Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-01-27

trade and eShaye to take the rough
with the smooth, All of us. Every
body suffers when trades bad. For
instance, my wife and were going
to Davos that winter, but money was
was so tight that we simply had to
make do with Buxton. was con-
templating a second motor car, too,
but had to leave it over for two or
three months. Then, our share
holders; they suffered. They had to
be content with miserable four that
year, though we'd been paying a
steady twelve per cent till then. You
see, it hit us all around. I'm sorry
for the workmen, of course; but we
all have to pay. That's the worst
Of trade boom, slump, slump, boom.
You can't alter it. Natural law of
supply and demand you know. :.
Yes, let's get back to him. /
think he must have been out of work
some three months OF more when he
called on me. / remember we'd
mad severe winter; trains showed
up. pipes burst-our's burst two o..
three times people frozen, and that
sort of thing. 1 suppose he must
nave gone through a pretty hard
lime, he and the others-we had to
dre two hundred, that winter. The
evening he called at the house / was
ousy struggling with some ore ship
ments. That was the night hit upon
a way of smashing Dobsons. 1t was
either them or US; there wasn't room
for both in the market.
The maid showed him into the
room. He stood there with his cap
in his hand. - asked him what he
wanted. He said his name was
Hawker-George Hawker, I think
it was. He'd worked for the firm till
a few months ago, when he was
sacked. No fault of his own, he
said. Since then he'd been tramping
about in search of another job. Luck
was against him, he thought. j A
fortnight ago his boy had died MOI
enough to eat. What was 1 going to
10 about it?
They'd pawned everything there
was to pawn. The missus had been
,eensoutw ASKING until a week ago,
put the loss of the boy semed to have
preyed ON her mind, and she took
Ill. That made things worse than
ever. They'd had no fire for week,
though she was i'll. The food had
given out. His missus had been
very i'll when he went out that morn
ng. He didn't go to look for job,
because it was Good Friday, and the
works were closed but he couldn't
stop and see her starving. He thought
his luck might turn, being Good Fri
day. When he came back the people
on the next landing had fetched the
doctor, but he had come too late.
She was dead, too. What was
going to do? That was what he
wanted to know.
He seemed excited and i'll. 1 sup
pose he must have felt pretty bad,
poor devil, after losing his child
the only one. l guessed-and his
wife, all within a couple Of weeks.
Yes, felt sorry for him; but l felt
rather annoyed, too. He kept repeat
ing, what ara you going to do?
That's what l want to know" just
like an automatic machine. ut was
ridiculous. What could do?.
told him to go to the kitchen and
get a good meal, and then come up
and talk. Not that wanted to talk.
/ was too busy with those beastly
freights. But l thought it might
calm him a bit. However, it was no
use. He didn't want food, he said;
he wanted to know what j was going
to do about it. He just stood and
looked at me. saw calf slaug d
tered in the streets once; it had
broken its legs and they had to kill
it. Well, he looked just Ike that,
somehow. 1t made me feel quite un-
comfortable; not frightened, you
know, but uneasy.
told him it was no use worry
ing; that it woulnd't alter things.
It was no fault of ours. We had to
cut down expenses. Everybody was
suffering from the slump. 1t was the
same all round. 1t was no use blam-
ing the company. They suffered as
much as any one. 1t was no use
blaming anybody.
He didn't seem to take it in, some
how. Everybody suffers, do, they?
eh said. Seems to me as it's only