F
CHINA MAIL
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT DECEMBER
the "sixties the com- pany's business-had ex- panded
Ther very fast. had been visualised the building of bigger works, sheds and depots, and a great deal of land around the original works was bought. Bare- I half of this was used, but the company did not care to part with the rest, which they had bought so cheaply and for which the fu- ture might find a usc.
There was an odd-shaped piece. one edge of which was bounded
few mean streets, another a chemical works. No one? wanted this land; until in the 'eighties a dour, wizened man in corduroys presented himself at the company's office and asked what the rent was. He thought, he said, of growing potatoes, as he did on some other land not a mile or two
away.
They let this man, John Dearth, work on the land; the potato mar- ket was good for a while, and when it declined and the land lost heart, he took to growing cab- bages, turnips, célery.
DISPOSSESSED
3
ed him to claim £300 in respect of damage from weeds. This let- ter would receive attention, the manager replied.
Sims was sent to see Cardman and found him bedridden, anxious to give up his land. "Very well," said the manager. "We'll take possession and go to the trouble of cutting the weeds."
He wrote to the solicitor that the claim, if any, appeared to be against Mr. Cardman "Can't see him getting $300 out of him," he laughed.
The weeds were cut. Still Dearth -paid no rent. Time passed. The manager wrote letters to Dearth and reports to his board of direc- tors. The legal department was instructed, fresh files were begun, men ran to and fro; Dearth went on doggedly growing cabbages. The manager's clerk said to Sims it was a shame. "But what can he expect? argued Sims. "He won't budge from £300 and that's absurd, you know as well as I do. From what I hear, some local smart guy has kidded the old boy that he must ask for £300. And old Dearth's one of that sort that once they get a notion in their
With the years the streets of poor houses, the factories and shops had come so much nearer that they almost surrounded the plot of John Dearth, but he went. on working, and his son James this helped him. He clung to corner, this fringe of town and half-town, with the idull pertin-noddles, it sticks." acity of the peasant for his land. Year by year it was exhausted; it had no feeding but the droppings of a goat, a horse now and again trimed out to graze.
Com-
The old man died: the son be- came tenant, for he knew no other work He made his mark on 2 new agreement which the pany sent to him and he paid his rent of £30 a year every quarter. In some fashion known only to God and himself he maintained a family of eight on the sale of his crops. There was no money for hired men, two of the sons work ed with him when they had no to other work. The fences fell pieces, there was nothing to buy manure with; but the rent was paid.
* *
UNTIL, of a sudden, the pay-
ment ceased. First, second, third demands were sent by the company's treasurer. Dearth ig nored them. Then Sims, the out- door man, was sent along to see
him
"I can't make much sense out of him," reported Sims, "he seems à queer lot. Keeps on complain- ing about weeds. They've ruined him, he says.”
"Weeds? What rot! Nothing to do with us?" said the manager.
"Well, he says they've seeded and blown all over his land from that neighbouring bit-that odd corner, sir, you know-the bit we let to a man called Cardman.”
"I daresay that's right, sir.”" in- terposed the manager's clerk. “As I used to walk down the road some time ago, the air, I noticed, was thick with thistledown blowing across."
"He must pay his rent," ed the manager.
Still Mr. Dearth went his way, and no rent was paid. letter came from a solicitor, who said that Mr. Dearth bad instruct
At last a letter came from: Dearth: 13
"I has a letter from your soli- citor, it ran, who says he will clame posesion of my land. Why don't he paye me my 300 pd: for them wedes, I want to ask. Not
Short Story
2
scrutable marks upon affidavits and forms D3B, and the slow course of the law was drawing to- wards a close when Dearth sud- denly appeared at the office and asked to see the manager."
"All right, I'll see him," said the latter, as if he were doing something noble. "Show him in.
Dearth entered. He wore no collar. He was middle-aged, slight, with a forward bearing of the head and a look of mingled dullness, misery and obsession in his grey, dirty face. The manager was big and bluff, but something in the glare of the other's eyes made him feel uneasy. He rang for his clerk and kept him standing near. "Well, Mr. Dearth, I hope you've come to pay that rent and be sensible," he began loudly.
"I ain't gonna pay no rent," muttered Dearth. I wanter know do about my what you gonna land.”
"It's no good taking this atti- tude. That's not the way to treat a grievance if you think you've got
one
Are you still thinking about that preposterous claim?"
“I did ave a claim,” was the reply, în a tone that spoke infinite reproach" and disillusion.
"Then you'd better ask your soli- citor to see me.”
"I ain't got no solicitor.” * "But I thought you had been to a solicitor?”
"I did go to a serliciter, but was no good to me. E won't do
-::- By "Goth".
him or annybobdy will get me out of my land. Yrs trully j. dearth" The manager wavered before this sublime firmness. He needs must ask the legal department to reassure him that Dearth was wrong. It did so, and he rallied. To think that one serf should dare defy the King's law, the great Dessner Company and all its men! Why, soon they would have every- body withholding rent pretext or other.
on some
nothin' for me. I bin to four ser liciters; but they're all in league wiv one another and this 'ere com- play an all. They're all against me Swine!"
"Then I can do nothing for you, I've done my best You'll have to quit, that's all”
D'you think you'll get me out of my land?" · Dearth had work- ed himself up. He now rose and walked about, and once right round the manager's desk That legal -paper he give me I never 'ad it. Here he
A writ was issued to Dearth on picked up outer
server gave it to Dearth on
his land as he bent over a spade rubbing it clean with a piece of wood. "I don't wannit." Dearth muttered and dropped the writ in the mud. The writ-server picked it up, thrust it on the other's col lar and walked away. "I aint takin it,” was shouted after him.
"For a minute I thought he was going to hit me with the spade, the writ-server was heard to say. The word went round that Dearth was dangerous.
Undaunted however the com- pany carried on.
The
papers in Dessner, Limited, versus James Dearth accumulated and lay in lit- the bundles, folded tied with red tape, in the archives of the com- pany and the King's judicature. Grave and leansed Masters of the High Court of Justice ma
nade in
H
picked up a ruler from the desk, held it vaguely and put it down. The manager rolled his eyes round to see that his precious clerk was rear.
"That's all I've got to say to you," he managed to blurt, Dearth looked from one to the other and shuffled to the door. “Swine!" be growled, and went out.
The manager breathed freely He mopped his bald forehead and looked piteous.
"What am I to do with that ob- stinste devil?" You see what
the's like. What am I to do?"/
His senior's manager so surpris- ed him that all the clerk could do was to murmur with sympathy. "He won't pay his rent so he'll just have to go. I've done - my best for him. God knows what he'll do when he's turned out. No-
Shave has
the
Then, they
Say it's my fault. Em 200 And looking woe begone, the man- ager went to lunch, mutt "I'm not paid properly for su responsibility.
E law was to say its last when the Sheriffs met Sims
in the road by the land on a cold and dismal morning. Small as it was the field happened to be in three counties, for the borders met in the middle of it. So there were there different Sheriffs' agents, and each had a separate paper in his hand they were short and massive and stolid of demeanour. Sims led them to the land and they followed through the gate in bovine obedience
All stood in the middle of the field and looked round. Sims, his collar turned up about his ears, stamped his feet with cold and anxiety He wondered when -Dearth would appear and what he would do. He did not fancy this job at all. He perceived it was not only the weeds, but the long, hopeless struggle, that had given the poor devil his desperate, haunt- ed look
The cabbages, stunted, smoke- sullied, plainly fought a losing battle here. The ground was slimy and strewn in places with old tins, rusted fragments of pram-wheels and bedsteads. In a far corner was a shack, and by it stood a cart with splayed-out wheels Beyond the fence loomed large red gasometers, the tops of some cranes and the chimneys of the chemical works, the accid smoke from which drifted slowly across. He felt depressed.
"Well, can't we get on with it?”- he said, brusquely.
Is the tenant here asked sheriff
Can't see him nowhere plied Sims
They walked
the field and One of stood near a corne the sheriffs took off his bowler hat and declaimed "In the name of the sheriff here the voice be came a mumble which Sims could scarcely follow-do take posses- sion and give and deliver all that land measuring two acres and three rods or thereabouts the part for the whole." He down grasped a little earth and solemnly handed it to Sims, whose fingers fastened on a pebble and retained it while they dropped the rest. For some reason he rubbed the stone clean and slipped it into his pocket.
Then they all crossed the bor der, and the second sheriff just beginning the incantation when Dearth and his two were seen coming down the path
All stopped. There Dearth came forwa
Wot ye
WAS A DULISE..
Sims cleared his throat and plained. “I'm from the Dessner Compare These gentlemen are sherifis
"If there's any paper for *ouse,” you can write to my Dearth.
Sims went on They've just given me the Company-posses- sion of this land You-er you are not allowed on here after this.
(Continued on Page 7)
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