But when the wages were doubled, the magistrate could
scarcely get through the business in a day. It seemed as if high wages
meant more idleness, more whisky, and more broken heads and faces.
These were doubtless "roaring times" for the colliers, who, had they
possessed the requisite self-denial, might have made little fortunes.
Many of the men who worked out the coal remained idle three or four days
in the week; while those who burnt the coal, were famished and frozen
for want of it. The working people who were _not_ colliers, will long
remember that period as the time of the _coal famine_. While it lasted,
Lord Elcho went over to Tranent--a village in East Lothian--to address
the colliers upon their thriftlessness, their idleness, and their
attempted combinations to keep up the price of coal.
He had the moral courage--a quality much wanted in these days--to tell
his constituents some hard but honest truths. He argued with them about
the coal famine, and their desire to prolong it. They were working three
days a week, and idling the other days. Some of them did not do a stroke
of work during a week or a fortnight; others were taking about a hundred
Bank holidays yearly. But what were they doing with the money they
earned? Were they saving it for a rainy day; or, when the "roaring
times" no longer existed, were they preparing to fall back upon the
poor-rates? He found that in one case a man, with his two sons, was
earning seven pounds in a fortnight.
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