Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-03-03

ter And many ana many a hollow
faced miner in the crowd around the
hall was thinking of a little child lying
dead under the snow in the great
burial place on the slope of the range,
and ne grasped his stick tighter and
cursed the rich in his palace of COM
fort that bitter night.
Stuart never felt more helpless. He
looked at the faces around him, and
his heart sank as he realized how great
was the force of a mob bent on doing
its own pleasure. He felt as if any in
fucuce he might possess in Champion
was an empty breath in De Mott. Sure
" Andrew had been mistaken when
he said Stuart could influence such men
as these at such time as this.
He was reused from all this by the
doctor, who spoke short and sharp.
"Now. then. let's make a break for
the hall! Wen leave Ajax right here"
Stuart was astonished.
"ThCy won't let us in the hall"
even see about that" replied the
doctor.
He drove Ajax up in front of one of
| the drug stores where he was in the
| habit Of stopping when he came to De
| Mott and, getting out of the cutter,
with Stuart following with much Won
der. he began to force his way to the
| hall door. AS Stuart went on he began
! to realize that there had been Il mis-
take made by Andrew. If there was
one man left who had real influence
! 4 Ia, Z Ut
can, but Or. Saxon.
1t was almost cOmical to see the
changes that went over the miners
faces as the doctor showed men this
way and that in order to get near the
hall. At first they swOre and threaten
ed to do unspGakable damage for the
| rough treatment some one was giving
them, but the minute they caught sight
of the rugged, kindly face they were as
polite and ready to make room as if he
had been some high and mighty pOten-
tate and they his loyal subjects.
Get ont of the way there! Doctor
he be needed in the hall. Some one be
hurt in there likely" And big Dane
reached out and caught a miner, who
was standing in front of the doctor, by
the collar and pulled him off his feet as
if he had been a dummy in a clothing
store.
In this way the doctor, Stuart strug-
Cling in his wake, fought and had
fought for him n way UP to the hall
door Thirty years absolute devotion
to the great needs of the miners in De
Mott rs we'll as in Champion had en-
deared the doctor to every stolid, Obsti-
nate, dull. heavy Drained but warm
hearted man out of the 5000, but even
tonight he was privileged to go where
he wanted aud no questions asked.
He was in the hall and Stuart behind
him. 1t was contrary to union rules
but tonight there was no such strict
enforcement of regulations. The men
had reached or were nearing desper
ate resolve and did not care much who
knew it.
So the doctor, still silent, as he had
been from the time he started to make
his way into the hail. went on through
the dense crowd that blocked the
asles, and Stuart still crowded after
him, his mind in a dream, his amaze
y
lieved by real inkling of his purpose.
They were on the platform, and the
speaker had stopped to shake hands
with the doctor. and then the doctor
had asked in n low voice if he NIGH
say a word to the men.
The chairman of the union happened
to be one of the Champion men.
was only two weeks before that DR.
Saxon had gone out into one of thu
Gercest storms of the winter, wadeC
through drifts over his head, wher,
Ajax had refused to go. and at crit
cal time in the illness of this man
baby had dragged it, as if by shee
force of defiance against death, out o
the very shadow of the valley bacl
into the warmth of life The chairman
was a hard faced, hard listed, but hi
hearted COrnshman, who loved hi
babies as much as any man on earth
and if Dr. Saxon had asked for his las
crust of bread or a share of his past
he would have said, Take it all"
Boys, doctor. he be wanting to say
word or two 1t don't belong to be b.
the rules, bat | say let doctor say hi
say
AYE, aye! Let's hear doctorv' shout
ed a hundred voices, and the man VIII
had been speaking at once sat down.
. The doctor turned around and face
the men. Stuart never forgot tn
scene. 1t flashed into him like ligE
that the doctor was taking all this III
on himself to save him, Stuart, frOl
danger Of collision with the men. II
: almost forgot Rhena in his love for h
old friend tonight
And it was a scene for painters, onl
painters never could catch the fu
: meaning of it ALL The doctor locke
into the faces of men by whose side /
l had stood in the little cabins where Lii
: was going out or at the bottom of I'll
mines after some horrible acciden
: and he was always the same in his III