Jesse Collings and the poor artisan (The Dart, 1885)
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The strong scepticism that many felt about Jesse Collings' apparent support of the rural work above industrial craft is powerfully and humorously expressed through an image found in the local satirical newspaper, ‘The Dart’.
Entitled, ‘Mr Jesse Collings and the Poor Artisan’, it shows a confused Collings stranded between a steadfast industrial working class ‘artisan’ and a caricature of a simple minded ‘peasant’. The set, angry expression of the industrial worker with his patched up clothes confronts Jesse Collings with the apparent hypocrisy of his stance in supporting those who work in the fields (shown with a harvest stacked in fields beyond) as opposed to the more urgent needs of the urban working class. Particularly revealing in the image is the stereotype of the rural worker- shown as a backwards superficial figure, enjoying a debate which he cannot himself understand.
The artist suggests that Jesse Collings is naively protecting the figure of the rural worker from the anger of the artisan. In fact, Collings argument was to show the close and inter-related contexts of urban and rural poverty. Nevertheless, the caption reads: ‘You are going to buy him a farm out of the rates, you say. Why not buy me a nice little Factoring Business out of the Rates? Is it because you have our vote already and you want his? Well, we’ll perhaps alter that’.
‘Jesse Collings and the Poor Artisan’ (The Dart, 1885)
