William Nelson A Memoir 20

William Nelson A Memoir 20

Testimonies of a like kind have reached me from very diverse sources,

all pointing to kindly relationships between this true captain of

industry and his employés, such as seem, without exaggeration, to have

realized in these days of mere trading rivalry something akin to the

fealty of knightly service in the olden time. The golden rule of ever

doing the right was carried out with unconscious simplicity. Mr. Gray,

who, as cashier at Hope Park and Parkside, was familiar during many

years with all the financial details of the business, thus sums up his

testimony to the habitual business life of his old master and friend:

“He was eager to avoid anything that could possibly bear the aspect of

sharp practice, or allow the faintest breath of suspicion of unfairness

or shabby dealing; and his generous, large soul won for the place a

reputation of uprightness and honour.”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XII.

 

_CIVIC INTERESTS._

 

 

As a citizen William Nelson was ever ready to forward whatever appeared

calculated to promote the public welfare; and his faith in the Divine

maxim that righteousness exalts the nation knew no limits in its

practical application. He judged his fellow-men, moreover, by his own

high standard of rectitude; and, with his faith in humanity, he was

prepared to favour the largest popular concessions. In politics

accordingly he heartily sympathized with the Liberal party, and frankly

gave __EXPRESSION__ to his opinions on all the great questions of the day.

His numerous letters to his friends abound in discussions showing the

keenest interest in all the events and movements that engaged public

attention: the scientific discussions and religious controversies; the

triumphs of engineering skill; the fascinating novelties of geographical

exploration; or again, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, the great

American Civil War, the Franco-German War, the Eastern question in all

its phases, and the no less momentous issues of party strife at home.

In a letter, for example, of May 13th, 1886, addressed to his

fellow-traveller, Major MacEnery, in which he gives him the latest

information about their poor old dragoman, Abdallah, he thus writes: “I

earnestly hope that there will soon be an end of the turmoil that there

is at present in regard to Old Ireland, by letting her people have Home

Rule to the fullest extent. There can be no harm in this; and we who are

north of the Tweed will be a great deal the better too of having the

management of our own affairs a great deal more in our own hands, as it

is absurd that we should have to apply to Parliament for its sanction

for many things that it knows little or nothing about; and a deal of

money would be saved were applications to Parliament for them not to be

necessary. The bill for the sewage of a district, for instance, in the

south part of our city had to be got through Parliament lately; and what

can that august body know about this odoriferous subject? We are much

more familiar with it ourselves.” His appeal in such questions was apt

to be to common sense; and when practical aid was needed, his purse was

ever available. His sympathy with the working-classes found its most

fitting __EXPRESSION__ in his dealings with those in his own employment.

When the works at Hope Park were in flames, more than one onlooker

reported overhearing the remark by some of his work-people, that they

were sure he would feel it as much for their sakes as his own. A lady

visiting a poor woman in the neighbourhood of the Hope Park works, whose

husband was ill, was told by her: “He works for Mr. Nelson; and they

dinna let their men suffer when they canna work.” Another told her that

the aged and the crippled or maimed were found employment at the

Parkside Works, “for Mr. Nelson can aye find a job to suit a’ sorts.”

The evils of improvidence and the misery resulting from the drinking

habits that prevailed among the lower classes were constant subjects of

thought. He systematically exerted himself to devise innocent pastimes,

and to stimulate the working-classes to more refined tastes and

intellectual sources of enjoyment. His New-Year’s letters to friends

always included some reference to the midnight gathering around the Tron

Church in the High Street of Edinburgh for the “first-footing,” with its

customary excesses, at the inauguration of the New Year; and every

symptom of improvement was hailed with delight. The movement accordingly

for displacing the taverns by “workmen’s homes” and coffee shops met

with his heartiest encouragement. A Glasgow paper-maker mentioned to a

friend that he had not seen Mr. Nelson for many years, when on the

occasion of a visit to Edinburgh he went into one of the places then

being established under the name of “British Workmen’s Houses” for the

supply of non-intoxicating refreshments. To his surprise he found Mr.

Nelson seated there in company with one of his daughters. On his

expressing some surprise, Mr. Nelson said he had come to see how things

were served; and that really he thought the coffee very good, and

indeed, he said in his hearty way, he thought the milk quite as good as

what they got at home from his own cows. He was not without a hope that

one of the results of his reviving the popularity of St. Bernard’s Well,

hereafter referred to, would be the promotion of the same good end. It

is not therefore to be wondered that Mr. Nelson’s services were sought

for in public life, and his fellow-citizens repeatedly manifested the

high esteem they entertained for him by urging his acceptance both of

civic and parliamentary honours. But few men ever shrank more

sensitively from publicity, and only when the importance of the question

under discussion overpowered his natural reserve could he be induced to

take any part in a public meeting. Such, however, was the high sense of

his services as a citizen that he was selected by her Majesty for the

honourable distinction of Deputy-Lieutenant of the County of Edinburgh.

 

But his appreciation of the antique beauty and historical associations

of his native city overcame all his retiring dread of publicity whenever

they were endangered; and the same regard for the amenities of civic

architecture, and the dread of the destruction of whatever is associated

with the memorable events of bygone times, repeatedly find __EXPRESSION__ in

his critical notes from abroad. In 1873 he writes to Mr. Campbell from

Vienna, describing a two months’ Continental tour, in which he was

accompanied by Mrs. Nelson and his daughters Eveline and Meta. He passed

from Paris and Geneva to Italy; spent some time in Florence and Venice;

travelled as far as Naples; and then returned to Rome. “I need not say,”

he writes, “that Rome, which is really the capital of the world for art

and archæological interest, detained us much longer than any of the

other places. I was there twenty-three years ago, and though great works

are now in progress, I may say that there has been as yet no very great

change since that time. The city, however, is now under Italian

government, and in a few years Rome will be completely altered. There

are large buildings in course of erection near the railway station,

which are understood to be the commencement of an entire new city in

that quarter; and in many of the streets throughout the city are marks

on the houses, indicating that they are either to be wholly or partially

demolished for improvements, or for the widening of the streets. But I

must say that from what I have seen of the new buildings recently

erected in Rome the architecture is of about as poverty-stricken a kind

as can well be imagined. They are constructed of brick, which is

plastered over, and the plaster gets a coating of size of a pink hue

very much like that of blot-sheet; and the effect is anything but

cheering. The windows have nothing round them but plain mouldings, and

these are painted gray. There is not the slightest attempt at

architectural ornament externally in any of the new buildings that I

happened to see. If this sort of thing goes on to any great extent, the

fine mediæval feeling that there is about Rome as it now exists will be

in a great measure done away with, and it will present in many parts a

smooth-shaven and very unattractive appearance. The main things notable

in the way of change, besides the new buildings to which I have

referred, since I was in Rome formerly, are the excavations in the Forum

and the Palace of the Cæsars, the Baths of Caracalla, and the changes

caused by the occupation of the city by the Italian troops, and the

disappearance from the streets of the religious processions, which are

not now permitted. We hurried on to Rome in order to be there at Easter

week, expecting to see something of the religious ceremonials for which

that week has been famous for ages; but though we were in Rome the

greater part of it, we found it nothing more than an ordinary week, as

far as religious ceremonials are concerned. The Pope and his council

are in the sulks, and as processions in the streets are not allowed,

they have taken care that the curiosity of strangers shall not be

gratified by any great ceremonial in the churches. It would interest you

much to see the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars, now that they have

been cleared out, especially that part of them which is known to have

been the court house. The wall all round still exists to some extent, as

do also portions of the mosaic floor, and the place where the emperor or

the judge sat is still to be seen. There is in front of it a portion of

the marble balustrade that extended across this part of the court; and

Dr. Philip, missionary to the Jews in Rome, who acted as guide to us in

our wanderings through these immense ruins, said there can hardly be a

doubt that Paul stood before that very balustrade and pleaded his cause

before Nero as his judge. The guard-rooms of the soldiers of what is

called the Palace of Tiberius are quite entire, and on the walls of them

are several very interesting scratchings made by the occupants of those

rooms in ancient days. One is of a Roman galley in full sail; another is

an outline portrait said to be of Augustus Cæsar; another is a

caricature likeness of Nero; and another a very clever comical figure of

a fellow with a tremendously long nose. What a living reality they seem

to give to those old times! In a room at a little distance there is a

remarkably clever scratching of a donkey with a mill on its back, with

the words below: ‘If you labour as I do, you shall not want bread.’ How

little things of this kind carry us back to the far bygone past!”

 

In like manner, in a letter to Dr. Simpson, he thus records the

impression which his visit to St. Petersburg in 1884 left on his mind:

“We were very much disappointed with St. Petersburg, as it occupies a

site that is very flat and very unhealthy; and it is a city of pure

sham, so far as the architecture of it is concerned. The principal

buildings, as a rule, are of plaster or cement, and are painted in a

style that is perfectly barbaric. Even the celebrated Winter Palace is

not an exception. It is of Roman architecture; and it is besmeared with

paint of a yellowish-brown colour which is sufficient to make one

shudder. The building, moreover, is of great extent, and it is all the

more repulsive on this account.”

 

But if the disfigurement of the modern city of Peter the Great on the

Neva, or the effacement of the historic antiquities of Rome, offended

his taste, and gave rise to unavailing regrets, every movement of a like

kind affecting his native city roused him not only to vehement protest,

but to vigorous action to avert as far as possible the threatened

mischief. Under such stimulus, all reserve disappeared, and he stood

forth as the resolute defender of his city and its historical

memorials. His letters to old schoolmates, whose lot had been cast far