The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-05-08
~ Tile COKE REGIONS.

SCOTTDALE, May ia ruHrCu -iCOh!lE
man in farmers dress, covered with the
gray dust that lag deep on the road wind
inc out eastward from Bunker Hill to tue
ridge, rode into Mt Pleasant OH Monday
morning and threw himself from The sad
die If the Office door of Oliver Shune's
mill. Down at tho. railroad crossing, OH
the bridge that Spanned the yellow creek,
and across on the main street, groups OF
understood men with swarthv foreign faces,
saw the dusty farmer 90 past Just as they
had seen dozen others in the preceding
half hour.
"Olivcr." exclaimed the sunhurnt man,
as lnc mill owner met him at the ol!lce
door, SIS it 50 that they're goin' to carry
the red flag in lhcir procession TO day
..llrat's what they said, but | don I
think that it will be done. John Steven
son. the Burgess, wrote Il letter to Peter
Wise and advised him to use his influence
TO stop it, There might he trouble was
the mill owners answer.
"Troub!e," exclaimed the farmer, catch
ing the last word eagerly. "Ncil, say, o.,
rode in this morning to see il what Was
rcNortcd ont our way was true. IT looks
Like il was an' I'm here to kill the first
Teller that comes up this street carryll' 81
red nag. Oh, mean il, he exclaimed
holly. rs he saw smile gather on Mr..
Shupc 5 face, "and I'll do it if I'm rlddcd
with bullets inside the next fifteen MN
utcs. Look here. OF. fought four years
for .hc Stars and Stripes, an ii it aint
rood enough for them TO march under, by
God thcy can't march under red flag as
Iorr as ain Within range Of them.
The citizens Of Nj. P.casant-that is
the natives-arc, in the main, quiet, con-
scrvatiye God fearing men While they
have viewed with growing approximations
Of future danger the influx of lawlcss
element from foreign shores, they have
held aloot from all connection with ii. ex-
ccpt such as demanded by business and
the law The recurring labor difficulties
furnish Mt. Pleasant people, who are not
directly interested in coke or coal, with Il
tonic for discussion and painful compali-
son upon altered times; but nothing more.
Even the killing OF nine men at the More
wood works, Just outside of town, was an
event separate and apart 77,trom them.
When, however. it became banded about
that Il pair of New York Socialist agita-
tors proposed to march up their main
street at the head Of three thousand
strikers, mostly aliens, and that the red
flag Of the Commune was to he Haunted III
the faces of mothers who had given sons,
and fathers who had fought for sold
slory,n thrill went through these con-
scrvaliye God fearing people. This was
not . question of capital and labor. 1t
was problem in patriotism.
If that red flag of the harricadcs had,
even fora moment, appeared on the streets
of ut. Pleasant Oh that beautiful Monday
afternoon, the men who carried it and the
men who rallied round it would have been
moved down rcmorsclcssly.
Itwas an anxious morning for everybody
i'm the town who was aware OF the feeling
that pervadcl the community. There were
no street corner contabs; no proclalmlng
of intentions from the house tops. There
was the same quiet determination that
had marked the action of twenty of Scott
dale's best men when Oh the Saturday
previous they requested the Burgess It
notify the strike leaders that no red tia9
must be exhibited III this town. The sur
Of last Sunday saw no standard OF the
commune on the streets.
I