The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell CONTENTS 1 An Imperial Banquet. A Philosophical Discussion. The Mysterious Stranger. Britons Never shall be Slaves 2 Nimrod: a Mighty Hunter before the Lord 3 The Financiers 4 The Placard 5 The Clock-case 6 It is not My Crime 7 The Exterminating Machines 8 The Cap on the Stairs 9 Who is to Pay? 10 The Long Hill 11 Hands and Brains 12 The Letting of the Room 13 Penal Servitude and Death 14 Three Children. The Wages of Intelligence 15 The Undeserving Persons and the Upper and Nether Millstones 16 True Freedom 17 The Rev. John Starr 18 The Lodger 19 The Filling of the Tank 20 The Forty Thieves. The Battle: Brigands versus Bandits 21 The Reign of Terror. The Great Money Trick 22 The Phrenologist 23 The “Open-air” 24 Ruth 25 The Oblong 26 The Slaughter 27 The March of the Imperialists 28 The Week before Christmas 29 The Pandorama 30 The Brigands hold a Council of War 31 The Deserter 32 The Veteran 33 The Soldier’s Children 34 The Beginning of the End 35 Facing the “Problem” 36 The O.B.S. 37 A Brilliant Epigram 38 The Brigands’ Cave 39 The Brigands at Work 40 Vive la System! 41 The Easter Offering. The Beano Meeting 42 June 43 The Good Old Summer-time 44 The Beano 45 The Great Oration 46 The “Sixty-five” 47 The Ghouls 48 The Wise men of the East 49 The Undesired 50 Sundered 51 The Widow’s Son 52 “It’s a Far, Far Better Thing that I do, than I have Ever Done” 53 Barrington Finds a Situation 54 The End Preface In writing this book my intention was to present, in the form of an interesting story, a faithful picture of working-class life—more especially of those engaged in the Building trades—in a small town in the south of England. I wished to describe the relations existing between the workmen and their employers, the attitude and feelings of these two classes towards each other; their circumstances when at work and when out of employment; their pleasures, their intellectual outlook, their religious and political opinions and ideals. The action of the story covers a period of only a little over twelve months, but in order that the picture might be complete it was necessary to describe how the workers are circumstanced at all periods of their lives, from the cradle to the grave. Therefore the characters include women and children, a young boy—the apprentice—some improvers, journeymen in the prime of life, and worn-out old men. I designed to show the conditions relating from poverty and unemployment: to expose the futility of the measures taken to deal with them and to indicate what I believe to be the only real remedy, namely—Socialism. I intended to explain what Socialists understand by the word “poverty”: to define the Socialist theory of the causes of poverty, and to explain how Socialists propose to abolish poverty.