BY BREAD ALONE. 
 
By 
 
 B R EAD 
 
 ALONE 
 
 By 
 I. K. FRIEDMAN 
 
 Author of 
 The Lucky Number y Poor People 
 
 iorfe 
 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS Gf CO. 
 MCMI 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1901, 
 BY ISAAC K. FRIEDMAN. 
 
 FIRST IMPRESSION, OCTOBER, 1901. 
 SECOND IMPRESSION, NOVEMBER, 1901. 
 
DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND 
 
 German 31. fieitoitrf). 
 
 289 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR i 
 
 II. EVANGELINE S VISIT 13 
 
 III. SIGHING FURNACES 26 
 
 IV. THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 33 
 
 V. A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 50 
 
 VI. THE NEW HOME 66 
 
 VII. AN IDYLL OF THE MILLS 74 
 
 VIII. THE SHINDIG 7 8 
 
 IX. IN THE DARKNESS 88 
 
 X. THE DESTROYERS 96 
 
 XI. THE COTILLON 103 
 
 XII. IN THE STEEL MILL 114 
 
 XIII. THE BUILDERS 121 
 
 XIV. THE JUDSONS ^34 
 
 XV. IN THE RAIL MILL 152 
 
 XVI. THE SHUT-DOWN 159 
 
 XVII. HOMEWARD BOUND 17.2 
 
 XVIIL HOME, SWEET HOME 194 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIX. BLAIR RETURNS 2 o6 
 
 XX. THE MAN OF THE Ho 
 XXI. PENTON S AMUSEMENT 
 
 XX. THE MAN OF THE HOUR 213 
 
 229 
 
 XXII. THE RING 234 
 
 XXIII. DRAMATIC MOMENTS 249 
 
 XXIV. AMID GREEN FIELDS 259 
 
 XXV. EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 273 
 
 XXVI. THE BEGINNING OF THE END 290 
 
 XXVII. ON THE EVE 29 8 
 
 XXVIII. THE END OF THE BEGINNING 309 
 
 XXIX. To ARMS ! 324 
 
 XXX. THE COUNTER MOVE , 346 
 
 XXXI. THE BATTLE 3 r^ 
 
 XXXII. THE MILITIA 363 
 
 XXXIII. FRIENDS IN NEED 38! 
 
 XXXIV. THE PEACE OF ORESTES 388 
 
 XXXV. THE GIANT IN CHAINS 404 
 
 XXXVI. A POLISH WEDDING 4 n 
 
 XXXVII. SIEGE 424 
 
 XXXVIII. SURRENDER 448 
 
 XXXIX. THE SAMSONS OF THE MILL 464 
 
 XL. How JOURNEYS END 47 c 
 
BY BREAD ALONE. 
 
I 
 
 THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR 
 
 BLAIR CARRHART had a mind of his own; he 
 had had it since boyhood; and it became more 
 peculiarly his own, more strikingly unlike any 
 other, as he left his boyhood farther and farther be 
 hind him. Those who knew him least shrugged their 
 shoulders and dismissed him with the exclamation, 
 "Eccentric!" And indeed to the dull, the conven 
 tional, and the commonplace, Blair s marked individual 
 ity of mind and conduct might easily pass for eccen 
 tricity. Those who knew him best considered him too 
 worthy to be so easily dismissed, and they hit nearer 
 the mark when they termed him original. 
 
 " Carrhart," once said a candid friend at the uni 
 versity, " a good many of the fellows consider you 
 eccentric." 
 
 " I may be," answered Blair, " but it s a pity to dis 
 turb me, I enjoy myself so thoroughly." 
 
 Blair s answer may be taken as Blair s attitude to 
 wards what the world and people thought. He went 
 his own way quietly, solving the problems of life for 
 himself, and refusing to accept the solutions of others. 
 It never occurred to him that he deserved either con 
 demnation or commendation for bending his actions to 
 his convictions ; it would have been impossible for him 
 
 I 
 
2 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 to do otherwise. He was built along those lines. 
 Compromise to him was something that met hypocrisy 
 half-way; and the golden mean was a comfortable 
 road for fairly good people who wished to jog through 
 life without tiring their virtues or being too hard on 
 their vices. Blair was too strong to be half of any 
 thing. 
 
 Blair s pleasures were distinguished by the same 
 quality; he wished to enjoy himself in his own way 
 and he did it. He was not the man to brook interfer 
 ence ; and his towering frame and powerful muscles 
 saved him the trouble of proclaiming it. However, he 
 was gentle and kind enough, he had no desire either to 
 use or abuse his superior strength ; it was there ; it 
 had been given to him; perhaps it might come handy 
 some day ; and there the matter ended. 
 
 The only deceitful thing about Blair Carrhart was 
 his appearance, and, as Blair used to say, that was not 
 his fault. No one, to strike him on an average 
 day, seemed so absolutely calm and serene, so at ease 
 with his own heart. He had the air of one who takes 
 the whole world for his inn and who can put up with 
 comfort anywhere. 
 
 \Yhen he strolled across the campus, pipe in mouth, 
 hands in his pockets, he seemed the incarnation of 
 happy laziness ; but, as a matter of fact, it was only 
 the complete repose after some wearing mental con 
 flict, and there was not one lazy fiber in Blair s big 
 anatomy. 
 
 " Carrhart," remarked the same friend one day t " I 
 envy you." 
 
 "Why?" asked Blair. 
 
 " You seem to carry your own bed with you and to 
 nap whenever you like during the day." 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR 3 
 
 " Yes," retorted Blair, undisturbed, " but you don t 
 know that I am up at night long after you are asleep." 
 
 There were long days of restlessness, too, when 
 one battle or another was going on in his breast, that 
 beheld Blair moving across campus and country with 
 his peculiarly long strides, as if he were trying to 
 elude some demon that dogged his heels. 
 
 Nor was he incapable of losing his temper, injustice 
 of any kind was quick to arouse it; and to see him 
 angry, thoroughly downright angry, was a sight a 
 beautiful sight if one were not its object. His ponder 
 ous chest heaving, his whole gigantic frame trembling, 
 his jaws squared, the prominent vein that ran through 
 his high forehead to his aggressive nose empurpling 
 it was a study in passion ; but one had to think 
 quickly to master the study; for it was all over as it 
 came, in a trice. 
 
 Usually he wore his easy comfortable attitude in the 
 class ; when his large body sprawled out he seemed 
 the only person in a room too small. If he failed in his 
 recitations, which was often enough, he did it in such 
 a graceful manner that the professor seemed at fault 
 for putting absurd questions. If Blair averaged low 
 in mathematics, one felt somehow that mathematics 
 were unimportant; or that Mr. Blair Carrhart, at any 
 rate, chose to consider them so. His intellect was 
 brilliant, quick in its grasp, but Blair was inclined to 
 occupy it with studies other than the day demanded. 
 He read Shakespere when he should have been study 
 ing philosophy, and he had the best knowledge on the 
 subject of any man in the college at the wrong time. 
 However, Blair consoled himself with the reflection 
 that his great pleasure more than compensated for his 
 low rank. 
 
4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 In his junior year Blair decided to take part in the 
 oratorical contest. " Carrhart," said the instructor in 
 elocution, " I never thought you had ambition enough 
 to do a thing of that kind." 
 
 "Neither did I," answered Blair dryly, " the in 
 spiration surprised me." 
 
 Blair entered the debate with his subject, " Modern 
 Education," carefully prepared. It was a wonderful 
 oration, all things considered. Nothing like it had 
 ever been heard in the college halls. It scathed mod 
 ern educators and education alike. It clearly showed 
 the folly of coming to college when so much more 
 might have been learned by staying at home. He 
 called college presidents misplaced financiers, and 
 financiers misplaced college presidents. He said man 
 was fashioned out of earth, college professors out of 
 dry dust. 
 
 His auditors were astonished at the transformation 
 which Blair s appearance underwent on the platform ; 
 it was difficult for them to recognize the lazy stroller 
 of the campus in the man of fire, passion, and grace 
 who stood before them. He was the orator born. He 
 had the voice of a God to threaten, to command, to 
 cajole, to thrill ; musical and sonorous, it filled the 
 hall without being lifted above conversational tones, 
 and when he raised it to an oratorical pitch he lifted 
 the hall. The large head, the long smooth face, with 
 its coarse features, the square chin and jaws, the ag 
 gressive beaked nose, the brown eyes, at once pene 
 trating and challenging, seemed there to insist upon 
 the importance and sincerity of every word that 
 poured from the strong lips of his mouth. 
 
 It was evident enough that Blair Carrhart thought, 
 that he could express his ideas forcibly and clearly, 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR 5 
 
 and that he was absolutely without fear when it came 
 to the uttering of the things he felt should be spoken. 
 People wondered what he would do next. There was 
 apparently a great element of reserved force in this 
 huge chap who lolled across the campus, pipe in 
 mouth, seemingly so satisfied with the world as it 
 ran and himself as he was. 
 
 Blair was not sent to the intercollegiate contest. 
 The judges were in doubt lest a duller and more 
 promiscuous audience take Blair s sarcasm in all se 
 riousness. They advised him to try again with a 
 more appropriate subject and they praised his voice. 
 Nevertheless his epigrams were quoted far and wide, 
 and he became a marked man on the campus. The 
 professors turned to look at him when he passed, 
 and the president greeted him with an equivocal smile, 
 but Blair strolled lazily along in happy oblivion of 
 both one and the other. 
 
 Despite his abstraction, his aloofness, his utter in 
 difference to appearance, Blair was regarded with 
 favor by more than one young woman in that co 
 educational institution ; but the favor of the other sex 
 escaped his attention. He had a faint suspicion that 
 women existed, and he never troubled himself to dis 
 cover whether or not the suspicion was warranted. 
 
 Nevertheless a love affair was inevitable; it is the 
 most vital study necessary for the education of youth 
 not scheduled in. the university catalogue. Blair 
 Carrhart and Evangeline Marvin had known each 
 other since childhood and their ways parted only when 
 Blair entered the high school and Evangeline left for 
 a private academy; at the university tHey met again. 
 The mysterious law of opposites and other laws more 
 explicable attracted Blair to Evangeline, and she de- 
 
6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 termined upon renewing- the friendship so long inter 
 rupted. 
 
 At first Evangeline s task was not easy ; Blair was 
 possessed by the idea that if a woman popped into his 
 mind all his serious purposes would pop out of it, and 
 her timid and gentle advances were met much as a 
 deer greets a hunter, gun in hand. 
 
 " I always liked Evangeline mightily well," thought 
 Blair, and that, in his estimation, seemed the best rea 
 son in the world for avoiding her. A few talks and 
 a few walks and Blair discovered himself taking 
 Evangeline more seriously ; her mind was anything 
 but the conventionally cut-out-and-dried sort of an 
 affair, and Blair opened his eyes wide and looked 
 down at her in grave perplexity when she vented her 
 opinions. " She s a nice girl and she thinks clearly," 
 he admitted. 
 
 The barriers erected to oppose the entrance of fem 
 ininity were rapidly swept away and his thoughts dwelt 
 on her at a length which won Blair s disapproval. 
 " She s pretty and attractive in every way/ he finally 
 admitted. Blair began to pay attention to his dress. 
 Their friendship, without Blair s voice in the matter, 
 ripened into love swiftly, and at the beginning of their 
 junior year they were betrothed. 
 
 The mental contrast between the two was strong. 
 Evangeline was a bundle of emotions held together by 
 a strong rope of brain ; and she was in constant dread 
 lest the rope break and the bundle fly apart ; it was 
 the other way around with Blair. She clung to him 
 for his strength of mind, his assurance, the positive- 
 ness of his convictions, his fearlessness, the protection 
 which his rugged masculinity offered against the 
 rough usages of the world. 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR 7 
 
 Her seriousness couched in womanly grace, never 
 somber or heavy; her sadness that faintly tinged all 
 her varying moods, that constantly peeped through her 
 persistent battle for happiness and contentment, like 
 bits of brown and withered herbage through fields 
 covered with snow ; her earnest desire to find a place 
 in the world that should not be one of mere decora 
 tion; her fear lest the place be found and she prove a 
 superfluous ornament these were all qualities that 
 made their impress in Blair s heart. It was like an ivy 
 twining softly around the oak, in gratitude for its 
 protection, to prevent its broken branches from falling 
 to the ground. 
 
 Meantime Blair was worried over the choice of a 
 profession. By nature Blair was religious, even devo 
 tional; and he had entered the university with the 
 idea of fitting himself for the ministry, but his studies 
 in philosophy and science disturbed his faith. His 
 senior year came and found him still undecided, his 
 faith trembling in the balance; and his parents, who 
 were anxiously awaiting Blair s decision, were kept in 
 the dark. Blair s father hoped that religion would 
 lose in its struggle against science. He had the usual 
 objections of the successful man of affairs to the min 
 istry ; and besides he wished Blair to assist him in his 
 business. Then Blair arrived at his resolution, and it 
 were as difficult to change it as to put a broken egg 
 together. 
 
 One night in June, just before Commencement, 
 Blair walked out alone among the hills that rose 
 from the ground along the river like billows from a 
 sea. He reached a favorite spot and sat in silence, 
 smoking. The June night was perfect. All that was 
 spiritual in the man communed with the mysterious 
 
8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Maker who nailed the stars in the sky and gave the 
 moon to the darkness. The clock from the tower of 
 the university hall struck ten sonorous strokes that 
 echoed away into silence. Eleven came and still Blair 
 sat there in reverie. The hill seemed made for a 
 seat ; the sky a drapery for the background of his stal 
 wart body ; the stars swinging lamps to illumine the 
 vast hall of the night. 
 
 Far down in the lowlands, where the river ran into 
 a sluggish bayou, the dead tamaracs lifted up their 
 stark branches like the praying hands of monks robed 
 in black ; the green wild rice shimmered and fluttered. 
 The myriad life of the stagnant pools was awake and 
 chattering; and at long intervals the hooting of an 
 owl broke in the chorus harshly. 
 
 The green live tamaracs on the hills seemed perched 
 there like sentinels to guard the somber field of the 
 dead. The moon emerged from a bank of white 
 clouds ; a soft light exhaled from the swamp like an 
 illuminated mist. 
 
 Blair buried his face in his hands ; the pipe dropped 
 from his mouth to the ground. He was overcome by 
 the great inexplicable forces at work everywhere, by 
 the godliness of the night, by the strong and rever 
 ential emotions that shook his breast. His decision 
 was taken then and there ; the battle of thought was 
 over. He surrendered himself to the universe, to the 
 warm earth, to the heavens. He did not belong to 
 himself. It was as if he stretched out his hand and 
 God had grasped it. 
 
 He arose; his huge figure dominating the nieht. 
 " You have accepted me," he said to himself softly, his 
 large head thrown back, his hands clenched, " I will 
 always speak the truth, fearlessly, as I know it. I will 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR 9 
 
 defend justice and uphold the poor and the lowly. I 
 will, I always will. Help me ! " 
 
 The river laughed and gurgled as it wound between 
 the hills ; the stars twinkled as if approving his decla 
 ration. Blair walked homeward slowly, drinking in 
 the pure air with deep breaths; his strong face was 
 smiling, peaceful as the night itself, happy as nature 
 in June. Life was good, full of great possibilities, ma 
 jestic with noble purposes; and his face became ra 
 diant with the thought that inspired him. 
 
 When Carrhart senior attended the commence 
 ment exercises he knew the case was hopeless, and, 
 like a wise father, he let his determined son have his 
 own way, and, mlaking the best of a bad situation, he 
 put his social and financial influence at work to secure 
 Blair an important pulpit. Three years later Blair 
 was established in one of the most aristocratic of Chi 
 cago s churches. 
 
 Blair s first sermon pleased his father immensely 
 he had never enjoyed a sermon so well in his life. He 
 was almost alone in his admiration ; the congregation 
 wagged its plutocratic heads and shook its fashionable 
 bonnets disapprovingly. The new minister s voice 
 was magnificent; his delivery Websterian, every one 
 agreed to that, but his sentiments were perhaps better 
 unexpressed. 
 
 " If Blair remains in the church a year he is doing 
 well," thought the father, well satisfied, previsioning 
 Blair at work in IT S office. 
 
 Carrhart senior proved too generous in his time 
 terms by over a half. Doubt after doubt assailed 
 Blair before five months passed over his ordina 
 tion. The reconciliation he had effected between 
 religion and science proved of short duration; his 
 
10 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 mental life passed through a new phase and the scien 
 tific view of life and dogma wrought havoc to his 
 creed. The law of Blair s mind was constant inquiry 
 and incessant questioning ; alertness and vigilance were 
 necessary for his intellectual existence. 
 
 " You might better have had your doubts before you 
 went into the ministry," suggested his father mildly. 
 
 " My doubts have never been inclined to accommo 
 date me," answered the son. 
 
 Moreover Blair was rapidly becoming- socialistic: 
 to say that of most men means a few empty phrases 
 that glide off the tongue without having touched the 
 heart ; to say it of Blair means everything. A day s 
 work had called him into the depths of the city s most 
 degraded slums, and that evening saw the completion 
 of his task in the home of his wealthiest member. The 
 vivid contrast made a lasting impression on Blair s 
 heart. His blood boiled at the pity of it ; repeated 
 visits sent it scalding to his heart. After awhile his 
 blood cooled and his thoughts on the subject grew 
 deeper and longer. 
 
 To preach a farewell sermon that should set forth 
 his radical views and show why it would be both in 
 consistent and ignoble for him to abide longer within 
 the pale of the church seemed to Blair to smack of the 
 sensational and to offer a bid for notoriety ; so he re 
 signed as unostcntatiouslv as he could, with the sim 
 ple announcement that he believed he could serve the 
 God he loved to better advantage elsewhere. 
 
 The same inspiration that called Blair to the min 
 istry called him away from it, to fields afar. It was 
 now as if the hand of God were stretched out to him, 
 leading him whither he was most needed. He was as 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF BLAIR n 
 
 calm mentally, as peaceful at heart, as on that mem 
 orable June night at the university. 
 
 " Well, Blair," said the father, " I presume you are 
 ready now for a desk in the office. 
 
 Blair shook his head sadly. " No, I fear not. I 
 have been ranting about present-day evils and the 
 wrongs inflicted on the people, and I have been taking 
 too many of my facts from reading and superficial ob 
 servation ; I wish to lead their life and find out for my 
 self. I have a new gospel to preach and I wish to 
 learn my gospel thoroughly before I preach." 
 
 " I hope that six months of that life will satisfy you, 
 Blair." 
 
 " I have no voice in the matter," answered Blair. 
 
 Beyond the leaving of his home and the desertion 
 of his father, one thing only distressed Blair and 
 pained him; the new emprise demanded a devotee with 
 a single heart ; it required the immolation of every 
 personal interest; all consideration of self and others 
 that might tend, however slightly, to divert his 
 mind from his devotions must be ruthlessly swept 
 aside ; he must leave Evangeline and all thoughts of 
 her behind, to follow his duty. He could not serve 
 Cupid and his mission. He might be gone months, 
 years, perhaps forever, in so far as he knew. He 
 could not condemn her to the hardships he must un 
 dergo; he dared not nurse the fond illusion that he 
 could end his journey when he chose to return to .her. 
 
 To bind her to h ; s uncertain life with a promise that 
 love had given and that time and change and caution 
 might make her regret was manifestly unjust, even 
 cruel. There was no other way, the enslavement must 
 be broken. It was a sacrifice, equally great for him 
 and for her, that he must lay on the altar of his exact- 
 
12 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ing cause to prove the sincerity of his faith. As he 
 had said to his father, he had no voice in the matter ; 
 it was so written, he was in the hand of forces beyond 
 his control. 
 
 Evangeline listened to Blair s declaration with a 
 smiling face and an aching heart. Patiently and 
 meekly she heard him to the end; and not one single 
 word of upbraiding escaped her lips. " You know, 
 Blair, that I am willing to go with you to the end of 
 the earth," was her sole plea. 
 
 He remained obdurate. She knew him too well to 
 expostulate ; and she bowed, stunned and bruised, be 
 fore his inexorable will. Through her heart, bursting 
 with love for this strange Arthur of the industrial age, 
 there welled up a fervent Godspeed. 
 
 A few days after his separation from Evangeline, 
 Blair Carrhart was at work in the North-Western 
 Rolling-Mills. Choice and not chance had decided 
 both the place and the occupation. It was public 
 knowledge that the employees of the company were 
 restless and dissatisfied ; and several times the Chicago 
 papers had printed rumors of an approaching strike. 
 The unions were aroused to the point of anger, the day 
 laborers were restless ; both complained bitterly about 
 the disproportion between the work and the pay. 
 Moreover, the Company owned the homes of the la 
 borers, and it was charged with levying extortionate 
 rents. Over the question of repairs, which were made 
 at the expense of the tenant, a riot had all but oc 
 curred. Taking all these things into consideration, 
 Blair thought that the North-Western Rolling-Mills 
 offered peculiar advantages for a start. 
 
II 
 
 EVANGELINE S VISIT 
 
 EVANGELINE MARVIN paced restlessly up 
 and down the waiting-room that guarded the 
 entrance to her father s private office. She 
 took off her gloves and waved them, now with one 
 hand, now with the other, absently flicking the snow off 
 her gown. She seated herself near the door of the 
 apartment, of which she was the sole occupant, and 
 then she arose to continue her fretful walk. It was 
 evident that she was struggling to collect her thoughts ; 
 it was equally evident that her excitement made the 
 collection impossible. 
 
 Evangeline had come to bespeak her father s aid 
 for a cherished plan she had in view, and she wished 
 to present her arguments clearly and precisely ; for if 
 she was to obtain his ass stance, clearness and pre 
 cision were indispensable means. She previsioned 
 her father as he shook his handsome gray head v 
 stroked his silken gray mustache and remarked : 
 
 " You re not clear, Van. I m very busy this morn 
 ing. You must be precise." 
 
 She feared her father; her heart misgave her, and 
 she was sorry that she had come. No, she had seen 
 Blair Carrhart, and her coming rejoiced her. Then 
 she knew not whether to be glad or sorry; as a mat 
 ter of fact it was impossible for her to tell. 
 
 A half-hour ago, light of heart and undisturbed, she 
 13 
 
1 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 had considered it fine fun to fight her way against 
 wind and snow through the town that bore the family 
 name. Several times she had slipped and fallen ; but 
 with a smile she had arisen to her feet and struggled 
 on, maintaining her balance with difficulty. 
 
 She made an attractive picture with that wild storm 
 for a frame. The chinchilla trimmings on her black 
 tailor-made gown, her chinchilla muff and collar, were 
 frosted with white; the snow sparkled like ornaments, 
 rare and rich, on the crescent pompadour of her au 
 burn hair, and the flakes melting on the long dark 
 lashes made her blue eyes shine luminously through 
 the moisture. The wind had heightened her pink- 
 cheeks to a red not at all unbecoming. 
 
 The sun came out as she progressed, and diapered 
 the snow with infinite jewels, scattered lavishly. To 
 Evangeline the town of Marvin was not unattractive 
 under its dazzling robe of white that hid from view its 
 multitude of sins against the beautiful. 
 
 Then an unexpected incident disturbed her enjoy 
 ment and took the edge off her keen zest of life. A 
 gust of wind, fierce and prolonged, lifted the snow 
 in a drift and blotted out the landscape. A man strode 
 past her ; Evangeline heard his heavy steps crunch the 
 snow. The gust died away ; the intcrven r ng sheet of 
 white fluttered to the ground. She drew a deep and 
 prolonged breath and plowed on, holding her hat 
 with her hand. 
 
 The size of the man attracted her attention ; then 
 her attention was transfixed. She stood still ; surprise 
 fastened her feet. Those broad shoulders ; the huge, 
 well-proportioned frame, the peculiarly long strides, 
 the back of the head that ran down straight and square 
 to the nape of the powerful neck ! 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 15 
 
 She smiled wistfully, shaking her head and speak 
 ing a " no, no " to herself. Nevertheless she hastened 
 on, fairly running. The man climbed down a row of 
 icy stairs and cut across the open prairie towards the 
 rolling-mills. Evangeline followed. She slipped on 
 the stairs and fell. She pulled herself to her feet, and 
 in desperation, giving way to impulse, called out: 
 
 "Blair! Blair!" 
 
 Her voice was lost in the bawling wind. 
 
 The man stopped to greet a toiler evidently return 
 ing from work. Slowly his face was turned towards 
 her. It was Blair! It was Blair Carrhart ! Her 
 heart, throbbing wildly, snatched her breath. 
 
 Evangeline Marvin skimming across the ice of the 
 prairie made Jan Brodski wonder as he paused to fol 
 low her flight. Tugging at his red beard, perplexed, 
 Jan went homewards. Blair Carrhart, innocent of 
 what Jan had seen, disappeared in the maw of the 
 mill and hurried to his place before open-hearth fur 
 nace No. 5. 
 
 Blair had scarcely faced the sweltering heat from 
 the furnace, exposing his back to the cold winds that 
 blew through the open side of the building, when 
 Evangeline reached the mill gate. 
 
 The office boy announced Evangeline s presence to 
 her father. The president was busy and his daughter 
 was obliged to wait; and the longer she was kept in 
 waiting the greater grew her excitement and agita 
 tion. Over a week ago she had heard from Blair 
 Carrhart s mother that her son was at work in the 
 North- Western Mills, but chancing upon him thus un 
 expectedly had quite upset Evangeline. 
 
 Although Blair had ruthlessly broken the tie that 
 bound her to him, still Evangeline liked to feel that he 
 
16 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 was near her, that she might see him if it were neces 
 sary, that an emergency, a crisis, would bring him to 
 her side. She dreaded the belief that he had passed 
 out of her life ; and her anxiety increased to positive 
 pain when Blair left Chicago, and the days waxed and 
 waned and brought not even an indirect word con 
 cerning him. 
 
 Social life society in the mere fashionable sense 
 was an empty, unsatisfying thing to Evangeline, and 
 since leaving the university she had found an outlet 
 for her activities in writing of one kind and another, 
 and in settlement work. Some friends who had been 
 engaged in a North Side Settlement suggested that 
 they start a new enterprise of their own in Marvin. 
 The suggestion came simultaneously with her learn 
 ing of Blair s whereabouts from his mother. Evange 
 line welcomed the plan, trying hard to delude herself 
 with the idea that no thought of Blair s entrance into 
 Marvin had auqiit to do with the welcome. Finally 
 she was brave enough to recognize the delusion, then 
 she appeased her conscience with the reflection that 
 the institution in itself would be a noble thing ; and 
 that she and Blair, unknown to each other, in some 
 mysterious manner not clear to Evangeline, might 
 work towards the same end ; and beyond that she 
 dared not look. 
 
 Again she seated herself, again she paced back and 
 forth in a futile endeavor to recall her chain of care 
 fully prepared arguments in favor of the Settlement ; 
 but the strong features of Blair s face instead of the 
 arguments answered the call. If she pinned her 
 wandering mind down to a familiar phrase or a conned 
 sentence, Blair arose and drew the pin away. 
 
 The office door opened. Several men in slouch hats 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 17 
 
 and woolen shirts filed out. When Evangeline en 
 tered, her father was tipped back on his swivel-chair, 
 his hands crossed behind his head, gazing wearily at 
 the ceiling and yawning. The inverted V-shaped 
 wrinkle that sloped down his broad forehead towards 
 the bridge of his firm well-set nose, smoothed out and 
 gave way to a faint smile when his daughter ap 
 proached. 
 
 "So it s you, Van, is it?" he said pleasantly. 
 
 " Yes. You seem tired already and the day s just 
 begun," she remarked, sympathetically. 
 
 "Hm! Not exactly tired; but I have just had a 
 troublesome wrangle about wages with the men. You 
 chose a bad day to come way out here. What brings 
 you?" 
 
 " I wish to speak to you about something," she an 
 swered, toying with her muff. 
 
 " How did you get in ? " 
 
 " The gatekeeper let me in." 
 
 "Without a pass?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " That s against the rules," and he jotted down a 
 note concerning the gatekeeper s negligence on the 
 square pad in front of him. " Nbw, Van, to the point. 
 I m fearfully busy; if I had time to spare I d rather 
 spend it with you than anybody; but I haven t a sec 
 ond," he said, facing his littered table suggestively. 
 
 " You never have a second to spare ; you re worse 
 than your Swiss watch," she sighed, her face shading 
 to a rather sad pensiveness. It was an unusually bold 
 statement for her, and, after she had spoken, she was 
 surprised at her own temerity. 
 
 Parental love had always been meted out to Evange 
 line meagerly and the lack of it had threatened to kill 
 
1 8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the budding tenderness of her young soul. It was not 
 to be wondered at that her love for Blair was well- 
 nigh consuming; he had been her all in all; her world ; 
 she had none else to love beside him. Marriage had 
 been a failure, bleak and dire, for her parents, and the 
 two drifted farther and farther apart as the years 
 went on, and Evangeline was left to her own resources 
 in the widening breach. Her mother brooded over her 
 husband s desertion, and when she discovered that she 
 was wife in name alone, her fitful nervousness be 
 came a settled melanchol : a from which she sought 
 escape in the horrible refuge of drugs. 
 
 Evangeline revered her father for the very qualities 
 which kept her yearning fondness unsatisfied and at 
 bay, the mighty masculinity of his character, his 
 singleness of purpose, his derision of obstacles, his 
 indomitable persistence in the mastery of industry. Yet 
 he had never understood her, apparently caring little 
 whether he did or not ; he was never interested in the 
 chief concerns of her life. His very caresses were be 
 stowed as if they had been measured out w r ith a calcu 
 lation aforethought. 
 
 All her life long Evangeline had the tantalizing 
 sense of losing something, missing something, which 
 was as essential to the spirit as breath to the blood. 
 Her deprivation was the more agonizing because she 
 knew this something was the common heritage of hu 
 manity denied only in the instance of the abnormal and 
 the unnatural. 
 
 With what different colors was the world tinged 
 when the love of Blair entered her heart, filled it, and 
 drove out its gloom ! It was terrible, tragic, to love as 
 she had ; and she discovered the terribleness of the 
 tragedy only when he separated from her, when the 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 19 
 
 world wore sable again, and the old morbid gloom 
 oppressed her heart, crowding into the nooks and cor 
 ners from which his love had lured it. 
 
 Henry Marvin picked up a document, bound like a 
 lawyer s brief, and laid it down on the table, with a 
 slight start. " I m sorry to be short," he said in kindly 
 tones, stroking his silvery mustache, " but I have an 
 important appointment at eleven sharp; and it lacks 
 but a quarter of that now. He gazed wearily at the 
 oblong cherry wood regulator, like a man whose life is 
 tyrannized over by a clock and who is powerless to 
 prevent the tyranny. 
 
 Evangeline hastened to express the purpose of her 
 mission. When put to the test, as so often happens, 
 her fears proved groundless, her nervousness van 
 ished; every thought of Blair disappeared as she met 
 her father s cold penetrating eyes, and she presented 
 her arguments in their rehearsed consecution. 
 
 Henry Marvin nodded slightly, as if to show that 
 he was following, and he strummed on the table with 
 the tips of his fingers : in reality, as soon as he learned 
 what her desire was, he had ceased to listen ; for he 
 had already labeled the thing with his broad mental 
 veto of what he was fond of terming " fancy busi 
 ness." 
 
 " Well," he commented, when she had done, " I ll 
 have to look into that at my leisure. I expect to have 
 time to-night at home." He looked up at the clock. 
 It pointed five minutes to eleven. " I think I ll tele 
 phone for a carriage and send you home." 
 
 " Oh, no, I don t wish to go home," she objected. 
 " I wish to through the mills first." 
 
 " I d rather have you go home, Van ; it s dangerous 
 out there; one can never tell what " 
 
20 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " I know, but I can be careful," she pleaded. She 
 visioned Blair at work out there, and she would see 
 him somewhere, she must. 
 
 Gazing at the regulator apprehensively, Marvin did 
 not listen. 
 
 The side door of the room adjoining Marvin s office 
 opened, and Walter Putnam, the treasurer of the Com 
 pany, stepped in. He bowed to Evangeline, extending 
 his hand. 
 
 " Putnam," spoke up Marvin, " my daughter wants 
 to go through the mills. Can you spare time to guide 
 her?" 
 
 " Yes, gladly," he answered, and his expressionless 
 countenance lighting up, showed that the gladness was 
 keenly felt as well as enthusiastically spoken. The 
 office boy announced that there were people in wait 
 ing. Putnam and Evangeline started towards the 
 yards. 
 
 Evangeline knew Walter Putnam well, or rather she 
 had met him often, and she regarded him as a zero 
 a negative quantity in the number of her acquaint 
 ances ; she was no more aware of his presence than 
 conscious of his absence. She associated with his 
 name a tall, thin form, stick-like in its proportions and 
 carriage, a smooth young-old face, and a capacity for 
 business that had won him high position in her father s 
 company ; such was Walter Putnam to her. Putnam, 
 on the other hand, mistaking Evangeline s gracious 
 affability for affection, considered that he ranked high, 
 if not highest in her esteem, and he was rejoiced over 
 his rank. She was rich, pretty, intelligent the three 
 very modern graces, and the smallest of these is intelli 
 gence and a marriage with her would give Putnam s 
 inordinate ambition the place it craved in both the 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 21 
 
 social and the financial world; Marvin s mills were 
 the whole world of finance to Putnam. He was wait 
 ing for a propitious moment to propose ; and somehow 
 every moment save the propitious one came; but Put 
 nam had long ago learned the lesson of laboring and 
 waiting. 
 
 Evangeline and her guide moved down the office 
 stairs and into the yards of the mill. Towards the 
 lake, far as the eye could follow, extended an inter 
 minable row of high round chimneys that broke the 
 sky above them into a line as jagged as the blade of a 
 great saw. They loomed forth against the heavens 
 like the preserved pillars amid the ruins of some an 
 cient temple a temple consecrated to the modern 
 worship of the ancient Mammon. 
 
 Evangeline listened to Putnam s lucid explanation 
 of the machinery as they went from building to build 
 ing, with an absent nod of the head, much like her 
 father s. The marvelous mechanical processes seemed 
 to interest her but little; for she kept looking away 
 from the mills at the men as if in search for somebody ; 
 and Putnam s restless, inquiring eyes peered at her 
 over his glasses wonderingly. Luckily the din and 
 roar precluded much conversation and Evangeline 
 was allowed to dream on without interruption. 
 
 They reached the plate-mill. Sheltered by a project 
 ing angle of the wall, she saw the heavy scarlet slabs 
 of steel pass groaning under the rolls, returning thin 
 ner and thinner, changing from scarlet to saffron, 
 spreading out like dough under the pressure of a 
 rolling-pin. 
 
 " Watch now ! " said Putnam suddenly. 
 
 Evangeline turned in time to catch sight of a man 
 throwing a shovelful of salt over the red-hot sur- 
 
22 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 face of the attenuated plate ; there came a deafening 
 clap as of thunder, and a magenta efflorescence spread 
 between the rolls. As she watched the great electric 
 magnets pick up the cold drab sheets, weighing tons, 
 and carry them away towards the cutting-machines, 
 much as a toy magnet might carry a pin, Evangeline, 
 in her admiring wonder, even forgot to look for Blair. 
 They were in the open air of the yards before she had 
 time to look around, and her heart sank, fearing she 
 mght have missed him. 
 
 They entered the ground floor of the open-hearth 
 furnaces, littered with piles of scrap, parts of dis 
 carded machinery, cars of molds and pyramids of 
 dross ; amid which the toilers loomed up like grass 
 hoppers in a summer field, insignificant and small. 
 
 " Are you going to pour soon ? " asked Putnam of 
 Bach, the German superintendent. 
 
 "Yah, in von minute de last furnace," he touched, 
 his hat respectfully and moved on, puffing heavily. 
 
 Out of two high wooden horses and heavy planks 
 some eight or ten men were hastily constructing the 
 tapping-platform in the portion of the pit that fronted 
 the last furnace. They could hear Bach s guttural 
 voice shouting peremptory directions. Evangeline 
 drew nearer, with the faint hope that she might dis 
 cover Blair among the men. 
 
 The pitmen, lifting a long iron bar, mounted the 
 platform. They were on a level with the tapping-hole 
 of the furnace, and they began to prod through the 
 dolomite to let the steel escape. They threw the bar 
 down, jumped to the ground, and hastened to pull the 
 platform away in order to make room for the great 
 ladle, now being swung forward by the overhead 
 crane. Every part of the work must be done like 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 23 
 
 lightning; in less than twelve minutes the metal may 
 become too cold to pour from the receiving ladle into 
 the molds that stand in the pit. 
 
 " Mein Got, vy don t you fellers vatch out ! Evan- 
 geline heard Bach s bawling voice and simultaneously 
 an ominous fearful crash. She did her best to turn 
 away, but she was fascinated and could not. Putnam 
 shut his eyes, biting his under lip. Evangeline covered 
 her face with her hands. Heart-rending groans were 
 palpitating through the pit, and the laborers were 
 rushing in all directions, screaming, gesticulating, their 
 faces stiff with horror. The men, in their hurry, had 
 not worked in unison and two of them had been 
 crushed by the unwieldy planks when the horses were 
 jerked from under. Shrieking whistles blew to sum 
 mon the " sailor-gang " to help clear away the ob 
 struction and get the ladle in front of the furnaces 
 before the steel was wasted in the sand of the pit. The 
 men toiled like demons to lift the crushing 1 planks off 
 their unfortunate comrades. Bach was on his knees, 
 his pot-belly almost touching the sand as he bent com- 
 miseratingly over the wounded. The doctor rushed 
 over from the hospital, which stood just back of the 
 offices. Already the photographers swooped down 
 with their cameras pictures were as indispensable 
 as lawyers in case of suits against the Company. 
 
 Evangeline s gloves were off, her muff and collar 
 on the ground, and without being able to tell how she 
 arrived there, she was at Bach s side, not an inch from 
 the wounded. A piece of sharp protruding slag had 
 torn a long rent in her gown. 
 
 Bach glanced up, the end of his pointed beard be 
 tween his teeth ; then he held the head of one of the 
 wounded men. 
 
24 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Go away, miss ; we can t have you here," said the 
 young doctor, kindly but positively. 
 
 Putnam touched Evangeline s arm. She followed 
 him, sobbing, not caring, not heeding where she went, 
 like a child trundled in its carriage by a nurse. They 
 were out in the yards, standing near a range of car 
 tracks that ran into the ground floor of the open- 
 hearth. 
 
 You are the bravest woman I ever knew/ he said. 
 
 She gave no answer to his compliment, honestly 
 won, sincerely paid; remaining silent, her face drawn, 
 white, painfully pensive. He attempted to soothe 
 her. It was terrible enough ; but not so bad as might 
 appear on the surface. The men were not dangerously 
 hurt ; in all probabilities the doctors would have them 
 back to work in a day of two. The accident happened 
 frequently in the same way. The Company used every 
 precaution, but the men were careless. What could 
 they do? 
 
 She stooped over and pinned the rent in her gown. 
 The pink color returned to her cheeks ; her under- 
 lip quivered the least bit. " I think we had better go 
 back," she said, quietly. 
 
 The suggestion was not a welcome one to Putnam ; 
 he had not had a chance to say the many things in his 
 mind, not even to approach them remotely ; and a 
 month might pass before he would see her again. 
 
 "If you like, but we might see the charging-floor of 
 the open-hearth first ; it s pleasant there and interest 
 ing; besides it won t take but a minute or two." 
 
 Tactfully, almost without Evangeline s knowledge, 
 certainly without her acquiescence, he led her around 
 the pit that they had just left to an iron stairway, 
 which they climbed to reach the floor above. As 
 
EVANGELINE S VISIT 25 
 
 they mounted Evangeline gazed down in front of the 
 furnace where the deplorable accident had occurred. 
 She observed that the debris had been removed, and 
 that the work was going on as if nothing had marred 
 its progress. The wounded men were in the hospital. 
 Doctor and photographers had vanished. In a long 
 carmine line the steel was dropping from the ladle 
 into the molds. 
 
Ill 
 
 SIGHING FURNACES 
 
 EYANGELINE had scarcely followed Walter 
 Putnam into the open-hearth building again, 
 when Blair Carrhart, standing before fur 
 nace No. 5, raised his hand; the boy turned the 
 pneumatic cock and the wide door opened. A 
 white glare as from a close row of powerful arc 
 lamps glimmered down the charging-floor. The men 
 scurried back and forth to the white pile of lime, 
 magnasite and dolomite, pitching shovelfuls of 
 the materials into the furnace. Their faces, their 
 bare arms, their whole bodies shone as radiantly 
 as if calcium lights had been turned full upon 
 them. In fact the whole scene was theatrical, and in 
 spiring; the action was dramatic; it seemed as if the 
 melters, in their celerity, were at work in quenching 
 a destructive fire instead of building bottom for pro 
 ductive furnaces. The setting was vast, Wagnerian. 
 Ladles of thirtv tons capacity whirled overhead, carry 
 ing hot metal from the blast to the open-hearth fur 
 naces ; charging cranes rumbled along the tracks on 
 the ground ; traveling cranes rumbled on the tracks 
 overhead. Engines puffed up the incl ned planes 
 dragging cars filled with iron stock along the floor. 
 There were ten furnaces; ten centers of action, and yet 
 the magnificent unity was unimpaired. Through the 
 
 26 
 
SIGHING FURNACES 27 
 
 open side of the building the wind blew, with a cold 
 cutting sweep, and the snow fell gently, and heaped 
 on the platform outside. 
 
 Blair was drenched with sweat; it poured down his 
 face and filled his shoes. He walked to the locker, 
 changed his dripping clothes ; and throwing a coat 
 over his shoulders to project them from the glacial 
 wind, he sat down on the bench near the pneumatic 
 cocks. 
 
 " The last heat was scorched," complained the first 
 melter, coming forward, nibbling at his plug of to 
 bacco, " and we re out on sixty tons. [They were 
 tonnage men men paid by the ton.] They had 
 an accident down-stairs, some one was hurt I 
 don t know just what it was. But by God, Carr- 
 hart, it ain t right; it wasn t our fault. We done 
 our work all right and up to the handle. How long 
 are the men going to stand for this deal? We re out 
 two days of the seven now and the week s near up. 
 One way and the other it s the same with the rest of 
 the boys. I don t know how they reckon, but their 
 arithmetic ain t the same in the office as the one I 
 learned at school. I ain t the kicking kind, but by God 
 this thing ain t right and it ought to quit, Carrhart. I ll 
 leave it to you if I ain t right? It s about time they 
 quit it ;" and McNaughton ceased his maundering, 
 rubbed his sandy mustache with the hard palm of his 
 hand, and, putting on his blue goggles, he shambled 
 over to the furnace. 
 
 McNaughton looked through the peep-hole of the 
 door into the brewing steel. He raised his hand ; the 
 pull-up boy lifted the door, and the head melter, avert 
 ing his face from the onslaught of overpowering heat, 
 stirred the steel with the long iron rabbler. 
 
28 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Catch on to the dame with the red hair," and the 
 second helper, seated beside Blair, nudged him with 
 his elbow. 
 
 Blair was dreaming a day dream. " Eh ? he quer 
 ied, awakening with a start. 
 
 " There," pointed Quinn, the second helper, " we ll 
 have a white horse up here in a minute." 
 
 " White horse! White horse! " cried the pull-up boy 
 at the pneumatic cocks. 
 
 Blair saw. It was Evangeline. He stood up. The 
 blood hammered at his ears. His impulse was to rush 
 towards her; but restraining himself, he resumed his 
 seat. 
 
 " You re blushing like a girl. What s wrong with 
 you? I s pose you re changing your face to match 
 her hair. Ain t much used to maidens, are you ? " 
 Ouinn s long, melancholy face gave the lie to his 
 waggish tendencies. 
 
 McNaughton, the head melter, dripping with sweat, 
 crossed the tracks. He tossed the rabbler on the floor 
 wearily and sank on the bench. Stray flakes of snow 
 dropped on the red-hot bar and melted with a sizz. 
 
 " Better go up in front, Carrhart. and get things 
 ready." McNaughton glanced at his watch. The 
 charging-car whirled past, almost touching the feet 
 of the men seated on the bench, and rolled on to the 
 end of the long floor. 
 
 Seemingly Blair did not hear the order. " Let him 
 alone," jibed Quinn, " he s got his eye on the red 
 head maid. Ain t bad, is she? She d match with me 
 and my Sunday clothes, eh, McXaughton ? " 
 
 McNaughton bit a corner out of his plug. " Oh, 
 she! she s Marvin s daughter, so one of the boys was 
 telling me." 
 
SIGHING FURNACES 29 
 
 " Don t say ? Well, Carrhart, there s your chance ; 
 you don t get them kind often. The mills ll go to the 
 feller that gets the red hair, I guess. You kin make 
 McNaughton secretary and me treasurer. I ll do 
 what s right with the boys when it comes to divying 
 the coin." 
 
 Evangeline turned. She saw Blair; their eyes met. 
 He arose and moved towards her, irresistibly drawn. 
 His strong body trembled; his legs jerked as if they 
 would pull him backwards. He made a sharp detour 
 to his furnace. 
 
 McNaughton and Quinn laughed ; they thought 
 Blair was pretending to carry out the joke. 
 
 Evangeline stood still, breathing heavily through 
 her distended nostrils ; her eyes closed and opened as 
 one blinking under a light too strong. Putnam was 
 unable to discover what attracted her. 
 
 The charging-crane whirled up to the cars, bur 
 dened with stock for its iron arm to toss into the fur 
 nace. 
 
 " Move back ! " shouted Putnam, " the crane is 
 coming." He repeated his warning the second time, 
 louder. He tugged her by the arm ; she followed him 
 as a car follows a pulling engine, as if she had no vo 
 lition of her own. 
 
 Blair was peering through the peep-hole of the 
 door; his thoughts seething like the steel at which he 
 was gazing. Putnam touched him on the shoulder. 
 " Will you kindly let me have your goggles for a 
 minute? this young lady wants to take a look." 
 
 Blair removed his goggles. Evangeline was not 
 ten feet away. She advanced towards him, her de 
 mure face sternly set, like one nerved for an under 
 taking that strains the will. Putnam looked on, 
 
30 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 fairly appalled : he took the goggles from Blair s fum 
 bling hand. 
 
 " Blair," murmured Evangeline, with quavering 
 voice, laying her gloved finder on the sleeve of his 
 blouse. She could say no more ; phrases, words, sen 
 tences swirled through her mind as the snow was swirl 
 ing through the darkling atmosphere without. 
 " Blair ; " that was all she could utter, she who all 
 morning long, over and over and over again, had re 
 peated to herself what she would say to him, should 
 they chance to meet ; she who intended to say that she 
 had come thither on that wintry morning merely be 
 cause she was impelled by the hope, impossible to defer 
 longer unless her heart was to grow sick, of seeing 
 him ; she who intended to pour out her love for him 
 in one rapturous burst ; and now she must stand there 
 dumb and stupid, with that one word trembling coldly 
 on her lips. 
 
 There came a whist in the clatter and roar ; every 
 thing seemed still ; then the charging-cars whirled up 
 and down the floor ; the engines puffed along the in 
 cline, steaming in and out of the building; the crane 
 whirled overhead and the massy ladle plunged through 
 the air, like some monstrous, gigantic bird of the pre 
 historic era. 
 
 Blair s mighty chest heaved, the vein in his forehead 
 empurpled. His eyes fastened on her as if they were 
 two arms that would draw her -to him lovingly. He 
 could feel Putnam s sharp restless eyes prod through 
 him as they looked over the top of his large glasses. 
 He struggled for a word, a phrase that might divulge 
 all to her and remain as a riddle to the intruder. He 
 was silent, blushing, confused, lost. He could say 
 nothing; not one word. 
 
SIGHING FURNACES 31 
 
 " Oh, Carrhart, hurry up and go in front," bawled 
 McNaughton, who knew not the tragi-comedy play 
 ing there. 
 
 Blair obeyed his superior s order, his head bent to 
 the ground. There was a curse, then a blessing; a 
 blessing again, and then a final curse in his throat for 
 McNaughton, 
 
 Putnam handed Evangeline the goggles. He was 
 completely master of himself ; there was nothing either 
 in his look or manner to show that he was curious, 
 even surprised. Evangeline, blushing scarlet, gazed 
 through the peep-hole into the furnace. The sea of 
 steel bubbled and boiled and seethed, like some sub 
 terranean lake, colored a delicate violet, dainty as 
 the gauze of Ariel s garment; and the waters of the 
 sea, in the cerulean haze that hid the sides of the fur 
 nace, seemed boundless in length, stretching towards 
 the sky-line of an horizon far off. 
 
 Long afterwards, faintly, and as in a dream, Evan 
 geline recalled the magic beauty of what she then be 
 held; but at that time it made no vivid, no conscious 
 impression. Blair had scorned her ! He had refused 
 to recognize her ! He had gazed at her coldly, as with 
 eyes of glass ! The poignant pain in her mind and 
 heart blotted out all things else, making its own nar 
 row confines beyond which she was powerless to 
 move. 
 
 When Blair returned from his work in front of the 
 furnace Evangeline was moving down the iron stair 
 way with her guide. She had an explanation for 
 Putnam, a half-truthful story to account for her sin 
 gular acquaintanceship with one Blair Carrhart, first 
 helper to the head melter; but scorning to tell even a 
 white lie, she vouchsafed no information. Putnam 
 
32 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 might think as he chose ; after all the affair concerned 
 her and not him. 
 
 Quinn jumped up from his bench, not the shade of 
 a smile on his long, melancholy face, and he extended 
 his hand to Blair. " That looked like business there 
 for a minute, old boy. I congratulate you. I guess 
 you got Marvin s maid hypnotized. When do I get 
 the treasurership ? " 
 
 Blair looked at him, appealingly, pathetically, in a 
 way that made Quinn wonder. Then he sank on the 
 bench, resting his chin on his hand. His thoughts 
 followed Evangeline. 
 
IV 
 THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 
 
 EVANGELINE, on her arrival at the office with 
 Putnam, was informed that the president was 
 busy and likely to remain so until late in the 
 afternoon. She left the mills, recalling that she 
 had an appointment with friends, which must be kept 
 at all hazards, to look for a house that would an 
 swer the purposes of their Settlement. 
 
 It was after five, and dark, when Evangeline re 
 turned from her quest towards the mill gate. Heavy 
 billows of smoke, turbined, thick as dust clouds, 
 whirled upwards as if anxious to blot out the pale 
 stars. Columns of white steam shot through the 
 cloud bank of ebony like so many silver ropes ; yellow 
 eddies, tawny, sulphurous, bubbled and played 
 through the drapery of white and black. 
 
 Out from the blast-furnaces flames of scarlet poured 
 as steadily, as brilliantly as from the fires of a live 
 volcano. Further towards the south, on the extreme 
 edge of the ebony embankment, there flashed and 
 burst a shower of star-shaped, star-hued sparks 
 through the hollow, luridly white light that spurted 
 out from the converters. 
 
 It seemed like the extravagant revelry of a mad 
 artist whose shades and paints were infinite, some 
 delirious, Cyclopean Turner bent on coloring the uni- 
 3 33 
 
34 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 verse in harmony with the drunken flights of his mad 
 fancy. 
 
 Just across the road twinkled the lamps of the 
 squalid street a thoroughfare jammed with saloons 
 and saloons and saloons again, pushing elbow to el 
 bow in fierce competition for the trade of the toilers 
 of the mill. 
 
 Her father and her twin brothers were just stepping 
 into the carriage as Evangeline hurried along. The 
 coachman caught sight of her, touched his hat with 
 his whip and waited. Her father greeted her pleas 
 antly ; then he lapsed into silence, looking distraught 
 and preoccupied. The twins dealt sundry sly kicks 
 and pinches to their sister whenever they thought 
 themselves able to evade their father s glances. 
 
 The carriage had barely left the mill gate to take 
 the Marvins homeward, when Blair Carrhart quit his 
 post, glad that the work for the day was over, craving 
 the quiet that he might surrender himself to an un 
 interrupted reflection on the stirring incident which 
 marked that day. 
 
 His heart was as depressed as Evangeline s, per 
 haps heavier and more gloomy, she at least could lay 
 the flattering unction to her soul that she was pun 
 ished by the fault of another. Without excuse, with 
 out reason, he had bruised a tender and loving soul. 
 Could she know how he had yearned to speak ? Would 
 she take his silence for reproof, for scorn ? 
 
 Why had he not seized the golden moment and 
 spoken? Evangeline had been brave, candid, oblivi 
 ous of petty circumstances, of curious intruders, the 
 mistress instead of the slave of paltry and irrelevant 
 circumstances. She had acted the man s part ; he, the 
 woman s. 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 35 
 
 Nevertheless there was some excuse. It had all 
 come too quickly, too unexpectedly; he was stunned, 
 dumfounded. Perhaps she had been prepared for the 
 meeting. Did she know that he was in the mills? 
 Had the hope of seeing him brought her thither? 
 Would she come again ? 
 
 He tried to tell himself that he hoped she would not. 
 His purpose was trembling in the balance. He had 
 thought himself strong, able to resist temptation, and 
 she had come to prove him weak. By pure force of 
 will he had endeavored to put all thought of her be 
 hind him, and now his mission, the mills, everything 
 sank into insignificance and she alone stood in front 
 of him. He was unable to divorce her from any 
 thought of the future. 
 
 He would go back ; he would tell her that the sacri 
 fice was uselessly cruel, that any duty which de 
 manded the slaughter of their loves was the barbarous 
 sacrifice demanded by a false God. He would leave 
 for home that night; to-morrow, the next day, might 
 be too late. Repulsed by his seeming indifference, 
 wounded by his apparent rebuff, she would bend her 
 affections away from him to where appreciation would 
 take them at their sterling worth. Life without her 
 was empty, futile, impossible. He would go back! 
 He would go back! 
 
 It was a sleepless night for Blair; even the fatigue 
 of his body did not overcome the wakefulness of his 
 mind, and distraction tossed and tumbled him to and 
 fro. Towards morning he grew calmer ; his turbid 
 mind became clearer ; he was resigned to the fact that 
 life for him was not meant to be easy, that renuncia 
 tion was the iron law of his existence, and that he 
 
36 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 could never enter the ranks of the contented by de 
 serting his duty. 
 
 In the swift journey of Blair s thoughts Evange- 
 line s visit marked the time of events as the sight of 
 a mile-post from the window of a train speaks to the 
 traveler of distances traversed. The short time that 
 he had been away from home seemed as the space of 
 years until the actuality dawned upon him now with 
 a shock. 
 
 It was but a month ago, on one night in November, 
 that Blair Carrhart had stood without the mill gate 
 in quest of work. Around the fence that separated 
 the mills from the rest of the world a handful of men, 
 mostly foreigners, had gathered for the same purpose. 
 How unable he had been to assume their stolid looks 
 and their indifferent attitude towards this new and 
 wonderful world aglow with variant color, resound 
 ing with the mighty roar of machinery in creative 
 motion ! To his ardent glances what magic vistas of 
 the unseen and the inexperienced had opened ! 
 
 Finally a foreman had come and made his selec 
 tions, picking out the strongest and ablest-bodied with 
 the quick and discerning eye of a man who had done 
 the same thing so often before that the doing thereof 
 was mere routine. 
 
 The guide, Blair, and the laborers he had chosen 
 passed up the steep stairs and reached the viaduct 
 that ran straight across to the steel-mill. Under them 
 was a long level of freight trains, moving back and 
 forth in the darkness behind crawling engines. Sig 
 nal lights flashed like blazing amethysts and rubies in 
 the darkness. 
 
 Blair recalled vividly, as when he had seen it first, 
 the rainbow of colors, the pillars of scarlet flame, the 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 37 
 
 brilliant fires that illuminated the yards like the after 
 glow of crackling lightning. It was a mundane 
 aurora-borealis, the batteries of the heaven darting as 
 it were from the depths of the earth, and spreading 
 across its face. 
 
 The crashing of the rails, the crackling of the plates, 
 the piercing blow of multitudinous whistles, the deep- 
 drawn puff of laboring engines, became predominant 
 and sank into comparative quiet by turns. This roar 
 and din made not the night hideous to Blair; it sug 
 gested rather the gigantesque energy of a toiling hu 
 manity that refused to sleep with the hours that 
 brought rest to the universe. 
 
 A minute s walk and they fronted the walls, black 
 with soot, of the steel-mill. At one side a vast area of 
 ore-piles yawned under the high trestles ; and nearby 
 a huge vessel lay sleeping idly, undisturbed by the 
 clatter and screech of the machinery, in the short slip 
 of Steel river that ran into the yards. At the other 
 side, stretching afar, was the low roof of the rail-mill. 
 The eye could find no unbroken space whereon to rest. 
 Buildings were everywhere, compact, huddled to 
 gether as in the bird s-eye view of a populous city. 
 
 Suddenly the converters in the steel-mill opened and 
 the metal poured into the ladles. A glaring light 
 shone incandescent between the walls and through the 
 windowless frames. It was like looking at the sky on 
 a June noon when the sun rages hot. 
 
 He passed over the long level of surface tracks, run 
 ning in every direction, over which the small engines 
 were pulling their freight of ingots and molds, hastened 
 by boiler and engine-houses and entered the ground 
 floor of the brick hoist-towers of the blast-furnaces. 
 Men were hustling against each other, wheeling broad 
 
38 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 barrows to the elevator shafts. A bell rang the signal, 
 and the loads of coke and ore went whistling to the 
 top, carrying inexhaustible food to the insatiable maw 
 of the mill. Four of the men were left behind here. 
 
 " Yer an Amerikin," explained the guide, " I can 
 find something better fer you." 
 
 " Thanks," nodded Blair. 
 
 They were in the dark again, plowing on to the 
 cast-houses. Bewildered by the maze of buildings 
 through which he had passed, Blair turned to look. 
 Back of him the darkness was fretted by a stream of 
 iron, golden-hued, pouring down from the heights of 
 the mixers into the cars on the ground. Blair s 
 cicerone had already entered the cast-houses ; he turned 
 to follow. 
 
 To the right of the long aisle were ranged the four 
 colossal brick blast-furnaces, to the left the red iron 
 flanks of the heating-stoves towered sixty feet in the 
 air. The atmosphere dilated with the stench and the 
 screech and the flame of the gas pouring into the 
 stoves through the short thick pipes. 
 
 The foreman who had led him thither drew close to 
 the newcomer, put his hand to his car and yelled : 
 
 " Wait here. I ll find Winslow. Watch out for 
 yerself," and he hastened down between the crack 
 ling lines of this cannonade of fire. 
 
 Gradually Blair grew accustomed to the noise, and 
 unmindful of the heat. Down further he saw ten men 
 shoving with might and main at the end of an iron 
 bar. A man encased from head to foot in tarpaulin 
 was standing on the coil of pipes that ran about the 
 bosh of the furnace. His cheeks were all but pressed 
 against the hissing plates. Through a round open 
 hole in the flank of the furnace, the yellow flames 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 
 
 39 
 
 licked for prey whereon to feed. The furnace-man 
 had his head and face in the teeth of the hungry beast. 
 A hose was pouring water over his body from crown 
 . to toe, as he was hammering with Herculean blows 
 at a round thick iron, which the helpers were ram 
 ming into place with the rod. As the water from 
 the hose and the pipes played on his face, as the yel 
 low effulgence danced across his flesh, snarling at the 
 antagonistic spray, his features turned to a livid green. 
 The tuyere was jammed into the throat of the blast, 
 and the man stepped down from the bosh and reeled 
 backward in a faint on the floor of the inferno. 
 
 " Dangerous work that," remarked Blair to a mill 
 hand who was moving past him. He must express an 
 opinion. He had found it hard to stand by impas 
 sively and watch a human being burn to cinders. 
 
 Yes," answered the other, shrugging his shoulders 
 and going on in a Scotch twang, " but the job is worse 
 in the winter; the water freezes on your back then 
 while your face is on fire. Did you ever work in a 
 mill?" 
 
 Blair shook his head. 
 
 " Well, it s dangerous everywhere. A man fell off 
 one of the dust-catchers an hour ago. Broke his 
 nut clean through." 
 
 Blair turned to look in the direction towards which 
 the vanishing Scotchman had pointed. On a kind of 
 platform to his right in the open air was a series of 
 huge inverted cones, ends tapering to the ground, 
 round bodies scaling upwards towards the top of the 
 elevator towers that he had just left. These were the 
 dust-catchers then! His intellect was confused, be 
 wildered by this maze of pipes, coils, chimneys, fur 
 naces, engines, tubing and tanks. The screech of the 
 
4 o BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 bellowing gas, the pungent odor, the throb of the 
 building to the pulsation of the great engines bedeviled 
 him. Perplexedly, he reflected that all this was but 
 the hollow of his hand, nay, the tip of his finger, com 
 pared to the mammoth body of the Gargantua. \Yould 
 he ever understand the purpose of each bone, each 
 vein, each muscle of the colossal anatomy? 
 
 " I will never leave it until I do," he said firmly, 
 aroused to the inspiration of mastering the difficult, 
 of accomplishing the begun. 
 
 A thin, wiry man wedged towards Blair at the side 
 of the fellow who had conducted him thither. 
 
 This is the man I brought yer, Winslow." 
 
 Winslow eyed the applicant critically, removing the 
 short-stemmed pipe from his mouth. His eyes lin 
 gered with admiration on the magnificent frame that 
 looked down on six feet by two inches. Blair sur 
 veyed Winslow quickly, noticing the sharp nose, the 
 cross-eyes, the large Adam s apple that worked up and 
 down in his long throat. 
 
 " You look strong and hearty," said Winslow with 
 an English accent. " Come ahead," he said, lighting 
 his pipe. 
 
 Blair followed, turning back to gaze at the man who 
 had replaced the tuyere ; he had recovered from his 
 collapse and he was moving about as if fainting were 
 a consideration that entered his wages. 
 
 Winslow led the way to the front of the cast-houses. 
 Flush with the edge of the raised sand platform stood 
 a row of flat-bottomed cars each holding an immense 
 ladle. The lid of every ladle stood yawning and 
 empty directly under one of the tangle of narrow gut 
 ters that began at the hearth of the furnaces and ended 
 at the depression dug for the cars. It had taken no 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 41 
 
 more than a glance for Blair to see that in a few min 
 utes the molten iron would pour down from the fur 
 nace through the gutters, into the waiting ladles, and 
 that an engine would whirl that seething load 
 whither he knew not. 
 
 Laborers were toiling away in the feverish atmos 
 phere, raking up the slag from the last heat, carefully 
 scooping out the channels and closing their mouths 
 for the heat to follow. The novice mopped away the 
 sweat that was standing out on his face and forehead 
 like blisters. Winslow smiled. It would have been 
 an insult to his own bitter apprenticeship did not a 
 green hand show visible signs of suffering. 
 
 At the hearth of the next furnace, a laborer prodded 
 through the valve to let the gas escape. It burst out 
 with a scream, enveloping the monkey-man in a veil 
 of the lightest blue, growing darker and lighter by 
 turns. A half-dozen men stood near the tapping-hole, 
 holding a long heavy bar. Their faces reflected the 
 pink shimmer from the iron, boiling and raging for es 
 cape. Some averted their sweltering faces ; others 
 faced the caloric temperature boldly. The dolly broke 
 the clay dam, and the iron pulsed out ; slowly at first, 
 with difficulty, like a flood disentangling its waters 
 from the debris of a ruin before rushing forward. 
 
 Carrhart had expected this rush; but the molten 
 metal rolled slowly and softly, uncoiling its weighty 
 folds ; then, pushed forward by the mass behind, it 
 flowed a stream of molten gold swelling through the 
 sand of the gutters. It became a river of saffron; 
 a spreading delta formed of tributaries of shifting 
 amber and yellow and crocus whose jeweled drops 
 changed from yellow to crocus and amber as the waves 
 poured sluggishly from source to mouth. 
 
42 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The atmosphere was fire, scorching, overmastering. 
 Heat bubbled out of the lava rills ; it surged from the 
 fountainhead of the center volcano. The cinder ladle 
 fell from the hands of the apprentice. His aching, 
 strained muscles hardened and grew taut. Suddenly 
 they relaxed, his head grew dizzy, he reeled and sank 
 on his knees on the sirocco-fanned estuary. But 
 Blair s will was even stronger than his body and it re 
 asserted its mastery. He staggered to his feet, sup 
 porting himself on the ladle, breathing heavily. He 
 bent his eyes, hazed with film, to the ground, ashamed 
 of his weakness. He feared that he had been seen. 
 
 " Never mind ; you ll get used to it. Go out in the 
 air a bit, my lad ;" and Winslow passed him in his 
 tours around the ladles. 
 
 Carrhart stood his ground. He would swoon away 
 before he yielded. 
 
 " Water ! Water ! You whelp. You yelled 
 a man at the furnace. 
 
 A boy, sturdy and plump, thridded his way to the 
 hearth through the blinding heat, jumping across the 
 flaming gutters without spilling a drop of water from 
 the buckets he bore on a yoke. They discarded the tin 
 cup and swigged the water from the buckets, feeding 
 their blood with the liquid that an oozing sweat sapped 
 from their systems. 
 
 Blair watched them, with parched lips, with chok 
 ing throat, as a starved beggar might peer at a ban 
 quet through a window. \Vater, water! Had it ever 
 been so precious? Had he ever tasted the divine 
 nectar? Did he ever, like a foolish prodigal, waste it 
 wantonly ? 
 
 "Water, water; you ; you ," yelled the 
 
 heaters from all sides. Would the boy ever reach him, 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 43 
 
 would he die of thirst before he came ? The lad pushed 
 onward heedless of curses, like a pack-horse used to 
 abuse and blows. A big Pole, standing near the 
 novice, lifted a block of slag and threw it straight at 
 the water-carrier s head. The buckets dropped; the 
 water sizzed and steamed on the sand. The boy barely 
 missed stumbling into a Phlegethon of molten iron 
 as he dodged the murderous missile. 
 
 Half crazed by the agony of physical exertion, of 
 boiling blood, of strained nerves, Blair Carrhart felt a 
 desire for vengeance sweep to his heart, a longing to 
 vent the pent-up rage that the brutal work had been 
 storing in his mind. It was like so much alcohol 
 cooking in his brain. He dropped his cinder ladle. 
 The Pole was aiming a blow at the boy s cheek. 
 
 " Let that boy alone, you hear ! " His big hand 
 clenched and the striking muscles on his arm and wrist 
 and shoulders moved into position. 
 
 The Pole grinned sardonically at this newcomer, a 
 full thirty pounds lighter than himself. Vorlinski was 
 the bully of the mill, a swashbuckler who terrorized 
 all weaker men and who lay in wait to assert his 
 physical supremacy over every newcomer. The two 
 biggest men in the mill stood face to face to test their 
 strength and discover who was the bigger. The Pole 
 raised his iron shutter a tool used for stopping the 
 gutters and stepped back to give it a full swing. 
 
 Winslow made his appearance at that moment, edg 
 ing up from the end of the pig-floor. Casting a glance 
 of defiance and hatred at the boy s defender, Vorlinski 
 went on with his work. 
 
 The tributaries climbed steadily to the banks at the 
 mouths and gradually raised to their heights. Wins- 
 low spake the word. Away went the impediments and 
 
44 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the flowing iron snapped and gushed and sparked into 
 the huge ladles on the cars below. 
 
 On the second night Blair started to work cleaning 
 out the gutters, fixing the shutters in place. After 
 the first heat every movement cost him a stitch of 
 pain. He feared that the skin on the palm of his 
 hands and the soles of his feet would crack and break. 
 The sweat was standing inch deep in his shoes. His 
 muscles moved like a taut bow, only bending with tug 
 ging and pulling, unbending with a snap that sent un 
 spoken exclamations to his lips. His whole frame be 
 came one unyielding bone, reft of ball and socket. 
 Each separate ache shot through his body and joined 
 for a general attack on the small of his back. 
 
 The heat suffocated him ; he strove against the im 
 pulse to fling him down on that smoking floor and 
 plunge his face to the ground as men do when the 
 simoon flashes across the desert. The noise, the 
 screech of the gas rent his nerves. 
 
 Still the others stood it, seemingly unconcerned, in 
 different as if working under normal conditions in the 
 open air, moving to and fro with the order and the sys 
 tem of an army well regulated. Each had his work to 
 do and each did it, without murmur, without confu 
 sion ; the heaters before the furnaces were toiling away 
 like stokers in the pent-up hold of a vessel. No word 
 of conversation broke the monotonous noise, omni 
 present as silence itself, of the roaring, rumbling 
 mills. 
 
 Blair could endure it no longer. He threw his cin 
 der ladle on the ground, and tossing his leonine head 
 back, he pressed both of his big hands to his smarting 
 back. Vorlinski eyed him ; his inquiring eager look 
 turned quickly to a victorious smirk. He saw the 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 45 
 
 weakness of his enemy. Never would a more pro 
 pitious night for attack come. Vorlinski was not 
 above advantages of this kind. He courted inequal 
 ity, when the line was drawn sharply in his favor. 
 
 A heat was tapped from each of the four furnaces 
 every four hours ; the interior of one of them was dis 
 ordered and there came a pause in the work. Blair 
 stepped out on the iron-sheeted platforms that ran be 
 tween the depressions where the engines haul in the 
 ladles. He sat down on the edge and looked out 
 towards the lake in the direction of the scaling heaps 
 of towering coke that surrounded the maze of car 
 tracks like an embankment. The roof of the cement 
 plant, coated with fine white particles, sparkled like 
 snow in the moonlight. 
 
 He leaned back for a second to rest his aching body, 
 gazing upwards at the sky and the stars, twinkling 
 oblivious to the gride of the mills, to the stench and 
 heat poured out by its fires. Even his iron bed seemed 
 soft and restful. He drew his legs up and stretched 
 out at length. He was dozing away, his head resting 
 on his arm. 
 
 Vorlinski had been watching him closely. He 
 missed him from the cast-houses, then he saw him on 
 the platform. The Pole dodged around the stoves 
 and observed his enemy narrowly. He waited until 
 Blair was recumbent ; then he dodged back to reappear 
 with a tin cup in one hand and a stick of lime in the 
 other. Vorlinski dipped the lime in the water and 
 smeared it thickly on the cloth of Blair s trousers. He 
 had "bugged" his man. When the sly Pole tiptoed 
 back for the second time he deposited a lump of burn 
 ing hot slag the exterior of which was deceptive at 
 the sleeper s side. 
 
46 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The lime ate its way through the cloth quickly as a 
 gnawing tooth. It nipped the flesh. Blair awoke 
 with a yell. The picture, living enough, of a bursting 
 furnace, enswathing yellow flames and scorching iron 
 filled his mind. He caught sight of the grinning faces 
 watching his predicament. The widest grin of all 
 stretched the Pole s thin lips, cut like a slit in his face. 
 
 Blair s foot struck the slag. It was the weapon of 
 vengeance nearest at hand. He foresaw it whizzing 
 through the air at the bully s head. He stooped 
 to pick it up ; but he dropped it with a cry of pain and 
 rage, his gullibility hurting him more, for the moment, 
 than the burn. The men on the floor were convulsed 
 with laughter. 
 
 Anger drowned Blair s fret of spirit and hurt of 
 body alike. The burn on his leg, the scald on his 
 palm, were but food to the flames of vengeance that 
 sent the blood swirling to his brain. His eyes flashed ; 
 his muscles tightened ; his chest heaved to the swift 
 beats of his hammering heart. He plunged forward, 
 feeling himself grow stronger and broader and taller. 
 He would have faced an army ; he would have battled 
 his way forward against protruding bayonets. He 
 was blinded, insane with anger. His craving for 
 vengeance put blinders over his eyes, shutting out from 
 the range of his vision all else on earth but the Pole, 
 the vengeance for which he craved, and himself. 
 
 The furnace had been put in order; already the 
 dolly prodded through the dam, and the molten iron 
 purled away through the sand of the gutters, flinging 
 out a scintillating shower of pale gold sparks, rolling 
 at last into the tired, waiting ladles. 
 
 Vorlinski watched the approach of his man calmly, 
 confident of his fresh limbs unwearied, and his heavier 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 47 
 
 bulk. He held the heavy spade-shaped shutter in his 
 hand. 
 
 Blair s thought caught inspiration on the run and 
 he planned his campaign, offensive and defensive, on 
 the jump. His mind was moved by the same intensity 
 of purpose which propelled his burly body. The 
 Pole s sharp cheekbones protruded like knuckles on a 
 big fist and his little eyes waxed green in color. 
 
 Blair hurtled forward, his brown eyes fastened on 
 the green eyes of the Pole. He lifted his left 
 hand to strike, as if the shutter were a thing he had 
 left out of account. It crashed towards Blair s large 
 head. Nimbly he leaped to one side ; it plowed 
 with full force into the hot sand. Vorlinski had reck 
 oned without his host. The unexpected fall of his pon 
 derous weapon made his balance totter and he stag 
 gered forward. Blair s corded hands clasped his 
 throat. The battle of the giants of the two strongest 
 of the five thousand employed in the mill began. 
 The men turned to watch, too startled by the sudden 
 outcome of affairs to interfere. 
 
 The molten iron went on plunging its cascade of 
 gold into the filling ladles. Already the black impuri 
 ties were foaming at the top like the charred patches 
 on the surface of a glowing fire of logs. 
 
 The Pole dug his heels into the sand, and his strong 
 legs stiffened like marble pillars. His passion, too, 
 whipped his dull, lethargic mind into sudden action. 
 His face was red from the choking, the blood con 
 gealed scarlet about the two sharply protruding points 
 of his cheekbones; his green eyes grew larger, turn 
 ing blue, and bulging from the sockets. 
 
 The ladles were on. the depressed tracks, but a few 
 feet ahead; and Vorlinski was transformed into a fiend 
 
48 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 (the transformation was easily accomplished) by ire 
 and pain. 
 
 Blair was slowly bending his adversary backward 
 the adversary allowed Blair to waste his strength un 
 der that impression. \Yith a quick lunge, the Pole s 
 muscular body pressed forward ; a nimble twist of his 
 massive shoulders and head, and his neck was free. 
 Blair s left fist shot at Vorlinski s receding chin and 
 took it squarely. The Pole screamed, wavered a sec 
 ond, dazed by that terrific blow. Before he recovered, 
 Blair s right descended with the weight of a rolling 
 bowlder on his opponent s shoulder. 
 
 Vorlinski turned white. The shame of defeat was 
 upon him. Froth flecked his thin, blade-like lips. 
 Torment passed unheeded ; passion was stirred to 
 foam. Agility was in Blair s favor; weight in his. 
 Vorlinski shifted his tactics. 
 
 The massive ladles, filled almost to the brim, and 
 Blair s body, small, infinitely small by comparison, 
 were all that loomed up in the narrow vision of Vor 
 linski s mad mind. 
 
 Blair s blows rained with lightning-like rapidity on 
 the Pole s cheek, now livid from the punishment, each 
 stroke gathering added strength from the rage that 
 grew with the striking. The Pole dodged unex 
 pectedly, with shrewd strategy ; Blair s right shot 
 through the unresisting air, almost unjointed by the 
 unimpeded flight. He groaned and panted for breath. 
 His system, weakened by overwork, refused further 
 goading from the impetus of excitement. Vorlinski s 
 powerful arms squeezed his caving ribs and he felt 
 his heroic spirit quail and faint. 
 
 Then courage took its second wind. Blair stood his 
 ground again, resisting with the energy of despair. 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 49 
 
 The hot breath of the bubbling ladle was on his back. 
 Vorlinski was forcing him nearer and nearer. The 
 demoniac plan of the Pole thrilled across Blair s dizzy 
 brain. 
 
 Despair weaponed him once more, but the weapon 
 was unwieldy in his lax arms. His heart sank and 
 fell; his senses swam. The horrified expression of 
 the onlookers wavered before him. He was dimly 
 conscious of the blenched face of the water-boy, stand 
 ing there with the yoke crossed on his shoulders. The 
 fiendish expression on the Pole s countenance flickered 
 before him. 
 
 The Pole strained his legs and lifted Blair on his 
 brawny shoulders to hurl him into the center of the 
 molten iron, boiling in the ladle. 
 
 The men ran forward, none too quick, the blood 
 freezing in their veins at the baleful disaster which the 
 delay of a moment would mean, utterly staggered at 
 the design of the fiend. 
 
 Blair lay gasping and panting for breath ; his swoon 
 ing senses jarred towards life as he caught Winslow s 
 bawling voice, rising high above the screech of the 
 gas : " Vorlinski, you quit ! You hound, don t show 
 your face in this mill again." 
 
V 
 A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 
 
 IN the morning after the battle Paul Brodski, 
 the water boy whom Blair had saved from the 
 vicious attack of Vorlinski, ran home faster 
 than his stocky legs were used to go. He was burning 
 to give the family an account of the battle between the 
 Pole and his protector. In itself the event was inter 
 esting, but to the Brodskis there was an interest extra 
 neous to the event. Vorlinski was an enemy of the 
 family. He had boarded with them some few months 
 ago, and he had left their bed and board when Wanda, 
 the eldest daughter, rejected his advances. Vorlinski 
 saw no harm in making the youngest son atone for the 
 sins of the eldest daughter; figuratively speaking, the 
 lump of slag had been hurled at Wanda s head, al 
 though, literally enough, it was aimed to smash Paul s 
 cranium. In a feud one tries to kill many birds with 
 the same stone. 
 
 The boy ran home through the open prairie towards 
 the Polish quarter of Marvin called " Dog Town " in 
 obloquy by the English-speaking inhabitants where 
 one, two and three storied tenements were hud 
 dled together, massed as thickly as the intertwining 
 bushes of an undergrowth. They were as architec- 
 tureless as so many square boxes. The basement 
 boards stood submerged in pools of stagnant water 
 
 5 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 51 
 
 and they were slowly rotting and crumbling away. 
 Here and there sporadic attempts at decoration 
 shingles crossed tilewise and painted red and yellow 
 made a crude protest against the shower of dust and 
 the clouds of smoke from the mills. A few willows, 
 black and stunted, were the sole survivors in the battle 
 for existence that nature made against manufacture. 
 In the rear, completely hidden from the view of the 
 unpaved street, was another world of tenements; the 
 duplicate of the hideous world in front. Half of it 
 all was a maze of stairway; the other half living- 
 space. Herds of toilers were housed here; life 
 swarmed everywhere in this forlorn, melancholy cor 
 ner of the universe. 
 
 Paul darted up and down the high steps of the 
 rickety sidewalks. He cut corners and crossed the 
 muddy lots. Swarms of children, dirty, unkempt, 
 wretchedly clad, their puny limbs (many of them had 
 the rickets) pitifully declaring the woful effect of 
 malnutrition, foul air, and bad water, were playing 
 near the slimy pools. They called familiarly; but 
 Paul merely nodded to save time and hurried on. He 
 wished to reach home before his brothers started to 
 work on their shift. 
 
 The front doors of the tenements were shut the 
 year around ; in winter this saved coal, and in summer 
 and winter it saved the parlor. Paul hastened down 
 the narrow plank gangway between the cottages, flung 
 open the basement door of the house to his right, and 
 entering the kitchen, he slipped between the lines of 
 red underclothing, damp and steaming, stretched 
 across the room to dry. 
 
 A squabby, corsetless, bare-footed woman looked 
 up from a wash-tub that was adding thick volumes of 
 
52 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 vapor to the steam from the clothes. A piece of faded, 
 brown veiling, rolled triplicately, was spread over her 
 head and knotted under her heavy chin. 
 
 " What s the matter ! why don t you speak ! " she 
 cried. 
 
 Paul stood gasping for breath. 
 
 " Well ! out of a job again ! " she shrilled in Polish, 
 lifting her red hands out of the soap-suds and rub 
 bing the knuckles of her fist across her broad, flat nose. 
 Paul evidently knew the gesture ; for he backed into a 
 corner of the kitchen timidly, towards a pile of 
 filthy linen, crushed between a barrel and a sewing 
 machine. He shook his head in violent negation, and 
 his mother s hands sank back into the suds. If his 
 job was safe, nothing else could be vital. 
 
 " Vor-lin-ski he he," blowed Paul. 
 
 " Oh, that beast," she shrugged her fat shoulder*. 
 " Why don t you let him alone? Don t we have hard 
 times enough without bothering about him ? " 
 
 Paul had recovered his wind, but he had no mind 
 to lose the breath he had just recovered by telling his 
 story twice. 
 
 "Jan and Michael gone?" he asked. 
 
 " No, they re here yet. Go and get your breakfast." 
 
 There was a room off the kitchen, no larger than a 
 closet a mere hole in the wall the door of which 
 opened, and Paul s brothers, both in overalls, made 
 their appearance. They moved straight to the stove 
 and took their big dinner-pails out of the heating 
 chamber. 
 
 "Why are you back so early, Paul?" asked Jan, 
 the eldest brother. All that one noticed about Jan was 
 his matted red beard and his large blue eyes. 
 
 " A fight," exclaimed Paul, " a big fight between an 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 53 
 
 American the one I told you about yesterday 
 and " he paused. He had run all the way home to 
 relate the adventure and he thought it no more thnn 
 fair that the telling last as long as the running. It 
 would be wicked extravagance to puff it out in a 
 breath. 
 
 " Well, go on," commanded Jan, impatiently. He 
 walked over to the match safe (the pendant part of it 
 was made out of a crucifix, the feet of the Christ rest 
 ing on the box), and he lit his pipe. 
 
 " Where s Wanda? I don t want to tell it without 
 her." The boy had the dramatic instinct he craved 
 an audience. 
 
 " Go on, you ; never mind Wanda," ordered 
 Michael, the second brother. He had the large blue 
 eyes common to the family, and a mustache so much 
 out of proportion to his small nose that it seemed to 
 have been stuck to, rather than to have grown on, his 
 
 HP. 
 
 Paul remained obstinate. Jan pulled his ear. It 
 was getting desperately near mill time. " It was a 
 great terrible fight, but I don t tell you until Wanda 
 comes," howled Paul, trying to twist his ear, red from 
 punishment, out of Jan s grasp. 
 
 " She s gone to the store, dunce," shouted the 
 mother, interested now as the others. Wanda strolled 
 into the kitchen at this juncture, her chubby arms full 
 of brown-paper packages, a black shawl thrown over 
 her head, hiding her blond hair, her chin and all of 
 her face save her eyes and nose the blue eyes and 
 the flat nose that were family characteristics. She re 
 moved her shawl, divulging a buxom form and large 
 hips. 
 
 " Will you go on ! " exclaimed Michael, exasperated, 
 
54 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 snapping his knife blade back and forth with his 
 thumb. Jan twisted Paul s ear again. " We ll be late, 
 you little fool." 
 
 Two tow-headed tots, Anna and Mary, left their 
 work, the rocking of the baby in an antiquated cradle 
 and the clearing of the table, to listen to Paul s story. 
 Thomas, the youngest boy, followed his sisters, suck 
 ing his thumb assiduously. 
 
 " Then Vorlinski, he you know the ladle was filled 
 with iron, boiling hot 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Wanda, stamping her foot, " we 
 know the ladles were full of hot iron. You have told 
 us that four times now." 
 
 " Did I ? " questioned Paul, innocently. " Well, I 
 forgot. But Vorlinski, he lifts the American up on 
 his shoulder and holds him up in the air, over the 
 ladle, and then " 
 
 " Will you go on, you monkey ! " and Jan swung 
 out his right arm. Paul backed further in his corner. 
 
 " What will you give me, if I tell the rest ? " he 
 asked slyly. 
 
 " Give you ! " screamed Jan and Michael, " we ll 
 give you " 
 
 The clock from the tower of the Catholic school 
 struck six. Paul grinned. " You ll have to hurry 
 now. It s six. You ll be docked. You can think on 
 the way what you will give me and I ll tell you the 
 rest when you get back/ 
 
 Casting wrathful glances at the dramatist, the 
 brothers grasped their pails and hastened out. Paul 
 ran to the door, put his hands to his mouth, and yelled 
 at the top of his lungs, " And then Winslow he 
 comes along and fires Vorlinski. Fired him. You 
 owe me a cent you two." 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 55 
 
 Jan and Michael turned, shaking their fists. The 
 mother flouted the boy with a wet cloth. " Couldn t 
 you have told that an hour ago ? Must you waste the 
 whole morning with your nonsense? So Vorlinski 
 was fired ? It serves the beast right. Get your break 
 fast." 
 
 The lad walked into the dining-room and sealed 
 himself at the table. Wanda waited on him. From 
 the pot boiling on the stove, she poured out a plate 
 of the thick soup, a mixture of vegetables and meat. 
 A strong, pungent odor filled the whole apartment. 
 The soup and two slices of bread composed Paul s 
 breakfast. The two girls and Thomas looked on, 
 their besmeared faces pathetic with a covetous hungry 
 look. Paul ate hurriedly, bending his head far over 
 his plate that he might not see. When Wanda s back 
 was turned, he divided half a slice of the bread in 
 three parts and distributed them surreptitiously. The 
 child in the cradle cried. 
 
 " What are you doing around the table, you three ? " 
 bawled Wanda. " You ve had your meal, haven t 
 you? Watch Adam; rock his cradle." 
 
 " Mary," called the mother from the kitchen 
 sharply. The tot answered the call. She was soon set 
 to work, pinning the clothes to the line, which she 
 could barely reach by tiptoeing on a chair. 
 
 Paul finished his breakfast, and he crawled into a 
 cubby-hole, off the dining-room, to sleep until the fall 
 of dusk. Wanda bent her energies to preparing the 
 children for the parochial school. At a quarter to 
 nine Anna and Thomas left the tenement hand in 
 hand ; they had barely reached the street before 
 Thomas* hand was in Anna s hair. 
 
 Off the parlor the last room of the three were 
 
56 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 two more sleeping cabinets. Wanda put these in 
 order, next she occupied herself in the parlor. The 
 decorations were primitive ; they would have been 
 ludicrous, childish, if the pathos of a wretched poverty 
 had not marked the barren luxury. A faded red in 
 grain carpet stretched itself violently to cover the rough 
 floor. On a bracket were two cream-colored vases, 
 each holding a spike of pampas grass. Clusters of tis 
 sue rosettes and paper flowers were pinned to the 
 walls. A lithograph of the Virgin, another of the 
 head of Christ, crowned with thorns and bleeding; a 
 third of the Virgin, with her breast open, displaying a 
 flaming heart, covered large patches of the yellow 
 wall-paper, peeled and rucked by the dampness. In a 
 niche, fashioned rudely of wood, stood a metallic cru 
 cifix and two diminutive wax candles. 
 
 Wanda dusted these things reverently; then she 
 turned to the oak-stained table, where, under a glass 
 case, stood a wedding bouquet, preserved in wax, 
 and the photograph of her mother and father, taken 
 on the day they were bride and groom. 
 
 The photograph had a mysterious attraction for 
 the girl ; she delayed her work, whenever opportunity 
 offered, to brood over it fondly. She bent her flat 
 nose close to the glass and fastened her eyes on the 
 picture of the bridal couple. Two years ago her 
 father had been killed in an accident in the mills ; and 
 her only, her last memory of him was that of a man 
 worn and twisted and gnarled by toil. It escaped 
 realization and passed into the byways of romance to 
 imagine him thus, erect, brisk, even attractive. The 
 clumsy pose, the big hand, fidgeting at his side the 
 uncouthness of body, features and dress made no im 
 pression on Wanda s untutored perceptions. The 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 57 
 
 photograph was Wanda s romance the romance that 
 intensified with the waxing of her years, grimy with 
 facts. The mother, blond, slender, blooming with 
 the untarnished prettiness of youth, seemed, in her 
 white lawn dress, her white slippers, the short veil 
 with its sprig of myrtle, the bouquet of stephanotis in 
 her hand, like a princess from fairyland. 
 
 Wanda placed herself and her lover, Tgnatz Frank, 
 in the came position. How would the bridal cos 
 tume become her? Could she get Ignatz to stand 
 as dignifiedly as her father? Would he take his hands 
 out of his pockets long enough to let them be photo 
 graphed? As for herself, she would hold the bou 
 quet nearer her breast and not so far off. The mois 
 ture of her breath congealed on the glass ; out of pa 
 tience, assuring herself that her mother was still 
 busied over the tub, she lifted the case and took the 
 picture out. The nearer the picture, the farthe-r 
 away went Wanda into the misty land of dreams. 
 
 " Uuuh ! I m going to tell ma ! " cried Mary, shov 
 ing her tow head through the door. 
 
 " I wasn t looking at the picture ; I was dusting it," 
 protested Wanda. 
 
 " I know," insisted Mary, waving her thin arms 
 again, " I m going to tell ma." 
 
 Mrs. Brodski came rushing into the parlor, aghast 
 at the reported desecration. Dexterously Wanda had 
 slipped the photograph back under the glass and she 
 went on cleaning what she had already cleaned, as 
 if nothing were amiss. Mary followed her mother, 
 smirking. 
 
 " Wanda, what s this ? What have you been 
 doing?" bawled her mother, rubbing her knuckles 
 across the tip of her flat nose. 
 
58 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Putting the room in order," answered Wanda 
 coolly. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski cast a swift glance at the oblong 
 glass ; the photograph was where it belonged. 
 " You ve been lying again, you little minx ! " and she 
 cuffed Mary vigorously. " You re always up to your 
 tricks." 
 
 Crying, then sobbing so hard that she could not cry, 
 Mary stole into the kitchen, smarting keenly from a 
 sense of righteousness outraged. It was an unjust 
 and inexplicable world. She had meant nothing but 
 good ; she had told her mother the truth, and she had 
 been punished for it. The pain mattered little, that 
 was soon over, but the injustice rankled in her young 
 heart for hours afterwards. 
 
 " But the child spoke the truth after all, Wanda," 
 continued the mother in her railing, " you have been 
 wasting all morning in foolishness over the picture." 
 
 " No, little mother," said Wanda, slipping her arm 
 about the scolding woman s waist, " all I did was to. 
 take one look. No more, just one. I like to look at 
 the picture, you are so beautiful there." 
 
 " Nonsense, foolish girl," she frowned ; but a smile 
 worked around the corners of her drooping mouth. 
 " I wasn t so bad-looking though, now was I ? Many 
 are worse. They used to say I was a good-looking 
 girl. How I have changed ! " A dark shadow rip 
 pled over the wrinkled surface of the careworn 
 cheeks. " But it s foolish to talk about such things. 
 It s better, a good deal, to think about to-morrow s 
 bread and the rent. How are we going to live through 
 the winter if we don t get some boarders to help us 
 out?" 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 59 
 
 " Don t worry, little mother ; it will all come out 
 right." 
 
 " Yes, that s what you always say ; that s what I 
 used to keep saying when I was your age; but that 
 don t help to pay the rent or the food or the doctor 
 and medicine bills for Adam. Ah, I am so full of 
 troubles. No one has so much as we do, no one! 
 The Company has raised the rent a dollar again, and 
 they keep docking the boys for this and that how 
 can we stand it? Blessed Virgin, how can we stand 
 it ? She sat down on the faded plush sofa, placed her 
 hands on her knees, and swayed her body to and fro 
 as if utterly crushed by her misery. 
 
 She seemed to gain refreshment from the peculiar 
 movement; and she arose on her bare feet with a 
 start. " I must put on my shoes and tidy up a bit. 
 Some greenhorns came in to-day, and maybe I can 
 find a boarder. * She wabbled back into the kitchen, 
 and despatched Mary, basket in hand, to look for 
 stray coal along the B. & O. tracks. She changed 
 her dirty blue for a somewhat cleaner and fresher 
 calico dress, and flung the black shawl, which Wanda 
 had worn in the morning, over her head. 
 
 Wanda was alone now. She evidently enjoyed 
 loneliness, for she jumped up and down like a child 
 over a skipping-rope. She ran to the rear window, 
 near the kitchen door, and looked out, smiling. From 
 a front window of the rear tenement that faced theirs, 
 a man returned Wanda s smile with a knowing grin. 
 Pretending not to see him, as if she had been gazing 
 into space, Wanda turned away. 
 
 " Come in ! " she shouted in answer to the knock 
 that came from the door a minute or two later. 
 
60 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Ignatz Frank poked his broad slouch-hat and his 
 still broader grin through the door. He seemed all 
 grin and hat. 
 
 " Oh, it s you, is it, Ignatz ? I thought you were 
 at work ? " 
 
 " I work from eleven to eleven this week." 
 
 " That s so, I forgot. Well, come in ; the door 
 might shut on your neck." 
 
 He drew near her, his hands thrust into the depths 
 of his jeans his hands were never out of his pockets, 
 they seemed to grow there like his arms to his shoul 
 ders. 
 
 "Is your mother in?" he asked, flushing red, the 
 deep scar on his right cheek growing whiter by con 
 trast. 
 
 " Yes, I think she s in," replied \Yanda as if not 
 quite sure. 
 
 " I saw her go out," asserted he. 
 
 " Perhaps she did go out then. I ve been so busy 
 that I ve had no chance to notice. She ll be back in 
 a minute though." 
 
 " I d better be going then, eh, Wanda? " 
 
 No, there s time. Come to think of it she told me 
 when she went out that she might be gone for an 
 hour." 
 
 " I knew I saw her go out," and Ignatz lurched his 
 head towards his right shoulder in the pride of posi 
 tive knowledge. 
 
 He drew nearer Wanda, his hands deeper in his 
 pockets, his shoulders lurching forward as he had 
 lurched his head. Wanda smiled, half encouragingly, 
 half disapprovingly, showing the red gums that came 
 far down on her white uneven teeth. The disapprov 
 ing half of the girl s smile frightened Ignatz. He 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 61 
 
 withdrew to a corner, sat him down on a chair and 
 filled his pipe. 
 
 " My mother will smell the smoke," objected Wan 
 da, not looking up from her work over the stove. 
 
 " It s not cheap tobacco," he explained, " I only 
 smoke it here." 
 
 " Well, you can smoke, I ll open the door after 
 wards." 
 
 " Thanks," he lapsed into silence again, puffing 
 heavily. 
 
 " Wanda," he said suddenly, curling the end of his 
 long brown mustache it coiled at the ends like a 
 spring " do you know anybody that will write a let 
 ter for me ? " 
 
 " I can, Ignatz." 
 
 " No, not you, Wanda." 
 
 "Why not? Don t you think I can write?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," he blushed confusedly, the scar turning 
 white, " oh, yes, but I want to write the letter to you." 
 He blurted the last two words of the sentence out as 
 if they had been hot coals. 
 
 " To me ? You want to write a letter to me ? " She 
 affected surprise, but the strange proposition was by 
 no means a new one. 
 
 " Yes," he reasserted, " to you." 
 
 She brushed by him, lightly, lightly. " If it s to me, 
 why don t you tell me instead of writing? I can hear 
 as well as I can see. 
 
 " Perhaps maybe I ll come in to-morrow and tell 
 you." He arose. 
 
 " But you said the same thing yesterday and the 
 day before." She drew nearer him. 
 
 "Did I?" 
 
 " Certainly you did." 
 
62 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Well, I oughtn t to say the same thing twice over. 
 I won t say it to-morrow." 
 
 " But you just said you would tell me to-morrow." 
 
 " Yes, I will. No, I won t." 
 
 She felt contrite for having thrown him into such 
 confusion, and she drew nearer him, smiling consol 
 ingly, showing her red gums and her white uneven 
 teeth. Tell me," she begged, enticingly, brushing 
 against him. 
 
 " I must go now," he pleaded, his hand on the door 
 knob. 
 
 " Wait a moment," Wanda expostulated, " I have 
 something to show you." She had an inspiration. 
 She walked into the parlor; Ignatz followed, won 
 dering. 
 
 " Did you ever see this picture? " Wanda lifted the 
 wedding photograph out of the glass case and handed 
 it to her diffident lover. He held it gingerly, his 
 mouth open. 
 
 " How do you think we would look like that?" 
 
 " Very I m sure I don t know," he stammered. 
 
 " Do you think you could stand like this, one hand 
 at your side, your right arm crossed on your breast 
 so that I could slip my left arm through ? " 
 
 "Yes, I think " he looked at the door un 
 easily. 
 
 " Let s try it." 
 
 " I haven t time now it s getting near eleven." His 
 face became lividly scarlet, the scar on it lividly 
 white. 
 
 " It isn t half-past ten yet." she protested. 
 
 " The clock must be wrong." 
 
 " But it will only take a minute." She crooked her 
 left arm. He drew his right hand out of his pocket, 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 63 
 
 but it slipped back again in a jiffy, insisting that it 
 belonged there. 
 
 " You are afraid of me, Ignatz. You had better 
 go ! Never come back ! " She stamped her foot. Her 
 mother might be back any minute now, and an occa 
 sion like this might not return in months. 
 
 " No, I m not afraid ; not one bit, Wanda ; only." 
 
 "Only! Only what?" 
 
 His arm slipped through hers. He never knew, 
 although afterwards he puzzled about it, how the 
 thing happened. 
 
 " That s right, Ignatz ; that s nice," she encour 
 aged. " Oh, if we only had a looking-glass ! How 
 fine that would be! Let your left hand hang down, 
 way down. So ! Now throw your head back. You 
 see I m holding a bouquet, close to my breast; like 
 this ! Don t we look fine ? " 
 
 " Fine, very fine ! " he assented, sheepishly. His 
 left hand stole towards his pocket; a look warned 
 him. 
 
 " I think white roses would make a prettier bou 
 quet than those weeds, don t you ? " she asked. 
 
 "Which cost the most, Wanda?" 
 
 " White roses of course." 
 
 " I think the white weeds are pretty, Wanda." 
 
 " Very well, Ignatz, I ll take the white weeds. But 
 I could get along with a small bouquet of roses. Per 
 haps six would be enough." Her fingers interlocked 
 in his with a warm pressure, and she smiled beam 
 ingly on him, showing her gleaming teeth and her red 
 gums. 
 
 " I ll buy you the white roses, if you like, Wanda." 
 
 The warm pressure of her fingers, her amorous 
 
64 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 looks thawed him, thrilled him, and he spoke absently, 
 without thought. 
 
 " There, I knew you would ! You re a dear fellow, 
 Ignatz, so generous ! " 
 
 They embraced another thing which he puzzled 
 about afterwards and could never explain. A slight 
 noise came from the neighborhood of the door. They 
 turned as one, shocked. Mary s smutty face was 
 pressed flat to the glass, her mouth wide open, her 
 eyes gleaming like two candles. The child disap 
 peared as if she had dropped through the floor. Ig 
 natz made good his escape. 
 
 When Mrs. Brodski came back she dropped into a 
 kitchen chair, exhausted, her hands clasped on her 
 knees, swaying her squabby body back and forth. " I 
 couldn t get anybody," she sobbed, " the greenhorns 
 are all going to board with relatives. Ko one has so 
 much trouble as we do ; no one in the world." She 
 ceased her plaint, sniffing the pungent odor of the 
 tobacco suddenly. " Who s been here, Wanda ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " No one, little mother." 
 
 " Perhaps you smoke a strong pipe ? " she growled 
 sarcastically. 
 
 " Well, Ignatz Frank was here." 
 
 " I thought as much. T can never trust you alone. 
 He always steals your time when I m gone. You 
 ought to work, you ought to help ; there s so much to 
 do, and I can t do it all. I ve worked myself to a 
 bone now." 
 
 " Don t scold, little mother. He won t waste my 
 time much longer now." 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 " We are going to be married soon." 
 
A GRAIN IN THE HOPPER 65 
 
 Mrs. Brodski s face darkened, then it lit up again. 
 Two thoughts flashed over her mind; there would be 
 one less to help her with the work, there would be one 
 less to feed and clothe. 
 
 Wanda bent over and kissed her affectionately, and 
 the tears trickled down her mother s careworn, 
 wrinkled cheeks. 
 5 
 
VI 
 THE NEW HOME 
 
 SIX o clock of the first Sunday morning that 
 Blair passed in Marvin had found him with 
 his shift before the cast-houses. There is no 
 iron to be converted into steel that day (the rail 
 and plate and steel-mills are shut for repairs) but 
 the belching fires are never allowed to die down 
 and the product of the furnaces is used for making 
 pig. The whole floor is divided into ribbed squares 
 and the surface is flooded with the molten metal. In 
 wooden shoes the men cross the flaming pavement and 
 with their tools tear the pigs from the sows. The heat 
 rains, deluges down, perceptible as hail. The iron bars 
 crunch down on the surface ; the wooden shoes clatter, 
 and the men rush back out of the tempest of swirling 
 heat, unable to endure more than a few minutes at a 
 time. 
 
 Every second Sunday the shifts change from day 
 to night, from night to day ; and the furnace gang 
 works twenty-four excruciating hours at a stretch. 
 It is beyond human endurance, and this toiling hu 
 manity endures it only at the cost of prematurely bent 
 bodies and shortened lives. 
 
 When at length Monday morning came and the 
 dawn broke, Blair greeted it with moist eyes, due half 
 to exhaustion and half to rejoicing. The thought of 
 
 66 
 
THE NEW HOME 67 
 
 returning to the close, repulsive room over the Croa 
 tian saloon, where he had lodged during that first 
 week, nauseated him, and he resolved to move his 
 bundle to better quarters to move it to worse were 
 impossible but when he arrived thither he was too 
 tired to care, and he tumbled over on the bedding, red 
 with iron rust, still warm from the body of the lodger 
 who had just left it. 
 
 On Tuesday his spirit was less lethargic, his heed- 
 lessness to his surroundings deserted him and he de 
 serted his surroundings. Unmindful of direction, 
 Blair walked south towards the Polish quarter on a 
 sidewalk that ran midway through a deep pool of water 
 dividing it like a pontoon bridge. An angry glare of 
 red snarled up from the mill chimneys, crossed the 
 sky and shimmered like a ripple over the face of the 
 waters, passing with a flare into their depths as if in 
 desperate search for treasure-trove. The shadow of 
 the flame on the waters reminded Blair of blood; and 
 he shuddered as he walked on. 
 
 " Hello ! " He blocked the progress of Paul Brod- 
 ski. The boy recognized his defender, but for some 
 reason he seemed anxious to avoid him. 
 
 " Don t you remember me? " 
 
 The boy nodded bashfully. 
 
 " Do you speak English ? " 
 
 " Yes," reluctantly. 
 
 The lurid light from the converters threw their two 
 figures in strong relief, silhouetting them against the 
 dense blackness of the night. 
 
 " Thanks," said Paul suddenly. 
 
 "Thanks, for what?" asked Blair. 
 
 " Vorlinski," answered Paul. 
 
 " Oh, I almost forgot." 
 
68 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " I no forget," asserted Paul, as if ashamed of his 
 gratitude. 
 
 " What s your name? " 
 
 "Paul Paul Brodski." 
 
 " Polish?" 
 
 " Yes, I be," he replied hesitatingly, as if not overly 
 proud of the fact. 
 
 " Well, good night, Paul," and Blair hastened on. 
 He turned with a start and called, " O Paul ! " The 
 boy halted and came forward. 
 
 " I m looking for a place to board and room, do 
 you know of one? " 
 
 Paul shook his blond head. Again Blair moved on. 
 The arc lamp that hung from the tower of the Catho 
 lic school swung like a lantern in the hands of a 
 switchman, breaking the darkness with an oscillating 
 semicircle of light that shone far down the unillu- 
 mined track of the night. 
 
 Some one, out of breath, panted beside Blair. " I 
 know a place. Not English. You come?" 
 
 Blair thought a second. " Yes, I ll come." They 
 plowed ahead, Paul leading the way. 
 
 " Paul, how old are you ? " 
 
 " I be fifteen, sixteen soon." 
 
 Blair nodded. His guess hazarded those years. 
 The boy s husky voice, his clumsy limbs, sprawling 
 for growth, his whole manner proclaimed the awk 
 ward age. He would be powerful when he attained 
 his growth, handsome when his features settled into 
 regularity. 
 
 " Did you ever go to school, Paul ? " 
 
 " Yes, three months," he answered reluctantly, 
 ashamed of both his ignorance and his poverty. 
 
 " You quit pretty soon, didn t you ? " 
 
THE NEW HOME 69 
 
 " No ; yes ; yes; no," he answered in a breath. " The 
 teacher, she has red hair, she only likes girls and she 
 sends me away." Both of the reasons were good ; one 
 of them ought to be valid. 
 
 Blair laughed aloud. Paul flushed with anger. 
 He moved ahead, trying to keep out of range of his 
 examiner and his fire of questions. They were home 
 now and Paul was heartily glad of it. Mrs. Brodski 
 looked up in amazement. A bird of paradise was as 
 rare a visitor to her house as an American. Con 
 strained, timid, she nodded an indifferent welcome to 
 Blair. Mary and Anna hid their towsled heads under 
 their mother s skirts, like ducklings under the mater 
 nal wing. Thomas crawled along the floor and 
 clutched her ankles ; she boxed his ears. 
 
 " It s the man who saved me from Vorlinski," ex 
 plained Paul, in Polish. " He is looking for a place 
 he wants to room with us." 
 
 Mrs. Brodski opened her mouth wide. An Ameri 
 can to room with a Polish family ! " You are up to 
 your tricks again ! I know you ! " and she rubbed her 
 knuckles across the tip of her nose, wondering what 
 the trick might be. " Room with us, nothing! I sup 
 pose you let Vorlinski know on the sly that he was 
 coming," she had reached her conclusion, " so that 
 they might have a fight here. I know you ! You 
 want to bring the police here ! " 
 
 Paul stood aghast; before he had time to recover 
 his breath at his mother s fantastic imagining, she 
 cuffed him with her open hand. 
 
 " He wants to room with us, I tell you ! " he 
 howled. 
 
 Blair was embarrassed to nervousness. He divined 
 easily enough that he was the cause of the trouble, 
 
7 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 but just what the trouble was that he had caused lay 
 beyond his powers of divination. He wished to go, 
 yet going had too much the air of slinking away. He 
 stood his ground, praying for relief. Wanda, Michael 
 and Jan were playing preference on the dining-room 
 table, their minds and eyes more engaged with the 
 stranger who had just entered than with their cards. 
 On hearing Paul s cry they entered the kitchen to 
 discover the nature of the trouble. They smiled at 
 their mother s explanation and laughed outright at 
 Paul s quandary. Blair s choice was peculiar enough ; 
 but since they were sadly in need of a boarder, why 
 quibble over a mere conjecture? Matters were ad 
 justed in a trice. Twenty-five cents a day was to pay 
 for Blair s board and lodging. He was shown his 
 quarters a cubby-hole off the dining-room. A chair 
 and a bed with two feather mattresses comprised the 
 furniture. 
 
 Long after Blair was asleep, the family sat up to 
 discuss their new boarder. Cards were laid aside. 
 
 " I can t get it in my head," Mrs. Brodski kept 
 exclaiming, " what he wants in a Polish family. I 
 never heard of such a thing ! " 
 
 " Well, you see, ma," was Paul s constant explana 
 tion, " he saved me from a whipping and now he 
 wants to know the family." 
 
 " Dunce, keep still," she commanded. " What kind 
 of a reason is that ? " 
 
 " Bah," growled Jan, " I suppose he came here 
 because it s cheap. Raise the price if you want to get 
 rid of him." 
 
 Mrs. Brodski groaned. " I don t want to send him 
 away. Here I ve been praying night and day for a 
 
THE NEW HOME 71 
 
 boarder, and now that I ve got one, .you want to send 
 him away ! Such sons as I have ! " 
 
 " I don t want to send him away, ma," put in Paul, 
 " I brought him here." The opportunity seemed fa 
 vorable for getting the credit due him. 
 
 " You ! You had no business to bring him here. 
 He comes for no good purpose, mark that ! He wants 
 to make fun of us or 
 
 " Well then, ma, send him away," retorted Paul, 
 his feelings hurt. 
 
 She rubbed the tip of her nose. " You -just let me 
 catch you at that. You want to take the bread out of 
 your sister s mouth. I know you ! " 
 
 Wanda took no part in the conversation. She did 
 not even listen. Her brain was busy building ro 
 mances and Ignatz Frank had no place in the romances 
 she builded. Blair was a wonderful man to her 
 a very perfect modern knight ; heroic, handsome, a 
 world removed from the men of her work-a-day 
 world. Her blue eyes became larger and more 
 dreamy, and her breast heaved with her deep breath 
 ing. Jan noticed her preoccupation ; nothing escaped 
 his still gaze ever. His face puckered into .a scowl 
 and the lines on his forehead creased ; but not a word 
 did he say. 
 
 Through the succeeding days Jan kept his eyes on 
 Blair closely; and the more he watched their new 
 boarder the better was he pleased ; for he observed 
 that Blair avoided Wanda, that he was even gruff to 
 her at times, that he showed no desire to rival Ignatz 
 either seriously as a lover, or lightly to gratify his 
 vanity. Wanda, on the other hand, showered atten 
 tions down upon Blair in increasing proportion to his 
 desire to escape them. 
 
72 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Jan was not without sympathy, rough as it may 
 have been in grain ; he was wise enough to under 
 stand the qualities that made Blair attractive to Wan 
 da, just as he was sharp enough to discern that those 
 qualities were not common to the ordinary laborer. 
 What the man s mission among them was Jan never 
 ceased to inquire; but he never ceased to believe that 
 it would discover itself in due season ; at any rate, and 
 for the present, he trusted him, he even liked him ; for 
 Jan wished to save his sister pain and fruitless repent 
 ance and he was rejoiced to find this stranger a man 
 of honor. 
 
 As the days went on Jan s liking for Blair increased 
 to a rough affection, and with even quicker pace Blair 
 won his way into the hearts of .the other members of 
 the Brodski family. They were no longer bashful or 
 constrained when he was present ; they accepted him, 
 like the rest of the household, as a mattter of course. 
 Mary, Anna and Thomas waited longingly for his 
 return from work ; with pencil and paper, with a knife 
 and a stick of wood, he knew how .to bring laughter 
 to their pinched faces, joy to their starved hearts. 
 His pennies, freely distributed, bound them to him 
 with double cords. He was always cheerful and pleas 
 ant ; he brought sunshine into the dark house. Even 
 Mrs. Brodski felt the spell of Blair s magnetic per 
 sonality ; when he was home bickering ceased, the 
 children annoyed her less, and there was merriment 
 in the house. Now and then he made her a present 
 of some trifle, and that delighted her ; no one had 
 ever given her anything before, she knew not what to 
 make out of it ; and she would stammer out her clum 
 sy thanks. Gradually, like the children, she found 
 herself watching the clock for his coming. 
 
THE NEW HOME 73 
 
 He taught Paul the rudiments of learning. He 
 proved an apt and willing pupil, astonishing his master 
 at the rapid progress he made, at the leaps and jumps 
 with which he bounded along. In the spring one 
 can sometimes fairly hear the grass grow; and it 
 seemed to Blair that he could hear, rather than feel or 
 see, the change going on in Paul s body and mind. 
 Under the surface of Paul s boyishness, Blair soon 
 discovered a depth of seriousness and thoughtfulness 
 at which he marveled more than at the lad s aptitude. 
 
 Blair learned preference that he might play with 
 Michael, Jan and Wanda; and he insisted that the 
 mother play with them, which she did reluctantly at 
 first, with avidity afterwards, when she understood 
 the points of the game. Often the cards were laid 
 aside and they chatted and sipped beer. Tact 
 fully Blair would lead the conversation, never as if he 
 were searching for information or knowledge, always 
 as if he were offering them. Michael, in his broken 
 English, talked freely; Jan, rarely; the oldest brother 
 was reticent to taciturnity, and he generally sat in si 
 lence, plucking at his red beard and gazing dreamily 
 into space with his large blue eyes. Dreaminess was 
 a salient characteristic of the family, common to them 
 all as the flat nose, the blond hair and the blue eyes. 
 It struck Blair forcibly in his observations of the chil 
 dren, of Paul, of Wanda, of Michael and Jan; the 
 differences were those of degree only. 
 
VII 
 AN IDYLL OF THE MILLS 
 
 WANDA S household work was done and she 
 strolled out to the porch, wrapped in her 
 black shawl to wait for Ignatz. A few 
 evenings ago she had had a confidential talk with Jan 
 and another one with Blair ; and as a result of both the 
 young woman was inclined to take Blair less and 
 Ignatz more seriously. 
 
 Ignatz came lurching along, his hands in his trou 
 sers. Arm in arm, they moved in silence down the 
 poorly-lit street. Mill hands trudged past them, 
 dinner-pails in hand, their heads bent to the ground. 
 
 4< It s a nice evening," ventured Ignatz, cautiously. 
 
 " A beautiful evening, Ignatz," she answered, 
 affirmatively. 
 
 He felt relieved to discover that she agreed with 
 him, and they strolled on again in silence. They 
 climbed down a row of wooden steps and turned east 
 ward. 
 
 " Hello! Where are you two going? " It was Paul. 
 
 " Just out," replied Ignatz, confusedly. 
 
 " Can I go with you ? " asked Paul, with a grin. 
 
 " No, you can t," replied Wanda, positively. 
 
 "Why not?" he queried, affecting innocence. 
 
 " Because we don t want you, that s why," she re 
 torted. 
 
 74 
 
AN IDYLL OF THE MILLS 75 
 
 " All right, I ll go on the other side of the street." 
 
 " Don t you follow us," she commanded. 
 
 " I m not going to follow you. Marvin is big 
 enough for three people, I guess." 
 
 " Well, we re going towards the lake." 
 
 " I was going that way too." 
 
 " Well, we will go south." 
 
 " I can go that way just as well." 
 
 They strolled towards the lake. Paul tagged at 
 their heels for a while, whistling ; then he disappeared 
 in the darkness. 
 
 Ignatz and Wanda slipped by the switch-tender who 
 stood on guard near the long stretch of tracks that 
 radiated in the direction of the railway bridge. It 
 was the one corner of the mill-yard not hedged in by 
 fences. Purring, laboring engines were carrying out 
 loads of plate and rails. Ignatz guided Wanda s steps 
 carefully and they walked on in safety through that 
 maze of tracks and whirling cars to the slip of Steel 
 river, the blue waters of which, commingling with the 
 still bluer waters of Lake Michigan, formed the ex 
 treme southern boundary of the plant. 
 
 Wanda and Ignatz sat down on a low pile of timber 
 close to the edge of the narrow straight slip. It had 
 turned cold and clear a night suggesting the last of 
 October rather than the first of December. The smoke 
 from the stacks of the blast-furnaces was swept out on 
 the lake in a southerly direction. The stars shone 
 sparkling and alive in the undimmed sky. 
 
 A watchman paced up and down his narrow beat 
 restlessly. He heard the voices of the pair and he 
 rushed towards them. " What are you doing here? " 
 he challenged in a slow English, heavy with a foreign 
 accent. 
 
76 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Just taking the air," answered Ignatz, indiffer 
 ently, squeezing Wanda s hand with a sly knowing 
 pressure. 
 
 " Get out right away," said the man harshly,, taking 
 his stand squarely in front of them. 
 
 The revolving light from the lamp in the lighthouse 
 tower, which stood on the Company s ground a stone s 
 throw from them, flared full on the myrmidon, dis 
 closing a scarred face, striated, disfigured, and two 
 vacant eyes. 
 
 The light shifted slowly, falling opposite on the long 
 pier that ran far out into the lake and on the gro 
 tesque lumber piles that freighted the opposite shore, 
 then the rays glittered amid the violet pyramid of 
 smoke that streamed from the chimneys of the oil- 
 works in the direction of Hammond, winging its way 
 across the Indiana border. 
 
 " If you don t go, I ll put you out! " screamed the 
 watchman. 
 
 " No you won t, Bozic; it s me, Ignatz Frank." 
 
 " Why didn t you say so? All right," and the Bohe 
 mian paced on again towards the stone building that 
 made the home of the lighthouse-keeper. 
 
 " It s good to know somebody, ain t it now? " laughed 
 Wanda, pleased to find her lover a man of influence 
 who might go where he chose, undisturbed. 
 
 " Yes. Bozic s blind ; stone blind. You wouldn t 
 guess it, would you? He got horribly hurt in an ex 
 plosion in the steel-mill. I was at his side when it 
 happened. No one thought he would get over it, but 
 he did. The Company gave him this job for life." 
 
 Again the blind man paced past them, his hands 
 crossed behind his back, moving on with the surety of 
 perfect sight. 
 
AN IDYLL OF THE MILLS 77 
 
 " I m glad it wasn t you," she said, her arms sweep 
 ing around his neck, " he s a nasty sight." 
 
 Ignatz shrugged his shoulders. " My turn may 
 come at any time." 
 
 " Don t say that don t," she shuddered, drawing 
 him to her. * There he goes again. I wish that he d 
 find somewhere else to watch." 
 
 " What s the difference ; he can t see." 
 
 They plunged into self-forgetfulness again, unmind 
 ful of the hoarse clangor and the violent throbbing of 
 the mills at work. The poetry of the night was having 
 its mysterious effect even on these unpoetical natures. 
 
 An iron steamer swam gracefully down the slip and 
 whistled sharply to the tender on the railroad bridge 
 to swing and let it pass. A deck hand standing near 
 the headlight in the bow caught sight of the loving 
 swains on shore. 
 
 " Break away there," he shouted. 
 
 " Wouldn t you like to be in my place ? " Ignatz was 
 about to reply. 
 
 " Hush ! " Wanda patted his cheek lightly, but un 
 embarrassed clung tighter to his neck. 
 
 The steamer glided away through the open bridge, 
 up the slip, and into Lake Michigan. 
 
 Bozic, the blind guard, marched wearily by them 
 as the night grew darker and as the lights from the 
 mills were more lurid and the colors more vivid, and 
 the midnight approached. He heard them laugh and 
 sing, and he shook his head gravely, sighing with sad 
 ness inexpressible. He was thinking of his youth, of 
 the days and nights of love and happiness, of his crip 
 pled countenance and his good looks destroyed, and 
 he cursed the mills as the minutes dragged on and 
 Ignatz and Wanda threw reserve to the winds. 
 
VIII 
 THE SHINDIG 
 
 ONE Saturday night when the Brodskis and Blair 
 had just settled down to a game of prefer 
 ence, Ignatz Frank came in to ask Wanda to 
 attend a * shindig," suggesting that perhaps the 
 others might wish to go. Blair and Jan accepted 
 eagerly. Michael left the house at once to invite 
 his betrothed, Irma Ludwig; and he joined the 
 party with her. The beauty of Michael s intended 
 struck Blair at once ; her slight, graceful form, her 
 black hair and eyes, met Wanda with an opposite at 
 every point. 
 
 The sextet left the house, hastened through Polish 
 town and turned up R street. An immense silvered 
 dumb-bell extended from the signboard of a corner 
 saloon. They clambered up the elevated platform and 
 entered. A gigantic Pole, in a cardigan jacket, stood 
 behind the bar. In a corner of the room was a row of 
 iron dumb-bells, running from one to five hundred 
 pounds in weight ; with these the proprietor exhibit 
 ed his strength to his patrons, hence the name and the 
 sign of the place. 
 
 They passed into the dance-hall at the rear of the 
 saloon. Blair counted some twenty couples sitting 
 around the wooden benches that ranged along the wall 
 of the low oblong room. They were all Polish, he 
 
 78 
 
THE SHINDIG 79 
 
 could tell at a glance. The men looked scrubbed and 
 clean in their baggy Sunday clothes; some of them 
 still cleaner in white shirts ; some cleaner still in white 
 shirt and collar; others cleanest of all in the finished 
 toilet of white shirt, white collar and white tie. All 
 wore their hats. The women, with some few excep 
 tions, were blond, although the degrees of blondness 
 varied. Stooped shoulders, arms that hung stiff as 
 sticks, large rough hands that swung from the arms, 
 like buckets attached to poles, proclaimed them work 
 ing women. They were dressed for the greater part 
 in quiet colors and drab ; one scarlet waist was conspic 
 uous by contrast. Tawdry jewelry confined its lav- 
 ishness to large brooches harp and heart-shaped 
 and thick bracelets. 
 
 The men were smoking : the malodor of pungent 
 pipe tobacco clogged the air. The kerosene lamp 
 suspended in the center of the ceiling twinkled like 
 a lone star through the mist. 
 
 It was solemnly quiet. The male portion was talk 
 ing constrainedly to the female portion, which was ill- 
 at-ease and evidently not overly well acquainted with 
 the talkers. The big saloon-keeper, in his cardigan 
 jacket, stood in a corner, rubbing his smooth chin, 
 yawning, waiting for the dancing and the drinking to 
 begin. Blair was eyed suspiciously ; he bore the ob 
 vious marks of the stranger and the foreigner. He 
 felt that he was out of place ; but with characteristic 
 stubbornness he resolved to find a place into which he 
 would fit. 
 
 Jan found the woman he wanted, and, taking it 
 for granted that the woman wanted him, he quietly 
 seated himself beside the object of his choice. Blair 
 squeezed himself into an unoccupied corner, with that 
 
8o BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 blissful feeling, singular and unique, which can come 
 only when one knows one is being talked about in a 
 language which one does not understand and by speak 
 ers to whom one apprehends that one is disagreeable. 
 He observed everything, although he appeared to be 
 observing nothing, a sleight he had acquired by ap 
 pearing to bend his eyes on the floor, when in reality 
 they were bent everywhere but there. He shook his 
 foot nervously and admired the brilliancy of people 
 who could converse in Polish. 
 
 A girl entering without an escort made for a seat. 
 Gathering his courage, Blair edged towards her. She 
 returned answers to his polite questions in broken Eng 
 lish, ashamed of both her English and her native 
 tongue ; between the two she excoriated his superior 
 ity in Polish unexpressed. They rapidly became the 
 cynosure of a fleering crowd, whose fleers the girl 
 understood, and her rubber-like lips spread in a grin 
 from ear to ear and she blushed from her chin to her 
 forehead. Some choice Polish maledictions died in 
 silence at the bottom of her angry heart. Wanda saw 
 Blair s predicament and she came to his rescue, Ignatz 
 Frank tagging sheepishly at her heels. Affairs went 
 better with Blair ; the grins ebbed to nothing and the 
 crowd became silent and serious again. 
 
 Two violinists and a celloist seated themselves in 
 the farther end of the room, and after a preliminary 
 strumming they sawed out a mazurka on their twang- 
 ling instruments. The dancing began. Blair offered 
 his arm to his companion. Another obstacle confront 
 ed him ; he knew not the dance ; but the girl was 
 patient, gradually feeling more at home with her com 
 panion, and she taught him the step. They circled 
 around with the rest. 
 
THE SHINDIG 81 
 
 The men held the women around the waist tightly, 
 their bodies drawn firmly, almost squarely together, 
 swaying as one to the right and left, back and forth, 
 accentuating certain steps with a crash of the foot 
 against the floor. 
 
 The musicians tucked their handkerchiefs under 
 their chins and played quicker and louder, in a mono 
 toned, even manner that worked insidiously and persist 
 ently on the senses. 
 
 Blair found amusement in the change. His finer 
 senses were stirred like the coarser ones of the others. 
 He drank with the rest as he had danced with them. 
 His body, debilitated by the week s work, craved the 
 strong stimulant and enjoyed the vitality quickened 
 by the mixture of blackberry-brandy and alcohol. 
 Idleness and overwork are mortal enemies to temper 
 ance. The music ceased, then it began again, and the 
 dancers pirouetted without a change of partners. The 
 musicians removed their coats, lit their pipes, and 
 settled down for harder work. Perspiration streamed 
 from every face; the room grew hotter and hotter to 
 the alcohol-heated blood, and the rays from the lamp 
 sank lazily through the air made thicker and thicker 
 by the inexhaustible smoke from the pipes. Now and 
 then a couple broke from the room, ran to the bar and 
 returned to resume their places in the whirl; others 
 paused to take their refreshment from an aproned bar 
 tender, and then tripped away with breath more vinous 
 and blood more tropical. 
 
 The hats of the men were perched far back on their 
 heads ; the faces of the women were the red of scarlet. 
 The slow sensuous music, impassioning as the atmos 
 phere itself, low, stirring, amorous, went on and on 
 apace. The stamping ceased ; there was no sound 
 6 
 
Sa BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 but the notes from the instruments; no noise; no 
 shouting ; nothing but subdued whispering. It was all 
 grimly and devilishly in earnest. The spirit of the 
 occasion resented noise as an interference with the be 
 wildering effect of the weird music and the quietude 
 that made the flesh thrill. 
 
 The strong drink worked its swift way through 
 Blair s bone and marrow ; and he was conscious that 
 the music and the dance were effecting a persistent 
 change. He struggled against it at first with all his 
 power ; finally he succumbed. The girl was no longer 
 repulsive to him ; her calloused hands no longer made 
 him desire to withdraw his own from their horny 
 clasp ; her blowzy face, her rubber-like lips, her heavy 
 features, were no longer repellent to him. 
 
 A huge Pole staggered across the floor. The dan 
 cers made way before his uplifted arm and threatening 
 glances. He caught Blair by the arm with a rough 
 quick jerk, and with another strong pull he wrenched 
 the girl from him. It happened so quickly and un 
 expectedly that, for the second, Blair believed it an 
 apparition of his superexcited thought. He faced the 
 man, prepared to dispute his authority. The high 
 cheekbones, protruding like two knuckles, the small 
 green eyes, it was Vorlinski ! 
 
 " What are you doing with my girl ? " he grunted 
 in his broken English, his lips pressed together vicious 
 ly. "I ll teach you! Can t T trust you alone for a 
 minute ! " he howled at the crirl, wild in his drunken 
 double jealousy. His right hand crashed for her flat 
 head. Blair intercented the blow. He was nerved for 
 the combat ; sobered and steadied for what he knew 
 must be the decisive battle. 
 
 " Let her alone, you coward ! Settle with me ! " 
 
THE SHINDIG 83 
 
 Quickly he followed his words with a staggering blow 
 that took the Polish bully under the chin. Vorlinski 
 fell backwards, the blood flowing from his cut tongue, 
 howling with rage and pain and the first glimmer of 
 unexpected defeat. 
 
 The dancing had ceased ; the musicians plunged for 
 ward in their shirt-sleeves to enjoy the not unusual 
 climax to the weekly festivities. The women twined 
 their arms around their lovers waists and looked on 
 stolidly, annoyed that their paradisiacal bliss should 
 be shocked earthward by an event so commonplace 
 and stale. 
 
 " Hello, it s you ! We ll stand by you ! " and Jan 
 and Michael, taking in the situation, rushed forward 
 to the assistance of their friend as Vorlinski was rising 
 to his feet. 
 
 " Never mind ; keep away ! We ll settle this now 
 and for the last time/ yelled Blair the irate. " Stand 
 back ! " He was equal to the occasion and sure of his 
 man. No languor of body or physical lassitude could 
 give Vorlinski the unfair advantage now. 
 
 The gigantesque saloon-keeper rushed between the 
 combatants. " We can t have this ! " he shouted in 
 Polish, " the police will be here in a minute. They 
 will take my license." It angered him to see Blair 
 gain the upper hand over his opponent ; he would not 
 have interfered had the battle gone the other way. 
 
 " Bother your license. Can t you let them have it 
 out? It will be over in a minute. No noise now! " 
 and Jan and Michael pinioned the intruder by the 
 wrists; three bystanders came to their assistance. 
 
 It was as still again as if the dance were in progress 
 more silent even. No one spoke ; they were anxious 
 
84 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 now to see the fight move to a finish, fearful only of 
 interruption by the law. 
 
 The girl with whom Blair had danced tried to pre 
 vent his arm from delivering a well-aimed blow. 
 Some one caught her by the wrist. She shrieked curses 
 at the man to whom she had been attracted but a min 
 ute ago. She shrilled another horrible malediction. 
 A rough hand was planted over her mouth. 
 
 As Blair s right arm was raised defensively, his left 
 arm offensively, he caught the gleam of a thin short 
 dirk, half concealed in Yorlinski s clenched fist. He 
 drew his arm back in just sufficient time to save its 
 future usefulness. The sleeve of his coat was ripped 
 down its entire length ; a surface scratch down the 
 arm marked the course of the blade. 
 
 The crowd saw, but it uttered no murmur of com 
 ment. Strategy was part of that game, and fair play. 
 Outwardly Blair was calm enough ; inwardly he had 
 all the fears of a man called upon to face death, with 
 hands bound. He made a feint with his left fist, 
 swinging his arm circlewise ; before the completion of 
 the circle he dropped it back to his side and kicked 
 Vorlinski full in the stomach with his right foot. His 
 antagonist was sinking to the floor with a howl of 
 pain, when Blair caught the hand which held the 
 blade, and, wrenching the wrist with all his strength, 
 sprained it. Volinski s most valuable weapon was left 
 dead weight. The knife fell and sank quivering into 
 the rough pine boards. Blair drew out the blade and 
 calmly put the knife in his pocket. 
 
 The alcohol was cooking in his brain ; his temper 
 seethed to the boiling point ; his blood beat like a 
 hammer at his temples. The dirk was tempting. He 
 thirsted for blood. His own thoughts frightened 
 
THE SHINDIG 85 
 
 him far more than his antagonist. He could have 
 pounded him into insensibility, have trampled him into 
 unconsciousness, have choked and kicked him to 
 death, and that without interference from any of the 
 onlookers. Vorlinski still lay on the floor, panting for 
 breath, almost fainting from the torture that the 
 wrenched wrist caused him. 
 
 With arms akimbo Blair waited, controlling himself 
 by degrees, resolved to mete Volinski fearful punish 
 ment if he should renew the combat. Foaming at 
 the mouth, the blood congealing scarlet about the two 
 protruding points of his cheekbones ; his green eyes 
 turning blue, bulging from their sockets a brute in 
 sane with brutal pain, so insane that the very pain was 
 a delirious sensation that merely intensified the insan 
 ity of vengeance and sank to insignificance within it, 
 Vorlinski arose. 
 
 The Pole s left hand skimmed skilfully over Blair s 
 protecting right and landed with the thud of a cata 
 pult on his jaw. He reeled, staggering; his sight grew 
 dim, but he caught himself and maintained his bal 
 ance, breathing deeply. The blow cost the giver more 
 than the receiver; the huge Pole howled aloud 
 in agony; his broken wrist hung lifeless at his side. 
 A shower of blows from Blair, on the eyes, the cheeks, 
 the jaw and the nose and the ribs, sent him flat to the 
 floor again. 
 
 Blair stood over his prostrate adversary; his rage 
 was towering; his temper was demoniac, more terri 
 ble now that the battle was over than when it had 
 begun. He winced under his own fury. The blue 
 vein that ran through the center of his high forehead 
 empurpled. He turned away. Atavism, the incul 
 cated lesson of fair play, heredity of a superior race, 
 
86 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 something, anything, bound his legs and tied his arms, 
 prevented him from beating and stamping this monster 
 to death as the monster would have done to him. Vor- 
 linski crawled out of the room. The girl followed her 
 lover. 
 
 Blair sought the open air. He tore along the un 
 even sidewalks with his great strides, regardless of any 
 direction. He was disheartened, cast-down, ashamed ; 
 his eyes were dry, but the heroic spirit of the man 
 wept tears of blood. He had come thither to preach 
 the new gospel, and twice during those first two 
 weeks he had fought like a mad dog ; he had 
 dragged himself down to the level of a beast. He had 
 heard the cry of murder swell in his heart and ring in 
 his ears. He had sullied the sublimity of his mission. 
 He had given way to his lowest passions, passions 
 that he had never dreamed were lurking in the dark re 
 cesses of his soul. If Evangeline had been there! If 
 she had seen that fight and the orgy that ushered it in ! 
 At the first weak temptation she had been clean forgot. 
 He would have liked to hide the memory of that night 
 in his hands. 
 
 His thoughts were queasy with disgust. The sacri 
 fices of the weak do not smoke on the altar of a noble 
 cause; only the sacrifices of the strong are acceptable 
 to its gods. He would better go whence he had come ; 
 what business had he, who needed the shelter of home, 
 to seek to shelter the world? The rattle and roar of 
 the clamoring mills reached him. The reflection of a 
 vivid flame from the blast-furnaces swept over the 
 face of a deep pool of water. He looked and rushed 
 on ; the suggestion that had frightened him a few 
 nights ago thrilled him now. 
 
 In the Dumb-Bell the dance was going merrily on; 
 
THE SHINDIG 87 
 
 a few minutes after Blair left the saloon the musicians 
 had reseated themselves; the crowd had but paused for 
 refreshment, and when the low, sensuous, insinuating 
 music began, they whirled away again to its ravishing 
 tones. Fetid, stifling grew the atmosphere ; collars 
 and shirts and ties wilted and shrunk. Hats were 
 tipped back farther and farther ; coats were discarded ; 
 the sweat dripped unheeded down their faces. The 
 lamp light struggled faintly through the curtain of 
 tobacco smoke. 
 
 The musicians sawed on their tired instruments as 
 their heads bent sleepily over the rests of their violins, 
 as the positions assumed in the mazurka became freer 
 and more intimate. 
 
 Four o clock sounded. It was time for early mass ; 
 and the languid couples paired reluctantly to church. 
 
IX 
 IN THE DARKNESS 
 
 BLAIR CARRHART put on his ulster and 
 strolled up the street to take the fresh air a 
 moment or two before retiring. It was bit- 
 ingly cold; the atmosphere was white, stiff, as if 
 coated with ice, but it was invigorating and in 
 spiring. Inside one could not breathe; the doors and 
 windows were shut tight to keep the fresh, bracing 
 air out and the warm foul air in. The toilers in steel, 
 for the greater part, are unable to endure the cold ; 
 used to the superheated mills and furnaces, they crave 
 the heat in their homes. 
 
 It was an ill wind that sent the price of coal and pro 
 visions up, but it blew good in its train, the mala 
 rial, miasmatic pools were dried up, the foul humidity 
 and dampness of Marvin were locked in prisons of ice, 
 awaiting the spring for escape, and the rheumatic, 
 aching bones of the countless laborers found relief 
 from pain at last. 
 
 Blair increased his gait, striding on with his great 
 long strides, drawing deep breaths with his strong 
 lungs. The swiftness of his thoughts kept pace with 
 his steps. He was dissatisfied, depressed, not at one 
 with himself. Ever since he had seen Evangeline, he 
 had been distraught and ill-at-ease; uncomfortable in 
 his harsh surroundings. He was a prey to homesick- 
 
 88 
 
IN THE DARKNESS 89 
 
 ness. She recalled, so he told himself, the higher life, 
 his own people, the culture, the refinement, the books, 
 amid which he had been born and bred ; the absence 
 of the higher life that sicklied his present days over 
 with melancholy. There were moments when he tired 
 of acting the farcical lie with himself, when he acknowl 
 edged the truth that it was she who made him yearn 
 for home, that she represented home to him, that there 
 were two worlds ; one world in which Evangeline 
 played her part, another world in which she had no 
 part to play; and there could be no continued happi 
 ness for him if his world was where she was not. 
 
 What booted his sacrifice? Wherefore remain? 
 Why not return? He had been in the mills over a 
 month it seemed years and he had accomplished 
 nothing. He was bound with chains of inactivity, 
 and he chafed and writhed, vexing his spirit, unable 
 to free himself from the galling gyves. Not one word 
 of his gospel had he spread ; he had not even prepared 
 the way for the preaching. He was a poor disciple 
 in the faith of his own rearing. 
 
 A voice within him argued to the contrary. He 
 had done much. He had climbed from place to place, 
 from station to station, with a rapidity that surprised 
 himself no less than those who witnessed it. He had 
 established warm friendships among the men as he 
 moved along, learning their lives and their work. He 
 had joined the union of the Amalgamated Workers in 
 Tin, Iron and Steel; and in his lodge of the union 
 had not Winslow told him so often? he had won the 
 admiration due a man who thinks before he speaks and 
 then speaks thoughts worth the hearing. It was 
 through the influence of Winslow, who had become his 
 closest friend in the mill, that Bach, the German super- 
 
9 o BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 intendent of the open-hearth, gave him a chance in his 
 department ; and how quickly had his trained intelli 
 gence advanced him there to the melter s first helper! 
 Blair throttled this voice that spoke in his favor, he 
 would have none of it. 
 
 What had he done to ameliorate the suffering, to 
 alleviate the poverty that was grinding the faces of 
 this people, stunting the growth of their children, 
 twisting their lack-lime limbs awry ? Had he brought 
 one ray of hope or happiness into these sorry homes, 
 not fit for the shambles of sheep, by showing how his 
 scheme of the altruistic Cooperative Commonwealth 
 must supplant the heartless, egoistic tyranny of capital 
 ism? Why had he not made those downcast hearts 
 look up with the cheering faith that the overwork and 
 the underpay were to cease ; that the careless slaughter 
 of human life waged daily by the machinery was to 
 come to an end, and that the Cooperative Common 
 wealth would fulfil the promise, centuries old, of 
 peace on earth, good-will to men ? What had he done 
 to make the lives of this people a grade higher than 
 that of sleek cattle fed in comfortable stalls? When 
 every flimsy cottage, shaking like a reed in the De 
 cember blast, was moaning with a heart-breaking 
 pathos, why was he silent? 
 
 Again the voice spoke in his favor. He had done 
 all in his power. Such things demanded time, they 
 were not the work of a night. Already he had pre 
 pared the way by outlining his favorite theme to the 
 Brodskis despite Jan s growling objection and the 
 mother s protest, who could not forget that revolution 
 ary ideas had cost her dead husband trouble enough 
 during his life. Michael, who was already the mem 
 ber of a socialistic society, had promised after long 
 
IN THE DARKNESS 91 
 
 urging to conduct him thither. Blair throttled the 
 voice once more. 
 
 He was oblivious of the cold; his blood boiled hot; 
 his heart hammered fast, and he strode on and on. 
 The roaring, screeching and rumbling of the mills 
 reverberated through the night; the flames from the 
 converters were reflected like an aurora in the clear 
 freezing sky. Men, bundled and muffled, flinging 
 their arms across their chests, moved to and from their 
 work. 
 
 Somebody saluted; Blair halted. Paul Brodski 
 hurried along, arm in arm with a woman. Blair rec 
 ognized her despite the thick veil. She was Sophia 
 Goldstein, the Russian woman, who lived in the shack 
 that stood at one side of their yard, not a stone s throw 
 from the Brodskis tenement. Blair had seen them 
 together often of late, and he disliked the friendship ; 
 he felt sure that no good could come from it in so far 
 as Paul was concerned. There was a suggestion of 
 cruelty, of hardness, of fanaticism about her long 
 swarthy face, with the protruding underlip, with the 
 black eyes that burned like strong lights through 
 opaque globes. What was her object? What did the 
 friendship portend? Paul was under the woman s 
 influence. His boyishness, his roguishness, were fast 
 disappearing ; he was becoming old, serious. He no 
 longer showed any desire to continue his studies with 
 Blair; when he was home (those occasions were grow 
 ing rarer and rarer) he pored over Polish pamphlets 
 in an absorbed but mysterious, almost sly manner, like 
 one who does not wish to be seen. Michael joined his 
 voice in protest with Blair ; but Jan supported Paul s 
 conduct and there was an end to all argument. 
 
 Blair hurried on, Paul and the Russian woman were 
 
92 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 soon forgotten, his thoughts reverting to his own short 
 comings and his neglected mission. The gasoline jets 
 of the Dumb-Bell sent a glowing patch of light 
 through the thickly-frosted windows. A loud noise 
 as of many people talking could be heard. Blair 
 stepped inside. A crowd of men was huddled around 
 the red-hot sides of the coal stove, kicking their heavy 
 boots against the glowing sheeting, thawing out their 
 frozen gloves. They were the yard men the 
 " mules " of the mill who, benumbed by the icy winds 
 from the lake, had evaded the watchful foremen s eyes 
 to steal a minute or two of reviving heat. 
 
 Blair was greeted pleasantly on all sides; many 
 hands were extended to him. He was no longer 
 glanced at with suspicion ; the foreigners more specifi 
 cally the Poles regarded him as their friend. He 
 had settled many of their trivial " clothes-line " quar 
 rels out of the police-courts, to which they were so 
 prone to rush ; he had been their assistant in a score 
 of matters that required a knowledge of English ; he 
 had ever been ready to counsel and aid, and his coun 
 sel and aid were ever in requisition ; he had even 
 learned to understand their language ; in short, he was 
 already looked upon as one of their friends. 
 
 Finding a willing listener, they complained bitterly, 
 the old complaint uttered since the beginning of time 
 by those who have not against those who have. Coal 
 and provisions were outrageously high. The rent 
 charged by the Company was exorbitant and it robbed 
 them unmercifully for indispensable repairs. Things 
 had been villainously misrepresented ; they had been 
 imported by the European agents of the Company on 
 the promise of reasonable work and high wages ; and 
 now their pay was insufficient to eke out even their 
 
IN THE DARKNESS 93 
 
 meager existence. Their families were freezing and 
 hungering. How could they live? How were they 
 to see the dread winter through? The work was 
 deadening, exhausting; it was torture to face those 
 arctic winds for twelve interminable hours at a 
 stretch. No horse could endure it. The injustice 
 was barbarous. But they didn t wish to find fault 
 with the work ; they were willing to moil until their 
 finger-nails were worn even with their flesh and the 
 flesh bled ; if only by the harrowing toil of their bleed 
 ing hands they were able to fill their children s mouths 
 and their own. The weaker ones gave way to the 
 surge of compelling emotion, and the tears rolled down 
 their blowzy cheeks, chapped and cracked by the cold. 
 It was so good to unburden oneself to a sympathetic 
 listener ! 
 
 Imprecations against the Company arose in a foam 
 ing whirlpool to Blair s lips ; but the whirlpool fell 
 back, mingling with the mass of incoherent unformed 
 phrases from which it had detached itself, ebbing 
 away there. Blair had no desire to pour the oil of 
 hatred on the fire of their discontent; such was not 
 his purpose ; nor did the moment seem ripe for the 
 promulgation of his favorite doctrine. He strove for 
 some words of consolation ; some jingling, albeit empty 
 condolence that might serve, like the stove before 
 which they stood, to warm their faint hearts for a con 
 tinuation of the struggle ; but no condoling words 
 would come ; and he stood confused, overcome, his 
 breast heaving as he murmered : " Wait, it will all 
 come right ; it will all come right." 
 
 They clamored for the honor of treating Blair at 
 the bar (the honor was worth any sacrifice whatso 
 ever), but he refused all invitations. The men but- 
 
94 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 toned their coats, drew on their gloves and walked out 
 into the night ; Blair departed with them. 
 
 It was nearly nine when he reached home. Two 
 men pushed ahead of him in the passageway that ran 
 between the tenements, and made straight for the 
 shack of Sophia Goldstein, the Russian woman. Blair 
 looked; lights in her room wavered through the frost 
 ed window. The door of the shack opened long 
 enough for him to descry that the room was filled with 
 visitors. A while afterwards a group of four fol 
 lowed the first two. Blair crouched down behind the 
 stairway of the tenement that fronted the rear of the 
 Brodskis and watched ; he was near enough to have 
 peered through the window had not the coating of 
 frost interfered. The party was not one of roysterers, 
 of merrymakers ; there was not a sound, no murmur of 
 joyful voices. Another man knocked at the door of 
 the shack ; two knocks in quick succession ; then three 
 at long, spaced intervals. It was the same signal that 
 Blair had heard before. Jan and Paul came out from 
 the tenement, glancing from side to side, cautiously. 
 They knocked ; the shack swallowed them. 
 
 Michael was just preparing to retire when Blair 
 tapped at his door. "Come out, Michael! I wish to 
 show you something! Strange things are going on 
 outside ! " 
 
 Michael ventured out in his shirt-sleeves, shivering 
 with the cold, his body drawn together tensely, as if he 
 would retain its heat. 
 
 There ! " cried Blair, pointing from under the 
 staircase. 
 
 " In the shack of the Russian woman?" Michael s 
 small nose dilated as if it wished to raise itself out of 
 his heavy mustache. 
 
IN THE DARKNESS 95 
 
 " Yes. What are all those people doing in there ? " 
 
 " I no like it, Mr. Blair," he answered, evasively, his 
 teeth chattering as from a chill. 
 
 Steps resounded through the crisp air ; a rather tall 
 man, with a dark Van Dyke beard and a protruding 
 paunch, moved up the three stairs of the shack, knock 
 ing twice, then thrice. The light fell over him ; it 
 could be discerned that he was not of the same class 
 as his predecessors ; a glance at his dress and looks 
 proclaimed that. 
 
 "Who is he?" asked Blair. 
 
 Michael shook his head, his teeth chattering again. 
 
 " Michael, what are they doing in there ? " 
 
 He shook his head again, in a non-committal way, as 
 one who knows the truth and will not divulge it. 
 
 Blair drew himself up to his full height, throwing 
 his head well back. " I m going in there." 
 
 " For Christ s sake, no, man, no ! " exclaimed Mi 
 chael, catching him by the wrists. 
 
 Blair freed his wrists as if a child had held them. 
 
 " Don t go, Mr. Blair, please," he pleaded. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " You get me in trouble. You find out someaday, 
 he evaded. 
 
 Blair reflected ; then he returned into the tenement 
 with Michael. He lay awake for a long while, pon 
 dering deeply; then he fell into the death-like sleep 
 of the laborer. 
 
X 
 THE DESTROYERS 
 
 LA VETTE, the chief of the chemical depart 
 ment of the North- Western Rolling-Mills, was 
 the last visitor whom Blair and Michael had 
 seen enter the shack. A dozen men, seated on 
 the bed, the trunks, chairs, boxes and an upturned 
 wash-tub, occupied the cluttered room it could be 
 used for any purpose and was used for all. The 
 men were all toilers from the mills, Poles, Hungarians 
 and Croatians. La Vette s well-dressed, pudgy form 
 was strikingly out of place in the shack, his freshly 
 brilliantined dark Van Dyke beard and his polished 
 finger-nails seemed to resent his bringing them there. 
 
 Exchanging a few words in Italian with Sophia 
 Goldstein a Russian polyglot to whom no language 
 was foreign La Vette removed his overcoat and hat, 
 and sat down on the bed beside her. The woman was 
 smoking a cigarette ; La Yette opened his silver case 
 and calmly kept her company. He seemed more in 
 harmony with those straightened surroundings than 
 his appearance suggested. 
 
 " Anything new ? " she asked, puffing out a bluish 
 ring. 
 
 The others watched them furtively, their stolid faces 
 lighting up eagerly, straining to understand what they 
 
 96 
 
THE DESTROYERS 97 
 
 heard. Every word produced its definite result there, 
 seeming to fall through the surcharged atmosphere on 
 the floor like pieces of metal, ringing ominously. The 
 yellow patches of light that poured out from the lamp 
 on the washstand flickered as with suppressed excite 
 ment. 
 
 La Vette removed his pince-nez and rubbed the deep 
 red mark on the bridge of his nose. :< Yes," he drawled 
 out, " we can look for trouble around spring. Old 
 Judson the inventor has been busy. He has three 
 automatic inventions ready that will throw at least 
 a thousand men out of work. He s a remarkable old 
 man. If you give him time enough he ll get up a 
 scheme for running the whole mill with one man and 
 a lever." 
 
 La Vette yawned and replaced the pince-nez, fold 
 ing his white hands on the black vest that fitted his 
 protruding stomach snugly. His broad bald head 
 fairly shone, the lamp rays breaking on the half -hu 
 morous little knob in its center. 
 
 Sophia Goldstein translated what the chemist had 
 said, her long lithe body moving serpentinely through 
 her loose wrapper; La Vette s owl-like eyes followed 
 the movement of her gesticulating hands. They were 
 wonderful hands, strong, yet dainty; and they seemed 
 clutched around some intangible object, choking it, 
 suffocating it with their prehensile fingers. La Vette 
 edged away as she continued to speak, evidently inter 
 polating remarks of her own in the translation ; the 
 woman was repugnant to him ; she made his sensitive 
 sense of touch creep : he had known her for years 
 their acquaintanceship had begun in Europe and he 
 could never overcome his dislike for the cruel sensual 
 face, with the bad underlip and the savage black eyes. 
 7 
 
98 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Like La Vette Sophia had had a past, and, like 
 most women who have had a past, her future would 
 have been better without it. She came by her anar 
 chistic tendencies naturally ; her father was a pupil of 
 Bakunin, a follower and an ardent disciple, and her 
 mother was the ardent disciple and pupil of her 
 father ; the daughter was not an indifferent pupil to 
 either. Sophia s mother and father were sent to Si 
 beria for life; it appeared that Russia, despite its im 
 mensity, was not large enough to contain those two 
 and the Czar at the same time: the Czar preferred 
 Russia. 
 
 Sophia entered into a liaison with a St. Petersburg 
 student, a dare-devil who valued his life at a pin and 
 the lives of others at half that amount. There was 
 another attempt on the life of the Czar, and the dis 
 tance between Russia and Siberia separated the Czar 
 from the student. Sophia escaped into France. At 
 Paris, in the purlieus of the anarchists, she met La 
 Vette. From Paris she drifted into New York; and, 
 being a bird of that black feather, she joined Herr 
 Most s flock. 
 
 She harangued audiences ; excited mobs, made con 
 verts for the cause did all the good in her power for 
 the sake of evil. About the time of the Haymarket 
 riot she had the scent of the vulture for carrion she 
 found her way to Chicago, and joined a group of the 
 infamous International. She was arrested with the 
 others ; but the evidence against her was valueless and 
 she was released. Experience had taught her how to 
 cover as well as to make tracks in the slime. She 
 fastened her tentacles on Marvin next; there was nour 
 ishment in that bleak rock for one of her ilk and cult. 
 
 La Vette drew out his open-faced watch, glanced at 
 
THE DESTROYERS 99 
 
 the dial and yawned again. There was that in his 
 bearing which angered the others, grated on them; 
 he wore such an outer assumption of inner self-impor 
 tance and superiority. He represented the very thing 
 they hated; he embodied the very things they wished 
 to destroy. They felt uncomfortable in his presence; 
 they blamed the woman for bringing him there; when 
 he spoke they averted their eyes to the ground. La 
 Vette was well aware of this feeling; but his serenity 
 was not disturbed by his knowledge ; to him these men 
 were but part of the rotten society, fit for destruction, 
 to disappear, he hoped, with the rest. 
 
 After all La Vette s mind, like his blood, was a com 
 plex affair ; he was Italian and Swiss on his father s 
 side; French and Italian on his mother s. His father 
 was a violent character, a born revolutionist, who bore 
 no small part in the Italian insurrections ; his mother 
 was gentle and shrinking. La Vette was compounded 
 of three grains of his father to two grains of his 
 mother. He studied chemistry in Italy and France ; 
 then he went to St. Petersburg to teach what he had 
 learned. 
 
 La Vette imbibed the nihilistic doctrines as easily 
 as if he had been a Russian ; he became interested in 
 an anarchistic corps ; so much interested that the po 
 lice gave him twelve hours to leave the country. He 
 went back to France, thence to England, thence to 
 America. The world had blown him around, and it 
 was his ambition to extend the same treatment to the 
 world. He taught French, Italian and chemistry in 
 the smaller American universities, and he finally drift 
 ed into the employment of the mills. 
 
 His high position had been won by two brilliant dis 
 coveries; one of which converted slag into glass, the 
 
ioo BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 other converting the same substance into cement. Both 
 were valuable ; they turned what had been hitherto re 
 garded as dirt into gold. He was brilliant, intellec 
 tual, witty ; and his company was sought by the heads 
 of the departments, even up to the president. La 
 Vette understood the craft of getting along with the 
 world to get along in it. He detested anything that 
 disturbed the established order of his easy life; and he 
 was generally grumbling and out of sorts because his 
 convictions and his theories were constantly calling 
 upon him to sacrifice his comfort to what he believed 
 his duties. 
 
 " I forgot to say," spoke the chemist, balancing his 
 pince-nez and rubbing the red spot on the bridge of 
 his nose, " that the tonnage men the fellows who are 
 paid on the output of tons have handed in their scale 
 of wages for the next year. They ask for a raise, and 
 the Company will insist on a decline. The Company 
 expects trouble all along the line and it is prepared to 
 meet it. The day laborers may look for a cut around 
 the first of January ; for I heard to-day that the Com 
 pany is in communication with its foreign agents for 
 the importation of vast numbers." 
 
 Sophia translated the information. La Vette watched 
 the vivacious gesticulation of her hands. His eyes, 
 wandering, caught sight of Paul Brodski s rapt ex 
 pression, and La Vette fastened his gaze on him. Paul 
 sat with his chin resting on his hand ; his blue eyes 
 fixed on the flashing black eyes of the woman. There 
 was no mistaking that look. " So," thought La Vette, 
 " she has caught that poor bird in her net." He pitied 
 Paul after his cold, purely intellectual fashion. La 
 Vette knew that other birds had been lured into this 
 net, never to free themselves from its meshes. 
 
THE DESTROYERS 101 
 
 Jan arose, tugging at his red beard, his blue eyes 
 rolling in frenzy, transported to an excitement that 
 one would not have believed his usual placidity capa 
 ble of reaching. His exhortation was blood-curdling, 
 insatiable in its demand for revenge. The air was 
 scarlet, changed in hue as if an immense ingot had 
 been lifted from the gas pits of the mills and placed 
 in the center of that room. The faces of his listeners 
 became heated, lurid, well-nigh canine. Some clawed 
 at their finger-nails nervously; others doubled their 
 big fists, pressing the sharp knuckles of the left hand 
 against the right. They were bloodhounds that had 
 sniffed the trail. 
 
 They discussed the manufacture of dangerous ex 
 plosives, chemicals, poisons; the ways and means of 
 putting into the next world the society they hated in 
 this. La Vette was called upon for advice ; he gave 
 it freely, though yawning, tired of repeating what was 
 to him an old story, frequently told, rarely effecting 
 the end that was its purpose. They could make dy 
 namite if they desired; but it was cheaper and less 
 dangerous, he cautioned, to purchase it. Moreover 
 there was plenty of it stored in the mills, used for 
 cracking slag ; and they could lay hands on that when 
 the time came. 
 
 The chemist arose and put on his hat and coat, ex 
 plaining to the woman that he was invited to a cotil 
 lon to be given that night at Marvin s. He must 
 change his clothes and hasten thither. He said " good 
 night " as if he were speaking to the room and not its 
 occupants. 
 
 As La Vette hastened to catch the train for the city 
 the thought of Paul Brodski, innocent, youthful, with 
 his large blue eyes, was still with him; and the cold 
 
102 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 intellectual pity like the pity for the central figure in 
 a sad picture disturbed his comfort. After all uni 
 versal destruction was a vague thing, far off, unlikely 
 to happen ; but this youth was concrete, near at hand, 
 standing over a yawning pit. La Vette s mind pre 
 ferred to deal in abstractions. 
 
XI 
 
 THE COTILLON 
 
 CALCIUM lights threw Marvin s colonial house 
 and the iron fence in broad relief against the 
 darkness of the avenue. The red brick front, 
 the white window frames and the green shutters 
 shone more red and white and green than in the 
 less garish light of day. Lines of carriages were 
 drawn close to the curb on both sides of the street. It 
 was almost twelve when La Vette s plebeian cab pushed 
 through the host of aristocratic carriages and drove up 
 to the awning that extended from the porch to the 
 street. A flunky assisted the chemist to alight. 
 
 The house was ablaze, warmed with the glow of 
 electric lights ; flooded with the odor that poured from 
 gorgeous clusters of American Beauties. Paintings, 
 etchings, Russian bronzes, Persian rugs, Carrara 
 marbles, objects of virtu gathered from the ends of 
 the earth to enrich the corners of Marvin s house, 
 struck La Vette with the vivid contrast they presented to 
 the wretched poverty of the shack he had left an hour 
 ago. He was at home anywhere, amid affluence or 
 poverty; but he preferred the affluence; just as he 
 could express himself equally well in French or Ital 
 ian, but he preferred the Italian it was the more nat 
 ural. As he passed up the curving oak stairway to 
 the second floor, he shook his head vigorously: that 
 was the last thought he gave to the shack and its occu- 
 
 103 
 
io 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 pants for the night. All that was sybaritic, Latin, lux 
 urious in the man and it was a great deal expand 
 ed and brightened to greet the bright and expansive 
 air of surrounding opulency. 
 
 The cotillon was already in progress; strains from 
 the dance music floated down the stairs ; La Vette 
 tapped his foot in time with the waltz notes and made 
 for the Louis XI V. ball-room. The first glance star 
 tled him. His owl-like eyes, opening wide, were un 
 able to credit the reality of a scene so magnificent. He 
 was overwhelmed ; he stood awkwardly, cutting a 
 poor figure, which luckily was unnoticed. The floor 
 was a sea of rustling silks, from the depths of which 
 the fair faces of the women, blond and brunette, 
 peeped luringly forth. 
 
 He was conscious enough of the music but he could 
 not see whence it came. The orchestra was seated in 
 the balcony, screened from view by plumy curtains of 
 asparagus, clustered with orchids, the dainty green 
 surface shimmering with innumerable tiny electric 
 lights that died out and came to life again as if the 
 foliage were the retreat for innumerable fireflies. 
 
 The women were dancing around the room grace 
 fully, vari-colored balloons floating over their heads. 
 The men were in swift but dignified pursuit. Evan- 
 geline, circling around swiftly, faced La Vette. 
 Grasping the situation with his quick wit, he caught 
 the balloon. 
 
 " I claim you for partner, I presume," he said, with 
 his pronounced foreign accent. 
 
 She assented, laughingly. Walter Putnam, who 
 barely missed the balloon, started for another. 
 
 " I fear you won too easily, Monsieur La Vette," 
 she laughed. 
 
THE COTILLON 105 
 
 " Considering the extent of my good fortune, yes," 
 he replied. 
 
 " You turn a compliment with too great facility. It 
 argues practice/ 
 
 " The ease with which it came should bespeak its 
 sincerity." 
 
 She made no reply. He was content to remain 
 quiet and let his sense for the beautiful satisfy itself 
 in silence. " Impressionistic and bold," he thought, 
 regarding her auburn hair, her pink cheeks the pink 
 of the inner side of a rose leaf her white teeth and 
 the black gown, ornamented with jet, that clung loose 
 ly to her bare finely-chiseled shoulders. 
 
 They circled around to the music of the waltz; and 
 La Vette found himself more and more dazzled by the 
 beauty which unfolded at every step of the circle. 
 Twelve various musical instruments made of pink and 
 white roses hung from the wall, suspended by strings 
 of violets ; garlands of roses, mignonette and vio 
 lets, gracefully looped, ran from one instrument 
 to the other ; Cupids, half hidden in roseate bowers, 
 held the ends of the garlands in their chubby 
 hands. 
 
 The music ceased, Evangeline and La Vette strolled 
 around, arm in arm. " I have never seen anything 
 quite so beautiful in all my life," said he, looking at the 
 pure colors of the rich gowns, combining prettily, 
 almost fragrantly, one might have said, as if they 
 had been the flowers of a bouquet arranged by a master 
 hand. 
 
 " Yes," she answered absently, looking through the 
 host of men. Her face became grave; the lonesome 
 sense the feeling of some one, something gone be 
 came poignant. She compared them all to Blair and 
 
106 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 none of them was equal to the comparison. If he were 
 only there ! 
 
 " And the prettiest thing in the room," La Vette 
 went on to say, beaming upon her, " is 
 
 " Come," she interrupted, " I fear that we are verg 
 ing dangerously near small talk, and neither of us 
 cares for it." 
 
 The obvious compliment remained unpaid; besides, 
 Evangeline spoke the truth when she said that neither 
 of them cared for small talk. Evangeline appealed to 
 La Vette somehow ; her frankness, her candor, the 
 simplicity of her manner, the demureness of her coun 
 tenance, touched the tender and better side of La 
 Vette s nature as it had not been touched since the 
 latter days of his youth. 
 
 The swift notes of the galop began ; La Vette did 
 not hear them. " I must crush out such thoughts of 
 her," he was saying to himself ; " I must crush them 
 out." 
 
 Not caring to dance, Evangeline and La Vette 
 seated themselves in a further corner of the room. 
 Henry Marvin and his wife were standing there, 
 smiling, apparently happy ; yet La Vette s trained ob 
 servation told him at a glance that the happiness was 
 worn on the face and not felt in the heart. Age had 
 not treated Mrs. Marvin as kindly as her husband, who 
 was still well preserved, active, lithe the finest type 
 of the fine American man of affairs ; the outlines of her 
 fine figure had been thinned away to angularity ; the 
 features of her pretty face a face that must have 
 been the picture of Evangeline s were peaked and 
 sharpened. She wore a blase and weary air. She 
 had run her race and run it swiftly the marks of the 
 speeding were there. 
 
THE COTILLON 107 
 
 Evangeline and La Vette were talking seriously; 
 her Social Settlement at Marvin was their topic. La 
 Vette was throwing cold water over the plan. He 
 could see no good in it. It elevated the sentiments of 
 the poor and gave them naught wherewith to satisfy 
 the finer tastes established by the new standard. It 
 spread socialism, which he detested. Its influence was 
 too small. It lied to the people, not elucidating that 
 their poverty resulted from a false social system. 
 
 He laughed outright suddenly a harsh and cynical 
 laugh that grated on Evangeline. " It s an odd topic 
 to discuss here that of putting the poor on an equal 
 ity with the rich," and his arm waved significantly at 
 the lavishness that permeated the atmosphere of the 
 room. 
 
 " I know that," she blushed, her face growing sad, 
 " I feel the woful inconsistency of it, but what can I 
 do, tell me ? " she eyed him pleadingly. 
 
 He shrugged his fat shoulders as if to say the prob 
 lem was without solution. His remedy to cure the 
 disease by killing the patient would hardly do to 
 suggest there ; undoubtedly she would have consid 
 ered the remedy worse then the disease. 
 
 Marvin called his daughter softly. She arose, ex 
 cusing herself to La Vette with, " It s part of the plan, 
 you know." La Vette crossed over to Marvin and his 
 wife. He flattered her by pretending to understand 
 her bad French, which was almost Greek to him. 
 Putnam, passing by with his partner, commented on 
 La Vette s odd appearance, the broad, flat bald head, 
 and the sharp chin, with its dark Van Dyke beard. 
 
 Evangeline reappeared, seated in a sedan-chair made 
 of pink roses and lilies of the valley. Two liveried 
 servants bore the floral piece to the center of the room. 
 
io8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " How beautiful she looks ! What a background ! " 
 murmured more than one of the bewildered guests. 
 
 The distribution of the favors began fur boas, 
 silver muff chains, brooches and bangles of jeweled 
 gold, filagree porte-monnaies, chatelaines, rings, gold 
 cigarette-cases, scarf-pins ; one by one Evangeline 
 drew these from her basket and presented them to the 
 guests. The favors represented a fortune : Marvin 
 meant that this cotillon should be recorded in social 
 annals. The extravagance was Roman, lordly. 
 
 Evangeline arose. The liveried servants bore the 
 sedan-chair from the room. Holding in her hand the 
 last favor, a watch-fob with a gold charm, she singled 
 out La Vette and danced away with him. 
 
 " I wish to finish our conversation where it left off," 
 she said simply, her blue eyes rimmed with a pathos 
 that La Vette was at loss to comprehend. It touched 
 him ; he knew not why. The attention of her flatter 
 ing choice and her sadness softened his heart ; but the 
 unwonted process went on for but a moment, he checked 
 it consciously, determinedly, with stern thoughts of 
 the mission of his creed. Well for her that she 
 could but see his placid countenance, the kindly grav 
 ity of the owl-like eyes, that she might not see the 
 thoughts his brain concealed the differences were 
 such as exist between the clear surface waters of a 
 pool and its slimy depths, oozing with spawn. 
 
 When Walter Putnam saw Evangeline evince such 
 a decided preference for La Vette his heart sank; but 
 he consoled himself with the reflection that this was 
 merely the policy of love, that it would not be wise for 
 her to favor the man whom after all she favored most. 
 
 " Let us walk," said Evangeline to La Vette, " I 
 really don t care to dance." 
 
THE COTILLON 109 
 
 Nodding, La Vette acquiesced. He diverted the 
 conversation skilfully and assumed a cynical attitude, 
 an armor which he bore for the moment because he 
 knew from previous experience that it was abhorrent 
 to her a shield which he purposely lifted to hold 
 himself aloof from her, and her from him. He spoke 
 in a perfect splutter of epigrammatic and cynical de 
 finition. " Honor," he said, " is a lost art, much prac 
 tised by the ancients. Money, a standard for measur 
 ing a man s virtues. Business, legalized theft. Ge 
 nius, successful degeneracy. Society, the nursery of 
 second childhood. Love, a rather clever device used 
 by novelists only. Marriage, a speculation, chiefly 
 financial. Sincerity, an idiosyncrasy of children. 
 Platonic friendships, Plutonic relationships." 
 
 " Stop it ! Stop it ! I will leave you if you don t, 
 Monsieur La Vette," cried Evangeline. " I detest 
 hearing you talk like that." 
 
 She was of the opinion that La Vette s cynicism was 
 a thick shell wherein an excessively sensitive and gen 
 tle nature sought refuge; it was the very quality in 
 him which attracted and repelled her most. More 
 over, La Vette was clever and Evangeline s opportu 
 nities for the meeting of clever men were pitifully 
 limited. Wealth is more exclusive than poverty, and 
 draws a more hard-and-fast line of acquaintance 
 ship. 
 
 Hamilton and Penton Marvin walked past, side by 
 side, their weazened faces, insipid and null, wearing 
 a bored expression. They turned to look at Evan 
 geline, thrusting their tongues in the corner of their 
 weak mouths, winking slyly. The action was comical, 
 made doubly so by the strong resemblance of the two 
 faces and the unison with which the two tongues 
 
no BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 moved. La Vette laughed, despite himself; Evange- 
 line blushed. 
 
 The twins, as they were promenading slowly down 
 the oblong ball-room, separated adroitly, forcing La 
 Vette to polka between them. He received a slight 
 jolt on each side and a slighter kick on his patent 
 leather shoes. They had evidently singled him out as 
 a special object for persecution. 
 
 La Vette s anger bested him and he lifted his arm 
 to strike. Hamilton and Penton dodged ahead, the 
 picture of innocence. Xo one, save the four con 
 cerned, had witnessed the incident. The twins had 
 practised this maneuver as others the dance, and they 
 performed it with consummate skill. 
 
 " Whew," whispered Penton, " we almost got it that 
 time." 
 
 " Yes," said Hamilton, " he wanted to hit. Besides 
 I thought the governor saw us." 
 
 " So did I. Let s get out of here." 
 
 "Where to?" 
 
 To Van s room. She left the door open and we 
 can easily slip in there. I saw her purse and her rings 
 on the dresser. The only thing is, will they blame the 
 waiters? They ought to, they re such thieves." 
 
 The lackeys were just bringing in the setting for a 
 new figure when the twins climbed up to the ball-room. 
 Four rose bushes in full bloom, two red, one white, 
 one pink, were planted in the center of the floor. The 
 roses seemed to have been called into being by leger 
 demain, rather to have popped through the floor like 
 crocuses through the ground in spring. Three young 
 ladies, arrayed in pink and white gowns, with stream 
 ing hair, dark and light, were tied to the bushes with 
 white ribbons. Evangeline was bound to the fourth. 
 
THE COTILLON ui 
 
 The electric lights, which had been lowered, were 
 turned on in full force, shining lucently through many 
 globes of different colors. There was a spontaneous 
 clapping of hands ; a slight patter of " ohs " and 
 " ahs " that slipped between enthusiastic lips. 
 
 The signal was given. The men rushed forward 
 to untie the fair captives fastened to the rose bushes. 
 To the swift ones went the fair ones. La Vette good 
 luck seemed his portion for that night with nimble 
 fingers was the first to release Evangeline. They 
 danced away to the quick measure of the two-step, the 
 envy of all, the especial envy of Putnam, who was 
 growing anxious. 
 
 " The four last roses on the bush were the prettiest 
 by far," spoke La Vette, " the others will wither away 
 in envy." 
 
 " Good wine and pretty women need no bushes, 
 Monsieur La Vette," she retorted, laughingly ; and 
 then quite seriously, " Come, we agreed that there was 
 to be no small talk." 
 
 The twins slipped behind the pair, managing, as if 
 by accident, to stumble on the train of their sister s 
 dress. 
 
 " Yes," La Vette was saying, " what is worst in a 
 bad woman often appeals to a good man, and what is 
 best in a good man often appeals to the worst woman." 
 
 " Did you hear that, Ham? " 
 
 " I should say ! " 
 
 " That argues the moral superiority of women, does 
 it not ? " asked Evangeline, by way of response. 
 
 " Let s get out of this, Ham." 
 
 " Yes, they make me tired." 
 
 An hour after midnight the dancers marched into 
 the dining-room for supper. The twins brought up 
 
ii2 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the rear. They had sampled the wines and the cham 
 pagne freely before they put in their appearance at 
 the table. When the third course found its way to 
 the guests, their hilarity attracted attention. Penton 
 was on his feet exclaiming La Vette s bon mot, and 
 Hamilton was declaring his sister s conclusion there 
 from, with equal vociferation. La Vette bit his lip 
 with rage; Evangeline hung her head in shame, and 
 when she was able to do so without attracting atten 
 tion, she sent a waiter for her father. The twins made 
 a hurried exit, hiccoughing and rolling from side to 
 side. 
 
 When the guests ascended, the fourth and last fig 
 ure stood in waiting. A floral belfry arched grace 
 fully towards the frescoed ceiling. The glitter of tiny 
 electric lights showed a chime of silver bells through 
 the isinglass windows, which were framed with white 
 carnations and an inner border of violets and forget- 
 me-nots. One of the young ladies, a statuesque 
 blonde, was chosen to stand within the belfry. The 
 men came forward in turn to court the favor of the 
 fair bellringer ; for the chosen one a merry chime was 
 rung, for the rejected a muffled peal was plaintively 
 audible. 
 
 Evangeline, when her time came to enter the belfry, 
 rang for Putnam, and with her he whirled away in 
 high feather, thinking that his course had run just 
 uneven enough to be considered true love. 
 
 Three o clock clasped hands with four when the 
 cotillon drew haltingly to its end. La Vette bade 
 good-night to Marvin and his wife, and he strode for 
 ward to pay his respects to Evangeline. 
 
 " Wait a minute," she said, pleadingly, " if you 
 will; I have something to say." Putnam stood, won- 
 
THE COTILLON 113 
 
 dering. This was the second occasion on which he 
 had found Evangeline in a situation which he could 
 not encompass. Putnam s judgment of human na 
 ture was too sound to consider Evangeline in the light 
 of a coquette ; but he ended by telling himself that she 
 was odd, whimsical, freakish perhaps, after the man 
 ner of women in general, after the manner of women 
 spoilt by the indulgence of too mucli riches in par 
 ticular. 
 
 When La Vette s cab wheeled him homewards 
 through the crisp, cold night, there was but one 
 thought in his mind which he tried to crush under his 
 will, as his heel might try ruthlessly to crush a but 
 terfly ; but the thought, butterfly-like, eluded his de 
 termined endeavors, flying away to reappear again 
 and again, and laugh, at a distance near enough to be 
 tantalizing, at their ineffectuality. 
 8 
 
XII 
 IN THE STEEL-MILL 
 
 AT ten, on the morning after the cotillon, La 
 Vette passed Jan Brodski and Ignatz Frank- 
 as he was moving towards the chemical 
 laboratory. Jan nodded. La Yette stared at him 
 coldly, not returning any sign of recognition. 
 
 Jan frowned, plucking at his red beard. " Nasty 
 aristocrat," he muttered, " he s too proud to recog 
 nize me." 
 
 " Who is he? " asked Ignatz. 
 
 " He s the head chemist. I bring him samples of 
 steel to test." 
 
 They entered the drab, almost black, building. The 
 engines were puffing in and out ; the oxygen blast 
 screeched deafeningly through the immense egg- 
 shaped converters ; huge cranes swung back and forth 
 with their ladles of molten steel ; the hollow trans 
 lucent light made the atmosphere glare. Somehow 
 the interior of the mill suggested a battle-field, the 
 roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry. Gangs 
 /of men moved like a trained army, warring as if for 
 life against the mass of overwhelming machinery. 
 
 Jan mounted the elevated tracks and began his work 
 of guiding the small cars to the mouths of the con 
 verters. Through the open sides of the building the 
 wind bkw sharp and bleak against his back ; a tempest 
 
 114 
 
IN THE STEEL-MILL 115 
 
 of heat beat like rain in his face. Ignatz took his place 
 in the pit. 
 
 The lining in the last of the converters in the row 
 of four had burned out and the vessel was not in use. 
 Usually the relining was deferred to Sunday; but 
 work was slack on this day and Ignatz Frank was or 
 dered to the task. He stepped inside of the living 
 oven, its sides still glowing ember white with crum 
 bling heat, registering a temperature of one hundred 
 and eighty degrees. He feared that he should die, that 
 he should crumble and melt away before the unending 
 shower of arrows poured forth from this quiver. His 
 hands were blistered; his feet were burned and scorch 
 ed ; his head swirled. Discharge, starvation, nothing 
 could restrain him longer. He crept out ; his body lax ; 
 his spirit quailed and faint. Courage came with 
 strength regained and he crept back in the burning 
 belly of the monster. 
 
 Almost above Ignatz s head, Jan was pushing the 
 small cars, laden with molten metal, to the mouths of 
 the egg-shaped, yawning converters. They tipped to 
 receive their food and then pivoted back into place. 
 The blast of roaring oxygen was turned on ; a stream, 
 a comet of sparks hissed skyward ; the iron was con 
 verted into steel, and the levermen tipped the twenty- 
 tonned eggs and the foaming steel poured into the 
 ladles on the floor of the pit. A cascade of shifting 
 colors rolled over the ladles. 
 
 Exhausted, Ignatz crawled out of the relined con 
 verter. He sat on a pile of scrap, holding his head 
 with his hands, oblivious to the beauty of the never- 
 ending pyrotechnic display going on around him. 
 One of the ponderous eggs rolled into position ; the 
 comet of sparks shot earthward, breaking against the 
 
n6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 walls of the building which impeded its flight. A 
 wide patch of carmine seethed on the sand ; then the 
 overflowing steel, ready to explode, spread across the 
 sand of the pit like a stream. 
 
 " Look out ! Look out ! " screamed the levermen on 
 their raised platforms. 
 
 The men, white with fear, scattered in all direc 
 tions, yelling and crying as they ran. They could 
 have gained but a few feet when there came a terrific 
 crash; the building shook and tottered; the converters 
 rocked on their trunnions. Sparks shot in every di 
 rection and burst with the roar of exploding shells 
 against the walls, lighting the room ominously, ap 
 pearing and disappearing through the heavy smoke 
 like candle flames shining afar in a blinding mist. 
 
 Screams and groans and shrieks of the wounded 
 throbbed to heaven piteously. The danger whistles 
 piped shrilly. The levermen and the carmen jumped 
 down into the pit to aid their injured comrades. Old 
 Jackson, the engineer, shut off the power in his en 
 gine-house and came tottering into the devastated mill. 
 He burst into tears, and, creeping into a corner, he 
 covered his round, weazened, almost boyish face with 
 his hands. The watchmen formed a cordon on the 
 outside of the building and held the crowd of mill 
 hands back. 
 
 Eight bodies, mangled and maimed, writhed on the 
 floor. 
 
 Jan bent down in the clotted sand before Ignatz s 
 unconscious body, trying to stanch the blood that 
 poured from the wound with his handkerchief. Jan 
 was crazed, beside himself with a nameless dread, and 
 vibrating sympathy. " We are going to get even, you 
 hear. We are going to get even, you hear ! " he whis- 
 
IN THE STEEL-MILL 117 
 
 pered in Ignatz s ear, as if the promise of vengeance 
 were the one anodyne that could deaden his comrade s 
 pain. 
 
 The photographers moved down from the offices to 
 take the scene. The doctors were doing their work 
 skilfully and coolly; and in a few minutes the in 
 jured were removed through the mill-yard into the 
 hospital on stretchers. 
 
 The whistles blew, the sailor gang cleared all ob 
 structions; old Jackson was back at his post; the 
 engines started, the converters went on cooking the 
 iron food for the mill ; the men resumed their 
 places. 
 
 Jan climbed back on the tracks, his heart aching, his 
 compressed lips silencing his cries for vengeance. 
 Now and then his anger conquered his caution, and he 
 would cease his work, assume an upright position and 
 shake his doubled fist at the converters, mumbling: 
 " We will get even, you hear ! You are going to pay 
 for this, you hear! You killed my father just like 
 that. How long do you think we will let you go on 
 like this, eh? Are you going to turn on the rest of 
 us next ? Just wait, you ! " His face was cruel, 
 canine. 
 
 When the shift was relieved, Jan ran through the 
 yards to the hospital. He did not take time to remove 
 his jumpers or overalls ; his dinner-pail was in his 
 hand; his face was black with grime and dirt. 
 
 A nurse, in white cap and immaculate costume, 
 opened the door in answer to Jan s ring. He fum 
 bled with his hat, abashed before such clean femininity. 
 His past experience had not prepared him for such 
 an encounter. 
 
 " Lady," he stammered, in his broken English, 
 
n8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " a friend of mine he here, much hurt. Tgnatz 
 Frank his name. He been hurt in explosion by steel- 
 mill." 
 
 " Are you a relative ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes, I been," he asserted stoutly. 
 
 " He wished to see some of his friends," she said, 
 pleasantly. " Come in." 
 
 Jan felt thrice discomfited by his dirt and grime 
 it was the first time in all his life that the sensation of 
 shame on that account came over him. 
 
 Down the ward, sparkling from its very cleanli 
 ness, Jan walked between the rows of iron beds that 
 fairly shimmered in their snow-white coverings. It 
 was all so fresh here, so quiet, so restful, so clean. 
 It was like escaping from the stifling city into the 
 whist of verdant forests, this walk of Jan s from the 
 steel-mill into the hospital. 
 
 There lay Ignatz, bandaged almost beyond recog 
 nition, and at rest ; for anesthetics had bestowed sur 
 cease from pain upon him. An indefinite feeling of 
 envy came over Jan for the minute, a desire to change 
 places with his injured comrade, to lie there in the 
 clean white bed, and breathe in an atmosphere that 
 was neither too hot nor too cold. How he hated the 
 idea of returning to work in that hell ! The thought 
 of mounting the track and shoving the cars past the 
 converters, back and forth, like a scourged slave, 
 nauseated him. 
 
 Then the price that these poor fellows were paying 
 for their few minutes rest and their bit of hitherto 
 unknown luxury dawned upon him ; some of them 
 would never rise again, some sightless ; some less a 
 leg or an arm ; mutilated, useless ; a worthless ma 
 chine in life s workshop. To think that the " bosses " 
 
IN THE STEEL-MILL 119 
 
 were always surrounded thus and that they paid no 
 price of suffering or pain it was too much ! The 
 hospital vanished ; the blood filled Jan s eyes, he saw 
 but the glory of the hour of the coming of venge 
 ance. 
 
 Jan bent over his dying comrade. He tugged at his 
 red beard and clawed at his finger-nails. Heedless of 
 the desecration he plunged his black fist into the white 
 pillow. 
 
 " He s far gone," whispered the nurse, " he hasn t 
 very long to live. If he has friends " 
 
 " No, only me. He alone here in Amerik, lady. 
 The priest I better get ? No ! " he answered his own 
 question. Ignatz would have no priest in his con 
 scious moments, he should have none in his uncon 
 scious ones. Jan waved the lamp of reason aloft and 
 frightened away the hovering shadows of training, 
 tradition, and the fear that death inspires. No, he 
 would have no priest. 
 
 Ignatz s eyes opened and shut slowly as if to drink 
 in and shut out the light. They passed over the fea 
 tures of Jan s face like a human hand, and Jan shud 
 dered. 
 
 " Wanda," he half spoke and half formed the name 
 with his lips. 
 
 " My sister, his dear, I get her," explained Jan to 
 the nurse. 
 
 She shook her head. It was too late now. It would 
 all be over in a minute. 
 
 Jan returned home sadly, considering in what way 
 he might break the news to his sister most gently. 
 Wanda s lips became drawn when she heard the 
 gloomy tragedy, and her face grew as bloodless as 
 her lips. She swooned away. All that night she be- 
 
120 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 wailed the loss of her lover. In the morning she was 
 still inconsolable ; she refused to eat. She sat by her 
 self, speechless, tearless, with clenched fists, refusing 
 consolation. There was another member in that 
 house who awaited the hour of reckoning. 
 
XIII 
 THE BUILDERS 
 
 NORTHWARD began the migration of the 
 " snowbirds " men who idle the summer 
 through and seek work in the winter, when 
 driven by cold and hunger. Inadequately clothed, 
 thin-faced, and shivering, they flocked around the mill 
 gate, clamoring for work, offering to do anything at 
 any price, competing sharply for the places of the 
 labor engaged. 
 
 The immigrants began to arrive in herds. Every 
 early-morning freight train brought its load of them. 
 Clad in old-country clothes, green coats and befeath- 
 ered hats, they dismounted from the trains and disap 
 peared mysteriously, only to reappear later on and 
 join the hungry throng without the gates in a whining 
 appeal for work and wages, and, as the days went on 
 and neither work nor wages came, they complained 
 bitterly the foreign agents had promised so much 
 and the Company had fulfilled none of the : r promises. 
 
 Competition for place grew rife. Discharges were 
 frequent; the superintendents drove their men harder 
 and worked them longer hours. Discontent was om 
 nipresent, smoldering, not daring to burst into flame. 
 Ah, when the right wind came! 
 
 Judson s automatic tools were put in operation 
 within the cast-houses and whole shifts were thrown 
 
 121 
 
122 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 out of employment ; and his invention for the making 
 of pig iron increased the number of unfortunates. 
 Rumors in the rail-mill of new labor-saving machin 
 ery made hundreds fear lest theirs was the labor to be 
 saved. The suspense was agonizing. Men went to 
 work in the morning, wondering whether they would 
 still be employed when the night came. 
 
 The tonnage men, whose wages were computed on 
 the output of tons, had prepared and handed in their 
 " scales " ; and there bad been frequent consultations 
 between Marvin and the delegates from the different 
 lodges of the unions, but thus far nothing but wrang 
 ling and bickering had resulted. Hatred was mistress 
 of the mills. 
 
 " I tell you," said Winslow to Blair at the lodge one 
 night, " there s trouble ahead and bad trouble at that." 
 
 " It isn t ahead, Winslow," answered Blair, " it s 
 here." 
 
 " Well, Carrhart, I m satisfied : the sooner it comes 
 the better. We have to decide this thing one way or 
 the other ; if we don t they ll crush the life out of us 
 before we decide. I can see their little game ; they re 
 trying to force us to knuckle down to their scales/ 
 
 " T have been saying that right along," put in 
 Blair. 
 
 " I want to warn you about one thing, Carrhart." 
 
 "What s that, Winslow? Have I been talking too 
 much ? " 
 
 " Yes and no. It ain t the muchness ; it s the time 
 of the muchness. Let the hot-headed fellows talk 
 themselves dry on this scale question now. We ll be 
 tired of hearing them about the time the game is 
 called and every man has to show his cards. They ll 
 be talked out then, and thcn s the time for vou to 
 
THE BUILDERS 123 
 
 show your hand. If you speak then they ll be ready 
 to listen, and if you talk sense, your sense stands a 
 chance of being remembered. We ll want a final 
 committee to wait on the powers, and if you want to 
 try your strength with the powers, don t waste too 
 much of it on this preliminary parley." 
 
 " I guess you re right," said Blair, reflectively. 
 
 " I don t guess, I know I ve been through the 
 mills in more senses than one," retorted the wise Eng 
 lishman. " I ve always admired the Pope, myself 
 he holds his job so long; but in the unions it s differ 
 ent ; you re up to-day and down to-morrow. I ve 
 seen whole bushels of leaders crop up and die down 
 in my time, and I know what I m talking about. 
 Don t reach for the top ; let some ass get that and you 
 can jerk the ass by the ears. Keep yourself in the 
 background and let your brains count up in the fore 
 ground. You can have all the authority you want 
 and no jealousy, if you re smart, do you see? " 
 
 Blair nodded ; he saw. 
 
 The time was ripe for all kinds of agitation and all 
 k : nds of agitators were busy. Sophia Goldstein min 
 gled much with the crowds of malcontents, distribut 
 ing her flamboyant tracts surreptitiously. Blair saw 
 her frequently, often with Paul, once or twice with 
 his arch-enemy Vorlinski, who had found work in the 
 shipyards. He found her at the Dumb-Bell one 
 night, haranguing its patrons. Unseen by her, he 
 mingled in the crowd and listened, aghast at her ap 
 peal for blood and vengeance, shuddering as he heard. 
 The woman seemed transformed into a wild animal ; 
 her black eyes glowed like those of a carnivorous 
 beast about to seize its prey ; her long hands were like 
 claws, strangling, merciless. 
 
i2 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 There was no mistaking the effect of her words ; 
 they were like so many sparks falling on straw, 
 already flames were breaking out, in a moment it 
 would be too late, the p le would be on fire and no 
 power on earth could quench the blaze. The excita 
 ble ones were yelping their applause, crying out 
 with her for blind and pitiless revenge, repeating, 
 like furies, her watchwords of anarchy and revolu 
 tion. 
 
 Blair s burly frame pushed its way forward. " That 
 talk must cease," he cried. 
 
 "Who is he? Put him out!" she shouted, eying 
 Blair, defiantly. " How dare he interrupt ? 
 
 You are an enemy to our cause ! " he cried. " Such 
 talk is for the stews, the slums; for jailbirds and out 
 casts, not for 
 
 Three men, strangers, grasped Blair by the arms. 
 He tossed them off. The crowd stood undecided, 
 Blair s magnetism was by no means stale ; the fascina 
 tion for the woman was still fresh. 
 
 " Out with him ! * she exhorted, taking advantage 
 of their indecision ; " he s a spy in the pay of the cap 
 italists/ 
 
 " You lie ! You lie ! " went up from all sides, the 
 apparent falsity of her accusation turning the tide of 
 the r fickle sympathies. The crowd rallied about their 
 old friend, often tried, never found wanting. They 
 would have laid violent hands on the woman, had not 
 Blair interfered. The blaze was quenched ; only here 
 and there a spark, sheltered in some friendly nook. 
 still preserved the warmth of its fire, to break out 
 later on. and more fiercely. 
 
 At the door the wormn a half-melodramatic, half- 
 tragic figure turned and warned: 
 
THE BUILDERS 125 
 
 " It s the last day that will tell most, my friend ; 
 we ll see then/ 
 
 " Yes/ answered Blair, " on the last day." 
 
 For a long while Blair remained behind with the 
 men, expostulating, trying to make it clear to them 
 that to follow the path this woman had suggested was 
 to lead to their own inevitable ruin, accomplishing noth 
 ing. It was after midnight when he left the Dumb- 
 Bell, and standing there alone in the darkness with 
 his own thought, he shuddered and was afraid. For 
 the skilful hand at the chosen minute, how easy it 
 were to slip the noose from the passion of this mob 
 and let it run at riot ; but once slipped to replace the 
 noose were beyond all human power whatsoever ; nay, 
 it were certain death to him who made the attempt. 
 
 At home Mrs. Brodski was awaiting Blair s return. 
 He was her only sympathetic listener, and although 
 he could do nothing to remove the cause of her cark 
 and care, still the consolation which came from the 
 mere telling was as balm to its smart. The suffering 
 there was intolerable. The earnings of the family 
 had undergone a severe reduction, and the prices for 
 provis ; ons and coal were still soaring upwards. A 
 petition to the Company, signed by over five thousand 
 names, beseeching a reduction in the rent proportionate 
 to the reduction in wages, received no attention. The 
 semi-yearly repairs were made, and the tenants had the 
 option of meeting their bills or seeking quarters else 
 where, and as the choice lay between the Company s 
 houses or the open prairie, the unfortunate ones were 
 not long in coming to a decision. Even as early as 
 three or four in the chill mornings, Mrs. Brodski 
 arose, threw a black shawl over her head, and grasp 
 ing a large basket, joined the army of women who 
 
ia6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 were gleaning- coal along the railroad tracks. In the 
 daytime Ann and Mary and Thomas were kept busy 
 at the same occupation. A gang of youngsters, bolder 
 than their comrades, broke into the coal cars; the po 
 lice swooped down upon them unexpectedly, and 
 Thomas was among the few unfortunates who were 
 caught and arrested. Jan and Paul s wages for that 
 week went to the paying of his fine. 
 
 And so, when the first of January came and the 
 celebration of the Trey Krolc the three kings was 
 observed, when, with red chalk that the priest had 
 blessed, the initials K. M. and B. (Kaspar, Melchior 
 and Balthasar) were written on the door, the Brod- 
 skis had no means to make joyous after their usual 
 simple fashion. A day of thanksgiving, of merry 
 making, does much to relieve the monotony of the 
 hard, long months ; but this year the Brodskis found 
 no break in their wretchedness, no momentary escape 
 from misery. 
 
 It was the same elsewhere the Brodskis were no 
 shining mark for misfortune ; everywhere was the 
 same squalor, the same destitution, the same woe and 
 want. They were all busy days and nights for Blair, 
 and to no home where hunger and sickness were op 
 pressive visitors, was his cheering presence a stranger ; 
 and so again, as the days waned, did his influence and 
 acquaintanceship wax. 
 
 Now if ever, he thought was the season ripe for 
 the preaching of his gospel, and his only fear was lest 
 the season pass and harvest time come and find his 
 fruit gone to seed. Occasions were not lacking where 
 he had dropped a word here and there, making con 
 verts, as it were, on the wayside ; but his soul longed 
 for some one masterful opportunity when he should 
 
THE BUILDERS 127 
 
 compel the attention of hundreds yes, with the 
 masses for a fulcrum his lever would raise the world 
 to unheard-of heights. He grew restless, depressed 
 by his inactivity in behalf of his cause. He resolved 
 to go to his opportunity since it would not come . to 
 him ; what was not given to him he would make for 
 himself. 
 
 He reminded Michael of his promise to take him to 
 the socialistic meetings, and Michael conducted Blair 
 thither one Sunday afternoon, wondering at his 
 anxiety and interest. 
 
 In a clammy cold room on the upper floor of the 
 Dumb-Bell, some thirty toil-bent men sat on the rough 
 benches and listened to the most commonplace teach 
 ers expound their theories of the better day. Those 
 woe-begone faces, usually so stolid and inexpressive, 
 now lit up with highest hope, oblivious of all the be 
 setting affliction of the hour, seeing only the light 
 that gleamed from the mountain tops of the far-off 
 promised land a land flowing with milk and honey, 
 ruled by justice and equality made an impressive 
 and pathetic sight and one that lingered long in 
 Blair s memory, reminding him somehow of Millet s 
 peasants bending reverently and awkwardly to the 
 ringing of the Angelus. 
 
 One of the speakers was denouncing the trusts, and 
 Blair arose to oppose his views, trying to make it* 
 clear that the trusts were a great socialistic movement, 
 a seven-leagued step towards the consummation they 
 so devoutly wished. The trusts, he said, gathered a 
 thousand scattered enterprises under one head, and, 
 disposing of the useless capitalists, prepared the way 
 for a manager to take charge in the name of the peo- 
 pie. 
 
128 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 His enthusiasm and clarity won the esteem of his 
 hearers and they applauded vigorously. Encouraged, 
 stimulated, Blair went on, gradually mastering him 
 self and his voice, bending his words to his meaning. 
 He let his earnestness carry him away, and before 
 he was aware of it he had advanced far into the out 
 lining of his Cooperative Commonwealth. 
 
 He denounced the present system of capitalism 
 which was grinding the multitudes to dust. They 
 were muzzling the oxen that ground their corn ; woe 
 to them if the oxen slipped their muzzles ! He quoted 
 the great German thinker who had compared the sys 
 tem social to a tree of which capital was the fruit and 
 foliage, basking in the bright sun, the middle classes 
 the trunk that upheld the brilliant burden, and 
 labor the roots that delved in the dark noisome soil 
 to nourish the tree whose fruit it might neither see 
 nor taste. How long should this endure? Was 
 labor never to participate in the products of its own 
 creation ? 
 
 Socialism said that to the toiler belonged the fruit : 
 the Cooperative Commonwealth would distribute the 
 fruits in accordance with the merits of the toiler. 
 Socialism was not optimism riding triumphant over 
 human nature ; the Cooperative Commonwealth was 
 based on a corner-stone of fact, solid as the ground. 
 
 The new state would begin at the beginning of 
 things ; it would take the child to its own schools, and 
 teach the young idea how to shoot towards the nobler 
 aims of the social commonwealth. Civic churches 
 would supplant the dogmatic worship of the creeds. 
 Socialism was to be both education and religion ; 
 church and school would help combat the selfish ego 
 istic ideas instilled through the centuries. 
 
THE BUILDERS 129 
 
 The citiesjiad already pointed t^ p way; laying thp 
 foundation upon which the Cooperative Common 
 wealth was to Be built; they were everywhere acquir 
 ing the ownership of public franchises gas, water, 
 street cars, telephones. The day was not far off when 
 the cities would house its own masses, build streets of 
 residences and rent them. They would erect their 
 own theaters, even as they had their own public li 
 braries. 
 
 Above the city was the state with its broader duties, 
 the socialization of its mines, the superintendence of 
 its municipalities and their various enterprises ; the 
 control of the liquor traffic ; the management of 
 cooperative societies for the unemployed. 
 
 Above city and state was the national government, 
 with duties broadest and most potent of all. To-day 
 it owned the postal system ; to-morrow it would be 
 the railroad and the telegraph and the interstate tele 
 phone and express service. It would start national 
 banks of deposit, and loan its money at low rates of 
 interest to the cooperative societies of the sep 
 arate states and to needy and worthy farmers. It 
 would insure the lives of its people at low charges, 
 in small policies. Thus would the people come 
 to regard their government with reverence and 
 love. 
 
 Finally, as apex of the pyramid, the crowning stone 
 for which the base was built the socialization of 
 private industries. The trusts had pointed the way 
 and the method ; they had even gone farther and estab 
 lished the machinery by organizing industry for the 
 mastery of the people. Here at the mills, for instance, 
 they would form cooperatively, each work for all, all 
 work for the benefit of each. They would find room 
 9 
 
130 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 for executive ability, business acumen, managerial ca 
 pacity, and they would pay for it liberally. 
 
 Money was not the only power that moved men, 
 honor was a higher and greater stimulus ; stirred by 
 popular acclamation and the love of grateful multi 
 tudes, men would toil harder for the advancement of 
 the Cooperative Commonwealth than they would mere 
 ly for their own interests. The desire for progress 
 was in the nature of man, fundamental as his pas 
 sions ; it was not dependent on exterior forces ; it 
 needed no promise of reward for a lure. 
 
 The profits made by the mill would go to the im 
 provement of the town, the laying out of parks, the 
 building of model tenements and homes, libraries, 
 theaters and schools. Pension funds for the aged, the 
 disabled, would be founded ; usurious rents would be 
 abolished ; the exhausting overwork would come to an 
 end ; the cruel underpay would be as the remembrance 
 of a nightmare of the past; the careless slaughter of 
 life would be abolished and the mills would be recon 
 structed with a view to the comfort and safety of its 
 toilers. 
 
 Before Blair had done, tears stole down the rough 
 cheeks of his auditors, to be dashed away by still 
 rougher hands. They had toiled so agonizingly in 
 their lives ; they had been deprived of so much, and 
 enjoyed so little, that they were as overcome by Blair s 
 golden picture of the future as a blind man when the 
 skilful physician speaks of a restoration to sight. 
 Strange, were it not, if the heart of the afflicted would 
 not leap up at such words, even though their realiza 
 tion were impossible and the physician himself but a 
 puppet in the hands of hope? Utopia belongs to hu 
 manity even as the mirage belongs to the desert. 
 
THE BUILDERS 131 
 
 It was all so real, so possible, so true to them that 
 they were stirred by the discovery that life after all 
 was something better than a bad road between birth 
 and death, which the whip of necessity compelled 
 them to travel. When he had done they crowded 
 around him, struggling, after their Slavonic habit, 
 for the honor of kissing his hand; so Blair himself 
 was touched by the unexpected result, and his strong 
 soul was all but carried away to tears. 
 
 Blair s reputation grew, as it were, by multiplica 
 tion, spread by every voice, and the tens who came to 
 hear him were increased to twenties and the twenties 
 to thirties; finally the society was forced to hold its 
 meetings in the large dance-hall on the second floor 
 of the Dumb-Bell, used for weddings. The hall itself 
 was too small, the doorway was thronged and the 
 aisles packed. The women came with the men, bring 
 ing their knitting, sewing as they listened, affected by 
 the charm of Blair s voice, his eloquence and his 
 compelling enthusiasm. 
 
 Not always did they understand what he said, but 
 there were plenty there to interpret; and besides it 
 sufficed to know that here was one who championed 
 the cause of the poor and the oppressed, and that, as 
 with the advent of another Messiah, there could not 
 fail to come with him a better order on earth. 
 
 Even Mrs. Brodski attended, for, as she said, she 
 could not understand English anyway and it could 
 do no harm to listen to what she could not compre 
 hend; but she was carried away like the rest, not 
 knowing why, and not caring either. They vested 
 Blair with divinity ; their love became a worship. 
 
 Blair s new religion struggled for existence against 
 the religions established by the centuries, and, won- 
 
132 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 clerful to relate, it was not worsted in the combat. 
 Absences from the church became painfully notice 
 able, and the priest scolded and threatened, but neither 
 threat nor scolding availed ; for greater and greater 
 grew Blair s audience, until the society spoke of seek 
 ing larger quarters than the Dumb-Bell could afford. 
 
 One Sunday Father Kozma, the Polish priest, ar 
 rayed in his sacerdotal robe, walked fearlessly into the 
 lion s den, interrupted Blair s speech and commanded 
 his parishioners to depart. But few left ; it was whis 
 pered that for years the Company s money had been 
 pouring into the coffers of the church to range relig 
 ious authority on its side. Twice the interference of 
 the church had prevented a strike. 
 
 " I warn you," declared the blond priest, his thin 
 frame quivering, " that your day is short ; you must 
 leave this town soon." 
 
 The warning is useless," answered Blair, " how 
 ever short my day I stay here until it is over." 
 
 After the meeting, when Blair returned home, he 
 found Father Kozma in waiting. Mrs. Brodski sat 
 in silence, her hands on her knees, rocking her body 
 to and fro; the children were clinging to her in 
 fright and crying. Wanda, listless and indifferent, as 
 she had been since the death of Ignatz, took no part 
 in the controversy that was dividing the family. 
 
 " He shan t go," said Jan, defiantly, tugging at his 
 red beard, " we want him here." 
 
 Paul and Michael moved to Blair s side, showing 
 by their looks that they favored him, no matter what 
 the cost. 
 
 " He goes," cried the priest, wrathfully, " or the 
 curse of excommunication rests on all in this home." 
 
 " Let it rest/ grumbled Michael. 
 
THE BUILDERS 133 
 
 " Michael," sobbed the mother, pleadingly. 
 
 " He stays," cried Jan. 
 
 The mother burst into tears. 
 
 " I cannot allow this on my account, Father Koz- 
 ma," said Blair, quietly, " I came here to do these peo 
 ple good, not to harm them; there will be no more 
 trouble on this score. I leave here to-night." 
 
XIV 
 
 THE JUDSONS 
 
 LAIR spoke to Winslow about his quest for 
 lodgings, and Winslow recommended the Jud- 
 son family. Although Blair did not know 
 it then, Winslow had a double motive in the rec 
 ommendation ; in the first place, he was interested in 
 their oldest daughter ; in the second place, the Judsons 
 were anxious to secure a boarder. 
 
 " Old " Judson, as he was more familiarly and pop 
 ularly known, was a Yankee and he had all the in 
 ventiveness that his New England ancestry betok 
 ened. He was the head draughtsman in the mills and 
 the best machinery used therein was the offspring of 
 his fertile imagination. He earned a fair salary and 
 took care of it with greater facility than he earned it ; 
 but his money-earning, money-saving faculties in no 
 wise indicated his descent. He was too much inter 
 ested in the world in general to confine himself to 
 money in particular. His eye was on life and not on a 
 bargain. His inventions, as h s friends often told 
 him, would have made another man rich ; but Jud 
 son told his friends that he was not another man. 
 Besides, he was contented, and contentment is more 
 than riches, if you believe in the proverb, and Judson 
 believed in it. 
 
 His wife, who was good-natured and easy-going 
 
THE JUDSONS 135 
 
 and fat two of them requisites for happiness, the 
 third often a concomitant of the other two agreed 
 with her husband just enough to give the spice of 
 variety to the evenness of their existence by an oc 
 casional difference in opinion. She believed that 
 riches were more than contentment ; but, nevertheless, 
 she was contented with what they had. She dressed 
 in bad taste, preferably loud colors and a variety of 
 them ; and her husband thought her the glass of 
 fashion. She, in turn, considered him a clever little 
 man (she always spoke of him as "my clever little 
 man " the little referring to the fact that he was 
 smaller than she) ; and what he said, even though 
 she might dispute it at the time, was for her as the 
 laws of the Medes and the Persians. He was busy in 
 the mill and she in the household during the day ; at 
 night nothing could induce the one to forego the com 
 pany of the other. 
 
 The eldest daughter Martha, in whom Winslow 
 was interested, was a teacher in the public school ; she 
 had all the airs of her profession during school hours, 
 and none of them when school was over. Her father 
 considered her a miracle of learning, although he 
 never told her so. and her mother considered her won 
 derful, and never ceased telling her so. Both of them 
 thought her good-looking and a fine catch for the 
 right man, who was slow in coming she was four 
 and twenty. 
 
 The second daughter, Mabel, was a stenographer in 
 the office of the mills. She was the chief worry of 
 the family and naturally the favorite. " Out of a 
 possible ten good points," said the father, " Mabel has 
 eight ; but the two missing make up for the eight 
 there." The mother who was for the plain truth, 
 
136 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 detesting fine language openly declared that Mabel 
 was flighty ; in strict confidence and unwillingly 
 she would acknowledge that Mabel was inclined to 
 flirt. 
 
 Benjamin, the eldest son, was an inspector in the 
 plate-mill ; he knew his business ; he was steady, ex 
 citable, easy to arouse, although as a rule he had little 
 to say. " My boy Ben," said Judson, " has little to 
 say, so if he has brains you wouldn t know it, and if 
 he hasn t you couldn t find it out ; and I don t know 
 but in the long run and for the most people Ben s plan 
 is the best." The constant noise and rattle of the 
 plates had made Benjamin slightly deaf and his deaf 
 ness had made him overly sensitive. 
 
 The youngest son, Levi, and the two youngest 
 daughters, Susan and Dora, completed the family. 
 Judson himself was fond of remarking that he was 
 glad the family ended with Susan, otherwise there 
 would have been no telling how indefinitely it would 
 have gone on. 
 
 The home of the Judsons, a plain brick house rented 
 from the Company, was in L street in the best quar 
 ter of Marvin, which is saying very little for the other 
 three-quarters or for the fourth quarter itself. Wins- 
 low walked thither with Blair to introduce his friend 
 to the family, and to allow " old " Judson to size up 
 his prospective boarder and to settle the preliminaries. 
 The little parlor, with its ingrain carpet, the cheer 
 fully blazing coal stove, the inevitable family por 
 traits, the well-used furniture, the clean, cozy atmos 
 phere, was all so humanly homelike that Blair felt a 
 vague remote pity for himself at the thought of what 
 his life had been for those last months ; and there arose 
 within him a homesickness, a longing for his old ways 
 
THE JUDSONS 137 
 
 and his own people. He hoped he might prove accept 
 able. 
 
 " Well," said Winslow, trying to bring matters 
 to a head, " let s get down to price ; that s the first 
 thing," and the Englishman settled back in his chair, 
 twiddling his Masonic watch-charm. 
 
 Judson puffed at his long-stemmed pipe, rubbed his 
 triangular nose, lifted his clerical glasses on his fore 
 head and passed his hand over his smooth bald crown 
 (he was an extremely restless, nervous man), and re 
 marked : " It s a new business to me. I ll have to ask 
 the old woman about it." He called up the stairs to 
 his wife and she came down in a blue wrapper that 
 was in violent contrast to the scarlet of her face, 
 
 " You re old enough to know your own mind, pa 
 Judson," she said on being consulted, pleased, despite 
 her angry tone, that her opinion had been sought. 
 
 " Knowing your own mind isn t a question of how 
 long you have lived with it, I find," retorted Judson, 
 " some know it at eight, others don t know it at 
 eighty. My old teacher at home used to say, One- 
 third of you children leave your minds at home, an 
 other third has no mind to leave at home or take here, 
 and the rest of you don t use your minds when you 
 get here. What in the world can I do with such a 
 class? " 
 
 " Just like you," scolded his wife, laughingly, 
 " always giving evasive answers. I ll suppose we ll 
 have to call in Martha ; it always ends that way." 
 
 " Because you want to show Martha off to every 
 available young man." 
 
 " Don t believe him," she said, turning to Blair and 
 Winslow. 
 
 " I don t," laughed Blair. 
 
138 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " I do," laughed Winslow. 
 
 Judson joined in the laugh with his hearty peal; 
 and his wife took advantage of the prevailing good 
 nature to call her daughter. Martha entered the par 
 lor, with a dignified and by no means stiff carriage. 
 Blair arose and she acknowledged Winslow s intro 
 duction to the stranger with a pleasant smile and an 
 extended hand. 
 
 " The new boarder/ were her first words. 
 
 " Willing to be," was Blair s answer. 
 
 " It all depends on you, Marthy," said Judson, 
 " your ma hasn t any mind of her own. She reminds 
 me of old lady Clark who used to live in our old 
 town down East (I was born in Vermont), whenever 
 anybody asked her anything she used to say, Well, 
 I ll ask my daughter Mary and see what she thinks. 
 Mary died about the time the old lady needed her 
 most, and people said old lady Clark had lost her 
 mind and they wanted to send her to the insane asy 
 lum. Yes, sir, that s a fact," and Judson chuckled and 
 rubbed his bald head. His triangular nose looked up 
 humorously as if it understood the joke. 
 
 " But I don t need any mind with such a smart per 
 son as your pa around, Marthy," put in the mother. 
 
 The laugh was on Judson this time and he rubbed 
 his bald head in high glee, appreciating his wife s apt 
 ness even beyond the others. 
 
 " So your ma not needing any, and your pa not 
 having any, we called you in, Marthy," said Jud 
 son, restored to sobriety. 
 
 " And I stand just between you two," smiled Mar 
 tha, complacently, " with just half a mind. 
 
 Blair was cudgeling his brains for the right word 
 to slip in at this easy jucture; every word but the 
 
THE JUDSONS 139 
 
 right one came, and he sat in silence, wondering if 
 his long isolation had unfitted him for the company 
 of the intelligent. He was eying the young woman 
 intently, their glances met, hers divining in the way 
 that is feminine, his examining, penetrating, in the 
 way that is masculine ; and Blair, blushing like a 
 swain, twiddled the chair tassel and looked at it as 
 if it were the first article of this nature that his hand 
 had ever held. 
 
 He was impressed by Martha, as well he might have 
 been, for she would have impressed any man in any 
 crowd of women. Her hair black, live and glossy 
 (one noticed Martha s hair before her face it over 
 shadowed her face so) was combed smooth on her 
 broad head, curled and gathered in a long heavy braid 
 in the back ; a white line, running to her low forehead, 
 parted it in the middle. A nose, prominent, slightly 
 hooked, spoiled the symmetry of her face, robbed it 
 of prettiness ; but it lent her countenance strength and 
 force of character. She was tall, thin-waisted, high- 
 chested, with bosom well rounded. 
 
 " He looks as if he might be way above the average 
 mill hand," she thought of Blair, " but he doesn t act 
 it." 
 
 The bargain was settled easily enough, and the 
 young lady arose to go with, " I presume I shan t be 
 needed any longer." 
 
 " You presume too much," said Blair, " you were 
 not thrown in to conclude the bargain." 
 
 " Thank you," she answered, " but I was dragged 
 into it ; " and to herself, " I didn t expect that of him." 
 
 " Winslow here tells me that you teach school," 
 went on Blair, anxious to start a conversation that 
 might lead somewhere. 
 
HO BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " I m sorry he divulged that." 
 
 " Why? It s surely no disgrace." 
 
 " No, but most people are prejudiced against the 
 ma ams. 
 
 That ought to depend upon the experience they 
 have had with the profession, Miss Judson." 
 
 44 I hope your experience has been pleasant, Mr. 
 Carrhart." 
 
 44 It has," he answered. 
 
 " Thank you," she said. 
 
 She remained quiet, her hands folded in her lap; 
 against the deep black of her gown they stood out 
 white, bold and virile. Blair watched them as he had 
 her face; the hand had ever bem a close study for his 
 inquisitive observation. 
 
 There is a good deal to him," she was thinking, 
 her long lashes drooping, her eyes bent downwards, 
 <4 more than one would suppose at first." 
 
 Through Blair s mind ran the thought, " A strong 
 character, resolute, firm, stubborn, hard to mold." 
 
 Their acquaintanceship was beginning well ; they 
 were already interested in each other. 
 
 " Are you a believer in palmistry ? " She looked 
 up suddenly. 
 
 "Not in the least. Why? he asked. 
 
 " I thought you might be, that s all." 
 
 He blushed, knowing he had been detected ; and 
 she sat there in quiet, not moving a muscle, enjoying 
 her advantage, but not in any way showing that she 
 had one to enjoy. 
 
 Judson, his wife and Winslow were talking to 
 gether in low tones ; Blair thought he heard his name 
 mentioned once or twice. The other members of the 
 family came in : Mabel first, blond, inclined to the 
 
THE JUDSONS 141 
 
 adipose, like her mother. Her smiling face disclosed 
 full red lips and an even row of white teeth. She 
 wished to give the impression that she was a woman 
 of the world and used to being introduced ; as a re 
 sult she stumbled and stammered, appearing as if she 
 were not used to it at all; but her confusion added 
 only to her good looks, coloring her cheeks prettily. 
 Had Mabel but known this she would have practised 
 the art of appearing confused. 
 
 Benjamin came in next, long and lank like his 
 father, with the same peculiar nose, projecting sharply 
 from the face, shaped like a triangle. He put his 
 hand to his ear and said, " How ? A little louder, 
 please/ at Blair s repeated attempts at conversation. 
 
 " He doesn t hear well," explained the mother, 
 " but he usually hears better when he s away from the 
 plate-mill for a few hours." 
 
 Blair nodded, absently, falling into a brown study 
 of the young man; he ceased it quickly enough, jump 
 ing to the incorrect conclusion that to know the father 
 was to know the son. 
 
 Levi, the youngest male member, and the two small 
 girls, Susan and Dora, entered last, bounding down 
 the stairs at a call from the mother. The boy made 
 straightway for Mrs. Judson s lap, trying to attract 
 the stranger s attention by a series of circus antics, 
 which won the mother s reproval and laughter in the 
 same breath. The little girls, neat in fresh pinafores, 
 nestled up to the father, and he patted their tow heads 
 affectionately, talking to Winslow the while. 
 
 " Now you ve got us all together," remarked Jud- 
 son, turning to Blair, suddenly recalling him to mind 
 and fearing that he might feel slighted, " and you d 
 better take a good look, for you can t tell when it will 
 
142 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 happen again ; for at least one of the girls is usu 
 ally out, not counting Ben s turn in the night 
 shift." 
 
 Mabel giggled, Martha did not even look up ; Blair 
 knew where the arrow struck. 
 
 4 There s a keen competition out here in Marvin," 
 went on Judson, after a bit, " between the homes and 
 the saloons. When I pass the long row of em on D 
 street, I am inclined to think that the saloons are get 
 ting the best of it. It s the wives fault, you can take 
 my word for it." 
 
 " It s never the husbands fault ; oh, no, of course 
 not," and Mrs. Judson laid a sarcastic emphasis on 
 the " oh." 
 
 " Pa and ma are arguing again, I guess I ll go 
 out," said Mabel, turning the joke, usually turned 
 against her, against the family. 
 
 " You don t even wait until we start, Mabel, as a 
 rule," puffed out Judson. 
 
 " Besides," interjected the mother, " you needn t go 
 on your pa s account you know that I always get 
 beat" 
 
 Judson chuckled he was proud of his powers of 
 argumentation, prouder than of anything else. Mar 
 tha preserved her reserve, cold and silent, looking 
 neither disapproving nor approving, not as if she 
 considered this bandying of words either trivial or 
 enlivening ; but as if she were quite apart from it, as 
 if she heard no word of it. 
 
 Levi had again climbed on his mother s stout shoul 
 ders, and, in an attempt to balance himself there, he 
 fell prone into her lap. Mabel grinned Mabel s grin 
 was ever ready to fill out any embarrassing pause in 
 the conversation. The two younger girls were trying 
 
THE JUDSONS 143 
 
 to slip their hands into their father s capacious pockets 
 in a search for elusive pennies. Judson and Winslow 
 were conversing, undisturbed by these minor distrac 
 tions ; Blair would fain have listened, but he consid 
 ered it the part of politeness to pay some small atten 
 tion to the ladies. He addressed a ready-made ques 
 tion or two to Martha concerning her work. Her an 
 swers were curt. Blair was about to shift the conver 
 sation in what he thought might prove a more pleasing 
 direction, when Mabel burst in : 
 
 " Martha lets on that it s a disgrace to teach school ; 
 but I don t think that she really means it. Why 
 should she? I m sure that I m not ashamed of my 
 work and I m not nearly so well paid." 
 
 " I ve often said, Mabel," replied Martha, calmly, 
 " that I m not ashamed of the work; I m merely tired 
 of it. I like to leave the school behind me when I 
 hang the keys in the office." 
 
 " You re very peculiar, Martha, now 
 
 " I dare say," interrupted Martha, with a bored air. 
 
 Blair turned towards Benjamin, hoping to escape 
 from the contention over this bone. " You work in 
 the plate-mill ; inspector, I believe ? " 
 
 Blair repeated his question, wishing that he had 
 remained where he was ; between the bickering sisters 
 and the deaf brother he preferred the former the 
 evil was the lesser. 
 
 " Yes, I work there. Have to go over the plates 
 before they go out every inch top and bottom. 
 Ever been in our department ? " 
 
 Blair nodded affirmatively. Martha arose. 
 
 " If you will excuse me, I shall be going ; my work 
 always begins and never ends, you know. I have an 
 almost countless number of papers to correct," she 
 
i 4 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 said, with what Blair thought a tinge of cynical bitter 
 ness. 
 
 " I am sorry you are going to leave so soon/ he 
 remarked, rising. 
 
 " You ought not to be, for I fear that I haven t been 
 overly pleasant to-night, but then as you are to be 
 here a long while I shall have plenty of opportunity 
 to redeem myself, I take it." 
 
 " And as I know," put in Blair, " that you can be 
 very pleasant I hope that you will take advantage of 
 your opportunities." 
 
 She curtesied, her eyes opening wide, and left the 
 room. Susan, Dora and Levi bounded away with her. 
 
 " I say," grinned Mabel, * you are a good one, that 
 was just the right answer. Martha likes to be talked 
 to in that way, only not every one is smart enough to 
 do it." 
 
 Blair smiled his acknowledgment. " I thought 
 just that," he said to himself. 
 
 Mabel chattered away on an endless mass of topics 
 in which her auditor found neither interest nor amuse 
 ment. He was thinking of Martha and her peculiar 
 conduct. 
 
 Winslow was starting to take his leave, with, 
 " Have to be moving it s getting late. Well, I leave 
 you in good hands, Carrhart; Judson will keep you 
 straight." 
 
 " Don t hurry, don t hurry," repeated Judson, " have 
 another pipe before you go. It will be a month before 
 you come again " (Winslow called every night), " and 
 I ve got something important to say I haven t even 
 touched it yet." 
 
 Mabel left the room in what the dramatist might 
 call an ineffective exit. Winslow reseated himself. 
 
THE JUDSONS 145 
 
 Judson lifted his clerical glasses and rubbed his 
 bald head, " I tell you, boys, there s going to be trou 
 ble in the mills." 
 
 "Why?" asked Winslow, " what s in the wind?" 
 
 " It ain t so much in the wind as the wind itself. I 
 know old Henry Marvin like a book. I was born in 
 the same town ; we were schoolmates chums, I might 
 say, he and I" (Judson was always proud of his friend 
 ship with the great capitalist) ; " and I can tell by his 
 manner that something is up. He came into my pri 
 vate office the other day and sat down beside my draw 
 ing-board and he began to tell me about his love for 
 humanity and how much he wanted to do for the 
 world. I always expect a cut in wages about that 
 time. You fellows have been squabbling over the 
 scales, haven t you? " 
 
 " We have had three or four consultations already," 
 said Winslow, " and we re further off than ever. 
 We ve been fighting like Turks for our rights. And 
 that old " Winslow, looking at Mrs. Judson, sup 
 pressed an oath " fox wants to cut us to pieces. He 
 wants to cut our wages down to the size of his 
 heart." 
 
 Ben Judson s dark face lowered and he frowned an 
 grily, the thick black hair that ran down on his low 
 forehead almost touching the bridge of his nose. 
 " It s an outrage," he cried, " the way things are run 
 ning in the mill to-day, and we can t stand for any 
 more, and by God we won t! If they are trying to 
 force us to starvation the sooner we strike and the 
 harder the better." 
 
 " Hush, Ben," said the mother. 
 
 " Ben s young," philosophized the father, " and 
 being young his head is hot. When he gets my age 
 
146 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 he ll see that there are two sides to every question, and 
 he ll be willing to acknowledge that capital has rights 
 on this earth as well as labor. As for strikes sepa 
 rately considered they may be all right, now and then ; 
 but take them in the long run and they re like war 
 strikes are hell." 
 
 Ben s dark face lowered and darkened again. " I 
 tell you, dad, it s all right for you to talk that way, 
 you being up in the office all day and not seeing what s 
 going on, but if you were outside for a while and saw 
 the abuse and the injustice there, you d climb over the 
 fence and do your whistling on the labor side." 
 
 " Well, I ll tell you, Ben," answered the old man, 
 coolly, "I m not for denying that there s a heap of 
 truth in what you ve been grumbling about for the 
 last year; but I ve danced around the edge of the 
 Lord s green footstool for the last forty-five years, and 
 I never saw the day when capital didn t want to keep 
 what it has, and labor didn t want to grab what capital 
 kept. My view is not to blame either it s human 
 nature; and when you fire human nature out of the 
 door, the millennium will climb through the window 
 without a boost from the preachers ; and until that 
 day comes I believe in making allowances for both 
 sides." 
 
 " It s all right for you to talk that way, dad," cut in 
 Ben, his small gray eyes twinkling savagely ; " you are 
 paid well and your wages come regularly no matter 
 what happens, but there are hosts of men in the mill 
 working like horses and starving like dogs, and it isn t 
 right and it has to quit." 
 
 That s true," vociferated Winslow, " every word 
 of it." 
 
 Blair was too interested in Judson s mild philosophy 
 
THE JUDSONS 147 
 
 and his son s vehement denunciation to wish to inter 
 rupt either by taking a hand in the dispute. 
 
 " Well," smiled old Judson, the end of his triangu 
 lar nose projecting humorously, " you see there have 
 always been poor men and there always will be ; you 
 can t blame the rich man for wanting to stay rich, and 
 you can t blame the poor man for wanting to exchange 
 jobs." 
 
 " You re begging the question," said Ben, hotly. 
 
 " I know I am," answered Judson, " but I want to 
 get back to what I started to say. This arguing is all 
 a waste of breath; it reminds me of an engine puffing 
 down the tracks without pulling any cars, just a waste 
 of good steam and nothing accomplished." 
 
 " That s the way you always get out of it, ; retorted 
 the son, punching his right fist into his left palm. 
 
 Smilingly Judson disregarded his accusation, and 
 went on: "I started to say that it was just before the 
 scales were settled last year that old Marvin gave me 
 his long speech about his love for his fellow-man and 
 you know what he did to wages, eh ? " 
 
 " I should say I do remember," shouted Ben; " I ve 
 been paying mother three dollars a week less board 
 ever since." 
 
 " But I got the best of old Henry to-day," continued 
 Judson, undisturbed, " in fine fashion. You know, 
 Judson, said he, that the responsibilities of wealth are 
 something terrible. Men in your condition, Judson, 
 don t appreciate what a load we have to carry ! 
 Well, I tell you, Mr. Marvin, said I, I can help you 
 a bit right now ; if you raise my salary five dollars a 
 week, part of the load will be gone and your burden 
 will be that much less. He hemmed and hawed and 
 he gave me the raise ; there was no way out of it. Oh, 
 
i 4 B BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 I know him like a book. It s all in studying his 
 humor. He comes in to pass the time of the day with 
 me every once in a long while and to talk over old 
 times. Stays a long while for him, too, much as five 
 minutes when he isn t too busy. He isn t the worst 
 man in the world either, you can all say what you 
 want ; he s always treated me right and square." 
 
 " The old muttered Ben ; " the double-faced 
 hypocrite." 
 
 " A double-faced man," interposed Judson mildly, 
 
 " runs twice the chance of being hit on one side : 
 
 ?> 
 
 " I am glad you had enough spunk, pa Judson," in 
 terrupted his wife, " to ask for your just dues once. 
 What s five dollars a week more? Why, you ve made 
 inventions in that mill that have made fortunes for the 
 Company. You ve been foolish, I ve told you so right 
 along, you ought to have kept the patents." 
 
 " If I listened to her," said Judson, relighting his 
 pipe, " I d own the mills they d belong to me, ground 
 and all. I suppose there ain t a wife in Marvin that 
 don t think that if her husband quit the mills would 
 quit. If men had what their wives thought was com 
 ing to them, half of us would be in jail and the other 
 half of us would be millionaires. I m lucky in my 
 wife, you see. But I ve explained to her a thousand 
 times that I draw twenty dollars a week or I did 
 draw that much until to-day whether I do anything 
 or not, and that often I ve worked a whole year with 
 out doing anything that was worth one cent to the 
 Company." 
 
 " I suppose if you were to find a gold mine under 
 our house during the week that would go to the Com 
 pany, too," flashed Ben. 
 
THE JUDSONS 149 
 
 " I suppose," answered Judson, unruffled. 
 
 " You haven t got any business head, pa Judson/ 
 scolded his wife, gently, " I ve always said so ; and 
 that s just where the whole trouble is." 
 
 " Well," smiled Judson, " I ll admit that, but it isn t 
 my fault ; when the Lord made inventors He figured 
 out that if He devoted half of their head to business 
 capacity, the other half wouldn t be worth much for 
 inventions, so He left the business arrangement out; 
 and that s fair." 
 
 " I ll drop in soon, said Winslow, rising, " and let 
 you show me your invention for automatic carriers in 
 the rail-mill. I ll have to go now." 
 
 " I ll be glad to do it," offered Judson, "but it s a 
 rather complicated sort of a thing and it will be hard 
 to explain." 
 
 " You might just as well let that rail-mill stand as 
 it is for all the good that it will do you," carped his 
 wife. 
 
 " And a great deal better," was Ben s acrid com 
 ment ; it will throw hundreds of men out of work and 
 do dad no good. I m tempted to tear the designs to 
 pieces every time my eyes rest on em." 
 
 "That s all child s talk, Ben," protested Judson, 
 piqued for the first time, " I ve explained it often 
 enough." 
 
 Winslow left; Judson showed Blair to his room. 
 
 Blair lay awake; his active thought stood strict 
 guard and would not let sleep elude its vigilance. The 
 Judson family was a whole mine, rich with the pure 
 gold of original character the gold of all earthly 
 golds whatsoever that delighted Blair most, and his 
 heart was rejoiced over his lucky discovery. He passed 
 them all in review again and again, until from the 
 
150 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 passing and repassing, the short procession seemed 
 an endless pageant old Judson, who delivered him 
 self in a steady stream of maxims ; Ben, strong and 
 determined ; Mrs. Judson, scolding and good-natured ; 
 the flock of children ; Mabel, frivolous and light of 
 heart; and Martha, strange and difficult. 
 
 " Strange and difficult," he repeated to himself, and 
 yet neither these adjectives nor any other that Blair 
 could find would serve as a descriptive tag wherewith 
 he might dismiss his concept of Martha. She escaped 
 analysis. She lured him on and on ; and when he 
 thought he had the mystery of her character unriddled, 
 naught but the riddle of the mystery remained" to baffle 
 him. The gold of her character did not shine on the 
 shifting sands of its surface. He who would know 
 Martha, thought Blair, must dig deep and long. 
 
 Gradually the procession of faces grew dim and 
 faint, and Martha alone shone out clean of cut, strong 
 of profile. There was that in her and Blair himself 
 knew not what which touched him deeply and more 
 than ruffled the surface of his sympathies ; for there 
 was that in Blair which leaped responsive to any su 
 periority he met amid poverty : a magnificent woman 
 of the people, though clad in rags, was sure to appeal 
 more strongly to him than a girl of the fortunate, clad 
 in silks; nay, the silks, strangely and oddly enough, 
 were an objectionable garb that hid the value of the 
 soul it covered ; the rags were a thin veiling through 
 which the great soul could be easily descried. 
 
 Martha, dissatisfied, evidently unhappy, out of rap 
 port with her surroundings, came up for compari 
 son with Evangeline, demure and struggling, whose 
 wealth made an easy path for opportunity to walk to 
 achievement, and Blair could not help but wonder what 
 
THE JUDSONS 151 
 
 the outcome of these two souls would have been, were 
 their outward and worldly circumstances reversed. 
 
 He fell into a light sleep, dreaming that Evangeline 
 held her hand out to him in the distance, pleadingly, 
 supplicatingly, as if she feared to sink in the swirling, 
 tempestuous waters of life without his assistance and 
 the support of his stronger arm, and that Martha stood 
 at his side to help him battle for the survival of his 
 ideals against those very waters away from which 
 Evangeline crouched in fear. 
 
XV 
 IN THE RAIL-MILL 
 
 BLAIR worked his way to the rail-mill with 
 the same rapidity that marked his course 
 from the blast-furnaces to the open-hearth. 
 His swift unprecedented advance was the talk and 
 wonder of the mills. His acquaintanceship and influ 
 ence always the paramount issue with Blair in 
 creased with the knowledge and versatility he gained 
 from each advance ; he left old friends in the old places 
 and gained new friends in the new. The unexpected 
 happened, and unexpectedly Blair found himself the 
 demigod of the mills. His apotheosis was due to al 
 most a miracle. 
 
 When Blair entered the rail-mill, Judson s new in 
 vention had not been installed and the larger part of 
 the work was still done by hand. He had not worked 
 there a month before the men who carried the huge 
 many-tonned ingots on large prongs, attached to 
 tracks overhead, were superseded by Judson s auto 
 matic carriers. Over one hundred men were thrown 
 out of employment, another hundred were reduced to 
 lower work at lower wages ; and the two hundred and 
 fifty men whose jobs were not disturbed by the inno 
 vation found that their salaries were. It was during 
 the same month that Judson s automatic machinery was 
 placed in the cast-houses ; and it leaked out that his 
 
IN THE RAIL-MILL 153 
 
 ore-lifters were to oust the unloading gangs on the 
 ore docks. The name of Judson was one wherewith 
 to curse. Rife discontent waxed to belligerent hatred. 
 Iron was crushing out muscle; flesh groaned and 
 growled; everything pointed to a pitched battle for 
 existence between man and machinery. 
 
 It was Blair s first duty to work the levers that 
 opened and shut the sliding doors of the gas pits to 
 allow the ingress and egress of the massive steel ingots. 
 The job was hot to torture and wearing to enervation, 
 ever hotter and more v/earing when the doors opened 
 and the crimson bellowing flames rolled roofward, or 
 when the wind was wrong and the fire surged in one s 
 face. 
 
 His next promotion placed him on one of the elevat 
 ed platforms to take charge of the levers that control 
 the movement of the leviathian rolls. A long black 
 screen shielded his face from the storm of heat 
 and the squirming shower of big sparks tossed up by 
 the ingots as they were being crushed into shape. 
 Standing there on his point of vantage, tugging man 
 fully at his levers to keep the rolls open, with ear ever 
 attuned to the signals from the blowing whistles, with 
 eye ever ready to see that the rails were in condition 
 to pass on to the next series of rolls eye, ear, every 
 muscle and tendon alert, it seemed to Blair that his 
 was the guiding and controlling spirit of all the mech 
 anism whirling within that far-stretching hall. 
 
 His imagination was as busy as his two hands, and 
 during the long day and through the more strenuous 
 nights, the marvelous, ponderous machinery took on 
 every shape that his excited fancy could conjure up. 
 At times it was his to do with as he liked ; he held it all 
 in the hollow of his hand. It became a huge iron horse 
 
154 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 that was guided by his rein, directed by his command 
 ing voice ; again, and more often, it was unwieldy, in 
 domitable, insuperable, threatening to revolt and anni 
 hilate him and every human being that was arrayed 
 there with him. More often still he envisaged it as 
 his enemy and the people s the embodiment of the 
 century s struggle between man on the one side and 
 machinery on the other. 
 
 He recalled the aspect of the rail-mill a month ago, 
 when the army of men, bare to the waist, were rush 
 ing to and fro, discernible everywhere, tugging at 
 the chains and prongs, looming up large and signifi 
 cant against the ponderous ingots. Then it was the 
 battle of machinery against man ; now it was the 
 issue of man against machinery for bread ; and so it 
 was never a mere mechanism to Blair, but something 
 vital, breathing, almost human. 
 
 Above Blair, through the small round windows, 
 ranged between the corrugated roof and the black 
 walls, the sunlight streamed down in long straight 
 lines on the rolls and made a chiaroscuro for the elon 
 gated carmine rails : under him the vast building quaked 
 and throbbed, quivering from the pulse-beat of the 
 monster fly-wheels that flanked its side, from the 
 weight of the mountain of cranes and massy rolls, 
 from the crash and thunder of the rails and the buzz 
 of whirling saws. 
 
 Ahead of him, far as he could see, a magenta efflor 
 escence puffed up Between the finishing rolls, as the 
 long rails hissed their way through the narrow press 
 ing grooves, and flushed the peculiar dark-gray atmos 
 phere to a bright pink. Still farther ahead, past the 
 gliding 1 mass of rails, twisting, writhing, turning in 
 every direction, lifted by contrivances that arose sud- 
 
IN THE RAIL-MILL 155 
 
 denly between the rolls and raised the vermilion strips 
 aloft and handed them to the operation of other tables, 
 still farther ahead, there spread to the roof a fusil 
 lade of sparks, broadening gracefully, like a peacock s 
 tail, from the contact of the resisting rails with the 
 whirling blades of the steel saws. 
 
 Then the mill fell into its semi-darkness again, and 
 the scarlet rails, gliding from roll to roll, like pythons, 
 loomed up luridly, as they moved on, longer and more 
 attenuated with every pass, their scaly bodies writh 
 ing with rage, hissing madly, filling the building 
 with unearthly noise, raising murderous coils, lashing 
 and curling powerful tails in an ineffectual rage 
 not always ineffectual, however, for sometimes they 
 managed to elude the torturing grooves through which 
 they ran and strike deathblows to the men watching 
 and guiding their serpentine course. 
 
 When Blair stepped down from his post at night, 
 taking his clothes from the locker and preparing for 
 his sojourn homeward, there was always with him, as 
 the last impression of the day s work, a baffled sense, 
 confused and bewildered, as when he had entered the 
 rolling-mills for the first time, of the immensity of the 
 thing, of the almost brainlike ingenuity with which that 
 huge, tangled, complicated mechanism worked its will. 
 It lived with him so, was so omnipresent, that he awoke 
 from his sleep with the roar of its whistles and the 
 crunching and pounding of its rolls in his ears, with 
 the nightmare of that sea of machinery rumbling and 
 rolling together in a wave, mountain high, and threat 
 ening to crush him to the ground bleeding and lifeless. 
 
 It was dangerous everywhere and anywhere in the 
 rail-mill, and to be on the alert and watchful was to 
 offer death and accident no advantage. On his way 
 
156 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 to work one morning, when Blair was crossing the 
 slender iron bridge that ran over the table of rolls near 
 the saws, he beheld a familiar face watching the finish 
 ing rolls. 
 
 " Hello ! " cried Blair, loud above the pandemonium. 
 
 " Glad to see you, Mr. Carrhart," shouted Paul 
 Brodski, looking up and extending a friendly hand. 
 
 There they stood, chatting, recalling the past, on 
 that narrow bridge that spanned the Niagara of roar 
 ing machinery beneath it. Blair was surprised at the 
 change that had come over his young friend during 
 the short time of their separation. Paul had grown 
 taller and broader, blossoming quickly towards his full 
 blond Polish manhood. 
 
 Away down to the south of the building the man 
 working the levers of the blooming-mill, whom he was 
 to relieve, waved his hand anxiously. 
 
 " I ll have to go now, Paul ; good-by. I hope I ll 
 see you soon again. Where do you v/ork ? " 
 
 " In the hot-bed greasing." 
 
 Blair nodded knowingly, not turning to look in the 
 direction towards which Paul pointed, he was so fami 
 liar with the work and the place that he could see it 
 in his mind s eye. 
 
 The hot-beds were in the northeast wing of the 
 building ; and in the core of that blistering heat worked 
 Paul Brodski, a mop tucked to his blouse to dash away 
 the sweat that poured down his brow. With a long 
 pole in his hand he ran up and down that lava bed, 
 between the downward sloping tracks, lubricating 
 them as he progressed. It was the mad dance of 
 death ; behind him glided the finished rails. The py 
 thons seemed to come to life suddenly, as if this were 
 their last chance to wreak vengeance, and they rolled 
 
IN THE RAIL-MILL 157 
 
 down the tracks in the trail of their human enemy, 
 ablaze with fury. They drew near, but a foot separated 
 them from the head of the fleeing Pole, hastening 
 on with panting breath. They darted to strike, he 
 bent down to the ground, and they whirled away over 
 his head harmlessly, to cool and await the drills of the 
 machinists. 
 
 All this Blair saw in his mental vision, as he waved 
 his hand to Paul and stepped off the bridge to walk 
 down the passageway to his station. Suddenly a 
 piercing whistle shrieked, sharp and penetrating above 
 all the clatter and din; the machinery came to a halt 
 with the sudden marked and discernible quickness 
 with which a marching army halts at the word of 
 command. Blair sought the cause of the trouble: an 
 ingot had forced its way between the heavy upper 
 rolls of the blooming-mill, wedging itself there firmly 
 and putting an end to movement. Already the sailor- 
 gang was hastening towards the spot to remove the 
 obstacle and Llewellyn, the Welsh engineer, was at 
 work on the refractory roll. 
 
 Blair moved nearer to watch the progress of events. 
 Someone had blundered; no one ever knew how or 
 who, and the gigantic machinery started with a plunge 
 and a sncrt, gathering all the weight of its burdening 
 tonnage for the first forward spring. A cry went up 
 the like of which had never been heard there before. 
 Men looked, paled, and turned away, an overmastering 
 feeling of pity swirling to their heads. The engi 
 neer s arm had caught between the rolls ; it was 
 crunched and ground like dust ; nothing could save his 
 body from being drawn in and meeting the same fate. 
 Tears of blood swept to the eyes of those who foresaw 
 the end of the unfortunate victim. 
 
158 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Blair caught the situation on the run, pale, deter 
 mined, insane with the desire to rescue, all the thoughts 
 of the month swarming to his brain in a second, be 
 holding the struggle against the machinery as actual 
 which he had represented to himself as mere phan 
 tasy. 
 
 " The monster ! The beast ! " he yelled at the top 
 of his powerful lungs, swelling with the rage of pre 
 monitory combat. He clenched his fists and, lifting 
 his arm aloft, shook it. The blue vein that ran 
 through the center of his high forehead empurpled. 
 He was going to attack this iron host single-handed, 
 to meet death or victory; in the heat and fire of the 
 second, not minding or reckoning or caring which : 
 the issue was to be decided then and there. 
 
 He sprang on the hot table of moving rolls, led by 
 the mysterious guidance of a sixth sense, saved from 
 the reach of harm of the scarlet, red-hot rails gliding 
 and beating along the rolls. He caught Llewellyn, 
 released his arm, jumped with him to the ground. It 
 was a miracle ; a performance seemingly against every 
 law of possibility and of fact. The machinery was 
 stopped ; the noisy mill was still. 
 
 The onlookers, frightened, horrified by this con 
 summation of the terrible and the sublime, found 
 relief for nerves wound to a breaking tension in a cry 
 of admiration that made the whole building vibrate 
 as with the movement of the huge engines and the 
 crashing rails. 
 
 Blair heard it not ; he was making a tourniquet with 
 the aid of his handkerchief, stanching the blood of the 
 swooning Welshman, and murmuring, as in a trance, 
 indistinguishable words, commingled of hatred, de 
 fiance and victory, against the monstrous rolls. 
 
XVI 
 THE SHUT-DOWN 
 
 IT happened as suddenly and with as little warn 
 ing as the dropping of a star from the sky the 
 entire mill was shut down. Typewritten notices 
 were placarded throughout the plant, at the gates, over 
 the doors, the engine-houses, the gas-houses every 
 where; appearing as mysteriously as if the agency of 
 their source were psychic, and yet they were there, 
 as visible, as palpable as the piles of scrap and iron in 
 the yards, and just as hard and grim. No words were 
 lost; there was no evidence of literary skill in the no 
 tices. 
 
 " The mills will close to-morrow at six A.M. and 
 will not open until further notice. By order of the 
 directors. 
 
 " HENRY MARVIN, President." 
 
 The men read unable to believe, and the prepon 
 derance of foreign hands, unable to read, were unwill 
 ing to believe the translators. All afternoon men on 
 the way out and men on the way in gathered in 
 groups, dinner-pails in hand, overalls red with iron 
 rust, faces and hands besmutted with grime and 
 grease, and asked, with trembling voices and scared 
 faces, what it all meant. Nothing like it had ever 
 happened in the history of the iron-and-steel industry 
 
 159 
 
160 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 nothing so peremptory, so autocratic, so unspeakably 
 daring. Comprehension balked at the idea of these 
 mills, which ground eternally, day and night, Sun 
 day and week-days, fires never out and wheels never 
 still, shutting down. It was as if a day s warning 
 had been given that the universe was to come to an 
 end. Watchmen moved from point to point and or 
 dered the groups to disperse. 
 
 The men gathered again on the outside of the mills, 
 in the streets, the saloons, in the stretches of prairie. 
 Five thousand men to be thrown out of employment 
 without one minute s notice. What did it mean? 
 Who knew? Was the Company bankrupt? 
 
 Opinions, vagarious, ill-founded, were ventured 
 upon by those who knew not the primer of finance. It 
 was a losing enterprise and to be abandoned, sold 
 under the hammer of the auctioneer for what it would 
 bring. Hearts grew somber, and the toilers trembled 
 inwardly at the thought of the midwinter ruin which 
 this abandoning of the mills would bring upon the 
 town of Marvin. Each foresaw the town deserted, 
 moldering to a tumbledown decay, a general exodus 
 of the men afar, a scramble for employment in other 
 cities ; a wild rush, a mad " save himself who can." 
 Men paled under the thought of the blow the first 
 pallor of dumfounding fright which precedes tears 
 and prevents them. And those whose sole baggage 
 consisted of wife and children the ignorant, the pov 
 erty-stricken, the alien, who had been brough* thithe * 
 by the Company and who were as dependent upon it 
 as their own children upon themselves, who knew not 
 where to go nor how to go where they knew not, were 
 most stricken of all. 
 
 The groups increased to crowds, the crowds to 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 161 
 
 throngs, supplemented continually by the streams from 
 the never-ending shifts pouring in and out of the mills, 
 by the toilers from the near-by and far-off barracks 
 of cottage-tenements, who were impelled by curiosity, 
 anxious to learn the news of such crowd-compelling 
 importance, or who had been informed of the truth. 
 The engines still puffed in and out of the trestle work 
 leading into the open-hearth; the crackling sound of 
 the salt thrown on the plates, the rumbling of the 
 slabs, the crashing of the rails, the roar from the con 
 verters, were all still audible, otherwise the existence 
 of the mills might have been doubted, and the be 
 fogged reasoning of the astonished, the puzzled and 
 the surprised might have questioned their own senses. 
 It was so ukase-like, so sudden, so impossible. 
 
 Women, followed by flocks of children, joined the 
 men, their heads uncovered, their large red hands 
 doubled under dirty aprons. Mrs. Brodski came, 
 dragging Anna and Mary along, Thomas darting- 
 ahead and pleading with the others to hurry. The 
 great gathering became a babble of various tongues, 
 Slav, Czek, Magyar, Germanic, a polyglot of peculiar 
 jargons and strongly individualized gesticulations. 
 The separate nationalities formed separate cliques; 
 the English-speaking peoples ever by themselves, seg 
 regated by speech, by affinity and the common feeling 
 of superiority. 
 
 Blair had seen the notices, pondered over them, 
 thought over them with his characteristic intensity that 
 squeezed out the gist of the meaning of things, and 
 already he had arrived at a conclusion as to the sig 
 nificance of the shut-down. It was late in the after 
 noon when he moved towards the restless crowds, 
 impatient and on the point of disbanding. 
 ii 
 
162 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Far in the west the sun was dropping its fiery ball 
 beneath the level of the flat prairies ; the eastern sky 
 was already curtained by the darkness and the gather 
 ing clouds of smoke, blown from the mills by the strong 
 winds. A golden mist rose from the frosty ground, 
 shot through and gilded over by the rays of the setting 
 sun. It all made a path, half theatrical and half dra 
 matic, for Blair s approach, as if nature had conspired 
 to make his entrance marked. His towering frame, 
 his gigantic physique was emphasized by the diminu 
 tive bodies of some stunted workmen who straggled 
 on behind him, crushed by the bad news, their faces 
 turned towards the ground. Even the mass of toilers 
 seemed to dwindle and grow smaller as Blair ap 
 proached. 
 
 The foreign groups noticed him first and they 
 pointed and clucked like geese. He was familiar to 
 most of them. Hundreds had heard him speak in the 
 socialistic meetings ; hundreds more had received 
 favors from his hand or kindly words from his lips. 
 He had lived with them, he moved among them, he 
 worked with them ; in short, he was one of them. 
 Exaggerated tales, exaggerated geometrically in the 
 telling, of his prowess, of his combats, of his oratori 
 cal abilities, of his intelligence, of his unprecedented 
 rise, had circulated freely from one end of the mill to 
 the other. By his last heroic adventure and rescue 
 on the rolls he had been transfigured, unbeknown to 
 himself, into a demigod ; one-third mystic, one-third 
 divine ; the rest divinely and superbly human. He 
 had slowly aroused the imagination of the populace 
 and it was now fanned and fired into popular enthu 
 siasm. 
 
 Group pointed him out to group as he strode along 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 163 
 
 through the golden haze of sunbeams and steaming 
 mist, the curtain of darkness at his back giving his 
 figure a peculiarly statuesque grandeur and relief. 
 He was the cynosure towards which the whole throng, 
 foreign and Saxon, gazed. Three months of work, 
 experience and life had culminated to shape him the 
 man of the hour, and the hour itself was the chief 
 factor in the conspiracy. 
 
 " The big American ! " shouted the foreigners, 
 many-tongued. 
 
 " Carrhart ! Carrhart ! " called the others, moved to 
 the cry by a unanimity, by a force which lay beyond 
 and outside of them, and which they understood not. 
 
 He strode on nearer and nearer wondering at this 
 unexpected acclamation of appreciation, yet prepared 
 to meet the issue and its possibilities, like a man who 
 has not had greatness thrust upon him. 
 
 On the unbroken prairie two leafless locust trees 
 lifted their high trunks beside the railing that guarded 
 the grave and the tombstone of the first settler in that 
 county. Blair took his stand there. 
 
 They crushed and crowded around him, striving to 
 be nearest him that they might catch the words of 
 pregnant advice which must fall from his lips. He 
 still towered above them all, trying to grasp with the 
 tentacles of his intelligence, as it were, what they 
 demanded of him. 
 
 He caught sight of Winslow s figure near him. 
 
 " What is it they want ? " he asked. 
 
 "A speech," yelled Winslow. " What do you make 
 out of the shut-down ? " 
 
 " Speech ! Speech ! " resounded on all sides, swelling 
 terrifically, rolling in sound waves over the prairie, 
 louder than the cold sharp wind whistling across it. 
 
164 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Blair drew breath deeply, his broad chest filled and 
 expanded ; his voice carried, high, clear, sonorous. 
 
 " Men, you ask of me what the sudden shut-down 
 means and in my ignorance I turn to you to plead for 
 information. As yet none of us can know, and while 
 the darkness reigns it is the part of wisdom to say 
 little, to think, and to wait for the light. Once having 
 learned, we shall plan deliberately and act forcibly. 
 This I can assert positively, however; if this action 
 has been taken by the Company to force us into sub 
 mission, to make us accept their own terms when the 
 scales come up for a final decision, we will starve to 
 gether before we submit singly." 
 
 " That s it ! " they cried. " It s the scales ! The 
 scales ! We will starve first." 
 
 It was the key nearest at hand to the solution of the 
 ukase, and, whether it fitted the lock or not, Blair was 
 the first to apply it, and the credit of his wisdom was 
 furthered by the nimbleness of his wit. 
 
 The cries continued louder; exclamations grew 
 wilder; the hot-headed and the hare-brained were 
 quick to suggest force. The cold was forgotten, out 
 wardly they stood there shivering, but inwardly the 
 fires of hatred and vengeance kept them warm ; and 
 they thought not of leaving. They were ready then 
 and there, if Blair led, to march against the mills and 
 destroy them. 
 
 From the long range of car tracks that hemmed the 
 outer edge of the prairie, a dozen blue coats marched 
 forward abreast, and presented a solid front to the 
 disgruntled crowd. The order to disperse was given. 
 
 All eyes were lifted anxiously towards Blair: as he 
 did so would they do. He obeyed the command of 
 the police. Sulkily, gloomily, unwillingly, the throng 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 165 
 
 divided ranks and broke in every direction for homes 
 widely separated. 
 
 In the offices of the Company, the clerks, like the 
 mill hands, were thrown into consternation. Hushed 
 surprise and subdued fear were regnant. Book 
 keepers, accountants and cashiers gathered in consult 
 ing groups of twos and threes. An atmosphere of 
 suspense weighed over the offices heavy as the smoke 
 clouds hanging above the yards. 
 
 The astonishment increased as one went upward 
 from the lower employees to the higher, until the 
 highest point was reached, then it ceased ; the highest 
 point held the key to the riddle and dense silence along 
 with it. 
 
 At twelve the whistles blew and the army of clerks 
 filed into the restaurant in haste, anxious to catch 
 stray words, to read faces, to exchange confidences. 
 
 The Company served luncheon for the office help 
 to save time and because the town of Marvin had no 
 suitable eating-houses of its own. The windows of 
 the restaurant looked out on the open front of the 
 slab-mill, and from the long tables the clerks could see 
 the swinging cranes lift the flaming ingots from the 
 gas pits and hear the gride and rumble of the ponder 
 ous machinery. 
 
 The room was always iron-and steel-like and stern 
 enough, but it seemed thrice so to-day, for the weight 
 of an impending disaster hung threatening in the 
 heavy atmosphere. 
 
 The office corps looked inquiringly at one another, 
 read nothing on the blank stolid countenances of their 
 superiors, and fell to eating mechanically, their heads 
 bent over their plates. Even the waitresses, in their 
 black dresses and white caps, moved with steps sedate 
 
1 66 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 to somberness; they had heard the news from the 
 Marvin twins, who were never happier than when 
 they bore unwelcome intelligence. 
 
 At every noise in the hall there was a turn of heads, 
 almost automatic, to see if Marvin was not entering. 
 Sphinx-like as his face usually was, his underlings 
 hoped that this remarkable transaction had left a line 
 or a furrow on it which might serve as a slight clue 
 to the transaction. But Marvin did not join them at 
 table that noon. 
 
 Hayes, the secretary, a round, full-faced, boyish 
 looking fellow, with a sloping under jaw that betok 
 ened furtiveness, and Putnam seated themselves at one 
 of the smaller tables, left vacant at the lower end of 
 the denuded room. They were closely watched and 
 they were aware of it. They surmised what the shut 
 down meant; but they wished to give the impression 
 that they were in absolute possession of the secret ; 
 partly to uphold the dignity of their high offices, part 
 ly to make the others feel their subaltern inferiority. 
 The pair, to carry out the illusion, conversed in 
 whispers, looking grave and impassive beyond their 
 wont. Both were wondering, if worse came to worst, 
 what they would do for a living,, which was the one 
 thought that absorbed every mind in that room. A 
 cur may flourish in the streets where a well-bred dog, 
 if turned loose, would starve. 
 
 The twins followed closely on the heels of Hayes 
 and Putnam, overdressed as always, their trousers 
 creased, their loud shirts and high collars unspotted 
 by mill dust or smoke, their sandy red hair shimmer 
 ing with pomade. It was the boast of the twins that 
 they were the only two in the whole mill that gave the 
 place a tone, and they maintained that, on this account 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 167 
 
 alone, they were worth every cent they were paid. 
 They pitied the others for knowing nothing about 
 dress the proper study of mankind. 
 
 Making positive that their father would not be 
 there, they launched out on a characteristic flight of 
 insolence. They began by insulting the defenseless 
 waitresses ; and then tiring of the pretended indiffer 
 ence with which the girls met their fleers, they 
 opened an attack on the clerks. 
 
 Nothing was heard but the pounding of the thick 
 slabs as they passed through the ponderous rolls and 
 the shrieking of the whistles. Every now and then 
 the restaurant was suffused with the scarlet light of 
 an ingot that one of the cranes was carrying through 
 the mid air of the slab-mill. 
 
 La Vette entered, late as usual, serene, smiling, 
 apparently unperturbed. He sat down between Put 
 nam and Hayes, removing his glasses and rubbing the 
 bright red mark they had indented on the bridge of 
 his nose. He replaced the glasses and crossed his 
 hands on his fat stomach. 
 
 " The affair don t seem to disturb yon much," 
 remarked Putnam, wondering whether it did or 
 not. 
 
 Yes, you really seem the only jolly man in the 
 place," said Hayes, inviting conversation. 
 
 The chemist nodded, blinking not unpleasantly 
 through his glass. " Perhaps you can tell me why I 
 should be otherwise ? " And to the waitress, " Roast- 
 beef, rare, and brown potatoes." 
 
 " For the same reason that about five thousand other 
 people are not. I shouldn t call it a pleasant surprise 
 party exactly," replied Putnam, his sharp eyes, looking 
 over his large glasses. 
 
168 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Any idea what s up? " queried Hayes, with a face 
 blank as the bare wall. 
 
 " Yes," yawned La Vette, indolently, rubbing his 
 nails on the palm of his hand; "just about as much 
 an idea as you have." 
 
 Putnam twisted in his seat nervously, pulling at his 
 napkin, under the table-cloth. La Vette s remark had 
 two horns and he had no desire to grasp either. 
 
 Hayes reached out boldly. Then you know 
 just as much about it as one of the ingots over 
 there." 
 
 " Oh, come now, boys, you re not playing fair. 
 Bah, this cow must have been fed on coal and iron," 
 and La Vette went on eating slowly, grumbling at 
 every mouthful of the food. 
 
 Putnam, encouraged by Hayes, seized the bull by 
 the horns. La Vette was shrewd, worldly-wise, far- 
 sighted, and he had a habit of diving down beneath 
 the surface, all of which made his opinion worth 
 the having. " I suppose there s a stock-deal on 
 hand? 1 " 
 
 " I don t suppose," answered La Vette, softly, " I 
 know there is." 
 
 " How ? " questioned Hayes, with excitement clum 
 sily concealed. 
 
 " For the simple reason that the mills are shut 
 down," replied the chemist, curtly. 
 
 " But that s only to cut down our output and ease 
 an oversupplied market," objected Putnam. 
 
 " Yes, the newspapers will print an interview with 
 our president, if a sharp reporter manages to find him ; 
 and he will give a discussion on supply and demand ; 
 but you and T won t believe it. although there are a 
 great many children who will," replied La Vette. 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 169 
 
 " I agree with you, in fact I know, to be candid, 
 that it s a stock-deal," confessed Putnam; "but what 
 brought you to the conclusion ? " 
 
 " I knew it," yawned La Vette, looking at his finger 
 nails, " over three days ago. I ll admit that I didn t 
 expect anything like this, but when it came I put two 
 and two together. Marvin is the only man in the 
 country bold enough to do such a thing. It came to 
 me directly several days ago. I was given to under 
 stand that the information emanated from headquar 
 ters, and I was advised to buy." 
 
 Putnam turned on his chair, his cheeks flushing. 
 The clerks at the opposite table, watching closely, no 
 ticed his change in color, and they hazarded wild 
 guesses as to its meaning. " He said something on 
 this order to me ; I suppose you followed his pointer 
 and bought heavily ? " 
 
 " Not I," smiled La Vette, rubbing his nails ; " I 
 wasn t born yesterday, as you Americans say." 
 
 " Kept your hands off it," suggested Hayes, his 
 suggestion openly asking for information. 
 
 La Vette shook his broad head. " I don t get 
 pointers like that every day. I sold. I know Mar 
 vin." 
 
 Hayes turned his eyes on Putnam, helplessly, almost 
 pleadingly. Putnam clenched his teeth and the color 
 left his face. 
 
 ;< Yes," continued La Vette, cruelly, enjoying the 
 discomfiture of the others, " I flatter myself that I am 
 what you Americans call smart. I m three thousand 
 dollars to the good now, and the lowest point hasn t 
 been reached yet by a long damn sight, if you will 
 permit me." 
 
 Hayes and Putnam leaned back in their chairs as if 
 
170 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 they had been struck. " How do you know? " gasped 
 Putnam, recovering first. 
 
 " I telephoned down to my broker an hour after the 
 notices were posted. You have no idea how fast such 
 news travels." 
 
 ;< Yes, we have," snapped Putnam, his hand trem 
 bling so that he almost dropped the fork he was twid 
 dling. 
 
 The silence deepened. The clerks ceased eating, 
 gazing at the awestruck secretary and treasurer; the 
 waitresses moved about, as if on tiptoe. The whistles 
 howled ; the slabs roared as they passed under the 
 groaning rolls ; the garish light from an ingot shone 
 through the room like lightning after a thunder 
 clap. 
 
 The black-hearted scoundrel," muttered Putnam, 
 under his breath, unable to contain himself longer. 
 " He came to me last week and encouraged me in the 
 same way, only stronger. He used every argument ; 
 he talked like a father; and we bit like gudgeons. 
 How in God s world could a man sit up all night and 
 dream of a thing like this ? It s a mad, reckless game, 
 but he s played it. He s been selling short for how 
 much and how long the Lord only knows. Now he s 
 shut the mills and covered himself with my money and 
 Haves and every other gudgeon s he could pull in. 
 That s one comfort we weren t the only fools." 
 
 " Yes, that is a comfort," came from the chemist, 
 as he drank his coffee, unconcerned. 
 
 " I m ruined," gasped Hayes ; " he s got every cent 
 back the Company ever paid me." 
 
 " But think of the thousands of poor devils thrown 
 out of work." put in La Vette, half cynically, half 
 sympathetically. 
 
THE SHUT-DOWN 171 
 
 " Oh, damn them ! " exclaimed Putnam, " they can 
 take care of themselves they re used to poverty." 
 
 The dinner hour was over; the men were arising 
 from their places, lingering there, holding consultation 
 in whispered tones. 
 
 Clark the cashier and three or four of the less timid 
 ones moved over to the secretary s table and stood 
 there abashed, each waiting for the other to speak 
 first. 
 
 La Vette nudged Putnam. " Some one wants to 
 speak to you, Put. His nudge woke the despair 
 ing secretary from the depths of his dungeon in 
 Spain. 
 
 " Oh," started Putnam. " Well, what is it, Clark? " 
 
 " Excuse me," hesitated Clark, " for interrupting ; 
 but the boys asked me if I wouldn t get a little infor 
 mation from you on this thing. How long do you 
 think do you mind telling us how long this shut 
 down will last ? " 
 
 Putnam looked up, his sharp eyes twinkling angrily 
 over his large glasses. He was on the point of burst 
 ing out into a jeremiad against Marvin; but he re 
 strained himself, merely shrugging his shoulders in a 
 manner that gave a determining answer to Clark s 
 question. 
 
 " If you will allow me to speak unauthoritatively, 
 gentlemen," came the chemist s foreign accent " if this 
 shut-down lasts a week, it will last a long time. The 
 mills will go to bed to-night, so to speak, and they will 
 be up and doing in the morning. Up and doing is 
 the expression, is it not, Mr. Putnam ? " 
 
 Putnam nodded absently. 
 
 " And if I were in your place," concluded La Vette, 
 " I d follow their good example and not bother." 
 
XVII 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 
 
 DESPITE the vigilance of the police the men 
 held meetings all that night, gathering again 
 in knots and groups and clusters. Within 
 the foreign quarters especially family and neighborly 
 consultations continued until the number of the hours 
 was small. 
 
 In the home of the Brodskis there was bitter lamenta 
 tion. Starvation stared the family in the face. Mrs. 
 Brodski, her hands on her knees, rocked herself to 
 and fro wailing sorely. "What will we do! What 
 will we do ! " By rigid economy they would be able, 
 though the shut-down continued, to pay the rent for 
 some weeks to come; but food, clothes and coal were 
 as necessary for existence as shelter, and from where 
 were these to come? The children cried themselves 
 to sleep, fearing unmentionable things. Foreseeing 
 that the market would be deluged with second-hand 
 goods, Mrs. Brodski sent Michael and Jan to dispose 
 of her sewing-machine while there was yet time to 
 secure even a pittance for it. 
 
 In their lodges the unions were busy discussing the 
 advisability of calling a mass-meeting to protest against 
 the action of the Company; but the wisest (Blair was 
 foremost among: them) defeated the resolution. They 
 saw clearly that there was nothing to protest against, 
 
 172 
 
HOMEWARD BOtfND 173 
 
 or, at least, that no protestation would avail. There 
 was no institution on earth which could force a corpo 
 ration to open a business which it decided to shut 
 down. 
 
 The socialists met in their hall, and the speeches 
 were radical, hot-headed, verging towards the anar 
 chic. The characteristic tendency of the club to theo 
 rize, to argue, to gain the promised land by peace and 
 progress, was supplanted by reckless suggestions of 
 storm and violence. When Blair attended, later in 
 the evening, he pleaded eloquently and, after a heroic 
 struggle, he succeeded in turning the turbulent waters 
 down their accustomed channels. 
 
 In the shack, back of the Brodskis, in the small, 
 compact Polish quarter, the anarchists were virulent 
 ly active. The long missionary work had increased 
 the small band to a host that jammed the three rooms 
 of the miserable cottage. Marvin s unwarranted 
 action proved the most enthusiastic promulgator their 
 cause could have. 
 
 Miss Goldstein, Jan and La Vette" even Paul 
 made diabolical speeches, bristling with dynamite. 
 The chemist s calm announcement that he had three 
 thousand dollars at the disposal of the cause aroused 
 a storm of zealous approval. 
 
 Marvin had stirred the brew ; it was more than ques 
 tionable if the toilers in the mill were ready to quaff 
 the bitter concoction. 
 
 On Sunday morning the front page of the Chicago 
 newspapers were devoted to a vitriolic denunciation 
 of Marvin s " Stock Deal." The North- Western mill 
 stock was quoted as having dropped to 40 from 42, 
 the lowest point of the day before. Preferred stock 
 declined to 77^4 from 80^4. At the cl<xe of the day. 
 
i 7 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the tendency was still downward. Marvin (an Asso 
 ciated Press reporter had found him in New York) 
 declared that the shutting down of the mills was due 
 solely to overproduction. Present conditions, state 
 ments from the other mills, the newspapers unani 
 mously declared, gave the lie to his claims. There 
 was a scathing account of the manner in which Mar 
 vin had deluded a number of his friends, a host of his 
 employees, and a handful of city and state politicians; 
 to whom he was indebted for " favors," into buying 
 stock a day or two before the consummation of his 
 deal. 
 
 Blair found Judson in the parlor reading his paper, 
 his hand shaking slightly, the tip of his triangular 
 nose almost white. Ben Judson was there, frowning 
 and angry. 
 
 " Have you seen this ? " asked Judson. 
 
 Blair read quickly, grasping the contents of the 
 column, as it were, with a swoop of his eyes. He 
 whistled a prolonged " Whew." 
 
 " So that s it," exclaimed Blair. 
 
 " Apparently," answered Judson, meekly, stuffing 
 the bowl of his pipe from his tobacco-pouch, with un 
 steady fingers. It was evident that he found no diver 
 sion in smoking, the fire smoldered and died in the 
 bowl. 
 
 His wife came down the stairs and Judson nudged 
 Blair, saying in a half whisper to him and Ben 
 k< Just turn those sheets inside ; I don t want her to 
 see it. She ll hear soon enough." 
 
 Wondering for the second, then grasping, Blair 
 obeyed the best. 
 
 Mrs. Judson curtesied a pleasant good-morning and 
 passed smiling into the kitchen. The younger chil- 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 175 
 
 dren came into the parlor, but rinding their fa 
 ther preoccupied and absorbed they made for the 
 kitchen. 
 
 " I had my fingers nipped in that deal," went on 
 Judson, turning slightly paler, the pallor spreading 
 from the tip of his nose inward to his face. " I 
 wouldn t say a word but " his voice quavered and 
 he relit his pipe, speaking again when the fire died 
 down in the bowl " I wouldn t say a word but I ve 
 been saving the money to buy a home, and I was ca 
 joled into buying stock. And, and damn it I put 
 some of Martha s money in too." 
 
 Blair nodded sympathetically, his heart swelling 
 with rage at Marvin and with pity for Judson, to 
 whom he was deeply attached. He loved his quaint 
 ways and his droll speech. 
 
 :< The old ," cursed Ben, prodding his palm with 
 
 his fist. " What have I been saying right along?" 
 
 Judson nodded sadly. " I know most boys have the 
 reputation of claiming to be wiser than their fathers, 
 but the fathers who don t boast that they know more 
 than the whole family together are rare." 
 
 Judson s voice quavered shrilly and broke; then he 
 regained mastery and went on : 
 
 " The tip came to me from the office a day or two 
 ago to buy North- Western mill stock. Putnam spoke 
 to me about it, and I thought he had it direct from 
 Marvin. And I believed in it, and, oh, my God, boys, 
 I put every cent I had into it, every cent." 
 
 The old man let his pipe drop out of his hand on the 
 floor, and he remained quiet, sitting bolt upright, his 
 rigid hands clinging to the sides of his chair. 
 
 Blair wished to say some comforting word, but he 
 knew that no words would comfort and he held his 
 
176 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 peace. Ben cursed Marvin roundly and hotly, as his 
 tirade increased in vehemence. 
 
 " Hush, Ben ! " commanded the father, " that kind 
 of talk won t do any good. Nor am I the kind either 
 that believes in turning your right cheek when your 
 left is struck. Christ said that, but it takes a Christ 
 to do it. I remember years ago when I was out West, 
 during the gold excitement, that a crowd of miners 
 were just about to lynch a horse-thief and general 
 good-for-nothing, when the parson chanced along. 
 No sermon, parson, said one of the lynching-bee. 
 Not much/ said the parson, swinging his arms and 
 yelling loud, I want my hand on that rope. And 
 then he reached back to his pistol-pocket and drew out 
 his gun and said, * Friends, I challenge any one of you 
 to say that there s a word in the Sermon on the 
 Mount that applied to horse-thieves. He waited a 
 second or two for the challenge, but it wasn t coming, 
 so he went on, Friends and brothers in sin, there s 
 a Sermon on the Mount for Sundays and there s 
 another one for week-days, there s a time when the 
 Sermon on the Mount is to be read for ards and 
 there s a time when it s to be read back ards ; and to 
 day s the time when we re called on to read the week 
 day one back ards. If there is any one here as puts a 
 different interpretation on the Scriptures, I d like to 
 hear his views. 
 
 Judson smiled faintly at his own story, and remarked, 
 after a second or two, " I suppose 1 oughn t to be 
 recalling jokes to-day, but the thing suggested itself 
 naturally and I couldn t help myself. My sense of 
 humor is too strongly developed, that s the trouble. 
 Yes, sir, if I was dying I believe I would Dray the Lord 
 to postpone the event until I could tell Him where the 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 177 
 
 joke came in. A sense of humor is a wonderful thing 
 though ; it helps a man over many a bad road, like the 
 one we re traveling over to-day, for instance. Take 
 even a dog that has a humorous wag to its tail and 
 it is a terror when the time comes around for fighting. 
 A man without a sense of humor is like a wa^on on 
 three wheels, not much good for long traveling and 
 bad roads." 
 
 Judson s face was shadowed by tears and smiles, 
 and it was easy to see that he was struggling to con 
 quer his own sadness of heart, and that his story 
 had been told to relieve himself as much as to delight 
 his hearers. He arose after a minute or two, say 
 ing, " Excuse me, I ll go up-stairs now. I ain t the 
 kind that can conceal my feelings, and my wife may 
 come in at any minute and then she ll know." But 
 even on the stairs, he turned to say, " Yes, sir, the 
 meanest man in the world is the man that gets you to 
 grind his ax and then hits you with the ax after it s 
 ground." 
 
 Blair was alone in the parlor, rocking to and fro, 
 his chin resting on his hand, reflectingly, when Mar 
 tha came in. 
 
 " You seem quite absorbed," she began, " perhaps 
 I ought not to disturb you." 
 
 " Oh, I m just worried, like thousands of others, 
 wondering what I shall do now that the mills have 
 closed." 
 
 " It does seem wrong," she spoke, musingly. 
 
 " It s worse than that, it s criminal." 
 
 " But after all, it s their property, and I presume that 
 one has the right to do whatever one desires with one s 
 property." 
 
 Blair looked up, shocked at her point of view. So 
 
 12 
 
178 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 many answers, so many refutations to her contention 
 rolled through his mind at the same time, that he could 
 seize no one. He sought refuge in the commonplace 
 remark, " Pshaw, Miss Martha, you know better than 
 that." 
 
 Martha became a deeper puzzle to Blair as the pass 
 ing days united them in intimate friendship ; and her 
 inclination to defend the capitalistic side of the issue 
 was, according to Blair s way of thinking, the insolu 
 ble part of the rebus. Her mental attitude provoked 
 and tantalized him, nay, it even angered him ; and, 
 strange to say, this very anger drew him to her closer. 
 It was a strong peculiarity of Blair s temperament that 
 he was ever fascinated by people and things he could 
 not comprehend. He was bent upon winning her over 
 to his point of view. Even the promulgation of his 
 socialistic doctrines dwindled away to unimportance 
 beside the task of conquering Martha and making her 
 serviceable to his cause. Despite himself, naturally 
 for that reason, Evangeline gradually occupied his 
 thought less and less, until to recall Evangeline, save 
 to serve for a minor term in the comparison with Mar 
 tha, became a conscious effort of the mind and will. 
 
 " Tell me," she asked, suddenly, ignoring his last 
 rebuke, " what is the matter with my father this morn 
 ing? He doesn t seem himself; something is wrong." 
 
 He shook his head in negation. 
 
 " I am inclined to believe that you know anyway, 
 Mr. Blair, if you will pardon my saying so." 
 
 " I can t see," he said, ignoring her question and 
 reverting to the theme that was boiling in him for 
 expression, " how in the world you can defend such 
 an unutterably selfish, heartless and debased standard 
 of conduct as that which led to the shut-down," 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 179 
 
 Martha sat tranquil, her fine hands crossed in her 
 lap. " I don t know as yet that the Company s motive 
 was unutterably selfish, heartless and debased, and 
 even if it was I have known the time when I thought 
 the men acted in a selfish, heartless and debased 
 manner." 
 
 " You are always defending the capitalists, Miss 
 Martha ; simply because they are rich, I suppose." 
 
 " You are always defending the laborers, Mr. Blair; 
 simply because they are poor, I suppose." 
 
 " Even so ; the motive is a better one." 
 
 " I can t see why," she retorted, brushing a refrac 
 tory whisp of black hair back from her broad forehead. 
 
 The front sheet of the Sunday paper lay folded in 
 his pocket ; he was impelled to show it to her in sub 
 stantiation of his argument, but he recalled Judson s 
 warning in time. " You will agree with me before 
 the day is over," he said, simply. 
 
 " Perhaps so. You are in an argumentative mood 
 this morning; and you always revert to the same 
 theme when you are that way. I can t see why ; there 
 are so many other and more pleasant things to talk 
 about." Her smooth brow wrinkled. 
 
 " It interests me most above everything else," he 
 answered, in extenuation. 
 
 " That proves you are narrow, I fear." 
 
 She arose, her long arms hanging straight at her 
 sides, her resolute chin erect. 
 
 " No," answered Blair, " it proves my breadth of 
 sympathies." 
 
 " Again," she replied, her brow wrinkling, " I must 
 say that I can t see it in that light. But we can t 
 agree this morning, there is no use in trying, and I 
 must off to help mother get dinner." 
 
i8o BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 That noon at dinner, Judson was glum, silent, al 
 most morose. At times he would gather himself 
 firmly in hand and shake off his spirit of depression. 
 He ventured on an anecdote or two, but the flavor 
 and gusto were not there, and they fell jangled and 
 out of tune. His spirit infected the others, and the 
 usual gaiety, wit and sparkling repartee of the Sun 
 day dinner were sadly wanting. Black care was flap 
 ping its wings over the house, preparing to swoop fell 
 down upon it. Blair could hear the rustle of its sable 
 feathers. 
 
 Immediately after dinner Blair betook himself to his 
 own room. A vague unrest, a dispeace with himself 
 and his thoughts, seized Blair and stirred him to the 
 depths. In search of the cause, he fell to the analyz 
 ing of his mood. It could not be love for Martha, 
 this growing feeling of attraction for her? He was 
 up in arms against the disdainful thought. Was it 
 the hopelessness of his struggle, the littleness of his 
 achievement? "No," he concluded by telling him 
 self, " I am homesick. I have been away from the 
 family too long. I have resisted the desire to re 
 turn too fiercely. I can give into it with safety 
 now. 
 
 There could be no more opportune time than dur 
 ing the shut-down to return ; perhaps the opportunity 
 was father to the thought. Prefiguring the family 
 rejoicing at his return and the killing of the fatted 
 calf, Blair made haste to change his clothes and to 
 prepare for the short journey, when three or four men 
 from his lodge of the union filed into his room to dis 
 cuss the situation. The whole afternoon and the 
 early evening were spent in futile talk. 
 
 For Blair that night was long and sleepless. His 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 181 
 
 thoughts were not his own, they laughed at his 
 puerile attempts at control. He was forced, against 
 his will, to acknowledge that Martha played no minor 
 part in this upheaval of his feelings ; and yet he per 
 sistently denied his own conclusion, and forced and 
 flattered himself into the belief that when once he 
 reached home his restlessness and his dissatisfaction 
 would cease. 
 
 In the morning he started to carry out the defeated 
 intentions of the day before. Martha was just start 
 ing for school when Blair left the house. She was 
 surprised at the difference clothes made in his appear 
 ance; she eyed him rather keenly, Blair thought; but 
 she let no remark escape her. 
 
 " I m taking advantage of the shut-down/ he vol 
 unteered the information, " to indulge in a holi 
 day." 
 
 " And I m off for the usual terrible grind. Ugh, 
 how I hate it," she groaned, lifting herself more erect, 
 throwing her chin back. " I often think I shall re 
 bel." 
 
 Rebel against what?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, that s it," she laughed, cynically, bitterly, 
 " rebel against what ? When it is all sifted down 
 there is nothing tangible against which one can rebel, 
 except oneself." 
 
 " You ought not to rebel against such a good mis 
 tress." 
 
 A skeptical expression on her clouding countenance 
 seemed to question the sincerity of Blair s compli 
 ment. 
 
 " Still," he went on, " you ought to be reasonably 
 well satisfied with your work. It s a pleasant occupa 
 tion, I should think." 
 
i 82 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Delightful ! " she iterated, with sarcastic empha 
 sis. 
 
 " Besides," he continued, heedless of her contra 
 dictory, cynical manner, " thousands and thousands 
 are less happily situated." 
 
 That s a very commonplace consolation, allow me 
 to say." 
 
 " I ve found it of great value in my own case." 
 
 She laughed again, the same hard, cynical laugh 
 that always pained and puzzled Blair. 
 
 " So you distribute it around like a patent medicine, 
 warranted to cure everybody of anything." 
 
 " I m afraid it s blue Monday with you." 
 
 He was wondering whether she had heard of her 
 father s financial reverse and if that accounted for her 
 excessive bitterness of mood. 
 
 " No bluer than usual," came her answer ; " anyway 
 one should expect a blue Monday after a white Sun 
 day; that s life." 
 
 " No, that s what we make out of life: our Mondays 
 and our Sundays are the same ; all days belong to us 
 to make out of them what we will." 
 
 " You missed your vocation, I fear; you should have 
 been a preacher instead of a leverman in the rail-mill." 
 
 " Come, now, perhaps I tried preaching, found out 
 I wasn t fitted for it and gave it over to become a mill 
 hand." 
 
 She looked at him searchingly for a minute before 
 replying. " I could hardly believe you capable of such 
 gigantic folly." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " It s hardly human nature, is it, to give up an easy 
 berth to voluntarily assume a harder one? Besides, 
 preaching is better paid." 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 183 
 
 " What is best paid and easiest isn t always best, is 
 it?" 
 
 He could feel her black eyes travel over the fea 
 tures of his face, so sharply were they turned on him. 
 
 "Oh, I m sure you must have been a minister; I 
 never heard any one else think of putting that ques 
 tion." 
 
 " You wouldn t think of measuring the value of 
 life by that mercenary standard, would you, Miss 
 Martha ? " he asked. 
 
 Martha s dissatisfaction grieved him sorely; his 
 love pitied her profoundly. Her cynicism was but a 
 thorn, he thought, that was lodged merely in the sur 
 face of her flesh, and he was sure he could remove it, 
 if she but gave him her aid, with small patience and 
 less time. 
 
 They were already at the school gate; the children 
 were assembled on the cindered ground, shouting lus 
 tily. She reached out her hands for the books. 
 " We ll continue the conversation some other time, 
 where we left off. I wasn t very pleasant, I know," 
 she smiled sweetly, her black eyes brimming, " but it 
 wasn t my fault, really it wasn t my fault. I always 
 start out trying to be pleasant and agreeable to you, 
 but somehow you have the faculty of twisting me 
 wrong, of leading me astray with aggravating argu 
 ments. There," noticing Blair s crestfallen counte 
 nance, " you mustn t feel bad about it ; it s all my 
 fault, I know it is. I am ever so grateful for your 
 company." 
 
 Striding towards the suburban depot tracks, Blair 
 was obsessed by the thought that he had been very 
 guilty somehow, that he had treated Martha shame 
 fully, but he could arrive at no clearness as to the 
 
1 84 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 point where his innocence ceased and his guilt towards 
 her began. All their talks seemed to end thus. 
 Martha was intangible, elusive, difficult to grasp, and, 
 deny it as he would, much of her charm lay therein. 
 They would grow to understand each other yet, he 
 determined. 
 
 Even when seated in the train he became vividly 
 aware, not without a sensation of shock, that his fancy 
 was more troubled at the thought of leaving Martha 
 than exalted at the prospect of drawing nearer to 
 where Evangeline moved and had her being. 
 
 As the engine puffed Chicago-ward Martha too 
 vanished into the dim background of his considera 
 tion. It seemed to him that he was traveling not a 
 few miles but thousands ; for Blair was not speeding 
 over the tracks between Chicago and Marvin, but over 
 the long recollections that divided his past from his 
 present. 
 
 He leaned his arm on the window-ledge and mused 
 deeply. All of the incidents, all of his life at the mills, 
 rolled panoramawise before him. It seemed impos 
 sible that so much could have been crowded and 
 jammed into those four months. He had never lived 
 so intensely, so actively. He felt that he had not paid 
 too dearly for what he had acquired. He was recom 
 pensed as richly as the discoverer who finds a new 
 world. To Blair life was an illimitable sea circling 
 around virgin lands, and it wao his purpose to face 
 storm and peril, to put forth his bark bravely that he 
 might add the hitherto unknown to the map of his ex 
 periences. 
 
 As the train whirled beyond the smoke and grime 
 and the miserable tenements of R street, away from 
 the monotonous prairie land, .into the brighter, tree- 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 185 
 
 decked acres of the park, and then into the populated 
 districts of the suburbs, his heart heaved with the 
 vigor of the patriotic traveler returning to his native 
 land. 
 
 Impatience seized the man, the train moved uncon 
 scionably slow, the numerous stops were an annoyance 
 too frequent. Now that he was nearer he felt farther 
 away than ever. His circling thoughts centered on 
 the countenances of his father and mother. What 
 had those few months done to them? He reproached 
 himself roundly for his neglect. He should have re 
 turned long before. Death could have but why 
 bankrupt happiness by borrowing trouble at such 
 usurious rates? 
 
 At last the train reached his destination. Blair dis 
 mounted, hurrying into the street and gazing around 
 as if he expected to find that all had changed during 
 his absence. The hubbub of the heavy trucks on the 
 stone pavements sounded strange and new, yet de- 
 liciously familiar, like the repetition of some once 
 loved song, long forgotten. He was in the midst of 
 the surging crowds, at home again and happy. He 
 had made his gain at a loss after all ; he had learned 
 the new life, forgotten the old. Trolley and cable 
 pulled past him, disturbing not his dream by the noise 
 of bells and the fret of iron wheels. 
 
 He paused ; should he go north directly to the home 
 stead or should he retrace his steps and make for his 
 father s business? Deciding the question he moved 
 westward. The elevated cars rumbled over his head 
 like the cranes in the mill ; he looked upward absently 
 half expecting to see the mammoth machines whirl 
 by with their loads of ingots. He turned into the 
 curving street, into the midst of the interminable lines 
 
!86 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 of commission and grocery houses, his way blocked 
 by the skids which ran from the trucks to the shipping 
 floors of the warehouses. He stepped over them, im 
 patient of delay. 
 
 Through the tangle of jutting signs one shone out 
 clear and emphatic " R. B. Carrhart, Wholesale 
 Groceries." 
 
 Blair stepped inside of the warehouse, piled high 
 and cluttered with boxes, barrels and sacks ; it was all 
 barrenly prosaic compared to the creative activity of 
 the roaring machinery of the mills. 
 
 One or two of the older clerks recognized Blair, 
 smiled pleasantly and moved forward to extend their 
 greeting. 
 
 " Been away on a journey? " they asked. 
 
 ;< Yes," he answered in a way that precluded farther 
 conversation on that topic. " Is my father down yet ? " 
 
 " No, but we expect him any minute." 
 
 Blair seated himself in the private office, separated 
 by a glass partition from the row of other offices and 
 the storerooms. He picked up the morning papers 
 and found the first columns devoted to a sensational 
 expose of " Marvin s Rigging Deal," and an extended 
 account of the trail of ruin that his tactics had left 
 behind. He was soon absorbed even to the forgetting 
 of where he was. 
 
 The light door swung ; Blair glanced up. It was 
 his father. The old man stood still for a second like 
 one pinioned by surprise; then he said softly and 
 quietly, his voice not raising a semiquaver, " Well, 
 Blair, Blair. How glad I am to see you." They 
 clasped hands, the old man drawing off his fawn-col 
 ored gloves leisurely, the merry, steady twinkle in 
 his eye alone divulging the depth of his feeling. 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 187 
 
 Carrhart senior opened his roll-top desk, removed 
 his silk hat, and, sitting down on the swivel-chair, lit 
 a black cigar in unruffled placidity. The clerk 
 brought in his mail. He ran through it, glancing at 
 the envelopes expertly. " I guess it can wait," he 
 smiled. 
 
 It was his way, smooth, dapper, polished, re 
 strained. The store might have been burning, ruin 
 facing him, and he would have sat there, his surface 
 quiescence unruffled. 
 
 Blair waited, eying him with infinite love, knowing 
 well the method of his procedure. 
 
 The father turned his swivel-chair towards his son, 
 and he touched the ends of his shapely fingers, bring 
 ing the tips under his chin. 
 
 " You look well, Blair ; you haven t grown any 
 thinner. But what in the wide world, boy, have you 
 been doing with your hands ? " 
 
 Blair shifted them uneasily, making for his pockets 
 with a jerk ; but he let them rest where they were, on 
 his knees, exposing their roughness, their ingrained 
 blackness, their bruises and scars, to the critical 
 glances of his fastidious sire. 
 
 " That comes from hard work." He blushed 
 slightly. 
 
 Carrhart the elder s deep black eyes twinkled like 
 sparks, merrily. He smiled imperceptibly ; none but 
 Blair, or, perhaps, his mother, would have noticed the 
 smile. 
 
 " Have you tired of it, Blair ? " 
 
 " No, not exactly. I like it on the whole. How 
 is every one? " he went on, inquiring after each mem 
 ber of the family individually. He had expected that 
 his father would volunteer the information. 
 
1 88 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " They re all very well. I am sure that you will 
 find them all quite as you left them. I see from the 
 newspapers that Marvin has stirred things up at the 
 mills a bit. They ve shut down, I learn. You didn t 
 come home on that account, Blair, I hope?" 
 
 " No, father," he answered warmly, " I ve been 
 waiting an opportunity for a long while." 
 
 A sudden wave of emotion overwhelmed Blair, 
 shook him like fright or nervous dread, bringing a 
 light veiled moisture to his eyes. He could have 
 arisen and thrown his arms around that thin, erect 
 aged frame, but he knew very well that such effusive 
 ness would have been distasteful. 
 
 The old man nodded gently, and Blair knew that his 
 explanation had been accepted as satisfactory. 
 
 " What do you think of Marvin s performance any 
 way ? " asked Blair. 
 
 tk It doesn t surprise me, Blair. He s an adven 
 turer, a born gambler. Accident and a peculiar com 
 bination of circumstances have lifted him from the 
 direction of gaming-tables to the head of an enormous 
 corporation. I never trusted the man too far, al 
 though we are friends in a distant sort of a way. I 
 meet him at the club every now and then." 
 
 Carrhart senior swung around on his chair and 
 commenced to open his mail, reading the letters 
 quickly and laying them before him in assorted piles. 
 He touched the electric button at the side of his desk 
 and gave his orders in the same quiet, effective man 
 ner in which he had talked to his son. 
 
 Blair arose. His father swung around quickly. 
 " What do you intend to do, Blair? " 
 
 " I see that you re busy, so I thought I d take a run 
 on towards home." 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 189 
 
 " Not much. Sit down and wait. We ll go out for 
 luncheon together." 
 
 Blair sat down again, watching his father, narrowly, 
 lovingly. His son thought that he had grown older 
 by years during those few months of his departure, 
 and when his face dropped into repose, he looked care 
 worn and troubled. 
 
 Clerks, purchasers, stockkeepers were rushing to 
 and fro outside of the office; inside was the steady 
 click-clack-click of the corps of typewriters. There 
 was every outward sign of a prosperous business and 
 one of weight in the commercial world. 
 
 The father went on with his mail, distributing it, 
 dictating letters, through the usual routine of the 
 man who is at the head of a large house. 
 
 He would turn to look at Blair in the interim of 
 occupation, the kindly light twinkling affectionately 
 in his eyes. Blair wandered through the ramifica 
 tions of the vast warehouse, renewing acquaint 
 anceship with some of the older employees, dawdling 
 his time away, yearning to return to the mills and his 
 duties there. 
 
 At half after eleven his father arose from his desk 
 and shut it with the remark, " I m ready now, Blair." 
 
 His son moved towards the door that led to the 
 street. 
 
 " Not that way ; I wish to show you something 
 first," and the father walked through the offices until 
 they reached the last compartment in the attenuated 
 row the last cell honeycombed in that busy hive. 
 The room was a counterpart of the father s office; the 
 same desk, carpeting and office furniture, all wearing 
 the air of newness. 
 
 " This is your office, Blair. It s been kept empty, 
 
190 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 waiting for you all the time. I need only to have B. 
 Carrhart painted on the door, and it s ready com 
 pletely." 
 
 "But I. don t wish it" the words arose softly to 
 Blair s lips, but he smothered them^ with a decisive 
 snap of his square jaws, as he gazed on the venerable 
 countenance that beamed down on him so longingly, 
 so lovingly, so hopefully. 
 
 IC It s settled then and I can go ahead with the sign, 
 Blair? At the same time, I don t mind telling you, 
 I intend to have & Son added to the sign over the 
 front door," and a happy smile broke through the cus 
 tomary self-restraint of this man so sternly reserved. 
 
 Blair thought a second, wondering how he could 
 drop that hope without smashing it into bits that 
 would rebound and cut the one from whom it had 
 been snatched. 
 
 He touched his father on the arm affectionately. 
 " We ll talk it over at luncheon, father." 
 
 " So it isn t settled," said the older man to himself, 
 a fleeting glance reflecting his twinge of disappoint 
 ment. 
 
 They passed out into the street together. 
 
 There goes the old tree and its fruit," remarked 
 Johnson, the bookkeeper, who had been with the 
 firm almost since its inception, to Carpenter the city- 
 salesman, who had started with him. 
 
 !< Yes," replied Carpenter, " and from all I can see 
 it s singular fruit for that fine old tree to bear." 
 
 Johnson nodded assentingly, running a practised 
 hand down interminable columns. 
 
 Carrhart moved southward through the street, lean 
 ing on Blair s strong arm, half dependency, half pa 
 ternally. The attitude was eloquent to the son, say- 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 
 
 191 
 
 ing: " I m getting old, Blair, the burden of my years 
 is pressing down on me heavily, help me bear it. You 
 are young, you are strong, you have no burden of 
 your own to carry." 
 
 The noon sunlight flooded the street, and the fresh 
 wintry air was suggestive, somehow, of unsmutched 
 country fields as it whiffed hurriedly through the 
 sordid atmosphere of the street, avaricious of profit. 
 
 The two Carrharts jogged leisurely through the 
 maddening throng, their bearing of leisure as out of 
 place in their environment as the suggestion itself of 
 hibernating country fields. 
 
 Often the elder smiled and bowed in acknowledg 
 ment of the nod of a business associate, and several 
 times on their journey to the restaurant, he stopped 
 to introduce an intimate friend to Blair. " My son, 
 Mr. So and So," he would say, and nothing more ; but 
 the manner in which the words were spoken carried 
 such pride of possessorship, such an evident glow of 
 paternal satisfaction, that the explanatory phrases of 
 " Isn t he a fine fellow ? Don t you like his looks ? 
 Wouldn t you like to have a son like him, now? " were 
 as audible as if they had been uttered. It all went 
 straight to Blair s heart. 
 
 They turned west and entered one of the large res 
 taurants, comparatively empty now by reason of the 
 early hour. They took a table at one side of the room, 
 the walls of which were decorated with German dog 
 gerel, two-lined, declaring the virtue of wine, wife and 
 song. 
 
 Conversation between father and son turned on 
 general topics, each skilfully avoiding the dangerous 
 border line of the all-important but rather unpleasant 
 subject. They grew silent after a while, the one 
 
192 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 thinking of how he might approach it most delicately, 
 the other of how he might escape it most adroitly ; 
 and so the question of Blair s future sat between them 
 like an intruder, forbidding frank intimacy. Yet they 
 were happy in each other s company, rejoicing, like 
 two lovers, in the privilege of being together. 
 
 It was only on the way back that his senior said 
 to Blair unexpectedly, with a quirk from the straight 
 line of their talk : 
 
 " Blair, I m getting old I suppose you noticed that 
 I m beginning to feel the weight of carrying the 
 business alone. I need help. I can t last forever, and 
 if anything happens to me, there ought to be some one 
 there to go on with the business, not for my sake but 
 for your younger brothers and your sisters and your 
 mother s." 
 
 The old man paused as if he would fain end his ap 
 peal and drop the whole matter did it not lie beyond 
 his power (it was merely the simmering heated waters 
 boiling upwards and over), and then he went on, fal- 
 teringly : 
 
 " It s going to be a hard year, next one, too, Blair; 
 I can feel it coming. The downward tendency of in 
 flated prices will commence soon and a panic isn t ex 
 actly against commerical precedent. I ve waded out 
 pretty deeply these last few years, the business has 
 grown faster than my capital, and if paper hangs 
 on the market like lead, I m apt to be pushed down. 
 You d better stay at home, Blair. I haven t said much 
 about it, because I thought it was only the question 
 of a month or two before you would get through scat 
 tering your crop of peculiar oats, they never were 
 wild oats, I often wish they had been, and come 
 home to settle down to legitimate business, as natur- 
 
HOMEWARD BOUND 193 
 
 ally as a homing pigeon gets back to the right course 
 after circling around a bit." 
 
 " I ll be home for a few days yet at any rate ; let me 
 think it over, father," answered Blair, gently but de 
 cidedly. 
 13 
 
XVIII 
 HOME, SWEET HOME 
 
 EASTWARD from the lake the strong Jan 
 uary sunshine drifted over the city, pour 
 ing round the old-fashioned mansion of the 
 Carrharts, gilding the double front of its marble 
 exterior, rolling gently between the pillars of its 
 portico that arched above the flight of stone steps, 
 whirling its beams into Blair s room on the third floor, 
 left vacant so long; flinging spangled gold among the 
 books ranged in shelves along the walls ; gathering to 
 play pranks on the strong features of the burly sleeper, 
 and painting, with tender touch, fine ellects of light 
 and shade on the face of the beneficent old lady who 
 sat like a guardian angel, watching with yearning, 
 brooding earnestness the countenance of her son. 
 
 Blair awoke. The crash of the pounding rails was 
 in his ears, and the smoke of the mills spread darkly 
 before him. He was ready, IT S thought moving au 
 tomatically down the grooves of habit, to assume the 
 besmutted garments and hasten to his station. He 
 smiled, lying supine in the full luxury of ease undis 
 turbed. He opened his eves. 
 
 " Mother, is that you ? " he asked. 
 
 She smiled affirmatively down upon !iim, her hand 
 moving caressingly through his thick shock of black- 
 hair. 
 
 194 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 195 
 
 " At your old tricks/ he laughed, twining his mus 
 cular arm protectingly around her waist, tapering, as 
 well outlined as a young girl s, " stealing into my room 
 to watch me wake. It seems good to be at home." 
 
 * It seems good to have you, Blair," and the wrinkles 
 of her cheeks smoothed away under the magic of her 
 maternal smile. 
 
 Where was love like it? Where had he found it 
 before ? Where would he find it again ? How trivial 
 the worth of all things whatsoever beside it! 
 
 " Oh, it seems good to be at home, here, with you," 
 he murmured, lightly, his chest heaving, his arms 
 spreading, with joy too strong to be contained. 
 
 They had talked until late the night before ; he had 
 fallen asleep with her arm around him, only to wake 
 in her arms again and hear her sweet voice. 
 
 They became as children together, the old mother 
 and the young son the old son and the young mother, 
 one might be tempted to say contradictorily at certain 
 moments and they whirled quick-flying time away 
 with laughter. 
 
 " If you could only content yourself to remain at 
 home with us, Blair." 
 
 " If I only could," he said, seriously, half sadly. 
 " Come, we are going over the same beaten track 
 again ; and we agreed not to, only last night, you 
 know. Events will decide that. I never did seem to 
 belong quite to myself; I always have been in the 
 control of outside forces I don t know what they 
 are ; call them any name vou please. Ah, but let them 
 go; let everything go. Let s just be happy, like chil 
 dren." 
 
 Her expressive face passed from its drooping sad 
 ness into a smile, evidently not without effort, not 
 
K/) BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 without having overridden torment and tears for her 
 strange, singularly gifted boy. 
 
 He laughed aloud, compelhngly, and her own mirth 
 was forced to follow. He had always molded her 
 to his stronger will. He had always gained his way, 
 always succeeded finally in winning her to believe that 
 what he wished to do was best to do, because it had 
 been foreordained that he should so do. 
 
 She believed, mother-like, in his wonderful career, 
 in the greatness he must attain, and willingly mother- 
 like also, she preferred to sacrifice herself to stand 
 ing in what he considered the road to achievement ; 
 but, nevertheless, she grieved to see his gifts and 
 powers wither, when they might so easily have 
 flowered ; fading away, when, if but transplanted to 
 favorable soil, they might so easily have blossomed. 
 
 The Carrhart family breakfasted together that 
 morning, the father, the mother, Blair s two younger 
 brothers, who were on the point of being graduated 
 from the high school, and his younger sisters, who 
 were just verging towards womanhood in a way de 
 lightful to the eye. None of these was like Blair in 
 the least, either in taste or character ; none of these 
 understood him or wasted much time in the trying. 
 They thought him a fantastic arrangement (wherein 
 perhaps they held right), with his odd ambitions and 
 his sentimental ideals ; and a hard-and-fast line was 
 drawn between them, which the one side, try as it 
 would, could never cross, and the other side, not try 
 ing at all, never passed beyond ; still they were fond 
 of their elder brother, when all was said and done, and 
 happy in their undemonstrative manner to have him 
 in their midst. 
 
 " 1 have a cane to lean on this morning, you per- 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 197 
 
 ceive ; a good stout one," said the husband to his wife 
 on leaving the house to walk to town with Blair. 
 Blair spent the morning in the store, his restlessness 
 increasing to pain as the regulator ticked sluggishly 
 towards noon, and, finding himself unable to sit there 
 longer, he made his escape, with an excuse that the old 
 gentleman may or may not have believed the chances 
 are that he didn t, age having made him skeptical. 
 Blair fairly ran towards home, with his seven-leagued 
 strides and the forward swing of his long arms. He 
 hoped that the inspiriting exercise would give sur 
 cease to the restlessness that was carrying his nerves 
 to the pitch of fever. 
 
 Nowhere was there rest for Blair ; not to act, to 
 sit with hands folded, suffocated his chafing energies, 
 as not to breathe starved his capacious lungs. The 
 oflice had wearied him more with every minute, 
 weighed down upon him, recalling to him, by the 
 fierce light of contrast, the machinery, the protean 
 energy of the mills, active, doing, like the roaring 
 loom of time. He had been absent but a day, and al 
 ready he was aching for his post on the " pulpit " as 
 a slightly disabled soldier yearns to rejoin his com 
 rades in battle. He would go back. He must go 
 back. He was drawn thither irresistibly. Duty in 
 sisted upon his return. He ate luncheon alone with 
 .his mother, glad that none intruded upon their in 
 timacy. It was a dialogue between filial and ma 
 ternal loves and hopes and fears ; and the two coun 
 tenances, lighting and darkening, visibly expressed 
 the feelings of genuine hearts. 
 
 After noon he was in his own room again, seeking 
 solace in the books that had been his companions for 
 so long, realizing, with a pang, that his pleasure in 
 
198 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 them had gone and that he was not in tune to receive 
 their ripe confidences, and his eye moved and ranged 
 down the long compact rows, 
 
 11 Sadly as some old medieval knight 
 Gazed at the arms he could no longer wield." 
 
 What had wrought the change? Had experience 
 in an adverse world made learning seem as ornaments 
 in a room unoccupied? He took down from the 
 shelves his thumb-marked, dog-eared Spanish copy 
 of Don Quixote, reading where his fingers chanced to 
 turn the pages. The irony of the moment brought 
 him to a halt before the valiant knight s mistaken 
 combat with the windmill. The book closed. He 
 fell to meditating darkly. Was that to be his des 
 tiny the pathos and the tragedy of a life burned 
 away in useless enterprise? Was his arm doubled 
 and his brain wearied in the attack of windmills, 
 transformed into world-enemies by the delusions of a 
 diseased imagination? 
 
 He replaced the book, pacing like a whip-driven 
 Orestes through the length and breadth of the room. 
 He could remain there no longer. He must on. He 
 must move. He must beguile his dissatisfaction with 
 the thought that he would find rest in the turbulence 
 of excited motion. 
 
 What was it that disturbed and harassed him so? 
 Was it because duty was playing truant to his mis 
 sion? After all and at bottom was it Martha? His 
 thoughts had dwelt on her that morning at the office. 
 Even in his walk homeward his mind could not free 
 itself from the insistent presence of her baffling coun 
 tenance. She was with him now, difficult, hard to 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 199 
 
 solve, elusive, rising through the depths of his dis 
 content and standing in bold relief on its surface. 
 
 Some are imprisoned in this world by gyves of 
 iron, locked on their struggling wrists ; others are en 
 slaved by threads of their own weaving the more 
 terrible bondage of the two since the victim is ever 
 tantalized by the weakness of his own strength. 
 
 As Blair was moving down the stairs, he looked 
 into the open doors of the parlor to see if his mother 
 were there, and in the old-fashioned French pier-glass, 
 he caught a reflection that brought him to a stop. 
 
 It was a petite, finely chiseled face, wistfully smil 
 ing, an aureole of auburn hair, partly broken by a 
 hat of black plumed with white bird-of-paradise 
 feathering a pretty, soothing vision to break thus 
 suddenly on a savage mood. 
 
 He stalked into the room, feeling, perhaps, the re 
 flection in the glass was but an illusion of his fancy 
 that would flee into the realm of indistinguishable 
 shadows at his approach. 
 
 " Van ! " he exclaimed, extending his hand for a 
 welcoming grasp. " I saw your face reflected in the 
 glass as I came down-stairs." His heart beat fast; he 
 thought his inward trembling was outwardly discern 
 ible. He was afraid of his own impalpable fears. 
 
 " Through a glass, darkly," smiled she demurely, 
 extending a white-gloved hand. Her blue eyes rested 
 on his, frankly, inquiringly, eagerly; Blair felt as if 
 they pierced the intercepting walls of his flesh to 
 read, as in an open book, what was written in his 
 heart. He held her hand as if it were delicate glass 
 that his grasp might crush. Her touch thrilled him; 
 it set the current of his blood to swifter flowing, and 
 stirred his memory to the recalling of a thousand as- 
 
200 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 sociations of the past. She had already arisen to go, 
 and Blair s mother was standing beside her, smiling 
 down upon them both. 
 
 The Marvins and the Carrharts had been neighbors 
 in the early days, and Evangel ine had never quite out 
 grown her affection for Blair s mother, although the 
 distance between the two homes was now a barrier to 
 the close intimacy that had existed of yore. She had 
 deferred a promised call for some time ; but the news 
 of the shut-down, with its attending possibility of find 
 ing Blair at home, brought the promise into immediate 
 execution. 
 
 Evangeline s arm slipped around Mrs. Marvin s 
 waist, and their lips kissed a good-by, while Blair 
 stood near, towering above them both. He would 
 have given the rest of his life, he thought then, to 
 have stood in his mother s place. Habituated to self- 
 analysis, to introspection as he was, there arose in him 
 then a half-mocking, half-rejoiceful sensation at the 
 discovery of Martha s comparative unimportance to 
 his abiding love. 
 
 " I was going out ; let me walk down to the carriage 
 with you," said Blair. 
 
 " If you are quite sure that it will not inconvenience 
 you," she answered, toying with the sable heads on 
 her muff. She assumed indifference, straining for it, 
 resolved to be mistress of herself this time and to hide 
 from him the one thing she wished him to know above 
 all the other things in the world. Indifference is a 
 good shield but a poor weapon, she learned after 
 wards. 
 
 Her tone stung him to the quick ; it was so unlike 
 her ; it was as if her voice and manner had changed 
 during his short absence. He could say nothing, giv- 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 201 
 
 ing his reply by walking with her towards the door. 
 She interpreted his silence for a mere polite compli 
 ance, and she was more determined than ever to fol 
 low out her decision. 
 
 Blair s mother, ensconced behind the Renaissance 
 lace curtains, watched them as they descended. She 
 had always hoped for that union, wished for it often, 
 prayed for it ever. She would have counted her life 
 well-lived, perfectly rounded out, could she but wit 
 ness the ceremony that made these two one. Noth 
 ing had saddened her mother-heart more, than when 
 Blair told her that his engagement with Evangeline 
 had been broken. Still she held tenaciously to the 
 belief that this was but a black cloud shifting over 
 the placid heaven of courtship, a petty obstruction 
 to break the smoothness of their betrothal and make 
 the course of their love run proverbially true ; and so 
 she watched them closely, taking this fortuitous meet 
 ing as the will of unavoidable fate. 
 
 " I must hurry," said Evangeline, " I have so many 
 calls to make." She twisted her sable collar into place, 
 beckoning to the coachman, who was driving slowly up 
 the street. 
 
 Her words, which cost her so much to speak, could 
 Blair have only known it, fell upon his glowing passion 
 with a chilling effect. He could not say what he 
 yearned to say, what his lips were burning to express, 
 and he moved down the walk to the carriage-block in 
 silence. 
 
 " I was going out for a long stroll, and I thought 
 perhaps that you would like to go with me rather I 
 thought how much I would like to have you go with 
 me," spoke Blair, as if by sudden inspiration. Alone 
 with her, in the quiet of the snow-covered park, that 
 
202 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 same feeling would come back to him which had 
 prompted his lips but a moment ago and which had 
 utterly deserted him now. 
 
 " The latter half of the sentence was turned better." 
 She smiled, a forced smile that covered the painful 
 look her face naturally would have expressed. 
 
 There was a strong impulse in him to grasp her by 
 the arm and say : " Oh, Van, you are not yourself ; you 
 are pretending, you are acting a part. Be honest 
 with me ; tell me what is really in your heart," and if 
 he had done so how quickly would she have confessed, 
 how weak would have been her shield before the attack 
 of a sword so well wielded ; but he could stand there, 
 only waiting for the carriage to drive up, trying to 
 grasp at some one thought of the thousands that were 
 swirling through his mind. 
 
 " Will you go? " he asked again, less warmly. 
 
 " I have so many calls to make, and I must really 
 hurry. If you were a \\oman, Blair, a fashionable 
 woman, you would know how important these calls 
 are," she said, with light irony, vexed at the seeming 
 lack of enthusiasm with which he pushed his request. 
 
 " I think I know what it means." His mind was 
 afar; he was conscious of repeating something, he 
 knew not what. 
 
 " I am glad you know, Blair, because that will plead 
 my excuse." 
 
 Surprised at the note of petulence which escaped 
 through her indifference, he looked at her search- 
 ingly ; her eyes were fastened on the waiting car 
 riage. 
 
 He opened the carriage door, but held it half ob 
 structed with a turn of his burly body. 
 
 " Do you really wish me to go ? " She would pun- 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 203 
 
 ish him now that the tables were turned, for his slight 
 ing conduct in the mills. 
 
 " Of course, I shouldn t ask you if I didn t. I have 
 a great deal to say." 
 
 Before the earnestness of that appeal and the old 
 warmth in his voice, she feared she must succumb, 
 but resolutely, almost cruelly, she grasped her slipping 
 determination. 
 
 " No, no, I must really make those calls." 
 
 " I m sorry that you won t go, Van, that you con 
 sider the calls of so much greater importance. It 
 isn t likely that we shall meet again in a long 
 while." 
 
 There was a dying fall in the pathetic music of his 
 voice that touched her deeply, that went throbbing 
 through her; but she could not speak the right word 
 then, even if it meant the eternal sealing of their loves, 
 even if afterwards she was to suffer untold punish 
 ment for its suppression. 
 
 " And if we did happen to meet," she said, flush 
 ing with righteous indignation, " you probably 
 wouldn t recognize me." 
 
 She did not give his startled look the chance to ex 
 press its surprise in an answer, but continued : 
 
 " There s a difference, Blair, between recognizing 
 and knowing. I found that out at the mills the last 
 time I was there." 
 
 Her small face grew wistful, her features were 
 shadowed by an expression of pain that eluded her 
 vigilance. The scene of her meeting with Blair in the 
 open-hearth swept across her vision, and for that mo 
 ment she endured all the agony that she had expe 
 rienced then. 
 
 " I said that I had a great deal to say, Van, and 
 
204 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 that s one of the things I wish to speak about most," 
 he said, sorrowfully. 
 
 It was difficult to speak freely there, in that con 
 strained position, with her evident hurry and an eaves 
 dropping coachman confronting him. If she would 
 only walk into the open spaces of the park ! 
 
 " Oh, it would be very interesting to hear your ex 
 planation, Blair ; it would be very ingenious, I am sure. 
 You were always so clever at explaining. I m so 
 dreadfully sorry about those calls ; if I had only 
 known that you would be at home I could have so 
 easily arranged things. But then you can call on me ; 
 it s your turn," she ended, as if these were the last 
 words of a conventional departure ; but her heart beat 
 fast, and she feared that by making her purpose too 
 apparent she betrayed it ; and yet, in the bewilder 
 ment of her emotional inconsistency, she was not with 
 out the hope that he penetrated her motives. 
 
 He shook his head emphatically, lugubriously. " I 
 can t come, Van." 
 
 "Why not?" she asked archly. "Are you going 
 to China as a missionary or to explore Africa? 
 Whither now? I never knew just what you were go 
 ing to do, Blair." 
 
 He looked as if he were about to speak, but he said 
 nothing. She waited in silence, then her arm moved, 
 as if involuntarily, towards the carriage door. Blair 
 turned the handle. 
 
 " Will those two ever get through talking non 
 sense?" thought impatient James on the box. 
 
 " I wonder if he will drive away with her," thought 
 the anxious gray-haired lady behind the curtains. 
 
 Evangeline stepped inside of the carriage grace 
 fully. " Good-by, Blair," she said, coldly, her eyes 
 
HOME, SWEET HOME 205 
 
 beaming with the love her voice choked. " I love 
 you; I love you," they said plainly enough; but Blair 
 heard only the tones of the voice and read not the 
 message of her tell-tale eyes. 
 
 " Good-by, Van," he answered, with a plea in his 
 farewell. 
 
 The carriage door slammed. The coachman 
 flicked the back of his bays with his whip, the horses 
 pranced away. 
 
 Evangeline s face drooped. She drew the white 
 glove from her right hand, and twisted it with fret 
 ting impulse. Her blue eyes were moist. " Oh, I 
 was too severe," she moaned. " I paid him back with 
 too heavy an interest. Oh, I know I did. He did not 
 understand ; he thought me in earnest. I wish I had 
 gone with him. Heaven knows what he will do next, 
 where he will go. We may never see each other 
 again." 
 
 Her small strong body trembled convulsively. She 
 burst into tears. 
 
XIX 
 
 BLAIR RETURNS 
 
 THE batteries of public opinion opened on 
 Henry Marvin ; the concentrated bombard 
 ment against one individual had never been 
 heavier, and its intensity was steadily increasing. Op 
 probrium varied in terms that ranged from financial 
 charlatan to an enemy of society, from a scoundrel to 
 a hater of his kind. There seemed no exception to 
 the chorus of denunciation. 
 
 As for Marvin himself he cared little, entering it 
 on his mental ledger to debit the credit of his now 
 fabulous fortune. In business all was fair ; he had 
 simply outgambled the gamblers. He was elated 
 by the shrewdest, most daring move that had ever 
 been played on the chess-board of finance. Thou 
 sands had lost, hundreds were irretrievably ruined ; 
 but modern commerce and modern war, to his way 
 of thinking, were the same ; the point was to win 
 your battle, slaughter and ruin were but steps to vic 
 tory. War was simply the science of killing, and if 
 there were no slaughter war would be no science a 
 mere innocuous game for children and fools to play. 
 
 On the evening of that same afternoon in which he 
 met Evangeline, Blair learned from the newspapers 
 that the hungry hordes at the mills were threatening 
 violence. There was an extended account of how the 
 
 206 
 
BLAIR RETURNS 207 
 
 most reckless had defied the police and hurled brick 
 and slag through the windows of the office. An in 
 offensive clerk had been waylaid on his return from 
 work and beaten. 
 
 The report appalled Blair ; even all thoughts of 
 Evangel ine, insistent though they were, had been 
 shocked out of his mind by the tidings that might 
 prove so injurious to his cause. Hot heads and bad 
 hearts might undo in a few days all the good he had 
 accomplished by his long arduous labor. The time was 
 decisive and critical. He must return or abandon his 
 high emprise forever there was no middle road. 
 
 Sleep was not for him that night; the mattress 
 seemed stuffed with needles, his pillow with pebbles. 
 It was a battle royal between home-ties and his yearn 
 ing love for the humble, oppressed people at the mills. 
 No thought of Martha vexed him now ; for, since his 
 meeting with Evangeline, he was certain that she was 
 not the magnet that drew his thoughts towards 
 Marvin. 
 
 He would back to his post, to the suffering and 
 wronged thousands who had chosen him with silent 
 vote for their captain. And yet others nearer and 
 dearer than they were calling upon him too ; father 
 and mother were beseeching him not to leave them 
 alone now that the night had come and the one could 
 not work, now that old age would soon come and find 
 the other helpless. 
 
 Was it for him cruelly to pull the arm away upon 
 which they leaned ? What though he gained the 
 world for others, and set his soul adrift from them? 
 What were world-ties when weighed in the balance 
 with the endearing ties of home? After all what was 
 this tourney in the lists of which he had entered as 
 
208 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 a militant knight? Was it not, perhaps, a snare that 
 fancy spread to entrap the quixotic imagination ? 
 Was it actual, was it there? If it was, if he was not 
 the dupe of his own duplicity, if labor and capital 
 were arrayed for decisive struggle, by what right had 
 he appointed himself a David to slay the Goliath ? His 
 stone might, it probably would, prove a pebble, his 
 slung-shot a twig, and the giant would crush him as 
 he had countless millions, between a thumb and a 
 finger. 
 
 No, no, and no again, he would stay. At home his 
 duty was defined and clear; effort could not be void 
 of accomplishment ; there, at the mills, it was vague, 
 passing into the bounds of the Utopian and the chi 
 merical. He was flying, like a fool of fortune, from 
 the good at hand to the evil of which he knew naught. 
 
 He recalled Heine s dictum, " Where one is born, 
 there one belongs," and he wondered if he would not 
 play his part best by confining his action to the stage 
 at home. Poles, Croatians, Hungarians, Lithuanians, 
 this horde swarming from realms afar had he the 
 right to desert kith and kin to lead them ? 
 
 The scene in the office of a day or two ago drove 
 home now with renewed force ; he saw his sire, worn 
 and dimmed by age ; he heard his quavering voice and 
 his words thrilled him, resurging in his heart, like 
 waves that had hurtled back to break forward, 
 " Blair, I m getting old I suppose you noticed it. I 
 need help. I can t last forever. Some one ought to 
 go on with the business if anything should happen to 
 me for the sake of your mother and sisters and 
 brothers." And his mother the idea of leaving her 
 made his thoughts turn dizzy and stagger. 
 
 Suddenly, in the stillness of that night, the ma- 
 
BLAIR RETURNS 209 
 
 chinery of the rail-mill roared its challenge ; it cried 
 him coward. It sneered with knowingness at his 
 malingering absence. The scarlet rails glided over 
 the rolls, the ingots breathed out their incarnadining 
 flame, bellowing as they were dragged and crushed 
 into shape; car and crane were moving back and 
 forth, the saws were tossing their shower of sparks 
 tumultuously up. Oh, he must back! His voice 
 should be heard in the direction of the march of this 
 moving, creating machinery. 
 
 To-day the men had been threatening to attack the 
 mills; already they had hurled missiles through the 
 windows of the offices. What might they not do on 
 the morrow? And if their threats were put into exe 
 cution? If Sophia Goldstein and her anarchic fol 
 lowers were once in command, should they gain the 
 upper hand and burst all bonds of control, the toilers 
 would serve as mere brands wherewith to light the 
 fires that were to destroy the world. The time was 
 opportune. What if she should uproot his work and 
 supplant the good he had done with the evil she wished 
 to do ! He recalled the woman s boast, " It s the last 
 day that counts, my friend." He would not slink 
 away, he would be there to meet her when that time 
 came. He would return. After all, envisage the 
 problem how he would, humanity was more than 
 home. 
 
 The dawn broke. Lake winds rustled outside, 
 shaking the snow from the creaking branches of the 
 elms. The daylight grew bolder and peeped into the 
 face of the darkness. The sun arose and saluted the 
 morning. Blair dressed. 
 
 Would it not be wiser to decamp from the house 
 before the servants were astir, let his parents surmise 
 4 
 
210 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the reason of his parting, and save them and himself 
 the pain of a formal farewell? He shook his head 
 sternly, angry at himself for harboring the thought 
 for an instant. 
 
 At breakfast Blair was quiet, even solemn. His 
 bearing for those few days prepared his parents for 
 his decision, and they were grieved rather than sur 
 prised when he announced his intentions. His 
 mother sobbed aloud at first, then she regained her 
 composure and said, " You know best, Blair." 
 
 " Well, Blair/ remarked the father, " I ve said all 
 I could on that score, and if you insist upon going we 
 can t keep you, only I hope it won t be for long," and 
 Carrhart senior tried to conceal his pain with a 
 smile, but the attempt was far from successful. 
 
 " I hope not," was all that Blair could answer. 
 
 Then came the leave-taking and Blair almost broke 
 down as his mother did and as his father was on the 
 point of doing, he felt so old and lonely and helpless 
 at his son s departure. Blair s heart was wrung and 
 he quite wished that he might change his resolution, 
 but that seemed beyond his power, so he stood there 
 pale and trembling, repeating, " I ll be back perhaps 
 before you expect it." 
 
 Blair s mother went with him to the door, clasping 
 him, fondling him as if her eyes were never to rest 
 on his beloved countenance again, and surely no son 
 ever went forth to any task whatsoever with maternal 
 blessing more fervent. 
 
 When Blair reached Marvin the mills had already 
 opened ; the unforeseen had entered into the situation 
 and made the president recede from the lofty pedestal 
 of indifference on which he had mounted. The enemy 
 had an allied cohort more invincible than any of the 
 
BLAIR RETURNS 211 
 
 forces Marvin had yet encountered. The stability 
 and the future of the North- Western mills were threat 
 ened. Brokers, stock-jobbers, investors, speculators, 
 were arrayed against " the unscrupulous juggler " of 
 the market. They threatened never to deal in the stocks 
 of the Company again unless its " piratical presi 
 dent " resigned. His explanation of the shut-down, 
 his plea of an over-production, were disregarded, not 
 even taken with a grain of salt. 
 
 The directors and officers of the Company were 
 aroused to the ominous gravity of the situation, de 
 claring (one or two of them in good faith) that the 
 " deal " was consummated without their cognizance. 
 The banks, which were heavy holders of the stock, 
 proclaimed their intention of joining forces with the 
 other dissatisfied stock-holders. 
 
 The business of the country was disturbed by the 
 disaster which filched gold from every nook and cor 
 ner of the land to pour it into Marvin s pockets. Iron 
 is the quicksilver in the barometer of trade; its rise 
 and fall register the changes of the commercial at 
 mosphere; merchants set their sails by its predictions. 
 Marvin s maneuver an artificial pressure of the 
 bulb brought the price of the metal down with an 
 almost unbelievable rapidity; commodities of all de 
 scriptions followed its course. The tendency of all 
 prices was downward. 
 
 A meeting of the directors was called; stormy and 
 recriminative, according to the papers ; and it was 
 made known, through the same sources, that the pres 
 ident s resignation had been demanded. The North- 
 Western mills opened as suddenly and with as little 
 warning as they had shut down. The restorative 
 news was telegraphed from East to West; public 
 
212 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 confidence a medium as necessary for exchange as 
 money itself regained a solid footing; the markets 
 steadied ; the prelusive squall passed without a storm. 
 
 Marvin retained his presidency. He had buttered 
 the bread of the more powerful directors, it was said, 
 and they were too discerning to kick over the churn 
 that made their butter. Whatever the agency of his 
 retention, he was still there, sphinx-like, inscrutable, 
 inflexible, merciless, the iron guardian of the fate and 
 future of the mills which his energies and abilities 
 had raised to such importance. 
 
 Angry, suspicious, mistrustful, the men returned. 
 They were fearful of they knew not what and the 
 feeling that they must rebel or be crushed, and that a 
 rebellion alone would save them from the crushing, 
 gained ground hourly. It needed but the word of a 
 commander and the revolt would begin. Old wounds 
 were opened and left smarting by this last administra 
 tion of injustice. The back of the patient camel was 
 laden to breaking if but one more straw were piled 
 thereon ! 
 
XX 
 
 THE MAN OF THE HOUR 
 
 FEBRUARY dwindled away slowly, marked 
 only, made important only, by the grim fact 
 that the Company rejected the scales, over 
 which there had been so many consultations and 
 squabbles with the committee from the local lodges. 
 Then came conferences after conferences, and bicker 
 ings, virulent and sharp, all sterile in results. There 
 was the threat of open hostilities, and finally the 
 Company agreed to prepare a scale of its own and 
 place it before the men for acceptance or rejec 
 tion. 
 
 So spring came. The hard winter, the freezing 
 winds, the severe cold were past. The thick sheeting 
 of ice melted away on the low flat prairie land and 
 inundated the tenements of the toilers, like an over 
 flowing river. The battle against the wintry air was 
 over, the battle against the floods of spring began. 
 The hundreds who were crippled with rheumatic 
 fevers and pains cursed the spring and regretted the 
 winter, which they had cursed with equal volubility 
 in its turn. 
 
 At the home of the Brodskis little Adam lay ill to 
 death, and Mary and Anna were confined to bed with 
 fever and chills. The bills for doctor and medicine 
 piled up, and Mrs. Brodski, dragging her squabby, 
 
 2I 3 
 
2i 4 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 rheumatic body through the water on the floors, 
 sobbed fretfully at each increase in the ruinous pile. 
 Thomas had taken Paul s place as water-boy, and he 
 was busily at work in the mills ; but his extra pit 
 tance was of little moment in the assuagement of the 
 added misery. 
 
 The real-estate office of the Company was besieged 
 by a host of clamoring Polish women in black shawls, 
 all beseeching instant repairs and immediate relief 
 against the steady flow of the inpouring water ; but 
 the Company held fast to its old stand that the im 
 provements be made at the expense of the tenant, and 
 a deaf ear was turned to all entreaties and mutters of 
 discontent. 
 
 Turned out of the offices, the women gathered on 
 the prairie and scathed the Company vehemently. 
 The men were cowards, they shrieked ; their hus 
 bands should be up in arms against such tyrannical 
 imposition ; they should demand their rights, and if 
 the demand were denied, they should end the out 
 rageous injustice by force and brawn, by a strike if 
 need be. And if a strike came could their depriva 
 tion be worse than it was ? It was merely a question 
 between a morsel of bread and no bread at all ; and 
 if the strike were but won how might all be changed 
 for the better. Ah, if they were only men! As to 
 Mr. Carrhart, the big American, and his promises, 
 they were tired of both. His were fine words, but 
 they produced nothing. Patience and order he coun 
 seled, but what came out of this patience and order? 
 Had they not been patient and orderly and long- 
 suffering enough? Once a belated rent-collector fell 
 into a savage group of disgruntled viragos and he 
 was forced to run for his life, with clothes torn and 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 215 
 
 body bleeding. It was an example for their hus 
 bands to follow, they said ; the men were altogether 
 too slow and meek. 
 
 But even the moan against the enforced repairs and 
 the exorbitant rents sank into insignificance beside the 
 panic-stricken fears of a universal reduction in 
 wages ; sank within it, one might say, as a pebble 
 sinks into a great pool and is lost in its depths. Rifer 
 and louder waxed the daily rumor that the Company 
 had lowered the basis on which the scales were com 
 puted. The last of April brought the publication of 
 the Company s figures and proved that rumor had 
 spoken true, not even with its customary exaggera 
 tion. Nay, the truth proclaimed one staggering 
 threat, at which the boldest rumor would not even 
 have had the courage to hint the Company declared 
 the last week in June as the latest date on which it 
 would treat with any committee from the Amalga 
 mated Association; after that time it would disregard 
 the unions entirely, and treat with the men as individ 
 uals only. 
 
 A howl of desperation and a cry for summary 
 vengeance greeted the ultimatum. So they must 
 either accept the Company s starvation wages or ac 
 cede to the obliteration of the unions. No, let it be 
 either starvation or the unions, never starvation with 
 out the unions ! 
 
 A word of explanation about the scales : wages 
 are based on the market price of Bessemer billets ; 
 they form the standard of wages. If billets go up, 
 up go wages ; if billets go down, wages travel in the 
 same direction. 
 
 The last scales issued by the Company reduced the 
 minimum figure, in vogue for the last four years, by 
 
2i 6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 three dollars a ton. The cut in wages, resulting 
 therefrom, would be enormous. 
 
 Moreover, finished steel products were unusually 
 high that year, billets were unusually low. The two 
 should go together like the bobbing of a cork with 
 the tugging of a fish. But the fishing tackle, it was 
 openly charged in the lodge meetings, had been jug 
 gled with. Marvin had influenced legislation at 
 Washington ; there was a high tariff on the finished 
 product of the infant industry and a disproportion 
 ately low tariff on the billets the infant of the in 
 dustry. The Company had a two-edged sword. 
 
 Hitherto either side gave the other warning in 
 January that a change in the scales was to be made 
 by agreement in June. Now the Company demanded 
 that this order be reversed ; henceforth the demand 
 was to be made in June, the differences were to be 
 settled in January. This put a shield behind the 
 sword. Winter and rough weather are deadly ene 
 mies to strikes. 
 
 Cold and Hunger are the citadel and cannon of 
 capital. The men would eagerly accept in the winter 
 what they would sneer at in the summer. This was 
 the one change which engendered the most bitterness 
 and aroused the greatest indignation. No matter 
 what the hazard, no matter how great the cost, it was 
 resolved that the shifting of dates should not be con 
 ceded. 
 
 Marvin, who had planned the campaign for the 
 Company, carried things with his own hand and a 
 high one. He relied on one mighty ally to carry his 
 demands the rolling-mills of the entire United 
 States. He was willing to bear the brunt of the bat 
 tle and allow the others to share equally in the fruits 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 217 
 
 of the victory, if they would come to his assistance. 
 The fruits were a temptation, and the other mills 
 were tempted. Everywhere pregnant statements 
 made first a cautious, then a bold, then a still bolder 
 appearance, asserting that the condition of the steel- 
 and-iron-market rendered the payment of the previous 
 year s wages impossible. Pennsylvania took the in 
 itiative with the manifesto of a reduction in wages 
 ranging from twenty to fifty per cent. The other 
 states followed, whipped into line by competition. 
 Marvin was confident of an easy victory. 
 
 And so the spring, full of significance, passed 
 slowly, and handed the irate gloomy toilers over to 
 the ravage of summer. Never, so it was declared on 
 all sides, was such a June known in Marvin. The 
 heat poured down into the mills from the blazing sun 
 and swirled upwards from the furnaces and the boil 
 ers, and the heavy clouds of smoke, hanging over the 
 yards, gave it no chance for escape, blanketing it in 
 between the scorching earth and the flaming air. 
 When the ingots, scarlet hot, rolled through the yards 
 on the flat-bottomed cars the yard hands the 
 " mules " of the mill protected their burning faces 
 with their hats and puffed for breath. 
 
 Men fell, overcome and prostrated, before the 
 hearths and the furnaces and the boiler-houses. The 
 hospital was crowded. Leverrnen in the rail-mill 
 grew dizzy, reeled and stretched out a nerveless hand 
 to grasp the framework and keep from falling; firsts 
 and seconds changed turns every twenty minutes. 
 With every variation of light and shifting breezes 
 from the lake and the prairie some spot in the vast 
 works became a hell, and others were given the 
 respite of a minute s relief. Men over the gas pits, 
 
2i 8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 men in the charging and pouring floors oi the cupola 
 and spiegel furnaces, fell to the ground in a faint, un 
 able to endure the storm of heat swept into their 
 faces and lungs. 
 
 The suppressed excitement wound the tension of 
 groaning nerves to the snapping point. Expectancy 
 quivered from man to man and from place to place, 
 from building to building, like the heat itself, in pal 
 pitating waves. Rumors, black and depressing, floated 
 through the mills heavily ; the men w r ent to their work 
 in the morning expecting to be apprised of a strike or 
 a lock-out before evening. The five thousand hands 
 stood trembling over an explosive mine, waiting with 
 bated breath for the decisive moment. The strike, 
 like the panic, has its psychology, the very fear of the 
 thing to come stirs men to bring about the perpetra 
 tion of the thing they fear. 
 
 An incident, which occurred at this time, proves the 
 last assertion. Winslow was removed from the 
 superintendency of the blast-furnaces at the south end 
 of the yards to those at the north. The man who was 
 placed in Winslow s old position was not nearly so 
 popular as his predecessor, and on one glowing hot 
 day when there was prostration after prostration, the 
 heaters charged the new boss with wilfully overheat 
 ing the furnaces, and they quit work in a body, with 
 out a second s warning to the authorities. The ex 
 tremity was horrible; the unattended furnaces might 
 explode any second. The gates were shut and the 
 malcontents were refused egress. The strikers were 
 cajoled and threatened, a hand-to-hand encounter be 
 tween the men and the guards seemed imminent ; 
 finally Winslow was reinstalled, and the heaters re 
 turned to the furnaces. 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 219 
 
 As the days rolled on Marvin was not so confident 
 that his victory would be easy. Over two months had 
 gone, and the men had not lifted the finger of willing 
 ness to show that they were ready either to accept his 
 figures or recede from their own. 
 
 He prepared for battle. He would not be caught 
 sleeping when the first shot was fired ; and he would 
 be in a commanding position to attack the enemy if 
 they opened hostilities, 
 
 Gangs of carpenters raised the height of the board 
 fences surrounding the mills. Barbed wire topped 
 the whole. Small round holes were cut at spaced in 
 tervals. High platforms were erected near the tallest 
 buildings. New faces appeared in the mills ; men 
 whose only function, it seemed, was to move from 
 point to poinL 
 
 All this had the air of preparation for a siege, of 
 a carefully planned movement on the eve of battle. 
 The men looked on, aggravated, vexed, sullen, 
 alarmed ; ready to drop their tools at a word of com 
 mand and inarch against these fortifications. The 
 fence, they cried, was a battlement; the loopholes, 
 places for gatling guns ; the raised platforms, sta 
 tions for sentries and search-lights ; and the strange 
 faces were those of detectives and spies, 
 
 Why were their leaders so slow? What did they 
 mean ? Why was not the alarm sounded ? the right to 
 resist given ? Were they to be taken like rats in a 
 trap r 
 
 Excitement waxed fever hot. The men gathered 
 around the pumps in the yard and talked in angry 
 whispers ; a stranger slouched towards them and they 
 disappeared, muttering terrible imprecations. They 
 counseled inside of the mills, in the intervals between 
 
220 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 work, louder and bolder, still with a degree of cir 
 cumspection, watching for the approach of the spies, 
 the loathsome " scab " watchmen. 
 
 At night they assembled around the fences, peeped 
 within through the holes, wondering if cannon were 
 not being placed in position. The moving of the 
 most trifling article in the mill after the blowing of the 
 six-o clock whistles was cause for the gravest fears. 
 
 Gatekeepers, watchmen, drove the men away with, 
 " Come, boys, move along," and they departed, to 
 meet farther off in the open prairie and listen to in 
 cendiary speeches from radical orators. In the homes, 
 on the porches, in the back-yards, at all hours of the 
 night and day, gesticulating groups huddled together 
 to discuss the situation. Firebrands were lit at the 
 hearthstones, as it were, and passed from hand to 
 hand. 
 
 In the rooms of the union lodges, Blair, Winslow 
 and the conservative ones did their utmost to hold a re 
 straining hand against the opening of the floodgates, 
 which the rabid ones (ever in the majority) strained to 
 fling apart that the raging waters might pour in and 
 deluge the mills. 
 
 Blair ran the risk of losing his popularity, of being 
 supplanted by a hotter and a weaker head, but his un 
 failing good humor, his calm logic, his unruffled elo 
 quence, his reputation, stemmed the insurrection 
 against his authority and put the ringleaders to shame. 
 
 Blair s constant plea was for caution and care. He 
 debated the advisability of letting the Company take 
 the initiative, if that initiative were wrong the men 
 would gain the sympathy of public opinion, the only 
 strong ally upon which they could count. Moreover, 
 until the twenty-fourth, when they were to hold the 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 221 
 
 final consultation with the Company, they had no moral 
 right to declare a strike. 
 
 Again the canny Winslow breathed a word of cau 
 tion at the decisive moment, " You ve said enough, 
 now, Carrhart ; keep still and let the others quarrel 
 among themselves, and when the time comes you ll be 
 on top." 
 
 The strike was an abhorrent thing to Blair ; it was 
 a mean reality that threatened to demolish his fine, 
 long-cherished dream. He fulminated against it at 
 the socialistic meetings, he strove to prove that the 
 use of force was incompatible with their doctrines, 
 that if the one flourished the other must die ; but his 
 oratory availed nothing, the men listened impatiently 
 and under protest. The strike promised quick re 
 sults ; and as the insufferable months had dragged on 
 they lost more and more faith in Blair s Cooperative 
 Commonwealth, between the realization of which and 
 the unendurable present whole years might elapse. 
 They had been patient and long-suffering enough, and 
 the fleshpots under their noses were far more tempt 
 ing than the milk and honey of the far-off promised 
 land. Numbers remained away from the meetings 
 that they might attend Sophia Goldstein s public dia 
 tribes, which they were finding more to their tastes 
 and the needs of the hour. 
 
 Meanwhile, looking probabilities squarely in the 
 face, Blair prepared for the worst, should the worst 
 come to the worst. He spent every spare moment in 
 studying, planning and figuring. He drew an accu 
 rate map of the mill and the surrounding country. 
 The Company s ground was made impregnable by 
 the lake, the slip of Steel river and the high board 
 fences. There was but one weak point where the 
 
222 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 car tracks cut through the yards and ran out to join 
 the main lines of the railroads. The Company would 
 undoubtedly protect that in due time. Blair made 
 financial estimates, counting up all that he could count 
 upon. 
 
 Correspondence, the new work, visits, meetings, toil 
 at the mills, began to tell on even Blair s gigantesque 
 mold, and the flesh that clung to his bones grew 
 thinner and thinner ; and, added thereto, the stress and 
 worry, induced by his unusual responsibilities, fretted 
 his tranquillity of spirits. 
 
 One day in the middle of June was important in the 
 calendar of the trouble. Representatives from the 
 Amalgamated Association from the entire United 
 States convened at Chicago to consider measures 
 against the evils which threatened the steel-and-iron 
 workers. 
 
 Marvin was far-sighted and wise enough to know 
 that if the manufacturers united to defeat the work- 
 ingmen, that the workingmen would join forces to 
 battle against the manufacturers ; but he rested un 
 disturbed in his conviction that capital would present 
 the stronger union of the two. He expected this con 
 vention of the Association ; unconcerned, he awaited 
 its results. 
 
 The Amalgamated Association at once made com 
 mon cause with their fellows of the North-Western 
 Company. They would stand or fall together. The 
 delegates from the Company submitted their scales to 
 the convention and they received the abetment of the 
 Association to insist upon the old minimum rate as 
 the basis for wages. Moreover, the Association gave 
 the local lodges of Marvin the option of declaring a 
 strike and bound itself to give financial assistance. 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 223 
 
 The unusual amount of business, the consideration 
 of various wage scales from different sections of the 
 country, local difficulties with a thousand and one 
 manufacturers, protracted the meeting of the Associa 
 tion to an undue length, provoking it often to a storm - 
 scene, an unruly mob, with the chairman struggling to 
 maintain order and make his voice heard. 
 
 When the convention finished the general wage scale 
 for iron-and-steel mills, and presented it to the manu 
 facturers, the latter rejected it and sent back a scale 
 of their own. The war waged bitterly and stub 
 bornly; no agreement, no compromise, seemed pos 
 sible. The country was on the eve of a general 
 strike. 
 
 At the North- Western mills, the work went on day 
 and night, Sunday and week-days, as busily as ever, 
 excitement ever flamed to the point of turbulence, 
 and the agonizing heat and the brutalizing labor 
 poured no cooling water on burning temperaments. 
 
 The leaders foresaw that an outlet must be found 
 for this seething anger or it might burst its bounds 
 and explode before its force could be utilized and di 
 rected towards a useful end. 
 
 The local lodges called a meeting at the " Star 
 Opera House " at Marvin. The place was packed, 
 aisles, seats, stairways not an available inch was left 
 for the belated. Many delegates to the national con 
 vention came from Chicago to attend the local meet 
 ing, and a preponderant percentage from the mills 
 was there. Blair was appointed chairman. 
 
 "Mind now," cautioned Winslow, "no speaking; 
 your time hasn t come yet." 
 
 For once Blair let his friend s advice pass un 
 heeded; he had an idea of his own on that score to- 
 
224 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 night. His mind had been busy even beyond prece 
 dent for the last few days. He would speak and he 
 was certain that the audience would listen. They 
 must listen, that s all there is about it," he had said to 
 himself. 
 
 The first speakers, although pleading with the 
 leaders to adhere to their position firmly and tena 
 ciously, counseled law and order. The listeners 
 growled and scowled ; dark foreign faces loomed up 
 savagely in the large auditorium. They were disap 
 pointed, it was all too church-like, too solemn. They 
 were not seeking that kind of advice. Pent-up feel 
 ings demanded an inspiriting address that would 
 awaken their lungs to cry off the wrath thai was eat 
 ing their hearts. They grew restless, there was a 
 moving about, a turning around, a stamping of feet, 
 an open muttering, sporadic curses. 
 
 The next speakers warmed up to the demand of 
 the moment, carefully at first, then with less restraint. 
 They denounced capital and its methods, spoke of the 
 long slavery of labor, hinted at a day of reckoning. 
 This pleased the auditors better and they cheered 
 faintly. It was not exactly what they wished, but 
 gradually their desire was being approached. 
 
 The moment had come for Blair ; a few minutes 
 ago it would have been too early, a minute after 
 wards it would be too late. More radical speeches 
 would make his less effective, and the audience was 
 just at that heat where a little fanning would make 
 flame. 
 
 Blair surrendered his gavel to Ben Judson. The 
 multitude in the hall cheered lustily the moment it 
 discovered that Blair would make an address. He 
 was the general favorite of the mill and they expected 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 225 
 
 great things. Their cheers were a warning as well 
 as a welcome. 
 
 Blair had his audience, like his voice, under per 
 fect control, carrying it where he listed. Earnestness 
 and conviction shot from the man and radiated 
 through the hall. He was not speaking to an as 
 sembly but to so many individuals. Each felt as if 
 he were addressed separately. Every man knew the 
 speaker and loved him. 
 
 First of all Blair dwelt on the gravity of the issue ; 
 of the tremendous interests involved, the great for 
 tunes, the multitudes of workers. He lifted the af 
 fair, with one jerk, as it were, out of its local setting 
 and placed it in the vast frame formed by the bound 
 aries of the Union. Then he spoke of the impor 
 tance of the worker as a voter, of his numerical su 
 premacy ; as the workingman cast his ballot, the elec 
 tion went. He pointed out the suggestiveness of the 
 fact that while they were holding their meeting, the 
 national Democratic and Republican conventions were 
 in session. 
 
 He hastened on to a swift review of the tariff bill, 
 so lately enacted. Had it conserved or defrauded 
 their interests? Did the Republican tariff bill benefit 
 labor as it had promised or did it subsidize capital 
 dishonestly? He gave a few figures just a few- 
 enough, however, to make it clear that the standard of 
 their wages steel billets had not the proportionate 
 protection meted out to the finished products of the 
 mill. He made it incisively clear that the Company 
 controlled the billet market, and since wages were 
 based on the price of billets, it was in the power of cap 
 ital, abetted by governmental aid, to place wages where 
 it chose. 
 15 
 
226 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Four years ago," he declared jn his peroration, 
 " they had voted the Republican ticket. They had 
 been promised higher wages by a high protection, 
 and they were given higher fences instead, protected 
 by barbed wire. Loopholes for the cannon mouths 
 were protecting capital to resist the just demands of 
 honest labor. 
 
 " For whom should they vote now ? " he was about 
 to conclude, but his conclusion was drowned by the 
 clamor, the shouts, the cries of the aroused audience. 
 His last sentence was unnecessary, their demeanor 
 proved it superfluous. Blair s reference to " high 
 fences " and " loopholes " won the minute. When the 
 confusing din died away, there was loud and pro 
 longed applause. 
 
 Blair settled back in his chair, little moved or grati 
 fied, not even concerned by the enthusiasm. He was 
 sure in advance of the pulse of his audience, he was 
 busy now in forecasting the temper of the nation. He 
 was not to be disappointed there, either. Even now 
 his speech was crossing the country on hot wires. 
 Countless newspapers would publish it on the mor 
 row. The day thereafter ringing and flamboyant edi 
 torials would denounce or support it, according as 
 they were Republican or Democratic, free trade or 
 protective. And before five days were over, the 
 shrewd leaders of the Democratic party nailed down 
 the strongest plank in their platform, characterizing 
 the Republican tariff as a fraudulent failure and 
 pointing to the reduced wages of the steel-and-iron 
 workers as a proof of the assertion. 
 
 The Republican leaders in their convention were 
 awakened to the stern necessity of meeting the charge. 
 The economical situation, the probability of innumer- 
 
THE MAN OF THE HOUR 227 
 
 able strikes throughout the country, threatened to start 
 a landslide in the wrong direction. They took 
 mighty measures to turn it whither they wished it to 
 
 go- 
 Merrily the war in the newspapers went on. The 
 
 one side denounced " iron and pampered barons ; the 
 shamefaced robbers of honest labor; the cankers that 
 were insidiously gnawing into the marrow of the 
 bone of the commonwealth," and the like; while the 
 other side strenuously maintained that the tariff was 
 inconsequent in the discussion of the steel-and-iron 
 wage scale and that the depression in wages was due 
 to causes other than the tariff. 
 
 Great political pressure was brought to bear on 
 Marvin either to leave wages where they were or else 
 to hold the entire question in abeyance until the election 
 was settled in November. But Marvin remained firm ; 
 he would not budge one inch ; to use his own expres 
 sion, " I will not recede from my position, till the lake 
 freezes over in July." 
 
 Politicians with business as an avocation and busi 
 ness men with political aspirations, every imaginable 
 influence was set in motion to move the rolling-mill 
 employers throughout the Union to come to the as 
 sistance of the Republican party at this critical junc 
 ture. Gradually they came ; one by one they ceded to 
 the terms of the Amalgamated Association (still in 
 session in Chicago), and they sent in scales that met 
 the demands of the labor convention. 
 
 Thus Marvin stood alone. Blair had proved the 
 superior general; he had the unbroken forces of the 
 Association for an ally, Marvin was left to fight the 
 battle single-handed. 
 
 On the eve of its delivery, the brightest of Blair s 
 
228 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 auditors understood that his speech was meant to 
 carry beyond the walls of the building in which it was 
 delivered; the stupid, who were in the majority, dis 
 covered it on the morrow. All knew now. To the 
 foreigners, who had the thing interpreted to them and 
 exaggerated in the interpretation, ?>lair became a 
 worker of miracles a common laborer who was able 
 by his word to influence the most potent in the land ; 
 a mysterious but good agent acting in a mysterious 
 but good manner in their behalf. 
 
 They were ready, one and all, to follow Blair into 
 the jaws of the cannon s mouth. 
 
XXI 
 
 PENTON S AMUSEMENT 
 
 IN one of these fateful June evenings Penton 
 Marvin, dressed in his usual flaunting array 
 of colors, drove a light buggy within a stone s 
 throw of the Judson house and waited there. As the 
 minutes dragged on and nine o clock drew excitingly 
 near, Penton ceased his discordant whistling and 
 snapped his whip impatiently over the horse, pulling 
 the poor beast back with an ugly tug whenever it 
 obeyed his behest and started forward. 
 
 Mabel Judson came down the street and made 
 straight for the buggy, evidently expecting to find the 
 vehicle just where it stood. She saw Penton s smug 
 face; her broad smile vanished and she looked puz 
 zled. 
 
 Penton lifted his hat with a grin. " Sorry, Miss 
 Judson, but Ham couldn t come and he asked me to 
 take his place. Didn t want to disappoint you, you 
 know." 
 
 Mabel jumped in the buggy jauntily. The drive 
 was the main consideration ; she cared not particularly 
 whether it was Penton or Hamilton; both were 
 equally dull. 
 
 " I can t tell you from your brother half the time 
 at the first glance, only your eyes are a trifle larger 
 and your nose just the least bit smaller." 
 
 229 
 
230 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Penton laughed. That s a good one on Ham. I 
 am better looking now, ain t I ? " 
 
 " Oh, considerable." 
 
 " Thanks. You re all right." 
 
 Mabel giggled. She thought Penton a perfect fool, 
 and she gulled him to the top of his bent. They drove 
 off towards the lake shore. 
 
 * You know," remarked Mabel, seizing upon the 
 nearest thing at hand for a topic of conversa 
 tion, " that s a very pretty shirt you have on." It 
 was a brilliant red with black fleur-de-lis orna 
 ments. 
 
 " I flatter myself it is. I ve got eighteen shirts. 
 But I like this one best." 
 
 " How interesting!" she ejaculated. "You ought 
 to buy three more and make it twenty-one and then 
 you would have three for each day." 
 
 " That s a fact. I didn t think of that." 
 
 " Or, if you don t want to do that, you could give 
 four away and then you would have just two for each 
 day." 
 
 " No, I don t like that idea so much as the other ; 
 I d rather buy three more. Only how s a fellow going 
 to get home and change em ? " 
 
 " Yes, that s true. I didn t think of it ; but that s 
 an argument in favor of the other idea ; if you can t 
 use what you have, you had better give four away, 
 instead of buying three more." 
 
 Penton reflected a second. "How s that? I m a 
 little bit mixed." 
 
 Struggling to repress her laughter, Mabel repeated 
 her last remark. 
 
 " I see. Very clever." He was silent a second. 
 " Ham s only got sixteen." 
 
PENTON S AMUSEMENT 231 
 
 " Well, give him one of yours and then you ll both 
 have seventeen." 
 
 " Not much, 1 don t. He wouldn t give me one." 
 
 " You mustn t be selfish." 
 
 " Come now, don t preach. I get enough of that at 
 home. My sister Van never lets up ; she ought to 
 be a minister s wife. That girl drives me out of the 
 house." 
 
 " I saw her at the office once or twice, and I think 
 she must be nice. She s very pretty," said Mabel, 
 glad that a turn in the talk rescued her from an out 
 burst of laughter. 
 
 " Pretty ! " guffawed Penton, " do you call her 
 pretty with that sorrel mattress she carries around? 
 I think you re twice as good looking." 
 
 " But," grinned Mabel, " you just said that she 
 isn t pretty at all." 
 
 " Come now," pleaded Penton, drawing closer, 
 " don t mix a fellow up." 
 
 " Please, you re pushing me off the seat. I m quite 
 uncomfortable." 
 
 " Pardon," grunted he, moving back unwillingly. 
 " Can t make much headway with her," he growled to 
 himself, " she s too damn particular. I wish I d let 
 Ham have her after all. He s always bragging what 
 he can do." 
 
 Mabel sat quiet, leaning back luxuriously, happy to 
 be relieved of the strain of entertaining such an ab 
 surdly stupid companion, glad to enjoy the pleasant 
 road and the quick trot of the horse, without inter 
 ruption. 
 
 Nothing was perfect in this world, mused Mabel : 
 if one had a really clever young man, one was obliged 
 to walk. Clever young men had the decided objec- 
 
232 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 tion of being poor, and Mabel nourished no senti 
 mental ideas about poverty. She could see no ro 
 mance in pounding the keys of a typewriter eight 
 weary hours a day, at an almost nominal wage per 
 week. 
 
 She was not fated to enjoy her reverie overly long. 
 Penton was under the impression that if he didn t 
 talk and continue talking Mabel might consider him 
 dull. 
 
 " I say," he broke in, " it must be hard work type 
 writing all day. It must be terrible to spell so many 
 words correctly." 
 
 " Not a bit harder than it would be to spell them in 
 correctly." 
 
 " You don t say ! I should think it would be." He 
 considered her very difficult, wondering why she did 
 not prove susceptible to his subtle flattery. Surely 
 he had tried hard enough. Silence again ; the lulling 
 sound of multitudinous crickets chirping in the fields. 
 Mabel returned to her reverie. 
 
 Penton cudgeled his \veak brains sorely ; five min 
 utes had passed without a word ; his reputation for 
 intelligence was in danger. He fished desperately, 
 and finally, as luck would have it, he pulled up the 
 phrase he had heard La Vette use at the cotillon. 
 
 " You know," he said, " I ve often thought that 
 what is worst in a bad woman often appeals to- the 
 best man, and what is best in a good man often ap 
 peals to the worst woman." 
 
 Mabel, starting, questioned the veracity of her hear 
 ing. " Where in the wide world," ejaculated she, 
 "did you read that?" 
 
 " Didn t read it," he blustered. " A fellow never 
 gets any credit for being original in this world." He 
 
PENTON S AMUSEMENT 233 
 
 assumed a righteousness-outraged air and forced his 
 stolid, stupid countenance to look more stolid and 
 stupid still. 
 
 " You mustn t take me so seriously," soothed 
 Mabel. " I didn t mean anything." 
 
 It was the first word that approached anything like 
 sympathy, and Penton, resolving to take advantage of 
 the moment, nerved himself for it, and slid his arm 
 around the girl s buxom waist. 
 
 She pulled it away in a jiffy. " You must not do 
 that; I cannot allow that," she said firmly. 
 
 Penton sulked; the rest of the drive was ruined for 
 him. The whole world somehow conspired to de 
 ceive him ; his just dues were always withheld and 
 given to others less worthy. 
 
 Only a few minutes after Mabel and Penton s de 
 parture, Hamilton drove up to the trysting-place in 
 his buggy. He whistled and waited, eying his watch 
 whilst his horse cooled its heels. He grew anxious as 
 the minutes sped and Mabel put in no appearance. He 
 fell to cursing angrily, venting his spleen equally on 
 himself and Mabel and the horse. Finally the light 
 dawned within him. 
 
 " I was an ass to have told Penton anything about 
 it. That fellow can t stay straight. He s been up to 
 some of his underhanded tricks I ll bet." 
 
 He drove the buggy back to the livery stable, af 
 fecting nonchalance at the grins of the hostlers, who 
 were aware of the reason for his swift return. 
 
XXII 
 THE RING 
 
 WHEN Mabel went out for her drive with Pen- 
 ton Marvin, she had stolen out of the parlor 
 in which Blair and the family were sitting in 
 comfortable converse. The girl had acquired a pretty 
 trick of evading notice and slipping away ; and, as she 
 usually returned at a seasonable hour and evidently 
 none the worse for an innocent escapade, little was 
 said. 
 
 Judson was in his corner reading, for possibly the 
 thousandth time, a life and the speeches of Abraham 
 Lincoln, not disturbed in the least by the pranks of 
 the children ; the little girls, tired out, lay nestled in 
 their mother s lap, fast asleep. Ben Judson and 
 Blair were arguing. Martha sat in quiet, her chin 
 bent low, her strong white hands folded in her lap. 
 
 " Why don t you put that old book away, pa Jud 
 son," scolded the mother. " We never can get a word 
 out of you when you have that in your hand. I ve 
 a mind to burn the old thing." 
 
 Judson, glancing up, removed his clerical glasses 
 and rubbed the halfmoons with his handkerchief. 
 
 " Well," he soliloquized, turning towards Blair, " I 
 love every word that man Abraham Lincoln ever said. 
 He had such a heap of common sense. I often wish 
 he d come back here for a week or two, just to tell 
 us what he thought of the way things are running 
 now." 
 
 234 
 
THE RING 235 
 
 The old inventor leaned back in his chair and filled 
 his pipe from the rubber pouch a signal that he was 
 ready to give what he was so fond of terming " his 
 opinion about things." Blair had heard him say a 
 score of times, " I m willing to give my opinion on 
 anything; I may be wrong nine times out of ten, but 
 the satisfaction of the tenth time makes up for the 
 other nine. Besides, the other nine show me that one 
 of the privileges of the American citizen is still left." 
 
 " Yes," mused Blair absently, thinking of his ar 
 gument with Ben rather than Judson s assertion, 
 " Lincoln was a rare man ; I doubt if this world will 
 ever see his like again." 
 
 " It isn t probable," expiated Judson, puffing at his 
 pipe; "his like only comes once in history, just to 
 prove what the Lord can make out of a man when 
 His mind is set on it. 
 
 " Pa Judson ! " exclaimed his wife, admonishingly. 
 She was an exceedingly religious woman, and what 
 she considered her husband s sacrilege tormented her. 
 
 " The trouble is," Judson went on, unmindful of his 
 wife s correction (he never heeded her on that score), 
 " that every father thinks his boy is going to turn out 
 an Abraham Lincoln or a blamed fool. Now I don t 
 think because I started Ben here to splitting rails for 
 kindling that he s going to end up in the White 
 House." 
 
 No one seemed willing to dispute his reflection ; 
 even Ben smiled good-naturedly ; and, rather disap 
 pointed that he had not been gainsaid, Judson re 
 placed his glasses and went on reading. He loved 
 an argument; he liked a dinner, as Martha phrased 
 it, grammatically and truthfully. 
 
 The clock droned away in the dining-room, mark- 
 
236 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ing the uneventful flight of placid minutes. Judson 
 was intent on his reading. Ben and Blair resumed 
 their conversation. Martha glanced at Blair now and 
 then as if she had something to say for his ear alone 
 and as if she would wait until all other ears were out 
 of hearing. Martha generally wore the air of one 
 biding one s time, calm, statue-like. 
 
 Mrs. Judson left the room with the children. She 
 schemed to leave Martha and Blair alone, angry at 
 her husband and Ben for not taking the hint. She 
 hoped Martha would fancy Blair ; but she was obliged 
 to nourish that hope in secret ; for her husband merely 
 shrugged his shoulders when the question of Mar 
 tha s matrimony arose ; and that young lady had a 
 fashion of retorting with a cutting tongue when her 
 mother broached her favorite topic of a good catch. 
 
 Winslow called, dropping in like one of the family. 
 Martha greeted him indifFerently, without the faint 
 est smile of welcome. The newcomer sat beside her, 
 and Blair watched the couple narrowly. Martha re 
 mained quiet, apparently neither bored nor inter 
 ested in what the doughty Englishman was uttering 
 so warmly, as if her chief concern lay far beyond the 
 subject of his words. 
 
 Blair s heart ached sympathetically as he saw the 
 crestfallen expression on his old friend s honest face. 
 Had his appearance in the house lessened Winslow s 
 chances with the woman to whom he was so seriously 
 and passionately attached? For Winslow s sake 
 should he have quit the Judsons long ago? Had he 
 consciously and purposely done aught to win Mar 
 tha s affection? Had vanity prompted him to steal 
 what Winslow justly claimed? Blair s fascination for 
 Martha had undergone a singular and swift transfer- 
 
THE RING 237 
 
 mation since his last meeting with Evangeline, while 
 Blair, on the other hand, grew more and more en 
 deared to Martha as his affections for her waned and 
 shriveled. Martha s cold nature was a singular con 
 tradiction in itself ; it thawed from indifference and 
 froze from warmth. Depressed, sadly contrite, with 
 an accusing conscience, Blair studied Martha s im 
 mobile countenance. 
 
 Winslow twiddled his Masonic watch-charm nerv 
 ously, his face evincing his poignant emotions, ill- 
 disguised, and suddenly as if ashamed that the others 
 were witnessing his confusion and as if wishing to 
 divert their attention, and his own as well, he spoke 
 up suddenly: 
 
 " Well, Carrhart, to-morrow is the day we beard 
 the lion in his den." 
 
 Blair nodded. 
 
 " That s so," said Judson, with a start, as if his 
 slumbering memory had been jarred, " to-morrow is 
 the eighteenth the last day you fellows have to ac 
 cept the Company s terms, eh? Well, I suppose you 
 have primed yourselves to meet Henry Marvin in the 
 morning." 
 
 " Just so," said Ben, pounding his left palm with 
 his clenched right fist. 
 
 Judson smiled. " That s the way it is with Ben ; 
 mention Marvin s name and off he goes at a tangent." 
 
 " I can tell you right here," put in Winslow, " we re 
 not going to accept the Company s terms ; if Marvin 
 doesn t act within reason there s going to be some fun 
 to-morrow." 
 
 Ben Judson frowned and muttered ; his narrow 
 forehead seemed to creep under his low-running black 
 hair. 
 
2 3 8 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Judson shook his head disapprovingly. " It was a 
 mistake to have put Ben on your committee, he s too 
 hot-headed; he ll want to jump at Marvin s throat as 
 soon as you get in the room." 
 
 " That s what I d like to do, the old -" thundered 
 Ben. 
 
 " I know," went on the father, " but you re begin 
 ning at the wrong end, you ought to do everything in 
 your power to avoid a rupture, not to bring one 
 about." 
 
 " Carrhart, here, is the spokesman of the commit 
 tee," remarked Winslow, as if that fact were a suffi 
 cient guarantee that all objectionable features would be 
 eliminated. 
 
 " Well, boys," cautioned Judson, " go slow what 
 ever you do ; give in all you can, and take all you can 
 stand." 
 
 " We ve been doing that long enough," interrupted 
 Ben ; " it s about time the other end was doing their 
 share of that business." 
 
 Disregarding Ben s interjection, Judson contin 
 ued: "I wish I could make you chaps realize what 
 I ve been through in the line of strikes, and maybe 
 you d run away from them as quick as you d drop the 
 red-hot end of a poker." 
 
 " I know," nodded Winslow ; " I ve been through 
 one right here in Marvin." 
 
 " But that was a game of croquet beside what this 
 one is going to be," warned Judson. " Old Marvin has 
 made up his mind, firm as a rock, and you fellows are 
 stubborn as mules, and if a fight starts it will last un 
 til one side gets licked or the other gets starved, and 
 I know which it will be. Go slow, boys, for God s 
 sake, go slow. I ve caught a stray word here and 
 
THE RING 239 
 
 there, and if a strike comes it will be one of the worst 
 calamities that has ever visited this country. You 
 may think the old man is exaggerating, but I m afraid 
 you ll find out too late that he s right." 
 
 " It can t be any worse than it is now, no matter 
 what comes," growled Ben. 
 
 "Yes it can, sonny; don t fool yourself there; it 
 can be a heap worse and you can take my word for it 
 that it will be. You fellows will fight like Turks and 
 starve like dogs for six months and then go back to 
 work at the Company s own terms ; that s just how 
 the thing will end. I ve lived through strikes enough 
 to speak from experience." 
 
 " It can t be any worse," repeated Ben. " They ve 
 ground half of us down to the bone, and they re 
 starving the other half now." 
 
 " Well, I ve had my say," smiled Judson, " and I 
 can t do any more. Disregard the advice of old age 
 and suffer the repentance of youth." 
 
 Blair, who had maintained a strict silence, suddenly 
 broke in : " Look here, Mr. Judson, you re taking 
 hold of this question at the wrong end. We are going 
 to do all in our power to avoid a strike, and you ll 
 bear me out when I say that we have been doing just 
 that right along. If a strike does result it will be be 
 cause we couldn t avoid it, not because we wished it. 
 A strike is not our aim and end ; it s only the means to 
 our end." 
 
 " An end you ll never reach," posited Judson. 
 
 Heedless of the interruption, Blair went on, plead 
 ing passionately, his voice swelling as he presented the 
 men s side of the issue, as if Judson were a listening 
 world. " I hate strikes as well as you do," he ended, 
 with a glow of eloquence. " I quite agree with you 
 
240 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 that strikes are hell, a relic of barbarism, of man s 
 hatred against his fellow. I look forward to a no 
 distant day when strikes will be an impossibility. 
 When the Cooperative Commonwealth becomes a 
 present form of government, strikes will become past 
 history. In every state there will be an obligatory 
 board of arbitration, and over all the state boards 
 there will be the National Department of Labor, 
 standing in relation to the state boards as the United 
 States Supreme Court to the judiciary of the land." 
 
 Blair could never hear his favorite theme without 
 plunging into it, and almost before he was aware of 
 it himself, he had begun to outline the Cooperative 
 Commonwealth. He arose from his chair and strode 
 up and down the small parlor, swinging his long arms 
 from side to side as if he were sowing the intellectual 
 seeds of his system, taking them from a deep bag of 
 thoughts. His eyes glowed and his clear voice 
 throbbed with fine feeling. 
 
 Blair stemmed Judson s incipient objections with 
 an impatient shake of his massive head, foresee 
 ing and forefending his contradictory arguments, 
 while Judson puffed at his pipe in complacent skep 
 ticism, astonished at the man s earnestness. Ben and 
 Winslow listened entranced. Martha sat in quiet, 
 her hands folded in her lap, her chin bent low, follow 
 ing Blair s every word, although to judge from her in 
 different appearance, Blair s theme had no interest for 
 her. She loved Blair best thus, when he was aroused 
 and impassioned, when the lion in the man awoke, and 
 he stood in bold ouline against the world, all other 
 men dwindling away to mere pigmies beside him. 
 Pity, she thought, that the best of his remarkable en 
 dowments were devoted to a cause in which she 
 
THE RING 241 
 
 had neither sympathy nor interest. Mrs. Judson came 
 into the room ; Blair was not aware of her entrance. 
 There was nothing in the world for him then but him 
 self and his mission. 
 
 " All that sounds very well, young man," Judson 
 hastened to say, unable to contain himself any longer, 
 when Blair had done and resumed his seat ; " but I m 
 of the strong opinion that it will never work out." 
 
 " I ve just explained that it must work out. Have 
 I been talking for nothing ? " 
 
 " I don t want to be unkind ; but most talking of that 
 kind does go for nothing. I ve been working in these 
 mills, one place and another, for the last twenty years, 
 and I tell you from my own observation that jealousy 
 speaks in these mills twice to love s once. Half of 
 the mill drinks beer and thinks beer; they don t want 
 to be raised, and if you raise them against their will 
 they ll fall back again." 
 
 " Stupidity, ignorance, to admit what you say for 
 the sake of argument, may be the cause of their leth 
 argy ; we will change their thought by changing their 
 environment and their opportunities." 
 
 " Well, I can t have any sympathy for oxen." 
 
 " I can ! " 
 
 " You re only wasting your sympathies, young man. 
 Socialism is like the measles anyway, all of us get the 
 disease once. No, Carrhart, as a man grows older he 
 is more inclined to let the world take care of itself, 
 while he busies himself in taking care of his family." 
 
 " Which may be the reason why the world has run 
 wrong so long." 
 
 " Yes, and when all men are honest we won t have 
 any thieves, and about that time don t look for the 
 moorir there won t be any. Marthy, here, can tell 
 ttf 
 
242 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 you about Wheeler next door who was always prating 
 about how he loved his neighbor better than himself. 
 I never wondered at it much either, for he was ever 
 lastingly sending one of his children over to borrow 
 an egg or two, a cup of flour or what not. It got to be 
 a nuisance rfter a while and I told him one day I d 
 like to see both his love and his borrowing de 
 crease." 
 
 Judson paused to smile as the others laughed, and 
 then he went on : " Your theorizing is all very fine, 
 young man, about sharing equally and living for each 
 other instead of for ourselves ; but whenever you get 
 two full-blooded horses together, you re going to have 
 a race. I wouldn t give a pinch of snuff for a mare 
 that would stop to graze until a wind-broken, spavined 
 horse could catch up with her. It may be charity, 
 but it s seriously against horse-flesh." 
 
 " Your point of view is wrong," retorted Blair, 
 " and your analogy is false. We don t ask the swift 
 to halt ; but we do ask the strong to lead the weak ; 
 those who have eyes to guide the blind." 
 
 " That reminds me," smiled Judson, happy, in his 
 element, " of a half-crazy, wandering French artist 
 I knew when I was a boy. He painted the picture of 
 a farmer s wife and the likeness didn t please her hus 
 band. 
 
 " It s a mighty fine picture, Mr. Frenchy, said he 
 but it don t look any more like my wife than it does 
 .like me. 
 
 " Well, said Frenchy, you can easily see, being 
 a smart farmer, that it don t take much of an artist 
 to paint a face just as it is, without touching it up with 
 imagination. Eesides, you ve got a bargain. I ain t 
 charging any more for painting your wife as she ought 
 
THE RING 243 
 
 to be than if I painted her as she is, and I usually get 
 more. 
 
 " Wall/ said the farmer, scratching his head, may 
 be you re right. I ll keep the picture. Maybe Mary 
 Ann will grow up to it. 
 
 " A day or two after that Mr. Farmer chases 
 through the country to find Mr. Frenchy and he found 
 him. See here, Mr. Frenchy/ he said, I want you to 
 come back and paint my wife just as she is; I m tired 
 of having her moping around that picture all day and 
 doing no work. She does nothing else but tell me I m 
 the only fool that can t see her beauty/ 
 
 " Well/ says Frenchy, it ain t a bad idea to have 
 the two pictures, one will keep her good-natured, the 
 other will keep her modest/ 
 
 " But they won t go together/ says the farmer. 
 
 " Yes, they will/ says Frenchy, if you hang em 
 right. Put one in your parlor and the other up-stairs 
 in the bedroom. 
 
 " Which goes in the parlor ? asks the farmer. 
 
 " You and your wife can settle that/ answers 
 Frenchy. 
 
 " We never can ! says the farmer. 
 
 " Well then/ answers Frenchy, keep changin 
 em/ 
 
 Judson paused a minute to enjoy his anecdote to 
 the full. " Now that s the way it is with socialism and 
 facts, it strikes me. You can easily see where the 
 points fit." 
 
 Blair laughed at Judson s pleasantry, then he grew 
 grave again, seriously thoughtful, preparing to show 
 the fallacies in Judson s comparisons, when Winslow 
 arose to leave, and Martha s cold good-night, and the 
 grieved expression on Winslow s face sent his thoughts 
 
244 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 whirling down a different track. There was a short 
 discussion on the method of procedure to be observed 
 on the morrow in Marvin s office and then Winslow 
 took his departure; and not ten minutes thereafter 
 Mabel returned. 
 
 Judson frowned, his abstract look vanished ; his 
 thought centered in his eyes. " You re very late, 
 Mabel," he complained, " where have you been?" 
 
 " Out driving," she answered, equivocally. 
 
 "With who?" he asked, ungrammatically but 
 severely. 
 
 She tried to evade the question ; he pinned her to it. 
 
 " With Penton Marvin," she flushed. She was an 
 honest girl, preferring an excoriation to an escape 
 from punishment by falsehood. 
 
 " I don t like that kind of company and I ve told 
 you so before. You disobeyed me." Blair could 
 scarcely believe it was Judson s voice, so harsh and 
 rough had it become. The whole expression of his 
 mellow, kindly countenance changed. He laid his 
 pipe on the table. 
 
 Mabel s lips quivered. " I ought to be old enough 
 to judge what s proper." 
 
 Blair arose to quit the room ; he had no desire to 
 creep into this family jar. 
 
 " Stay just where you are, Carrhart ; if Mabel s so 
 sure that she s done right, she needn t be ashamed to 
 have you hear what she s done," Judson commanded 
 rather than requested. Blair thought Judson s charac 
 ter lacked firmness ; he changed his mind then and 
 there. 
 
 Mrs. Judson came to her daughter s aid. " You 
 never will give your daughter a chance to get married. 
 Every time she goes out with a young man above her 
 
THE RING 245 
 
 station, you object. I can t see why my daughter 
 isn t good enough to go with any young man; Henry 
 Marvin s son or anybody else s." 
 
 " She s too good," retorted Judson sharply. " Those 
 are bad waters to fish in for a matrimonial catch. They 
 are the kind of fish that swallow the bait and leave the 
 hook untouched." 
 
 " Come here, Mabel," he commanded in somewhat 
 softer tones. The girl advanced, all a tremble. She 
 respected her father and she loved him, even better 
 than her mother, although undoubtedly she was her 
 favorite child. 
 
 She wound her arm around her father s neck and 
 kissed his bald head before he had the chance to speak 
 another disapproving word. It was an easy disarma 
 ment, a crafty, albeit loving, appeal for truce, without 
 the displaying of a white flag for surrender. 
 
 " I m sorry that I spoke the way I did," she said ; 
 " you know that I didn t mean anything. I suppose I 
 oughtn t to go out with the Marvin boys. But then 
 they re such dolts and I can handle them so easily. 
 They re both too stupid to be dangerous. Besides," 
 she blushed, " they give themselves so much credit for 
 being shrewd that it s a treat to fool them when they 
 think they re fooling me." 
 
 " You ought to be far above that, Mabel," inter 
 posed Martha in her quiet way, not looking up. 
 
 " Oh, Martha is always on the other side when 
 Mabel says or does anything," and the mother came 
 to the younger daughter s assistance again. 
 
 Martha s broad nostrils dilated ; her placid forehead 
 wrinkled ; but she said nothing, although Blair ob 
 served that the corner of her mouth skewered up as 
 if a sharp retort were on her tongue s end. 
 
246 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Martha is right," spoke Judson firmly, lowering 
 down on his wife over the half moons of his glasses ; 
 " I don t want Mabel to try her hand at that kind of 
 business again." 
 
 " All right," replied she, contritely, " I won t." She 
 hugged her father again, and before he had time to 
 launch out on his intended lecture she interrupted with 
 a detailed account of the conversation with Penton 
 that made them all laugh, even Judson, Martha and 
 Blair, despite themselves ; and the mother loudest of 
 all, accepting the laughter as a tribute rendered to the 
 cleverness that was Mabel s. 
 
 Encouraged by the good feeling, and prompted by a 
 desire to increase it as well as to show what her charms 
 might accomplish when she chose to exert them, Mabel 
 held up her finger exclaiming, " Look at the ring he 
 gave me. What do you think of that ? " It was a mar 
 quise setting of turquoise and diamonds. 
 
 Judson s eyes blazed angrily through his clerical 
 glasses. " Take it off," he bade harshly, " I won t 
 have you wearing it another minute. I want you to 
 give it back in the morning." He arose from his 
 chair, his colorless face turning blood red. 
 
 Again the mother started to defend the daughter; 
 but Judson frowned, disapprovingly, almost threat 
 eningly, and she held her peace. 
 
 Mabel threw the ring on the table, aghast before her 
 father s gust of rage. She had never seen him thus 
 before in all her life. 
 
 Blair s chair was drawn close to the table; the ring 
 all but touched his hand. 
 
 " I don t mind not wearing the ring," pleaded 
 Mabel humbly, quite dispirited, " but I hate to take it 
 back, it looks so silly." 
 
THE RING 247 
 
 " It s Van s ring ! " exclaimed Blair, absently, trans 
 ported by the sight and unexpected reappearance of 
 their engagement ring to realms afar. At that 
 moment it seemed to Blair that he would willingly 
 have remained dumb the rest of his life could he have 
 recalled those words then; but they had been spoken, 
 they were his no longer; others owned them now to 
 twist them as they would. 
 
 The Judsons looked at him inquiringly, in astonish 
 ment, wondering what he meant. 
 
 Confused, on the outermost verge of distraction, he 
 explained blushingly, his cheeks flushed : " Miss Mar 
 vin s, that is; I recognized it/ 
 
 He was in the abyss deeper than ever, the first false 
 step compelled the second. Extrication questioned 
 his powers. He was the very fool, he told himself, of 
 a tongue too quick, an excitement too unguarded. 
 
 " And how do you know Miss Marvin ? You, a 
 mill hand, a common laborer, by what right do you 
 call her by her Chrisian name, shortened to a familiar 
 length ? " These questions were written on the coun 
 tenances of the whole family as plainly as if their 
 tongues had voiced them. 
 
 Something needs must be said and Blair said it with 
 a falling heart, feeling himself sink into the quag 
 mire deeper and deeper. The first step had forced the 
 second, the second compelled the third. " I can return 
 the ring if you like through friends, that is." 
 
 " Never mind," said Judson firmly, " Mabel will do 
 that herself." 
 
 Just as Blair was on the point of retiring for the 
 night, his dazed thought whirling under the teeth of 
 two saws the one blade formed by his own precipi 
 tant folly; the other by the vexatious puzzle of the 
 
248 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ring s change of ownership from Evangeline to Pen- 
 ton (had she thought the ring their betrothal ring, 
 his first gift of so little worth that it might be dis 
 dainfully tossed about and bandied by alien fingers?), 
 just, be it repeated, as Blair was on the point of retir 
 ing, a soft knock brought him to the door. 
 
 Martha was standing in the hall, her fingers clasped 
 tightly over her thumbs, her nostrils dilating, her 
 shoulders thrown back, her chin up. It was apparent, 
 from her forced smile, that she was striving to appear 
 at her ease ; it was equally apparent from her nervous 
 ness that she and ease were miles apart. Blair could 
 almost feel her palpitate. 
 
 " Mr. Carrhart," she said stiffly, " I can get that 
 ring for you if you desire to return it to Miss Marvin." 
 
 " No, thank you," he returned, as gently as he could, 
 " it must be as your father wishes about that. Mabel 
 will return it." 
 
 " Very well," and turning, Martha walked haughtily 
 down the hall into her own room. 
 
 Through the weary watches of that night, three 
 saws whirled their jagged teeth through Blair s mind 
 instead of two. 
 
XXIII 
 
 DRAMATIC MOMENTS 
 
 AT half after ten on the following morning the 
 committee filed into Marvin s office. Blair rep 
 resented the rail-mill, Winslow the blast-fur 
 naces ; Ben Judson had been sent from the plate-mill ; 
 Michael Brodski was the spokesman for the unorgan 
 ized common laborers ; one man from the slab-mill and 
 another from the steel-mill completed the eight. Con 
 siderable discussion and Blair s persuasion had con 
 fined the number to this limit. It was decided that 
 large numbers would prove too unwieldy, that many 
 minds, with many opinions, would lead inevitably to 
 friction, division, and perhaps disruption. 
 
 In the final draught of the scales several minor 
 points had been conceded ; but the reduction in the 
 wages of any class of workers of over fifteen per cent, 
 was to be firmly withstood. A reduction in rents and 
 a fair adjustment of the question of repairs was to be 
 demanded. A compromise on the minimum of billets 
 was agreed upon, which met the Company half way. 
 
 The offices, surrounded on the outside by a grass- 
 plot that had to struggle for existence the sickly 
 green showed the result of the struggle looked out 
 on the car tracks and the bridge. A long oak table, a 
 bird s-eye view of the mills, photographs of the ma 
 chinery and a map of the works composed the furni- 
 
 249 
 
250 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ture. Eight upholstered chairs were drawn circlewise 
 around the table. 
 
 Marvin, grim, composed, drew himself up to his full 
 height and arose to greet the men. He seemed a 
 product of his own machinery, a thing of steel and 
 iron. 
 
 " Be seated, gentlemen," he said politely. 
 
 The men, removing their slouch-hats, filled the 
 chairs. Blair was seated in the center, facing Marvin, 
 whose place was on the other side of the long oak 
 table, littered with papers. 
 
 Marvin s keen eyes rested on Blair. Intuitively he 
 felt that this man had been chosen for spokesman. 
 Blair s intellectual superiority was stamped on his 
 countenance as his physical superiority was stamped 
 on his body. Marvin s intuition was correct ; it had 
 been agreed that if any fine points arose in the debate 
 that Blair was to be arbiter. 
 
 " It s an extremely warm day," remarked Marvin. 
 
 " Very, sir," answered Winslow ; the others nodded. 
 
 The morning is short," said Blair, " we have a 
 great deal to attend to, we might as well proceed with 
 our business." 
 
 Marvin glanced up, with a kind of inquiring start ; 
 he had expected to open the proceedings himself with 
 the full advantage of some such remark. 
 
 " Precisely," he answered sharply, not removing his 
 eyes from Blair, wondering who this man might be. 
 
 " Our figures are ready," said Blair calmly, opening 
 a packet of papers and laying them on the table. 
 Marvin let them lie, unheeded. 
 
 " Before we touch the scales, gentlemen," said the 
 president, the V wrinkling deep on his forehead, " we 
 must settle this question of time, once for all. Here- 
 
DRAMATIC MOMENTS 251 
 
 after the Amalgamated Association must give us no 
 tice in June and any dirference will be settled in Jan 
 uary." 
 
 Marvin paused ; it was in the nature of the man to 
 make his demands autocratically; he had reasons for 
 every demand, but he preferred to keep them to him 
 self. It should suffice the rest of the world that Henry 
 Marvin wished things done as he wished them done. 
 
 " And your reasons ? " asked Blair promptly. 
 
 " The reasons are that our contracts are taken in 
 January and it is impossible to figure unless we know 
 where we stand; secondly, as you are aware, our dull 
 season comes in January; we do our overhauling in 
 midwinter, and then both of us have more time to 
 settle that sort of thing." 
 
 " We have considered that," put in Blair, " and we 
 absolutely refuse to concede the point." 
 
 " Your reasons ? " asked Marvin in turn, curtly. 
 
 " Precisely because the summer is a busy season." 
 
 " I understand," nodded Marvin, " you have an ad 
 vantage and you refuse to relinquish it." 
 
 " For a decided disadvantage, yes," came Blair s 
 quick reply. 
 
 " The point is settled absolutely, in so far as we are 
 concerned," emphasized Ben Judson, who had been 
 eying Marvin angrily. 
 
 " We ll waive that question and pass on to a con 
 sideration of the scales," repeated Marvin, raising his 
 voice. This arguing with a spokesman was a diffi 
 culty against which he was not forearmed ; usually the 
 committee disagreed among themselves, and experi 
 ence had taught him how to widen the breach and 
 weaken the enemy s force. 
 
 Marvin regained his composure ; the V-wrinkle in 
 
252 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 his brow smoothed out. He ran down the columns 
 of figures, with practised hand and eye. The one 
 figure at the right hand was the foundation on which 
 the vast superstructure of numbers rested ; the oth 
 ers remained or fell with it. It summed up all the 
 sums. 
 
 " It s all wrong, gentlemen ; this won t do at all. 
 You re too high. You ve figured Bessemer four by 
 four billets at twenty-three dollars a ton." 
 
 " It s the minimum figure," came from the spokes 
 man. 
 
 " We ve decided that we shall allow no minimum 
 figure hereafter," spoke Marvin, incisively. " If the 
 Company puts no maximum figure on the price of 
 billets, the unions are not justified in fixing a mini 
 mum figure. We never say that wages shall not go 
 up after billets reach a certain point; so you are not 
 justified in demanding that wages shan t go down 
 after billets reach a certain point." 
 
 The Company once fixed upon that minimum," 
 claimed Blair. 
 
 " And the Company reserves and insists upon the 
 right to break it," contradicted Marvin. 
 
 " I can imagine a point," argued Blair, " where the 
 tariff might be removed from billets and force the 
 market price down, while a high tariff would force the 
 mill products of the Company up. This would mani 
 festly be unfair to the men." 
 
 " Imagination is all right in a question of proba 
 bilities; but we are here to argue facts," asserted Mar 
 vin. 
 
 " In a year s time almost any probability may be 
 come a fact," retorted Blair. 
 
 Marvin frowned on Blair, the lines of the wrin- 
 
DRAMATIC MOMENTS 253 
 
 kling V standing out on his forehead like welts. 
 " Allow me to suggest, Mr. - 
 
 " Mr. Carrhart," and Blair filled in the blank. 
 
 Marvin s shrewd eyes fastened on the spokesman, 
 with a keener, more penetrating eagerness. So this 
 was the young man who had made the tariff speech 
 and outwitted him in the first move on the chess 
 board, who was fighting him tooth and nail now? A 
 sudden expression of surprise wavered over Marvin s 
 sharp, stern features. Blair felt it like a shock, then, 
 guessing the reason, his mind leaped to meet any de 
 velopment that might arise as a consequence. 
 
 " I wished merely to suggest, Mr. Carrhart, that 
 we hold ourselves to the question at hand as closely as 
 possible." 
 
 " We are doing so," said Blair. 
 
 This man s quiet, positive, masterful manner an 
 noyed Marvin more and more ; Blair s tactics were too 
 much like his own to be acceptable. Marvin, whose 
 memory for faces was keen, almost infallible, had been 
 baffled by Blair s countenance the moment his eyes had 
 rested thereon. He had seen that face or one very 
 much like it somewhere, yet where he knew not. 
 Blair s surname was the tangible clue to the solution. 
 
 " Are you Robert Carrhart s, the grocer s, son ? " 
 he asked calmly. 
 
 Marvin had considered whether or not it would be 
 advisable to put that question when he offered his 
 last suggestion ; indeed the advisability of the query 
 rather than the inconsequential remark was upper 
 most in his mind. 
 
 " I am," answered Blair, undisturbed. He had ex 
 pected the question ; he had prefigured his answer to 
 it before he passed his last retort courteous. 
 
254 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The others looked on at the digression, astonished. 
 It was exactly what Marvin desired. His bold as 
 sumption of familiarity, of acquaintanceship, might 
 breed suspicion, suspicion would weaken Blair s hold, 
 lead to the formation of a new committee ; and time 
 gained, all was gained. 
 
 " I know your father; he is an old friend of mine," 
 smiled Marvin. 
 
 " I can t see what that has to do with the case. Let 
 me quote you, Mr. Marvin, and say that I would 
 suggest that we hold ourselves well to the question at 
 hand." 
 
 If, for a second, the men had been suspicious of 
 their colleague, if Marvin s intimation of Blair s inti 
 macy with the plutocracy had aroused the wavering 
 distrust of a second, Blair s attitude and manner were 
 assuring. Marvin clearly lost his point. 
 
 The president was disconcerted. As the skein of 
 the argument passed from him to Blair, from Blair to 
 him, becoming more entangled with each remove, he 
 was obliged to struggle with a growing irritability for 
 patience, an invaluable quality just then. Polite and 
 cautious circumlocution turned into flat and open con 
 tradiction. Gradually Marvin s voice rose ; steadily 
 he was losing his temper. 
 
 Blair retained the advantage of a jealously guarded 
 composure, which aroused Marvin the more the as 
 sumption of superiority, he thought, was unwarranted. 
 
 " The improved machinery, which the Company 
 has spent a fortune in introducing, is enabling our 
 men to make a disproportionate tonnage rate. If you 
 accept our scales, with the improved machinery in use, 
 your wages will be higher than on a twenty-three dol 
 lar basis, with the old methods. Our money is in- 
 
DRAMATIC MOMENTS 255 
 
 vested in that machinery and it must be paid for by the 
 profits from our industry," spoke Marvin, sharply. 
 
 " But not out of the wages of the men," answered 
 Blair. 
 
 " It wasn t our proposition to pay for the machin 
 ery by the saving made in the reduction of wages," 
 snapped the president. He arose from his chair and 
 pressed both hands on the table, his broad shoulders 
 slightly stooped. 
 
 " I merely quote your words," put in Blair, quietly. 
 
 " You merely twist my words," exclaimed the pres 
 ident, his cheek flushing angrily. 
 
 " The logic is simple enough," replied Blair, " the 
 machinery has to be paid for and you propose to cut 
 down our wages. I judge from it that the cut in the 
 wages is to pay for the investment in the machinery." 
 
 Marvin sat down, grasped the arms of his chair 
 tightly, swiveled around once or twice and became 
 sure that he was sure of himself before he spoke. 
 
 " Your judgment is wrong then, young man," he 
 replied in softer tones, edging towards the attitude 
 of one disinterested in his argument. 
 
 " We are perfectly willing to be convinced," came 
 from Blair. 
 
 The retort discourteous was on Marvin s lips, but 
 he crushed it. The issue was great. A strike, with 
 the amount of work and the enormous government 
 contracts the Company had on hand, was no trifle. 
 He was on the eve of the accomplishment of great 
 things, magnificent schemes never dreamed of by steel 
 magnate before the building of his own railroad 
 from the mills to the coast, his line of transatlantic 
 steamers from the coast to the old world ; supremacy 
 in the markets at home and abroad. He hated to see 
 
256 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the consummation of his dreams postponed, and, on 
 that account, he would turn the damper on his anger 
 and treat the men pleasantly ; but recede from his 
 position he would not, let the cost be what it might. 
 
 " I didn t say, Mr. Carrhart, if you will recollect," 
 explained Marvin, " that it is either our intention or 
 our desire to cut down wages. I put it the other way 
 the new machinery makes such a large tonnage 
 output possible that the scale you demand would in 
 crease wages inordinately and leave no profit for the 
 Company." 
 
 He lifted the long sheets of paper that lay in square 
 piles in front of him, adjusted his pince-nez and went 
 on to say : 
 
 " Now let s get down to figures. I ll prove my 
 argument." 
 
 He rolled off a great mass of unwieldy computa 
 tions prices, wages, time, tonnages, per cents. He 
 marshaled the figures into the line of his general 
 argument, trying to reinforce and strengthen it by 
 massed cohorts of actual reckonings. It was the 
 skilful mastery of a man who values the power of 
 mathematics. Then, from the glare of so bewilder 
 ing a multitude, he attempted to educe a few first 
 principles that must win by the sheer force of their 
 simplicity. 
 
 The men drew their chairs closer to the table, took 
 paper and pencil and calculated with him. 
 
 His array of figures was intended to carry three or 
 four points by storm, to center their united strength 
 around them, and thus captained to retreat from the 
 field victoriously. His host of particulars were in 
 tended to gain these few generalizations : the pro 
 posed reduction in the tonnage rates applied to but a 
 
DRAMATIC MOMENTS 257 
 
 few departments ; the wages of the men, for the greater 
 part, remaining practically unchanged, of the five 
 thousand men employed only five hundred would be 
 affected. No reduction was proposed in any mill 
 where the output was not vastly increased by the new 
 machinery. The new inventions had made an increase 
 of fifty per cent, in tonnage ; and wages on the Com 
 pany s proposed scale, owing to this improved ma 
 chinery, would be larger than on the present scale, 
 with the old machinery. And, moreover, there had 
 been a decided drop in the market price of goods, 
 which made the change in scales imperative. 
 
 He -put all his intensity and vigor in the summing 
 up of his final plea, assured that it would convince, 
 resolved, if it did not, to argue no more on that morn 
 ing, but to allow the men to reflect on what he had said, 
 to talk the matter over in their lodges and to return on 
 the following or the morning thereafter for a deci 
 sion. 
 
 The committee sat in quiet ; all looked towards 
 Blair to sum up their objections and present their 
 differences in opinion. 
 
 Their manner nettled Marvin. Were they so many 
 sheep to be directed by the thud of this shepherd s 
 staff? Why couldn t they think for themselves and 
 agree with him? 
 
 " Well," asked Marvin, with a start, " don t you be 
 lieve what I have said is fair and just and right? " 
 
 " No, sir," answered Blair, " I don t think so ! And 
 I m sure that I speak for the others when I say no. 
 The introduction of the new machinery, looked at in 
 the light of to-day, has been more of a curse than a 
 blessing to the men. It has displaced hundreds. 
 Still, the Amalgamated Association is a progressive 
 
258 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 body ; it looks farther ahead than to-day or to-morrow 
 and it has never opposed inventions. But we do be 
 lieve that we should share the benefits accruing from 
 the use of new machinery with our employers. There 
 is an old saying, Mr. Marvin, that figures don t lie, 
 but, like most old sayings, it has been accepted for 
 gospel merely because it has been said so long. I 
 don t believe in it myself. Your figures do lie." 
 
 " See here ! " shouted Marvin, " I have had enough 
 of this kind of dictation. I propose to run my mills 
 to suit myself. I shan t tolerate my workingmcn 
 coming into my office and telling me what I should do 
 and what I should not do." 
 
 " Don t you think, Mr. Marvin," questioned Blair, 
 his calmness regained, " that where you employ over 
 five thousand men you owe the public some consider 
 ation and responsibility ? " 
 
 " I am not before the United States Labor Commis 
 sion for examination." 
 
 " You may be before long." 
 
 " That s my business. I have had enough of this 
 kind of talk. I m sick of this one-man power. Either, 
 gentlemen, this man leaves your committtee or this 
 meeting will come to an end." 
 
 " We stand by every word he has said," shouted 
 Ben Judson, who had been listening with a sullen 
 frown. 
 
 " It will come to an end then," said Winslow, ris 
 ing. The others, putting on their hats, followed suit. 
 
 " Very well," declared Marvin sternly, bringing his 
 closed fist down on the table, " you may consider all 
 discussion between the Company and yourselves as 
 over." 
 
XXIV 
 
 AMID GREEN FIELDS 
 
 SUNDAY, the day after the interview in Marvin s 
 office, found Blair careworn and distressed. 
 He proposed an afternoon in the country to 
 Martha, and he felt relieved when his proposal was 
 accepted ; the load on his mind was crushing and he 
 was anxious to lay it aside if only to assume it again 
 with strength renewed. 
 
 The trolley bore the pair whizzing through the low 
 flat land of Marvin, parched, monotonously unattrac 
 tive. Martha sat in quiet, meditating, her hands 
 clasped in her lap, as ever a picture of poise and com 
 posure. Reliant, strong, decided, Martha seemed to 
 need no man s protection. 
 
 They crossed the fields and made for a wooded spot 
 that stood lonely and inviting, offering seclusion, in 
 the vast stretches of open prairie. The rows of Lom- 
 bardy poplars lifted their silver leaves, rustling in 
 the westering breezes, straight to the sky. Twenty 
 paces away, half hidden by scrub-oaks, bending low, a 
 short canal ran its draining course. A stone s throw 
 away green corn wavered and shimmered on the cul 
 tivated acres of a vegetable farm. Blair lay in the 
 lush grass, sprawling out at full length, gazing dream 
 ily at the blue skies. The soft atmosphere rolled and 
 sifted through the objects of the Dutch-like landscape. 
 259 
 
260 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 She sat beside him, her strong hands clasped around 
 her drawn-up knees. 
 
 He lay silent, intellectually lazy, perfectly happy for 
 those few minutes, then the obsessing thought of the 
 impending strike played havoc with the sweetness of 
 doing nothing; as if compelled he began to outline 
 eventualities and possibilities for Martha. Monday 
 was pay-day ; the Company would probably discharge 
 the men then and offer to neemploy them, if they 
 would accept its own terms and forswear allegiance 
 to their union. In that case a strike would be declared. 
 He gave a synopsis of his plans and preparations ; he 
 concluded by telling how the Cooperative Common 
 wealth would make strikes impossible. She listened 
 patiently, apparently neither indifferent nor concerned. 
 
 He stopped suddenly, as if he had been interrupted. 
 " You never seem particularly interested in my hopes 
 and schemes, Martha." 
 
 Time and time again, ever with a bitter force re 
 newed, it had come home to him that this girl of the 
 people (he was pleased to term her thus) this repre 
 sentative of the unnumbered thousands whose condi 
 tion, spiritual and material, he wished to better, 
 stretched no welcoming hand towards his rod of deliv 
 erance. 
 
 " Yes, I am, Blair," she contradicted. " What 
 makes you say that? I like to hear you talk so ear 
 nestly." 
 
 " That s just the point ; it s my pleading rather than 
 my plea that interests you. Isn t it now? " 
 
 She was silent a minute. " Perhaps that s it, to be 
 honest. You get so thoroughly aroused. You seem 
 to believe in it so thoroughly, as if it were all actual 
 and true." 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 261 
 
 "Well, isn t it?" he asked, nettled, with a slight 
 tinge of anger. 
 
 " Oh, come, do let us talk about something else. 
 The beautiful afternoon will be gone before we know 
 it and we have plowed through that same ground 
 so often." 
 
 There it was again, that same eternal spirit of de 
 nial, of listlessness, of utter apathy for his cherished 
 dream. It grieved him to the very soul. It all but 
 toppled his strong faith in the foundation whereon he 
 built. If Martha, all things considered, mocked at 
 his gospel, whither should he seek disciples? If those 
 from below lifted not a groping hand upwards, where 
 was salvation to be sought ? 
 
 " It s the most interesting subject in the world to 
 me," he insisted, bent upon pressing his point. 
 
 " Well, since you won t let me leave it, I suppose 
 that s because it s a new field to you and it s a very old 
 field to me. I spring from the generations, you see, 
 that have tilled the soil ; you come from the generations 
 that have earned their bread by the use of their intel 
 lects, by the sweat of their brains instead of their 
 brows. You force yourself into the place of the 
 heavers of wood and the drawers of water and imag 
 ine from your own sufferings that they suffer far more 
 than they do in reality." 
 
 " Force myself into it ! " he exclaimed. " Am I 
 not of them ? Don t I earn my bread by the same toil ? 
 What nonsense is that you are preaching about the 
 generations of brain-workers behind me ? " 
 
 She laughed with a mocking, sarcastic, almost sar 
 donic emphasis. " You ought to give up playing that 
 part. You have played it so long that it must be tire 
 some to even you. Besides, to the discerning I am 
 
262 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 brutally frank, perhaps you don t play it overly 
 well." 
 
 " I declare I don t see what you are driving at." 
 
 " Oh, don t you ? " and she clasped her ringers over 
 her thumbs. He had seen her do that same thing 
 once before ; the action was ominous enough. 
 
 " I don t," reiterated Blair. 
 
 " You bear every mark of the common laborer and 
 of a common ancestry," she laughed bitterly again. 
 " I always knew it. I saw through it the moment I 
 saw you." 
 
 He looked at her wonderingly. 
 
 " You needn t wonder at my cleverness. It isn t 
 cleverness on my part, not a bit of it ; it s merely 
 twenty-four years of human experience in this world ; 
 and that, if you have seen enough of people and life, 
 takes the place of a great deal of cleverness. Even 
 the stupid acquire a kind of thin, paper-thick bright 
 ness if they have traveled enough." 
 
 She remained silent, as if she chose to say but 
 enough to pique his curiosity, not enough to dull its 
 edge by feeding it to satiety. 
 
 " Well, go on. You are mystifying. You have 
 pushed me to the edge of the cliff of suspense, now 
 pull me back." He drew his large body up to a sitting 
 posture and looked at her intently. 
 
 " Pull you back or throw you over," she laughed 
 provokingly, tauntingly. 
 
 " Yes, either one or the other." 
 
 " I think I ll leave you where you are; you deserve 
 punishment for trying to practise deceit on me, sir! " 
 
 " I practise deceit on you ! I don t know what in 
 the world you are driving at." 
 
 " No, the aristocrat disguises himself, palms himself 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 263 
 
 off for a workingman, is caught in bis mummery, and 
 then denies his identity. Oh, come, Blair, any one 
 with any sense at all would know that you had re 
 ceived the best of breeding." 
 
 " I don t see yet. Can t a workingman have good 
 manners? The fact still remains that I work in the 
 mill as a leverman, and, as things run here, since that s 
 a difficult job to get, I must have worked hard and 
 long." 
 
 She smiled doubtingly again. " Yes, very long and 
 hard. If I have been informed aright, you secured 
 your present place in about four months. Your ad 
 vance, they tell me, has been unprecedented, almost 
 marvelous." 
 
 " That proves nothing." 
 
 " Nothing but superior intelligence." 
 
 " And superior intelligence proves nothing but a 
 workingman with superior brains." 
 
 " And superior brains, manners and bearing are 
 strong arguments in proof of an inferior descent. 
 Then there s that little incident of the ring to explain, 
 you must not forget that. I m sure you can explain 
 that and make it consistent with your role." 
 
 " You oughtn t to demand that ; it involves another." 
 
 " I demand nothing. It is as clear as the daylight 
 that it involves another, and I say merely that it is a 
 little bit, just the very least bit peculiar, not to say 
 striking, that those involved are the daughter of a 
 mill president and one of his common working- 
 men." 
 
 " It s odd, I admit. Still, I dare say, such things 
 have happened before." 
 
 " I dare say, Blair. I m sure if the president had 
 five thousand daughters that every one of the multitude 
 
264 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 would have an affair of the heart with some one of 
 the five thousand laborers." 
 
 " The first of your suppositions is just as probable 
 as the second." 
 
 " And both are as probable as the story you would 
 have me believe of yourself." 
 
 Unheard, her last retort passed without answer. 
 He was plunged in the vortex of his tumultuous 
 thoughts. Should he tell her? Should he cease to 
 play his part, as she had put it, doff his garb, and 
 standing forth in his natural guise, make a clean 
 breast of it? He thought quickly. He sat like a 
 juror over his debating mind and like a defendant 
 he awaited the verdict. 
 
 The expression on Martha s face was calm and re 
 signed. She divined the battle of opposing thought 
 that was waging in his mind, and the slight quick- 
 heaving of her breast was the only thing that betrayed 
 her anxiety as to the result. 
 
 He summarized his past and told her concisely the 
 object of his coming to the mills. " I need not ask 
 you," he ended, " to hold my confession in strict 
 secrecy; you can see why I request that." 
 
 " No, you need not to have asked it, I should have 
 done so anyway." A smile, wavering between elation 
 and dejection over her victory, flitted across her face. 
 "I was right in my conclusion, wasn t I? I guessed 
 there was something of that kind that had brought you 
 here, although I was not certain as to what it was. It 
 occurred to me in an inexplicable way a dozen or so of 
 times ; then it passed out of my mind about as quickly 
 as it entered there. But when that ring incident 
 turned up the whole matter was clear and vivid 
 enough." 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 265 
 
 She spoke truly, enlightenment had come, clearly 
 and vividly, like a flash, but what she had suffered, 
 how she had tortured herself to discover the short 
 comings of her character which might explain the 
 sudden change in Blair s affection for her, and how 
 the unexpected and instant solution had tortured her 
 but the more of these things she said not a word. 
 
 " You are remarkably intuitive, Martha," went on 
 Blair. 
 
 " No, it isn t intuition ; it s merely putting two and 
 two together." 
 
 " Other people had the same two and two where 
 with to make a four." 
 
 " It s a small compliment to my intelligence to com 
 pare me with the people hereabouts." 
 
 They lapsed into quiet for a few minutes, both lost 
 in the mazes of their tortuous thought. A long white 
 cloud covered the sun, and the earth smelt fresh and 
 cool. The poplar leaves rustled and stirred. A cluck 
 ing hen warned her careless brood against a hawk, 
 floating in a hunt for prey. 
 
 Blair lay back in the lush grass, his eyes half shut, 
 lost in reverie. He thought of the first time he had 
 seen Martha and the almost ineradicable impression 
 her strong personality had made on him ; he recalled 
 his vision of that first night s restless slumber Mar 
 tha, the girl of the people, battling at his side for the 
 survival of his ideals against dangers from which 
 Evangeline crouched in fear. How baseless was the 
 stuff of which that vision was spun! How waking 
 reality had torn the dream-woven fabric into shreds! 
 
 It is far rarer that the love of a man for a woman is 
 awakened by sympathy than a woman s love is called 
 into being for a man by this emotion so akin to pity, 
 
266 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 which is so akin to love; but Blair, as usual, reversed 
 the order and fitness of things. He was too much 
 inclined to indulge an iconoclastic fancy in fitful rev 
 eries of what should be. In Blair s grammar the 
 present tense found small place ; subjunctives and 
 futures predominated. He was rarely willing to take 
 anything for what it was or leave it where it was. He 
 had magnified Martha s abilities, striking and versa 
 tile though they were, and in an equal and unfair ratio 
 he had magnified the obstacles against which she had 
 to contend. 
 
 Most people, he told himself, are illusioned by others ; 
 he had illusioned himself. He had believed he loved. 
 He had mistaken sympathy for affection. How easy 
 to lend a wooden idol the powers and attributes of 
 divinity, if one but believe in the divinity of the idol ! 
 
 Martha sat composedly, her hands folded in her lap ; 
 her eyes following the curving of the hawk s outspread 
 wings, her unhappy thoughts afar. How could she 
 explain Blair s sudden affection for her, its still 
 swifter disappearance? What were her virtues that 
 had won it; her ignominious shortcomings that had 
 lost it? To say that Evangeline Marvin had come 
 mysteriously, with ghostlike shimmer, between them, 
 was a solution that did not solve. What had this 
 Miss Evangeline Marvin that she had not? Wealth? 
 Beauty? Refinement? Sweetness and light of char 
 acter? If she could but see her that she might know, 
 she would willingly suffer new and inexperienced tor 
 tures of jealousy to evade this endless torture of 
 doubt, this prodding introspection that racked her 
 mind and heart. 
 
 She burst out in a sudden laugh, nipped short, like 
 a sentence stopped suddenly on its road towards com- 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 267 
 
 pletion that laugh peculiar to Martha, short, half- 
 concealed and half-revealed, tinged with a shade of 
 bitterness. 
 
 " What occasioned that ? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," she answered dryly. 
 
 He did not plead for an answer, knowing that she 
 would volunteer it, which she did. 
 
 " I can t help but laugh. I don t wish to appear 
 unkind, but it was such a strange thing to have done. 
 You know, I can t imagine any one doing such a thing 
 as that, to leave the luxuries and comforts of such a 
 home as you had for poverty and toil ; to exchange 
 your prospects and future for the work of a mill-hand ! 
 It s terrible enough to be forced into such a course of 
 conduct when reverses come to one and there is noth 
 ing else left, but to go about it in cold blood and with 
 aforethought ! The other way around would be 
 natural and explicable, I could understand that. 
 Why, that s for what all of us here are working and 
 slaving and giving our lives, to advance cur interests, 
 to improve our material conditions. It s the hope 
 that sustains us that some day we may have beauti 
 ful homes, perhaps, and the comforts of wealth. And 
 the blessings have been put at your feet and you kick 
 them away. Oh ! " 
 
 With her own hands how fast was Martha crum 
 bling to dust the idol Blair had erected to her in the 
 shrine of his affections ! Offering no excuse for her 
 assailment, Martha continued : 
 
 " I wish I had your opportunities. I wouldn t wait 
 for the next train to carry me back ; I d run. Sur 
 roundings such as must have been yours have been my 
 castle in Spain, and here I am condemned to slave in 
 a miserable school, to wear my life out for a niggardly 
 
268 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 stipend. And you have the castle already built and 
 you jump out of the window! I can t comprehend 
 it ! * she gasped. 
 
 " You always overestimate the happiness that money 
 can bestow, Martha. If you had had it, you would 
 know what little peace of mind it confers. I ve had 
 it, and perhaps that s why I know its limitations/ 
 
 " Well, I know what distress of mind the absence 
 of money brings at any rate. It means power, doesn t 
 it? And if I were a man I should prefer power to 
 any other gift, making people do what you want in 
 stead of being obliged, like I am, to do what people 
 want you to do! For me it would mean educat on 
 and leisure and release from drudgery, and the society 
 I prefer." 
 
 You think so, he said kindly, " but you are mis 
 taken. Girls with money are as confined in the choos 
 ing of their companions as those without it even 
 more so ; both are held in the bonds of their own set." 
 
 :< Yes, I presume the wealthy are pestered just as 
 much as I am by the ignorant, the stupid and the al 
 together vulgar. 
 
 " Just as much," he answered firmly, " I never 
 heard that money was a bar to stupidity." 
 
 " It ought to be. If I had it I would make it one ; 
 I would keep the stupid out. I am powerless this 
 way/ 
 
 " Well, Martha, and if you had the money you 
 crave, what would you do? " 
 
 " I don t care to say what my ambitions are. I ve 
 given them up one by one long ago ; they starved for 
 lack of money whereon to feed." 
 
 " I can t believe that. If you really had the ambi 
 tions and if your abilities were equal to your ambi- 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 269 
 
 tions, you would have accomplished. The lack of 
 money would have been a spur instead of a halter. I 
 don t wish to be severe, but we ve both been talking 
 plainly. For one, I never believed much in the mute 
 inglorious Miltons that Gray talks about ; their mute 
 ness caused their ingloriousness. Lack of money 
 couldn t make a Milton mute, nor could millions make 
 Gray s mutes Miltons." 
 
 Her sudden laugh irritated him as a note out of 
 tune to the current music of his thoughts. 
 
 " Why that laugh, I ask again? " 
 
 " Oh, nothing." 
 
 He remained quiet, awaiting but not pressing an 
 answer; as before she vouchsafed it. 
 
 " Somebody is very consistent ! I don t see why 
 you are a socialist. What is the good of having 
 things equal ; of improving the material condition of 
 the masses, if the improvement, if money, isn t going 
 to make them any happier ; if the possession or lack of 
 money has nothing to do with the producing of great 
 men and the furthering of worthy ambitions ? " 
 
 He had been arguing in part against his own con 
 victions to convince her, striving to make her con 
 tented with her own lot; but she had pierced the fun 
 damental weakness of his position with a logical ease 
 that surprised him. 
 
 " Socialism," he answered undaunted, " believes 
 that the evil lies in extremes." 
 
 Her underlip curled ironically, in a way that de 
 clared victory unworthy the effort of verbal battle. 
 
 " I don t see what you expect to accomplish any 
 way," she hastened to say, as if the thought had been 
 in her own mind for a long while and must out. " You 
 have given up home and prospects to enter the mill 
 
270 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 and I doubt very much if any one thanks you for it 
 particularly. You can t change the order of the uni 
 verse. No man can. Do you suppose that any one 
 will repay you for your sacrifice? If you were starv 
 ing to-morrow who would share their day s wage with 
 you? The Poles and Hungarians you have come to 
 spiritualize and benefit ? " 
 
 The labor must be its own reward, he answered ; 
 " no matter what the outcome I shall rest satisfied 
 with that." 
 
 You will have your pains for your thanks, I am 
 sure of that. If I were you I would go back to 
 morrow and improve the opportunity that most of us 
 would sell our souls to have. I would accumulate 
 wealth and turn it to good uses ; a thousand chances 
 will present themselves later on, if you are so minded. 
 Money is the power and down in your heart of hearts 
 you know it, and you can do thrice the good with it 
 that you ever can with your mere ideas. You will re 
 gret it some day, when it is too late if you don t. Oh, 
 if I only had the chance. You must be mad ! " 
 
 " I think your views are mercenary and sordid, 
 Martha." 
 
 "No, they re not. I only want money as a means 
 to an end, and there s no end, worth the while, that 
 you can reach without it." 
 
 " I shall reach my end, he retorted sharply, " with 
 out it, although, according to your reckoning, it can t 
 be worth the while." 
 
 " Perhaps I have spoken too openly, with more can- 
 didness than I had the right ; but I don t mean to hurt 
 you, Blair. I should feel sorry, believe me, if I did 
 that. And I do admire the nobility of your conduct. 
 I do think it took a great deal of character, and fine 
 
AMID GREEN FIELDS 271 
 
 character, to do what you have done. I can t find 
 words to express what I think of your resoluteness 
 and " 
 
 " I know somebody that s consistent," he inter 
 rupted, more ruffled by her praise than he had been 
 angered by her reproof. 
 
 " A woman may be inconsistent, you know ; that s 
 her prerogative. Any virtue carried too far may be 
 come a vice ; and you ought to allow me the common 
 failing of my sex. So, with your permission, I will 
 repeat what I have just said. I do admire your ven 
 ture very much. I think you are a man in a million. 
 Those who have nothing to lose deserve little credit 
 for venturing all, but you who have nothing to gain 
 and venture your all for others yes, I do admire that. 
 But there is such a thing as sacrificing too much for 
 others and then finding that the others weren t worth 
 the sacrifice. That s terrible ! It s the tragedy of a 
 wasted life. Besides, I think it s sinful, wicked, to waste 
 a great opportunity, and I believe you are doing it." 
 
 The old doubt crawled in upon him as he listened ; 
 the ramifications of its innumerable suggestions 
 twined around the soul of his aspirations and threat 
 ened to choke them. He seized the folds of its serpen 
 tine body and jerked it off. His bent face lifted up to 
 hers ; the light of faith shone radiantly there. His 
 clear voice rang with erstwhile conviction. He arose 
 to his feet, towering above her. 
 
 " It is the noblest and grandest cause on earth. A 
 great cause demands great sacrifices, and I consider 
 my own sacrifice too small for the sublimity of the 
 cause. You are incapable of understanding it, of ap 
 preciating it. We will never speak of it again. I see 
 my own way clearly, I will walk it alone." 
 
272 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 She gazed on him, half-startled, half-dazzled by the 
 transfiguration in his appearance. She arose slowly, 
 saying nothing. In quiet they moved towards the 
 car. The sun had set in the west, a glow of colors 
 marked its sinking course ; the fields were hushed, sol 
 emnly quiet ; the world seemed ready to fall into the 
 arms of night and sleep. 
 
 Blair s soul was strong; he craved others to pro 
 tect rather than the protection of others. He was a 
 trellis, not a vine ; he wished to uphold, not to be 
 upheld. He was shield and sword too. The moment 
 she put herself in front of him, unconsciously, without 
 the knowledge of either, she put herself away from 
 him, scorning the armor and weapon of his defense, 
 forfeiting his affection. Had she placed her weakness 
 in the charge and confidence of his strength, his arm 
 might have enfolded her lovingly. 
 
 She doubted his cause; she doubted him. Hence 
 forth, try as he would, pray as she might, neither 
 sword nor shield was for her. 
 
XXV 
 
 EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 
 
 MONDAY was pay-day. The saloons were 
 thronged by men cashing their slips, from 
 which the -saloonkeepers extracted a cus 
 tomary two per cent, for the accommodation. The 
 plate-mill and the open-hearth furnaces shut down; 
 eight hundred men were quietly paid off and dis 
 charged. It was to start, then, with a lock-out and 
 not a strike. For the second time the Company took 
 the initiative on the checker-board. 
 
 The Dumb-Bell was crowded to the doors and the 
 huge proprietor growled at the small amount of 
 change which crossed his bar and found lodging in 
 his cash-register. The Company s method of pay 
 ment usually gave the saloons the first chance at the 
 men s wages; but to-day the advantage availed 
 naught. 
 
 The army of workers expected a siege a long 
 one, no doubt and they were guarding their ammu 
 nition jealously. Money is as necessary for a strike 
 as a war; an empty treasury means a swift capitu 
 lation. 
 
 For the greater part the patrons of the Dumb-Bell 
 were depressed and anxious. There was some revolu 
 tionary talk ; some wild threats ; some vain boasts ; 
 but the eruptions were sporadic and did not meet with 
 18 273 
 
274 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the sympathy of a general encouragement. The hun 
 dreds of men became as one who girds his loins for a 
 hazardous undertaking, wasting no breath in empty 
 clamor. 
 
 That night the long line of stores on S street was 
 deserted. The drunkenness and the dissipation that 
 mark pay-day were conspicuously absent. In Polish 
 Town, in the foreign quarters, not a loud cry, not an 
 angry voice burst on the silence, strangely unbroken, 
 unusually thick. Men moved through the streets as 
 ever, dinner-pails in arm, on their way to and from 
 the mills. 
 
 Inside the mills, the shutting down of the two de 
 partments had by no means ended the activity ; there 
 was the customary blowing of the whistles ; the hol 
 low white glare from the converters ; the rumble and 
 crash of the rails. Within their homes, the men and 
 women talked but little, and what little talk there was 
 spent its small force in anxious queries as to where 
 bread would come from in the event of a strike or a 
 complete lock-out. 
 
 It was all serene enough ; but it was the serenity of 
 a portentous sullenness. The old, old comparison of 
 the lull before the storm suggests itself. It may be 
 a newer comparison to liken it unto the impassive face 
 of a strong-willed man, deep within whom and hidden 
 burns the passion for vengeance. 
 
 When Blair and Ben ludson, tired out from the 
 arduous labors of that day, returned home, they found 
 the family anxious to hear the news. Old Judson 
 shook a deprecatory head as each new development 
 was unfolded. 
 
 " It s bad business, boys ; it s bad business," he kept 
 saying lugubriously. 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 275 
 
 Martha, sitting in quiet, filled a sudden lull in the 
 conversation with : 
 
 " An admirable young lady called on me to-day ; do 
 you know who it was ? " 
 
 Blair, to whom the question was addressed, shook 
 his head. Martha s eager manner, her apparent 
 anxiety to tell, yet her peculiar desire to retain her 
 secret might have given the clue to Blair had he been 
 more alert. 
 
 " I ll give you ten guesses," she volunteered, her 
 rounded breast heaving slightly, her hands clasped. 
 
 " You might as well give me a million, and my first 
 would be as near as my last." 
 
 " It was Evangeline Marvin." 
 
 Blair colored. The announcement came with the 
 full shock of the unexpected. He remained thought 
 ful, asking no questions, smothering his curiosity, if 
 he had any, under a guarded reserve. Martha s eyes 
 were on him, penetrating, probing. His eyes became 
 as windows, through which, it seemed to her, she could 
 see the moving procession of his thoughts. 
 
 "What in the world did she want?" put in Mabel. 
 " I ve seen her at the office once or twice. Pretty, isn t 
 she?" 
 
 " Oh, very," came from Martha, coldly, her chin 
 bent down, her hands in her lap. 
 
 " What in the world did she come to see you for ? " 
 repeated Mabel. 
 
 " You needn t act so surprised about it, Mabel," re 
 plied Martha, giving way to the irritation that was 
 rasping her, " it really wasn t such a terrible conde 
 scension on Miss Marvin s part. I presume she is 
 merely human, like the rest of us." 
 
 " Only more so, on account of her wealth," smiled 
 
276 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Judson, who understood his daughters as thoroughly 
 as if they were the children of other parents. 
 
 Since the incident of the ring, Blair s position in the 
 Judson household had changed considerably. The 
 family regarded him with a new interest that wavered 
 between curiosity and suspicion. He wished to 
 deaden instead of stimulate it, and his mind was leap 
 ing the quickly erected hurdles of pros and cons, seek 
 ing to gain a clear field of action for this especial 
 emergency. It were best to assume absolute indiffer 
 ence. He held his peace. 
 
 " You re a peculiar piece, Martha," piped Mrs. Jud 
 son. " What are you making such a secret of ? Any 
 one would think that we were all dying to hear what 
 that Marvin girl wanted." 
 
 That s right," smiled Judson. " Any one can see 
 your ma don t care any more than if this Marvin girl 
 was a teacher in Martha s school." 
 
 " Nor I don t," scolded his wife, " only Martha s 
 enough to give a body the fidgets until she gets ready 
 to speak." 
 
 " Why," went on Martha tranquilly, " she is going 
 to start a Social Settlement over here on G street and 
 she has asked me and several of the teachers at school 
 to help her." Hastily she sketched the purpose of the 
 institution. 
 
 Blair looked up. His mad desire, for that second, 
 threw the cloak of indifference aside and discovered 
 itself. Inwardly an ironic smile flitted over Martha, 
 outwardly she remained unmoved. 
 
 " It opens to-morrow night and I am invited to 
 bring with me whomever I choose. I " 
 
 " It s just like you not to go and mope about here 
 at home," scolded the mother, agog to have her daugh- 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 277 
 
 ter jibe shoulders with a representative of aristoc 
 racy. 
 
 " Perhaps I am not bright enough to do what she 
 wishes," deprecated Martha sincerely. 
 
 " Perhaps not," railed the mother, fearful lest she 
 decline. " You re never satisfied unless you make 
 yourself out to be a perfect dummy. You re just as 
 smart as the Marvin girl is, I reckon." 
 
 " I reckon," she sighed wearily. 
 
 Blair turned a deaf ear to this dialogue, seeking a 
 hurried counsel in the silence of his own heart. Should 
 he go? His heart was already palpitating with the 
 ruddy blood of hot expectancy. Go? What power 
 on earth could keep him from going? 
 
 " Will you come with us ? " asked Martha, her eyes 
 fastened on his, expanding with the strong light of 
 dreams. 
 
 He thrilled as if his thought had been worded by a 
 spiritual voice. 
 
 " Yes, I ll go," he answered, indifference playing 
 its part but poorly. 
 
 On the next night Martha, Blair and Mabel were 
 preparing to leave for the Settlement when Mrs. Jud- 
 son turned to her son with : 
 
 " Ben, you d better go along ; it will do you good to 
 get out a bit. You re everlastingly poking about the 
 house like an old man of eighty." 
 
 " Eh ? " asked Ben, putting his hand like a sound 
 board up to his ear. 
 
 " Fudge ! " shouted his mother, repeating her in 
 junction. " Your deafness comes from imagining too 
 much. You can hear all right, I notice, when there s 
 anything going on we don t want you to know. Take 
 your hat and go along." 
 
278 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Ben dropped his newspaper. " Well, I ll go along 
 and see what the thing is like," and he lifted his angu 
 lar body out of the chair. 
 
 " Enjoy yourselves," said Judson ; " for charity 
 nowadays is half duty and half pleasure, just like play 
 ing the organ in church." 
 
 The four moved towards the newly opened Settle 
 ment. A flood of light streaming through the red 
 shades of the lamp, made even the somber brick tene 
 ment loom up in an inviting manner. 
 
 Finally, and after a host of discouragements, 
 Evangeline s project was launched in these last of 
 June days. April was well on its way before Marvin 
 gave his consent to the scheme, and then one of the 
 young women on whom Evangeline placed chief re 
 liance became ill ; other and minor obstacles blocked 
 the path towards achievement until Evangeline all but 
 lost heart. Now that the auspices were favorable, she 
 resolved to start at once, despite the heat and the un 
 timely season, lest the unforeseen arise again and 
 push her plans beyond the grasp of hope. 
 
 Evangeline responded to their ring. She greeted 
 Martha, who entered first, warmly. Then she saw 
 Blair. The pink of her cheeks turned red. Her eyes 
 shut and opened quickly as if blinking from a light too 
 strong. Almost unconsciously her small hand slipped 
 into his powerful grasp. " Oh, Blair," she murmured, 
 as if her breath were too weak to carry the potent bur 
 den of those simple words. 
 
 Martha s eye was on them. Blair could all but feel 
 her sharp glances scorch through his back. He still 
 held Evangeline s hand, loath, powerless to let it go, 
 as if their clasp made a telepathic circuit that carried 
 her thoughts to him, his thoughts to her. A rapid in- 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 279 
 
 troduction to Mabel and Ben precluded even an ex 
 change of commonplaces. The bell rang again. The 
 four passed into the parlor. 
 
 The room, with a varnished floor, an inexpensive 
 rug, a long baize-covered table, on which lay squares 
 of magazines and photographs, attracted through a 
 plainness that just escaped barrenness arid just touched 
 the artistic. A portrait of Shakespere, another of 
 Tennyson, one of Dickens (Evangeline had taken them 
 from the store-room at home) smiled literature down 
 on the room ; a revolving book-case was ready to turn 
 under a Braun s copy of Burne-Jones " Golden 
 Stairs/ which faced that artist s " Venus Mirror " ; 
 and a few ornaments, taken from the same store-room, 
 found shelter in odd nooks and corners. 
 
 Two young ladies from Chicago, friends of Evan 
 geline (Blair knew neither of them and he was 
 heartily glad of it), tried to make the newcomers feel 
 at home. They were novices and they went about the 
 task clumsily. 
 
 " I presume work at the mills must be very trying," 
 said one of them, seeking to open the door of conver 
 sation with Blair by this sesame. 
 
 " It s apt to be hot in the summer, near the fur 
 naces. Can you tell me," he asked irrelevantly, " is 
 that portrait of Shakespere a Chandon?" 
 
 She gasped, acknowledged her ignorance and re 
 treated, pondering over the interrelation between 
 Shakespere and the rolling-mills. An anemic young 
 man, all glasses, no nose and a feminine voice, who had 
 overheard the question, answered it. He had come to 
 the Settlement with the avowed purpose of regener 
 ating the laboring man in a month at the outermost, 
 within a week, provided he struck the right material. 
 
280 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 You appear to be interested in Shakespere. May 
 I ask when you found time to read him ? " 
 
 " After working hours," answered Blair in disgust, 
 " when I came home so tired that I couldn t crawl. I 
 spelled the words out by the aid of a candle-light. I 
 might add that I saved enough money to purchase the 
 work by going without my supper." 
 
 " What a noble sacrifice ! It must have been hard ? " 
 
 " Not so very. Two meals come easy by practice. 
 Besides, I found nurture in the poetry, drank in his 
 words and devoured his pages." 
 
 The young man followed the young lady. The 
 American workingman was something of a revelation. 
 There was hope for him, he told her. She agreed with 
 him. 
 
 Meanwhile Evangeline s other assistant was having 
 an easier time of it with Ben Judson, who was dis 
 playing a readiness to converse that quite surprised his 
 sisters and Blair. 
 
 The room gradually rilled ; foreign toilers from the 
 mills dropped in by twos and threes, awkward, half 
 afraid, timidly curious. Swarthy Hungarian and be- 
 shawled Polish women gazed around the room in won 
 derment, holding refractory children by the arm. Mrs. 
 Brodski was there with Mary and Anna. Some of the 
 younger men were in evidence, bashful and stiff, en 
 gaged in trying to find use for their hands. All were 
 keenly alert, nervously awaiting the developments of 
 this unheard-of event. 
 
 La Vette and Putnam, who were pledged to the as 
 sistance of the enterprise, wedged their way through 
 the parlor. Smilingly, Putnam gave a nod of recog 
 nition to Mabel. An introduction to Martha followed 
 and Putnam s slow wit grew out of breath in an at- 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 281 
 
 tempt to keep pace with that young woman s quick 
 repartee. 
 
 La Vette s owl-like eyes missed nothing, but his 
 face remained expressionless, in no wise reflecting the 
 irony of his thoughts. Evangeline, sanguine of suc 
 cess, flitted butterfly-like through the room, resting in 
 no one place long, but in all places long enough to 
 leave a sincere word of welcome. 
 
 La Vette followed her roving flight, and before this 
 vision of purity, hope, and sweetness, his sardonic re 
 flections ceased and his heart softened. He rebelled 
 against her influence as he had rebelled before. Her 
 fresh na ive maidenliness had a way of tossing aside 
 the accumulated evils of his nature and reaching the 
 one kernel of good hidden in the filth of the noisome 
 pile. He loved to be in her presence, to bask in the 
 radiating sunshine of her light-bearing character, he 
 knew not why. He recalled the evening of the co 
 tillon, his conversation with her, his ride home in the 
 cab through the starry wintry night and his grim 
 endeavor to crush every thought of her out of his 
 soul. Well, if it should become necessary, he would 
 go through the same battle again and conquer again. 
 
 Putnam assumed the difficult task of keeping his 
 eyes on Evangeline, his mind on what Martha was 
 saying. Martha, in her observant manner, was swift 
 to detect his silent adoration. " So, Mr. Blair has a 
 rival," she thought. She exerted herself to start Put 
 nam outside of the oft-traveled rut into the byways 
 of conversation. She led; he followed. She was 
 taking his intellectual measure. The measurements 
 told her, what she was not over-rejoiced to discover, 
 that between Blair and Putnam were many inches of 
 difference, all in Blair s favor. 
 
282 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Blair greeted Mrs, Brodski and her children, who 
 were rejoiced to see their old friend again, and who 
 felt more comfortable on finding him. there ; then he 
 joined Mabel and Ben. He remained abstracted, lost 
 in reverie. Could he allow himself to believe that his 
 presence in Marvin was the motive which actuated 
 Evangeline s emprise? Now and then his glances 
 rested on Evangeline, who, unknown to herself, 
 was the cynosure for Martha, Putnam and La 
 Vette. 
 
 Suddenly La Yette broke on the circle of Blair s 
 vision. The chemist s sloping face puzzled him fasci 
 natingly. Where had he seen him before? The dark 
 Van Dyke beard, the short, fat body, he had been 
 struck by these once, but where and how? It dawned 
 on him in one broad illuminating flash. Yes, it was 
 on that cold night when he and Michael stood in the 
 shelter of the darkness and watched the stealthy en 
 trance of the anarchists into Sophia Goldstein s shack. 
 So, he belonged to that hateful brood ! La Vette 
 smacked of aristocracy ; was there treason in high 
 places? Blair shuddered. 
 
 La Vette s eyes, cold, steely, met Blair s scruti 
 nizing gaze for a second. Immediately the chemist 
 walked up to Blair, planting his fat paunch squarely 
 in front of him. 
 
 " Your name is Carrhart, is it not ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, that s my name. But you have the better 
 of me," he remarked; and to himself, " The man is a 
 fish, a fish." 
 
 " Mine s La Vette. I m the head chemist in the 
 laboratory. I ve heard of you often. You ve estab 
 lished a reputation in the mills in a wonderfully quick 
 time. I read your tariff speech and I heard r.bout your 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 283 
 
 encounter with Marvin on the scale question. That 
 was a brave deed of yours in the rail-mill." 
 
 Blair nodded ; La Vette remained quiet. Two strong 
 men were standing face to face, reading each other, 
 each trying to gauge the strength of the other. 
 
 " Well," said La Vette, breaking the silence, " I 
 presume we are on the eve of a great strike or a lock 
 out." 
 
 Blair nodded coldly, in a manner to shut off conver 
 sation in that direction. The unpleasant impression 
 that La Vette made was growing to a positive repul 
 sion. 
 
 Heedlessly, ignoring Blair s disapproval, La Vette 
 went on, " Things will come to a focus by the end of 
 next week at the latest, I presume. I m frank enough 
 to admit that I m awaiting the result with eager 
 ness." 
 
 " Just so," answered Blair, smiling inwardly at La 
 Vette s feeble effort to draw him out, at his frankness 
 which circumspectly admitted nothing. 
 
 Surrendering his thirst for knowledge to his Gallic 
 tact, La Vette shifted the conversation; but the 
 surrender was not absolute, for his curiosity cropped 
 out, maugre his restraint. " I ve heard Jan Brod- 
 ski speak of you ; he told me you used to live with 
 them, and Miss Marvin has mentioned you several 
 times." 
 
 Blair was uncomfortable; his nerves began to rasp. 
 It nettled him that Evangeline was familiar enough 
 with La Vette to let his name be bandied between them. 
 He gave a monosyllabic reply. 
 
 Divining his discomfort, the chemist hastened to 
 say, " You needn t mind me, anything I have heard 
 will rest safe in my keeping." 
 
284 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " I didn t know that I had any secret to keep," 
 flashed Blair angrily. 
 
 That s just as you want it, my "dear sir," and La 
 Vette laid a familiar hand on Blair s sleeve. 
 
 It was as abhorrent to Blair as if the wet body of a 
 serpent were gliding over his skin ; brusquely he drew 
 his arm away. 
 
 Again La Vette changed the conversation with 
 adept diplomacy. Little by little he advanced into 
 the center of the social question, stating his views 
 cautiously at first, with the assumed impartiality of a 
 statistician. For his part, he disagreed with the Social 
 Settlement movement. Its influence was too small ; to 
 spread esthetic tastes among the poor without be 
 stowing the means of gratification was a contradiction 
 in terms. To attempt to unite the two ends of society 
 while the present inequality existed was an absurdity. 
 It provoked instead of assuaging jealousy. " I ve 
 told Miss Marvin often," he concluded, " that she is 
 throwing her pebbles in the sea. She can confer no 
 lasting benefit on people out here until their general 
 material welfare is bettered." 
 
 Blair listened with an avid interest to La Vette s dis 
 course ; but the chemist soon discovered that tug as he 
 might at the handle he could draw no water from 
 the pump. Blair was on his guard and he main 
 tained it. 
 
 La Vette veered and tacked suddenly. " Some one 
 told me, I forget who it was, that you were interested 
 in a socialistic body out here, that you delivered lec 
 tures before it." 
 
 " Probably," replied Blair coolly, looking La Vette 
 straight in his vitreous eyes, " you obtained that in 
 formation from Miss Goldstein." 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 285 
 
 La Vette started, the top of his bald head flushed 
 red; before he could recover his self-possession, Blair 
 turned on his heel and left. 
 
 " I have been incautious somewhere," said La Vette 
 to himself, " or some one has blabbed." 
 
 Evangeline passed him, and he remarked, seizing 
 an unoccupied moment, " I have just had a talk with 
 your friend Mr. Carrhart, or rather I did the talk 
 ing and he listened. He has some very strange 
 ideas. 
 
 " Oh, very," answered Evangeline, blushing de 
 spite herself, " but you will come to like him much 
 better when you know him." 
 
 " I doubt it," muttered La Vette to himself as 
 Evangeline bounded away and whisked up to the cor 
 ner where Putnam and Martha stood. 
 
 Finding an excuse to withdraw, Martha crossed over 
 to a group formed by Blair, Mabel, Ben and two mill 
 hands. Impatiently Martha had been waiting an op 
 portunity to converse in private with Evangeline; but 
 the opportunity, ever tantalizingly in reach, was still 
 as far off as in the beginning of the evening and it 
 was fast growing late. What was the secret of 
 this young woman s attraction over Blair? If she 
 could but become better acquainted with her, she 
 might be able to give surcease to this torturing ques 
 tion. 
 
 " That s a very strange girl," whispered Putnam to 
 Evangeline, when Martha passed just out of ear 
 shot. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " I can t tell you why, but I can t make her out." 
 
 Evangeline smiled, crestfallen. " Why, everybody 
 seems strange to everybody else to-night. Half of my 
 
286 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 friends here seem at war with the other half. The 
 fault may be with you, Mr. Putnam ; she may have 
 found you hard to understand." 
 
 " Perhaps ; but she ought not to have. I tried my 
 best to entertain her." 
 
 " She may have known that you were trying ; that 
 always hurts a sensitive girl." 
 
 " She s interesting though," spoke Putnam. " I ll 
 make amends; I ll try again." 
 
 Evangeline started away, and Putnam sidled over to 
 Martha, wishing heartily that the trying and tiring 
 evening were over. Ben Judson, seeing his chance, 
 thrust himself on Evangeline, surprising his sisters 
 once more by his unwonted audacity. 
 
 " Do you intend to live out here? " he began. 
 
 " Most of the time," she answered, pleasantly. 
 
 One thing led to another and the conversation 
 dragged along tediously for Evangeline, who found 
 Ben s standard of judgment perfectly commonplace 
 and bourgeois. From a worldly point of view, within 
 certain restrictions, Ben was a masculine edition of 
 Martha. His platitudes on wealth and poverty lacked 
 even the smallest degree of noble or high-minded con 
 sideration ; if he were a representative young man of 
 the people Evangeline felt that her faith in the people 
 he represented must waver. 
 
 It was painfully evident that she could hope to find 
 neither sympathy nor appreciation from this young 
 man. She had found hearty indorsement of her plans 
 from no one as yet. Half of the visitors there to 
 night had come, she knew, through an interest in her 
 and not in her aspirations ; a quarter of the other half 
 through idle curiosity : the rest were either avowedly 
 skeptical, like La Yette, or in a lukewarm, non-com- 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 287 
 
 mittal state of mind, awaiting the result of the experi 
 ment. 
 
 There was Blair surely his sympathy would be lim 
 ited by no paltry conditions ; his appreciation would be 
 without equivocation, his abetment without compro 
 mise. She longed to speak to him. Whai nad brought 
 him here? How had he found out? How had the 
 months changed his thoughts ? How did she weigh 
 in the balance of his precious love? She recalled the 
 first look he bestowed upon her when he had entered, 
 the eloquent pressure of his hand, and a smile sped 
 across her face and the demure expression vanished. 
 Martha saw that smile as Evangeline s beaming coun 
 tenance turned on Blair and she divined what in 
 spired it. 
 
 Blair, on his side, fretted and fumed from the dull 
 dialogue of those thrust upon him. His mind was ab 
 sent, his spirit was harassed by the sense of a tanta 
 lizing void, knowing all the while that none but 
 Evangeline could fill the void which tantalized him. 
 Martha studied his face narrowly, and her heart sick 
 ened at the thought, still poignantly present, that she 
 was nourishing a love which awoke no responsive 
 chord in Blair s being. 
 
 It was growing late ; one by one the guests departed. 
 The Judsons started to go; Blair moved towards the 
 hall with them. 
 
 A light hand was laid on his sleeve ; his nerves 
 thrilled, and he was aware, without turning, that the 
 touch was Evangeline s. 
 
 " Are you going already ? " asked Evangeline. 
 
 " I must see these young ladies home," he said in 
 extenuation. 
 
 " I am sorry," she murmured lightly, with that old 
 
2 88 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 wistful look he understood so well and interpreted so 
 easily. 
 
 " He is our star boarder, you know," volunteered 
 Martha, who was at Blair s right, " and he must ac 
 quit himself with credit." 
 
 Martha s frank gaze met Evangeline s, Evangeline s 
 met Martha s ; both understood. 
 
 " But Ben can take us home," Martha made haste 
 to add, recovering her statue-like equipoise, her calm 
 self-possession. 
 
 " No, I ll go," insisted Blair, with a determination 
 that hurt Evangeline and brought back the old doubt. 
 " It s late and I have to go to work with the six o clock 
 shift." 
 
 It was Martha whom he considered at that moment 
 and not his own consuming desire to remain with 
 Evangeline ; for he recognized that Martha s sensitive 
 nature would suffer from the slighting preference, 
 from the humiliation of Evangeline s unsought tri 
 umph. 
 
 " He ought to have stayed," thought Evangeline 
 sorrowfully, after Blair s departure. " Perhaps he still 
 remembers how I .left him the last time we met. He 
 ought not to punish me like this." 
 
 She became rueful ; she pondered in review over 
 every word, over every look and gesture of his that she 
 had seen or heard that night. Every trifle took on a 
 telling worth ; nothing was insignificant. " I wonder 
 if he can care for that young lady seriously," she 
 sighed. " I know, I could feel how much she cared 
 for him. He is so peculiar ; her poverty will appeal 
 to him against my wealth, and her position will win 
 his sympathy, I am sure." And later when her as 
 sistants were chattering to her as they shut the win- 
 
EVANGELINE S EXPERIMENT 289 
 
 dows and bolted the doors for the night, she was 
 still lost in that one all-absorbing thought; indeed, 
 all her life seemed wrapped and bound within it, and 
 she said to herself, not even hearing the voices of the 
 others : " A great change has come over Blair ; he 
 doesn t act the same as he did. He is in love with 
 Miss Judson." 
 1 9 
 
XXVI 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 
 
 THE Judsons had passed several blocks on the 
 way homeward before Martha, who guarded 
 the rear with Blair, ventured to speak. She 
 was brooding darkly and Blair conjectured, in a dim 
 and misty sort of way, what the subject of her 
 thoughts was. He held his peace, deeming it better 
 not to anticipate. His mind aberrated to Evangeline 
 when the sound of his name, spoken softly, and a 
 touch on the arm, recalled him to present exigencies. 
 
 " Blair? " spoken with a rising inflection. 
 
 " Yes, Martha." 
 
 " I m not going there again." 
 
 "Going where?" 
 
 44 To Miss Marvin s Settlement." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Oh, for many reasons." 
 
 " Of which the chief reason is? " 
 
 " Of which the chief reason is that I won t be pat 
 ronized. I detest it ! " 
 
 " Who patronized you, Martha ? " 
 
 " No one in particular, yet every one in general. It 
 was in the atmosphere of the place." 
 
 " I think that your imagination must have made that 
 atmosphere." 
 
 290 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 291 
 
 " Don t believe it ! I am not ordinarily combative ; 
 I don t usually approach things in a questioning mood, 
 with a chip on my shoulder. It would be fairer to say 
 that the atmosphere made my mood. Don t you think 
 it would be fairer to me to say that ? " 
 
 " I can t say, Martha. It all depends upon the frame 
 of mind you were in, and if I could put myself in your 
 place I might be able to tell exactly. Ordinarily, 
 though, I think you are just what you have denied 
 combative. You do approach things with a chip on 
 your shoulder. You are so determined that people 
 shan t patronize you that you are ever and always ap 
 proaching them with the fear that they will." 
 
 " You always say that, Blair," she asseverated, 
 drawing her shoulders up, throwing her chin far back, 
 and clasping her thumbs with her fingers. 
 
 " I never said so before, Martha." 
 
 " But it has always been in your attitude." 
 
 He smiled. " There you have it ; the chip is hoisted 
 on your shoulder and you are insisting that I knock- 
 it off. But I won t. I refuse absolutely." 
 
 " Gallant man ! " 
 
 " Sarcastic woman." 
 
 " You are in anything but a pleasant mood, 
 Blair." 
 
 He shook his head, smiling deprecatingly. " You are 
 reading your mood into mine, Martha. I feel pleas 
 ant enough. Come, be cheerful." 
 
 " Be cheerful," she mocked, with rancor. " Why 
 shouldn t I be cheerful? I am sure that I have every 
 reason to be. You treated me with such deference to 
 night. You had eyes for me only, ears for me only. 
 With what avidity you drank in every word I said ! 
 Your mind was never absent, not for one second. You 
 
292 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 saw no one else ; you heard no one else. Miss Marvin 
 might as well have been out of the room as far as 
 you were concerned. I am sure that you were not 
 even aware of her presence." 
 
 " Martha ! " he said reproachfully. 
 
 She laughed bitterly, with the tang of desperation. 
 " I do so love that reproaching tone. It s so generous, 
 so masculinely generous, to put the blame and respon 
 sibility of my mood on me, as if I were to blame, as 
 if you had not thrust it upon me." 
 
 She raised her voice ; Mabel turned around with a 
 jerk of her head. Martha lowered her tones. 
 
 " Oh, it was so cruel of you, Blair, to have humbled 
 me in front of her. You might have spared me that. 
 I cared for you so much ; it never seemed to me that I 
 could love anybody so much as I did you to-night ! 
 And then she broke off abruptly as if a ris 
 ing rain of tears was threatening to drown her 
 words. 
 
 Blair staggered as if he had been struck full in the 
 face. 
 
 " This is all new to me, Martha," he declared softly, 
 pleadingly. " You surely can t mean what you say. 
 It s all very unjustified. Humiliate you! Nothing 
 was farther from my thoughts. What put that idea 
 into your head is a mystery to me. I scarcely spoke 
 one word to Evangeline all evening. I was at your 
 side almost every minute from the time that we 
 entered the house until we left it." 
 
 " It wasn t what you said, Blair ; it was what you 
 thought, and I know perfectly well where your 
 thoughts were." 
 
 He said nothing, remaining quiet, hurt by this out 
 burst of unreasonable and unreasoning jealousy. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 
 
 2 93 
 
 Silence pained her; contradiction, however palpably 
 untrue, would have been as balm to her wounded 
 spirit ; she desired to be convinced against her own 
 convictions. Was it so then? He did not even take 
 the pain to deny it. Evidently it was not worth his 
 while. 
 
 " You don t even deny it ! " she challenged. " You 
 can t. You don t wish to ! You daren t ! " 
 
 " Hush, Martha ; you are forgetting yourself. The 
 others will hear us. Mabel just turned her head." 
 
 " I don t care for that. She is welcome to hear. 
 You weren t so careful an hour ago about her and the 
 others seeing." 
 
 " This would be ludicrous, Martha ; if you didn t 
 take it so seriously. You will laugh at it yourself to 
 morrow, when you think it over." 
 
 " I have been doing nothing else but laugh at myself, 
 Blair, ever since I began to care for you. And the pa 
 thetic part of it is that the laugh hurts me more than 
 tears. I know what a fool I have been through it 
 all." 
 
 He vouchsafed no answer, dejected and sad. Per 
 haps he deserved this upbraiding; at any rate her 
 words cut him to the quick. 
 
 " And the worst of it all is, Blair," she went on, her 
 voice husky, " I sometimes feel I felt it to-night 
 that you are laughing at me." 
 
 " For heaven s sake, don t say that, Martha," he 
 groaned. " It s the last thing in all the world .of 
 thoughts that ever occurred to me." 
 
 Then you pitied me ! " she burst out, her hands 
 clenched tightly, her breast heaving as if she were 
 gasping for breath. 
 
 It would have smacked of the semi-ridiculous, her 
 
294 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 insistence upon a contradiction, had it not been so 
 intense. 
 
 " I can t talk with you about this now, Martha," he 
 remarked in the gentlest of tones, " you are not your- 
 self. I can scarcely realize that it is you who are talk 
 ing to me. Let the matter rest for to-night." 
 
 Again she laughed, derisively, almost sardonically. 
 " I knew that would come. When I lay my heart bare 
 before you, when I tear the flesh from it to expose it 
 to you, then I am not myself, I am another! When I 
 conceal myself, hide my thoughts from you, act my 
 part, then, I suppose, I am myself and not another. 
 Come, let me act, let me pretend indifference, cold 
 ness, that may meet with your approval." 
 
 He touched her hand soothingly, her palm closed on 
 his with a clutch that was desperate rather than af 
 fectionate, pleading rather than loving. " Oh, but you 
 ought to have loved me," she moaned, " I cared for 
 you so much." 
 
 " I wish that I could, God knows I wish I could," 
 the words murmured whisperingly in his heart, but he 
 said, with restraint, " I do care for you, Martha, a 
 great deal. I always did and I always will." 
 
 "I would rather have you say nothing than that; 
 it s like spreading freezing hands over a heap of ashes 
 and knowing that the ashes were once coals that 
 warmed the hands of another." 
 
 He made no comment; to pacify her was beyond his 
 power, every word angered her but the more, seeming 
 a breeze that fanned the embers of her regret and 
 made them blaze. 
 
 " I deserve it all, I presume," she said quietly, strug 
 gling to regain her composure, as if the battle had been 
 fought and lost and she had resolved to bear defeat 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 295 
 
 philosophically ; " I have always repented, I have al 
 ways suffered every time that I cared for any one not 
 of my own class. I have no right to look beyond; I 
 should stay where I am, at home." 
 
 " Yon are reproaching me with superciliousness, 
 Martha," he retorted angrily. 
 
 " No, you have never been that. You are too large 
 a man for so small a fault, Blair. Superciliousness is 
 so eminently a quality of the little mind and man ; and 
 you are anything but petty, even in your faults." 
 
 " If not that, what then"? " 
 
 " I can t say just what it is," she replied, with a 
 vague sadness ; " it isn t what I felt when I talked to 
 night with Mr. Putnam that was superciliousness; 
 but I feel a difference between you and me a thou 
 sand little things tell it to me every day, and yet I 
 can t tell what the difference is. It is there, and that s 
 all I know." 
 
 She stopped short, as if pausing to gain strength 
 and command ; then she continued : " It may be birth ; 
 it may be breeding; but, O Blair," she sobbed, "I 
 don t believe that I was ever meant for you or you for 
 me ; and that knowledge, my helplessness, the fact that 
 there is a bar between your love and my love, not of 
 your making nor of my making, is what pains and 
 tortures me so. If the fault were mine, I shouldn t 
 give way to bitterness, I know." 
 
 They were nearing home, a few steps up the block 
 and they would be there ; she went on in a firm manner, 
 herself well in hand, under the perfect control of a 
 noble self-restraint : 
 
 " I wouldn t say, Blair, that you ever pointed to that 
 bar and said, Martha, there s what divides us. Quite 
 to the contrary, you have been very lovable and sweet 
 
296 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 about that ; for if wealth and education have given you 
 any superiority, you have always taken good care to 
 hide it. And that s what irks and hurts me most, the 
 fact that you have been trying to hide it from me. 
 Oh, I know I m peculiar and that you find it hard to 
 understand me. But that s just the way it is. The 
 more you hide it, the more it seemed to bulge out 
 under the cover you put over it. I knew long ago that 
 it was all useless. Forgive me, Blair, for speaking as 
 I did to-night. You were quite right ; I have not 
 been myself." 
 
 He took her hand and held it affectionately. She 
 withdrew it suddenly; her breast heaved and fell, 
 something like a tear curtained the brilliancy of her 
 large black eyes. She turned and walked proudly up 
 the stairs. 
 
 Blair had scarcely reached his room, when a slight 
 rap at the door aroused him from the depths of a rev 
 erie tinged with melancholy. He knew it must be 
 Martha. 
 
 " I came to say good-night, Blair ; I did not mean 
 to leave you so so abruptly." 
 
 There was an eternal good-by to her love in her 
 good-night ; he perceived it clearly. 
 
 " Good-night, Martha," he said softly, slowly, lin 
 gering over the words, as if regretting that they must 
 be dismissed with a despatch all out of proportion to 
 their deep meaning and vital import. 
 
 She bent over slowly, drawing her fine head up to 
 his chin. He was leaning over her. She moved nearer 
 him, their lips met for the first time and the last. It 
 was a kiss that lacked all passion, the finger of a 
 dead love pressing numb and cold between their 
 lips. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 
 
 297 
 
 " Good-night, Blair," she said again, as she moved 
 down the hall, her voice sounding like a sighing echo 
 through a dank building-, long deserted. 
 
 " Good-night, Martha," he answered as he stood in 
 the doorway, like a giant contracted to fit in the nar 
 row frame, and watched her pass to her room. 
 
XXVII 
 ON THE EVE 
 
 THE committees from the various lodges had de 
 cided to submit to the will of a mass-meeting 
 whether or not they should be vested with the 
 power to shut down the departments still running, to 
 call all mechanics, whether union or non-union, from 
 work, and to demand of the day laborers, most of 
 whom were foreigners, to join issue with them. The 
 mass-meeting, after several days of deliberation, was 
 called ; the motions of the joint committees were car 
 ried unanimously and the partial lock-out was turned 
 into a general strike. 
 
 The machinery of the strike was at once put into 
 action. An Advisory Committee was formed, with full 
 and unlimited power to direct the campaign of labor 
 against capital : Blair, Ben Judson, Winslow, Bach, 
 McNaughton, Blair s old friend in the open-hearth, 
 and Michael Brodski, who was to act as interpreter 
 to the vast foreign element, and five others composed 
 its members. Blair was chosen chairman ; his respon 
 sibility was grave, his power all but supreme. 
 
 The policy of the Company was anticipated by the 
 leaders ; they foresaw clearly that it was Marvin s in 
 tention to shut down one department after the other 
 as quickly as he could install and train " scab " and 
 
 298 
 
ON THE EVE 299 
 
 non-union labor to take the places of the old employ 
 ees. It was declared, and the declaration was any 
 thing but baseless, that the Company s agents every 
 where throughout the large cities of the Union had 
 been putting forth vigorous efforts to gather from six 
 to eight hundred non-union men to start up the plate- 
 mill and the open-hearth furnaces, and that the new 
 forces were soon to concentrate in Chicago and move 
 to Marvin under the protection of a host of Pinkerton 
 detectives. 
 
 The excitement which the rumor, growing with in 
 creasing strength, aroused was terrific. Years have 
 associated the name of Pinkertons with criminals and 
 refugees from the law, and labor rebelled at the wrench 
 ing of the association to include itself. The name was 
 odious, its suggestions hateful. 
 
 Men were at once appointed to guard the depots 
 and picket every approach to the mills. The patrol 
 was instructed to cover its beat night and day, and to 
 warn the Advisory Committee of the first appearance 
 of either Pinkerton men or " scabs." The greatest 
 and freest avenue of entrance to the mills was still left 
 unguarded ; there were no barriers to prevent the Pink 
 ertons and their charges from coming down Lake 
 Michigan by boat and swooping down on the mills. 
 Blair had this in mind ; his map of the mills came in 
 good stead, and he suggested that they hire a tug to 
 ply up and down near the portion of the lake shore oc 
 cupied by the mills and to warn them by whistle of the 
 movement of all suspicious crafts. His suggestion was 
 carried. 
 
 Measures were rapidly assuming a warlike look, 
 and the grim visage of battle loomed down upon the 
 town of Marvin and the mills awfully. Battle was 
 
ooo BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 <J 
 
 scented; those on vengeance bent were becoming satis 
 fied. 
 
 At night the long line of saloons was crowded. The 
 Dumb-Bell did a prosperous business, and the men, 
 letting excitement run away with their judgment, 
 spent money freely. Whisky displaced beer. Blatant 
 oratory competed with intoxicated speech for listeners. 
 Throngs gathered around the gates and fences of 
 the deserted mill, to be dispersed only to collect 
 again by the police and the handful of watchmen, 
 who refused to " go out " on the summons from 
 the strikers. 
 
 Blair was everywhere, in the streets, the saloons, the 
 houses, mingling with the crowds, cautioning and beg 
 ging order and restraint. His presence prevented an 
 open riot. Time and time again his path crossed 
 Sophia Goldstein s, and there were always in her blaz 
 ing eyes the challenge and the threat. 
 
 A crowd, composed mostly of street and mill boys, 
 with Thomas Brodski as ringleader, hanged an effigy 
 of Marvin to one of the telegraph poles along the 
 street that fronted the plant. It remained swinging 
 there until the morning a dreadful enough por 
 tent heralding what the most vicious desired in all 
 actuality. 
 
 It was pointed out to Marvin in the morning, but 
 he laughed scornfully, flushing with anger rather than 
 fear. " I ll pay them back for that," he swore; " I ll 
 get even with them for that trick," and he ordered the 
 thing cut down. 
 
 Meanwhile Marvin was not idle. He moved with 
 apparent leisure and calmness, but he moved. He had 
 already warned the sheriff of the county of the firm 
 intention of the Company to guard its property with 
 
ON THE EVE 301 
 
 three hundred Pinkerton men, and he demanded their 
 deputization. 
 
 The sheriff hesitated. He had political aspirations, 
 and the road to honor and lucre would not be made 
 royal by the implacable antagony of over five thousand 
 laborers and the influence they could wield. He con 
 sulted his attorney, and, as a result of the advice, he 
 refused to deputize the Pinkertons until they were in 
 side of the Company s property; and when that time 
 came he would act as he thought circumstances war 
 ranted. 
 
 On the last of June days the Company grew more 
 and more fearful of the restlessness of the strikers, of 
 the frequent attempts of small detachments from large 
 mobs to break inside of the mills, at the assault on its 
 watchmen; and a formal application was made to the 
 sheriff for the services of two hundred of the county s 
 deputies. 
 
 Evasiveness is the golden mean between refusal and 
 compliance ; it is the legal tender with which politicians 
 pay promises. The sheriff held counsel with his attor 
 ney again ; then he came to the seat of the trouble with 
 his posse of twelve men, merely to look over the ground 
 and satisfy himself if the demand of the Company 
 were justified. 
 
 The Advisory Committee, who were informed by 
 the sheriff of his purpose, met him and his posse at 
 the depot and escorted them to the mill. The sheriff 
 declared that, in so far as he could see, the Company s 
 property was not being- molested. 
 
 Already the news of the visit of the county official 
 was bruited abroad ; from all directions the crowds 
 swarmed around the mill gates. The foreign quar 
 ters were deserted. Hungarians, Poles, Bohemians, 
 
-02 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 w/ 
 
 Lithuanians, Croatians poured through the streets. 
 They seemed to pop out of the ground like the grass 
 in the spring. Mrs. Brodski came dragging Anna 
 and Mary by their short arms ; even Wanda was 
 aroused from her sullen lethargy, carried thither by 
 the spirit of the occasion. 
 
 It was a cosmopolitan army nationalized by a single 
 purpose blind destruction of something, anything ; 
 the quick wreaking of a b .Ind wrath. Squat women, 
 disheveled, dressed in frayed and dirty calico, their 
 dull, heavy features lit with vivifying rage and made 
 attractive for the nonce, spoke in polyglot monosylla 
 bles to urge on the men. Barefooted boys, towards 
 mischief inclined, led on by Thomas Brodski, swelled 
 the overflowing crowd. 
 
 Stones, bricks, slag picked up from the roadside, 
 gnarled sticks, pieces of kindling wood grabbed in 
 haste and on the run, were swung ominously, restless 
 ly as if tormented by the lack of a mark whereat to 
 strike and fling. 
 
 A few watchmen came out of the mill gate for a 
 second, but they shrank back inside of the mills quick 
 ly, finding excuse for occupation elsewhere, resolving, 
 when opportunity offered, to join the strikers rather 
 than be disjointed by them. La Yette, at work on an 
 unfinished experiment in the laboratory, glanced down 
 on the crowd from time to time, and went on with his 
 task, whistling an almost inaudible Marseillaise, inter 
 spersed with the mocking notes from humorous 
 ditties. 
 
 The sheriff and his henchmen emerged from the 
 offices, followed by the committee, who were as nerv 
 ous as their charges. Blair commanded the crowd 
 to disperse, sounding his clarion voice with full stress, 
 
ON THE EVE 
 
 33 
 
 exhortingly. They obeyed unwillingly, snapping and 
 snarling, still fondling their missiles. 
 
 " Pinkertons ! " yelled some one with a foreign 
 accent. The cry was like the lighting of a fuse of a 
 bomb. 
 
 Blair heard the shout in the nick of time and saw 
 the shouter with even greater timeliness. He pushed 
 and fought his way through the human thicket. He 
 stood face to face with the agitator. It was his arch 
 enemy Vorlinski ! In Blair s heart there were the 
 shock of surprise and a second of hesitation, in his 
 mind and body there was no hesitation at all. " Where 
 had the man come from? What had brought him 
 back? flashed the questions through Blair s brain as 
 he caught him by the throat and shouted : " You lie ! 
 You lie! They are not Pinkertons." 
 
 The multitude massed and jammed around the two. 
 Blair s decisive action won their admiration again. At 
 a word from the master they would have rent the Pole 
 to pieces. It would have been a diversion, an outlet 
 for ebullient spirits. He shook the Pole from him ; 
 held the throng at bay and hastened up to his party, 
 which had made a rapid retreat during the inci 
 dent. The fuse was extinguished at the proper mo 
 ment, another second and the bomb would have 
 exploded. 
 
 The sheriff, on the road to the depot, dropped the 
 hint gently that the Company would have the legitimate 
 right to bring what men it chose within the mills. This 
 indirection satisfied his mind ; he had done his duty. 
 On the train he breathed easier. 
 
 " It s a tight box," said the chief official to his under 
 lings. 
 
 " Yes," answered an acolyte, barely recovered from 
 
304 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 his fright, " and it looks as if it s going to keep on 
 getting tighter." 
 
 " We just slipped out in time," remarked another, 
 " the cover almost shut down and the sides were mov 
 ing together." 
 
 The train had barely pulled out of sight of the town 
 when Henry Marvin, who had been delayed by urgent 
 business in the city, whirled through the muddy 
 streets in his carriage. Penton and Hamilton sat be 
 side him, with a look of disgust on their stupid faces. 
 
 Angry looks, taunts, jeers greeted the progress of 
 the luxurious vehicle and its occupants. Sibilant 
 curses in foreign tongues hissed their way across the 
 street and from house to house. If Marvin could have 
 understood, if he had been able to translate, his blood 
 might have curdled ; as it was he sat bolt upright, his 
 face sternly set, his brows wrinkled into a determined 
 V. Shutters were opened, heads peeped forth, fists 
 were clenched and shaken. The street was a-babble with 
 a downfall of screeching oaths. The finely appointed 
 carriage, the expensive trappings, the uniformed 
 coachman, the blooded horses these insignia of af 
 fluence were like so many insulting challenges thrown 
 boldly in their faces. It was the dare defiant ! Armed 
 militia, much as those foreigners hated the sight of 
 uniforms and what they symbolized, would have awak 
 ened less resentment. Yet, although the sight pro 
 voked and excited, the flaunting of superiority and 
 wealth made an imposing impression. The force of 
 surprise, of boldness, daunted otherwise it might 
 have gone ill with the carriage and the Marvins. 
 
 The heavy harness clanked and clinked; the horses 
 pawed, pulling at the restraining bits ; the whip 
 snapped smartly; the carriage whirled along. There 
 
ON THE EVE 305 
 
 went the old , the cause of all their trouble, their 
 
 poverty and their irksome want ! The vampire that 
 was fattening on their blood ! Cursed be he and his 
 unto all their generations ! 
 
 Men came out of the saloons, attracted by the pecul 
 iar character of the noise, and standing on the raised 
 platforms, with arms crossed and faces darkling, they 
 muttered irately as the carriage rolled on. 
 
 " There goes bread and butter for all of us for 
 years ! " growled one. 
 
 " Fools, you, not to take it, then," scowled Jan 
 Brodski, tugging at his red beard. 
 
 " Wait," exclaimed another, " our time will come." 
 
 The carriage turned on C street. Mrs. Brodski was 
 crossing the road, her arms laden with wood, her form 
 bent trudgingly through the mire, when the wheels 
 spattered through the stagnant puddles. 
 
 " Look out ! " bawled the coachman ; she was barely 
 in time to evade the hoofs of the horse at her right. 
 She threw her wood in the gutter, rubbed the tip of 
 her flat nose with her hand and screeched : " Ah, you ; 
 that s right ; kill my son-in-law first and now run me 
 down." Her cheeks puffed ; she drew breath and spat 
 out. The saliva fell short of its aim, missing Mar 
 vin s face. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski s boldness animated the others ; the 
 startling impression of superiority was rapidly being 
 lost. It needed little to start violence on a heedless 
 course. Shrieks were growing wilder and more fre 
 quent. 
 
 Marvin had been warned; he had been importuned 
 not to put foot within the purlieus of his own town 
 unless he was attended by detectives ; above every 
 thing else the warning and the importunity extended 
 20 
 
306 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 to the use of his carriage. He chose to disregard the 
 admonition ; he would come and go as he chose, in 
 the manner that suited his mood of the moment 
 best. 
 
 He flushed purple at the termagant s vile act ; he 
 would have jumped from his carriage and have struck 
 had a man committted the outrage. Age had not 
 withered his courage. 
 
 The twins blanched and trembled. They foreboded 
 unspeakable terrors. The maledictions, the jeers, 
 the shaking fists, had made their weak hearts faint. 
 
 " The old man s crazy," whispered Penton under 
 his breath. "What did he make us come along for? 
 I ve a mind to jump and cut." 
 
 " Not me," whimpered Hamilton in reply; " I ll stay 
 where 1 am, but you don t see me out this way any 
 more. We might as well stay here and get trounced 
 as cut and get trounced at home. Our chances are 
 better here." 
 
 " I guess that s right," murmured Penton. 
 
 " W hat are you fellows whispering there? " snapped 
 Marvin. " Are you afraid ? " 
 
 " Not at all," said Penton. 
 
 " Not me," echoed Hamilton. 
 
 !< Your looks belie it," scorned the father, rage at 
 their cowardice chafing him. " I ve a mind to throw 
 you both out by the scruff of the neck and make you 
 walk." 
 
 The carriage turned ; the entrance to the mills was 
 in sight. Blair chanced to be standing on the corner 
 and he saw the vehicle as it veered. A part of the 
 crowd that had threatened the sheriff was still con 
 glomerated about the entrance. 
 
 " We d better go up there," he said to Winslow and 
 
ON THE EVE 307 
 
 Ben Judson, who were talking with him, " I fear there 
 may be trouble." 
 
 " He ought to stand it, said Ben. " If I wave a red 
 rag before a bull I have sense enough to know that the 
 bull will use its horns if it gets a chance." 
 
 " Well, we ll go anyway," said Winslow. 
 
 The trio moved on. The carriage drew to a halt 
 a few paces away from the gate. The crowd flocked 
 towards it. They had been balked of their prey once 
 that morning ; they were restless ; they were idle ; agi 
 tators had been egging them on. Impatience stood on 
 tiptoe. 
 
 Marvin alighted, erect, impassive as a soldier; the 
 twins shuffled behind him in dread. Thomas Brodski, 
 ever on the lookout for deviltry of one kind or an 
 other, tripped Penton by the heels ; he fell prone. 
 Hamilton screamed in terror. A loud guffaw burst 
 from the files of the strikers. Marvin faced them, 
 planting his back against the fence squarely. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " he roared. " I warn you, 
 you are making serious trouble for yourselves. There s 
 some law left in this land; let me and my sons pass. 
 Do you hear ! " 
 
 They edged back a few inches, held in check perhaps 
 by a sudden gust of fear, perhaps by his age and aris 
 tocratic appearance, perhaps by the badge of his au 
 thority. Only the women in the mob stood f heir ground 
 recklessly, screaming like the furies they were, show 
 ering down invectives, calling the men to avenge 
 themselves on the maker of all their trouble. Penton 
 was on his feet again ; Hamilton crouched at his 
 father s side ; both too frightened to give vent to the 
 tears that were scalding their ducts. Not one nerve 
 in Marvin s body twitched. 
 
308 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Without warning, a shower of mud clods burst 
 from the rear rank of the malcontents. It fell about 
 the fence, spattered the crowd, and one large lump 
 TOOK Hamilton full in the face. His knees knocked, he 
 hardly was able to maintain his balance. His pitiful 
 fright, his besmudged appearance, amused the evil 
 doers and encouraged them to another effort. 
 
 Blair fought his way to the imprisoned ones, swing 
 ing his arms like two hammers to the right and left. 
 
 " You can go on now," he said, making way. 
 
 " It s a pretty army," answered Marvin, recognizing 
 his rescuer, " a brave army you have ! One shot-gun 
 will scatter the whole of them like geese." 
 
 " You can go in now," repeated Blair quietly, keep 
 ing the path open. 
 
 " I m obliged to you for the permission to enter my 
 own property," he replied. 
 
 As Marvin moved up the stairs to his office, he said 
 to himself : " That man ought to be in my office, 
 instead of leading a pack of hoodlums. He has brain 
 enough to command a salary. I would like to know 
 what his price is. No," the answer to his own ques 
 tion thundered in his mind, " I ll burn the mills first." 
 
 The Company, he resolved, had millions for battle, 
 not one cent wherewith to purchase peace. 
 
XXVIII 
 THE END OF THE BEGINNING 
 
 CONCLUDING that his presence in the house 
 would be painful to Martha, Blair left the 
 Judsons , and went to room with Bach, who 
 lived a few blocks away on N street. 
 
 The Judson family, Martha excepted, was puzzled 
 and grieved at Blair b sudden announcement of his de 
 termination to change abodes. 
 
 " He s a peculiar chap," said Winslow, shaking his 
 head, on hearing the news. 
 
 "Peculiar!" ejaculated Judson, who had just told 
 him ; " I should say he was. Still I liked the man. 
 His ways were fine. The world takes to big chaps 
 like him somehow, just as if they were made big on 
 purpose to be liked. Yes, sir, I liked that man and I 
 was sorry to see him go." 
 
 There was a general shake of Judson heads to nod 
 assent with the utterance of the chief of the family. 
 Martha remained silent. 
 
 " I like him too for the matter of that," agreed 
 Winslow : " he s quick to learn, smart as chained light 
 ning ; he s full of pluck and grit, and he s square right 
 straight through from head to foot." 
 
 But none the less, at the bottom of the valiant Eng 
 lishman s heart, he rejoiced that Blair had changed 
 his quarters; for Winslow s suit for Martha s hand was 
 
 39 
 
3 io BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 progressing better since Blair s absence. Martha even 
 encouraged his advances now, whereas before she had 
 ignored them persistently. When he had introduced 
 Blair to the Judsons, WinsJow did not surmise that 
 he was allowing a formidable enemy to enter, without 
 challenge, into the province of his love. 
 
 He was even more friendly to Blair than ever. 
 Perhaps, reasoned Winslow, Blair had helped his cause 
 with Martha and quitted the house that he might leave 
 a clear field for him. The abruptness of Blair s de 
 parture was the one thing that astonished \Yinslow ; 
 but the reason for this he was destined never to learn. 
 
 A few evenings after his ties with Martha were 
 broken, and just a day before he had rescued Henry 
 Marvin from the mob s attack, Blair put in his appear 
 ance at the Settlement, with the same suddenness that 
 marked his disappearance from the Judsons. 
 
 When Blair entered, the house was not nearly so 
 well favored with visitors as on the evening of its in 
 auguration ; the Settlement, for one thing, could not 
 compete with the strike in either intensity or interest ; 
 and, for another, when it was bruited abroad that 
 Evangeline was the daughter of the President, the 
 whole affair was regarded with suspicion. 
 
 A few of the bolder and more curious foreigners 
 came, despite all protests and their own misgivings, 
 and they stood around bashful and awkward, lest a 
 phrase of broken English evoke laughter on the part 
 of those to whom the language belonged as a mother 
 tongue. They clustered around Blair, extending their 
 hands, one by one, glad to do reverence to the man 
 whom they adored, proud, in turn, to be recognized by 
 him. He made them all feel at ease at once ; his pres 
 ence was sufficient guarantee that the purposes of the 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 31 1 
 
 institution were proclaimed in good faith and that rid 
 icule was not one of them. 
 
 A strong hand grasped the stout muscle of Blair s 
 right arm. He turned. 
 
 " Hello, Paul," he cried, glad to see him, shaking 
 hands with the well-knit, handsome, blond-haired Pole. 
 
 " Glad to see you again, Mr. Carrhart, very," said 
 Paul in good English. 
 
 " You re shooting up like a weed," continued Blair, 
 " you are an inch larger every time I see you. What 
 became of you, anyway ? I missed you in the rail- 
 mill." 
 
 " I left there. They put me to work on the charg- 
 ing-floor of the cupola-furnace." 
 
 " Did you like it any better? " 
 
 Paul shook his head. " Not much ! It s a terrible 
 place when the wind s wrong. Almost choked to 
 death up there." 
 
 Blair s mind wandered. What did Paul s visit por 
 tend? What had brought him hither? Was he still 
 actively engaged with the anarchistic corps? He re 
 called La Vette s visit of a few evenings previous. 
 This was the second bird that had flown to the Settle 
 ment from that foul nest. Were they sent as spies ? 
 Was harm intended to Evangeline? Blair shuddered. 
 
 " Jan is working on the charging-floor of the blast 
 furnace, isn t he ? " asked Blair, with an irrelevant 
 break into Paul s conversation. 
 
 " Yes. His job is almost like mine. That s right, 
 isn t it, two brothers to do the same work ? " 
 
 Blair nodded, his thoughts recurring to the theme 
 that troubled them. " And Wanda ? " he asked, arous 
 ing himself. 
 
 " I see you remember us all, Mr. Carrhart," replied 
 
3i2 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Paul, far from displeased at the attention. " Wanda 
 is not the same girl as when you knew her since 
 Ignatz you remember him too? was killed in the 
 steel-mill. She don t go out much. We re afraid 
 sometimes" (Paul tapped his forehead significantly) ; 
 " but the doctor says she will be all right in time." 
 
 Blair shook his head sadly. He remembered the 
 accident vividly. " Has Michael married Irma Lud- 
 vig yet ? " he asked, after a bit. 
 
 " No, not yet," answered Paul ; " but he would to 
 morrow if times were good." 
 
 They progressed to a discussion of the strike, of the 
 probable length of its duration, the next move the 
 Company would make, what the men would do to out 
 wit it. Was a pitched battle, was bloodshed likely? 
 
 Paul s eyes lit with that strong light of dreams, so 
 peculiar to the Brodski clan ; but his voice, as he spoke, 
 was calm, and nothing that he said and nothing that he 
 asked gave Blair the slightest clue to his social the 
 ories. 
 
 Evangeline came down the stairs and entered the 
 parlor. Her hopeful look was gone ; she was discour 
 aged by the change of fortune which a few days had 
 wrought in her enterprise. 
 
 She extended her hand to Blair, remarking, " You 
 seem to know everybody out here, Blair; and every 
 body seems to know you." 
 
 " Yes, I have learned to know quite a number, one 
 way and another, since I have been out here." 
 
 He introduced her to Paul Brodski with, " He s an 
 old friend of mine the first acquaintance I made in 
 the mills, in fact." 
 
 Evangeline chatted a second or two with Paul and 
 then slipped away, sylph-like. 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 313 
 
 " Is that the daughter of Mr. Marvin, the presi 
 dent ?" asked Paul. 
 
 " Yes," answered Blair, eying Paul narrowly, 
 " and a fine girl, too. She likes poor people like you 
 and me. She wishes to devote her life to helping 
 them." 
 
 Paul s face grew solemn. Later, when he caught 
 Blair s sympathetic and loving glances following 
 Evangeline s airy movements, Paul thought he under 
 stood. 
 
 Shortly after ten the visitors departed; the Settle 
 ment people retired. Blair and Evangeline were left 
 alone. 
 
 " Let s go out, Van," said he, pacing up and down 
 the narrow parlor. " I ve been cooped up with com 
 mittees all day and I m so restless that I can t sit or 
 stand still." 
 
 " It s rather late for a walk, isn t it, Blair? " 
 
 " But I can t sit here another minute ; it s out of 
 question," and his towering frame paced back and 
 forth. 
 
 She left the room in that quick, round motion pe 
 culiar to her and came back with her hat. They passed 
 out into the uninviting street. Her slender arm rested 
 in his large protective one. 
 
 " It s almost like the old days, Blair, at the univer 
 sity, when we used to slip out and stroll among the 
 hills, along the river." 
 
 " Yes, except the place is hardly suggestive of a 
 river and hills." 
 
 " It s an awfully ugly place." 
 
 " No place could be more so. It s the ugliest, the 
 most repellent town on earth I verily believe, and yet 
 we aren t in the ugliest part either." 
 
3 4 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Let s walk towards the lake to the mills, Blair." 
 
 " No, I m sick of the mills. I wish to get away 
 from them to-night. \Ye can keep straight on this 
 road for a mile or two and that will bring us to the 
 ship-yards. There s a long archway of elms there, a 
 pretty and cool place to saunter." 
 
 They moved on in silence, both having so much to 
 say, wishing to say so much, that utterance was choked 
 and neither knew where to begin. 
 
 " But it s a beautiful night anyway, Van, despite 
 grime and sordidness ; you re here and the rest doesn t 
 matter much." 
 
 (< You re walking too quickly, Blair ; I can t keep 
 up. And you ve got your arm raised so high that 
 you ll lift me from the ground," she scolded playfully, 
 disregarding his praiseful speech. 
 
 He slackened his steps and lowered his arm. He 
 always felt his strength, his brute, masculine strength, 
 when with her. The inclination to put his arm around 
 Evangeline as if to protect her from the world was 
 ever strong in him. Evangeline s weakness, her sheer 
 feminine weakness, was one of the ties that drew 
 Blair to her. 
 
 " Come," she said impatiently, " we ve been apart 
 for months and months and I haven t heard a single 
 word of what you ve been doing." 
 
 " If you had consented to take that walk with me 
 when I was home last winter, I might have told you 
 a great deal then and it would make it so much easier 
 now." 
 
 " Yes, and I might have listened to a great deal that 
 day when I was out at the mills and you wouldn t rec 
 ognize me, and that would have made it easier both 
 times." 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 315 
 
 He explained the situation of that unfortunate occa 
 sion, his amazement, the tumult of his feelings, his 
 struggle for speech against overwhelming emotions, 
 the diffidence inspired by the presence of the others. 
 
 How often had she not told herself the same thing 
 in almost the same way, in all but the same words, only 
 to contradict it with the strong negation of a doubting 
 love ! But now to hear it affirmed by his own lips, 
 passionately, pleadingly it might be compared to the 
 condemned and innocent prisoner who listens to the 
 reading of the juror s verdict of exculpation ; and yet, 
 oh, strange inconsistency! there was in her still the 
 inexplicable desire to disbelieve against her be 
 lief. 
 
 Her whole being pulsated, her arm was withdrawn 
 from his ; her body swayed, as if inclination were 
 throwing her towards him, as if will were holding 
 her where she was. Her blue eyes, lustrous, brimming 
 with consecrated love, were turned upon him as if in 
 appeal. 
 
 Her slender arm slipped into his ; they walked on 
 again. 
 
 " Come," she insisted, her tranquillity regained, 
 " tell me what you have been doing." 
 " You can guess pretty well." 
 " Guessing doesn t satisfy me to-night." 
 " You ve grown exacting." 
 " And you ve grown disrespectful, sir." 
 " Is that the only change you notice in me ? " 
 He liked to put his sterner and more serious nature 
 aside and don the cap and bells, now and then, when 
 with her. Different intellectual faculties, almost atro 
 phied from long disuse, came into play when he talked 
 to Evangel ine. 
 
316 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Come, Blair, I won t be put off that way. Tell me." 
 
 " There isn t much to tell." 
 
 " Well, tell me what there is." 
 
 He related his experiences in the mills, setting down 
 naught in malice against himself, extenuating nothing, 
 his eloquence shedding a glow over the most common 
 place of the incidents he narrated. Evangeline list 
 ened, fascinated. 
 
 " Go on, please," she begged, when he had done. 
 
 " But there s nothing more to tell. It s your turn 
 now." 
 
 " Never mind me. Are you sure there s nothing 
 more ? " she asked, vexatiously. 
 
 " Nothing," he affirmed, positively. 
 
 " I know you, Blair. You ve left the most interest 
 ing part out. You always do until the last. You re 
 waiting to be begged, but I shan t beg." 
 
 He laughed, pleased to be known so well by one 
 who knew him so well in every turn and quirk of his 
 complex character. He paused, drew breath and de 
 scribed his two contests with Vorlinski for supremacy. 
 Only Blair could speak as Blair spoke, quietly, artless 
 ly, yet so thrillingly that Van s eyes opened wide to 
 bursting, as if they would leap their sockets, and every 
 nerve tingled from tight winding. The description 
 of the rescue on the rolls capped his ascending climax. 
 
 " Mercy ! " she cried, as if something were passing 
 before her vision that she would fain not see. 
 
 " I oughtn t to have told you. I should have known 
 better. It has excited you too much." 
 
 His arm slipped around her waist ; the clasp was 
 protective, well-nigh paternal, not the amative embrace 
 of a lover. Evangeline understood its meaning and 
 she did not withdraw it by either word or gesture. 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 317 
 
 " No, I m thankful to you for telling me," she said. 
 " It was terrible enough, but it was magnificent to hear. 
 But, O Blair, I wish you would leave those horrible 
 mills for good. You re so hot-headed, so rash that 
 I m afraid you will lose your life." 
 
 " Few days pass but some one is either injured se 
 riously or killed here, Van. It costs lives to make 
 rails ; trains pass over human bodies, in all truth, as 
 they whirl from city to city. Some days many are 
 killed. Am I any better than they ? " 
 
 " Yes, a thousand times, inexpressibly better to me." 
 
 The confession was so abrupt, it spurted with so 
 little warning from her lips, that Evangeline blushed 
 deeply, her neck and breast suffused with red. 
 
 Blair, overwhelmed, let the advantage of the remark 
 slip his grasp. A minute passed, then another; their 
 conversation rolled down the channel of the common 
 place. He had no word now to which his groping 
 love might fasten insistent tentacles. 
 
 " Has your experience here changed your point of 
 view ? .Are you still the ardent socialist you were ? " 
 
 " More so. I m surer than ever that I m right. It s 
 all clear now and it s growing clearer every day. I 
 have tested theory by fact, at least I have held my 
 theories up to the strong light of fact, and something 
 like that must come if this world of ours is to last. 
 And it s coming, Van ; it s coming ! " he spoke with 
 the ringing conviction of a dreamer whose dreams 
 have become as realities. 
 
 He let her arm drop from his, and gesticulated, 
 while he outlined his new economy for her as he had 
 done for hundreds of listeners before her, only there 
 was the aclded incentive now of winning the belief of 
 the woman whose love he had won. He depicted the 
 
318 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 suffering, the misery he had witnessed ; the barren life 
 of the wretchedly poor ; he dwelt on their aspirations, 
 their hopes, the hopelessness of their aspirations 
 under present conditions. He contrasted all this with 
 the luxuries that had been poured as in a golden 
 shower down on his life and hers. 
 
 They reached the archway of shady elms whose 
 branches stretched out and almost intertwined across 
 the long avenue that led out from the ship -yards. 
 Steel river, pure and clear here, purled on its course 
 through the darkness, not twenty paces away. Great 
 vessels, recently launched, floated idly on the stream. 
 In their short walk they had traversed two countries, 
 leaving the repulsive manufacturing town far behind, 
 to enter, as it were, some sylvan bower. A full moon, 
 mellow and soft, poured the incense of white light 
 over the tops of the somnolent elms. 
 
 The gladsome change charmed Evangeline; Blair 
 was only dimly conscious of it. He was lost in the 
 telling of his own thoughts, in the demonstration of 
 his beloved theories ; alike to the beauty or ugliness 
 of his surroundings his eyes were shut. 
 
 He hastened on to a consideration of the strike, miti 
 gating no circumstance, refining no hard fact because 
 of Evangeline s relation to the man who directed the 
 Company s policy ; even, for those few minutes, for 
 getting it entirely. The men had been maltreated, 
 wronged, crushed ; burdened by extortionate rents and 
 robbed by exploited wages. They had been as rails 
 between the upper and the lower rolls of the capitalistic 
 machinery. They had the right on their side and they 
 would win ; they must win. The Company had large 
 government and private contracts which must be com 
 pleted by the coming November, and its only hope lay 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 319 
 
 in the capacity and skill of the new non-union hands 
 it would attempt to initiate. The hope was chimerical. 
 The men had but to wait to win. 
 
 This strike, all said and done, was but a false note 
 in the prelude to the divine symphony of the Coopera 
 tive Commonwealth; it was a mere accident, a pebble 
 on the road that the train of progress would grind to 
 dust in its passing. He ended with a rapturous account 
 of the glories of the new era that would transmute 
 the iron age of to-day into the golden age of to-mor 
 row. 
 
 As always he was talking to multitudes and not to 
 a single auditor ; but now he was swaying a multitude 
 and her a multitude made thrice illustrious by her 
 presence. He was uplifted, inspired by her love. His 
 oratory became an orison. If he could carry her into 
 the fortress of his faith the whole world would 
 follow ; if he brought her thither the world might 
 linger behind. Never, never, had he spoken 
 thus, with such utter self-forgetfulness. His heart 
 beat on his lips ; his lips were pressed to his 
 heart. 
 
 Economics, the dismal science, beat to the time of 
 a noble music ; it became a soul-stirring song attuned 
 to the miserere of a suffering world ; it was a glee- 
 some chorus chiming the jubilant notes of a world 
 reborn to pristine happiness. 
 
 Evangeline, cautious, guarded, careful, kept her eyes 
 open to the work-a-day world whereon she trod, and 
 she directed her imagination with the taut rein of her 
 womanly shrewdness. On her surging emotions, 
 leaping to burst their bounds, she placed the stern 
 hand of her will. It recked not ; it aided not ; his 
 triumphant eloquence tore that hand aside. She was 
 
3 2 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 carried away ; his orotund voice held her soul captive 
 and led her at its beck. 
 
 " O Blair, Blair," she gasped, " how fine, how truly 
 beautiful ! " 
 
 " You believe in it now, Van ; in me ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, yes/ she answered. 
 
 Midnight was approaching; and they were still 
 pacing back and forth under the archway of the elms. 
 The moon hung high over the trees. Everything 
 seemed animated, awake ; the night seemed day loosely 
 covered with a fluffy and waving veil of darkness. 
 The leaves shimmered and rustled as if unable and un 
 willing to sleep. 
 
 Her heated thought cooled ; her pulses beat calmer. 
 She detached herself from him, asserting her ego in 
 its own behalf. 
 
 She spoke of the Settlement, of what she hoped to 
 accomplish in her own small way just a ripple on 
 time s illimitable ocean, that would go its short way, 
 die and leave no trace behind. She was timid ; her 
 words faltered and stumbled ; it was all so paltry, so 
 trivial when measured by the standard of his proud, 
 imperial, world-wide purpose. 
 
 " Do you know," propounded Blair, when she had 
 done, " that the thing which strikes me strongest in 
 this whole socialistic movement and your Settlements 
 are perhaps a part of it is that the rich are more pro 
 foundly concerned than the poor. It is extending from 
 up down ; it is the rich who are bending their hands 
 down to the poor, rather than that the poor are lifting 
 their hands up to the rich. I have talked to some of 
 the girls here and they seem scarcely able to compre 
 hend my aims. One, in particular, who knows my 
 previous life and all, scoffs at my folly in discarding 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 
 
 3 2 
 
 the opportunities of riches to lead this life of hard 
 ship; and she is a girl head and shoulders above the 
 average in intelligence." 
 
 " I have noticed the same thing time and time 
 again/ agreed Evangeline. " _t struck me with pecul- 
 liar vividness the other night in my talks with some 
 of the people who visited the Settlement." 
 
 " And here are two of us, Van, from practically the 
 same station in life moved by the same ideas ; and we 
 are but two of a legion." 
 
 " May their number increase, Blair. But the benefit 
 is two-fold we bring to the poor and we take from 
 them. Do you think that you have paid too dearly 
 for your experience?" 
 
 " Perhaps. Time will have to decide that. I can 
 judge only by its present worth, and judging by that 
 it has been worth all it cost." 
 
 " I hope you haven t paid too dearly, Blair," she 
 said wistfully, the staid and worldly-wise Evangeline 
 rising uppermost again. " I always thought at college 
 that you sacrificed too much for people who weren t 
 worth it." 
 
 " No," he answered emphatically, " I haven t paid 
 too much. I couldn t pay too much for what I have 
 gained out here. My whole life has been made 
 deeper, broader, fuller; it has expanded in every way." 
 
 " You have grown clearer, I think, Blair ; more con 
 stant to one aim, more steadfast. You used to vacil 
 late so that I was afraid it would all come to nothing. 
 But after all your very vacillation, Blair, may have 
 been a proof of steadfastness." 
 
 He nodded, sensitively aware whither her delicately 
 worded conversation was drifting to the breaking of 
 their betrothal. 
 
 21 
 
3 22 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Evangeline felt intuitively that he winced. " Am 
 I unjust, Blair?" she asked. 
 
 " No," he asseverated, " go on, Van ! " 
 
 She paused unwilling that any word of hers should 
 cost him a twinge of pain, knowing that her silence 
 expressed her thoughts more kindly than any words 
 she could say. 
 
 " It may have been all for the best," he said, after 
 a bit, " and after all, Van, if my mind wavered on that 
 question, my heart never did." 
 
 " Are you sure, Blair ? " she queried in her playful- 
 serious way. 
 
 Conscience spoke to Blair before he could speak 
 to Evangeline. The thought of his relation to Martha 
 floated over the perfect bliss of the present moment 
 like a bit of black cloud over a blue sky. His passion 
 was like a curtain that spaced off all the past and hid 
 the future dimly ; Van s question was like the stir of a 
 zephyr that blew it aside for the life of a second and 
 discovered what was now a rather unpleasant and 
 willingly forgotten association. 
 
 She repeated her question, more earnestly this time. 
 The curtain fluttered undecidedly, then it lifted wide. 
 He grasped it firmly and held it open that she might see. 
 
 " It was only for a minute ; it was only an armistice, 
 never a surrender. It was like traveling a bit and 
 then coming home to rest and to remain," he pleaded. 
 
 " Traveling makes people dissatisfied with home 
 very often, Blair." 
 
 " It makes them contented with home more often." 
 
 " You may have seen things during your sojourn 
 that you will miss and long for at home." 
 
 " I longed for things during my sojourn, I missed 
 things, that I loved best at home, Van." 
 
THE END OF THE BEGINNING 323 
 
 " Home may grow monotonous and you will want 
 to travel again." 
 
 " Traveling grew monotonous and I longed to re 
 turn home." 
 
 " The first moments at home seem best, afterwards 
 we review foreign scenes and home dulls by compari 
 son." 
 
 " No, we are so glad to be at home that we forget 
 foreign scenes, or else in recalling them we wonder 
 how we could have found them so engaging." 
 
 " And what did you miss most? " she asked archly. 
 
 " Sympathy womanly, honest, intelligent sympa 
 thy." 
 
 " Is that such a rare article abroad ? " 
 
 " I found it so rather I couldn t find it at all." 
 
 " So you are quite willing to come home again, just 
 for the sake of it ? " 
 
 " Yes, and to stay there forever, Van ; if you will 
 let me." 
 
 " You are welcome home," she said simply, fervent 
 ly, " and you will never know how much you were 
 missed while you were away." 
 
XXIX 
 TO ARMS! 
 
 THE Company persisted in its demand that the 
 sheriff deputize its Pinkertons, and the sheriff 
 stubbornly refused to grant the request until 
 the Pinkertons were placed within the property of the 
 Company. A perfect fusillade of correspondence was 
 fired back and forth. 
 
 The Company s quandary was serious. The Fourth 
 of July was but a day or two away and violent rioting 
 on that occasion was not regarded in the light of an 
 impossibility. The strikers were growing more and 
 more restless every hour; the frequency of minor out 
 breaks (nipped in their incipiency by the authority of 
 the Advisory Committee) and sporadic assaults in 
 creased daily. It was feared that the Fourth and its 
 associations might be as a shibboleth to the five thou 
 sand idle men who were anxiously awaiting a battle 
 signal. 
 
 Finally a compromise was agreed upon between the 
 obdurate sheriff and the apprehensive Company ; the 
 latter was to hold its force of Pinkerton guards in re 
 serve at Chicago ; if any rioting should occur that the 
 mill watchmen could not quell, the Pinkertons were 
 to be transported by boat to Marvin, where the sheriff 
 agreed to await their coming and to deputize them 
 without delay, 
 
 324 
 
TO ARMS ! 325 
 
 The men, on the other hand, were fearful lest the 
 Company, thinking they might be unwary, should make 
 an effort to land a host of Pinkertons and an army of 
 non-union men within the mills. The strikers in 
 creased their force of pickets to a thousand, encircling 
 every inch of debatable ground. The tug hired to 
 patrol the lake along the grounds of the mill was given 
 warning to observe the most vigilant lookout. 
 
 At the request of the Advisory Committee, who were 
 bent upon their forces obeying the law, the saloons in 
 Marvin and the adjacent districts were closed. There 
 was little disorder and no drunkenness. A miscella 
 neous shooting of arms, a desultory explosion of 
 crackers, a little pyrotechnic oratory as to what the 
 day symbolized to the fathers, marked the Fourth from 
 the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the 
 year. 
 
 The whole town became a garrison in the attitude 
 for action ; ears were attuned for the word of com 
 mand ; eyes sharpened for the approach of the enemy ; 
 stray noises, inconsequential rumors, annoyed and ex 
 cited the five thousand soldiers on the offensive. 
 
 At three in the afternoon, seven protracted shrieks 
 blew from the whistle of the tug. They were followed 
 by three quick blasts. Those who held the key to the 
 cipher of the signal translated it : " Pinkertons are 
 landing on the extreme north end." 
 
 " To arms ! To arms ! " rang the cry. It roared 
 from mouth to mouth. The town was alive, seething, 
 like the waters of the lake stirred by a squall to 
 spumous waves. The soldiers of industry were on the 
 move, their wives and daughters at their sides, their 
 children stepping in the marks left by the heels of 
 their elders in the dust and the mire. Guns, pistols, 
 
326 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 rifles, stones and sticks made an odd, unsoldierly but 
 terrific assortment of weapons. So eager were they 
 to fight that they cared not with what they fought. 
 This jumble of munition this undisciplined move 
 ment was not ludicrous ; it was titanically horrible. 
 It gave proof enough that the elemental passions had 
 full sway, and that an earnestness that death alone 
 could chill captained the rude, untrained soldiery. 
 It was a mob that an army could have dispersed with 
 a few practised tactics ; but the desperation of that 
 mob would have made any army invincible. 
 
 They streamed from the tenements, overflowed the 
 streets and deluged the wide expanse of open prairie. 
 As it moved the central stream was swelled by tribu 
 taries, tearing in from all directions some tributaries 
 that no one suspected had existence ; rivulets that 
 sprang, as if by magic, from the bosom of the earth. 
 The first intimation of trouble in Marvin had brought 
 the idle and the vicious from Chicago, the detached 
 element ever ready to shift and attach itself to any at 
 tack on organized society. The flushing of the waters 
 in Marvin drained the cesspool of Chicago. An idle 
 town is the devil s Paris. 
 
 Like a cataract that gathers all its waters before a 
 mad plunge, they assembled, panting and foaming for 
 the leap, before the fences of the mill. Blair, Wins- 
 low, Ben Judson, Bach, McNaughton, Michael Brod- 
 ski, all the members of the Advisory Committee of the 
 strike, were running along at the head, flecks of foam 
 that dotted the first eddy, and the first that were to be 
 hurtled over in the downward roll. They sought to 
 give these wild waters direction, but they were di 
 rected by them ; they were drops in the cataract, com 
 pelled to follow its course. 
 
TO ARMS ! 327 
 
 Two whistles throbbed high and clear above the dis>- 
 tracted yells of the mob. 
 
 " Turn back, men ! Turn back, men ! " cried the 
 leaders. " False alarm ! False alarm ! " 
 
 The mob growled like a dog that has had a succu 
 lent bone jerked from its teeth; like a crouching lion 
 held at gaze by the slender whip of a weak keeper. 
 Their rage was demoniac ; anger had wrought them up 
 to the pitch of insanity. The bone was still in sight 
 snarlingly they showed their teeth and refused to 
 move. Blair ran hither and thither, threatening, ca 
 joling, promising, begging one form of exhortation 
 as useless as the other. His influence had effect with 
 the few ; but the few were soon in control of the heed 
 less many. 
 
 Closer and closer the throng pushed up to the 
 fences, the front lines heaved forward by those jam 
 ming and pressing in back. It was a tempestuous sea 
 of faces ; and the face of the sea made Blair s blood 
 run cold with a paralyzing dread. 
 
 He looked around to see what had become of the 
 members of the committee. Bach, his corpulent frame 
 overcome by the heat, had withdrawn. Winslow, Ben 
 Judson, McNaughton, Michael Brodski, were being 
 buffeted about like flotsam on the face of the waters, 
 tossed from wave to wave, their sweaty faces and up 
 lifted arms alone discernible as they besought the 
 crowd to disperse Canutes bidding the tide recede. 
 
 Blair s immense frame, contracted by the terror and 
 crying necessity of the moment, stood fixed as the pier 
 of a lighthouse amid the breakers ; his square shoul 
 ders, his large head conspicuous and prominent as the 
 lantern. 
 
 A squad of police sauntered down to the crowd, 
 
328 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 looked on idly for a few minutes and then went on 
 their untroubled way, to report that all was well. The 
 police were at one with the purpose of the strike and 
 the cause of the strikers, and, until avoidance was im 
 possible, they determined not to interfere. 
 
 The pressing and pushing continued, like waves 
 dashed hither and thither by whipping winds. Vor- 
 linski hove in sight, shoving his way steadily towards 
 Blair, a vicious expression glittering in his small green 
 eyes, his cheekbones protruding like two knobs; rag 
 ing like a bull, urging those around him to come on, 
 hurling the taunt, " Coward ! Coward ! Coward ! " in 
 their teeth, now in Polish, now in Hungarian, now in 
 English. He was working directly for Blair; the 
 word vengeance written in his bead-like eyes and 
 painted on his knob-like cheekbones. 
 
 The Pole was using his massive shoulders like two 
 wheels to roll him through the mass of struggling 
 flesh towards the chosen leader of yesterday and the 
 day before. Blair caught sight of a jagged piece of 
 slag in the hand of his dangerous foe and he knew 
 full well that when the advantageous moment came it 
 would go crashing towards his head. His eyes were 
 fixed on the Pole s, his head was clear and calm, and a 
 course of action was outlined for emergency. His el 
 bows protruded at his sides like two poles, giving him 
 a few inches to bend, to stoop, or to dodge. Then the 
 rabble swayed and heaved, and Vorlinski was borne 
 off in another direction. 
 
 As the minutes flew on the jam augmented instead 
 of decreased ; women, boys, old men, stalwart steel 
 workers, those who had been left behind in the first 
 rise of the flood, came steadily drifting forward, clam 
 oring and stampeding for place in front. 
 
TO ARMS ! 329 
 
 The July sun beat down relentlessly, sizzling on the 
 exposed heads of the multitude like drops of molten 
 iron, adding to the fever of their blood, increasing the 
 fire of their temper like alcoholic draughts. 
 
 Refluent waves surged forward, and familiar faces, 
 riding triumphantly on top, passed Blair again and 
 again, disappearing always before he could speak a 
 word of admonition. Jan Brodski, grim, decided, 
 plucking at his red beard, pushed shoulder to shoulder 
 with his brother Michael, upbraiding him acrimo 
 niously for his efforts at peace-making when war was 
 so favorable to the cause. The brothers exchanged 
 recriminating words ; Jan s right arm was lifted 
 fiercely, then the heaving mob bore Michael out of his 
 reach. In the back ranks the youthful Thomas was 
 haranguing his troop of boys, eager for a fray of any 
 description. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski swung for a moment in front of Blair, 
 Mary and Anna clinging affrighted to her dress, saved 
 from being trampled to death as by a miracle, crying, 
 crushed, and bruised. Paul rolled along, just behind 
 his mother; Wanda was at his side, anxious to catch 
 up with the children to save them from harm. Paul 
 grimaced a grin of recognition at Blair, ambiguous 
 with many meanings. 
 
 " Get away from here ! Go home ! " yelled Blair, 
 losing control, enraged at the authority that exuded 
 from his finger-tips, goaded by the desertion of his 
 friends. " Wanda, you with a rifle ! In the name of 
 God what are you going to do with that ? Where did 
 you get it? Snatch it from her, Paul! Such things 
 are not for women ! " 
 
 The crowd lurched and shoved ; the mother and her 
 children, the daughter with her rifle and the blond 
 
330 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 son were swept away. The sweat dripped down 
 Blair s cheeks and blinded his eyes; the taste of its 
 salt was in his mouth. 
 
 The moment was becoming horrible, annihilating. 
 Unless relief came, sheriff, soldiers or watchmen, he 
 dared not think what . the next minute might bring 
 forth. His nerve was failing; his courage was oozing 
 away. He was like a keeper who had liberated a 
 chained beast and now cowed before the beast he had 
 liberated. For lack of otheis to attack, the most vio 
 lent would turn against their peace-counseling com 
 rades. 
 
 A polyglot muttering buzzed about Blair s roaring 
 ears ; growing more ominous with every minute. Why 
 did this man hold them back? Why had he repri 
 manded Wanda for clinging to her gun? Who was 
 this man who pretended to be their friend, and who was 
 now aligning his authority and influence with the capi 
 talists and the protection of their property? They had 
 the consistency that conies from one thought ; the in 
 consistency that comes from many thoughts was in 
 comprehensible to their narrow, sodden understand 
 ing. 
 
 The fence was moving ; the posts bent. Weak spots 
 were giving way. A heavy boot kicked at a board and 
 went crashing through it. Other boots beat against 
 other boards. The crowd huzzaed lustily. The force 
 of example won scores of converts. Sticks, stones 
 were hurled against the crashing lumber ; shoulders 
 and bodies battered against the opposing barriers. 
 Twenty feet of the planking went down with a crash ; 
 another five zigzagged to the ground with it. The 
 mob, with a battle-cry of triumph, rushed inside of the 
 mill. Feet, hands, legs, dresses and coats were torn 
 
TO ARMS ! 331 
 
 and severed by the insidious barbs ; the slight wounds 
 infuriated but the more, drawing just sufficient blood 
 to goad and not enough to weaken. Yard after yard 
 of the fence went down with a crackling peal ; the in 
 furiated mob was inside. 
 
 The watchmen ran for their lives, scampering like 
 rats for the exit at the south end of the mills, hugging 
 the sheltering walls of the buildings in their flight. 
 The head watchman hastened to the telephone of the 
 first drug-store to communicate with the Pinkerton 
 office. He had been cautioned by the Company not 
 to send for the Pinkertons unless the emergency were 
 urgent, and the caution made him vacillate during the 
 half-hour that the mob was stampeding without the 
 fence. The druggist refused him the use of his tele 
 phone. It would mean the wreckage of his business 
 if the strikers discovered his compliance. He darted 
 for the telegraph office ; the operator took the message ; 
 the watchman left. The message suffered an un 
 conscionable delay. The operator had a brother who 
 worked in the mill. 
 
 Inside the yards the army of industry halted for a 
 second or two, undecided whither to turn now that it 
 had reached its goal. Blair stood to one side, waiting 
 for the arrival of Winslow, Ben Judson and the other 
 members of the Advisory Committee. Bach had taken 
 himself home, prostrated by the heat. 
 
 Winslow, Ben Judson and Michael Brodski forged 
 ahead, catching sight of Blair; two of the others 
 joined them. All resolved to do what they could to 
 prevent destruction, even to the risking of their lives. 
 
 " To the electric light plant ! " " To the blast-fur 
 naces ! " " To the boiler-houses ! " came in a babel of 
 cries. The nearest building was the most enticing; 
 
332 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the straight line was preferred to a curve. They burst 
 open the door of a tool-shed and gutted it of pick 
 axes, crow-bars, hammers and axes and chisels; those 
 who had sixth choice seized shovels. They swarmed 
 out as they had swarmed in. 
 
 They stopped at the car-tracks which curved near the 
 boiler-houses of the blast-furnaces and they began to 
 work at the rails, pulling them up from the ties. Vor- 
 linski moiled like a demon; he seemed the spirit of 
 anarchy, of destruction incarnate. It was a foolish 
 waste of energy, a lavish expenditure of strength. 
 They were pulling down what would be a mere cost 
 of time to put up. The same strength, the same force 
 intelligently directed, could have demolished millions, 
 which was their purpose. It was blind wrath and it 
 worked blindly. 
 
 The scent of smoke filled the July air ; wreaths of it 
 were curling out of the tool-house. Flames followed. 
 Michael caught sight of his brother Thomas creeping 
 around the side of the burning building. He had 
 touched a match to the straw that littered the floor. 
 
 Blair groaned. By the lurid flames of that fire he read 
 the message that doomed his cause and theirs. With 
 out right, without cause, they had burned, they had 
 demolished. The law would avenge ; public opinion 
 would decry. 
 
 The mob was frantic with a childish exultation. 
 To them that flame-swept building was a bonfire lit 
 to celebrate a victory. They cheered with full lungs. 
 They ceased their attack against matter and drew near 
 to watch it. They were ready to join hands and dance 
 the carmagnole around the inspiring blaze. 
 
 " On! On! " came the shibboleth. " To the boiler- 
 houses ! To the boiler-houses ! " The cry was started 
 
TO ARMS! 333 
 
 by a Croatian who had worked there as a stoker and 
 who bore a grudge against the work. He would be 
 avenged now ! Others took the cry up ; it waxed to a 
 roar, loud, deafening, like the clash of mighty cym 
 bals. 
 
 Winslow, Blair and McNaughton harangued and 
 pleaded, their voices were drowned in a tempest of 
 disapproval. Michael Brodski was threatened by his 
 own brothers, warned in no mild terms to hold his 
 tongue or betake himself homeward. 
 
 The strikers pushed on, the women at the head in 
 toxicated with their mission as revolutionists. It was 
 a dissipation of excited nerves that thrilled with the 
 warm, delicious sensation of the new and the uncom 
 mon. The men were spasmodic. The boys and chil 
 dren were carried away by the infectious enthusiasm; 
 they became adult by this tasting of forbidden fruit ; 
 rage strengthened their puny arms ; they swung pick 
 axes and crowbars aloft with a readiness almost equal 
 to that of their elders. 
 
 Bozic, the blind watchman, the only one who had 
 remained true to his trust, who would not desert, 
 opened the closed doors of the boiler-house and stood 
 on the top of the raised platform that led up to the 
 entrance of the oblong building. He had been prowl 
 ing from place to place throughout the day. He had 
 heard the yells of the mob as it tore down the fences 
 and rushed inside of the mill, the breaking open of the 
 tool-house, the pulling up of the tracks. He had 
 scented the smoke of the burning building, and feel 
 ing instinctively that the boiler-house would be the 
 next objective move of the march of destruction, he 
 had retreated thither, resolved to guard it single- 
 handed. The Company had cared for him after the 
 
334 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 loss of his sight; he would protect the Company. He 
 stood there pistol in hand, his stocky frame Lacked 
 against the large doors. 
 
 Blair, Winslovv, Ben Judson, Michael Brodski and 
 McNaughton clashed forward. It was their plan to 
 assist the blind man in the performance of his duty, 
 in the holding of the reckless crowd at bay. Judson, 
 who was swiftest of foot, distanced the others in the 
 race. 
 
 "Scab! Scab! Kill him! Burn him ! Kill him !" 
 the mob cried at first sight of the blind watchman. 
 
 Hundreds hurried in the track of the five foremost, 
 mistaking their motive of defense for one of attack. 
 It would make a fine example the killing of the first 
 scab that fell into their hands ; and they thirsted for 
 the privilege of inflicting the punishment. Their 
 wrath magnified Bozic into the importance of an ap 
 proaching army ; and they crushed on as if ardent to 
 try their unresisted strength. 
 
 The Bohemian heard their minatory cries ; he knew 
 full well what it all imported. He pursed his thin lips 
 into a pucker of resoluteness and he stood his ground. 
 Doubtless if he killed one the dread fate would warn 
 the others. He heard the rumble of countless feet 
 moving towards him. 
 
 " I kills the first mans that comes ! " he yelled in his 
 broken English. 
 
 Ben Judson, carried forward by the impetus of his 
 running, had his foot on the platform ten seconds be 
 fore he saw the pistol gleaming at the watchman s side, 
 five seconds before he heard his warning cry. Bozic, 
 directed by the blind man s unerring sense of sound, 
 raised his weapon, aimed and fired. 
 
 " I m shot! I m shot! " moaned Ben and he reeled 
 
TO ARMS ! 335 
 
 into Winslow s clasping arms. Blair s heart hammered 
 in his parched mouth, the blue vein that ran through 
 the centre of his high forehead empurpled, then he 
 covered his face with his hands ; blood gurgled in his 
 throat. 
 
 " I wash my hands of this kind of business," cried 
 McNaughton, and he walked in dejection towards the 
 gate. Others of the Advisory Committee followed 
 him. A shower, an avalanche of stones, slag, sticks 
 went hurling at the slayer s head. A dozen shots were 
 fired ; most of them wide of the mark, one taking swift 
 effect. The body of the watchman fell lifeless ; the 
 battered door swung on wavering hinges. They 
 thronged forward; their boiling ire whipped to foam. 
 A comrade was slain, woe to the murderers ! 
 
 When Blair looked up, Michael Brodski had fol 
 lowed the destroyers inside the boiler-house, Winslow 
 and his precious burden, with what made it most 
 precious gone forever, beyond the recall of human 
 power, had disappeared. Sickened, queasy, he turned 
 away, the wall of flesh on the platform making way 
 for his sad and weakened step. He was ready to de 
 sert, to slink away like a starved and beaten cur. His 
 strong soul was faint as wind, his blood unstable as 
 water. He was a general disgusted with his soldiers, 
 with faith lost in his cause, revolted at the carnage of 
 a useless and meaningless battle ; a general who would 
 have welcomed a bullet from friend or foe alike, as 
 the unstrained quality of mercy. Not against Bozic 
 but against himself did Ben Judson s spilled blood cry 
 from the ground. The pride of his princely bearing 
 was shrunk and gone. 
 
 He tottered down the sloping platform, man after 
 man edged back to let him pass; a lull of sympathy 
 
33 6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 calming, for the moment, the storm of their passions. 
 On the fringe of the serried ranks, a satanic face 
 grinned mercilessly at him. 
 
 " You ! Now ! " Vorlinski plunged forward, swing 
 ing a short iron bar, his face truculent with the venge 
 ance that had been balked so often, fretful lest the 
 unequal advantage of Blair s indisposition for combat 
 slip his greedy grasp. 
 
 The iron bar circled upwards with murderous in 
 tent. The instinct of self-preservation pulled Blair 
 back a pace ; then he shrugged his shoulders. An ex 
 pression of surprise shadowed the Pole s countenance, 
 the iron stood midway, still, held by the wonderment 
 of the mind that directed its aim. Vorlinski feared 
 the resourcefulness of the enemy who had always out 
 witted him at the crucial moment. Then the iron was 
 lifted back to gain renewed momentum on a down 
 ward course. 
 
 Some one dealt the Pole a blow on the head. He 
 sank to the ground. A one-armed man his right 
 arm a stump that filled a gaping sleeve but an inch or 
 two from the elbow had struck Vorlinski. Blair 
 looked up. It was Llewellyn, the Welsh machinist, 
 whom he had rescued on the rolls from death. 
 
 " Thanks," nodded Blair, indifferently, and he 
 walked on. 
 
 He saw Winslow seated near a pile of chilled in 
 gots, with Ben s body stretched across his knee. There 
 was a blank stare on the Englishman s face, null as 
 death itself. 
 
 " It s all up ! It s all up ! " he moaned to Blair, 
 awed before the eternal mystery ; dazed by the manner 
 of its coming. 
 
 They sat beside each other in silence, drawn closer 
 
TO ARMS! 337 
 
 by the unanswerable reproach from the dead man s 
 eyes. They were partners in crime, they felt; with 
 equal suffering they would expiate their sin. 
 
 The clatter from the boiler-houses, the din and roar, 
 the pounding of iron on iron that came from where 
 the frenzied horde was still at work, rolled over their 
 heads and was not heard. 
 
 The doors of the boilers were broken and cracked; 
 valves smashed; sides caved in. It was a task that 
 would have challenged a Cyclops, but there was plenty 
 and enough of cyclopean strength to accept the chal 
 lenge. The army was deluged with sweat as with 
 rain, veins bulged, muscles groaned, limbs gave way; 
 but a fresh relay was ever ready to take the place of 
 those worn out. The task was growing stale, the 
 hyper-excitement was fast growing dull, dimming into 
 a distressing monotony. 
 
 " To the blast-furnaces ! To the casting-houses ! " 
 cried an innovator. The cry was taken up with a 
 vengeance that animated the flagging; they cheered to 
 cheer themselves. A wolverine spirit dominated 
 they had but the outward semblance of men and 
 women. 
 
 They burst into the cast-houses ; they pulled down 
 the immense bustles, smashed the boshes and mantles, 
 climbed on ladders to the stacks and did what damage 
 they could. The heavy sheeting of the stoves resisted 
 their hammers, laughing in mocking reverberation as 
 the blows broke on their impenetrable sides. They 
 howled and cursed, redoubling their fruitless attack. 
 
 The place rang like thunder with the unending 
 
 crash. A woman was killed by the part of a bustle that 
 
 fell before the word of alarm could be sounded. But 
 
 they cared not ; and they stopped not. Twenty-five of 
 
 22 
 
338 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the strongest men united their efforts on one stove. It 
 gave way with a deep groan. The whole pack yelped 
 victoriously. The weaker were encouraged. They 
 were drunk with their own strength. An orgasm fired 
 their blood. The insatiable greed for greater and 
 greater ruination drove them on. The new machinery 
 that had robbed so many of them of bread was dismem 
 bered beyond hope of repair. Brandishing their axes, 
 shaking picks and hammers, they debouched to the 
 elevators. Machinery was the enemy that deprived 
 them of employment, the monster that snatched the 
 bread from the hands cf their hungry children. Down 
 with machinery ! An end to all of it ! They cut the 
 coils ; ruined the elevators ; hacked and hewed the 
 shafting. 
 
 The women left the men and sought a pathway of 
 devastation of their own. Mrs. Brodski and Wanda 
 moved at their head. Frenzy unsexed them ; they 
 were neither men nor women ; they were something 
 worse than either, androgynous creatures that re 
 tained the worst passions of both and lost the best. 
 The children followed the women ; Thomas Brodski 
 urging on his regiment of boys. Michael protesting 
 against their wanton vengeance was felled to the 
 ground by a stone from the hand of his own brother. 
 He arose and limped after the pack. 
 
 The women and children scudded along to the north 
 slip a broad inlet from the lake. An ore vessel of 
 seven thousand tons capacity lay moored at anchor. 
 The immense boat had been emptied of its burden and 
 it was sleeping idly, unsuspicious of trouble. The 
 more agile clambered up its sides and climbed down 
 into its hold. The others scattered along the trestles 
 of the automatic ore-lifters and wrought havoc with 
 
TO ARMS ! 
 
 339 
 
 pick and ax. Ore cars were pushed from the tracks 
 on to the ground. It was a picture that Dore would 
 have loved to limn ; the canvas of a lurid reality, 
 furiously grotesque, poetically cruel as a Canto from 
 the Inferno. 
 
 Mary and Anna Brodski, lost sight of by their 
 mother, were scaling the huge piles of iron ore, en 
 deavoring to reach the trestles in the only way pos 
 sible to their short statures and weak limbs; Thomas 
 leaped after them, seeing a quicker and easier route 
 to join his elders ; others scampered behind Thomas. 
 
 The disturbed ore sifted downward heavily towards 
 the bottom ; then the falling became swifter as the 
 climbing feet displaced more and more of the heavy 
 material. Thomas boxed Anna s ears for impeding 
 his way ; she struggled in vain to extricate her feet and 
 give her commanding brother the right of way. Mary 
 was up still higher, panting and out of breath. The 
 ore tumbled quicker and quicker and in larger and 
 larger masses. Suddenly there was a crash ; the 
 towering pile seemed to crack in its center, opening 
 like a huge mouth. The children screamed in fright, 
 feeling the ore roll away from under their feet ; then 
 the lips of the gaping mouth shut, swallowing the chil 
 dren as easily as if they had been so many of the iron 
 filaments. 
 
 The women reached the deck of the ship in time 
 to see the catastrophe of the sinking ore piles ; yelling 
 and screaming, they hurtled forward. The red dust 
 from the contrition of the ore filled the air, forming a 
 halo around the flat, stretched-out heap. Mrs. Brodski 
 saw it all, transfixed like an image of wood, unable 
 to move hand or foot ; the avalanche of metal seemed 
 rolling over her heart, filling her eyes and ears, stop- 
 
340 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ping her mouth. She was the first of the women to 
 reach the caved pile. Michael was already there, dig 
 ging into the ore with his bare hands, crying like a 
 child, talking to himself incoherently. The amazons 
 toiled like demons at the resisting, heavy ore with ax 
 and shovels and picks and hands. 
 
 The men had resumed their march of obliteration. 
 The ranks severed ; part of the strikers sped towards 
 the plate-mill ; the rest the main division enfiladed 
 towards the steel-mill. 
 
 The women scuttled after the men, leaving Mrs. 
 Brodski and Michael and a few distracted mothers to 
 continue their tristful task of extricating the bodies. 
 
 "What are they going to do now?" ejaculated 
 Blair, aroused from his lethargy by the sight of the 
 two teeming armies, blazoning their way with ax and 
 torch. 
 
 " Look back of you ! Look back of you ! " yelled 
 Win slow. 
 
 Blair turned. His jaws dropped. The long deck 
 of the ore vessel, four hundred and fifty feet from end 
 to end, was a carpet of flame. Fire was bursting out 
 of its sides; carmine eddies were leaping towards the 
 sky. In another minute the whole ship was hidden 
 from view by a veil of fire. The women were speech 
 less with glee over the success of their incendiary la 
 bors ; their shrieks of laughter could be heard in every 
 direction. The two battalions halted for a second, 
 raised an exulting paean, and plunged on to consum 
 mate this lesser victory by a still greater one. 
 
 " Go with them, Carrhart," commanded Winslow. 
 " Do what you can. I ll take care of him." He arose, 
 lifting the corpse in his arms. 
 
 " I can t go," replied Blair, " I haven t nerve enough 
 
TO ARMS ! 341 
 
 left to lift a grain of sand. I wish I were there with 
 Ben." 
 
 " You ve got to go ; and by the living Christ you shall 
 go. You started this thing and you ve got to see it 
 through." 
 
 Blair s quick was stung; but his spirit had not 
 strength enough to moan even a faltering retort. He 
 sank down on the black ingots, inert. 
 
 " It s not the time to play coward now," said Wins- 
 low, harshly. " You ve got to go." 
 
 " Coward ! " The word rankled in Blair s breast. It 
 stopped his thought like a clot of blood in his brain. 
 Breathing deeply, he sprang to his feet and plunged 
 ahead. Then he turned back. He held out his hand 
 beseechingly. " We ve been old friends, Winslow, and 
 we must part friends. I may never come back. You 
 can t tell what will happen." 
 
 Winslow grasped his hand with a speaking clutch. 
 With head bent to the ground, with long strides, Blair 
 moved towards the steel-mill. He was in the center 
 of a field that groaned with terrific action. Behind 
 him the great vessel swirled flame to the sky; in front 
 of him, at either side, came the deafening roar of in 
 numerable hammers beating on resisting machinery. 
 He was oblivious of both ; he saw nothing. He heard 
 but the sorrow sobbing in his breaking heart. 
 
 Winslow sat quiescent with that tragic burden in his 
 arms, his eyes dimmed with the pathos of tears he 
 could not weep, watching Blair until the shadows of 
 the buildings hid him from sight. 
 
 " I had to talk that way, God forgive me," he 
 moaned, and his dying strength carried the dead man 
 from the ground. 
 
 Blair trudged over to the plate-mill and watched the 
 
342 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 work of destruction with as much unconcern as if it 
 had been a work of construction. Like so many 
 hideous dwarfs and deformed gnomes, spawn of the 
 underground, they were still busied with their un 
 earthly work. The fine apparatus of the testing-room 
 was already mutilated beyond use. 
 
 In the plate-mill itself the long line of reheating fur 
 naces was reduced to a tangled heap of brick. A 
 crowd of the most stalwart was at work pulling the 
 tracks out of the floor, dislodging the mammoth charg- 
 ing-car that traveled across them, dissevering its 
 iron limbs. Hammers were attempting to smash the 
 ponderous rolls of the plate machinery. A smaller 
 division was doing its uttermost to wreck the electric 
 magnets. There were men in the crowd who had 
 helped to put the complicated mechanism together and 
 they were adept in separating it. Llewellyn, the one- 
 armed engineer, was everywhere, directing, ordering, 
 leaping from place to place, climbing to perilous 
 heights here, tearing along the ground there, trying 
 to forestall useless expenditure of energies every 
 where. When ruin had re?ched the extent of their 
 ruthlessness and the building was eviscerated, the mob 
 poured out and swept towards the steel-mill. Blair 
 followed, moved by a sense of duty. 
 
 " That s where Ignatz was killed," shouted Jan, 
 pointing the spot out to Wanda, with a threatening 
 finger. 
 
 " Avenge his death ! Avenge his death ! " she 
 shouted. 
 
 The wreckers knew not to whose death she referred ; 
 but it was all one to them ; they were there to wreak 
 vengeance, and it might as well be for one purpose as 
 for another. Wanda s cries were inspiring, and in 
 
TO ARMS ! 343 
 
 jangled unison, they shrieked, "Vengeance, venge 
 ance ! " 
 
 The cry was heard sharp and shrill above the peal 
 of cracking iron and bursting steel. Back of the con 
 verters, operations had already begun to release the 
 trunions and hurl the monstrous eggs on the floor. 
 One by one they fell there a prey to the second on 
 slaught that hacked and hewed them. 
 
 Divisions of the mob were working with equal vigor 
 in dismantling and denuding and breaking the cupola 
 and Spiegel-furnaces. The gride and reverberation 
 were greater than when the mills were in full blast. 
 It was the slaughter of machinery; and the disjected 
 members of the mechanism lay heaped on the battle 
 field of industry. Every inch held its muscular fanat 
 ical soldier, wielding blows with ax and hammer and 
 chisel and bar. No quarter was given, naught but a 
 complete and merciless obliteration would satisfy their 
 thirst for ruin. They were deluded; but their very 
 delusion was the martial music that carried them on 
 and on. 
 
 A step or two to the west of the steel-mill stood 
 the engine-house, the great wheels of which turned the 
 converters. Inside of it was old Jackson the engi 
 neer, crouching in fear at the rage of the mob, resolved 
 to protect his engines at the cost of his life, if need 
 be. He had been there since the first time those en 
 gines made the wheels revolve, and he loved them ; at 
 tached to them as a solitary to a faithful dog. He 
 had refused to go out with the strikers, and he had 
 been threatened with death. He listened to threat on 
 threat unmoved. He purposed to exercise the right of 
 a free man and stay where he chose. Knowing what 
 fate awaited him if he stepped outside of the mills, like 
 
344 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 a wise man he remained where he was, within them. 
 He had been making his bed on a litter of straw heaped 
 between the engines. He was ready to die at his 
 post. He had figured it all out and arrived at this 
 conclusion as the net result of his figuring. 
 
 The engine-house was the next logical move of the 
 mob. When the knot of buildings was depleted, it 
 surged towards old Jackson s retreat. Suddenly the 
 door opened; old Jackson appeared, affrighted to a 
 pallor. The foremost of the serried ranks started as 
 if an apparition had arisen from the ground to con 
 front them. Blair, who had been standing near an 
 angle of the steel-mill, was startled into action by the 
 unexpected danger of the moment. His sleeping 
 activities were given a filip. He took advantage of 
 the crowd s hesitancy and sprang forward at Jackson s 
 side. 
 
 Astonishment had already lived its little life and 
 they were bellowing now for the life of the " scab." 
 A swart son of Hungary sprang at the old man. 
 Blair threw him back. The crowd jammed forward. 
 Some one in the rear, loyal still to Blair, wishing to 
 prevent murder, if he could, yelled out with lungs of 
 brass : 
 
 To the dynamite stores ! To the dynamite stores ! " 
 
 The effect was electric. The word dynamite was 
 talismanic. It possessed infinite powers for destruc 
 tion in a little room. The pack turned, willing to 
 leave such small prey for booty so inestimable. Blair 
 shoved the old engineer inside of the building, and 
 knowing now that his engines were safe, he made 
 good his escape. 
 
 The crowd whirled forward towards the store 
 houses. Blair hastened in their trail, his heart numb. 
 
TO ARMS! 345 
 
 When was this havoc to end? After one crime a 
 greater followed thriftily on the heels of the lesser. 
 
 Unless some unforeseen power, psychic or material, 
 prevented the seizure of the dynamite, in less than ten 
 minutes more the whole mill would be scattered in the 
 air and tumbled to the ground in unrecognizable 
 wreckage. 
 
 Seven piercing whistles blew from the tug, suc 
 ceeded by three quick blasts. The Pinkertons had ar 
 rived and were turning inward on the lake to land 
 on the north end. 
 
 The army of industry halted on its course. They 
 scented the danger. An opposing army was on the 
 move. The forces of capital were approaching. They 
 drew together in one impregnable mass, concentrating 
 their force for resistance. A leader was necessary 
 now. They clamored for Blair. He placed himself 
 at their head. With one accord they proclaimed their 
 unswerving obedience. 
 
 " To the north end ! " he commanded. 
 
 They followed. 
 
XXX 
 
 THE COUNTER-MOVE 
 
 MINUTES that had seemed like hours to Blair 
 were but minutes after all; for no matter 
 how intense a minute may be, only sixty sec 
 onds go to its completion ; and the mob had been 
 within the fences but a fraction over a half-hour. 
 
 The telegraph operator had held back the watch 
 man s message as long as he consistently could and 
 hold his job at the same time. When the telegram 
 finally reached the Pinkerton office in Chicago, the 
 manager was under the jmpression that the danger 
 was grossly exaggerated. The same warning of cir 
 cumspect and cautious action had been meted out to 
 the detective agency. The manager pondered over the 
 affair a while, then telephoned to Marvin at his house. 
 Marvin was not at home, but he was located, after 
 some delay, at his club, where he was finding relief 
 from the stress of affairs in the stress of staggering 
 stakes at the poker table. He received the news 
 calmly enough. 
 
 " Let them go on," he remarked quietly. " If the 
 county is willing to foot the bills I m willing to let 
 the rabble have its fun." 
 
 However, he excused himself with, " I m sorry to 
 leave the game, gentlemen," laid his cards down, face 
 to the table, and held long converse with the Pinker- 
 
 346 
 
THE COUNTER-MOVE 347 
 
 ton office over the wire. In the seclusion of the tele 
 phone box he let his rage have full sway, and some one 
 was roundly reprimanded for a neglect of duty and 
 for carelessness in subserving the interests of the 
 Company. 
 
 Almost instantaneously with the receipt of Marvin s 
 positive instructions, a solid squad of Pinkertons, uni 
 formed in blue suits and black slouch-hats berib- 
 boned with gold cord, set out for the viaduct and 
 marched to the barge that lay in waiting at its foot. 
 Others, who held themselves in readiness, were 
 called by telephone, telegraph and messengers. With 
 remarkable rapidity a second phalanx was on its way 
 to join the first. It was a miscellaneous crew, an odd 
 assortment, composed of ex-policemen and ex-soldiers, 
 who were given the preference in emergency calls ; 
 able-bodied clerks out of employment, medical and law 
 students anxious to summer through the idle season 
 men who had smelled powder and liked the smell, men 
 who had never smelled powder and never wished to, 
 men whom the thought of the smell nauseated and who 
 trusted to luck that a good wind would blow the dis 
 agreeable odor in another direction. 
 
 Where they were to be sent had been kept a mystery 
 as deep as the movement of an army. Mystery is the 
 twin brother of fear and the twin wrought havoc with 
 its victims. Most of the myrmidons thought they 
 knew where they were going, some knew it; many 
 suspected it ; the minority was in a foreboding dark 
 ness. Almost without exception their sympathies were 
 with their own class ; they loathed the idea of shooting 
 toilers down like dogs toilers, who, like themselves, 
 were struggling for bread. Still, they were paid, and 
 where money talks conscience holds its tongue. 
 
348 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 A tug and a superannuated barge were hi red by the 
 Company for the transportation of the Pinkertons. 
 The barge bore the historic name of Abraham Lin 
 coln ; and the name was the most imposing part of the 
 imposition ; for it was a leaky structure, slow, uncer 
 tain and loosely jointed. The sheriff had been un 
 earthed, and after a long controversy he agreed to 
 deputize the men before they started for Marvin. 
 There was no way out of it and he did his duty. The 
 tug had scarcely pulled the barge from the shore 
 before the county official hastened to telegraph to 
 the governor at the executive mansion in Spring 
 field: 
 
 " Situation at Marvin very grave. Armed mob in 
 complete control of the North- Western mills. Valuable 
 properties are being burned and destroyed. No means 
 at my command to meet the emergency. Have just 
 deputized five hundred Pinkerton detectives. You are 
 urged to act at once." 
 
 It was the sheriff s way of shifting responsibility. 
 He was a shrewd man ; and he reversed the order of 
 things by putting the blame higher up. 
 
 When the despatch reached the governor it added 
 to his serenity rather than disturbed it. If there was 
 trouble in the North-Western mills, he was heartily 
 glad of it. His fingers had been nipped nipped be 
 low the second joint in Marvin s juggling of stock; 
 and he had sworn a terrible oath that when the time 
 came, and it would come, he should turn the tables. 
 The news was a cheerful adjunct to his celebration of 
 the Fourth. Besides, the governor was a politician. 
 Votes had placed him in his chair, and he had no de- 
 
THE COUNTER-MOVE 349 
 
 sire to be unseated by the same process in the fall 
 election. 
 
 His brutal jaw dropped with a sardonic fall, and he 
 rubbed his hands unctuously and laughed at the sher 
 iff. That was a pretty political document! He 
 shifted the burden back on the sheriff where it be 
 longed, with the terse message: 
 
 " Local authorities must exhaust every means at 
 their command for the preservation of peace." 
 
 " That s short and to the point," remarked the exec 
 utive to his secretary, " and besides it will tell the 
 sheriff something he never knew before. A fine fox, 
 that ! " 
 
 The burden was on the sheriff now, and he did not 
 rest until he had tossed it off with : 
 
 " Your telegram just received. I must impress upon 
 you the gravity of the situation. The mob growing 
 more desperate every minute. Two men have been 
 killed. Ore boat has been set on fire. Devastation 
 continues. Only large military force will enable me 
 to control matters." 
 
 The governor whistled. " He seems disposed to rob 
 me of my holiday." He sent the ball back. His sec 
 ond telegram was as non-committal as his first : 
 
 " Your telegram would indicate that you have made 
 no attempt to execute the law to enforce order. I must 
 insist that the county authorities exhaust every means 
 in their power to preserve the peace." 
 
 The trouble rested there for the day; both of the 
 politicians had documents in evidence to show their 
 
350 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 enthusiasm for the welfare of the county and their 
 love for the state. 
 
 Meanwhile the barge was well on its way, tugged 
 swiftly towards its destination. The men were hud 
 dled in the interior of the ark-like structure, crowded 
 together like so many cattle, jammed so closely that 
 a stiff, upright position was the only one possible. As 
 the boat kept to the southward steadily, there could 
 be no doubt left as to its ultimate destination. The 
 word was passed from mouth to mouth. Under ex 
 teriors of calm there was a panic of spirit ; many 
 blanched and trembled. 
 
 "Ever seen service before?" asked a veteran of a 
 tyro, a senior medical student. 
 
 " No," answered the tyro. 
 
 " Well, you re going to get a good dose to start on, 
 Fm thinking/ 
 
 " Why so ? " asked the medico, his under lip trem 
 bling slightly. He was a tall, thin fellow, without the 
 divergence of an inch in his frame from foot to chest. 
 
 " Well," opined the veteran, with a superior air. 
 " we re bound for the rolling-mills and those chaps 
 are strong as bulls and they fight like tigers." 
 
 " Sure we re going there? " 
 
 " Ain t no reasonable doubt." 
 
 " Hard fighters, you say ? " 
 
 " Yes, terrible. I had one experience with them 
 five years ago up in the coke region of Pennsylvania." 
 
 "Any one killed?" 
 
 " Any one killed ! I rather guess they was. Twelve 
 of the boys never come back." 
 
 " T don t suppose there will be anything like that 
 this time. At least they told me there would be no 
 danger up at the office. 
 
THE COUNTER-MOVE 351 
 
 The veteran chuckled. " Of course not. You don t 
 suppose they would tell you that, do you ? " 
 
 " Why not?" 
 
 " Couldn t get anybody to go." 
 
 The student blenched for the minute; but he was 
 a -brave fellow and he quickly gathered his scatter 
 ing nerve. " Well I m in for it now, and I ll stick it 
 out the best I can. Only they ought to have let a fel 
 low know/ 
 
 "What s your line?" asked the other, irrelevantly. 
 
 " Oh, I m studying medicine." 
 
 " Kind of a quick change of jobs. You may come 
 in handy; we may need your services before we re 
 through. " 
 
 " I hope you won t ; but I m all here if you want 
 me. I wish they had given us a little more time; I d 
 liked to have run over to the girl to say good-by." 
 
 " Married ? asked the interlocutor, probing for in 
 formation. 
 
 " No, only engaged ; expect to marry in the fall if 
 things turn out all right." 
 
 " Well, I can let the girl know if anything happens," 
 said the veteran, half commiseratingly, growing softer 
 as rough men are apt to do when there is a girl in the 
 case. 
 
 " Thanks," replied the student curtly. There was 
 a clutch at his heart ; he hated to take chances where 
 her happiness depended on a trembling balance. He 
 drew a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and light 
 ing one fell to a dreary thinking of the girl he had left 
 behind. 
 
 " No smoking," commanded the captain of the 
 Pinkertons severely from the rear of the craft. 
 
 He threw the cigarette overboard. 
 
352 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The barge came to a standstill with a lurch. With 
 a scared expression the men looked from one to the 
 other, wondering if the enemy could have started an 
 unpremeditated attack in the middle of the waters. 
 
 " Anything happened ? What s up ? " they asked 
 fearfully. 
 
 " Just a slackened rope," volunteered some one who 
 knew. 
 
 The tug halted until the slack was drawn in ; then 
 both boats hastened southward over the lake again. 
 The waters were still, mirror like, slightly ruffled here 
 and there as if the damp breath of the barely percep 
 tible wind had moistened its surface. The blue sky 
 seemed a lake overhead, the blue lake seemed a sky 
 below. The mills hove in sight, the black rows of 
 chimneys drawn ominously against the cerulean sky. 
 Then a deafening roar of voices spread across the still 
 ness of the waters. 
 
XXXI 
 THE BATTLE 
 
 THE captain of the Pinkertons saw the crowd 
 gathered on the bank with a horror too great 
 for concealment. He knew what it augured. 
 He often had led bands of mercenaries against 
 mobs like that, formed of unpaid soldiers who fought 
 like soldiers to whom pay is no consideration. 
 
 Panic seized the barge. The Pinkertons were for 
 going back, the captain assuming a composure which 
 he had not, and the veterans did their best to allay 
 the timorousness of the novices. Return was be 
 yond the pale of question. The agency had a repu 
 tation to sustain ; and if they retreated, sustenance 
 would be withdrawn from the reputation to the end 
 of time. Besides, the Company would not pay for 
 services merely rendered in the bill. 
 
 The Winchesters were taken from the boxes and 
 distributed. The tyros beheld the weapons with dread 
 as great as if they were to be discharged against 
 themselves. 
 
 As the craft drew near enough to the shore to enable 
 its occupants to discern individual faces in the mob, 
 knees quaked and hearts fluttered like flags in a strong 
 wind. Those faces were so desperately grim and they 
 were set on such muscular bodies. Moreover, rifle-bar 
 rels bristled in the crowd, protruding like spikes from 
 23 353 
 
354 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 a fence. If they landed it would be at the cost of some 
 lives ; and whose life, each asked himself, was to pay 
 the cost? The question was answered with sinking 
 hearts. The direful moment arrived. The tug ful 
 filled its contract, landed the barge and steamed away. 
 A gang-plank was thrown out, and the Pinkertons de 
 bouched, the captain at the head. 
 
 Blair ran forward waving his long arms. " Go 
 back ! go back ! " he shouted. " You will be shot down 
 like dogs if you land ! " 
 
 One of the strikers spurted forward, pushed ahead 
 of Blair and threw himself prone on the gang-plank, 
 clutching the boards firmly with his left arm ; in his 
 right hand he held a cocked revolver. If the captain 
 of the Pinkertons moved it would be over his body ; 
 and if he moved one step on his body he would move 
 no more. 
 
 " Forward, men," commanded the intrepid captain, 
 giving precept the force of example. 
 
 Those were the last words he uttered and the last 
 step he took ; he fell from the gang-plank into the blue 
 waters of the lake. 
 
 Blair was stunned. He had come to prevent mur 
 der and his presence acted as an aggravating cause. 
 His feet held him as if they had been roots cleaving 
 into the ground. The blood roared in his ears. 
 
 Take aim. Fire!" commanded the lieutenant of 
 the Pinkertons, who had assumed the dead captain s 
 place. The rifles were stocked against shoulders and 
 the bullets leaped from the steel jaws. 
 
 Volley was answered with volley. The strikers fired 
 with telling effect. The battle had changed from ma 
 chinery as an adversary to man ; and the soldiers of 
 industry were equally determined, equally merciless. 
 
THE BATTLE 355 
 
 The smoke cleared. The hot July air groaned with 
 the moans of the dying. Blair had heard the ping of 
 bullets so close to his body and face that he half ex 
 pected to see the blood pour from his chest or feel the 
 warm stream on his cheek. 
 
 At the report of the first rifle shot, Michael and Mrs. 
 Brodski left the exhumed bodies of the children, and 
 joined the ranks of the strikers. Both mother and son 
 were frenetic with the desire to wreak vengeance. To 
 them the caving in of the ore pile was a cruel con 
 spiracy of capital, not the purely accidental movement 
 of an inanimate body. Capital had slaughtered the 
 flesh of their flesh, the blood of their blood woe to 
 capital and its agents ! 
 
 Both sides had retreated to care for their wounded 
 and dying, the Pinkertons to the shelter of their 
 barge ; the strikers to the barricades they had built of 
 scrap, slag, ingots, and timber. Seven of the depu 
 ties would shoulder gun or weapon no more. The 
 young medical student was the second to fall; he lay 
 on the bottom of the barge, his blue eyes glaucous 
 now. 
 
 Death had thinned the columns of the militant steel- 
 workers by five. A bullet stopped the beating of 
 Wanda s violent heart and quenched her consuming 
 thirst for revenge. The mother was stanching the 
 flow of blood with bandages made of her torn apron 
 and dress, shrieking like a wildcat the while. Jan 
 and Paul and Michael stood there to all appearances 
 unmoved, impassive, tearless, life s color vanished 
 from their cheeks, terrorized into silence by the calam 
 ity. 
 
 In the lull of battle the strikers bore the dead away. 
 For a half-hour a desultory firing was kept up on both 
 
356 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 sides. The furibund, scornful of the aim of the myr 
 midons, exposed their bodies and stalked out from the 
 protection of the rude barricades ; two of them paid 
 for their bravado with their lives. Those deaths were 
 avenged by well-aimed bullets which went shrieking 
 through the small windows of the barge to find their 
 journey obstructed by unfortunate deputies. 
 
 The July sun still beat down on the wood roof, rag 
 ing there like a fire, heating the already stifling interior 
 as with a furnace. The barge was a charnel-house. 
 A medical student, taking the place of his dead broth 
 er, was bravely attending the injured. The suffering 
 of the strong was more than Spartan could have en 
 dured. Starving lungs panted for oxygen. 
 
 A half-hour dragged on and brought no sign of re 
 lief from any quarter. Escape on shore was to be had 
 only through the gateway of death, perhaps through 
 a way that was worse. They huddled together like 
 cattle, each cowed and terrorized by the look in his 
 neighbor s eyes. 
 
 Many were about to throw themselves overboard 
 and cheat death of its sting. The captain threatened 
 to shoot the first man who made the craven attempt. 
 Two handsaws found on the boat a God-sent treas 
 ure-trove were set busily to work cutting a series of 
 loopholes in the sides of the barge. It increased the 
 danger from the bullets but it lessened the chances of 
 slow suffocation. Every second brought showers of 
 slag hurling against the side of the boat, threatening 
 to wreck its flimsy frame. 
 
 Half after three dragged its slow step to four, and 
 yet there came no signal from land or lake that relief 
 was on the way: in front of them still the menacing 
 mob ; back of them the open hospitable waters of the 
 
THE BATTLE 357 
 
 lake, pitilessly shut for their escape; around them a 
 sweltering atmosphere, and above them the fusillade 
 of a sun that seemed to collude with the enemy. 
 
 The opposing forces had every advantage. Position 
 favored them. The ground they occupied was a fort 
 in itself. Here the Company, exercising its riparian 
 rights to the extreme, had filled in acres and acres of 
 land by the dumping of tons of refuse and slag from 
 the mills. The ground thus made rose fifteen feet 
 above the level of the lake, twenty in parts. If the 
 Pinkertons marched from their weak stronghold they 
 would have to climb an embankment. The filling was 
 unequal and without level, here and there crests and 
 mounds protruded roughly ; here and there deep ridges 
 offered natural fortresses. The strikers continued to 
 expose their bodies recklessly that they might fortify 
 their natural advantage with their crude, extempore 
 art, until their position had become well-nigh impreg 
 nable. 
 
 A handkerchief tied to a pole was suddenly hung 
 out from the loopholes of the barge. It was the 
 flag of surrender. In another moment the handker 
 chief was riddled with bullets. Blair, visioning the 
 suffering that tried the souls of the victims on the boat, 
 passed, at the constant danger of his life, from mound 
 to mound, from place to place, and entreated the men 
 to show mercy. They had had more than ample re 
 venge ; they had conquered easily ; to push the results 
 of victory to cruelty would redound to the ultimate 
 defeat of their cause. They cursed him for his inter 
 ference; insulted him with ribald oaths. Mrs. Brod- 
 ski spat full at his face, and would have sprung at his 
 throat did not the strong arms of Michael and Paul 
 restrain her. His supremacy was lost again ; madness 
 
358 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 was deaf to obedience. His soldiery was a ruthless 
 mob ; every man his own commander. 
 
 Two tracks took an uneven and sagged path across 
 the slag dump ; over them the engines were wont to 
 run, pulling car loads of slag and " skulls of iron 
 from the ladles up to the yawning mouth of the great 
 lake. The ill-starred barge had chanced to land at 
 the foot of this track, just where the filling left off. 
 Jan Brodski conceived an ingeniously horrible idea. 
 The conception was welcomed with enthusiastic greet 
 ing, and they set about to execute it with alacrity. A 
 flat-bottomed car was filled with barrels of oil. When 
 the car reached the turning point of the declivity the 
 oil was ignited and sent whirling down the bending 
 track. Mrs. Brodski was the last to release her hold. 
 Shoving with her fat shoulders, she was all but carried 
 down the declivity in the precipitous rush of the cargo. 
 
 Dumfounded, their boiling blood freezing now from 
 chill terror, the Pinkertons read their doom. They 
 were to be cremated alive ! Their enemies \vere not 
 human beings; they were devils! Three men jumped 
 overboard, preferring drowning to incineration. The 
 brave new captain s pistol restrained the others. The 
 panic was frightful. The car came rolling nearer and 
 nearer, bearing its burden of fire for the conflagration 
 of human flesh. The deputies were numb ; they had 
 reached the limit of endurance where further suffering 
 is impossible to the nerves of feeling. Suddenly the 
 car came to a halt ; its wheels were imbedded in the soft 
 sand of the shore and it could move no farther. 
 
 The tortured Pinkertons sent up a praver of thank 
 fulness to the god of good chance. But the prayer 
 was of short duration ; for one danger was scarcely 
 evaded before another arose. The flames swirled and 
 
THE BATTLE 359 
 
 stretched towards the barge, shooting and darting a 
 thousand tongues at its roof and sides. The air drew 
 in the thick, nauseating odors of the oil until it was 
 saturated to dampness with an oleaginous stench. 
 Gasping lungs drew in scorching nourishment. Man 
 after man fell to the floor in a swoon. 
 
 The roof was on fire ! As through prairie grass a 
 thin cingle of gold was creeping an ominous way. 
 Two of the bravest climbed out on the top of the barge, 
 buckets in hand, to pluck out the girdle of flame that 
 would widen and widen until it clasped all of them in 
 its embrace. Luckily for these two the common dan 
 ger was their particular protection ; the fire bursting 
 from the oil-freighted car held up an intervening veil, 
 and the bullets that whirled through the flames fell at 
 random, far from their marks. The roof was safe ; the 
 men descended. 
 
 Nature, more merciful than man, veered its winds ; 
 the flames were swept landward by the besom of a 
 strong and steady breeze. Life opened the closed 
 valves of their veins once more. Out of the jaws of 
 death and into the yawning mouth of cineration 
 again! The eyes of the lookers-out on the watch let 
 trembling lids hide the sight. Look ! From the north 
 and the south, two oil-drenched rafts were creep 
 ing slowly, surely towards the barge, propelled by 
 two skiffs ; in one of them sat Jan Brodski, in the 
 other Paul and his mother, tugging at the oars like 
 mad. 
 
 The captain gave the word of command ; the men 
 arose, Winchesters leaning on their shoulders. They 
 would not surrender their lives ; they would sell them 
 dearly, at a valuation of their own high appraisement. 
 Death by lead rather than death by fire, ten thousand 
 
360 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 times ! Rather enter the throat of death struggling 
 than wait unresisting for its mouth to swallow. 
 
 Father Kozma, the Polish priest, attended by his 
 acolyte, garmented in sacerdotal robes and hat, holding 
 a silver crucifix aloft, with the solemnity of a slow 
 and measured step, marched over the ground and hil 
 locks of slag, swaying his argentine symbol of divinity 
 from right to left. 
 
 4< In the name of Christ and the Church, under the 
 ban of excommunication, I bid you disperse," he cried. 
 His voice was deep and resonant and carried far 
 through the stilly air. 
 
 All heard it; some terrified ; some angered ; most of 
 them on the line that verged between obedience to the 
 church, instilled by centuries of submission, and a sud 
 den insurrection against its privileged mediation. 
 Father Kozma had fulminated against the strike since 
 the beginning and he had exerted all his power to in 
 fluence his parishioners into accepting the terms of the 
 Company ; but the rumor that the Company was enrich 
 ing the coffers of the church, annulled his authority. 
 Priestly interference was resented ; even the holy wa 
 ter, as La Vette had put it, was taken with a grain of 
 salt. 
 
 A line of Pinkertons had already marched out on 
 the narrow rim of deck that ran around the barge. A 
 rifle was raised. " Don t shoot," bawled the captain, 
 exultingly, pulling it down, " it s a priest ; it s a priest." 
 
 Blair stalked forward, the servant of an uncontrol 
 lable passion. The blood beat at his brain and temples 
 as if it would break through the barriers of flesh and 
 skull alike. The taste of it was in his mouth. His 
 sight was dimmed by the sanguinary surge of his fu 
 ror. He forgot all that had happened through those 
 
THE BATTLE 361 
 
 few long hours ; he forgot all that might follow, the 
 murder on murder that the eye of night might still 
 witness. He was unmindful of the priest s mission of 
 peace, of the attempt of the representative of divinity 
 to conquer the passions which had laughed his own 
 mere human power to a flight. 
 
 He saw only the priest and the cross; the same 
 priest who had driven him from the home of the Brocl- 
 skis and fought his socialistic creed tooth and nail, 
 and all Blair s long thoughts on the exploitation of 
 the people by the churches, on the churches as the 
 sanctuary for the modern gilded outlaw, and more 
 maddening than any of these, the subsidy paid by the 
 Company to the Church to purchase its connivance, 
 rushed in one whirl through his super-excited brain. 
 It was the priest and the cross arrayed with crushing 
 capitalism against labor warring for manumission. 
 
 He dashed forward. The blue vein that ran through 
 the center of his high forehead empurpled ; he snatched 
 the crucifix from the startled priest, hurled it disdain 
 fully on the ground and stamped on the crucified 
 Christ with his heavy foot. 
 
 In palpitating horror the Catholic strikers looked on 
 for a moment. Then they cheered. The authority of 
 the priest was gone. 
 
 A Pinkerton aimed at Blair s huge frame a mark 
 not easily missed and fired. Blair fell prone. 
 
 With a howl and a roar the steel men left the pro 
 tection of their sheltering fortifications and rushed, 
 heedless of death, towards the barge. Fusillade was 
 answered with fusillade. 
 
 Sharp whistles blew from the Emma Dean, the pa 
 trolling tug hired by the strikers. " More Pinkertons 
 on the way," read the signal. Let these be slaughtered 
 
362 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 before the reinforcements arrive ; then woe to the rein 
 forcements ! 
 
 The deputies were completely surrounded ; in front 
 the men ; on either side the oil rafts burning, blazing 
 lambently, drawing nearer and nearer. 
 
 A tug hove in sight, turning shoreward as fast as 
 steam could send it on its way. 
 
 " Get inside," commanded the captain of the Pink- 
 ertons, " we re out of this death-trap at last." 
 
 Thick tow-lines were fastened to the barge. The 
 flaming rafts beat against the tug and struck against 
 the barge squarely, as two lines were thrown out to 
 unite the two. The fire spread ; the stern of the barge 
 was already ablaze, a spreading carpet of flame was 
 sweeping across the bow of the rescuing tug. 
 
 One bell sounded ; the quick-witted commander 
 pulled his sturdy craft out on the sheltering path of 
 the waters. On the bosom of the lake the flames were 
 quickly quenched. The Pinkertons were saved at last. 
 
XXXII 
 
 THE MILITIA 
 
 NOW that the danger was over and personal safe 
 ty assured, now that the priest had paved the 
 way by his heroism, McNaughton, Bach, 
 whose prostration was a ruse, and the other mem 
 bers of the Advisory Committee reappeared on the 
 ground of battle. The representatives of religion 
 and labor joined forces to quell the riot and disperse 
 the rioters. The heat, the rapid approach of evening, 
 the reaction of tired bodies and overwrought nerves, 
 favored the orators, the strikers broke rank and grad 
 ually betook themselves homeward. 
 
 When the crowd separated, the sheriff hove in sight 
 timidly. He put himself under the protection of the 
 Advisory Committee and was escorted through the 
 mills. Immediately he made a lengthy telegraphic re 
 port to the governor, detailing the number killed and 
 the havoc wrought. 
 
 The affair was evidently serious and the governor 
 considered it in a less jovial light. Marvin had been 
 punished enough ; and tlr s kind of retaliation was a 
 two-edged sword which, the governor feared, if he 
 held it too long, might cut into his own hands. He 
 resolved, however, to sleep over the matter and take 
 his pillow into consultation it had always been his best 
 adviser. 
 
 363 
 
364 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The morning papers proved conclusively that it 
 would be dangerous to temporize longer, to consult 
 his best adviser a second night. Scare-heads pro 
 claimed the reign of anarchy, Briareus-handed, that 
 would clutch the entire state of Illinois in its grasp 
 unless the monster were ?t once decapitated. The 
 sheriff was excoriated ; the governor was assailed ; the 
 strikers were denounced; the Company was attacked 
 for landing Pinkerton detectives an unwarranted 
 proceeding, an assumption of military and legal au 
 thority that might lead to dangerous consequences if 
 pushed to its logical absurdity. Between the organs 
 of the two parties, Democratic and Republican, no one 
 escaped a scathing. Again the tariff and the wage 
 question were the objects of fierce editorial comment. 
 The political ball was set rolling again, more swift 
 ly, with more vehement force, than before. 
 
 The chief magistrate of the state scarcely sat down 
 to his breakfast before telegrams had been sent to sum 
 mon two regiments of militia to the seat of the trouble ; 
 and before he had finished his breakfast three mem 
 bers of the Advisory Committee, Bach and McNaugh- 
 ton and another, were on hand (they had left Marvin 
 the night before for Springfield) to plead that no 
 troops be sent. The danger was over now, they ar 
 gued ; the appearance of the soldiers would but incite 
 the men to a renewed outbreak ; they would hold them 
 selves responsible in person for any further damage to 
 life or property. All they desired was to keep non 
 union men out of Marvin and the mill. Surely his ex 
 cellency was a friend of the unions? They would bind 
 themselves in honor to allow the sheriff and his posse 
 to take peaceful possession of the mills. Finally, Mc- 
 Naughton, who was not without some, experience in 
 
THE MILITIA 365 
 
 politics, touched on the question of votes, by innuendo 
 at first, more openly as he proceeded. 
 
 The question was involved; more involved than the 
 vacillating governor had at first supposed, and he 
 shook his heavy gubernatorial head and listened to the 
 various points of the discussion impatiently, save the 
 argument concerning the votes, which touched his cal 
 lous political heart. 
 
 After all, there was some truth in what the men had 
 said. He should have heard both sides of the contro 
 versy before acting. He was too quick to order out 
 the state infantry. The newspapers were bound to 
 pour forth their vituperation anyway; they were ever 
 ready to vent censorious criticism on something, and it 
 might as well be one thing as another. Let the Dem 
 ocratic journals screech and the Republican journals 
 howl, he would pay attention to neither. He stood for 
 the rights of the people! 
 
 He had already thrown a sop to the finical law-and- 
 order element by ordering the troops out ; he would 
 throw a larger sop to the larger labor element by or 
 dering the troops in again. And Marvin ? On second 
 consideration he was not even with Marvin yet ; he 
 had not had an eye for an eye ; the money lost in his 
 stock-rigging deal had been paid back by no means. 
 It did his tolerant and forgiving soul good to read the 
 scathing of the president of the Company in the press. 
 It was too gentle, too lamb-like by half ; as time went 
 on, as the trouble waxed, the strictures would grow 
 severer. Let it wax then ! He dismissed his callers 
 rather abruptly with: 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, you go back and keep order and 
 I ll keep the militia away ; but the moment you break 
 your promise the troops will be on hand. Order must 
 
3 66 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 be preserved at any cost. The law of the state is sov 
 ereign and it must not be violated. 
 
 Before the sun rose over Marvin that morning the 
 town was astir with bellicose activity. It had been re 
 ported that the state regiments would force an en 
 trance into the town and the mills, and the men wished 
 to be ready to oppose that entrance. Picket lines were 
 redoubled. Guards were stationed in every odd nook 
 and corner. The streets were patrolled by armed men 
 displaying their rifles in no empty spirit of bravado. A 
 grim resolution, a desperation, inexorable as death, 
 ruled the multitude. 
 
 A gatling gun an obsolete mechanism rusty from 
 long disuse found its way mysteriously in their 
 ranks ; and the undrilled soldiery, unable to find the 
 coign of greatest vantage for its final resting place, 
 dragged it from corner to corner. Long pipes, stopped 
 at both ends, filled with dynamite, were swung threat 
 eningly, with ghastly grins on the faces of their wield- 
 ers. 
 
 The foreign quarters were strewn with anarchistic 
 " dodgers," wherein were plainly printed the autono- 
 mistic doctrines and the most inexpensive methods for 
 the manufacture of dangerous explosives and chemi 
 cals. In four languages was the carmine screed set 
 down, that none might run from its reading. Before 
 daylight shuddered over the inflammatory print, the 
 tracts disappeared as if they had been swept away by 
 the wind, to find safe lodging in pockets of skirts and 
 coats. 
 
 The burial of the unfortunates who had been killed 
 by the bullets of the Pinkertons was to take place be 
 fore noon ; and the black crapes, fluttering in the door 
 ways, and the dilapidated hearses made the solemnity 
 
THE MILITIA 367 
 
 of the morning funereal. The hearts of the mourners 
 were heavy with hatred for the slayers rather than 
 with commiseration for the slain. 
 
 Mass was celebrated for the dead and the churches 
 were crowded to the doors ; those not able to find place 
 within blocked the streets without. Jan, Michael and 
 Paul obdurately refused the tearful prayer of their 
 mother to attend the church services for their deceased 
 brother and sisters. After mass, Father Kozma ex 
 horted his hearers to keep the peace, to obey the law 
 and to take warning 1 from the fate of those whose 
 deaths they were lamenting. A hiss, sibilant and low, 
 protested against the advice. It was a sacrilege per 
 petrated in the sanctum of all that was holy, an open 
 revolt against priestly power that was without prece 
 dent in the life of the priest ; and Father Kozma heard 
 the warning with horror. He dared not combat the 
 spirit lest its wrath increase and the sacrilegious evis 
 cerate the church as they had the mills ; wisely he ig 
 nored it, pretending not to hear. 
 
 The men unhitched the horses and dragged the 
 hearses to the cemetery, unmindful of the hot sun. 
 A band went to the fore and the mourners marched 
 to inspiriting strains. Crowds stood hatless while they 
 passed, and when they moved away threats of venge 
 ance arose louder than the music. Even the funeral 
 sable took on the hue of scarlet. 
 
 The obsequies were but ended when the sheriff en 
 tered Marvin with a force of one hundred hastily gath 
 ered aides. The force of public opinion made the sher 
 iff s political aspirations succumb to its superior au 
 thority. The supplicating vigilance of Winslow and 
 three other members of the Advisory Committee was 
 set at naught. The sheriff and his minions were driven 
 
368 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 forth ignominiously, barely escaping with their lives, 
 two wounded by stones hurled by the mob. Be 
 tween the sheriff s office and the executive mansion at 
 Springfield the wires were kept hot. 
 
 The posse comitatus barely had retreated from Mar 
 vin before an officer of the governor s staff set a bold 
 foot in the town. He had been commissioned to make 
 a thorough examination and render a faithful report 
 to his chief. His excellency had only heard rumors 
 exaggerated reports garbled by a sensational press 
 and he wished facts. There was no sentiment about 
 the governor. 
 
 This officer fell into the hands of the watchful pick 
 ets and they handled him mercilessly. He was taken 
 for a spy from the Company and he was almost beaten 
 to death before he was given a chance to prove his 
 identity. He telegraphed a faithful report to the gov 
 ernor. The guardian of the state s welfare lost his 
 temper and it was a valuable temper to lose there 
 was so much of it. He considered the maltreatment of 
 the member of his staff as a personal insult ; it was the 
 same as if they had laid impious hands on him. For 
 the assault on the sheriff and his aides, for the killing 
 of the Pinkertons and the destruction of the Company s 
 property, he cared but little that was their affair ; but 
 this was his and it concerned him deeply. He ordered 
 out the militia now with the same promptness with 
 which he had delayed the order. He would teach the 
 rabble how to insult the majesty of the state. 
 
 The governor s action leaked out with the celerity 
 of water through a hole in a cask. The governor ob 
 served no care to have his order kept secret. He 
 wished the people to know that they had a man of will 
 and force of character at their head. Newspaper ex- 
 
THE MILITIA 369 
 
 tras spread the news. The town of Marvin heard the 
 intelligence with oaths of disapproval. 
 
 The mills were instantly surrounded by men armed 
 to the teeth. The most strategic and advantageous 
 point in the works was the bridge that ran from the 
 offices, over the long range of tracks and the muddle of 
 cars, to the foot of the steel-mill. The men considered 
 the position impregnable. Troops could not assemble 
 under it without the removal of the cars, and the armed 
 force on the bridge would see to it that the cars were 
 not removed. 
 
 The gatling gun was set in the center of the bridge. 
 Supplies of ammunition, gathered from many and puz 
 zling sources, were moved thither. The bridge bris 
 tled with muskets as with chevaux-de-frise. The strike 
 had now taken on the aspect of war and the strikers 
 wished their engines of warfare to be equal to its im 
 portance. Bombs, crudely and hastily made of pipe 
 and dynamite, stacked the fortress. Jan Brodiski com 
 manded the forces. 
 
 The members of the Advisory Committee looked on 
 these preparations with quaking misgivings. All of 
 them deprecated the measures, they pleaded against 
 them with equal results they might as well have im 
 portuned the wind to blow westward. The plan of the 
 Advisory Committee was different ; they wished to win 
 the favor of the general in command, not to arouse his 
 enmity ; to meet him as foes, with their polyglot, undis 
 ciplined army, was clearly ridiculous. 
 
 Winslow, McNaughton, Bach and the others put 
 their heads together and prepared speeches of welcome 
 to the troops of the state, declaring the eagerness of 
 the workers of Marvin to cooperate with the militia 
 in the preservation of order ; tendering the services of 
 24 
 
370 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the Amalgamated Association in the cause of peace. 
 Four bands were hired to escort the troops in town. 
 
 At half after four in the afternoon the militia came, 
 and it came with such consummate tactics that even 
 those on the lookout for a surprise were the most sur 
 prised of all ; they had scarcely time to exclaim " The 
 soldiers ! the soldiers ! " and disappear before a wall of 
 advancing 1 bayonets. 
 
 The milit : a was expected to arrive from the north 
 over the rails of the Illinois Central ; instead it came in 
 from the west on the Pennsylvania road ; at least such 
 was the maneuver of one division of the First Regi 
 ment ; a second division of the same regiment arrived 
 a few minutes later on a special train of the Illinois 
 Central, and it debouched in time to strengthen the 
 forces of their comrades, on the shortest notice, should 
 that be necessary. One division of the Second Regi 
 ment was landed on the north shore of the mills by 
 boat ; the other division made a sharp detour to the 
 south, and marched, in a line long drawn out, by way 
 of Steel river. 
 
 The whole town was in the hollow of the general s 
 hand. The ends had but to draw closer and closer 
 together and the resisting mob in the center were but 
 a rat in a steel trap. 
 
 The main encampment was to be in the wide stretch 
 of prairie near the south end of the mills, in easy range 
 of any possible point of important action. The tents 
 had their white cloth flapping in the wind as quickly 
 and easily as the wind flapped the cloth of the tents. 
 
 The general was informed that " a hand of insurrec 
 tionists " occupied the bridge inside of the plant. " Let 
 them there for the time being," he commented, with a 
 smile, " we ll get them when we want them." 
 
THE MILITIA 371 
 
 The Advisory Committee sought the general with 
 conciliatory speeches, smoothly prepared. General 
 Crawford was an aristocratic man, of a military car 
 riage ; his aristocracy was enforced by snow-white hair, 
 mustache and imperial ; and, although his soldierly 
 bearing may have been diminished, his looks were im 
 proved by a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, set on a 
 Caesarian nose. He had seen long service in the Civil 
 War and he bore the stamp of the training. Like the 
 governor, he was totally without sentiment ; he was 
 there on duty, and to carry out his duty he would mow 
 down millions with as little compunction as he would 
 have drummed an insubordinate out of camp. He was 
 stern, immovable, inflexible the soldier born. 
 
 When Winslow, surrounded by the others of the 
 committee, approached, the general was ringed by his 
 aides-de-camp. 
 
 Icily General Crawford eyed them ; frigidly he said, 
 " Well, gentlemen." 
 
 Winslow started on his dulciloquy. With an auto 
 cratic, barely perceptible sweep of the hand, the general 
 cut him short. " That will do, my friend. I don t know 
 the Amalgamated Association and I wouldn t recog 
 nize it if I knew it. I acknowledge no authority other 
 than the governor of Illinois and the sheriff of this 
 county. The people of this town and the men from 
 the mills can cooperate with us best by behaving 
 themselves. If I need aid I can send for more troops." 
 
 Winslow, Bach and McNaughton looked at one an 
 other in astonishment and then edged back as if to be 
 take themselves away from the freezing air generated 
 by an iceberg. But Winslow plucked up his courage 
 and made a second attempt. What the men desired 
 was merelv to attest their cheerful submission to the 
 
372 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 state law, to show the people of the commonwealth 
 that they would resist armed bandits like the Pinker- 
 tons to the death, but to the law of the state they would 
 bow with childish humility. 
 
 The cold eye-balls rolled in their frosty temperature, 
 and the general waved his white hand towards the fat 
 sheriff, who had returned to Marvin under the protec 
 tion of the troops. " Here is the gentleman to whom 
 you should submit. He represents the law of your 
 county." 
 
 " We ve already submitted to him," said Winslow 
 meekly, knowing how sadly untenable was the asser 
 tion. 
 
 " Yes," retorted the general, with chilly, even voice, 
 " by attacking his aides and driving him from 
 town." 
 
 " That s so," snapped the squabby sheriff, embold 
 ened by the general s presence. 
 
 Humbly McNaughton requested to beg the privi 
 lege of leading the troops through Marvin with four 
 brass bands, hired for the occasion, to show the work 
 ers and townspeople that the militia and labor were in 
 brotherly accord. 
 
 " Perfectly ridiculous," came from the frigid zone 
 of military autocracy. " You might better propose to 
 furnish my soldiers with white kid gloves." He looked 
 at the open face of his watch. " We must move 
 now. I will trouble you to step out of the line of our 
 march." 
 
 The committee turned away with the disgust born 
 of absolute failure. " One minute, gentlemen," called 
 the icy voice. They turned back. 
 
 " Tt has just come to my notice that your men are 
 occupying the bridge of the mill with gatling guns and 
 
THE MILITIA 373 
 
 bombs ; if you don t want them mowed down like 
 wheat, order them off." 
 
 Winslow started to explain that the bridge had been 
 taken against their earnest solicitation. Curtly the 
 general interrupted with : 
 
 "If you don t want them mowed down like wheat, 
 order them off." 
 
 Dejected by helplessness, the members of the com 
 mittee retired, a hatred for the general raging in their 
 hearts. The governor had treated them cordially, with 
 befitting consideration ; but this underling of a soldier, 
 with the disdain that he would mete out to the sorriest 
 beggar. 
 
 And the governor, a Janus-faced politician, maugre 
 his suavity, looking towards the capitalist smilingly 
 and the laborer smirkingly, had played into the hands 
 of their oppressors after all. They were sold out! 
 Their cause was lost ! In less than two weeks the 
 mills would be filled with " scabs," black sheep, black 
 legs the scum of the earth ! How resist now ? If 
 they attacked their enemies they would be shot down 
 like dogs by this white-haired aristocrat-plutocrat, 
 this 
 
 Companies C and D of the First Regiment were at 
 once ordered out to clear the nondescript crowd away 
 from the streets and the mill fences. The rest of the 
 regiment followed, evolving: smaller groups of skir 
 mishers as ; t progressed. The crowd gave wav sul 
 lenly, unwillingly, menacingly, but it s;ave way. These 
 cohorts of drilled troops marching like so much ma 
 chinery, at the word of a superior s command, 
 were awe-inspiring to the heterogeneous mass of 
 strikers. 
 
 Their courage, long gathered, oozed at the first prick 
 
374 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 of a bayonet. Where were pistols and guns and dyna 
 mite bombs now ? 
 
 Only the women stood their ground, calling vile 
 names, shaking clenched fists, stood it, though sharp 
 steel pressed against the r breasts, daring the soldiers 
 to prod deeper and do their worst. The militia were 
 loath to wound women, loath to shoot down men ; 
 like the Pinkertons, their rank and file were made up 
 of clerks, artisans, mechanics, and their sympathy was, 
 for the most part, with those against whom they were 
 sent. Still, the word of command was given, to 
 disobey meant death or a disgrace that was equally 
 bad. They marched on ; the women gave way. 
 
 The failing courage of the men gathered again ; the 
 action of the women, of their wives and sweethearts 
 and daughters, was inspiriting, and the dispersed 
 columns assembled, resolving to do battle until es 
 caping blood left their veins too impoverished to heed 
 the mandates of their wills. 
 
 Tn compact lines the soldiery reached the mill fence, 
 dragging a gatling gun with difficulty through the 
 miry ground. 
 
 The crowd pushed and shoved nearer and nearer to 
 the bayonets, almost tripping the marching feet, taunt 
 ing the soldiers, bespatterng them with mud, reviling 
 them with coarse oaths. And still the militia marched 
 on with impassive faces, praying for but one thing, 
 hoping for but one thing, that they might not be called 
 upon to shoot down these mistaken toilers, their breth 
 ren, rebelling to gain a little butter to spread on their 
 meager bread. 
 
 The fences were reached in this patient march that 
 tried the kindly souls of the merciful. The gatling 
 gun was placed in position ; the infantry spread out, 
 
THE MILITIA 
 
 375 
 
 with arms shouldered. Gradually the armed pickets, 
 stationed around the fences by the strikers, withdrew ; 
 only to assemble in a solid phalanx and strengthen 
 the gathering forces of the mob. 
 
 " We order you to disperse in the name of the state 
 of Illinois, shouted the captain. 
 
 Even Mrs. Brodski, forgetful of maternal grief, 
 scarcely returned from the funeral, was led by the 
 hope of avenging her children to join the desperate 
 throng. She fought her way to the front. Not far 
 removed stood Paul and Michael, long black pipes in 
 their hands. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski, a screaming fury, urged the men on, 
 flinging the word coward, coward, coward, in their 
 teeth, bidding them remember the slain whom they 
 had buried that day. She pressed forward, and shook 
 her fist in the face of the nearest soldier. Imperturb- 
 ably he ordered her to move back. She heaped op 
 probrium upon him. He repeated his mandate, un 
 disturbed, even with pity in his heart for the half- 
 demented woman. She spat full in his face. Calmly 
 he wiped the saliva from it, lifted his bayonet against 
 her breast and repeated his injunction more sternly. 
 She tore her dress open, and beating her hands against 
 her bared bosom, shrilled her challenge, defying him 
 to stab deep. 
 
 Her rampant opposition was contagious ; nay, it 
 was as fresh fuel to dying fires. The crowd jeered 
 and hooted ; the timid threw missiles from the back 
 ranks ; the bolder ones moved nearer, and the few 
 who happened to have fire-arms, lifted them into 
 place. 
 
 " Take aim," cried the captain in stentorian tones, 
 intent upon subduing by terror, willing to subdue by 
 
376 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 onslaught only when extremity forced the measure. 
 The muskets rattled into position. 
 
 " We order you to disperse in the name of the state 
 of Illinois," shouted the captain. 
 
 The strikers remained where they were, although 
 they expected the lowered bayonets to charge against 
 them. The soldiery revolved into a formidable array. 
 
 General Crawford dashed along on his white steed, 
 sitting erect, impassive, his horse as much a part of 
 him, he as much a part of his horse, as if both were but 
 the two parts of a centaur. His eyes were as cold, as 
 unfeeling under his polished glasses as if they were 
 bits of clean, clear ice. 
 
 " Order them to disperse, and if they don t disperse, 
 fire," he directed and wheeled away, deaf to the in 
 sults hurled at his dignified retreat. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski stooped down and lifted a handful 
 of mud from the roadside and dashed it in the impas 
 sive faces of the forgiving martyrs. A guffaw showed 
 that her action was commended by the strikers. Paul 
 and Jan lit matches. Emboldened by Mrs. Brodski s 
 unpunished bravado, a steel worker fired his gun at 
 the soldiery. The reckless followed in vicious suit. 
 A soldier fell to the ground wounded in the groin. 
 
 The men in the ranks of the militia looked at their 
 commander, imploringly, their fingers locked on the 
 triggers of their muskets ; patience had become a vice. 
 
 " Fire ! " came his order. 
 
 A storm, a whirlwind of bullets burst from the guns. 
 Purposely, some few, melting at the last minute, fired 
 overhead. 
 
 A volley of bullets answered the fusillade of the 
 troops. Paul and Jan lit the fuses of their bombs 
 and whirled them sputtering through the air. Paul s 
 
THE MILITIA 377 
 
 went out in its whizzing flight; Jan s was stamped 
 out by the foot of a terrified musketeer. Immediately 
 Paul hurled another, handed to him by a man be 
 hind ; it went screaming through the air, but it burst 
 too soon, scattering noise and fury, harming nothing. 
 
 " Take aim ! Fire ! " resounded the direful com 
 mand again. 
 
 A hurricane of bullets whistled furiously with 
 murderous breath. The mob broke ranks and poured 
 pell-mell in every direction, like bewildered cattle on 
 a stampede, feeling death trip their heels and clutch 
 their elbows. Thirty had fallen on the ground to arise 
 to their feet again never. Paul and Jan were unin 
 jured by the lead that hissed and muttered past their 
 ears ; Mrs. Brodski escaped from a bullet that went 
 searching through her sleeve for her flesh. 
 
 The brave captain mopped his brow, shuddering 
 as if the brand of Cain were indelibly there, never to 
 be rubbed away. " God knows," he mumbled to him 
 self, " I didn t want to kill the poor devils." Repeated 
 baptism of fire had not indurated him to the business. 
 He turned to examine what slaughter his own com 
 pany had suffered. One was killed; three were 
 seriously wounded. 
 
 On a pile of slag beetling over the fence the gatling 
 gun was stationed for ornamental use ; a cordon of 
 sentries guarded the mill on the outside, so closely 
 aligned that they could stretch out their hands and 
 touch fingers. 
 
 The rest of the regiment entered the mill-yards 
 and deployed south towards the bridge; simultane 
 ously companies of the Second Regiment were moved 
 to the south and east of the bridge ; another detach 
 ment stood near the office buildings to the west. Lines 
 
378 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 of soldiers stood outside the entrance to keep onlook 
 ers and sympathizers aloof and to prevent reinforce 
 ments to the strikers ranks. Behind and within the 
 steel-mill and offices sharpshooters were in easy range 
 of the adversary on the bridge ; while long lines of 
 militia were protected by the flanks of the cars. The 
 impregnable fortress of the men was a death-trap that 
 admitted of no escape. General Crawford smiled at 
 their guileless simplicity ; it amused him. The men in 
 the ranks laughed openly. If they fired death would 
 have an undisputed holocaust. 
 
 The obsolete gatling gun, with its complicated mech 
 anism, was giving the men no end of trouble. It was 
 unwieldy, worthless in their unskilled hands. Their 
 chief armament was gone. The bombs might have 
 proved useful if the militia were in their reach; but 
 the nearest were out of range. Besides, it was a thing 
 to make their goose-flesh thrill those long-range 
 gun-barrels aimed so precisely, so unerringly at 
 them. 
 
 A panic seized them ; the cowardly crushed down 
 the end of the bridge towards the gate ; the braver 
 surged after them ; the bravest pushed on their heels. 
 Horrent rows of bayonets stopped their progress. 
 
 "We surrender! We surrender! went up the 
 sobbing cry. 
 
 Other detachments closed in ; they were shut up as 
 in a box. 
 
 " Drop your arms on the ground and pass out of 
 the gate one by one. You are warned to return home, 
 avoid crowds and preserve the peace," were the stern 
 behests of the captain, glad that the maneuver of the 
 troops had avoided slaying. 
 
 " I would like to give them my gun instead of tak- 
 
THE MILITIA 379 
 
 ing their guns away/ muttered one subaltern to an 
 other. 
 
 " So would I," muttered the second. 
 
 " The damn governor ought to have his head 
 chopped off," said a third. 
 
 " It ain t fair to silence justice by force," growled 
 a more intrepid one, louder. 
 
 Something like a spirit of mutiny provoked the re 
 flections. The pathetically forlorn faces of the sur- 
 renderers touched their proletarian hearts. 
 
 " Silence in the ranks ! " thundered the captain, 
 who chanced to overhear the insurrectionary conver 
 sation. The men, with stifled breath, wondered if 
 their words had been understood. 
 
 The captain reported the insubordination to the 
 general, pointing out the malefactors. 
 
 " Order those men forward," called General Craw 
 ford, his blue eyes sparkling like snow-flakes on blocks 
 of ice. 
 
 Trembling, overawed, the insurgents stepped for 
 ward. 
 
 " A soldier has no sympathies ; he has instructions/ 
 spake the general, feeling frozen out of his voice. 
 " If this occurs again you will be drummed out of 
 camp. Go back to your ranks." 
 
 They touched their hats cravenly, and resumed their 
 places. 
 
 The gatling gun was seized and dismounted; the 
 bombs were destroyed ; the guns and pistols of the 
 mutinous strikers were gathered. The mills were 
 garrisoned on all sides ; for any one to enter them any 
 where was impossible. 
 
 The saloons were closed in the towns ; provost 
 guards marched from place to place and dispersed 
 
3 8o 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 all gatherings that outnumbered six people. Orators 
 were silenced ; even loud talking was forbidden. 
 Loiterers on the corners were ordered home. The 
 billingsgate of screeching women was stilled by ar 
 rest. 
 
 When the stars shone over Marvin on that eventful 
 night of July the fifth, they twinkled mellowly over 
 a town as serene, as quiet, as hushed as the very sky 
 in which they shone. 
 
 In so far as force and arms were concerned the 
 strike was lost ; but one question was left for the de 
 batable ground of the hope of the leaders could 
 Henry Marvin secure enough non-union men, skilled 
 to do that difficult labor, to run his mammoth mills 
 and fill his November contracts with the government? 
 They decided he could not. They would wait and 
 they would win. 
 
XXXIII 
 FRIENDS IN NEED 
 
 WHEN the bullet from the Pinkerton rifle felled 
 Blair, Jan and Paul dragged him from the 
 open field to the shelter of a mound of slag. 
 An eighth of an inch thwarted the lead from crashing 
 through the brachial vessels and nerves, and by that 
 imperceptible space was Blair saved. The wound 
 was serious ; the ball had broken the right shoulder 
 blade and the flesh was torn and jagged. They 
 tended his injuries with loving albeit bungling hands, 
 concentrating their crude efforts on the stanching 
 of the blood. 
 
 When the barge escaped on the lake, when the ranks 
 of the soldiers of industry gave way and the battle 
 was over, Jan, Paul and Michael, hidden in their 
 covert, remained where they were. At the coming of 
 darkness and the massing of the heavy shadows of 
 the night, the trio carried their disabled comrade 
 homeward. 
 
 Their plan was one of method, not of madness. The 
 brothers feared the advent of the law after the escape 
 of the Pinkertons, and they wished to hide Blair from 
 its punitive clutch. Future events proved that there 
 was no madness in their method. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski sat on the floor in the parlor of her 
 tenement, keening like a wild bird over her dead chil- 
 
 381 
 
382 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 dren. Her hair was disheveled, streaming unregarded 
 in her eyes and face. Now and then she fell supine 
 and sobbed as if her heart were leaping from her fat 
 bosom. Little Adam was sleeping in his cradle peace 
 fully, in babyhood s blissful unconsciousness of the 
 events of the day. 
 
 The room was denuded of the cheap and trivial 
 ornaments ; one article after the other having found 
 its way to the second-hand stores to purchase bread 
 during the first week of the strike, before the Advisory 
 Committee had its machinery for the distribution of 
 funds in working order. The sacred pictures ; the 
 metallic crucifix ; the red ingrain carpet and the glass 
 case, with its wedding bouquet and portrait, were all 
 that remained. 
 
 \Yhen Jan entered, the disasters of the battle were re 
 called with a shock, blood-curdling as the first over 
 whelming intelligence, by his mother s prostrate form 
 by the chill, insensate bodies of Wanda, Thomas, 
 Mary and Anna, asleep in the undisseverable arms of 
 greedy Death. He stood plucking at his red beard. 
 He felt the tears in his eyes congeal, and a cry that he 
 could not express filled his heart as with lead. 
 
 He knelt down on the floor, clasping his mother af 
 fectionately in his strong arms, kissing her unwashed 
 cheek. Love was stronger than the tenets of his un 
 natural creed which mocked and scorned the binding 
 ties of kith and kin. She clung to him desperately, as 
 if he too, her eldest born and best beloved, were to be 
 snatched from her despoiled and bereaved soul. She 
 burst away from him suddenly and fell to rocking her 
 self to and fro; then she sat upright, rigid and stiff, 
 as if frozen by horror. 
 
 Jan told her that Blair lay in the cabinet off the 
 
FRIENDS IN NEED 383 
 
 kitchen, raving, lapsing into fits of unconsciousness. 
 The news seemed to make no impression ; for she 
 crept along the floor to the wall where hung the litho 
 graph of the Virgin with the flaming heart, and she 
 remained there, her hands clasped, lost in prayer. 
 With a soft step Jan turned towards the door. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski pulled herself to her feet and shrilled, 
 Take him out ! Away ! I ll not have him here. 
 But for him they would be alive! It s his fault, the 
 talker ! The man of fine words ! " and she broke down 
 in a gust of tears that choked her denunciatory 
 wrath, forgetful of Blair, of everything but her misery 
 and her dead children. 
 
 Paul returned to the tenement accompanied by the 
 slight Polish doctor with the pink cheeks and the 
 curly, blond hair. It had been a wearing day for him 
 and he was yawning heavily. He shook his head 
 when he saw his patient and muttered indistinct words 
 about the gravity of the case, which neither Jan nor 
 Paul nor Michael understood. 
 
 The doctor examined the wound, probed for the bul 
 let, extracted it and bandaged the shoulder. He col 
 lected his instruments, replaced them in the worn 
 leather bag, explaining, on the way out, that he had 
 much to do. No, the thing was not dangerous, but 
 painful, and it would take a long time for the shat 
 tered bone to heal. They need have no fear, he would 
 pull through. He stopped, searched in his pockets, 
 felt for his recipe book and wrote a prescription, 
 mumbling his directions hastily. He was so busy ; 
 there were so many wounded ; he would be back be 
 fore morning, shortly after midnight no doubt. They 
 must keep the sufferer quiet. A frightfully hot night 
 for such work ! He hastened out. 
 
384 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Michael lifted his hat and fingered the prescription 
 gingerly. When he came back with the bottles Father 
 Kozma was there. The priest had been working his 
 rounds through the maze of tenements, consoling 
 here, warning there, praying, comforting, exhorting, 
 as the exigencies demanded. 
 
 Jan scowled loweringly, Michael frowned, snap 
 ping the blade of his knife back and forth. Father 
 Kozma faced them, with index finger pointing elo 
 quently. " Didn t I warn you against this Mr. Carr- 
 hart and his speeches? Haven t I warned all of you 
 that left the church not to listen to his enticing speech 
 of lies and irreligion? Look at the misery he has 
 brought down on your house, see what the vengeance 
 of the Lord has wreaked upon you ! 
 
 A groan came from the cabinet off the kitchen. The 
 priest ceased his declamation and, dropping his hand 
 at his side and bending his head, listened keenly. 
 Mrs. Brodski s face wore a tell-tale look. The son s 
 lips skewered up towards a half shut, warning eye. 
 Her opened mouth, on the point of revealing danger 
 ous words, shut tightly. Mrs. Brodski feared Jan, 
 with a fear equal to the dread cf the priest. 
 
 " Who was that ? Who else was hurt ? " queried 
 the father. 
 
 u Paul," answered Jan coolly, " he was shot in the 
 arm." 
 
 The door of the cabinet creaked. If Paul should 
 chance to come out ! Luckily he overheard and 
 stayed where he was, his heavy boot pressed against 
 the door. 
 
 "Eh?" questioned the priest, his inquiry a patent 
 disbelief. 
 
 " Paul," reasserted Jan ; " he was shot in the arm." 
 
FRIENDS IN NEED 385 
 
 The holy man s eyes gave the repetition the silent 
 lie; Jan met the look, unflinching, firm. 
 
 " What became of the desecrator of the holy cruci 
 fix ? " The dawn of discovery widened across his face. 
 " I remember now ; you and your brother carried him 
 away." 
 
 Jan shrugged his shoulders with negativing obdura- 
 tion. Michael clicked the blade of his knife. 
 
 " You lie ! " exclaimed the priest. " You know. 
 He is in there. It was he I heard." 
 
 " It was Paul," persisted Jan ; " he was shot in the 
 arm." 
 
 Father Kozma strode towards the door, his sloping 
 head pushed foremost, his jaws shut with determina 
 tion. 
 
 Jan blocked his way. " Not in there, father. Paul 
 lies in there sick ; he is not to be disturbed." 
 
 " It is the province of the priest to visit the sick. 
 
 " The sick of his own church, yes." 
 
 " Is Paul not of my church? " he asked cajolingly. 
 
 " No," answered Jan, " he is of no church." 
 
 " Jan, you are drawing ruin down on this house ; 
 if you continue, you will I dare not say what will 
 befall you all." 
 
 Jan s lips pursed tightly. " Nothing worse than 
 has happened to them in there. We are ready when 
 it comes. They must pay for that first." 
 
 The mother cried hysterically, kissing the priest s 
 hand, falling on her knees, clutching his long black 
 coat, and begging him to remove the curse from her 
 sons and her ill-fated house. They had already suf 
 fered more than their share, the blessed Virgin 
 knew. 
 
 Her sons were good men, only headstrong and mis- 
 25 
 
3 86 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 led. They would see the error of their ways before 
 long and return to the bosom of the church. 
 
 Jan listened, unmoved, or if his mother s agony 
 touched him, the unaltered expression on his hard- 
 set face did not show it. 
 
 " Once for all," demanded the priest, " will you 
 obey ? " 
 
 " No man can enter that room while I live, hissed 
 Jan. 
 
 " Dead or alive/ fulminated Father Kozma, " that 
 irreligious wretch must leave this house." 
 
 " Dead or alive," retorted Jan composedly, " the 
 man in that room rests where he is. M 
 
 " Then," threatened the priest, moving towards the 
 door, " I denounce you to the law. Since you are 
 deaf to the commands of the church, you will feel the 
 strong hand of the law," and with face glowering 
 upon them, he backed slowly out of the room into the 
 dark passage-way. 
 
 The broken-hearted mother, heedless again of all 
 other tragedies that might befall, crawled back to her 
 dead. The brothers held a hasty consultation at Blair s 
 bedside. They doubted not that the vexed priest would 
 divulge their secret at the most opportune and dra 
 matic moment. Perhaps he was betaking himself to 
 the authorities now. Blair must be moved. But 
 whither? Michael bethought him of Mrs. Ludvig, 
 the widowed mother of his betrothed, and he sug 
 gested that she might offer a friendly concealment to 
 the wounded refugee from the law. 
 
 But Blair was growing worse ; as midnight ap 
 proached his temperature was mounting to the danger 
 point. His delirium had returned and he was venl- 
 ing broken sentences that, if pieced together, would 
 
FRIENDS IN NEED 387 
 
 have made a rambling account of his more stirring 
 experiences in the mill ; in the odd and pathetic 
 jumble of people, places and incidents which followed, 
 the name of Van was reiterated oftenest and with 
 greatest stress. 
 
 Paul noted the recurrence of that one name, and 
 after a few minutes struggle with his memory he 
 succeeded in recalling the face to which the title Van 
 belonged. He explained his understanding of Blair s 
 relationship to Evangeline and thought that the young 
 lady should be called. She would make a better nurse 
 than they. Jan was of another opinion ; it would be 
 better to wait until the patient was moved, and until 
 they had again conferred with the doctor. 
 
 At midnight, with eyes almost closed from fatigue, 
 the Polish physician arrived. He combated the mov 
 ing of Blair vigorously ; it would be hazardous ; his 
 present condition would pernrt no such risk ; inflam 
 mation might set in. Still, if it were a question of law 
 and police, they knew best. 
 
XXXIV 
 THE PEACE OF ORESTES 
 
 INFLAMMATION set in Blair s wound on the 
 morning after his removal to the tenement of 
 the Ludvigs; he escaped from the wrath of the 
 priest only to slip into the waiting arms of death. 
 The Polish physician examined him, shook his head 
 gravely and grumbled that he had warned them to 
 leave Blair where he was. The chances were even 
 now. 
 
 Paul walked over to the Settlement in quest of 
 Evangeline. A charwoman responded to his repeated 
 knocking. The Settlement was closed for the pres 
 ent ; Miss Marvin s mother was dangerously ill and 
 the young lady had been called home several day> 
 ago. 
 
 Paul learned Evangeline s city address and con 
 tinued his search to the doors of Marvin s Chicago 
 home. His mission proved fruitless ; the great house 
 was boarded up and closed tightly. A grocervman. 
 passing in his wagon, halloed to him that the family 
 was away in the country some unpronounceable re 
 sort, the name of which Paul con Id not remember. 
 When Paul, discouraged and worn, returned at noon, 
 Blair was lower than ever; the doctor feared blood 
 poisoning. 
 
 388 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 389 
 
 Meanwhile, a double thread of tragedy was en 
 tangling the Marvin family in its meshes ; a domestic 
 disaster was added to the industrial one ; and the 
 home, like the mills, was now a stage of terror. 
 
 In the last of the June days Marvin s wife left the 
 city residence for their resort in Oconomowoc. It 
 was Henry Marvin s custom, during the summer sea 
 son, to quit his office on Friday afternoon and return 
 for work on Monday three days of rest in which he 
 worked hard trying to disengage his mind from work. 
 This year the troubles at the mill had kept him at 
 home. 
 
 On the evening of the fifth Marvin was summoned 
 from his harassing cares in the city to still greater 
 ones in the country his wife was lying on her death 
 bed; an overdose of the drug to which she was ad 
 dicted had affected her heart. Evangeline, the twins 
 and Marvin hastened thither at once ; but early as 
 was their departure their arrival was too late. Mrs. 
 Marvin passed away while her husband and children 
 were flying towards her on a special train. 
 
 Van mourned her mother deeply, the sorrow of that 
 wasted life was pathetic beyond the consoling tender 
 ness of tears. The twins wondered if black would be 
 becoming and spent the night before the glass af 
 fecting lugubrious countenances that would best har 
 monize with that cheerless color. Henry Marv : n, 
 with a grief more sentimental than genuine, bemoaned 
 the happy days of their early marriage. Several 
 times he caught himself, with a severe shock to even 
 his impenitent conscience, wishing, as if the wish 
 were formulated by a mind other than his own, that 
 his wife s demise had occurred before the strike had 
 begun or after it was over his enemies, who were 
 
390 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 legion, would be sure to draw moral deductions from 
 her death and to point to it as a miraculous warning 
 from an interceding Providence. 
 
 Marvin knew his enemies; and he suspected that 
 Providence did not interfere unduly with the af 
 fairs of man, at least He had not meddled with the 
 success of his career; but he hated the inference; 
 and he detested the idea of having the name of Henry 
 Marvin adorn the moral to which their officious ser 
 monizing would point. A somber mood followed 
 this pondering, and he grew self-condemnatory, re 
 proachful, pulling off the disguises of his soul that 
 his own eye might not be deluded by the mummery 
 he had worn so long; and he turned away from the 
 nakedness his ruthlessness disclosed. 
 
 His conscience spoke; no, it tore its way through 
 lie and deceit and falsity as revealing winds might 
 blow aside a heap of leaves that hide a corpse, hastily 
 buried. It was a strange hour in his existence; he had 
 known none other like it; he was answering for him 
 self to himself. Her dead face arose before him 
 again and again, \van, pale, and, oh, God! so reproach 
 ful, so accusing. 
 
 His study looked out on the lawn that sloped, with 
 its rows and clusters of shade trees and its symmetric 
 al garden beds, down to the shores of the inland lake. 
 A peculiar craving for the semi-darkness seized him, 
 and he jerked the yellow shades down. 
 
 The law of his nature, the law of his success, had 
 been hardness, firmness, invincibility; he \vould be 
 hard, he would be firm, he would be invincible. He 
 arose, resolute, and walked into the room where she 
 lay. Courage flinched; he flagellated the fleeing 
 coward to his service and looked. 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 391 
 
 He ran back to the seclusion of his study ; he craved 
 the darkness. It was mysterious, telepathic, a voice 
 from another world, an elusive something that sneered 
 at the analysis of his solving thought, this look of 
 reproach, of blame, of the mute suffering of the many 
 years on the face of the dead, and, under all, like 
 the dimmer writing of a palimpsest, the childish con 
 fidence, the buoyancy of her maidenhood, as if the 
 former expression were but a thin gauze to shadow 
 the latter. Did he imagine this? It was indubitably 
 there as the patterns on the rug, from which a thou 
 sand faces like the one he had just gazed upon peered 
 up at him. He stamped his foot, heel downward, 
 in the rug and rang for the butler. 
 
 The butler, who had been with the family for years, 
 was amazed at his master s grief, at his bleared and 
 haggard expression. Through his long service he had 
 heard scarcely one word nf endearment pass between 
 husband and wife. 
 
 Marvin cut his reflections short. " Brandy and 
 soda," he ordered, with a snap more effectual than if 
 haste had been verbally insisted upon. The menial 
 returned with the intoxicant. Marvin gulped down a 
 glassful. It was not to his taste, and the flunkey sought 
 the wineroom for another vintage. 
 
 When the man reappeared, he eyed his master ques- 
 tioningly. He had been pondering as he moved on 
 his errand, and he was more and more nonplused by 
 the grief which proved the widower s affection. 
 Marvin snatched the bottle out of the preoccupied 
 servant s hand and broke the neck on the edge of the 
 mahogany writing table. His blood was febrile, his 
 palate seemed cleft, cracking with scorching thirst. 
 He gulped down glass after glass, discarding the soda 
 
392 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 and drinking the liquor raw. There was no relief, 
 his blood burned ; fire ran through his veins. 
 
 The upbraiding face was near him again. He bade 
 it be gone; he suborned his strong will, but his will 
 was powerless to exorcise the hallucination. He 
 strode up and down the room a myriad of faces, 
 every one of them her face, stared down at him from 
 the walls and the ceiling. He sat down, covering his 
 eyes with his hands. Was 1-is brain softening? Was 
 he doddering into insanity at a moment when he need 
 ed his wits most to pluck victory from a decisive hour? 
 
 He was temporarily insane, his mind aberrated ; and 
 he, who alLhis life long had so carefully barred the 
 pathway of liis mouth to the thief of brains, let the 
 enemy in, and drank with all the restless, furious 
 energy that characterized his activity for better pur 
 poses. The thief took quick advantage of an undis 
 puted passage. The phantasmagoria was growing 
 frightful, assuming terrorizing shape. He rang for 
 more brandy, snatched the bottle from the dazed 
 butler s hand and broke the neck off on the edge of 
 the table. 
 
 Three o clock came and four and five, and he was 
 still sitting there, brooding in the infinite darkness that 
 enswathed his mind. Tremor if not tremens shook 
 him ; dread visions were drawing 1 closer and closer to 
 his shrinking frame, leering^ there on the wall opposite, 
 with fiendish obduracy, vanishing for but a second to 
 appear in more terrifying guise. He hurled his glass 
 at them with an exorcising curse ; the brandy left a 
 long yellow streak on the light blue tint of the wall, 
 and the glass, broken into bits, fell on the carpet. The 
 faces grinned down upon him still, whirling nearer 
 and nearer, then darting back. 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 
 
 393 
 
 He could endure it no longer; he must escape from 
 himself or else his sanity would escape from him. 
 
 " Van ! Van ! Van ! " He ran out into the hall, un 
 mindful of any effect that his conduct would have on 
 the minds of prying servants, and called to her as the 
 shipwrecked might call to a ship passing in the night. 
 " Coming, father," she answered, affrighted by the un 
 wonted tones of terror in his voice. He ran back, cow 
 ering down in his armchair, his eyes closed, his hands 
 pressed to his forehead, hot as with the kiss of live 
 coals. 
 
 She was at her father s side, a ministering angel, 
 seated on the arm of his chair, her arms around his 
 neck, locked lovingly and protectingly. 
 
 " Closer, Van, closer." He held her as if he were in 
 fear of oncoming death and he wished to take her 
 with him into the bourne of shadow that she might 
 plead his cause against the blotted records of his life. 
 Groans burst from him, gurgling up from the depths 
 of his heart, sad as those of a victim in the grasp of 
 melancholia. 
 
 She soothed ; she pleaded ; she consoled, with the in - 
 definable tenderness that was Van s and Van s alone 
 there was none other like it. He surrendered him 
 self to her, his quailing spirit plucking strength in the 
 benign protection of her entwining arms. He grew 
 tranquil, quiet. Grotesque visions seemed airy, im 
 palpable, harmless, while the warm and vital thrill of 
 Van s flesh was on his cheek. He ceased his moan 
 ing; his shattered nerves steadied, slowly, unwillingly 
 returning the self-control they had taken from him. 
 
 Before the fall of night he was sleeping on the 
 leather lounge, Van rocking to and fro beside him; 
 and even in the wakeful semi-consciousness of sleep he 
 
394 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 could hear the lulling movement of the rocker and he 
 knew that his guardian angel would not leave him to 
 face the dread and fear of waking alone. 
 
 He arose at ten, refreshed and restored, mocking 
 at his pusillanimity in his bravery regained, amazed at 
 the foolish, inexplicable impulse that made him suc 
 cumb to its vagarious suggestions. It was passing 
 strange, ludicrously impossible. He dared the halluci 
 nation now, smiling grimly. He was his own master 
 and would remain so. 
 
 He dismissed Van with a kiss. He wished to be 
 alone ; he had much that needed the attention of his 
 thought and he could think best when alone. She re 
 turned to her room. He passed out under the canopy 
 of a perfect night, luminous with innumerable clear, 
 shining stars. His foot, crunching the gravel of the 
 shaded walks, awoke slumbering echoes and sent them 
 murmuring, dying slowly into silence again, as they 
 rolled between the arches of trees. Back and forth, 
 and forth and back he strode, his hands clasped behind 
 him, his brows knit. 
 
 He bent his mind towards his commercial affairs as 
 if it were a coil of steel in the control of his hands. 
 He was absorbed in them soon, totally lost ; figures 
 and not fancies filled his brain ; he became an adding 
 machine, plus the capacity of judging and appraising 
 the figures he added. The pacific stars must have 
 marveled at this man ; perhaps they pitied him. 
 
 Now that the governor had called out the militia, 
 he had no doubt that the issue would come to a point 
 soon, and he could do with the point as he would. 
 The men must accept his terms ; the power of the 
 unions would be crushed. He cut a harsh laugh short 
 with two metallic notes. 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 395 
 
 And the law-breakers? the vandals? the mischief- 
 makers? He would have the law they broke wreak 
 its vengeance. Wait until the legal machinery of 
 state and county was set whirling in their direction! 
 Several judges on the bench were his friends; his 
 influence had placed them where they were; now let 
 their friendship show appreciation of the place. As 
 for that arch-conspirator, Carrhart he would have 
 him on the gallows for murder of the Pmkertons or 
 in jail for life on the charge of manslaughter. With 
 impunity no man could trifle with Henry Marvin ! 
 
 One thing only worried him : could the Company 
 fulfil its immense contracts for armor plate with the 
 Government at the time agreed upon? They had un 
 til November, and it was July now ; he would find a 
 way, no matter what the way of finding it was. His 
 heel burrowed into the gravel ; he would show those 
 fellows the contract would be met to the letter. 
 
 Suddenly the terrifying vision arose before him, 
 duplicating itself a thousandfold, thronging the in 
 terminable spaces of the night. He was ready to 
 scream aloud, to rush back to the house and call his 
 protecting angel to his aid. He fought for control : 
 he argued with himself. He was brain-fatigued; 
 brain-diseased from an overstraining of the faculties 
 of thought; he had no right to tax himself with the 
 involved propositions of a distressing business. This 
 thing must be settled here and now, once and forever. 
 He would be the captain of his own soul; he would 
 not be commanded by the phantoms of jaded nerves 
 and deluded senses. He needed rest ; when his affairs 
 were settled, he would take Van with him and put a 
 girdle around the diversions and entertainments of the 
 whole world. 
 
396 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 He paced on through the gardened acres of his sum 
 mer estate, with some thought, maybe, of that delicious 
 irony which sneered at his manikin efforts to find 
 rest in a resort upon which he had expended a fortune 
 that he might find comfort when aweary of his quest 
 for gold. He hastened along, not noticing whither 
 his steps tended. Through the graceful umbrage of the 
 soft maples clustering around his gardener s cottage, 
 a mellow light shone invitingly like a moon taken from 
 the sky and framed in the window. The light spoke 
 like a voice ; it seemed human, companionable, offer 
 ing comradeship to his utter loneliness. 
 
 He drew anigh ; the shades were up, the windows 
 open to the benediction of the night. The frau of the 
 German horticulturist was seated at the piano, attun 
 ing chords to the words of the folk-song that her voice, 
 unmelodious by no means, was fondling sweetly and 
 slowly, as if loath to let them go. The leaves rustled 
 softly as if in time with the tune. Marvin peered 
 within. The gardener himself was reading by the 
 light of a student-lamp, turning away from his book 
 at minute intervals to listen to the music, as if he 
 were between two treasures and knew not which to 
 choose ; a self-satisfied, at-ease-with-the-world expres 
 sion shone on his rubicund face. 
 
 Here was contentment, here was peace, and Mar 
 vin s soul cried out in the agony of its envy. Money 
 could not buy everything, ran his commonplace reflec 
 tion, but the law that wrote the limitations of its pur 
 chasing power baffled his comprehension. Every man 
 had his price ; but every man had qualities which all 
 the money in the world, though stacked until its sum 
 mit reached the stars, was as sterile in the power of pur 
 chase as so much sand. 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 397 
 
 An odd whim, awakened doubtless by the morbid 
 ness of his mood, seized him and he tapped at the door. 
 The German answered the call, surprised at a visit 
 which custom did not stamp with its warrant. Mar 
 vin explained that he chanced to be strolling by and he 
 wished to ask several questions concerning his con 
 servatory and grounds. On the morrow a telegram 
 might summon him to town. Half bidden, half un 
 bidden, he seated himself in the parlor, shaking his 
 head affirmatively at what the guardian of his flowers, 
 plants and trees suggested, hearing him and his Latin 
 terminologies no more than if he were not speaking. 
 The blond frau, abashed by the presence of the aristo 
 cratic visitor, had ceased playing, twisting nervously 
 on the piano-stool. She wished to leave the room ; but 
 she concluded, with twiddling fingers, that such a 
 course would be considered improper. 
 
 " Perhaps your wife will play a little for me," he 
 suggested. " I like music." 
 
 " Certainly," replied the husband, puzzled by the 
 eccentricity of his employer. 
 
 The diminutive wife, craving to be excused and yet 
 not daring to ask for the excuse she craved, played 
 with uncertain wandering fingers and sang with a qua 
 vering voice. Her husband was as abashed as she, and 
 he plucked at his squarely trimmed blond beard tend 
 ed like his osage hedges as if balm for his dispeace 
 were there. 
 
 Restlessness seized Marvin again ; he was dis 
 traught, feeling his obtrusion ; his lack of harmony 
 with those simple people and their plain environment. 
 He arose with a jerk, a sinking sensation in the pit 
 of his stomach, and with a sharp " Thank you ; good 
 night," he was gone into the darkness, leaving the 
 
398 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 recipients of his odd visit awonder with its portent. 
 Perhaps it meant discharge, and the hearts of both 
 were heavy and worried that night. The music 
 ceased ; the book was laid aside. 
 
 When Marvin reached the house he caught the 
 glimmer of the lamp-light filtering through the red 
 shade, and he knew that Evangeline awaited him. 
 After all und:r his own rooftree were music and the 
 kindly light of a welcoming soul ; for the moment the 
 deep shadows of his melancholy were dissipated, and 
 a sense of happiness, never before so deliciously ex 
 perienced, poured balm over his aching heart. She 
 rose to meet him, flinging the door open on hearing 
 the beat of his quick step on the hard wood of the hall. 
 
 Evangeline sat on his knee, their arms intertwined ; 
 he was softened, melted by this sudden warmth of 
 affection, and tears found their way to those eyes that 
 had been dry and tearless throughout the years. At 
 last they were drawn together, united, held together 
 by a communion of soul ; they were drawn closer than 
 the mere legal relationship of father and daughter 
 could draw them ; a bond of affection knit them firmly 
 a something which no law can give, nor yet which 
 any law can take away. 
 
 They broke the silence. They approached the sub 
 ject of the death of his wife, then gradually they en 
 tered into it. It seemed strange at first ; they had 
 never talked thus, intimately; but soon the unac 
 customed donned the garb of habitude ; as if they were 
 but assuming a duty long deferred. He spoke of the 
 difference her death would make in their lives; they 
 would be alone now, dependent upon each other for 
 company. 
 
 " You will be married some day, Van ; very happily, 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 399 
 
 I hope," he went on to say, " but I don t want you 
 to ever leave me. I want you to make your home 
 with me or to let me make my home with you. 
 Promise me now that you will." A prevision of senil 
 ity, sans everything, forced him to exact the promise. 
 The nature of the man had undergone a strange 
 change during that day. 
 
 She smiled, patting his cheek. " I promise." 
 The moment was ripe for the open confession that 
 would do good to her soul that had retained the secret 
 of her love in chafing silence so long. She would tell 
 him now. Yet the confession was not easy. Sen 
 tences framed themselves in her mind, the words were 
 in her throat, but the restraint of virgin delicacy held 
 them back. Her lips pursed; her hands clenched; 
 courage came and she spoke. 
 
 " I may be married long before you expect." 
 " Eh ! " he started. " What makes you say that? " 
 She remained silent ; her heart swinging with 
 quickened beat. 
 
 " Come, Van, tell me ; you can tell me. You haven t 
 given your heart away yet ; you haven t any one in 
 mind ? " 
 
 She nodded ; her eyes closed ; her head falling to 
 wards her breast twice in confirming insistence. 
 
 His keen mind ran through the rather short list of 
 her masculine acquaintances, reviewing faces, char 
 acters, bearings and positions, wondering which it 
 might be, liking perhaps the process of wondering 
 and the idea of surprising her by nullifying the sur 
 prise which she had in store for him. As a result of 
 his mental selection Putnam remained a survival 
 Marvin thought, all things instantaneously considered, 
 of the fittest. Putnam s attention to his daughter 
 
400 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 had not .escaped his shrewd, world-wise eyes. On the 
 whole he was satisfied with the fitness of the survivor. 
 He was steady enough ; mercantilely active enough ; 
 possessed of common if not of uncommon sense ; and 
 Marvin preferred a poor young man who would in 
 crease his millions, to a rich young man who would let 
 the four winds blow the heap in windrows across the 
 earth. 
 
 " Come, Van, who is it ? " he asked. 
 
 " A young man " she began. 
 
 " I expected as much as that/ he interrupted with 
 a short cluck of a laugh. " I didn t think you d take 
 an old man like me." 
 
 " He isn t like you ; not the least bit. I don t think 
 you will approve of him." 
 
 " Hm ! You don t know. I have an idea who it 
 is." 
 
 " You can t have. It s the last man on earth about 
 whom you would think." 
 
 " No, it s the first man I thought of. It s Put 
 nam ! " he blurted out, wishing to send his surprise 
 in a storm. 
 
 " Oh, no," she blushed ; " not at all." 
 
 " It s Bartlett," and he named the second choice in 
 his list. 
 
 She shook her head positively. 
 
 "It isn t La Vette?" he asked tentatively. 
 
 She shook her head solemnly. 
 
 He was annoyed at the insufficiency of his assumed 
 astuteness. After all the heart of a girl was a compli 
 cated affair. " Come, Van, tell me ; you needn t be 
 afraid to tell me," he teased, with curious impatience. 
 
 She clasped her fists tightly and pursed her lips 
 again. " It s " she paused. 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 401 
 
 " Well," he encouraged kindly. 
 
 " It s Blair." 
 
 "Blair who?" 
 
 " Blair Carrhart," she said quickly as if arrived at 
 that point where the secret could no longer be retained 
 and she was glad to have done with it. 
 
 " What ! " he shrieked. " Not the Blair Carrhart 
 out at the mills ? " 
 
 " Yes," she answered, breathing quickly. 
 
 He lifted her from h m and stood erect. " Do you 
 know who he is? Do you know what he s done? 
 He s the rascal at the bottom of all my trouble. He s 
 the main cause of the strike. He s responsible for the 
 murder of the Pinkertons and the destruction of my 
 property." 
 
 " I can t believe it," she said firmly, quietly, the 
 spirit of her father arising in her. She was fighting 
 him with his own weapons, the weapons heredity had 
 bequeathed to her. 
 
 "You can t believe it!" he shouted. "Don t I 
 know it ! Haven t I seen him ! Haven t I talked to 
 him ! He s the demagogue, the mischief-maker that s 
 leading the others on ! Marry him ! You marry 
 him? I m going to send the rascal where he be 
 longs ! " 
 
 Blinded with rage he could find no words to oust the 
 rage that was blinding him. He turned up and down 
 the room in short, broken paces. She moved towards 
 him ; he pushed her away. She returned to her chair 
 and clasped its arms with her hands. The storm was 
 gathering, thick, dark, portentous ; she was prepared 
 to meet its lightning and brave its thunder. She forti 
 fied herself under the shelter of Blair s protecting 
 visage. 
 26 
 
402 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 An obstacle confronted Marvin; Marvin became 
 Marvin again, assertive, fearless, autocratic. There 
 was something to overcome and he would overcome it ; 
 how, he recked not. It was medicine, tonic, sedative 
 to his shattered nerves. Obstacles, obstacles, obsta 
 cles were the stepping-stones on which he had arisen 
 to the commanding height of his career. 
 
 He brought his walk to a close suddenly, wheeling 
 directly in front of her. 
 
 " That s a fine trick of his, to sneak inside of my 
 mills and cause an outbreak of dissatisfaction and then 
 to creep inside of my house and steal my daughter s af 
 fections. But I ll thwart him, I ll thwart him at both 
 ends ! 
 
 " It isn t a trick," she protested indignantly. " He 
 isn t capable of subterfuge. He s a man ; every inch 
 a man ; a strong, great, heroic, generous man. We 
 were engaged long ago, secretly, at college." 
 
 " He had you announce it at an opportune moment. 
 It s a good way to save his neck ! " 
 
 " He never asked me to announce it. Mother knew 
 we were engaged years ago." 
 
 You can t have him, and that settles it," he 
 shouted, rattling his closed fist down on the mahogany 
 table. The glasses on the silver tray clinked. She an 
 swered nothing. Her course had been chosen ; heart 
 and soul and head had declared for Blair, and only 
 when heart ceased to beat, head to think and soul to 
 cherish its ideals would her decision change. 
 
 "Why don t you answer!" he roared, aggravated 
 to madness by her silence. 
 
 " I gave him my answer. I can t change that. I m 
 sorry that 
 
 " Never mind the sorry part. You shan t have him; 
 
THE PEACE OF ORESTES 403 
 
 my own flesh and blood shan t colleague with my 
 enemy." 
 
 She arose stricken with grief at the agony written 
 on his face, her heart open with sympathy for the sorry 
 spectacle of his fury. With bowed head, with arms 
 apart, she moved towards him. 
 
 He pushed her away. " You shan t have him," he 
 reiterated ; " you shan t come near me until you tell 
 me that you will give him up." 
 
 A question of bus : ness or a question of love, it was 
 all the same to Marvin; the argument was to be won 
 by the blood and iron method ; to ride rough shod over 
 tender feeling was his manner, when he rode over 
 tender feelings at all. 
 
 She moved towards the door, her hand was on the 
 bronze handle. 
 
 " You understand, Van. You must choose between 
 him and me." 
 
 " I understand," she replied half haughtily, half 
 sadly. The door closed. 
 
 He sank down in the armchair and covered his worn 
 face with his hands. " I m alone now," he moaned, 
 " all alone, but " and his grinding heel twisted the 
 rug " I m going to win alone." 
 
XXXV 
 THE GIANT IN CHAINS 
 
 THE first day that opportunity made it possible, 
 Evangeline left the summer resort and went 
 to Marvin. Her father s assailment of Blair 
 gave her the first intimation of the role he had played 
 in the strike, and it worried her; and her worry in 
 creased to the fear that Blair might have been injured ; 
 for his impetuousness and his fearlessness were sure 
 to lead him where the danger was greatest. 
 
 Love s faith discredited the fear; love s anxiety ex 
 aggerated the fear that love s faith discredited. " It 
 couldn t be so," she said at first ; " it must be so/ she 
 said to herself at last. 
 
 Greater than her grief for her dead mother, she 
 acknowledged to herself with a pang, was her distress 
 concerning Blair. It is easy for youth, especially 
 youth in love, to let the dead past bury its dead. 
 
 Day after day had slipped away without bringing 
 word or message from him. He was rash ; he was 
 headstrong ; anything might have happened to him ; 
 for Blair aroused would stop at nothing. Where was 
 he? How could she find him? Love s faith silenced 
 love s anxiety with the triumphant declaration, " Love 
 will find a way." 
 
 And love did find a way, or rather a way was found 
 for love. Her first move in Marvin was for the Set- 
 404 
 
THE GIANT IN CHAINS 405 
 
 tlement, and she had scarcely taken the last step of 
 the movement, when Paul Brodski, who was waiting 
 outside, approached her. 
 
 " I have been waiting, miss, every morning, for a 
 long time, to see you. 
 
 She recognized Paul. Her heart filled with mis 
 givings. Something had happened to Blair; some 
 thing dreadful. He had come to warn her, to break 
 the news gently. 
 
 " Is Mr. Carrhart hurt ? " she asked, her lip trem 
 bling. 
 
 " Yes," answered Paul, " he is very sick." 
 
 She started, turned pale ; but she was the true 
 daughter of her father, and she asserted her will, 
 gathering her strength for the emergency. 
 
 " Will you take me to him at once?" she asked com 
 posedly. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " Hurry/ she said, as they moved along. 
 
 She urged him on as they picked their way eastward 
 through the crowded foreign quarters and along the 
 narrow ways that wound through the mazes of tene 
 ments and finally up the flight of stairs that ran to the 
 Ludvigs . 
 
 " What if he should die before I come ? What if 
 he is dead now ? " she asked herself despite herself, 
 and the color vanished from her cheeks in that 
 short flight, and her body quivered. She could go no 
 farther, and yet she had so much farther to go so 
 very much farther before night would end that day. 
 Oh, why did those horrible questions arise to disturb 
 her serenity, to sap her strength when she had such 
 need of both ! How necessary to him was a smiling, 
 hopeful countenance, and she felt that the lines fear 
 
406 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 wrinkled on her face were as shadows reflected from 
 her too anxious heart. 
 
 " I am coming to you, Blair ; I am coming to you, 
 Blair," she would fain have shouted aloud, " you will 
 wait. You will grow strong. No, you shall not 
 die ! " She visualized a wan face, peering up with 
 unfathomable love at her the strong, powerful fea 
 tures that would make the sordid surroundings beauti 
 ful with the strength and power they radiated. She 
 heeded not where they went, noticed not the groups 
 of the curious that wondered what this delicate young 
 lady in her fashionable mourning gown was doing in 
 their midst ; she saw only, as in a dream, a bed that 
 floated in space, holding in its sheets a moribund in 
 valid, and towards that hovering vision. she was mov 
 ing and moving, and away from her moved and moved 
 the hovering vision. 
 
 At the door of the tenement she clenched her fists 
 tightly and threw her head back ; when hands and 
 head assumed their natural position a cheerful smile 
 arched her mouth and brightened her countenance. 
 Paul, turning, saw and wondered ; he knew not what 
 the smile cost. 
 
 There was no ornament in the room she entered, 
 not even an attempt at decoration, no carpet on the 
 clean and scrubbed floor, no picture on the wall ; a 
 row of trunks, pushed against the walls, was all that 
 patched the cheerless nakedness. Three of the Polish 
 boarders were seated on the trunks, puffing at their 
 long pipes. They withdrew respectfully, making for 
 the street. 
 
 " What a place for him," was her first thought. 
 
 Paul disappeared in one of the- cabinets off the 
 dining-room, where Blair lay. Evangeline sat on a 
 
THE GIANT IN CHAINS 407 
 
 trunk, tapping its side with a restless and nervous foot. 
 She arose and paced up and down the room. Her 
 cheeks were hot ; her breath was short. She strug 
 gled for equanimity, she pleaded and argued with 
 herself, as with another, for calmness. Argument 
 and plea were ol no avail ; her excitement grew greater 
 with every second. She felt impelled to push open 
 that door and rush to his side. Why didn t Paul hur 
 ry ? She could stand it no longer ; she would become 
 distracted. Her temple? throbbed ; her heart cleaved 
 to her side ; breathing was painful. 
 
 Paul came out. He had been away but a minute ; 
 to her it had seemed an hour ; no, it was an hour. He 
 informed her that the doctor was closeted with Blair, 
 dressing his wound. He would be out in a minute or 
 two and perhaps she could speak to him then. Yes, 
 he was no worse; maybe a trifle better. However, the 
 doctor would give her an exact account. 
 
 Again the long waiting, the minutes that were hours. 
 Oh, what was happening in there ! How long before 
 her eyes could satisfy the burning desire of her heart ? 
 Her cheeks became hotter and hotter; the beating of 
 her temples was fiercer. The door of Blair s cabinet 
 became animate ; she talked to it as if it were a keeper 
 that separated him from her. " Open, open," she kept 
 saying to herself ; " let me in." 
 
 She seated herself on the trunk again and pressed 
 her uncertain hands on its cover and prayed; not a 
 prayer of words, no invocation to her mysterious Mak 
 er ; but a silent, unphrased supplication of her weaker 
 to her stronger self for courage and calmness and con 
 trol. 
 
 She shut her eyes ; the room danced and reeled ; her 
 senses swam. Oh, the agony of these waiting minutes, 
 
4 o8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 long drawn out. If she could only be in there with 
 him, helping him to fight his battle for life ; she would 
 be brave, she would be calm ; she knew it. 
 
 The doctor came out, glancing at his silver watch, 
 murmuring something about other calls. He was 
 abashed, like the others, before this young lady, 
 ashamed of his broken English. 
 
 He floundered painfully through his sea of jargon 
 to explain that .Blair was very sick, dangerously so ; 
 there was no use in denying it. Blood poisoning had 
 threatened to set in several times, so far they had 
 warded the danger off. If it came he shrugged his 
 shoulders. Blair had frequent lapses of unconscious 
 ness, but that need not appal her, it signified nothing 
 in itself. She might go in, but she must be cautious; 
 however, he would leave that to her common sense; 
 doubtlessly she had had experience in the sickroom 
 before. 
 
 His explanation was unendurably long. Politeness 
 held her there ; impulse was dragging her to Blair. 
 She entered his room on tiptoe. 
 
 How wan, how pale, how thin was he! She had 
 prepared herself for a change ; but the change she saw 
 staggered her preparation. The shadow of the mask 
 of death was on his sunken face. 
 
 His eyes opened, staring vacantly, as if he did not 
 recognize her ; as if she were an object that shut off 
 the range of his vision, like the wall. She stood still, 
 grief-stricken by his irrecognition. A faint smile 
 wavered across his mouth. He knew her then ! 
 
 " Van," he murmured, barely audible. 
 
 She fell on her knees beside him. His hand drooped 
 on her head. She smiled ; tears sought an unheeded 
 way down her cheeks; it was the joy wrung from that 
 
THE GIANT IN CHAINS 409 
 
 one moment when the excruciation of pain turns to 
 bliss. 
 
 " Blair, Blair/ she called, unable to contain herself, 
 " I am here Van ! You know me, don t you ? I will 
 never leave you, never, never ! " 
 
 His hand lay on her hair with a warmer pressure. 
 " Van," he whispered again. 
 
 She took his hand in hers and pressed her burning 
 kisses on its flesh as if eager to send through it the 
 life and the love that animated her. He groaned from 
 sudden pain. It pierced her like an arrow, like ten 
 thousand arrows. He groaned again, deeper, louder, 
 as with inexpressible anguish. 
 
 She could endure it no longer. She would swoon 
 away. She would die. She arose, refusing to surren 
 der herself to her feeling ; it was the luxury that cow 
 ardice granted emotion. She kissed his brow, his 
 cheeks, his lips, each kiss might be the last that she 
 could give her Blair in life. 
 
 His eyes opened again, wide, flaring, as if desiring 
 to embrace the warm universe of life and love before 
 they closed to the darkness and burning fever again. 
 She leaned over him ; his hand pressed hers knowing 
 ly ; he drank in the breath of her nostrils ; his face be 
 came peaceful, happy. Clasping her hands under her 
 chin, she thanked God for it in silence. 
 
 His eyes closed again. She burst into tears and ran 
 from the room. In a few minutes she was the abso 
 lute mistress of herself; and she proceeded to a me 
 thodical arrangement of what she considered best 
 for his comfort and convalescence. She despatched 
 Paul with the delivery of a hastily scribbled note to a 
 surgeon of repute in Chicago. She arranged with 
 Mrs. Ludvig for the dismissal of all her boarders and 
 
4 io BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 silenced her objections with the display of a purse 
 well filled ; and she made each of the departing board 
 ers understand that his going was conducive to Blair s 
 recovery. 
 
 She insisted upon gaining every breath of air for 
 Blair that could be had in that stifling July atmos 
 phere, heated to the point of suffocation by the low 
 ceiling of the crowded tenement ; and nothing would 
 satisfy her but the moving of his bed into the larger 
 room. Ice was sent for, screens were placed in the win 
 dows ; luxuries of every description ; all that her dain 
 tiness of taste could devise, found their way into the 
 house. Finally she sent to the Settlement for her 
 clothes and she prepared to make her permanent home 
 in the hovel that she might be near Blair night and 
 day. 
 
 She was an unprofessional nurse ; but she told her 
 self again and again that the eager willingness of love 
 would soon command the secrets of the profession ; 
 and determinedly she set about to save her royal lover 
 from the enemy who had no respect for kings. 
 
 Her father would have been proud of Evangeline 
 had he been there to see. 
 
XXXVI 
 A POLISH WEDDING 
 
 BLAIR S fight for life was desperate and stub 
 born. There were long days of doubt for 
 Evangeline and still longer nights of sleep 
 less fear; but the crisis passed and left him with 
 enough breath in his lungs to continue the battle. 
 Muscles of iron, veins through which no water ran, 
 a constitution of adamant, made no easy enemy for 
 death. 
 
 Looking down from her window in the tenement, 
 Evangeline witnessed a never-ceasing protean industry 
 within her father s mills. Boats of every description 
 landed hosts of non-union mechanics masons, car 
 penters, machinists and millwrights on the grounds of 
 the Company. The reconstruction of the machinery 
 and the furnaces that had been destroyed by the mob 
 was going forward on the same vast scale which char 
 acterized everything that Henry Marvin directed. The 
 works went up with almost the same fabulous rapidity 
 with which they had come down. 
 
 The militia still presented an almost solid front 
 around the mill fence ; the white tents of the camp still 
 flapped in the western winds blowing across the prai 
 ries. The town was still under patrpl ; the saloons 
 were watched closely. Bayonets dispersed crowds 
 
 411 
 
4 i2 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 quicker than they gathered ; and the strikers were 
 obliged to look on helpless but defiant. 
 
 Temporary barracks were erected on the slag piles ; 
 crude wooden buildings wherein the Company intended 
 to shelter and feed the non-union mill hands, soon to 
 be imported. From the top windows of their tene 
 ments on M street the foreigners could look within 
 the mills and behold the building of these homes for 
 their enemies going on, and their defiance became rage 
 the rage of a caged beast beating against iron bars. 
 
 Suave agents of the Company were still engaged in 
 every large city in a search for recruits, experienced 
 or inexperienced, skilled or unskilled, it made no dif 
 ference : the mills were to be turned into a school 
 where any one who would could learn. The enrol 
 ment was tediously slow at first ; the treatment ac 
 corded the Pinkertons made the bravest hesitate; but 
 gradually from the vast army of the unemployed- 
 clerks, unsuccessful shopkeepers, mechanics, profes 
 sional men who had found their professions more hon 
 orable than lucrative an army of employees was se 
 cured. To live men are ever ready to risk life. 
 
 Even Henry Marvin was satisfied with the rapidity 
 of the progress; with a keen smile of satisfaction he 
 watched the rebuilding from the windows of his 
 office. The great mills would soon groan and sweat 
 as their powerful jaws masticated the heavy loads ; 
 but a few days and smoke would curl out of the cupola- 
 furnaces, and flames would flare from the chimneys 
 of the blast. The victory was easily his and he would 
 dictate terms of peace that would make the recalci 
 trants flinch as they accepted. 
 
 However, the leaders were confident ; and the Ad 
 visory Committee distributed words of comfort and 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 413 
 
 encouragement with the orders doled out on butcher 
 and grocer. Ultimate triumph, they declared, was 
 theirs, no matter what the temporary victory of capi 
 tal. Unskilled labor, they held, could never execute 
 such technical work with any success, and skilled la 
 bor was not to be secured outside of the unions. Be 
 sides, the Company s agreement with the government 
 demanded the delivery of the plate early in November, 
 and without the assistance of the adept union hands 
 the fulfilment of the contract was impossible. 
 
 The rank and file were sustained by the cheering 
 words of the leader and, despite restriction of appe 
 tite, abnegation and even want, they held out, believ 
 ing in the promises of the Advisory Committee as a 
 thing that could not fail to come to pass. Excitement 
 cannot withstand the stress of a long strain, and grad 
 ually the keen edge of it wore off, filed down, as it 
 were, into the flatter surface of a dogged resistance. 
 And life moved on in much the same grooves as before 
 the strike began, save that the enforced idleness gave 
 rise to more frequent bickerings and fights. 
 
 Lack of occupation gave Michael Brodski far more 
 time for Irma Ludvig s company ; indeed all of his 
 time was spent with her ; and, as a result, both of them 
 were growing impatient for marriage. The catastro 
 phes of the strike had impressed both of them with the 
 uncertainty of human existence, and Irma was anxious 
 that Michael marry her to-day lest he be killed to-mor 
 row. Lack of funds was no serious obstacle ; for they 
 might as well starve together as starve singly; and be 
 sides, a wedding is in itself a financial investment for a 
 Polish couple. Lastly, if worst came to worst, Michael 
 could leave town and seek work elsewhere. 
 
 When Mrs. Brodski heard of her son s intention she 
 
4H BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 became frantic ; it was as if the last ray of light had 
 been taken from her life and she had been left in total 
 darkness. Her sons were deserting her when she 
 needed them most. Paul and Jan she saw but rarely ; 
 it was quite evident that to them meetings of one kind 
 and another were of more importance than their lone 
 mother ; and Michael was to forsake her in her old age 
 to bask in the smiles of more enticing youth. Home- 
 lessness, starvation, perhaps the poorhouse, were all 
 that the future held in store for her. 
 
 At the wedding, which was celebrated in the large 
 hall over the Dumb-Bell, she was a tragic and melan 
 choly figure, thrown into sharp relief by the unre 
 strained joviality which ruled the hour. With little 
 Adam, now squalling, now sleeping in her arms, she 
 sat in her corner, solemn and lorn, shrinking from 
 conversation, receiving congratulations with a bad 
 grace, unbefitting the occasion. 
 
 On the stage in the rear of the room the six musi 
 cians were playing their most enlivening dance music, 
 smiling and smirking as if their hearts at least were 
 beating to the swift measures of the tune. Every one 
 danced, bent upon enjoyment, forgetful of the misery 
 of yesterday and the worry of to-morrow and the day 
 thereafter. It was good to see how easily sorrow and 
 grief are forgotten, and how superior after all is laugh 
 ter to tears ! 
 
 Old men whirled away with young women and 
 young men whirled away with old women ; for youth 
 and old age may dance though they cannot live to 
 gether. Even the children were sliding across the slip 
 pery floor, pulling each other by ropes. 
 
 Mrs. Majewski, who was eighty-two, polkaed about 
 with Mr. Kuflewski, who was eighty-five, and the 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 415 
 
 others ceased their gyrations to watch the octogena 
 rians try to do it. A few steps robbed the ancient cou 
 ple of their short breath and they sat down amid a 
 vociferous clapping of hands, feeling, as their wrinkled 
 but smiling faces told, that they were far younger 
 than their years. 
 
 " I tell you," said the veteran, purring hard for wind, 
 ;< that we sat down too soon. I m not out of breath, 
 tiot a bit. It s my asthma." 
 
 " Yes, answered the grandam, " we could manage 
 it nicely if you only had my rheumatism." 
 
 " Na Zdrowie ! Na Zdrowie ! " " To your health ! 
 To your health ! resounded from the bar that stood 
 in a corner of the hall. Paul and Jan were there, 
 clinking thick glasses with all comers. Liquor and ci 
 gars were free, and every one was equally free in in 
 sisting that every one else have a drink and a cigar. 
 Michael, whose sprig of myrtle on his black coat pro 
 claimed him groom, was urging the guests to take 
 quicker and better advantage of his hospitality. 
 
 "How is everything?" he asked of Paul. 
 
 " Everything s all right," said Paul, rather patron 
 izingly, " except the whisky." 
 
 "What s the matter with that?" 
 
 " It isn t half strong enough," answered Paul. 
 
 " Well, drink twice as much of it, then," advised 
 Michael seriously. 
 
 Father Kozma and his- good-looking acolyte arose to 
 leave. The musicians stepped clown from the stage 
 and ranged themselves about the holy men, playing 
 the national Polish air lustily. The others fell behind 
 the band. The melody over, Irma stepped forward to 
 receive the priest s final blessing. Her olive cheeks, 
 blushing deeply, formed a striking foil to her black 
 
4i 6 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 hair, her white dress and the short white veil, with its 
 sprig of myrtle. Father Kozma moved towards the 
 door ; the children pursued him, leaving their play, to 
 kiss his outstretched hands. 
 
 All was ready now for the chief feature of the even 
 ing a combination of pleasure and business, which 
 was at once the excuse and reason for all the festivity 
 that preceded it. Jan and Paul, in their shirt-sleeves, 
 seated themselves at a table piled high with plates ; 
 near the pile of china stood a box of cigars and a bot 
 tle of wine. Two stalwart policemen, representing 
 law and order (their presence had been supernumer 
 ary thus far), drew near the scene of action. 
 
 The music started, veloce, and the dancers whirled 
 away to its notes, without reversing, accentuating each 
 evolution of the endless circle with a hard stamp of 
 the right foot. The men pushed their hats back on 
 their heads farther, puffed serenely at their cigars, and 
 pirouetted in quicker and quicker unison with their 
 partners, who were clad in soiled lawn dresses and 
 soiled white slippers. 
 
 A cousin of the bride made his obeisance, and 
 twirled with her until they confronted the table. The 
 music ceased with a start. He fumbled in his pocket, 
 fished up a silver dollar and sent it hurling with might 
 and main against the plates. Fragments of the china 
 flew in all directions. The broken bits were thrown 
 into a basket; Jan put the dollar inside of a cigar 
 box. 
 
 The music began swiftly ; the bride and her cousin 
 whisked away and returned to the table. This time 
 he lifted his arm high, feinted and laid a paper dol 
 lar on the plate. In this fashion he ridded himself of 
 five dollars and exhausted his maneuvers to the dam- 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 417 
 
 age of the crockery ; then he left, first regaling himself 
 with a cigar and a glass of wine. 
 
 The bridesmaid, whose especial duty it was to see 
 that hay be made while the sun shone, guided the next 
 gallant forward to the tired bride, panting and hot of 
 cheek. 
 
 Irma Ludvig s cousin had scarcely retreated before 
 a friend approached him. 
 
 " How much did you give ? " he asked. 
 
 " Five," came the response. He felt in his depleted 
 pocket and a look of surprise wavered across his dull 
 face. 
 
 " What s the trouble ? " asked the other. 
 
 " I thought I threw a counterfeit dollar but I see I 
 have it yet ; so it cost me six dollars instead of five." 
 
 " That s all right ; you can give me the bad dollar." 
 
 " All right ; and you can give me a good dollar in its 
 place." 
 
 " Not much/ refused the friend. 
 
 " I can t see what the difference is to you," ejacu 
 lated the cousin of the bride, angered. 
 
 " I d rather give a good dollar/ explained the 
 friend, " as long as it won t cost me any more." 
 
 " I ll let you have it for fifty cents." 
 
 " I ll take it." 
 
 Man after man claimed a dance with the poor bride, 
 fatigued, scant of breath, lim ping in her tight shoes, 
 each actuated by the noble impulse to start a comrade 
 in life by contributing according to his meager ability. 
 Jan and Paul counted over seventy-five dollars in the 
 box and the fund was slowly growing. The gener 
 osity was astounding when one considered what unre 
 lenting toil every penny had cost the donors, and what 
 the purchasing power of a dollar meant to those unfor- 
 
4 i 8 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 tunate folk out of work and with a long siege of hun 
 ger and deprivation still staring them in the face. No 
 one but the givers knew from what odd hiding-places 
 and secret nooks that money was abstracted and with 
 what misgiving and regrets the little savings were dis 
 turbed. 
 
 At midnight, Irma, so weary and worn that she 
 could scarcely drag herself through the ordeal, was 
 enjoying a brief respite beside her husband, who was 
 rejoiced over the prospect of a fortune newly found, 
 when some one darted into the hall and shouted at the 
 top of a screeching voice : 
 
 The scabs are inside the mill ! The blast-furnaces 
 are going ! The mills have started ! " 
 
 And with this warning and stirring cry the Paul 
 Revere of the industrial revolution disappeared to 
 shout the same battle-cry afar through the town. 
 
 Crowding and shoving for place, they ran to the 
 windows and looked out. It was true ! Clouds of 
 black smoke, spouts of red flame, told but too plainly 
 that the mills were in full swing. Others were there 
 to take their places, to steal the bread from their 
 mouths ! 
 
 Soldiery or no soldiery, death to the contrary, the 
 thing was not to be endured ! It was not for them to 
 sit with folded hands and starve while others waxed 
 fat on their sustenance. 
 
 They rushed out in the street as they were, in wed 
 ding costume. The groom and his virgin bride hurtled 
 forward with the rest ; Mrs. Brodski deposited little 
 Adam, sound asleep, in a corner and joined the ranks. 
 Jan and Paul left the precious cigar-box in charge of 
 the police, who gave no sign of interference, and 
 dashed out into the open. 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 419 
 
 Already a crowd was gathered at the fence, looking 
 the lines of bristling muskets in the face. Lawn 
 dresses were trailed through the mud and white slip 
 pers were stamped in the mire. Where Michael went 
 there went his bride. 
 
 The thick red flames rolling towards the sky angered 
 them; the sight of it maddened. They cursed it as if 
 it were human enemy. It symbolized all the forces 
 that were pitted against the side of labor. The lurid 
 flames from the stacks, the translucent glare from the 
 converters, shone athwart the fantastic canvas with a 
 weirdness suitable to the strange composition. 
 
 The crowd augmented ; cohorts, crushing in from 
 every direction, pressed the first ranks forward even 
 against the teeth of the glistening muskets. The veil 
 of the bride, with its sprig of myrtle, was torn from 
 her head and trampled in the mud ; and Michael s 
 best coat was fairly torn from his body as he lifted a 
 sheltering arm to protect her. The lawn dresses were 
 ripped and severed ; white slippers were lost in the 
 mud. Crying, Irma lifted her veil and the sprig of 
 crushed myrtle out of the muck. 
 
 Their helplessness, their lack of power to meet the 
 opposing armament, drove the mob, ever increasing, to 
 frenzy. They jammed and tugged and squeezed 
 nearer and nearer the lines of muskets. The soldiery 
 around the fence was much like a steel saw, standing 
 at rest, showing its strong teeth to logs just out of 
 reach. 
 
 Forgetful of the serious consequences that had fol 
 lowed their last jeering attack on the militia, the mob 
 began a desultory throwing of sticks and stones and 
 mud. Winslow, Bach, McNaughton and the others 
 came forth to plead and argue for peace ; but they 
 
4 2o BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 might as well, and perhaps better, have remained 
 home in so far as the quieting effect of their words 
 went. 
 
 " You are a nice one, you are, Brodski, complained 
 Winslow, working his way forward to Michael, " to 
 leave the Advisory Committee and join the others to 
 work against us." 
 
 ;< You go back, Mr. Winslow, and let me alone," 
 was the only answer that Michael vouchsafed. 
 
 Mrs. Brodski, her hair streaming Maenad-like over 
 her eyes, was shaking her fist in the face of one of the 
 soldiers. 
 
 " You again ? " said he commiseratingly. " You had 
 better get away from here, or you will be killed." 
 
 She greeted his kindly warning with a torrent of 
 ribald oaths. 
 
 The captain looked on patiently, with fine restraint; 
 his heart was with those poor fellows ; he would rather 
 a thousand times have lifted his muskets with than 
 against them ; but patience had its limits and the mob 
 was growing dangerous ; the lives of his soldiers were 
 threatened. 
 
 " Fix bayonets," came the order at last. The steel 
 saw was getting ready to revolve, .but the log would 
 not budge ; it pushed nearer the protruding teeth. 
 
 "It s our last chance, men," called somebody; "if 
 we lose this time all is lost. We might as well die as 
 starve. Stand your ground. Break into the mills and 
 kill the scabs ! " 
 
 That opprobrious term always incited them, goaded 
 them to desperation. A roar as of the thunders, 
 " Scab ! Scab ! Scab ! " went up from all sides. If they 
 could have but reached the men who were supplanting 
 them they would have rent them limb from limb. The 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 421 
 
 novices cowered at their strange work, wondering if 
 the militia would prove ample protection. Some were 
 for desertion and flight, but the majority preferred the 
 evil whereof they knew. 
 
 Stones were hurled against the fences and at the 
 troops. One luckless wight, struck in the temple, fell 
 to the ground. The disaster encouraged the fanatics. 
 After all, their powers for destruction were great. 
 They would use them to the uttermost. " On ! On ! " 
 " Inside ! " " Scab ! " " Death rather than starvation ! " 
 " Kill or be killed!" the cries were miscellaneous and 
 desultory enough, but the common feeling that elicited 
 them was not to be mistaken. 
 
 The darkness and the smoke that hid the stars were 
 lit up, ignited by the flames rising from the stacks of 
 the blasts like steady streams from a geyser, and the 
 faces purpling with rage were shown in all their rruer- 
 cilessness. 
 
 " Charge ! " came the order. The saw was set in 
 revolution. The mob swayed and broke. The women 
 alone did not retreat, insulting the soldiery with un 
 translatable oaths. They were loath, even the most un 
 sympathetic ones, to injure a woman, and the terma 
 gants, relying on their gallantry, took advantage 
 of it. 
 
 The crowd gathered again, reinforced, more deter 
 mined than ever, a revolver or two, ominous gas-pipes 
 discernible, here and there, in uplifted hands. Fear 
 fully the subalterns eyed their commander. They were 
 being bandied like toy soldiers and they could stand 
 the maltreatment no longer. 
 
 The captain gnawed at his mustache, distressed to 
 trie point of prostration. He was brave enough ; phy 
 sical fear he knew not; but to shoot those rebellious 
 
422 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 toilers down the very thought revolted and sickened 
 him. It wasn t six months ago that the members of 
 his own craft, the cabinet-makers, struck for higher 
 wages and shorter hours. And now no, not if it 
 could be helped, would he kill his brethren. He prayed 
 that death would relieve him of the responsibility. 
 
 Death all but answered his prayer ; a gas-pipe, sput 
 tering with a lit fuse, carrying a charge of dynamite 
 in its belly, whizzed at his feet. He stamped the fuse 
 out. His subordinates looked at him in amazement. 
 Why didn t the command to fire come? The minute 
 was critical. They were being crushed against the 
 fence. Seditious talk was rife. The captain groaned 
 inwardly and gnawed at his mustache ; he thought of 
 sending for reinforcements that would be the easiest 
 way out of the awful quandary. 
 
 A revolver was fired by one of the steel workers. 
 A bomb shrieked and burst in mid air, bits of iron 
 scattering like the bejeweled insets of an exploding 
 sky-rocket. Some of the soldiers were injured, not 
 dangerously, but enough to increase their own exas 
 peration and the apprehension of the others. 
 
 The lack of resistance encouraged the mob; the fa 
 miliarity with the bayonet points bred nothing but a 
 mild contempt. 
 
 " Inside ! " " Kill the scabs ! " " Throw them inside 
 the furnaces ! " and previsioning vengeance and vic 
 tory, they jammed forward in unison, with the vigor of 
 the mad. One was impaled through the shoulder on a 
 bayonet. 
 
 An unremitting shower of stones poured over the 
 heads of the chafing soldiery, at their sides, at the : r 
 feet, striking often, falling amuck still more often. 
 
 " Take aim ! " called the captain, unresolved no 
 
A POLISH WEDDING 423 
 
 longer. There was nothing left but that. God help 
 them, they would leave him no choice. 
 
 The mob jeered. " Inside the fences ! was the per 
 sistent cry. They were determined upon it ; let the 
 bullets fly ; for vengeance they were willing to pay the 
 price of death. 
 
 The white-haired general came galloping along. He 
 had been aroused by the uproar. He wheeled and 
 halted. The blast flames threw his silvery locks 
 and his fine figure out against the darkness like a well- 
 molded bas-relief. His practised eye reached out 
 and took in the situation as quickly as an adept hand 
 reaches out and catches a ball. 
 
 "What does this dallying mean?" he thundered. 
 " You are not out on parade. You are disobeying or 
 ders, sir. Command your men to fire ! " 
 
 The muskets rattled and roared. The crowd broke 
 and ran pell-mell. The last battle was fought and 
 lost. 
 
XXXVII 
 SIEGE 
 
 IN the first day of August the Company posted 
 notices throughout Marvin, declaring that it 
 would receive " individual " applications for em 
 ployment until the tenth of the month from all its 
 former workmen who had taken no part in the riot 
 ing: after that date all vacancies would be filled by 
 outsiders. 
 
 The strikers treated the manifesto with contemptu 
 ous inattention ; unheeded, the prescribed time ran by, 
 despite the fact that boat after boat was landing its 
 cargo of unskilled laborers within the mills. 
 
 Frequent and wild alarms summoned the soldiers ; 
 reports of attacks from the rear found their way into 
 the encampment ; bugles blew ; drums beat ; skirmish 
 lines were thrown out ; picket lines were doubled ; but 
 the reports always proved unfounded, and this much 
 ado was about nothing. 
 
 Often non-union men, finding confinement irksome, 
 and yearning for the enjoyment to be found without 
 the mills only, ventured into the town ; usually they 
 paid for their boldness with broken heads and bruised 
 bodies ; one or two never returned. But the strikers 
 themselves were quick to recognize the futility of this 
 cruel infliction of sporadic punishment, and they were 
 anxious to use the more efficacious method of moral 
 
 424 
 
SIEGE 425 
 
 persuasion, of gaining an entrance within the mills to 
 convince the host of non-unionists that they were pur 
 suing a course deadly to the ultimate good of the 
 brotherhood of labor. 
 
 The Advisory Committee still placed implicit reli 
 ance on the inability of the unskilled hands to fulfil 
 the Company s contract with the government. More 
 over it was hoped that politics would come to the aid 
 of their weakened resources ; for the dependence of the 
 North-Western mills on a high tariff must induce Mar 
 vin to leniency at this critical time, when the fate of 
 the presidency itself hung in a balance, quivering. 
 McNaughton was despatched to New York to confer 
 in secret with the powers of the Republican National 
 Committee. 
 
 McNaughton had scarcely departed on his mission 
 before Marvin fired the heaviest gun in his artillery, 
 as if he had seen the priming of labor s toy pistol and 
 were mocking at its childish inefficiency. Warrants 
 were issued for the arrest of Blair Carrhart, Bach, 
 McNaughton and Winslow on the charge of riot, fel 
 ony and murder. 
 
 To the search of the marshals for the indicted, Gen 
 eral Crawford lent the assistance of a company of in 
 fantry. The patrols were increased, and a regiment 
 was kept under arms to meet any emergency. The prep 
 arations were not warranted by any trouble that 
 arose ; Bach and Winslow evaded the minions and sur 
 rendered themselves to the authorities. Blair could 
 not be found; the town was searched from end to 
 end ; but he was discovered in neither one end nor at 
 the other, nor yet between the two. The foreigners 
 when questioned became peculiarly stupid, shrugged 
 their shoulders and shook their heads, showing just 
 
426 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 sufficient command of English to make it clear that 
 they did not comprehend it. 
 
 Marvin stormed when he was informed of the of 
 ficers failure to secure Blair. He needed that man 
 particularly ; the others amounted to hut little ; they 
 were but so many weights needed to drag Blair Carr- 
 hart down and to sink in the dragging. He cursed 
 marshals and detectives alike for dullards. He was 
 stupefied at the non-accomplishment of so simple a 
 task. The man was seriously wounded ; he couldn t 
 have escaped very far get him ! A second attempt, 
 unavailing as the first, was made. Every place but one 
 was searched ; Blair was in that one place. 
 
 Marvin s game was as well played as it was intrepid. 
 The backbone of the Advisory Committee was broken ; 
 skilful surgery might heal the fracture ; but the brains 
 of the strike were jarred into stupidity by the shock 
 to the spinal column. 
 
 The men were scarcely released on bail for one 
 charge before they were remanded on another. War 
 rants were issued for the murder of the Pinkertons. 
 Again they were released on bail. Another batch of 
 warrants followed arrests were made on the charge 
 of aggravated riot and conspiracy. The policy of the 
 Company was clear ; papers were to be issued until the 
 means for furnishing heavy bail bonds should fail and 
 the leaders in the strike be incarcerated as a result of 
 the failure. 
 
 The new members of the Advisory Committee, who 
 succeeded their imprisoned comrades, were, if they had 
 but dared to acknowledge it, more disheartened than 
 the rank and file. Deny it to others as they might, they 
 could not deny it to themselves that the work was mak 
 ing steady progress under the guidance of non-union 
 
SIEGE 427 
 
 hands and that the first plates for the government con 
 tract had been satisfactorily rolled ; nor were they 
 without reasoa when they feared that their incarcer 
 ated predecessors might stand face to face with death 
 on the gallows or suffer a life-long regret in the pen 
 itentiary. Free speech was growing more and more 
 dangerous ; warrants hung like Damoclean swords 
 over their heads, and the ^ate of their friends was an 
 omnipresent warning. Court, capital, and mili 
 tary were trampling their weakened cause to earth and 
 it could not rise again. 
 
 Moreover, as the strikers grew more and more tim 
 orous, the Company showed a more and more auda 
 cious front. The number of troops was steadily re 
 duced ; day by day parts of the regiments decamped 
 from the town. The sheriff increased the number of 
 his deputies in proportion to the decrease of the troops 
 an open declaration that the civil authorities consid 
 ered themselves strong enough to cope with any dif 
 ficulty. Tenements outside of the mills were filled 
 with the new hands and placed under surveillance of 
 squads of the militia. The non-union men would 
 gradually seize the town as they had the mills. 
 
 Meanwhile, in ignorance that savored of bliss, Blair 
 was convalescing slowly and surely, despite unfavor 
 able lapses. As life and vigor fought their way back 
 into his enfeebled system, Blair fretted and fumed 
 at his confinement ; the battle was still going on and 
 it irked him that he might bear no minor part therein. 
 The nervousness induced by his restlessness was a 
 serious obstacle to a more speedy recovery. Van s tact 
 and wit were drained in the constant exertion of a 
 quietinof influence, in the oroviding- of a meet entertain 
 ment for despondent hours. Even wit and wisdom 
 
428 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 failed at times and she was reduced to a tearful suppli 
 cation to keep him in his invalid s chair until the ap 
 pointed time. 
 
 Finally the hour of deliverance approached and 
 Blair was allowed the greater but more tantalizing 
 freedom of out-of-door walks. Accompanied by Evan- 
 geline, leaning on his stout cane, he wobbled down the 
 street. Unwelcome August and its sweltering heat 
 had come and gone, and the haze of September, now 
 far in its way, lay over the brown and cool prairie 
 lands. The day was crisp, tinged with the promise of 
 coming frosts, and Blair drew in deep breaths with 
 grateful lungs as he picked his way down the rickety 
 tenement stairs. 
 
 Now tnat it was on the return his strength gained 
 rapidly, and before the week was ended, Blair was able 
 to cover quite a distance without fatigue. He and 
 Evangeline became two angels visitant, moving from 
 tenement to tenement, through the tortuous maze of 
 stairway, alley and hall. For him no longer was the 
 glad welcome, the open greeting, the rapt and trustful 
 looks. Somehow they blamed him for all the distress 
 that had been heaped upon them ; and the strange be 
 lief was generally shared that, had he so desired, he 
 could have led them to victory long ago, averting the 
 sinister twist of their misshapen fortunes. Was their 
 present condition the end of his fine spun dreams and 
 this agony the realization of his Cooperative Com 
 monwealth ? 
 
 The knowledge that Evangeline was the daughter of 
 Marvin was possessed by all. and this love of the plu 
 tocratic maiden for the leader of labor was regarded 
 with a distrust akin to an^er. They discussed it a^ain 
 and again among themselves, and the universal conclu- 
 
SIEGE 429 
 
 sion decided the affair full of mystery, auguring evil. 
 Treachery was hinted at in foreboding whispers. He 
 was playing them into the hands of Marvin and the 
 Company. Their stupidity conceived impossible plots 
 and counter-plots into which they had been innocently 
 dragged as the blind misled by the lame. 
 
 Had Blair but suspected the evil thoughts hatching 
 behind those narrow brows, causing their frowns and 
 scowls, he might have hesitated to appear among them, 
 even on his errand of mercy ; and less on his own ac 
 count than Evangeline s, for it was against her that 
 they wished to wreak their fury. She was the rav 
 ishing Lorelei that had captivated their quondam hero, 
 singing and attuning her harp to her father s music, 
 urged to drag him down into their capitalistic cavern, 
 whither he would be certain to lead his followers after 
 him. If she were out of the way he might be released 
 from the soul-strangling mesh into which she had en 
 tangled him. Money and food and raiment were taken 
 from her hand with reluctance. 
 
 But the change of attitude, sharp and marked as it 
 was, escaped the observation of both Blair and Evan- 
 geline, or, if noticed, both of them were far from at 
 tributing it to the true source. It was their single 
 mission and only purpose to fill those distended stom 
 achs, to hush the tears of the children with the bread 
 for which they were crying, and they sought not in re 
 turn the thanks of praising tongues, nor the smiles of 
 grateful faces. 
 
 It needed a pause for breath and a girding of the 
 loins to continue that round of alleviating calls ; to pass 
 on from one chamber of horrors to another chamber of 
 torture and to be able to do so little to end the torture 
 or obliterate the horror. 
 
430 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Here and there the doors were slammed in the faces 
 of the angels visitant. They wanted them not. They 
 would not have the curious pry into their affliction, nor 
 their famished homes desecrated by the footsteps of a 
 contemptible traitor. Perhaps their inertia saved 
 Blair from being mobbed. 
 
 His heart was far heavier when he returned than 
 when he had started ; and that night he succumbed to a 
 fit of despondency, sable-hued, from which even Van s 
 cheer failed to rouse him. In his sojourn through the 
 tenements he had learned all that they had so arduous 
 ly striven to withhold from him during his illness. 
 The Company had not receded from its position then! 
 Hunger was stalking through the wretched homes of 
 the people! The cold was crouching at their thresh 
 olds, waiting to force a predatory entrance ! They had 
 concealed the truth from him ! They had lured him 
 with pleasing falsehoods ! 
 
 Blair saw, he understood, he divined all now ! The 
 strike had not been won, it was lost. Non-union hands 
 had lit the fire in those flaming furnaces. The stridor 
 of the whistles and the gride of the machinery that had 
 made his heart glad as he lay there night after night, 
 faint and sleepless, were after all no prcan of triumph 
 to celebrate their victory, but the funeral march for a 
 lost cause. They too had lied to him ! 
 
 His chair was drawn close to the window and he 
 could gaze down into the mill-yard and see the men at 
 work pushing the buggies of ore on the elevators that 
 rah to the blast-furnaces. The glare from the gaunt 
 chimneys shone on hic:h like a bale-fire, anon it suf 
 fused the air of the yards with a carmine glow, like 
 that of a vivid dawn breaking through the darkness ; 
 and the translucent light from the converters swept 
 
SIEGE 431 
 
 across the firmament in long streaks. He could hear 
 the pounding of the rails, the rumbling of the plates. 
 Lost ! Lost ! It had all come to naught, to worse than 
 naught ; he had visited greater misery on the people 
 whom he loved and strove to benefit. He was too 
 weak to control himself; the strong man burst into 
 tears. 
 
 "What s the matter, Blair? 1 and Evangeline was 
 at his side. 
 
 " Oh, Van," he moaned, " they have been deceiving 
 me. It s lost! It s all over. 
 
 "Forgive me, Blair," she sobbed. "It had to be 
 done, for your sake. " 
 
 " I understand," he said in a whisper, smoothing her 
 hair. 
 
 " We must leave here," she pleaded; " you are only 
 eating your heart and wearing out your life. You can 
 do no good. Come, Blair, let s go home." 
 
 He eyed her accusingly, half angrily, the old reso 
 lute look flashed through his eye, the colorless flesh 
 clung tight to his squared jaw. " And you, Van have 
 you too lost faith ? Do you want me to slink away now 
 that trouble has come? Do you want me to shirk the 
 responsibility of my own acts? Do you think that I 
 am afraid ? " 
 
 " No, Blair, no ; that s the last thing I thought or 
 wanted, heaven knows. Only you do need rest and 
 quiet, and if you keep on agitating yourself like this 
 I fear oh, I don t know what may result." 
 
 He was silent, lost in thought, almost as if he were 
 unaware of her presence. He gazed steadily out of 
 the window, his hand resting on his chin. He looked 
 up suddenly and said: "I have been thinking over 
 some things a good deal, Van, turning (hem over in 
 
432 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 my mind again and again as I lay there too weak to 
 speak. I wish you would go back. I want you to go 
 home. This is altogether too much for you to stand. 
 It is no place for you. I can t tell what may happen. 
 The crowd may turn on me to-morrow. Winslow 
 used to warn me again and again and I don t want 
 you here to see it. I don t see how you have stood it 
 so long, my brave girl ; I don t see." 
 
 " Blair," she interrupted, " I wasn t thinking of my 
 self. It isn t for myself I care. I can stand it. It 
 hasn t hurt me ; on the contrary I have learned much 
 here. It has done me a great deal of good in a great 
 many ways." 
 
 " I expected that you would answer me in that fash 
 ion, Van ; but I want you away from here, out of 
 this. It is almost too much for a strong man ; it is 
 altogether too much for a delicate woman. I want 
 you to go home. You have done more than your duty, 
 more than any woman on earth would have done, and 
 you ought to rest satisfied with that. You are pale 
 and worn and nervous you are in a far worse condi 
 tion than I am." 
 
 " I will go home, Blair when " she paused and 
 nestled closer to him. 
 
 " When ? When what ? " he questioned impa 
 tiently. 
 
 u When you go home with me," she said in a man 
 ner not to be contradicted. 
 
 " Then we will stay here until it is all over one 
 way or the other, Van." 
 
 " It all remains with you to decide, Blair." 
 
 They lapsed into silence again, listening to the bel 
 lowing and the clanging and clattering of the mills. 
 She told him then, for the first time, of her mother s 
 
SIEGE 433 
 
 death, of her separation from her father. He was all 
 in all to her now. 
 
 There came another day of heart-wearing work in 
 the most pitiful section of the foreign quarters a dis 
 trict fairly honeycombed with the cells of starving 
 occupants, comatose and dumb, punished so cruelly 
 that they were apathetic to any coming infliction. It 
 was maddening, revolting, the sight of this patient, 
 hard-working, long-suffering people malformed by the 
 obsession of the long famine a malformation that was 
 twice horrible since it was going on amidst a land 
 that groaned with plenty. 
 
 Dusk fell before their visiting for that day was 
 done ; and as the pair emerged to the street by the 
 passageways through which they had come, their feet 
 were scarcely able to drag their bodies along. A 
 motley crowd was gathered in "the street, uproarious 
 with their angry and excited cries. 
 
 " There she comes," shouted a mere boy, pointing 
 to Evangeline with a long stick which he shook threat 
 eningly, with a mock heroic air. 
 
 " Come on," yelped a man, waving his arms. 
 
 " Kill her ! Knock her down ! Pull her clothes off ! 
 The witch ! " went up the infuriated screeches in a 
 babel of tongues. It was as if they were preparing 
 to attack a whole regiment of soldiery, not a maimed 
 man and a defenseless woman, and as if their threats 
 were raised to scare the enemy and inspire their own 
 sinking courage. 
 
 They are coming for us," moaned Blair. 
 
 " Not for us, but for me," sobbed Evangeline, pal 
 pitating. 
 
 Blair grasped Evangeline by the hand, his thought 
 keyed to the issue of a responsibility upon which more 
 28 
 
434 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 than life itself depended. He shook his cane defi 
 antly. The crowd paused for a second. The awe 
 of former associations clung to the man who had been 
 their leader once and whom they had followed with 
 love where he had led without fear. The rabble 
 hurtled forward. 
 
 " Run, Van, run ; for God s sake run ! " screamed 
 Blair. She clung to him closer, clutching his arm in 
 the delirium of fright that is blind to all danger. 
 
 Blair fell to the ground, struck in his wounded 
 shoulder by a stone. Evangeline threw herself pro- 
 tectingly, like a shield, over his prostrate body. The 
 mob, beholding that their idol was fallen, rushed on 
 to shatter it beyond recognition. Rough and brutal 
 hands were laid on Evangeline ; but she clung to 
 Blair bravely, guarding him with all the altruism of 
 maternal love. 
 
 " Hold on, boys ; that ain t right. You mustn t 
 hit a woman," and Michael Brodski came speeding 
 forward, outdistancing Jan and Paul, attracted to 
 the spot by the report of riot. 
 
 " It s Marvin s daughter ! " bellowed a voice. 
 " She s bought him out ! She s sold us and we want 
 her ! We ll kill her ! " 
 
 " No, you won t, not while we re alive. Don t 
 be afraid, Mr. Carrhart ; we re coming," called 
 Michael. 
 
 Sticks and stones were hurled at the rescuer. The 
 mob was diverted, for the minute, from its object. 
 They had come for prey and it mattered but little 
 what prey it was. Jan and Paul placed themselves 
 between Blair, Evangeline. and ihe mob. The crowd 
 scattered to renew their exhausted supply of missiles. 
 Women, men and children came pouring 1 out of the 
 
SIEGE 435 
 
 tenements, wondering if the attack against the mills 
 were beginning anew. 
 
 A squad of militia, drawn thither by the hubbub, 
 marched forward in double quick time. The mob 
 dispersed swifter than it had gathered. There was 
 no trifling with the militia these days; their rifles 
 were loaded with bullets and the bullets waited but 
 for an excuse to kill. Blair was saved by the new 
 enemy from the unreasoning wrath of his old friends. 
 
 Another setback retained Blair in bed for two 
 weeks, and the giant twisted and writhed in vain at 
 the invisible chains which bound him to inactivity. 
 His restlessness burned deeper than his fever. He was 
 thrall to a consuming desire to meet his enemies,, to 
 conquer them, to prove to them how mistaken were 
 their foolish prejudice and blind passion ; but Evan- 
 geline, whose wisdom disproved her years, pleaded 
 for a return to the people among whom they had been 
 born, and by whom they were understood and loved. 
 
 Her plea always met the same rejoinder; and Evan- 
 geline was obliged to worry in helplessness over Blair s 
 sinking vitality, over the old expression that all but 
 weazened his young face, settling there as if by right 
 of eminent domain, never to be disturbed. Gray hairs 
 were stealing their way through his thick black locks, 
 and crows feet were grasping for roost in the corners 
 of his eyes. He was aging fast ; he was bearing the 
 responsibilities of an ungrateful and unappreciative 
 world on his shoulders, and Evangeline trembled lest 
 they crush him. 
 
 He called on the Jndsons one Sunday, entreating 
 Van to remain behind, and his entreaty finally won her 
 consent. Mrs. Judson received him coldly ; figura 
 tively the door was slammed on his nose, literally it 
 
436 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 was opened none too wide. Perhaps his emaciated 
 frame and sunken face alone saved him from insult. 
 The accusation of murder looked down on him from 
 every silent, frowning face. The children drew closer 
 to their parents, shrinking away. Mabel scowled 
 darkly ; Martha s brow was wrinkled as with lines 
 of anger. Mrs. Judson s lips were pursed as if to re 
 strain stinging words that were eager to escape. Jud- 
 son, who looked twenty years older than when Blair 
 first knew him, bent his face to the floor and tapped 
 his foot on the carpet. 
 
 Blair s questions were answered in reluctant mono 
 syllables, snapped out. Mrs. Judson clenched her 
 short hands and beat the sofa with light, quick blows. 
 Their aversion, the repulsion which they could not 
 conceal, was more than Blair s Spartan soul could 
 stand, and he almost broke down. Then he drew his 
 lax nerves taut and forced himself to speak ; and the 
 flood of eloquence, so long pent up, gathered force, as 
 it were, from the long restraint, and burst in easy 
 periods from his lips. The sacrifice they had made 
 was terrible. They had given their boy to a cause as 
 noble as ever mother immolated her son. They in 
 terrupted his exordium almost before he had begun. 
 
 " Fine words, fine words," growled Judson. 
 
 " Yes, fine words," fairly howled the mother, " but 
 they don t bring our boy back to us." 
 
 " I am sorry," he stammered, arising to go, feeling 
 himself on the verge of crying. " I would have given 
 my life for Ben s. It broke my heart that day." He 
 ceased ; the tears were rolling down his peaked face. 
 
 The Judson s beheld his anguish without pity or 
 repentance. The family was firm in the conviction 
 that Blair was responsible for Ben s death, and if he 
 
SIEGE 437 
 
 suffered for the murder he was paying inadequate 
 penalty for the crime. 
 
 Blair limped towards the door. His good-by re 
 ceived an almost inaudible answer. He could not 
 leave without learning what he had come to ask. 
 Mastering himself, he turned around. " Where is 
 Win slow ? v 
 
 Martha arose, her rounded breast, swelling; the 
 fury of hell s scorn blanching her cheek, flashing from 
 her dark eyes. " In jail," she said in a scornful and 
 low voice; " in jail, where you sent him." 
 
 "Where I sent him, Martha? I don t understand." 
 He was faint; the blood rushed, congealing, to his 
 wound; the pain was excruciating as if it were open 
 ing afresh. 
 
 " That s right," shrilled Mrs. Judson, " feign inno 
 cence when " 
 
 " Hush, Ma Judson," commanded her husband, 
 awed by Blair s appearance. 
 
 Blair was at the door. Judson arose. " I m sorry 
 about this, Carrhart," he said softly, putting his arm 
 on Blair s shoulder sympathetically, " I can t bear to 
 see any man leave my house like this. The folks are 
 upset, and we ve all acted harsher than we really 
 mean it. Come again soon and let us make amends." 
 
 Overwhelmed by Judson s kindness more than by 
 the others severity, Blair could give no reply. He 
 all but broke down. 
 
 Judson held out his hand. "There s no hard feel 
 ing on my part, Carrhart, and there s my hand on it. 
 I want to forgive you in my name and the boy s. I 
 guess this business has cost you enough suffering any 
 way, and God knows I don t want to make it any 
 worse." 
 
438 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Martha advanced towards Blair, contrite, ashamed. 
 Her proud face and bearing were humbled and sub 
 dued. She held out her hand ; Blair clasped it. 
 Words were unnecessary. 
 
 The door opened ; Blair was in the street again, 
 knowing not how he had found his way thither, 
 crushed by the accusing faces of the family, broken- 
 spirited by the forgiveness of Judson and Martha, 
 harder to bear than their stern reproach. 
 
 He had scarcely turned the corner before he caught 
 sight of Evangeline in waiting. To her willing ears 
 he poured out the grief that rilled his bruised heart; 
 the desertion of old and beloved friends, the blame of 
 crime that was not of his doing; the words of ex 
 culpation that were prompted by pity rather than 
 reason. 
 
 Van consoled him in her soothing way, salving his 
 hurt with consummate tact, showing rare intuition in 
 the understanding of Blair s complicated process of 
 thought that made his pain so unendurable. 
 
 Henry Marvin, moving along erect, with a calm and 
 almost studied deliberation, passed his daughter and 
 her lover. It had been the president s habit, for the 
 last weeks, to walk through the town on his way to 
 and from the mills, as if in melodramatic assertion 
 of the rights of the victor and the weakness of the 
 defeated. His friends insisted determinedly that two 
 detectives follow him at close range, and Marvin was 
 fairly forced into compliance. The strikers, men and 
 women, watched him angrily, cursing their oppressor 
 with smothered foreign oaths, and let him pass with 
 out the least molestation. 
 
 The color spurted from Van s cheeks; she clutched 
 Blair s arm, restraining a cry of surprise. Marvin 
 
SIEGE 439 
 
 eyed his daughter unflinchingly. His glance of stone 
 and flint gave no hint of recognition. Astonishment 
 wavered across his stern-set features when his sight 
 rested on Blair. 
 
 The feeling that Blair needed all her strength and 
 sympathy sustained Evangeline and prevented her 
 from making any drain on either his sympathy or his 
 strength. Each understood what was going on in the 
 mind of the other; neither spoke. 
 
 They had progressed thus but a few feet, when the 
 two sleuths, sent post-haste by Marvin to capture 
 their elusive prey, arrested Blair. Evangeline made 
 no outcry. In this crisis, as in every other, she 
 proved herself the true daughter of her father re 
 liant, composed, every thought bent upon solving the 
 emergency of the moment. Blair was relieved from 
 the nerve-tearing necessity of calming her when he 
 saw that she was merely concerned with calming 
 him. 
 
 " It s a rather underhanded way of doing things, 
 my friends," he said to the detectives, trembling, en 
 ervated by the excitement. " Henry Marvin might 
 have spared me this humiliation. I would have come 
 to you if I had only known that you wanted me." 
 
 Marvin turned on his heel, saw Blair in the clutch 
 of his myrmidons, and he went on his way rejoicing. 
 Justice had been balked too long, and vengeance, for 
 which justice was the excuse, would be satisfied at 
 last. Marvin loved his enemies his hatred was so 
 keen that the sensation was tantamount to that awak 
 ened by love. 
 
 Blair was released on bail that same afternoon. 
 The property that Evangeline had inherited from her 
 mother proved sufficient to satisfy the exorbitant bonds 
 
440 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 demanded by the court on the five grave charges ; and 
 besides., on Blair s solicitation, she went bond for 
 Winslow and he was freed from durance. 
 
 It was a touching sight, fine with pathos, when the 
 two friends clasped hands again after their long sepa 
 ration and what Blair believed a bitter estrangement. 
 Winslow, finding it difficult to conceive that the giant 
 he had erstwhile known was the Blair Carrhart, 
 feeble and shattered, with sunken and care-furrowed 
 cheeks and hollow eyes, who stood before him now, 
 was shocked beyond the measure of his words. 
 
 " It s just what I d expect of you, Carrhart/ he 
 said, after the exchange of the amenities. " I always 
 knew that you were dead square, and I m only a bit 
 surer now. There ll be a big shake-up soon, one way 
 or the other ; I know that, because I ve been through 
 deals like this before; but you and I stand pat, don t 
 we?" 
 
 " Right until the end of time/ affirmed Blair, 
 happy that the first of his friends at the mill should be 
 the firmest at the last. It was balm and rest to his 
 aching and tired soul. 
 
 A relapse was the consequence of these few turbu 
 lent days, and Blair was confined to his bed, fever- 
 racked, moaning with pain from the wound in his 
 shoulder. Unmindful of Blair s protest, Evangeline 
 summoned the Polish doctor. He shrugged his shoul 
 ders, shook his blond head and scolded both Evan 
 geline and Blair for their criminal carelessness. It 
 would take a long time for his health to reach the 
 point where it stood before his recklessness pulled it 
 down. 
 
 Three monotonous and melancholy weeks dragged 
 along and Blair was still chained to his bed. Oc- 
 
SIEGE 441 
 
 tober came, unusually chill and severe, winter steal 
 ing into the border lines of fall. Bleak, keen-edged 
 winds swept over the spaceless prairies. Coatings of 
 ice, premature, thin as filaments, spread over the deep 
 pools that the end of September rains had cleansed 
 from the fetid stagnation of the summer. 
 
 The resources of the Finance Committee were slow 
 ly dwindling away; the bottom of the coffers showed 
 but a patched and straggling surface of coin. Five 
 thousand laborers and their families had drained the 
 treasury steadily for ninety days. Outside contri 
 butions came in slower and slower, in driblets, in 
 ludicrously small amounts, then not at all. The strike 
 had lasted too long; public interest, concerned with 
 newer and more vital questions, flagged and drifted 
 away. 
 
 The disbursing officers figured closer and closer, 
 refusing after a while to give money, supplying 
 orders for provisions instead; but even the amount 
 thus expended assumed alarming diurnal proportions. 
 The rulers of the purse grew more conservative, asked 
 more questions!, examined deeper before they gave, 
 and when they did they were more parsimonious in 
 the giving. The recipients grumbled at their miserly 
 doles. They complained bitterly over the lack of their 
 daily rations of tobacco and beer, and they sighed for 
 the bliss of satisfied stomachs. 
 
 Finally the treasury was emptied, even its bottom 
 scraped. Resource was sought in small credits from 
 the local shopkeepers, whom business policy forbade 
 to refuse at first ; but when the affair crawled and 
 crawled along, they came to the unanimous decision 
 that ruin might as well come in one shape as in an 
 other, and niggardly credits were granted under 
 
442 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 greater and greater protest to the housewives present 
 ing their brown blank books. 
 
 The dullest could discern that the time was not 
 far removed when grocer and butcher would shut 
 their doors against them and turn a deaf car to their 
 prayers for a sausage, a carrot and three potatoes, 
 all that intervened between them and starvation. Chill 
 penury was looked upon as paradisiacal in retrospect 
 from the depths of dire want, and it would not be long 
 before from the still greater depths of famine that 
 dire want itself would seem as heavenly by compar 
 ison. Threats of surrender and secession were rife. 
 The preponderant foreign element the most indigent 
 of all clamored loudest for capitulation. The brunt 
 of the strike fell upon them, and they would reap the 
 jackal s share of the reward, should victory, per 
 chance, be ultimate. They were carrying the burden 
 for the union and tonnage men ; and it dawned slowly 
 on their intellects, sharpened now by hunger, that they 
 were pulling chestnuts out of the fire for others to 
 devour, whilst they sat blowing on their burned fin 
 gers. 
 
 Often at night, setting the doctor s behest at naught, 
 Blair would stroll through the somber streets, pausing 
 often to listen to the groans of anguish that burst 
 through the homes of the unfortunates and went 
 screaming to the pitiless stars. Every board of the 
 ramshackle tenements was eloquent with the dolor of 
 its inmates. If the strike continued a few weeks 
 longer death would be the final arbiter. 
 
 Through the dark alleys he could see the children 
 scamper, like rats from their holes, in search for any 
 refuse that might serve for food. With what hero 
 ism were they meeting the issue! As long as human 
 
SIEGE 443 
 
 beings could endure without perishing, they were 
 willing to submit to the ordeal that their children 
 might find life easier than they. One thought, ever 
 present, abiding as a shibboleth carved in granite, 
 sustained and cheered to abdicate to-day would be 
 to render all the long travail of the past tragically 
 purposeless; while the withstanding of one more day 
 might bring a victory that would balm the wounds re 
 ceived through the long, merciless years. So they con 
 tinued meeting the day to come with stoical bravery, 
 fortifying themselves with the reflection that the day 
 before, equally atrocious, had gone down in the face 
 of their defiance and fortitude. 
 
 Children came gliding in and out of the winding 
 passageways, with baskets slung on their arms. It 
 was a mystery that Blair tried in vain to fathom. Two 
 urchins were talking near him in the darkness. Blair 
 stood still and listened. 
 
 " Get anything this evening? " asked the one. 
 
 "Yes, I was lucky." The other held up a full 
 basket. 
 
 " Where were you ? " 
 
 In answer to this query the fortunate one gave a 
 list of houses that had responded to his appeals. Blair 
 shuddered. They were exchanging mendicant direc 
 tories. 
 
 Men passed him in the darkness, in the light that 
 flared savagely from the flames of the mills. They 
 were gaunt and thin, moving with heavy breath and 
 halting limbs mere shadows of the brawny workers 
 that had been. In and out of the Dumb-Bell, stragglers, 
 with wary and sly glances, slunk like dogs with pur 
 loined bones. Blair marveled how they who were de 
 prived of bread could purchase beer. 
 
444 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 He threw all thoughts of consequences aside, and 
 bracing himself, he stepped within the saloon. It was 
 unusually warm and comfortable. A handful of 
 strikers were amusing themselves at the Tivoli pool 
 table, stopping the game now and then to seek re 
 freshment from the schooners foaming on the bar. A 
 tray of bread stood on a table, and from its plenteous 
 depths the men filled their pockets. 
 
 Blair was recognized at once; but the recognition 
 came with a sheepish and hang-dog look as they faced 
 his wrinkling brows and his eyes focused on them 
 questioningly. When the men left the saloon, with 
 out exception, they dipped their hands into the tray 
 and filled their pockets with the bread ; the whole ac 
 tion was like that of thieves who expect pursuit and 
 who are ready to evade it on the run. Blair stared at 
 the proprietor searchingly ; the stolid inscrutability 
 of the sphinx returned his stare. 
 
 A stranger stepped up to Blair, portly, well- 
 groomed, evidently neither a striker nor a non-union 
 workman. The Polish proprietor winked and mo 
 tioned, but he failed to attract the individual s atten 
 tion. The man hemmed one minute : he hawed an 
 other ; then he came out with his purpose boldly. He 
 was a labor agent in quest of hands for the mills. If 
 Blair wished work he could find it. The Company 
 would receive applications again in December ; mean 
 while, in strict secrecy, he and his family would be 
 found with bread and beer. 
 
 So desertion was tempted in that crafty fashion 
 Purchasing the convictions of the famished with a 
 breath of warm air and a mess trivial even beside the 
 pottage of Esau. And the deserters were tricking 
 their comrades, playing a double part, one more ig- 
 
SIEGE 445 
 
 nominious than the other! What were these people 
 whom he was trying to save from themselves? Be 
 cause they had turned against him, the shepherd who 
 wished to guide them to the promised land, he uttered 
 no syllable of blame; history, ancient and modern, 
 warned him that the occurrence was frequent enough 
 to stamp it human and excusable ; but to be false to 
 themselves, to their families, their comrades his lips 
 could not frame the epithet strong enough to charac 
 terize their pusillanimity. 
 
 Blair moved to the door, and into the street. His 
 mood was black, funereally sable. Evangeline had 
 counseled wisely ; he had far better go home. He was 
 letting his good intentions make a laughing-stock out 
 of his good sense. He plunged on through the tangle 
 of sordid streets, oblivious of the pain in his shoulder 
 that sharpened with every step. 
 
 He hastened along the mill fence, unmindful of 
 whither his steps tended, almost bumping into a soldier 
 who thought him a non-union hand on the way to 
 work, and so let him pass unchallenged. He was too 
 rapt in his somber thoughts to hear the reverberation 
 and thunder of the roaring mills, or to see the savage 
 lights that burst like a midnight sunset across the sleep 
 ing earth. He reached the extreme end of the long 
 enclosure and came to the huddle of houses occupied 
 by the non-union men. He turned west to work his 
 way homeward. Possibly he might hit upon some 
 more ghastly discoveries. It suited the bitterness of 
 his mood to taste the very dregs in his nauseating 
 cup. 
 
 The white glare from the converters fell athwart 
 the black shadow of a man crouched on all fours, 
 resembling the outline of a shaggy Newfoundland 
 
446 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 dog. Blair glided across the street and hid behind 
 the platform of a raised sidewalk and watched 
 closely. 
 
 The sentry paced to and fro, down the long range 
 of fence to the clump of cottages that marked the ter 
 minus of the mills. When he wheeled to begin his 
 march backward, the crouching figure arose, then it 
 dropped back on all fours again and crawled up to the 
 cottage windows. 
 
 The man struck several matches, but the high wind 
 blew them out, one after the other. A fuse was finally 
 lit at the end of a short, thick, black object. Blair un 
 derstood, his blood dropped like so much lead to his 
 feet. The fellow proposed to blow up the homes occu 
 pied by the "scabs ! " A short run, a spring, a lunge, 
 and Blair was at the dastard s back. The fuse was 
 burning brightly, sizzing, and the strong arm was 
 giving it a propelling swing, preparatory to letting it 
 go. Blair caught the arm with a downward jerk. 
 The bomb fell on the ground. He stamped the fuse 
 out with a horrified foot. The criminal turned to 
 look his aggressor in the face. The high red flames 
 from the blast lit the sky luridly. It was Paul 
 Brodski. 
 
 "My God, Paul; you?" 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Carrhart." 
 
 The guard drew near on his backward way. " Hi, 
 there ! " he called. " What are you doing there ? " 
 
 Paul regarded Blair narrowly ; under the stress 
 of his wild excitement he still held him by the 
 wrist. 
 
 " Nothing," answered Blair, releasing his hold. He 
 could feel Paul s hot and relieved breath on his cheek. 
 
 " Well, then, go about your business." 
 
SIEGE 447 
 
 They hastened away. It dawned on the sentinel 
 that the action of these men was extraordinary. Why 
 had the big man clasped the small chap by the wrist? 
 His foot stumbled on the iron pipe. He stooped to 
 lift it. When search was made Blair and Paul were 
 not to be found, 
 
XXXVIII 
 SURRENDER 
 
 NOVEMBER came. Fog and dampness dripped 
 from the melancholy atmosphere like the sere 
 leaves from the drooping branches of the 
 weeping willows. It grew more chill daily; the 
 clammy air penetrated to the very bone and marrow. 
 
 All but two companies of the militia had decamped. 
 The strikers were thoroughly cowed ; the deputies, re 
 duced to forty, coped successfully with the men who 
 had cowed them before. 
 
 The thought of the impending winter made the 
 bravest and strongest quail. Without coal and with 
 out food, how could they hold out? How could they 
 endure? Threats of capitulation grew more and more 
 vociferous, and the promises of the Advisory Com 
 mittee, golden-hued, kept pace with the threats, and 
 the destitution increased with both. 
 
 Even the national election with its great Democratic 
 victory failed to inspire hope ; for, although the strike 
 had undoubtedly been the chief factor in the gaining 
 of the political victory, the politicians showed not the 
 slightest inclination to come to the aid of the strikers. 
 It was now common talk that the Company had filled 
 its contract with the government to the letter, and 
 the ground caved in from under the last hope of the 
 leaders. 
 
 448 
 
SURRENDER 449 
 
 November merged into December; the air was stiff 
 with cold, as if sheeted with an invisible covering of 
 ice. Nature stubbornly ranged itself on the side of 
 capital and proved its strongest ally. The agony of 
 the besieged heightened to angor. Human beings, 
 however Spartan, however stoical, could brave the 
 chastisement no longer. Capitulation was but a ques 
 tion of clays. With bowed head and bent knee, the 
 mercy, the convenience and the terms of the beleaguer- 
 ers were awaited. 
 
 Shrewdly and timely the Company posted its third 
 notice. The mills would be thrown open for employ 
 ment until the fifth day of the month ; after that they 
 would be permanently closed to all who had in any 
 way participated in the strike. It was the last chance, 
 and the men grasped at it convulsively, lest the oppor 
 tunity speed by and they starve to death. 
 
 Two thousand of the mechanics masons, carpen 
 ters, machinists appointed their own committee to 
 wait on the Advisory Board and demand that the 
 strike be declared off and they be abjured from their 
 bond of allegiance. The demand was refused, per 
 emptorily and without consideration. The mechanics 
 reflected on their determination, but remained of the 
 same opinion still. At noon they walked over to the 
 mills in a body and sued for reinstatement. 
 
 When the news of the abdication reached the foreign 
 quarters, the laborers stampeded to the mill gates in 
 wild haste, each insane with the desire to be there 
 first, lest his neighbor win the orize that goes to the 
 swift, and the loser be condemned to unceasing 
 tribulation. 
 
 How different the aspect of this crowd than that 
 of the same one which had assembled some six months 
 29 
 
450 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ago to battle for their rights to the death! It was a 
 defeated army, and its soldiers bore all the marks and 
 scars of battle, of terrible hardship, of inevitable van- 
 quishment obdurately resisted. Emaciated, thinned 
 to the bone, shriveled by disease, stunned to stupidity 
 by dearth and pain, a child could have dispersed them 
 with pebbles. They were so humble, so abased that 
 they were ready to kiss the hand that had cuffed 
 them, to feed from the palm that had closed to make 
 a punitive fist. 
 
 They were half hysterical, leaning on the verge of 
 tears ; so overwhelmed were they that the end to their 
 superhuman suffering had come, that they might toil 
 night and day again, and be underfed, underpaid and 
 housed like cattle for the wages of their toil. What 
 mattered it so long as they were fed and paid and 
 housed at all? 
 
 After all they were but mere beasts of burden, 
 destined for nothing better than to fetch and carry, 
 and they must reconcile themselves to whatever mas 
 ter, cruel or kind, fate chose to grant. The women, 
 beshawled, shivering with the cold, were at their 
 husbands sides, urging them in droning and whining 
 repetition to be polite when their turn for entering the 
 offices came, to remove their hats, and walk carefully 
 lest they become obnoxiously conspicuous. 
 
 Crestfallen, grief-stricken, Blair forced himself to 
 shamble over to the mill gates and review the army of 
 meek and cowed capitulants. Indifferent to his pres 
 ence, they neither smiled nor frowned upon him. Not 
 a welcoming or regretful word for all that he had 
 sacrificed in their behalf, not one loving look for all 
 the love he had borne them ! They gazed at him ston 
 ily, refusing recognition, as if they knew him not, 
 
SURRENDER 451 
 
 fearful lest emissaries of the Company be present and 
 a slight proof of even acquaintanceship with their 
 former general cost them their coveted positions. 
 
 If the scalding tears could have had their way, they 
 would have gushed down Blair s woe-begone face ; and 
 not in commiseration of his own thankless lot, of the 
 fickleness of his adherents would those tears have been 
 shed, but in pity, in sympathy, in love lasting as life, 
 for this downtrodden people who had rebelled against 
 a tyrannical master and who were now bowing sub 
 missively to the yoke and the muzzle against which 
 they had fought with such heroic and dauntless 
 spirits. 
 
 Hopeless, forlorn, with the weight of a dead faith 
 oppressing his heart, Blair turned to begin his weary, 
 homeward march. He gazed straight ahead, his eyes 
 purposely turned away from the crowd of timid faces 
 bent on the gates. 
 
 " Hello ! " came a loud and arresting cry. 
 
 Blair stopped. Jan and Michael, standing together 
 at the end of the line awaiting their turn, saluted him 
 warmly and in unison. 
 
 They clasped Blair s hand, and their grasp was as 
 expressive of friendship as any words could have 
 been. 
 
 " Going back? " choked out Blair, a lump gathering 
 in his throat. He could not reconcile himself to their 
 surrender. 
 
 " Yes, we are going back," said Jan, in a strangely 
 inflected tone, tugging at his red beard, an unfathom 
 able light flashing through his dreamy eyes. 
 
 "And Paul?" queried Blair. 
 
 Jan shook his head as if in absolute ignorance as 
 to Paul s intention. 
 
452 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Very sorry we have to give up, Mr. Carrhart," 
 said Jan, consolingly. " You have been a brave 
 man." 
 
 Michael, peculiarly lugubrious and taciturn, shook 
 a sad head in approval of Jan s sentiments. 
 
 Blair hastened away, overcome, the tears he had 
 restrained trickling down his furrowed cheeks, freed 
 from his control by those few expressions of com 
 passion. 
 
 The gates were thrown open ; the crowd warred for 
 entrance. Three clerks were busied in writing papers 
 for the abdicators to sign. Marvin was in the room, 
 grimly supervising the reemployment, throwing out 
 the applications as the whim suited him ; standing 
 there like a god of war, as if the destiny of battles 
 had been in his hands before the hurling of the first 
 thunderbolt. 
 
 That night the Amalgamated Association held its 
 last secret meeting. The gravity of the present situ 
 ation brought forth the unusual attendance of three 
 hundred members. There was but one resolution for 
 the house to consider should the strike be aban 
 doned and the mills declared open to union men? 
 
 To gaze on those faces shrouded in gloom and re 
 flect that in this very place not many months ago they 
 shone enraptured with courage, fine hope and noble 
 conviction, made Blair s heart bleed. Oh, to look 
 on that picture and then on this ! It was comparable 
 only to beholding the launching of a proud ship and 
 then viewing its tangled and storm-beaten wreckage. 
 
 When the question was put to the house for dis 
 cussion, Blair, mastering his drooping spirits, arose 
 to speak. They listened to him patiently, rather with 
 forbearance than interest, rather out of consideration 
 
SURRENDER 453 
 
 for the eloquence that had animated them in the past 
 than for what he might say now. 
 
 His oration was an impassioned plea against the 
 capitulation of the unions. To yield would be to 
 cause the disintegration of the Amalgamated Associ 
 ation that had so faithfully subserved their ends and 
 to hasten the downfall of organized labor. The me 
 chanics and day laborers had returned to the injury 
 of unionism, but not to its destruction; if the ton 
 nage men seceded the cause of unionism would be 
 forever doomed in Marvin. They would be at the 
 Company s mercy for all time to come, and they well 
 knew how merciless the Company was. To hold out 
 a little longer would be to win ; the enemy proved the 
 incontrovertibility of this assertion by their frequent 
 endeavors to induce the surrender. They had been 
 battling for the maintenance of principles as well as 
 for stomachs ; rather starvation for their stomachs , 
 than death for their principles. 
 
 He tried to speak of his own personal feelings in 
 the matter, of all it meant to him, what he had en 
 dured for it, what he was still ready and anxious to 
 endure, of his love for his fellows at whose side he 
 had both toiled and fought ; and his voice grew 
 husky, trembling and quavering into inaudibility; his 
 chest heaved and throbbed, and he broke down. 
 
 They left their seats and formed a circle of loyal 
 friendship around him. They pressed his hand sym 
 pathetically, they touched his shoulders affectionately. 
 They assured him in fervent voices of their high es 
 teem for his stanch character, his candor, his fear 
 lessness, his incorruptibility. They pledged their 
 friendship, no matter what came, no matter what the 
 night s decision. 
 
454 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The gavel tapped on the chairman s table; the house 
 gradually subsided into order. A standing vote was 
 taken. A majority of eight declared the mills open. 
 Blair s speech and manner had all but turned the 
 tide ; his appeal had changed the decision of over one 
 hundred men. The mechanics and laborers had set 
 the ball rolling, and the tonnage men were carried 
 along with the rolling of the ball. 
 
 Xo outburst greeted the decision, not a ripple of 
 applause on the one side, not a hiss on the other. In 
 silence, in shame, in utter abjection, the three hundred 
 moved slowly out of the hall. The great strike at 
 Marvin was over ; the long battle irretrievably lost ; 
 unionism had rung its own death knell. The Advis 
 ory Committee disbanded ; the complicated machinery 
 of the strike was dissevered. 
 
 On the morrow the tonnage men followed the labor 
 ers and took their turns in the line stretching out from 
 the gates. They were admitted in groups of three. 
 Those who were " blacklisted " as agitators or as dan 
 gerous, against whom was the slightest suspicion, were 
 turned away. 
 
 There still remained one small band undaunted, un- 
 conquered, invincible. The anarchists were not even 
 taken into consideration by the Company, and their 
 existence was unknown to the body of the workmen. 
 The Amalgamated Association had seen the battle 
 terminate far different than its plans ; the anarchists 
 had made no plans, they were quietly awaiting the 
 outcome of events, and by the hint it gave would they 
 speak. When the strength of the others was ex 
 hausted would they exert their -own : and when the 
 combat was lost (they had predicted from the begin 
 ning that it would be), they would recover the loss 
 
SURRENDER 455 
 
 and turn the day. The others had accepted the con 
 ditions of the dictators ; they intended to annihilate the 
 tyrants and the unfair terms they had imposed on the 
 conquered. 
 
 For the greater part, indeed with but few excep 
 tions, they had watched the tendency of events without 
 participating in any event that helped to make the 
 tendency. Regularly they held their meetings in the 
 hall over a saloon owned by a member of their society. 
 La Vette was there often, presiding frequently, direct 
 ing the making of chemicals that were to be used when 
 the moment came. The Russian woman, Sophia 
 Goldstein, was there always. Jan and Paul were 
 rarely absent ; and since the slaughter of his brothers 
 and sisters Michael had been induced to join the or 
 ganization. 
 
 The handful of the faithful had steadily waxed 
 throughout the months of the strike, and it numbered 
 over sixty members now ; but small as it was their 
 power of destruction was greater than that of the 
 five thousand strikers. On the evening of the Amal 
 gamated Association s formal surrender all non 
 sense was deemed to have ended, and on the evening 
 thereafter the anarchists met to begin their attack in 
 earnest. 
 
 Proceedings were opened by voting Henry Marvin 
 a dangerous enemy to society ; an obstruction in the 
 pathway of evolution. He was to be blown aside. 
 The next step was the delegating an assassin for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Sixty pellets of paper were numbered and dropped 
 in a red ballot box; and at the same time a scarlet cloth 
 with a large figure four worked in black on its face 
 was hung on the wall. Without the mentioning of 
 
456 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 one word each understood that the drawing of that 
 numeral would assign him irrevocably to a task that 
 meant death for the assassin as well as the assassi 
 nated. 
 
 All began to realize what the deed meant they were 
 drawing anear the gallows in a body and one of them 
 was inevitably fated to mount the perilous height 
 from which he would never descend to rejoin the rest. 
 Sixty dark faces grew contracted and tense. The 
 chilly, dank hall was grewsomely silent, like the bare 
 gallows in an empty jail-yard. So still it was that 
 one might have thought it possible to distinguish the 
 heavy breathing of each separate member. 
 
 The pellets were emptied from the ballot box on a 
 black velvet cloth that covered a small tripod. Each 
 member came forward, drew, and remained standing. 
 The stolid countenances blank, to all appearances in 
 different reflected no trace or shadow of fear. They 
 were as calm, as unconcerned as if they had been play 
 ing at lotto for pennies. 
 
 La Vette s turn was fast coming. He removed his 
 glasses and rubbed the red mark on the bridge of his 
 nose. He was perturbed and nervous, and his hand 
 trembled tellingly. The top of his bald head was hot 
 and he rubbed it almost absently with his scented 
 cambric handkerchief. He was a sybarite to the finest 
 atom in his podgy body, but in his whole make-up 
 there was not one atom of cowardice. He had faced 
 death on many occasions without flinching or fearing. 
 
 He was not afraid now, he told himself; he was as 
 ready to-day as yesterday or the day before to snap 
 his fingers at a life not worth the living. Why was 
 his breath scant then, what rasped his nerves, what 
 heated his fishy blood and sent it beating to his bald 
 
SURRENDER 457 
 
 crown ? Bah, the affair was banal, low ; it smacked 
 too much of the stews, the hulks, the blind alleys where 
 the offal of humanity skulked. No, no ; it was not 
 that ; this view of the case had presented itself to him 
 fifteen minutes ago and was laughed to scorn. What 
 was it, then? 
 
 Evangeline s face was before him, smiling, demure, 
 innocent as a babe new-born. He could not rid him 
 self of its presence ; his thoughts could not elude its 
 insistent vigilance. She believed in him ; she trusted 
 him in a way that touched his callous heart. Could he 
 forget that night of the cotillon when her voice, the 
 touch of her arm, the look in her sincere eyes, had 
 hushed his baneful cynicism and made him regret he 
 was what he was? And he? Well, he was ready 
 to admit that he was drawn to her, that despite himself 
 he liked her; and the admission in no wise cor 
 responded with the depth of his feeling. And now to 
 return her trustfulness, her kindliness, by walking into 
 her father s office in cold blood and striking him 
 down! 
 
 "Monsieur La Vette!" bawled Sophia Goldstein, 
 her black eyes snapping, her long prehensile fingers 
 clutching the velvet that hung over the sides of the 
 tripod. His colleagues turned, amazed at his hesitancy. 
 He started as if struck in the face ; then he arose from 
 his chair and walked towards the pellets that were to 
 decide his fate. His owl-like eyes were cold ; his face 
 without expression, nothing, not the twitching of a 
 single nerve disclosed the agitation he had undergone 
 a moment ago. He was simply dreaming, thought the 
 others. 
 
 La Vette drew with steady hand ; perhaps a prayer 
 for himself, for Evangeline, fluttered through his 
 
458 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 heart ; perhaps not ; there was nothing- to tell it. He 
 opened the paper. It was four ! 
 
 His eyes blinked ; his lips turned white, ashen ; his 
 dark Van Dyke beard seemed to grow blacker from 
 the sudden contrast. Paul Brodski and Sophia Gold 
 stein, watching the chemist narrowly, looked at each 
 other stealthily ; La Vette s conduct had let the number 
 out of the paper and told them all. 
 
 La Vette s arm dropped laxly to his side; his short 
 fingers closed over the slip gingerly as if the thing 
 were branding his hand. His thoughts went whirling 
 up and down an endless maze. Evangeline s counte 
 nance hovered over him in tearful and accusing sup 
 plication. 
 
 One by one each member read aloud the number he 
 had drawn and it was checked ofT against his name. 
 
 " Twenty ! " called Sophia Goldstein, who came 
 first. 
 
 " Eight ! " declared Jan Brodski. 
 
 " Four! * called out Paul, loud and triumphantly. 
 
 La Vette was thrown out of his abstraction as a 
 somnambulist is awakened by the shaking of rude 
 hands. He stared at Paul dumfounded, the thin lips 
 of his mouth opening circle-wise. 
 
 " You have made a mistake," La Vette wished to 
 say ; but a momentary paralysis robbed his organs of 
 speech, of the power of expression. 
 
 " Monsieur La Vette ! " called the woman twice. 
 
 " Twenty-eight," he responded huskily, unrolling 
 the pellet crumbled in his fretting hand. 
 
 The reading of the numbers continued. La Vette 
 was breathing easily, with a sense of relief and satis 
 faction, like one who has been restored to breath after 
 a violent concussion. He was deep in thought, trying 
 
SURRENDER 459 
 
 to solve the reason for his fatal mistake. Had his own 
 eyes played a trick upon his terrified imagination? 
 Had the very fear of drawing the number he dreaded 
 made him cheat reality with an illusion inspired by 
 horror ? 
 
 Paul Brodski and Sophia Goldstein could alone have 
 allayed the agitation of La Vette s questioning mind. 
 When the tremor of excitement wavered over the chem 
 ist s face, Paul, encouraged by the woman s furtive 
 glances, took the pellet from La Vette s feeble grasp, 
 and substituted the number that had fallen to his lot. 
 
 The action, swift and unpremeditated as was its per 
 formance, had its reasons. The youthful Pole burned 
 with the mad and mistaken ambition to die in martyr 
 dom for the cause, and La Vette s tattling countenance 
 evinced his unfitness for the perilous mission ; more 
 over, the chemist was needed for greater and more im 
 portant work work that none other but himself could 
 execute. A general was not to be risked for a task 
 that a common soldier was willing and able to ac 
 complish. 
 
 At ten o clock the next morning a half hour be 
 fore the time agreed upon for the slaying of Marvin 
 Paul Brodski, accompanied by his mistress, walked 
 over to the mill gate. The woman, in doubt lest his 
 courage fail at the critical moment, kept his fanatical 
 enthusiasm at fever heat with her turgid eloquence, 
 with the relation of the heroic deed that an endless 
 number of martyrs had dared for the cause. The de 
 luded youth s blue eyes were, bright and expanded with 
 the light of dreams. He was calm, self-possessed, his 
 pulse regular as when he had started for his day s 
 work inside the mill. Sophia s exhortation was su 
 perfluous. 
 
460 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 The tail end of the line of applicants for reinstal- 
 ment was still at the mill gate and Paul met with no 
 difficulty in gaining his entrance. Gentle in appear 
 ance, his countenance mild and soft to innocence, there 
 was no reason to suspect that in his heart there lurked 
 a desire for murder. He failed to gain his interview 
 with Marvin at the hour the corps had appointed for 
 the president s slaughter. Paul joined his mistress 
 outside and accompanied her home. At noon the con 
 spirator returned. 
 
 He managed to slink inside the ante-room that ad 
 joined Marvin s private office. None was there but 
 the office boy. Paul drew a card from his pocket and 
 requested that it be handed to Marvin. The door was 
 scarcely opened and shut when the poor fool of his 
 insane convictions plunged forward and opened fire 
 on the president, busily engaged at his large writing- 
 table. 
 
 Three shots were fired in quick succession. Marvin 
 staggered to his feet, reeled, and clutched at his chair 
 for support. Two bullets had lodged in his neck; the 
 third imbedded itself in the high ceiling. 
 
 The assassin s hand pressed the trigger for the 
 fourth time, but the cartridge did not respond to his 
 pressure. Wounded and faint, Marvin tottered to 
 wards his assailant to defend himself. He uttered 
 no cry ; he recognized the futility of wasting the second 
 upon the full use of which his existence depended. 
 The lines of the converging V were furrowed deep 
 through his forehead ; his face was the incarnation of 
 will. 
 
 Again and again the trigger hammered an obdurate 
 cartridge. Marvin, seizing his one opportunity, fell 
 against Paul with all the weight of his heavier body, 
 
SURRENDER 461 
 
 threw him against the wall, and caught him by the 
 wrists with all the strength he could wrench from des 
 peration. 
 
 The whole encounter lasted but a minute. The 
 force of clerks, at luncheon in the adjoining building, 
 did not hear a sound; and the office boy had strolled 
 outside. A group of four men stood in the yard and 
 watched the combat through the windows, transfixed 
 with horror, questioning their senses. Two of the 
 more present-minded, broke the bonds of fascination 
 and rushed to Marvin s rescue. 
 
 Strong hands made Paul Brodski s struggle for free 
 dom futile ; and while Marvin was being removed to 
 the Company s hospital, his would-be executioner was 
 on the way to jail. The president still retained his 
 consciousness and he gave thankful nods of recogni 
 tion to the examining physicians. They wished to 
 administer an anesthetic before probing for the bul 
 lets ; but he fought their intention stubbornly. He 
 would have none of that ; pain had no horrors for him ; 
 he insisted upon watching what they did. 
 
 The operation lasted for two hours ; Marvin grit his 
 teeth and through all that insufferable time not one 
 moan escaped his lips. No sooner were the bullets ex 
 tracted and the wounds bandaged than he suborned 
 several of the heads of the departments and dictated 
 his orders. He signed important documents which 
 were awaiting his signature when the assassin opened 
 his attack. 
 
 The news of the attempted murder spread through 
 the town as the lightning ziezags through the spaces 
 of the sky. The men left their work in the mill and 
 swept to the office buildings. Crowds swarmed to the 
 mill gates. The truth was violated, the telling exag- 
 
462 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 Derated the tragedy. The president was killed by the 
 first of eight riddling- bullets ! His dead body lay in 
 the hospital! The murderer, his identity unknown, 
 was still at large ! 
 
 The small and almost insignificant fraction that re 
 joiced over the punishment of their oppressor was 
 silent in its exultation. They had paid enough for the 
 strike; it was but an equable compensation that Mar 
 vin should pay his share! A few stray whispers 
 winged their way from ear to ear ; muttered remarks, 
 half stifled, of " It served him right. He got his re 
 ward at last. A man usually gets what s coming to 
 him." It was as if they feared that this unconquerable 
 man of iron might come to life again and punish 
 those who had passed harsh criticism over his death 
 bed. 
 
 It was after one o clock when Evangeline ran 
 through the excited town to the front doors of the 
 Company s hospital. She was one of the last whom 
 the report reached. She had almost fainted away in 
 Blair s arms when a busybody broke the appalling 
 news, without even a crude preparation. She looked 
 at Blair, quite pale, then she turned and fled, quicker 
 than he could follow. 
 
 The nurse who answered her agitated ring refused 
 her admission. " But I m his daughter, Evangeline," 
 she sobbed out. Marvin was resting in apparent com 
 fort when the messenger entered to announce his 
 daughter. 
 
 He thought a second, then he said positively, " Let 
 her come in/ He lifted himself in his bed and clung 
 to its sides with his hands. 
 
 Evangeline glided into the room, giving vent to an 
 exclamation that was half smothered in the utterance. 
 
SURRENDER 463 
 
 She fell on her knees beside him and buried her head 
 in the bed-covering. 
 
 " Well ? " he asked coldly, containing himself. 
 
 She answered nothing, bursting into repeated sobs. 
 
 " You see what the teachings of your your lover 
 have brought about? I suppose he s almost satisfied 
 now. 
 
 She answered nothing; she scarcely heard; it was 
 only afterwards when she recalled the scene that she 
 felt the pointed barbs of those words pricking her 
 heart; she did not even know then that she had been 
 wounded. 
 
 " Come, you d better go now. You ve shown what 
 a dutiful daughter you are that s sufficient, I pre 
 sume." His voice was hard, ironical and forbidding. 
 
 He drew his hand away from hers and lifted it to 
 wards his breast. He wavered a second; a longing, 
 intense, natural, fundamental, seized and almost mas 
 tered him. He did so yearn for human affection at 
 that moment, something outside of a business transac 
 tion, that was neither bought nor yet paid for. And 
 he missed Evangeline ; since they had parted, sneer at 
 it to himself as he would, there was always in his heart 
 the unbearable sensation of emptiness, of a welcome 
 tenant that had brought sunshine and vanished to leave 
 its chambers to darkness. 
 
 Evangeline was gazing at him wistfully, yearningly ; 
 there was no doubting the sincerity of the love that 
 shone through her eyes, dimmed with tears. 
 
 His hand, half way towards his breast, fell back and 
 rested on her head. She took his hand in hers and 
 covered it with her kisses. 
 
XXXIX 
 THE SAMSONS OF THE MILL 
 
 \ MEETING of the chief officers of the mill had 
 already been calendared for a date that 
 chanced to fall just a week after Marvin s 
 injury and the council would have been postponed 
 did not Marvin resist the plan so stoutly. There 
 was important business to be transacted, matters 
 of vital significance that needed an immediate decision ; 
 and Marvin insisted that he was well enough, vigor 
 ous enough, physically and mentally, to attend. 
 
 Moreover the president had two or three ideas 
 which he wished voted upon and carried at once ideas 
 entirely his own that would come in the nature of a 
 revelation to his subordinates. Nothing pleased 
 Henry Marvin better than to lay a card long hidden 
 in his sleeve face to the table and watch the conster 
 nation of those who never suspected its existence 
 there was that trifle of the spectacular in his nature. 
 Deliberative, conservative though he usually was, he 
 looked towards the coming of the event with radical 
 impatience. 
 
 Marvin s illness, his miraculous escape from death, 
 his reconcilement to Evangeline, set his mind on a line 
 of thought that ran in direct opposition to what long 
 years had made his second nature. In all these things 
 he saw the hands of an intervening providence : super- 
 
 464 
 
SAMSONS OF THE MILL 465 
 
 stition, ever lying in wait for signs of weakness in 
 strong minds, played an equal part with thankfulness 
 in his sudden conversion to the religious idea. The 
 harsher tones in his character were subdued to gentler 
 colors ; and the man was wondrously mellowed and 
 softened. 
 
 Besides, and more potent than all of these, Marvin 
 recognized that life at its best was uncertain and that 
 the number of his years might be told off at any mo 
 ment. Why burn out his old age in the mad quest for 
 inordinate fortune when the enjoyment and use of the 
 millions he had was impossible? Why waste his 
 energies in the achievement of world-wide schemes 
 when he might not live to witness their consummation ? 
 
 The last battle of his life had been one of his great 
 est victories, and to the victor generosity, like the 
 spoils, should belong; and he would be generous, if 
 only to show the world and his men that he was ready 
 to grant by free will what they could not wrench from 
 him by force or arrogant dictation. After all, mag 
 nanimity was an imperial quality, and all things, spirit 
 ual or material, appealed to Marvin when mapped out 
 on a vast scale. 
 
 He would still refuse to increase wages to the per 
 centage demanded by the recalcitrant unionists ; but he 
 was ready to make liberal concessions. He would 
 concede the time terms. He would adjust rents and 
 repairs on a fair basis. In the future wrong might 
 occur in his mills, but there would be no arbitrary in 
 justice with his connivance. Already several of the 
 most serious cases against the strikers had been tried 
 in court and the juries had returned verdicts of not 
 guilty. He would use his influence and all the techni 
 cal knowledge of his attorneys in having the indict- 
 30 
 
466 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 ments against the other imprisoned malefactors 
 crushed. 
 
 The morning for the conference of the powers came, 
 and Marvin, apparently as determined as in his best 
 days, was wheeled over to the offices in his invalid s 
 chair ; on no account would he hear of the officers as 
 sembling in the solarium of the hospital. 
 
 Nor was Marvin the only one awaiting the meet 
 ing with yearning impatience ; La Vette and the birds 
 of his own black feather had had their eyes fastened 
 upon it as the pivot that was to serve for the swinging 
 of a vast anarchistic enterprise. When congregated 
 Marvin and his capitalistic colleagues would represent 
 untold millions ; and if luck were only with the autono 
 mists, if the council were but held in the mill office, 
 they would have an opportunity, rarely offered before, 
 of blowing aside at one puff these heavy obstacles that 
 blocked the road to the liberty and progress of man 
 kind. 
 
 When La Vette acted, the others were to act with 
 him. Signals flashed across the yards were to warn 
 every anarchist in the mill. If one acted separately, 
 the rest would be sure to be apprehended and their 
 combined usefulness thwarted. They were to destroy 
 all they could and together. A minute s delay in the 
 plans might mean a delay unto all eternity. A war 
 of extermination had been planned with precision. 
 
 Samples of the steel poured from the ladles of the 
 various departments were submitted to the laboratory 
 for tests ; and by one of the messengers who carried 
 the material for analysis to the head chemist, word 
 was sent forth that all was well. 
 
 At ten the meeting of the directors was called to 
 order ; a quarter of an hour before that time, in a room 
 
SAMSONS OF THE MILL 467 
 
 in the basement which served the purposes of his 
 private laboratory, La Vette was whistling the Mar 
 seillaise and examining the wires which connected his 
 infernal machines. A touch of his finger on an electric 
 button and his part of the work was done. 
 
 La Vette looked at his watch impatiently. Ten- 
 thirty was the time chosen for concerted action and it 
 lacked but forty-five minutes now. Everything was 
 in readiness. Still whistling, the chemist let his finger 
 rest lightly, lightly on the electric button. A slightly 
 stronger pressure and not one stone of that solid struc 
 ture would rest on top of the other, and he himself 
 would lie under the ruins. 
 
 Ten o clock came. He ceased his whistling, re 
 moved his glasses, rubbed the red mark on the bridge 
 of his nose and fell to thinking, putting his house of 
 thought in order before it was swept out of existence. 
 He was tranquil and possessed ; there was nothing that 
 disturbed him, nothing which he wished to do in 
 the world, no action of his which he wished to 
 undo. 
 
 He placed his timepiece on the edge of the zinc, felt 
 of his pulse and counted. It was normal : regular as 
 the beat of the second-hand of his watch. His assur 
 ance was reassured. All morning long a peculiar 
 nervous dread that escaped his analysis had whispered 
 within him, " When the time comes you won t press 
 the button, you won t press the button." He sneered 
 the voice down now, wondering how he could have 
 paid it the merit of serious attention. 
 
 Fifteen minutes after ten. Why had no response 
 come from the conspirators to signalize that they too 
 W ere ready? Had the cipher that his words concealed 
 been correctly translated ? He turned to lock the door 
 
468 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 of his room, take a short quick survey on the ouside 
 and return. He might possibly be wanted in the main 
 laboratory and his prolonged absence might be a cause 
 for comment. He looked out of the window into the 
 yards. 
 
 La Vette almost screamed aloud. Evangeline Mar 
 vin was mounting the stairs that led to the hall of the 
 offices. He was impelled to open the window and cry 
 out a warning, as if to prevent her from taking another 
 step that would hurl her in the swallowing darkness 
 of a bottomless pit. 
 
 He pressed his face against the window pane and 
 bit his thin under-lip. Evangeline disappeared from 
 view. The chemist heard the hammer of his heart 
 crash against the tympanum of his ear. He felt in 
 his pocket for his watch, then he remembered having 
 left it on the edge of the zinc. He ran over to look. 
 It lacked but twelve minutes of the time. 
 
 An obvious idea occurred to him. No, that was im 
 possible ; he dared not warn her. Better that both 
 of them should meet death together than that she 
 should know, during his life at least, what manner of 
 man he was. The sweat stood out in beads on his 
 bald head and he wiped it off with his handkerchief. 
 One thing was certain, absolute, beyond the reach of 
 skepticism or scoffing he loved her deeply, intensely. 
 His agitation, his solicitude for her life when he cared 
 not for his own, told him so. 
 
 H shut his eyes, trying to empty his brain of every 
 distressing thought and remain cool and collected. 
 But one hope remained ; the others might demand a 
 delay. A man on the bridge was to give the final 
 signal. La Vette bounded to the window. His hope 
 was still-born. An apparent loiterer dropped his ban- 
 
SAMSONS OF THE MILL 469 
 
 dana handkerchief on the floor of the bridge. All 
 was ready. 
 
 La Vette glued his face to the window again and 
 fixed his gaze on the office steps, as men in a sinking 
 vessel watch the oncoming of a life-boat. He held 
 his watch in the palm of his sweaty hand. It lacked 
 but seven minutes. His pulse beat loud, as if plead 
 ing for her young and fleckless life like a voice. 
 
 When the office buildings fell, the others were to 
 begin their work and wreck the separate mills in quick 
 succession. They were all madmen ; not one of them 
 was a coward. The chances of escape had not even 
 entered into their calculation. They were ready, one 
 and all, nay, even resolved, upon dying with those 
 whom they killed. 
 
 Jan was at his post on the charging-floor of the high 
 blast-furnace, toiling along unconcernedly, guiding the 
 iron food towards the belly of the roaring monster as 
 if there were nothing to differ this morning from any 
 other morning. As the hour drew nearer and nearer, 
 he ceased his labor, remained still a second or two and 
 plucked at his red beard. The unfathomable light 
 gleamed across his dreamy blue eyes as he glanced at 
 his coat, under which the explosives were hidden; then 
 he continued his interrupted task. 
 
 Michael s station, relatively the same as his brother s, 
 was on the charging-floor of the spiegel-furnace, which 
 adjoined the steel-mill. The wind was from the east 
 that morning and Michael was almost overcome by 
 the gas generated from the cooking spiegel. He 
 crossed his arms on the window ledge, and drawing 
 in the fresh air he gazed far out on the lake. 
 
 His head was hot and his mouth was parched ; ex 
 citement was growing beyond his control and he 
 
470 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 dreaded lest his nerve fail him at the crucial moment 
 He wondered how it went with Jan. After all he 
 would liked to have said good-by to his brother again. 
 Nature had something to say even though the laws 
 of the society refused to recognize the binding ties of 
 all human affections. 
 
 With Jan it was probably different. He was never 
 attached to life overly much. If anarchists are born 
 and not made, Jan was a natural anarchist. Not so 
 with him. The slaughter of his brothers and sisters 
 had turned his heart and made it hard and unforgiv 
 ing; and at last, by constant argument and entreaty, 
 he had been won over to the anarchists side by Paul 
 and Jan. Yet he had always loved the world and the 
 people in it ; all his dreams had been consecrated to 
 the amelioration of a suffering humanity by peaceful 
 means. Something told him, perhaps the spark of 
 idealism still left kindling in his soul, that this sweep 
 ing and unreasoning vengeance was wrong. After all 
 life was good. How calm and blue the lake was, how 
 peaceful, as if every drop in its immeasurable waters 
 held naught but love and good-will for man ! 
 
 Always, in the intervals between suffocation from 
 the gases and breathing, he had loved to look out on 
 the smiling face of the waters and dream his day 
 dreams of the golden age to come, of Mr. Carrhart s 
 Cooperative Commonwealth. He wished now that 
 he had paused long enough to seek Blair s advice be 
 fore joining the anarchists, but that was forbidden, 
 it would have laid the sin of perjury, punishable, by 
 instant death, on his soul. 
 
 Why had his impulsive thirst for vengeance blinded 
 him and made it impossible to look on this inhuman 
 business with the clarity of his present vision ? What 
 
SAMSONS OF THE MILL 471 
 
 was to become of his wife, of their mother, left help 
 less and half-witted by her troubles ? 
 
 Well, it was too late to turn back now; he was 
 bound by an oath given in perfect sanity of mind and 
 accepted without question of his honor. He would 
 be true to it. No, he was not afraid ; for himself he 
 did not care ; the others were ready to surrender their 
 lives, and he could die with them, like a man, without 
 a murmur. 
 
 On the roof of the steel-mill Michael could see two 
 members of the corps handling the massive chains 
 which dropped the scrap into the uplifted noses of 
 the huge converters. The hollow white light threw 
 their burly frames and black clothes into strong relief, 
 like the black buildings of the mill against the blue 
 lake. The men caught sight of him and waved a 
 knowing hand. How indifferent they were ! How 
 regular in their actions, not even giving the toilers at 
 their side the slightest clue to their intention of hurl 
 ing explosives into the mass of molten steel. 
 
 Michael dug his finger nails into his flesh and 
 stepped back before the Spiegel-furnace, The attitude 
 of the others was inspiring, he would be like them. 
 
 It lacked but six minutes of the time now ! La 
 Vette s hand trembled and shook; the watch threat 
 ened to fall from his uncertain grasp ; a film spread 
 over his owl-like eyes and his sight grew dim and 
 blurred. His hot and panting breath clung to the 
 window pane, and his handkerchief was employed con 
 stantly to wipe the moisture away that he might look 
 without. 
 
 Evangeline and Blair had planned to leave Marvin 
 on that afternoon, and she had come to bid her father 
 good-by. Admission was refused her and she sat in 
 
472 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 the reception room, abstracted but patient, resolved to 
 wait. The thought of departing, of removing Blair 
 from the disquieting influences and the tragic associa 
 tions of the place, made her happy, and she was more 
 at ease mentally than she had been for months. A 
 smile would play around the corners of her mouth and 
 then disappear as if her young years were making a 
 tentative assertion of their right to gladness. 
 
 La Vette counted that there was one chance in thirty 
 in his favor. Perhaps Evangeline Marvin had left 
 the building and he had not seen her. He shook his 
 head ; it was impossible, it was useless to lie to himself 
 in that fashion. His mind was made up. Unless in 
 four more minutes Evangeline Marvin passed down 
 those steps he would kill himself, and leave the work 
 undone which he was under the most solemn of all 
 oaths to perform. The explosion would not take 
 place; the mills would stand intact; the destiny of a 
 great cause would be balked and thwarted that one 
 good woman might survive. Was this just? Was it 
 right? Would her survival atone for the total de 
 pravity of those who were to be saved with her. He 
 said " No, no " to himself : a " No " thundered from 
 his soul, from the mysterious depths of his destructive 
 being ; and still that " No " faded away and became as 
 if it had not been spoken before the " Yes, yes " that 
 her lips whispered in his ears. He sneered at him 
 self ; laughed an ironical snarl at his sacrifice of duty 
 to love. It was ridiculous ; it was preposterous ; but 
 he bowed submissively, helplessly, even while he 
 jeered and scoffed. 
 
 La Vette lit a cigarette and blew the smoke out in 
 round blue rings. It was merely a question of his 
 life or Evangeline s now, and he did not hesitate at the 
 
SAMSONS OF THE MILL 473 
 
 choice. He was calm again ; his pulses beat regularly ; 
 his blood ran ice. He drew farther back from the 
 window and with his gaze still fastened on the office 
 steps, he drew out a small ivory-handled revolver and 
 held it down at his side. The walls were thick; not 
 a sound would penetrate ; evening might possibly come 
 before his suicide would be discovered. 
 
 Three minutes more and then either Evangeline 
 Marvin was to leave the mills, or he the world. He 
 began to tell the seconds, but after counting to ten 
 he gave it over ; he could trust his watch for one thing, 
 and, since he had but three minutes to live, he wished 
 to put them to a better purpose. 
 
 Two minutes remained. How he loved her ! He 
 acknowledged it to himself at last, without mockery 
 and without shame. Now that it was too late to let 
 her know, he was willing to confess it to himself. It 
 was pathetic, he thought, that she might never learn 
 what torments he had suffered concerning her safety, 
 that he had stood, revolver in hand, ready to die that 
 she might live. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders after all it was a beau 
 tiful thing to die with a noble secret. Would the 
 heroism of his death plead the excuse of his life? 
 What cared he whether it would or not ! He was giv 
 ing up his life for hers, the rest was trivial. Here was 
 one violet that mercy, without a blush of shame, might 
 throw on his grave. 
 
 One minute and twelve seconds more. He was 
 ready. He waved his hand in front of his face as if 
 something w.ere darkening the range of his vision. 
 Evangeline hovered before him, smiling, demure, 
 innocent; he heard her kindly voice; he looked into 
 the depths of those eyes that had nothing to conceal 
 
474 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 from the most searching gaze ; her arm touched his, 
 confidingly, beseechingly, as on the night of the 
 cotillon. 
 
 Oh, if he might live and love and be loved! All 
 eternity now centered in the one revolution of the 
 minute hand. He wished to live ; he would live. He 
 protested against the cruelty of death that would take 
 him from her forever. 
 
 Dimly as in a vision, he descried the red handker 
 chief drop to the ground from the hand of the signal 
 man on the bridge. He put his revolver to his right 
 temple and fired. The name Evangeline, half ex 
 pressed, uncompleted, like his own life, died away on 
 his lips. 
 
T 
 
 XL 
 HOW JOURNEYS END 
 
 URN back and take a last look, Van; a long 
 
 She moved on her seat in the car to comply 
 with Blair s request; reluctantly, for it was to satisfy 
 him rather than herself, she screened her eyes with 
 her hand and peered through the window. 
 
 It was but an hour after La Vette s suicide, and the 
 suburban train was pulling them away from Marvin 
 towards Chicago, passing the rows of squalid tene 
 ments on R street, and fast rolling away through the 
 wide areas of open prairie, bedecked with the un- 
 smutched snow. 
 
 " I ve seen enough of the mills," she answered wea 
 rily, resting her pensive face on her hand. " I never 
 care to see them again." 
 
 Nevertheless, she turned to gaze at the tall chimneys 
 pouring forth their volumes of turbined black smoke, 
 at the red flames whirling from the stacks, at the 
 translucent glare breaking from the converters; but 
 she shuddered involuntarily and averted her glances. 
 Careless of mankind, heedless of the great tragedy of 
 Blair s departure, of the little comedy of his coming, 
 these rolling-mills at Marvin went on grinding with 
 out cess, cruel, implacable, unreckoning. How like 
 yet how very unlike the mills of God were they ! 
 
 475 
 
476 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 He nodded abstractedly, almost as if her remark had 
 escaped his hearing. The mills were receding from 
 view swifter and swifter and it seemed as if his eyes 
 wished to stamp a last and indelible impression on his 
 soul. 
 
 "Are you sorry to leave. Blair?" she asked. 
 
 He gave no answer, his glances still fastened on the 
 vanishing battle-ground, reverberant with the sobs of 
 his defeat. 
 
 Suddenly, after his absent manner, he awoke to her 
 question. There was no one in the car, and they were 
 sitting with hands clasped. His grasp tightened on 
 hers more affectionately, as he replied : 
 
 " Yes, I m sorry to go ; and yet, after all " He 
 
 paused and left the sentence incompleted. 
 
 The train whirled on, flying past the square dun 
 building of the Catholic school, its turrets glistening 
 with snow. 
 
 " Look ! " he spoke with a half-smothered exclama 
 tion. " I remember having passed there just a little 
 over a year ago on my way out here to seek work in 
 the mills." 
 
 " How much has happened since then, Blair," she 
 reflected. 
 
 " It seems to me, Van, that all my life has been 
 crowded into that one year, as if nothing had happened 
 before it." 
 
 She looked at him in sympathy, in loving pity, won 
 dering at the change which had come over him in that 
 one year; at his black hair thickly streaked with gray; 
 his frame, once so athletic and powerful, now bent and 
 weak. He read the question framed on her lips ; there 
 was no need of expressing it in words. 
 
HOW JOURNEYS END 477 
 
 " It s been a hard, difficult year, filled to the brim 
 with trial, bitterness and defeat ; but after all it has 
 been worth all the other years of my life. Above all 
 it prepared me for you, Van." 
 
 "Do you think that?" 
 
 " I know it. Adversity, hardship, all the suffering 
 that a man goes through, is but the shaping of his 
 character for the woman who is to share his life. The 
 pity is, the tragedy comes when life has schooled the 
 man for the woman, the woman for the man, and fate 
 forbids the meeting of these two." 
 
 " I always thought it would end like this, Blair. I 
 never believed that our parting was for long." 
 
 Smiling, happy in their love at least, they sat in 
 quiet. The train curved nearer the lake. Westering 
 winds were blowing the snowdrifts from the Michi 
 gan shore towards Chicago ; on the horizon large 
 squares of white were floating swan-like ; and the 
 deep green and azure waves rippled and played be 
 tween the line of shore and the line of snow. A flock 
 of wild geese was honking southward certain por 
 tent of colder weather ; and the gulls, in full enjoyment 
 of their wild life, were circling through the air and 
 laving their breasts in the chill waters. 
 
 " I used to think, Blair," she said, as if the words 
 had been meditated before spoken, " that you weren t 
 ready for me, that I wasn t ready for you ; but T be 
 lieve differently now. We have served our apprentice 
 ship to love; and our suffering and trials prepared 
 us for our marriage." 
 
 " Yes," he acquiesced dreamily, " my nature has 
 deepened and broadened ; as regards myself, from a 
 purely selfish point of view, there can be no question 
 of the value of my sojourn in the mills." 
 
478 
 
 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 " Your point of view was never selfish, Blair," she 
 assured him, " and it never will be." 
 
 He nodded ; his face reflecting the thoughts that oc 
 cupied his mind, crowding out all things else. 
 
 She pressed his hand compassionately. " Try not 
 to think of what happened out there, of what you left 
 behind. How many will be made glad by your coming 
 home." 
 
 " Perhaps I should never have left home, Van ; I 
 might have done better to have remained there." 
 
 " No," she asserted cheeringly, " you were made so 
 much more valuable by your absence that the cost of 
 waiting will have been paid for by the riches you ac 
 cumulated while you were gone. I waited," she ended 
 archly. 
 
 He was in no mood to dispute ; he let her babble on 
 in her encouraging, cheering way until she had done ; 
 then he said : 
 
 " For myself, for you, for the few at home, Van, 
 the issue of my going or coming seems small infi 
 nitely small when I consider the thousands of unfor 
 tunates I leave behind. You know what their life was 
 before I came; you know what it will be now that I 
 have gone away. Was my coming well for them? 
 My mind, my heart, my conscience everything tells 
 me no. Is my going cowardly?" 
 
 " I shan t answer that question, Blair. There is no 
 excuse for asking it. If any parent were as severe 
 with his child as you are with yourself, you would be 
 the first one to term him cruel." 
 
 Shaking his head, he disregarded her pka made in 
 his behalf against his own accusation. "Be that 
 as it may, Van; I can only justify my departure from 
 Marvin on one ground I leave because I am certain 
 
HOW JOURNEYS END 479 
 
 that I can better the lives of the people there and un 
 told others by turning my energies in a different direc 
 tion. I have a secret that I have never shared with 
 even you." 
 
 The old light, the ardor, the rapt expression she 
 knew so well, kindled the strong features of his ear 
 nest face, consecrating it. She eyed him intently, eager 
 for the revelation of the surprise he held in store, too 
 anxious to interrupt by a disconcerting question. He 
 went on with the vim that had been foreign to him for 
 so long a time : 
 
 " It occurred to me long ago that I have been 
 working at the wrong end. I have been trying to in 
 fluence the people to change legislation and I failed ; 
 there is another way and a better to gain the same 
 ends. I Will bend all my energies, all my strength to 
 wards influencing legislation to realize the Coopera 
 tive Commonwealth for the people. I will try for a 
 seat in the next state legislature and work my way up 
 wards, to Congress, to the Senate if good fortune 
 speed my plans." 
 
 His awakened enthusiasm, so long lethargic, was like 
 the rejuvenation of his flagging interests, his mori 
 bund hopes, his drained vitality, and Evangeline was 
 too rejoiced to hint at possible hindrances that his am 
 bition might encounter. 
 
 " I have had this in mind for a long time," con 
 tinued Blair ; " it came to me like an inspiration the 
 night before the strike when I delivered my anti-tariff 
 speech. Perhaps the inspiration itself was suggested 
 by the talk I had with you that night under the trees, 
 near the shipyard. Do you remember it ? " 
 
 " Yes," she answered simply, unwilling to interrupt. 
 
 " We both agreed that it was a characteristic and 
 
480 BY BREAD ALONE 
 
 striking tendency of our time that the hand of help 
 was extended by the favored few to the unfortunate 
 many, rather than that the hands of the poor were up 
 lifted beseechingly to the rich. Henceforth, then, I 
 shall work with the current and not against it." 
 
 Carried by his vision beyond the thought of the 
 present moment, he let his dreaming thought wander 
 afar, away from her. 
 
 :< You were telling me about the night when you 
 made the anti-tariff speech and your inspiration," she 
 suggested softly, recalling him to earth. 
 
 " Well," he complied, reverting to his theme, " I 
 thought that if I could move my hearers so profoundly 
 I must have the power to thrill and stir immense 
 audiences, great bodies of men. Then the idea came 
 that my gift deserved a wider field and perhaps more 
 potent issues. Next, my conversation with you, all 
 my pondering on the subject, recalled itself; and one 
 thought brought the other in its train and the logical 
 conclusion swept across my brain like an inspiration." 
 
 She vouchsafed neither approval nor disapproval of 
 the work he had outlined for his future. Too glad to 
 have him restored to her, too grateful for his love, she 
 was content to let the world and the future set 
 tle their carking problems as they came, while she 
 luxuriated in the full joy of the present moment. 
 
 His thoughts brooded over the waters, sad despite 
 himself with the memories of the mill, its peoples and 
 the associations he was leaving behind, rejoicing 
 anon with the reflection of the still loftier mission he 
 was going forth to accept, of Evangeline s love that 
 would never fail him no matter what the outcome. 
 
 Evangeline, as if jealous of the thoughts that strayed 
 from her, clasped his hand warmly. Smilingly their 
 
HOW JOURNEYS END 481 
 
 glances met and then, after a moment, reverted to the 
 lake. 
 
 The first foundation on which he had reared his 
 lofty structure of ideals had shifted like quicksand 
 and toppled his temple beautiful into the dust, ruined 
 and defiled. Undaunted, undismayed he was ready to 
 build anew. What fate awaited him and his new tem 
 ple and the sad humanity that his second sanctuary 
 would be reared to gladden ? 
 
 Perhaps the secret was locked in the bosom of the 
 waters that played so tranquilly between shore and ho 
 rizon as if in utter unconsciousness of the significance 
 of the knowledge they concealed. Even as its waves 
 had witnessed the red man disport himself by its 
 shores, his savage bliss unmarred by premonition of 
 the pale face who was to displace him, so perhaps the 
 child of to-day dreamed not of the coming of the 
 Cooperative Commonwealth that would usurp the 
 place of the false system that ruled his life. 
 
 And even as civilized man regarded the Indian 
 whose wigwam guarded the shores of Michigan before 
 his advent, might not the child of to-morrow, with that 
 same disapproving smile, regard the inadequate gov 
 ernment, the unjust social scheme that ruled the life 
 of the child of to-day ? 
 
 The majestic lake, watching the mills steadily en 
 croaching on its borders, viewing the throngs of toil 
 ers moiling before the furnaces, knowing the purpose 
 ful restlessness of creation, may have been tempted to 
 reveal the secret ; but it flowed on as silently, as peace 
 fully and as indifferently as when it had refused to 
 warn the red man of the approach of the predatory 
 white. 
 
 THE END. 
 
RECENT 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 of 
 
 d Co. 
 
 Fori 
 
 1901-1902 
 
Anthony Hopes New Novel 
 
 TRISTRAM OF BLENT 
 
 IT is always a question what Anthony Hope will do 
 next. From a dashing romance of an imaginary 
 kingdom to drawing-room repartee is a leap which 
 this versatile writer performs with the greatest ease. In 
 his "Tristram of Blent" he has made a new departure, 
 demonstrating his ability to depict character by some 
 exceedingly delicate and skillful delineation. The plot 
 is unique, and is based upon the difference of time of the 
 Russian and English calendars, by which a marriage, a 
 birth, and the ownership of lands and name are in turn 
 affected, producing complications which hurry the reader 
 on in search of the satisfactory solution which awaits 
 him. The Tristrams are characters of strong individual 
 ities, of eccentricities likewise. These, coloring all 
 their acts, leave the reader in doubt as to the issue ; yet 
 it is a logical story through and through, events following 
 events in carefully planned sequence. A work of un 
 doubted originality based on modern conditions, " Tris 
 tram of Blent " proves that the author does not need an 
 ideal kingdom to write a thrilling romance. (12mo, $1.50.) 
 
 IRISH PASTORALS 
 
 By Shan F. Bullock 
 
 " TRISH PASTORALS" is a collection of character 
 J[ sketches of the soil of the Irish soil by one who 
 has lived long and closely among the laboring, farming 
 peasantry of Ireland. It is not, however, a dreary re 
 cital of long days of toil with scanty food and no recre 
 ation, but it depicts within a life more strenuous than 
 one can easily realize, abundant elements of keen native 
 wit and irrepressible good nature. The book will give 
 many American readers a new conception of Irish pas 
 toral life, and a fuller appreciation of the conditions which 
 go to form the strength and gentleness of the Irish char 
 acter. (12mo, $1.50.) 
 
HERE are two volumes of most thrilling tales, gleaned 
 from the material which the age has trrought us. 
 Each collection occupies an original field and depicts some 
 characteristic phots of our great commercial life. 
 
 WALL STREET STORIES 
 
 By Edtvin Lefevre 
 
 IT would be difficult to find a better setting for a good 
 story than this hotbed of speculation. On the Ex 
 change, every day is a day of excitement, replete with 
 dangerous risks, narrow escapes, victories, defeats. There 
 are rascals, "Napoleonic" rascals, and the "lambs" 
 who are shorn ; there is the old fight between right and 
 wrong, and sometimes the right wins, and sometimes 
 as the world goes the wrong. In the maddening whirl 
 of this life, which he knows so well, Edwin Lefevre has 
 laid the setting of his Wall Street stories. A number of 
 them have already appeared in McClures Magazine, and 
 their well-merited success is the cause of publication in 
 book form of this absorbing collection. (12mo, 1.25.) 
 
 HELD FOR ORDERS 
 
 STORIES OF RAILROAD LIFE 
 By Frank H. Spearman 
 
 WHILE railroad life affords fewer elements of pas 
 sion and emotion than the life of Wall Street, it 
 offers however a far greater field for the depiction of 
 the heroic. Deeds of bravery are probably more com 
 mon among these hardy, cool, resourceful men the rail 
 road employees than among any other members of 
 society. "Held For Orders " describes thrilling incidents 
 in the management of a mountain division in the far West. 
 The stories are all independent, but have characters in 
 common, many of whom have been met with in McClure s 
 Magazine. Mr. Spearman combines the qualities of a 
 practical railroad man with those of a fascinating story 
 teller, and his talcs, both in subject and manner of tell 
 ing, are something new in literature. (12mo, $1.50.) 
 
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