Page:William-morris-and-the-early-days-of-the-socialist-movement.djvu/159

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WILLIAM MORRIS

would allow, lecturing at Hammersmith and elsewhere in London and in provincial towns.

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One of his last links with the active propaganda of the movement was formed by the publication of the Hammersmith Socialist Record, a little monthly magazine, or rather tract, issued by the Hammersmith Socialist Society. The Record was begun shortly after Morris and the Society ceased their connection with the League and the Commonweal, as a means of voicing the distinctive Socialist views of the Society; and its trim little pages continued to receive articles and notes from his pen till its expiry in 1895. It was, I should think, entitled to the distinction of being the smallest and most homely Socialist publication in the country. Morris and myself were, as the editor, Sam Bullock, drolly put it, the 'chief contributors' and sometimes the only ones, and it is pleasant to me to think that I was privileged by means of this little publication to collaborate with Morris in the forlorn journalism of Socialist propaganda, even 'unto this last.'

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The last occasion on which I met Morris was in August 1895, about a year before his death. My wife and I were on a visit to my sister and brother-in law at Hammersmith. We all four attended the Sunday evening meeting at Kelmscott House—Herbert Burrows being the lecturer on that occasion—and had a merry supper afterwards. Morris asked me to come round next morning for a chat, inviting my wife to join us later for lunch.

Morris had then but recently recovered from the most serious illness of his life, and was noticeably weak and out of trim. He only briefly alluded to his illness, however, and that, as I thought, in a spirit of humbleness. He wanted, he said, to talk to me about the movement, especially in the North. Did I think it was making progress? What did I think about the I.L.P.? Was it aiming genuinely