of railways down to the year 1875, and it may not be amiss to notice +now the further railway legislation enacted up to 1885.</p> +<p>The first measure of importance was the <i>Railway Returns (Continuous +Brakes) Act</i>, 1878. The travelling public had for some years +been sensitive regarding railway accidents which, though infrequent, +nevertheless occurred much oftener then than now, and were more serious +in their results. The matter of their reduction began to receive +the serious attention of railway engineers and inventors, and among +many appliances suggested was the system of continuous brakes. +In June, 1875, a great contest of brakes, extending over three days, +in which trains of the principal companies engaged, took place on the +Midland railway between Newark and Bleasby. A large number of +brakes competed—the Westinghouse, the Vacuum, Clarke’s Hydraulic, +Webb’s Chain, and several others. It is recorded that at +the conclusion of the trial, each patentee left the <i>refreshment tent</i> +satisfied that his own brake was the best; but Time is the great arbiter, +and <i>his</i> decision has been in favour of two—the Automatic +Vacuum and the Westinghouse, and these are the brakes the companies +have adopted. The Act required all railway companies to submit +to the Board of Trade, twice in every year, returns showing the amount +of rolling stock fitted with <!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>continuous +brakes, the description of brake and whether self-acting and instantaneous +in action. So far there was no compulsion upon the railways to +use continuous brakes, though most of the companies were earnestly studying +the subject, but the rival claims of inventors and the uncertainty as +to which invention would best stand the test of time tended to retard +their adoption. Meanwhile, the publicity afforded by the Board +of Trade Returns, and public discussion, helped to hasten events and +the climax was reached in 1889, when a terrible accident, due primarily +to inefficient brake power, occurred in Ireland, and was attended with +great loss of life. The Board of Trade was in that year invested +with statutory power to <i>compel</i> railway companies, within a given +time, to provide all passenger trains with automatic continuous brakes.</p> +<p>In 1878 there was also passed the <i>Contagious Diseases (Animals) +Act</i>. Foot and mouth disease had for some time been rife in +Great Britain and Ireland, and legislation became necessary. The +Act applied not only to railways but was also directed to the general +control and supervision of flocks and herds. It contained a number +of clauses concerning transit by rail, and invested the Privy Council +with authority to make regulations, the carrying out of which, as affecting +the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, devolved upon me, and for a year +or two occupied much of my time.</p> +<p>An Act to extend and regulate the liability of employers, and to +provide for compensation for personal injuries suffered by workmen in +their service, came into force in 1880. It was called the <i>Employers’ +Liability Act</i>, and was the first step in that class of legislation, +which has since been greatly extended, and with which both employer +and employed, are now familiar.</p> +<p>That great convenience the <i>Parcel Post</i>, which for the first +time secured to the public the advantage of having parcels sent to any +part of the United Kingdom at a fixed charge, and which seems now as +necessary to modern life as the telephone or the telegraph, and as, +perhaps, a few years hence, the airship will be, was brought into existence +by the <i>Post Office (Parcels) Act</i>, 1882. Under that Act +it was ordained that the railways of the United Kingdom should carry +by all trains whatever parcels should be handed to them for transit +by the Post Office, the railway remuneration to be fifty-five per cent. +of the money paid by the public. The scheme was a great <!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>success. +During the first year of its operation the parcels carried numbered +over 20 millions, and in the year 1913-14 (the last published figures) +reached 137 millions.</p> +<p>The <i>Cheap Trains Act</i>, 1883, was passed to amend and consolidate +the law relating to (<i>a</i>) railway passenger duty, and (<i>b</i>) +the conveyance of the Queen’s Forces by railway. It did +not apply to Ireland. Passenger duty was never exacted in that +happy land. In Great Britain the Act relieved the railway companies +from payment of the duty on all fares not exceeding one penny per mile; +provided for the running of workmen’s trains; and prescribed a +scale of reduced fares for the conveyance of Her Majesty’s soldiers +and sailors.</p> +<p>After this Act, and until the year 1888, no further general railway +legislation of importance took place.</p> +<h2><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>CHAPTER +XVI.<br /> +BELFAST AND THE COUNTY DOWN RAILWAY</h2> +<p>After eighteen years of railway life, at the age of 34, I had attained +the coveted position of a general manager. Of a small railway +it is true, but the Belfast and County Down Railway, though unimposing +as to mileage, was a busy and by no means an uninteresting line. +A railway general manager in Ireland was in those days, strange to say, +something of a <i>rara avis</i>. There were then in the Green +Isle no less than eighteen separate and distinct working railways, varying +from four to nearly 500 miles in length, and amongst them all only four +had a <i>general manager</i>. The system that prevailed was curious. +With the exception of these four general managers (who were not on the +larger lines) the principal officer of an Irish railway was styled <i>Manager</i> +or <i>Traffic Manager</i>. He was regarded as the senior official, +but over the Traffic Department only had he <i>absolute</i> control, +though other important duties which affected more than his own department +often devolved upon him. He was, in a sense, maid of all work, +and if a man of ability and character managed, in spite of his somewhat +anomalous position, to acquire many of the attributes and much of the +influence of a real general manager. But the system was unsatisfactory, +led to jealousies, weakened discipline, and was not conducive to efficient +working. Happily it no longer exists, and for some years past +each Irish Railway has had its responsible <i>General Manager</i>. +Something that happened, in the year 1889, gave the old system the first +blow. In that year a terrible accident to a Sunday school <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>excursion +of children occurred on the Great Northern Railway near Armagh, and +was attended with great loss of life. This led the company to +appoint a General Manager, which they did in June, 1890, Thomas Robertson, +of the Highland Railway of Scotland, of whom I spoke earlier in these +pages, being the capable man they selected.</p> +<p>Curious certainly was the method which up to then prevailed on the +Great Northern system. Three different <i>Managers</i> exercised +jurisdiction over separate sections of the line, and the <i>Secretary</i> +of the Company, an able man, stationed in Dublin, performed much more +than secretarial duties, and encroached, so I often heard the managers +complain, upon their functions. This divided authority was a survival +of the time before 1877, when the Great Northern system belonged to +several independent companies; and, in the words of the Allport Commission +of 1887, “its continued existence after ten years could hardly +be defended.”</p> +<p>Very pleasant and very interesting I found my new avocation on the +County Down, which for short the Belfast and County Down Railway was +usually called. My salary certainly was not magnificent, £500 +a year, but it was about £100 more than the whole of the income +I earned in Scotland, and now for the £500 I had only my railway +work to perform. Now I could give up those newspaper lucubrations, +which had become almost a burden and daily enjoy some hours of leisure. +The change soon benefited my health. Instead of close confinement +to the office during the day, and drudgery indoors with pen and ink +at night, my days were varied with out-door as well as in-door work, +and I had time for reading, recreation and social enjoyment. My +lean and lanky form filled out, and I became familiar with the greeting +of my friends: “Why, how well you look!”</p> +<p>The County Down railway was 68 miles long. Situated entirely +in County Down, it occupied a snug little corner to itself, bounded +on the north by Belfast Lough, on the south by the Mourne Mountains, +and on the east by Strangford Lough and the Irish Sea. To the +west ran the Great Northern railway but some distance away. The +County Down line enjoyed three fine sources of seaside traffic, Bangor, +Donaghadee and Newcastle, and was rich in pleasure resorts and in residential +districts. It even possessed the attractions of a golf course, +the first in Ireland, the <i>Kinnegar at Holywood</i>, <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>but +more of that anon. As I have said, it was a busy line, and it +was not unprosperous. The dividend in 1885 reached five and a-half +per cent., and in spite of considerable expenditure necessary for bringing +the line up to first-class condition, it never went back, but steadily +improved, and for many years has been a comfortable six and a-half per +cent. In 1885 the condition of the permanent way, the rolling +stock, and the stations was anything but good, and as the traffic showed +capacity for development, to stint expenditure would have been but folly. +I do not think, however, the outlay would have been so liberal as it +was but for Lord (then Mr.) Pirrie, who was an active and influential +director, though there were also on the Board several other business +men of energy and position. Indeed, it was a good Board, but the +Chairman, though a shrewd far-seeing man, had, like John Gilpin’s +spouse, “a frugal mind,” and Lord Pirrie’s bold commercial +spirit quite eclipsed his cautious ways. One instance will suffice +to exemplify this, and also to illustrate the novelty of my new duties, +which were delightful in their diversity and activity to one whose life +hitherto had been confined to sedentary work.</p> +<p>It was the rolling stock that demanded the most urgent attention—engines, +carriages and wagons and especially carriages. Of carriages there +were not enough for the traffic of the line, and many were in a very +sorry condition, particularly those which had been taken over with the +Holywood and Bangor Railway, acquired by the company the previous year. +One weekend, soon after I joined the service, I had all passenger carriages +brought into Belfast, except those employed in running Sunday trains, +and early on the Sunday morning (it was in the summer) with the company’s +locomotive and mechanical engineer I examined each carriage thoroughly +from top to bottom, inside and out, above and below, and with his practical +help and expert knowledge, noted carefully down the defects of each. +He worked with a will, delighted that someone as enthusiastic and even +younger than himself was now in charge. He little suspected, I +am sure, how ignorant I was of practical matters, as I kept my own counsel +which was my habit when prudence so dictated. I knew the names +of things and was well versed in the theory and statistics of repairs +and renewals, but that was all. A fine worker was and is R. G. +Miller. Well over 70 now, healthy and <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>energetic +still, he occupies the position he did then. Age has not withered +nor custom staled his juvenility. I met him on Kingstown promenade +the other day walking with an elastic step and with the brightness of +youth in his eye. The ordinary age-retirement limit, though a +good rule generally, was not for him. Daylight failed and night +came on before our task was finished, several carriages remaining unexamined. +These and the Sunday running vehicles we subjected to scrutiny during +the following week. At the next meeting of the Board I presented +a report of what I had done, and urged that a number of new carriages +should be contracted for without delay, enlarging upon the return we +might confidently expect from a responsive traffic. The Chairman +and most of the Board were a little aghast at what appeared, to a small +company that had only recently emerged from straitened circumstances, +a very large order. But Lord Pirrie came to the rescue, strongly +supported my proposal and commended the thoroughness with which I had +tackled the subject. The day was won, the carriages secure, and +the order for their construction was placed with a firm in Birmingham. +This expenditure was the precursor of further large outlays, for it +was soon seen that the prospects of the company warranted a bold course.</p> +<p>I may, I am sure, be pardoned if I quote here some words from the +report of Sir James Allport’s Commission on Irish Public Works. +It is dated 4th January, 1888. I had then been less than three +years with the County Down, and so could claim but a modicum of the +praise it contains, and my modesty, therefore, need not be alarmed. +The words are: “<i>The history of the Belfast and County Down +Company is sufficient to show how greatly both shareholders and the +public may benefit from the infusion into the management of business +qualities. In that case a board of business men have in ten years +raised the dividend on the ordinary stock from nil to 5½ per +cent., while giving the public an improved service and reduced rates</i>.” +My satisfaction was the greater as I had given evidence before the Commission, +and helped to tell them the cheerful story of the progress and development +of the County Down Company. It was my first appearance as a railway +witness and before Sir James Allport, who had commanded my unbounded +admiration from my first entrance at Derby into railway life. +Need I say that to me it was an event of importance.</p> +<p><!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>In +the year 1875 the Board of the County Down, after an investigation of +its affairs by a Committee of Shareholders, was reorganised, and it +was then that Mr. Richard Woods Kelly became Chairman, and Lord (then +Mr.) Pirrie a Director. The latter has more than once since told +me that the County Down shares were one of his best investments.</p> +<p>Mr. Kelly merits more than a passing word. Before I joined +the County Down I was told he was a “terror,” and that I +ran foolish risk in leaving a service like the Glasgow and South-Western +for a position in which I might find it impossible to please. +But fears like that never disturbed me. To wrongdoers Mr. Kelly +could certainly be “a terror,” and wrongdoers there were, +I believe, in the service in the early days of his chairmanship. +He was a mild-mannered man, tall, rather pale, with refined features +and a low-toned pleasant voice. But beneath this smooth and gentle +exterior resided great firmness. He would smile and smile with +wonderful imperturbability and, in the quietest tones and the blandest +way, say severe and cutting things. Economy was his strong point +and he observed it in his public and private life with meritorious consistency. +Impervious to cold, as to most other human weaknesses, in winter or +summer he never wore an overcoat. His smooth face and tall slight +figure seemed as indifferent to the angry elements as bronze or stone. +By man or Nature I never saw him ruffled or in the least degree disturbed. +But he had his human side, as all men have, and in time I discovered +it and grew to like him. He was not at heart so cold as he seemed. +Though he could not write a page without mis-spelling some of the words, +his letters were always concise and very much to the point. But +it was only in spelling he was deficient. He spoke well, was a +shrewd judge of men, had a keen sense of humour, a clear perception +of facts, and was quick to detect and discard everything irrelevant.</p> +<p>Lord Pirrie and Mr. Kelly, in connection with the County Down, were +hand and glove, and it was no small part they played in its transformation +from dark and dismal poverty to smiling prosperity.</p> +<p>My assistant was James Pinion, afterwards my successor, and later +on Manager of the Cheshire Lines Committee at Liverpool. Being +a capable fellow and a hard worker, it was only natural that he felt +disappointed at not being made general manager of the County Down instead +of imported <!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>me; +but any sign of soreness soon disappeared. The kindness, the consideration +and the confidence I had received at Mr. Wainwright’s hands, as +his assistant, were not forgotten and I felt pleasure in endeavouring +to treat my assistant in the same way. It was not long before +its effect appeared. He told me one day that it was a new experience +for him to be so frankly trusted and so freely consulted, but it made +him happier and imparted a greater zest to his work. Certainly +he served me with enthusiastic zeal and fine loyalty. Throughout +a long period of railway management I have been most fortunate in securing +the goodwill and ready help of the staff, and in many instances their +strong personal attachment. There are men no doubt whose natures +are proof against kindness and consideration, but my experience is that +they are few and far between. I have found also that if one refrains +from fault-finding, gives praise where praise is due, and overlooks +small or venial faults, when reproof becomes necessary, if it be temperately +administered, it is always effective and productive of good. But +even such reproof may be carried too far as on one occasion I found +to my dismay. Pinion, one forenoon, came into my room to tell +me he had discovered that the man in charge of the cloak room was guilty +of peculation; had been tampering with the tickets, and appropriating +small sums. I sent for him, talked to him very severely, sent +him home, and told him he should hear what would be done. An hour +later, I heard he was <i>dead</i>: that on his way to his home he had +purchased a bottle of laudanum and swallowed the contents!</p> +<p>In Scotland a railway manager was rarely worried by outside interference +in the management of his men. Well intentioned people either credited +him with the possession of good sense and decent feeling, or, themselves +resentful of any inter-meddling in their own affairs, refrained from +meddling in his. But it was different I found in Ireland, even +in Belfast where Scottish traditions and Scottish ways were not unknown. +Exceeding good nature, I suppose, is largely accountable for the readiness +with which people in the sister isle espouse, often with little consideration, +the cause of any railway employee who has or fancies he has a grievance. +A rather ridiculous instance of this occurred soon after my installation +at the County Down. One of my first duties was to examine the +line and the employees <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>at +each station. At one small station I found in charge a station +master in poor health and well advanced in years—in fact quite +beyond his work. I learned that he possessed a small property +in land and was quite willing to retire if given a few weeks in which +to make his arrangements. This, of course, I gladly granted as +well as a little parting gratuity. He was well pleased, and wrote +me to that effect. But, to my astonishment, not many days passed +before a long and numerously signed Memorial to the Board arrived beseeching +the Directors to stay the hand of their General Manager in his harsh +and unfeeling treatment of a faithful old servant. He was indeed +a faithful old servant; but he was quite ignorant of any memorial on +his behalf having been sent to the Directors. Apparently the memorialists +did not consider it necessary to consult him.</p> +<p>To be now my own master, subject only to the control of a reasonable +and businesslike Board of Directors, a Chairman who resided in Dublin, +visiting Belfast once a fortnight only, to have the command of men and +the working of a railway, and to be free to move about the line as I +thought fit, was a pleasure indeed and made Ireland a pleasant place. +I lived near the city, but on its outskirts, with open country and sea +views around me, occupied a neat little detached house, with a bit of +garden wherein I could dig and cultivate a few roses, where the air +was pure and clear—a refreshing change from the confinement of +a flat, four stairs up, in the crowded environs of smoky Glasgow.</p> +<h2><!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>CHAPTER +XVII.<br /> +BELFAST AND THE COUNTY DOWN—(continued)</h2> +<p>During the first few years of my service on the County Down little +occurred to disturb the even tenor of my way. In a sense the duties +of my new position were simple. There were no such things as joint +lines, joint station working, running powers or joint committees, as +in England and Scotland, to distract attention or consume time which +could more usefully be devoted to the affairs of one’s own railway. +Gradually I grew familiar with out-door matters, and duties that seemed +strange at first grew as easy as second nature. I learned a good +deal about signalling, became an adept in single line working, an expert +in engine running economies, and attained some success in the management +of men.</p> +<p>One thing especially gave me pleasure—my monthly visit to the +Managers’ Conference at the Irish Railway Clearing House in Dublin. +There I met my brother managers in the Irish railway world, and learned +something of the other lines. The leading men at the Conference +were Ilbery, Great Southern and Western; Cotton, Belfast and Northern +Counties; Plews and Shaw, Great Northern; Ward, Midland Great Western; +and Skipworth, Manager in Ireland of the London and North-Western. +Of all the managers who assembled there I was the youngest, and the +greatest personality was Edward John Cotton. By common consent, +he had acted as Chairman of the Conference from the year 1864. +No one had ever dreamed of assuming the position when he was present. +This continued till 1890, <!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>when +Tom Robertson came on the scene. <i>He</i> was all for change +and innovation, and managed to get the principle of formal election +to the chairmanship established. Many of us thought it was a pity +to make the change in Cotton’s time, but Edward John seemed the +least concerned of us all, for nothing ever disturbed his good humour. +Robertson was a veritable Hotspur and upset for a time the serenity +of our meetings. He was overcharged with energy, and a bachelor.</p> +<p>It is my belief that had our genial Cotton chosen the stage for a +profession he would have found a place among the distinguished actors +of his time, if not in tragedy, certainly in comedy. His face, +voice, manner and style all proclaimed it. You had only to hear +him read in public, which he loved to do, see how natural his dramatic +action was, and feel the effect of a mere wave of his hand through his +abundant hair, to be convinced of this. In railway circles throughout +England, Scotland and Ireland he was widely known. He attended +all railway conferences for he loved movement and travel. Shrewd +and well-informed, his knowledge was acquired not from books or study +but from close observation of passing events and free and friendly intercourse +with all whom he met. His railway was very popular and he and +it were held in high esteem. Easily accessible to all, courteous +and reasonable ever, he was in many respects a model railway manager. +His success lay not so much in the work he performed himself as in obtaining +the best results from those around him, and the capacity to accomplish +this is certainly one of the most useful qualities a railway manager, +or any man in a position of authority, can possess. It is not +too much to say that his staff loved him; certainly they all admired +him. He was the readiest man I ever met to generously acknowledge +the worth of those who served him, and whenever possible he took occasion +to do so in public.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/cotton.jpg"> +<img alt="Edward John Cotton" src="images/cotton.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>I have spoken previously of the <i>beaux</i> I knew in the higher +ranks of the railway service but, strange to say, omitted to mention +Edward John who, in some respects outshone all others. His coat +may not have been cut by a west-end tailor, his hat may not have been +a Lincoln Bennett, or his necktie the latest production of Burlington +Arcade, but who could wear a tall white hat with a black band, with +the least little rakish tilt, and a light grey frock coat with a rose +in the buttonhole, with such an air and grace as he? <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>He +appreciated keenly all the good things that life can give and loved +his fellow men. <i>Pax vobiscum</i>, kind, warm-hearted Edward +John! You were an ornament to the railway world and always my +friend.</p> +<p>It was Cotton and his Chairman, the Right Hon. John Young, who put +in my way my first arbitration case, to which I have in a previous chapter +alluded. This, as far as I remember, occurred in 1886. A +dispute had arisen between the Northern Counties Company and a small +railway company whose line they worked, concerning, I think, the payment +for and use of some sidings. I conducted the proceedings of course +with the greatest of care, attended, perhaps, with a little trepidation, +summoned every possible witness to appear before me, and visited in +state the <i>locus</i>. Edward John was, I think, a little amused. +Much older than I he had long since passed through these youthful phases. +I issued my award, with the usual result that while each party was fairly +well pleased neither was altogether satisfied. I was proud of +my <i>début</i> as an arbitrator, especially as it was rewarded +by, what seemed to me then, a very handsome fee.</p> +<p>In January, 1886, an incident that is worth narrating occurred. +In my office a new junior clerk was required. An advertisement +in the newspapers produced a large number of applications, and about +a dozen of the applicants were selected to be seen, one after the other, +by Pinion and myself. Before lunch one day we interviewed half +a dozen or so. Returning together from lunching in the city, as +we neared the station, Pinion drew my attention to a youth who was evidently +making for the railway premises. Said I to Pinion: “If that +youth is one of the candidates, I’ll be surprised if he’s +not the boy for us.” It was only a back view we had of him, +but he held himself so well, walked so briskly, looked so neat, smart, +and businesslike that he arrested attention. That boy, Charles +A. Moore, then fresh from school and just fifteen, is now general manager +of the railway!</p> +<p>It was in 1886, too, that I first met Walter Bailey, between whom +and myself a friendship sprung up which grew in depth and sincerity +as time went on, lasted for thirty years, and was only terminated by +his lamented death in January, 1917. The friendship thus formed +yielded much pleasure and happiness to me and, I think I may safely +say, also to my departed friend. Bailey, who was about my own +age, came to Ireland from the <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>South-Eastern +Railway, soon after my settlement in Belfast, to fill the position of +Accountant to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. Two young +Englishmen, landed in Ireland, engaged in the same sort of business, +in the same city, would naturally gravitate towards each other but, +more than this, what made us such intimate friends were, tastes in common, +similarity of views, especially concerning railway affairs, a mutual +liking for literary matters, and—well, other less definable things +that form the foundation of all true friendships. Throughout our +long intimacy we often took counsel together on subjects of mutual interest, +but it was I who sought his advice and help much oftener than he sought +mine, for he was cleverer than I. Indeed in the whole railway +world I never met an intellect so quick, or so clear and luminous as +his.</p> +<p>Bailey was the most unselfish man I ever knew; the readiest to help +others. His pen, his remarkable stores of knowledge, and his spare +time too, were always at the service, not only of his friends, but often +of those who were scarcely more than mere acquaintances. The amount +of work which he cheerfully imposed upon himself in this way was astounding +and never was it done grudgingly or half-heartedly, but always promptly +and generously. It afforded him a pleasure that only one endowed +as he could feel. This part of him was often the subject of talk +with those of us who knew him well. But what charmed <i>me</i> +most, more even than his brilliant mental gifts, were the sweetness +of his disposition and his quaintly quizzical and happy humour. +Ambition was not strong in him, was in fact all but absent, and he often +rallied me on mine. He never in all his life asked for any improvement +in salary or position; but, in spite of his inveterate modesty, rose +high, became Chief Accountant of the Midland Railway of England and, +I should say, the leading railway accountant in the United Kingdom. +On railway matters he was a writer of great skill, and all he wrote +was enlivened with the happiest humour. To the <i>Railway News</i> +he was a valued contributor, and in railway polemics a master.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/bailey.jpg"> +<img alt="Walter Bailey" src="images/bailey.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The Director on the County Down with whom I became most intimate +was the Right Honourable (then Mr.) Thomas Andrews. He was brother +to Judge Andrews; brother-in-law of Lord Pirrie; became Chairman of +the Company; was made a Privy Councillor; a Deputy Lieutenant of Down; +High <!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>Sheriff +of that County and President of this and that, for he was a man of ability +and character, but simple in mind and manners as the best men mostly +are. Eloquent in speech, warm-hearted and impulsive, he found +it difficult to resist a joke, even at the expense of his friend. +In April, 1890, he wrote me: “I hope you were not at all annoyed +at my pleasantries to Mr. Pinion. I am not exactly one of those +men who would rather lose a friend than a joke, but I find it hard to +resist a joke when a good opportunity presents itself. I am bound +to say that I would be sorry to annoy you, by a jest or in any other +way.” His temper was lively but though quickly roused soon +subsided, and he never harboured resentment. At the conclusion +of the very first Board meeting I attended as general manager at the +County Down, he followed me into my room, complimented me on the way +I had discussed the business of the day, and added: “I’m +sure you’ll be successful in Ireland for you have the <i>suaviter +in modo</i> combined with the <i>fortiter in re</i>.” It +was a pretty compliment, and sincere I knew, for no one could meet him +without recognising his frank outspoken nature. On the threshold +of my new work such encouragement greatly cheered me and increased my +determination to do my best. Until his death, not long ago, we +often corresponded on railway and other matters, and he was always my +staunch friend. He had a taste, too, for poetry which we sometimes +discussed. The <i>Thomas Andrews</i>, who went down with the <i>Titanic</i> +in the North Atlantic, on the 14th April, 1912, was his son, the story +of whose short but strenuous life, and its tragic end, is told in a +little book written by Shan F. Bullock. Sir Horace Plunkett wrote +an introduction to it, in which he says: “He was one of the noblest +Irishmen Ulster has produced in modern times, to whom came the supreme +test in circumstances demanding almost superhuman fortitude and self-control. +There was not the wild excitement of battle to sustain him; death had +to be faced calmly in order that others—to whom he must not even +bid farewell—might live.” A few minutes before the +end, so it is recorded, on the boat deck of the <i>Titanic</i>, the +grandest sight of him was seen, as he stood with wonderful calm, throwing +overboard deck chairs to those who were struggling in the water below. +He had no thought of himself, but only of duty and of others. +Then came the end: the <i>Titanic</i>, with a low long slanting dive +went down and with her Thomas Andrews. He was only 39, but had +attained the high position of a Managing Director of <!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>the +great firm of Harland and Wolff. I knew him as a boy, manly, handsome, +high-spirited, clever—“the father of the man.” +That this terrible tragedy shortened the life of <i>his</i> father is +certain.</p> +<p>In 1887, and again in 1888, Bailey and I took our holidays together, +visiting Normandy, Paris, Belgium, Holland and the Rhine, doing a great +deal of walking, which he liked as much as I. He was the prince +of travelling companions, always gay and sprightly, and spoke French +with great fluency. His happy disposition, unfailing good humour, +and keen enjoyment of everything, even of the occasional discomforts +that arose, as in travelling discomforts will arise, especially when +funds are not too plentiful, made every hour of our holiday enjoyable. +He had the happy gift of seeing always the humorous and the best side +of things. He acted as paymaster on our tours and presented with +great regularity records of our joint expenditure with the neatness +and accuracy of the perfect accountant. Never a pipe smoker, he +had no special interest in pipes, but to me the happiness of our first +holiday was increased by the colouring of a new meerschaum. In +this delightful art I was a disciple of Samuel Swarbrick, though I needed +not, as he did, the services of another in the early stages of the colouring +process. Whoever has been the votary of a meerschaum will understand +the pride with which I frequently displayed my pipe and its deepening +colour to Bailey, often to his great amusement I must admit. In +a hotel in the city of Antwerp, where we stayed for several days, we +occupied adjoining bedrooms having a communicating door. One night, +towards early morn, but before daylight had dawned, I was suddenly awakened +out of a sound sleep, and to my astonishment saw Bailey with lighted +candle standing by my bedside, with a serious look on his face. +“Great Scott! what’s the matter?” I exclaimed. +“<i>My dear boy, I can’t sleep; do let me see your pipe</i>,” +he answered. With such like pleasantries he beguiled the happy +times we spent together.</p> +<p>In these years I had another pleasure: I learned to ride, taking +lessons in horsemanship at a riding school in Belfast. I soon +acquired a firm seat, and my good friend H. H. (who was a practised +horseman, and then lived in Belfast too) and I had many delightful rides +in the beautiful country around the city. For many years, so far +as opportunity and means allowed, I indulged myself in this best of +all exercises.</p> +<h2><!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>CHAPTER +XVIII.<br /> +RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES, THE BLOCK, THE BRAKE, AND LIGHT RAILWAYS</h2> +<p>Until the autumn of 1888 nothing occurred to disturb the even tenor +of my way, and I pursued in peace my daily work at the County Down. +It was interesting work and pleasant to become personally acquainted +with the customers of the company, many of whom lived in towns and villages +some distance from the railway, and to gain their good will. It +was interesting and also satisfactory to gradually establish an improved +and efficient train service and to watch the traffic expand. It +was exhilarating to engage in lively competition with carriers by road +who, for short distance traffic, keenly competed with the railway. +It was good to introduce economies and improvements in working, and +gratifying to do what one could to help and satisfy the staff—a +thing, I need scarcely say, much easier to accomplish then than now.</p> +<p>And so the time passed until August, 1888, when the railway world +was deeply moved by the introduction of the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic +Act</i>.</p> +<p>This Act was the outcome of the Report of the Select Committee of +1881, before which Mr. James Grierson gave such weighty evidence. +One of the most important measures Parliament ever passed, it imposed +on railway companies an amount of labour and anxiety, prolonged and +severe, such as I hope they may not have to face again.</p> +<p>The Act, as I have stated before, altered the constitution of the +Railway <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>Commission, +and also effected minor alterations in the law relating to railways +and canals, but its main purpose was the revision of Maximum Rates and +Charges. It ordered each company to prepare a revised classification +of goods and a revised Schedule of Maximum Rates, and submit them to +the Board of Trade, who, after considering objections lodged against +them, were to agree (if they could) with the companies upon a classification +and schedule for adoption; and if they failed, to determine a classification +and schedule themselves. Public sittings at Westminster, Edinburgh +and Dublin, occupying 85 days, took place, but no agreement was reached; +and in their Report to Parliament the Board of Trade embodied a Revised +Classification and a standard Schedule of Maximum Rates for general +adoption. The Schedule included Terminals. In accordance +with the Act, it then became necessary for this Revised Classification +and Schedule to be confirmed by Parliament. Against them petitions +were lodged by both railways and traders, and the whole matter was referred +to a Joint Committee of both Houses. This Committee sat in 1891 +from April till July; but it was not until January, 1893, that all was +completed and the Revised Classification and the new rates brought into +force. Little time was afforded to the companies for their part +of the work. The whole system of rates was changed. New +rates had to be calculated on the new scale; thousands of rate books +had to be compiled, and millions of rates altered and revised. +It was a colossal task; impossible of fulfilment in the time allowed. +The application of the new Schedule forcibly reduced many rates, inflicting +much loss upon the companies, and because the companies advanced other +rates (within the limits of the new maximum powers of course) to meet +this loss, or to meet it to some extent, a storm of abuse arose and +swept across the land. A trader from Berwick-on-Tweed, more frank +than most, wrote the following “characteristic” letter as +it was called at the time:—</p> +<p>“What we want is to have our fish carried at <i>half</i> present +rates. We don’t care a --- whether it pays the railways +or not. Railways ought to be made to carry for the good of the +country, or they should be taken over by the Government. That +is what all Traders want and mean to try to get.”</p> +<p><!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>Perhaps +they would not be happy if they got it! In his clear, and most +interesting book <i>Railways and Their Rates</i>, my friend Edwin A. +Pratt says this letter was quoted in the Report which the Board of Trade +made to Parliament after their 85 days’ Inquiry. The railway +companies announced that the new rates were in no sense final, that +the time allowed them was insufficient for proper revision, that they +would give an assurance that no increase would be made that would interfere +with trade or agriculture or diminish traffic and that, unless under +exceptional circumstances, no increase would in any case exceed 5 per +cent. But all was in vain, and Parliament passed an Act which +provided that any increase whatever (though within the limits of the +new statutory maximum) if complained of, should be heard and decided +upon by the Railway Commissioners, and that the onus of proving the +reasonableness of the increase should rest on the railway company. +Sir Alexander (then Mr.) Butterworth, in his book on <i>The Law Relating +to Maximum Rates and Charges on Railways</i>, published in 1897, says +this remarkable result is presented: that Parliament, “after probably +the most protracted inquiry ever held in connection with proposed legislation, +decided that certain amounts were to be the charges which railway companies +should for the future be entitled to make, and in 1894 apparently accepted +the suggestion that many of the charges, sanctioned after so much deliberation, +were unreasonable, and enacted that to entitle a company to demand them, +it should not be sufficient that the charge was within any limit fixed +by an Act of Parliament.” Thus Parliament, yielding to popular +clamour, stultified itself, and in feverish haste to placate an angry +and noisy public tied the hands of the railway companies, doing, I believe, +more harm than good. This legislation naturally made the companies +very cautious in reducing a rate because of the difficulties to be encountered +should circumstances require them to raise it again, and railway rates +thus lost that element of elasticity and adaptability so essential to +the development of trade. Many a keen and enterprising business +man have I heard lament the restrictions that Parliament imposed and +declare that such interference with the freedom of trade was short-sighted +in the extreme and bad for the country.</p> +<p>Immediately after the passing of the Act of 1888 the railway companies +vigorously attacked the work imposed upon them. A special meeting +on <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>the +subject was held at the Irish Railway Clearing House in Dublin for the +purpose of preparing a revised Classification and Schedule of Rates. +This was a rare opportunity for me and I eagerly availed myself of it. +Before I left Glasgow it will be remembered I had been entrusted with +an examination of the statutory charging powers of the Glasgow and South-Western +company, and with the drawing up of a suggested scale of maximum rates. +No similar work had yet been done in Ireland, and it was altogether +new to the Irish companies. I produced copies of the statements +which I had prepared in Glasgow, and they served as a basis for what +had to be done, saved much time and trouble and gained for me no little +<i>kudos</i>. But more than this resulted. As I have hinted +before, and as will hereafter appear, this bit of Glasgow work led to +my promotion to a greater charge than the busy little County Down, which +though I loved it well, I had begun to feel I was now outgrowing. +Many other meetings at the Clearing House followed in which I took part +with increasing confidence, and in which Walter Bailey also prominently +figured. He and I were hand and glove. Cotton, who soon +discovered that Bailey was an authority on the subject, as indeed he +was on most railway matters, was not slow to profit by his knowledge +and ability. He brought him to all our meetings, and valuable +was the help that Bailey gave.</p> +<p>In 1889 there came into operation the <i>Regulation of Railways Act</i>. +It invested the Board of Trade with power to order any company to adopt +block working, to interlock all points and signals, and to use on all +trains carrying passengers automatic continuous brakes. Before +issuing the order the Board consented to hear any representations which +the railways desired to make. The smaller companies, upon which +the expenditure involved would press very hardly, and the circumstances +of whose traffic seemed scarcely to require the same elaborate precautions +for safety in working as the bigger and more crowded systems, banded +together and waited on the Board of Trade. Upon me devolved the +duty of presenting the case for the smaller Irish companies, and upon +Conacher, of the Cambrian, for the smaller English lines. How +finely Conacher spoke I well remember. He had an excellent voice, +possessed in a high degree the gift of concise and forcible expression, +and his every word told. But our eloquence accomplished <!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>little—some +small modification regarding mixed trains, and that was all. Many +of the lines in Ireland serving districts where population is scanty, +traffic meagre, and trains consequently infrequent, could well have +been spared the costly outlay which the Act involved. Three or +four trains each way per day represent the train service on many of +these small railways, and some of the sections of the larger lines warrant +little more. Take, for instance, the case of the Midland Great-Western. +On 330 out of its 538 miles not more than six trains each way in the +24 hours are required, and they could probably be reduced without hurting +anyone. These figures relate not to the exceptional war time in +which I pen these lines, when stern necessity has sweepingly reduced +the train service, but to pre-war days when normal conditions prevailed. +Half a dozen trains each way per day! In England there are as +many, or more, in the hour!</p> +<p>The Act of 1889 also dealt with the working hours of railway men +whose duty involved the safety of trains or passengers, and required +each company to make periodical returns of those employed for longer +hours than were to be named from time to time by the Board of Trade; +and it contained further a useful clause to the effect that the fares +were in future to be printed on passenger tickets. I should not +be surprised if this simple little clause has not brought more real +satisfaction to the minds and hearts of the people of the British Isles +than all the laboured legislation on railway rates and charges.</p> +<p>In the year 1889 a great fillip was given to the extension of railways +in Ireland by the passing of the <i>Light Railways (Ireland) Act</i>. +It was familiarly known as “Balfour’s Act.” +Mr. Balfour was then Chief Secretary of Ireland, and it was due to him +that it was passed. The Act was designed “to facilitate +the construction of Light Railways in Ireland,” and embodied various +recommendations of the Allport Commission. It was the first introduction +of the principle of State aid by free money grants. Such aid was +conditional upon the light railway being constructed or worked by an +existing railway company, except in cases where the Baronies guaranteed +dividends upon a portion of the capital. The amount which the +Treasury was authorised to grant was £600,000. In 1896 this +was increased by a further sum of £500,000, and both were, in +addition to a capital sum, <!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>represented +by £40,000 per annum which had been granted under previous legislation. +Under this Act and Acts of 1890 and 1896, over 300 miles, comprising +15 separate lines, were constructed at a total cost, exclusive of what +the railway companies contributed, of £1,849,967, of which the +Government contribution was £1,553,967. Although the lines +were promoted under Light Railway Acts, and the Government grants were +based upon light railway estimates, Parliamentary power was obtained +to construct, maintain, and work them as other than light railways. +This was taken advantage of by some of the working companies who, in +eight instances contributed themselves a considerable amount of capital, +in order that the lines should be made sound and substantial, of the +usual gauge, and such as could be worked by the ordinary rolling stock +of the company. The Midland Great-Western, for instance, so expended +no less than £352,000 of their capital on “Balfour Lines” +in the west. It was a spirited thing to do.</p> +<p>Of the 309 miles of “light” railways, made under the +1889 and subsequent Acts, 194 were constructed on the ordinary gauge +of the country, 5 feet 3 inches, and the remainder on a 3-foot gauge.</p> +<p>Several Light Railway or Tramway Acts were passed in Ireland between +1860 and 1883, under which 295 miles of light railways at a cost of +£1,389,784 were constructed. With the exception of the small +sum of £144,804, the interest on the whole of this capital was +guaranteed by the Baronies, the Treasury repaying the Baronies one-half +but not to exceed two per cent.</p> +<p>The lines constructed under “Balfour’s Act” are +situated mostly in Connemara, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal, serving districts +remote and thinly populated, where as commercial ventures they could +not have been projected. That they have proved to be of great +benefit to the country is beyond question. They have developed +fishing and agriculture, and have brought the tourist into districts +little visited before. Live stock and farm produce are able to +reach their market, and places before isolated are in touch with the +outer world.</p> +<p>One of the first of the railways made under the 1889 Act was a short +line of 8 miles from the County Down line at Downpatrick to the little +fishing village of Ardglass. It stood first on the list of lines +recommended <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>for +construction in the Report of the Allport Commission. Primarily +it was intended for the development of the herring traffic which for +years had abounded on the coast, but no sooner was the line opened, +than that perverse migratory fish sought other seas, and did not return +to Ardglass for I don’t know how long.</p> +<p>The promotion of the Ardglass railway, and the steps necessary for +obtaining an Order in Council for its construction and working, familiarised +me with the Light Railway Legislation of Ireland, with which in subsequent +years I was often concerned.</p> +<p>In the autumn of 1889, in company with Mr. Jackson (afterwards Lord +Allerton), then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Andrews and other directors +of the County Down, I visited Ardglass. Under the new Act the +Treasury, in connection with the projected railway construction, held +the purse strings, and the Treasury, so far as we were concerned, was +Mr. Jackson. We of the County Down were keen on getting the line +sanctioned, and were very anxious concerning Mr. Jackson’s visit. +He was a man who drove a hard bargain, so it was said. Certainly +he was an able man, and I greatly admired him that day. Later +in life, when he was Lord Allerton, and Chairman of the Great Northern +Railway of England, I met him again and liked him well.</p> +<p>In 1889 there were no <i>light railways</i> in Great Britain, or +practically none. Except in Ireland they are of modern growth. +What really constitutes a light railway it is not easy to say. +Commonly it is thought to be a matter of gauge, but that is not so. +Mr. Acworth says: “such a definition is in the nature of things +impossible,” but that, “a light railway must be something +simpler and cheaper than an ordinary railway.” Mr. Cole +says that “the natural demand for a definition must he frankly +met with the disappointing reply that a hard and fast definition, at +once concise, exact, and comprehensive is not forthcoming, and that +a partial definition would be completely misleading.” As +such authorities are unable to furnish a definition I shall not attempt +it, and will content myself with suggesting that the most recognisable +feature of a <i>light</i> railway is its <i>light</i> traffic.</p> +<h2><!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>CHAPTER +XIX.<br /> +GOLF, THE DIAMOND KING, AND A STEAM-BOAT SERVICE</h2> +<p>Thought not a golfer myself, never having taken to the game in earnest, +or played on more than, perhaps, twenty occasions in my life, I may +yet, I think, in a humble way, venture to claim inclusion amongst the +pioneers of golf in Ireland, where until the year 1881 it was unknown. +In the autumn of that year the Right Honourable Thomas Sinclair, Dr. +Collier, of “British History” fame, and Mr. G. L. Baillie, +a born golfer from Scotland, all three keen on the game, set themselves +in Belfast to the task of establishing a golf club there. They +succeeded well, and soon the Belfast Golf Club, to which is now added +the prefix <i>Royal</i>, was opened. The ground selected for the +links was the <i>Kinnegar</i> at Holywood, and on it the first match +was played on St. Stephen’s Day in 1881. That was the beginning +of golf in Ireland. Mr. Baillie was the Secretary of the Club +till the end of 1887, when a strong desire to extend the boundaries +of the Royal game in the land of his adoption led him to resign the +position and cast around for pastures new. Portrush attracted +him, engaged his energies, and on the 12th May, 1888, a course, which +has since grown famous, was opened there. About this time I made +his acquaintance and suggested Newcastle, the beautiful terminus of +the County Down railway, as another likely place. On a well remembered +day in December, 1888, he accompanied me there, and together we explored +the ground, and finished up with one of those excellent dinners for +which the lessee of our refreshment rooms and his <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>capable +wife (Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence) were famous, as many a golfer I am sure, +recollects. Mr. Baillie’s practised eye saw at once the +splendid possibilities of Newcastle. Like myself, he was of an +enthusiastic temperament, and we both rejoiced. I remembered the +shekels that flowed to the coffers of the Glasgow and South-Western +from the Prestwick and Troon Golf Courses on their line, and visions +of enrichment for my little railway rose before me. Very soon +I induced my directors to adopt the view that the railway company must +encourage and help the project. This done the course was clear. +They were not so sanguine as I, but they had not lived in Scotland nor +seen how the Royal game flourished there and how it had brought prosperity +to many a backward place. Mr. Baillie’s energy, with the +company’s co-operation to back it, were bound to succeed, and +on the 23rd March, 1889, with all the pomp and ceremony suitable to +the occasion (including special trains, and a fine luncheon given by +the Directors of the Company) the Golf links at Newcastle, Co. Down, +were formally opened by the late Lord Annesley. From that time +onward golf in Ireland advanced by leaps and bounds. Including +Newcastle, there were then in the whole country, only six clubs and +now they number one hundred and sixty-eight! The County Down Railway +Company’s splendid hotel on the links at Newcastle, with its 140 +rooms, and built at a cost of £100,000, I look upon as the crowning +glory of our golfing exploration on that winter day in 1888. To +construct such a hotel, at such a cost, was a plucky venture for a railway +possessing only 80 miles of line, but the County Down was always a plucky +company, and the Right Honourable Thomas Andrews, its Chairman, to whom +its inception and completion is chiefly due, was a bold, adventurous +and successful man.</p> +<p>Another experience somewhat removed from ordinary railway affairs +that helped to enliven the latter part of my time on the County Down, +and added variety to the work imposed by the Railway and Canal Traffic +Act and the revision of Rates and Charges, was a project in which I +became engaged connected with the Isle of Man.</p> +<p>Joseph Mylchreest was a Manxman, a rough diamond but a man of sterling +worth. He left home when young and worked first as a ship’s +carpenter. An adventurous spirit led him to seek his fortune in +various <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>parts +of the world—in the goldfields of California and Australia and +in the silver mines of Peru and Chili. Later on he went to South +Africa, where in the diamond mines he met with great success and made +a large fortune. His property there he disposed of to Cecil Rhodes, +and it now, I am told, forms part of the De Beers Consolidated Company’s +assets. In the late eighties he returned to his native island, +settled at Peel, and became a magnate there.</p> +<p>One afternoon early in the year 1889 two gentlemen from the Isle +of Man called upon me at my office. They were Mr. Mylchreest (the +“<i>Diamond King</i>”) and a lawyer friend whose name I +forget, but I remember they informed me they were both members of the +House of Keys. Mr. Mylchreest was anxious to do something to develop +the little port of Peel, his native town, and a steamboat service between +Peel and Belfast, Bangor or Donaghadee, seemed to him and his friends +a promising project. What did the County Down think? Would +either Bangor or Donaghadee be better than Belfast? If so, would +my company join in and to what extent? We had no power to expend +money in steamboat enterprise, but I assured them we would do all we +could to help in other ways, and that Bangor was the port to select. +My directors heartily approved and other interviews followed. +Once, I had hurriedly to go over to Peel to meet Mr. Mylchreest and +his lawyer, on a certain day, as some hitch had arisen, and by this +time I was desperately keen on getting the steamboat service started. +The only way of reaching Peel in time was by a collier steamer, belonging +to the East Downshire Coal Co., which plied between Dundrum on the Co. +Down coast, and Whitehaven; the manager of the company was my friend, +and would allow the steamer to drop me at Peel. It was a memorable +crossing, the weather was <i>bad</i> and so was I. But my journey +was successful, and soon the Peel and North of Ireland Steamship Company, +Limited, in which the “<i>Diamond King</i>” was much the +largest shareholder, was established, and on the 26th June, 1889, the +first voyage was made from Peel to Bangor. It was a great event +for the quiet little town of Peel. Mr. Mylchreest had invited +all his friends to the inaugural service, in addition a good number +of the public travelled, and the steamer arrived at Bangor with nearly +300 passengers on board. On the return voyage from Bangor to Peel +the same evening the “<i>Diamond King</i>” <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>gave +a great dinner, champagne and speeches freely flowed, and music and +dancing enlivened the proceedings. The service prospered for a +time, but the traffic did not reach expectations. Ultimately it +was taken over by the Isle of Man Steampacket Coy., and after a few +years discontinued.</p> +<p>Little more remains to be told of my five and a-half years’ +sojourn in the north of Ireland. They were pleasant and profitable +years for mind and body. With health improved, experience gained +in <i>practical</i> railway work, knowledge acquired by personal contact +with men of all sorts and conditions, I felt strong and confident, ready +for anything, and, like Micawber, longed for something to turn up.</p> +<p>Early in October, 1890, Walter Bailey and I took our second Continental +holiday together. We re-visited Paris, but spent most of our three +weeks in a tour through Belgium, finishing up at Brussels. When +we reached London I received a letter from my friend, W. R. Gill, Secretary +of Bailey’s railway, the Belfast and Northern Counties. +It was to tell me that the position of Manager of the Midland Great +Western Railway of Ireland had become vacant, and suggested that I should +return home by way of Dublin and call upon the chairman of the company, +Sir Ralph Cusack, in regard to the succession. Now something <i>had</i> +turned up, and Bailey declared I was as good as appointed. At +dinner that night we indulged in a bottle of sparkling wine—in +nothing meaner would my warm-hearted friend drink success to the prospect +that had so unexpectedly opened before me.</p> +<p>The Midland Great Western was the third largest railway in Ireland, +nor, in the matter of length of line, was there very much between the +three. The Great Southern and Western consisted of 522 miles, +the Great Northern 487, and the Midland Great Western 432, nearly seven +times as long as the County Down. No wonder I felt elated.</p> +<p>How it all came about was in this way. Skipworth, the London +and North-Western Manager in Ireland, was on very friendly terms with +Sir Ralph Cusack, and Sir Ralph had a high opinion of his judgment. +He consulted Skipworth about a manager and asked if he knew any railway +man in Ireland, not too old, who would do. Said Skipworth, “Tatlow +of the County Down. He has shown up remarkably well at the Clearing +House over this terrible Railway and Canal Traffic Act, and seems to +know <!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>all +about it.” And so I was appointed, and thus it was that +the bit of work in Glasgow, of which I have spoken more than once, brought +me this substantial promotion. My friend Gill not long before +had left the service of the Midland Great Western, where he was Assistant +Secretary, to become Secretary of the Belfast and Northern Counties +Railway, and when Sir Ralph wrote to him about me he valiantly backed +up Skipworth’s fine recommendation. Skipworth was himself +for several years manager of the Midland Great Western. He gave +up the post when he joined the London and North-Western as their Irish +Manager. It is good for a man to have friends, and I have been +fortunate throughout my life in possessing many.</p> +<p>In December, 1890, I left the County Down to enter upon my duties +as manager of the Midland Great Western. The County Down Directors, +at their Board meeting on the 16th of that month, passed a minute recording +their “high appreciation of the ability with which he” (my +humble self) “has discharged his duties as general manager,” +adding that “his uniform courtesy, tact and judgment, added to +his strict sense of honour, secured him the confidence of the Board.” +Need I say that I was proud of this testimonial, and as pleased as proud, +because it went on to wish me success in my new duties, where I would +“have a wider field for the exercise of my talents,” and +begged my “acceptance of a cheque as a mark of regard.” +This was better than the <i>walking stick</i> with which a certain railway +officer, who was not too popular with his staff, was, it is said, presented +by them, when he left for a bigger post on another line.</p> +<h2><!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>CHAPTER +XX.<br /> +THE MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY OF IRELAND</h2> +<p>I had now completed one half of my active railway life; reached the +age of 39; and, no longer a rolling stone, was settled in the service +of a company with which I was destined to remain for the rest of my +railway career. That my aspirations were satisfied I do not pretend, +for ambition forbade any settled feeling of rest or content. Happily, +my nature inclined to the sunny side and disappointments never spoiled +my enjoyment of life or marred the pleasure I found in my daily work. +My friend, Edward John Cotton, who, like myself, was an imported Englishman, +had, like me, indulged in dreams of going back to England to fill some +great railway post, but he had reached his sixties and his dreams were +over. Often, when we talked familiarly together, he would say: +“Joseph, if you aspire to be a general manager in England you +ought never to have come to Ireland. They don’t think much +on the other side of Irish railways or Irish railway men.” +This, I daresay, was true, though he, well known, liked and admired +as he was, ought to have been considered an exception, and why no British +railway company, when posts were going, ever snapped him up is hard +to say. Later on, even I, once or twice narrowly escaped obtaining +a good thing on the English side of the Channel, but it never <i>quite</i> +came off, and so I was left to make myself as happy as I could in Ireland.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was as well. Railway life in Ireland, though not +highly remunerated, had its compensations as most situations in life +have. There <!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>the +pressure of work was less constant and severe than in England. +A railway manager was not confined to crowded cities, and enjoyed more +breathing space. When he travelled on his line he came in contact +with bucolic interests instead of the whirring wheels of trade. +Time moved more slowly, greater leisure prevailed, the climate was softer, +the country greener, manners easier, and more wit and humour abounded. +Yes, on the whole, I was more fortunate than had my ambitious hopes +been realised to the full. At least I think so now; and, as Hamlet +says, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes +it so.”</p> +<p>One immediate advantage I gained by entering the Midland Great Western +service. Until then I had no chance of joining a superannuation +fund. The Glasgow and South-Western had none, neither had the +County Down; but the Midland Great Western was a party to the Clearing +House Superannuation Corporation, and of it I became a member.</p> +<p>The Midland Great Western, as I have said, is the third largest railway +in Ireland. It stretches from the Liffey to the Atlantic, serves +the plains of Meath, the wilds of Connaught, and traverses large expanses +of bog. Galway, Sligo, Westport, Athlone and Mullingar are the +principal towns on its system.</p> +<p>When I became its manager, Sir Ralph Cusack had been chairman of +the railway for nearly a quarter of a century and was in his sixty-ninth +year. He attended daily in his office, devoting much time to the +company’s affairs. Although my position was not all I could +have wished in the matter of that wide authority I coveted, and which, +in my humble opinion, every railway manager should possess, it was in +many respects very satisfactory, and every lot in life has its crumpled +rose leaf. Sir Ralph regarded me as an <i>expert</i>, which, notwithstanding +all his long experience as chairman, he did not himself pretend to be, +and <i>railway experts</i> he held in high esteem. He supported +me consistently, permitting no one but himself to interfere with anything +I thought it right to do. I did not, to be sure, always get my +own way, but I accomplished much, and, what I cared for most, was able +to do good work for the company. Enthusiasm for one’s work +is a splendid thing, and so is loyalty to one’s employers. +I make no boast of possessing these, for they were common property; +they permeated <!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>the +railway service and inspired the youngest clerk as well as his chief. +Sometimes in these latter days I imagine such things are changed, though +I would like to think it is only an old man’s fancy, as it was +in the case of the dear old Dubliner, who in his time had been a beaux +and had reached his eightieth year. One sunny forenoon when airing +himself in a fashionable street of the city, he was met by another old +crony, who accosted him with:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Well, old friend, how are you this morning?”</p> +<p>“Oh, very well, thanks, quite well, only—” he responded.</p> +<p>“Only what?” asked his friend.</p> +<p>“Only the pavements are harder and the girls are not so pretty +as they used to be,” he replied with a whimsical look of regret +in his face and a twinkle in his still bright eye.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Sir Ralph was a man of striking appearance, tall and imposing in +figure. His head was massive and fine. His full beard was +snowy white, as white as his abundant hair which was of a beautifully +soft silky texture, with a sheen like satin. His voice was low +and at times not very distinct. This was disappointing as his +conversation was always interesting, not only for its intrinsic value, +but also by reason of his charmingly varied and copious vocabulary, +and his perfectly balanced phrases. Naturally and without the +least effort the aptest words sprang to his lips in perfect order and +sequence. His letters, too, were always exceedingly well expressed. +He wrote a neat, sloping, rather flowing and somewhat old-fashioned +hand, which greatly resembled the writing of Beau Brummell, and, like +the illustrious Beau’s, his numerals, which is rare nowadays, +were very clearly and very beautifully formed. The Prince of Beaux +was fastidious in his penmanship as in everything else. Sir Ralph’s +half-yearly speeches to the shareholders, though delivered extempore, +were models of perspicuity. He used the scantiest notes, mere +headings of subjects, and a few scraps of paper containing figures which +he usually remembered without their aid. Of his memory he was +proud. One day, at a meeting of the Board, after recalling particulars +of some old transaction which no one else could in the least recollect, +he turned to me and said: “Well, Tatlow, you see I sometimes remember +something.” <!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>I +rejoined: “Well, Sir Ralph, my only complaint is that you never +forget anything.” The little compliment pleased him. +Never in his whole life, he said, had he written out a speech, and hoped +he never would, but he lived to do so once. As he advanced in +years his voice grew weaker, and on the last occasion on which he presided +at a meeting of shareholders, he wrote his speech, or partly wrote it +and, at his request, I read it to the meeting. Reported verbatim +his addresses read as though they had been composed and written with +the utmost care, so precise and correct was the language and so consecutive +the matter. Though few could hope to do so well as he, I have +always thought that in addressing shareholders, railway chairmen might +trust less to formally prepared speeches and more to their powers of +extemporaneous exposition. Some chairmen do this I know, but others +still read from manuscript. However able the matter, the reading, +in my judgment, is much less effective than the spontaneous expression +of the speaker. The atmosphere created by the meeting, often a +valuable adjunct, cannot be taken advantage of when the speech is read, +nor can the chance of improvising a telling point, of enforcing an argument, +or of seizing a passing mood of the audience or some fleeting incident +of the moment.</p> +<p>Sir Ralph was made a Director of the Midland Great Western Company +in 1864, and a year later was elected chairman, a position he occupied +for the long period of 39 years. In 1864 the railway was in a +very bad condition, wretchedly run down, and woefully mismanaged. +Indeed, according to an official report at the time, worse than mismanagement +existed. It was stated: “There were grave charges of official +corruption which necessitated the retirement of one of the leading officers +from the company’s service.” This was very exceptional +in railway history, for British and Irish railways possess a record +that has rarely been sullied. In my long career I only remember +two other instances—one, the famous <i>Redpath</i> fraud (a name +not inappropriate for one whose destiny it was to tread a road that +led to his ruin) on the Great Northern in 1856, which Sir Henry (then +Mr.) Oakley greatly assisted in discovering, and which, I believe, led +to his first substantial advancement; the other on the Belfast and Northern +Counties in 1886. This was in Edward John Cotton’s time, +but it would be superfluous to say that <i>he</i> was clear of blame +for he was integrity itself. That the <!-- page 119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>occurrence +could have happened during his management distressed him greatly I know.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/cusack.jpg"> +<img alt="Sir Ralph Cusack" src="images/cusack.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>When he was elected to the office of Chairman, Sir Ralph, it is said, +accepted the position on the understanding that he should have autocratic +power. In the task he undertook this was very likely desirable, +and once acquired he was not the man to let such power slip from his +grasp. His strong hands would firmly retain whatever they wished +to hold.</p> +<p>In 1865 no less than 15 directors <i>adorned</i> the Midland Great +Western Board, twice too many no doubt the chairman thought for a railway +of 344 miles. In 1867 they were reduced to 8; in 1877 to 7; since +when they have never numbered more. During the long period of +Sir Ralph’s occupancy of the chair no deputy chairman existed. +The chairman reigned alone. That he was an <i>autocratic</i> chairman, +his brother directors, were they now living, would I am sure attest. +But though a strong, it was a beneficent sway that he exercised. +He could be hard at times, but his nature was essentially kind and generous +and his friendships numerous and lasting. He prided himself on +his knowledge of the railway staff, down to the humblest member. +He had strong likes and dislikes, and those who came under his displeasure +had sometimes cause to fear him; but they were amongst the few, and +the many remember him with nothing but the kindest feelings. To +me he was always a warm and sincere friend, and between us existed, +without interruption, the greatest frankness and confidence.</p> +<p>How wonderfully adaptable a creature is man. I had not been +a fortnight in my new position when I felt myself quite at home, as +though Dublin and the West of Ireland had been my natural habitat. +Belfast and the County Down receded into the past; and shall I confess +it? much as I had liked the north, much as I admired the industry, manliness +and energy of its people, much as I had enjoyed my life there, and highly +as I esteemed the friends I had made, something I found in my new surroundings—easier +manners, more of gaiety, and an admixture of pleasure with work—that +added to life a charm I had hitherto missed, not only in the North of +Ireland but in Glasgow and Derby as well.</p> +<p>The Secretary of the Midland Great Western Railway, George William +Greene, and Martin Atock, the locomotive engineer, were good fellows, +and <!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>warm +friends of each other. I became and remained the sincere friend +of both until death took them hence. My principal assistant, called +<i>Assistant Manager</i>, was John P. Hornsby, now in his 85th year +and living in New Zealand. Robert Morrison, whom I stole for his +good sense, manly worth, and excellent railway ability, from the Belfast +and Northern Counties in October, 1891, succeeded Hornsby as my assistant. +Afterwards he became goods manager at the time Thomas Elliot was appointed +superintendent of the line, two appointments which relieved me of much +detailed work.</p> +<p>“The battle of Newcomen Junction” was raging at the time +I joined the “Midland,” as for shortness we dubbed the Midland +Great Western and which, for the same reason, I shall continue to dub +it, as convenience may require, during the continuance of my story. +If I have occasion to again speak of my <i>alma mater</i>, the Midland +of England, it shall, for the sake of clearness, be so designated. +“The battle of Newcomen Junction.” What of it? +In railway circles, not only in Ireland but in England and Scotland +too, it caused some talk at the time and no little amusement. +Like many another conflict, ‘twere better it had never been fought, +for it left for long afterwards angry feelings where peace and amity +should have existed, and it gained nothing that discussion and compromise +could not have effected. The City of Dublin Junction Railway, +a small line, a little over a mile in length (worked by the Dublin and +South-Eastern Company) was formed to link up the Dublin railways and +to provide through routes in connection with the Holyhead and Kingstown +Royal Mail steamers and the steamers of the London and North-Western +Company. A junction was authorised to be made at Newcomen with +the Midland Great Western system. Parliament had sanctioned a +junction, but not such a junction, the Midland said, as it was proposed +to make. It would be unsafe and unworkable they contended, and +they refused to allow it. The promoters insisted, the Midland +were obdurate; the promoters invaded the Midland premises, knocked down +a wall and entered on Midland land; the Midland gathered their forces, +drove back the attacking party, and restored the wall; again the attack +was made and repulsed and again the wall was demolished and re-built, +and so the warfare continued, until at length an armistice was declared +and the <i>casus belli</i> referred for settlement to the Railway Commissioners. +Soon I <!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>had +to prepare the Midland case for the Commissioners’ Court and give +evidence before them. They decided against us and I am sure they +were right, though of course I swore, as I was bound to do, that our +opposition to the junction was natural and proper and our opponents +were an unreasonable set of people. The Railway Commissioners +sat in Dublin to hear the case; it was my first appearance before them, +and I was sorry that appearance was not in a better cause.</p> +<p>My first few years in Dublin were as busy as could be. Much +was astir in the Irish railway world and particularly on the Midland, +which had their share (a larger share than the other companies) of the +“Balfour” extension lines in hand. The proceedings +under the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i> were also in full swing, +involving frequent meetings at the Irish Clearing House, and many journeys +to London. Hard upon all this came the work of preparing for a +Parliamentary fight. This I thought a joyful thing, and I was +eager for the fray. I had helped to prepare my old chief, Mr. +Wainwright, for such contests but had never been in one myself, had +never even been inside a committee room. In 1891 the Midland gave +public notice of their intention to acquire by Act of Parliament the +Athenry and Ennis Railway, and lodged a Bill for the purpose, which +was vigorously opposed. It was with great zest that I made my +preparations, arranged for witnesses, drafted briefs, consulted with +lawyers and counsel, and compiled my evidence, not neglecting the important +matter of visiting the district served by the railway we sought to acquire, +making friends and working up local feeling in our favour. How +the Bill proceeded, and what was its fate, will be set forth in another +chapter.</p> +<p>Very soon after I settled in Dublin I was able to carry out a long +cherished wish. Ever since I first arrived in Ireland I had hoped +to be able to establish an Irish branch of the Railway Benevolent Institution, +such as Mr. Wainwright and I had succeeded in forming in Scotland in +the year 1880, but whilst I remained in Belfast my efforts were of no +avail. When, however, I moved to Dublin and became manager of +one of the principal railways, the difficulties disappeared, and <i>The +History of the Railway Benevolent Institution, its Rise and Progress +from 1858 to 1897</i>, by <i>Mr. W. F. Mills</i>, its late Secretary, +contains the following:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>“In +February, 1891, Mr. Joseph Tatlow proposed to establish a Committee +in Ireland, where supporters were few and far between, and in the report +presented at the annual meeting in June, it was stated that ‘The +Board have great pleasure in announcing the appointment of a Committee +in Dublin, presided over by Mr. Tatlow, the manager of the Midland Great-Western, +and the founder of the successful Branch in Scotland.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Edward John Cotton warmly seconded my efforts, for his heart was +in the work, and he was proud of telling us that he was one of the few +surviving members of the first Board of Management of the parent Institution, +which had its first meeting in London in May, 1858. He was then +the newly-appointed manager of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, +and was only twenty-eight years of age. The Irish Branch, like +the Scotch, has been a great success. Its Committee of Management +consists of the principal officers of the Irish railways, and they have +brought home to the rank and file of the railway service a knowledge +of the society and the solid benefits that membership confers. +Year by year the membership has increased, and year by year the number +of old and needy railway servants, and their widows, who have been pensioned +from the funds, and the orphans who have been clothed, educated and +maintained, have grown greater and greater. The Irish railway +companies, the directors, the officers, and the public in Ireland, generously +contribute to the funds of the institution. I filled the office +of chairman of the Irish branch for 21 years, until in fact I retired +from active railway work, since when the chairmanship has been an annual +honour conferred upon the chairman for the year of the Irish Railway +Managers’ Conference. To quote again from Mr. Mills’ +book on the Institution:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Mr. Joseph Tatlow, at the Dinner in aid of the +Institution held in Dublin on October 23rd, 1902, said: ‘It is +now 30 years since I first became a collector for this Institution, +and when I look back on the past, if there is one matter in my life +which contains no grain of regret, it is my connection with the Institution, +as in regard to it I can feel nothing but honest pride and gratification.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 123--><a name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>I +am still a member of the Irish Committee, as well as of the London Board +of Management, and those words, spoken sixteen years ago, express my +feelings to-day.</p> +<p>Whilst writing the final words of this chapter the news reaches me +of the death of Mr. Mills, at the fine old age of eighty-seven. +He had a long and useful life, and the railway service owes him much. +He it was whose zeal and enthusiasm firmly established the Railway Benevolent +as a great institution. When, in 1861, he became its secretary, +the income was only £1,500, and on his retirement in 1897, at +the age of sixty-five, it had grown to £53,000. His mantle +fell upon his son, Mr. A. E. Mills, who inherits his father’s +enthusiasm and carries on the good work with great success, as attested +by the fact that for the year 1917 the income reached £106,000. +The invested funds of the society to-day amount to upwards of a million, +and in 1897 they were £476,000.</p> +<p>Mr. Mills senior I knew for forty years; and I often thought that, +search the world over, it would be hard to find his equal for the work +to which his life was devoted, and for which his talents were so specially +adapted.</p> +<h2><!-- page 124--><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>CHAPTER +XXI.<br /> +BALLINASLOE FAIR, GALWAY, AND SIR GEORGE FINDLAY</h2> +<p>A few days before the battle of Waterloo, during the journey to Brussels, +partly by canal and partly by road, of Amelia and her party, Mrs. Major +O’Dowd said to Jos Sedley: “Talk about kenal boats, my dear! +Ye should see the kenal boats between Dublin and Ballinasloe. +It’s there the rapid travelling is; and the beautiful cattle.” +“The rapid travelling” was by what was called the <i>fly +boat</i>, which was towed by three horses at a jog trot, and as to cattle, +the good-humoured eccentric lady, who Thackeray tells us came from County +Kildare, was thinking perhaps of the great Ballinasloe Fair where cattle +and sheep assemble in greater numbers, I believe, than at any other +live stock fair in the United Kingdom.</p> +<p>On the first Monday in October, 1891, to a special train of empty +carriages run by the Midland from Dublin for the purposes of this fair, +a vehicle, called the directors’ saloon was attached, and in it +the chairman of the company, most of the directors and the principal +officers travelled to Ballinasloe, there to remain until the conclusion +of the fair at the end of the week. It was my first introduction +to Ballinasloe.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/dargan.jpg"> +<img alt="William Dargan" src="images/dargan.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This saloon merits a word or two. It was built in the year +1844, was originally the property of William Dargan, the well-known +contractor and the promoter of the Dublin Exhibition of 1853, whose +statue adorns the grounds that front the Irish National Gallery. +Dargan made the Midland railway from Athlone to Galway, completed the +work before the specified <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>contract +time (in itself a matter worthy of note), and on its completion in 1851, +presented this saloon carriage to the company, which also, I think, +deserves to be recorded. Thus, in 1891, it was nearly 50 years’ +old and was handsome still. The panels were modelled on the old +stage coach design, and a great bow window adorned each end. In +the seventies and eighties it enjoyed the distinction of being the favourite +carriage, on the Midland, of the Empress of Austria in her hunting days +in Meath. This fine old carriage, now in its 75th year, does good +work still. It has had a new under frame, its roof has been raised, +and it looks good for another quarter of a century. Perhaps, granting +an originally sound constitution, its longevity is largely due to the +regular life it has led, never having been overworked, and having enjoyed +many periods of rest.</p> +<p>Ballinasloe fair has two specially big days—Tuesday and Friday—the +former devoted to the sale of sheep and the latter to cattle, though +in fact its commerce in cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, calves, rams and +goats, not to mention donkeys and mules, goes on more or less briskly +throughout the whole week, Saturday being remnant day when jobbers pick +up bargains. In 1891 the fair was not, and is not now, what it +once was, which recalls the answer a witty editor of <i>Punch</i> once +made to a friend. Said the said friend: “My dear fellow, +<i>Punch</i> is not so good as it used to be.” “No, +it never was,” came the quick rejoinder. But of Ballinasloe +fair I cannot say it never was, for a hundred years ago, in Peggy O’Dowd’s +time, in the west of Ireland it was the great event of the year, not +only for the sale of flocks and herds, but also for social gatherings, +fun and frolic, so at least I am told by the oldest inhabitant. +An older account still, says these fairs were a time for games and races, +pleasure and amusement, and eating and feasting, whilst another record +describes them as places “where there were food and precious raiment, +downs and quilts, ale and flesh meat, chessmen and chess boards, horses +and chariots, greyhounds, and playthings besides.” It is +curious that dancing is not mentioned, but dancing in the olden days +in Ireland was not, I believe, much indulged in. Eighty years +ago over 80,000 sheep entered the fair, and 20,000 cattle.</p> +<p>Arrived at Ballinasloe we established ourselves in quarters that +were part of the original station premises. These consisted of +a good sized dining-room, <!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>six +bedrooms, and an office for the manager and his clerk. The walls +and ceilings of the rooms were sheeted with pitch pine and varnished. +They were very plainly furnished, the only thing in the way of decoration +being a production in watercolour representing a fair green crowded +with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and adorned with sundry pastoral +and agricultural emblems, from the brush of my friend <i>Cynicus</i>. +This I framed and hung in the dining-room. As it had columns for +recording statistics of the fair for a period of years, it was instructive +as well as ornamental. Three of the bedrooms were on the ground +floor and were small apartments. The upstair rooms were much larger, +were situated in the roof, and were lit by skylight windows which commanded +a limited view of the firmament above but none whatever of the green +earth below. These upper rooms were reached by an almost perpendicular +staircase surmounted by a trap door, a mode of access convenient enough +for the young and active, but not suitable for those of us who had passed +their meridian. Two of these rooms were double-bedded and all +three led into each other. In the innermost, Atock, our locomotive +engineer, and I chummed together. He had slept there for many +years, with two previous managers, and, in Robinson Crusoe fashion, +had recorded the years by notches in a beam of the ceiling. The +notches for him then counted twenty-three years, and number one he notched +for me. Every morning an old jackdaw perched on a chimney outside +our skylight, and entertained us with his chatter. Atock said +the old bird had perched there during all his time; and as long as I +visited Ballinasloe—a period of nearly twenty years, he regularly +reappeared.</p> +<p>To be able once a year to entertain friends and customers of the +company was one of the reasons, probably the main reason, why the directors +passed the fair week at Ballinasloe. Their hospitality was not +limited to invitations to dinner, for guests were welcomed, without +special invitation, to breakfast and lunch and light refreshments during +the day. It was an arrangement which gave pleasure to both hosts +and guests, and was not without advantage to the company. A good +dinner solves many a difficulty, whilst the post-prandial cigar and +a glass of grog, like faith, removes mountains. One who, in the +last century, became a great English statesman (Lord John Russell) when +twenty years of age was in Spain. The Duc <!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>d’Infantado +was President of the Spanish Ministry at the time. The Duke of +Wellington was there too, and great banquets were being given. +The <i>Duc</i> had more than once visited Lord John’s home and +enjoyed its hospitality, but he neglected to invite Lord John to any +of his banquets; and this is the cutting comment which the youthful +future statesman recorded in his diary: “The Infantado, notwithstanding +the champagne and burgundy he got at Woburn, has not asked me. +Shabby fellow! It is clear he is unfit for the government of a +great kingdom.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/saloon.jpg"> +<img alt="The Dargan Saloon" src="images/saloon.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In the creature comforts provided at Ballinasloe the working staff +was not forgotten. Adjacent to the station was a large room in +which meals were provided for the men, and another large room was furnished +as a dormitory. Two long sleeping carriages had also been built +for the accommodation of drivers, guards and firemen, which were used +also for other fairs as well as that of Ballinasloe.</p> +<p>Ballinasloe was new to me, and I felt not a little anxious concerning +the working of the fair traffic, which I knew was no child’s play, +and which I was told was often attended with serious delays. Early +on Tuesday morning I was awakened, long before daylight, by the whistling +of engines, the shunting of wagons and the shouting of men. My +friend Atock and I rose early, went along to the loading banks where +we found the work in full swing and one special train loaded with sheep +ready to start. The entraining of sheep, not so difficult or so +noisy a business as the loading of cattle, is attended with much less +beating of the animals and with fewer curses; but there was noise enough, +and I can, in fancy, hear it ringing in my ears now. Throughout +the day I was besieged by grumbling and discontented customers: want +of wagons, unfair distribution, favouritism, delays, were the burden +of their complaints, and I had to admit that in the working of the Ballinasloe +fair traffic all was not perfect. The rolling stock was insufficient; +trains after a journey to Meath or Dublin with stock had to return to +Ballinasloe to be loaded again, which was productive of much delay; +and what added to the trouble was that everyone seemed to have a hand +in the management of the business. It gave me much to think about. +Before the next year’s fair I had the whole arrangements well +thrashed out, and when the eventful week arrived, placed the working +of the traffic under the <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>sole +control of my principal outside men, with excellent results. In +the course of a year or two the directors opened the purse strings and +considerably increased the engine and wagon stock of the company which +helped further, and by that time I had in charge an official, of whose +energy and ability it is impossible to speak too highly, Thomas Elliott, +then a promising young assistant, now the competent Traffic Manager +of the railway. Under his management the work at Ballinasloe has +for many years been conducted with clock-work regularity.</p> +<p>In 1891 there were 25,000 sheep at the fair, 10,000 cattle and 1,500 +horses, and the company ran 43 special trains loaded with stock. +The sheep fair is held in Garbally Park, on the estate of Lord Clancarty, +and the counting of the sheep through a certain narrow <i>gap</i>, and +the rapidity and accuracy with which it is done, is a sight to witness.</p> +<p>The hospitality part of the business was attended with the success +it deserved, and helped to smooth the difficulties of the situation. +I remember well our dinner on the Tuesday night. On the Monday +we dined alone, directors and officers only, but on Tuesday the week’s +hospitality began. That night our table was graced with five or +six guests, one being Robert Martin, of Ross, a famous wit and <i>raconteur</i>, +and the author of <i>Killaloe</i>. It was a delightful party, +for your Galway gentleman is a genial fellow, who likes a good dinner, +and a good story which he tells to perfection. Sir Ralph never +took the head of the table, liking best a less prominent seat; but his +seat, wherever he chose to sit, always seemed to be to the central place. +Never lacking natural dignity, he was not punctilious in mere matters +of form. Secure in his authority, to its outward semblance he +was rather indifferent. Another delightful guest was Sir George +(then Mr.) Morris, brother of the late Lord Morris, the distinguished +judge. Until a few months previously, Mr. Morris had been a director +of the company, but had resigned upon his appointment to the position +of Vice-President of the Irish Local Government Board. He, too, +was a Galway man, big, handsome, with a fine flowing beard, a fund of +humour, and the most genial disposition imaginable. His anecdotes +were ever welcome, and the smallest incident, embellished by his wit +and fancy, and told in his rich brogue, which he loved, were always +sufficient to adorn a tale. He was rare company, and though, perhaps, +he could not, like Swift, have written eloquently <!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>on +a broomstick, he could always talk delightfully on any subject he chose.</p> +<p>Whilst Sir Ralph remained chairman of the company, which he did until +the year 1904, the directors annual stay at Ballinasloe and its attendant +hospitality continued. He was not likely to give up a good old +custom. But time inevitably brings changes; for some years now +the old hospitality has ceased, the rooms at Ballinasloe are turned +into house accommodation for one or two of the staff, and the great +fair is worked with no more ado than a hundred other fairs on the line. +Not many complaints are made now, for delays and disappointments are +things of the past. Yet, I dare say there are some who, still +attending the fair, look back with regret on the disappearance of the +good old days.</p> +<p>Ballinasloe station is on the main line to Galway, 34 miles distant +from the “City of the Tribes.” Galway is the principal +western terminus of the Midland railway. It was once a famous +city, but its glory has gone. In 1831 its population was 33,000; +to-day it is 13,000! Then, measured by inhabitants, it was the +fifth town in Ireland; now it is the eighth. Then it had a large +trade with Spain and France, and was a place of note for general trade +and commerce; now its harbour is almost idle, and its warehouses and +stores nearly empty. Many of its stately old houses have disappeared, +and those that remain are mostly now tenements of the poor. Not +so very long ago Galway had a trans-Atlantic steamship service, and +when the railway was opened in 1851, there was opened also a fine hotel +adjoining the station, which the company had built, chiefly for trans-Atlantic +business, at a cost of £30,000. It may be that better times +are in store. Some day great harbour works will adorn the bay +of Galway, from which fine steamers, forming part of an Imperial route +to our Dominions and beyond, shall sail, and shorten the Atlantic voyage. +A tunnel too, <i>uniting</i> Great Britain and Ireland, may be made, +which all will agree, is “a consummation devoutly to be wished.”</p> +<p>Galway is the gateway to Connemara, and Connemara is one of the best +places under the sun for a healthy and enjoyable holiday. To be +sure the sun does not always shine when expected, but he is seen much +oftener than is generally believed. Of course, it sometimes rains, +but the rain never lasts long, for no place has such quick and surprising +climatic changes as the west <!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>of +Ireland or such enchanting atmospheric effects. I soon became +enamoured of Connemara, and for several years, in whatever time I could +call my own, explored its mountain roads and valleys, sometimes on horseback, +sometimes afoot, and sometimes on bicycle or outside car. The +construction of our “Balfour” extension line from Galway +to Clifden, begun in 1891 and finished in 1895, often called me on business +to the wilds it penetrated, and gladly I always answered the call. +Sometimes on these excursions one had to rough it a little, for hotel +accommodation was scarce and scanty in some of the districts, but in +one’s early forties such trifles scarcely count.</p> +<p>As soon as I took up office at Broadstone, Sir Ralph informed me +I was to be chairman of the Midland Great Western Benefit Society, which +was partly a sick fund, partly a pension fund and applied to all the +wages staff. It was managed by a committee of twelve, half of +whom were appointed by the directors and half by the employees. +Gladly I undertook a post which would bring me into close touch with +the men. I made a point of never, if I could help it, being absent +from a committee meeting; nor, more particularly, from the annual general +meeting of the society when I had to give an address. It was always +to me a pleasure to meet the men, to learn their views, and to help +them as far as I could. This they soon discovered, and I had the +satisfaction of knowing that I was liked and trusted. Early in +life I had learned to sympathise with the wants and wishes of others, +and sympathy I found increased one’s power of usefulness. +By sympathy I do not mean agreeing always with the men and their views, +and I never hesitated to strongly express to them my own convictions, +and rarely it was that they ever in the least resented the plainest +speaking. I believe if the responsible leaders of labour would +follow a similar course, it would be better for themselves, for the +men they lead, and for the world at large. The deputy-chairman +of the society was Michael O’Neill, the audit accountant of the +company, and if ever a plain-spoken man, blunt and direct of speech +existed, it was he. Every word he spoke had the ring of honest +sincerity. To the men he spoke more plainly even than I, and him +they never resented. I think their trust in him exceeded their +trust in me. True he was Irish and I was not, and then they had +known him much longer than me; and so, small blame to them, said I. +One good thing for the society I managed to do. I induced <!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>the +directors to treble the company’s annual contribution to its funds, +a substantial benefit, of course, to the men. I remained chairman +of the society, and Michael O’Neill its deputy chairman till 1912, +when the National Insurance Act came into operation. Then, by +a resolution of a majority of its members, it was wound up, to the regret, +however, of many of them, who preferred their own old institution which +they knew so well, and in the management of which they had a voice, +to what some of them styled “a new-fangled thing.”</p> +<p>The occasions on which I have met, for the first time, men eminent +in the railway world, and for whom I have had great admiration, have +always left upon me very clear impressions, and this was particularly +so in the case of Sir George Findlay, the General Manager of the London +and North-Western Railway. He was not, however, Sir George when +I met him first, but plain Mr. Findlay. It was in the year 1891, +the occasion being one of the periodical visits to Ireland of the London +and North-Western chairman, directors, and principal officers. +They gave a dinner at their hotel in Dublin to which, with other Irish +railway representatives, I was invited. My seat at dinner was +next to Mr. Findlay, and I had much conversation with him. Then +in his sixty-third year, he was, perhaps, interested in a young Englishman, +21 years his junior, who had not long begun his career as a railway +manager, and who showed some eagerness in, and, perhaps, a little knowledge +of, railway affairs.</p> +<p>I remember well the impression he made upon me. I felt I was +in the presence of a strong, natural man, gifted with great discernment +and ability but full also of human kindness. His face was one +which expressed that goodness which the consciousness of power imparts +to strong natures. He was a notable as well as what is called +“a self-made” man, a fact of which he never boasted but +I think was a little proud. He commenced work at the early age +of fourteen as a mason—a boy help he could only have been—and +continued a mason for several years. He was employed in the building +of the new Houses of Parliament and much of the stone work and delicate +tracery of the great window at the east end of Westminster Hall is the +work of his hands. In his twenty-third year he became manager +of the Shrewsbury and Ludlow Railway—probably the youngest railway +manager recorded. <!-- page 132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>Ten +years later the Shrewsbury railway was acquired by the London and North-Western +company, and Findlay, to use his own words, “was taken over with +the rest of the rolling stock.” This was how his London +and North-Western railway career began. He was a tall, portly +man of fine presence, distinguished by a large measure of strong, plain, +homely commonsense, an absence of prejudice, a great calmness of judgment, +and a fearless frankness of speech. His sense of honour was very +high, and he impressed upon the service of which he was the executive +head that the word of the London and North-Western Railway must always +be its bond. “Be slow to promise and quick to perform,” +was his guiding precept. A born organiser and administrator, he +knew how to select his men. Before Parliamentary Committees he +was the best of witnesses, always cool and resourceful, with great command +of temper, full of knowledge, and blest with a ready wit. His +services as witness and expert adviser were in great request by railway +companies. At the long Board of Trade Inquiry in connection with +the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i> and Railway Rates and Charges, +in 1889, he was the principal railway witness and was under examination +and cross-examination for eight consecutive days. He had a real +love for Ireland, was partly Irish himself, his father being Scotch +and his mother Irish—a fine blend. Fishing was his chief +recreation and this often brought him to the lakes and rivers of Ireland. +He asked, was I the son of William Tatlow of the Midland Railway, whom +he had met a good many years before on some coal rates question? +On my saying, Yes, he was pleased to know that I belonged to a railway +family; and said what a fine service the great railway service was, +how absorbing the work and what scope it afforded for ambition and ability. +He asked about my railway experience, was amused at my reason for leaving +Derby and the Midland, and interested at hearing of my work with Mr. +Wainwright, whom he had known and esteemed. He was sure I had +learned nothing but good from him. I was able, and very glad, +of course, to tell Mr. Findlay with what interest Bailey and I had listened +for several days to his evidence at Westminster Hall at the Railway +Rates Inquiry, and how much we had profited by it. This led to +some talk on the great rates question, of which he was a master. +I felt he was just a bit surprised to find that I was rather <!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>well +informed upon it, which made me not a little proud. Altogether +it was a memorable night, and left me with a feeling of elation such +as I had experienced in the meetings I had in Glasgow some years before +with Mr. John Burns and Mr. John Walker. How little I thought +then, that in less than two years I should follow Mr. Findlay’s +remains to the grave.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/findlay.jpg"> +<img alt="Sir George Findlay" src="images/findlay.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Between the London and North-Western and the Midland Great-Western +much good feeling existed. They were natural allies, both greatly +interested in the trade and prosperity of Ireland, and of the port of +Dublin in particular. As time went on many matters of mutual interest +brought me into close relation with the North-Western general manager +and other prominent officers of the company.</p> +<h2><!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>CHAPTER +XXII.<br /> +A RAILWAY CONTEST, THE PARCEL POST, AND THE BOARD OF TRADE</h2> +<p>The long-looked for fight in the Committee Rooms at Westminster came +at last, as most things that are eagerly looked and longed for do. +In May, 1892, a Bill, promoted jointly by the Midland Great-Western +and Athenry and Ennis Railway Companies, was considered by a Select +Committee of the House of Lords. It was a Bill for the acquisition +by the Midland of the Ennis Railway (a line from Athenry to Ennis, 36 +miles long), worked but not owned by the Waterford and Limerick Railway +Company. The Midland were anxious to buy and the Ennis were willing +to sell, but Parliament alone could legalise the bargain. To the +Waterford and Limerick, the bare idea of giving up possession of the +fair Ennis to their rival the Midland was gall and wormwood; and so +they opposed the project with might and main, and they were assisted +in their opposition by certain public bodies, some thought as much for +the excitement of a skirmish in the Committee Rooms as anything else. +The working agreement between the Waterford and Limerick and the Ennis +Companies, which had lasted for ten years or so, was expiring; the Ennis +Company had grown tired of the union; the Midland had held out to her +certain glowing prospects, which had captivated her maiden fancy, and +so she was a consenting party to the Midland scheme. The Ennis +line, in the Midland eyes, was a prize worth fighting for, forming, +as it did, part of a route from Dublin to Limerick in competition with +the Great Southern and Western, a company between which and the Midland, +<!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>at +that time, little love was lost. Those were the days when competitive +traffic, gained almost at any cost, was sweet as stolen kisses are said +to be.</p> +<p>The proceedings opened on Monday, 16th May. <i>Ennis</i> was +as familiar to the Committee Rooms as the suit of <i>Jarndyce and Jarndyce</i> +was to the Court of Chancery. In 1880 the Midland had also sought +by Bill to obtain the fair Ennis (with her consent) but had failed; +in 1890 the Waterford and Limerick (against her wishes) had essayed +to do the same and failed also, and in years long prior to these, other +attempts had been made with the like result. But to proceed: our +leading counsel were Sir Ralph (then Mr.) Littler; Mr. Pember, Mr. Pope +and other leaders, and a host of juniors being arrayed against us. +The straitened circumstances of the Waterford and Limerick; its dearth +of rolling stock; its inefficient ways; its failure to satisfy the public; +the admitted superiority of the Midland and all its works; the splendid +results which would “follow as the night the day,” if only +Parliament would be wise enough to sanction a union which the public +interest demanded and commonsense approved—these were the points +on which our counsel exercised their forensic skill, expended their +eloquence, and to which they directed the evidence. Amongst our +supporters we had some excellent witnesses, one, a well-known cattle +dealer, named Martin Ryan. The question of <i>running powers</i> +was prominent throughout the case and had been much debated and discussed. +Ryan’s evidence was not, however, concerned with this, but in +his cross-examination, relative to something he had stated in his evidence-in-chief, +he was asked this question: “If a beast got on to the line as +a train came along, what would happen to the beast?” “It +would exercise its running powers,” answered Mr. Ryan, amidst +great laughter. As good as Stephenson’s answer about the +“coo,” said Mr. Pope.</p> +<p>On the fourth day of the proceedings I made my <i>début</i> +as a Parliamentary witness. In the preparation of my evidence +I had expended much time and trouble, keeping well in mind the way in +which Mr. Wainwright used to prepare his. Before my examination-in-chief +concluded, a short adjournment for lunch took place—a scramble +at the refreshment bars in the lobbies, where wig and gown elbowed with +all and sundry; where cold beef, cold tongue, cold pie, and, coldest +of all cold comestibles, cold custard, <!-- page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>were +swallowed in hot haste, washed down with milk and soda, or perhaps with +something stronger. “Quick lunches” they were with +a vengeance. Time was money, and in the brief interval allowed, +more than lunch had to be discussed. Sir Ralph, Mr. Findlay (who +was helping us) and I, had our hasty lunch together. When it was +over we discussed the morning’s proceedings, and Mr. Findlay, +to my great satisfaction, said I was doing well—very well indeed, +for a first appearance. Then, in a kind and fatherly way, he gave +me some good advice: Don’t show too much eagerness, he said: don’t +go quite so much into detail; keep on broader lines; speak deliberately +and very distinctly; make your points as plain as a pikestaff; rub them +well in; don’t try to make too many points, but stick fast to +the important ones. You’ve a good manner in the box, he +said; remember these things and you’ll make an excellent witness. +Then he added: above all, whilst giving your leading evidence never +forget the <i>cross</i> that has to follow. Be always as frank +as you can, and never lose command of your temper. These were +not his very words. I do not pretend that he expressed himself +with such sententious brevity, though he never wasted speech, but they +are the pith and marrow of his admonitions. For twenty years or +so from then nearly every session saw me in the Committee Rooms, not +always on the business of my own company, as other Irish railway companies +on several occasions sought my help in their Parliamentary projects. +Mr. Findlay’s advice I never forgot.</p> +<p>In the afternoon my cross-examination began. The final question +put to me by our counsel was: “Lastly, if this amalgamation is +carried out, do you think the public would be served by it, and if so, +how?” This appeared to me a great chance for a little speech, +so I summed up as forcibly and graphically as I could all the advantages +that would follow if the Bill were passed. Then my cross-examination +commenced, and the first words addressed to me, by Mr. Pembroke Stephens, +were: “I do not think that one could have made a better speech +oneself, if one had been on your side.” “Not half +so good,” said Mr. Littler in a stage whisper. I thought +Mr. Stephens spoke satirically, but remembered Mr. Findlay’s advice, +and if I flushed inwardly, as I believe I did, no outward sign escaped +me. After Mr. Stephens, three other opposing counsel fired their +guns, but I withstood their <!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>shot +and shell, and when I came out of the box Mr. Findlay said I had done +well. This was praise enough for me. Then he gave his evidence +in his usual masterly convincing way and I listened in admiration.</p> +<p>We made a good fight I know, the odds were in our favour and success +seemed assured. Our opponents then presented their case, and still +we felt no doubt; but Fortune is a fickle jade and at the last she left +us in the lurch. On the eighth day of the proceedings the Chairman +announced: “The Committee are of opinion that it is not expedient +to proceed with the Bill.” This was the <i>coup de grace</i>. +No reasons are ever given by a Committee for their decision and the +contending parties are left to imagine them. The losing side sometimes +has the hardihood to think a decision is wrong. I believe we thought +so; and I know that <i>Ennis</i>, who was thus doomed to a further period +of single blessedness, thought the same.</p> +<p>In a previous chapter I have spoken of the <i>Parcel Post Act</i> +of 1882, and mentioned the share of the receipts apportioned to the +railway companies of the United Kingdom. The Act also prescribed +the manner in which this share was to be divided amongst the respective +railways. When it was devised the method seemed fair to all, and +had the consent of all. But the best of theories do not always +stand the test of practice and so it was found in this case. It +did not suit Ireland. We discovered that the Irish railways were, +in equity, entitled to more than the scheme awarded them, and Mr. Alcorn, +the Accountant of the Great Southern and Western Railway, discovered +the way to set the matter right; but it could not be righted without +the consent of the Parcel Post Conference, a body which sat at the Railway +Clearing House in London, and was composed of the managers of all the +railways parties to the parcel post scheme, some eighty or so in number. +On the 10th November, 1892, we brought our case before that body, and +Colhoun, Robertson and I were the spokesmen for the Irish Railways. +On the previous day we had met Sir George Findlay (he had been knighted +this year) and had satisfied him of the justice of our claim. +He promised to support us. The meeting commenced at 10 o’clock. +We made our speeches, which were not long, for our printed statement +had been in each member’s hands for some time. Clear as +our case was to us the Conference seemed unconvinced, and we began to +fear an adverse vote. Sir George was <!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>not +present, something had happened, for he was not the man to disappoint +his friends without grave cause. Voting seemed imminent. +Robertson whispered to me, “For heaven’s sake, Tatlow, get +on your legs again and keep the thing going; Findlay may be here any +moment.” I was supposed to be the glibbest of speech of +our party, and up I got. But Mr. Thompson (afterwards Sir James), +the <i>beau</i>, was in the chair, and thought there had been talking +enough. However, like the Irishman I was not, I went on, and—at +that moment entered Sir George! The scene was changed; the day +was won! A Sub-Committee of seven, three of whom were Colhoun, +Robertson and myself, was appointed to follow up the matter, and ultimately +the Irish proposal was adopted.</p> +<p>It was a very busy period, this year of 1892, and as interesting +as busy. On the 20th June the <i>Railway Rates and Charges (Athenry +and Ennis Junction Railways) Order Confirmation Act</i>, 1892, received +the Royal Assent. It applied to all the railways in Ireland and +contained the Revised Classification and Maximum Rates and Charges settled +after long inquiries under the <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>, +1888, and which were to control the future rates to be charged by the +companies. Only six months were allowed in which to revise all +rates and bring them into conformity with the new classification and +the new conditions—an absurdly short time, for the work involved +was colossal. But it had to be done. Robert Morrison, Michael +O’Neill and I, took off our coats and worked night and day. +We had the satisfaction of accomplishing the task in the allotted time, +which not every company was able to do. Generous, as always, Sir +Ralph in his speech to the shareholders in February, 1893, said: “I +wish to express that we are greatly indebted to Mr. Tatlow for the care +and anxiety with which he has endeavoured to arrange this important +rates matter. He has worked most energetically; has attended the +Committees of the Board of Trade, and the Parliamentary Committee, and +he is now seeing traders constantly. I may tell you that I and +my brother directors place the most implicit reliance on our manager, +and I am satisfied that anything he has done has been reasonable to +the traders and for the benefit of the shareholders.” This +was warm praise, and the more welcome, being, as it was, the spontaneous +expression of what I knew he felt.</p> +<p><!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>My +meetings with the traders usually, but not invariably, resulted in friendly +settlements. The great firm of Guinness and Company were not so +easily satisfied, and offered a <i>stout</i> resistance which correspondence +and conference failed to overcome. Under the Railway and Canal +Traffic Act a mode of dealing with the <i>impasse</i> was provided by +conciliation proceedings presided over by the Board of Trade. +This we took advantage of, and after several meetings in London a compromise +was effected. It was then that I met for the first time Mr. Francis +Hopwood, who had just been appointed Secretary to the Railway Department +of the Board of Trade. I liked his way and thought that conciliation +could not be in better hands than his.</p> +<p>The Board of Trade is more or less a mythical body, but very practical +I found it on these and all other occasions. Its proper designation +is, I believe, “Committee of Privy Council for Trade.” +This Committee was first appointed in Cromwell’s time, and was +revised under Charles II., as “Committee of Privy Council for +Trade and Foreign Plantations,” under which title it administered +the Colonies. When the United States became independent, Burke +in a scathing speech, moved and carried the abolition of this paid Committee, +which included Gibbon as its Secretary. However, the Board of +Trade could not be spared, and so it was restored by Order in Council +in 1786. Under that order the principal officers of State, and +certain members of the Privy Council, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, +have, <i>ex officio</i>, seats on the Committee, although no record +exists of His Grace having ever left his arduous duties at Lambeth to +attend the Committee. Its jurisdiction extended as trade and commerce +developed and railways appeared on the scene, and gradually it was divided +into departments, and so the <i>Board of Trade</i> came into being. +Like Topsy it “grow’d.” The Board of Trade is, +in fact, a mere name, the president being practically the secretary +for trade, the vice-president having, for 50 years past, been a Parliamentary +secretary with duties similar to those of an under-secretary of State. +At present, besides the president (who has usually a seat in the Cabinet), +the Parliamentary secretary and a permanent secretary, there are six +assistant secretaries (in late war time many more), each in charge of +a department.</p> +<p>In charge of the railway department in 1893 was, as I have said, +Mr. Francis Hopwood. He became Sir Francis in 1906, and from then +onwards <!-- page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>advanced +from office to office and from honour to honour, until, during his secretaryship +of the Irish Convention in 1917, his public services were rewarded with +a peerage. As railway secretary of the Board of Trade he was particularly +distinguished for tact, strength and moderation. Singularly courteous +and obliging on all occasions, I, personally, have been much indebted +to him for help and advice.</p> +<p>But all was not sunshine and happiness in this busy year of 1892. +A dark cloud of sorrow overshadowed it. On a fateful day in January +I lost, with tragic suddenness, the younger of my two sons, a bright +amiable boy, of a sunny nature and gentle disposition. He was +accidentally killed on the railway.</p> +<h2><!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>CHAPTER +XXIII.<br /> +THE “RAILWAY NEWS,” THE INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY CONGRESS, +AND A TRIP TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL</h2> +<p>In Chapter XX I recorded the death of my old friend W. F. Mills, +which took place whilst I was writing that chapter. Now, as I +pen these lines, I hear of the loss of another old familiar railway +friend; not indeed a sentient being like you, dear reader, or him or +me, yet a friend that lacked neither perception nor feeling.</p> +<p>The <i>Railway News</i> on Saturday, the 30th day of November, 1918, +issued its last number, and, as a separate entity, ceased to be, its +existence then merging into that of the <i>Railway Gazette</i>. +I am sad and sorry for I knew it well. For forty years it was +my week-end companion; for ten years or more, in the April of life, +I contributed regularly to its pages; and never, during all the years, +have its columns been closed to my pen. One of its editors, F. +McDermott, has long been my friend, and its first editor, Edward McDermott, +his father, a grand old man, was kind to me in my salad days and encouraged +my budding scribbling proclivities. He and Samuel Smiles, the +author of <i>Self Help</i> (then Secretary of the South Eastern Railway), +were, in 1864, its joint founders.</p> +<p>“Death,” the Psalmist saith, “is certain to all.” +In 1893, the railway world lost one whom it could ill spare. In +the month of March, after a short illness, Sir George Findlay died at +the early age of 63. Gifted of the gods, in the midst of his work, +young in mind and spirit, his faculties in full <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>vigour, +he was suddenly called away. His funeral, I need not say, was +attended by railway men from all parts of the kingdom. I was one +of those who travelled to London to follow his remains to their resting +place.</p> +<p>Further public railway legislation was enacted in 1893 and 1894, +and four important Acts were passed. The first was the <i>Railway +Regulation Act</i>, 1893. It dealt with the hours of labour of +railway servants, a subject which for some time previously had been +enjoying the attention of the Press. It culminated in the appointment +of a Parliamentary Committee. In February, 1891, a Select Committee, +consisting of 24 members, with Sir Michael Hicks Beach as chairman, +was formed, “To inquire whether, and if so, in what way, the hours +of railway servants should be restricted by legislation.” +The Committee examined numerous railway servants and officials, and +reported to Parliament, in June, 1892. I was summoned by the Committee +to give evidence and appeared before them in London on 24th March of +that year. My business was to furnish facts concerning the hours +of duty of the employees on my own railway and the conditions of their +work. This I did pretty fully and embraced the opportunity of +showing how different were the circumstances of Irish railways compared +with English, and how legislation suitable to one country might be very +unsuitable to the other. It scarcely needed saying that England +was an industrial country whilst Ireland was agricultural; that England, +with 620 people to the square mile, was thickly populated and Ireland +with 135 sparsely; that population meant trains and traffic; that in +England railway traffic amounted to about £7,000 per mile per +annum and in Ireland a little over £1,000; that in Ireland on +many lines not more than five or six trains ran each way daily, and +on others only three or four, whilst in England, on most lines, the +<i>hourly</i> number exceeded these. When the Committee rose Sir +Michael engaged me, informally, in conversation for a little while. +He was curious concerning some of the facts I had adduced, particularly +as to the Midland line and the country it served.</p> +<p>In their report the Committee stated they had confined their inquiry +to the hours of duty of those classes of railway servants that were +engaged in working traffic, viz., drivers, firemen, guards, signalmen, +shunters, platelayers and porters, and had not dealt with other classes; +a wise distinction I thought. It was much easier, they said, to +regulate the hours of persons <!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>occupying +fixed posts of duty within reasonable limits, than those of the running +staff on railways, on account of the variety in the nature of the work. +They reported also that they were unable to recommend a “legal +day,” as they considered it would be found impracticable owing +to the number of cases which must necessarily be admitted as exceptions +to any fixed limit of hours, adding that the hours of railway servants +engaged in working traffic cannot be regulated like those in a factory, +which, I may add, experience has abundantly shown. I believe, +and have always believed, in reasonable working hours, and have often +worked unreasonably long hours myself in endeavouring to arrange them +for others; and more than once when I have re-arranged a rota for drivers, +firemen and guards, to my own satisfaction, I have been begged by the +men concerned not to make any change and to let well alone; not, of +course, because the new rota gave shorter hours, but because it prevented +the men from getting to their homes or interfered with something else +that suited them. Sometimes I gave way to the men and sometimes +I stuck to my revised rota. Every case varied and required special +consideration. The Committee also said: “It is universally +admitted that the railway service is very popular under existing conditions; +and several railway servants who appeared as witnesses protested vigorously +against any interference by Government or the Legislature.” +State interference, I know, is the fashion now; but the blind worship +of <i>any fashion</i> is but weakness and folly.</p> +<p>The Act of 1893 was the outcome of the Report. It provided +that on representation being made to the Board of Trade that the hours +of any railway servants were excessive, the Board might inquire into +the complaint, and order the company concerned to submit an amended +schedule of time and duty for such servants, and if the railway company +failed to comply with the order the matter might then be referred to +the Railway Commisioners whose order the company must obey under a penalty +of £100 a day. I do not think any company was ever fined; +nor do I, indeed, remember the Commissioners services being required. +If they were, the occasions were few and far between, as the companies +generally loyally carried out the provisions of the Act.</p> +<p>In 1894 was passed the <i>Notice of Accidents Act</i>. Where +any person <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>employed +in the construction, use, working or repair of any railway, tramroad, +tramway, gas works, canal bridge, tunnel, harbour, dock or other work +authorised by Parliament, suffered (it said) an accident causing loss +of life or bodily injury, the employer must notify the Board of Trade, +and if the Board of Trade considered the case of sufficient importance, +they may (it provided) direct the holding of a formal inquiry; a report +of such inquiry to be presented to the Board of Trade, which may (it +stated) be made public in such manner as they think fit. As far +as accidents to railway servants were concerned, I can vouch that these +inquiries were pretty often held, and the companies, concerned always +for the safety of their employees, never did other than welcome them.</p> +<p>The <i>Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>, 1894, was an Act to <i>amend</i> +(save the mark!) <i>The Railway and Canal Traffic Act</i>, 1888. +Its effect, in fact, was to embitter instead of amend. It was, +as I have previously indicated, panic legislation yielded in haste to +unreasonable clamour, unfair to the railways, and of doubtful advantage +to traders. I will say no more lest I say too much.</p> +<p>The fourth of these enactments was the <i>Diseases of Animals Act</i>, +1894. It invested the Board of Agriculture with further powers +to make orders and regulations respecting animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia +or foot-and-mouth disease, particularly with regard to markets, fairs, +transit and slaughter houses; for securing the providing of water and +food; and for cleansing and disinfecting vessels, vehicles and pens. +As regards Ireland the powers were vested in the Lord Lieutenant and +Privy Council, and on the establishment of the Department of Agriculture +for Ireland, in the year 1899, were transferred to that body.</p> +<p>The International Railway Congress Association is an interesting +if not an ancient body. It dates back to the year 1885. +Gallant little Belgium was its parent. In 1885, the fiftieth anniversary +of the opening of the first public railway on the Continent of Europe +(the line between Brussels and Malines) was celebrated at Brussels by +a Congress convened on the invitation of the Belgian Government, and +this meeting was the beginning of the now worldwide association. +At the first assembly at Brussels “the study of technical and +administrative questions for <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>railways” +was the avowed object in view; and it has been the serious purpose of +every Congress since. But gradually pleasant relaxations, such +as lunches, dinners, dances and excursions, for wives and daughters +accompanying husbands and fathers graced these gatherings of railway +wisdom. During the first ten years the sessions were bi-annual, +but since 1895 have been held every five years. Brussels, Milan, +Paris, St. Petersburg, London, Washington and Berne have each been the +scene of their celebration, and Paris has been favoured twice. +For 1915 Berlin was the capital selected, but the war decided against +that; and when Berlin shall see the world’s railway representatives +assembled within her gates only a very bold man will venture to prophesy.</p> +<p>The Congress is composed of some 420 railway systems represented +by nearly 1,500 delegates; and any railway company, the wide world over, +that possesses a mileage of 62 miles or more is competent for membership. +In addition to holding Sessions the Congress publishes a monthly Bulletin +(or did prior to the war), containing, besides original articles on +all questions relating to the construction, operation, and organisation +of railways, reproductions of interesting articles published in the +railway and engineering papers of any nation, as well as notices of +books and pamphlets on railway questions. The Bulletin contains +also all reports prepared for the various Sessions of the Congress and +minutes of the discussions. It was a great gathering that the +late King Edward (then Prince of Wales) opened on June the 26th, 1895, +when the Congress was in London. The scene was the Imperial Institute, +and the meetings lasted till July the 9th. From all parts of the +globe delegates came. All was not dull routine for British hospitality +abounded and the companies vied with each other in worthy entertainments, +and Her Majesty the Queen saw fit to signalise the occasion by giving +a garden party in its honour.</p> +<p>Mr. W. M. Acworth, the well-known writer on railway economics, and +a keen but friendly critic of railway affairs, was appointed Secretary +to the English Section of the Congress, and to him fell the principal +work connected with the Session. His scholarly and linguistic +attainments and his varied travels, fitted him well for the task. +My eldest son, then a youth of 18, just entered the railway service, +had the good fortune to be selected as one <!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>of +Mr. Acworth’s assistants. He had not long finished his education +in France, and spoke the language fluently, which, of course, was a +recommendation. It was valuable experience to him as well as delightful +work. He conducted several parties of delegates through various +parts of England and Ireland in connection with the many excursions +that were arranged for their pleasure and profit. The weather +was very hot, and railway travelling at times oppressive, even to delegates +from the sunny land of France, and <i>shandy-gaff</i>, a beverage new +to most of the visitors, was in great request. Said a French delegate +one day to my son, as the train was approaching Rugby: “Oh! M’sieu +Tatlow, the weather it is so hot; will you not at Rugby give us some +of your beautiful <i>char-a-banc</i>?” On another occasion +he was asked if he would “be so kind as to give the <i>recipe</i> +for making that beautiful toast.”</p> +<p>At the close of the session in London, a number of the foreign delegates, +at the invitation of the Irish Railway Companies, visited Ireland, and +were shown its railways, and its beauty spots from east to west, from +north to south. It is not too much to say they were greatly impressed. +The splendid scenery that surrounds the island like a beautiful frame, +delighted them, and the excellence of the Irish railways was no little +surprise. They did not expect to see such fine carriages, such +handsome dining saloons, nor such permanent way and stations. +Of course we showed them our best and the best was very good. +Ireland is often accused of neglecting her opportunities, but never +her hospitality. On this occasion, personified by her railway +companies, she neglected neither, and in the latter surpassed herself.</p> +<p>In the autumn of this year I was able to gratify my taste for travel +by a longer excursion than usual. Hitherto my furthest flights +had been to Paris, Belgium, and Holland, but now I went as far as Spain +and Portugal. F. K. was my pleasant companion and we travelled, +<i>viâ</i> Paris, straight through to Madrid, where we stayed +for a week at the Hotel de la Paix, in the bright and busy and sunny +Puerto del Sol. In Madrid we visited the Royal Palace (or so much +of it as was shown to the public—principally the Royal stables); +the Escurial; the Art Galleries and Museums; drove in the Buen Retiro; +witnessed a bull fight, which rather sickened us when the horses, which +never stood a chance in the contest, were ripped up by the bull; admired +dark-eyed senoritas, their mantillas and coquettish fans, enjoyed the +<!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>southern +sunshine and the Spanish wines; and then left for Lisbon by an <i>express</i> +train that stopped at nearly every station. At Lisbon three or +four days were pleasantly passed, though we were annoyed sometimes by +the crowd of persistent beggars that thronged the streets, and who, +we were told, pursued their calling by license from the authorities. +This was a small matter, however. He who travels should be proof +against such minor annoyances. Then Oporto was visited, and the +Douro valley, the very centre of the port wine industry. A young +Englishman, a wine merchant, accompanied us in our journey through this +sultry valley and was our cicerone. Under his guidance we visited +many famous “wine lodges,” sampled wonderful vintages in +most generous glasses, drank old port, green port, tawny port, and I +am sure too much port, and when, at last, we reached the port of Biarritz, +where we stayed for several days, we blessed its lighter wines and refreshing +breezes. After Biarritz Bordeaux detained us for a day or two, +and so did Paris, which we found very attractive and refreshing in early +November.</p> +<p>This year also had for me a delightful week’s interlude, in +the month of June, in the Committee Rooms at Westminster. A certain +Bill was promoted by an Irish railway company, which we considered an +aggressive attempt to invade our territory, and, of course, we vigorously +opposed it. Again I had the pleasure of giving evidence and of +being crossed-examined by Mr. Pembroke Stephens; but the Bill was passed +and became an Act. Further sign of vitality it never showed as +the line was never made. It is one thing, by the grace of Parliament +to obtain an Act, but quite another by the favour of the public to obtain +capital. Parliament is often more easily persuaded than the shrewd +investor, as many a too sanguine promoter knows.</p> +<h2><!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>CHAPTER +XXIV.<br /> +TOM ROBERTSON, MORE ABOUT LIGHT RAILWAYS, AND THE INLAND TRANSIT OF +CATTLE</h2> +<p>By his friends and intimates he was called <i>Tom</i>, and mere acquaintances +even usually spoke of him as <i>Tom Robertson</i>. Rarely was +he designated <i>Thomas</i>. A man who is known so familiarly +is generally a good fellow, and Tom Robertson was no exception, though +he possessed some pretty strong qualities, and was particularly fond +of getting his own way.</p> +<p>In his early days at the Great Northern, sundry skirmishes at the +Clearing House had taken place between him and me, which for a time +produced a certain amount of estrangement, but we afterwards became +excellent friends and saw a good deal of each other. He was no +longer a <i>general manager</i>, having given up that post for another +which was pressed upon him—the post of Chairman of the Irish Board +of Works. It was certainly unusual, unheard of one might say, +in those days, for an important government office to be conferred upon +a railway official, though now it would excite but little surprise. +The Government it was thought contemplated something in the shape of +a railway policy in Ireland, and had spotted Robertson as the man for +the job; it was certainly said that someone in high authority, taken +greatly by his sturdy independence, his unconventional ways, and his +enormous energy, had determined to try the novel experiment which such +an appointment meant. I do not think that Robertson himself ever +really enjoyed the change. He liked variety it is true, but governmental +<!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>ways +were not, he often said, his ways, and he seemed to lack the capacity +to easily adapt himself to new grooves. Unconventional he certainly +was, and never in London even would he wear a tall hat or a tail coat; +nor could he ever be persuaded to attend a levee or any State function +whatever. He usually dressed in roughish tweeds, with trousers +unfashionably wide, and a flaming necktie competing with his bright +red cheeks, which contrasted strongly with his dark hair and beard. +He was, however, a strong manly fellow, with a great deal of determination +mingled with good humour. Usually in high spirits, he often displayed +a boyish playfulness that resembled the gambols of a big good-natured +dog. He was musical too, and would sing <i>Annie Laurie</i> for +you at any time, accompanying himself on the piano. To practical +joking he was rather addicted, and once I was his reluctant accomplice, +but am glad to say it was the last time I ever engaged in such rude +pleasantry. I can write of him now the more freely that he is +no longer of this world. Excessive energy hastened his death. +In 1901 he went to India to investigate for the Government the railways +there, and to report upon them. It was a big task, occupied him +a long time, and I am told he worked and lived there as though he were +in his native temperate zone. His restless energy was due I should +say to superabundant vitality. Once, when he and I were in London +together, on some railway business, we took a stroll after dinner (it +was summertime) and during a pause in our conversation he surprised +me by exclaiming: “Tatlow, I’m a restless beggar. +I’d like to have a jolly good row with somebody.” +“Get married,” said I. This tickled him greatly and +restored his good humour. He lived and died a bachelor nevertheless.</p> +<p>In 1896 the <i>Railways (Ireland) Act</i> was passed, and with it +Robertson had much to do. Its purpose ran: “To facilitate +the construction of Railways and the Establishment of other means of +Communication in Ireland, and for other purposes incidental thereto.” +It provided for further advances by the Treasury, under prescribed conditions, +for constructing railways and for establishing lines of steamers, coaches, +etc., which were shown to be necessary for the development of the resources +of any district, where owing to the circumstances of such district, +they could not be made without government assistance. It also +authorised the construction and maintenance, as <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>part +of such railways, of any pier, quay or jetty. This little Act, +which consisted of thirteen sections (I wonder he did not think the +number unlucky), was Robertson’s particular pet. Concerning +its clauses, from the time they were first drafted, many a talk we had +together over a cup of tea with, to use his own expression, “a +wee drappie in’t.” I may have hinted as much, but +do not think I have mentioned before that he was a Scotchman and a Highlander.</p> +<p>In the same year was passed the <i>Light Railways Act</i>, an Act +which applied to Great Britain only. Ireland had already had her +share (some thought more than her share) of light railway legislation, +with its accompanying doles in the shape of easy loans and free gifts, +whilst England and Scotland had been left in the cold. It was +their turn now; but as this Act, and the subject of light railways generally, +formed the substance of a paper which I prepared and read in 1900 before +the International Railway Congress at Paris, and of which I shall speak +later on, I will pass it now without more comment.</p> +<p>At Robertson’s request I appeared as a witness this year for +the Great Northern Railway, before Committees of both Houses of Parliament, +in connection with a Bill which sought powers to construct an extension +of the Donegal railway from Strabane to Londonderry. Robertson +himself did not give evidence in the case. Before the Committees +sat he had left the Great Northern for the Board of Works, and Henry +Plews, his successor, represented the Great Northern Railway. +The proposed line was in direct competition with the Great Northern, +and they sought my aid in opposing it. Certainly there was no +need for two railways, but Parliament thought otherwise and passed the +Bill. Indeed Parliament is not free from blame for many unnecessary +duplicated lines throughout the kingdom. <i>Competition</i> was +for long its fetish; now it is <i>unification</i>, and (blessed word!) +<i>co-ordination</i>. Strange how men are taken with fine words +and phrases, and what slaves they are to shibboleths! Before the +House of Commons Committee which sat on this Bill I had the pleasure, +for the first time, of being examined by Balfour Browne. He was +leader in the case for the Great Northern, and I met him also in consultations +which took place. Since then I have crossed swords with him too, +and always I must confess with keen enjoyment. His <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>knowledge +of railway matters was so remarkable, his mind so practiced, alert, +and luminous, that it was rare excitement to undergo cross-examination +at his hands. In his book, <i>Forty Years at the Bar</i>, he himself +says: “I have not had many opportunities of giving evidence, but +I confess that when I have been called as a witness I have enjoyed myself.” +Well, I can say that I have had many such opportunities, and can truthfully +declare that I have enjoyed them all.</p> +<p>A few weeks holiday in Holland, Cologne, the Rhine and Frankfort, +with some days on the homeward journey in Brussels, all in company of +my dear delightful friend, Walter Bailey, complete the annals of this +year, except that I recall a little arbitration case in which I was +engaged. It was during the summer, in July I think. The +Grand Canal (not the canal which belongs to the Midland and is called +the Royal) is a waterway which traverses 340 miles of country. +Not that it is all canal proper, some of it being canalised river and +loughs; but 154 miles are canal pure and simple, the undisputed property +of the Grand Canal Company. On a part of the river Barrow which +is canalised, an accident happened, and a trader’s barge was sunk +and goods seriously damaged. Dispute arose as to liability, and +I was called on to arbitrate. To view the scene of the disaster +was a pleasant necessity, and the then manager of the company (Mr. Kirkland) +suggested making a sort of picnic of the occasion; so one morning we +left the train at Carlow, from whence a good stout horse towed, at a +steady trot, a comfortable boat for twenty miles or so to the <i>locus</i> +of the accident. We were a party of four, not to mention the hamper. +It was delightfully wooded scenery through which we passed, and a snug +little spot where we lunched. After lunch and the arbitration +proceedings had been despatched, our Pegasus towed us back.</p> +<p>I must return again to Robertson, the Board of Works, and light railways. +Preliminary to the authorisation of light railways in Ireland, the legislation +which had been passed concerning them required that the Board of Works +should appoint fit and proper persons to make public inquiry regarding +the merits of proposed lines, as to engineering, finance, construction, +the favour or objection with which they were regarded by landowners +and others, the amount of capital required, the assistance that would +<!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>be +given by landowners, local authorities and others towards their construction, +and their merit generally from all points of view; such fit persons +after they had done all this, to report to the Board of Works. +In 1897 Robertson thought that “Joseph Tatlow of Dublin, and William +Roberts of Inverness, were fit and proper persons” for conducting +the necessary inquiry concerning a proposed light railway in north-west +Donegal, from Letterkenny to Burtonport, a distance of 50 miles. +William Roberts was the Engineer of the Highland Railway of Scotland, +a capable, energetic, practical man, and a canny Scot. This line +was promoted by the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company. +Roberts and I gladly undertook the work. We held public meetings, +which were largely attended (for it was an event in Donegal) in Letterkenny, +Falcarragh and Burtonport, examined nearly fifty witnesses, and heard +a great variety of evidence.</p> +<p>But the hearing of evidence was by no means all we did. It +was our duty to examine the route, and determine if it were the best +practicable route (keeping steadily in view that the available funds +were limited in amount), scrutinise and criticise the estimates, consider +the stations to be provided, inquire as to the probable traffic and +working expenses, and inform ourselves thoroughly on all the aspects +and merits of the case. We drove some 240 miles, not of course +by motor car (motors were not common then) but with stout Irish horses, +and inspected the country well. After we presented our report, +certain procedure followed; the Baronies guaranteed interest on £5,000 +of the capital; the government gave the rest (some £313,000) as +a free grant; an Order in Council was passed, and the line was made +and opened for traffic in 1903. It has more than verified all +predictions as to its usefulness, and has proved a blessing to north-west +Donegal. My relations with the line by no means ended with the +inquiry, and more about it will later on appear in this authentic history.</p> +<p>In the same year, 1897, with G. P. Culverwell, the engineer of my +old railway, the Belfast and County Down, as co-adjutor, I was entrusted +by Robertson with a similar inquiry concerning the Buncrana to Carndonagh +line (18 miles in length) also in Donegal, and also promoted by the +Londonderry and Lough Swilly Company. It was a smaller affair +than the Burtonport line, but involved similar pleasant and interesting +work. This line was also constructed and was opened in 1901.</p> +<p><!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>Pleasant +times, Joseph Tatlow, you seem to have had, and much variety and diversion; +but what of your own railway and your duties to it? Well, these +Parliamentary proceedings, arbitration cases, and light railway adventures +were, after all, only interludes, and I can conscientiously say that +the Midland line and its needs and interests were never neglected. +I am one of those who always believed that everything which served to +enlarge experience and mature judgment made a man more competent for +his daily work.</p> +<p>In July a Departmental Committee was appointed by the Board of Agriculture +“To inquire into and Report upon the Inland Transit of Cattle.” +The Committee numbered ten, Sir Wm. Hart Dyke, M.P., being chairman. +Three other M.P.s were members of the Committee, one being that redoubtable +champion of the cattle trade and chairman of the Irish Cattle Trades +Association, Mr. William Field. Two railway representatives were +amongst the ten, one of them, Sir William Birt, general manager of the +Great Eastern Railway; the other the Honourable Richard Nugent, a director +of the Midland Great Western Railway, the latter having considerable +experience of the cattle trade and of cattle transit in Ireland. +He was no bad judge himself of a beast. He farmed in County Galway, +and farming in the west of Ireland meant the raising of cattle, though +nowadays some tillage is also done. He loved attending cattle +fairs, and more than once turned me out of bed before the break of day +to accompany him to a fair green, much to my discomfiture; but so great +was <i>his</i> enjoyment, and so pleasant and lively his company that +I believe I thanked him on each occasion for bringing me out.</p> +<p>Sir William Hart Dyke did not act as chairman of the Committee; in +fact he was prevented by illness from attending any meeting after the +first, and in his absence the chair was taken by Mr. Parker Smith, M.P.</p> +<p>The scope of the inquiry included Great Britain and Ireland; but, +as the Committee stated in their report, “In Ireland the proportional +importance of the cattle trade is much the greater,” and that +no doubt was why they examined in Dublin 42 witnesses against about +half that number in England.</p> +<p>Plews, Colhoun and I gave evidence for the Irish railways, supplemented +with testimony on matters of detail by some of our subordinates. +My railway (the Midland) being, relatively at any rate, the principal +cattle-carrying line in Ireland, it was agreed that I should give the +greater part of the <!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>evidence +and appear first. The railway companies, of course, came on after +the public witnesses had had their say.</p> +<p>The Committee in their report made some useful recommendations both +for Great Britain and Ireland, not only in regard to the transit of +cattle by railway, but also in reference to public supervision at fairs; +accommodation and inspection at ports; the licensing of drovers; dishorning +of young cattle, etc. With respect to railway transit the recommendations +were directed principally to control and accommodation at stations; +pens and loading banks; improvement in cattle trucks; and rest, food +and water.</p> +<p>It is but fair to the railway companies to say that for some years +previous to the inquiry they had been making constant and steady improvements +in these matters, and I believe the Irish Department of Agriculture, +which was established by Act of Parliament in 1899, and in which are +vested the powers and functions of the Privy Council in regard to live +stock, with some added powers as well, would, were they appealed to +now, bear testimony to the good work of the Irish railways in regard +to the “Inland Transit of Cattle.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>CHAPTER +XXV.<br /> +RAILWAY AMALGAMATION AND CONSTANTINOPLE</h2> +<p>It would be tedious as well as tiresome to describe the many railway +contests in the Committee Rooms at Westminster in which, during the +remainder of my managerial career, it was my lot to be engaged; but +one great case there was, in 1899 and 1900, which, by its importance +to my company, and I may say, to the south and west of Ireland generally, +should not pass unnoticed, and of it I propose to give a short account.</p> +<p>It was from the grasp of the Waterford and Limerick, as I have mentioned +before, that in 1892 we (the Midland) sought, though unsuccessfully, +to snatch possession of the Ennis line. Now the Waterford and +Limerick were to lose, not only the Ennis line, but all their lines +and their own identity as well. A great struggle ensued which, +from the length of time it lasted, and the number of combatants engaged, +was one of the biggest railway fights the Committee Rooms had for many +a long year witnessed. For 106 days, from first to last, the battle +raged. In it thirty-one companies and public bodies participated, +most of them being represented by counsel. There was a famous Bar, including +all the big-wigs of course, and some lesser wigs, and numbering more +than twenty in all. The promoters were very strongly represented, +but we had Littler for our leader, who, indeed, was our standing senior +counsel. Their team consisted of Pope, Pember, Balfour Browne, +Seymour Bushe, McInerny and two juniors; our, much smaller but well +selected, of Littler, Blennerhassett and Vesy Knox; the last-named then +a <!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>rising +junior, but long since a senior, and for some time past a leader, is +still to the front in the bustling, reckless, impatient world of to-day. +Most of the others, alas, are no longer with us. Littler later +on was knighted, but is beyond all earthly honours now, and so are Pope, +Pember and Blennerhassett.</p> +<p>As I have said, the proceedings occupied two sessions. In the +first, 1899, two Bills came before a Select Committee of the House of +Commons, one promoted jointly by the Great Southern and Western and +the Waterford and Limerick Companies, the other by the Great Southern +and the Waterford and Central Ireland. But the Great Southern +were the real promoters of both; they paid the piper and, therefore, +called the tune. The Great Southern being the largest railway +company in Ireland aspired to be greater still, nor need this be considered +in the least surprising, for who in this world, great or small, is ever +satisfied? The Waterford and Limerick, a line of 350 miles, then +ranked fourth amongst the railways of Ireland, and its proposed absorption +by the Great Southern and Western Company aroused no little interest. +The Central Ireland, a small concern of 65 miles, running from Maryborough +to Waterford, was a secondary affair altogether and I shall say little +more about it. The Waterford and Limerick had its headquarters +at Limerick, its southern terminus at Waterford, its northern at Sligo—a +direct run from south to north of 223 miles, certain branch lines making +up the rest of its mileage. Its access to Sligo was by means of +the Athenry to Tuam, the Tuam to Claremorris and the Claremorris to +Collooney lines, all of which it worked. The last-mentioned was +one of the “Balfour” light railways (constructed on the +ordinary Irish gauge of 5 feet 3 inches) and should have been given +to the Midland Company, but by some unfortunate <i>contretemps</i>, +when constructed, it passed into the hands of the Waterford and Limerick. +From Collooney to Sligo (six miles) running powers were exercised by +that company over the Midland line into Sligo. This Claremorris-Collooney +line intersected the Midland system and in the hands of the Waterford +and Limerick Company introduced a competition in Connaught which that +poor district could ill afford to bear—a district in which one +railway system alone, though it enjoyed the whole of the traffic, would +scarcely earn a living. The Waterford and Limerick was not what +would be called a prosperous line, nor was its physical condition anything +to boast <!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>of, +but it had latent possibilities, and was in active competition with +the Great Southern. Such railway competition as existed in Ireland +was dear to traders and the general public. In country towns in +the sister Isle there is not (more the pity!) much afoot in the way +of diversion, and to set the companies by the ears or get the better +of either one or the other was looked upon as healthy and innocent amusement.</p> +<p>On the 7th of June the contest began, and this, the first engagement, +lasted for 44 days, when the Chairman of the Committee announced that +the Bills would not be passed. Great was our delight and that +of our allies, though the cup of joy was a little dashed on learning +that the Great Southern had determined to renew the struggle in the +following year.</p> +<p>My company was the principal opponent, and bore the brunt of the +fight, though the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (now the Dublin +and South-Eastern) were vigorous opponents too. A. G. Reid (from +Scotland, who I have mentioned before) was general manager of the Dublin +and Wicklow Railway. Like myself he is a pensioner now enjoying +the evening of life. Living near each other in the pleasant Kingstown-Dalkey +district, we meet not infrequently, and when we do our talk, as is natural, +often glides into railway reminiscence. We fight our battles over +again. We had many allies, prominent amongst them being the City +and Harbour Authorities of Limerick. They were represented by +good men who were hand and glove with us. Sir (then Mr.) Alexander +Shaw, John F. Power and William Holliday were particularly conspicuous +for their valuable assistance. Power (well named) was a host in +himself. Strong, keen, clever, energetic, enthusiastic, yet cautious +and wary, he was a splendid witness. I sometimes said he would +have made a fine railway manager, had he been trained to the business. +Could I give him higher praise?</p> +<p>Mr. Littler was in great feather at our success. He entertained +us (<i>i.e</i>., his Midland clients) to lunch. Over coffee and +cigars we learned that he had not been in Ireland for over 20 years; +so to equip him the better for next year’s fight we invited him +over, promising that I would be his faithful cicerone on a tour through +the country. As soon as Parliament rose he came, and he and I +spent a fortnight together, visiting Limerick, Waterford, Cork, Galway, +Sligo and other places. It was a sort of triumphal march, for +our <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>friends, +and they were many, warmly welcomed on Irish soil the great English +Q.C. who had routed the enemy. Littler enjoyed it immensely, and +was charmed with Irish warmth and Irish ways. Full of good humour +and good nature himself, with a lively wit, and an easy unaffected manner, +he gained new friends to our cause, and increased the zeal of old ones. +He was a charming companion, a keen observer and interested in everything +he saw and everybody he met.</p> +<p>Before the next session arrived my company determined upon a bold +course, and decided to themselves lodge a Bill to acquire the Waterford +and Limerick line. There was much to be said for this. With +the Waterford and Limerick in our hands the competition, which the public +loved, would continue, whilst in the hands of the Great Southern monopoly +would prevail. That we would command much public support seemed +certain. So in the following year three Bills were presented to +Parliament, viz.:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Midland Great Western<br /> +Great Southern and Western and Waterford and Limerick<br /> +Great Southern and Western and Waterford and Central Ireland</p> +</blockquote> +<p>That Parliament regarded these proposals as being of more than ordinary +importance is clear from the fact that it referred the three Bills to +a Joint Select Committee of both Houses—Lords and Commons—describing +them as “The Railways (Ireland) Amalgamation Bills.” +An experienced and able chairman was appointed in the person of Lord +Spencer.</p> +<p>On the 18th of May the proceedings opened. Day by day every +inch of ground was stubbornly fought, and on the 12th of July the decision +of the Committee was announced. After the presentation of the +Great Southern case our Bill was heard and all the opposition. +One of the most effective witnesses for the Great Southern was Sir George +(then Mr.) Gibb, general manager of the North-Eastern, the only big +railway in the country that enjoyed a district to itself. His +<i>role</i> was to persuade the Committee that railway monopoly, contrary +to accepted belief, was a boon and a blessing, and well he fulfilled +his part.</p> +<p>My examination did not take place until July 6th, after nearly all +other witnesses had been heard. Mr. Littler intentionally kept +me back, which <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>was +a great advantage to me, as when placed in the box I had practically +heard what everybody else had said, and the last word, as every woman +knows, is not to be despised. Littler took me through my “proof.” +I had spent the whole of the previous Sunday with him at his house at +Palmer’s Green and we had gone through it together most carefully. +He attached great importance to my direct evidence, and we underlined +the parts I was to be particularly strong upon. That I had taken +great pains to prepare complete and accurate evidence I need scarcely +say, for, as I have stated before, if there is any kind of work I have +liked more than another, and into which I have always put my heart and +soul, it is this kind. After we had got through I was cross-examined +by eight opposing counsel, including Pope, Pember, Balfour Browne and +Seymour Bushe. One of the very few things connected with my appearance +in the case I have preserved (and this I have kept from vanity, I suppose) +is a newspaper cutting which says, “In cross-examination Mr. Pope +could not get a single point out of Mr. Tatlow. On the contrary +it actually made his case stronger. His evidence from beginning +to end was most masterly. It was the evidence of a man who knew +what he was talking about and who told the truth. Mr. Pope, in +the end, agreed with Mr. Tatlow’s statement on running powers.” +Mr. Pope was a big, generous-minded man. In the course of his +great speech on the case he paid me the very nice compliment of saying +that, “Mr. Tatlow went into the box and with a candour that did +him great credit at once admitted that they (the clauses) were the most +stringent that he knew of.” This from opposing counsel was +a compliment indeed, and I was much complimented upon it. Mr. +Pope greatly admired candour, and indeed I found myself that candour +always told with the Committees. Littler loved Pope, and so did +all the Parliamentary Bar, of which he was the acknowledged leader and +the respected father. Littler said to me, “He is a wonderfully +and variously gifted man, and had he chosen the stage as a profession +would have been a David Garrick.” I said, “What about +his very substantial person?” for he was colossal in figure. +“I had forgotten that,” said Littler. Littler told +me a good story of him which Pope, he said, was also fond of telling +himself.</p> +<p>It was in the great man’s biggest and busiest days. Influenza +was rife. Mr. Pope was a bachelor, and his valet inconsiderately +took the “flu.” <!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>Mr. +Pope’s nephew said the valet must go away till he fully recovered, +or Mr. Pope would be sure to take it. “What shall I do?” +said Mr. Pope, in dismay. “Oh, I’ll get you a good +man for the time,” said the nephew; and so he did; a skilful, +quiet, efficient, attentive man, whose usual duty it was to attend on +a rich old gentleman, who resided, on account of a little mental derangement, +in a certain pleasant private establishment. Mr. Pope had not +been told, nor had he inquired, where the excellent valet, with whom +he was well pleased, hailed from, nor had the valet asked any questions +concerning Mr. Pope. Both seemed to have jumped to certain conclusions. +After the valet had been there a week or more, one day, when <i>downstairs</i>, +he said to the servants: “Tell me, what is it that is wrong with +the master? He seems to me to be as sane as any of us!”</p> +<p>Balfour Browne, in his book <i>Forty Years at the Bar</i>, says, +“He” (Mr. Pope) “had a broad equitable common sense, +and never did anything mean or little.” He was certainly +an orator, and displayed in his speeches much dramatic power. +His voice was fine, flexible and sonorous. In his later years +he must often have wished his “too too solid flesh would melt,” +for it had become a heavy burden. He had to be wheeled from Committee +Room to Committee Room in a perambulating chair, and was allowed to +remain seated when addressing Committees. On the 12th of July +Lord Spencer announced that “the Great Southern Amalgamation Bill +may proceed subject to clauses as to running powers, etc.” +This meant that <i>our</i> Bill was gone, and that the Great Southern +had gained possession of the Waterford and Limerick, Ennis, the line +to Collooney and running powers to Sligo. Thus they had secured +a monopoly in Munster and an effective competition with us in poor Connaught. +It was hard lines for the Midland, but all was not yet lost. If +only we could obtain running powers to Limerick and carry them back +to Ireland, we should have secured some of the spoil. Another +week was spent fighting over running powers, facilities, etc., and I +was in the witness box again. Balfour Browne and Littler now conducted +the warfare on either side, and keenly they fought. The Committee +at one time seemed disposed to put us off with little or nothing. +In the box I know I waxed warm—“the Great Southern to get +all and we nothing—iniquitous,” and then, “the public +interest to count for nought—Oh, monstrous!” Well, +in <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>the +end, on the 19th of July, we were awarded full running powers to Limerick, +and—the curtain fell!</p> +<p>The Act came into operation on the 2nd of January, 1901, the 1st +being a Sunday. On the 8th we ran our first running power train, +and the Joy Bells rang in Limerick. The Great Southern threatened +us with an injunction because we began to exercise our powers before +the terms of payment, etc., were fixed between us; but we laughed at +threats and went gaily on our way. Limerick rewarded us by giving +us their traffic.</p> +<p>In this last amalgamation year (1900) we were in the Committee Rooms +also in connection with another case—the Kingscourt, Keady and +Armagh Railway Bill; but, I will say no more about it than that we opposed +the Bill for the purpose of obtaining proper protection of Midland interests.</p> +<p>The year 1900 brought a general Act of some importance called the +<i>Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act</i>. It empowered +the Board of Trade to make rules with the object of reducing or removing +the dangers and risks incidental to certain operations connected with +railway working, such as braking of wagons, propping and tow roping, +lighting of stations, protection of point rods and signal wires, protection +to permanent way men, and other similar matters. It also empowered +the Board to employ persons for carrying the Act into effect.</p> +<p>Nineteen hundred, take it all in all, was a busy, interesting and +delightful year. Though we did not succeed in acquiring the Waterford +and Limerick Railway, which I may now say we scarcely expected, for +<i>compulsory</i> railway amalgamation was then unheard of, yet our +<i>bold course</i> was regarded with considerable success (as boldness +often is) and the running powers we had won were pecuniarily valuable +as well as strategically important. Sir Theodore Martin, our Parliamentary +Agent, and who had taken the keenest interest in the contest, wrote +me: “After all I do not much regret the issue of the fight the +Midland have had. To have got running powers to Limerick, and +to have to give nothing for them is a substantial triumph.” +So also thought my Chairman and Directors, for on the 25th of July they +passed the following Board minute:—</p> +<p>“Resolved unanimously, that having regard to the great exertions +of Mr. Tatlow in connection with the several Bills before Parliament, +<!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>and +the Directors being of opinion that the favourable terms obtained by +this Company were due to the great care and attention given by him, +they have unanimously decided to raise Mr. Tatlow’s salary £200 +a year on and from the 1st inst.”</p> +<p>Not a very great amount in these extravagant days, perhaps, but in +Ireland, nineteen years ago, it was thought quite a big thing; and it +had the additional charm of being altogether unexpected by its grateful +recipient.</p> +<p>Sir Theodore Martin, though 84 years of age, was full of intellectual +and physical vigour. He was a sound adviser, and enthusiastic +in the amalgamation business. Poet, biographer and translator, +he kept up his intellectuality till the last, and the end of his interesting +life did not come until he reached his 94th year. In 1905 he published +a translation of Leopardi’s poems. Between us arose a much +greater intimacy than the ordinary intimacy of business, and his friendship, +through a long series of years, I enjoyed and highly valued.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/martin.jpg"> +<img alt="Sir Theodore Martin" src="images/martin.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Between the two periods of the Amalgamation control I sandwiched +a delightful holiday, and in the autumn of 1899, after the conclusion +of the great Ballinasloe Fair, travelled east as far as Constantinople. +Were this a book of travel (which it is not) a chapter might be devoted +to that trip. But the cobbler must stick to his last, though a +word or two may, perhaps, be allowed on the subject, if only by way +of variety.</p> +<p>My companions on this interesting tour were my good friends F. K. +and H. H. We went by sea from Southampton to Genoa, where we stayed +two days to enjoy the sunshine and colour; its steep, picturesque and +narrow streets, and its beautiful old palaces. Then we visited +Milan and Venice. At Venice we spent several days, charmed with +its beauty. From Trieste we took an Austrian Lloyd steamer, the +<i>Espero</i>, to Constantinople. At Patras we left the steamer +to rejoin it at Piræus, wending our way by rail along the Gulf +of Corinth to Athens, in which classical city we stayed the night. +Messrs. Gaze and Sons had ordered their guide (or dragoman as he was +called) to meet us and devote himself to our service. The next +morning at 7 o’clock, he called for us at our hotel, and from +that hour till noon, under his guidance, we visited the temples and +monuments of ancient Athens, and <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>inspected +the modern city also. In the afternoon we drove or rather ploughed +our way from Athens to Piræus (five miles) along the worst road +I ever traversed, not excepting the streets of Constantinople. +We found the harbour gay with music, flags and bunting, in honour of +a great Russian Admiral who was leaving his ship to journey by ours +to Constantinople. His officers bade him respectful farewells +on the deck of our steamer, and he ceremoniously kissed them each and +all.</p> +<p>On the twenty-second day after leaving home, at six o’clock +in the morning, we were aroused in our berths and informed that we had +arrived at Constantinople. The morning, unfortunately, was dull, +and our first view of the Ottoman city, therefore, a little obscured. +All the same, it was a great sight, with its minarets and towers, its +Golden Horn and crowded quays. Our dragoman kept at bay all the +clamouring crowd of porters, guides and nondescripts of all colours +and races that besieged us. It was 8.30 a.m. when we landed, but +3.30 p.m. by Turkish time. The Moslem day is from sunset to sunset, +and sunset is always reckoned 12 o’clock; an awkward arrangement +which the reforming “Young Turk” perhaps has since altered. +The week we spent in Constantinople was all too short. We stayed +at the Pera Palace Hotel, and the first night after dinner, in our innocence, +strolled out. All was dark and dismal; no one in the streets. +We went as far as the quays, strolled back and on the way called at +a small cafe, the only inmate of which was a dwarf, as remarkable looking +as Velasquez’s <i>Sebastian de Morra</i>. The hall porter +at our hotel was waiting our return with anxiety. “It was +not safe to be out at night,” he said; “we had gold watches +on us and money in our purses, and knives were sharp.” Murray’s +guide book, we afterwards found, gave similar warning, without mentioning +knives. Sir Nicholas O’Connor was our Ambassador in Constantinople. +He was an Irishman from County Mayo, and I had a letter of introduction +to him from my friend Sir George Morris. Sir Nicholas invited +me to lunch at Therapia, where the Embassy was in residence in its summer +quarters. He was exceedingly kind and facilitated our sightseeing +in the great city during our stay. We witnessed the Selamlik ceremony +of the Sultan’s weekly visit for prayers to the Mosque Hamedieh +Jami, which stands adjacent to the grounds of Yildiz Kiosk. It +was worth seeing. There <!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>was +a great gathering of military in splendid uniforms and glittering decorations. +Seven handsome carriages contained his principal wives, or ladies of +the harem (wives we were told), and several of the Sultan’s sons +(mere youths) were there, beautifully apparelled. We caught glimpses +of the ladies through their carriage windows, and being women (though +veiled) I should be surprised if they, on their part, did not get glimpses +of us. There were eunuchs too, black frock-coated—and the +chief eunuch, an important personage who ranks very high. Then +came the Sultan (Abdul Hamid) himself in an open carriage, closely surrounded +and guarded by officers. He was an elderly, careworn, bearded, +sallow, melancholy looking man, whose features seemed incapable of a +smile. He entered the Mosque alone; his wives remaining seated +in their carriages outside. In the room in which we sat at an +open window to view the ceremony we were regaled with the Sultan’s +coffee and cigarettes.</p> +<p>The streets and bazaars of Constantinople were absorbingly interesting. +The various nationalities that everywhere met the eye; the flowing eastern +costumes, the picturesque water carriers, the public letter writers +patiently seated at street corners and occupied with their clients, +the babel of voices, and yet an Oriental indolence pervading all, crowds +but no hurry; the sonorous and musical sound of the Muezzin call to +prayers from the minarets—all was new and strange; delightful +too, if you except the dogs that beset the streets and over which, as +they lay about, we stumbled at every step. They are now a thing +of the past. Poor brutes, they deserved a better fate than the +cruel method of extinction which Turkish rule administered.</p> +<p>Of course we visited Stamboul’s greatest Mosque, S. Sophia. +Many other Mosques we saw, but none that approached the majesty of this. +One, the Church of the Monastery of the Chora, famous for its beautiful +mosaics, we did not see, although the German Emperor had driven specially +to it on his visit in 1898 to the Sultan. The only good road Constantinople +seemed to possess was this road to the church, which lies outside the +city, and this road, we were told, was constructed for the convenience +of His Imperial Majesty.</p> +<p>One day, on the bridge that spans the Golden Horn, we passed the +Grand Vizier in his carriage. It was the day on which we crossed +the <!-- page 165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>Bosphorus +by steamer to visit Scutari on the Asiatic shore. Scutari commands +a splendid view of the city, the Golden Horn, and the Bosphorus in its +winding beauty, right away to the Black Sea. What a city some +day will Constantinople be! The grandest perhaps on earth. +In Scutari we heard the Howling Dervishes at their devotions, and the +following day, in Constantinople, witnessed a <i>performance</i> shall +I call it? of the Dancing Dervishes in their whirling, circling, toe-revolving +exercise. The object of both is said to be to produce the ecstatic +state in which the soul enters the world of dreams and becomes one with +God. There is no question as to the ecstatic, nay frenzied state +many of them attained.</p> +<p>Our last day was the eve of the Ramadan Fast. At eight o’clock +that night we left by train to journey homeward overland, for time demanded +that we should go back much quicker than we came.</p> +<p>We broke our journey for two days at Buda-Pesth, and looked on the +Danube; at Vienna we stayed a little longer, and found that gay city +hard to leave. We drove and rode in the Prater, and horseback +exercise in such a place was, I need not say, delightful. We stopped +at Frankfort, enjoyed its opera and other things, then, <i>via</i> Ostend, +wended our way to London.</p> +<h2><!-- page 166--><a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>CHAPTER +XXVI.<br /> +A CONGRESS AT PARIS, THE PROGRESS OF IRISH LINES, EGYPT AND THE NILE</h2> +<p>“Will you undertake to report on the subject of Light Railways +for the International Railway Congress at Paris?” This question +was put to me in the year 1899, and although I was busy enough, without +shouldering additional work, I at once said “Yes,” and this +was how I came to spend part of my 1900 annual holiday in the beautiful +but crowded capital of France. Crowded it was almost to suffocation, +for 1900 was the Great Exhibition year, and all the world and his wife +were there. The Railway Congress took place in September. +The business part of the proceedings came first, and I did not stay +for the festivities. When my Report was made and discussed (a +reporter was not allowed to read his paper, but was required to speak +from notes), I made, with three railway friends from Dublin, tracks +for Switzerland. It had been a strenuous year and mountain air +and exercise were needed to restore one’s physical strength and +jaded faculties.</p> +<p>“<i>Means of developing light railways. What are the +best means of encouraging the building of light railways</i>?” +This was the text for my paper, as sent to me by the Congress, and my +Report, I was told, should be confined to the United Kingdom, Mr. W. +M. Acworth having undertaken a report on the subject for other countries.</p> +<p>In my Report I first disposed of Ireland, concerning which and its +light railways I have already written with some fullness in these pages; +and my <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>readers, +I am sure, will not be surprised to hear that, as regards that country +I answered the question remitted to me by saying that the only practical +means I could see of further encouraging the construction of light railways +in Ireland was by the wise expenditure of additional Government Grants, +while as regards England, I pointed out that she had for long preferred +to dispense with light railways, that, as forcibly expressed in <i>The +Times</i>, she alone of civilised countries had but one standard for +her railways, that is “the best that money could buy”; that +times had changed, and in 1894 and 1895 much discussion and investigation +on the subject had taken place, brought about chiefly, I thought, by +depression in agriculture; that the energy which France, Germany, Sweden, +Belgium and Italy had expended on their light railway systems, especially +in agricultural and rural districts, had helped to further concentrate +public opinion on the question; that a conference had been held at the +Board of Trade and a Committee appointed to investigate the subject; +that this Committee, after various sittings, had reported in favour +of legislation, and that the result had been that the <i>Light Railway +Act</i> of 1896 had come into being. My paper also dealt with +this Act, explaining its scope, its limitations and what its effect +had been during the comparatively short time (only four years) it had +been in force; and my conclusion was that in Great Britain no further +facilities were at that time required for encouraging the building of +light railways, the best policy in my judgment being, to give the Act +a fair trial, as time only could show to what extent the railways to +be made in virtue of its provisions would fulfil the objects for which +it had been passed.</p> +<p>Mr. Acworth did not tackle the question as affecting other countries. +He reported that he had no special knowledge which would entitle him +to say how light railway enterprise could best be developed in countries +other than his own, and that as my Report “sufficiently set out +the present position of affairs in reference to light railways in the +United Kingdom,” he thought the most useful contribution he could +offer to the discussion of the question would be “a short criticism +of the working, both from a legal or administrative and also from a +practical point of view, of our English Act of 1896.”</p> +<p>The Act of 1896 was one of considerable importance to British Railways +and, therefore, merits a few words. It established three Commissioners +who <!-- page 168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>were +empowered to make Orders authorising the construction of Light Railways, +including powers for the compulsory acquisition of land; authorised +the granting of Government loans and, under special circumstances, free +grants of money. The Board of Trade might require any project +brought forward under the Act to be submitted to Parliament, if they +considered its magnitude, or the effect it might have on any existing +railway, demanded such a course. The Act simplified and cheapened +the process for the acquisition of land, and ordained that in fixing +the price the consequent betterment of other lands held by the same +owner should be taken into account. It imparted considerable power +to dispense with certain expensive conditions and regulations in working +railways constructed under its authority. Though it was intended +primarily to benefit agriculture, it was capable of an interpretation +wide enough to include all kinds of tramways, and it has been extensively +used for that purpose, sometimes, I fear, to the detriment of existing +railways.</p> +<p>According to an article in the Jubilee (1914) number of the <i>Railway +News</i>, by Mr. Welby Everard, up to the end of the year 1912 (since +the outbreak of the war figures are not obtainable) a total of 645 applications +(including 111 applications for amending Orders) were made to the Commissioners, +the total mileage represented being 4,861 miles. Of these applications +418 were passed, comprising 2,115 miles, of which, 1,415 miles were +in class A, <i>i.e</i>. light railways to be constructed on land acquired +or “cross-country” lines, that is to say, lines which legitimately +fulfilled the purposes of the Act. But, up to October, 1913, only +45 of these lines, with a total length of 441 miles, had been constructed +and opened for traffic. The number of applications to the Commissioners +seemed to show a considerable demand for greater facilities for transit +in rural districts, but capital apparently was slow to respond to that +demand. Perhaps it will be different now, in these days of change +and reconstruction. The Government is pledged to tackle the whole +question of Transport, and Light Railways will, of course, not be overlooked, +though Motor Traction will run them a close race.</p> +<p>For ten years I had now been manager of the Midland Great Western +Railway, and busy and interesting years they were. In that period +Irish railways, considering that the population of the country was diminishing, +had <!-- page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>made +remarkable progress, and effected astonishing improvements. Whilst +the population of England during the decade had <i>increased</i> by +9.13 per cent., and Scotland by 4.69, that of Ireland had <i>decreased</i> +by 4.29 per cent! Yet, notwithstanding this, the railway traffic +in Ireland, measured by receipts, had increased by 22 per cent., against +England 31 and Scotland 36. In the number of passengers carried +the increase in Ireland was 29 per cent. In the same period the +increase in the number of engines and vehicles in Ireland was 22, in +England 30, and Scotland 33 per cent., whilst the number of train miles +run (which is the real measure of the usefulness of railways to the +public) had advanced 27 per cent. in Ireland, compared with 28 in England, +and 30 in Scotland.</p> +<p>These figures indicate what Irish railways had accomplished in the +decade ending with December, 1900, and betoken, I venture to affirm, +a keen spirit of enterprise. These ten years had witnessed the +introduction of breakfast and dining cars on the trains, of parlour +cars, long bogie corridor carriages, the lighting of carriages by electricity, +the building of railway hotels in tourist districts, the establishment +of numerous coach and steamboat tours, the quickening of tourist traffic +generally, the adoption of larger locomotives of greatly increased power, +the acceleration of the train service, the laying of heavier and smoother +permanent way, and a widespread extension of cheap fares—tourist, +excursion, week-end, etc. It was a period of great activity and +progress in the Irish railway world, with which I was proud and happy +to be intimately connected. But what a return for all this effort +and enterprise the Irish railway companies received—£3 17s. +10d. per cent. on the whole capital expended, plus a liberal amount +of abuse from the Press and politicians, neither of whom ever paused +to consider what Ireland owed to her railways, which, perhaps, all things +considered, was the best conducted business in the country. It, +however, became the vogue to decry Irish lines as inefficient and extortionate, +and a fashion once started, however ridiculous, never lacks supporters. +The public, like sheep, are easily led. In England the average +return on capital expended was £4 0s. 5d., and in Scotland £4 +2s. 2d.</p> +<p>In the spring of 1901, Mr. W. H. Mills, the Engineer of the Great +Northern Railway of Ireland, and I were entrusted by the Board of Works +<!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>with +an investigation into the circumstances of the Cork, Blackrock and Passage +Railway in regard to a proposed Government loan to enable the Company +to discharge its liabilities and complete an extension of its railway +to Crosshaven. It was an interesting inquiry, comprising a broken +contract, the cost of completing unfinished works, the financial prospects +of the line when such works were completed, and other cognate matters. +A Bill in Parliament promoted by the Railway Company in the following +year became necessary in connection with the loan, which after our Report +the Government granted, and I had to give evidence in regard to it. +In the same session I appeared also before two other Parliamentary Committees, +so again I had a busy time outside the ordinary domestic duties pertaining +to railway management.</p> +<p>On the first day of November, 1902, my good friend Walter Bailey +and I started on a visit to Egypt. It, like Constantinople and +Spain and Portugal, occupied more than the usual month’s vacation, +but as these extra long excursions were taken only every two or three +years, and as it was never my habit to nibble at holidays by indulging +in odd days or week-ends, my conscience was clear, especially as my +Chairman and Directors cordially approved of my seeing a bit of the +world, and readily granted the necessary leave of absence. As +for Bailey, he always declared this Egyptian tour was the holiday of +his life. To continue, we arrived in Cairo, <i>via</i> Trieste +and Alexandria, on the 10th. There we were met by Mr. Harrison, +the general manager of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, and their principal +dragoman, <i>Selim</i>, whom he placed during our stay in Cairo at our +disposal. <i>Selim</i> was a Syrian and the prince of dragomans; +a handsome man, of Oriental dignity and gravity, arrayed in wonderful +robes, which by contrast with our Occidental attire made Bailey and +me feel drab and commonplace. At Cairo we stayed for eight days +at Shepheard’s Hotel, and under <i>Selim’s</i> guidance +made good use of our time. On the ninth day we began a delightful +journey up the Nile. Mr. Frank Cook had insisted upon our being +the guests of his firm on their tourist steamer <i>Amasis</i>.</p> +<p>My relations with Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son go back for many years, +and with the Midland of England, my <i>Alma Mater</i>, the firm is, +perhaps, more closely associated than with any other railway. +It was on the Midland <!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>system +that, in 1841, its business began. In that year the founder of +the firm, Mr. Thomas Cook, arranged with the Midland the first public +excursion train on record. It ran from Leicester to Loughborough +and back at a fare of one shilling, and carried 570 passengers. +This was the first small beginning of that great tourist business which +now encircles the habitable globe. Mr. Thomas Cook was a Derbyshire +man and was born in 1808. My father knew him well, often talked +to me about him, and told me stories of the excursion and tourist trade +in its early days. But I am digressing, and must return to Old +Father Nile, who was in great flood. We saw him at his best. +His banks were teeming with happy dusky figures and the smiling irrigated +land was bright with fertility. Our journey to Assouan occupied +eleven days, a leisurely progress averaging about two and a-half miles +an hour. During the night we never steamed, the <i>Amasis</i> +lying up while we enjoyed quiet rest in the quietest of lands. +Of course we visited all the famous temples and tombs, ruins and monuments, +of ancient Egypt; and had many camel and donkey rides on the desert +sands before reaching the first cataract. At Luxor, where we stayed +for five days, we were pleasantly surprised at seeing Mr. Harrison and +Mr. Warren Gillman come on board. The latter was Secretary of +Messrs. Cook and Son’s Egyptian business, and has, I believe, +since risen higher in the service of the firm.</p> +<p>The great Dam at Assouan was just completed and we traversed its +entire length on a trolley propelled by natives. Assouan detained +us for four days; then, time being important, we travelled back to Cairo +by railway. Three more interesting days were passed in the Babylonian +city, then homewards we went by the quickest route attainable.</p> +<p>Whilst in Cairo and on our journey up the Nile, Bailey and I wrote, +jointly, a series of seven articles on “Egypt and its Railways.” +These appeared in the <i>Railway News</i> in seven successive weeks +during December and January.</p> +<p>Our last hours in the land of the Pharaohs were filled with regret +at having to leave it so soon. Said Bailey: “Cannot you, +before we go, write a verse of Farewell?” So I composed +the following:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>Egypt, +farewell, and farewell Father Nile,<br /> +Impenetrable Sphinx, eternal pile<br /> +Of broad-based pyramid, and spacious hypostyle!</p> +<p>Farewell Osiris, Anubis and Set,<br /> +Horus and Ra, and gentle Meskenhet,<br /> +Ye sacred gods of old, O must we leave you yet?</p> +<p>The mighty works of Ramesis the Great,<br /> +Memphis, Karnak and Thebes asseverate<br /> +The pomp and glory, Egypt, of your ancient state.</p> +<p>Bright cloudless land! Your skies of heavenly blue<br /> +Bend o’er your fellaheen the whole day through;<br /> +Night scarce diminishes their sweet celestial hue.</p> +<p>Realm of enchantment, break your mystic spell,<br /> +Land of the lotus, smiling land farewell!<br /> +For ever it may be, what oracle can tell?</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>CHAPTER +XXVII.<br /> +KING EDWARD, A CHANGE OF CHAIRMEN, AND MORE RAILWAY LEGISLATION</h2> +<p>The memorable visit to Ireland of His Majesty King Edward, in the +summer of 1903, which embraced all parts of the country, furnished I +think no incident so unique as his reception in Connemara. On +the morning of the 30th July the Royal Yacht anchored off Leenane, in +Killery Bay, and His Majesty landed in Connaught. He was accompanied +by Queen Alexandra and Princess Victoria. This was the first time, +I believe, that the people west of the Shannon had seen their King, +and whatever their politics, or aspirations were, he was certainly received +with every manifestation of sincere good will. His genial personality +and ingratiating <i>bonhomie</i>, his humanity, and his sportsmanlike +characteristics, appealed at once to Irish instincts, and Connaught +was as enthusiastic in its welcome as the rest of Ireland. The +Royal party motored from Leenane to Recess, where they lunched at the +Company’s hotel, and where, of course, the Chairman, directors +and chief officers of the railway, as well as local magnates, were assembled +to assist in the welcome. On nearing Recess a surprise awaited +the King. He was met by the “Connemara Cavalry,” which +escorted the Royal Party to the hotel and acted as bodyguard. +Mr. John O’Loughlin, of Cashel, had organised this new and unexpected +addition to His Majesty’s Forces. It consisted of about +100 farmers, farmer’s sons and labourers, of all ages from 18 +to 80, mounted (mostly bareback) on hardy Connemara ponies. “Buffalo +Bill” hats, decorated <!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>with +the Royal colours or with green ribbon streamers, distinguished them +from others. It was a striking scene, unexpected, novel, unique; +but quite in harmony with the surroundings and the wild and romantic +scenery of Connemara and the Killeries. The King plainly showed +his hearty appreciation. After lunch their Majesties visited the +marble quarries, situated some three miles distant, and reached by a +rough and rocky precipitous mountain road, for which motor cars were +entirely unsuited. For this journey the marble quarry people had +ordered a carriage and horses from Dublin, but which, by some unfortunate +occurrence, had not turned up. Though the only carriage available +in the neighbourhood was ill-suited for royalty, the King and Queen, +good naturedly, made little of that. They were too delighted with +the unmistakable warmth of their welcome to mind such a trifle. +Again the “Cavalry” were in attendance and escorted the +party to the quarries and back.</p> +<p>The Royal visit to Ireland, on the whole, was an unqualified success, +and there were many who hoped and believed that the King’s good +will towards the country and its people, and his remarkable gifts as +a peacemaker, would in some way help to a solution of the Irish question; +but, alas! that question is with us still, and when and how it will +be solved no man can tell. For myself, I am one of those who indulge +in <i>hope</i>, remembering that Time, in his healing course, has a +way of adjusting human misunderstandings and of bringing about the seemingly +impossible.</p> +<p>It was in this year (1903) that I first met Charles Dent, the present +General Manager of the Great Northern Railway of England. He had +been appointed General Manager of the Great Southern and Western Railway +in succession to R. G. Colhoun. Dent and I often met. We +found we could do good work for our respective companies by reducing +wasteful competition and adopting methods of friendly working. +In this we were very successful. A man of few words, disdaining +all unnecessary formalities, but getting quickly at the heart and essence +of things, it was always a pleasure to do business with him.</p> +<p>In this year also I enjoyed some variety by way of an inquiry which +I made for the Board of Works, concerning certain proposed light railway +extensions, called the Ulster and Connaught, and which involved the +ticklish task of estimating probable traffic receipts and working expenses—a +task <!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>for +which the gift of prophecy almost is needed. To determine, in +this uncertain world, the future of a railway in embryo might puzzle +the wisest; but, with the confidence of the expert, I faced the problem +and, I hope, arrived at conclusions which were at least within a mile +of the mark.</p> +<p>In 1904 that fine old railway veteran, Sir Ralph Cusack, resigned +his position of Chairman of the Midland and was succeeded by the Honourable +Richard Nugent, youngest son of the ninth Earl of Westmeath; Major H. +C. Cusack, Sir Ralph’s nephew and son-in-law, becoming Deputy +Chairman—the first (excepting for a few brief months in 1903 when +Mr. Nugent occupied the position) the Midland ever had. With Sir +Ralph’s vacation of the chair, autocratic rule on the Midland, +which year by year, had steadily been growing less, disappeared entirely +and for ever. Well, Sir Ralph in his long period of office had +served the Midland faithfully, with a single eye to its interests, and +good wishes followed him in his retirement. Mr. Nugent was a small +man, that is physically, but intellectually was well endowed. +He had scholarly tastes and business ability in pretty equal parts. +Movement and activity he loved, and, as he often told me, preferred +a holiday in Manchester or Birmingham to the Riviera or Italian Lakes. +He liked to be occupied, was fond of details, and possessed a lively +curiosity. Sometimes he was thought, as a chairman, to err in +the direction of too rigid economy, but on a railway such as the Midland, +and in a country such as Ireland, economy was and is an excellent thing, +and if he erred, it was on the right side. Truth, candour, courage +and enthusiasm marked his character in a high degree. Fearless +in speech, the art of dissimulation he never learned. I shall +not readily forget a speech he once made at the Railway Companies’ +Association in London. It was on an occasion of great importance, +when all the principal companies of the United Kingdom were present. +It was altogether unpremeditated, provoked by other speeches with which +he disagreed, and its directness and courage—for it was a bold +and frank expression of honest conviction, such as tells in any assembly—created +some stir and considerable comment. Of plain homely mother-wit +he had an uncommon share, and his mind was stored with quotations which +came out in his talk with wonderful ease and aptness. A shrewd +observer, his comments (always good-natured if critical) on his fellow +men were worth listening to.</p> +<p><!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>Our +almost daily intercourse was intimate and frank. Sometimes we +wandered into the pleasant fields of poetry and literature, but never +to the neglect of business. He had an advantage that I greatly +envied; a splendid memory; could repeat verse after verse, stanza upon +stanza, whole cantos almost, from his favourite poet, Byron. It +was at the half-yearly meetings of shareholders (they were held half-yearly +in his day) that he specially shone, not in his address to them (for +that he <i>would</i> persist in reading) but in the after proceedings +when the heckling began. This, during his chairmanship, was often +severe enough, for owing to unavoidably increased expenditure, dividends +were diminishing and shareholders, in consequence, were in anything +but complacent mood. Question time always put him on his mettle. +Then his mother-wit came out, his lively humour and practical common +sense—all unstudied and natural. The effect was striking. +Rarely did he fail in disarming criticism, producing harmony, and sending +away dissentients in good temper, though some of them, I know, sometimes +afterwards wondered how it came about that they had been so easily placated.</p> +<p>From 1903 to 1906 several Acts of Parliament affecting railways generally +came into force, four of which were of sufficient importance to merit +attention. The first, the <i>Railways (Electric Power) Act</i>, +1903, was a measure to facilitate the introduction and use of electrical +power on railways, and invested the Board of Trade with authority to +make Orders for that purpose, which were to have the same effect as +if enacted by Parliament.</p> +<p>The second, the <i>Railway Fires Act</i>, 1905, was an Act to give +compensation for damage by fires caused by sparks or cinders from railway +engines, and increased the liability of railway companies. It +<i>inter alia</i>, enacted that the fact that the offending engine was +used under statutory powers should not affect liability in any action +for damage.</p> +<p>Next came the <i>Trades Disputes Act</i>, 1906, a short measure of +five clauses, but none the less of great importance; a democratic law +with a vengeance! It is one of the four Acts which A. A. Baumann, +in his recent book, describes as being “in themselves a revolution,” +and of this particular Act he says it “placed the Trade Unions +beyond the reach of the laws of contract and of tort.” It +also legalised peaceful picketing, that particular form of persuasion +with which a democratic age has become only too familiar.</p> +<p><!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>Lastly, +the <i>Workmen’s Compensation Act</i>, of 1906, an Act to consolidate +and amend the law with respect to compensation to workmen for injuries +suffered in the course of their employment, is on the whole a beneficial +and useful measure, to which we have grown accustomed.</p> +<p>In these years I had other holiday trips abroad; some with my family +to France and Switzerland, and two with my friend, John Kilkelly. +One of these two was to Denmark and Germany; the other to Monte Carlo +and the Riviera. In Germany, at Altona, we saw the Kaiser “in +shining armour,” fresh from the autumnal review of his troops, +though indeed I should scarcely say <i>fresh</i>, for he looked tired +and pale, altogether different to the stern bronzed warrior depicted +in his authorised photographic presentments which confronted us at every +turn. Kilkelly was a busy, but never seemed an overworked man, +due I suppose to some constitutional quality he enjoyed. Added +to a good professional business of his own, he was Solicitor to the +Midland, Crown Solicitor for County Armagh, Solicitor to the Galway +County Council, and, in <i>his leisure hours</i>, farmed successfully +some seven or eight hundred acres. He had a fine portly presence, +and though modesty itself, could not help looking as if he were <i>somebody</i>, +like the stranger in London, accosted by Theodore Hook in the Strand, +who was of such imposing appearance that the wit stopped him and said: +“I beg your pardon, sir, but, may I ask, are you anybody in particular?”</p> +<p>At Monte Carlo we both lost money but revelled in abundant sunshine, +and contemplated phases of humanity that to us were new and strange. +Soon we grew tired of the gaming table and its glittering surroundings, +bade it adieu, and explored other parts of the Riviera, moving at our +ease from scene to scene and from place to place.</p> +<p>Kilkelly was an excellent travelling companion, readily pleased, +and taking things as they came with easy philosophy. But never +more shall we travel together, at home or abroad. A year ago, +at the age of 82, he passed from among us on the last long journey which +we all must take.</p> +<blockquote><p><i>Requiescat in pace</i>!</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>CHAPTER +XXVIII.<br /> +VICE-REGAL COMMISSION ON IRISH RAILWAYS, 1906-1910, AND THE FUTURE OF +RAILWAYS</h2> +<p>In previous pages I have spoken of the manner in which the railways +of Ireland had long been abused. This abuse, as the years went +on, instead of diminishing grew in strength if not in grace. The +Companies were strangling the country, stifling industry, thwarting +enterprise; were extortionate, grasping, greedy, inefficient. +These were the things that were said of them, and this in face of what +the railways were accomplishing, of which I have previously spoken. +Politics were largely at the bottom of it all, I am sure, and certain +newspapers joined in the noisy chorus. At length the House of +Commons, during the Session of 1905, rewarded the agitators by adopting +the following resolution:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>That in the opinion of this House, excessive +railway rates and defective transit facilities, generally, constitute +a serious bar to the advancement of Ireland and should receive immediate +attention from the Government with a view to providing a remedy therefor</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This Resolution bore fruit, for in the ensuing year (1906), in the +month of July, a Vice-Regal Commission was appointed to inquire into +the subject, and the Terms of Reference to the Commission included these +words:—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>“<i>What +causes have retarded the expansion of traffic upon the Irish lines and +their full utilization for the development of the agricultural and industrial +resources of the country; and, generally, by what methods the economical, +efficient, and harmonious working of the Irish Railways can best be +secured</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As the newspapers said, the Irish Railway Companies were put upon +their trial. As soon as the Commission was appointed the Companies +(19 in number) assembled at the Railway Clearing House in Dublin to +discuss the situation, and decide upon a course of action. Unanimously +it was resolved to act together and to make a common defence. +A Committee, consisting of the Chairman and General Managers of the +seven principal companies, was appointed and invested with full power +to act in the interest of all, as they should find desirable. +The Right Honourable Sir William (then Sir William) Goulding, Baronet, +Chairman of the Great Southern and Western Railway, was appointed Chairman +of the Committee. I was appointed its Secretary, and Mr. Croker +Barrington its Solicitor. It was further decided that one general +case for the associated railways should be prepared and presented to +the Commission by one person, who should also (under the direction of +the Committee) have charge of all proceedings connected with the Inquiry. +I, to my delight, was unanimously selected as that person, and to enable +me to do the work properly, I was allowed to select three assistants. +My choice fell upon G. E. Smyth, John Quirey, and Joseph Ingram, and +I could not have chosen better. We were allotted an office in +the Railway Clearing House; my assistants gave their whole time to the +work, and I gravitated between Broadstone and Kildare Street, for of +course I had to look after the Midland Great Western as well as the +Commission business. That I could not, like Sir Boyle Roche’s +bird, be in two places at once, was my greatest disappointment. +I may record here that each of my assistants has since, to borrow an +Americanism, “made good.” Smyth is now Traffic Manager +of the Great Southern and Western Railway; Quirey is Chief Accountant +of the Midland Railway of England, and Ingram became Secretary of the +Irish Clearing House, from which be has been recently promoted to an +important position under the Ministry of Transport (Ireland).</p> +<p><!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>The +way in which the seven Companies worked together, and the success they +attained was, I think, something to be proud of. Sir William Goulding +was an excellent Chairman. There was just one little rift in the +lute. One of the seven Companies showed a disposition, at times, +to play off its own bat, but this was, after all, only a small matter, +and the general harmony, cohesion and unanimity that prevailed were +admirable, and unquestionably productive of good. We had as Counsel, +to guide and assist the Committee, and to represent the Companies before +the tribunal, Mr. Balfour Browne, K.C.; Mr. Jas. Campbell, K.C. (now +the Rt. Hon. Sir James Campbell, Baronet, Lord Chancellor of Ireland); +Mr. T. M. Healy, K.C.; Mr. Vesey Knox, K.C.; and Mr. G. Fitzgibbon. +They served us well, and were all required. During the proceedings, +prolonged as they were, each could not of course always appear, and +it was important to have Counsel invariably at hand.</p> +<p>Sir Charles Scotter was appointed Chairman of the Commission. +He was Chairman of the London and South Western Railway; had risen from +the ranks in the railway service; had been a general manager, and was +unquestionably a man of great ability; but he was handicapped by his +age, which even then exceeded the Psalmist’s allotted span. +His health moreover was not good, and in less than six months after +the completion of the work of the Commission, he departed this life +at the age of 75.</p> +<p>Mr. George Shanahan, Assistant Secretary of the Board of Works, was +the capable Secretary of the Commission. He had the advantage +of being a railwayman. From the service of the Great Northern +Railway, Robertson took him with him to the Board of Works in the year +1896.</p> +<p>Before the Commission began its public sittings it issued and freely +circulated a printed paper entitled “<i>Draft Heads of Evidence +for Traders, Industrial Associations, Commercial and Public Bodies, +etc</i>.” This paper invited complaints under various set +headings and concluded with these words:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Whether there is any other question that might +be usefully considered in determining the <i>causes that have retarded +the expansion of <!-- page 181--><a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>traffic +upon the Irish lines</i>, and their full utilization for the development +of the agricultural and industrial resources of the country.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The italics are mine. We, rightly or wrongly, looked upon this +paragraph as <i>assuming</i> the case against the Companies to have +some foundation in fact and likely to bias neutral opinion against us, +and when (after the hearing was concluded) three of the seven Commissioners +reported that the evidence “led them to doubt whether expansion +of traffic had been retarded,” we felt that our view was not without +justification. But I am anticipating the findings of the Commission, +and perhaps, after all, the peculiar Terms of the Reference largely +dictated the course of procedure which the Commission adopted.</p> +<p>The first public sitting was held in Dublin on the 12th of October, +1906, and the last in the same city on the 29th of January, 1909. +There were 95 public sittings in all; and 293 witnesses were examined, +29 of whom appeared on behalf of the Railway Companies. The Reports +of the Commissioners (for there were two—a Majority and a Minority +Report) did not appear till the 4th of July, 1910, so from the time +of its appointment until the conclusion of its work the Commission covered +a period of four years, all but fourteen days.</p> +<p>During the course of this Inquiry I passed through a crisis in my +life. From more than a year before the Commission was appointed +I had been in most indifferent health, the cause of which doctors both +in Dublin and in London were unable to discover. As time went +on I became worse. Recurring attacks of intense internal pain +and constant loss of sleep worked havoc with my strength; but I held +on grimly to my work, and few there were who knew how I suffered. +One day, indeed, at the close of a sitting of the Commission, Sir John +(then Mr.) Aspinall came over to where I sat, and said: “How ill +you have looked all day, Tatlow; what is wrong?” By the +time March, 1907 came round, finding I could go on no longer, I went +to London and saw three medical men, one of whom was the eminent surgeon, +Sir Mayo (then Mr.) Robson. He, happily, discovered the cause +of my trouble, and forthwith operated upon me. It was a severe +and prolonged operation, <!-- page 182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>but +saved my life and re-established my health. Not until late in +July was I able to resume work—an enforced absence from duty of +four long months. In this absence my three assistants carried +on the Commission work with great efficiency. It was a trying +experience that I passed through, but from it I gathered some knowledge +of what a man can endure and still perform his daily task, and what +the value of true and sympathetic friendship means to one in a time +of suffering. It was during this illness that my friend, F. K. +shewed what a true friend he was. He, and my dear kinsman Harry, +devoted themselves to me, especially during my convalescence, giving +up their time ungrudgingly and accompanying me to the Mediterranean +and elsewhere.</p> +<p>The presentation of the Railway case and the rebutting evidence did +not begin till all the public witnesses had been heard. My evidence, +on behalf of the associated companies, occupied five days. Other +railway managers followed with evidence specially affecting their own +railways, and one Chairman (Mr. F. W. Pim, Dublin and South-Eastern +Railway) also appeared in the witness box. We had also as a witness +Mr. E. A. Pratt, the well-known journalist and author of works on railways +and commercial subjects, who gave evidence for us regarding Continental +railway rates and conditions of transit abroad, in answer to evidence +which had been given on the subject by an official of the Department +of Agriculture. An extraordinary amount of importance had been +attached to Continental railway rates as compared with rates in Ireland, +and the Department had sent their representative abroad to gather all +the information he could. He returned, armed with figures, and +submitted lengthy evidence and numerous tables. A great outcry +had been made for years in the Press and on the platform that rates +in Ireland were exorbitant compared with Continental rates; and now, +it was thought, this will be brought home to the Irish Companies. +Mr. Pratt was well informed, having investigated the subject thoroughly +in various countries, and written and published books and articles thereon. +Between us we were able to show the unfairness of the comparisons, the +dissimilarity of the circumstances of each country, and the varied conditions +and nature of the services rendered in each, and the Commissioners in +the Majority <!-- page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>Report +confessed that after a full consideration of the evidence, they did +not think any useful purpose would be served by attempting to make particular +and detailed comparisons between Continental and Irish rates.</p> +<p>I could write much that would be interesting about the proceedings +and the evidence given against and for the Companies; how reckless were +many of the charges brought against them, how easily they were disproved; +how subtle and disingenuous other charges were and what skill was required +to refute them; how some of the witnesses were up in the clouds and +had to be brought down to common earth; how conclusively the Companies +proved that the railways had done their best to encourage and help every +industry and that their efforts had not been unsuccessful; but I will +resist the temptation, and proceed to the Reports which the Commissioners +presented to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. As I have said, +there were two reports, one signed by four, the other by three Commissioners. +The Majority Report bore the signatures of the Chairman, the Rt. Hon. +Lord Pirrie, Colonel (now Sir) Hutcheson Poë, and Mr. Thomas Sexton, +while the Minority Report was signed by Sir Herbert Jekyll, Mr. W. M. +Acworth, and Mr. (now Sir) John Aspinall. The first-mentioned +Report was not so favourable to the railways as the other, yet the worst +thing it said of the Companies was that they were commercial bodies +conducted on commercial principles and ran the railways for profit, +and it admitted that Irish railway managers neglected few opportunities +for developing traffic. In a sort of way it apologised for the +evidence-seeking printed papers to which I have already referred, and +admitted that had the Commissioners been in possession of the statistics +of trade and industry published in 1906 by the Department of Agriculture +(which seemed to have surprised them by the facts and figures they contained +of Ireland’s progress) these circulars might have been framed +differently. The Report also said that the complaints the Commissioners +received would have been fewer in number if some of the public witnesses +had been better informed and had taken pains to verify their statements. +The Commissioners further reported that they were satisfied that it +was impracticable for the Railway Companies, as commercial undertakings, +to make such reduction in rates as was desired, and, “as the economic +condition of the country required,” <!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>but +it was not mentioned that no inquiry had been made as to the economic +condition alluded to. In regard to this question of economic condition +the Minority Report took a more modest view. It expressed the +opinion that regarding the causes which had retarded the expansion of +traffic upon the Irish lines, “A complete answer would involve +an inquiry ranging over the whole field of agriculture and industry +in all its aspects,” and that this the Commissioners had not made. +It also added that the statistics of Irish trade which had been published +by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction since the +commencement of the Inquiry led them (the Minority Commissioners) to +doubt whether the expansion of traffic <i>had</i> been retarded.</p> +<p>To return to the Majority Report. The Commissioners who signed +it were of opinion that Ireland needed special treatment in regard to +her railways and that public acquisition (not State acquisition) and +public control of a unified railway system was the consummation to be +desired. In their view, if only this were accomplished blessings +innumerable would ensue and all complaints would for ever cease. +As to the way in which this unification and public control were to be +carried out, they recommended that an Irish Authority should be instituted +to acquire the Irish Railways and work them as a single system, that +this Authority should be a railway Board of twenty Directors, four nominated +and sixteen elected; that the general terms of purchase be those prescribed +by the Regulation of Railways Act of 1844; that the financial medium +be a Railway Stock; and that such Stock be charged upon (1) The Consolidated +Fund; (2) the net revenues of the unified railway system; (3) an annual +grant from the Imperial Exchequer; and (4) a general rate to be struck +by the Irish Railway Authority if and when required.</p> +<p>The Commissioners who signed the Minority Report said the evidence, +as a whole, had not produced the same general effect upon their minds +as upon the minds of their colleagues, and they were inclined to attach +less importance than their colleagues did to the evidence given against +the Irish Railway Companies, and more importance to the evidence given +in their favour. In their opinion the result of the evidence was, +that if the Companies were to be considered as having been on their +trial, <i>they were entitled</i> <!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span><i>to +a verdict of acquittal</i>, and that no case had been made out for the +reversal of railway policy which their colleagues advocated. They +added that it would hardly be disputed that the Railways had on the +whole conferred great benefits upon Ireland.</p> +<p>On the question of reductions in rates (reductions which the Majority +Report strongly urged as necessary), they did not think that reductions +were more likely to occur under public than under private ownership. +They suggested, further, that the official statistics of various countries +showed that the fall in the average rate had been much greater on the +privately owned railways of France and the United States than on the +State-owned railways of Prussia, which were universally accepted as +the most favourable example of State managed railways in the world. +They came to the conclusion, after hearing all the evidence, that the +management of the principal Irish Companies was not inferior to that +of similar companies in England and Scotland. They narrated the +many improvements (with which they seemed much impressed) that Irish +Companies had in recent years effected for the benefit of the public +and the good of the country, and said “they had spent money, and +not always profitably, in endeavouring to promote the development of +new industries.” They considered the principle of private +ownership should be maintained, believing that railways are better and +more economically managed by directors responsible to their own shareholders +than they would be under any form of State or popular control, and that +administration on commercial principles was the best in the public interest.</p> +<p>In their opinion, however, the Irish railway system was faulty by +reason of its sub-division into so many independent companies, and they +recommended a policy of amalgamation, with the ultimate object of including +the principal railways in one single system, and also, that certain +lines classed as railways, but which were really tramways serving purely +local interests, need not be incorporated with the general railway system. +Such amalgamation, they considered, need not be effected at one time, +but should be accomplished gradually. Failing amalgamation by +voluntary effort within three years, compulsion should be resorted to.</p> +<p>On the whole the Reports were highly satisfactory to the Irish railways. +<!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>They +showed that the Companies had done their duty to the country honestly +and well, and that they had been unjustifiably attacked. The good +character of the Irish railways was thus re-established, and they again +held their rightful place in public esteem.</p> +<p>Of the two I much preferred the Minority Report. The working +of the Irish railways (in accordance with its Recommendations) as business +concerns on commercial principles, seemed to me both sound and sensible +and the policy best calculated to serve the interests of the country. +I cannot, however, say that I concurred in that part of the Minority +Report which proposed the welding of all the railways of Ireland into +one great system. In my humble opinion, the formation of three +large systems—a Northern, a Midland and a Southern—was the +desirable course to adopt. This course would, at any rate, keep +alive the spirit of emulation which, in itself, is a wholesome stimulant +to enterprise and endeavour, as well as to economy.</p> +<p>The Majority Report, which amongst other things said, “We consider +it obvious that Irish development will not be fully served by the railways +until they cease to be commercial undertakings,” found favour +mostly, I think, with those who looked upon Ireland as an exceptional +country requiring eleemosynary treatment, and whose railways ought, +in their view, to be placed beyond the ordinary healthy necessity of +paying their way. Our Chairman, the Honourable Richard Nugent, +addressing his shareholders at the time, put the matter rather neatly. +He said: “The case, as recommended by the Majority Report, stands +thus—the Government to find the money for purchasing the railways; +the Government to guarantee the interest on the capital cost; the County +Councils to work the railways on uncommercial lines; the Government +to pay to the extent of £250,000 a year any deficiency incurred +by uncommercial management; and any further annual losses to be paid +by the County Councils striking a general rate, which you and I and +all of us would be required to pay.” He added, “Does +this seem a businesslike proposal?”</p> +<p>The Government took no steps towards carrying out the Recommendations +of either Report. Perhaps they thought them so nearly divided, +and so almost evenly balanced, that the one neutralised the other. +They may <!-- page 187--><a name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>also +have thought that each Report made it clear that the Irish railways +were well managed, not lacking in enterprise or energy, were doing well +for the country; and that, therefore, the wisest course was to “let +well alone.”</p> +<p>Were we living in ordinary times, had there been no world-wide war, +with its vast upheavals and colossal changes, it would be both interesting +and profitable to further discuss the Reports, their conclusions and +recommendations; but the war has altered the whole railway situation, +and it would be idle to do so now. Victor Hugo says: “Great +events have incalculable consequences,” which is unquestionably +true in respect of the railways and the war. The vital question +now in regard, not only to the railways of Ireland, but to the railways +of the whole United Kingdom, is as to their future. It is, however, +with the Irish railways I am specially concerned, and of them I may +pretend to have a little knowledge, which must be my excuse for saying +a few words more on the subject.</p> +<p>The Irish railways, like those of Great Britain, are at present controlled +by the Government, under the <i>Regulation of the Forces Act</i>, 1871—a +war arrangement which is to be continued, under the powers of the <i>Ministry +of Transport Act</i>, for a further period of two years, “with +a view to affording time for the consideration and formulation of the +policy to be pursued as to the future position” of the railways. +This arrangement, temporary in its nature, provides, as is pretty generally +known, that during its continuance, the railway companies shall be guaranteed +the same net income as they earned in the year preceding the war, viz., +1913. So far so good. But two years will quickly pass; and +what then? It is also generally known that the Government control +of the railways, during the war and since, has resulted in enormous +additions to the working expenses. Perhaps these additions were +inevitable. The cost of coal, and of all materials used in the +working of railways, advanced by leaps and bounds; but the biggest increase +has been in the wages bill. The Government granted these increases +of wages, and also conceded shorter hours of labour, involving an immensity +of expense, on their own responsibility, without consultation with the +Irish railway companies. Upon the Irish railway companies, for +the present position of affairs no responsibility, therefore, rests. +Again I say, the course which the Government adopted was, perhaps, inevitable. +They had to win the war. <!-- page 188--><a name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>Labour +was clamorous and insistent, and serious trouble threatened. High +reasons of State may be presumed to have dictated the Government policy. +Anyhow the thing is done, and the hard fact remains that the Irish railways +have been brought to such a financial condition that, if they were handed +back to the companies, many of them not only could not pay any dividends +but would be unable to meet their fixed charges whilst some would not +be able to even pay their working expenses.</p> +<p>In England the opinion is held that a proper balance between receipts +and expenditure can be restored by increased charges and reduced expenditure. +This may be so in England, with its teeming population and its almost +illimitable industrial resources. As to that I venture no opinion, +but Ireland is very differently situated. It is mainly an agricultural +country, and for most of its railways no such promising prospect can, +it seems to me, be discerned. To <i>unduly</i> increase rates +would diminish traffic and induce competition by road and sea. +Past experience teaches this.</p> +<p>It used to be said that railway companies asserted, in justification +of their rates, that they were fixed on the principle of “what +the traffic could bear,” and the companies were reproached on +the ground that the principle involved an injustice, but a principle +which involved the imposition of rates beyond what the traffic <i>could +bear</i>, could hardly be said to be either sound or just. However +that may be, the Government have imposed upon the Irish railways a burden +of working expenses which they cannot bear. What is the remedy? +Whatever course is adopted, it is devoutly to be hoped that it will +be fair and just to the proprietors of a railway system, which has done +so much for Ireland, and in respect of which the proprietors have received +on their capital an annual return averaging less than 4 per cent.! +No bloated capitalists these. Irish railway shareholders largely +consist of people of moderate means, and their individual holdings, +on the Midland Great-Western, for example, average only £570 per +shareholder.</p> +<p>Whilst I am by nature optimistic, I must confess that in these latter +days my optimism occasionally receives a shock. Nevertheless, +I believe that the spirit of justice still animates the British people +and Parliament; that fair treatment will be accorded to the owners of +Irish railways, and that <!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>they +shall not suffer by the policy which the Government, under the stress +of war, have pursued. Railway directors are alive to the seriousness +of the position, and may I think be trusted to see that no precaution +will be neglected to secure for their companies fair terms from the +Government. Shareholders also I am glad to observe are banding +themselves together for the protection of their interests.</p> +<h2><!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>CHAPTER +XXIX.<br /> +THE GENERAL MANAGERS’ CONFERENCE, GOODAY’S DINNER, AND DIVERS +MATTERS</h2> +<p>Soon after the Vice-Regal Commission had concluded its public sittings, +and long before its Reports were issued, I had the pleasure of receiving +from the associated companies a cordial minute of appreciation of the +work I had done, accompanied by a handsome cheque. Nor was this +mark of appreciation confined to me. My friend, Croker Barrington, +Solicitor to the Committee, who had given yeoman service, and my capable +assistants, were not overlooked.</p> +<p>Sir William Goulding was proud of his chairmanship, and well he might +be, for during the long and trying period of the Inquiry he kept his +team well together and (no easy task) discharged the duties of Chairman +with admirable tact and ability. He was well entitled to the Resolution +of cordial thanks which the associated companies accorded to him. +I should, I feel, be lacking in gratitude if I failed to acknowledge +also the invaluable help afforded me by my brother managers, help ungrudgingly +and unstintingly given.</p> +<p>The Irish railways did not stand still. Their march along the +path of progress and improvement continued <i>sans</i> interruption. +From 1906 to 1910 (the Commission period) railway business, measured +by receipts, advanced in Ireland by seven per cent., compared with six +per cent. in England and three per cent. in Scotland!</p> +<p><!-- page 191--><a name="page191"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>In +November, 1909, as was my habit unless prevented by other important +duties, I attended the General Managers’ Conference at the Railway +Clearing House in London, and to my surprise and delight was unanimously +elected Chairman of the Conference for the ensuing year, the first and +only occasion on which the Manager of an Irish railway has been selected +to fill that office.</p> +<p>The Conference consists of the General Managers of all railways who +are parties to the London Clearing House, which means all the principal +railways of the United Kingdom. Other Conferences there were such +as the Goods Managers’, the Superintendents’, the Claims +Conference, etc., but it was the General Managers’ Conference +that dealt with the most important matters.</p> +<p>I remember that, in returning thanks for my election, I ventured +on a few remarks which I thought appropriate to the occasion. +Amongst other things I said it was breaking new ground for the Conference +to look to Ireland for a Pope, but that in doing so they exhibited a +catholicity of outlook which did them honor; and I added that, in filling +the high office to which they had elected me, though I should certainly +never pretend to the infallibility of His Holiness, I should no doubt +find it necessary at times to exercise his authority. At ten o’clock +in the morning this little attempt at pleasantry seemed to be rather +unexpected, but it raised a laugh, which, of course, was something to +the good. The Conference was a businesslike assembly that prided +itself on getting through much work with little talk—an accomplishment +uncommon at any time, and particularly uncommon in these latter days. +In these restless days when—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>What this troubled old world needs</i>,<br /> +<i>Is fewer words and better deeds</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>My year of office quickly passed and I got through it without discredit, +indeed my successor to the chair, Sir (then Mr.) Sam Fay, writing me +just after his election, said that I “had won golden opinions,” +and expressed the hope that he would do as well. Of course he +did better, for he was far more experienced than I in British railway +affairs, and this was only his modesty. My friend Sir William +(then Mr.) Forbes was my immediate predecessor as Chairman, and to him +I was indebted for the suggestion to the Conference that I should succeed +him in the occupancy of the chair.</p> +<p><!-- page 192--><a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>Early +in the year 1910 a delightful duty devolved upon me, the duty of presiding +at a farewell dinner to J. F. S. Gooday, General Manager of the Great +Eastern Railway, to celebrate his retirement from that position, and +his accession to the Board of Directors. For some years it had +been the custom, when a General Manager retired, for his colleagues +to entertain him to dinner, and for the Chairman of the Conference to +officiate as Chairman at the dinner. Gooday’s brother Managers +flocked to London from all parts of the kingdom to do him honor, for +whilst he was esteemed for his ability as a manager, he was loved for +his qualities as a man. Of refined tastes, including a <i>penchant</i> +for blue china, being a thriving bachelor, he was able to gratify them. +We were so fond of him that the best of dinners was not enough, in our +estimation, to worthily mark the occasion and to give him the pleasure +he wished, and we presented to him some rare blue vases which <i>Cousin +Pons</i> himself would have been proud to possess.</p> +<p>By virtue of my office of Chairman of the Conference, I also, during +1910, sat as a member of the Council of the <i>Railway Companies’ +Association</i>. This Association, of which I have not yet spoken, +merits a word or two. As described by its present Secretary, Mr. +Arthur B. Cane, it is “a voluntary Association of railway companies, +established for the purpose of mutual consultation upon matters affecting +their common interests, and is the result of a gradual development.” +It dates back as far as the year 1854, when a meeting of Railway Directors +was held in London to consider certain legislative proposals which resulted +in the Railway and Canal Traffic Act of that year. In its present +form it consists of all the principal railway companies of the United +Kingdom, each Company being represented by its Chairman, Deputy Chairman, +General Manager and Solicitor. A Director of any so associated +Company, who is a Member of Parliament, is also <i>ex officio</i> a +member of the Association. As its membership increased it was +found that the Association was inconveniently large for executive purposes, +and some twenty years or so ago a <i>Council</i> was formed with power +to represent the Association on all questions affecting general railway +interests. At this moment this Council is engaged in looking after +the interests of the railway companies in the matter of the great <i>Ways +and Communications Bill</i>. By the suffrages and goodwill of +my colleagues in Ireland, who had the election of one member, <!-- page 193--><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 193</span>I +remained on the Council till the end of the year 1912. Mr. Cane +states that “The Association has always preserved its original +character of a purely voluntary association, and has been most careful +to safeguard the independence of its individual members.” +Also, that it has “been expressly provided by its constitution +that no action shall be taken by the Council unless the members are +unanimous.” For many years Sir Henry Oakley was its honorary +secretary, performing <i>con amore</i> the duties which were by no means +light, but in 1898 it was resolved to appoint a paid secretary and to +establish permanent offices, which now are located in Parliament Street, +Westminster. Mr. (now Sir Guy) Granet was the first paid secretary, +Mr. Temple Franks succeeded him, and Mr. Cane, as I have already mentioned, +is the present occupant of the office.</p> +<p>In the autumn of 1910 I visited the English Lakes and spent a fortnight +in that beautiful district, in the company, for the first few days, +of Walter Bailey; and during the latter part of the fortnight, with +E. A. Pratt as a companion. It was the last holiday Bailey and +I spent together, though happily at various intervals we afterwards +met and dined together in London, and our letters to each other only +ended with his lamented death.</p> +<p>In the year 1913 a new form of Railway Accounts came into operation. +This new form became compulsory for all railways by the passing, in +1911, of the <i>Railway Companies (Accounts and Returns) Act</i>. +This Act is the last general railway enactment that I shall have to +mention, for no legislation of importance affecting railways was passed +between 1911 and 1913; and since the war began no such legislation has +even been attempted, excepting always the <i>Ways and Communications +Bill</i> which, as I write, is pursuing its course through the House +of Commons.</p> +<p>The form of half-yearly accounts prescribed by the <i>Regulation +of Railways Act</i>, 1868, admirable as they were, in course of time +were found to be insufficient and unsatisfactory. They failed +to secure, in practice, such uniformity as was necessary to enable comparisons +to be made between the various companies, and in 1903 a Committee of +Railway Accountants was appointed by the Railway Companies’ Association +to study the subject, with the view of securing uniformity of practice +amongst British railways in preparing and publishing their accounts. +This Committee, after an <!-- page 194--><a name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>expenditure +of much time and trouble, prepared a revised form, but the companies +failed to agree to their general adoption, and without legislation, +compulsion could not of course be applied. This led to the Board +of Trade, who were keen on uniformity, appointing, in 1906, a Departmental +Committee on the subject. On this Committee sat my friend Walter +Bailey. The Committee heard much evidence, considered the subject +very thoroughly, and recommended new forms of Accounts and Statistical +Returns, which were (practically as drawn up) embodied in the Act of +1911, and are now the law of the land. From the shareholders’ +point of view the most important changes are the substitution of annual +accounts for half-yearly ones, and the adoption of a uniform date for +the close of the financial year. In addition to the many improvements +in the direction of clearness and simplicity which the new form of accounts +effected, the following two important changes were made:—</p> +<p>(1) <i>All information relating to the subsidiary enterprises of +a company to be shown separately to that relating to the railway itself</i></p> +<p>(2) <i>A strict separation to be made of the financial statements +from those which were of a purely statistical character</i></p> +<p>The first of these alterations had become desirable from the fact +that practically all the larger railway companies had, in the course +of years, added to their railway business proper such outside enterprises +as steamships, docks, wharves, harbours, hotels, etc.</p> +<p>One bright morning, in the autumn of 1911, I was summoned to the +telephone by my friend the Right Honorable Laurence A. Waldron, then +a Director of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, and now its Chairman. +He said there was a vacancy on the Kingstown Board; and, supposing the +seat was offered to me, would I be free to accept it? As everybody +knows, it is not usual for a railway manager, so long as he remains +a manager, to be a director of his own or of any other company; so, +“I must consult my Chairman,” said I. The Dublin and +Kingstown being a worked, not a working line, the duties of its directors, +though important are not onerous, and my Chairman and Board readily +accorded their consent. Such was my first happy start as a railway +director.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/salver.jpg"> +<img alt="The Gresham Salver" src="images/salver.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><!-- page 195--><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>The +Dublin and Kingstown has the distinction of being the first railway +to be constructed in Ireland. Indeed, for five years it was the +only railway in that country. Opened as far back as 1834, it was +amongst the earliest of the railway lines of the whole United Kingdom. +The Stockton and Darlington (1825), the Manchester and Liverpool (1830), +and the Dundee and Newtyle (1831), were its only predecessors. +Soon after its construction it was extended from Kingstown to Dalkey, +a distance of 1¾ miles. This extension was constructed +and worked on the <i>atmospheric system</i>, a method of working railways +which failed to fulfil expectations, with the result that the Dalkey +branch was, in 1856, changed to an ordinary locomotive line.</p> +<p>The atmospheric system of working railways found favour for a time, +and was tried on the West London Railway, on the South Devon system, +and in other parts of Great Britain, also in France, but nowhere was +it permanently successful. The reason of the failure of the system +on the Dalkey extension, Mr. Waldron tells me (and he knows all about +his railway, as a Chairman should) was due to the impossibility of keeping +the metal disc airtight. The disc, shaped like a griddle, was +edged with leather which had to be heavily greased to enable it to be +drawn through the pipe from which the air was pumped out, in order to +create a vacuum, and the rats, like nature, abhorring a vacuum, gnawed +the greasy leather, letting in the air, and bringing the train to a +standstill!</p> +<p>The Kingstown Railway was also interesting in another respect, as +illustrating the opposition which confronted railways in those early +days. There was a Mr. Thomas Michael Gresham, who was the owner +of the well-known Gresham Hotel in Dublin, and largely interested in +house property in Kingstown—Gresham Terrace there is called after +him. He organised a successful opposition to the Dublin and Kingstown +Railway being allowed—though authorised by Parliament—to +go into Kingstown, and its terminus was for some years Salthill Station +(Monkstown) a mile away. Mr. Gresham’s action was so highly +appreciated—incredible as it now appears—that he was presented +with a testimonial and a piece of plate for his “<i>spirited and +patriotic action</i>.” I have adorned this book with a photograph +of the salver which, with the inscription it bears, will I think, in +these days, be not uninteresting.</p> +<p>The year 1911 was darkened for me by the shadow of death. During +<!-- page 196--><a name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>its +course I lost my wife, who succumbed to an illness which had lasted +for several years, an illness accompanied with much pain and suffering +borne with great courage and endurance.</p> +<h2><!-- page 197--><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 197</span>CHAPTER +XXX.<br /> +FROM MANAGER TO DIRECTOR</h2> +<p>I had long cherished the hope that when, in the course of time, I +sought to retire from the active duties of railway management, I might, +perhaps, be promoted to a seat on the Board of the Company. Presumptuous +though the thought may have been, I had the justification that it was +not discouraged by some of my Directors, to whom, in the intimacy of +after dinner talk, I sometimes broached the subject. But I little +imagined the change would come as soon as it did. I had fancied +that my managerial activities would continue until I attained the usual +age for retirement—three score years and five. On this I +had more or less reckoned, but</p> +<blockquote><p>“<i>There’s a divinity that shapes our ends</i><br /> +<i>Rough hew them how we will</i>,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and it came to pass that at sixty-one I exchanged my busy life for +a life of comparative ease. And this is how it came about. +A vacancy on the Board of Directors unexpectedly occurred in October, +1912, while I was in Paris on my way home from a holiday in Switzerland +and Italy. I there received a letter informing me that the Board +would offer me the vacant seat if it really was my wish to retire so +soon. Not a moment did I hesitate. Such an opportunity might +never come again; so like a prudent man, I “grasped the skirts +of happy chance,” and the 5th day of November, 1912, saw me duly +installed as a Director of the Company which I had served as Manager +for <!-- page 198--><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>close +upon twenty-two years. It was an early age, perhaps, to retire +from that active life to which I had been accustomed, but as Doctor +Johnson says, “No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. +A man is to have a part of his life to himself.” I made +the plunge and have never since regretted it. It has given me +more leisure for pursuits I love, and time has never hung heavy on my +hands. On the contrary, I have found the days and hours all too +short. Coincident with this change came a piece of good fortune +of which I could not have availed myself had not this alteration in +my circumstances taken place. Whilst in Paris I heard that Mr. +Lewis Harcourt (now Viscount Harcourt), then Colonial Secretary, had +expressed a wish to see me as I passed through London, and on the 28th +of October, I had an interview with him at his office in the House of +Commons. There was a vacancy, he informed me, on the recently +appointed Dominions’ Royal Commission, occasioned by the resignation +of Sir Charles Owens, late General Manager of the London and South-Western +Railway, and a railway man was wanted to fill his place. I had +been mentioned to him; would I accept the position? It involved, +he said, a good deal of work and much travelling—voyages to Australia, +New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Newfoundland. Two years, +he expected, would enable the whole of the work to be done, and about +twelve months’ absence from England, perhaps rather more, but +not in continuous months, would be necessary. It was a great honor +to be asked, and I had no hesitation in telling him that as I was on +the eve of being freed from regular active work, I would be more than +happy to undertake the duty, but—“But what?” he inquired. +I was but very recently married, I said, and how could I leave my wife +to go to the other side of the globe alone? No need to do that, +said he; your wife can accompany you; other ladies are going too. +Then I gratefully accepted the offer, and with high delight, for would +I not see more of the great world, and accomplish useful public work +at the same time. Duty and pleasure would go hand in hand. +I need not hide the fact that it was one of my then Directors, now my +colleague, and always my friend, Sir Walter Nugent, Baronet (then a +Member of Parliament), who, having been spoken to on the subject, was +the first to mention my name to Mr. Harcourt.</p> +<p>Soon after my retirement from the position of Manager of the Midland, +<!-- page 199--><a name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>my +colleagues of the Irish railway service, joined by the Managers of certain +steamship companies that were closely associated with the railways of +Ireland, entertained me to a farewell dinner. Mr. James Cowie, +Secretary and Manager of the Belfast and Northern Counties Section of +the Midland Railway of England (Edward John Cotton’s old line), +presided at the banquet, which took place in Dublin on the 9th of January, +1913. It was a large gathering, a happy occasion, though tinged +inevitably with regrets. Warm-hearted friends surrounded me, glad +that one of their number, having elected to retire, should be able to +do so in health and strength, and with such a smiling prospect before +him.</p> +<p>When I became a Midland Director, Mr. Nugent was no longer Chairman +of the Board. He had been called hence, after only a few days’ +illness at the Company’s Hotel at Mallaranny, near Achill Island, +where, in January, 1912, he had gone for a change. In him the +company lost a faithful guardian and I a valued friend. He was +succeeded by Major H. C. Cusack (the Deputy Chairman), who is still +the Chairman of the Company. A country gentleman of simple tastes +and studious habits, Major Cusack, though fond of country life, devotes +the greater part of his time to business, especially to the affairs +of the Midland and of an important Bank of which he is the Deputy-Chairman. +The happy possessor of an equable temperament and great assiduity he +accomplishes a considerable amount of work with remarkable ease. +For his many estimable qualities he is greatly liked.</p> +<p>On the 14th of November I made my <i>début</i> as a Dominions’ +Royal Commissioner, at the then headquarters of the Commission, Scotland +House, Westminster. Soon the Commissioners were to start on their +travels, and were at that time holding public sittings and taking evidence.</p> +<p>This is a narrative of railway life at home, not of Imperial matters +abroad, and it is therefore clearly my duty not to wander too far from +my theme; nevertheless my readers will perhaps forgive me if in my next +chapter I give some account of the Commission and its doings. +The fact that I was placed on the Commission chiefly because I was a +railway man is, after all, some excuse for my doing so.</p> +<h2><!-- page 200--><a name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>CHAPTER +XXXI.<br /> +THE DOMINIONS’ ROYAL COMMISSION, THE RAILWAYS OF THE DOMINIONS +AND EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT</h2> +<p>For the first time in the history of the British Empire a Royal Commission +was appointed on which sat representatives of the United Kingdom side +by side with representatives of the self-governing Dominions. +This Commission consisted of eleven members—six representing Great +Britain and Ireland and five (one each) the Dominions of Canada, Australia, +New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland. The +Commission came into being in April, 1912. It was the outcome +of a Resolution of the Imperial Conference of 1911. The members +of that Conference and of others which preceded it had warmly expressed +the opinion that the time had arrived for drawing closer the bonds of +Empire; that with the increase in facilities for communication and intercourse +there had developed a deepened sense of common aims and ideals and a +recognition of common interests and purposes; and that questions were +arising affecting not only Imperial trade and commerce but also the +many other inter-relations of the Dominions and the Mother Country which +clamantly called for closer attention and consideration. The time +at the command of the Conference was found to be too short for such +a purpose, and it was to study problems thus arising, and to make practical +recommendations that our Commission was appointed.</p> +<p>The individuals forming the Commission were, first and foremost, +Lord D’Abernon (then Sir Edgar Vincent). He was our Chairman, +the biggest <!-- page 201--><a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 201</span>man +of us all; ex-banker, financial expert, accomplished linguist; a sportsman +whose horse last year won the Irish St. Leger; an Admirable Crichton; +an excellent Chairman. Then came Sir Alfred Bateman, retired high +official of the Board of Trade, a master of statistics and unequalled +in experience of Commissions and Conferences. He was our Chairman +in Canada and Newfoundland and a most capable Chairman he made. +Sir Rider Haggard, novelist, ranked third; a master of fact as well +as of fiction; a high Imperialist, and versed both theoretically and +practically in agriculture and forestry. Next came Sir William +(then Mr.) Lorimer of Glasgow, a man of great business experience, an +expert authority in all matters appertaining to iron and steel and in +fact all metals and minerals. He was Chairman of the North British +Locomotive Company and of the Steel Company of Scotland, also a Director +of my old company, the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. Then +Mr. Tom Garnett (christened Tom), an expert in the textile trade of +Lancashire, owning and operating a spinning mill in Clitheroe; a good +business man as well as a student of “high politics,” a +scholar and a gentleman. Of the last and least, my humble self, +I need not speak, as with him the reader is well acquainted.</p> +<p>Canada’s representative was the Right Honorable Sir George +Foster, Minister of Trade and Commerce, steeped in matters of State, +experienced in affairs, a keen politician and a gifted orator.</p> +<p>Australia selected as her representative Mr. Donald Campbell, a clever +man, well read and of varied attainments, sometime journalist, editor, +lawyer, Member of Parliament, and I don’t know what else.</p> +<p>The Honorable Sir (then Mr.) J. R. Sinclair was New Zealand’s +excellent choice. A barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court +of his country, he had retired from practice but was actively engaged +in various commercial and educational concerns and was a member of the +Legislative Council of New Zealand.</p> +<p>South Africa’s member was, first, Sir Richard Solomon, High +Commissioner for the Union of South Africa in London. He died +in November, 1913, when Sir Jan Langerman took his place. Sir +Jan was an expert in mining, ex-President of the Rand Chamber of Mines, +and ex-Managing Director of the Robinson Group, also a Member of the +Legislative Assembly <!-- page 202--><a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 202</span>of +South Africa. Keen and clever in business and a polished man of +the world, he was a valuable addition to the Commission.</p> +<p>Lastly, Newfoundland was represented by the Honorable Edgar (now +Sir Edgar) Bowring, President and Managing Director of a large firm +of steamship owners. He was experienced in the North Atlantic +trade, in seal, whale and cod fishing and other Newfoundland industries. +He was also a member of the Newfoundland Legislative Council.</p> +<p>Such were the members of the Commission. All endowed with sound +common sense and some gifted with imagination.</p> +<p>Shortly stated the main business of the Commission was to inquire +into and report upon:—</p> +<p>(a) The natural resources of the five self-governing Dominions and +the best means of developing these resources</p> +<p>(b) The trade of these parts of the Empire with the United Kingdom, +each other, and the rest of the world</p> +<p>(c) Their requirements, and those of the United Kingdom, in the matter +of food and raw materials, together with the available sources of supply</p> +<p>The Commission was also empowered to make recommendations and suggest +methods, consistent with then existing fiscal policy, by which the trade +of each of the self-governing Dominions with the others, and with the +United Kingdom, could be improved and extended.</p> +<p>Mr. E. J. Harding, C.M.G., was our Secretary. An Oxford man +of distinction, a member of the permanent staff of the Colonial Office, +studious, enthusiastic, energetic, of rare temper, tact and patience, +he was all such a Commission could desire. He and three or four +assistants, with local officers selected by the Governments in each +of the Dominions, one and all most capable men, formed a Secretariat +that served us well.</p> +<p>The Commission started operations by taking evidence in London in +the autumn of 1912, but its main work lay in the Dominions, and on the +10th of January, 1913, we sailed for Australia and New Zealand, touching +at Fremantle (Western Australia), Adelaide (South Australia), Melbourne +(Victoria), and Hobart (Tasmania) on our way.</p> +<p><!-- page 203--><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 203</span>In +New Zealand we travelled through the island from south to north, staying +in that beautiful country for nearly a month, and holding sittings in +the principal cities. One sitting we held in the train—a +record surely for a Royal Commission. Easter intervening, we indulged +in a few days’ holiday in the wonderful Rotorua district, where +we enjoyed its hot springs, its geysers, its rivers, its lakes and its +Maori villages. Returning to Sydney, we travelled northwards to +Queensland and there entered seriously upon our Australian duties, holding +sittings at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth. +In Queensland we penetrated north as far as Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton +and Mount Morgan. In the other States tours were made through +the irrigation areas of New South Wales and Victoria, and visits paid +to the mines at Broken Hill (New South Wales), the Zeehan district and +Mount Lyall (Tasmania); Iron Knob (South Australia), and Kalgoorlie +(Western Australia). Some of our party penetrated to remoter parts +of Australia such as Cairns (Northern Queensland), Condobolin (west +of New South Wales), and Oodnadatta (Central Australia), still the furthest +point of railway extension toward the great Northern Territory.</p> +<p>To Tasmania we were able to devote a few days, taking evidence and +enjoying its wonderful beauty.</p> +<p>Finally, we left Australia on the 9th of June, four months after +our first landing on its sunny shores.</p> +<p>On arriving home it was determined that for the remainder of the +year 1913 we should remain in England and take further evidence in London.</p> +<p>We resumed our travels in January, 1914, when we left for South Africa. +There we held a number of sittings, taking evidence at Capetown, Oudtshoorn, +Port Elizabeth, East London, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, +Pretoria and Johannesburg. Our journeys to these various places +were so planned as to involve our travelling over most of the principal +railway lines of the Union, so that we were able to see a considerable +portion of its beautiful scenery as well as its great mining and pastoral +industries. Our work finished, most of us returned direct to England, +but some were able to penetrate northwards into Rhodesia, and return +by way of the East Coast of Africa.</p> +<p>It was our intention, after taking further evidence in London, to +proceed <!-- page 204--><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 204</span>to +Canada and Newfoundland, and to return home before the winter began, +when we looked forward to making our Final Report. This intention +we partially fulfilled, as in July, 1914, we sailed from Liverpool, +and after exchanging steamers at Rimouski, landed at St. John’s, +Newfoundland. There we stayed for a few days whilst the crisis +in Europe deepened. We then travelled through the island by railway +and crossed to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. On that fatal +day in August on which war broke out we were in Nova Scotia. A +few days after, the British Government, considering that under such +conditions we could not finish our work in Canada, called us home. +In common with many of our countrymen we indulged in the hope that the +duration of the war would be a matter of months and not of years, and +that we should be able to resume our work in Canada in the autumn of +1915. But this was not to be. However, in 1916, the Governments +represented on the Commission came to the conclusion that the completion +of our work ought not to be longer delayed, and accordingly, in August, +1916, we sailed again to Canada.</p> +<p>In the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in 1914, we visited Sydney, +Cape Breton, Halifax, the Annapolis Valley and Digby in Nova Scotia; +St. John, Fredericton and Moncton in New Brunswick, and Charlottetown +in Prince Edward Island.</p> +<p>In 1916 the resumption of our Canadian work began at Montreal. +Thereafter, the great mining districts of Northern Ontario engaged our +attention, where, amongst other valuable products of the earth, nickel, +silver and gold abound. From Ontario we travelled westward to +Prince Rupert on the British Columbian coast, holding sittings at Saskatoon, +Edmonton and Prince Rupert. We then proceeded by steamer, through +glorious scenery, southward to Victoria, Vancouver Island. At +Victoria and also at Vancouver we took evidence. From Vancouver +we journeyed eastwards by the Canadian Pacific Railway over the Rockies, +breaking our journey and holding sittings at Vernon, in the Okanagan +Valley, at Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and +Quebec, devoting several days each to many of these places. Whilst +in British Columbia we also visited the lower part of the Okanagan Valley, +and whilst in the prairie provinces stopped at Medicine Hat (where the +gas lamps burn day and night because it would cost more in <!-- page 205--><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 205</span>wages +than the cost of the gas to employ a man to turn them out). In +Ontario we visited North Bay, Fort William, Port Arthur, Guelph and +Niagara Falls. In addition some of us travelled through the mining +districts of British Columbia, and also inspected the asbestos mines +at Thetford, in the Province of Quebec.</p> +<p>This is the bald outline of our long and interesting journeys, which +by land and sea comprehended some 70,000 miles. How bald it is +I keenly feel, and it would afford me more pleasure than I can tell +to give some account of our wonderful experiences—of the delight +of sailing in southern seas; of the vast regions of the mainland of +Australia; of the marvels of its tropical parts; of the entrancing beauty +of New Zealand and Tasmania; of the wonders of Canada, the variety of +its natural productions, its magnificent wheat-growing areas; of the +charm of South Africa with its glorious climate and its beautiful rolling +veldt. What a memory it all is! Tranquil seas, starlit nights, +the Southern Cross, noble forests, glorious mountains, mighty rivers, +boundless plains; young vigorous communities under sunny skies, with +limitless space in which to expand. I should love to enlarge on +these things, but a sense of proportion and propriety restrains my pen.</p> +<p>In all the Dominions we were received with the warmest of welcomes +and most generous hospitality—governments, municipalities and +corporations vieing with each other in doing us honor, whilst private +individuals loaded us with kindness. It was clear that our mission +was popular, and clear too that affection for the old country was warm +and lively. I cannot attempt to narrate all that was done for +us—banquets, receptions, excursions, garden parties, concerts—time +and space will not allow. But I cannot be altogether silent about +the splendid special train which the South African Government placed +at our disposal from the time we left Capetown until we reached Johannesburg, +which (taking evidence at the various places on the way) occupied several +weeks. This sumptuous train consisted of dining car, sleeping +cars and parlour car, was liberally staffed and provisioned; with a +skilful <i>chef</i>, polite and attentive waiters and attendants. +It was practically our hotel during those forty days or more.</p> +<p>In Australia and New Zealand, more than once, the various governments +provided us with special cars or special trains to visit their remoter +districts <!-- page 206--><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>with +the greatest possible comfort. The same was the case in Newfoundland, +whilst the Canadian Government lent to us a steamer—the <i>Earl +Grey</i>—for our journey from Rimouski to Newfoundland, which +since has done good service for the Allied cause in the war.</p> +<p>In Canada we travelled from Montreal to Prince Rupert, some 3,000 +miles, in a handsome and most commodious car kindly lent to us by Sir +Daniel Mann, one of the founders of the Canadian Northern Railway. +It, too, was our home and hotel during the ten days which that journey +occupied. The longest passenger vehicle I had ever seen, it had +ample kitchen, dining room, sitting room, sleeping and “observation” +accommodation for us all, with an excellent bathroom and the luxury +of a shower bath.</p> +<p>On all our journeys to and from the Dominions, and in all our expeditions +by sea or by land, my wife accompanied me. She was an excellent +traveller. There is considerable difference in our years; but, +as Dickens has said: “There can be no disparity in marriage save +unsuitability of mind and purpose.” The only lady who accompanied +the Commission everywhere, she was sometimes called “The Lady +Commissioner.” One must not praise one’s own, but +this much I may say: Her Irish wit and bright unselfish ways made her, +everywhere and always, a welcome addition to the Commission party.</p> +<p>After November, 1916, we held no more public sittings, took no further +evidence, but sat down at Spencer House (one of the many stately London +residences lent by their owners to the Government during the war) and +there, in its ballroom, industriously worked out our Final Report. +This, of course, reviewed the whole subject of our inquiry and embodied +our final conclusions and recommendations. To the credit of the +Commission be it said, these conclusions and recommendations were entirely +unanimous, as also were those in each of our Interim Reports, published +in connection with the Dominions separately.</p> +<p>In this Final Report the subject of railways was not included. +Railways of course formed part of our inquiry, but they were dealt with +in our Interim Reports.</p> +<p>To a large extent railways were more a matter of domestic than of +Imperial concern, but as the development of the resources of the Dominions +<!-- page 207--><a name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>depended +greatly upon the adequacy of railway transit, the subject came within +the province of our inquiry. I will not trouble the reader with +statistics (which can be readily obtained elsewhere) beyond the following +statement which represented, at the time we made our investigations, +the railway mileage and the population in each Dominion compared with +the United Kingdom:—</p> +<pre> Miles of Population. Number of + Railway. Inhabitants + per Mile of + Railway. +Canada 35,600 8,075,000 280 +Australia 18,000 4,500,000 250 +South Africa 8,800 1,300,000<a name="citation207a"></a><a href="#footnote207a">{207a}</a> 150<a name="citation207b"></a><a href="#footnote207b">{207b}</a> +New Zealand 2,900 1,052,000 370 +Newfoundland 800 250,000 320 +United Kingdom 23,500 46,000,000 1,950</pre> +<p>It is clear that railway construction has not been neglected in the +Dominions, and that, measured by population, the mileage is considerable. +Speaking generally, the Dominion railways are highly efficient and serve +their purpose well. Extensions were being projected and many were +in course of construction for the further development of natural resources +and of trade and commerce.</p> +<p>In Australia the railways, with the exception of certain lines belonging +to the Commonwealth, are owned and worked by the several States. +We found them paying full interest on the cost of construction, and +sound assets of the country. The cost of working was, however, +greatly increasing, due mainly to increase of salaries and wages. +How this stands since the war I do not know; but that expenses have +further advanced goes without saying. An important railway witness +whom we examined expressed the opinion that increased expenditure could +be recouped by increased rates. Perhaps that is still true. +If it is, the railways of Australia are happier than most of the railways +in Ireland.</p> +<p><!-- page 208--><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 208</span>The +railways of New Zealand belong to and are worked by the Government. +For many years the Government, looking upon the railways as an adjunct +to the settlement and development of the country, only expected them +to return 3 per cent. interest on the capital expended. In 1909 +this policy, however, was modified, 3¾ to 4 per cent. being then +regarded as a proper result, and this result was accomplished. +Water power in New Zealand is so abundant that the adoption of electricity +for railway working has been engaging the attention of the Government. +Many, well qualified to judge, were satisfied that it would prove more +economical than steam locomotion.</p> +<p>In both Australia and New Zealand, borrowing for railway construction +had been by means of general loans raised for all kinds of Government +expenditure. We came to the conclusion that if loans for reproductive +works, such as railways, had been segregated from others, it would have +helped the raising of capital, and probably secured easier terms.</p> +<p>The construction of railways in Canada has, in recent years, proceeded +at a rapid pace. We found that the mileage had doubled since the +beginning of the present century, due, to a large extent, to the construction +of two new Trans-Continental lines. The grain-growing districts +of the prairie provinces, south of latitude 54 degrees, are now covered +with a network of railways, and British Columbia has three through routes +to Eastern Canada.</p> +<p>The enterprise of the principal Canadian railway companies is remarkable. +They own and operate not only railways, but also hotels, ferry services, +grain elevators, lake and coast steamers, as well as Trans-Atlantic +and Trans-Pacific steamers. One company also has irrigation works, +and ready-made farms for settlers in the prairie provinces. But +Canada lies so near to us, and in the British Press its railways receive +such constant attention, that I need not descant further upon them.</p> +<p>In South Africa, with the exception of about 500 miles mainly in +the Cape Province, the railways are all Government owned, and are worked +as one unified system. The Act of Union (1909) prescribed that +the railways and the harbours (which are also Government owned and worked) +were to be administered on business principles, and that the total earnings +should not exceed the necessary expenditure for working and for interest +on capital. Whenever they did, reductions in the rates, or the +provision of <!-- page 209--><a name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>greater +facilities, were to restore the balance. This provision also had +the effect of preventing the imposition of taxation upon the community +by means of railway rates. The Act contained another practical +clause, designed to block the construction of lines from political considerations. +Any line constructed contrary to the advice of the Railway Board, if +it resulted in loss, the loss was to be a charge, not upon the general +railway revenue, but upon the Consolidated Fund—a useful “brake,” +which I have no doubt has often pulled up hasty and impetuous politicians.</p> +<p>South African railways enjoy one great advantage—cheap coal +for their engines. In 1913 the average cost at the pit’s +mouth was 4s. 11½d. per ton.</p> +<p>The railways of Newfoundland have had a chequered history. +Now they are Government property, worked by a private company under +a 50 years’ lease, which dates from 1901, and under that lease +no rent is paid. As the capital expenditure (about £3,000,000) +averages less than £4,000 per mile, it may be conceived that the +railway system of Newfoundland is not of an extravagant character, and +in my humble opinion, the country deserves something much better. +In our fourth report (on Newfoundland) we stated: “It must also +be said that the state of the permanent way does not conduce to speedy +or comfortable travelling.”</p> +<p>The gauges of the Dominions’ railways are very varied. +In Australia there are three—5ft. 3in., 4ft. 8½in. and +3ft. 6in., with some 300 miles or so of less than 3ft. 6in. The +Commonwealth has for some time been considering the conversion of the +lines into one standard gauge, the British gauge of 4ft. 8½in. +being favoured. The cost of this conversion naturally increases +the longer action is deferred, and in any case would be very great. +It was officially estimated at the time of our visit at £37,000,000.</p> +<p>New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Newfoundland are each the happy +possessor of one gauge only. In Canada it is the British gauge +of 4ft. 8½in., and in New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, +3ft. 6in.</p> +<p>Our Final Report was signed on the 21st of February, 1917, and published +as a Blue Book in the usual way, but, what is rarely done with any Blue +Book, it was also published in handy book-form, bound in cloth, at the +popular price of 1s. 6d. Blue Books do sometimes contain matter +of general interest, are sometimes well written and readable, and would +be <!-- page 210--><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 210</span>more +read if presented to the public in a handy form such as we succeeded +in publishing.</p> +<p>The main purposes of the Commission I have already briefly stated. +They embraced many subjects for inquiry and study, of which the following +are the most important, and regarding each of which it may be appropriate +to say a word or two:—</p> +<h3>External Trade of the Self-Governing Dominions</h3> +<p>We ascertained and compiled in detail, tables of the Imports and +Exports, distinguishing Trade with (<i>a</i>) the United Kingdom, (<i>b</i>) +the other parts of the Empire, and (<i>c</i>) with foreign countries. +The figures showed the need there was for an Imperial trade policy, +which should lead to British manufacturers and merchants cultivating +more the Dominion markets, and utilising more the vast resources of +raw materials which the Dominions possess. We found that a detailed +examination of existing conditions, and practical and definite proposals +for the removal of difficulties, were required.</p> +<h3>Natural Resources of the Dominions</h3> +<p>In regard to agricultural matters we gathered and published much +information, finding that in one part or other of the Dominions all +animals and almost every crop flourished that are needed by man, that +if the products of the more tropical parts of the Empire were taken +into account, the Empire could meet more than its own needs; and that +if men existed in sufficient numbers in our Dominions, there was scarcely +any limit to the external trade they could do. In this part of +our Inquiry we found to what a considerable extent people concentrated +in large cities to the detriment of the country districts. “Back +to the land” is a question there of as much if not greater moment +than in the Mother Country. The mineral resources of the Dominions, +like the agricultural, provided us with a big subject. In every +Province or State, by oral evidence, by official statistics, by discussion +with Government geologists, officials of the Mines Departments and others, +we gathered a large amount of valuable information. The volumes +of printed evidence give full particulars of this and other subjects. +The mineral deposits of Canada especially are varied in character and +large in respect both of quantity and value—gold, silver, copper, +lead, zinc, nickel, coal, <!-- page 211--><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 211</span>iron, +asbestos, natural gas, petroleum, peat, gypsum—all are found in +unstinted quantity. Nor are the other Dominions deficient. +The goldfields of Australia are historic, and the silver, lead and zinc +mines of Broken Hill deserve particular mention. In South Africa +gold and diamonds are plentiful; and Newfoundland has wonderful deposits +of iron ore.</p> +<p>In forests and fish the Dominions abound, and possess enormous possibilities +of extended trade.</p> +<h3>Conservation and Development of Natural Resources in the Future</h3> +<p>This subject received our earnest attention. We considered +that the various Governments of the Empire should take steps to secure +the development and utilisation of their natural wealth on a well considered +scheme, and that to do this, a preliminary survey was needed of the +relation between Empire production and Empire requirements. No +such survey, as far as we knew, had yet been undertaken, but in the +<i>Memorandum and Tables relating to the Food and Raw Material Requirements +of the United Kingdom</i>, which we submitted to His Majesty in 1915, +the Commission had made an effort, not without some measure of success, +in this direction. We regarded it as vital that the Empire’s +supplies of raw material and commodities essential to its safety should +be, as far as possible, independent of outside control, and made suggestions +which aimed at effecting this object. We recommended that the +survey mentioned above should be made by an Imperial Development Board, +which should be entrusted with the whole subject.</p> +<h3>Scientific Research in Relation to the Development of Natural Resources</h3> +<p>We dwelt on the importance of securing to all parts of the Empire +adequate facilities for scientific research in connection with the development +of their natural resources; and, in connection with this, made certain +recommendations as regards the Imperial Institute, for the purpose of +increasing its efficiency and usefulness.</p> +<h3>Migration</h3> +<p>To this important matter we devoted much time and thought, not only +in London, but in each of the Dominions as well, obtaining much valuable +<!-- page 212--><a name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 212</span>evidence +and personally examining the circumstances and conditions that prevailed. +No Imperial question, we considered, could be of greater importance +than this. We made many recommendations, some of which have already +been adopted, whilst the remainder are coming into great prominence +now that the war is over. In the past we found no effort had been +made to regulate emigration from the United Kingdom, and we proposed +the establishment of a Central Emigration Authority. The surplus +of females in the United Kingdom, increased unfortunately by the war, +will probably result in many young women seeking their fortune overseas, +and we urged increased facilities and better regulations for their migration, +showing how best we considered they could be given.</p> +<h3>Oversea Communications</h3> +<p>To this subject, which embraced sea transport, harbours, waterways, +mail communications, postal rates, freight rates, etc., we devoted considerable +time, calling attention in particular to an aspect of the question never, +so far as I know, investigated before, viz., the urgency of constructing +deep harbours suited for the deep draught vessels which alone can carry +on cheap and rapid transport. We made recommendations as to the +improvements immediately necessary on the great trade routes, and urged +that future schemes should be submitted to an Imperial Development Board.</p> +<h3>Telegraphic Communications</h3> +<p>In the far distant Dominions, cable communication is a matter of +great importance to the community; and increased facilities and cheaper +rates are much desired. Some of the recommendations we made to +this end have since been adopted.</p> +<h3>Improvement in Commercial Practice</h3> +<p>This presented a large field for inquiry; and, after much investigation, +we made recommendations on Trade Intelligence; Trade Commissioners and +Correspondents; Consular Service; Improvements in Statistics; Conference +of United Kingdom and Dominion Statisticians; and other matters, all +of which we considered were of practical necessity.</p> +<p>Lastly, the need of creating an <i>Imperial Development Board</i> +engaged our <!-- page 213--><a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 213</span>serious +attention. Early in our Inquiry we had been impressed with the +necessity for the appointment of some board or body whose constant duty +it should be to consider questions affecting Imperial trade and development, +from the point of view of the interests of the whole Empire. We +took some evidence on the subject, discussed it with leading men in +the Dominions, gave the question much thought, and finally recommended +the establishment of a new Imperial Development Board, which should +include not only representatives of the United Kingdom and all the Dominions, +but also of India, the Crown Colonies and the Protectorates. In +the course of our work we had been much impressed with the inadequacy +of existing organisations to deal promptly and efficiently with such +matters as the following:—</p> +<p>Telegraphic, cable and shipping communications between the various +portions of the Empire</p> +<p>Inter-Imperial mail services and postal rates</p> +<p>The development of harbours and waterways on the great routes of +commerce to meet Imperial requirements</p> +<p>Migration as a factor in Empire development and trade</p> +<p>Legislation affecting the mechanism of trade, such as that on patents, +companies, copyright, weights and measures, etc.</p> +<p>The application and better utilisation of capital raised in the United +Kingdom and other parts of the Empire, towards promoting the development +of the Empire’s resources</p> +<p>The systematic dissemination throughout the Empire of news bearing +upon Imperial questions and interests</p> +<p>The preparation and publication of Imperial statistics</p> +<p>Better organisation for handling and for disposal of the produce +of various parts of the Empire</p> +<p>These, and subjects of a similar nature, we considered should be +assigned to the proposed Board as its ordinary work; and to the duty +of advising the Governments on these matters would be added that of +collecting the necessary particulars bearing upon them, involving research +not only into the conditions prevailing in the Empire, but into the +methods of rival trading countries.</p> +<p>To a large Board we were opposed. We suggested that members +should <!-- page 214--><a name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>be +required to give their whole time to the work, and that representation +of the various parts of the Empire might be as follows:—</p> +<pre>United Kingdom, India, Crown Colonies and Protectorates 7 +Canada 1 +Australia 1 +New Zealand 1 +South Africa 1 +Newfoundland 1 + ___ + 12 + ___</pre> +<p>Such is a brief summary of our Mission, our Report, and our Recommendations.</p> +<p>Whilst we were impressed by the vast extent and infinite variety +of the Empire domain we were also touched by the sentiment which held +together its widely scattered parts. Without this sentiment, and +without loyalty to the Crown and Mother Country, what, we often thought, +would happen?</p> +<p>The war has taught us much as to the unity of the Empire. Peace, +we may be sure, will bring its own lessons, perhaps its own dangers, +in its train. To strengthen the bonds so loosely yet so finely +drawn must henceforth be the constant duty of the Statesmen of the Empire. +The governing machinery requires overhauling, demands adjustment to +the needs of the various sections of the Empire, and to the throbbing +anxiety of each to share in the duties and responsibilities of Empire +Government and Development.</p> +<h2><!-- page 215--><a name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 215</span>CHAPTER +XXXII.<br /> +CONCLUSION</h2> +<p>The year 1917 terminated our Dominions’ Commission work and +brought to a close the fiftieth year of my railway life. As if +to mark the occasion, Dame Fortune gave me a pleasant surprise, and +what it was I will now relate.</p> +<p>In an earlier chapter I have spoken of the Letterkenny to Burtonport +Railway (in North-West Donegal), with the early stages of which, in +1897, I had something to do. Now, in 1917, twenty years later, +I was to become still more intimately acquainted with it, and, in an +unexpected but practical way, concerned in its domestic affairs.</p> +<p>Though the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, which worked +the Burtonport line, was a railway of only 14½ miles in extent, +it was entrusted with the working of no less than 85 other miles, 50 +of which consisted of the Burtonport railway—a condition of things +quite unique: the tail wagging the dog!</p> +<p>The total capital expenditure on the whole of the 100 miles of line +worked by the Lough Swilly Company amounted to £727,000. +Of this sum about £500,000, or 68 per cent., was money provided +out of Government funds. The ordinary stock of the Lough Swilly +Company was the exceedingly small sum of £50,330, upon which for +twenty years a dividend of 7 per cent. had been regularly paid.</p> +<p>The Burtonport line was opened for traffic in 1903. From the +first, its management, to say the least, was faulty and illiberal. +So early in its <!-- page 216--><a name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 216</span>history +as 1905 an inquiry into its working was found to be necessary, and I +was asked by the Board of Works to undertake the inquiry. I did +so, and I had to report unfavourably, for “facts are chiels that +winna ding.” For some time after my report things went on +fairly well, but only for a time. The Board of Works were, by +Act of Parliament, custodians of the public interest in the matter of +this and other similar railways, and a long-suffering and patient body +they were. From time to time they complained, protested, adjured, +threatened; sometimes with effect, sometimes without. Years rolled +on and matters grew worse. Loud public complaints arose; the patience +of the Board of Works exhausted itself, and a climax was reached.</p> +<p><i>The Railways Ireland Act</i>, 1896, provides that where any railway, +constructed under that Act, or under other Irish Light Railway Act, +had been aided out of moneys provided by Parliament, the Board of Works +might, at any time, appoint “a fit person to inspect and report +upon the condition of the undertaking and the working, maintenance and +development of the same,” and if such “fit person” +reported that the undertaking was “not efficiently worked, maintained +and developed” the Privy Council might then make an Order appointing +a manager or receiver of the undertaking, with such powers as should +be specified in the Order. The powers thus given are, it will +be observed, certainly drastic.</p> +<p>In April, 1917, Sir George Stevenson, K.C.B., the Chairman of the +Board of Works, asked me would I make such an inquiry for them into +the Burtonport line, and, considering myself a “fit person,” +I gladly answered <i>Yes</i>. Sir George Stevenson was Tom Robertson’s +successor, though not his immediate successor, as another George (Sir +George Holmes) came between. He (the reigning Chairman) was, in +1892, appointed a Commissioner of the Board of Works; and in 1913 he +attained the position of Chairman; and the chair it is generally conceded +has never been better filled. He has the advantage of continuous +experience of Treasury business since 1886, and possesses an exceptional +knowledge of all matters, local and otherwise, affecting the development +of State Railways in Ireland.</p> +<p>My inquiry I may, I am sure, without immodesty, say was thorough +and complete. On the 7th of May I presented my report. The +facts which I found were such that only one conclusion was possible—the +line was not <!-- page 217--><a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 217</span>in +good condition; was not and had not been efficiently worked, maintained +or developed. I will not harrow my readers with a description +of its condition. One little quotation from the summing up in +my report will suffice to indicate the state of affairs, and, to the +imaginative mind, present a picture of the whole. “Everything +has for years past been allowed to run down; the direction and management +have been characterised by extreme parsimony; and the disabled condition +of the engines is undoubtedly due to lack of proper upkeep, which must +have been going on for years. The state of the permanent way shows +a want of proper maintenance; and the condition of the stations, buildings +and of the carriages speaks of neglect.”</p> +<p>In fairness, I ought to say that the direction and management responsible +for these things are not the direction and management that exist to-day.</p> +<p>Mr. Henry Hunt, the present General Manager of the Londonderry and +Lough Swilly Company, was appointed to that position in September, 1916. +He came from the Great Central Railway. This is what I said about +him in my report: “He is a good railway man, capable and experienced. +He has assumed and exercises an authority which none of his predecessors +possessed, and is keen to do all he can to improve matters and develop +the railway.” Further acquaintance with Mr. Hunt has more +than confirmed my high opinion of him.</p> +<p>In due time my report was submitted to the Privy Council, which august +body, after hearing all that was to be said on the subject by the Lough +Swilly Railway Company and others, made an Order which is the first +of its kind—an Order which, for a period of two years, took out +of the hands of the Lough Swilly Railway Directors the management of +the Burtonport Railway, and placed it in the hands of Mr. Hunt, subject +to my supervision. The Order said: “Henry Hunt, at present +the General Manager of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, +is hereby appointed Manager of the said undertaking of the said railway +under and subject to the supervision of Mr. Joseph Tatlow, Director +of the Midland Great Western Railway Company of Ireland.” +Then followed various clauses defining the duties and authority with +which Mr. Hunt, as Manager, was invested.</p> +<p>This appointment, to supervise, under the Privy Council, the management +of the Burtonport line, was the pleasant surprise which Dame Fortune +brought me in my fiftieth year of railway work.</p> +<p><!-- page 218--><a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 218</span>The +duties of the office began on the 1st of July, 1917, and the two years +prescribed have expired; but Mr. Hunt’s management and my supervision +have, by Privy Council Order, been extended for a further period. +My story may not go beyond fifty years, but this I may say, that what +Hunt and I were able to accomplish in the first six months of our novel +<i>régime</i> was an augury of what we have accomplished since, +and that a grateful public throughout the district of North-West Donegal, +which the Burtonport Railway serves, does not stint its praise. +Trains are punctual now, engines do not break down, carriages are comfortable, +goods traffic is well worked, and delays are exceptional. Much +has been done, more would have been done but for difficulties due to +the war, and a good deal still remains to be done.</p> +<p>In North-West Donegal, some two years ago, the idea of writing this +book was conceived, and with North-West Donegal its pages close. +As I lay down my pen, some words which I used in my opening chapter +recur to my mind. I then expressed the hope that, in spite of +all its drawbacks, my story, if faithfully told, might not be entirely +devoid of interest, and now that I have finished my task, I humbly trust +that the hope then expressed has been attended with some measure of +success, and that my purpose has not altogether failed.</p> +<h2><!-- page 219--><a name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 219</span>INDEX.</h2> +<p>Accidents Compensation Act, 1846 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span><br /> +Accounts, form of railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Acts of Parliament, general railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span><br /> +Acworth, W M <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Advertisements on railway stations <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +Alcorn, J., Great Southern & Western Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span><br /> +Allerton, Lord <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span><br /> +Allport Commission, 1887 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span><br /> +Allport, Sir James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span><br /> +Analysis of railway accounts <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span><br /> +Anderson, Alexander, surfaceman poet <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page79">79</a></span><br /> +Andrews, Thomas, and the <i>Titanic</i> <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span><br /> +Andrews, Thomas, Right Honorable <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span><br /> +Apollo Belvidera <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span><br /> +“Appeal unto Cæsar” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Arbitration, my first case <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span><br /> +Ardglass Light Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span><br /> +Aspinall, Sir John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Athenry and Ennis Junction, railway rates and charges, Order Confirmation +Act, 1892 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span><br /> +Athenry and Ennis Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span><br /> +Atmospheric railways <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span><br /> +Atock, Martin <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span><br /> +Austria, Empress of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span></p> +<p>Bailey, Walter <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page194">194</a></span><br /> +Bailie, the, Glasgow <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page61">61</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page79">79</a></span><br /> +Baillie, G L <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +“Balfours Act”—Light railways, Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span><br /> +Ballinasloe Fair <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span><br /> +Barrington, Croker <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span><br /> +Bateman, Sir Alfred, K.C.M.G. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +“Battle of the Gauges” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span><br /> +Beach, Sir Michael Hicks <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span><br /> +Beaux <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span><br /> +Belfast and County Down Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span><br /> +Belgium, a tour in <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span><br /> +Benedict, a youthful <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span><br /> +Benefit Society, Midland Great Western Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span><br /> +“Bigg’s General Railway Acts” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span><br /> +Birt, Sir William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span><br /> +Block working <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span><br /> +Board of Trade inquiry as to railway rates <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span><br /> +Board of Trade, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span><br /> +Bowring, the Hon Sir Edgar <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span><br /> +Boyhood, pleasures and amusements <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span><br /> +Boyhood, Schoolmaster “Jessie” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span><br /> +Bridge Street Station, Glasgow <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page47">47</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +Brother to a baronet <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span><br /> +Browne, Balfour, K.C <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span><br /> +Buchanan Street Station, Glasgow <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span><br /> +Buncrana to Carndonagh Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span><br /> +Burns, Mr. John (Lord Inverclyde) <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span><br /> +Burtonport Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span><br /> +Bushe, Seymour <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span><br /> +Butterley Tunnel, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span><br /> +Butterworth, Sir Alexander <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page105">105</a></span></p> +<p>Caledonian Railway Stores Superintendent <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span><br /> +Cambuslang, our lodgings at <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page42">42</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span><br /> +Campbell, Donald <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Campbell, the Right Hon. Sir James, Baronet, Lord Chancellor of Ireland +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span><br /> +Cane, Arthur B <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span><br /> +Carlyle, Thomas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span><br /> +Carriages, four-wheeled <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span><br /> +Carriages, second-class, abolition of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span><br /> +Carriers’ Act, the 1830 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span><br /> +“Champagne Charley” coats <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page19">19</a></span><br /> +Charles Lamb, “plumb pudding” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span><br /> +Cheap Trains Act, 1883 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span><br /> +City of Dublin Junction Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +City of Glasgow Bank, failure of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span><br /> +Clerks in office, Derby <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span><br /> +Colhoun, R G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span><br /> +Collier, Dr. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +Committee Rooms, Westminster <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span><br /> +Committee, Select, 1840 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +Companies Clauses Act, 1845 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +Competitive traffic <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span><br /> +Concealed bed, a <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span><br /> +Connemara <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span><br /> +Constantinople <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span><br /> +Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span><br /> +Continuous brakes, a trial of, at Newark <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page87">87</a></span><br /> +Continuous Brakes Act, 1878 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page87">87</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span><br /> +Conveyance of Mails, Railways, Act, 1838 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +Cook, Thomas, & Son <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span><br /> +Cooper, David <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span><br /> +Cork, Blackrock & Passage Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span><br /> +Cotton, Edward John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page122">122</a></span><br /> +Country walks <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span><br /> +Cowie, James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span><br /> +Cromford Canal and Butterley Tunnel <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span><br /> +Culverwell, G P <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span><br /> +Curtsey, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span><br /> +Cusack, Major H C <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span><br /> +Cusack, Sir Ralph <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page117">117</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page118">118</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span><br /> +Cynicus <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page78">78</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span></p> +<p>D’Abernon, Lord <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span><br /> +Dan Godfrey’s band <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span><br /> +Dargan, William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span><br /> +Delicate health <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span><br /> +Dent, Charles <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span><br /> +Derby, General Manager’s Office <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +Dickens, Charles <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span><br /> +Dickie, David <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span><br /> +Directors, railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span><br /> +Directorship, my first <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page194">194</a></span><br /> +Diseases of Animals Act, 1894 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span><br /> +Drudgery of the desk <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span><br /> +Dublin & Kingstown Railway, opposition to <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span><br /> +Dublin & South Eastern Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span><br /> +Dundreary whiskers <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page19">19</a></span><br /> +Dunoon, bazaar at <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page42">42</a></span></p> +<p>Edinburgh <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span><br /> +Egypt and the Nile <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span><br /> +Elliott, Thomas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +Employers’ Liability Act, 1880 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span><br /> +Engineer, Midland Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span></p> +<p>Family album <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span><br /> +Fares, first-class, reduction of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span><br /> +Farmer, Ned <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Fashions, Victorian days <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span><br /> +Father, my <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span><br /> +Fay, Sir Sam <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span><br /> +Fenton, Sir Myles <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span><br /> +Findlay, Sir George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page131">131</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +“First-footin’” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span><br /> +First public speech <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span><br /> +Fitzgibbon, G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span><br /> +Forbes, Sir William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span><br /> +Foster, the Right Hon. Sir George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Franks, Temple <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Friends in Glasgow <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page78">78</a></span><br /> +Funeral customs <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span></p> +<p>Galloway, Andrew <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span><br /> +Galway, “City of the Tribes” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span><br /> +Galway, Trans-Atlantic Steamship Service <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span><br /> +Garnett, Tom <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Garrotters <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span><br /> +Gauge of railways <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +General managers’ conference <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span><br /> +General managers in Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span><br /> +General Manager’s Office, Derby <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +General Railway Acts of Parliament <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span><br /> +Gibb, Sir George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span><br /> +Gill, W R <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span><br /> +Gillies, F H <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span><br /> +Glasgow & South-Western Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span><br /> +Glasgow & South-Western Railway, my removal to the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page47">47</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +Glasgow Bailie, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page61">61</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page79">79</a></span><br /> +Glasgow, Bridge Street Station <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page47">47</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +Glasgow, Buchanan Street Station <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span><br /> +Glasgow flats <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span><br /> +Glasgow landlady, our <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span><br /> +Glasgow, S. Enoch Station <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +Golf, its introduction in Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +Gooday, J F S <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span><br /> +Goods-train-delays Clerk <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Goulding, Right Hon. Sir William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span><br /> +Grand Canal, arbitration <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span><br /> +Granet, Sir Guy <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Great Eastern Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span>,<br /> +Great Eastern steamer <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span><br /> +Great Northern Railway to King’s Cross <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span><br /> +Great Southern & Western Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span><br /> +Great Western cooking depôts <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span><br /> +Greene, George William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span><br /> +Gresham, Thomas Michael <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span><br /> +Grierson, James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span><br /> +Guinness & Co., a <i>stout</i> resistance <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span><br /> +“Gumpots” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span><br /> +Gweedore Hotel <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +<p>Haggard, Sir Rider <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Harcourt, Viscount <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span><br /> +Harding, E J, C.M.G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span><br /> +Harrison, Sir Frederick <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span><br /> +Health, delicate <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span><br /> +Healy, T M, K.C. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span><br /> +Hogmanhay <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span><br /> +Holland, Cologne and the Rhine <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span><br /> +Holliday, William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span><br /> +Hopwood, Sir Francis (Lord Southborough) <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span><br /> +Hornsby, John P <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +Horsemanship <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span><br /> +Hospitality, Ballinasloe <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span><br /> +Hours of work of railway men <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span><br /> +Hudson, George, the “Railway King” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span><br /> +Hunt, Henry <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page217">217</a></span></p> +<p>Imperial Development Board <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page213">213</a></span><br /> +Income Tax, 3d in the £ <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span><br /> +Ingram, Joseph <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span><br /> +Interference of outsiders <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span><br /> +Interlocking points and signals <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span><br /> +International Railway Congress <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span><br /> +Inverclyde, Lord (Mr John Burns) <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span><br /> +Ireland, general managers in <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span><br /> +Ireland, holiday <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +Irish Board of Works <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page216">216</a></span><br /> +Irish Department of Agriculture <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span><br /> +Irish Railway Clearing House <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span><br /> +Irish railways abused <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page178">178</a></span><br /> +Irish railways, progress of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span><br /> +Isle of Man, a steamboat service <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page112">112</a></span></p> +<p>Jekyll, Sir Herbert, K.C.M.G. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Johnstone, Mr. Glasgow & South-Western Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span><br /> +Jubilee, the railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span><br /> +Junior clerk, salary <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span></p> +<p>Kaiser, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span><br /> +Kedleston Inn <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span><br /> +Kelly, R W <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span><br /> +Kempt, Irvine <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span><br /> +Kilkelly, John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span><br /> +King Edward, visit to Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span><br /> +Kinnegar, the first golf links in Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +Knox, Vesey, K.C. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span></p> +<p>Ladies’ manners, Victorian days <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span><br /> +Lands Clauses Act, 1845 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +Langerman, Sir Jan <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Letterkenny to Burtonport Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span><br /> +Light Railway Acts, Ireland, 1860-1883 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span><br /> +Light Railway, definition of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span><br /> +Light Railways Act, 1896 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span><br /> +Light railways in Connemara, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span><br /> +Light railways in Great Britain <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span><br /> +Light Railways (Ireland) Act, 1889 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span><br /> +Limerick, the joybells <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span><br /> +“Little Jim” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span><br /> +Littler, Sir Ralph <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span><br /> +Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span><br /> +Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span><br /> +Long Jack <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span><br /> +Lorimer, Sir William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span></p> +<p>McCorquodale & Co <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page42">42</a></span><br /> +McDermott, Edward <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +McDermott, F <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +MacLaren, James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span><br /> +Mann, Sir Daniel <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page206">206</a></span><br /> +Martin, Robert, of Ross <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span><br /> +Martin, Sir Theodore <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span><br /> +Mathieson, John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span><br /> +Maximum rates and charges <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span><br /> +Maypole, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span><br /> +Meerschaum pipe, colouring of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span>, 102<br /> +Midland and Glasgow and South-Western Alliance <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span><br /> +Midland Great Western Railway and “Balfour Lines” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span><br /> +Midland Great Western Railway Benefit Society <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span><br /> +Midland Great Western Railway, extent of, &c. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span><br /> +Midland Railway, comparison with year 1851 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span><br /> +Midland Railway, present general manager <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +Midland Railway, progress of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span><br /> +Midland Railway, proposed amalgamation with L & NW <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span><br /> +Miller, R G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span><br /> +Mills, A E <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span><br /> +Mills, W F <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span><br /> +Mills, W H <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span><br /> +Ministry of Transport <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span><br /> +Money grants for light railways, Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span><br /> +Monte Carlo <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span><br /> +<i>Montreal Herald</i>, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span><br /> +Moore, Charles A <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span><br /> +Morris, Sir George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span><br /> +Morrison, Robert <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +“My old Wife’s a good old cratur” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span><br /> +Mylchreest, Joseph, the “Diamond King” <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page112">112</a></span></p> +<p>National Insurance Act <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page131">131</a></span><br /> +New Year’s Day <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span><br /> +Newcastle golf links, County Down <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span><br /> +Newcomen Junction battle <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +North British Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span><br /> +North West Donegal <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span><br /> +Notice of Accidents Act, 1894 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span><br /> +Nugent, the Hon Richard <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span><br /> +Nugent, Sir Walter, Bart <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span></p> +<p>Oakley, Sir Henry <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +O’Connor, Sir Nicholas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span><br /> +Office hours, 1868 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Office life, beginning of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span><br /> +O’Neill, Michael <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span><br /> +Owens, Sir Charles <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span></p> +<p>Parcel post receipts, Irish railways <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span><br /> +Paris <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span><br /> +Parker, William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span><br /> +Parliament yields to popular clamour <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page105">105</a></span><br /> +Parliamentary Committee, evidence before <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span><br /> +Pay-day in office <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span><br /> +Pease, Edward <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span><br /> +Peel, Isle of Man <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page112">112</a></span><br /> +Pember, Mr. K.C. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span><br /> +Penmanship, imitation of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Pim, F W <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span><br /> +Pinion, James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span><br /> +Pirrie, Lord <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Pitman’s shorthand <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span><br /> +Plews, Henry <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span><br /> +Poë, Colonel Sir Hutcheson <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Poetical productions <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span><br /> +Pope, Mr Samuel, K.C. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span><br /> +Portrush golf links <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span><br /> +Power, John F <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span><br /> +Practical railway work <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span><br /> +Pratt, Edwin A <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page105">105</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Prince and Princess of Wales <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span><br /> +Privy Council Order, Burtonport Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page217">217</a></span><br /> +Prize fights, trains for <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span><br /> +Pullman Cars <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span></p> +<p>Quirey, John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +<p>Railway Accounts, analysis of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span><br /> +Railway Accounts, form of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Railway and Canal Commission <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span><br /> +Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span><br /> +Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1888 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span><br /> +Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1894 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span><br /> +Railway Benevolent Institution <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page84">84</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span><br /> +Railway Clauses Act, 1845 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +Railway Clearing House <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span><br /> +Railway Companies (Accounts and Returns) Act, 1911, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span><br /> +Railway Companies’ Association <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span><br /> +Railway Companies’ Powers Act, 1864 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span><br /> +Railway Construction Facilities Act, 1864 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span><br /> +Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act, 1900 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span><br /> +<i>Railway Gazette</i>, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +Railway life in Ireland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span><br /> +Railway mania, 1845 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +<i>Railway News</i>, the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +Railway Ramblers <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span><br /> +Railway Regulation Act, 1840 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +Railway Regulation Act, 1844 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +Railway Regulation Act, 1893 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span><br /> +Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act, 1846 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span><br /> +Railway Societies <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span><br /> +Railway Statistics <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span><br /> +Railway system of Scotland <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page63">63</a></span><br /> +Railways (Electric Power) Act, 1903 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span><br /> +Railways Fires Act, 1905 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span><br /> +Railways, Inspection of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span><br /> +Railways Ireland Act, 1896 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span><br /> +Railways of the Dominions <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span><br /> +Railways, Scotland, England and Ireland compared, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span><br /> +Railways, State purchase of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +Railways, the future of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span><br /> +Rates and fares <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page82">82</a></span><br /> +Regulation of Railways Act, 1868 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span><br /> +Regulation of Railways Act, 1871 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span><br /> +Regulation of Railways Act, 1873 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span><br /> +Regulation of Railways Act, 1889 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span><br /> +Reid, A G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span><br /> +Revision of railway rates <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span><br /> +Roberts, William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span><br /> +Robertson, Tom <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span><br /> +Robson, Sir Mayo <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span><br /> +Rock Villa <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span><br /> +Rolling stock, County Down Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span><br /> +Running powers <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span><br /> +Russell, George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span><br /> +Russell, Lord John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span><br /> +Ryan, Martin, cattle dealer <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span></p> +<p>Sabbath, breaking the <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span><br /> +St. Enoch Station, Glasgow <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span><br /> +St. Pancras Station, opening of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span><br /> +St. Rollox, Glasgow, lunch <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span><br /> +Saloon, the Dargan <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span><br /> +Schooldays, country walks <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span><br /> +Schooldays, reading and drawing <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span><br /> +Scotter, Sir Charles <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Scottish railways <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page63">63</a></span><br /> +Second-class carriages, abolition of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span><br /> +Select Committee, 1840 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span><br /> +Select Committee on railway charges, 1881 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page82">82</a></span><br /> +Select Committees, 1858 and 1863 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span><br /> +Settle and Carlisle line <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span><br /> +Sexton, Thomas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span><br /> +Shanahan, George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page180">180</a></span><br /> +Shaw, Sir Alexander <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span><br /> +Shorthand, Pitman’s <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span><br /> +Sighthill Cemetery, lunch on a tombstone <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span><br /> +Sinclair, the Hon Sir John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span><br /> +Sinclair, Right Hon Thomas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span><br /> +Skipworth, W G <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span><br /> +Sleeping cars <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span><br /> +Smiles, Samuel <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span><br /> +Smoking compartments <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span><br /> +Smyth, G E <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page179">179</a></span><br /> +Southborough, Lord (Sir Francis Hopwood) <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span><br /> +Spain and Portugal, visit to <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span><br /> +Speech, first in public <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span><br /> +Spencer, Lord <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span><br /> +State purchase of railways <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span><br /> +Stephens, Mr Pembroke K.C. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page147">147</a></span><br /> +Stephenson, George <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span><br /> +Stevenson, Sir George, K.C.B <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page216">216</a></span><br /> +Stirling, James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span><br /> +Stockton & Darlington Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span><br /> +Superannuation funds <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span><br /> +Swarbrick, Samuel <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span><br /> +Swearing, an accomplishment <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span></p> +<p>Tailor’s dummy, a perambulating <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span><br /> +Tatlow, Frank <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +Tatlow, William <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span><br /> +Terminals <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page82">82</a></span><br /> +Theodore Hook’s old joke <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Third-class carriages by all trains <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span><br /> +Thompson, Sir James <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span><br /> +Time-tables and train working <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span><br /> +Tom <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span><br /> +Trade unionism <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Trades Disputes Act, 1906 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span><br /> +Trans-Atlantic steamship service, Galway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span></p> +<p>Ulster & Connaught Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span></p> +<p>Visinet, Tony <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page80">80</a></span></p> +<p>Wainwright, Mr W J <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span><br /> +Waldron, the Right Hon Laurence A. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page194">194</a></span><br /> +Wales, Prince and Princess of <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span><br /> +Walker, John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span><br /> +Walklate, Thomas <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span><br /> +Walks, favourite <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span><br /> +Warming pans <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span><br /> +Waterford & Limerick Railway <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span><br /> +Watkin, Sir Edward <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span><br /> +Way bills <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span><br /> +Wells, E W <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span><br /> +Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906 <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +<p>Young, Right Hon John <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span><br /> +Youthful benedict, A <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span></p> +<h2>Footnotes.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote207a"></a><a href="#citation207a">{207a}</a> +White population.</p> +<p><a name="footnote207b"></a><a href="#citation207b">{207b}</a> +If native population taken into account the approximate figure is 700 +inhabitants.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS OF RAILWAY LIFE IN</p> +<pre> +ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND*** + + +***** This file should be named 17299-h.htm or 17299-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/2/9/17299 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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