Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-05

s
 mines after some horrible srtsi 5 and he was always the same In his ujl hinching devotion to duty and his
 spoken love for the suffering and hI9ss great skill to beat death back and look
 hell in the face without tremer ofsa
 nerve or the quiver of an eyelids
 "Now, then," began the doctor in haa J
 usual abrupt manner, "there Isn't 9
 man here ever heard me- try to mako
 speech in public, is thereY s.2s
 It was very quiet in the hall, sd quiet that the noise of the crowd out
 doors could plainly be heard. No one
 replied to the doctors question. The
 men were all waiting to hear the next
 word. They were not easily surprised,
 but the sight of the doctor up there
 and the sound of his voice in this new
 revelation of him were almost like sec
 iEg or hearing a man who had been
 dead for 30 years come suddenly to
 life.
 And I'm not going to try 1t now.
 But I want to tell you that if you do
 what you are threatening to do toS
 night you'll be bigger fools than I've
 been calling you for 30 years or more.
 Why, you must be insane idiots, every
 mothers son of you, to think you can
 gain anything by pulling up pumps!
 Who'll suffer? The mine owners?
 What if they do lose little property
 up here? Haven't you got sense
 enough to know that it i5 only cue
 item out of thousands for them! But
 it's the whole thing for you, and if you
 weren't q lot of blockheaded dummies
 you would know that the result of
 pulling up the pumps will be simply
 to give me more work to do in mending
 your cracked skulls and sewing up lot of guIshot wounds in your useless
 bodies, and I tell you I've get my
 hands full now without having lot
 of extra work piled on me just becausa
 you want to have little picnic with
 those pumps. And after you've pulled 'em up and about a hundred of Eou are killed or get what few brains you have left knocked out what will ycu gain besides that? How much chance
 will there be for mining in the spring with all the shafts flooded? Do you want to kill me with all this prepara- tion for bloodEhed? Tell you what I'll do. Any man here that wants me to amputate an arm or leg or n. his brains back into his empty head after he's gone and got himself mixed
 up ill | fight with the militia can just take my word for it here and now
 that I will turn him over to the job work of these stranger doctors that
 Have been practicins on you since the fever struck in this winter. Hear that? l simply won't do a thing for you.
 "Tnl as mad as you are at the mine owners. I think that, with the excep- tion of MT. Duncan here, they will have heavy account to settle at the | day of judgment But, sure as death.
 you won't gain anything by trying to l improve Gods punishment for 'em. You know Nhat'll happen if the mines | close down for good in the spring. The | owners will have to open if you let the | pumps alone, and you can go back at Il | rise over old wages. The pressure for l ore will force the companies to re- | sume. But once you ruin the mines, | and what will you do? The babies cry | for food in the cabins now, you say, l but it Will be worse than that ff'- | The doctor Softened his voice for | minute. The effect of it was magical. i Stuart could not believe and will not 1 as long as he lives that Dr. Saxon was i talking for the next few sentences. He l has never heard him with that voice 1 since. "The babies that lie out there 1 on the great slope will never hunger 1 again. I have watched hundreds of 1 them leave this unsatisfactory world 1 this winter and not one of them that l did not pull my heartstringS with his i little fingers as death won him from l me. But God is merciful. There is no doubt of his justice. There isn't q
 man here who doesn't know I love him l and would never counsel an act that | was not sure would be for your good 1 and the good of the wives and children 1 in the long run. Why, every one of i you knows'-here the doctor resumed 1 his voice that the miners knew so we'll. l and every one started and came back l again, staring at the great rough coat | ed figure-"that even Ajax has more 1 sense than to go and kick over the | measure that contains his oats. But l that's what you plan to do- l always | said that the stupidest numskulls that | ever lived could be found in De Mott | where I've looked into more cracked | craniums than anything else, and I've
 made up my mind that after this when
 I've broken heads to fix up I'll use cot
 ton or wool or something like that to stuff the vacant places I tind''- i Just then there was a disturbance
 down by the door, and the next mo- ment a voice broke the silence of the crowd: "Is the doctor here? He's wanted at once outside. Been q row. i and Pat Penryck has got broken l head. Tell the doctor to come right out''
 Hear that"' roared the doctor ssIf 1 you pull up pumps, I'll go right up 1 and get killed with the rest of you
 when the militia fires, and after I've
 gone who'll come and pump life into l you when death has you by the throat? And if I don't get shot I'll
 leave you and go down to Chicago.
 where I won't have to furnish the l brains for the whole communityw