The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-05-13

II do say, Jim, we ought to be get
ting piano for Katie pretty soon,
for she's turned 10 and all the girls
| are learning music" e
And I wish, mamma, that YOU
would get it in your head that you
! christened me katherine, and not
KATIE" tnterjected that young Miss.
! well, Katie, or Katherine, and
, love you just the same under either
name, if your ma wants a. piano it's
! up TO her to find out how we are going
to pay for it and keep the roof over
our heads at the same time," replied
Jim Haskins-James was his name on
the company's payroll, but at home
| and with his friends he was just big,
good-natured Jim.
Lots of folks who don't make as
| much money as you do, Jim, have
! music taught to their Children in
sisted Mrs. Haskins.
! AL right, ma, 60 as far as you
like, but keep out of debt I'm going
| to play with the kids now.'
| Just then Henry, age five, and Jen-
ME, two years his junior, executed a
| bold attack on the paper their daddy
was reading and chorused:
"Play train, daddy, which was a
signal for Jack, seven, and Mary, ":ne,
| to come bounding over from the little
desk where they had been making
the prettiest pictures in water colors
that is, they thought they were the
| prettiest, and daddie and mamma
| agreed.
Jimmie, who, with his eleven years
and his fathers name, was the pride
OF the family, closed up the big illus
trated Bible and appointed himself
conductor.
! Daddie was the train; the chairs
were the stations, and Mary and Jack
and Johnnie piled on, while Henry as
sumed the responsibility of engineer.
That let him ride all the time.
From station to station big Jim
Haskins crawled on hands and knees
until pair of overworked knees de-
cided that it was bedtime for the little
passengers.
Tucking the children in their beds
followed goodnight kisses and hugs
and prayers. Then Jim Haskins and
his wife settled down to the paper
and the mending.
Next morning after breakfast Jim
started off to work; the older children
!
the corner with their big dad, Juggling
helpfully at his dinner pail.
"Good-by, kiddies," Jim, kissing
them, said. meet me tonight"
CHAPTER II.
"Hoist away, old SPORT" grined big
Jim Haskins, the most daring struc-
tural iron worker on the 20-story
building then pushing it's head through
the clouds.
The little engine footed twice and
Jim was on his way to the top. Sitting
lazily on the iron beam drawing him
skyward, Jim made ready to grip his
hold at the nineteenth story to be
ready for the sudden stop one floor
farther up. Below him walked tiny
ant-like men; horses and trolley cars
looked like toys. mn
eighteenth story. It caught him un-
passed Mortified workmen, down to the
pavement, a battered mass Of flesh
and bone.
"Ma'am," the policeman at the
Haskins' door got out in a broken
| tone, Jim has been hurted purity
badly"
ooh, I must go down to him.
Henry, you take Jennie over to Mrs.
Browns house and wait while go to
see papa" cried Mrs. Haski1-s while
she took the baby out Of its cradle to-
carry it to Mrs. Brown.
"Well, ma'am, Jim was 1urted too
bad; you see he fell and he's-er-
they had to take him to the morgue,"
blurted out the policeman.
"Oh, my God! Jim's dead" and she
clutching the baby in her arms. The
other children screamed, unknowing
of the tragedy that had just entered
their young lives.
Three days later Jim Haskins was
buried. The company didn't have to
pay the widow any compensation, be-
cause there was a servants liability
law, or something Of that kind, though
poor Widow Haskins couldn't under
stand it.
In just two months the savings had
been eaten up and the rent was due
again. Widow Haskins couldn't keep
her seven little ones in the same COM
Portable, healthy way they had been
used to. The landlord thought they
had better find more Equitable" quar-
tiers.
II have hunted for a cheap house
all over" confidede the widow to a.
sympathetic neighbor, land the best I
can do for $40 a month is a. three
room fiat in the tenement down on
Blank street."
'But that is such a dirty and un-
sanitary place." objected the neigh
Dor.
Yes, know" said the widow, "but
Katie. and 7 have figured It out and
SO a month is the most we can pay
for. rent; it'll take more than Katie
and I can earn to pay that and have
enough for the food and Clothes
Katie got a job at a factory. She
had to say that she was IA to get in,
but the foreman said lots of girls did
that, and, anyhow, she had to get
some kind Of work or they would
starve.
One night she came home, crying
bitterly. "Don't' you feel good?"
asked her mother, who had scrubbed
and washed until she, too, had rea-
son to cry out against their fate.
mo, no, it isn't that, but-but-
the foreman asked me to work over