The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1889-08-02
"BCSS DARLING


his eye run along its length as if to
discover its Irregularities; but his gaze
wandered quite beyond the stick to
stood the great mill with its tall black
ened chimneyS and massive walls.
INC. SIT, you can't always tell by
the looks OF e bundle what's inside
OF it, he repeated, more emrhatically.
"And If tcais would only understand
it, and stop tryin', twould save G..
deal OF trouble. Now there's the Oar
lin 81
'Darlin'2' 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; its just name that's his.
We give II when he first come here,
twelve years and moro age. Things
had been going pretty bad at the mill
then-stcps and bitches OF one kind
or 'ncther-and times; gettin worse ioi
the men all the while.
''Mismanagement most OF il was, or,
leastways, we thought SC. Old Kes-
wick--he was the Cverseer hCre-was
one OF the short sighted, savin' kind,
that would lose dollar in tryin' to
keep penny. He'd pinch and screw
and economics, as lie called it, and let
things go that ought to be tended tc,
till at last some big break would sweep
OIL in day all his stinginess had
saved in year, Then he'd think OK
penses was SO High that wages ought
to be cut q 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 sudden one day Kes-
wick dropped down in o 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 lie went oil 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
a deal about the business in practi-
cal kind of way.
There wasn't much reason tC 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 zone OF the COM
pany, bringin' with him young fell
1er-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 tho new
superintendent.
Superintendent says Tom Clark
son, as they passed by where we was
worlzin'. That chap never superSn-
tended nothin' heftier than. q band
box in his born days
well, he didn't look like it, that e
a fact But the company owned the
mill, you see, and this teller was one
of their sort, and sc into the place he
goes, fine clo'es, curly hair, white
hands and all. ] b'lieve them white
hands made the boys madden than
anything else. They was strong
enough loollin' too, but white as q
lady's.
look at emf says Tom, holdin' UP
his own rough, black paws to show the
difference. If the company's bound
to give him somethin' to do, why
don't they buy him pretty little
pianner, and set him to playin' iti
That's all he's fit for. He ought to be
safe at home, mammy's darlin'r
Sc that was the name we got to
49, IA. % -
his face, bless you, mol Them blue
eyes could turn steel blue now and
then, and flash out sharp of sudden
like knife blade.
After while we found there was
some experiments to be Maidstone
inventions of his-and that was one
reason why he'd come here. We didn't
like him any better after we heard
that, l can tell you, for we thought
the company'd sink lot more money
in such nonsense. wwasn't our money,
and so we hadn't no reason TO grumble,
you sayl Well, there's two sides to
that. There's two sides to most things,
ii a body'll only take the trouble to
look for 'em.
.'Did you ever think how you'd feel
to look down at your hands, big,
strong and willin'. but helpless to
provide for them dependin' on you,
and then see a pair of soft, white
hands carelessly wastin' what would
be life to you and yoursl
That's how it looked to us. Fol-
times had been hard with us, and, as
told you, Old Keswick had always
calculated that the losses must be
evened up on wages somehow.
".And this feller-I'll be bound he's
never invented nothin' moro useful
than q new tie to his cravatp says jim
Bryce-'hell fool away no end Of
money, and then either the mill will
have to go down or wages viii, ahd
mine has got about to the foot OF the
ladder now
"'Oh, there's no doubt we'll &C
down, unless some of his experiments
blows him up. Wish they wouldp an
swers Tom, only he putitrather uglie'
than that.
"Of course twas only talk, but the
feelin' was under it, and after awhile,