The Harris-Ingram Experiment Part 17

A drive of two miles, from Leamington and along the banks of the historic Avon, brought them to Warwick Castle which Scott calls "The fairest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendor uninjured by the tooth of time." It is said that Warwick Castle was never taken by any foe in days gone by.

Our visitors drove over the draw-bridge through a gateway covered with ivy, and still guarded as of old, by an ancient portcullis. In the hall of the castle, pannelled with richly carved oak, are religiously guarded the helmet of Cromwell, the armor of the Black Prince, and many historic relics and art treasures. The drawing-room is finished in cedar. In former days guests were summoned to the great banqueting hall by a blare of trumpets. In the gardens is seen the celebrated white marble Warwick vase from Adrian's villa. Interwoven vines form the handles, and leaves and grapes adorn the margin of the vase. Superb views were had from the castle towers. In the Beauchamp chapel in the old town of Warwick repose the remains of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, one of Queen Elizabeth's favorites. She gave Leicester beautiful Kenilworth Castle, which is five miles distant.

As the carriages drove over the smooth road, beneath the venerable elms and sycamores, artists along the way were sketching. Both Alfonso and Leo tipped their hats, as members of a guild that recognizes art for art's sake, a society that takes cognizance of neither nationality nor sect.

Gertrude and George had read Scott's novel in which he tells of the ancient glories of Kenilworth, which dates back to the twelfth century, and to-day is considered the most beautiful ruin in the world. Ivy mantles the lofty ruined walls; the sun tinges in silver the gray old towers, and sends a flood of golden light through the deep windows of the once magnificent banqueting hall.

For years Kenilworth Castle was a royal residence, and later it was the scene of b.l.o.o.d.y conflicts between kings and n.o.bles. Today sheep peacefully graze within the ruins and about the grounds. Visitors from all parts of the world look in wonder upon the decay of glories that once dazzled all Europe. Here the earl of Leicester entertained his virgin queen hoping to marry her. As Elizabeth crossed the draw-bridge a song in her praise was sung by a Lady of the Lake on an island floating in the moat. Story writers have never tired of telling of the magnificence of these entertainments that cost the ambitious earl $20,000 per day for nineteen days.

Returning, Warwick Arms Hotel was reached for lunch, after which the party drove eight miles to Stratford-on-Avon, a model town on the cla.s.sic Avon. Here in Henley Street, in a half-timbered house recently carefully restored, Shakespeare was born. The walls and window panes are covered with the names of visitors, while inside are kept alb.u.ms for the autographs of kings, queens, of Scott, Byron, Irving, and others. One of the three rooms below is an ancient kitchen, where by the big open chimney the poet often sat. Climbing a winding, wooden stairway, George and Gertrude in the lead, our Harrisville friends entered the old-fashioned chamber, where, it is said, on St. George's Day, April 19, 1564, William Shakespeare was born. A bust of the poet stands on the table.

"We know little of his mother," said Gertrude, "except that she had a beautiful name, Mary Arden. If it is true, as a rule, that all great men have had great mothers, Mary Arden must have been a very superior woman."

"The reverse, Gertrude, must be equally true," said George, "that all great women must have had great fathers."

Gertrude who had made a special study of Shakespeare and his works did much of the talking. She said, "All that is definitely known of the life of the great poet can be put on half a page. It is thought that William was the son of a well-to-do farmer who lost his property. William, not above work, a.s.sisted his father as butcher, then taught school, and later served as a lawyer's clerk. When he was eighteen, like most young people, he fell in love."

Saying this, Gertrude led to the street, and the party drove to Shottery, a pretty village a mile away, where is Ann Hathaway's thatched cottage.

"Here the beardless William often came," said Gertrude, "and told his love to the English maiden. Ann Hathaway was older than William, she was twenty-six, but they were married, and had three children.

"When Shakespeare was twenty-five he was part owner of the Blackfriar's Theatre in London. There he spent his literary life, and there he was actor, dramatist, and manager. He became rich and returned occasionally to Stratford where he bought lands and built houses.

"If we can trust statues and paintings and writers, William Shakespeare had a kingly physique, light hazel eyes and auburn hair."

"What about his death?" inquired Colonel Harris.

"Of his death," said Gertrude, "we know little, save that the Vicar of Stratford wrote that Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Johnson had a merry meeting, possibly drank too much, and that Shakespeare died of a fever then contracted, on the anniversary of his birth, when he was fifty-two years old."

"And where was he buried?" inquired Lucille.

"In the Stratford church," answered Gertrude, and the carriages were driven up an avenue of arching lime trees. The old church, with its tall and graceful spire, reflected in the waters of the Avon, is a restful place for the body that contains the mightiest voice in literature. Near by also lie buried his wife and their children. A plain slab in the floor covers his remains.

Recently a new grave was dug near Shakespeare's and the intervening wall fell in. A workman ventured to hold a lighted taper in death's chamber, which revealed that the ashes of the immortal Shakespeare could be held in the palm of the hand. The Harris party drove back to Leamington to spend the night.

CHAPTER XVI

A SEARCH FOR IDEAS

Later on the Harrises spent considerable time in London staying at the Grand Hotel which occupies the site of the old Northumberland House on Trafalgar Square. They soon learned that the English matrons are devoted mothers, that they take long walks, dress their children simply, and that their daughters have fair complexions, are modest in manner, and are the pictures of health.

Many of the English women find time to study national questions, to organize "Primrose" and "Liberal Leagues," and to vote on munic.i.p.al affairs. Miss Helen Taylor and other cultivated women have been elected members of the London school board, and aided in temperance reform.

While Alfonso, Leo, Lucille, and May were absent studying the artistic life of the metropolis, Mr. and Mrs. Harris, Gertrude, and George spent most of the day planning for the future. Reuben Harris and his wife had repeatedly talked over the Harrisville affair, and their trips in London where so many generations had lived and pa.s.sed away had given both clearer ideas of life.

"At best," thought the colonel, "life seems short indeed." More than once he admitted to his wife that his early privations had made his life in Harrisville selfish and inconsiderate, that the questions of higher civilization were involved in the vigorous efforts of humanity for a closer brotherhood, and that if G.o.d permitted him he would lend a helping hand.

Mrs. Harris, naturally proud, was slow to respond to the colonel's new ideas, but he felt that under Gertrude's generous influences his wife would prove a help rather than a hindrance. Mrs. Harris knew that Gertrude and George, who had received a broad education, were ambitious to do good, and besides she trusted and loved them both.

It was clear to George and Gertrude that little or no hindrance would be offered to wise plans of usefulness. It was finally agreed that Colonel Harris and George should spend a week or two visiting some of the great industrial centers of Europe, and that Alfonso and Leo should accompany the ladies to Paris, and then visit the haunts of the old portrait painters of the Netherlands.

It was also decided by George and Gertrude that they would be married in Paris. This made the two lovers happy; for soon the two diamonds and ruby would be advanced to the ring finger, as promised by Gertrude on Mt.

Holyoke. Each felt that an inexpensive marriage in Paris would be a fortunate escape from possible criticisms at home. Colonel Harris had promised Gertrude a special gift of a thousand dollars for the approaching nuptials, she to do what she desired with the money. So she decided to use only one-fourth of the gift for herself, to send one-half of it to the Relief Society, and the balance to two ladies' benevolent societies of Harrisville.

The discussion of these plans made the last night in London a happy one.

Happiness comes when we warm the hearts near us. When selfishness leaves the heart, the dove of peace enters. Early next morning at the Victoria Station, Colonel Harris and George saw their friends off for Paris. The route taken was the one via the London, Chatham & Dover Railway, an hour's run to Dover, thence in the twin steamer "Calais-Dover," an hour and a half's ride across the English Channel to Calais, and from Calais via railway to Paris, capital of the French Republic.

Then Reuben Harris and George Ingram left Victoria Station to pay their respects to Henry Bessemer, civil engineer, who lived at Denmark Hill south of London. They desired to study the conditions which make the British people powerful. Both were aware that England was richly stored with the most serviceable of all minerals, coal and iron, in convenient proximity; that her large flocks of sheep supplied both wool and leather; that Ireland had been encouraged in the cultivation of flax; that the convenience of intercourse between mother country and her neighbors, especially America, had enabled England to engage largely in the manufacture of the three textile staples, wool, flax, and cotton. But material resources are only one element in great industrial successes.

Both labor and capital are equally essential.

Englishmen have strength and skill. In delicate and artistic manipulation, however, the Englishman may be surpa.s.sed, but he possesses in a rare degree great capacity for physical application to work, also tremendous mental energy and perseverance. Most of the world's valuable and great inventions, as successfully applied to the leading industries, were made by the English.

Though England has neither gold nor silver mines, yet for centuries she has commanded vast capital. Her trading enterprise, which has made the Englishman conspicuous round the world, existed long before the Norman conquest. Helpful and consistent legislation has also favored British industries. Besides, England enjoyed a good start in the race with foreigners. Surplus English capital of late has been employed in promoting foreign industry, and the interests of England as a rival may suffer.

Reaching the station at Denmark Hill, the colonel and George drove at once to Bessemer's home. It is doubtful if England has forty acres, owned by a private citizen, more tastefully laid out and adorned, with forests, lawns, and flowers.

Henry Bessemer was tall and well formed, and looked the ideal Englishman, as he gave cordial welcome, in his large drawing room, to Colonel Harris and George Ingram. Evidences of his constructive skill and exquisite taste were seen on every hand, notably in his billiard room, conservatory, and astronomical observatory. The last contained a reflector telescope of his own design, that rivals the world-famed telescope of Lord Rosse. Both were soon charmed with Bessemer's manners and conversation.

George had read of this wonderful man who was born in 1813; between 1838 and 1875 he had taken out 113 patents, and the drawings of his own work made seven thick volumes. This record of Bessemer indicates an almost unrivalled degree of mental activity and versatility as keen observer, original thinker, and clever inventor.

His drawings showed patents in connection with improvements in engines, cars, wheels, axles, tires, brakes, and rails. Fifteen patents for improvements in sugar manufacture, patents for motors and hydraulic apparatus, for the manufacture of iron and steel, the shaping, embossing, shearing, and cutting of metals, for marine artillery, ordnance, projectiles, ammunition, armor plates, screw propellers, anchors, silvering gla.s.s, casting of type, patents for bronze powder, gold paint, oils, varnishes, asphalt pavements, waterproof fabrics, lenses, etc.

Mr. Bessemer's greatest invention, announced to the British a.s.sociation at Cheltenham, in 1856, is his method of the manufacture of iron and steel without fuel, which started a new era in the iron trade. His name will be forever a.s.sociated with the rapid conversion of pig iron into malleable iron and steel. By this process the price of steel per ton has been reduced from $160 to $25, a price less than was formerly paid for iron. Mr. Bessemer received the Telford and Albert gold medals and honors from sovereigns and societies round the world.

George said to Mr. Bessemer that he thought Lord Palmerston's definition, "dirt was matter out of place," was especially applicable to the undesirable elements in ores.

"Very true," replied Mr. Bessemer, "and the man who can clean the dirt from our ores, and produce the most desirable steel, at the least cost, is a great benefactor of humanity."

Mr. Bessemer's own story of his most important invention was very interesting. Practical iron men had said that it was an impossible feat to convert molten pig iron in a few minutes into fluid malleable iron, and then into available steel, and all this without additional fuel. But the genius and perseverance of Mr. Bessemer, aided by his practical knowledge of chemistry and mechanics, did it. It had long been known that, if a horseshoe nail were tied to a cord and the point heated to whiteness, the iron nail could be made to burn in common air by being whirled in a circle. The ring of sparks proved a combustion. Mr. Bessemer was the first however to show that if air was forced, not upon the surface, but into and amongst the particles of molten iron, the same sort of combustion took place.

Pig iron, which is highly carbonized iron from the blast furnace, was laboriously converted into malleable iron by the old process of the puddling furnace. Bessemer conceived the process of forcing air among the particles of molten iron, and by a single operation, combining the use of air in the double purpose of increasing temperature, and removing the carbon. The carbon of the iron has a greater affinity for the oxygen of the air than for the iron. When all the carbon is removed, then exactly enough carbon is added by introducing molten spiegeleisen to produce steel of any desired temper with the utmost certainty.

With the ordinary kinds of pig iron early in use, Bessemer's process was powerless. The old puddling process was more capable of removing phosphorus and sulphur. But with pig iron produced from the red hemat.i.te ores, practically free from phosphorus, Bessemer's process was a surprising success.

At once exploration began to open vast fields of hemat.i.te ores in the counties of c.u.mberland and Lancashire of England, in Spain, in the Lake Superior regions of North America, and in other countries. Bessemer wisely made his royalty very low, five dollars per ton; capital rapidly flowed into this new industry, and Bessemer won a fortune. Mushroom towns and cities sprung up everywhere and fortunes were made by many.

Mr. Bessemer himself vividly described his process in action: "When the molten pig iron is poured into mortar-like converters, supported on trunions like a cannon, the process is brought into full activity. The blast is admitted through holes in the bottom, when small powerful jets of air spring upward through the boiling fluid ma.s.s, and the whole apparatus trembles violently. Suddenly a volcano-like eruption of flames and red-hot cinders or sparks occurs. The roaring flames, rushing from the mouth of the converter, changes its violet color to orange and finally to pure white. The large sparks change to hissing points, which gradually become specks of soft, bluish light as the state of malleable iron is approached."

This very brilliant process, which includes the introduction and mixture of the spiegeleisen, may occupy fifteen minutes, when the moulds are filled, and the steel ingots can be hammered or rolled the same as blooms from a puddling furnace.

Mr. Bessemer explained many things, and offered many valuable suggestions. A remark of Mr. Bessemer to George Ingram led the latter to tell Bessemer a story which he heard in the smoking-room of the S.S.

"Campania."

"Two Irishmen once tried to sleep, but could not for Jersey mosquitoes had entered their bedroom. Earnest effort drove the mosquitoes out, and the light was again extinguished. Soon Mike saw a luminous insect, a big fire-fly approaching. Quickly he roused his companion saying, 'Pat, wake up! Quick! Let's be going! It's no use trying to get more sleep here, there comes another Jersey mosquito hunting us with a lantern.'"

Mr. Bessemer was amused, and he ventured the a.s.sertion that when electricity could be as cheaply produced directly from coal as the light by the fire-fly, and successfully delivered in our great cities, the smoke nuisance would be effectually abated, all freight charges on coal would be saved, and coal operators could utilize all their slack at the mines.