The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-04-28
EIGHTH EPISODE
Red Night.
THE SPIRIT OF HER PRoGENl
TORS

Since early morning an unwonted,
unnatural and wholly specious sem
blance of tranquility had brooded over
the little valley In the heart OF the
New Jersey hills.
Now, as the earlier hours Of mid
summer afternoon drew on, a feeling
Of tension began to inform the atmos-
phere; the hush began perceptibly to
Cypress the senses, even as that hush
Expresses which foretells the breaking
of a thunderstorm upon a smiling
land; instinctively men walked warily,
with eyes alert, and communicated
with one another in accents needlessly
guarded.
Within that vast congeries of gaunt
wooden structures and walled yards
which comprised the powder mills and
munition factories of Channings, Inc,
there was little or no activity where
ordinarily there was in%cessant hustle.
In place of those voluminous plufnes
of smoke, jet by day, crimson by night,
the towering brick chimneys stained
the skies only with transparent wells
Of amber vapor.
Inside the factory buildings all ma
chinery stood idle. The whistles had
sounded by habit at eight o'clock and
at noon without summoning to or de-
l~ivering from labor a solitary hand.
No endless. strings of freight cars
heavy laden with explosives, arms and
ordnance trudged up the long grade
70 tho rim Of tboca opairnlipO hills IN
the first stage of their brief journey
to Channings' tidewater yards and
docks near Bayonne.
The premises were all but ~lifeless
a scanty company of armed guards on
vigilant patrol; a little knot of some
half a dozen people in conference just
outside the main gateway to the most
extensive powder mill-and that was
all.
The strike was fourteen hours old.
AS yet no overtures toward a confer
ence had been made by either party,
employers or employees. The latter,
indeed, seemed to hold aloof with sin
gular stubbornness; to excuse their ac-
ton in walking out at the previous
midnight, the employers knew of moth
ing more than a few minor grievances
on the part of the men, matters sus-
ceptible to speedy adjustment through,
and scheduled for early submission to,
process of arbitration. The major de-
mands of the strikers remained un-
stated.
But more than one Of those who
were waiting so patiently outside the
gates could have hazarded a shrewd
guess at the real cause of the trouble.
Half a mile distant lay Powder Town,
an %unlovely collection of frame" and
canvas shelters, ginmills, eating places,
dancehalls, gambling hells, stores and
"hotelS" ministering to the necessities
and appetites of an army of working
men and parasites drawn together by
the attraction of high wages and
steady employment offered by an or
ganization working night and day to
fill war orders for the allies.
There, in those struggling, dusty and
rutted streets, the disaffected en-
ployees milled like cattle, a rabble two
thirds drunk with one intoxicant or an
other-whisky, greed excited by the
promises of labor a~gitators, and a
spirit Of destructiveness which had al
ready whetted its appetite by putting
the Channings company store to the
torch.
To the group by the gateway the ru-
NOR Of sullen voices was waited, on
the wings of a lazy wind, a grim MUIR
muring like the buzzing of a swarm
Of angry bees.
Listening to 1t, Captain Parr shook
an uneasy head.
Patrfa eyed him anxiously.
What do you think?"
"Tm not thinking" he averred with
a sorry sort Of a smile; "Tm just hop
ing"
Hoping they'll hold off ?"
"Hoping against hope that the COM
Ing of the strike breakers won't mad
den them beyond control"
The girl nodded gravely.
"Will 1t be much longer-do you
think2"
"They ought to be here any minute