Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1878 — A ROMANCE OF LABOR. [ARTICLE]

A ROMANCE OF LABOR.

The following true incident was brought to my remembrance while listening to the rebellious words of a yoiftig man, who could not see his father’s wisdom in desiring him to learn a trade. “ It will make a comfiion man ot me, father,” he said querulously; “ I shall be as dirty as a blacksmith, and have hands like a coal-heaver.” “ And if you think, Fred, that wearing fine clothes and having white hands makes you a gentleman, let me tell you, sir, you are now a very common man to begin with. A good trade might help you to truer notions of gentlemanhood.’ Then I looked at the handsome fellow—for he was handsome —and I thought just now of Steve Gaskill. Steve has made his mark now, but many years ago I heard just such a talk between mm and old Josiah Gaskill, relative to the young man, learning his father’s trade of a wool-stapler. the splendid Steve, infull evening dress. “ and 1 hate the smell of oil and the sight of those men in blue linen blouses. I nope I shall do something better for myself than that.” "Very well, lad; what is it thou’d fain to be?” “ A lawyer, father.” naught but a lazy, quarrelsome set, but thou sha’ not say I ever stood i’ thy gate. Be a lawyer, lad. I’ll speak to Denham to-morrow about thee.”

So young Steve was articled to Denham & Downess, to study law, and especially “conveyancing.” He was an only son, but he had three sisters, and over them and his mother he exercised supreme influence. Whatever Steve did was right; whatever he said was beyond dispute. Even old Josiah, with all his sound sense, was, in spite of himself, swayed by the undisputed acknowledgment of Steve’s superiority. He would not have advised his son to be a lawyer, but seeing that Steve was not afraid of being one, he was rather proud of the lad’s pluck and ambition. It cost him a good deal. Steve’s .taates were expensive, and li£i fell naturally among a class of men who led him into many extravagances. There were occasional awkward scenes, but Steve, supported by his mother and sifters, always . cleared every scrape, and finally satisfied the family pride in being regularly admitted upon the roll of Her Majesty’s attorneys. In the meantime his father had been daily failing in health, and soon after this he died. Most of his savings had been secured for the benefit of the helpless women of the Gaskill family; and Steve now found himself with a profession and a thousand pounds to give him a fair start in it. People said old Gaskill had acted very wisely, and Steve had sense enough to acquiesce in public opinion. He knew, too, that as long as his mother or sisters had a shilling they would share it with him. So he hopefully opened an office in his native town of Leeds, and waited for clients. But Yorkshire men are proverbially cautious; a young, goodnatured, fashionably-dressed lawyer was not their ideal. Steve could not look crafty and wise under any circumstances, and that first year he did not make enough to pay his rent. Nevertheless he did not in any way curtail his expenses; and when the summer holidays arrived he went as usual to a fashionable, watering place. It happened that year saw the debut of Miss Elizabeth "Braithwaite, a great heiress, and a very handsome girl. Steve was attracted by her beauty, and her great wealth was no drawback in his eye. In a short time he perceived that Miss Braithwaite favored him above all other pretenders to her hand, and he began to consider the advantages of a ■ rich wife. *■ • His profession hitherto-had been a failure; -hig £I,OOO were nearly spehti. his three sisters were all on the point of marriage, a condition which might seriously modify their sisterly instincts; and his mother’s -annual income would not support him a it not be the best plan to accept the good fortune so evidently within his reach? Elizabeth was handsome and inclined to favor him, and though she had the reputation of being both authoritative in temper and economical in money matters, he did not doubt that she would finally acknowledge his power as completely as his mother and sisters. So he set himself to win Miss Braithwaite, and before Christmas they were married. True, he had been compelled to give p a great deal more than he liked; but he promised himself plenty of postmarttalcbmpen^aiionM!“Elizabethlff-” sisted on retaining her own house, and as Steve had really no bouse to offer |ief» he must needs go to Braithwaite

A Hall, as the husband of its proprietress. She insisted upon his removing his office to Braithwaite, a small village offering none of the advantages for killing time which a large city like Leeds did; and she had all her money scrupulously settled upon herself for her own use and under her own control. Steve felt very much as though his wife had bought him; but for a little time, the eclat 'of having married a great heiress, the bridal festivities, and foreign travel, compensated for the loss of his freedom. But when they returned to Braithwaite, life showed him a far more prosaic side. Mrs. Gaskill's economical disposition soon became particularly offensive to Steve. She inquired closely into his business, and did not scruple to make unpleasant witty remarks about his income. She rapidly developed to an authoritative disposition, against which Steve daily more and more rebelled. The young couple were soon very unhappy. The truth was that a great transition was taking place in Steve’s mind, and times of transition are always times of unrest and misery. The better part of his nature was’ beginning to claim a hearing. He had seen now all that good society could show him; he had tasted of all pleasures money can buy, and he was unhappy. She had no ennui and no dissatisfaction with herself. There was her large house to oversee, her gardens and conservatories, her servants and charityschools, her toilet and a whole colony of pet animals. Her days were too short for all the small interests that tilled them; and these interests she would willingly have shared with Steve, but to him they soon became intolerable bores. Under such oircumstances he might have found his work in the ordering and investing of his wife’s large estate; but Elizabeth was far too cautious a woman to trust it in untried hands. Her father’s agent was her agent; her banker managed all her investments; her park and farms and gardens were all under the care of old and experienced servants, who looked upon Steve merely as "Missies husband.” In the second year of his marriage he began to have some thoughts which would have astonished his wife, could she have thought it worth while to inquire what occupied his mind In the long, moody hours when he paced the shrubbery or sat silently looking out of the window. But Steve was now ready for any employment that would take him out of the purposeless, dependent life which he had so foolishly .chosen for himself. One day, greatly to his surprise, Elizabeth saierto him: “ Steve, I have a letter from a cousin of my mother’s who lives in Glasgow. She is going to Australia, and wants me to buy Tier house. She says it is a great bargain, and I wrote to Barrett to go and see about it. I have a letter this morning saying he is too ill to leave his bed. I wonder if you could go and attend to it.” Anything for achange, Steve showed a very proper business-like interest, and said:

“Yes, he would be very glad to go.” “ Very well; I should think you knew enough of titles and deeds, and conveyancing, and all that kind of thing. I will trust the affair to you, Steve.” So the next morning Steve found himself on the Caledonian line, with £IOO in his pocket, and a veritable piece of business on hand. The first twenty miles out of Leeds he enjoyed with the abandon of a bird set free; then he began to think again. At Crewe he missed a train, and wandering about the station, fell in talk with the engineer of the next one, who was cleaning and examining the engine with all the love and pride a mother gives a favorite child. The two men fraternizecT at once, and Steve made a trip over the Caledonian in the engineer’s cuddy. He was a fine young fellow, “one of seven,” he said, all machinists and engineers; he was only serving his time, learning every branch of his business practically; he had brothers who made engineers, and he hoped to do so some time. In spite of his soiled face and oily clothes, Steve recognized that refinement that comes with education; and when his new friend called upon him at the Queen’s Hotel, he would not be ashamed of his appearance, even in the most fastidious days. “ Mr. Dalrymple, 1 am glad to see you,” said Steve, holding out both hands to him. “I thought you would be, sir; it is not often 1 am mistaken in my likings. I will go with you now to see my father’s works, if it suits you.” Never had such a place entered Stephen fraskfU’s conception; the immense furnaces, the hundreds of giants working around them, the clang of machinery, the mighty struggle of mind with the matter, of intellect over the revelation. He envied those Cyclops in their leathern masks and aprons; he longed to lift their mighty hammers. He looked upon the craftsmen with their bare, brawny arms and blackened hands, and felt his heart glow with admiration when he saw the mighty works those hands had fashioned. The tears were in his eyes when Andrew Dalrymple and he parted at the gate of the great walled-in yard. “Thank you,” he said, “you have done me the greatest possible service. •I shall remember it.” That night Steve formed a strange, but .noble, resolution. First of all, lie devoted himself to his wife's business, and accomplished it in a manner which elicited Mr. BarTbtt’s warm praistTSwd made Elizabeth wonder whether she might not spare her agent’s fees for the future. Then he had a long, confidential talk with the owner of the Dalrymple Iron and Machine Works, the result of which was the following letter to Mrs. Gaskill: My Dear Wife: I shall not lie at home again for at least two years, for I have begun an apprenticeship to 1 homaa Dalrymple here as an iron-master. I propose to learn the process practically. 1 have lived too long upon your bounty, for I have lost yonr esteem as well as my own. and Ido not say but I have deserved the loss. Please God. I will redeem my wasted past, and with His help make a man of myself. When I am worthy to be yimr husband yon will respect me. and nntil then think as kindly aa possibjeof Stephen GahmCl. This letter struck the first noble chord in Elizabeth's heart. From that hour not even her favorite maid durst make her little compassionate sneer at “ poor master.” ; Steve, in leather apron and coarse working clothes, began laboriously happy days which brought him nights of sweetest sleep; and Elizabeth began a series of letters to her husband which probably grew more and more imbued with the tenderest interest and respect. In a few weeks she visited him of her own free will, and purposely going to the works, saw her self-banished lord wielding a ponderous hammer upon.A bar of white-hot iron. Swarthy, bare-armed, clothed, in leather, he had never looked so handsome in Elizabeth's eyes; and her eyes peviialed this fact to Steve, for in them

was the tender light of a love founded upon a genuine respect. Steve deserved it. He wrougnt faithfully out his two years’ service, cheered by his wife’s letters and visits, and when he came out of the Dalrymple Works there was no more finished iron-master than he. He held his head frankly up now, and looked Fortune boldly in the face; he could earn his own living anywhere, and, better than all, he had conquered his wife—won her esteem, and compelled her to acknowledge a physical strength and moral purpose greater than her own. Between Leeds and Braithwaite Hall there have been for many years gigantic iron works. The mills and railways on the West Riding know them well; their work is famous for its excellence, for the master is a practical machinist, and oversees every detail. Their profits are enormous, and Stephen Gaskill, their proprietor, is also the well-be-loved and thoroughly-respected master of Braithwaite Hall and of Braithwaite Hall’s mistress.— English Magazine.