It was bad news for us after the Liberal landslide victory in 1906. Like most with Tory landlords, we were thrown off our small land plot (Armstrong 149). Our landlord, McKracken, evicted us to our own luck. We were smallholders in Norfolk. The General Election was good for our cousins, all of us being Slaters. The cousins, George Slater, Peter Slater and Linda (née Slater) Bombwick, lived in North Walsham and got caught up in the post-eviction thrills with the Agricultural Labourers and Smallholders Union of the eastern counties over that way. George and Peter rose in the ranks, bought more than 4 acres of land from their employers, and they now own an automobile. Linda's husband works in the factories on 13 shillings a week.
Patricia, our ten-year-old son, and I moved to America with the pounds we had saved. We decided to settle in Chicago. It was clear to my pa that, as early as 1853, our days as plough people were were over. The reaping machines were being used by all types of progressive farmers on all their lands. In the 1870s, we saved enough to buy a mechanical mower. It set us back 30 pounds. We still could not afford to buy a double-engine steam ploughing set, which would have cost 2,600 pounds (Armstrong 93). We had to find a new way of life, and America was calling.
Patricia had a brother out that way who set us to assimilating in the city. That was last year. I remember how astounded we were by the skyscrapers coming up in that city. We had heard about the Home Insurance building, the first skyscraper ever built, that went up in 1885. It was quite impressive. By the time we arrived, there were also quite a few Sullivans and big schools going up by crane and construction crews (Howe 1).
I went down to the construction area to wave my hands around as my brother-in-law said to. I got lucky and was picked to work for George W. Jackson, a local manager of the underground rail system. I worked for him f...