Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-21
AN EQUAL CHANGE.
SRHls IS THE ONLY HELP" THAT
 AMOUNTS TO ANYTHING.

t@he Experience of n Pennsylvania Coal Operator Who Thought Him
 self a Philanthropist and Regen-
 orator of Mankind.
 Today we are going to tell you true story about something that lately hap kDened In Pennsylvania.
 A certain man came into possession of coal nine-soft coal.
 This man knew in vague, general Ssway that the coal miner has hard Sfime. He had heard so, but did not ttknow the particulars. He was rather ,good man. He thought he would try to do, something fer the benefit of the sniners in his coal mine.
 So he made them a model town. He built straight rows of little houses like seheap dolls houses, exactly alike, each with the same tiny saua4e of ground just ia front, prim and rectangular.
 Then he built a gaudy town hall and 1yceHan and a lecture hall, where learned men used to come and lecture to the miners once week. He built 1schooI for the children. He got Mir. Garnegfe to contribute a library. He used to get singers to come now and then and sing ia the IyeeuHa.
 He had other enterprises. There were many miners, and they made some thing of show as town. This man fput in gaswerlzs and charged good lround price for gas; also for water 1frorA the .waterwoTlDs that he estab- aished.
 Likewise he lighted the streets with .lais electric light plant and charged for It.
 Moreover not being, as he said, in business for his health, he conducted sn his brotAer-ih-Aaw,s name a compa- nv store and Tented .hAs houses at a rate to insure a profit on the invest ment.
 But these were side issues and did not affect Ais general scheme of philan- fhropy and a model town iA which he took great pride.
 The town hall and lyeeuna were the centery of his joy. The rest of the town was not, as a matter of fact, much to look al, but the town hall was built of pressed red bEack, and the builder greatly admired the style of architectures and thought it ought to fill the miners with delight There was fountain in front and band stand erected at the proprietor's expense where d band was expected to dis course sweet music.
 The lecturers used to come and de- liver instructive addresses of safe kind against the dangers of socialism and pointing out the duty of gratitude to good employer, and sometimes cooking school experts addressed the housewives on making caf's foot jelly and different ways to cook quail.
 The tenants of the good mans houses were also instructed to beautify their surroundings, and once on Arbor day the little children were assembled and a gentleman from Boston gave them an address on arboricHIture, and they planted tree.
 It was all very beautiful, but some how it did not seem to go as it should, and after two or three years of expe- rieHce the benevolent proprietor was sdisgusted. He said it was no use try ing to do anything for those people. They were too ungratefuL He said:
 ssMy son was a candidate for the leg zsIatWe from this district, and what do you think the miners did? Why, they z1ust went to the polls andsvoted soIfdly against him after all that had been done for them. Then you would think khat if there Twas place in the world where there would be no strikes this was the place. But it wasn't so. One of my 1oremen discharged a mule boy one day for fmpertinence, and the {sWhole gang struck until I had to have <the boy taken back. Then they all Joined the miners union, and they cared great deal more for that than they cared about the beautiful lyceum zH built They used to meet in a barn 1.-Two miles down the road on the nights A wits having learned men lecture for #flfash on instructive topics, and when Nthe union ordered them to strike they struck and didn't care snap about all Ahe things had done for them.
 ssThen there YVES trouble about the houses. Some of them didn't want to live in the company houses-said they were not slaves to be herded about and used bad language-and those that did live in the houses I built were always complaining about something. If door came off or a roof wanted mending you would think there was something serious. They used to make sarcastic remarks about model houses and jeer every time anything went wrong. The wonren used to go to the cooking lee lures at first, but after a time they quit. They didn't seem to care about them. I had clergyman come and give a series of lectures on Social Or der,' the idea being to show how much better things are now than they used to be and how much can be done by contentment. and so on, and they in terrupted him with rude questions, and the boys threw snowballs at him in the streets. I am through trying to do any thing for those people. Model towns don't go with me any more. I have sold out the lyceun for theater, and anybody can have the houses at cost <z