Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

by Robert Tressell

THE
RAGGED TROUSERED
PHILANTHROPISTS

BY
ROBERT TRESSALL

LONDON
GRANT RICHARDS LTD.
PUBLISHERS

EDINBURGH: AT THE MERCAT PRESS
1914

 

PREFACE

A few months ago a friend asked me to look at the manuscript of a novel, 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists,' the work of a socialistic house-painter, who wrote his book and died. I consented without enthusiasm, expecting to be neither interested nor amused—and found I had chanced upon a remarkable human document.

With grim humour and pitiless realism the working man has revealed the lives and hearts of his mates, their opinion of their betters, their political views, their attitude towards Socialism. Through the busy din of the hammer and the scraping knife, the clang of the pail, the swish of the whitewash, the yell of the foreman, comes the talk of the men, their jokes and curses, their hopes and terrors, the whimpering of their old people, the cry of their children.

In reducing a large mass of manuscript to the limitations of book form, it has been my task to cut away superfluous matter and repetition only. The rest remains as it came from the pen of Robert Tressall, house-painter and sign-writer, who recorded his criticism of the present scheme of things, until, weary of the struggle, he slipped out of it.

JESSIE POPE.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	AN IMPERIAL BANQUET	1
II.	NIMROD: A MIGHTY HUNTER BEFORE THE LORD	18
III.	THE FINANCIERS	36
IV.	THE PLACARD	54
V.	OWEN AT HOME	65
VI.	THE EXTERMINATING MACHINES	76
VII.	THE CAP ON THE STAIRS	88
VIII.	THE LONG HILL	97
IX.	HANDS AND BRAINS	104
X.	THE UPPER AND NETHER MILLSTONES	111
XI.	THE THOROUGH MAN	131
XII.	SUNDAY SCHOOL	139
XIII.	THE LODGER	148
XIV.	THE 'CRICKETERS' ARMS'	153
XV.	THE GREAT MONEY TRICK	166
XVI.	THE REIGN OF TERROR	178
XVII.	THE 'OPEN AIR'	188
XVIII.	RUTH	194
XIX.	THE OBLONG	209
XX.	THE SLAUGHTER	235
XXI.	CHRISTMAS EVE	244
XXII.	THE 'PANDORAMER'	251
XXIII.	THE BRIGANDS	259
XXIV.	THE VETERAN	265
XXV.	THE NEW TENANTS	272
XXVI.	THE BRIGAND'S CAVE	278
XXVII.	THE BRIGANDS AT WORK	285
XXVIII.	THE BEANO MEETING	293
XXIX.	THE SOCIALIST VAN	306
XXX.	THE BEANO	312
XXXI.	THE GREAT ORATION	327
XXXII.	THE 'SIXTY FIVE’	343
XXXIII.	THE GHOULS	349
XXXIV.	THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST	363
XXXV.	THE WIDOW'S SON	379
XXXVI.	THE END	388