LONG AGO STORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

LONG AGO STORIES

LILIAN TURNS LUDDITE. Lilian was a weaver of stockings, and when the terrible news was brought to the town that a machine had been made which would turn out fifty pairs of stockings to the hand-weaver’s one, she, like the rest of the people, was very frightened. “The machines will take our work from us,” she thought. “We must fight these demons and the people who make them.” She had seen great processions of people marching through the streets cari-ying banners on which the words “Bread or Blood” were written, so when the news of the stocking machine came she ran out of the cottage and joined the crowd. As they talked together, they saw Ned Lud, the madman, who was screaming at the top of his voice. In his rage he ran to the house where the stocking machines were kept, broke in, and smashed them both. Lilian cheered triumphantly with the rest, and, taking Ned ' Lud for their leader, bands of young men collected and determined to destroy all machines. When new stocking machines replaced the broken ones, Lilian went one night to the inn where the Luddites held their meetings, and begged them to let heiwork for them.

“It is dangerous, Lilian,” they said. “An act of Parliament is about to be passed by which we shall be hanged if we are caught breaking machines, and

they will have no pity on you.” “I do not ask for pity,” replied Lilian. “I will break every frame I find, for it is a wicked thing to make stockings by machinery when hands were given to us for that purpose. I declare myself a Luddite.”

She joined one of the many bands that roamed the country, and when sixteen Luddites were hanged at York she only became more furious. At night she blackened her face, like the young men, as a disguise, broke into houses, smashed machines and furniture, and often beat the owners of the new “demons.” Then the Luddites armed themselves against the law, and one night Lilian was caught and thrown into prison. As she sat in her cell with her face blackened, she wondered when they would come and hang her. A little dry bread was pushed through the bars to her, but for three days she was left alone. Then the door of her cell opened and a lady entered.

“You are Lilian the Luddite,” said the lady sorrowfully. “I have had great difficulty in obtaining permission to see you, for you are condemned to death. My husband gave all his time and fortune to the making of stocking machines, and when he had built a factory and employed workers you ruined him. We had hoped to make such good stockings that they could be sent all over the world, and now we have to start again. I have come to ask you if you will work with us, Lilian, in which case I may be able to save you. Machines are as good and beautiful as the hands and brains which made them. If you do not believe that, come and see for yourself.” So Lilian was pardoned. A few years later, she wove a beautiful pair of stockings on a machine for a little princess who was one day to be Queen Victoria of England I HIGH SPEED ON RAILWAY. 1000 MILES IN 13 HOURS. A railway record to be proud of has been made by America’s new train the Zephyr. Driven by a 660 horse-power Diesel engine the train consists of three coaches of stainless steel, and it has made the journey of 1015 miles between Denver and Chicago in 13 hours and five minutes. This is little more than half the time taken for the journey by the steam trains which maintain the normal service. Zephyr’s average speed was more than 77 miles an hour; and at times 112 miles an hour was reached. It is interesting to recall that the record for the 401-mile stretch between Denver and Harvard in Nebraska was previously held by our own Royal Scot, which made the journey last year at an average speed of 56 miles an hour. This section was covered by the Zephyr at 79 miles, an hour. The Zephyr’s remarkable speed is largely due to its beautiful streamlining and also to the elimination of friction by the use of tapered roller bearings on its axles. On its record run 85 passengers were carried for the remarkably low fuel cost of about £3 10s, the price of the crude oil used. There is certainly a great future for the streamlined Diesel train, particularly in America, where planes and road transport have captured so much of the long-distance passenger traffic. MEET THE MAN WHO WASN’T KING. England has had one experience only of being under a dictator instead of a king, and that dictator was Oliver Cromwell. He was clever, a good soldier, a pious man and a strong one, but much too hard, too bitter, and too obstinate to make a really first-class ruler. Cromwell was bom in 1599, and, as the Commonwealth came about in 1649, was fifty years of age when he took over the reins of government, backed by his huge army of Roundheads, after the sad death of poor Charles I. Meeting Cromwell we see a “very ordinary clad man in a plain cloth suit made by a country tailor, his linen plain and not clean, his hat without a hatband. His stature is of a good size, his sword stuck close to his side, his face swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and out of tune.” Despite his rather grim appearance, however, Oliver Cromwell possessed many good points. He was a brave man as well as a fine soldier. His great trouble, of course, was that he was too sternly religious. It wouldn’t do even to smile in the presence of this man oh the Sabbath, and to suggest any form of amusement was to earn a frown. He died in 1658, and was succeeded as lord protector of England by his eldest surviving son Richard, who “was gentle and good but a peasant in his nature and became not greatness.”