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Men of Invention and Industry-Part34_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Madonna, and thanked God for having preserved her in her old age



to see the Repeal of the Union!

But this little waywardness did not last long. Bianconi's wild



oats were soon all sown. He was careful and frugal. As he

afterwards used to say, "When I was earning a shilling a day at



Clonmel, I lived upon eightpence." He even took lodgers, to

relieve him of the charge of his household expenses. But as his



means grew, he was soon able to have a conveyance of his own. He

first started a yellow gig, in which he drove about from place to



place, and was everywhere treated with kindness and hospitality.

He was now regarded as "respectable," and as a person worthy to



hold some local office. He was elected to a Society for visiting

the Sick Poor, and became a Member of the House of Industry. He



might have gone on in the same business, winning his way to the

Mayoralty of Clonmel, which he afterwards held; but that the old



idea, which had first sprung up in his mind while resting wearily

on the milestones along the road, with his heavy case of pictures



by his side, again laid hold of him, and he determined now to try

whether his plan could not be carried into effect.



He had often lamented the fatigue that poor people had to undergo

in travelling with burdens from place to place upon foot, and



wondered whether some means might not be devised for alleviating

their sufferings. Other people would have suggested "the



Government!" Why should not the Government give us this, that,

and the other,--give us roads, harbours, carriages, boats, nets,



and so on. This, of course, would have been a mistaken idea; for

where people are too much helped, they invariably lose the



beneficent practice of helping themselves. Charles Bianconi had

never been helped, except by advice and friendship. He had



helped himself throughout; and now he would try to help others.

The facts were patent to everybody. There was not an Irishman



who did not know the difficulty of getting from one town to

another. There were roads between them, but no conveyances.



There was an abundance of horses in the country, for at the close

of the war an unusual number of horses, bred for the army, were



thrown upon the market. Then a tax had been levied upon

carriages, which sent a large number of jaunting-cars out of



employment.

The roads of Ireland were on the whole good, being at that time



quite equal, if not superior, to most of those in England. The

facts of the abundant horses, the good roads, the number of



unemployed outside cars, were generally known; but until Bianconi

took the enterprise in hand, there was no person of thought, or



spirit, or capital in the country, who put these three things

together horses, roads, and cars and dreamt of remedying the



great public inconvenience.

It was left for our young Italian carver and gilder, a struggling



man of small capital, to take up the enterprise, and show what

could be done by prudent action and persevering energy. Though



the car systemoriginally "grew out of his back," Bianconi had

long been turning the subject over in his mind. His idea was,



that we should never despise small interests, nor neglect the

wants of poor people. He saw the mail-coaches supplying the



requirements of the rich, and enabling them to travel rapidly

from place to place. "Then," said he to himself, "would it not



be possible for me to make an ordinary two-wheeled car pay, by

running as regularly for the accommodation of poor districts and



poor people?"

When Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Select Committee on Postage, in



1838, asked Mr. Bianconi, "What induced you to commence the car

establishment?" his answer was, "I did so from what I saw, after



coming to this country, of the necessity for such cars, inasmuch

as there was no middle mode of conveyance, nothing to fill up the



vacuum that existed between those who were obliged to walk and

those who posted or rode. My want of knowledge of the language



gave me plenty of time for deliberation, and in proportion as I

grew up with the knowledge of the language and the localities,



this vacuum pressed very heavily upon my mind, till at last I

hit upon the idea of running jaunting-cars, and for that purpose



I commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir."[2]

What a happy thing it was for Bianconi and Ireland that he could



not speak with facility,--that he did not know the language or

the manners of the country! In his case silence was "golden."



Had he been able to talk like the people about him, he might have




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