New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1891-10-28
ONE OF THE STAFF.

The managing editor did not mean
to be unreasonable but he did wish
shat the employees OF thegreat Cresson
sotton mills had not chosen for their
strike time when every news field
was overcrowding the paper, and
when an unusually active political
campaign was beginning.
Millions Of dollars were invested in
the Cresson manufactures, and the
mills had been compelled to shut
down in a day. Hard as the situation
was for the mill-owners, the managing
editor felt that it was harder still for
the newspaper to be compelled to
send away one of it's best men just at
this time.
He drew his hand YEARLY across his
forehead with the gesture of a man
whose brain is overworked.
At this moment an alert and very
young man, scarcely more than a boy,
'clear-eyed and frank in appearance,
looked in at the door,
''Come in, Mr.. Harding. I shall have
TO send you away on special work.
Those everlasting spinners and wea-
'vers at Cresson have struck. I want
you to reach the ground by the first
train tomorro morning. You know
upon such a matter it won't do for the
Magnet to be beaten, and I needn't
tell you that the Magnet wants the
whole truth about it. That's one
s-aaSOn 1ynv T cop6 vo,,
THANK you, sir. shall be glad to
co.
"Tll put someone else on that mat
ter of Colonel Benson's candidacy in
the tenth district. And, Harding ="
eyes"
"Return tomorrow night if you
At through, if it takes month"
Harding WAS full of enthusiasm in
mis- work. He exulted boyishly in the
important assignment thus commit
ted to him, for he knew that a. good
contribute to his advancement.
When the Daily Magnet special COR
respondent alighted from the morning
express in the city of Cresson the
looms and spindles were idle; the mill.
yards were deserted, save by the po-
1icemen detailed to guard the property
In consultation in the Offices and
'counting-rooms; angry and discon-
tented operatives were gathered
around the street corners.
. All that day Harding went from
OF the mill managers by his frank and
:gentlemanly bearing, and that of the
J. leaders OF the strike by his evident
fairness and desire to get at the exact
truth
He found that he could return on
the evening express; and when he took
the train at quarter past seven his
report OF the matter was already
nearly completed.
Under the dim car lights he scrib-
bled on industriously, sure of a tri-
umph: The other newspapers, he had
found, were depending upon inefficient
local correspondents for their &C.
counts of the matter.
The train rushed through the gath
ering darkness. The sparks swept
back from the throbbing engine In
golden showers, like the tail of a com
ct, and the cinders ratified noisily
against the windows. Harding worked
on, concentrating all his energy upon
the making of graphic account of
the strike.
j. The lights Of the town of Benton
We're shining, only two or three miles
distant, along a straight, level stretch
of track just in advance, when the
whistle sounded Wild shrill note of
alarm. Then came shock, a crash,
the splitting and shattering of tim
bers, the swapping Of iron and steel,
and, above all other sounds, the cries
of human agony. H.. .....--. = F.. Is
The express train with it's burden of
people, crushed, mangled, imprisoned,
dead or dying, lay piled upon the
track, a CHASTITY wreck in the summer
night.
It was the old story. Someone had
blundered, and the fruits OF the blum
der were reaped in human lives. The
train had been carried upon an i'm
properly set switch upon side track,
and the express had been heaped in
fragments upon a row of laden fiat
cars.
Tom Harding was stunned by a
broken timber. but only for moment.
He reused himself with a half-dazed
consciousness OF disaster that left no
room tor any immediate sense of pain
He thought OF his mother-then OF his
newspaper.
This thought reused him to a con
seriousness that he had work to do;
and in the sudden awakening to the
realities OF the situation he became
aware that his legs were pinioned so
AL that he could not move, and that
pains We're darting through his body
a,lnaccountable pains, growing con
sstantly more intense.
He moved slightly, and would have
cried out, but that the piercing
screams about him kept him still
from very shame. His nervous or asp
frightened on the note-book and
pencil which he still held in his hand.
Men approached with lanterns. He