The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-19


ability of the miners returning to work.
Morton and Martin said the men would go back
Tor so cents for the summer, but it was not &C
cepted by the operators representative. The
latter, presumably as a joke, offered the men
IS cents.
The little city of Brazil is just now getting
plenty of advertising, but its citizens do not
appear to appreciate the fact. There are a
number of out of-town newspaper men here at
the present time, and the variety of correspond
ence that is emanating from the scene of the
big strike is quite astonishing. 81 can't quite
understand it, !" exclaims one old resident. I'VE
have had plenty of strikes like thiS-only some
or them were worse-and the papers heretofore
have never printed columns aboutit As amat-
ter or Tact we have been lots worse of than at
the present time" The ill-humor over the sit
nation of affairs is quite general, and has be-
come a little unreasonable, to say the least.
When The SENTINEL sent me here, leading
the way, as usual, for other papers to follow,
the Brazil merchants were complaing of the
exaggerated reports seEt to certain papers about
a stagnation of business and thousands of starv-
ing people. This was natural, and the reports
especially that concerning stagnatlon OF
business--were corrected. This however. did
not satisfy some OF the merchants, who want
the correspondents to stop talking about suf-
fering people in Clay county. ITS an outrage
on a civilized community to say it permits such
a thing in its midst, and I'm in favor of holding
an Indignation meeting TO protest, was the
remark intended for a correspondents ear in
barber shop this morning by hardware mer-
chant, who was fairly perspiring with indigna-
ton. This gentleman, and several others
whom | have heard speaking, have DOmpOusiy
declared that Brazil was fully able to care for
her own, and one correspondent went so lar as
to say, in voicing the same opinion. that the cit
liens of Brazil had not themselves been called
upon as yet to aid the strikers. This is pre-
posterous. The merchants here have been
contributing to the destitute strikers for weeks.
They have not been called upon merely
one time, or two times, but with
regularity; and as a rule they have
responded very generously. These men
who are now complaining of the cOrrespon-
dents do not do so because they are stingy, but
because the newspaper talk is, in their opinion,
prOlOnging the strike. in other words some of
the very men who object to the talk about
starvation realize that but for the agitation the
miners would be compelled to return to work
by the threat of starvation.
1t cannot be denied that some of the long re-
ports sent out from here have been heavily
coated with fresh paint-Of color to suit the
intentions OF the author in representing the
situation. The account OF the correspondent
who went out into the mining towns and found
well dressed children" reyeling in plenty of
nice bread and delicious yellow butter" was
further from the real situation than that
of the one who ran in upon men and women ac-
tually crying for bread; and both pictures were
overdrawn. There is no question that unless
the contributions pour in more literally in the
very near future many OF the strikers will have
to decide between work and starvation. The
semi-weekly distribution made yesterday by
the relief committee better than that on
Saturday last, but it was still far insufficient.
As each day passes the number of dependents
increases, and the niggardly store even of some
of those who are being supported is slowly ex-
hausted. Hence il is that there are malcon-
tents with the present condition of affairs
even among the strikers-and their ranks are
swelling. In addition to the colored man whose
threat to return TO work was mentioned in yes
terday's letter, heard number of men stand
ing about the distributing point say they had
waited as long as they intended TO for their
shares of the rations The notice, which evil
IDENTIFY purported calling together such dis
senters read as follows:
Notice
Knightsville miners
Your Rekwested TO met June 70 at O'Clock on the
Ball ground Ordered by the Miners.
The notice was allowed to remain undsturbed
on the postofice door. but many a striker read
it with a scowl. cit weren't none of us that
put il there" said one OF them, with threaten
ing shake of the head, and another declared,
We've spotted the fellow that we think did
it; we'll all be at the meeting in the morning.
and we'll find out who put 1t there"
On old miner at Cardonia, who lived through
the war; declared that the grub" given out
now was worse than war times. The soldiers
had enough most of the time" said he, 'if they
didn't have very choice"
The scene yesterday inside the distributing
pointer commissary, as it was called-was
very striking. The place was deserted bar
room. Behind the counter were the provis-
ions, done up in packages of various Sizes ac-
cording TO the number in a family. At a table
in front OF the bar sat the secretary of the
local relief committee one-legged man, but
a miner-with book containing the names of
the dependents. 1t was made out in systematic
fashion, after this manner:
127James c. O'Nei
l2S-Thomas Campbell
And so on. The figures before the name indi-
Gated the number OF the family, and the figure
after il the number of persons in the family
the distribution being at the rate of II cents
per head Upon the outside were gathered the
people, waiting patiently until they could get
their ratlons. The secretary called out
William Clay" and the man at the
door opened it and shouted, civilian
Clay" William came in and received
80 cents worth of meat and cents worth of
bacon. Then the name of Charles Charles was
called, and then that of j. J. Cliff, Samuel
Butcher, and so on. Pretty soon a man came
in who claimed that his family repre-
scented as one too small, and that he was II
cents worth of provisions short. 1t developed
that the omitted member of the household was
but FIVE years old, and then long wrangle en-
sued as to whether the child was old enough to
be entitled to full rations. 1t was finally de-
cided in the affirmative. Numerous disputes of
this kind arose. When one miners name was
called his little girl presented herself and said
her father had gone away to get work, and then
a long dispute occurred as to whether rations
should be given the family. II was decided
that in such cases there would have TO be proof
that such man had not succeeded in getting
work One of the laws of the relief committee
was that women should not be admitted to the
commissary, because they were so "talka-
tive and bOthersOme." The name of Mrs.
Bennett was called and the doorkeeper an
nounced she outside with the statement
that her two boys had gone 10 the base ball
game One of the miners CALAMITY took Mrs.
Benefits provisions out and carried them
home for her. An unusually acrimonious dis
pute occurred pretty soon over the giving of
provisions to certain applicant, one OF the
committeeman in particular protesting vigor-
ously, in an almost impeDetrable brogue.
''Some's agettin' more'n Othern, and you'se
gettn' more'n Pse gettin," was tbs style of his
argument.
NOW, let's all go in one family" said an
other member of the committee, who wanted to
preserve peace. and another. who wanted them
to hurry up, exclaimed, Come, men, / want
something to eat"
There was in the "commissary" when first
went into the room Young man whose clothes
were far better than those of the rest of the
miners, who bad not had a mOuthful of any
thing since the previous evening. and it
then after 3 p. m. "When | first got
out" said he, in explaining his case, II Dor
rOwed, and then when | got something from
the commissary had TO pay back. That is why
l didn't have anything last night"
One old fellow was so disgasted with the
ratiopg anporfionpd him that ha yav than