The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-11-18

W Hiic YOU are al
work, as most of us know, yet when a
man is out of employment, and willing,
yes, anxious, to work it is often a diff
cult matter to find man willing to give
him employment. Perhaps the very fact
that he is out OF employment initiates
against hm-who knows?
There are today working in the mines
of Butte hundreds of men who a few
years ago mapped out brilliant careers
IL the sciences. journalism, surgery, the
law or something like that for them
selves, but who are now willing to take
any work they can get, and who are
thankful to get even that.
Awaken From Dreams.
In many cases it was through no fault
or their own that they We're forced to
accept work in the copper mines, that
thev were forced to awaken from the
dreams they had been indulgng in, and
come down to manual labor to earn their
Gaily bread. 1t was because, as one man
who has BEEN through the MILL" ex-
pressed it, he had not enough pulp to
secure the work he wanted, and he
could not starve to death.
IheSe men for a time beWailed the fate
that forced them to accept work in the
mines. and then begun to consider them
selves lucky at having obtained en-
pleyment at all, while all around them
they saw men equally as good as they
forced to walk the streets from day to
Gay because they could not find work of
any kind to do.
|. The agony. the desperation, that is the
daily companion of the man out of work.
When he has loved ones depending upon
him for support, when he sees the roses
thai1 I.hn lbs hot,
laughter turn to silent smiles behind
which Turk bitter tears of hunger and de-
srair, this is realized better by no one
than the man who has trod the streets of
g great city, seeking earnestly something
at which he may labor and earn the few
paltry dollars with which to defy the
wolf that stands forever at the door of
IT'S then that evil thoughts come surg
rIns INTO his brain, and he wonders if it is
fsally-a crime to steal from those who
have plenty and to spare, while his cher
| ished ones are struggling against stern
starvation.
AS day after day goes by and he is UNI
able to secure the employment he seeks
he becomes desperate, and finally the DO
Ice are called upon to deal with a being
IL the shape of man, but from whom
all human 1eellng has fled, who has
violated the laws and is henceforth
bfanded as a felon. because he was
hungry. because his children were
hungry, and because he saw chance to
steal that which would satisfy for the
time Icing the gnawing at the stom-
| ochs of the man and his wife and chill
dren.
you may all talk until doomsday of
how easy it is for a man to get work
whenever and wherever he wants it."
said Wcll-knOWn resident OF Butte a
few evenings ago, as he sat at banquet
table with several other gentlemen.
but let me tell you that it is not an
easy thing.
Often Takes Influence.
Il know only too we'll Just how hard it
is, ana further, let me say that it often
lakes influence to secure even the mean
est kind of position in this or any other
city. BY that do not mean that no man
Tan secure q position without influence
Or pull hut that there are occasions
when really deserving, honest work.
man canno. secure work unless he has
friends back of him.
AS many of you know, I came to
lutte good many years ago, and have
done Wei hare. But perhaps you 10 not
know that tor A good many DAYS 7
walked the streets of this city, begging