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absence in America Dr Kenealy had gone out of his way to make a most
unprovoked attack upon himself, and to offer wanton insult to the
Freethought party. Hence Mr Bradlaugh refused to be present on any
platform with him, "except hostilely."]
* * * * *
In 1874 Mr Bradlaugh had his first invitation to the Durham miners'
(fourth) annual gala. Here, notwithstanding inclement weather and the
difficulties put in the way of the meeting by the North-Eastern Railway
Company, the gathering on the race-course was enormous; and although
this was the first time he had come to their picnic, my father saw his
own full-length likeness on the two banners belonging to the South
Tanfield and West Auckland Collieries.[177] The evening, too, was made
pleasant by the courageous avowal, in the presence of at least a dozen
people, made by a gentleman of position and influence in Durham--a
former mayor. He told my father that he was delighted to have the
opportunity of seeing him, but he thought it only honest to add that
before his (Mr Bradlaugh's) arrival he had refused to go upon the same
platform with him. He had learned a lesson, he said, since he had been
in my father's company.
[Footnote 177: The miners cannot be accused of concealing their
opinions; in 1875 my father saw not only banners bearing likenesses
of well-known miners' friends and himself, but also one which proudly
displayed portraits of Ernest Jones, Feargus O'Connor, Henry Hunt, and
Thomas Paine.]
As with the Northumberland men, so with the Durham: having once been
invited to their picnic, Mr Bradlaugh was asked again and again, and in
1891 Durham miners also sent of their hard earnings towards the payment
of a dead man's debts or to buy a book from his library.
* * * * *
At a monthly delegate meeting of the Yorkshire miners in 1874 Mr
Bradlaugh's name was proposed as a referee in wages questions, but a
delegate objected on the ground that he was an Atheist, and so the
proposition was lost. Prejudice, however, did not carry all before it,
for in the next year we find Mr Bradlaugh addressing the Yorkshire
miners at Wakefield, and the Cleveland miners at Saltburn in 1876. Some
years later I was with him when he addressed the Lancashire miners at a
place near Wigan.
* * * * *
When the Somerset and Dorset agricultural labourers held their fourth
annual gathering at Ham Hill, near Yeovil, in 1875, Mr Bradlaugh
was invited to be present. The other speakers included Mr George
Mitchell--"One from the Plough"--who was indeed the chief organiser of
these meetings, Mr George Potter, Mr Ball, and Sir John Bennett, who
evoked considerable indignation by his allusion to a suggestion said to
have been made by Dr Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, that
if Mr Arch visited the labourers in his diocese he should be ducked in
the horse-pond. But, above all, it was said, "the great incident of
the meeting, creating the utmost excitement, was the appearance of Mr
Charles Bradlaugh."[178] My father found the gathering very different
from those to which he had been accustomed--gatherings of Londoners
in Hyde Park, of miners in Northumberland, of Yorkshiremen, or of
Lancashire factory hands; there were ten or twelve thousand persons
present at Ham Hill, but until Mr George Mitchell began to speak he
doubted whether many of them cared much for the serious objects of the
meeting. The attention paid to Mr Mitchell's speech, however, and the
applause with which it was greeted, gave a clearer indication of the
real feeling which animated the labourers.
[Footnote 178: _Weekly Dispatch._ 23rd May 1875.]
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA.
My father had many times been asked to go to America on a lecturing
tour, but it was not until 1873 that he finally consented to do so.
Then indeed he went, as he frankly said, in the hope of earning a
little money, for there was so much that he wanted to be doing at home
that, but for the ever-increasing pressure of debt, he would not have
felt able to give the time for such a purpose. He visited America
three times--in three consecutive winters--but although his lecturing
met with enormous success, and he won friends amongst "all sorts and
conditions of men," yet his fortunes received a check, of more or
less severity, on each occasion. On every one of his visits something
untoward happened; whether it took the form of an American money panic,
an English election, or a serious illness.
These obstacles, unexpected and unavoidable, were over and above those
prepared for him by the pious of various sects, from the Roman Catholic
to the Unitarian, in the attempts to prejudice American opinion against
him. As soon as it was fairly realised that Charles Bradlaugh was
going lecturing in the States, the ubiquitous "London Correspondent"
seemed to think it his duty to prepare the minds of his Boston or
other American readers for the advent of their expected visitor, and
each depicted him according to his fancy. The subjoined extracts will
demonstrate not only the kindliness and veracity of the writers, but
also the choice and elegant language in which they expressed their
sentiments:--
I.--"You have heard of Mr Bradlaugh. Mr Bradlaugh is a creature six
feet high, twenty inches broad, and about twelve thousand feet of
impudence. He keeps a den in a hole-in-the-wall here, dignified by the
title of the 'Hall of Science,' in which he holds forth Sunday after
Sunday to a mob of ruffians whose sole hope after death is immediate
annihilation.... The _Pilot_, if it can do nothing else, can warn our
people from laying hands upon this uneducated ruffian--a trooper in a
cavalry regiment, a policeman, a bailiff's cud, a vagabond, and now a
speculator in the easy infidelity of the States."[179]
[Footnote 179: _Boston Pilot_, August 2nd, 1873.]
II.--In England "practical politicians among the advanced liberal
party avoid him as honest men avoid a felon, as virtuous women avoid a
prostitute."[180]
[Footnote 180: _Boston Advertiser_ (editorial), September (18-20) 1873.]
On the 6th of September he left Liverpool for his first journey across
the Atlantic by the Cunard steamship the _Scotia_, which arrived at
New York on the 17th--a long passage, as it seems in these days when
vessels make the journey in little more than half that time. He had
been told of the insulting paragraphs so industriously circulated about
himself, and he had so much at stake, that as the _Scotia_ neared
New York he felt oppressed with anxieties and nervousness as to what
was in store for him in this yet untried land. From the very outset,
however, he met with cheery welcome and friendly greeting. When he
landed he presented his customs declaration in the usual way to the
chief collector in order to get his baggage opened, but the collector
surprised and pleased him by saying, "Mr Bradlaugh, we know you here,
and the least we can do is to pass you through comfortably"--and he was
passed through comfortably, for without mo Previous Next |