, 1891-05-26
A DARK PAGEIN HISTORY
THAT WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF
THE COKE REGIONS.

THAT WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF
The COKE REGIONS.
Fiction Cannot Equal It-Tsstimony Of .
Special CorresPOndent-The Foreign La,
Dor ousstion-Men Who Are Response.
- Story OF Jerry"
Jerry" a novel, by Sarah Barnwen
Elliott, originally published serially in
Scribners anonymously, is out in book
form. Though not strictly a labor
story, il will be read with interest by
students of social and economic CUES
tons. The author is o familiar with
the principles Of sociology, and know
little Of labor agitations, past or present,
but like many another uniformed,
though sympathetic person. she under
stands that something is wrong where
wealth accumulates and men decay"
One thing she does know, and that Is
that our land system is radically wrong,
and that to it, in 4 great measure, is
traceable much Of the misery which l.
so abundant. For the Spectator in
land Miss Elliott has nothing but ex-
PAEosA0As VI uENeaNAblOu-
But to those who nave made money
their god, who to get riches trample upon
every humane instinct and harden then
hearts against their kind, Jerry" come
at once as a lesson and an indictment
1t is the creed OF the age that every
man is for himself" This is the creed
of individualism, and the author OF
Jerry" says: The creed Of individual
ism and the creed Of Christ touch but at
one point Thou canst not serve God
and Mammon.'" The hero in one place
asks; "You say America is n free coun-
try, Joe, but because she is free is that n
reason why she should be without a con
science? Because 1 am out of prison is
that any reason why | should steal and
murder"
Apropos Of a ball given by the select"
OF New York the following thoughts are
expressed: This practical money get
ting, soul crushing age; this proud Nine
tenth century that shuts charity into
hospital wards; that teaches the survival
of the f~ttest;' that tests prayer and
crowds down the weak and the poor to
death and humiliation. hailing labor
saving inventions with a shout OF tri-
umph, and trusting to disease and death
to clear the -overcrowded garrets and
cellars; clamoring and battling for gon.
n legislating on the crowded prisons
and lunatic asylums-this great Iron
Age that has no heart save the thud OF
machinery-is this the music it dances
TO? Do the eliminated, foolish heart
and soul find their refuge here, sobbing
through all the songs and dances-cry-
ing out TO the throb Of beating feet? Do
we hear the heart OF the Nineteenth
century pulsing in its music-the saddest
music the world has ever heardy'
Jerry Wilkerson visits New York on
business connected with a gold mine of
which he has become one OF the princi-
pal owners. At a meeting Of capitalists
he made an address beginning as fol
lows; Il heard a gentleman say a mo
ment ago that he supposed my talent lay
in addressing mobA. 1t may or 1t may
not; but l can say truly that in all my
life never have made a speech save to
what this quiet company would call n
mob. l saw them called a mob in your
newspapers, where | had the honor Of
being called their leader: and both about
them and about me a great mistake was
made. They were poor and they were
ignorant, If that constitutes a mob. and
they were human creatures who had
been %wronged; and, rightly, this should
have converted them into a mobi'
The young man in the story referred
to events not one-half so outrageous as
the infamies which have several times
within tho past two months converted
the poor devils Of the coke regions into a
mob. The most imaginative writer Of
fiction has never had the power to paint
the money grubber AS black as he has
painted himself in Pennsylvania Freed
from the falsehoods Of subsidized CORE
spondents, and the cowRrdly m%isrepre-
sensations OF officers of the law" the
cruelties and brutalities Of the coke
bArons in this the year 1891 stand ont
without n parallel in the history of this
country. 1t is said, and truly, that the
difficulty in the ConnellsVille region is
not a race war. No, it is a wal of classes,
and no sort Of palaver win alter the fact
The employing class against the em-
ployed declared war TO the death-oI
absolute ~subjugation, which means the
same. Eviction, bayonet and bullet has
been the battle cry Of the coke plutoc-
racy. and its hired ruffians have an
swered with the blood of men and women.
One correspondent "a New York Her
aid mani has had the honesty to tell the
truth about this trouble, though in doing
so he said he would nave to spoil ever
so many newspaper sensations" In his
article, which filed a page of The Her
aid of Sunday, May 3. he covered pretty
thoroughly the whole matter up to that
time. 1t is not TO be supposed that this
man would color his story in the inter
est Of the working people; but II n
half of what he wrote was true, then the
coke kings of the Connellsville region
ara brutal tyrants, and the authorities
Of Northumberland and Fayette coun-
ties should be wearing the convict garb
instead of badges Of oficialdom. Read
this correspondents description of a
gang Of the bummers who were chosen
TO represent the law; these are the muir
derers Of women:
Presently from a ncighboring house appear,
a squad OF men % that would delight the eye Of
a modern American EalstAff. They were de-
generate looking sous OF old Adam, II ever he
had any such. Unkempt Is the word. Hangdog
Is the word. Rum Is the word say 1t at a re-
Hpectful distance, for these fellows have a
couple Of r~evolvera apiece slowed under their
coat tails; but what ! do say at that distance
is that this gang IL not an ornament to Itself
nor to society. But hush. let Us speak softly,
for this Is the famous squad OF deputies that
is doing the executing Of the mighty law. and