The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-02-01

| oAi0 NOOAA NOu DSAONC Az JhSt ~ -
about getting good start my men wer
unreasonable enough to demand NOR
wages. You see they have no heart.
would not care so much now, but at tha
| time IT was 80 ungrateful Of them TO try t
! set me back.
} Every one of them should he goilot
, tened, " said the Hon Mrs. Peter Oleum
Mrs. Legallaw looked ut her hu.bant
and SMILED incredulously.
''Guillotined, my dear, he whispered il
} an undertone.
IF We had Robespierrt ike they hat
in Italy the country would s"on he rid o
them, continued the Hon. Mrs. p. Oleum
France, my dear Hon. Mrs. Pete
Oleum, was the scene Of Robespierre's &C
tions, l believe, suggested MIR. Legallaw
OH, it does not make any difference,
returned the Hon Mrs. Peter Oleum
france and Italy ars one, the Rocky Noun
tains are the only barrier between them
The Alps, whispered Mrs. Legallaw
giving her lord nudge.
Yes, my dear, ho smiled approvingly
''The dinner lasted a long time, but il
id come t. All end The ladies rose and
swept grandly out of the room, leaving the
gentlemen to sap their vine, and they sip
ped and drank and toasted success to capi-
tallsts, confusion to unions and PUNISH
ment and disgrace to their leaders. They
drank quite freely RelVason particularly
For the last ten minutes the hosts head in
cilned On his bruost, and his eyes seemed
closed. Presently he sprang from his seat,
overturned his chair and came near doing
the same with the table. Its u lie, IA lie,
he roared rs he clutched desperately at the
air, his tocth set and his eyes glarlng like
the orbs of tiger, Its mine, | made it all
honestly, le2itimately all mine. Away
avaunt you mlnlons Of hell, juggled vision
of dlstempered fancy begons ; it's mine. all
mine. Horrible phantoms, mocking spec
tral shadows, you lie OFF hence damnAble
shade Of unreal substance. You would
have me fancy blood where NO blood he,
\ you would fasten guilt ON the spotless gar
lnent Of innocence. Of hence | say, my
brain burns. Slave OF Belial, greatest in
Hades cayernOus depths, defy thee it
! lIe, a lie. !"
His limbs became rigid, his tongue re-
fused to move, he gasped and fell heavily
! forward On the table. All was now confu-
sion and excitement. The ladies rushed
INTO the room aud were about To scream,
but Mr.. M. ID. Squills waved them back,
and sand it WAS nothing but slight attack
of mania potu.
- oh, no, iTs not that" exclaimed Mrs
RelVason, I" its q sort Of fit that comes on
very suddenly"
The man fairly bounded ON tho floor,
beat the air with his hands and kicked flu
riously. Three or four Of the men
pOunced upon him and held him firmly
They tried to unbutton his collar, after
tearing off the necktie, but the windpipe
vas 50 inflated that tho collar seemed As
/ tight On his neck AS "A hoop ON a cask, and
It VAS only by mann force that 1t was torn
on. The man struggles grew less violent
his lace began to whiten, his pulse began
to sink, and soon he lay motionless on the
carpet, whence he was carried to his room
The prandial guests departed very expedi
tiously, and left the great mansion to its
unconscious, conscience racked owner and
terror stricken family.
Relvason was not seen again for a week.
The winter, long and dreary, was slowly
passing away, dissolving into the ETHEREAL
mildness OF spring, like the gray dawn,
when night begins 70 open into day. Ar
byght had returned from New Orleans,
and was actively, energetically at work.
The Union was determlnedly fighting au
Unseen enemy. Whenever it was ascer-
tanned that man had become prominent,
OF held an office in the organization, he
was marked Immediately, and discharged
upon the slightest provOcation. No man
was discharged because Of his connection
with the order oh no but men were
discharged for mildly demonstrating against
insulting remarks from the foreman, or
even employers, and whenever a man Was
discharged, he had to soon leave the city,
| Or turn his attention to something else.
A fearful amount Of misery and suffering
was the result, but the men bore it heroic
ally, with very few exceptions. Some
there were, who, driven BY famine and
want, denied they were union men, and
| thus got back to work. Any person from
outside seeking work, was closely ones
toned, and if found to be tainted with
unionism, was invariably refused employ
ment. These and other mean devices
were resorted to for the purpose Of break
ing the spirit Of the men.
1t was the general feeling among the
employers that q reduction Of wages should
be enforced early in the spring, but their
last experience with the union convinced
them that trouble was to be- apprehended
unless that body was destroyed. Here,
| then, was the motive for all these little
| petty acts Of mSaness persecution and tyr
amy gold, self, was At the bottom Of it.
They dreaded a severance Of the relations
then existing between them and the men,
thoug they were resolved upon the reduc
4 tlOn, regardless Of the consequences, if it
could not be peaceably accomplished.
This little ring of employers reasoned after
this fashion by reducing the mems wages
half a dollar per diem, the men would not
feel it, while it would aggregate the net
sum of two hundred thousand dollars, at
the end Of the year, and that was certainly
. snug little sum to divide among = few
men would give them from ten to thirty
Thousand dollars each, and they certainly
could take better care Of it than the i'm
provident workmen. 1t never occurred to
them that this half dollar might actually
be needed to furnish bread for some little
mouth
The crisis came shortly after the RelVA-
son dinner party, and was probably hast
ened by that event, a. the dinner per se
and the dresses and jewelry for the Occa-
sion cost Mr. Relvason some fifteen Or
twenty Thousand dollars, and being very
miserly, selfEh mAn, the magnitude OF the
bills alarmed and mAddsned him, and he
determined that the gap in his bank se-
count should be speedily filed, and with
that end in view, he urged the reduction
more strongly than ever, and at length the
other employers yielded, and the strike
against the men was instituted. Notice
of the new scale of prices was given the
men, and they, a. matter of course, re-
fused to work on the neV schedule:
They were ordered to leave the shops, and
they complied instantly. The employers
now found that all their little despicable
manpuvres amounted 10 nothing, as the
men proved united, integral body, while
| n lAr.l.. ..-,,s..tad that dinsan aiona