Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-23

un0er WtiaI Qe D3d1RVeQ 10 pc 8 leaulu& of the divine impulse. he rose, and, with all the people in the audience and on the platform looking at him and in the midst of silence that was painful, he said, "My friends, want to say with these other saved souls that have also lately felt Gods hand and acknowledge Jesus Christ to be my personal Saviour, and by his help I mean to live as becomes his disciple"
 It was very simple, unaffected | statement, entirely free from anything like cant or parade of ones conver sion. But 1t produced a very marked effect upon every one In the hall. Rhena Dwight flushed, then paled again, and her lips parted as if she were offering a prayer. The members of the army remained motionless. The old miners who had known him as boy stared at Stuart as If he were an other person, as indeed he was now. He was still standing where he had risen, and all eyes were upon him, when through the silence of the room came the sound of a host of marching feet. It was a measured, heavy sound, and instantly every man in the room had risen. Some ono near the l door shouted into the room: There's s 1 been fight down at De Motti They's bringing soldiers up herev'
 | The next instant every man in the room was struggling for the door. | Stuart was near the platform, and it | seemed like the most natural thing in | the world that in the confusion that 1 attended the sudden and unceremo- | nious exit of the audience he should be talking with Rhena Dwight.
 | And in the midst of all the noise of overturning chairs and the growing tumult just outside the door of the hall Stuart told her his experience of the morning, when he had for the first time felt the personal touch of the di- vine power and heard the call to his l soul, Follow me-" as the living and 1 risen Christ had spoken to him. Some ] how it seemed altogether the most nat 1 ural thing in the world that this part l of his inner life should become known 1 to this slight, earnest faced figure in the Salvation costume. Rhena clasped her hands together, and her eyes glis- 1 tened with tears.
 l "Thank you, MT. Duncan, for telling me- she said simply.
 | It all took a few minutes only, and 1 Stuart, after speaking to some of the other members of the army and receiv- l ing q hearty God bless you, sir!' from all of them, started to go out. When half way down the aisle he turned and went hurriedly back and said:
 Miss Dwight, l hope you will not risk your life in the crowd tonight. 1 | don't know what the men are going to do but you have dared enough already. I beg you will not venture among the miners tonight He did not wait to hear her reply. She looked surprised, and as he went out he wondered if he had spoken more like commanding than beseeching. But, once out in the street, he was absorbed in the sight that met him in the square much excitement.
 As the facts grew upon him Stuart asked himself if the events of the strike were about to come to a climax with a tra gedy that night. During the evening, while he had been at the Vas | plaines' and in the Salvation Army hall, the miners at De Mott had come in conflict with the troops, and in the fight that took place the troops had fired, killing two of the men and wounding several others. Before an other volley was fired, however, the miners had fairly swarmed over the | handful of troops, disarmed them, and after brief but fiery debate they had resolved on a vengeance that to the mind of the north men was in keeping with the occasion. They had secured the officers and men of the two troops and placing them in the center of the crowd marched them over the range tc 1 Champion, there determined to give them a short trial by the public mob and then shoot the officers. They had marched over to Champion because the I two miners who had been killed had lived there. The bodies were brought over with the crowd, carried into the square and placed at the foot of the band stand. The captured men and of ficers were massed directly in front o1 the dead bodies. The great crowd o1 miners filled the entire space outside and around the stand.
 All this Stuart learned as he came out into the street. He was sick al heart as the truth grew on him. Never |
 men, the Danes, the few Italians, the Norwegians, all so united and so pos sessed with the one thought of venge ance. The, moon was fully up now and it flooded the square with it's mel
 low light. It was frosty, and Tot {
 breath of air was stirring. Never ha6
 Stuart imagined such q scene possible
 in the town of Champion. A doze1
 men had gone up in the band stand
 The tragedy was about to begin by tht public trial of the troops, to be follow
 ed by the predetermined shooting of a
 least half a dozen of them.
 For a moment Stuart remained mo
 tionless, smitten with dumb hopeless
 ness. The whole town was in the grasl
 of the mob. The handful of police wa:
 powerless. What could possibly resis
 the torrent that was about to be le
 loose, and where would it end? There
 was no hope of assistance from othe
 troops poa rar. than H9Dooclk 100 milo,