L I E> RAHY

OF THE

U N IVLRSITY

Of ILLINOIS

82B
W9B<3 '.
v.2 J



The person charging this material is re-
sponsible for its return to the library from
which it was withdrawn on or before the
Latest Date stamped below.

Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons
for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from
the University.
To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN




L161— O-1096



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign



http://www.archive.org/details/johnnyrobinsonst02wrig



JOHNNY EOBINSON.



VOL. II.



JOHNNY ROBINSON:



" THE STORY OF

THE CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS OF AN
"INTELLIGENT ARTISAN."



BY



'THE JOURNEYMAN ENGINEER/

AUTHOR OF "SOME H4BITS AND CCSTOHS OP THE WORKING CLASSES.



N TWO VOLUMES.



VOL. II.



LONDON:

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND,

1868.

[All rights reserved^



f23



CONTENTS



OP



THE SECOND VOLUME.



CHAPTER I.

HOLIDAY PROCEEDINGS — A FISHING EXPEDITION — BOW AND
ARROW MAKING — TOM THE TINMAN— BIRD KILLING AND

COOKING BUTTON PIECES — RUSTING A VISIT TO A PENNY

GAFF pp. 1 — 47

CHAPTER II.

DIFFERENT VIEWS UPON HOLIDAYS — FRANK MEADOWS COMES
TO THE SCHOOL — " MY SWEETHEART WHEN A BOY" — I
FIGHT WITH A FRIEND, AND BILLY BUTCHER FIGHTS FOR
A FRIEND pp. 48 — 91

CHAPTER III.

STORY-TELLING EVENING READINGS AT TOM THE TINMAN'S —

WE GET UP AN AMATEUR PERFORMANCE, CONSISTING OF A
"NEW AND ORIGINAL DRAMA," AND OTHER ENTERTAIN-
MENTS pp. 92 — 123

CHAPTER IY.

THE DEFEAT OF ASHPLANT, AND THE EVENTS LEADING
THERETO pp. 124 — 162



VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER Y.

THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF SATURDAY — A QUESTIONABLE FIND
— FLAYING TRUANT — OUR SINS FIND US OUT, AND WE
ARE " MADE EXAMPLES OF" .... pp. 163 — 184

CHAPTER YL

WE "PAY OFF" NOBBY, AND SURPRISE AND DEFEAT AN
AMBUSH OF WHICH HE IS LEADER — SLLNGER — THE OUT-
RAGE OF THE BRICKEY POOL IS AVENGED — GENERAL WAR
— CAPTURE AND PUNISHMENT OF A SPY . pp. 185 — 206

CHAPTER YII.

THIEVES' LITERATURE — THE FORMATION, PROCEEDINGS, AND
IGNOMINIOUS FALL OF THE FEARNOUGHT BAND

pp. 207—231
CHAPTER YTII.

OUR SET IS BROKEN UP — RUNNING AWAY TO SEA — A LETTER
FROM MICKEY BRYAN — THE DEATH OF FRANK MEADOWS

pp. 232—267
CHAPTER IX.

A READING SET — EXAMINATION DAY — CONCLUSION

pp. 268—283



JOHNNY ROBINSON.



CHAPTER I.

HOLIDAY PROCEEDINGS — A FISHING EXPEDITION — BOW AND
ARROW MAKING — TOM THE TINMAN — BIRD KILLING AND

COOKING BUTTON PIECES — RUSTING A VISIT TO A PENNY

GAFF.




N a week or two after this, the coming
event of the usual half-yearly examina-
tion and holiday began to cast its shadow before.
The teachers began to take extra pains with their
classes, and occasionally the whole school was
kept in till after the ordinary hour of dismissal.
The probabilities as to w T ho would take the prizes
or be promoted to higher classes, were actively
discussed, and those who were going in for prizes
devoted all their energies to preparing them-

VOL. II. b



2 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

selves for the struggle; even their play-time
being given to their lessons. I had not been long
enough in the school to take any particular in-
terest in this examination: and Butcher, Bryan,
Turpin, and my other more intimate friends,
were not a sufficiently reading set to have any
chance for prizes, and valued the examination
merely as the immediate forerunner of the
break-up for the holidays. In due time the ex-
amination was held, the prizes distributed, and
the speeches of Mr. Mayfield and the chairman
for the occasion delivered, and then we were dis-
missed for three weeks, and rushed out of the
school dancing and yelling with joy.

The next morning our set assembled in the
Hollow, where we ran about like a lot of young
colts, not playing at any particular game, but as
it were luxuriating in the blessed fact of our
being free — in our not having to go to school.
The next day we again met in the Hollow, where
we were joined by a boy from a neighbouring
street, who had taken as a prize at the examina-



A FISHING EXCURSION. 3

tion a copy of Hannah More's " Two Wealthy-
Farmers." He had the book with him, and after
giving us a very enthusiastic account of its merits,
proposed that he should read it to us. To this
we agreed; and making ourselves seats of some
bricks that were lying about, sat down to listen.
For a quarter of an hour we were an attentive,
if not a very appreciative audience ; but at the
end of that time Dick Turpin, who had been
showing signs of impatience, burst out with " O,
blow Mr. Worthy ! it's all gammon ; I don't be-
lieve a word of it. Let us go fishing, Billy."

u Fm agreeable," answered Butcher, " if
Mickey and Johnny '11 come."

" O, we'll come," we said ; and the matter
being thus settled, the reading was unceremo-
niously broken up, and we started on our fishing
excursion.

" But what are you going to fish ivith,
Butcher?" I asked.

" O, you'll sec in a minute or two," was
Billy's oracular answer.



4 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

And presently I did see ; for when we were
passing his house, Billy went in, and returned
with an old can and a large handkerchief, which
latter he and Mickey fastened to the end of a
cane, so as to form a net. " There, that's what
we're going to fish with, Johnny," he said, flou-
rishing the net over his head. " That's yer sort ;
catch'em alive, O. And this," he continued,
holding up the can, " is to keep 'em in when
they're caught."

Armed with this tackle we arrived at a long,
shallow pool, which was, it appeared, a favourite
fishing-ground with the boys of our neighbour-
hood.

" Tuck up your trowsers, and pull off your
boots," said Butcher to me, he and his compa-
nions beginning at the same time to do likewise.
I obeyed, and he then handed the can to me,
saying, " Put a drop of water in it, and follow us
about, and take what we catch."

Everything being now ready, we waded in and
commenced our netting for those shrimp-like



A FISHING EXCURSION. 5

fishes that are generally seen in small shoals on
the edges of pools and inland rivers, and which
were known among the boys of Dockington as
Jack Sharps. One of the rules of the gentle
craft is to keep a strict silence, but by us this
rule was much more honoured in the breach than
the observance. We speedily got excited with
our sport, and rushed about in all directions,
continually giving vent to such exclamations as —
" Ha ! here they are, Billy \" " Come on quick ;
put the net in here V cc Have you got them ?"
" How many ?" " That's yer sort \" By dinner
time we had " can'd" about three score fish, and
then we went home in high spirits with the sport
we had had. After dinner we held a consulta-
tion as to what we should do with our fish : and
after a number of other plans had been discussed,
Butcher proposed that we should sell them for
brass buttons, wherewith to play pitch and toss,
that game being very popular just then. This
was agreed to ; and, headed by Billy bearing the
can, we walked round the Hollow and up and down



JOHNNY ROBINSON.

the street, chaunting, "Who'll buy any Jack
Sharps ; a brass button for two V In about a
couple of hours we disposed of all our stock, and
having "whacked" the buttons played pitch and
toss till the evening, by which time Bryan and I
had " skinned" our companions.

On the following day Butcher, who had care-
fully hoarded up the sixpence that my father had
given him, announced his intention of going
down to the docks to buy a prop of bamboo for
making bows, and asked Bryan, Turpin, and me
to accompany him. To this we eagerly assented;
and having strictly enjoined our playmates to say
that they did not know where we were if we
should be inquired after, and each of us having,
by the advice of Bryan, gone home and obtained
a piece of bread to serve us by way of dinner,
we set out. As we walked along we discussed
various plans of making bows and arrows, and
spoke of the execution that might be accom-
plished by these primitive weapons, the deeds of
Robin Hood and other historical, and some I



BOWS AND ARROWS. 7

fear imaginary, instances of modern feats of
archery being cited. We unanimously agreed
that the bow was the best and surest of all arms
for bird-killing purposes, and it was resolved that
when the bows were made, Butcher was to lend
us one each, and we would go on bird-killing ex-
peditions, and sell the birds, as we understood
that sparrows would bring good prices, sparrow
pies being, Butcher told us, regarded as great
delicacies in aristocratic circles. And it was
further agreed, at the suggestion of Mickey
Bryan, that, if in the course of our shooting it
became necessary for us to u trespass in pursuit
of game," and we were chased, we would turn
upon our pursuers and wound them in the legs,
viewing it as an imperative act of self-defence.

When we got into the neighbourhood of the
docks, Dick Turpin, who was of decidedly pre-
datory proclivities, and who had acquired his
sobriquet through having attempted to steal a
horse that he had been employed to hold, with
a view to setting up as a dashing highwayman,



8 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

became a very troublesome companion. The
sight of a fruit or sweetmeat stall, whose pro-
prietor was so placed against the wall as not to
be able to get out very readily, inflamed him
with a strong desire to make a raid upon it. He
insisted upon stopping to "have a scrape" at
every empty treacle or sugar hogshead that we
passed, and while balancing himself on the rim
of one of the latter to get at the inside, he tumbled
head first into it, and had to be lifted out by
some passing labourers, our efforts to extricate
him having proved vain. He was chased for
making a swoop upon some coffee beans that had
run out of a sack at a grocer's door, and again
for stealing peas, and he was taken redhanded in
an attempt to purloin some sailors' biscuits from
a cart, and was well shaken by the baker, and
finally he had to fly and wait for us at a distance
in consequence of having " snacked" a lot of
brass buttons with which some boys were playing
pitch and toss.

About the docks were a number of general



BOWS AND ARROWS. 9

shops which, among other things, sold lengths of
thick bamboo. Of these shops we made the
round, and having at length chosen a prop suit-
able for bow making we purchased it, and taking
it on our shoulders, started for home. The bamboo
had cost sixpence, so that there was no money
left to purchase wood for making arrows with, a
state of things which, when we came to talk it
over, Turpin suggested would be easily remedied
by his stealing some staves that he had seen out-
side a cooper's shop. This proposition was, how-
ever, negatived, and it was agreed instead that on
the following Saturday we should each devote the
weekly penny allowed us by our fathers, to the
purchase of wood for arrows, and tin for making
the piles for them. During the next two or
three days, saws, hatchets, and knives were smug-
gled out of doors, and the work of bow making
fully occupied our time. When the bows were
completed, wood was bought and a sheaf of arrows
made, and then an extra subscription was made
for the purpose of offering " Tom the Tinman"



10 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

twopence for the run of his cuttings in order to
get pile pieces — the angular pieces, namely, cut
from the square plates in forming round bottoms.
This Tom the Tinman was one of the nota-
bilities of our neighbourhood. It was generally
supposed — and his appearance went far to con-
firm the supposition — that he was a gipsy, and it
was known that for many years he had followed
the occupation of a travelling tinker in and
around Dockington, his wife and two little boys
going the same rounds as chair-menders. Hav-
ing established a good connexion in the neigh-
bourhood, he had taken a small house, and esta-
blished himself as tinman and chair repairer.
Tom, as well as being a tinker, was in a small
way a member of the fancy. In his younger
days he had been a principal with varying success
in sundry " rough turns up" for small sums, later
he had been in the habit of u setting to" at
benefits, and acting as second at some of the minor
prize tights in the Dockington district. And as
he delighted to talk of things pugilistic, and was



TOM THE TINMAN. 11

always willing to give his opinion or any infor-
mation lie might possess respecting ring matters,
he was in great request among the pothouse
admirers of " the manly art." His taste and
habits thus leaning to the pugilistic, and his pot
and chair-mending business succeeding with him,
he set up a boxing booth with which he attended
fairs and merry-makings in Dockington and a
circuit of twenty miles round. Among the
u galaxy of talent" engaged by the tinman when
out with his booth were his two sons, who were
styled the little wonders, and were at the time
we were about to visit him for the purchase of
arrow heads, aged about fourteen and a half and
sixteen years respectively.

To us boys Tom the Tinman was an object
of the most ardent hero worship. We
were fully convinced that he was one of the
greatest characters of the age, and had no
doubt that he was generally regarded with
feelings of national pride. Stories of his
prowess were current among us. We had



12 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

heard how when he was fighting Slogging Charley
and was apparently hopelessly beaten, he replied
to his second's offer to throw up the sponge, " O,
no ! a battle's never lost till it's won, and a man's
never half licked while he can see and stand ; ''
and then immediately went in and knocked his
man out of time, thus verifying the truth of the
proverbial philosophy involved in the first part of
his reply. We had heard with admiration of the
celerity with which he could " clear the kitchen"
in a public house row, and of the manner in
which he had polished off two gigantic drovers,
w r ho, not knowing the kind of person they had to
deal with, had drank his beer, and refused to fill
his pot again. And in our opinion the c: Up,
guards, and at 'em" attributed to Wellington
was less epigrammatic and worthy of remem-
brance than Tom the Tinker's reply to a backer's
advice to him to " go in" during his fight w r ith
the scientific Dan Knuckler.

" Go in at him !" said the backer.

" O, yes," answered Tom, " I can go in, and I



TOM THE TINMAN. 13

can hit him,, and hit him d — d hard ; but I can't
get away again without catching something hot."

And so he continued "out fighting/' and
finally tired out the scientific Dan.

His sons, too, were regarded by us as veritable
young paladins, prodigies of valour and science,
who were ultimately destined to attain the proud
position of pugilistic champions of England, and
to have know r n whom, however slightly, would in
after life be a circumstance to feel proud of.
Billy Butcher was old enough to remember having
been allowed to join in games in which the eldest
of the young tinmen had taken part, but that was
an honour now unattainable to us other young-
sters, for the tinman's heir already affected the
man, smoking short black pipes, " sporting" his
own especial bull-dog, and lounging about clad in
sportingly-cut clothes, and above all things
eschewing the company of boys. His younger
brother, however, still occasionally condescended
to join in the games of some of the bigger boys,
and to gladden the hearts of us smaller ones by



14 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

bestowing a nod or word of recognition upon us.
Meeting this youth on the day upon which the
twopence for the purchase of arrow-heads had
been subscribed. Butcher asked him what sort of
a stock of cuttings his father had got in then.

" Pretty tidy/' answered the young tinman ;
" why r*

11 O, because we want to buy some pile-pieces
for our arrows/' answered Butcher.

" Well, you'd better go on up now/' briskly
said the young boxer, who suddenly seemed to
remember something, " and I daresay the old
fellow '11 give you some for nothing, as he wants
to see some of you lot about a cousin of mine
that's come to live with us, going to your school."

" O, we'll go then," said Billy, beckoning to
us to follow him. " You know we might get
them for nothing," he added, when we were out
of the young tinman's hearing ; " old Tom's a
good sort."

Although I had heard a great deal about Tom
the Tinman, I had never hitherto seen him, and



TOM THE TINMAN. 15

naturally experienced a feeling of awe at the
prospect of being introduced into so notable a
presence. I was fain to believe Mickey Bryan's
assurance that he was only just like another man,
and wouldn't eat me any way ; but still, when he
opened the door in answer to Billy Butcher's
knock, I shrank back so far that he had to ask
the others if I was with them. On being told
that I was, he cried out in a loud, cheery tone,
" Come along in, young 'un, with the rest o' your
mates ;" and thus invited I entered the kitchen,
which served him as a workshop, one side being
devoted to the chair-mending business, which was
presided over by his wife, and the other to the
tinsmith work.

"Well, you can have all in the scrap-heap
that'll suit you, and there's more than two two-
pen'orths, I'll warrant," he said, when Butcher
had explained our proposal to buy the pick of the
scrap-heap for twopence. " But we'll talk about
that after a while," he went on ; " I want to speak
to you about another thing."



16 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

" You know/'' he continued, addressing Billy
Butcher as gravely as though that youth had been
his equal, " my old lass's sister was left a widow
with a little lad to bring up, but she came of a
family as is used to doing for themselves, and
she managed to scratch for the both on 'em
pretty comfortable. But you see there's none on
us knows when we may go off, and about a
month since she was taken ill and died in a week,
and as the lad's a sickly little chap as ain't able
to do owt in the way of work, we've took to him,
and we want to see about sending him to
school."

" You could send him to our school after the
holidays,'' said Billy, who evidently thought that
the tinman was attaching an undue importance
to the matter.

" Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about,"
said the tinman : " they wouldn't be against him
because he belonged to me, would they ?"

" O, not a bit," said Billy, who would himself
have regarded the relationship in the light of an



THE TINMAN'S REQUEST. 17

honour ; u so that he pays his school wages regu-
larly, and comes clean and tidy — that's all that
they care about."

" Oh, well, my old girM see that's all right/'
said the tinman, in a relieved tone. " You see,"
he went on, " I never had any chance to go to
school myself, and though my lads are clever
enough with their fists, and know how to take
care of themselves in most other ways, they never
would go to school when they had the chance,
and can't tell a big B from a barn door, as the
sayin' is. This little chap, they tell me, how-
ever, is a regular clipping scholard; but then he
ain't much else, for as I told you he's sickly, and
wouldn't be able to take his own part if it come
to fist work ; and so if you chaps would let him
go back'ards and for'ards with you, and keep
your eyes on him till he got into the ways of
the school, we'd all take it very kind of you, and
we'd make it up to you somehow."

" Oh, we'll look after him," said Butcher, when
he had exchanged glances of assent with Bryan

VOL. II. c



18 JOHNNY KOBINSON.

and Turpin. " We soon pnt you all right, didn't
we, Johnny?"

" You did so/" I answered, with fervour.

" And we're just the boys as can do it, too/'
put in Bryan by way of a clencher.

" Oh, you know your way about, I'll be bound,"
said the tinman, smiling ; " and I'm glad I spoke
to you ; and now you can look among the scraps
for what'll suit you; and while you're doing it,
I'll make you a few proper piles."

So saying he set to work, and by the time we
had turned over his heap he had made us a dozen
fine heads, on the symmetry and sharpness of
which Butcher became quite rhapsodical.

When the twopence was offered him, the tin-
man refused to accept it, telling us to spend it
for something else, and that some of these next
days he would send his nephew round to the
Hollow to see us. Having thanked him for his
liberality., and once more assured him that the
boy would be all right, we returned home re-
joicing, and unanimously pronouncing the tin-



BIRD-SHOOTING. 19

man to be " a regular stunner, and no mistake
about it."

The next day we were fully occupied in head-
ing our arrows, and the following one was
devoted to target practice, in which in the course
of the day we obtained such a degree of profi-
ciency as, in our own opinion, justified us in
fixing our first bird-slaughtering expedition for
the next morning. We were going in for battue-
shooting, and so in order to draw our birds toge-
ther, took a bag of bread crumbs with us, in
addition to our bows and arrows. After a walk
of a couple of miles, we came to a lane which,
though having sand-pits on one side of it and
brick-fields on the other, and being generally of
a dingy and smoke-dried rather than a green
and fresh appearance, appeared to us town-bred
boys the very beau ideal of a country lane, and
in it we made our first pitch. A council was
called, in the first place, to decide upon some
systematic plan of action. Mickey Bryan and
Turpin were for killing on the wing, and all

c 2



20 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

hands blazing at one bird, believing that some of
us would be sure to hit it. Billy Butcher, how-
ever, was for a more comprehensive plan. He
had, he informed us, read that the best mode of
shooting small birds was to get a lot of them in
a line by means of bait, and then let fly at them,
as you then stood a chance of knocking over
several with one shot. This scheme seemed so
obviously good in theory, that we at once deter-
mined to act upon it. Two lines of crumbs were
accordingly laid, Bryan and I being appointed to
cover one while our companions took charge of
the other. Birds soon began to alight one by
one, and Mickey was very impatient to take a
shot ; but by the command of Butcher, who was
tacitly recognised as the leader of the expedi-
tion, we reserved our fire till there was a good
cluster of sparrows at each line of crumbs. Then,
on a motion from Billy, we let fly all together,
and the whiz of our arrows was instantly
followed by the buzz of the birds as they took
flight. We eagerly rushed up, hoping to find



BIRD-SHOOTING. 21

a goodly number of birds spitted, and never
doubting but that there would be at least one
dead bird to each arrow ; but on getting up
to where the covey had been, no trace of a bird
was there to be seen, and we regarded each other
with blank and chopfallen looks.

" It's queer, ain't it ?" said Butcher, who, though
the most deeply chagrined, was the first to re-
cover his self-possession.

" Well, I thought we should 'a killed one or
two, anyway," said Bryan ; " I think we'd better
have a try at them as they're coming down, as I
wanted at first."

"Very well," said Butcher, "we'll try that
way next; you give us the nod when to fire."

We accordingly retired to our stations again,
and, two birds presently flying towards the crumbs,
Mickey gave the signal and we fired, but the birds
flew away unharmed, and one of the arrows that
had gone over the hedge was lost. In conse-
quence of this latter circumstance we resolved to
return to our first plan, and on firing at the next



22 JOHNNY ROBINSON.

covey we killed a couple of birds. This put us
in the highest possible spirits, and having cele-
brated our success by the performance of a tri-
umphal break-down with whooping chorus, wc
began to consider what we should do with the
game bag, which, now that we had made a start,
we felt sure of making, and even fixed the price
per dozen at which we would sell the birds. But
in counting our sparrows, if not before they were
hatched, at any rate before they were killed, we,
as often happens in sanguine expectations of this
kind, were grievously mistaken. We killed
nothing in our next two volleys, and after that
the birds began to get shy, and it was nearly
three hours from the time we had our first kill
till we knocked over our next bird ; and the birds
beginning to get still scarcer after our second