The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

450 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chap, xxxvi.
see it. The engine exhibited was of six-horse power, and the
pressure was said to be not less than ISOOlbs. to the square
inch. Mr. Stephenson said he thought it humbug ; but he would
test its power. Taking up a little oakum, and wrapping some
round each hand, he firmly seized hold of the piston rod and
held it down with all his strength. The machine was at once
brought to a stand, very much to Mr. Perkins's annoyance.
But the humbug had been exploded to Mr. Stephenson's satis-
faction.
Towards the close of his life he frequently went down to
Newcastle, and visited the scenes of his boyhood. " I have been
to Callerton, said he one day to a friend, " and seen the fields in
which I used to pull turnips at twopence a day ; and many a cold
finger, I can tell you, I had."
His hand was open to his former fellow-workmen whom old
age had left in poverty. He would slip a five-pound note into
the hand of a poor man or a widow in such a way as not to
offend their delicacy, but to make them feel as if the obligation
were all on his side. To poor Robert Gray, of Newburn, who
acted as his bridesman on his marriage to Fanny Henderson, he
left a pension for life, which continues to be paid him.
About the beginning of 1847, Mr. Stephenson was requested
to state what were his " ornamental initials," in order that they
might be added to his name in the title of a work proposed to be
dedicated to him. His reply was characteristic. '' I have to
state," said Mr. Stephenson, " that I have no flourishes to my
name, either before or after ; and I think it will be as well if you
merely say ' George Stephenson.' It is true that I am a Bel-
,
gian knight, but I do not wish to have any use made of it. I
have had the offer of knighthood of my own country made to
me several times, but would not have it. I have been invited to
become a Fellow of the Royal Society, and also of the Civil En-
gineers' Society, but objected to the empty additions to my name.
I am a member of the Geological Society ; and I have consented
to become President of, I believe, a highly respectable Mechanics'
Institution at Birmingham."
As the founder of the school of modern engineers, it might
have been expected -that Mr. Stephenson would have been in-