Stockwhip

“ Men who deal with sheep get gloomy and morbid, and are for ever going on strike. Nobody ever heard of a stockman's strike. The true stockrider thinks himself just as good a man as his boss, and inasmuch as “the boss” never makes any money, while the stockman gets his wages, the stockman may be considered as having the better position of the two.
Sheepmen like to think that they know all about cattle, and could work them if they chose. A Queensland drover once took a big mob from the Gulf right down through New South Wales, selling various lots as he went. ”

“ It is the stockman's duty to know each individual beast, and also to know the members that compose each mob. He has to go out with the dogs almost every day to hunt up some mob or other. Our bush is much too dense to admit of riding, except along certain narrow tracks, partly natural and partly cut with the axe, which serve as bridle-roads, and keep open communication with distant settlements or settlers' places. So the member of our fraternity who happens to be stockman has to go cattle-hunting afoot. ”

“ Another remarkable instance of combination prior to the introduction of mechanical power and the factory system is that of the " stockingers," the hosiery workers, or framework knitters, described by Dr. Brentano. From the very beginning of the use of the stocking-frame, in the early part of the seventeenth century, servants appear to have been set to- work upon frames owned by capitalists, though the bulk of the trade was in the hands of men who worked upon their own frames as independent producers. ”

“ If only a few pairs of cotton stockings should be required, it would be an absurd waste of time, and of capital, to construct a stocking-frame to weave them, when, for a few pence, four steel wires can be procured by which they may be knit. If, on the other hand, many thousand pairs were wanted, the time employed, and the expense incurred in constructing a stocking frame, would be more than repaid by the saving of time in making that large number of stockings. ”

“ Nobody knows where the stolen stock goes. But I'm not alone in my opinion that most of it goes to several big stockmen. They ship to San Antonio, Austin, New Orleans, also to El Paso. If you travel the stock-road between here and Marfa and Valentine you'll see dead cattle all along the line and stray cattle out in the scrub. The herds have been driven fast and far, and stragglers are not rounded up.”
“Wholesale business, eh?” remarked Duane. “Who are these—er—big stock-buyers?”
Colonel Webb seemed a little startled at the abrupt query. ”

“ The indiscriminate, constant, and excessive use of the whip is altogether unnecessary and inexcusable. When it can be done without a too great loss of time, the stocks offer a means of punishment greatly to be preferred. ”

“ No, my lords, it has not; and while every abundance of voluntary labor has been found, in no one instance has the stimulus of the cartwhip been found wanting. The apprentices work well without the whip, and wages have been found quite as good a stimulus as the scourge even to negro industry. "Oh, but" it is said, "this may do in cotton planting and cotton picking, and indigo making; but the cane will cease to grow, the operation of hoeing will be known no more, boiling will cease to be practised, and sugar-making will terminate entirely." ”

“ To have a great gang of seven hundred, whom I could not know personally, or feel any individual interest in, bought and driven, housed, fed, worked like so many horned cattle, strained up to military precision,—the question of how little of life’s commonest enjoyments would keep them in working order being a constantly recurring problem,—the necessity of drivers and overseers,—the ever-necessary whip, first, last, and only argument,—the whole thing was insufferably disgusting and loathsome to me ”

“ Here, by George, I’m ashamed of myself to be such a poor business man as to give away fifteen dollars’ worth of whips for the price of one decent one, but I’m bound to make a sale if I give you my whole stock for a dollar. He-ere we have a bobby dasher of a whip to tickle the flies to death in the pantry. I’ll chuck that in just for devilment and I hope you won’t tell none of your folks what a fool I be. That’s eight whips for one ordinary every day dollar. ”

“ As has already been explained, the Treasury Board never meets, so that the duties of the Junior Lords are to-day almost entirely confined to acting as whips; and, to enable them to do that more effectively, one of them is always a Scotch member. The position of whip is one of great importance, but it entails some sacrifices, for by custom the whips take no part in debate, and although their work is felt throughout the House, it is little seen by the public. ”

“ These traders are a distinct class from the stick-sellers, and have a distinct class of customers. The sale is considerable; for to many the possession of a whip is a matter of importance. If one be lost or stolen, for instance, from a butcher’s cart at Newgate-market, the need of a whip to proceed with the cart and horse to its destination, prompts the purchase in the quickest manner, and this is usually effected of the street-seller who offers his wares to the carters at every established resort. ”

“ But the fatal influence of this growing evil does not end here, and I must trace stock-jobbing now to its new-acquired capacity of intermeddling [Pg 142] with the public, assisting rebellion, encouraging invasion; and if I do not bring the stock-jobbers, even the Whigs among them, to be guilty of treason against their king and country, and that of the worst kind, too, then I do nothing.
Had the stock-jobbers been all Jacobites by profession, or had the employment led them by the necessity of their business to put king and nation, and particularly their own, to bargain and sale ”

“ Nor is it the costermongers alone who buy all their harness second-hand. The sweep, whose stock of soot is large enough to require the help of an ass and a cart in its transport; the collector of bones and offal from the butchers’ slaughter-houses or shops; and the many who may be considered as co-traders with the costermonger class—the greengrocer, the street coal-seller by retail, the salt-sellers, the gravel and sand dealer (a few have small carts) —all, indeed, of that class of traders, buy their harness second-hand, and generally in the streets. ”

“ They looked worried; but Morgan was cracking his stock whip in fine style, and Stone whirling his pet rawhide lariat, which he had carried round the world, in wider and wider circles round his head.
“They dismounted in front of me, and I propounded the rules that had given me many a perspiring moment in the concoction.
“One. The first man to touch the ground would be disqualified.
“Two. The beach, and only the beach, was to be the scene of action. The man who passed the boundary line into the bush would be disqualified.
“Three. The stock whip and lariat were to be the only weapons. ”

“ Two, three, or more men, armed with cart-whips, and with a handkerchief tied over one eye, are let loose upon the people to flog them, who are generally guarded with boots on [80] their legs and sticks in their hands. These whip-men, called “Whipping-Toms,” are preceded by a bell-man, whose shake of his hand-bell gives a token or authority for the whipping the legs of those who dare to remain in the Newark. Many arts and devices are practised by the Whipping-Toms to take the people by surprise ”

“ I shall be obliged to you, to procure an order from the board of war, for any quantity from five to ten tons, to be sent us immediately from Philadelphia or Baltimore, and to enquire into and hasten, from time to time, the execution of it. The stock of cartridge-paper is nearly exhausted. I do not know whether Captain Irish, or what other officer, should apply for this. It is essential that a good stock should be forwarded, and without a moment's delay. If there be a rock on which we are to split, it is the want of muskets, bayonets and cartouch-boxes. ”

“ A favorite thieving device is the watering of railroad company stocks. Every worker should know how this chicanery is operated. Let us explain it briefly: Suppose, for instance, a certain railroad is capitalized at $100,000,000. To water its stock the controlling capitalists, on the pretext of improving the property, issue, say, another $100,000,000 of stock. ”

“ I followed the direction of his eyes and saw that I still held in my hand the gold-mounted whip which I had snatched from the hand of the driver. In my excitement I had altogether forgotten its existence, but had instinctively held on to it.
"I will send it back to the owner," I said.
"No, no; throw it away: that is enough to convict you of highway robbery."
I started, and exclaimed:
"Nonsense; highway robbery to whip a blackguard?"
"Yes. You stop the carriage of an aristocrat; you drag a valuable whip out of the hand of his coachman; and you carry it off. ”

“ There seems to be a perfect system in accounting for all the stock, yet somehow it gets away from the factory.”
“Have you had employes searched as they leave the building?”
“No, we haven’t dared resort to that,” Mr. Gandiss answered. “You can’t search such a large number of workers. If we tried it, half the force would quit.”
“I’d be glad to help you, if I could,” Mr. Parker offered. “Unfortunately, I don’t see how I can if professional detectives have failed.”
“Let me be the judge of that,” said the island owner quickly. “Will you and your daughter visit the factory with me in the morning?” ”

“ The sagging of the stocks has not destroyed a single factory, wiped out a single farm or city lot or real estate development, decreased the productive powers of a single workman or machine in the United States. ”

“ Unless, therefore, it can be shown that the real operator has a very broad pecuniary back, an attempt to buy or sell large amounts of stock through brokers is difficult. It is sometimes necessary to have capital to throw away in feints, before the speculator commences his operations, just as a general may find it expedient to throw away a quantity of ammunition, and even the lives of some of his soldiers, to draw off attention from the real attack. ”

“ Some tradesmen were glad enough to have their old stock taken over wholesale by the military authorities at a profitable price, but others, who foresaw chances of a richer harvest, were inclined to grumble at the arbitraryPg 157 exercise of power of officials whose acts they regarded as little better than confiscation, and, unfortunately, some of these managed to evade the first call, so that they were allowed to go on selling privately, and running up the prices to a fabulous extent. ”

“ Why, there is not an incident in the history of the world that led to so much stock-jobbing as the battle of Waterloo, and are we to regret that that glorious battle was fought and won because it led to stock-jobbing? ”

“ This whip, in an unpractised hand, is a very awkward and inefficient weapon; but the best qualification of the overseer of a cotton plantation is the ability of using this whip with adroitness; and when wielded by an experienced arm, it is one of the keenest instruments of torture ever invented by the ingenuity of man. The cat-o'-nine tails, used in the British military service, is but a clumsy instrument beside this whip; which has superseded the cow-hide, the hickory, and every other species of lash, on the cotton plantations. ”

“ What hunting for carpet-bags! what opening and shutting of lockers! what researches into portmanteaus, to extricate certain seizable commodities, and stow them away upon the person of the owner, till at last he becomes an impersonation of smuggling, with lace in his boots, silk stockings in his hat, brandy under his waistcoat, and jewelry in the folds of his cravat. There is not an item in the tariff that might not be demonstrated in his anatomy: from his shoes to his night-cap, he is a living sarcasm upon the revenue. ”

“ About eleven millions of dollars; and if all the other strikes and turn-outs were taken into account, it would swell the amount to over 20 millions of dollars, spent in a vain attempt to protect the wages of labor. Whilst the English capitalist can make use of the law to crush the producer, the producer can never make use of the law to protect himself; witness the case of the Dorchester laborers, and Glasgow cotton spinners, so well known; and, also, the case of the Stockport weavers, in 1840. The Stockport cotton masters offered a reduction of 2s. ”

“ That stock-jobbing, as it is now practised, and as is generally understood by the word stock-jobbing, is neither less or more than high-treason in its very nature, and in its consequences.
2. That the stock-jobbers, who are guilty of the practices I am going to detect, are eventually traitors to King George, and to his government, family, and interest, and to their country, and deserve to be used at least as confederates with traitors, whenever there are any alarms of invasions, rebellions, or any secret practices against the government, of what kind soever. ”

“ Let a company be formed on shares, armed and equipped with revolvers and rifles of the latest theory, to shoot opposition on the way for food for the Association—with India Rubber life-boats to cross the streams, and Gutta Percha tents to repose in on the march—secure a flying-machine on the last model, to transport the enthusiasts over mountains, and stock enough at $5 a share to start the enterprise, if not the expedition. ”

“ It can't be done, for I've seen it tried, and if you keep up the attempt too long, the whip-man will lose all patience with your unreasonableness, and tell you to go 'long about your business if you've got any, and not bother the life and soul out of him, because he won't sell anything but a dollar's worth of whips, and that's all there is about it. ”