The Wise men of the East At the end of the following week there was a terrible slaughter at Rushton's.Barrington and all the casual hands were sacked, including Newman, Easton and Harlow, and there was so little work that it looked as if everyone else would have to stand off also.The summer was practically over, so those who were stood off had but a poor chance of getting a start anywhere else, because most other firms were discharging hands as well.
There was only one other shop in the town that was doing anything at all to speak of, and that was the firm of Dauber and Botchit.This firm had come very much to the front during the summer, and had captured several big jobs that Rushton & Co.had expected to get, besides taking away several of the latter's old customers.
This firm took work at almost half the price that Rushton's could do it for, and they had a foreman whose little finger was thicker than Nimrod's thigh.Some of the men who had worked for both firms during the summer, said that after working for Dauber and Botchit, working for Rushton seemed like having a holiday.
`There's one bloke there,' said Newman, in conversation with Harlow and Easton.`There's one bloke there wot puts up twenty-five rolls o'
paper in a day an' trims and pastes for 'imself; and as for the painters, nearly everyone of 'em gets over as much work as us three put together, and if you're working there you've got to do the same or get the sack.'
However much truth or falsehood or exaggeration there may have been in the stories of the sweating and driving that prevailed at Dauber and Botchit's, it was an indisputable fact that the other builders found it very difficult to compete with them, and between the lot of them what work there was to do was all finished or messed up in about a quarter of the time that it would have taken to do it properly.
By the end of September there were great numbers of men out of employment, and the practical persons who controlled the town were already preparing to enact the usual farce of `Dealing' with the distress that was certain to ensue.The Rev.Mr Bosher talked of reopening the Labour Yard; the secretary of the OBS appealed for more money and cast-off clothing and boots - the funds of the Society had been depleted by the payment of his quarter's salary.There were rumours that the Soup Kitchen would be reopened at an early date for the sale of `nourishment', and charitable persons began to talk of Rummage Sales and soup tickets.
Now and then, whenever a `job' `came in', a few of Rushton's men were able to put in a few hours' work, but Barrington never went back.His manner of life was the subject of much speculation on the part of his former workmates, who were not a little puzzled by the fact that he was much better dressed than they had ever known him to be before, and that he was never without money.He generally had a tanner or a bob to lend, and was always ready to stand a drink, to say nothing of what it must have cost him for the quantities of Socialist pamphlets and leaflets that he gave away broadcast.He lodged over at Windley, but he used to take his meals at a little coffee tavern down town, where he used often to invite one or two of his old mates to take dinner with him.It sometimes happened that one of them would invite him home of an evening, to drink a cup of tea, or to see some curiosity that the other thought would interest him, and on these occasions - if there were any children in the house to which they were going -Barrington usually made a point of going into a shop on their way, and buying a bag of cakes or fruit for them.
All sorts of theories were put forward to account for his apparent affluence.Some said he was a toff in disguise; others that he had rich relations who were ashamed of him because he was a Socialist, and who allowed him so much a week so long as he kept away from them and did not use his real name.Some of the Liberals said that he was in the pay of the Tories, who were seeking by underhand methods to split up the Progressive Liberal Party.Just about that time several burglaries took place in the town, the thieves getting clear away with the plunder, and this circumstance led to a dark rumour that Barrington was the culprit, and that it was these ill-gotten gains that he was spending so freely.
About the middle of October an event happened that drew the town into a state of wild excitement, and such comparatively unimportant subjects as unemployment and starvation were almost forgotten.
Sir Graball D'Encloseland had been promoted to yet a higher post in the service of the country that he owned such a large part of; he was not only to have a higher and more honourable position, but also - as was nothing but right - a higher salary.His pay was to be increased to seven thousand five hundred a year or one hundred and fifty pounds per week, and in consequence of this promotion it was necessary for him to resign his seat and seek re-election.
The ragged-trousered Tory workmen as they loitered about the streets, their stomachs empty, said to each other that it was a great honour for Mugsborough that their Member should be promoted in this way.
They boasted about it and assumed as much swagger in their gait as their broken boots permitted.
They stuck election cards bearing Sir Graball's photograph in their windows and tied bits of blue and yellow ribbon - Sir Graball's colours - on their underfed children.
The Liberals were furious.They said that an election had been sprung on them - they had been taken a mean advantage of - they had no candidate ready.