ges
in length) denouncing the unfair system which the masters had put into
operation. The strikers went into the outside districts, as far as
Bradford and on to Leeds, collecting towards the strike funds. They took
with them supplies of my pamphlets and verses, which, so the men told me,
won them much sympathy, and, what was infinitely more desirable--much
money. But this system of collection to the strike funds was much abused,
as has been the case in the present coal strike--men went out begging,
ostensibly for the general strike fund, but in reality for their own
private funds. Individuals managed to possess themselves of strike
"literature," and with its aid found themselves able to rake in the
shekels more abundantly than they had been doing by their ordinary work;
and so the strike proved a sort of harvest to them. The strikers received
much support, I must say, from the publicans. In particular, one Owen
Cash the landlord of the "Devonshire Tap," provided free dinners as well
as suppers. Then "Bob" Walton and a pork butcher in Upper Green each gave
a whole pig; and there were many other gifts in kind for the out o' work
workers. Of course there were those among the strikers ever ready to take
a mean advantage of a kind action. A good many of the shopkeepers allowed
goods on credit; but many of the people to whom they extended this
privilege failed to show up again after the strike was settled. When this
settlement was arrived at, it was at the expense of the masters. At this
juncture the Strike Committee was not altogether without funds, for they
had a surplus of something like 40 pounds. There were various suggestions
made as to the disposal of this money, one of them being that it should
be handed to Bill o' th' Hoylus End for his services in the "strike
literature department." This suggestion was embodied in a motion, but the
proposer got no seconder, and thus there remained wanting a bridge over
the chasm existing between the money and myself; but the bridge is still
wanting!

THE PARISH PINDER

Perhaps a reference in my "Recollections" to William Speak (_alias_
"Bawk"), the parish pinder, will not be out of place. "Billy," as the
gentleman was ordinarily called, occupied the position of pinder for a
score of years. He was well known in the town, not merely on account of
his official duty in taking care of stray animals, but of personal
peculiarities which made him a public character. Yes; he certainly