Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 10/”A crowning in”

“A CROWNING IN.”
A STORY OF THE BLACK COUNTRY.
To any one familiar with that part of the midland counties known as “The Black Country,” the mere mention of its name will bring before the mind the whole dreary spectacle, the blackness of desolation by day, the burning waste by night; while to those unacquainted with the scene, no description, however vivid, would convey a correct idea of its peculiar features.
In these days of constant railway travelling, when a distant town is often practically nearer than a neighbouring village, many who have never visited the black country have obtained a general idea of its characteristics while passing through it; and should their train have been a slow one, probably the short journey between Birmingham and Wolverhampton has given them all the acquaintance they wish to have with a scene so gloomy in the daylight, so appalling in the darkness. The flat, black ground, intersected by canals, upon whose foul and muddy water slow barges laden with coal or iron are drawn by lean horses, and even in some cases by women with scarcely a trace of their sex visible in dress or feature,—the short wide chimneys pouring forth smoke and flame, the machinery f

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