MR PLIMSOLL'S EARLY STRUGGLES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 226, 4 July 1873, Page 3

MR PLIMSOLL'S EARLY STRUGGLES.

• The following is an extract from Mr Plimsoll's book, from.a passage relating to hisiO.wn. personal history,- and the way in which he became interested in*-British searnen : ' I haye shared their lot: I have lived with them.- ITor months-.and months I lived in ,one of the model lodging' houses- -.established- by the efforts of Lord Shaftesbury—there is one in Eetter lane and another in Hatton garden j and, - indeed, they are scattered all over • London. I went there simply, because I could not afford a better lodging. I have had to make 7s 9|d. (3s. of which I paid for my lodging) last me a whole week, and! did it. It is astonishing how little you can live on when you divest yourself of all fanciful heeds. I had plenty of food---wheat bread to eat all the week and the half of a herring for a relish (less will do if you can't afford it, for it is a splendid fish), and good coffee to drink ; and I know how much, or, rather, how little, roast shoulder of mutton you can get for 2d., for your Sunday's dinner. Don't suppose I went there from choice—l went from stern necessity (and this was promotion, too), and I went with strong shrinking; with a sense of suffering great humiliation, regarding my being there as a thing to be carefully kept secret from my friends. In one word, I considered it only less degrading than sponging upon my friends or borrowing, what I saw no. chance of ever being able to pay. Now, what did . I see there ? I found the workmen considerate for each other. I have seen a man (who had returned dispirited after an unsuccessful search for work), sit. down wearily by the fire (we had a common room for sitting,, and., cooking, and everything), with a hungry, despondent look—he had not tasted all that day—-and accosted by another, scarcely less poor than himself, with " Here, mate, get this into | thee," handing, him at the same time a piece of bread and some cold meat, and afterwards some coffee, and adding, " Better, luck to-morrow; keep your pecker up." And all this without any idea that they were practising the most splendid patience, fortitude, courage, and generosity I had ever seen. You would hear them talk of absent wife and children sometimes — those in distant workhouses (trade was very bad then) —with expressions of affection, and the. hope of seeing them again soon; although the one was irreverently alluded to as "my old woman," and the other as the " kids." It was impossible to indulge self-pity in circumstances like' these ; and emulous of the genuine manhood all round me, I set to work again—for what might not be done with youth and health ? and, simply by preparing myself rathe*, more thoroughly for my : business than had previously been considered necessary I was strong enough Ito Jive more in accordance with my previous life,and amnowableto speak a true word for the. genuine men I left behind, simply because my dear parents gave me greater advantages than these, men had had. But I did not leave all at once. I wanted to learn the lesson well; and tho ugh 3 *w«nt reluctantly, I remained voluntarily, because the kind feeling I took with me had changed in hearty respect and admiration, and X was busy, thinking.