Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-05
CHAPTER X1. !.
AN ORATOR.

-AN~ hind the foaming Ajax, they found al- most the entire population gathered around the postoftice block, in which Eas large hall, used during the win Ser mostly for travelling show com panies.
 It was packed tonight with the min- CTS. The union was in session, and every man who could find q foothold inside was there. The rest were wait ing outside to hear q final decision. Not man of them but believed the result had already been determined and that before morning every pump on the range would be pulled out and the companies would lcse millions of dollars worth of property in q few hours. It would be q grim revenge of labor over capital. It would strike capital at its most sensitive spot. It would be real satisfaction for the great suffering apd want of the win ter. And many and many a hollow faced miner in the crowd around the | hall was thinking of little child lying dead under the snow in the great burial place on the slope of the range, | and he grasped his stick tighter and cursed the rich in his palace of com fort that bitter night.
 Stuart never felt more helpless. He looked at the faces around him, and l his heart sank as he reaHzed how great | was the force of a mob bent on doing l it's OWL pleasure. He felt as if any in- | fuerce he might possess in Champion was an empty breath ill De Mott. Sure ly Andrew had been mistaken when he said Stuart could influence such men | as these at such time as this. l He was reused from all this by the 1 doctor, who spoke short and sharp. 'Now, then. let's make q break for the hall! We'll leave Ajax right here" l Stuart was astonished.
 ''They won't let us in the hall.' l "We'H see about that" replied the 1 doctor.
 | He drove Ajax up in front of one of the drug stores where he was in the habit of stopping when he came to De 1 Mott, and, getting out of the cutter, l with Stuart following with much won der. he began to force his way to the l hall door. As Stuart went on he began 1 to realize that there had been a mis- take made by Andrew. If there was | one man left who had real influence | over the miners, it was not Stuart Dun can, but Dr. Saxon.
 It was almost comical to see the changes that went over the miners i faces as tie doctor showed men this way and that in order to get near the hall. At first they swore and threaten 1 ed to do unspeakable damage for the rough treatment some one was giving them, but the minute they caught sight of the rugged, kindly face they were as polite and ready to make room as if he 1 had been some high and mighty poten- tate and they his loyal subjects. ] Get out of the way there! Doctor. he be needed in the hall. Some one be hurt in there likely" And . big Dane reached out and caught a miner, who was standing in front of the doctor, by the collar and pulled him off his feet as if he had been a dummy in q clothing l store.
 In this way the doctor, Stuart strug- | gling in his wake, fought and had fought for him way up to the hall door, Thirty years absolute devotion to the great needs of the miners in De Mott as well as in Champion had en- deared the doctor to every stolid, obsti- nate, dull, heavy brained, but warm hearted man out of the 5000, but even tonight he was privileged to go where he wanted and no questions asked.
 He was in the hall and Stuart behind | him. It was contrary to union rules, but tonight there was no such strict | enforcement of regulations. The men had reached or were nearing . desper- ate resolve and did not care much who ! knew it.
 So the doctor, still silent, as he had | been from the time he started to make his way into the hall, went on through the dense crowd that blocked the aisles, and Stuart still crowded after him, his mind in dream. his amaze ment at the doctors action not yet re- lieved by real inkling of his purpose.
 They were on the platform, and the speaker had stopped to shake hands with the doctor, and then the doctor had asked in a low voice if he might saya word to the men.
 The chairman of the union happened to be one of the Champion men. It was only two weeks before that Dr. Saxon had gone out into one of the tiercest storms of the winter. waded through drifts over his head, where Ajax had refused to go, and at a criti- cal time in the illness of this mans
 baby had dragged it. as if by sheer force of defiance against death. out of the very shadow of the valley back into the warmth of life. .The chairman was q hard faced, hard listed, but big hearted Cornishman, who loved his
 babies as much as any man on earth, and if Dr. Saxon had asked for his last
 crust of bread or a share of his pasty
 he would have said, ''Take it all"
 "Boys, doctor he be wanting to say a
 word or two. It don't belong to be by
 the rules, but I say let doctor say his
 sayv'
 Aye, aye! Let's hear doctorv- shout
 ed hundred voices, and the man who
 had been speaking at once sat down. The doctor turned around and faced
 the men. Stuart never forgot the
 scene It flashed into him like light
 that the doctor was taking all this up