St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1899-03-25
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XII.l{soNTINuEp

On the twelfth day Of July there were
gathered at the Mission some 60 on
70 non-union miners, prisoners from
the surrounding mines, awaiting trans
portation across the lake, and out OF
the Occur d'Alene. The fast little
lake boat Georgia Oakes was unac-
countably many hours behind her
usual time, and there were no officials
Mt the landing in her service. who could
be interviewed on the subject. of this
delay Rumors passed from mouth To
mouth, and was whispered: stShe is
held back under military orders; she
will bring the troops!" But so many
contradictory kilograms had been fly
ing across the wires whichwere now
controlled by the union, that the hope
was barely breathed-so many, were
the counter-doubts and fears.
The old Mission is one of the most
dreain-like spots ever chosen by travel
az the trysting place of a steamboat and
"a railroads. The Northern Pacific lake
steamer and the narrow-guage railroad.
noisy adventurer from the mountain
camps and roaring canyons of the
sCoeur a. Alene, here transact their daily
meetings with the most publicity; yet,
to land upon the wharf-boat and to
step aboard the train is to. stroll (by
steam up steel pathway between the
fields of Sleep" beside the waters of
forgetfulness." The charming place,
in its deep, sweet. sunsliiny. .seclusion,
seems to have been half reluctantly
yielded bysnature long ago tosthetem-
porary oecupation Of mans and then
fondly reclaimed into her own wild
tendance The Mission meadows are as
rich as those upland pastures where
the milk-white hulder maidens OF the
northern legends fed their fairy herds.
The wild flowers in. their beauty unite
the influence of the west and the north
with the breath of the softchinook to
atone for the neighborhood of snow
slides. The river slips in silence past
bowers of blossoming shrubs and lean
ing birches, and somber pines lift their
dark spires out of the tender mass of
deeiduous green.
In 1T all there is an effect of abiding
peace strangely in contrast with some
of the scenes which the historic Mission
has been called to witness. Needless
to say, 1t is the ideal resort of the SUM
mer excursionist, whether he came for
fishing or Irritation, or to search the
poetic past, or merely from the COM
mon gregarious instinct of a people.
that loves to do everything in crowds.
But it was no holiday company gath
cred this day at the Mission. The great
er number were men who carried their
worldly goods in their hands; they
wore their best clothes and their latest
earned wages were in their pockets;
but the thought was not wanting that
safety, and life itself, had been risked
for these few dollars which they were
taking with them, and that they We're
passing ont of the country under a
shameful ban. There was no traveller
from AItritria to ask: Who are these
decent poor men2 Why have they
come here, ana why do they go, by a
common, sad impulse, as if through
fear and force2 And if 50. who com
pels fhem2 And what is their offense
that they should be looked at askance
and herded apart, like tainted cattle ?
4 deeper question, this would be, than
most Of us are prepared to answer.
Even the facts can hardly be trusted to
answer: for facts are cruel, and they
frequently lies in the larger sensesef
truth. Hence If is with extreme re-
luetanee that one approaches the story
of what was done at the Mission on
the night of July IL, during the labor
trouble of 1892. The inferences must
speak for themselves; no one would
dare to be responsible for the logic of
these cruel facts, which seem 10 ac-
euse generally, yet really accuse only 4
fe,vfhe blind guides and faitlless
shepherds who were condemned i'll the
communities where hey were best
i,nown, and were brought 10 an inatle-
attafe pm ls4,ssfat, a,,t were afterward
SET tree, through technicality of tbs