The works superintended by them were always distinguished from other works by the superior order and discipline which they enforced, not unfrequently in circumstances of great personal danger, and during a winter of unusual severity. In detecting frauds and correcting abuses they were found particularly valuable; and their uniform zeal, ability and good conduct, met with the perfect satisfaction of the Board of Works and the Lords of the Treasury. Even Daniel O’Connell spoke favourably of their employment.[[497]] The working pay of the men while under the relief board ranged between 1s. and 2s. 6d. a-day.
While on this novel service, private George Windsor, from the upright way in which he performed his duty, made himself obnoxious to the peasantry in the lawless district of Croom; and but for the gallantry with which he defended himself, would probably have lost his life. On the 26th December this private was employed in the barony of Cashma on the Pullough line of road, and on passing down the line in advance of the check clerk and a number of labourers, &c., was met by two persons dressed in women’s clothes, with veils hanging from their bonnets covering their faces. One was armed with a gun, the other with a pistol. Presenting their pieces, they ordered him to kneel, but this the private refused, and though he was unarmed, the ruffians at once closed upon him. At this moment Windsor seized the person armed with the pistol, (dexterously thrusting his finger between the trigger and the guard,) and getting hold of his throat with the other hand, they fell together, fortunately in such a way that the desperado with the gun could not, without injuring his accomplice, shoot the sapper. He, therefore, beat Windsor with the butt-end of his piece. Several minutes the struggle was maintained strangely enough in the presence of a large number of stewards and labourers; and had he met with the slightest assistance from any of them, would have captured both the offenders; but incredulous as it may appear, it must be added to the disgrace of Irishmen that, just as he had overpowered the ruffian with the pistol, a man named Joseph Lindsay[[498]]—brother to the check clerk—came forward, and dislodging Windsor’s grasp, aided the parties to decamp! For his spirited and manly conduct in the attack, private Windsor was promoted to be second-corporal.
Private Edward West received three threatening notices through the post-office warning him not to appear at work again on pain of death, adding that, if he did, he should “drop into a bit of a hole already dug for his carcase.” Unmoved by these missives, the private was always the first on the line; and when the labourers were collected, he told them he had received the notices, and then burning them in their presence, observed in a loud voice, “that would be the way his intended murderers would be served at another time.” Once he was attacked by a party from behind a hedge with stones. Struck on the head, he was stunned for a few moments, and nearly fell. On recovering, he boldly dashed over the hedge to meet his assailants, but the cowards made a precipitate retreat. Thirty men suspected of being concerned in the assault were at once dismissed from employment.
Six other men were promoted for their coolness, as well as tact and fidelity, in carrying on their appointed services. Of these private William Baker was perhaps the most conspicuous. A brief detail of his services will show the nature of his duties and the difficulties he had to contend with. Detached to Shonkeragh, eight Irish miles from Roscommon, he was placed over a number of labourers who were in the last stage of insubordination. At first they took their own time of going to work and quitting it, although the regulations required them to be present from 7 A.M. till 5 P.M. To train them to punctuality was not an easy matter, but by checking them and carrying out a firm discipline he soon gained his point. That there should be no excuse for absence, he employed a strong boy to blow a tin horn on the top of the highest hill, central among the cabins of the workmen, to call them to work, and at its sound the rapid gathering of the poor at the rendezvous, on all occasions, showed their willingness to be guided by any useful reform.
This command over a half-civilized class of men made his services very desirable in irregular districts; and among several places where he was beneficially employed was Drumshanaugh—a desolate spot where a knot of Molly Maguires held sway, and obtained payment without work, by intimidating the civil overseers, who feared the consequences of not yielding to their exactions. The farmers' sons and others who had plenty of cattle were receiving 4d. a day more than the people who really did work, and 300l. in this way were paid for bad labour not worth 50l. With these labourers he had a trying duty to perform; but, amid threats and insubordination, he calmly effected his purpose, and suppressed both the spirit of turbulence and the practice of fraud.
The labourers received from 4d. to 8d. and 9d. a day, and the rough wall builders 1s. 6d., in strict proportion to the work executed. When task-work was introduced, it was difficult to remove the prejudices which set in against the change, and quicken into zeal the indolence which followed. To carry out the instructions of the Board of Works, private Baker selected some of the mildest men of his party to work at easy tasks, by which they earned 11d. a day—3d. more than formerly. At the end of the week the overseer made a point of this, and paying his choice men first, made suitable remarks as they received their money. Next came the day-men, who being checked for wet days and lost time, only averaged about 3s. 2d. a week. The disparity of the payments had a wonderful effect, and ever afterwards the system of task labour was eagerly preferred by the peasantry.
Deception, however, soon crept into the tasks, which it required some tact and alertness to detect. In excavations, the labourers frequently came in contact with stone, and for such quantities as they dug out and heaped up, they were paid by the cubic yard; but often these heaps were merely superficial. In every such case private Baker had the mass pulled down and solidly repiled. Acts of repetition were followed by the dismissal of the delinquents, despite the danger it involved. When this cheat failed they resorted to another, by rolling large stones into the heaps from adjacent places; but as these always bore unmistakeable evidence of exposure to rain and wear, the private never omitted to reject them from the pile.
On several occasions when threatening notices of death were posted up prohibiting the civil overseers and check-clerks from returning to a particular line, a car was despatched, even at midnight, to bring private Baker to the excited district. Next morning, appearing at his dangerous post, unarmed, he would pacify or humour the desperados into order and tranquillity.
When a pay-clerk was discharged, the regular payments were for a time interrupted, and the labourers would clamour for a settlement. In Baker’s district there were four lines, three of which were superintended by civilians: the labourers on them were about 700. These threatened daily to go in a body to Boyle, and, should they fail to get their pay, to take the lives of the engineer and his clerks, and burn down the town. Baker represented the state of affairs to the authorities; and on his own recommendation obtained permission from Boyle to give checks for meal upon a tradesman in Carrick-on-Shannon. By this means he fed the people, and kept their irritation in successful check. These periods of disorder occurred two or three times, till pay-clerks were appointed to succeed those who were discharged or had resigned. The pay-clerks seldom paid without the protection of a sapper, who frequently, in instances of dispute, took the bag with its responsibilities and perils, and served out the wages himself. So well did private Baker manage the matter at a wild place in Cashel, that the labourers stood round like soldiers to receive their earnings; and to prevent litigation or seizure, the money was handed to the recipients through an aperture in the pay-hut.[[499]]
Frauds were very common; and when detected, the offenders were dismissed. Several civil overseers were, however, afraid to place themselves in opposition to the populace; and a sapper working on one line has in such instances been sent to another to perform the duty. This, of course, produced much ill-feeling against the sappers; but beyond a few threats and an occasional attack, the sappers passed from the country without material hurt.