Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-01-30

She spoke with her hand on my shoulder,
and her dear beautiful face all a-quiver in the
dread lest l should be ready to resent her
counsel.
Don't let baby keep you from being the
heart Of Johns life, child" she said. LET
no one ever have the power Of taking that
| from you"
Then l remembered how the night before
had been chattering away about babys re-
markable feats and marvellous doings, and
how weary John had looked-nay, how had
caught him in the loving hiding away Of a
yawn that would not be wholly repressed /;
and how wisdom came to Inc as l pondered
Times were bad trouble was around us
everywhere in the mercantile world evil
counsel was leading honest men astray, and
wanton hands were sowing the seeds of dis
satisfaction in the hope of reaping harvests of
advantage to themselves. First one class of
operatives went on strike, and then another.
The "hands' at this mill or that refused to
go on working except under the spur Of high
er wages, and SO the busy whirr-whirr Of the
machinery was silent until stranger hands
could be found to set it going again.
Darker shadows crept into the picture after
this; men, an hour ago hale and hearty, were
MANNED blinded, beaten almost out of life :
and these crimes were done in the dark. The
masters did not escape one was fred at
| the cowardly bullet coming from no one
knew whittier. ] grew fearful, and in spite Of
struggles after courage more than once had
to turn away my head after Johns goodbye
kiss had pressed my lips, as he set of for
Otway Mills.
Our hands seemed all right as yet.
Yet l saw, day by day, how the cloud deep
ened on my husbands face. l used to sit
very quiet, just within reach of his hand, Of
an evening or we would stroll down to Mrs
Otway's-John very silent, but yet knew by
the magnetism of touch, happy in the feeling
of my hand resting on his arm. The mother
and son spoke earnestly together Of the state
of trade, and the dark mists hanging over the
north country and well typifed by the black
smoke that came from the big chimneys aud
hung like a canopy above the town.
Who shall tell the tribute paid in pain and
tears by the women and children in those
troublesome days? Surely no bitterer pang
there can be than the sharp stab that goes
through mothers heart rs the cry of her
child for Bread bread!' has to be smoth-
cred against her breast lest its sound drive
the brooding man by the freless hearth to
madness and violence
This is what being ION strike" means to
the wives and little ones Of our mill hands.
| say 'our" because-alas that / should have
to write 1.-THE day came when John return
ed from town looking as had never seen him
AS the mother who bore him had never
seen him.
Otway Mills were stopped. The men, whose
relations with their master had been a prov
erb in the trade were on strike.
John did not say much. lie was never a
man of many words and silence il natural to
men as n refuge from possible tears.
| "Our turn has come Mt last it is hardly
the mems fault this sort of thing is rs catch
ing as the plague. They know they have
been fairly dealt with That blackguard Jim
Stevens is at the bottom of it he WAS seen
talking to one of the delegates from the un-
| ion"
That was all John said His mother and
listened and noting the set line of his lips,
and the stern look in his eyes, knew that,
let the men of Otway Mills be stubborn a.
they might, the master would not yield an
inch
Oar home, the dearest spot on earth to me
the fairest, too, in spite Of its ncarness TO a
manufacturing centre-was some three nilos
out of the town.
John used generally to drive in and out, to
and from the mills, but sometimes he rode
his big black horse, King Cole, and now and
again / would ride by him on my pretty little
bay mare, Lassie, returning with the groom.
Well the night after he told me OF the
strike | lay wide-eyed through all the long,
| long hours, hearing each one strike below
stairs, and thinking those thoughts of min
! gled love and fear that gather about wo-
mans heart like n flock of ill-Omened birds
when her nearest and dearest are threatened
with danger. The stiffness of night is a ter
rible magnifying medium possibilities take
| gigantic proportions seen through its voice
| less quiet. How glad was when faint lines
| of light began to creep into the room!
1t was past-that night Of thoughts that
We're almost prayers-and prayers that were
! only like thoughts that trusted God to read
| the meaning Of
Breakfast over, the passionate protest in my
heart bubbled up to my lips like a spring
that must well up to the light;
Jack oh Jack you will not go to the
mills to day p
me with bitter despair.
II did not think my wife would try to
make coward of me-"
He did not speak harshly could have
| borne it better if he had.
He kissed me a moment after-held me
very fast and close-then, before he went, he
kissed me again.
That is for the youngster up stairs" he
said, with tender smile softening the set
look of his mouth ''give it him when he
wakes"
The groom, an old and faithful servant of
the Otways, looked grave as he led up King
| Cole, and gave the bride into his masters
hand. Then John rode away, and went in
to the house, seeing nothing clearly for the
mist that gathered round me, not even baby's
| face, as nurse met me with him at the foot of
| the stairs.
That night and morning formed the initial
letter of time of anxious foreboding that
seemed long to me, though in reality its dura-
tion was scarcely fortnight
Threatening letters-missiyes of that most
| cowardly character called anonymous-cam
at intervals. Many husbands would have hid
den such things from a wife, but think John
knew that of all trials could have least en-
dured the thought that he kept trouble
| from me.
Mrs. Otway's face grew pallid with more
transparent whiteness every day her eyes
Away fearless had fixed, hard look, the look
that comes from grief restrained from outward
show by might or will
At length, negotiations for the employment
of alien 'hands'-men willing to work for the
wage that was all the masters could give in
those biting times-were spoken of. Wrath
that had simmered now seethed scoWling
men gathered in groups about the narrow
streets that surrounded the mills like laby-
rinth muttered curses made starved and
frightened women hurry by clinched fists
threatened the world for grievances brought
about by the bad counsel of wicked men and
the brute resolve and stubbornness of uncul-
tured natures
Many cases of low fever, the result of in
sufficient food aud fuel, occurred among the
wives and children of our rebellious opera
tiyesi and my time. was soon taken up by
ministering to the necessities of the sick. In
this work John never strove to hinder me
| not yet, in the wantstricken homes of the
people, was one word of reference to the
strike ever uttered in my hearing. The peo-
pie were kindly and grateful to me in their
that a welcome did not greet me.
God knows how full my heart was in those
days of darkness He was teaching me the
deepest lessons of life, for Sin the day of