The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-08-04

scionably lazy. Still, among the lrro,ra,t
men he had some sort of a follo,.s;,,s.. ~
weak minded and more Ignorant ,vor,,r,en
looked upon Burke as the chamnh,, - their
rights, and an additional reason fo,. their
tolerance of jerry as sort of nnaolynovvl.
edged leader, was the fact that thev l,neU
he could click" any one of them
Now about the time that Arthur Nav
came to 1ronvale, Burke, with some other
restless spirits in neighboring iron center.
was secretly arranging plans for a strike
among Spriggs and Company's emnloves OF
course, so far as Jerry Burke v,as con-
cerned, he cared nothing about hettering
the condition of the "boys;" he was locking
to his own aggrandizement as a ,labor
leader" and to the easy acquisition of money
by means of assessments which would ba
levied on the boys to further the strike
Now Burke had fairly good idea that
sensible young fellow like Arthur Nav
would not naturally assist him in his
schemes, so he resolved to inform the
preacher that he must ''git." Arthur had
almost finished his "talk," when Burke,
who was in the crowd, rudely Interrupted.
"Most through, parson!'
eyes" said Arthur. 'Are you tired,r
80, you can finish your say this time. but
you can't talk here any more Preachns
all right, mebbe, but we don't want Il here
SaveyW
"Well, my FRIEND no one else seems to
object, and if you don't like it inst stay
away. Still, would rather have Won come
and listen. / may as well announce now,
my friends, that shall be here next Sunday
afternoon. Perhaps before the cold weather
comes we can get hall or church built.,
ave don't want no hall, 'qassro. ehnrch,
nor no parson,n said Burke. -, s.so>
shoot off in this part of the 6ountrv SAin,
you'll be sorry, that's all have to saN'
'If do, what thenP inquired Artur.
"Only this; 1 shall knock few 81 your
teeth down your throat to sorter choke you
offw
All this time none of the couple Of hun
dred men assembled uttered word, though
once or twice the women cried "Shame on
ye, Jerryn or "Give the prison shown
Arthur sized up the situation in mo-
ment. He saw at once that his would be
prosecutor was bully, SC often found in
communities Of ignorant men, and under
stood that Burke must be summarily dis
posed of if he hoped to staysnd do any good
Arthur May had been proficient in at col
lege it was boxing and wrestling. Still, he
was not powerful man, anC weighed less
by fifty pounds than Jerry Iurke. So the
resolution at which he arrived was risky
one.
Boys" said Arthur, 'this inan says he
will lick me if l stay in IronNle. Now, l
am going to stay and he may as yell lick me
now as later on. don't much believe in
tghting-nevers saw any fun in it especially
it looks bad on Sunday and in preacher.
Sometimes, however, it is necessary. 1t is
necessary now, l think, and / gess you
boys will stand off and see that stranger
gets fair playa
OF came Arthur's coat, and STEPPING down
from his impromptu platform # rough
stone he walked briskly over to Blrke, who
was at that moment the most completely
surprised man in Ironvale.
''l'll take that licking now, Mr.. mllym
Burke had no coat to throw off, IS he was
already standing in his shirtsleev,s but he
replied by giving Arthur back-halded slap
in the face.
Well, some of the Ironvale mel tell, to
this day, how it was the 'prettiesr thing
they ever saw-''the way that the parson
knocked out Jerry Burke" who in ten
minutes from the time he first interrupted
Arthur, had as much as he could do to sneak
off like whipped cur