Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-07-29
IN UNDRESS UNIFORM.
d II.
BY Fl. II. BENNETT.

turned empty soap box in the shadow
of the tent, with sigh Of relief. He
unbuckled his belt and mopped his hot
face with a red cotton handkerchief.
There" he said, that's done for
one while! l shall not have any more
guard duty for az least twenty-four
hours, thank goodness, though we've
got none too many men and extra
guard duty is becoming the rule"
Thought you liked it?" grinned the
other seageant looking up from his
occupation of poking little sharp
ened stick into the recesses of his
rilie-breech in search of dust.
Like it," Sergeant Bob calculated
ironically, with a disdainful wave of
a grimy hand at all the surroundings.
From the scrubby hills to the east
| dusty country road ran across the mar
row valley. and disappeared in the hills
to the west. The sides of the hills
were covered with underbrush and
second-growth timber, with here and
there a little whitewashed house set
down box-like in a clearing The val
ley was a marsh, with coarse grass and
weeds; here and there pool of stag
nant water or a ditch-like stream; lit
tie hummocks of drier ground rose
| from it, covered with brambles and
wild roses.
Through the centre of this valley ran
the long black line of railway en-
bankment, crossed midway by wagon
road. In one of the angles formed by
| thn i,,gr rfn
one-stored box of gray boards. In an
other angle was a great coal-tipple, its
skeleton frame black against the sky.
From this little railway straddled
across the marshy ground on the high
legs of a trussle, running back to
where the dark mouth of coal shaft
yawned in the hillside.
| Around the tipple were great piles
of slack, waste coal dust, screened
from the dump. The store was built
on slack; the railway embankment was
made of slack; grimy hills of slack,
cut through by the railway and the
wagon road filled all the neighborhood
of the tipple.
Some of the murky hills were on fire,
smoldering at the base. They had been
burning for years, and from them rose
noxious gases. The stream that ran
at their base was polluted by the
drainage of the slack, and on the sur
face of the water hoated an iridescent,
metallic scum.
Along the wagon road, on either
side, stretched rows of tents; another
row was placed on a little strip of
level ground at the foot of the railway
fill; more tents stood in the shadow of
the coal tipple. In front of the store a
tent held a telegraph instrument,
placed on a barrel; and here a blue
clad operator listened to the busy tick
Ing of the receiver. The braZen sun
oe hot June day shone in sky of
elrning blue. The thermometer hung
il the telegraph tent, registered "a
degrees.
Now and then a long coal train
rusned by, raising black dust in
sHirls, which settled again on tents
and tipple and store. A wagon, drag
ging its slow course along the road,
was half hidden in a gray cloud of
dust In the shade of the tipple or
in the hot shadow of the tents lounged
blue-clad men, with blouses unbut-
toned or cast aside, each one trying
to get breath of fresh air in that val
ley furnace.
Four infantry companies and a bat
terry of the National Guard were en-
camped here four miles down the
railway We're two other companies, and
four miles in the other direction were
two companies more. Sixteen miles OF
railway were held and guarded by these
two battalions. Beyond them were
troops of other regiments, scattered
here and there along 60 miles of road,
until the railway reached the waters of
the broad Ohio.
Night and day sentines paced the
track and squads of guards watched
the bridges, the coal tippes and the
mine buildings, Night and day watch
full pickets along the hills waited with
loaded rifles.
When the troops had reached the
narrow valley, three days before,
bridges and tipples were burning;
loaded cars had been overturned and
wrecked, and not o train was running
on this section of one of the great rail
ways Of the country. All this was the
work of rioters who found opportuni-
ties for mischief in a strike of coal
! miners. The majority Of the rioters
were alleged. by the coal miners, 70
| be ignorant foreigners. deluded and
misled by mistaken men.
But the great danger of this strike,
which has now been a matter of his
/ tory for some years, were at an end.
Now the bridges and buildings were
safe; long trains thundercd over the
rails, and the men VINO had brought
about order painted in the sweltering
! heat by day and shivered in the misty.
chill air by night, By night, too, the
rioters from the foreign settlement
came across the hill and fired into the
camp and at the sentries.
The first night this was done the
bugle blew "To armsl" and the whole