The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-10-05

OF her movement, she asked, And how
are you, Mrs. Barzynski?"
Tired" Mary answered laconically.
After pause she added despairingly,
Always tired. This is land of woe,
and we thought, Peter and /, that we
were coming to a land of plenty"
Without another word she left the
room, the stranger looking after her
with mute agony stamped on her own
face.
Mary pushed the dinner FAR back
on the stove to prevent it's scorching;
and afterward stood again at the win
dow, thinking, pining, mourning. She
mad reason to be sad. She thought
f1rst OF the years in their native Po-
land when she and Peter and their
children had known cold and hunger,
but where there was at least fresh air
and cleanliness, and in summer time
the woods, the flowers, and the merry
babbling streams. She thought of the
terrible winter when their two little
girls had died of want; and she we'll
remembered how over their graves she
and Peter had determined to work
their fingers to the bone, if necessary,
to make money enough to carry them
and Thaddeus, their one remaining
child, to America.
After many months of saving came
the awful journey in the steerage, dur
ing every long hour of which she and
Thaddeus had been ill; but she smiled
to herself, tenderly and wistfully, as
she recalled how kind, how full of
hope and courage, and even merri-
ment, Peter had been throughout their
passage. He was ever so in those
days. 1t was only after weeks of toll
at the steel plant had bent his broad
shoulders and stolen away youth that
he had changed.
First, Mary had grieved to see how
tired he was by evening; too worn
to do anything but throw himself,
dressed as he was, across his bed as
soon as he had eaten his dinner. Be
fore long he began to complain of his
work, OF his wages, of the length of
his working day; to rail at the rich,
at all in authority; to bring home
with him, from time to time, two dark
faced, ugly, savage fellows, to whom
he would talk far into the night while
Mary tried to soothe Thaddeus to
sleep in the corner of the room
farthest from them.
And then, in the depth of a winter,
colder than any they had ever known
in Poland, Peter along with hundreds
of his fellow workmen had struck for
higher wages. Mary shuddered, stand
ing there at her window staring down
into the darkening street, as she re-
called those fearful weeks. There had
been time of hunger, of fierce anger,
| and of bloodshed; and before a settle
ment was made, and the men, beaten,
cowed and sullen, were at work again,
their little child had gone to heaven
by the road his sisters had taken.
From that day Peters heart had had
room for naught but hatred. He rallied
against the rich more bitterly than
before, and he did not hesitate to in
clude the priests in his Trades: he
even blasphemed; and Mary trem-
bling, made the sign of the Cross,
and begged God to forgive him. He
refused to go to church. He was a
Socialist, he told her; and Mary won
| dered what the word meant, and knew
only that it was something wicked.
At last a heavy football sounded in
the passage-and Peter had reached
home half an hour late. He was sui
len, hopeless, and more than half in
toxicated. 1t did not take him long
to tell his new grievance; for Mary
saw at once that he had a new one.
Work, it seemed, was little slack at
the plant; they could contrtve to do
what there was with fewer men, and
he was one of fifty who had been
turned adrift. He swore horribly as
he told his story, and Mary trembled
| and was silent. She would have liked
to say some word of encouragement,
! but her tired heart could see no 'glim-
| mer of hope. And her troubles had
only begun. During the weeks that
followed Peter spent his days and a
great part of every night in the near.
est saloon in company with a number
OF malcontents, hungry like himself
and like him lowering on the brink OF
Acknowledgements men with nc
money to lose, no regulations to Jeop
ardize, and lives too dreary and hope
less to be worth a second thought
AS for the world to come, they had
forgotten it, or boosted that they had
Meanwhile Mary sewed, sewed, sewed
in poverty, hunger and dirt" day
after day, from weary chime te
chime praying short, agonizing pray
ers for patience, for health and fol
Peter. Every day she became weaker
and her work seemed harder. She
began to see strange shadows, and tc
hear strange noises. There came q
day when even her slave-like endur