as smooth again.

A collier related a case where 'a pike man had worked only one half-day
in the week and got 2_s._ for it, and because he did not spend 6_d._ of
this at the butty's shop, the latter told the doggy (the under man) to
let the man play for it.'[58]

The miners recognized that often the butty was not to blame. In the
district north and east of Dudley, the butties got their 'charter price'
from the coal-owners in the form of tickets on the coal-owners'
truck-shop. What else could they do but hand them on to the men? 'He
used to be a very good butty,' said one miner's wife, 'till they haggled
him and dropped his "charter", so that he cannot pay his men.'[59]

West and south of Dudley the butties, though they did not truck their
men, kept public-houses; and being employer and publican in one, they
had a tight hold on the men.

Was the compulsion to drink an oppression? To our minds, yes; as also to
the minds of the teetotal Chartists whom the Government imprisoned, and
of the strike leaders whom the Government's Commissioners denounced. But
to the majority of the miners the abundance of beer was a delight. They
objected to the butty's bullying, but they loved his beer, especially
the feckless ones, for when wives were importunate the drunkards pleaded
necessity.

However, all the beer-drinking could not be charged to the butties. The
miners themselves, in their own fellowships, were devoted to it; and
the compulsion of friends was as severe as the compulsion of butties.
Every approach to recreation, every act of mutual providence against
accident or disease, began and ended in beer. The day a man entered the
pit's company, he paid 1_s._ for footing-ale, and the doggy saw that no
churl escaped. When a lad was old enough to have a sweetheart he was
toasted with the 'nasty' shilling. The sins of the married men were
washed away in half-a-crown's worth of ale. The beer-shop was the
head-quarters of the Burial and Savings Clubs. The first charge on a
Burial Club was a good oak coffin, the second charge drinks for the
pall-bearers, and then a glass or two for the rest of the company.

They had lotteries to which each man contributed 20 fortnightly
shillings. Each week a name was drawn, and the lucky man stood a feast;
while every member, in addition to a shilling for the box, produced
6_d._ for drinks.

In all these festivities the butty was in the offing. When they would
have him he presided; and so at his