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About The Wealth makers of the world. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1894-1896 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1895)
THE WEALTH MAKERS. September 17, 1895 9 J J' MM (OOWTWUtD FROM I.AIT V1IK.) CHAPTER IX A CHICAGO INTERIOR. "Idont know what to say about buying so much on credit, George. It iavery nice to have so many pretty things about the house, but this easy seeming installment plan may lead into deep waters. There's the quarter ly payment on the house ' and lot, the assessments , for Insurance in the Mutual company, and sixty cents a week on the sewing machine still the books are very legant, and" The speaker paused, standing with her babe in her arms looking wistfully at her husband, a perfect type of an American mechanic's wife, young, strong, healthy, handsome, and, what would be considered in other countries, educated utterly beyond her sphere. The interior of the room was worthy of the pen of a Wilkie. Humbly, though cozily furnished, the floor covered with a substantial rag carpet, the walls adorned with pretty chromos, a huge Connecticut clock ticking merrily in the comer, a cheerful wood stove radiating warmth and light from its glowing micas, and beyond, through a half-opened door, a peep at an apart ment of a more utubltloas nature the parlor, only to be used on state oc casions. Hut the crowning figure of this homelike scene was the young mechanic, George llarland, as he sat at a table with his three-year-old boy on his knee. He looked at his wife as sne spoke, and a merry gleam lit his honest brown eyes. "Why, Nell, what freak of prudence has bitten you now? If a master ship wright, earning four dollars a day and doesn't spend a cent in drink, has cause to be scared at getting into a book agent's debt a few weekly installments, why-" "But, George, you might take sick, and" "Pigs might fly. Pshaw, girl, there's not much of the interesting invalid about me; now, is there? Then, there's that prize-packet lodger upstairs, whom you seduced into paying a dol lar and a half a week for his room." "Oh, yes, he's very nice, isn't he? But I fear he's out of work, and, though he's such a perfect gentleman, I don't think we can rely on his stopping with us for long." George laughed with enjoyment at his wife's forebodings; it was rather too good a joke to think that a Chicago shipwright in full pay couldn't afford to. indulge in tho purchase of a picture book. 1 "You are incorrigible, George," the wife said with laughing lips. Then a little seriously: "Is it likely "to be a 'busy season at the dry-dock?" "You bet. Why, Moore & Marston have more orders en hand than they fran ever fill. The Red Star company has the lines laid for a hundred thou- and dollar passenger boat. Burroughs & Watts have given orders for two first-class tugs, and there are six barges I know will bo turned out of our yard this summer." "Times should be good, George." "Never better." At that moment the front door opened and a young woman entered a tall, shapely girl, with good features, and fair hair lying on her forehead like a cloud of feathery glory; yet, there was a shadow of unhealth in the flawless transparency of her complexion, and her step lacked tho litheness and ac tivity of buoyant youth. I Alice Palmer's lines had not been cast In pleasant places, except so far as she was enabhid to board with her sister, Mrs. IIarland.She "clerked" iu a great dollar bazar kept by a Hebrew mer chant, who cared nothing for the help less girls who sold his glittering wares, knowing well that when one broke down as, poor things, they were often in the habit of doing there wereascore to take her place. ' "You look tired to-night, Ally," the mechanic said anxiously, as the girl took her place at the table. "Tired!" she replied, "I am clean worn out. A big country excursion came to the city to-day, and the store was over-run. ou'd be tired too, George, if you'd had to stand twelve hours without rest, and with the thought ever uppermost in your mind that in this land of boasted prosperity there were thousands like you, selling their young lives and hopes for a beg garly payment that just keeps them in food and clothes." "Seems to me," said her brother-in law gravely, "there's something wrong in a state of society which permits such things; there ought to be a law to put a stop to it. I here oupht to be law passed to compel employers of female labor to pay fair wages and de cent treatment. But, Ally, throw the thing up, and rest till you can better yourself. You know how welcome you are to live with us. "It may come to that, George, for something that has happened to-day leads me to expect my discharge on Saturday mght. "Oh, Ally, dear, how is that? They seemed to think so much of you?' Sirs, llarland asked. "It was through no fault of mine, You know Charlie Grant, don't you?" "The reporter on the Herald who is going to marry Carrie Chambers? Yes, sure." "Well, he came into the store to give me a message for her, and while he was talking to me Mrs. Buddulph the millionaire pork-packer's wife oh Nellie, how I do hate those new rich people drove up m her carriage ana walked straight to my counter. Char lie stood respectfully aside till she should give her orders, but as soon as she had seated herself she began a tirade against servant girls, and wound up by indignantly demanding why I was stuck there behind a counter, in stead of earning an honest living as a domestic, when hired help was hardly to be had for love or money." "What did you say?" "I felt ready to sink with vexation; but I dared not reply, for she is a good customer; but what do you think Charlie Grant did? He raised his hat in the politest manner, and said in a voice that could be heard all over the store: You ought to be very grateful to Mrs. Biddulph for her kind advice. She speaks from experience, you know,(W she was her husband's cook before he married Iter!" George burst into, a hearty roar of laughter. "Good for tho newspaper bovl" ho said, "that was well done." "Ah, but Mrs. Biddulph did not think so. WMie an uie cieriss ami customers were convulsed with laughter, she flounced out of the store, and a few minutes afterwards Cohen came to me and said that he couldn't allow his clerks to receive admirers during busi ness hours." "lie did, did he, the insolent pup?" George voeiffcrated, his faco flushing with passion. "Back to the, bazar you shall never go, Ally. Tomorrow I will call on him and settle it." "You will do no such thing, George llarland," his wife interposed, decisive ly. "You will only be getting yourself into trouble, and no good will come of it. Perhapi Ally had better resign her position and wait for something more suitable." Thus, it was resolved that another incumbrance should be laid on the broad back of the breadwinner, who shouldered the burden cheerfully, for George llarland had a big heart and never fretted over trifles. The young women retired to put the children to bed, and the mechanic, well pleased with himself and his surround ings, drew his chair closer to the stove and lit his pipe to enjoy his usual even ing smoke. As the clouds curled up wards to the ceiling the tint of his thoughts became less roseate a feel ing of unrest possessed him. Ally's broken health and Cohen's brutality rankled in his mind, and for the first time in his life he found himself wan dering whether "Windy" Atkins, the demagogue of the yard, was not right after all in his denunciation of capital ists and his florid portrayal of the wrongs of labor. It did seem cruel that a fairly-educated, well-behaved girl like Ally should be wearing herself out for a bare subsistence. Then, there was that little trouble down at the yard not worth making a fuss about, certainly not to be men tioned to Nell perhaps, after all, he ought to have taken more interest in it and attended the meeting at O'Brien's saloon to-night. Hanged, if he didn't thiuk it would be a good thing to go and talk the matter over with that editor-fellow, Grey, if he should chance to be m his room. lie found our hero up to his eyes in study, but cordially glad to see him. I read that paper of yours, which Col. Gilchrist tossed into the waste basket, and see many good points in it perhaps too conservative for these critical times, but that is a good fault. "Well, sir," llarland answered, "I don't know, after all, that I'm right. It does seem hard that there should be so much suffering in this land of plenty, that one man should be rolling in riches and another equally industrious for 1 take no account of loafers should hardly be able to keep the wolf from the door." "Itdoes, indeed," Grey responded, df cisively, thinking of his own attenuated services ana inability to secure em ployment. "It is a hard problem to solve, and " Ho paused and blushed scarlet. "I'm trying to master it, Don't think that I ever hope to be the apostle of the New Civilization, but I may be one of its pioneers." llarland gazed at him with open- mouthed wonder. "Concentration of wealth led to the French revolution, class privileges, and unequal taxes. How is it in America? Big concerns backed by huge capital crush the life out of small tradesmen, who must become servants or starve. We have law enough, but no justice. Who cares for the law who has money "TOU ought to bs vert grateful to MB. BIDDULPH." and influence sufficient to defy it? Our tax administration is a disgrace to civ ilization, and" Still it's a pretty good country to live in, Mr. Grey." Yes, as long as yonr ox is not gored. If you could shut yonr eyes to the mis ery of thousands in this city of Chicago, you might think it a charming place to dwell in." "And what are you going to do about itr. Mass labor against capital." "By trades unions?" Yes. By concentrated action. By the power of the ballot box." "Talking of trades unions, I want your advice as to a case in point." "Proceed." "We had two men in our yard who have scamped their work and, as the saying goes, 'sassed the boss,' who gave them the sack. Now, there's some kind of a fuss about the matter and some of the men are attending a meeting to-night to talk the matter over. 1 don t suppose it win amount to much, but I'm kind of uneasy, and that's why I came upstairs." "Oh, that is all nonsense. The work- ingmen of this country are too intelli gent to make a mountain of such a molehill as that. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you." Nevertheless, just as llarland that night was going to bed, a tap came to the door, and a fellow workman beck oned him outside. I've been to the meeting, George, and I thought I'd drop in and tell you how things went." 'You might have saved yourself the trouble," llarland laughed. "I know how things went, just as though I'd been there. 'Windy' Atkins made a screed on the bloated lumber lords, there was a good deal of beer con sumed, and then Fred Sawyer and a few old hands just sat down on the sil ly performance." You are wrong, George, was the serious reply, "The only man who spoke at length was tho walking delegate from New York, and" Who in thunder's he?" llarland asked fiercely. "What can a New Yorker know about our local quarrels? And what did he say?" 'Ordered us all out on a strike without an hour's notice" CHAPTER X. A woman's W0R0. "From plague, pestilence and famine, from battle and murder and from sudden death," says the grand old Litany, "Good Lord, deliver us;" and assuredly, if the inspired sage who wrote these words had lived in the latter days, he would have added: "And from strikes and walking delegates," for humanity confronts no evil more appalling than the pitiless edict which goes forth that the breadwinner shall not toil, and his women and children shall be martyrs to the Great Cause of Labor versus Gapital. Down in the dust fall the devotees of reform and the juggernautic car of demagogism crushes them to powder. Only one little mouth of four weeks has elapsed since the shadow of evil fell upon the shipyards, and see what changes it has wrought. Men's very natures seem twisted from their normal beings from the passions which stir within them. And poor Joe Henderson Harland's young friend, who had just carried him the evil tidings as honest a young fel low as ever wielded an adze, was one of the first victims of the unreasoning hatred of wealth wrecking everything, even to Alice Palmer's love, for the bright "saleslady" was betrothed to him. The shipbuilders, driven to exaspera tion by the unreasonable demands of the union on Moore & Marston, had voted a general "lock-out," and two thousand heads of families in the city of Chicago were out of employment. Men gathered at the street corners, crowded the great labor halls, paraded with bands and nags, or cheered in mass meetings Schlossinger's fierce de nunciations of the bloated bond holders. Meanwhile supplies from the labor league were served with tolerable reg ularity, and all felt that right must triumph over might. Two months passed, and the subsidies from the central committee became less frequent. Still the masters stood firm: the men solid. Ihen went the startling whisper abroad that one hun dred French-Canadian skilled mechan ics had been hired in the place of the strikers, and that work would be re sumed, under protection of big patrols of police, at Moore & Marston's yard on the following Monday. Meanwhile how fared it with the narlands? But badly. The insurance policy has lapsed, the upholsterer has taken away the parlor furniture, though it was nearly paid for, the sewing ma chine has been replevied, and Nellie's pretty volumes have been seized under "cutthroat contract" by the book agent It is not a question of luxuries with them, but of bare subsistence. An empty cupboard! It is difficult for one living in this land o plenty to realize what that means what it means to see one's loved ones in want and lack the means of relieving them, In vain Alice Palmer humbly ap pealed to Cohen for reemployment; the 6trike had hurt business, she was told and she was not wanted. Grey meanwhile was busy. He had spoken at one or two meetings and per haps had done more harm to the cause of order than Sehlossinger could ac complish in his wildest flights of bla tant fury, for this young enthusiast brought forward batteries of strong ar gument that appealed to the reason rather than the emotion of men and made him converts of the cooler. steadier-hands, who had but laughed at their comrades' frenzies. Grey was in tense, earnest, ready to lay down his life for the cause. .Now, when the Monday morning came on which it was announced that Moore & Marston's yard would be "full blast" again, George llarland. who had all along declared that no union in a free country should stop him from working when work was to be got, started from his home with his dinner pail in his hand. "Do not be a fool; you are risking your life," had been Grey's advice, net- tied at the obstinacy of the man who would not acknowledge that the few must suffer for the benefit of the many. 'Do not go!" Alice cried, clinging tearfully on his arm. "Pshaw, girl!" he replied roughly. I never drew a cent of the union's money, and I've always declared that I would take the first job that came along. No man shall dictate to me whether I work or lie idle." ! So George llarland went to his doom. The day passed wearily for the women, rugnt came on, ana with heart-beating anxiety they waited the coming of the breadwinner. "George late," Nell said, nervously; "I do wish he would come." . Oh, he will be here before long, g Alice replied, with assumed cheerful ness. "Hark!" the young wife screamed as she flew to the door: "What is that noise in the street?" Grey, attracted by the tumult, flew downstairs and joined the trembling women. What a sight met their gaze! Their George the idol of this humble home with blood-stained face and torn clothes swinging his ax over his head and battling for his life against a hundred fierce assailants. In vain a dozen po licemen raUy round him. They are beaten down like grain before the sickle; and the mob, hoarse and furi ous, rushed over their bodies on to the victim. There was something grand in his despairing efforts, as, like a gladi ator, he faced his enemies. "Down with the scab! Kill him! kill him!" shriek a score of angry voices. Ah, surely it is all over. Felled to the earth by a crushing blow on the back of the head, he drops at the feet of his persecutors. Hang him! Hang him!" yell the in furiated mob. But over his prostrate body stands Frank Grey, unarmed pouring forth an impassioned appeal to the frenzied men to spare their victim. Impotent, but heroic effort. Men had lost their reason and become tigerlike in blind ferocity. An instant and he would have lain beside his senseless friend. when the hissing pings of rifle bullets pread terror among the crowd. "The inkertons! The Pinkertons!" is the cry, and as the name 01 that dreaded police agency is heard, the mob sways backwards and forwards for a moment, then breaks like an ocean wave spent by its own fury. All fly but one. He bends low over the fallen figure and lifts the nerveless arm which hides the battered face. "George flarland!" he shrieks. "My God, what have I done?" He helps Grey bear the lifeless bur- en to the House, he hears little Wil lie's piteous cry, as they lay it on the bed, he lingers for one moment at the door and tries to utter a few words of sympathy, which his parched lips re fuse to form, he looks in mute appeal to Alice, he sees her pointing to the door, and hears her scornful "Go!" with groan, as he slinks into the deserted street, straight on his way to give him self up at the nearest police station. For days George Harland's spirit hovered between life and death and all the time the wolf was at the door, and the poor, stricken women kiiew not where to turn for help, tooproud even to let their lodger know they were lacking the bare necessities of life. 'Allie," said the sorrowful wife one day, when George was convalescing, 'will you take care of Willie? I am go ing doWn town." "Yes; but where are you going, Nell?" "To the pawnbroker's," was the sad reply. "Oh, Nell!" Those wholive inless prosperous coun tries could hardlv understand the tone of anguish in the girl's tones, where none ' WHAT 1IAVE I DONE?" is so poor he would not blush to own he had fled to that last refuge of the destitute. "And I must bear my share of the sacrifice. Oh, do let me, JSell," ana Alice ran to fetch the pretty trinkets nn.l best dress it had cost her so much pinching to earn. In rapid succession all otner super fluities followed then the necessities, the spare sheets and blankets, George's best clothes, and one sorrowiui uay saw the young, sobbing wife draw her wedding ring from her finger and pass down the street to the house with the three golden balls. How vain had been George Harland's boast of his superb strength, mechan ical skill, temperate habits, and profita ble employment, ne, who had defied sickness and laughed at misfortune, now lay a physical wreck in a gaunt home blighted by the curse of a walk ing delegate. (To be Continued.) Beware of Ointments for Catarrh that Contain Mercury. a merenrv will sorely destroy the sm of mell nnd completely di-runiro the whole system. Such article sbould never be n9ed rxcept on prescrip tions from n-pn table physicians, m the damage they will do Is ten told to the (rood yon enn pos sibly derive from them. Hall's Cetarrh Core, manufactured by K. J. Cheney & Co., Toledo, O., contains no mercury, and Is taken Intertmlly, act ing directly upon the blood and mncaoas sur faces of the syitem. In buylnn Hall's Catarrh Cureje sure you (ret the genuine. His taken Internally, and made In Toledo, Ohio, by F. J, Ch-ney ft Co. Testimonials free. tir-Sold by Druggists, price 76c. per bottle.. iff I B-fljS ll FIERCE STORM IK KANSAS NEW WING OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL HALF RUINED. HAVOC OF THE ELEMENTS. Wind Tear Off the Roof and 'Weaken! the Walls and Rain Play Havoc With the Interior Buildings Reported Wrecked in Two Other Towns Fort Scott Visited by Another Flood. Empobia, Kan., Sept. 10. A fierce wind and rain storm visited this city yesterday afternoon and when it had passed it was found that the new east wing of the state normal school, which was dedicated last week by Governor Morrill and which had cost the state $50,000, was almost completely ruined. The north gable end was blown in and the roof rolled up like paper and carried half a block. Thus the entire inside of Albert Taylor hall was ex posed to the fierce rain and was almost completely ruined. The loss to the state is estimated at $25,000, the side walls being badly sprung so that part may have to be rebuilt. Considerable other damage was done down town. Clark's wholesale furni ture store was partially unroofed and his stock of goods more or less dam aged. Basements and cellars through out the city are flooded. Four inches of water fell in less than two hours. The town of Neosho Rapids, east of here, suffered severely from the floods and wind. Five business houses were destroyed and a number of dwellings damaged. At Hartford the home of E. W. Henry was blown away and Mr. and Mrs. Henry badly injured. The Decker livery barn was blown down and a number of horses killed. The rainfall, which aggregated eight inches was the heaviest since 1885, when eight and one-fourth inches fell in one night. A FLOOD AT FORT SCOTT. The Streams Up to the Highest Recent Mark Many Made Homeless. Fobt Scott, Kan., Sept. 10 A heavy ram which continued all night in southeast Kansas, flooded the creeks and damaged the crops greatly. The lower portion of this city is sub merged by the Marmaton river and Mill creek, which are out of their banks, and trains are coming in over the Memphis, Missouri Pacific and Missouri, Kansas & Texas roads in water almost up to the fire boxes. All communication wi:h the country north and west is shut off. Water is now up to the highest water mark of recent years and is etui ris ing. " Many residences are submerged and families are moving out of houses. Dr. Madden,. Eye, Ear, 3fo.se, and Throat diseases, over Rock Island ticket office, S. W. cor. 11 and O streets. Returned a Rebel Flag. An unusual death-bed scene was en acted at Syracuse, N. Y., the other day Colonel Silas Titus of the Twelfth New York volunteers, placed in the hands of his son a rebel flag captured from a Virginia regiment at the storming oi Mount McGregor in 1862, and said. "My son, it has ever been my fondest wish to restore this flag to' the hands of the officer of the brave regiment from which it was captured. My con dition, however, precludes the possibili ty of doing so, and to your hands I con fide It, with the sacred injunction thai you seek the officers of the regimen) and restore to them the emblem. Sa to them that from my deathbed I send back to them the flag with my heartiest good wishes and, fraternal feeling.'' Pay up your subscription and get a few ' new subscribers for The Wealtb Makers. Only 80c. from now till No vember 1st.. Headache Destroys Health Resulting in poor memory, irritability, ner vousness and intellectual exhaustion. 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