298 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[OCTOBEB, 



of tlic office all smiles, and told us you'd got your wapes raised to 

 12.?. a-week, and you were a man for life. Now, you ncjuld find it 

 hard to tell wliat you have a-week." " Yes," answered he, laughing, 

 " I dare say I should."^ 



It was, however, a great step, for it had a share in his teaching. 

 He was at home with the steam-engine, and with his searching 

 mind he was storing up that knowledge which was to be most 

 useful to him. It was a good working-school for a great engineer — 

 as good as Brindley's in a mill, or Watt's in his workshop at Glas- 

 gow. His mind was awakened : he did not stand listlessly by to 

 feed the fires, — but the engine lay before him as a book wherein to 

 re<id its ^workings, to master its powers, to know its weaknesses, 

 to task its cunning. There is something in the steam-engine 

 wliioh is a spell and a charm to the beholder, — something more and 

 something else than the love of the sailor for his ship ; such as the 

 weaver feels not at his loom, nor the smith before his anvil. The 

 smith or the weaver is the maker — the Iiammer or the sliuttle works 

 as his hand lists ; but the steam-engine stands as witli life and 

 breath witliin it — -working of itself, earnestly, steadily, and manfully; 

 by day and by night, in its youth and in its elder years, when 

 scores of men wlio wrought with it have sickened and breathed 

 their last. To the working-man it is a thing of care and love, and 

 its siglit seems to give miglit to those who behold it, and to teach 

 them the cunning which is in its own make. Thus, boys who 

 watched strengthened it with cords and rods of iron; — thus, a toy in 

 the hands of AVatt, it claimed his life for its care, and grew to 

 unwonted growth ; — thus, time after time, have master and workman 

 nursed its childhood, and helped it onwards to its mightiest 

 strength — and Stephenson has not been among the least of these. 

 The weaver does not better the kiom ; but day-by-day some lowly 

 workman gives his small meed of help to the steam-engine. 



The next step that we know of in Stephenson's onwaid path was 

 his getting seventeen shillings a-week." Whether this was at 

 M^illington or Killingivorth is not settled ; but soon afterwards he 

 was at Killingworth, with a shilling a-week more, and sometimes 

 putting to his slender earnings a little for his over-time or for 

 piece-work. 



He had now grown up to manhood, and to a good name among 

 liis neighbours, being, as those who now live remember, a hard- 

 working and upright man, having the trust of his masters and of 

 his fellow workmen. 



One of tlie first deeds in which he is said to have shown his skill 

 was at Killingworth. The sheaves over which the ropes work at 

 the pit were much fretted as they were then made, and the ropes 

 wore quickly away. Indeed, the ropes which elsewhere lasted three 

 months, wore out at that pit in a month. This was a hea\'y outlay to 

 the owners, and much trouble to the work people. Many ways 

 were tried, but fruitlessly; and at length they gave up all hope of 

 a cure. Seeing the evil was great, Stephenson gave his mind to 

 find out whence it arose; and having done so, he set to work and put 

 tlie sheaves to rights, so that a rope was saved in two or three 

 months. ' " 



By this time he began to feel his own worth, and to yearn after 

 something better than his then way of living ; but he thought that 

 to better his means, no other way was so good as to learn more, and 

 fit himself for higher tasks. He had it in hand moreover to go to 

 New England, whither the stream of settlers did not flow so fast as 

 it does now, and where therefore greater hopes were held out 

 to the skilful workman who chose to leave the Old World so 

 far behind. In tlie beginning of this age, it was a greater task to 

 go to America than it now is to go to New Zealand ; and it shows 

 young Stejihenson's boldness that he undertook it. Nevertheless, 

 it is not likely that it was his own thought, but that of one of the 

 two men who were to be his fellows in the undertaking. One of 

 these, named Wood, gave Stephenson a knowledge of writing and of 

 numbers, which it therefore seems he did not learn until his man- 

 hood. It was the wish of Wood and Stephenson to try their hands 

 in tlie New World at mechanics and farming, for which latter 

 he had at all times a love." If we remember that in those days 

 the trip to America was costly, and that no one could go free, we 

 may see that Stejihenson must have had some thrift, when he was 

 able from his slight earnings to save wealth enough for such a task. 

 It shows, too, that he was not given to drinking or to waste, but 

 had steered free of that shoal on which too many working-men are 

 wrecked — the pot-house, in which their wages are swallowed up, 

 their minds blasted, and their health worn out. We know, indeed, 

 there were few evenings of George Stephenson's early life which 

 were idly spent. First, he was kept late at his engine; afterwards 

 his nights were spent in learning ; by-and-by in earning the means 



8 Gateshead Observer. o Derbyshire Courier. 



10 Derby Reporter— Derbyshire Courier. ii Derby Reporter. 



for his son's schooling, and afterwards in working and learning by 

 his side. 



Beyond the prompting of Wood or his other mate, there was 

 much in the times to work upon the mind of any thoughtful man 

 in the lower walks of life. In 1800, a fearful dearth siircad through- 

 out Europe, and the want of bread was sorely felt among us. The 

 war, too, had full sway — wages were low, food dear, and what was 

 worse, the lot of the working-man was cast under the bitterest 

 thraldom which ever befell Englishmen. George Stejdienson, in 

 common with every poor and friendless man in every hamlet 

 throughout the land, might have been torn from his liome and 

 kindred at any hour by a press-gang; hurried off to sea, and kept in 

 bondage, as many good tradesmen now in London have been, for 

 ten long years or more without setting foot on English ground. 

 He was open to the lot of the militia and the local militia, and 

 could only find some one in his stead at a very great outlay. In 

 many townships, wages were made up by the parish-board, and the 

 hard-working man was made a beggar against his will. Such was 

 the lot of the working-man, were he even husband or father: his 

 life was not his own; his freedom hung by a thread, at the breath 

 and will of others. George Stephenson, too, might have been 

 pressed, as others were. These were the good old times — gone, it 

 is to be hoped, never to come again ; now almost forgotten, and even 

 when reail here it will hardly be believed that in boasting England 

 such things were. 



It could hardly be otherwise than that the manly English mind 

 of George Stephenson should spurn the lot in which he seemed to 

 be cast, and yearn for the freedom which was held out to him 

 among our brethren on the other side of the great sea; and had he 

 gone, we should have lost him as we have so many other men of 

 great mind — lost to England, and gone to swell the wealth and 

 fame of America, and keep up the race of life against us. Those 

 who know our best working-men, are well aware how wistfully they 

 look to those lands where they can share in the birthright of their 

 fathers, and how often they give up a good livelihood at home for 

 tlie love of that freedom which is withheld from them in England 

 by the working of the laws. Irishmen go to Canada or New 

 Brunswick ; but the Englishman who leaves home, goes not to our 

 settlements, but to the United States — for he seeks more than 

 bread. If, too, a man of quick mind, he is not shut out by burthen- 

 some patent-laws from reaping the fruits of his skill ; and the best 

 wealth he takes with him is often some bright thought, which 

 ripens in the new land he has chosen. We may follow in our 

 mind's eye George Stephenson across the seas, and behold him 

 building at Philadelphia the engines and railways of which he has 

 here made us proud. These are things little thought of — but still 

 worth thinking about, for they come home to the bosom of every 

 free-minded working-man among us. 



It was unwillingly, and with sorrow, Stephenson thought of 

 leaving his kindred and his best beloved, his homestead and the 

 land of his birth, of his boyish games and of his early manhood. 

 It went against his heart ; but he felt upon him the strong call to 

 free himself from the thraldom which beset him round. Thus he 

 told afterwards to one who knew him : he said, " You know the 

 road from my house at Killingworth to such a spot. — \Vhen I left 

 home and came down that road, I wept, for I knew not wliere my 

 lot would be cast."'^ How bitter must have been the thought to 

 one who felt so deeply. 



It was not, however, to be so — we were not to lose him. While 

 his lot hung by a thread, and day by day the time for leaving 

 drew nearer, he had every morning as he went to his work to pass a 

 newly-sunk pit, whence they were endeavouring to draw the water; 

 and time after time did lie see the pit overseers and engineers 

 striving bootlessly to get through their work. In one of his 

 walks he stopped to look, and could not help saying to some of 

 those around, that if they would let him, he could, to use his own 

 words, " set them to the bottom." He was at first laughed at, but 

 at leng-th they left him to have his way ; and he went through 

 with it so as fully to answer to what he had held forth. '^ 



This gave him a name among the neighbours as a skilful man; 

 and he was no less happy with an engine which had been put up to 

 pump water at a pit, biit would not do its work, for it could not 

 be made to pump. As is said at all such times, the skill of the 

 whole neighbourhood was overcome, and Stephenson came in as 

 the last doctor, to make the cure, and make it more wonderful. He 

 said he could make the engines pump in a few hours ; and though 

 not believed, he did so, to the delight of the overseers.'" Whether 

 this was tlic same work as that already named we cannot say, for 

 by some it is told as two things. One writer'" says it was a large 



12 Derby Repwrter. i3 Derbyshire Courier. 



14 Derbyshire Courier— Derby Reporter. i" Gateshead Obsen'er. 



