The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-09-05
IEs d y
SHORT STORY.
Her RowdY.
BY WILL I. AMEe.

tormen and conductors them
selves, at the end of a turbulent
meeting, during which the men, yield
ing togthe magnetic Influence Ut Kolb,
tile oratorita lfagitator, had booed their
own officials and jeered at letter
from the head of their national union
declaring the proposed walkout to be
ill9adyised, IL not wholly unjuAtifiable.
You are being sold out!" Kolb ha2
shouted. And somehow he made the
fnenb believe him. Setting tradition and
discretion alike at defiance, the troll
eymen streamed out Of their hall
aligiit with the excitement Of fight in
which they felt, under the spell of Kolb
that they were chan.pioning the cause
OF all oppressed workers as well as
tseir own. An hour after midnight the
last car had been returned to the ba!n,
and next morning not a wheel turned
on any Of the city lines.
AT $3.50 that afternoon girl with
gold brown eyes and red hair plodded
YEARLY along on the last half mile Of a
two mile walk between office ana
i home. All the town was walking.
save q handful OF adventurous souls
8who took chances on the rarely oc-
casional car the traction people had
been operating since noon, defying the
8 jeers of the mob and the risk of peb-
bles flung by hoodlums.
Z But company in misery very slight
Z ly. palliated the discomfort OF the un-
J accustomed tramp that Glory Blah
had been compelled to take with
8 scarcely an idle minute in 1t. She
could do very we'll without any pedes-
ptfian exercise Immediately before Or
after it, she thought. ITS an out
rage that's what it isl" she protest
The worst Of it was, Glory was wor-
I ried about the job, too. She had be-
\ gun TO suspect that Mcknight, the pro
moter by whom she was employed,
Z might be bit of wi!dcatter. Glory
was merely his stenographer and had
. nothing to do with his accounts; but
little things recently had given her the
impression that il would not be sur
prising II Mcknight we're to close that
Office Of his suddenly, some OF these
& days, and fade away. So, altogether,
Miss Blair was in rather depressed
state at the moment when i group OF
/. uniformed trolleymen, standing on the
corner and soothing loudly al the ef-
forts of couple OF traction company
office men to run a car caught her
eye.
1T wasn't exactly the group tina:
caught her eye. 1t was Ford Burgoyne.
Ford was one OF the strikers. He
!, hadn't been trolleyman very long.
lie had been tech" school man, and
then he had gone across and got gass-
ed and come back with a bronchitis
that forbade his staying indoors, the
doctors said, for at least two years;
and meantime his father had died
broke, and Ford had found himself
obliged to quit college and earn liv-
ing, and do 1t at Outside work
All of sudden Ford, who was laugh
iGg as loudly as any of the crowd at
the unfortunate amateurs on the car,
realized that Glory Blair was standids
stock still, six feet away, looking al
him with an expression he had never
seen on her face before. He left the
group instsltly.
AlOly ulllll give nm OF LAASu ~
time to say, How do you do?"
I'm rather glad that CHANGED to
see you, Mr.. Burgoyne," she said, and
The chill OF establishment was in her
voice. IF some one else had told me
they heard you hooting and black
guarding decent people on the public
streets, | should have refused to be-
lieye it."
But Glory" protested Ford, "those
FELLOWS are just plain strikers, now
Surely"
Surely" blazed Glory, interrupting
him, to be strike breaker in this
kind of strike is infinitely more
creditable, Ford Burgoyne, than to set
city full of tired, WORKOUT people
afoot in torrid weather like this. But
J, [ see now that have given my friend
ship to mere rowdy, who could new
Or, by any possibility, look at things
as do. just wanted to say that you
needn't come to see me this evening
nor ever. Good-by." And Glory Blair,
stepping around Burgoyne, who would
have detained her if he could, marched
off with the air OF a duchess-and a
lump in her throat and an ache in her
heart-for she had come 10 be more
than fond of this tall young fellow,
who had faced his altered future with
80 sunny laugh and so willingly fol-
lowed the admonition, Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do"
The strike had been on week The
company was operating, The public
? AS riding when 1t could. The stril :.
srs, feeling themselves losing ground
and failing to secure the Endorsement
0f their own national organization OF
81 other labor unions, had fallen into
an ugly mood. They stood modify
ibout in groups. There was no more
81 the amused railing at incompetent
strike breakers. Some OF them, COM
pIetely dominated by the ubiquitous
6olb, were working themselves UP to
HE point of violence. Sheer stubborn
pride kept most of the men in line.
One of these was Ford Burgoyne, who
lad been harder hit by the disaffcc-
ion of Glory Blair than by the loss Of
Ills job, and who was in a somber,
oessimistic frame Of mind. He felt like
mashing things.
Ford was standing, one Of a group Of
Wenty trolley men, at the very cor
Ter where had occurred his disastrous
.ncounter with Glory Half an hour
Scfore a west side car had been held
is stoned and the motorman and con-
Ictor taken off and beaten. Now
very passing trolley was target for