The Portland daily press., 1895-01-07
A MINOR INCIDENT.
No Report of the trike Told This Story of
Victims.

Victims.
[Dorthea Lummis in Kate Fields Wash
ington. e a
1t was the second week OF the great
strike of July, 1s9-. The square, red
building at Billings, and the smaller
red Toulouse a few rods off, seemed to
radiate color into the hot air. Miles
distant, falling away in quivering blue
line, were the Sandia mountains, their
TANKS shaking with heat, and nearer
rose the sandstone cliffs, which each
night the dying sun flooded with the
hues of dream or dellrium. Nowhere
was there shrub, not even the gray
sage. A few stunted pines had long ago
tant hills, and now everywhere was hot,
shining sand, reflected on hot, glowing
rock, while the sun shone like an i'm
placable open eye in sky blue, serene,
hard, opaque out of which at midnight
swept a wind, strong and cold, that
stiffened and CONCEALED the half fluid
earth only for it's remslting in the fiery
furnace of the dawn.
A sandy. blazing half mile away yell
low blue fell down to the lazy yellow
snake of the Rio Puerco, whose stream
raging bank high with the SHOWS of win
tar, hid itself ever deeper and deeper in
the slime of summer, and now appeared
in distasteful and unwhiolesome pools
where the banks curved most sharply.
The parallel lines of steel rails, black
and twinkling, raced away to the west,
and converglng, seemed to end there.
Eastward they broke off helplessly at
the edge of a high bank of the river,
whose burnt and brown strestle rose jag
ged from the bright earth. On the
switch pair of water tanks-long empty
-yawned apart with all occasional loud
crack, and above them hung and buzaed
crowds of savage mosquitoes, bred of
the brackish moisture within. The
few square yards of cindered ground
about the house bore the sordid aspect
that human neglect alone can give. The
desert seemed slowly triumphine.
In the platform, leaning the two legs
of an Office chair against the north wall,
and within sound of his instruments, was
the telegraph operator. A few feet away
his wife had the baby's wagon cradle,
which she kept close to. the wall. Even
then the goarded line of shadow was so.
thin that the sun caught the metal rim
of the wheels and made them burn in
the burning air. By and by the man
took pipe from, his pocket, filed it,
with caraf1l parsimony, from lean
pouch and began to smoke with loving
deliherateness. As the smoke drifted
toward her, his wife turned her face
toward him-a delicate gentle face where
little lines were tracing themselves
about the blue eyes, the fair temples and
the marrow red lips. She spoke suddenly
almost irritahly:
"Joe, I wish women could smoke, or
something. Perhaps it would make it
easier. y
"Perhaps.p
The man spoke stolidly and a heavy
silence fell between them. The child
stirred uueasily in the cradle and be-
gan weak, querulous cry. The woman
rose, and throwing back the square OF
aaudy netting that hangover the pillow,
pushed the wagon softly back and forth
with the soothing noises mothers know
by instinct
But the cry came again and more in
sistently. Then the woman lifted the
baby out and held it in the curve of her
shoulder, her chin pressed down against
its tiny neck, patting the limp little
back tenderly. 1t was bit of thing,
white, except for the faint purple tracery
of the veins, and the pink transparency
of the small ears and fingers. Neither
sun nor wind had been able to brown
that bloodless tissue. The leaflike
hands that wavered to the mothers
bending face were hot and dry, but on
the pillow heavy ring of moisture
marked the indentation of the head,
and still came that beseeching CRY. Two
small vertical lines appeared in the
woman's forehead and set themselves
there. Again she turned her head
toward her husband in appeal:
"The baby can't be hungry Joe, and
T b %
can left.
"Why don't you try water. then"
The man spoke indifferently. In his
brief experience babies were always dis
contented and use had dulled his ear to
tie chlld's wailing. But he watched the
little creature fun BILE eagerly at the cup
and drink JhirstlIy, and when the heavy
lids fell again, drew long breath.
"Do you suppose it's all right for her
to be SO thirsty? Perhaps it's fever"
The man took the child carefully, but
peremptorily from his wife's arms. "Ohl
go along and get our frugal meal, little
girl" be said cheerfully. "If the baby's
a hard drinker it's your own fault. You
were always dreaming about lakes and
brooks before she came, and fussidR
because we never had any storms or
Clouds" .s---
The woman rose. Her glance, intense
ana strained, rested an instant on her
CHIC, anu Gnen ma along Eu0 lluc u
rails by which only could human help
reach them in time of need. and again
came the question, at frst SO eager. now
SO patient:
.4How much longer do you suppose it
will last?
The man only shook his head. but as
his wife stepped inside the little kitchen
a mask seemed to fall from his face, his
jaw set hard, and he bent his lips to the
bahy'g thiQEhaiT with a QrOaD.
During the first days of the strike the
little station was unusually busy. The
dispatches from the Associated Press
kept them alive with excitement and
the bours were full. Then there were
the section hands stranded there to cook
for. but as the tie--up promised to be
come serious, these tramped off to
Albuquerque and left the two alone.
And then came news of mobs in the
East and riots in the West, and messages
of peace, and cries for arbitration, and
orders to stand fast and, alas, a SO, to kill
and burn, few over the wires and
crossed and recrossed each other. And
the old fight between fat uncaring CAPT
tai and lean, unreasonIng labor was on.