Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1888-06-23
CHAPTER II.

| UhA AObplAS dlUci uILl.
CHAPTER H.
MAsQUERADINa
Philip pushed open the door of Market
hall and looked in. About sixty men were
scattered over the benches in all conceivable
! positions. number held pipes between
their teeth, filling the room with the rank
smoke of the strongest and blacklist tobacco
Here and there two men appropriated q
whole bench one at each end, for sofa But
more of them were settled down on the small
of their backs, with their knees braced
against the bench in front He saw in mo-
ment that, though he was worse dressed than
any of them, yet there was a difference in
kind also There was more meaning in one
wrinkle on their well worn coats than in all
his ingenious paraphernalia, He felt ashamed
in the presence of these pathetic realities, and
turned to go back, but his great boots creaked
incautiously. Only two or three looked
around; poor man more or less does not
count for much with the poor or with the
rich. Two or three grave, worn faces, two
or three pairs of tired, hopeless eyes rebuked
him unconsciously for the idle freak that
brought him there. What right had he there,
who came out of curiosity to watch the un,
healthy symptoms of the disease called pov-
| erty! What an insult to their bitter needs
were his mock trimmings, in which he came
like one masquerading among a graveyard
full of ghosts!
Hold on, friend, ye needn't go,n and
long whiskered man beckoned to him.
He found his way to a seat with a hang
| dog air, the best piece of acting he had done
! yet The same stolid look was on this mans
face, bleached to settled paleness from the
confinement of years in the walls of the mills,
and there was a bitterness about the mouth
and nostrils as if he had not kissed the rod
| that smote him.
| ''No call to be shamed, young man. sup
! pose them's the best clothes you got. Your
heart may be just as white as if you had
better livin'"
The poor don't talk except when they have
something to say. So Philip said nothing, to
act in character.
81 suppose you think you're pretty hard
up" resumed the big whskered man, who
was no other than Graves the man who had
peered into his companions parlor window
| only an hour ago. And he glanced signiti-
| cantly at Philips boots and soiled panta-
| looms.
''Jest look at that little chap over yonder,
all bowed up. He don't look very hearty,
does he! Up to his house there's a wife all
faded and broken, and two little cripples for
children, a whinin' and a screechin' from
mornin tonight. He would chop his head
off to help them, but he is slow and weak,
and don't git but ninety cents day, and he
can't save them babies single ache nor ease
their poor misshapen little bones one twinge.
1t takes every penny to keep the wretched
breath in 'em ALL and him and his wife, once
ln. 70
stand and see 'em cry. They used to cry
themselves, too, but that was long ago"
| Graves looked about him. "Do you see
that lean faced man with the hurt arm at
the end of the seat ye're on? Well, he's got
the smartest little boy in town. All he
wanted was schoolin', and his father and
mother saved and scrimped so he could have
it. You oughter seen how proud they was to
see their lad struttin' off to school whilo they
| kept a thinkin' of him all day long in the
mill. And they was never too tired to hear
| the boy tell them over the hard names
he had learned. And then they would
| tell the neighbors, who sometimes got
| jealous, how they was savin' every
cent and how their boy was goin' to col
lege like old Breton's son. But there was no
call for the neighbors to be jealous; the
woman went to work one day when she was
| sick, and caught her death O. cold and it took
| a mint of money to nuss and then bury her.
| Then the man fell and got hurt and the little
! boy cried enough to break your heart when
they took his books away" The face of the
long whiskered man softened an instant, but
he turned his head away
HE needn't CRIED" he said grufly; 81
| don't know as he was any better than the
rest of U.S."
Now there came little commotion on the
platform.
A man who sat head and shoulders above
the group on the platform rose to his full
height like a young giant and came forward.
He looked down into the upturned faces for
a moment in silence, and Philip felt his
steel blue eyes piercing him like sword.
Men" he began. Then he'stopped speak
ing moment eyes, men you are, in spite
of all the degradation the rich and the pow
erful can put upon you. The time is coming
when the principles of equality vaunted on
the pages of SO many lying constitutions, and
breathed on the lips of SO many false tongued
demagogues, shall be fully realized. The
time is coming when the work shall not be on
one side and the reward on the other. We
shall not always wear rags as the livery Of
our masters. Not always shall the poor rise
shriveled like parchment, and their bodies till
they be ready to drop into the grave for
weariness, only to pluck the fruit of Gods
bountiful earth for the lips of the idle and the
proud to taste. The gracious favors of ten
thousand smiling hills and valleys are gath
cred only for the few, and those whose AFRO
gance and hardness of heart have least de-
served them. And they tell us it must be so;
that the few who are more capable and pru-
dent should thus be rewarded for their
superiority. They point to six thousand
years oppression of the poor, and say
what has been must be- Yes, for six
thousand years the groans of the poor have
gone up, and as long the few, for whom alone
all the beauty and bounty of the great earth
seemed to blossom, have answered with
curses and contempt" Now his magnificent
chest seemed to expand; his voice lost its pa
thetic tone and rang out like a trumpet
"But the knowledge they have given to
make us better slaves is bursting our fetters