The committee man and the lass from the south

The friendship of a committee man and a lass from the south, played a big role in events that happened at Marlborough Mills - BOOK BASED

NOTE: 1. words in italic are extracted from the N&S book.

DEDICATION: I dedicate this story to all my friends in the C19 board.

I hope you enjoy it.

The committee man and the lass from the south

I find interesting that nowadays, when I walk, late at night, in the streets of Milton; or even when I go to London – what I do not do very often – I often hear people talking about Mr. Thornton, a Milton mill owner from a long time ago, and Miss Hale, a lass from the south; who became his wife. There was a time when those two had been almost forgotten; but in 2004, the BBC TV produced an adaptation of Mrs. Gaskell's book; and since then, many people around the world became interested in their story. By the way, you may not find this important, but I'm sure that Miss Hale hair was black - I still remember Mrs. Gaskell telling me that. There are a few other things as well... but I'm not going to be too pedantic about it! I know that a lot of people loved that adaptation (I did as well) and I'm no killjoy.

Anyway, I was telling you that I often hear people talking about Mr. Thornton and Miss Hale. I also noticed many people sitting for hours in front of their computer screens, looking for information about them; and trying to find out more about their story. There is also something called C19; where the members want to know everything that happened and why it happened... in every minute detail.

So, I just thought that you may appreciate if I tell you some parts of Mr. Thornton and Miss Hale story; parts that Mrs. Gaskell did not include in the Household Words; when she published it. I always like to talk about them because; even if I never met Miss Hale; I am among the men who had a great deal of respect for Mr. Thornton; and who felt very sorry, when he had to give up his business, in the summer of 1854. But in those times, Milton was going through a period of very bad trade and many businesses went down. ... But I was very pleased when I heard that Mr. Thornton was reopening his mill. At the time, I only knew that he had been in London; and I suspected that he had found an investor while he was there; but I did not know any details about it.

Mrs. Gaskell on the other hand, knew everything! She had met Miss Hale when she was living with her parents in Crampton; and they kept correspondence after Miss Hale returned to London, following her father's death. In Mrs. Gaskell opinion, Miss Hale's experiences in Milton were very interesting and worthy of publication in the Household Words. Miss Hale thought that it was a good idea and agreed to it. When the publication of the story started, in September 2, 1854, Miss Hale was living in London; and there was no happy ending to her story. She was feeling very unenthusiastic about her life in London, among her relatives. But then, in mid September Mr. Thornton went to London, because of his business problems; and he and Miss Hale got engaged; and four weeks later they were married. It was only after his engagement, and a gentle suggestion from Miss Hale, saying that the story would be better if Mrs. Gaskell knew both points of view; that Mr. Thornton agreed to sit a few evenings with Mrs. Gaskell and tell his side of things. He was quick to approve the inclusion of his narrative in the publication – well, most of it! Some of the dreams he had had about Miss Hale, he had told Mrs. Gaskell in extreme confidence, not to, under any circumstances, be printed in the Household Words pages. After all the correspondence with Miss Hale and the evening sittings with Mr. Thornton, Mrs. Gaskell became a friend to them. She went to their wedding in London, in mid October 1854 and later she became the god-mother of one of their daughters.

Unfortunately Mrs. Gaskell is no longer with us, and she cannot tell you what she left out of the publication and answer your many questions. But I can!

A few years after I moved away from Milton, when I was still alive, Mrs. Gaskell invited me to spend a whole month, during the summer, as a guest of the family. And then she told me the story... in every minute detail.

What I will tell you today has to do with a certain union committee man and his relationship with Miss Hale... And how that committee man did his 'union' job for Marlborough Mill's workers; without even realizing himself that he had done it. That is how it happened:

In those times, in a city like Milton, when the master of a mill got engaged, it made little difference to the mill's workers. If they were lucky, and their master got engaged to the woman he loved; he may walk around the mill for a few days staring at the clouds and he may not see his men outside, smoking a pipe, at a time when they should be inside, working in their jobs. If they were unlucky; and they had a boss like Hamper, it would make no difference whatsoever. He was no less grumpy in the day he got engaged, than in any other day before or after; and even on the day his first child, a son, was born; he went around the mill saying unfriendly words to his men and even fired a worker, simply because he had injured his foot and was walking slowly. But in the day Mr. Thornton got engaged, his workers' (better said ex-workers) life would undergo a major change for the better; even if they never found out that, the change that took place, had anything to do with his engagement. Or even if they never found out that one union committee man had done some 'work'; that had had a big influence on the fortunes of their master. In fact, the committee man himself did not know if his 'work' had produced any result. But it had!

As a union committee man, it was Higgins task to insure that mill workers had the right work conditions; but it was not what he did as a committee man, that insured that around 600 mill workers, mostly at the time still unemployed, would find work again, only a few days after they became unemployed. It was his friendship with a certain lass from the south, a lass with a bonny face; known to some of the men as a lass that often walked past the Golden Dragon; known to others as a lass that took food baskets for their children, at the time of the strike; and known to another ones as a lass that they saw once or twice teaching some of the young Boucher's children. A lass whom they had not seen for a long time!

To Higgins she was a lass who had been a friend of his daughter Bessie (God bless her soul!); she was Miss Margaret; she was his friend!

But I don't want to get ahead of myself! I will tell you from the beginning!

I hope you enjoyed my story so far; and that you liked having the narrator as a ghost from the past. This allowed me to change the style of the narration from what I have been doing so far. Just for a bit of fun!

Stay tuned for the next chapter! And please, leave your comment! I'm an aspiring writer and any comment will be mostly appreciated!