Harrison
Horsechestnut Hutt
Mr Hutt was a down to
earth gritty northerner from a mining family that made good allowing Harrison
Horsechestnut Hutt to go to university and get his degree in engineering. He
was determined to do his bit and make the plight of the miner safer and a far
better environment to work in. However the mine owners were difficult to deal
with and would tut and shake their heads when anyone mentioned improving the mine
environment as they just saw this as extra expense. Even the miners where a sceptical bunch of
workers who believed everyone was out to get them (generally true), and that anything
mechanical or that had gears and moving bits was the work of the devil.
Eventually Mr Hutt managed
to convince Mr Haggy Hatcher to use his invention the Hutt Hydraulic Hammer and
even obtained a verbal agreement that no miners would lose their jobs. However
after the incredible work of the Hutt Hydraulic Hammer, Mr Haggy Hatcher sacked
almost his entire workforce much to the shock of Harrison Horsechestnut Hutt who suddenly
realized you cant trust mine owners.
He decided that he needed
to address the miners in person and do what he could to help as many were left
destitute and starving. And after a brilliant speech and asking the miners for
forgiveness at his naivety of trusting the notorious (he only discovered this
too late) Mr Haggy Hatcher. The miners cheered and then threw him down the mine
shaft, they did say it was nothing personal but were keen to stop any other
inventors coming up with stuff that might ruin the plight of the working man.
To this day there is a
rumour that Harrison Horsechestnut Hutt survived the fall as the mine lift had
just started its decent and he did not fall that far. But the miner (a Mr Skippy) who told of this
then said that a strange green man with a battered and ripped shirt and mad
hair carrying a Danister Detector led Harrison
Horsechestnut Hutt off deeper into the mine. So the story was dismissed as the
ramblings of the working class.
Poor guy, never trust a mine owner!
ReplyDeleteMany folk have said that over the years
DeleteOuch, you know that hurt! My daddy worked in the coal mines of southern WV. I always thought it a scary sight to watch the men disappearing into the side of the mountain in mining carts. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it now. I had two classmates in elementary school who lost their dads to accidents in the mines. I remember how heart broken I was for them and it cemented my fears all the more. Luckily, Daddy lived through his mining years, but he has the black lung disease. He will be 77 on his bday this year. Interesting, fun read.
ReplyDeleteMining is a seriously tough life.
DeleteIn fact today's little story has the mining strike of 1884-85 at its heart, where the Conservatives under the leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or as folk use to call her Mad Maggie decided they were going to crush the miners unions power for good. They did this and after a long, bitter as well as violent strike the power of the unions was destroyed for ever.
The result was ex-miners queuing at soup kitchens while the city bankers drove Ferrari's . Ironically the seeds of many of the things that each of the main two parties say are each others fault were planted back then. The back lash to Maggie Thatcher was Tony Blair and folk wonder why I get annoyed by politicians and politics. Here in Britain we are less than a month from an election for an all new government or as some might say just the same old bunch we always get.
But back then it was a time when the excesses and greed of those at the top were accepted and the dog eat dog mentality has never quite gone away since.
OK that's it politics over for now. As I have said before many of my little tales on the blog have underlining events at their heart although in most cases it involves me doing stuff like digging holes. .. . . . . I seem to have had to dig more than my fair share in recent years.
Oooooo sorry about all that Miss K I am secretly a bit of a political animal deep down . . I hope your dad is OK that mining disease is horrible.
DeleteI think mine owners the world over were the same...
ReplyDeleteAnd a little bit of madness keeps things in perspective. Thanks for the fun read.
Glad you enjoyed it. Tomorrow sees the first inventor to suffer a certain madness that was rather common among Victorian Inventors doing the A to Z
DeleteApologies Mr Z, I read this much earlier and forgot to comment. Much to the Lil man's amusement, I almost had a word mishap when I read 'Chesssnut-Hutt' out loud.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I spelt 'Chestnut' wrong...This is why Mothers and Toddlers magazine won't hire me as a writer. That and my foul mouth.
DeleteNo problem Miss Lily it not always easy to keep track of the day. I seldom have a clue what I've done or where I'm going.
DeleteHis mother should have told him to mine his own business. hahhaahahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAAHAHAhaahaahaaahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sorry, the H gets stuck down on my keyboard from time to time)
ReplyDelete