Middletown transcript., 1919-10-11
Her Rowdy
=
: 1919. By the Mcclure NeWO.
paper 0yndioa4o.l
By WILL T. AMRs

No. e strlke was called by the motor.
uen and conductors themselves. at
e eno OF q turbulent meeting, during
"u,en the men, yielding to the mag
aeuc ~ influence Of Kolb, the oratorical
s.ator. had booed their own officials
.u Jeered at letter from the head
VI tneir national union declaring the
ploposed walkout to be i'll advised, IL
.ot wholly unjustil1able. "You are be-
~ sold out!" Kolb had shouted. And
so"enow he made the men believe
:m Setting tradition and discre-
lion alike at defiance, the trolleymen
s.'eamed out Of their hall alight with
. excitement Of fight in which they
'1e't' under the spell Of Kolb, that they
were championing the cause of all op-
pressed workers as we'll as their own.
An nour after midnight the last car
na" Oeen returned to the barn, and
next morning not a wheel turned on
any OF the city lines.
At $50 that afternoon a girl with
so'd-brown eyes and red hair plodded
YEARLY along on the last half mile of
two-mile walk between office and
nome. All the town was walking, save
handful of adventurous souls who
look chances on the one occasional
car the traction people had been op-
eratlng since noon, defying the jeers
OF the mob and the risk of pebbles
hung by hOodlums.
but company in misery very slightly
palllated 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 we'll without any pedes-
trlan exercise Immediately before OK
after it, she thought. "It's an outrage,
that's what it is !" she protested.
The worst of it was, Glory was wor-
rled about the job, too. She had be-
gun to suspect that Mcknight, the pro-
prietor by whom she was employed,
might be bit of a 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 sur
prfsing If Mcknight were to close that
office Of his suddenly, some Of these
days. and fade away. So, altogether,
Miss Blair was in q rather depressed
state at the moment when a group OF
uniformed trolleymen, standing on the
corner and scoffing loudly at the ef-
forts Of a couple of traction company
office men to run a car, caught her
eye
II wasn't exactly the group that
caught her eye. It was Ford Bur-
gOyne. Ford was one of the strikers.
He hadn't teen trolleyman very long.
he had been a "tech" school man.
and then he had gone across and got
gassed and came back with 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 him
self obliged to quit college and earn q
living, and do it 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
hed-ae1es. 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?"
"Tm rather glad that CHANGED to
see you, Mr.. Burgoyne," she said. and
the chill of disillusionment was In hel
voice. "If some one else had told me
they heard you hooting and black
guarding decent people on the public
streets, l should have refused to be
licve It,"
But, Glory" protested Ford, those
fellows are Just plain strike-breakers
now surely"
"Surely," blazed Glory, interruptine
him. ito be q strike-breaker in this
kind of q strike is infinitely more cred
table. Ford Burgoyne, than to SET
cttv full of tired, vornout people afoo
in torrid weather like this. But SCI
now that 1 have given my friendshll
- . mere rowdy, who could never, 2!
any possibility, look at things as 90
inst W.: I'D to say that you neednS
come TO SET e this evening-nor ever
Good-by." And Glory Blair, steppln'
around Burgoyne. who would nave de
+oined her If he could, marched OF
With the air Of duchess-and luml
in her throat and an ache In her near
for she had come to be more tha'
fond of this tall young fellow. wn
had faced his altered future with $
snnny a laugh and SO willingly To-
lowed the admonition: "Whatsoeve
thv hand findeth to do.
The strike had been on asweek. I'D
company was operating. The publ
,ros riding when It could. The stril
es. feeling themselves losing groun
= and failing to secure, thelndorsemeu
=, their own national organization q
~ other labor unions, had fallen INT
On uplv mood. They stood moooii
about in groups. There was no NOR
~ the amused railing at incompeter
strike-breakers. Some OF tnem' con
n,atelv dominated by the ubiquitou
Kolh were working themselves up
40 noint of violence. Sheer stuoDor
rride kent most Of the men IN I'M
One Of these was Ford Burgoyne, WI
had heen harder hit by the disanectio
Of Glory Blair than by the loss OF on q
to,, and who was in q somber. pess
mistic frame OF mlnd. .e''
smashing things.
Ford was standing. one OF sto.
~ twenty trolley men. at the ve
corner where had occurred MS clss