I intend to place this information and evidence before the appropriate authorities, representing that Salamander House in general and Augustus Breadspear in particular be thoroughly investigated. There are several Acts of Parliament in existence, protecting workers and young people, and all workshops and factories who employ more than fifty people have to be inspected regularly by government inspectors. I cannot tell yet if Salamander House comes into this category, having no information as to the number of people employed there. Possibly, the jurisdiction will still be with the local authority. However, whoever is responsible is fulfilling the task very poorly, and I intend to see to it that Augustus Breadspear pays for his brutality. He has certainly ruined Douglas Wilger’s life, and very likely a number of other lives, as well.
There is one final fact I wish to be set down, and it is this: the frantic promise I threw out to pay a doctor’s expenses for attending on young Wilger was taken up by Augustus Breadspear. Three days after the incident, he sent me the doctor’s note of fee. It was half a guinea for attendance and 2s.9d for potions and dressings. I paid it the same day.
SIXTEEN
There were only a few sheets left in the parcel, and they all looked somewhat official and a bit dry. The first page was simply a medical report by the doctor who had attended Douglas Wilger.
Statement made by Doctor Ian Maguire, General Practitioner of Medicine.
I was called to Salamander House by Mr John Hurst, to tend to Douglas Wilger, who had, I was told, slipped, and fallen partly into the open kiln. When I arrived the boy was in great pain and in deep shock. The lower side of his face had suffered moderate burns, but the cause for real concern came from the other injuries. Almost the entire left half of his upper trunk was severely burned. It was not possible to determine the thickness of the burns, but they were extreme. The housekeeper had applied soda bicarbonate paste to the affected areas at once, which had afforded some slight relief. However, I used a solution of picric acid, which is a recognized cure for burns, and is sovereign in the reducing of pain and infection. Properly applied, and covered with gauze, it then allows for the formation of a scab, under which healing can take place.
Sad to report, when removing the boy’s dressings three days later, as I feared, the burns had been too deep to respond well to the treatment. There is severe shrinkage of tissue on the chest wall, which has drawn the flesh of the chest inwards, and in time will pull one, and possibly both, shoulders forward. This process will be progressive and is already discernible. Eventually it will result in what will be virtually a hunchback stature – although the hunching will be due to contraction of flesh and muscle, rather than deformity of bone.
The boy’s lungs are also damaged, and I think it unlikely they will heal. Coupled with the shrinkage of the upper trunk, he finds it difficult to draw in very deep breaths. Consequently, he is unable walk more than a few paces at a time.
Sadly, the lower left side of his face is somewhat disfigured from the burns. About that I can do nothing, although by God’s good grace, the burns missed his eyes.
Michael reread the last couple of paragraphs. ‘Shrinkage of tissue on the chest wall, which has drawn the flesh of the chest inwards, and in time will pull one, and possibly both, shoulders forward … Will result in what will be virtually a hunchback stature …’
Was this the misshapen shadow he had seen in Deadlight Hall? A lingering memory of a sad little ghost, its body maimed, its life probably spoiled? You poor wretched little creature, he thought, then turned to the next page.
Conclusions by Sir George Buckle:
While my fellow committee members and myself are sure that Mr Breadspear’s glass manufactory is run on proper and humane lines, in order to alleviate concern in the minds of several local people, a full and official inspection will be made of Salamander House.
I would make the point that such inspections are intended to bring about a moral climate of observance, rather than to supervise the general running of any industry. It is believed – indeed, it is recommended – that inspectors should not take from employers the ultimate responsibility for operating decent establishments.