Rolling Stonemason: An Autobiography

Fred Bower had a full adventurous life and wrote about it in his own vivid and racy idiom. He was born in Boston, Mass. in 1871. Brought up in Liverpool, he recalls a city of two camps, when it was a common sight to see gory battles on St Patrick's day and July 12th. His travels and his work took him to Donara, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Guelph, Ithaca, London, Manchester, New York, Peapack (NJ), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Titusville, Trenton, West Newton, not to mention time spent tramp steaming all the way to Australia and back. He combined the stonemason's craft with diverse activities: prospecting for gold, and working for the Labour Movement. His life the labour movement is interwoven with tales of Francisco Ferrer, Victor Grayson, Jim Larkin, Tom Mann, Philip Snowden and others. He tells you of that dreadful 'bloody Sunday' of 1911 in Liverpool and of his notorious DON'T SHOOT leaflet, inciting soldiers not to kill strikers. He left a secret message to posterity buried in the foundations of Liverpool Cathedral- a story that resurfaces in Liverpool papers. An autobiography of a Socialist, Syndicalist, Tramp, and Traveller. He died in 1942.