Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-09-11
a Strike of Other Days.

yelop and bring out and down the
strong hand Of the ruling power as
they used to. Among the sunny
memories Of my. own school days
there glows. bright and soft as a sum
mer sunset, the picture of the great
strike at Humans, in Peoria, away
back in 1853. Humans was the
greatest school in the west. The dear
old man was superintendent of Public
Instruction. Board of Education
School Trustee, County su~perintend-
ent, Principal, assistant, and j~anitor.
He had a pleasant smile, a firm tenn
per, and a slate frame. He also car
ried about his person a grip that
would make a blacksmith's vice crawl
into the scrap heap and hide itself.
We used Ito have general exercises
Friday afternoons, at which we
to recite yociferous concerts the null
tiplicatl0n tables. the states and CAPT
tails, and thrilling rhetorical exercises
as "Will you walk Of ride" and They
tell US to be MoDerate, but they, THEy
are toregelinproF U-sion," It was
thrilling. But after we had learned
all these chants by heart and conld
chant them off with our eyes shgt,
old Human introduced an innoya-
tion-speakin' pieces" Upon that
we struck. Weenduredi it three weeks
and then we determined to boycott
the whole business. All the boys
went into it. Bill Smith and Hub
futile, Rob Gregg. Ed. Easton, Steve
Bum. Bill Rodecker. Hen. keener.
and all the big boys. too. The first
boy called on to speak was to an
nounce the strike, and as my name
camep pretty we'll up in the alphabet, [
stood a good chance Of being a leader,
a distinction for which [ was not at all
ambitious, being Of tender years and
Of a rudy co1nltenance and sensitive
feelings. But a boy named Allen,
who was called ahead Of me, funked,
and said his piece, 'Hohenlinden,"
although We made such suggestive
gestures at him that he forgot half of
it and broke down and cried. When
was called I refused tospeak. Being
pressed for a reason, [ said, in falter-
ing accents. that there wasn't goin'
to be no more speaRin'." When the
old man, with unfeigned surprise,
asked who said so, [ said "all Of US
did Then he said there would be
"a little more speakin'" before the
close Of the season, and SO he led me
out upon the rostrum. Then and
there, with feelings which [ now
shudder TO recall, [ did my first song
and dance act. [ had often before
performed my solitary cachuca to the
lasclyious pleasing Of 'Old Hinman's'
slate frame, but neve had [ accom-
panied myself with words. Boy-like,
[ had selected for my piece a poem
expressive OF those peaceful virtues I
most heartily disposed, so that my
performance at the Inauguration of
the strike ran somewhat like this:
''oh, : tzzor ~ t~wiaez. is the rolling (wl,ack9
drum.
ortta n~elaei. v-achq truanpAet's wild(vaackl
apea4l. Ro7-foo.
o. the cry (Boo-hoo1 u (waack} war when the
twItaek1 Zoe is come.
Or the (0#:l brightly twhack) flashing steel'
(~whaciz, vi ackl.
L cannot convey to the most vivid
imagination the gestures which ac-
companied the seven stanzas of this
beautiful poem. Suffice it to say that
they kept pace with the old mans
peculiar system Of punctuation until
at last, overcome with conflicting
emotions, [ went sobbing to my
seat and wondered why an inscrutible
Providence mad given to the rhinoce-
ros the hide that the eternal fitness
Of things had evidently prepared for
the school boy.
But / forgot my own SORROWS and
dried my tears in the enjoyment of
the play. a my compatriots develop
ed it. Mr.. Human, who had been
unusually gentle and self-restrained