The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1914-02-12

"'I'm your assistant lunch buster,
says be, and in the course Of things
he further explained that be was {
tugboat fireman out on a strike, Civ
ing me the follering information about
the tieup: 1t all come up over dose
of dyspepsia - &t& IL 'a'
Back up." interrupted "Kink.
sQuirming. Are you plumb bug? 0e'
together! You're certainly the Ravina
Kid. Ye must have stone bruised your
heel and got concession OF the BRAIN
Eyes, sir-indigestion." Billings con
tinued. "Old man Badrich OF the Bad
rich Transportation company has |,
terrible. 1t lands on his solar every
morning about 8 o'clock, getting worse
steady, and reaches perihelion along
about II. He can tell the time Of day
by taste. One morning when bis mouth
felt like about 1O:45 in comes com.
mittee from Firemen and Engineers
local No. q with demand for more
wages. prodding him with the intima-
ton that if he didu't ante they'd tie
up all his boats.
II s'pose a teaspoonful Of baking
soda, assimilated internally around
the environments Of his appendix.
would have spared the strike and
cheated me out Of being hero. AS
the poet might have said. Upon such
slender pegs is this our greatness
hung"
"Oh, Gawdw exclaimed Mullins
piously.
Anyhow. the bitterness in the old
mans inner tubes showed in the bile
Of his answer, and he told 'em II
they wanted more money he'd give
'em a chance to earn it-they could
work nights as we'll as days. He
intimated further that they'd ought
to be satisfied with their wages, as
they'd undoubtedly foller the same
line Of business In the next world and
wouldn't get cent for feeding the
fires neither.
Next morning the strike was called,
and the guy that breathed treachery
and walkouts was one Oily Heegan,
further submerged under the titles Of
president Of the Federation Of Fresh
Water Firemen; also chairman OF
the United Water Front Workmen.
which last takes in everything doing
business along the river except the
wharf rats and typhoid germs, and
it's with the disreputa bleness Of this
party that l infected myself to the
detriment Of labor and the triumph Of
the law.
ID. O'Hara Heegan Is an able man,
and inside Of week he'd spread the
strike till it was the cleanest, dirtiest
tieup ever known. The hospitals and
morgues was full Of nonunioD men:
but the river was empty all right.
Yes; he had a persuading method Of
arbitration quite convincing to the
most calloused. involving the laying
on Of the lead pipe.
Things got to be pretty fierce by
and by. for they had the police buf-
faloed. and disturbances got plentyer
than the casualties at a butchers
picnic. The strikers got hungry. too,
finally. because the principles of
unionism is like rash on your me-
chanic. skin deep-inside. bis gastrics
works three shifts a day even If his
outsides is idle and steaming with
socialism.
"'Oily' fed 'em dray loads Of elo-
quence. but it didn't seem to be real
flling. They'd leave the lectures and
rob a bakery.
He was wonder, though: just sat
in his office and kept the shipowners
waiting in line, swearing bitter and
refined cuss words about ignorant
fiend' and 'cussed pedagogue,' which
last. for Kinks enlightenment, means
a kind Of Hebrew meeting house.
''These here details my new friend
give me. ending with eulogy Oh
Oily Heegan, the idol of the idle
eff he says starve we starve.' says
be. and if he says work we work.
See! Oh, he's the goods, he is! Let's
60 down by the river. Mebbe we'll see
him. So me and Murdoch hiked down
Water street, where they keep mos
quito netting over the bar fixtures and
spit at the stove
I'VE found him. big mouthed,
shifty kind Of man. bout as cynical
looking in the face as a black bass
and full Of wind as toad fish. l ex-
changed drinks for principles Of So
cialism and doing SO happened to dis
play my roll. Murdoch slipped away
and made talk with a friend: then
when Heegan had left he steers me
out the back way into an alley. Short
CUT says he, to another and a better
place.
Il follers through back room; then
as | steps out the door I'm grabbed
by this new friend. while Murdoch
battles my head with a gas pipe billy.
one of the regulation. strike promoting
kind. like they use for decoying men,
bers into the glorious ranks Of labor.
II saw burning of Rome that was
a dream and whole cloudbursts Of
shooting stars, but ! yanked MIR. En-
thusiastic Stranger away from my sur
cingle and throwed him agin the wall.
In the shuttle Murdoch shifts my bal