Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-23

were mArcn1Rx 1uto CnamplOn With the troops he swore by all his old Anglo Saxon gods that he must come. down here and talk to the men. And here he is. It'll probably end him up, but he said if didn't bring him down with me he'd get up and try to walk is any way. If he diessz it's suicide and not a case of malpractice, but he may pull through all right, for it beats the Dutch what a lot of doctoring it takes to kill off one of these labor agitators. Here! Help him out, Stuart. Con- found him if he doesn't want to get up there in the midst of the high priests of this strike till the last arm ed foe expires! Gently now! I'll wager $2 a day he'll faint away before he can open his mouth to say his little oration-'
 All this from the doctor as with the utmost skill and tenderness he assisted Stuart to lift Eric out of the buggy and then helped bear him right into the crowd, where Eric, who was suffering the most awful pain, motioned the two to carry him.
 After all, it was not surprising that Erie was here this night. Stuart real ized what it might mean as he shouted to the miners around him to make room for Eric.
 The men exclaimed at sight of these two men carrying the fainting form of their young leader, and they fell back, opening path for their passage up to the band stand. When they reached that, Eric cried in a voice that gave Stuart more hope than he had yet dared to feel: Right up the stairs! Quick! I'm able to speak to the men. Please God, they shall not do this great wrong tonight
 Some of the men in the stand came part way down the/rude steps and helped Stuart and the doctor. After all, they did not know Fries motive in coming out this way. And they were under his influence still and probably had no thought of resisting any at | tempt he might make to address the crowd.
 So Eric was carried up, and the doc tor and Stuart brought him forward and partly held him on his feet, look ing out over scene that became q part of the life memory of them all.
 The moon was at the full, and there was no need of torches or lamps. The i rude platform of boards at the foot of the band stand and elevated so that | their forms could be visible to the miners, even those who were at dis tance. Their faces, uncovered, stared I straight upward in the cold midnight 1 The captured soldiers were ranged di- rectly in front of the bodies, and the force of the great mob, indeed, crowded them up to the very edge of the ghastly platform so that some of them stood touching it. The square itself all about the soldiers was black with the mob All the faces were set and stern. All were lifted toward the stand as Eric stood there confronting them.
 He is great man who knows the way to the heart of a mob. Probably there was not q soul in all Champion that night who knew how to place his hands on the strings of emotion and impulse as Eric Vassall knew when it was question of dealing with the men whom he loved and in whose cause he had voluntarily given up all ambitions that most men allow to grow when they are conscious of their ability to rise above their fellows. Erie assumed the right to speak at this crisis as the right of one who sacrificed more than any man present for the sacred cause of labor. And no man in the stand dared to deny him that privilege or in- terrupt his purpose.
 What do men say on such occasions? |? It is doubtful if Stuart or the doctor, who heard every word, could have told afterward what Eric said. Every word burned like fire in the air, but it did not :. belong to the catalogue of speeches easily repeated. The doctor was amaz- ed at the power of Fries voice. It rang out like a trumpet and reached the farthest point. It meant, of course, that the collapse would come after the strain, and Saxon watched him nar- rowly to see the first sign of it. The main current of Fries appeal flowed through the one channel of preserving unstained the sacred cause for which the men had sacrificed all they had and were. The pleasure of tasting venge- ance would last but a little while. The cause of labor would be killed so far as they were concerned once and for all if law was broken or vengeance taken this night. He appealed to the reli- gious element, which he knew was strong in hundreds of the men before him. He reminded them of the pray CTS that had been offered from the very place where he now stood. How could just God or a merciful Saviour look with anything but horror upon men who had vowed to love and obey him plunging into such crime? And, oh, for the cause they represented! Was it not dearer to them than the killing of a few men in revenge? Would that bring to life again their brothers? Who was there who did not feel for the wrongs and injustices of the working men if he did not? Yet in his vision of events he clearly saw that never in his , lifetime or that of their children's chil- dren would they lessen those wrongs or obtain just rights as men if by an act of passion they broke the already too slender bond of sympathy that united