The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
sible to believe in the existence of an individual, infinite God. In fact, no one did so believe; and least of all those who pretended, for various reasons, to be the disciples and followers of Christ. The anti-Christs were those who went about singing hymns, making long prayers and crying Lord, Lord, but never doing the things which He said. It was not necessary to call in the evidence of science, or to refer to the supposed inconsistencies, impossibilities, contradictions and absurdities contained in the Bible, in order to prove that there was no truth in the so-called Christian religion. All that was necessary was to look at the conduct of the individuals who were its votaries.
Jack Linden lived in a small cottage in Windley. He had occupied this house ever since his marriage, over thirty years ago.
His home and garden were his hobby; he was always doing something, painting, white-washing, papering and so forth. The result was that although the house itself was not of much account he had managed to get it into very good order, and as a result it was very clean and comfortable.
Another result of his industry was that—seeing the improved appearance of the place—Mr Sweater, the landlord, had on two occasions raised the rent. When Linden first took the house the rent was six shillings a week. Five years after it was raised to seven shillings, and after the lapse of another five years it had been increased to eight shillings.
During the thirty years of his tenancy he had paid altogether nearly six hundred pounds in rent, more than double the amount of the present value of the house. Jack did not complain of this—in fact he was very well satisfied. He often said that Mr Sweater was a very good landlord, because on several occasions when, being out of work, he had been a few weeks behind with his rent, the agent acting for the benevolent Sweater had allowed Linden to pay off the arrears by instalments. As old Jack was in the habit of remarking, many a landlord would have sold up their furniture and turned them into the street.
Linden's household consisted of his wife, his two grand-children and his daughter-in-law, the widow and children of his youngest son, the reservist, who had been a plasterer, working for Rushton and Company before the war.
They had just finished their tea when Owen knocked at
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