A Tale of One City | Page 2

a "brooke," which was doubtless in his time a
pretty little river, but which is now a sewery looking stream that tries to
atone for its shallowness and narrowness by its thickness. They have
likewise told us about the old lords of Bermingham--whose monuments
still adorn the parish church--who have died out leaving no successors
to bear for their proud title the name of the "best governed city in the
world."
These other pens have also mentioned the little attentions Birmingham
received from Cromwell's troops; how the Roundheads fired at Aston
Hall (which had given hospitality to Charles I.) making a
breakage--still unrepaired!--in the great staircase of that grand old
Elizabethan mansion. My purpose, however, is not to deal with past
records of Birmingham, but rather with its modern growth and

appearance.
MUNICIPAL STAGNATION.
After the sweeping alterations effected by the construction of the new
railway stations in Birmingham, further improvements were for a time
of a slow, jog-trot order, although the town, in a commercial sense, was
moving ahead, and its wealth and population were rapidly increasing.
Small improvements were made, but anything like big schemes, even if
desirable, were postponed or rejected. Birmingham, indeed, some thirty
years ago, was considerably under the influence of men of the
unprogressive tradesmen class--many of them worthy men in their way
but of limited ideas. In their private businesses they were not
accustomed to deal with big transactions and high figures, so that
spending large sums of money, if proposed, filled the brewer, the baker,
and candlestick maker with alarm. They were careful and economical,
but their care in finance was apt at times to be impolitic, and their
economy has in several cases proved to have been somewhat costly.
Indeed, until recent years, the leading authorities of the town were
anything but enterprising, and their view of future possibilities very
limited. Could they have seen a little farther ahead they might have laid
out money to the great profit and future advantage of the community.
They could have erected new corporation offices and municipal
buildings before land in the centre of the town became so very costly;
the gas and water interests might have been purchased, probably at a
price that would have saved the town thousands of pounds. It is also
understood that they might have purchased Aston Hall, with its 170
acres close to the town, on terms which would have made the land
(now nearly all built upon) a veritable Tom Tidler's ground for the town
and corporation. But our shopkeeper senators would have nothing to do
with such bold and far-reaching schemes, and were given to opposing
them when suggested by men more courageous and far-seeing than
themselves.
Between twenty-five and thirty years ago it was felt by the more
advanced and intelligent portion of the community that the time had
come for the town to arouse itself, and that certain reforms should no
longer be delayed. It was beginning to be felt that the Town Council
did not fairly represent the advancing aspirations and the growing
needs, importance, and wealth of the town. Sanitary reforms were

required, the growing traffic in the principal streets called for better and
more durable roadways, and Macadamised and granite paved streets no
longer answered the purposes required. The latter were heavy, noisy,
and lumbering; the former were not sufficiently durable. Moreover,
"Macadam" consisted of sharply-cut pieces of metal put upon the
streets, which were left for cart and carriage wheels to break up and
press down into something like a level surface. When this was done it
made objectionable dust in dry weather, and in wet weather it
converted the streets into avenues of mud and puddle to be scraped up,
or to be swept off, by some curiously-devised machine carts
constructed for the purpose. Carriage people, I fear, often cursed the
stone stuff they had to grind into the roads, and pedestrians
anathematized the mud and the dust.
As many people will remember, in some of the less important streets
the footways were paved with what were called "petrified
kidneys"--stones about as big as a good-sized potato, very durable but
extremely unpleasant to walk upon. Little or nothing was done to
improve the slummy and dirty parts of the town, or to remove some of
those foul courts and alleys which were not only disgraceful in
appearance but were a menace to the health of the inhabitants.
In fact, for one reason or another, the authorities left undone the things
they ought to have done, and possibly they did some things they ought
not to have done, and if allowed to go on it is probable there would
soon have been no health in us. It may, however, be admitted that
Birmingham was no worse governed than many other large towns