The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-06
EVENING STORY
Her ROWdy.
BY WILL T. AMEs.

!
the end of a turbulent meeting. during
which the men, yielding to the mag
/ netic influence of Kolb, the oratorical
| agitator. had booed their own officials
and jeered at letter from the head of
their national union declaring the pro-
posed walkout to be i'll advised, if not
wholly unjustifiable. You are being
sold out!' Kolb had shouted. And
somehow he made the men believe
him. Setting tradition and discretion
alike at defiance, the trolley men
| streamed out of their hall alight with
the excitement of a fight in which they
| felt, under the spell of Kolb. that they
were championing the cause of all OPP
pressed workers as we'll as their own.
An hour after midnight the last car
had been returned to the barn, and
next morning not a wheel turned on
any C the city lines.
At $3.50 that afternoon a girl with
| gold-brown eyes and red hair plodded
YEARLY along on the last half mile of
a two-mile walk between office and
home. All the town was walking, save
/ a handful of adventurous souls who
took chances on the rarely occasional
car the traction people had been oper-
ating since noon, defying the jeers of
! the mob and the risk of pebbles flung
by hoodlums
But company in misery very slightly
palliated the discomfort of the unac-
customed tramp that Glory Blair had
| been compelled to take with scarcely
an idle minute in it. She could do
very well without any pedestrian ex-
ercise Immediately before or after 1t.
she thought. Its an outrage, that's
what it Isl" she protested.
The worst of it was. Glory was wor-
ried about the job, too. She had be-
gun to suspect that Mcknight. the pro-
moter by whom she was employed.
might be bit OF wildcatter. Glory
was merely his stenographer and had
nothing to do with his accounts; but
little things recently had given her
the impression that it would not be
surprising II Mcknight were TO close
that office of his suddenly, some OF
these days, and fade away. So, alto
gether. Miss Blair was in rather de-
pressed state at the moment when
group of uniformed trolleymen, stand
ing on the corner and soothing loudly
at the efforts of couple Of traction
company office men to run car,
caught her eye.
1t wasn't exactly the group that
caught her eye. 1t was Ford Bur-
goyne. Ford was one of the strikers.
He hadn't been a trolleyman very long.
He had been a tech" school man,
and then he had gone across and got
gassed and come back with a bron-
chitis 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 a liv-
ing, and do 1t at outside work"
All of a sudden Ford. who was
laughing as Loudly as any Of the crowd
at the unfortunate amateurs on the.
car, realized that Glory Blair was
standing stock still, six feet away,
looking at him with an expression he
had never seen on her face before. He
left the group instantly.
Glory didn't give him so much as
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, 1 should have refused to be-
lieve it"
But, Glory" protested Ford, those
fellows are just plain strikers. now.
Surely"
Surely" blazed Glory. interruptIng
him. Ito be a strike breaker in this
kind of a strike is infinitely more
creditable, Ford Burgoyne. than to set
a city full of tired, wornout people
afoot in torrid weather like this. But
see now that have given my friend
ship to a mere rowdy, who could
never by any possibility. look at
things as do. just wanted to say
that you needn't come to see me this
evening-nor ever. Goodby." And
Glory Blair, stepping around Bur-
goyne, who would have detained her
II he could. marched off with the air
of n duchess-and a lump in her
throat and an ache in her heart-for
she had come to be more than fond
of this tall young fellow, who had
faced his altered future with so sunny
a laugh and so willingly followed the
admonition, Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do"
The strike had been on a week. The
company was operating. The public
was riding when it could. The strik-
ers, feeling themselves losing ground
and failing to secure the Endorsement
of their own national organization or
Of other labor unions, had fallen into
an ugly mood. They stood moodily
about in groups. There was no more
of the amused railing at incompetent
strike breakers. Some of them, COM
pletely dominated by the ubiquitous
Kolb, were working themselves up to
the point of violence. Sheer stub
born pride kept most of the men in
line. One of these was Ford Bur-
goyne. who had been harder hit by the
disaffection of Glory Blair than by
the loss of his job, and who was in a
somber. pessimistic frame Of mind. He
felt like smashing things.
Ford was standing, one OF a group
Of twenty trolley men, at the very cor
nsr where had occurred his disc strous
encounter with Glory. Half an hour
before west side car had been held
up, stoned and the motorman and con-
ductor taken of and beaten. Now
every passing trolley was a target for
verbal abuse for passengers and crew
alike. Several of Kolb's best adher-