Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-18

1 their head a man who would have l slaughtered a score of fellow citizens | but for the prompt and merciful inter- 1 Vention of local officials. The Exam iner was supporting the sheriff for re- election, and this official well knew the paragraph to be utterly unjust and un- true, but he couldn't quarrel with his l bread and butter, and it was best to admit tacitly, now that the danger was over, that he had actually interposed in behalf of the strikers. At all events, he did nothing to cause its correction. The Brentwood Sun PopulisD said if anything was needed to add to the con l tempt in which the rifles were held it was the rumor that they had rendered | the command to an eX-ofhcer of the ar my whose drunken folly was so near | to costing scores of precious lives not | fortnight since And Langdon, who l stood ready to devote valuable time and energy to the public service, with | little hope of any reward whatever, read these insidious attacks with in- finite pain and sense of wrong and in- l justice, against which he stood power i less. Other influences, too, were evi- dently at work The election, which ] was to have taken place the first A1on- l day in January, was postponed fort night. Boniface, Fries friend of the Brentwood, took him aside and advised him to withdraw his name. The com mittee. on the contrary, had begged him to stand pat" Meantime Lang don continued drilling and instructing the company, and two nights a week &I, dn6 Trif whose interest had been aroused and who came to look on. Veteran soldiers, G. A. R. men, went away saying that | fellow knew his trade up to the ham, dle. Prominent business men looked on silently and did a good deal of thinking as they strolled homeward. Newspaper reporters, previously in- structed, wrote scathing or satirical paragraphs about martinet manner isms, imported instructors, dismissed drillmasters and the like, and Erie, A-oud, sad, sensitive, would gladly have given up and shut himself in his sooty den at the yards but for letter from Melville, to whom he had sent all the papers. "Stick to it, Langdon," he said The time will come when the very papers that abuse you now will have to change their tune" This was what the majors letter said, but not the majors hand. His eyes still felt the force of that cruel blow, and Ethel Grahame was his amanuensis. T have faith in your future," said he.S "So have I,'' in tiny letters wrote the aman- uensis "E. G."
 And so, despite the warning of mine host of the Brentwood, Langdon stood for election the third Monday in Janu-. ary and was beaten 50 to 10, the sec-s ond lieutenant and son of Brentwood's richest banker being the successful Ncompetitor. "A Merited Rebuke," re- ferring to Langdon, said The Sun; "A Merited Promotion" referring to Per rigo junior, boy of %, said The Ban ner; "A Foregone Conclusion" said The Examiner. But it was noticeable I that the last two named refrained from further active abuse of Langdon. The object of the magnates was accom- plished in composing the defeat of what The Sun called his aspirations" Down in their hearts both editors and magnates realized that Langdon was wronged and injured man. It wouldn't y checked that mob at a moment when its triumph meant the birth of reign of terror in Brentwood. He alone had stood between them and anarchy. They bowed to the behest of the Seattle be- cause it practically owned them. The editor of The Banner met Langdon at ] the Brentwood two days later, stopped, stammered and held out his hand. .'A1r. Langdon, my name's Armstrong;" said he. I'm managing editor of The Banner, and I thought I'd like to say | to you that IT personally don't ap- prove of the attitude my paper has had | to assume in your case. suppose you know the papers have to carry out cer- tain lines of policy and sometimes at tack men whom the editors would much rather befriend."
 Langdon turned very white. His hand naturally had been extended to accept that of the stranger-it is the American fashion = but now it was withdrawn. His lips quivered bit, but his eyes never fiinched from their gaze straight into those of the journal | iSt.
 'I have no use whatever, for the friendship of man who will privately assure me of his good will," said he, "and publicly defame me-" Then he turned his back on him and walked away.
 Boniface saw the whole thing and | gasped. Sherwood, clerk at the desk, and Bingham, Brentwood's mayor, were also witnesses, and the story spread. Here was man who not only wasn't afraid of mob, but even dared the press, and the man who can do l that in this land of freedom takes his | life in his hands.
 You've cooked your goose" said Boniface sadly, for he had grown to like Langdon more than little and tc feel for him deeply in his loneliness
 You've made an enemy of the most powerful newspaper man west of Oma- l ha."
 But he hadn't. Armstrong was poor; he was the servant of the stockholders and they of the Seattle; he couldn't af- ford to throw up his job and see his wife and children suffer, but he had a conscience. He knew that Langdon was right and The Banner wrong. He | of1f fo tho fYI1ioIy 10u r ooT1.