Transcribed from the 1876 William Tweedie edition by DavidPrice,
BESSBROOK
AND
ITS LINEN MILLS.
A
SHORT NARRATIVE
OF
A MODEL TEMPERANCE TOWN.
BY
J. EWING RITCHIE.
AUTHOR OF“THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LONDON;” “NIGHT SIDEOF
LONDON,” ETC. ETC.
London:
WILLIAM TWEEDIE & CO., LIMITED, 337, STRAND.
1876.
UNWINBROTHERS,
PRINTERS.
p.5BESSBROOK AND ITS LINEN MILLS.
That the times in which we live areout of joint is a truism too obvious to require comment. Asmuch now as in old days the cry is, “Who will show us anygood?” We hear much of modern progress; but there aremany who, like Mr. Froude, intimate that what we call progress isin reality merely change, and that change is not necessarilyalways for the better. When such men as Mr. Ruskin leavethe domain of the beautiful fiercely to arraign what in ourwisdom, or want of it, we term Political Economy and its pitilesslaws, we may be sure that all the social problems of the age havenot been satisfactorily solved. If it be true that our richmen are becoming richer every day, it is equally true that ourpoor are becoming poorer. Might has taken from the peasanthis strip of land, and has driven him into the towns, where hedies of bad air, bad water, bad food, bad lodging, bad pay; wherehis sons learn crime, and his daughters how much better rewardedis vice than virtue. Underneath the whited sepulchres ofour boasted civilisation there lie rottenness and deadmen’s bones. Of talk we have somewhat more thanenough, as must necessarily be the case now that woman claims toappear on the platform on an equality with p. 6man. Associations of all kinds exist partly for the bettering andpartly for the bewildering of the public. Money is freelysubscribed for them; for Dives has a dim idea that he owes muchto Lazarus, and would at all times rather discharge the debt byletting a few crumbs fall from the table, than by personallyclothing his naked form and binding up his loathsome sores. It is not clear that we have improved on that very much. Itis clear that for lack of it we have a greatdeal—especially in our crowded manufacturingdistricts—of social anarchy—of progress the wrongway—of licence which means licentiousness, of teaching andtalking downward rather than upward. The need of silentdivine action, as Tho