Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-01-02

ana the OtIler IiSiilUcTS "a oGf oShoOi-
board had been at the head of its af-
fairs?"
"Well, I'd mind my own business, II
was you an let
ssSet me the example, Mr.. Whitford.
Mind your own affairs and you will
not get beyond the depth of your
understanding"
With this dignified rebuke the young
man left the room, and Mrs Whitford
solaced her spouse with the suggestion
that those who played with edged tools
often cut their fingers
This night school was sore bone OF
contention in Oretown.
A little more than a year ago the
bosses ruled like feudal barons, and
now their sway was threatened by a
! whippersnapper of a boy who had come
among them, nobody knew whence nor
cared, and by this and other such base
means had alienated the allegiance OF
their vassels, who were actually be-
ginning to dare to think for them
| selves.
And thus it came about.
There was barn-like building which
had been used as a saloon and dance
house, but had attained such evil repu.
| tation that the by no means fastidious
morals of Oretown were shocked at its
gross orgies, and by popular consent il
had been closed.
The process of ejectment had been
| in accordance with the custom Of the
| locality. A mob of Infatuated women
and mischievous boys had gathered one
evening and CLEANED out" the pro
| prietor, smashing his furniture and
fixtures and pouring his liquid poison
into the gutter.
On this ruin of vice and squalor
Frank Grey built his great work of So
| cial reformation.
With his own hands he tidied up the
place, mended the windows, put il
rough tables and chairs, and boldly an
nounced that he would, without re
Enumeration, teach adults reading
writing and arithmetic three evening:
a week.
The local journal gave the powerful
aid of the press to the enterprise in
this bright paragraph: 1.-THE young
man who sings the ruler at the Ware
schoolhouse is opening a night schoo
for adults. Guess he'll have his hand!
full before he's got through"
The minister refused to cooperat.
with him, the storekeepers laughed a
him, the bosses treated him with opeI
ridicule.
But the class grew-from five to five
and-twenty; to forty, to a hundred
till at last he had to close his door
against the crowd of applicants.
1t was mutual aid association, thos'
who could read and write little help
| ing those who could not. mo swear
ing" and mo tobacco" We're the onl,
written rules; while the class kept it
| own order, and absolute order, too, as
for instance, when Mike Donovan, tn,
rough of the place, made wager tina
he would break up the school one even
ing and proceeded to use insulting Ian
guage to the teacher, a dozen strons
hands sent him crashing through tn
window into the street below, and for
ever put q stop to his further pursuit
in the fields of literature.
Then another grievance. Out of tn
night school grew a cuba harmless
affair, where tobacco was allowed, ant
coffee aud numerous newspapers, AM
out of this club sprouted brancl
which bore the deadly poison of ranl
socialisn-at least, SO said Capt. Petit
grub Wixon. This was the Talking
club, as Grey had christened it, a
whose meetings were discussed simpl
questions of social or political interest
From bad they got to worse, until on
Saturday morning-for the Talking
club held it's meetings on Saturda
evenings-it was whispered abroa
that the delicate questions as to whetl
er it was right for the miners to pa
the bosses store one dollar for a forty
cent article, whether the capitalist
could lawfully compel them to TAX
| their remuneration in store pay. an
whether they were obliged to give
months credit for their labor, would b
discussed.
With these revolutionary project
confronting them, the upperteuoom c
Oretown united in one common deter
mination to crush the viper they ha
nourished in their bosoals, the youn
anarchist who had brought this evi
state to pass.