It may be imagined, then, that all
the income was needed for a family that, parents included, but excluding
the one servant, numbered eleven. The consequence was that the education
I received could not be described as liberal. I attended a day school at
Derby, connected with the Wesleyans; why I do not know, as we belonged to
the Anglican Church; but I believe it was because the school, while cheap
as to fees, had the reputation of giving a good, plain education suitable
for boys destined for railway work. It was a good sized school of about
a hundred boys. Not long ago I met one day in London a business man who,
it turned out, was at this school with me. We had not met for fifty
years. "Well," said he, "I think old Jessie, if he did not teach us a
great variety of things, what he did he taught well." My new-found old
schoolmate had become the financial manager of a great business house
having ramifications throughout the world. He had attained to position
and wealth and, which successful men sometimes are not, was quite
unspoiled. We revived our schooldays with mutual pleasure, and lunched
together as befitted the occasion.
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