Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-07-12
"BUSS DARLIN'.'


side, and wa. carefully smoothing and
He held il up as he spoke, and let his
his eye run along its length as II to
discover its irregularities; but his gaze
wandered quite beyond the stick to
the valley and river below, where
stood the great mill with its TALL black
ened chimneys and massive walls.
mo, sir, you can't always tell by
the looks OF q bundle what's inside
of it." he repeated, more emphatically.
"And if folks would only understand
it, and stop tryin', twould save a
deal of trouble. Now there's the Oar
lin'"-
"Darlin'9" the visitor repeated I'M
certainly.
The keen eyes under the old mans
shaggy brows twinkled, and his gray
mustache twitched.
"Oh, faint the name of any kind
of workman, like puddler, or Mailer
or SUCH it's just q name that's his.
We give it when he first come here,
twelve years and more ago. Things
had been going pretty bad al the mill
then-stops and bitches of one kind
or 'nother-and times gettin' worse for
the men all the while.
"Mismanagement most of il was, or,
leastways, we thought so. Old Kes-
wick-he was the overseer here-was
one of the short sighted, savin' kind,
that would lose g dollar in tryin' to
keep a penny He'd pinch and screw
and 'conomize, as he called it, and let
things go that ought to be tended to,
till at last some big break would sweep
off in a day all his stinginess had
saved in a year. Then he'd think ex-
penses was so high that wages ought
to be cut little lower.
II don't need to tell you that there
wasn't any love wasted between him
and the men. They'd got discouraged
and bitter, and sort of reckless like,
when all of a sudden one day Kes-
wick dropped down in dead faint in
the mill, and had to be carried home.
That was the beginnin' of q long sick
ness that ended his work at the mill.
THE rest of the company bought
out his interest, and he went off to
Europe. We didn't know who would
be sent to take charge then, but we
sort of hoped twould be left in Jim
Bryce's hands. He'd been here the
longest OF any of the men, and knew
deal about the business in practi-
cal kind of way.
''There wasn't much reason to ex-
pect it, of course, but he was the man
we wanted. Naturally, after the way
things had been goin', we thought one
of ourselves, who'd feel some interest
in his old mates, would be an improve
ment. Then, one day, down in the
mornin' train comes one of the COM
pany, bringin' with him young fell
ler-looked younger than he was. with
his white skin, Blue eyes, and light
curly hair like a girls; that kind al
ways does-that he said was the new
superintendent.
superintendent says Tom Clark
son, as they passed by where we was
workin'. That chap never superEl-
tended nothin' heftier than band
box in his born days.
well, he didn't look like it, that's
fact. But the company owned the
MILL you see, and this teller was one
of their sort, and SO into the place he
goes, fine clo'es, curly hair white
hands and all. b'lieve them white
anything else. They was strong
enough lookin' too, but white as Q
ladys.
"'Look at EN- = says Tom, hcldin' W
his own rough, black paws to show the
difference. If the company's bouno
to give him somethin' to do, why
don't they buy him a pretty little
palmer, and set him to playin' it
That's all he's fit for He ought to bt
safe at home, mammy's darlin'r
$50 that was the name we got tt
calm him The Darlin'.' Not t.
his face, bless you, mol Them blue
eyes could turn steel blue now anC
then, and flash out sharp of a sudde1
like knife blade.
AFTER while we found there wa
some experiments to be made-som'
inventions of his-and that was ont
reason why he'd come here. We didn'
like him any better after we heart
that, can tell you, for we though
the company'd sink lot more none,
in such nonsense. rwasn't our money
and so we hadn't no reason to grumble
you saya Well, there's two sides t.
that. There's two sides to most things
If body'll only take the trouble II
look for em.
did you ever think how you'd fee
to look down at your hands, big
strong and willin', but helpless t
provide for them dependin' on you
and then see a pair of soft, whit
hands carelessly wastin' what woul,
be life TO you and yours2
That's how it looked to us. Flo
times had been hard with us, and, a
/ told you, Old Keswick had Away
calculated that the losses must b
evened up on wages somehow.
"'And this feller-Ill be bound he
never invented nothin' more usefu
than new tie to his cravat' says JiI
Bryce-'he'n fool away no end c
money, and then either the mill wi
have to go down or wages will, an
mine has got about to the foot of til
ladder now
"'Oh, there's no doubt Well g
down, unless some OF his experiment
blows him up. Wish they wouldp al