The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-06-05
The Lesson of the Strike
BY FLAvEL SCOTT MINES.

Over one hundred men were crowded
into the little assembly rooms at Maw-
haka. The air was redolent with the
fumes Of tobacco that came from numer-
ous pipes, and the hot close room was
filled with the smoke. At one end was
platform, upon which stood a dozen
chairs and table, and score of hard
benches scattered about completed the
furniture of the room, unless the tiny
broken stove in one corner be included.
The company assembled there was one
of men-sturdy fellows, who puffed dog
gedly at their black pipes, as though
they held some grievance against them.
The men of the great iron-mill at Nav
haka we're dissatisfied. Trouble had
been brewing for some time between
John Parsons, the young mill-owner, and
the operatives, and the friction increased
daily. The original cause of the trouble
had been forgotten, but trivial things oc-
curing from time to time had served to
keep the men inhamed, and they threat
.ened to burst into open rebellion. Mat
tiers would have been brought to focus
before, but the men were not properly
organized, or rather they had no leader
among themselves. On this night dis.
trict managers from neighboring towns
were to address the men, and bring
them to some sort of order; they were
ripe for revolt.
Half dozen men ascended the plat
form and took seats, while the others
stretched out on the benches. The hum
of voices subsidized as the foreman of the
mill arose and walked forward, and
when there was momentary lull, he
raped fercely on the table with a
stick.
1.-THE meeting will please come to
order"
Parliamentary rule, like death, is de-.
void of respect, and consequently all
classes are ruled by it. As the foreman
spoke the noise subsided, and the silence
was broken only by the shuttle of heavy
feet.
IA chairman must be appointed for
the meeting," said the foreman.
81 move that Mr.. Peters be elected
chairman, said the red-faced man on
the platform.
81 second i'll" "Aye!' "Aye!" came
from all parts of the room.
MIR. Peters, the foreman, colored and
bowed. "Before take the chair" he
said, ~ wish to say few words. You
know I'm with yer every time cheers
and applause], but I've been requested
BY the boss a low hiss] to say few
words to you for him. 'Peters, he says,
says he, Il hear there's goin' to be
meetin' tonight. Now he says '1want
the men to come to an understandin'. I
don't want no more of this foolishness-
this growlin' that's been goin' on for some
months past. Tell 'em to make up their
minds one way or mother, ter quit
growlin' an go to work, or else they can
quit work. There's no halfway busi-
ness. I'm dead tired of it, says he, 'an'
want you to tell 'em so.' Now, I've
told you, and it rests with you. You
know how Il feel, an I'll foller ther
crowd. Gentlemen, I'll introduce to
you Mr.. Murphy, who won the lockout in
'Coverton few weeks ago."
The chairman sat down, and the
man who had before spoken rose to his
feet, and came forward rubbing his face
with red bandsnna. The cheers that
greeted him told the feelings of the
men, for Mr.. Murphy was we'll known as
a general "kicker" against any sort Of
authority.
At the moment of Mr.. Murphy's in
PRODUCTION John Parsons and two init
mate friends were laughing and smok-
ing over their postprandial coffee.
Parsons was young man of about thirty
years of age, with strongly marked,
.clean-shaven face and a thin, firm mouth.
OF independent manner and over-bearing
to his subordinates, he was much disliked
by a number of people; but those who
we're counted as his intimate friends
loved him and believed in him, and
beyond them the. young man did not care
what people thought of him. At his
fathers death he has come into posses
sion of the mill, and for three years had
managed it successfully. A bachelor at
the time, he was shortly to be married
t. girl of his native town. Fond
hopes of moneyed alliances were
blig GIFTED when this highly eligible parti
announced his engagement, and many a
mother wondered what he saw in Rose
Anderson. She had no money, it was
true; but John Parsons was not mercen-
ary, and the long line of ancestry on
the girls part would have been fer more
attractive to him than wealth untold. II
was simply love-match, and all indi-
cations pointed to heppy marriage.
Parsons traced his lineage back to the
days of feudalism, and he gloried in it..
he was curious combination of aris-
tocracy and democracy, and the serti-
ment OF "family' predominated. Strange
ideas for a nineteenth-centuryA American
to hold, but they we're part Of his life.
81 hear that you have had some
trouble at the mill, remarked Wake
man, one of his companions, whose
prosperous mill did not compare in
size with that of his friend. "Any
truth in it2'
Parsons frowned. YES" he said,
shortly; ''but it cannot last. 1t has tc
stop, or the mill is closed.
Can you afford to doso?" asked Ton
Foster, young lawyer, who made W
the trio.
II will afford it," was the answer.