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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30447 ***
+
+SNOW ON THE HEADLIGHT
+
+
+BY CY WARMAN
+
+    _A Story of the Great Burlington Strike_
+    12mo. Cloth, $1.25
+
+
+    THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD
+    (_The Story of the West Series._)
+    Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50
+
+
+    D. APPLETON & COMPANY
+    NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+    SNOW ON THE
+    HEADLIGHT
+
+    A Story of the Great
+    Burlington Strike
+
+
+BY CY WARMAN
+
+AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD, THE
+EXPRESS MESSENGER, TALES OF AN ENGINEER,
+FRONTIER STORIES, ETC.
+
+
+    NEW YORK
+    D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+    MDCCCXCIX
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1899, by D. Appleton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+        _Here is a Decoy Duck stuffed with Oysters.
+                   The Duck is mere Fiction:
+                    The Oysters are Facts._
+
+_If you find the Duck wholesome, and the Oysters hurt you, it is
+probably because you had a hand in the making of this bit of History,
+and in the creation of these Facts._
+
+
+THE AUTHOR
+
+
+
+
+SNOW ON THE HEADLIGHT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST
+
+
+Good managers are made from messenger boys, brakemen, wipers and
+telegraphers; just as brave admirals are produced in due time by
+planting a cadet in a naval school. From two branches of the service
+come the best equipped men in the railroad world--from the motive-power
+department and from the train service. This one came from the mechanical
+department, and he spent his official life trying to conceal the
+fact--striving to be just to all his employees and to show no partiality
+towards the department from whence he sprang--but always failing.
+
+"These men will not strike," he contended: "The brains of the train are
+in the engine."
+
+"O, I don't think," Mr. Josler, the general superintendent, would say;
+and if you followed his accent it would take you right back to the heart
+of Germany: "Giff me a goot conductor, an' I git over the roat."
+
+No need to ask where he came from.
+
+As the grievance grew in the hands of the "grief" committee, and the
+belief became fixed in the minds of the officials that the employees
+were looking for trouble, the situation waxed critical. "Might as well
+make a clean job of it," the men would say; and then every man who had a
+grievance, a wound where there had been a grievance or a fear that he
+might have something to complain of in the future, contributed to the
+real original grievance until the trouble grew so that it appalled the
+officials and caused them to stiffen their necks. In this way the men
+and the management were being wedged farther and farther apart. Finally,
+the general manager, foreseeing what war would cost the company and the
+employees, made an effort to reach a settlement, but the very effort was
+taken as evidence of weakness, and instead of yielding something the
+men took courage, and lengthened the list of grievances. His predecessor
+had said to the president of the company when the last settlement was
+effected: "This is our last compromise. The next time we shall have to
+fight--my back is to the wall." But, when the time came for the
+struggle, he had not the heart to make the fight, and so resigned and
+went west, where he died shortly afterwards, and dying, escaped the
+sorrow that must have been his had he lived to see how his old,
+much-loved employees were made to suffer.
+
+Now the grievance committee came with an ultimatum to the management.
+"Yes, or No?" demanded the chairman with a Napoleonic pose. But the
+general superintendent was loth to answer.
+
+"Yes, or No?"
+
+Mr. Josler hesitated, equivocated, and asked to be allowed to confer
+with his chief.
+
+"Yes, or No?" demanded the fearless leader, lifting his hand like an
+auctioneer.
+
+"Vell, eef you put it so, I must say No," said the superintendent and
+instantly the leader turned on his heel. He did not take the trouble to
+say good-day, but snapped his finger and strode away.
+
+Now the other members of the committee got up and went out, pausing to
+say good morning to the superintendent who stood up to watch the
+procession pass out into the wide hall. One man, who confirmed the
+general manager's belief that there were brains among the engine-men,
+lingered to express his regrets that the conference should have ended so
+abruptly.
+
+The news of this man's audacity spread among the higher officials, so
+that when the heads of the brotherhoods came--which is a last
+resort--the company were almost as haughty and remote as the head of the
+grievance committee had been.
+
+From that moment the men and the management lost faith in each other.
+More, they refused even to understand each other. Whichever side made a
+slight concession it was made to suffer for it, for such an act was sure
+to be interpreted by the other side as a sign of weakening. In vain did
+the heads of the two organizations, representing the engine-men, strive
+to overcome the mischief done by the local committee, and to reach a
+settlement. They showed, by comparison, that this, the smartest road in
+the West, was paying a lower rate of wages to its engine-men than was
+paid by a majority of the railroads of the country. They urged the
+injustice of the classification of engineers, but the management claimed
+that the system was just, and later received the indorsement, on this
+point, of eight-tenths of the daily press. Eight out of ten of these
+editors knew nothing of the real merits or demerits of the system, but
+they thought they knew, and so they wrote about it, the people read
+about it and gave or withheld their sympathy as the news affected them.
+
+When the heads of the brotherhoods announced their inability to reach
+an agreement they were allowed to return to their respective homes,
+beyond the borders of the big state, and out of reach of the Illinois
+conspiracy law. A local man "with sand to fight" was chosen
+commander-in-chief, and after one more formal effort to reach a
+settlement he called the men out.
+
+On a blowy Sunday afternoon in February the chief clerk received a wire
+calling him to the office of the general manager. He found his chief
+pacing the floor. As the secretary entered, the general manager turned,
+faced him, and then, waving a hand over the big flat-topped desk that
+stood in the centre of his private office, said: "Take this all away,
+John. The engineers are going to strike and I want nothing to come to my
+desk that does not relate to that, until this fight is over."
+
+Noting the troubled, surprised look upon the secretary's face the
+manager called him.
+
+"Come here John. Are you afraid? Does the magnitude of it all appal
+you--do you want to quit? If you do say so now."
+
+As he spoke the piercing, searching eyes of the general manager swept
+the very soul of his secretary. The two men looked at each other.
+Instantly the shadow passed from the long, sad face of the clerk, and in
+its place sat an expression of calm determination. Now the manager spoke
+not a word, but reaching for the hand of his faithful assistant, pressed
+it firmly, and turned away.
+
+There was no spoken pledge, no vow, no promise of loyalty, but in that
+mute handclasp there was an oath of allegiance.
+
+At four o'clock on the following morning--Monday, February the 27th,
+1888,--every locomotive engineer and fireman in the service of the
+Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company quit work. The fact that
+not one man remained in the service an hour after the order went out,
+shows how firmly fixed was the faith of the men in the ability of the
+"Twin Brotherhoods" to beat the company, and how universal was the
+belief that their cause was just. All trains in motion at the moment
+when the strike was to take effect were run to their destination, or to
+divisional stations, rather, and there abandoned by the crew.
+
+The conductors, brakemen and baggagemen were not in the fight, and when
+directed by the officials to take the engines and try to run them or
+fire them, they found it hard to refuse to obey the order. Some of them
+had no thought of refusing, but cheerfully took the engines out,
+and--drowned them. That was a wild, exciting day for the officials, but
+it was soon forgotten in days that made that one seem like a pleasant
+dream.
+
+The long struggle that had been going on openly between the officials
+and the employees was now enacted privately, silently, deep in the souls
+of men. Each individual must face the situation and decide for himself
+upon which side he would enlist. Hundreds of men who had good positions
+and had, personally, no grievance, felt in honor bound to stand by their
+brothers, and these men were the heroes of the strike, for it is
+infinitely finer to fight for others than for one's self. When a man has
+toiled for a quarter of a century to gain a comfortable place it is not
+without a struggle that he throws it all over, in an unselfish effort to
+help a brother on. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers had grown to
+be respected by the public because of almost countless deeds of
+individual heroism. It was deferred to--and often encouraged by railway
+officials, because it had improved the service a thousand per cent. The
+man who climbed down from the cab that morning on the "Q" was as far
+ahead of the man who held the seat twenty years earlier, as an English
+captain is ahead of the naked savage whose bare feet beat the sands of
+the Soudan. By keeping clear of entangling alliances and carefully
+avoiding serious trouble, the Brotherhood had, in the past ten years,
+piled up hundreds of thousands of dollars. This big roll of the root of
+all evil served now to increase the confidence of the leaders, and to
+encourage the men to strike.
+
+At each annual convention mayors, governors and prominent public men
+paraded the virtues of the Brotherhood until its members came to regard
+themselves as just a little bit bigger, braver and better than ordinary
+mortals. Public speakers and writers were for ever predicting that in a
+little while the Brotherhood would be invincible.[1] And so, hearing
+only good report of itself the Brotherhood grew over-confident, and
+entered this great fight top-heavy because of an exaggerated idea of its
+own greatness.
+
+[1] "_I dare say that the engineers' strike will end, as all strikes
+have hitherto ended, in disaster to the strikers. But I am sure that
+strikes will not always end so. It is only a question of time, and of a
+very little time, till the union of labor shall be so perfect that
+nothing can defeat it. We may say this will be a very good time or a
+very bad time; all the same it is coming._"--_W. D. Howells, in Harper's
+Weekly, April 21, 1888._
+
+The Engineers' Brotherhood was not loved by other organizations. The
+conductors disliked it, and it had made itself offensive to the firemen
+because of its persistent refusal to federate or affiliate in any manner
+with other organizations having similar aims and objects. But now,
+finding itself in the midst of a hard fight, it evinced a desire to
+combine. The brakemen refused to join the engine-men, though
+sympathizing with them, but the switchmen were easily persuaded. The
+switchman of a decade ago could always be counted upon to fight. In
+behind his comb, tooth-brush and rabbit's foot, he carried a neatly
+folded, closely written list of grievances upon which he was ready to do
+battle. Peace troubled his mind.
+
+Some one signed a solemn compact in which the engineers bound themselves
+to support the switchmen--paying them as often as the engine-men drew
+money--and the switchmen went out. They struck vigorously, and to a
+man, and remained loyal long after the Brotherhood had broken its pledge
+and cut off the pay of the strikers.[2] In this battle the switchmen
+were the bravest of the brave.
+
+[2] _At the annual convention held at Atlanta, in the autumn of that
+year (1888) the engineers dropped the sympathy-striking switchmen from
+the pay roll, at the same time increasing the pay of striking engineers
+from $40.00 to $50.00 a month._
+
+At the end of the first month of the strike the lines were pretty well
+drawn. There was no neutral ground for employees. A man was either with
+the company or with the strikers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SECOND
+
+
+"Good morning, John," said the general manager coming softly through the
+little gate that fenced off a small reservation in the outer office, and
+beyond which the secretary and his assistants worked: "How goes the
+battle?"
+
+"Well, on the whole," said the chief clerk, gathering up a batch of
+telegrams that made up the official report from the various division
+superintendents; "it was a rough night. Three yard engines disabled in
+the Chicago yards, freight train burned at Burlington, head-end
+collision on the B. & M. Division, two engineers and one fireman killed,
+ware-house burned at Peoria, two bridges blown up in Iowa, two trains
+ditched near Denver, three--"
+
+"Well! well!" broke in the general manager, "that will do." The clerk
+stopped short, the office boy passed out through the open door and a
+great swell of silence surged into the room.
+
+After taking a few turns up and down the office, the manager stopped at
+the secretary's desk and added: "We must win this strike. The directors
+meet to-day and those English share-holders are getting nervous. They
+can't understand that this fight is necessary--that we are fighting for
+peace hereafter; weeding out a pestilence that threatens, not only the
+future of railway corporations, but the sacred rights of American
+citizens--the right to engage in whatever business or calling one cares
+to follow, and to employ whom he will at whatever wages the employer and
+employed may agree upon. Let these strikers win and we shall have a
+strike as often as the moon changes. When I endeavor to reach an
+agreement with them, they take it that the company is weakening, and the
+leaders will listen to nothing. I shudder to think what is in store for
+them and what they must suffer before they can understand."
+
+With that the general manager passed into the private office and the
+chief clerk, who had been at his post all night, turned to a steaming
+breakfast which the porter had just brought from a café across the
+street. The postman came in, grave-faced and silent, and left a big
+bundle of letters on the secretary's desk. Most of the mail was
+official, but now and then there came letters from personal friends who
+held similar positions on other roads, assuring the general manager of
+their sympathy, and that they would aid his company whenever they could
+do so secretly and without exciting their own employees.
+
+Many letters came from stockholders protesting vigorously against a
+continuation of the strike. Some anonymous letters warned the company
+that great calamity awaited the management, unless the demands of the
+employees were acceded to and the strike ended. A glance into the
+newspapers that came in, showed that three-fourths of the press of the
+country praised the management and referred to the strikers as
+dynamiters and anarchists. The other fourth rejoiced at each drop in the
+stocks and called every man a martyr who was arrested at the instigation
+of the railroad company. The reports sent out daily by the company and
+those collected at the headquarters of the strikers agreed exactly as to
+date, but disagreed in all that followed.
+
+The secretary, somewhat refreshed by a good breakfast, waded through the
+mail, making marks and notations occasionally with a blue pencil on the
+turned down corners of letters.
+
+Some of the communications were referred to the general traffic manager,
+some to the general passenger agent, others to the superintendent of
+motive power and machinery. They were all sorted carefully and deposited
+in wicker baskets, bearing the initials of the different departments.
+Many were dropped into the basket marked "G. M." but most of the matter
+was disposed of by the secretary himself, for the chief clerk of a great
+railway system, having the signature of the General Manager, is one of
+the busiest, and usually one of the brightest men in the company's
+employ.
+
+The general manager in his private office pored over the morning papers,
+puffing vigorously now and then as he perused a paragraph that praised
+the strikers, but, when the literature was to his liking, smoked slowly
+and contentedly, like a man without a care.
+
+Such were the scenes and conditions in and about the general offices of
+the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company when a light foot-step
+was heard in the hall and a gentle voice came singing:
+
+    "_Always together in sunshine and rain.
+    Facing the weather_--"
+
+"Good morning, Patsy," said the chief clerk, looking up as Patsy paused
+at the gate, removed his hat and bowed two or three short quick bows
+with his head without bowing his body.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Patsy, "I thought you were alone."
+
+"Well, I am alone."
+
+"No you're not--I'm here. Always together--"
+
+"Come! Come! Patsy don't get funny this morning."
+
+"Get funny! how can I get funny when I'm already funny? I was born
+funny--they had fun with me at the christening, and I expect they'll
+have the divil's own time with me at the wake. Always--"
+
+"Sh! Sh!--Be quiet," said the secretary, nodding his head and his thumb
+in the direction of the door of the private office.
+
+"Is the governor in?" asked Patsy.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now that's lucky for me, for I wanted to ask a favor and I want it
+to-day, and if the governor was not in you would say, 'I'll have to see
+the governor;' then when I came back you would say 'The governor has
+left the office, and I forgot it,' but now that the governor is here you
+can do it yourself. I want to go to Council Bluffs."
+
+"All right, Patsy, you can go if you can persuade those friends of yours
+to allow us to run a train."
+
+"On the Q?"
+
+"That's the only line we control."
+
+"Not on your salary."
+
+"Then you can't go," said the clerk, as he resumed the work before him.
+
+"What's the matter with the North Western?" asked Patsy in an earnest,
+pleading tone.
+
+"You ought to know that we can't give passes over a competing line."
+
+"I do know it, but you can give me a letter over there. Just say:
+'Please give Patsy Daly transportation, Chicago to Council Bluffs and
+return;' that'll do the business. You might add a paragraph about me
+being an old and trusted employee and--"
+
+"A bold and mistrusted striker, Patsy, would be nearer the card."
+
+"Now don't bring up unpleasant recollections," said Patsy with a frown
+that didn't make him look as cross as some men look when they laugh: "It
+will be a neat way of showing that the Q is big enough to be good to her
+old employees, even if her stock is a little down. What do you say--do I
+get the pass--does mother see her railroad boy to-night?"
+
+The door that was marked "Private" opened slowly and the general manager
+came in. The chief clerk shuffled the letters while Patsy made a
+desperate effort to look serious and respectful.
+
+"What brings you here, Patsy?" asked the head of the road, for he was by
+no means displeased at seeing one of the old employees in the office who
+was not a member of a grievance committee.
+
+"I want to get a pass, if you please sir, to run down to the Bluffs and
+see the folks."
+
+"Patsy wants a request for a pass over the North Western," said the
+clerk, taking courage now that the subject was opened.
+
+"Ah! is that all? now suppose I ask you to take a passenger train out
+to-night, will you do it?" asked the general manager, turning to Patsy.
+
+"What's the matter with the regular conductor?"
+
+"Joined the strikers," was the reply.
+
+"But the papers say the strike is over."
+
+"It is! but a lot of you fellows don't seem to know it."
+
+"I'm glad of it, and now I must hurry back, so as to be ready to take my
+run out. Do I get the pass?"
+
+"And you expect, when the strike is off, to go back to your old place?"
+
+"Sure," said Patsy, "I don't intend to quit you as long as you have a
+brake for me to turn."
+
+"There's a lot of brakes that nobody is turning right now; come, you
+young rascal, will you go to work?"
+
+"Now," said the young rascal, "you know what it says at the bottom of
+the time-card: 'In case of doubt take the safe side.' I'm waiting to see
+which side is safe."
+
+With that the manager went back to his desk and closed the door behind
+him, and the secretary went on with his work.
+
+Patsy stood and looked out at the window for a while, and then said half
+to himself, but so the clerk could hear him: "Poor little mother, how
+she will miss me to-night."
+
+The secretary said nothing, but leaving his desk entered the office of
+his chief, and when they had talked over the business of the hour and
+read the story prepared by the passenger department for the press that
+day, he asked what should be done for Patsy.
+
+"Oh! give him the letter, I suppose, but he's the only employee on the
+road I would do so much for."
+
+"And he's the only one with nerve enough to ask it," said the
+secretary.
+
+"Yes, he is a bit nervy, John; but it isn't an offensive sort of nerve;
+and then he's so happy. Why, he really rests me when he comes in. He's
+smart, too, too smart to be a striker and he may be of some use to us
+yet."
+
+In a little while Patsy went singing himself out just as he had sung
+himself in. The general manager sat watching the happy youth from the
+outer door of his room until the song and the sound of footsteps died
+away in the wide hall. Turning to his desk he sighed and said: "Ah,
+well! the English poet was right when he wrote:
+
+    '_The world that knows itself too sad
+    Is proud to keep some faces glad!_'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRD
+
+
+Patsy, the postman and the newsgatherers, who left the headquarters of
+the company and wandered over to the Grand Pacific where the strikers
+held forth, must have been struck forcibly by the vast difference in the
+appearance of the two places upon this particular morning. At the first
+place all was neatness and order in spite of the deplorable condition of
+affairs outside; and a single man handled the almost endless flood of
+letters and telegrams that fell like autumn leaves upon his desk.
+
+In fact, the office boy and the colored porter were the only people
+about the company's headquarters who showed any real anxiety.
+
+At the headquarters of the strikers all was confusion and disorder. The
+outer offices and ante-rooms were filled with a vast crowd of men who
+idled about, smoked, swapped stories and swore; and some of them, I'm
+sorry to say, chewed tobacco and flooded the floor with inexcusable
+filth. Even Mr. Hogan's private office was not private. Leading strikers
+and men prominent in the Brotherhood loafed there as the others loafed
+outside. Not more than half the men about the building had ever been
+employed by the Burlington company. There were scores of "tramp"
+switchmen and travelling trainmen, made reckless by idleness, as men are
+sometimes made desperate by hunger, with an alarmingly large
+representation of real criminals, who follow strikes as "grafters"
+follow a circus. If a striker lost his temper and talked as he ought not
+to talk, this latter specimen was always ready to encourage him; for
+whatever promised trouble for others promised profitable pastime for the
+criminal. If the real workers could keep clear of this class, as well as
+the idle, loafing element in their own profession, ninety per cent. of
+the alleged labor outrages would never be committed. Very likely there
+were a number of detectives moving among the strikers, and they, too,
+have been known to counsel violence in order to perpetuate a struggle
+between labor and capital that they themselves might not be idle. It is
+only in the best organized agencies that detectives can be relied upon
+to take no undue advantage of those whom they are sent out to detect.
+Over in another part of the same building, where the firemen held forth,
+the scene was about the same, save that the men there were younger in
+years and louder in their abuse of the railway officials; and generally
+less discreet.
+
+    "_Always together in sunshine and rain,
+    Facing the weather atop o' the train_,"
+
+sang Patsy as he strolled into the private office of Chairman Borphy,
+who was in charge of the firemen's end of the strike. Borphy greeted
+Patsy pleasantly as did the others in the office, with one exception.
+Over in a window sat fireman George Cowels, a great striker, and in the
+eyes of some of his enthusiastic friends a great man, and in his own
+estimation a great orator. Removing his cigar in order to give the
+proper effect to the expression he was about to assume, Cowels gave
+Patsy a hard searching look as he asked:
+
+"Does that song of yours mean yourself and the general manager?"
+
+"An' if it does," said Patsy, stepping close in front of his questioner:
+"What's it _to_ you?"
+
+"Just this," said Cowels: "You have been watched. You went to the
+general office this morning the moment it was open, and took a message
+for Mr. Stonaker to the general manager of the C. & N. W. Does that fit
+your case? Perhaps you will favor us with the result of your mission!
+Come, will the North Western help your friend out?"
+
+At the conclusion of this eloquent burst of indignation Cowels smiled
+triumphantly, for, as Patsy paled into silence, the big fellow thought
+he had his man scared; but when Patsy took another step forward, forcing
+his opponent back to the window, and asked between his closed teeth, if
+Cowels meant to accuse him of betraying the strikers to the company
+every one in the room realized that something was about to happen.
+Perhaps Cowels thought so, too, but he was in a hole and could only
+answer Yes. The next instant Patsy drove his fist up under the orator's
+chin, and the back of that gentleman's head made a hole in the window.
+The bystanders, knowing the temper of both the men, sprang between them
+before any further damage could be done.
+
+If Patsy had the best of the fight he had the worst of the argument. He
+had been openly accused of being a "spotter" and had made no explanation
+of his conduct; so when it was reported that he had gone to Council
+Bluffs over the North Western, the more ignorant and noisy of his
+associates were easily persuaded that such a favor to a striker could
+only be secured upon the request of Mr. Stonaker and that request would
+be given only for services rendered; and Patsy Daly was from that day
+doomed to walk under a cloud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The long struggle was beginning to tell on the strikers. It was
+evidenced in the shiny suits worn by the men who met daily at the hall
+in town to discuss the strike. It was seen again in the worn wraps of
+many a mother and in the torn shoes of school-children. These were only
+the outer signs, the real suffering was carefully covered up--hidden in
+the homes where home comfort had become a reminiscence. The battle at
+first had been with the strong but now the brunt of it was being shifted
+to the shoulders of the women, the wives and mothers of the strikers.
+These patient martyrs, whose business it had been to look after the
+home, now suffered the humiliation of having door after door closed to
+them and their children. Of a morning you might see them tramping
+through the snow from shop to shop trying to secure credit for the day.
+The strike would be over in a little while, they argued, but the
+struggling shop-keeper had his own to look after. The wholesale houses
+were refusing him credit and so he was powerless to help the hungry
+wives of worthy workmen. The men themselves were beginning to lose
+heart. Many a man who had not known what it was to be without a dollar
+now saw those dearest to him in actual want and went away to look for
+work on other roads. Finally, a monster union meeting was called for the
+purpose of getting an expression of opinion as to the advisability of
+making the best possible terms with the company and calling the strike
+off. Here the engine-men, trainmen and switchmen met, but the radical
+element was in the majority, and the suggestions of the heads of the
+various Brotherhoods that the strike be called off were howled down by
+the unterrified. It was at this meeting that a tall, powerful, but mild
+mannered man, stood up in the face of all the opposing elements and
+advised that the strike be ended at once. He did not suggest this from a
+selfish motive, he said. He was a single man and had money enough to
+keep himself in idleness for a year, but there were hundreds of families
+who were in want, and it was for these he was pleading. The speaker was
+interrupted repeatedly, but he kept his place and continued to talk
+until the mob became silent and listened out of mere curiosity. "You can
+never hold an army of hungry men together," said the speaker; "you can't
+fight gold with a famine. The company, we are told, has already lost a
+million dollars. What of it? You forget that it has been making millions
+annually for the past ten years. What have we been making? Lots of
+money, I'll admit, but none of it has been saved. The company is rich,
+the brotherhoods are bankrupt. From the remotest corners of the country
+comes the cry of men weary of paying assessments to support us in
+idleness. To-day some sort of settlement might be made--to-morrow it may
+be too late."
+
+At this juncture the mob howled the speaker down again. Men climbed over
+benches to get at the "traitor." A man who had been persuaded to leave
+the company, and who had been taken into the order only the day before,
+tried to strike the engineer in the face. In the midst of the
+excitement, George Cowels of the Fireman's Brotherhood leaped upon the
+platform and at sight of him and the sound of his powerful voice the
+rioters became quiet.
+
+"I think," he began slowly to show how easy it was for a truly great
+leader to keep cool in the hottest of the fight, "I think I can explain
+the action of the last speaker."
+
+Here he paused and looked down into the frank face of Dan Moran and
+continued:
+
+"Mr. Moran, as many of you know, has one of the best runs on the road.
+He has had it for a good many years and he loathes to leave it. By
+denying himself the luxury of a cigar and never taking a drink he has
+managed to save up some money. He is a money-getter--a money-saver and
+it hurts him to be idle. I have been firing for him for five years and
+in all that time he has never been the man to say: 'Come, George, let's
+have a drink or a cigar.' Now I propose that we chip in and pay Mr. Dan
+Moran his little four dollars a day. Let us fight this fight to a
+finish. Let there be no retreat until the proud banner of our
+Brotherhood waves above the blackened ruins of the once powerful
+Burlington route. Down with all traitors: on with the fight."
+
+At the conclusion of this speech the audience went wild. When order had
+been partially restored a vote was taken, when it was shown that
+seven-eighths of the men were in favor of continuing the strike.
+
+The engineers had really been spoiled by success. At the last annual
+convention they had voted to exterminate the classification system, and
+had passed a law making it impossible for the head of the organization
+to make any settlement that included a continuation of classification.
+The scalps of the Atchison, the Alton, the Louisville and Nashville, and
+a number of other strong companies dangled at the belt of the big chief
+of the Engineers' Brotherhood. These were all won by diplomacy, but the
+men did not know it. They believed that the show of strength had awed
+the railway officials of the country and that the railway labor
+organizations were invincible. A little easing off by the Brotherhood,
+and a little forbearance on the part of the management might, at the
+start, have averted the great struggle; but when once war had been
+declared the generals on both sides had no choice but to fight it out to
+a finish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTH
+
+
+"Can you spare me a little money, George?" asked Mrs. Cowels, adjusting
+her last year's coat.
+
+"What do you want of money?"
+
+"Well--it's Christmas eve, and I thought we ought to have something for
+Bennie. He has been asking me all evening what I expected from Santa
+Claus, never hinting, of course, that he expected anything."
+
+"Well, here's a dollar."
+
+Mrs. Cowels took the money and went over to the little store.
+
+There were so many things to choose from that she found it difficult to
+make a selection. Finally she paid a quarter for a tin whistle and two
+bunches of noise--that was for the boy. With the remaining seventy-five
+cents she bought a pair of gloves for her husband.
+
+"Anybody been here to-day?" asked Cowels of his wife when she came back
+from the store.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Squeesum, secretary of the Benevolent Building Association,
+was here to see you about the last two payments which are over-due, on
+the house."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him that we had no money."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He said that was very strange, as the Brotherhoods were pouring
+thousands of dollars into Chicago to aid the strikers. What becomes of
+all this money, George? You never seem to get any of it."
+
+"We pour it out again," said Cowels, "to the army of engine-men who are
+coming here from the Reading and everywhere to take our places. We hire
+them--buy them off--bribe them, to prevent them from taking service with
+the company, and yet it seems there is no end to the supply. For every
+man we secure the company brings a score, and we are losing ground.
+Members of the Brotherhood everywhere are growing weary of the long
+struggle. They have good jobs and object to paying from six to twelve
+dollars a month to support the strikers. Some have even refused to pay
+assessments and have surrendered their charters. Anybody else here?"
+
+"Yes, a man named Hawkins. He wanted room and board."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+"I told him we had never kept roomers or boarders, but he said he liked
+the place--for me to speak to you, and he would call again."
+
+"Huh! he must like the place. Well, I guess we can get along some way,"
+said Cowels, and then he sat and looked into the fire for a while
+without saying anything. When Mrs. Cowels had put the baby down she came
+and sat near her husband and they began to discuss the future. They had
+bought their little home a year and a half ago for twelve hundred
+dollars. They had lived economically and had been able to reduce the
+debt to six hundred dollars. But when the strike came they were unable
+to keep up the payments and now the association had begun to push them.
+If they did not pay within the next thirty days the real estate company
+with the soft sounding title would foreclose the mortgage. When they had
+talked this all over, Mrs. Cowels proposed that they take the stranger
+in, but her husband objected. "I didn't want to tell you, George," said
+the brave little woman, "but there was another caller. The grocer and
+butcher was here this morning and we can get no more meat or groceries
+until we pay. He is a poor man, you know, and he can't keep up the
+families of all the strikers. I didn't want to worry you with this,
+George, but since you are opposed to me helping by taking a lodger I
+will tell you that something must be done."
+
+Cowels lighted a fresh cigar. That was the third one since supper. They
+cost all the way from two to five cents apiece, but Mrs. Cowels knew
+that he was worried about lodge matters and if she thought anything
+about it at all, she probably reasoned that it was a good thing to be
+able to smoke and forget.
+
+"I made the speech of my life to-day," said the striker, brushing the
+ashes lightly from his cigar. "The hall was packed and the fellows stood
+up on their chairs and yelled. One fellow shouted, 'Three cheers for the
+next Grand Master,' and the gang threw up their hats and hollered till I
+thought they'd gone wild. Nora, if there was a convention to-morrow I'd
+win, hands down."
+
+Mrs. Cowels smiled faintly, for to her way of thinking there were other
+things as important as her husband's election to the position of Grand
+Master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and she changed the
+subject. Presently the door-bell sounded, so loud and piercing that the
+sound of it waked the baby. The man who had pulled the bell knew at once
+that he had made no mistake. He had noticed when he called that morning
+that the bell upon the door had once done service in the cab of a
+locomotive, and had made a note of the fact. While Mrs. Cowels hushed
+the baby her husband answered the bell and when Mr. Hawkins gave his
+name and made his wants known, Cowels told him shortly that they did not
+keep lodgers. He knew that, he said, and that was one of the reasons why
+he was so anxious to come, but Cowels, who liked to show his authority
+at all times, shut the door, and the stranger was not taken in.
+
+That night when the orator was dreaming that he had been chosen Grand
+Master of the Brotherhood, his wife stole out of the room and put the
+things in Bennie's sock, and then, just to please Bennie, she put a
+rubber rattle in the baby's little stocking. Her husband, being a great
+thinker, would not consent to having his hosiery hung up, so she would
+wait till breakfast time and hide the gloves under his plate. Then she
+went over to tuck the cover in around Bennie. He was smiling--dreaming,
+doubtless, of red sleds and firecrackers--and his mother smiled, too,
+and kissed him and went back to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTH
+
+
+It was a rough, raw, Chicago day. The snow came in spurts, cold and
+cutting from the north and the scantily dressed strikers were obliged to
+dance about and beat their hands to keep warm. Special mounted police
+were riding up and down the streets that paralleled the Burlington
+tracks, and ugly looking armed deputies were everywhere in evidence. The
+forced quiet that pervaded the opposing armies served only to increase
+the anxiety of the observing. Every man who had any direct interest in
+the contest seemed to have a chip on his shoulder.
+
+At ten o'clock the strike was to be extended to all connecting lines,
+the switching yards and stock yards. When the hour arrived the switchmen
+threw up their caps and quit. Now the different companies made an effort
+to replace the strikers and trouble commenced. The deputies, who had
+been aching to get a whack at the strikers for countless cursings which
+they had received, now used their guns unmercifully upon the unprotected
+heads of the men, and the police, who disliked and refused to associate
+with the deputies, used their clubs upon all who resisted them. By
+eleven o'clock the whole city was in a state of riot and men bruised and
+bleeding were loaded into wagons and hurried away until the jails were
+filled with criminals, bums, deputies and strikers. The police courts
+were constantly grinding out justice, or decisions intended to take the
+place of justice. Mothers were often seen begging the magistrates to
+release their boys and wives praying for the pardon of their husbands.
+These prayers were often unanswered and the poor women were forced to
+return to a lonely home, to an empty cupboard and a cold hearth.
+
+In the midst of the rioting on this wild day came Patsy Daly strolling
+up the track singing:
+
+    "_Always together in sunshine and rain
+    Facing the weather atop o' th' train.
+    Watching the meadows move under the stars
+    Always together atop o' th' cars._"
+
+"Hello! there!" came from a box car.
+
+"Hello to you," said Patsy as he turned out to see what the fellow was
+in for. "Now, what the divil you doin' caged up in this car?"
+
+"I'm hidin' from the strikers," said the man, peeping cautiously out.
+
+"Faith, and I'm one of them myself," says Patsy, "and I suppose you're
+after takin' my place, ye spalpeen; I have a right to swat your face for
+you, so I have."
+
+"You couldn't do it if I was opposed," said the stranger opening the
+door.
+
+"Oh! couldn't I? then let yourself drop to the ground till I take a
+little of the conceit out of you."
+
+"No, I won't fight you," said the man, "I like your face and I want you
+to help me out."
+
+"And I like your nerve; now, what's your pleasure? Have you been
+working in this strike?"
+
+"I started to work this morning only to get something to eat on."
+
+"Are you a railroad man?"
+
+"I'm a switchman. I was foreman in the yards at Buffalo, had a scrap
+with the yard-master who had boasted that he would not have a switchman
+he couldn't curse, an' got fired."
+
+"Did you lick him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good and plenty?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Go on with your story."
+
+"Well," said the man, seating himself in the door of the car, "I started
+out to get work--had my card from the Union and felt sure of success. I
+had only been married a year, but of course I had to leave my wife in
+Buffalo until I got located. When I applied for work I was asked for
+references and I had none. I told them where I had worked; they asked
+me to call later, and I called, only to learn that they didn't need any
+more men. This performance was repeated in every town I struck, until I
+began to believe that I had been blacklisted. In time my money gave out.
+I wrote to my wife and she sent me money. When that was gone I sent for
+more, not stopping to think that she had to eat, too, and that I had
+given her but ten dollars when I left home; but she sent me money.
+
+"Then there came a time when she could not send me anything; I could not
+keep up my dues in the Union, so was expelled. After that I found it
+hard to get passes. Lots of times I had to steal them, and finally--for
+the first time in my life--I stole something to eat. Say, pardner, did
+you ever get so hungry that the hunger cramped you like cholera morbus?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I reckon you've never stole, or what's worse, scabbed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well--I've done both, though this is the first time I've scabbed. As I
+was sayin' I got down so low that I had to steal, and then I thought of
+my wife, of how terrible it would be if she should have to steal, or
+maybe worse, and the thought of it drove me almost crazy. She was a
+pretty girl when I married her, an orphan only eighteen and I was
+twenty-eight. I determined to go home at once, but before I could get
+out of town I was arrested as a vag and sent up for sixty days. I
+thought at that time that my punishment was great,--that the mental and
+physical suffering that I endured in the workhouse was all that I could
+stand,--but I've seen it beaten since. At last they told me that I could
+go, but that I would be expected to shake the city of Chicago before the
+sun rose on the following day, and I did. I hung myself up on the trucks
+of a Pullman on the Lake Shore Limited and landed in Buffalo just before
+dawn. As I hurried along the old familiar streets I noticed a crowd of
+people standing by a narrow canal and stopped to see what the excitement
+was. I saw them fish the limp and lifeless form of a woman out of the
+muddy water and when the moonlight fell upon her face it startled me,
+for it was so like her face. A moment later I got near enough to see
+that the victim was a blonde, and my wife was brunette. Presently I came
+to the house where we had lived, but it was closed and dark. I aroused a
+number of the neighbors, but none of them knew where the little woman
+had gone.
+
+"'Shure,' said an old woman who was peddling milk, 'I don't know phere
+she's at at all, at all. That big good-fur-nothin' man o' hern has gone
+along and deserted of her an' broke the darlint's heart, so 'e 'as an'
+the end uv it all will be that she'll be afther drownin' 'erself in the
+canal beyant wan uv these foine nights.'
+
+"All through the morning I searched the place for her, but not a trace
+could I find. It seemed that she had dropped out of the world, utterly,
+and that no one had missed her. Finally I was so hungry that I begged a
+bite to eat and went down by the canal and fell asleep. Here a strange
+thing happened. I had a dreadful dream. I dreamed that I saw my wife
+being dragged from the dark waters of the canal. She had the same sad,
+sweet face, but not the same hair. I awoke in a cold sweat. I was now
+seized with an irresistible longing to look once more upon the face of
+the dead woman whom I had seen them fish from the foul waters that
+morning, and I set out for the morgue. I entered unnoticed and there lay
+the dead woman with her white hands folded upon her dead breast. She had
+the same sad, sweet face, but not the same hair, but it was she--it was
+my wife."
+
+The vag let his head fall so that his eyes rested upon the ground. Patsy
+fished something from his vest and holding it out to the man, said:
+"Here's a one-dollar bill and a three-dollar meal ticket--which will you
+have?"
+
+"Gi' me the pie-card."
+
+"Which shows you're not a regular bum," said Patsy.
+
+"No," said the man, eyeing the meal ticket with its twenty-one unpunched
+holes. "I never cared for liquor, only once in a while when a bum makes
+a lift I take a nip just to stop the awful gnawing, cramping pain of
+hunger, but it only makes you feel worse afterwards. But it's
+interesting," said the tramp, thoughtfully. "If it were not for the
+hunger and cold this new life that I have dropped into wouldn't be half
+bad. You get a closer glimpse of the miseries of mankind and a better
+notion of the causes that bring it all about. It educates you. Now take
+this fight for instance. You fellows feel sure of success, but I know
+better. Only two men of all the vast army of strikers have deserted so
+far, but wait. Wait till the pain of hunger hits you and doubles you up
+like a jack-knife, and it's sure to come. Behind the management there
+are merciless millions of money: behind the strikers the gaunt wolf of
+hunger stalks in the snow. Can you beat a game like that? Never. And
+after all what right have you and your people to expect mercy at the
+hands of organized capital? Does the Union show mercy to men like me? To
+escape the blight of the black-list I changed my name. Three times I
+found work, but in each instance the company were forced to discharge me
+or have a strike. I was not a Union man and so had to steal a ride out
+of town. Once I asked a farmer for work and he set me to digging post
+holes and every time a man came by I hid myself in the grass. 'What you
+hidin' fur?' the farmer asked. Then I told him that I didn't belong to
+the Union.
+
+"'What Union?' says he.
+
+"'The post-hole Union' says I--'in fact, I don't belong to any Union.'
+
+"'They ain't no post-hole Union,' says the farmer indignantly, 'an' you
+know it. What you're givin' me is hog-wash--you've been stealin'. Here's
+a quarter fur what you've done--now git.'
+
+"I tried to reason with him, but he only shook his thick head and began
+whistling for his dog, and I got. Yes, pardner, it seems to me that the
+tyranny of organized capital and the tyranny of organized labor are
+close competitors, and in their wake come the twin curses--the
+black-list and the boycot. Hand in hand they go, like red liquor and
+crime. But you can't right these wrongs the way you're headed now," said
+the philosopher. "Everything is against you. Wealth works wonders. The
+press, the telephone through which the public talks back to itself, is
+hoarse with the repetition of the story of your wrong-doings. Until the
+Government puts a limit to the abuses of trusts and monopolies, and
+organized labor has learned that there are other interests which have
+rights under the Constitution, there will be no peace on earth, no good
+will toward man. When the trusts are controlled, and labor submits its
+grievances to an impartial, unbiased board of arbitration, then there
+will be peace and plenty. The wages that you are now losing and the
+money squandered by vulgar and ignorant leaders, will then be used in
+building up and beautifying homes. The time thrown away in useless
+agitation and in idleness will be spent for the intellectual advancement
+of working men, and the millions of money lost in wrecked railroads will
+find its way to the pockets of honest investors."
+
+While this lecture, which interested Patsy, was being delivered the two
+men had become oblivious of their surroundings, but now the wild cry of
+a mob in a neighboring street, the rattle of sticks and stones and the
+occasional bark of a six-shooter brought them back to the business
+before them.
+
+Wave after wave the rioters rolled against the little band of officers,
+but like billows that break upon a stony shore they were forced to roll
+back again. Like the naked minions of Montezuma, who hurled themselves
+against the armored army of the Spaniards, the strikers and their
+abetters were invariably beaten back with bruised heads and broken
+bones. If a luckless striker fell he was trampled upon by the horses of
+the mounted police or kicked into unconsciousness by the desperate
+deputies.
+
+"Can you get me out of this so I can have a go at this pie-card?" asked
+the man.
+
+"Yas," said Patsy, leaping into the car. "Skin off your coat."
+
+When the two men had exchanged coats and caps the vag strolled leisurely
+down the track and in a little while Patsy followed. He had not gone
+three cars before the mob saw him and with the cry of "The scab! the
+scab!" sent a shower of sticks and stones after the flying brakeman. A
+rock struck Patsy on the head and he fell to the ground. The cap, which
+he had worn well over his eyes, fell off, and he was recognized by one
+of the strikers before his ribs could be kicked in. "Begad," said the
+leader of the mob, "it's the singin' brakeman. Th' bum have robbed 'im
+uv 'es clothes an' giv' us the slip," and they picked Patsy up and
+carried him away to the hospital.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTH
+
+
+Three kinds of meetings were held by the strikers. Public meetings, open
+to everybody, union meetings, open to any member of the several
+organizations engaged in the strike, and secret sessions held by the
+various Brotherhoods, to which only members of that particular order
+were admitted.
+
+Many things were said and done at these secret sessions that were never
+printed, or even mentioned outside the lodge-room, save when a detective
+happened to be a member, or when a member happened to be a detective.
+
+At one of these meetings, held by the striking firemen, the head of that
+organization startled the audience with the declaration that the strike
+was going to end disastrously for the strikers. In fact, he said, the
+strike was already lost. They were beaten. The only point to be
+determined was as to the extent of the thrashing. This red rag, flung in
+the faces of the "war faction," called forth hisses and hoots from the
+no-surrender element. A number of men were on their feet instantly, but
+none with the eloquence, or even the lung power to shut the chief off.
+Many of the outraged members glanced over at Cowels, who always sat near
+the little platform at the end of the hall in order that he might not
+keep his admirers waiting when they called for a speech. The greatest
+confusion prevailed during the address of the head of the house. Cowels,
+the recognized leader of the war party, sat silently in his place,
+though frequently called upon to defend the fighters. As their chief
+went on telling them of the inevitable ruin that awaited the strikers,
+the more noisy began to accuse him of selling them out. One man wanted
+to know what he got for the job, but the master, feeling secure in that
+he was doing his duty, gave no heed to what his traducers were saying.
+Amid all the turmoil Cowels sat so quietly that some of the more
+suspicious began to guess, audibly, that he was "in with the play." But
+there was no play, and if there had been Cowels would not have been in
+with it. Cowels was thinking. Suddenly he leaped upon his chair and
+yelled: "Throw 'im out!" He did not use the finger of scorn upon the
+master, or even look in his direction. He merely glared at the audience
+and commanded it to "Throw 'im out!"
+
+"We are fighting a losing fight," repeated the chief, "and you who fight
+hardest here will be first to fall," and he looked at Cowels as he
+spoke. "It could not be pleasant to me, even with your respectful
+attention, to break this news to you. I do it because it is my duty. But
+now, having said what I had to say, let me assure you that if a majority
+of you elect to continue the fight, I will lead you, and I promise that
+every man of you shall have his fill."
+
+This last declaration was rather a cooler for Cowels. It took a vast
+amount of wind out of his sails, but he was on his feet and so had to
+make a speech. He was not very abusive, but managed to make it plain
+that there were others ready and able to lead if their leader failed to
+do his duty. When he had succeeded in getting his train of thought out
+over the switches his hearers, especially the no-surrenderers, began to
+enthuse. His speech was made picturesque by the introduction of short
+rhymes, misquotations from dead poets, and tales that had never been
+told in type. "If," he exclaimed dramatically, "to use a Shakesperian
+simile, the galled wench be jaded, let him surrender his sword to some
+one worthy of the steel."
+
+The orator worked the Shakesperian pedal so hard that some of his
+hearers expressed a desire to know more about the distinguished poet.
+Finally, when he became too deep for them, a man with a strong clear
+voice shouted a single word--the name of a little animal whose departure
+from a sinking ship makes sailors seek the shore--and Cowels closed like
+a snuff-box.
+
+Now the casual observer would say of the great orator: he has money; his
+family is not in want. But the statement would have been incorrect.
+
+The Cowelses, like hundreds of other families, were without money,
+without credit, and would shortly be without food. The last money they
+had received from the Brotherhood had gone to pay the interest on the
+money due the Benevolent Building Association, for fuel, and to pay the
+milkman who was bringing milk for the baby. It would be forty or fifty
+days before another assessment could be made and the money collected.
+The outlook was gloomy. Mr. Hawkins had called again and offered ten
+dollars a month for the little spare room on the second floor, but
+Cowels would not consent.
+
+But at the very moment when he was making this speech his wife was
+returning empty-handed from the bakery. Bennie had been watching,
+waiting at the window for her, and when she saw him staring at her, saw
+the tears come into his innocent eyes, she took him in her arms and wept
+as she had not wept before. They had breakfasted on bread and water. It
+was now past noon and they were all hungry. She gave Bennie some of the
+baby's milk, and then sat down to think. The door-bell rung. "I was just
+passing by," said Mr. Hawkins, "and thought I'd stop and see if there
+was any show to get that room. I work for the plumber in the next block,
+so you see it would be handy for me."
+
+"Would you pay in advance?" asked Mrs. Cowels.
+
+"I shouldn't mind," said the plumber, "if it would be of any advantage
+to you."
+
+"Then you can have the room."
+
+"Very well," said the man, apparently delighted with his bargain, and he
+gave her a crisp ten-dollar note. He also gave Bennie a big, red apple,
+and looked surprised when the boy began to bite great chunks out of it.
+
+That evening when Cowels came home he found the house filled with the
+fumes of boiled beef, and it put him in a good humor at once. He was
+hungry, having had nothing all day but a glass of beer and a free lunch.
+
+"They's a man up-stairs," said Bennie, shoving his empty plate up for
+another load of boiled beef. Mrs. Cowels smiled a faint smile, and her
+husband asked:
+
+"Who is this fellow?"
+
+"He's a plumber," was the reply, "and he seems like a very nice man."
+
+"Did he pay a month in advance?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I don't like the idea of having strangers in the house," said
+Cowels, "and I wish you had not taken him in."
+
+"I dislike it too, George," said Mrs. Cowels, "but the baker had refused
+me a loaf of bread, the children were hungry and you might as well know
+now that I can never see my babies suffer for want of food, and you
+need not be surprised at anything I may do to supply their wants."
+
+Cowels had never seen his wife display so much spirit and it surprised
+him. "It's all very well," she went on, "to prate about honor and
+loyalty to the Brotherhood, but an obligation that entails the suffering
+of innocent women and children is not an honorable obligation and ought
+not to exist. A man's first duty is to his family. My advice to you
+would be to miss a few meetings and go and try to find something to do.
+Think how we have denied ourselves in order to have a place of our own,
+and now it's all to be taken from us, and all because of this senseless
+and profitless strike."
+
+"By George, she's a cracker-jack!" said Hawkins, who had been listening
+down the stove-pipe.
+
+Cowels made no reply to his wife, but he was thinking. In fact, he had
+been thinking all the way home. He had been interrupted twice that day
+while addressing the meeting. One fellow had asked who the devil
+Shakespeare was, and if he had ever done anything for the Union. Another
+man had said "rats," and the orator was sore.
+
+Now, when he had thought it all over, he surprised his wife as much as
+she had surprised him. "They're all a lot of unliterate ingrates," said
+Cowels, "and for two cents I'd shake the whole show and go to work. If
+they turn me down at the convention, and this strike is not settled,
+I'll take an engine."
+
+Mr. Hawkins gave a low whistle.
+
+"No, you must never do that, George, after all you've said against such
+things; it would not do."
+
+"Then they must not drive me to it," said Cowels. "I've tried to show
+them the way to success, even to lead them, and they have the nerve to
+guy me. I'll fool 'em yet if they trifle with me."
+
+"That's what I thought all along," mused Hawkins. "It was not the
+Brotherhood that Mr. Cowels was working so hard for, but Mr. Cowels.
+Well, he will be just as eager to succeed in another direction--he's
+ambitious."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTH
+
+
+The great strike, like a receding sea, revealed heaps of queer wreckage.
+Men who had once been respected by their fellows, but who had drifted
+down the river of vice now came to claim the attention of the strikers
+or the company. Most conspicuous among them was drunken Bill Greene.
+Three months ago he would have been kicked out of a company section
+house or passed by a Brotherhood man without a nod. Then he was "Old
+Bill;" now they called him Billy.
+
+In his palmy days he had wooed, and won the heart of Maggie Crogan, a
+pretty waitress in the railway eating-house at Zero Junction. Maggie was
+barely eighteen then, a strawberry blonde with a sunny smile and a
+perpetual blush. In less than a year he had broken her heart, wrecked
+her life and sent her adrift in the night. His only excuse was that he
+was madly in love with Nora Kelly, but Nora, having heard the story of
+Maggie's miserable life, turned her back on Greene and married George
+Cowels, then a young apprentice in the shops. Inasmuch as it was about
+the only commendable thing he ever did, it should be put to Greene's
+credit that he did really love Nora Kelly; but, being a coward with an
+inherited thirst, he took to drink the day she turned him down; and now,
+after a few wasted years he and Maggie--old red-headed Mag they called
+her--had drifted together, pooled their sorrows and often tried to drown
+them in the same can of beer. She worked, when she worked at all, at
+cleaning coaches. He borrowed her salary and bought drink with it. Once
+he proposed marriage, and ended by beating her because she laughed at
+him.
+
+Before the strike he had been forced to keep sober four days out of a
+week. Now he was comfortably tanked at all times. He had been a
+machinist and round-house foreman, and the company saw in him a fair
+"emergency" engineer, and was constantly watching for an opportunity to
+try him on one of the fast express trains.
+
+At last he was called to take out a passenger run. The round-house
+foreman had gone personally to fetch "Billy" from the bar-room near the
+Grand Pacific where he was waiting for a Brotherhood man to drop in and
+buy him a drink. When told that he was wanted to take out the Pacific
+express, the bum straightened up, hitched his suspenderless trousers and
+asked: "Who're you?"
+
+"I'm the foreman; come and have a bite o' breakfast and let's be off."
+
+"Well--folks gen'ly drink afore they eat--come on, le's have a horn.
+Here, bar-keep, give us a couple o' slugs."
+
+"Got any dough?"
+
+"Now don't git gay--I'm goin' down to take me run out--here's me
+foreman."
+
+"But you must not drink," broke in the official, "when you are going out
+on an express train."
+
+"What?"
+
+"You must not drink."
+
+"Then I don't work. Th' Brotherhood 'll pay me four dollars a day to sit
+right here and keep three gages an' a flutter in the stack--go on with
+yer damn ol' railroad--"
+
+"Come now, Billy," pleaded the foreman, "this is an opportunity--"
+
+"Billy! Month ago Stonaker's nigger threw me down the steps."
+
+"Give 'm a drink," said the foreman, and the bar-keeper set out two
+glasses and a large red bottle. While the foreman's back was turned and
+the bar-man waited upon another customer, Billy did the honors. He
+filled both glasses and had emptied one when the foreman, having
+unearthed a quarter, turned and remarked to the liquor man that he did
+not drink. The man was in the act of removing the glass when Billy
+grabbed it, and with a quick crook of his elbow pitched the whiskey down
+his neck.
+
+"Now will you go and eat?"
+
+"Naw--go t' work," said Greene, hitching up his trousers.
+
+Off they went together, but at every saloon (and there are dozens of
+them in Chicago), the new engineer of the Pacific express insisted upon
+drinking. By hard coaxing the foreman had succeeded in passing three or
+four of them when they were met by a couple of strikers.
+
+"Hello Billy," said one of the men. "Where you goin'?"
+
+"Goin' t' take me run out," said Greene, with another hitch.
+
+"Now you fellows break away," said the foreman, for the strikers had
+turned and were walking with the others.
+
+"Reckon you don't own the sidewalk, do you?" said one of the men, and
+the foreman was silent.
+
+"Didn't think you'd shake us like this Billy," began the striker. "We
+intended to take you into the order to-day an' end up with a good big
+blow-out to-night. It's all right Billy. You go out on your run and
+when you get in come round to the Pacific an' we'll square you with the
+boys."
+
+"An' we'll have a bowl together, eh?" said Billy, for the liquor was
+beginning to make him happy.
+
+The foreman was white with rage, but he was powerless.
+
+"You bet we will, Billy," said the man who had done the talking.
+
+"Hur--what's this, boss?"
+
+"Come along now," urged the foreman, tugging at Billy's arm.
+
+"Never run by a tank," said Billy, setting the air and coming to a dead
+stall at the open door of a beer saloon. The silent striker had entered
+the saloon, the other paused in the door, looked back, nodded and asked:
+"Have something, Billy, b'fore you go?"
+
+"Will I?" cried Billy, as he twisted from the foreman's grasp.
+
+"Police--here--officer!" cried the foreman, and when the copper came he
+found Billy just swallowing his second straight.
+
+"Here," said the foreman, excitedly, "I want you to arrest these men."
+
+"Better get a warrant first," said one of the strikers coolly. "We
+simply came in here to have a drink," he explained to the officer.
+
+"Phat's th' row hier, Tony?" asked the policeman.
+
+"Th' ain't no row as I can see," said the bar-keeper, "these gents is
+'aving a quiet drink w'en 'ees nibs there pips in an' calls fer a cop."
+
+"This is one of our engineers," explained the foreman, "and I was on the
+way to the station with him when these strikers took him away."
+
+"Begad, he's a bute," said the officer, folding his arms over his ample
+stomach and gazing with mirthful curiosity at the bum.
+
+"Now, ye's fellies must not interfere with men as wants to make an
+honest living--let th' ingineer go t' 'is ingine," and he gave Billy a
+shove that sent him into the arms of the waiting foreman.
+
+"What's it _to_ you," shouted the angry engine-driver, "who wants to
+work--who said I wanted t' make a' honest livin'?--Go t' 'ell," and he
+struck the foreman in the face.
+
+"Here! Here!!" cried the officer, seizing the fighter, "you'll go to
+work or go to jail," and Billy went away between the copper and the
+foreman with his wheels sliding.
+
+After much coaxing and cursing by the foreman, who was often asked to
+come out in the alley and settle it, Billy was loaded into an engine
+cab. While the foreman was selecting a fireman from the hard-looking
+herd of applicants sent down from the office of the master-mechanic, the
+gentle warmth of the boiler-head put Billy to sleep. It was a sound, and
+apparently dreamless sleep, from which he did not wake the while they
+rolled him from the engine, loaded him into a hurry-up wagon and
+carried him away to the cooler.
+
+When he had sobered up Greene went to the round-house and offered his
+services to the company, but the foreman would not talk to him. Finally
+Greene became abusive, and the foreman kicked him out of the round-house
+and across the turntable. From that day Greene was a striker, and a very
+troublesome one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTH
+
+
+Two weeks had passed when the Philosopher met Patsy, now in deep
+disgrace. Patsy had been expelled from the Brotherhood for aiding a
+scab. "O! it's nothing," said Patsy.
+
+"That's right. It won't be worth much to belong to the Union when this
+cruel war is over."
+
+"Only a fellow hates to get the worst of it when he really tries to tote
+fair."
+
+"The best you can get is the worst of it when you are bound by oath to
+an organization that is engaged in a hopeless fight. The president
+offered yesterday to take back seventy-five per cent. of the men, and
+immediately they said he was running. This morning the offer is for
+sixty per cent., but they won't have it. Have they offered to balm you
+with promotion?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Varnished cars, eh?"
+
+"Yep--finest train on the road."
+
+"And you told them?--"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, I think you did right. Shall we go and peck?"
+
+"Have you been working?"
+
+"No. I've been vag'd. When the police got through with me, and returned
+my pie-card I turned it in for a commutation ticket, and there are still
+a few feeds to the good on it. The commutation ticket is the proper card
+for a gentleman in straitened circumstances. You are not obliged to
+gorge yourself at early morn with a whole twenty-cent breakfast when all
+you really need is a cup of black coffee and a roll. Besides, when a man
+is not working he should not eat so much. I frequently edge in with a
+crowd of other gentlemen and procure a nice warm lunch at one of the
+beer saloons, omitting the beer. By the way, the free lunch room is a
+good place for the study of human nature. There you will see the poor
+working man fish up his last five cents to pay for a beer in order to
+get a hot lunch, and if you look closely, spot a two-by-four-shopkeeper,
+for instance, as he enters the front door, and keep your eye on him
+until he goes out again, you will observe that he hasn't lost a cent. A
+little dark man who runs a three-ball in La Salle Street makes a
+business of this, and of loaning money at fifty per cent. and seems to
+be doing quite well."
+
+When they had reached a "Kohlsaat" the two men sat down, or up, and when
+they had finished Patsy paid for the meal.
+
+"If you see a man who has wood to saw or a piano to tune or anything
+that isn't scabbin' I wish you'd give me a character and get me the
+job," said the Philosopher when they had reached the sidewalk.
+
+"You follow my smoke," said Patsy, after a moment's meditation, and he
+strolled down the crowded street, turning and twisting through the
+multitude like a man trying to lose a dog, but he couldn't lose the
+Philosopher. Presently he stepped in front of a big building, waited for
+his companion, and they went in together.
+
+"Mr. Stonaker," said Patsy when he had been admitted to the general
+manager's private office, "I have a favor to ask. I want you to give a
+friend of mine a job. He's a switchman, and a good trainman, but he will
+not take the place of a striker."
+
+"Can you vouch for his honesty, Patsy?" asked the official.
+
+"I think I can."
+
+"Very well, we want a reliable watchman here in the building; bring your
+friend in."
+
+When the Philosopher had been informed as to his new duties, and learned
+that he was to have charge of the entire building, he asked if Patsy had
+given his history.
+
+"I have vouched for you," said Patsy, a little embarrassed.
+
+The general manager pressed a button and when the stenographer came in
+instructed him to take the man's personal record, in accordance with a
+well-known rule. This information is intended chiefly as a guide to the
+management in notifying the relatives or friends of an employee in case
+of accident or death. The manager did the questioning and when the man
+had given his name and declared that he had no relatives, no home, no
+friends--except Patsy--the official showed some surprise and asked:
+
+"Where did you work last?"
+
+"In the workhouse."
+
+"When?" queried the general manager, casting a quick glance at Patsy,
+who was growing nervous.
+
+"'Bout a year ago now."
+
+"At what particular place have you lived or lodged since that time?"
+
+"In jail."
+
+"What were you in jail for?"
+
+"Stealing a meal-ticket, this coat and cap from Patsy."
+
+"I gave the things to him, sir," said Patsy, "and he was discharged."
+
+"Where have you been living since you left the workhouse?"
+
+"In the streets and in the fields."
+
+"Do you drink?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that an experienced yardman, strong and
+intelligent as you appear to be, can sink so low without being a
+drunkard?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you have been foreman in the Buffalo yards? What else have you
+been?"
+
+"A Union man, tramp, bum, vag, thief, and a scab."
+
+"Huh!" said the general manager, pushing out his lips, "is this your
+notion of a reliable man, Patsy?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I still vouch for him."
+
+The general manager looked puzzled. "But you could hardly expect me to
+employ, in a responsible position, a self-confessed criminal?"
+
+"And yet," said the Philosopher, "if I had lied to you I might have
+gained a good place, but having told the truth I suppose I must go."
+
+The general manager, who had left his seat, began to pace the floor.
+
+"It may be possible for an honest man to be a tramp--even a vag, but why
+did you steal?"
+
+"For the same reason that I took the place of a striker the other
+day--because I was hungry," said the Philosopher looking the general
+manager full in the face.
+
+"But what brought you to this condition? that's what I want to know,"
+said the official earnestly. "And if you can explain that, you can have
+the place, provided you really want to reform."
+
+"I'm not so anxious to reform," said the Philosopher. "What I want is a
+show to earn an honest living, and let the balance of the world reform.
+But if you want to know what brought me to my present condition I can
+tell you--this is the instrument." And the man lifted from the manager's
+desk a slip of paper, full of names, across the top of which was printed
+"Black List."
+
+"It's the blight of the black-list that is upon me, sir, and it gives me
+pleasure to be able to present to you a sample of the class of citizens
+you and your associates are turning out," said the Philosopher with much
+feeling, and he turned to go.
+
+"Stay," said Patsy. "Mr. Stonaker, you told me yesterday that if I ever
+needed your assistance in any way to make my wants known."
+
+"And do you still vouch for this man?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Very well, then--he can have the place!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINTH
+
+
+Mr. Hawkins had been in his new lodgings nearly a week and had
+frequently discussed the strike with the great labor leader, when he
+made bold one evening to state that he had no use for the Brotherhood
+and that he had it from inside sources that a number of the old
+engineers were going to return to work, and that the strike would soon
+be a thing of the past, as would the comfortable jobs that the strikers
+had left.
+
+Cowels, of course, was indignant, but he was interested. Mr. Hawkins had
+expected as much.
+
+"I'm going out firing myself," he went on, "and I'm promised promotion
+as soon as I can start and stop. If I had your experience and your
+ability, generally, I could get the best run on the road with a cinch on
+a job as M. M. at the first opening. A good man who goes to the
+company's rescue now won't want for anything. If he's hard up he can
+get all the money he needs--that is a few hundred at least--advanced to
+him."
+
+Cowels listened attentively.
+
+Mr. Hawkins lighted a fresh ten-cent cigar and gave one to his landlord.
+
+"Of course, it's different with you," resumed the lodger, "you own your
+home and have saved your money, perhaps, but a whole lot of the strikers
+are being pinched and they're going to weaken. They'll be cursed a
+little bit by the Brotherhood, but the public is dead against the
+strikers--read the Chicago papers to-day."
+
+"But the papers are owned body and soul by the Burlington," said Cowels.
+
+"Well, what do you fellows own? That only shows which is the winning
+side. You take my advice and let go while you've got plenty."
+
+"Plenty?" echoed Cowels. "Do you suppose I'd take a stranger into my
+home--do you think for a minute that I would sit here and let you talk
+to me as you have done if I could help myself? Plenty! I'm a beggar."
+
+Hawkins knew that, but he expressed surprise. When they had smoked in
+silence for a while the plumber handed an unsealed letter to his
+landlord and watched his face closely as he read it.
+
+The letter was from one of the Burlington officials and it stated
+plainly that the bearer was empowered to make terms with the gentleman
+addressed looking to his return to the service of the company.
+
+Mr. Cowels was very indignant, at first, but finally consented to
+discuss the matter. Mr. Hawkins was very cool, explaining that it made
+no difference with him one way or the other. The official happened to be
+a personal friend of his and had trusted him with this commission. "If
+you ask my advice," said the plumber, "I should say take whatever they
+offer and go to work. No man can hold out against such odds for any
+great length of time; sooner or later you will be as hard up as the
+rest, your wife will be in need of the actual necessaries of life, your
+children will be crying for food, and how can you answer them if you let
+this opportunity pass? To-morrow, I am told, is to be the last day of
+grace, so you might better heel yourself and let the Brotherhood walk
+the floor for a while. The probabilities are that the strike will simply
+be declared off, the old employees to be taken back only as their
+services are required, and as new men. Every day that passes adds to the
+strength of the company. Labor organizations, like bands of Indians, are
+ever at each other's throats. When the Knights of Labor struck on the
+Reading those haughty aristocrats of the working world, the Engineers'
+Brotherhood, took their places, and now the Knights of Labor engineers
+are coming here in carload lots to fill the cabs of the Burlington. If
+the engineers were offered their old places back to-day they would bolt
+for the round-house nor cast one longing, lingering look for their old
+friends. Finally, when the strike is settled it will be by the
+engineers. If it is to be declared off, the unconditional surrender of
+all the forces will be made by them. If the terms of settlement suit
+them, your followers will take their medicine and look pleasant. Bring
+the matter nearer home,--to your own experience. You have given your
+time, neglected your family, and worked unceasingly for the advancement
+of the cause. Your eloquence, your genius and your influence have held
+the men in line when they have wavered and would have broken, and what
+has your own order done for you, and what will it do at the coming
+convention? They have guyed you in public and they will throw you down
+hard when the time comes. It's nothing to me, only I hate to see a good
+man turned down. I dislike to see real talent and personal worth wasted
+upon a lot of loud-mouthed, uneducated coyotes who don't know who
+Shakespeare is. You're too big a man, Cowels, that's the trouble;
+you're out of your sphere. When you are master-mechanic, with your hands
+full of promotions, they will look up to you, and it is all within easy
+reach. If you will report for duty to-morrow morning you can go out on
+Blackwings to-morrow night, with the Denver Limited, the finest train in
+the West, behind you. The best run on the road will be the meanest
+position you will ever be asked to fill. But I must say no more, for I
+don't want to persuade you to take a step which you might regret in
+after years. I only ask you to think it over to-night and choose between
+what you call loyalty to the Brotherhood, and your plain duty to your
+family--Good-night."
+
+Hawkins possessed, in a remarkable degree, the rare faculty of knowing
+how and when to let go.
+
+When Cowels had made the foregoing facts known to his wife, she was
+greatly surprised that he would entertain such a proposition for the
+smallest fraction of a second, for she had always regarded him as the
+soul of honor, and wholly unselfish. Now each pondered in silence over
+the proposition. From her point of view it was a choice between the
+Brotherhood and her home. Between temporary disgrace for her husband,
+and hunger for her children, and she was not long in making up her mind.
+The baby had been without milk that day. It had gone to bed hungry for
+the first time in its life, and the thought of it made her desperate.
+
+To Cowels's way of reasoning it was simply a question of choice between
+the position of master of the Brotherhood and master-mechanic. Which was
+nearest, and which would last longest and pay best? These were the
+points he was considering, and he chose what appeared to him to be the
+surest and quickest way. To be sure, he suffered not a little at the
+thought of deserting his comrades, but his personal ambition and
+selfishness helped him to determine to report on the following morning,
+and to go out with the fast express behind him on the following night.
+He tried not to think of the Brotherhood, and to fashion to himself the
+glory of success, of fast runs with Blackwings, and future promotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TENTH
+
+
+The night winds moaned among the empty freight cars. The arc lamps
+hummed and sputtered, making the flying frost look like diamond dust
+dropping from the grinding stars. Out of a shadowy alley a bent man
+crept, crouching under the snow-hung eaves. Far down the track, at a
+crossing, the man saw the flash of a helmet and the glint of brass
+buttons, and dodged among the cars. The man had committed no crime
+against the law, but he was willing to, and so avoided the silent
+guardian of the peace, pacing his beat. Beyond the track he came to the
+street door of a two-story building, struck a match, read the number on
+the transom, and entered the hall. At the top of the first flight of
+stairs a door stood open. Beneath a gas jet in the open room Dan Moran
+sat reading a book. He had heard the unsteady footsteps on the stair,
+but had not allowed them to disturb him. Now the prowler paused,
+steadied himself against the door-jamb, coughed, hiccoughed, hello'd in
+a whisper, and Moran looked up.
+
+"Well, Greene," said Dan, "what brings you abroad on a night like this?"
+
+"Business!" was the half-whispered reply, "Business, ol' man."
+
+Now the rum-crazed rambler left the door, put a trembling hand on the
+table in the centre of the room, glanced back toward the stairs, and
+peered into the face of the old engineer. "We are betrayed!" he
+whispered, leaning heavily upon the stand. His wrist shook violently,
+causing the table to quiver. The smoking outfit upon the table made a
+low, rumbling noise. "What's that?" he asked, glaring about.
+
+Having satisfied himself that all was right he put both hands upon the
+table, and gazing again into the face of Moran, repeated: "We are
+betrayed. Cowels is goin' out with Blackwings on the Denver Limited
+to-morrow night. The plumber told the foreman an hour ago--I heard 'im.
+Least they think he's goin', but he ain't. He's goin' to--"
+
+"Oh, Greene, you're drunk. Go home and have a good sleep."
+
+"Home! Did you say home? I ain't got no home. Drunk? Yes, I been drunk
+lots o' times, but I ain't drunk now. Honest, I ain't teched a drop
+to-day. Got a bot about you, ol' man? Say, if you have, fur th' love o'
+life gimme a drop--half a drop--Dan, I'm all afire inside."
+
+It was an awful picture that Moran looked upon now. The bloated face,
+the sunken, blood-shot eyes, the blazing, hideous nose, burning in the
+iron-gray stubble, all topped by a shock of tousled, unkempt hair, made
+a picture horrible in the extreme.
+
+"Say!" Greene began again, glancing toward the door, "meet me at seven
+thirty to-morrow night, on the 'rep' track near the round-house, an'
+I'll show you a trick."
+
+"What sort of trick will you show me?"
+
+With another look over his shoulder at the door the drunkard leaned
+over the table and whispered. When the old engineer had gathered what
+the man had said he got to his feet, took his midnight caller by the
+collar and lead him to the top of the stairs. Greene was opposed to
+leaving the cheerful room, so Moran was obliged to go with him to the
+street door. Having put the wreck out into the frosty night the engineer
+went back to his book. But he could not read. That awful face into which
+he had looked, and the black soul that he had seen as well, haunted him.
+He sat with his feet upon the table and smoked pipe after pipe, in a
+vain effort to drive the frightful picture from his mind. The news that
+Greene had brought disturbed him also. His fireman was going to desert
+the Brotherhood, and take their old engine out.
+
+Blackwings! How he loved that locomotive, and how absurd it seemed now
+for a man to become so attached to a mere machine! But she was not
+inanimate. She lived, moved, breathed. How often, as they swept beneath
+the stars of an autumn night, had he felt her hot breath upon his face,
+heard the steel singing beneath her feet and felt her tremble,
+responsive to his lightest touch. How wild and free and glad she had
+seemed, let loose in the moonlight with the Limited behind her. How
+gracefully, easily, she lifted the huge, vestibuled train from swale to
+swell. How she always passed station after station on the tick of the
+clock, keeping to the time-card, unvarying as the sun. Proud and
+queenly, yet gentle, she always answered the signals of the less
+fortunate locomotives that stood panting on the side tracks, with their
+heavy loads. Even the Meteor, the engine that wore white flags and
+pulled the president's private car, always took the siding and saluted
+Blackwings as she swept by majestically with the Limited.
+
+More than once Moran had refused promotion that would take him from his
+engine--from the open fields and free, wide world in which they lived
+and moved together--to the cares and anxieties of a stuffy office. He
+had been contented and happy with Blackwings, his books and his
+briar-root pipe. He did not share the troubles of his less fortunate
+brothers, who hugged and exaggerated their grievances until they became,
+to them, unbearable. But when they quit he climbed down, took off his
+overclothes, folded them carefully and carried them away with him. He
+had nothing to gain by the strike, but he had much to lose by remaining
+at his post--the confidence and respect of his fellow-toilers. Besides
+he, in common with the rest, regarded the classification of engineers as
+unfair to the men and to the travelling public. If a man were competent
+to handle a passenger train, said the strikers, he ought to have
+first-class pay. If he were incompetent he ought to be taken off, for
+thousands of lives were in the hands of the engineer during the three
+years through which, at reduced pay, he was becoming competent. These
+were the arguments advanced by the men. This business upon the one hand,
+and a deep longing upon the part of the management to learn just how far
+the men could go in the way of dictating to the officials, in fixing the
+load for a locomotive, and the pay of employees, caused the company,
+after years of sparing, to undertake the chastisement of the Brotherhood
+of Locomotive Engineers.[3]
+
+[3] _The Burlington officials claim that, by resolutions in the lodge
+room at Lincoln, the engineers fixed the load for certain classes of
+engines, together with the penalty for pulling more. They argue that if
+allowed to do this the men would want to make the time-cards and fix
+freight rates. They certainly had as much right to do the one as the
+other._
+
+It is to be presumed that the generals, colonels and captains in the two
+armies fought for what they considered right. At all events they were
+loyal and obedient to their superiors. But each had found a foe vastly
+more formidable than had been expected. They had not dreamed that the
+fight could become so bitter. Life-long friends became enemies. Family
+ties were severed, homes were ruined, men's lives were wrecked, women's
+hearts were broken, and out of the shadow of the awful strife came men
+fit for murder. It was these things that had kept Dan Moran awake far
+into the morning.
+
+Presently he heard a whistle, opened his eyes, looked at his watch and
+then undressed and went to bed, while other workmen, more happily
+situated, passed under his window on the way to work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVENTH
+
+
+"Brush the snow off the headlight!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Brush the snow off the headlight!"
+
+It was the first time the engineer had spoken to the fireman since they
+left Chicago. When they crossed the last switch and left the lights of
+the city behind them he had settled down in his place, his eyes, with a
+sort of dazed look in them, fixed upon the front window. The snow was
+driving from the north-west so hard that it was impossible for the
+engineer, even when running slowly through the country towns, to put his
+head outside the cab, and now they were falling out into the night at
+the rate of a mile a minute.
+
+It was Barney Guerin's first trip as a fireman. He was almost exhausted
+by the honest effort he had been making to keep the engine hot, and now
+he looked at the engineer in mingled surprise and horror. He could not
+believe that the man expected him to go out over the wet and slippery
+running-board to the pilot and wipe the snow from the headlight glass.
+He stood and stared so long that the fire burned low and the pointer on
+the steam gauge went back five pounds. For the next two or three minutes
+he busied himself at the furnace door, and when he finally straightened
+up, half-blinded by the awful glare of the fire-box, half-dazed by being
+thrown and beaten against the sides of the coal tank, the engineer said:
+
+"Brush the snow off the _headlight_!"
+
+The fireman opened the narrow door in front of him and the storm came in
+so furiously that he involuntarily closed it again. Again he tried and
+again was beaten back by the wind. Pulling his cap tight down he faced
+about and stepped out with his back to the storm. Holding to the hand
+railing he worked his way to the front end. One sweep of his gloved hand
+swept the snow away and the great glare of the headlight flashed up the
+track.
+
+"My God! how she rolls!" exclaimed the engineer.
+
+And she did roll.
+
+Never before in the history of the road had the Denver Limited been
+entrusted to a green crew, for the engineer was also making his maiden
+trip. The day coach was almost empty. In the chair car, with four chairs
+turned together, the newly-made conductor, the head brakeman, a country
+editor, and the detective sent out to spot the crew, played high five.
+The three or four passengers in the sleeper were not asleep. They were
+sitting silently at the curtained windows and occasionally casting
+anxious glances at the Pullman conductor who seemed to be expecting
+something to happen. Where were all the people who used to travel by
+this splendid train? The road was now considered, by most people, as
+unsafe and the people were going round it. Public opinion, at the
+beginning of the strike, was about equally divided between the men and
+the company. Now and then a reckless striker or sympathizer would blow
+up a building, dope a locomotive or ditch a train, and the stock of the
+strikers would go down in the estimation of the public. Burlington stock
+was falling rapidly--the property was being wrecked.
+
+On nearly every side track could be seen two or three dead engines that
+had been ruined and abandoned by amateur engine-drivers, and now and
+then at way-stations the smouldering ruins of a freight train, whose
+blackened skeleton still clung to the warped and twisted track. At every
+station great crowds of people blocked the platforms, for the Limited
+had not been able to leave Chicago for more than a month. The engineer
+had scarcely touched the whistle, deeming it safer to slip quietly
+through the night, and the light train was now speeding noiselessly over
+the snow-muffled earth. They had left Chicago two hours late, and as
+they had a clear track, so far as other trains were concerned, the
+young driver was letting her go regardless of danger. At any moment they
+might expect to be blown into eternity, and it was just as safe at
+seventy miles an hour as at seventeen.
+
+Besides, George Cowels was desperate. For five long years he had fired
+this run with the same locomotive. He knew all her tricks and whims, her
+speed and power, and the road was as familiar to him as was his mother's
+face. He knew where the "old man" used to cut her back and ease off on
+the down grades. He knew that he ought to do the same, but he did not.
+"Let her roll," he would say to himself; and she did roll, and with
+every swing the bell sounded a single note, low and mournful, like a
+church bell tolling for the dead. It seemed to the unhappy engineer that
+it tolled for him, for that day he had died to all his friends.
+
+Although he had only been out a little over an hour now, he knew that in
+that hour the story of his desertion had flashed out to every division
+of the various brotherhoods in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and
+that a hundred thousand men and women would curse him that night before
+they slept. He recollected what a vigorous striker he had been in the
+beginning, how he had shouted, "Put him out" when the grand master had
+said: "We are fighting a losing fight." He recalled with some bitterness
+that their leader had looked him straight in the face when he added:
+"And you who fight hardest here will be first to fall."
+
+Then the face of his ten-year-old boy rose up before him, as it had
+appeared from the street as he was leaving his home that evening, all
+bruised and bleeding, with soiled and torn clothes, and he heard the
+brave child's explanation: "Mamma, I wouldn't 'ave fit, but Dugan's boy
+said my papa was a scab."[4]
+
+[4] _The reader must pardon the use of this vulgar word, for we must use
+it here or spoil this story._
+
+Ordinarily it would require a great deal of "sand" to enable a man to
+take out a train of this kind and run at such a high rate of speed
+through a country full of anarchy, but in Cowels's case it required
+nothing in the way of bravery. The great sacrifice he had made in
+abandoning all that he held to be honorable,--the breaking of his vow,
+the violation of his oath, had left him utterly indifferent to personal
+danger.
+
+It will be difficult for those unacquainted with the vast army of daily
+toilers to appreciate the sufferings of this youthful engine-driver. A
+king, who in a night's debauch loses an empire, loses no more than the
+man who abandons all that he holds sacred. The struggles and
+disappointments of the poor mean as much to them as similar sorrows mean
+to the rich. The heart of a Bohemian milkmaid beats as wildly, aches as
+sorely and breaks as surely as does the heart of the proudest princess.
+This man and his wife, on the day they abandoned the cause of his
+comrades--of the Brotherhood of which he had been so proud, of whose
+strength he had boasted in many a crowded hall--made a great sacrifice.
+To stand disgraced in their little world was to be disgraced before all
+the people of all the earth, for in that world were the only people they
+knew and cared about.
+
+When the fireman returned to the cab he was almost overcome with terror.
+More than once, as he worked his way along the side of the rolling,
+plunging engine, he had nearly been dashed to death. The very machine,
+he fancied, was striving to shake him from her. Once he had lost his
+footing on the running board and only saved himself by clinging to the
+hand rail while the rolling steed beat and thrashed him against her iron
+side.
+
+"Never ask me to do that again," he shouted, as he shook his clenched
+fist at the engineer. The latter laughed, then asked:
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it is dangerous; I nearly lost my life."
+
+"And what if you had?" said the engineer, and he laughed again. "Why,
+don't you know that thousands would rejoice at the news of your death
+and scarcely a man would mourn? Don't you know that at thousands of
+supper-tables to-night, working men who could afford to buy an evening
+paper read your name and cursed you before their wives and children?
+Nearly lost your life! Poor, miserable, contemptible scab."
+
+"Never apply that name to me again!" shouted Guerin, and this time it
+was not his fist but the coal-pick he shoved up into the very face of
+the engineer.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it is dangerous; you nearly lost _your_ life."
+
+The engineer made no reply.
+
+"And what if you had?" the fireman went on, for it was his turn to talk
+now.
+
+"If my action makes me contemptible in the eyes of men, how much more
+contemptible must yours make you? I take the place of a stranger--you
+the place of a friend; a man who has educated you, who has taught you
+all you know about this machine. Right well I know how I shall be hated
+by the dynamiters who are blowing up bridges and burning cars, and I
+tell you now that it does not grieve me. Can you say as much? Here's a
+copy of the message that went out to your miserable little world
+to-night--read it, it will do you good. I fancy your friends will be too
+busy cursing you this evening to devote any time to mere strangers."
+
+Cowels took the message with a jerk, turned the gauge lamp to his corner
+and read:
+
+    The Denver Limited left to-night, two hours late, Fireman George
+    Cowels as engineer, and Time-keeper Guerin as fireman. Cowels is the
+    man who wanted the grand master thrown out of a hall in Chicago. He
+    was a great labor agitator and his desertion is a great surprise.
+
+    HOGAN.
+
+    _Later_--It is now understood that Cowels, the scab who went out on
+    engine Blackwings to-night, was bought outright by a Burlington
+    detective. This fact makes his action all the more contemptible. He
+    is now being burned in effigy on the lake front, and the police are
+    busy trying to keep an infuriated mob from raiding and burning his
+    house. The action of Guerin was no surprise, as he was employed in
+    the office of the master-mechanic, and has always been regarded as a
+    company man--almost as an official.
+
+    HOGAN.
+
+Guerin, having put in a fresh fire, stood watching the face of his
+companion, and when the engineer crumpled the message in his hand and
+ground his teeth together the fireman shoved another message under the
+nose of the unhappy man. This message was on the same subject, but from
+quite another source, and varied slightly from those we have just read.
+
+    OFFICIAL BULLETIN: _Burlington Route_
+
+    The Denver Limited went out on time to-night with a reasonably
+    well-filled train, Engineer Cowels in the cab. Mr. Cowels has been
+    many years in the service of the company and is highly esteemed by
+    the officials. Although he was, for a time, a prominent striker, he
+    saw the folly of further resistance on the part of the employees,
+    and this morning came to the company's office and begged to be
+    allowed to return to his old run, which request was granted. Cowels
+    is a thoroughly competent engineer and has been on this same run for
+    five years, and up to the time of the strike had never missed a
+    trip. It is expected that his return to his engine will be the
+    signal for a general stampede. The company has generously agreed to
+    reïnstate all old employees (unless guilty of some lawless act) who
+    return before noon to-morrow.
+
+    STONAKER.
+
+It would be difficult to say which of these dispatches distressed him
+most. The first said he had sold himself for so much money, the second
+that he had gone to the company and begged to be reïnstated. Slowly he
+opened the first crumpled message and read down to the word "scab."
+"George Cowels, the scab,--burned in effigy--a great mob about his
+house." All these things passed swiftly before him, and the thought of
+his wife and baby being in actual danger, his boy being kicked and
+cuffed about, almost made him mad. He crushed the crumpled messages in
+his right hand while with his left he pulled the throttle wide open. The
+powerful Blackwings, built to make time with ten cars loaded, leaped
+forward like a frightened deer. The speed of the train was now terrific,
+and the stations, miles apart, brushed by them like telegraph poles. At
+Mendota a crowd of men hurled sticks and stones at the flying train. As
+the stones hailed into the cab, and the broken glass rained over him,
+the desperate driver never so much as glanced to either side, but held
+his place, his hand on the throttle and his eye on the track. For the
+first time he looked at his watch. He was still more than an hour late.
+He remembered how the old engineer had said, an hundred times perhaps:
+"George, an express train should never be late; she should be on time or
+in the ditch."
+
+It was the first time Blackwings had ever been an hour late anywhere,
+and with all his greater sorrows this grieved the young engineer. Now at
+the way stations the crowd that awaited them invariably fell back as the
+wild train dashed by, or, if they hurled their missiles, those aimed at
+the locomotive struck the sleeper or flew across the track behind it, so
+great was the speed of the train. Cowels yielded at last to the
+irresistible desire to see how his companion was taking it, but as he
+bent his gaze in that direction it encountered the grinning face of the
+fireman, into which he threw the crumpled paper. Then, as he continued
+to grin, the infuriated engineer grabbed a hard-hammer and hurled it
+murderously at Guerin's head. The latter saved his life by a clever
+dodge, and springing to the driver's side caught him by the back of the
+neck and shoved his head out at the window and held it there. They were
+just at that moment descending a long grade down which the most daring
+driver always ran with a closed throttle. Blackwings was wide open, and
+now she appeared to be simply rolling and falling through space.
+Although we have no way of knowing how fast she fell, it is safe to say
+she was making ninety miles an hour. While the fireman held on to the
+engineer, squeezing and shaking away at the back of his neck, the speed
+of the train was increasing with every turn of the wheels. Gradually the
+resistance of the engineer grew feebler until all at once he dropped
+across the arm-rest, limp and lifeless. Guerin, finding himself alone
+on the flying engine, had presence of mind enough to close the throttle,
+but with that his knowledge of the locomotive ended. He reasoned that in
+time she must run down and stop of herself, and then the train crew
+would come forward and relieve his embarrassment. It never occurred to
+him for a moment that he might be regarded as a murderer, for he had
+only held the engineer down to the seat, with no more violence than boys
+use toward each other in play. And while he stood staring at the still
+form of the driver that hung out of the window like a pair of wet
+overalls, the engine rolled, the snow drifted deeper and deeper on the
+headlight, and with every roll the bell tolled! tolled!! like a church
+bell tolling for the dead. The train, slowing down, rolled silently over
+the shrouded earth, the fire in the open furnace blackened and died, the
+cold air chilled her flues and the stream of water from the open
+injector flooded the boiler of Blackwings and put the death-rattle in
+her throat. When at last the train rolled slowly into Galesburg the
+fireman stood on the deck of a dead locomotive, with snow on her
+headlight, and, as the crowd surged round him, pointed to the limp form
+of the young engineer that hung in the window, dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELFTH
+
+
+Judge Meyer's court was crowded when the three big policemen, formed
+like a football team, wedged their way into the building. In the centre
+of the "A" walked the prisoner, handcuffed and chained like a murderer.
+When they had arrived in front of the judge and the officers stepped
+back they left the prisoner exposed to the gaze of the spectators.
+Standing six feet two, strong and erect, he looked as bold and defiant
+as a Roman warrior, and at sight of him there ran a murmur through the
+court room which was promptly silenced by the judge.
+
+In response to the usual questions the prisoner said his name was Dan
+Moran, that his occupation was that of a locomotive engineer. He had
+been in the employ of the Burlington for a quarter of a century--ever
+since he was fifteen years old--but being one of the strikers he was now
+out of employment.
+
+"You are charged," said the clerk, "with trespassing upon the property
+of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, inciting a riot,
+attempting to blow up a locomotive and threatening the life of the
+engineer. How do you plead?"
+
+"Not guilty," said the old engine-driver, and as he said this he seemed
+to grow an inch and looked grander than ever.
+
+Being asked if he desired counsel the prisoner said he did not, that the
+whole matter could be explained by a single witness--an employee of the
+company.
+
+The company detective and the police officers exchanged glances, the
+judge coughed, the crowd of loafers shifted ballast and rested on the
+other foot. Only the prisoner stood motionless and erect.
+
+The detective, the first witness for the prosecution, testified that he
+had followed the prisoner into the yards from among the freight cars,
+watched him approach the engine Blackwings and talk with the engineer.
+He could not make out all that passed, but knew that the men had
+quarrelled. He had seen the prisoner stoop down and fumble about the
+air-pump on the engineer's side of the engine. He then rose and as he
+moved off made some threat against the life of the engineer and about
+"ditching" the train.
+
+Being asked to repeat this important part of his testimony, the witness
+admitted that he could not repeat the threat exactly, but he was
+positive that the prisoner had threatened the life of the engineer of
+the Denver Limited. He was positive that the last words uttered by the
+prisoner as he left the engine were these: "This train, by this time,
+ought to be in the ditch." The witness followed the statement with the
+explanation that the train was then nearly two hours late. "This," said
+the witness, still addressing the court, "was found in the prisoner's
+inside coat pocket," and he held up a murderous looking stick of
+dynamite. After landing the would-be dynamiter safely in jail the
+detective had hastened back to the locomotive, which was then about to
+start out on her perilous run, and had found a part of the fuse, which
+had been broken, attached to the air brake apparatus. This he exhibited,
+also, and showed that the piece of fuse found on the engine fitted the
+piece still on the dynamite.
+
+It looked like a clear case of intent to kill somebody, and even the
+prisoner's friends began to believe him guilty. Three other witnesses
+were called for the prosecution. The company's most trusted detective,
+and a Watchem man testified that the prisoner had, up to now, borne a
+good reputation. He had been one of the least noisy of the strikers and
+had often assisted the police in protecting the company's property. The
+master-mechanic under whom Dan Moran had worked as a locomotive engineer
+for twenty years took the stand and said, with something like tears in
+his voice, that Dan _had been_ one of the best men on the road. Being
+questioned by the company's attorney he gave it as his opinion that no
+dynamite was attached to the air-pump of Blackwings when she crossed the
+table, and that if it was there at all it must have been put there after
+the engine was coupled on to the Denver Limited. Then he spoiled all
+this and shocked the prosecuting attorney by expressing the belief that
+there must be some mistake.
+
+"Do you mean to say that you disbelieve this gentleman, who, at the risk
+of his life, arrested this ruffian and prevented murder?" the lawyer
+demanded.
+
+"I mean to say," said the old man slowly, "that I don't believe Dan put
+the dynamite on the engine."
+
+When the master-mechanic had been excused and was passing out Dan put
+out his hand--both hands in fact, for they were chained together--and
+the company's officer shook the manacled hands of the prisoner and
+hurried on.
+
+When the prosecution had finished, the prisoner was asked to name the
+witness upon whom he relied.
+
+"George Cowels," said the accused, and there ran through the audience
+another murmur, the judge frowned, and the standing committee shifted
+back to the other foot.
+
+"Your Honor, please," said the attorney rising, "we are only wasting
+time with this incorrigible criminal. He must know that George Cowels is
+dead for he undoubtedly had some hand in the murder, and now to show you
+that he had not, he has the temerity to stand up here and pretend to
+know nothing whatever about the death of the engineer. I must say that,
+quiet and gentle as he is, he is a cunning villain to try to throw dust
+in the eyes of the people by pretending to be ignorant of Cowels's
+death. I submit, your Honor, there is no use in wasting time with this
+man, and we ask that he be held without bail, to await the action of the
+grand jury."
+
+Dan Moran appeared to pay little or no attention to what the lawyer was
+saying, for the news of Cowels's death had been a great shock to him.
+The fact that he had been locked up over night and then brought from the
+jail to the court in a closed van might have accounted for his ignorance
+of Cowels's death, but no one appeared to think of that. But now,
+finding himself at the open door of a prison, with a strong chain of
+circumstantial evidence wound about him, he began to show some interest
+in what was going on.
+
+The judge, having adjusted his glasses, and opened and closed a few
+books that lay on his desk, was about to pronounce sentence when the
+prisoner asked to be allowed to make a statement.
+
+This the attorney for the company objected to as a waste of time, for he
+was satisfied of the prisoner's guilt, but the judge over-ruled the
+objection and the prisoner testified.
+
+He admitted having had the dynamite in his pocket when arrested, but
+said he had taken it from the engine to prevent its exploding and
+wrecking the locomotive. He said he had quarrelled with the engineer of
+Blackwings at first, but later they came to an understanding. He then
+gave the young runner some fatherly advice, and started to leave when he
+was arrested.
+
+Although he told his story in a straightforward honest way, it was, upon
+the face of it, so inconsistent that even the loafers, changing feet
+again, pitied the prisoner and many of them actually left the room
+before the judge could pronounce sentence. Moran was held, of course,
+and sent to jail without bail. He had hosts of friends, but somehow they
+all appeared to be busy that evening and only a few called to see him.
+
+One man, not of the Brotherhood, said to himself that night as he went
+to his comfortable bed: "I will not forsake the company, neither will I
+forsake Dan Moran until he has been proven guilty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEENTH
+
+
+While Dan Moran was being examined in Judge Meyer's ill-smelling court
+in Chicago a coroner's jury was sitting on the body of the dead engineer
+at Galesburg. Hundreds of people had been at the station and witnessed
+the arrival of the express train that came in with a dead engine, with
+snow on her headlight, and a dead engineer hanging out of the window.
+Hundreds of people could testify that this had happened, but none of
+them knew what had caused the death of the engine-driver. Medical
+experts who were called in to view the body could find no marks of
+violence upon it and, in order to get out of a close place without
+embarrassment, agreed that the engineer had died of heart failure. This
+information, having been absorbed by the jury, they gave in a verdict to
+that effect. If the doctors had said, "He died for want of breath," the
+verdict would no doubt have agreed perfectly with what the doctors
+said.
+
+After the train had arrived and the coroner was called and had taken the
+dead man from the engine, Barney Guerin had wandered into a small hotel
+near the station and engaged a room for the night. Being the only person
+on the engine at the time of the engineer's death, Guerin was very
+naturally attracting the attention of the railway officials, and calling
+about him, unconsciously, all the amateur detectives and newspaper
+reporters in the place. Fortunately for him, he was arrested, upon a
+warrant sworn out by the station agent, and lodged in jail before the
+reporters got at him. Here he was visited by a local lawyer, for the
+company, and instructed to say nothing whatever about the death of
+Cowels.
+
+Upon the announcement of the verdict of the coroner's jury the prisoner
+was released, and returned to Chicago by the same train that bore the
+remains of the dead engineer.
+
+Guerin, whose heart was as big as his body and as tender as a woman's,
+hastened to the home of his late companion and begged the grief-sick
+widow to allow him to be of some service to her. His appearance (she had
+known him by sight) excited her greatly for she knew he had been
+arrested as the murderer of her husband.
+
+The news he brought of the verdict of the coroner's jury, which his very
+presence corroborated, quieted her and she began to ask how it had all
+happened.
+
+Guerin began cautiously to explain how the engineer had died, still
+remembering the lawyer's advice, but before he had gone a dozen words
+the poor woman wept so bitterly that he was obliged to discontinue the
+sad story.
+
+Then came the corpse, borne by a few faithful friends--some of the
+Brotherhood and some of the railway company--who met thus on neutral
+ground and in the awful presence of death forgot their feud. Not an eye
+was dry while the little company stood about as the mother and boy bent
+over the coffin and poured out their grief, and the little girl, not old
+enough to understand, but old enough to weep, clung and sobbed at her
+mother's side.
+
+The next day they came again and carried Cowels away and buried him in
+the new and thinly settled side of the grave-yard, where the lots were
+not too high, and where for nearly four years their second son, a baby
+boy, had slept alone. Another day came and the men who had mixed their
+tears at the engineer's grave passed one another without a nod of
+recognition, and, figuratively speaking, stood again to their respective
+guns.
+
+One man had been greatly missed at the funeral, and the recollection
+that he had been greatly wronged by the dead man did not excuse him in
+the eyes of the widow. Dan Moran had been a brother, a father,
+everything to her husband and now when he was needed most, he came not
+at all. Death, she reasoned, should level all differences and he should
+forgive all and come to her and the children in their distress. At the
+end of a week this letter came:
+
+    _County Jail, ---- 1888._
+
+    _My dear Mrs. Cowels_:
+
+    _Every day since George's death I have wanted to write you to assure
+    you of my innocence and of my sympathy for you in this the hour of
+    your sorrow. These are dreadful times. Be brave, and believe me_
+
+    _Your friend,_
+    _Dan Moran._
+
+
+This letter, and the information it contained, was as great a surprise
+to Mrs. Cowels as the news of Cowels's death had been to Moran. She
+began at the beginning and read it carefully over again, as women always
+do. She determined to go at once to the jail. She was shrewd enough to
+say "Yes" when asked if the prisoner were related in any way to her, and
+was shortly in the presence of the alleged dynamiter. She did not find
+him walking the floor impatiently, or lying idly on his back counting
+the cracks in the wall, but seated upon his narrow bed with a book
+resting on his cocked-up knees, for, unlike most railway employees,
+Moran was a great reader.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Mrs. Cowels," he said in his easy, quiet way, as
+he arose and took her hand, "but sorry we are compelled to meet under
+such melancholy circumstances."
+
+At sight of their old friend her woman's heart sent forth a fresh flood
+of tears, and for some moments they stood thus with heads bowed in
+silent grief.
+
+"I'm sorry I can't offer you a chair," said the prisoner after she had
+raised her head and dried her eyes. "This only chair I have is wrecked,
+but if you don't mind the iron couch--" and then they sat down side by
+side and began to talk over the sad events of the past week.
+
+"Your presence here is a great surprise," began Moran, "and a great
+pleasure as well, for it leads me to hope that you believe me
+innocent."
+
+"How could I believe you otherwise, for I do not know now of what you
+are accused, nor did I know, until I received your note, that you were
+imprisoned."
+
+"But the papers have been full of--"
+
+"Perhaps," she said interrupting him, "but I have not looked at a paper
+since I read of the death of George."
+
+Here she broke down again and sobbed so that the guard outside the cell
+turned his back; and the old engineer, growing nervous, a thing unusual
+for him, decided to scold her.
+
+"You must brace up now, Nora,--Mrs. Cowels, and close your sand valve.
+You've got a heavy load and a bad rail, and you mustn't waste water in
+this way."
+
+"Oh! I shall never be able to do it, Dan, I shall die--I don't want to
+live and I shall die."
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort--women don't die so easy; thousands of
+others, not half as brave as you are, have made the same run, hard as it
+seems, and have come in on time. There are few sorrows that time will
+not heal. Engine-men are born to die, and their wives to weep over them
+and live on--you will not die."
+
+"But I--I _shall_ die," sobbed the woman.
+
+Before he could reply the door opened and an elderly man, plainly, but
+comfortably dressed, stood before them.
+
+Moran gave his hand to the newcomer in silence and it was taken in
+silence; then, turning to the veiled figure he said: "Mrs. Cowels, this
+is our master-mechanic."
+
+When the visitor had taken her hand and assured her of his sympathy,
+Moran asked them to be seated, and standing before them said:
+
+"Mrs. Cowels has just asked me why I am here, and I was at the point of
+replying when you came in. Now, with your permission I will tell her,
+for I am afraid, my friend, that you did not quite understand me that
+day in court. I am charged with trespassing upon the property of the
+Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company, inciting a riot
+(although there was no riot), attempting to blow up Blackwings and
+threatening to kill George Cowels."
+
+"Oh! how could they say such dreadful things?" said Mrs. Cowels, "and I
+suppose that you were not even on the company's ground!"
+
+"Oh yes, I was. I went to the engine, and quarrelled with George, just
+as the detective said I did, but we only quarrelled for a moment because
+George could not know why I came."
+
+"But you did not threaten to kill George?" said the woman excitedly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Tell me, Dan," said the master-mechanic, "had you that stick of
+dynamite when the detective arrested you? Tell us truly, for you are
+talking to friends."
+
+"There is something about the dynamite that I may not explain, but I
+will say this to you, my friends, that I went to the engine, not to kill
+Cowels, but to save his life, and I believe I did save it, for a few
+hours at least."
+
+Mrs. Cowels looked at the man, who still kept his seat on the narrow
+bed, as though she wished him to speak.
+
+"Dan," he began, "I don't believe you put that dynamite on the engine; I
+have said so, and if I don't prove it I am to be dismissed. That
+conclusion was reached to-day at a meeting of the directors of the road.
+I have been accused of sympathy with the strikers, it seems, before, and
+now, after the statement by the attorney that I used my influence to
+have you discharged after he had made out a clear case against you, I
+have been informed by the general manager that I will be expected to
+prove your innocence or look for another place.
+
+"I have been with the Burlington all my life and don't want to leave
+them, particularly in this way, but it is on your account, more than on
+my own, that I have come here to-night to ask you to tell the whole
+truth about this matter and go from this place a free man."
+
+"To do that I must become an informer, the result of which would be to
+put another in my place. No, I can't do that; I've nothing to do at
+present and I might as well remain here."
+
+"And let your old friend here be discharged, if not disgraced?" asked
+Mrs. Cowels.
+
+"No, that must not be," said Moran, and he was then silent for a moment
+as if trying to work out a scheme to prevent that disaster to his
+much-loved superior. "You must let me think it over," he said,
+presently. "Let me think it over to-night."
+
+"And let the guilty one escape," Mrs. Cowels added.
+
+"Some people seem to think," said Moran, with just a faint attempt at a
+smile, "that the guilty one is quite secure."
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Dan," she said, "you know I believe you."
+
+"And you, my friend?" he said as he extended his hand to the official.
+
+"You know what I believe," said the visitor; "and now good-night--I
+shall see you again soon."
+
+"I hope so," said Dan. "It is indeed very good of you to call, and of
+you, too," he added, as he turned to his fairer visitor. "I shall not
+forget your kindness to me, and only hope that I may be of some help to
+you in some way, and do something to show my appreciation of this visit
+and of your friendship. But," he added, glancing about him, "one can't
+be of much use to his friends shut up in a hole like this."
+
+"You can do me a great favor, even while in prison," she said.
+
+"Only say what it is and I shall try."
+
+"Tell us who put the dynamite on Blackwings."
+
+"I shall try," he said, "only let me have time to think what is best to
+do."
+
+"What is right is what is best to do," said Mrs. Cowels, holding out her
+hand--"Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," said the prisoner, "come again when you can, both of you."
+And the two visitors passed out into the clear, cold night, and when the
+prisoner had seen them disappear he turned to his little friend, the
+book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEENTH
+
+
+"Mr. Scouping of _The London Times_ would like to see you for a few
+minutes," said the jailor.
+
+"I don't care to see any newspaper man," said Moran, closing his book.
+
+"I knew that," said the jailor, "but this man is a personal friend of
+mine and in all the world there is not his equal in his chosen
+profession, and if you will see him just for a few minutes it will be a
+great favor to me. I feel confident, Dan, that he can be of service to
+you--to the public at least--will you see him?"
+
+The jailor had been extremely kind to the engineer and when he put the
+matter as a personal request, Moran assented at once and Mr. Scouping
+was ushered in. He was a striking figure with a face that was rather
+remarkable.
+
+"Now, what are you thinking about?" asked the visitor, as Moran held his
+hand and looked him full in the face.
+
+"Oh!" said the prisoner, motioning the reporter to a chair which the
+jailor had just brought in, "I was thinking what a waste of physical
+strength it was for you to spend your time pushing a pencil over a sheet
+of paper."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure. What were you thinking about?"
+
+"The trial of the robbers who held up the Denver Limited at Thorough-cut
+some eight or ten years ago. You look like the man who gave one of them
+a black eye, and knocked him from the engine, branding him so that the
+detectives could catch him."
+
+Moran smiled. He had been thinking on precisely the same subject, but,
+being modest, he did not care to open a discussion of a story of which
+he was the long-forgotten hero. "It strikes me," said Moran, "as rather
+extraordinary that we should both recall the scene at the same time."
+
+"Not at all," said the reporter. "The very fact that one of us thought
+of it at the moment when our hands and eyes met would cause the other to
+remember."
+
+"Perhaps you reported the case for your paper, that we saw each other
+from day to day during the long trial, and that I remembered your face
+faintly, as you remembered mine. Wouldn't that be a better explanation?"
+
+"No," said the journalist cheerfully. "I must decline to yield to your
+argument, and stick to my decision. What I want to talk to you about,
+Mr. Moran, is not your own case, save as it may please you, but about
+the mysterious death of Engineer Cowels."
+
+"I know less about that, perhaps, than any man living," said Moran
+frankly.
+
+"But you know the fireman's story?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, he claims that they were running at a maddening rate of speed,
+that he and the engineer had quarrelled as to their relative positions
+in the estimation of the public in general, the strikers in particular.
+Cowels threw a hammer at the fireman, whereupon Guerin, as he claims,
+caught the man by the left arm and by the back of the neck and shoved
+his head out of the window. The engineer resisted, but Guerin, who is
+something of an athlete, held him down and in a few moments the man
+collapsed."
+
+"How fast were they going?"
+
+"Well, that is a question to be settled by experts. How fast will
+Blackwings go with four cars empty?"
+
+"Ninety miles an hour."
+
+"How fast would she go, working 'wide open in the first notch,' as you
+people say, down Zero Hill?"
+
+"She would go in the ditch--she could hardly be expected to hold the
+rail for more than two minutes."
+
+"But she did hold it."
+
+"I don't believe it," said the old driver; "but if she did, she must
+have made a hundred miles an hour, and in that case the mystery of
+Cowels's death is solved--he was drowned."
+
+"But his clothes were not wet, and he was still in the window when they
+reached Galesburg."
+
+"I do not mean," said Moran, "that he was drowned in the engine-tank,
+but in the cab window--in the air."
+
+"That sounds absurd."
+
+"Try it," said the prisoner. "Get aboard of Blackwings, strike the
+summit at Zero Hill with her lever hooked back and her throttle wide
+open, let a strong man hold your head out at the window, and if she
+hangs to the rail your successor will have the rare opportunity of
+writing you up."
+
+"Do you mean that seriously?"
+
+"I do. If what you tell me is true, there can be no shade of doubt as to
+the cause of Cowels's death."
+
+"I believe," said the reporter, "that you predicted his death, or that
+the train would go in the ditch, did you not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I was not present at the examination, but it occurs to me that the man
+who claimed to be a detective, and who made the arrest, swore that you
+had made such a prediction."
+
+"Perhaps," said Moran. "The truth is when that fellow was giving his
+testimony I was ignorant of Cowels's death, upon whose evidence I hoped
+to prove that the fellow was lying wilfully, or that he had
+misunderstood me, and later, I was so shocked and surprised at the news
+of my old fireman's death that I forgot to make the proper explanation
+to the magistrate."
+
+"Why not make that explanation now? These are trying times and men are
+not expected to be as guarded in their action as in times of peace."
+
+"If you hope to learn from me that I had anything to do with Cowels's
+death, or with the placing of the dynamite upon the locomotive, I am
+afraid you are wasting your time. Suppose you are an army officer, the
+possessor of a splendid horse--one that has carried you through hundreds
+of battles, but has finally been captured by the enemy. You are fighting
+to regain possession of the animal with the chances of success and
+failure about equally divided, but you have an opportunity, during the
+battle, to slay this horse, thereby removing the remotest chance of ever
+having it for yourself again, to say nothing of the wickedness of the
+act,--would you do it?"
+
+"I should say not."
+
+"And yet, I venture to say," said the prisoner, "that there is no love
+for a living thing that is not human, to equal the love of a locomotive
+engineer for his engine. To say that he would wilfully and maliciously
+wreck and ruin the splendid steed of steel that had carried him safely
+through sun and storm is utterly absurd."
+
+"But what was it, Mr. Moran, that you said about the train going in the
+ditch?"
+
+"I have a little motto of my own," said the engineer, with his quiet
+smile, "which makes the delay of an express train inexcusable, and I was
+repeating it to George, as I had done scores of times before. It is that
+there are only two places for an express train; she should either be on
+time or in the ditch. It may have been rather reckless advice to a new
+runner, but I was feeling a mite reckless myself; but, above all the
+grief and disappointments (for the disgrace of my fireman's downfall was
+in a measure mine) arose the desire that Blackwings should not be
+disgraced; such is the love of the engineer for his engine."
+
+The old engineer had shown much feeling, more than was usual for him to
+display, while talking about his engine, and the reporter was impressed
+very favorably. "This has been most interesting to me," said the
+journalist; "and now I must leave you to your book, or to your bed,"
+and then the two men shook hands again and parted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was almost midnight when a closed carriage stopped at the general
+office of the Burlington Company, and the man who had been representing
+_The London Times_ stepped out.
+
+The Philosopher, who was still on duty, touched his cap and led the
+visitor to the private office of the general manager.
+
+"By Jove, Watchem," said the railway man, advancing to meet his visitor,
+"I had nearly given you up--what success?"
+
+"Well," said the great detective, removing his heavy coat, "I have had a
+talk with Moran. Why, I know that fellow; he is the hero of the
+celebrated Thorough-cut train robbery, and he ought to be wearing a
+medal instead of irons."
+
+"What! for attempting to blow up an engine?" asked the general manager.
+
+"He never did it," said the dark man positively. "He may know who did
+do it, but he will not tell, and he ought to be discharged."
+
+"He will never be until he is proved innocent," said the railroad man.
+
+"One of the conditions," began the detective deliberately, "upon which I
+took charge of this business was that I should have absolute control of
+all criminal matters and I am going to ask you to instruct the
+prosecuting attorney's office to bring this man before Judge Meyer
+to-morrow morning and ask that he be discharged."
+
+"The prosecuting attorney will never consent," said the general manager.
+"He believes the man guilty."
+
+"And what do I care for his opinion or his prejudice? What does it
+matter to the average attorney whether he convicts or acquits, so long
+as his side wins? Before we proceed further with this discussion, I want
+it distinctly understood that Dan Moran shall be released at once. The
+only spark of pleasure that comes into the life of an honest detective,
+to relieve the endless monotony of punishing the wicked, is the pleasure
+of freeing those wrongfully accused. Dan Moran is innocent; release him
+and I will be personally responsible for him and will agree to produce
+him within twenty-four hours at any time when he may be wanted."
+
+The general manager was still inclined to hold his ground, but upon
+being assured that the Watchem detective agency would throw the whole
+business over unless the demands of the chief were acceded to, he
+yielded, and after a brief conference the two men descended, the
+Philosopher closed the offices and went his way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEENTH
+
+
+Scores of criminals, deputies and strikers were rounded up for a hearing
+before Judge Meyer. So great was the crowd of defendants that little
+room was left for the curious. The first man called was a laborer, a
+freight handler, whose occupation had gone when the company ceased to
+handle freight. The charge against him was a peculiar one. His neighbor,
+a driver for one of the breweries, owned a cow, which, although she gave
+an abundance of milk at night, had ceased almost entirely to produce at
+the morning milking. The German continued to feed her and she waxed fat,
+but there was no improvement, and finally it was decided that the cow
+should be watched. About four A. M. on the following morning a small man
+came and leaned a ladder against the high fence between the driver's
+back-yard, and that of the laborer. Then the small man climbed to the
+top of the fence, balanced himself carefully, hauled the ladder up and
+slid it down in the Dutchman's lot. All this was suspicious, but what
+the driver wanted was positive proof, so he choked his dog and remained
+quiet until the man had milked the cow and started for the fence. Now
+the bull-dog, being freed from his master's grasp, coupled into the
+climber's caboose and hauled him back down the ladder. It was found upon
+examination that a rubber hot-water bag, well filled with warm milk, was
+dangling from a strap that encircled the man's shoulders, shot-pouch
+fashion.
+
+Upon being charged, the man pleaded guilty. At first, he said, he had
+only taken enough milk for the baby, who had been without milk for
+thirty-six hours. The thought of stealing had not entered his mind until
+near morning of the second night of the baby's fast. They had been up
+with the starving child all night, and just before day he had gone into
+the back-yard to get some fuel to build a fire, when he heard his
+neighbor's cow tramping about in the barn lot, and instantly it
+occurred to him that there was milk for the baby; that if he could
+procure only a teacupful, it might save the child's life. He secured a
+ladder and went over the fence, but being dreadfully afraid he had taken
+barely enough milk to keep the baby during the day and that night they
+were obliged to walk the floor again. It was only a little past midnight
+when he went over the fence for the second time. Upon this occasion he
+took more milk, so that he was not obliged to return on the following
+night, but another day brought the same condition of affairs and over
+the fence he went, and he continued to go every night, and the baby
+began to thrive as it had not done in all its life.
+
+Finally the food supply began to dwindle, he was idle, and his wife was
+unable to do hard work; they had other small children who now began to
+cry for milk, and the father's heart ached for them and he went over the
+fence one night prepared to bring all he could get. That day all the
+children had milk, but it was soon gone and then came the friendly night
+and the performance at the back fence was repeated.
+
+Emboldened by success the man had come to regard it as a part of his
+daily or nightly duty to milk his neighbor's cow, but alas! for the
+wrong-doer there comes a day of reckoning, and it had come at last to
+the freight handler. The freight agent who was called as a witness
+testified as to the good character of the man previously, but he was a
+thief. Put to the test it had been proven that he would steal from his
+neighbor simply to keep his baby from starving, so he went to the
+workhouse, his family went to the poor-house, and the strike went on.
+
+"If you were to ask who is responsible for this strike," said the
+philosophic tramp to Patsy, "which has left in its wake only waste,
+want, misery, and even murder, the strikers would answer 'the company';
+the company, 'the strikers'; and if Congress came in a private car to
+investigate, the men on either side would hide behind one another, like
+cattle in a storm, and the guilty would escape. The law intends to
+punish, but the law finds it so hard to locate the real criminals in a
+great soulless corporation, or in a conglomeration of organizations
+whose aggregate membership reaches into the hundreds of thousands, that
+the blind goddess grows weary, groping in the dark, and finally falls
+asleep with the cry of starving children still ringing in her ears."
+
+Now an officer brought engineer Dan Moran, the alleged dynamiter, into
+court for a special hearing. He wore no manacles, but stood erect in the
+awful presence of the judge, unfettered and unafraid.
+
+Mr. Alexander, the lawyer for the strikers, having had a hint from Billy
+Watchem, the detective, asked that the prisoner be discharged, but the
+young man who had been sent down from the office of the prosecuting
+attorney, being behind the procession, protested vigorously. In the
+midst of a burning argument, in which the old engineer was unmercifully
+abused, the youthful attorney was interrupted to receive a message from
+the general manager of the Burlington route. Pausing only long enough to
+read the signature, the orator continued to pour his argument into the
+court until a second messenger arrived with a note from his chief. It
+was brief and he read it: "Let go; the house is falling in on you"; and
+he let go. It was a long, hard fall, so he thought he would drop a
+little at a time. The court was surprised to see the attorney stop short
+in what he doubtless considered the effort of his life, and ask that the
+prisoner be released on bail. Now the prosecuting attorney glanced at
+Mr. Alexander, but that gentleman was looking the other way. "Does that
+proposition meet with the approval of the eminent counsel on the other
+side?"
+
+"No," said the other side.
+
+"Then will you take the trouble to make your wishes known to the court?"
+
+"No, you will do that for me," said the eminent counsel, with a coolness
+that was exasperating. "It would be unsafe to shut off such a flow of
+eloquence all at once. Ask the court, please, to discharge the
+prisoner."
+
+"Never," said the young lawyer, growing red to the roots of his
+perfectly parted hair. The counsel for the defence reached over the
+table and flipped the last message toward the lawyer, at the same time
+advising the young man to read it again. Then the young man coughed, the
+old lawyer laughed, the judge fidgeted on his bench, but he caught the
+prayer of the youthful attorney, it was answered, and Dan Moran received
+his freedom.
+
+"Do you observe how the law operates?" asked the Philosopher, who had
+been the bearer of the message from the general manager, of Patsy Daly
+as they were leaving the court.
+
+"I must confess," said Patsy, "that I am utterly unable to understand
+these things. Here is a lawyer abusing a man--an honest man at
+that--unmercifully, and all of a sudden he asks the court to discharge
+the prisoner. It's beyond me."
+
+"But the side play! Didn't you get on to the message that blackguard
+received? He had a hunch from the prosecuting attorney who had been
+hunched by the general manager, who, as I happened to know, was
+severely, but very successfully hunched by Billy Watchem, to the effect
+that this man was innocent and must be released. It was the shadow-hand
+of old 'Never Sleep,' that did the business and set an innocent man
+free, and hereafter, when I cuss a copper I'll say a little prayer for
+this man whose good deeds are all done in the dark, and therefore
+covered up."
+
+"Thank you," said Patsy, "I should never have been able to work it out
+myself."
+
+"Well, it is not all worked out yet," said the Philosopher, "and will
+not be until we come up for a final hearing, in a court that is
+infallible and unfoolable; and what a lot of surprises are in store for
+some people. It is not good to judge, and yet I can't help picturing it
+all to myself. I see a sleek old sinner, who has gone through this life
+perfectly satisfied with himself, edging his way in and sidling over
+where the sheep are. Then in comes this poor devil who went to jail this
+morning--that was his first trip, but the road is easy when you have
+been over it once--and he, having been herding all along with the goats,
+naturally wanders over that way. Then at the last moment I see the Good
+Shepherd shooing the sleek old buck over where the goats are and
+bringing the milk-thief back with him, and I see the look of surprise on
+the old gentleman's face as he drops down the 'goat-chute.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEENTH
+
+
+In time people grew tired of talking and reading about the strike, and
+more than one man wished it might end. The strikers wished it too, for
+hundreds of them were at the point of starvation. The police courts were
+constantly crowded, and often overflowed and filled the morgue. Misery,
+disappointment, want, and hunger made men commit crimes the very thought
+of which would have caused them to shudder a year ago. One day a
+desolate looking striker was warming his feet in a cheap saloon when a
+well-dressed stranger came and sat near him and asked the cause of his
+melancholia.
+
+"I'm a striker," said the man; "and I have had no breakfast. More than
+that, my wife is hungry at home and she is sick, too. She's been sick
+ever since we buried the baby, three weeks ago. All day yesterday I
+begged for work, but there was nothing for me to do. To-day I have
+begged for money to buy medicine and food for her, but I have received
+nothing, and now my only hope is that she may be dead when I go home
+to-night, empty-handed and hungry."
+
+The stranger drew his chair yet nearer to that of the miserable man and
+asked in a low tone why he did not steal.
+
+"I don't know how," said the striker, looking his questioner in the
+face. "I have never stolen anything and I should be caught at my first
+attempt. If not, it would only be a question of time, and if I must
+become a thief to live we might as well all die and have done with it.
+It'll be easier anyway after she's gone, and that won't be long; she
+don't want to live. Away in the dead of night she wakes me praying for
+death. And she used to be about the happiest woman in the world, and one
+of the best, but when a mother sits and sees her baby starve and die, it
+is apt to harden her heart against the people who have been the cause of
+it all. I think she has almost ceased to care for me, for of course she
+blames me for going out with the strikers, but how's a man to know what
+to do? If I could raise the price I think I'd take a couple of doses of
+poison home with me and put an end to our misery. She'd take it in a
+holy minute."
+
+"Don't do that," said the stranger, dabbing a silk handkerchief to his
+eyes, one after the other. "And don't steal, for if you do once you will
+steal again, and by and by you'll get bolder and do worse. I've heard
+men tell how they had begun by lifting a dicer in front of a clothing
+store, or stealing a loaf of bread, and ended by committing murder. They
+can't break this way always--brace up."
+
+The switchman went over to the bar where a couple of non-union men were
+shaking dice for the drinks. He recognized one of them as the man who
+had taken his place in the yards, but he scarcely blamed him now.
+Perhaps the fellow had been hungry, and the striker knew too well what
+that meant. Presently, the switchman went back to the stove and began
+to button his thin coat up about his throat.
+
+"I'm dead broke myself," said the well-dressed stranger, "but I'm going
+to help you if you'll let me."
+
+As the striker stared at the stranger the man took off a sixty-dollar
+overcoat and hung it over the switchman's arm. "Take it," he said, "it's
+bran new; I just got it from the tailor this morning. Go out and sell it
+and bring the money to me and I'll help you."
+
+When the striker had been gone a quarter of an hour the well-dressed man
+strolled up to the bar and ordered a cocktail. Fifteen minutes later he
+took another drink and went out in front of the saloon. It was cold
+outside and after looking anxiously up and down the street the
+philanthropist reëntered the beer-shop and warmed himself by the big
+stove. At the end of an hour he ordered another dose of nerve food and
+sat down to think. It began to dawn upon him that he had been "had," as
+the English say. Perhaps this fellow was an impostor, a professional
+crook from New York, and he would sell the overcoat and have riotous
+pastime upon the proceeds.
+
+"The wife and baby story was a rank fake--I'm a marine," said the
+well-dressed man taking another drink. It seemed to him that the task of
+helping the needy was a thankless one, and he wished he had the overcoat
+back again. He had been waiting nearly two hours when the switchman came
+in. "I had a hard time finding a purchaser," explained the striker, "and
+finally when I did sell it I could only get twelve dollars and they made
+me give my name and tell how I came to have such a coat. I suppose they
+thought I had stolen it and I dare say I looked guilty for it is so
+embarrassing to try to sell something that really doesn't belong to you,
+and to feel yourself suspected of having stolen it."
+
+"And you told them that a gentleman had given the coat to you to sell
+because he was sorry for you?"
+
+"Yes, I gave them a description of you and told them the place."
+
+"That was right," said the gentleman, glancing toward the door. "Here
+are two dollars; come back here to-morrow and I'll have something more
+for you--good-by." And the philanthropist passed out by a side door
+which opened on an alley.
+
+The striker gripped the two-dollar bill hard in his hand and started for
+the front door. All thought of hunger had left him now, and he was
+thinking only of his starving wife, and wondering what would be best for
+her to eat. Two or three men in citizens' dress, accompanied by a
+policeman, were coming in just as he was going out, but he was looking
+at the money and did not notice them. "There goes the thief," said one
+of the men, and an officer laid a heavy hand on the striker's shoulder.
+The man looked up into the officer's face with amazement, and asked
+what the matter was.
+
+"Did you sell an overcoat to this gentleman a little while ago?" asked
+the policeman.
+
+"Yes," said the striker glancing down at the two dollars he still held
+in his hand.
+
+"Und yer sthold dot coats fum mine vindo'," said a stout man shoving his
+fist under the switchman's nose.
+
+"A gentleman gave me the coat in this saloon," urged the striker. "Why,
+he was here a moment ago."
+
+"Ah! dot's too tin," laughed the tailor, "tak' 'im avay, Meester
+Bleasman, tak' 'im avay," and the miserable man was hurried away to
+prison.
+
+That night while the switchman sat in a dark cell his young wife lay
+dying of cold and hunger in a fireless room, and when an enterprising
+detective came to search the house for stolen goods on the following
+morning, he found her there stiff and cold.
+
+Of course no one was to blame in particular, unless it was the
+well-dressed gentleman who had "helped" the striker, for no one, in
+particular, was responsible for the strike. It may have been the company
+and it may have been the brotherhood, or both, but you can't put a
+railroad company or a brotherhood in jail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH
+
+
+Mr. Watchem's plumber, as might have been expected, had the good taste
+to leave his modest lodgings after the downfall and death of his
+landlord, and now the widow was left alone with her two children. She
+was a gentle soul, who had always been esteemed by her neighbors, but
+since her husband's desertion to the enemy, she had been shamefully
+slighted. One would have thought that her present helpless condition
+would have shielded her from such slights, but it did not.
+
+A few dollars still remained from the last rent money received from the
+plumber, who always paid in advance, and upon this she lived for a week
+or more after the death of her husband. She wondered how long it would
+be before the Benevolent Building Association would sell the house, and
+then how long before they would put her and the children into the
+street. Upon visiting the undertaker she was surprised to learn that
+all the expenses of her husband's funeral had been paid. It must have
+been done by the company, since, having left the Brotherhood, her
+husband could have had no claim upon the organization. Well, she was
+glad it was paid, for the road that led into the future was rough and
+uncertain.
+
+One evening, when the baby had gone to sleep and the lone widow was
+striving to entertain little Bennie, and at the same time to hide her
+tears from him, for he had been asking strange questions about his
+father's death, the bell rang and two of the neighbors came in. They
+were striking firemen and she knew them well. One of the men handed her
+a large envelope with an enormous seal upon it. She opened the letter
+and found a note addressed to her and read it:
+
+
+     _Dear Mrs. Cowels:_
+
+     _Although your husband had deserted us, he had not been expelled,
+     but was still a member in good standing at the moment of his
+     death, and therefore legally entitled to the benefits of the order.
+     For your sake I am glad that it is so, and I take pleasure in
+     handing you a cheque for two thousand dollars, the amount of his
+     insurance, less the amount paid by the local lodge for funeral
+     expenses._
+
+     _Very truly yours_,
+     EUGENE V. DEBSON,
+     _Grand Secretary and Treasurer_.
+
+
+She thanked them as well as she could and the men tried to say it was
+all right, but they were awkward and embarrassed and after a few
+commonplace remarks withdrew.
+
+Mrs. Cowels sat for a long while looking at the cheque, turning it over
+and reading the figures aloud to Bennie and explaining to him what an
+enormous amount of money it was. And what a load had thus been lifted
+from the slender shoulders of this lone woman! Now she could pay off the
+mortgage and have nearly fourteen hundred dollars left. It seemed to her
+that that amount ought to keep them almost for a lifetime. This relief,
+coming so unexpectedly, had made her forget for the moment her great
+sorrow. She even smiled when telling Bennie how very rich they were, but
+when the boy looked up, with tears swimming in his big, blue eyes, and
+said, through the sobs that almost choked him: "But I'd ruther have papa
+back again," it pierced her heart and made the old wound bleed anew.
+
+Patsy Daly and his friend, the Philosopher, were at that moment
+approaching the Cowels's house where they lodged--they were room-mates
+now. They had seen the two men leaving the house, and having caught
+sight of the lonely woman and her child, stood looking beneath the
+window shade upon the pathetic scene. When they saw the official
+envelope, with the big, red seal, they readily guessed the errand of the
+men, for they knew the rules and ways of the Brotherhood, and that the
+dead engineer's family was entitled to the insurance upon his life.
+They saw the little mother smiling upon her boy, saw him turn a tearful
+face up to hers, and the change that came, and the look of anguish upon
+the unhappy woman's face touched them deeply. "O God!" said the
+Philosopher, laying a hand upon the shoulder of his friend, "if it be
+true that we, who are so wicked, must suffer for our sins, it is
+pleasant to feel that these martyrs--the millions of mothers whose
+hearts are torn in this world--will have a pleasant place in the world
+to come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH
+
+
+Mr. Watchem, chief of the famous Watchem detective agency, was pacing
+his private office. He was a heavy man with heavy features and a heavy,
+dark mustache, at which he tugged vigorously as he walked. In his left
+hand he carried a dozen or more sheets of closely written note paper.
+Presently the door opened, and a small man, slightly stooped, entered
+and removed his hat.
+
+"Is this your report, sir?" asked the chief.
+
+The man said it was.
+
+"And can you substantiate these charges? Mind you, if an innocent man
+suffers I shall hold you accountable, do you understand?"
+
+"I understand, and I am willing to swear to that statement."
+
+"Have the men been arrested?"
+
+"They have, and are now on their way to Chicago."
+
+"They will probably be arraigned to-morrow morning," observed the great
+detective.
+
+"See that your witnesses are on hand--you may go now."
+
+When the small man had stolen softly out, down the stair and into the
+street, the chief detective descended, entered a closed carriage and was
+driven to his home.
+
+It was now past midnight, and all over the city printers were setting up
+the story of the arrest of a number of dynamiters on a Burlington train.
+The wires were singing it across the country, and cables were carrying
+to the ends of the earth the story of the disgrace and downfall of the
+Brotherhood.
+
+The headquarters of the strikers were crowded with a host of anxious
+men, unwilling to believe that their brothers had been guilty of so
+dastardly a crime.
+
+On the following morning, when the daily press had announced the arrest
+of the alleged dynamiters, the city was thrown into a fever of
+excitement, and thousands who had been in sympathy with the men now
+openly denounced them, and by so doing gave aid and encouragement to
+the company. The most conservative papers now condemned the strikers,
+while the editor of _The Chicago Times_ dipped his quill still deeper
+into the gallstand.
+
+Following close upon the heels of the arrest of these strikers came the
+sensational arrest of Mr. Hogan, director general of the strike, charged
+with conspiracy. The private secretaries of the strike committee turned
+out to have been all along in the employ of the Watchem detective
+agency, but the charges of conspiracy were never pushed. The men who
+were charged with having and using dynamite, however, were less
+fortunate. Two were imprisoned, one was fined, the others proved to be
+detectives, and of course were released.
+
+The effect of all this was very satisfactory to the company, and
+disheartening to the men.
+
+The daily meetings in the hall in town were less crowded, and the
+speeches of the most radical and optimistic members of the fraternity
+failed to create the old-time enthusiasm. The suits worn by the strikers
+were becoming shiny, and the suffering in hundreds of homes was enough
+to cause men to forget the commandments. The way cars and cabs of
+out-going freight trains were crowded with old Burlington men starting
+out to find work on other roads. They had been losing heart for some
+time, and now the shame and disgrace caused by the conviction of the
+dynamiters made them long to be away; to have a place in the world where
+they might be allowed to win an honest living, and forget the long
+struggle of which they had grown weary. Unlike the Philosopher, they
+were always sure of a ride, but they found that nearly all the roads in
+the country had all the men they needed to handle their trains. The very
+fact that a man had once been a Burlington engineer was a sufficient
+recommendation, and the fact that he had been a striker seems not to
+have injured him in the estimation of railway officials generally, but
+the main trouble was that there was no place for him.
+
+While the boycott on Burlington cars had kept all roads, not operating
+under a receiver, from handling Burlington business, it made it all the
+easier for the company to handle the little traffic that came to them
+and gave the road the appearance of running trains. All this was
+discouraging to the men, and at last, having exhausted all fair means,
+and some that were unfair, the strike was declared off. While the
+company refused to the last to accept anything short of unconditional
+surrender it is pleasing to be able to record here that the moment the
+men gave in the officials did all they could, consistent with the policy
+of the company and past events, to lessen the pain of defeat. The
+following letter, which was sent by the president to the vice-president
+and general manager, reminds us of the gentleness of Grant, in
+receiving the surrender of a brave and noble general:
+
+
+_Boston, Jan. 3, 1889._
+
+_To ----, Vice-President C. B. & Q. Railroad, Chicago._
+
+     _The company will not follow up, black-list, or in any manner
+     attempt to proscribe those who were concerned in the strike, but on
+     the contrary, will cheerfully give to all who have not been guilty
+     of violence, or other improper conduct, letters of introduction,
+     showing their record in our service, and will in all proper ways
+     assist them in finding employment._
+
+In making this letter known to the public the general manager said:
+
+"It is important that no question should arise as to the good faith of
+the company, and it is our desire and intention that there should be no
+opportunity for such question."
+
+He even offered to shield, as far as was consistent, those who, in the
+heat of the fight, had committed unlawful acts. He was a generous
+conqueror. It was humane, and manly, and noble in him to help those
+unfortunate ones who were now in so much need of help, and to protect
+them from the persecution of the few little-souled officials who were
+loath to stop fighting. It is all the more creditable because he was not
+bound to do it. He wrote: "While men who have been guilty of improper
+conduct during the late strike cannot be re-employed, and while we
+cannot give letters to them, no officer or employee should continue the
+animosities of the conflict after it is over, or interfere to prevent
+the employment of such men elsewhere."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEENTH
+
+
+At last the agony was over--at least the agony of suspense. The poor
+misguided men knew now that all hope had died. They would be re-employed
+when the company needed them, but it was January--the dullest month in
+the year. Every railroad in the West was laying men off. Hundreds of the
+new men were standing in line waiting for business to pick up, and this
+line must be exhausted before any of the old employees could be taken
+back. The management considered that the first duty of the company was
+to the men who had helped to win the strike. There was no disposition on
+the part of the officials to make it harder for the vanquished army.
+They admired the loyalty and self-sacrifice, though deploring the
+judgment of the mismanaged men; but they were only officers in an
+opposing army, and so fought the fight for the interest they
+represented, and for the principles in which they believed.
+
+Nothing in the history of the strike shows more conclusively that the
+men were out-generalled than the manner in which the company handled the
+press. It is not to be supposed for a moment that the daily papers of
+Chicago, with possibly one exception, willfully misrepresented the men,
+but the story of the strikers was never told. Mr. Paul, the accomplished
+"bureau of information," stood faithfully at the 'phone and saw that the
+public received no news that would embarrass the company or encourage
+the men. The cold, tired reporter found a warm welcome and an easy chair
+in Mr. Paul's private office, and while he smoked a fragrant cigar the
+stenographer brought in the "news" all neatly type-written and ready for
+the printer. Mr. Paul was a sunny soul, who, in the presence of the
+reporter laughed the seemingly happy laugh of the actor-man, and when
+alone sighed, suffered and swore as other men did. Mr. Paul was a
+genius. By his careful manipulation of the press the public was in time
+persuaded that the only question was whether the company, who owned the
+road, should run it, or whether the brotherhoods, who did not own it,
+should run it for them. Every statement given out by the company was
+printed and accepted, generally, as the whole thing, while only two
+papers in all the town pretended to print the reports issued by the
+strikers. The others cut them and doctored them so that they lost their
+point. But all is fair in love and war, and this was war--war to the
+knife and the knife to the hilt--so Mr. Paul should not be hated but
+admired, even by his foes. He was a brilliant strategist. Many there are
+who argue to this day that Mr. Paul won the strike for the company, but
+Mr. Paul says Watchem, the detective, did it. At all events they each
+earned the deathless hatred of the strikers. But, leaving this question
+open, the fact remains that the general in command--the now dead hero of
+that fierce fight--deserves a monument at the expense of American
+railroads, if, as American railroad managers argue, that war was an holy
+war.
+
+There had never been a moment when the management feared defeat. They
+had met and measured the amateur officials who were placed in command of
+the strikers. They were but children in the hands of the big brainy men
+who were handling the company's business. They could fire a locomotive,
+"ride a fly," or make time on the tick of the clock. They could awe a
+convention of car-hands or thrill an audience at a union meeting, but
+they had not the experience, or mental equipment to cope with the
+diplomatic officials who stood for the company. Their heads had been
+turned by the magnitude of their position. They established themselves
+at a grand hotel where only high-salaried railroad officials could
+afford to live. They surrounded themselves with a luxury that would have
+been counted extravagant by the minister of many a foreign land. They
+dissipated the strength of the Brotherhood and wasted their substance in
+high living. They had gotten into clothes that did not fit them, and,
+saddest of all, they did not know it. The good gray chief of the
+Brotherhood, who was perfectly at home in the office of a president or a
+general manager, who knew how to meet and talk with a reporter, who was
+at ease either in overalls or evening dress, was kept in the background.
+He would sell out to the company, the deep-lunged leaders said. He could
+not be trusted, and so from the men directly interested in the fight the
+strikers chose a leader, and he led them to inglorious defeat; though
+defeat was inevitable.
+
+At last, made desperate by the shadow of coming events, this man, so the
+officials say, issued a circular advising old employees to return to
+work and when out on the road to disable and destroy the company's
+locomotives, abandoning them where they were wrecked and ruined. The
+man accused of this crime declared that the circular was a forgery,
+committed by his secretary, who was a detective. But that the circular
+went out properly signed and sealed is beyond dispute, and in reply to
+it there came protests from hundreds of honest engine-drivers all up and
+down the land. The chief of a local division came to Chicago with a copy
+of the circular and protested so vigorously that he was expelled from
+the Brotherhood, to the Brotherhood's disgrace.
+
+Smarting under what he deemed a great wrong, he gave the letter into the
+hands of the officials, and now whenever he secures a position the road
+that employs him is forced to let him go again or have a strike. He is
+an outcast--a vagabond, so far as the union is concerned. Ah, the scars
+of that conflict are deep in the souls of men. The blight of it has
+shadowed hundreds of happy homes, and ruined many a useful life.
+
+With this "sal-soda" circular in their possession the managers caused
+the arrest of its author, charging him with conspiracy--a serious
+offense in Illinois.
+
+A sunny-faced man, with big, soulful blue eyes and a blond mustache, had
+been living on the same floor occupied by the strike committee. He had
+conceived a great interest in the struggle. For a man of wealth and
+culture he showed a remarkable sympathy for the strikers, and so won the
+heart and confidence of the striker-in-chief. It was perfectly natural,
+then, that in the excitement incidental to the arrest, the accused
+should rush into the apartments of the sympathetic stranger and thrust
+into his keeping an armful of letters and papers.
+
+As the officers of the law led the fallen hero away the blond man
+selected a number of letters and papers from the bundle, abandoned the
+balance and strolled forth. For weeks, months, he had been planning the
+capture of some of these letters, and now they had all come to him as
+suddenly as fame comes to a man who sinks a ship under the enemy's
+guns.
+
+This blond man was a detective. His victim was a child.
+
+Yes, the great struggle that had caused so much misery and cost so many
+millions was at an end, but it was worth to labor and capital all it had
+cost. The lesson has lasted ten years, and will last ten more.
+
+It had been a long, bitter fight in which even the victorious had lost.
+They had lost at least five million dollars in wrecked and ruined
+rolling stock, bridges and buildings. The loss in net earnings alone was
+nearly five millions in the first five months of the strike that lasted
+nearly a year. It would cost five millions more to put the property in
+the same excellent condition in which the opening of hostilities had
+found it. It would cost another five millions to win back the confidence
+of the travelling and shipping public. Twenty millions would not cover
+the cost, directly and indirectly, to the company, for there were no
+end of small items--incidentals. To a single detective agency they paid
+two hundred thousand dollars. And there were others.
+
+It has taken nearly ten years to restore the road to its former
+condition, and to man the engines as they were manned before the strike.
+It would have taken much longer had the owners of the property not
+settled upon the wise policy of promoting men who had been all their
+lives in the employ of the Burlington road, to fill the places as fast
+as they became vacant, of men--the heroes of the strike--who were now
+sought out by other companies for loftier positions. In this way the
+affairs of the company were constantly in the hands of men who had gone
+through it all, who could weed out the worthless among the new men, and
+select the best of those who had left the road at the beginning of the
+strike. The result is that there is scarcely an official of importance
+in the employ of the company to-day who has not been with it for a
+quarter of a century. The man who took the first engine out at the
+beginning of the strike--taking his life in his hands, as many
+believed--is now the general manager of the road.
+
+There was something admirable, even heroic, in the action of the owners
+in standing calmly by while the officials melted down millions of gold.
+As often as a directors' meeting was called the strikers would take
+heart. "Surely," they would say, "when they see what it costs to fight
+us they will surrender." The men seem never to have understood that all
+this was known to the directors long before the sad news reached the
+public. And then, when the directors would meet and vote to stand by the
+president, and the president would approve and endorse all that the
+general manager had done, the disheartened striker would turn sadly away
+to break the melancholy news to a sorrowing wife, who was keeping lonely
+vigil in a cheerless home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTIETH
+
+
+Dan Moran had not applied for re-employment when the strike was off, but
+chose rather to look for work elsewhere, and he had looked long and
+faithfully, and found no place. First of all he had gone west, away to
+the coast, but with no success. Then he swung around the southern route,
+up the Atlantic coast and home again. Three years,--one year with the
+strikers,--four years in all of idleness, and he was discouraged. "It's
+the curse of the prison," he used to say to his most intimate friends;
+"the damp of that dungeon clings to me like a plague. It's a blight from
+which I can't escape. Every one seems to know that I was arrested as a
+dynamiter, and even my old friends shun me."
+
+He had been saying something like that to Patsy Daly the very day he
+returned to Chicago. They were walking down through the yards, for
+Patsy, who was close to the officials, had insisted upon going
+personally to the master-mechanic, and interceding for the old engineer
+who had carried him thousands of miles while the world slept, and the
+wild storm raged around them. Patsy had been telling the old engineer
+the news of the road, but was surprised that Moran should seem to know
+all that had taken place, the changes and promotions, the vast
+improvements that had been made by the company, and the rapidly growing
+traffic. Patsy stopped short, and looking his companion in the eye,
+began to laugh.
+
+"Now what in thunder are you laughing at?" asked Moran.
+
+"At Patsy Daly, the luny," said the conductor (Patsy had been promoted);
+"why, of course you know everything. I've been rooming at the house, and
+I remember now that _she_ always knew just where you were at all times.
+Ah! ye sly old rogue--"
+
+"Patsy," said Moran, seriously, putting up his hand as a signal for
+silence.
+
+"That's all right, old man. She deserves a decent husband, but it'll be
+something new to her. Say, Dan, a fool has less sense than anybody, an'
+Patsy Daly's a fool. Here have I been at the point of making love to her
+myself, and only her tears and that big boy of hers have kept me from
+it. And all the time I thought she was wastin' water on that
+blatherskite of a Cowels, but I think better of her now."
+
+"And why should she weep for any one else?" asked the old engineer.
+
+"And why shouldn't she weep for you, Dannie? wandering up and down the
+earth, homeless and alone. Why I remember now. She would cry in her
+coffee at the mention of your name. And Dan, she's growin' prettier
+every day, and she's that gentle and--"
+
+Just then the wild scream of a yard engine close behind them caused them
+to step aside.
+
+"Wope!" cried a switchman, bang bang went the bell--"Look out there,"
+yelled Patsy, for as the two pedestrians looked back they saw a drunken
+man reel out from among the cars. The driver of the switch-engine saw
+the man as the engine struck him, and, reversing, came to a quick stop
+and leaped to the ground.
+
+The man lay with his lower limbs beneath the machine, and a blind driver
+(those broad wheels that have no flanges) resting on the pit of his
+stomach, holding him to the rail. The young engineer, having taken in
+the situation, leaped upon his engine, and was about to back off when
+Moran signalled him to stand still. "Don't move," said the old engineer,
+"he may want to say a word before he dies, and if you move that wheel he
+will be dead."
+
+"Why, hello Greene, old hoss; is this you?" asked Moran, lifting the
+head of the unfortunate man and pushing the unkept hair back from his
+forehead.
+
+Greene opened his eyes slowly, looked at his questioner, glanced all
+about and, as Moran lifted his head, gazed at the great wheel that had
+almost cut his body into two pieces. He was perfectly sober now, and
+asked why they didn't back up and look him over.
+
+"We shall presently," said Moran, "only we were afraid we might hurt
+you. You are not in any pain now, are you?"
+
+"No," said the man, "I don't know when I've felt more comfortable; but
+for all that I guess I'm clean cut in two, ain't I, Dan?"
+
+"Oh no, not so bad as that."
+
+"Oh yes, I guess there's no use holdin' out on me. Is the foreman here?"
+
+"Yes, here I am, Billy."
+
+"Billy!" said Greene, "now wouldn't that drive you to cigarettes?
+Billy!--why don't you call me drunken Bill? I'm used to that."
+
+"Well, what is it, old man?" asked the foreman, bending down.
+
+"You know this man? This is Dan Moran, the dynamiter." And the foreman
+of the round-house, recognizing the old engineer for the first time,
+held out his hand, partly to show to Moran and others that the strike
+was off, and partly to please the dying man.
+
+"That's right," said Greene to the foreman, "it'll be good for you to
+touch an honest hand."
+
+By this time a great crowd had gathered about the engine. Some police
+officers pushed in and ordered the engineer to "back away."
+
+"An' what's it _to_ ye?" asked Greene with contempt, for he hated the
+very buttons of a policeman. "It's no funeral uf yours. Ye won't grudge
+me a few moments with me friend, will ye? Move on ye tarrier."
+
+The big policeman glanced about and recognizing the foreman asked why
+the devil he didn't "git th' felly out?"
+
+Now a red-haired woman came to the edge of the crowd, put her bucket and
+scrubbing brush down, and asked what had happened.
+
+"Drunk man under the engine," said one of the curious, snappishly. The
+woman knew that Greene had passed out that way only a few moments ago.
+She had given him a quarter and he had promised not to come back to her
+again, and now she put her head down and ploughed through the crowd like
+a football player.
+
+"Hello Mag," said Greene, as the woman threw herself upon her knees
+beside him. "Here's yer money--I won't get to spend it," and he opened
+his clinched fist and there was the piece of silver that she had given
+him.
+
+The big policeman now renewed his request to have the man taken out, but
+the foreman whispered something to him. "Oh! begorry, is that so? All
+right, all right," said the officer.
+
+"Am I delayin' traffic?" asked Greene of the foreman. "It takes a little
+time to die ye know, but ye only have to do it onct."
+
+"Have ye's anythin' to say?" asked the officer.
+
+"Yes," said Greene, for his hatred for a policeman stayed with him to
+the end, "ye can do me a favor."
+
+"An' phot is it?"
+
+"Jist keep your nose out of this business, an' don't speak to me again
+till after I'm dead. Do ye mind that, ye big duffer?"
+
+It was the first time in all his life when he could say what was on his
+mind to a policeman without the dread of being arrested.
+
+"Come closer, Mag--whisper, Dan. Here, you," said Greene to the foreman,
+and that official bent down to catch the words which were growing
+fainter every moment. "I'm goin' to die. Ye mind the time ye kicked me
+out at the round-house? Well, ye don't need to say; I mind, an' that's
+sufficient. I swore to git even with the Burlington for that. I hated
+George Cowels because he married a woman that was too good fur 'im,--she
+was too good for me, for that matter. Well, when he went back on the
+Brotherhood and took his old engineer's job I went to this man Moran
+and offered to blow the engine up, and he put me out of his room. I then
+put the dynamite on the engine myself an' Moran followed me and took it
+off, and saved Cowels's life, prevented me from becoming a murderer, and
+went to jail. Good-by, Mag. Give me your hand Dan, old man. Back up."
+
+The old engineer nodded to the foreman, who signalled the man on the
+engine, and the great wheel moved from above the body. More than one man
+turned his back to the machine. The woman fainted. Moran had covered the
+eyes of the unfortunate man with his hand, and now when he removed it
+slowly the man's eyes were still closed. He never moved a finger nor
+uttered a sound. It was as if he had suddenly fallen asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST
+
+
+The Denver Limited had backed into the depot shed at Chicago, and was
+loading when the Philosopher came through the gate. He was going down to
+Zero Junction where he was serving the company in the capacity of
+station agent. Patsy Daly was taking the numbers of the cars, and at his
+elbow walked a poorly-dressed man, and the Philosopher knew in a moment
+that the man wanted to ride.
+
+The Philosopher, with a cigar in his mouth, strolled up and down
+catching snatches of the man's talk. In a little while he had gathered
+that the anxious stranger's wife lay dying in Cheyenne, and that he had
+been tramping up and down the land for six months looking for work. If
+Patsy could give him a lift to Omaha he could work his way over the
+U. P. where he knew some of the trainmen, having worked on the Kansas
+Pacific out of Denver in the early days of the road. His story was so
+lifelike and pathetic that Patsy was beginning to look troubled. If he
+could help a fellow-creature up the long, hard hill of life--three or
+four hundred miles in a single night--without straining the capacity of
+the engine, he felt that he ought to do it.
+
+Patsy had gone to the head end (the stranger standing respectfully
+apart) to ask the engineer to slow down at the Junction, and let the
+agent off. He hoped the man might go away and try a freight train, but
+as the conductor turned back the unfortunate traveller joined him.
+
+Now the eyes of Patsy fell upon the face of the Philosopher, and a
+brilliant thought flashed through his mind. He marvelled, afterwards,
+that he had not thought of it sooner.
+
+"Here, old man," said Patsy, "take this fellow's testimony, try his
+case, and let me have your opinion in nine minutes--it's just ten
+minutes to leaving time."
+
+Now it was the Philosopher to whom the prospective widower rehearsed
+his tale of woe.
+
+There was not much time, so the station agent at Zero began by offering
+the man a cigar, which was accepted. In the midst of his sorrowful story
+the man paused to observe a handsome woman, who was at that moment
+lifting her dainty, silken skirts to step into the sleeper. The
+Philosopher had his eyes fastened to the face of the man, and he thought
+he saw the man's mustache quiver as though it had been agitated by the
+passing of a smothered smile.
+
+"Well," the man was saying, "we had been married only a year when I lost
+my place and started out to look for work."
+
+By this time he had taken a small pocket knife from his somewhat ragged
+vest, clipped the end off the cigar neatly, put the cut end between his
+teeth, and the knife back into his pocket. Without pausing in his
+narrative (he knew he had but nine minutes) he held out a hand for a
+match. The Philosopher pretended not to notice the movement, which was
+graceful and perfectly natural. As they turned, up near the engine, the
+sorrowful man went into his vest again and brought up a small, silver
+match-box which he held carefully in his closed fist, but which snapped
+sharply, as the knife had done when he closed it.
+
+"Excuse me," said the Philosopher, reaching for the match-box, "I've
+lost my fire."
+
+The melancholy man made a move towards his vest, paused, changed his
+mind, and passed over his lighted cigar.
+
+"Go on," said the examining judge, when he had got his cigar going
+again.
+
+Now at each turn the Philosopher quickened his pace, and the man, eager
+to finish his sad story, walked beside him with a graceful, springy
+walk. The man's story was so like his own--so like the tale he had told
+to Patsy when the strikers had chased him into a box car--that his heart
+must have melted, had it not been for the fact that he was becoming
+more and more convinced, as the story grew upon him, that the man was
+lying. Now and then he said to himself in spite of himself, "This must
+be true," for there were tears in the man's voice, and yet there were
+things about him that must be explained before he could ride.
+
+"Patsy," said the Philosopher, pausing before the conductor, "if you'll
+stand half the strain, I'll go buy a ticket for this man to Cheyenne."
+
+"N' no," said the man, visibly affected by this unexpected generosity,
+"n' no, I can't let you do that. I should be glad of a ride that would
+cost you nothing and the company nothing; but I can't--I can't take your
+money," and he turned away, touching the cuff of his coat, first to his
+right and then to his left eye.
+
+Patsy sighed, and the two men walked again. Five minutes more and the
+big engine would begin to crawl from the great shed, and the voyager
+began wondering whether he would be on board. The engineer was going
+round the engine for the last time. The fireman had spread his fire and
+was leaning leisurely on the arm-rest. The Pullman conductors, with
+clean cuffs and collars, were putting away their people. The black-faced
+porters were taking the measures of men as they entered the car. Here
+comes a gray-haired clergyman, carrying a heavy hand-satchel, and by his
+side an athletic looking commercial tourist.
+
+One of the black porters glides forward, takes the light hand-grip,
+containing the travelling man's tooth-brush, nightshirt, and razor, and
+runs up the step with it.
+
+Now a train arrives from the West, and the people who are going away
+look into the faces of the people who are coming home, who look neither
+to the right nor left, but straight ahead at the open gates, and in
+three minutes the empty cars are being backed away, to be washed and
+dusted, and made ready for another voyage. How sad and interesting
+would be the story of the life of a day coach. Beaten, bumped, battered,
+and banged about in the yards, trampled and spat upon by vulgar
+voyagers, who get on and off at flag stations, and finally, in a
+head-end collision, crushed between the heavy vestibuled sleepers and
+the mighty engine.
+
+But sadder still is the story of a man who has been buffeted about and
+walked upon by the arrogant of this earth, and to such a story the
+Philosopher was now listening. The man was talking so rapidly that he
+almost balled up at times, and had to go back and begin again. At times
+it seemed to him that the Philosopher, to whom he was talking, was
+giving little or no attention to his tale; but he was. He was making up
+his mind.
+
+It is amazing the amount of work that can be done in ten minutes, when
+all the world is working. Tons of trunks had passed in and out, the
+long platform had been peopled and depopulated twice since the two men
+began their walk, and now another train gave up its human freight to the
+already crowded city.
+
+Now, as they went up and down, the Philosopher, at each turn, went a
+little nearer to the engine. Only three minutes remained to him in which
+to render his decision, which was to help the unhappy man a
+half-thousand miles on the way to his dying wife, or leave him sadder
+still because of the failure--to pine and ponder upon man's inhumanity
+to man.
+
+Patsy, glancing now and then at the big clock on the station wall,
+searched the sad face of his friend and tried to read there the answer
+to the man's prayer.
+
+It would be that the man should ride, he had no doubt, for this story
+was so like the story of this same man, the Philosopher, with which he
+had come into Patsy's life, and Patsy had resolved never to turn his
+back upon a man who was down on his luck.
+
+The Philosopher's face was indecipherable. Finally when they had come to
+the turning point in the shadow of the mail car, he stopped, leaned
+against the corner of the tank and said: "I can't make you out, and you
+haven't made out your case."
+
+"I don't follow you," said the man.
+
+"No? Well suppose I say, for answer, that I'll let you go--sneak away up
+through the yards and lose yourself; provided you promise not to do it
+again."
+
+"You talk in riddles. What is it that I am not to do again? You say you
+have hit the road yourself, and you ought to have sympathy for a fellow
+out o' luck."
+
+"I have, and that's why I'm going to let you go. Your story is a sad
+one, and it has softened my heart. It's the story of my own life."
+
+"Then how can you refuse me this favor, that will cost you nothing?"
+
+"Hadn't you better go?"
+
+"No, I want you to answer me."
+
+"Well, to be frank with you, you are not a tramp. You've got money, and
+you had red wine with your supper, or your dinner, as you would say."
+
+The man laughed, a soundless laugh, and tried to look sad.
+
+"You've got a gold signet ring in your right trousers pocket."
+
+The man worked his fingers and when the Philosopher thought he must have
+the ring in his hand, he caught hold of the man's wrist, jerked the hand
+from his pocket, and the ring rolled upon the platform. When the man cut
+off the end of his cigar the Philosopher had seen a white line around
+one of the fingers of the man's sea-browned hand. Real tramps, thought
+the Philosopher, don't cut off the ends of their cigars. They bite them
+off, and save the bite. They don't throw a half-smoked cigar away, but
+put it, burning if necessary, in their pocket.
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded the man, indignantly.
+
+"Pick up your ring."
+
+"I have a mind to smash you."
+
+"Do, and you can ride."
+
+"You've got your nerve."
+
+"You haven't. Why did you stare at that lady's feet, when she was
+climbing into the car?"
+
+"That's not your business."
+
+"It's all my business now."
+
+"I'll report you for this."
+
+The man started to walk past the big station master, but a strong hand
+was clapped to the man's breast pocket and when it came away it held a
+small pocket memorandum.
+
+"See what's in that, Patsy," said the Philosopher, passing the book to
+the conductor, who had gone forward for the decision.
+
+The man made a move, as if he would snatch the book, but the big hand at
+his throat twisted the flannel shirt, and choked him. Patsy, holding the
+book in the glare of his white light, read the record of a man who had
+been much away from home. He had, according to the book, ridden with
+many conductors, whose names were familiar to Patsy, and had, upon
+divers occasions, noticed that sometimes some people rode without paying
+fare. In another place Patsy learned that trainmen and other employees
+drank beer, or other intoxicating beverages. A case in point was a
+couple of brakemen on local who, after unloading a half-dozen reapers
+and a threshing machine at Mendota, had gone into a saloon with the
+shipper and killed their thirst.
+
+While Patsy was gleaning this interesting information the man writhed
+and twisted, fought and fumed, but it was in vain, for the hand of the
+Philosopher was upon his throat.
+
+"Let me go," gasped the man, "an' we'll call it square, an' I won't
+report you."
+
+"Oh! how good of you."
+
+"Let me go, I say, you big brute."
+
+"I wanted to let you go a while ago, and you wouldn't have it."
+
+The man pulled back like a horse that won't stand hitched and the button
+flew from his cheap flannel shirt.
+
+"I'm a goat," said the Philosopher, stroking the man's chest with his
+big right hand, "if he hasn't got on silk underwear."
+
+"Come now, you fellahs," said the man changing his tune, "let me go and
+you'll always have a friend at Court."
+
+"Be quiet," said the Philosopher, "I'm going to let you go, but tell me,
+why did you want to do little Patsy, that everybody likes?"
+
+"Because Mr. Paul was so cock sure I couldn't. He bet me a case of
+champagne that I couldn't ride on the Omaha Limited without paying
+fare."
+
+"And now you lose the champagne."
+
+"It looks that way."
+
+"Poor tramp!"
+
+Patsy had walked to the rear of the train, shouted "All aboard," and the
+cars were now slipping past the two men.
+
+"Have you still a mind to smash me?"
+
+"I may be a wolf but this is not my night to howl."
+
+"Every dog has his day, eh?"
+
+"Curse you."
+
+"Good night," said the Philosopher, reaching for a passing car.
+
+"Go to--" said the tramp, and the train faded away out over the
+switches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND
+
+
+The old master-mechanic, who had insisted that Dan Moran was innocent,
+from the first, had gone away; but the new man was willing to give him
+an engine after the confession of Bill Greene. Having secured work the
+old engineer called upon the widow, for he could tell her, now, all
+about the dynamite. Three years had brought little change to her. She
+might be a little bit stouter, but she was handsomer than ever, Dan
+thought. The little girl, whom he remembered as a toddling infant, was a
+sunny child of four years. Bennie was now fourteen and was employed as
+caller at the round-house, and his wages, thirty dollars a month, kept
+up the expenses of the home. He had inherited the splendid constitution
+of his father with the gentleness and honesty of his mother. The foreman
+was very fond of him, and having been instructed by the old general
+manager to take good care of the boy, for his mother's sake, he had
+arranged to send him out firing, which would pay better, as soon as he
+was old enough. So Moran found the little family well, prosperous, and
+reasonably happy. Presently, when she could wait no longer, Mrs. Cowels
+asked the old engineer if he had come back to stay, and when he said he
+had, her face betrayed so much joy that Moran felt half embarrassed, and
+his heart, which had been so heavy for the past four years, gave a thump
+that startled him. "Oh! I'm _so_ glad," she said earnestly, looking down
+and playing with her hands; and while her eyes were not upon his, Moran
+gazed upon the gentle face that had haunted him day and night in his
+three years' tramp about the world.
+
+"Yes," he said at length, "I'm going back to the 'Q.' It's not
+Blackwings, to be sure, and the Denver Limited, but it's work, and
+that's something, for it seems to me that I can bear this idleness no
+longer. It's the hardest work in the world, just to have nothing to do,
+month in and month out, and to be compelled to do it. I can't stand it,
+that's all, and I'm going out on a gravel train to-morrow."
+
+Moran remembered now that Bennie had come to him that morning in the
+round-house and begged the engineer to "ask for him," to go out as
+fireman on the gravel train, for it was really a boy's work to keep an
+engine hot on a side track, but he would not promise, and the boy had
+been greatly disappointed.
+
+"I'd like to ask for the boy," said Moran, "with your permission. He's
+been at me all morning, and I'm sure the foreman won't object if you
+consent."
+
+"But he's so young, Dan; he could never do the work."
+
+"I'll look out for him," said the engineer, nodding his head. "I'll keep
+him busy waiting on me when we lay up, and when we have a hard run for a
+meeting-point there's always the head brakeman, and they can usually
+fire as well as a fireman."
+
+"I will consent only to please him," she said, "and because I should
+like to have him with you."
+
+He thanked her for the compliment, and took up his hat to go.
+
+"And how often shall I see you now? I mean--how soon--when will Bennie
+be home again?"
+
+They were standing close together in the little hall, and when he looked
+deep into her eyes, she became confused and blushed like a school-girl.
+
+"Well, to be honest, we never know on a run of this sort when we may get
+back to town. It may be a day, a week, or a month," said Moran. "But
+I'll promise you that I will not keep him away longer than is necessary.
+We don't work Sundays, of course, and I'll try and dead-head him in
+Saturday nights, and you can send him back on the fast freight Sunday
+evenings. The watchman can fire the engine in an emergency, you know."
+
+"But the watchman couldn't run her in an emergency?" queried the little
+woman.
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Moran, catching the drift of her mind, and
+feeling proud of the compliment concealed in the harmless query. "But I
+shall enjoy having him come to you once a week to show you that I have
+not forgotten my promise."
+
+"And I shall know," she answered, putting up a warning finger, "by his
+actions whether you have been good to him."
+
+"And by the same token I can tell whether you are happy," rejoined the
+engineer, taking both her hands in his to say good-bye.
+
+Moran went directly to the round-house and spoke to the foreman, and
+when Bennie came home that evening he threw himself upon his mother's
+neck and wept for very joy. His mother wept, too, for it means something
+to a mother to have her only boy go out to begin life on the rail. After
+supper they all went over to the little general store, where she had
+once been refused credit--where she had spent their last dollar for
+Christmas presents for little Bennie and his father, chiefly his
+father--and bought two suits of bright blue overclothes for the new
+fireman. "Mother, I once heard the foreman say that Dan Moran had been
+like a father to papa," said Bennie that evening. "Guess he'll start in
+being a father to me now, eh! mother?"
+
+Mrs. Cowels smiled and kissed him, and then she cried a little, but only
+a little, for in spite of all her troubles she felt almost happy that
+night.
+
+It was nearly midnight when Bennie finished trying on his overclothes
+and finally fell asleep. It was only four A. M. when he shook his mother
+gently and asked her to get up and get breakfast.
+
+"What time is it, Bennie?"
+
+"I don't know, exactly," said Bennie, "but it must be late. I've been up
+a long, long time. You know you have to put up my lunch, and I want to
+get down and draw my supplies. Couldn't do it last night 'cause they
+didn't know what engine we were going to have."
+
+Mrs. Cowels got up and prepared breakfast and Bennie ate hurriedly and
+then began to look out for the caller. He would have gone to the
+round-house at once but he wanted to sign the callbook at home. How he
+had envied the firemen who had been called by him. He knew just how it
+would be written in the callbook:
+
+    _Extra West, Eng.--Leave 8:15 A. M._
+    _Engineer Moran,--D. Moran 7:15._
+    _Fireman Cowels._--
+
+And there was the blank space where he would write his name. At six
+o'clock he declared to his mother that he must go down and get his
+engine hot, and after a hasty good-bye he started. Ten minutes later he
+came into the round-house and asked the night foreman where his engine
+was.
+
+"Well," said the foreman, "we haven't got _your_ engine yet," and the
+boy's chin dropped down and rested upon his new blue blouse. "I guess
+we'll have to send you out on one of the company's engines this trip."
+
+There was a great roar of laughter from the wiping gang and Bennie
+looked embarrassed. He concluded to say no more to the foreman, but went
+directly to the blackboard, got the number and found the engine which
+had been assigned to the gravel train because she was not fit for road
+work. A sorry old wreck she was, covered with ashes and grease, but it
+made little difference to Bennie so long as she had a whistle and a
+bell, and he set to work to stock her up with supplies.
+
+He had drawn supplies for many a tired fireman in his leisure moments
+and knew very nearly what was needed. But the first thing he did was to
+open the blower and "get her hot." He got the foreman hot, too, and in a
+little while he heard that official shout to the hostler to "run the
+scrap heap out-doors, and put that fresh kid in the tank."
+
+Bennie didn't mind the reference to the "fresh kid," but he thought the
+foreman might have called her something better than a scrap heap, but he
+was a smart boy and knew that it would be no use to "kick."
+
+It was half-past seven when Mrs. Cowels opened the door in answer to the
+bell, and blushed, and glanced down at her big apron.
+
+"I thought I'd look in on my way to the round-house," said Moran,
+removing his hat, "for Bennie."
+
+"Why, the dear boy has been gone an hour and a half, but I'm glad (won't
+you come in?) you called for he has forgotten his gloves."
+
+"Thank you," said the engineer, "the fact is I'm a little late, for I
+don't know what sort of a scrap pile I have to take out and I'd like, of
+course, to go underneath her before she leaves the round-house, so I
+can't come in this morning."
+
+When Mrs. Cowels had given him the gloves he took her hand to say
+good-bye, and the wife of one of the new men, who saw it, said
+afterwards that he held it longer than was necessary, just to say
+good-bye.
+
+When Dan reached the round-house Bennie was up on top of the old engine
+oiling the bell. What would an engine without a bell be to a boy? And
+yet in Europe they have no bells, but there is a vast difference between
+the American and the European boy.
+
+Moran stopped in the round-house long enough to read the long list of
+names on the blackboard. They were nearly all new to him, as were the
+faces about, and he turned away.
+
+The orders ran them extra to Aurora, avoiding regular trains. Moran
+glanced at the faces of all the incoming engineers as he met and passed
+them, but with one exception they were all strangers to him. He
+recognized young Guerin, who had been fireman on Blackwings the night
+George Cowels was killed, and he was now running a passenger engine.
+
+"How the mushrooms have vegetated hereabouts," thought Moran, as he
+glanced up at the stack of the old work engine, but he was never much of
+a kicker, so he would not kick now. This wasn't much of a run, but it
+beat looking for a better one.
+
+"Not so much coal, Bennie. Take your clinker hook and level it off.
+That's it,--see the black smoke? Keep your furnace door shut. Now look
+at your stack again. See the yellow smoke hanging 'round? Rake her down
+again. Now it's black, and if it burns clear--see there? There is no
+smoke at all; that shows that her fire is level. Sweep up your deck now
+while you rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD
+
+
+One night when the Limited was roaring up from the Missouri River
+against one of those March rains that come out of the east, there came
+to Patsy one of the temptations that are hardest for a man of his kind
+nature to withstand. The trial began at Galesburg. Patsy was hugging the
+rear end of the day coach in order to keep out of the cruel storm, when
+his eyes rested upon the white face of a poorly clad woman. She stood
+motionless as a statue, voiceless as the Sphinx, with the cold rain
+beating upon her uplifted face, until Patsy cried "All aboard." Then she
+pulled herself together and climbed into the train. The conductor,
+leaving his white light upon the platform of the car, stepped down and
+helped the dripping woman into the coach. When the train had dashed away
+again up the rain-swept night, Patsy found the wet passenger rocking to
+and fro on the little seat that used to run lengthwise of the car up
+near the stove, before the use of steam heat.
+
+"Ticket," said the conductor.
+
+The woman lifted her eyes to his, but seemed to be staring at something
+beyond.
+
+"Ticket, please."
+
+"Yes--y-e-a-s," she spoke as though the effort caused her intense pain.
+"I want--to--go to Chicago."
+
+"Yes. Have you a ticket?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"Where's what?"
+
+"Where's your ticket?"
+
+"I ain't got no ticket."
+
+"Have you got money?"
+
+"No. I do' want money. I jist want you to take me to Chicago."
+
+"But I can't take you without you pay fare."
+
+"Can't you? I've been standin' there in the rain all night, but nobody
+would let me on the train--all the trains is gone but this one. I'd
+most give up when you said, 'Git on,' er somethin'."
+
+"Why do you want to go to Chicago?"
+
+"Oh! I must be there fur the trial."
+
+"Who's trial?"
+
+"Terrence's. They think my boy, Terrence, killed a man, an' I'm goin' up
+to tell th' judge. Of course, they don't know Terrence. He's wild and
+runs around a heap, but he's not what you may call bad."
+
+The poor woman was half-crazed by her grief, and her blood was chilled
+by the cold rain. She could not have been wetter at the bottom of Lake
+Michigan. When she ceased speaking, she shivered.
+
+"It was good in you to let me git on, an' I thank you very kindly."
+
+"But I can't carry you unless you can pay."
+
+"Oh! I kin walk soon's we git ther."
+
+"But you can't get there. I'll have to stop and put you off."
+
+The unhappy woman opened her eyes and mouth and stared at the
+conductor.
+
+"Put--me--off?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's rainin' ain't it?" She shivered again, and tried to look out into
+the black night.
+
+"Don't you know better than to get onto a train without a ticket or
+money to pay your fare?"
+
+"Yes; but they'll hang Terrence, they'll hang 'im, they'll hang 'im,"
+and she moaned and rocked herself.
+
+Patsy went on through the train and when he came back the woman was
+still rocking and staring blankly at the floor, as he had found her
+before. She had to look at him for some time before she could remember
+him.
+
+"Can't you go no faster?"
+
+Patsy sighed.
+
+"What time is it?"
+
+"Six o'clock."
+
+"Will we git there by half after nine?--th' trial's at ten."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Patsy sat down and looked at the wreck.
+
+"Now, a man who could put such a woman off, in such a storm, at such an
+hour, and with a grief like that," said Patsy to himself, "would pasture
+a goat on his grandmother's grave."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Patsy woke at two o'clock that afternoon, he picked up a noon
+edition of an all-day paper, and the very first word he read was "Not
+guilty." That was the heading of the police news.
+
+"There was a pathetic scene in Judge Meyer's court this morning at the
+preliminary hearing of the case of Terrence Cassidy, charged with the
+murder of the old farmer at Spring Bank on Monday last. All efforts to
+draw a confession from Cassidy had failed, and the detectives had come
+to the conclusion that he was either very innocent or very guilty--there
+was no purgatory for Terrence; it was heaven or the hot place, according
+to the detectives. For once the detectives were right. Terrence was very
+innocent. It appears that the tramp who was killed on the Wabash last
+night made a confession to the trainmen, after being hit by the engine,
+to the effect that he had murdered the old farmer, and afterwards, at
+the point of an empty pistol, forced a young Irishman, whom he met upon
+the railroad track, to exchange clothes with him. That accounts for the
+blood stains upon Cassidy's coat, but, of course, nobody credited his
+story.
+
+"The tramp's confession, however, was wired to the general manager of
+the Wabash by the conductor of the out-going train, together with a
+description of the tramp's clothes, which description tallies with that
+given of those garments worn by Cassidy.
+
+"This good news did not reach the court, however, until after the
+prisoner had been arraigned. When asked the usual question, 'Guilty, or
+not guilty?' the boy stood up and was about to address some remarks to
+the court, when suddenly there rushed into the room about the sorriest
+looking woman who ever stood before a judge. She was poorly clad, wet as
+a rat, haggard and pale. Her voice was hoarse and unearthly. Nobody
+seemed to see her enter. Suddenly, as if she had risen from the floor,
+she stood at the railing, raised a trembling hand and shouted, as well
+as she could shout, 'Not guilty!'
+
+"Before the bewildered judge could lift his gavel, the prosecuting
+attorney rose, dramatically, and asked to be allowed to read a telegram
+that had just been received, which purported to be the signed confession
+of a dying man.
+
+"As might be expected, there were not many dry eyes in that court when,
+a moment later, the boy was sobbing on his mother's wet shoulder, and
+she, rocking to and fro, was saying softly 'Poor Terrence, my poor
+Terrence.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Patsy was walking back from Hooley's Theatre, where he had gone to
+get tickets (this was his night off), he met the acting chief clerk in
+one of the departments to which, under the rules then in vogue, he owed
+allegiance.
+
+"I want to see you at the office," said the amateur official, and Patsy
+was very much surprised at the brevity of the speech. He went up to his
+room and tried to read, but the ever recurring thought that he was
+"wanted at the office" disturbed him and he determined to go at once and
+have it out.
+
+The conductor removed his hat in the august presence and asked, timidly,
+what was wanted.
+
+"You ought to know," said the great judge.
+
+"But I don't," said Patsy, taking courage as he arrayed himself, with a
+clear conscience, on the defensive.
+
+"Are you in the habit of carrying people on the Denver Limited who have
+no transportation?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then, how does it happen that you carried a woman from Galesburg to
+Chicago last night who had neither ticket nor money, so far as we know?
+It will do you no good to deny it, for I have the report of a special
+agent before me, and--"
+
+"I have no desire to deny it, sir. All I deny is that this is your
+business."
+
+"What?" yelled the official.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir. I should not have spoken in that way; but what
+I wish to say and wish you to understand is that I owe you no
+explanation."
+
+"I stand for the company, sir."
+
+"So do I, and have stood as many years as you have months. I have
+handled as many dollars for them as you have ever seen dimes, and,
+what's more to the point, I stand ready to quit the moment the
+management loses confidence in me, and with the assurance of a better
+job. Can all the great men say as much?"
+
+The force and vehemence of the excited and indignant little Irishman
+caused the "management" to pause in its young career.
+
+"Will you tell me why you carried this woman who had no ticket?"
+
+"No. I have rendered unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar's. For further
+particulars, see my report," and with that Patsy walked out.
+
+"Let's see, let's see," said the "management"; "'Two passengers,
+Galesburg to Chicago, one ticket, one cash fare.' What an ass I've made
+of myself; but, just wait till I catch that Hawkshaw."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH
+
+    "_Always together in sunshine and rain,
+    Facing the weather atop o' the train,
+    Watching the meadows move under the stars;
+    Always together atop o' the cars._"
+
+
+Patsy was just singing it soft and low to himself, and not even thinking
+of the song, for he was not riding "atop o' the cars" now. With his arm
+run through the bail of his nickel-plated, white light, he was taking
+the numbers and initials of the cars in the Denver Limited. He was a
+handsome fellow, and the eight or ten years that had passed lightly over
+his head since he came singing himself into the office of the general
+manager to ask for a pass over a competing line, had rounded out his
+figure, and given him a becoming mustache, but they had left just a
+shade of sadness upon his sunny face. The little mother whom he used to
+visit at Council Bluffs had fallen asleep down by the dark Missouri, and
+he would not see her again until he reached the end of his last run.
+And that's what put the shadow upon his sunny face. The white light,
+held close to his bright, new uniform, flashed over his spotless linen,
+and set his buttons ablaze.
+
+"Ah there, my beauty! any room for dead-heads to-night?"
+
+Patsy turned to his questioner, closed his train-book and held out his
+hand: "Always room for the Irish; where are you tagged for?"
+
+"The junction."
+
+"But we don't stop there."
+
+"I know, but I thought Moran might slow her down to about twenty posts,
+and I can fall off--I missed the local."
+
+"I've got a new man," said Patsy, "and he'll be a bit nervous to-night,
+but if we hit the top of Zero Hill on the dot we'll let you off; if not,
+we'll carry you through, and you can come back on No. 4."
+
+"Thank you," said the Philosopher, "but I'm sorry to trouble you."
+
+"And I don't intend you shall; just step back to the outside gate and
+flag Mr. and Mrs. Moran, and don't let him buy a ticket for the sleeper;
+I've got passes for him right through to the coast."
+
+As the Philosopher went back to "flag," Patsy went forward to the
+engine. "If you hit Zero Junction on time, Guerin, I wish you'd slow
+down and let the agent off," said the conductor.
+
+"And if I'm late?"
+
+"Don't stop."
+
+"Well," said the young driver, "we'll not be apt to stop, for it's a
+wild night, Patsy; a slippery rail and almost a head wind."
+
+"Nothing short of a blizzard can check Blackwings," said Patsy, going to
+the rear.
+
+The day coaches were already well filled, and the sleeping-car
+conductors were busy putting their people away when the Philosopher came
+down the platform accompanied by the veteran engineer, his pretty wife,
+and her bright little girl. Mrs. Moran and her daughter entered the
+sleeper, while her husband and the station master remained outside to
+finish their cigars.
+
+"What a magnificent train," observed the old engineer, as the two men
+stood looking at the Limited.
+
+"Finest in all the West," the Philosopher replied. "Open from the tank
+to the tail-lamps: all ablaze with electric lights; just like the
+Atlantic liners we read about in the magazines. Ever been on one of
+those big steamers, Dan?"
+
+"No, and I never want to be. Never get me out o' sight o' land. Then
+they're too blamed slow; draggin' along in the darkness, eighteen and
+twenty miles an hour, and nowhere to jump."
+
+"And yet they say we kill more people than they do."
+
+"I know they say so," said the engineer, "but they kill 'em so
+everlastingly dead. A man smashed up in a wreck on the road _may_
+recover, but a man drowned a thousand miles from anywhere has no show."
+
+Patsy, coming from the station, joined the two dead-heads, and Moran,
+glancing at his watch, asked the cause of delay.
+
+"Waiting for a party of English tourists," said Patsy; "they're coming
+over the Grand Trunk, and the storm has delayed them."
+
+"And that same storm will delay you to-night, my boy, if I'm any
+guesser," observed the old engineer. "I'd go over and ride with Guerin,
+but I'm afraid he wouldn't take it well. That engine is as quick as
+chain-lightning, and with a greasy rail like this she'll slip going down
+hill, and the more throttle he gives her the slower she'll go. And
+what's more, she'll do it so smoothly, that, blinded by the storm, he'll
+never know she's slipping till she tears her fire all out and comes to a
+dead stall."
+
+The old engineer knew just how to prevent all that, but he was afraid
+that to offer any suggestion might wound the pride of the young man,
+whom he did not know very well. True, he had asked the master-mechanic
+to put Guerin on the run, but only because he disliked the Reading man
+who was next in line. Mrs. Moran came from the car now, and asked to be
+taken to the engine where she and her daughter might say good-bye to
+Bennie who was now the regular fireman on Blackwings. "Bennie," said his
+stepfather, "see that your sand-pipes are open."
+
+While Bennie talked with his mother and sister, Moran chatted with the
+engineer. "I want to thank you," said Guerin, "for helping me to this
+run during your absence, and I shall try to take good care of both
+Bennie and Blackwings."
+
+"It isn't worth mentioning," said Moran with a wave of his hand, "they
+do these things to suit themselves."
+
+"Now, if she's got any tricks," said Guerin, "I'd be glad to know them,
+for I don't want to disgrace the engine by losing time. I've been trying
+to pump the boy, but he's as close as a clam."
+
+"Well, that's not a common fault with firemen," said Moran, with his
+quiet smile. "The only thing I can say about Blackwings," he went on,
+for he had been aching to say it, "is that she's smart, and on a rail
+like this you'll have to humor her a little--drop her down a notch and
+ease up on the throttle, especially when you have a heavy train. She's
+mighty slippery."
+
+Guerin thanked him for the tip, and the old engineer, feeling greatly
+relieved, went back to where Patsy and the Philosopher were
+"railroading." They had been discussing the vestibule. The Philosopher
+had remarked that recently published statistics established the fact
+that when a solid vestibuled train came into collision with an
+old-fashioned open train of the same weight, the latter would go to
+splinters while the vestibuled train would remain intact, on the
+principle that a sleeping car is harder to wreck when the berths are
+down, because they brace the structure. "The vestibule," continued the
+Philosopher, "is a life-saver, and a great comfort to people who travel
+first class, but this same inventor, who has perfected so many railway
+appliances, has managed in one way or another to help all mankind. He
+has done as much for the tramp as for the millionaire. Take the high
+wheel, for instance. Why, I remember when I was 'on the road' that you
+had to get down and crawl to get under a sleeper, and sit doubled up
+like a crawfish all the while. I remember when the Pennsylvania put on a
+lot of big, twelve-wheeled cars. A party of us got together under a
+water tank down near Pittsburgh and held a meeting. It was on the Fourth
+of July and we sent a copy of our resolutions to the president of the
+sleeping car company at Chicago. The report was written with charcoal
+upon some new shingles which we found near, and sent by express,
+'collect.' I remember how it read:
+
+'At the First Annual Convention of the Tramps' Protective Association of
+North America, it was
+
+'_Resolved:_ That this union feels itself deeply indebted to the man who
+has introduced upon American railways the high wheel and the triple
+truck. And be it further
+
+'_Resolved:_ That all self-respecting members of this fraternity shall
+refrain from riding on, or in any way encouraging, such slow-freight
+lines as may still hold to the old-fashioned, eight-wheeled,
+dirt-dragging sleeper, blind to their own interest and dead to the
+world.'"
+
+"All aboard," cried Patsy, and the Denver Limited left Chicago just ten
+minutes late. The moment they had passed beyond the shed the storm swept
+down from the Northwest and plastered the wet snow against the windows.
+Slowly they worked their way out of the crowded city, over railway
+crossings, between guarded gates, and left the lights of Chicago behind
+them. The scores of passengers behind the double-glassed windows chatted
+or perused the evening papers.
+
+Nearly all the male members of the English party had crowded into the
+smoking-rooms of the sleepers to enjoy their pipes. Patsy, after working
+the train, sat down to visit with the Morans. The old engineer had been
+hurt in a wreck and the company had generously given him a two months'
+leave of absence, with transportation and full pay, and he was going to
+spend the time in Southern California. The officials were beginning to
+share the opinion of Mr. Watchem, the famous detective who had declared,
+when Moran was in prison, that he ought to be wearing a medal instead of
+handcuffs. He had battled, single-handed and alone, with a desperado who
+was all fenced about with firearms, saved the company's property and, it
+might be, the lives of passengers. Later he had taken the dynamite from
+the engine to prevent its exploding, wrecking the machine and killing
+the crew. And rather than inform upon the wretch who had committed the
+crime he had gone to prison, and had borne disgrace.
+
+With the exception of Patsy, Moran, and his wife, none of the passengers
+gave a thought to the "fellows up ahead." Before leaving Chicago Guerin
+had advised the youthful fireman to stretch a piece of bell-rope from
+the cab to the tank to prevent him from falling out through the gangway,
+for he intended to make up the ten minutes if it were in the machine.
+The storm had increased so that the rail had passed the slippery stage,
+for it is only a damp rail that is greasy. A very wet rail is almost as
+good as a dry one, and Blackwings was picking her train up beautifully.
+This was the engine upon which Guerin had made his maiden trip as
+fireman, and the thought of that dreadful night saddened him. Here was
+where Cowels sat when he showed him the cruel message. Here in this very
+window he had held him, and there was the identical arm-rest over which
+hung the body of the dead engineer. And this was his boy. How the years
+fly! He looked at the boy, and the boy was looking at him with his big,
+sad eyes. The furnace door was ajar, and the cab was as light as day.
+Guerin had always felt that in some vague way he was responsible for
+Cowels's death, and now the boy's gaze made him uncomfortable. Already
+the snow had banked against the windows on his side and closed them. He
+crossed over to the fireman's side, and looked ahead. The headlight was
+almost covered, but they were making good time. He guessed, from the
+vibration that marked the revolutions of the big drivers, that she must
+be making fifty miles an hour. Now she began to roll, and her bell began
+to toll, like a distant church-bell tolling for the dead, and he crossed
+back to his own side. Both Moran and Patsy were pleased for they knew
+the great engine was doing her work. "When one of these heavy sleepers
+stops swinging," said Patsy, "and just seems to stand still and shiver,
+she's going; and when she begins to slam her flanges up against the
+rail, first one side and then the other, she has passed a sixty-mile
+gait, and that's what this car is doing now."
+
+Mrs. Moran said good-night, and disappeared behind the silken curtain of
+"lower six," where her little girl was already sound asleep. Only a few
+men remained in the smoking-rooms, and they were mostly English.
+
+Steam began to flutter from the dome above the back of Blackwings. The
+fireman left the door on the latch to keep her cool and save the water;
+the engineer opened the injector a little wider to save the steam; the
+fireman closed the door again to keep her hot; and that's the way men
+watch each other on an engine, to save a drop of water or an ounce of
+steam, and that's the best trick of the trade.
+
+Guerin looked out at the fireman's window again. The headlight was now
+entirely snowed in and the big black machine was poking her nose into
+the night at the rate of a mile a minute.
+
+"My God! how she rolls," said Guerin, going back to his place again. Of
+a sudden she began to quicken her pace, as though the train had parted.
+She might be slipping--he opened the sand lever. No, she was holding the
+rail, and then he knew that they had tipped over Zero Hill. He cut her
+back a notch, but allowed the throttle to remain wide open. Bennie saw
+the move and left the door ajar again. He knew where they were and
+wondered that Guerin did not ease off a bit, but he had been taught by
+Moran to fire and leave the rest to the engineer. Guerin glanced at his
+watch. He was one minute over-due at Zero Junction, a mile away. At the
+end of another minute he would have put that station behind him, less
+than two minutes late. He was making a record for himself. He was
+demonstrating that it is the daring young driver who has the sand to go
+up against the darkness as fast as wheels can whirl. He wished the snow
+was off the headlight. He knew the danger of slamming a train through
+stations without a ray of light to warn switchmen and others, but he
+could not bring himself to send the boy out to the front end in that
+storm the way she was rolling. And she did roll; and with each roll the
+bell tolled! tolled!! like a church bell tolling for the dead. The snow
+muffled the rail, and the cry of the whistle would not go twenty rods
+against that storm; and twenty rods, when you're making a mile and a
+half in a minute, gives barely time to cross yourself.
+
+About the time they tipped over the hill the night yard master came from
+the telegraph office, down at the junction, and twirled a white light at
+a switch engine that stood on a spur with her nose against an empty
+express car. "Back up," he shouted: "and kick that car in on the house
+track."
+
+"The Limited's due in a minute," said the switch engineer, turning the
+gauge lamp upon his watch.
+
+"Well, you're runnin' the engine--I'm runnin' the yard," said the
+official, giving his lamp another whirl, and the engine with the express
+car backed away. The yard master unbent sufficiently to say to the
+switchman on the engine that the Limited was ten minutes late, adding,
+that she would probably be fifteen at the junction, for it was storming
+all along the line. The snow had packed in about the switch-bridle and
+made it hard to move, but finally, with the help of the fireman, the
+switch was turned, and the yard engine stood on the main track. The
+engineer glanced over his shoulder, but there was nothing behind him
+save the storm-swept night. Suddenly he felt the earth tremble, and,
+filled with indescribable horror, he pulled the whistle open and leaped
+through the window. The cry of the yard engine was answered by a wild
+shriek from Blackwings. Guerin closed the throttle, put on the air and
+opened the sand-valves. The sound of that whistle, blown back over the
+train, fell upon the ears of Patsy and the two dead-heads, and filled
+them with fear. A second later they felt the clamp of brake-shoes
+applied with full force; felt the grinding of sand beneath the wheels,
+and knew that something was wrong. The old engineer tore the curtains
+back from "lower six," and spread out his arms, placing one foot against
+the foot of the berth, and threw himself on top of the two sleepers.
+Patsy and the Philosopher braced themselves against the seat in front of
+them, and waited the shock. Bennie heard the whistle, too, and went out
+into the night, not knowing where or how he would light. Young Guerin
+had no time to jump. He had work to do. His left hand fell from the
+whistle-rope to the air-brake, and it was applied even while his right
+hand shoved the throttle home, and opened the sand-valves--and then the
+crash came. Being higher built, Blackwings shot right over the top of
+the yard engine, turned end for end, and lay with her pilot under the
+mail car, which was telescoped into the express car. The balance of the
+train, surging, straining, and trembling, came to a stop, with all
+wheels on the rail, thanks to the faithful driver, and the open
+sand-pipes. The train had scarcely stopped when the conductor and the
+two dead-heads were at the engine, searching, amid the roar of escaping
+steam, for the engine crew. A moment later Bennie came limping in from a
+neighboring field where he had been wallowing in a snow-drift. The
+operator, rushing from the station, stumbled over the body of a man. It
+was Guerin. When the engine turned over he had been hurled from the cab
+and slammed up against the depot, fifty feet away. The rescuers,
+searching about the wreck, shouted and called to the occupants of the
+mail car, but the wail of the wounded engine drowned their voices. In a
+little while both men were rescued almost unhurt. Now all the employees
+and many passengers gathered about the engineer. The station master held
+Guerin's head upon his knee, while Moran made a hasty examination of his
+hurt. There was scarcely a bone in his body that was not broken, but he
+was still alive. He opened his eyes slowly, and looked about. "I'm
+cold!" he said distinctly. Patsy held his white light close to the face
+of the wounded man. His eyes seemed now to be fixed upon something far
+away. "Mercy, but I'm cold!" he said pathetically. Now all the women
+were weeping, and there were tears in the eyes of most of the men.
+"Raise him up a little," said Moran. "It's getting dark," said the dying
+man, "Oh, _so_ dark! It must be the snow--" and he closed his eyes
+again--"snow--on--the headlight."
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES.
+
+_Edited by_ RIPLEY HITCHCOCK.
+
+_Each, Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, $1.50._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD.
+
+_By_ CY WARMAN, _author of "The Express Messenger," etc. With Maps, and
+many Illustrations by B. West Clinedinst and from Photographs_.
+
+As we understand it, the editor's ruling idea in this series has not
+been to present chronology or statistics or set essays on the social and
+political development of the great West, but to give to us vivid
+pictures of the life and the times in the period of great development,
+and to let us see the men at their work, their characters, and their
+motives. The choice of an author has been fortunate. In Mr. Warman's
+book we are kept constantly reminded of the fortitude, the suffering,
+the enterprise, and the endurance of the pioneers. We see the glowing
+imagination of the promoter, and we see the engineer scouting the plains
+and the mountains, fighting the Indians, freezing and starving, and
+always full of a keen enthusiasm for his work and of noble devotion to
+his duty. The construction train and the Irish boss are not forgotten,
+and in the stories of their doings we find not only courage and
+adventure, but wit and humor.--_The Railroad Gazette._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE COWBOY.
+
+_By_ E. HOUGH, _author of "The Singing Mouse Stories," etc. Illustrated
+by William L. Wells and C. M. Russell_.
+
+Mr. Hough is to be thanked for having written so excellent a book. The
+cowboy story, as this author has told it, will be the cowboy's fitting
+eulogy. This volume will be consulted in years to come as an authority
+on past conditions of the far West. For fine literary work the author is
+to be highly complimented. Here, certainly, we have a choice piece of
+writing.--_New York Times._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE MINE.
+
+_As Illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada._
+
+_By_ CHARLES HOWARD SHINN.
+
+Mr. Shinn writes from ... such acquaintance as could only be gained by
+familiarity with the men and the places described, ... and by the
+fullest appreciation of the pervading spirit of the Western mining camps
+of yesterday and to-day. Thus his book has a distinctly human interest,
+apart from its value as a treatise on things material.--_Review of
+Reviews._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE INDIAN.
+
+_By_ GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, _author of "Pawnee Hero Stories," "Blackfoot
+Lodge Tales," etc._
+
+Only an author qualified by personal experience could offer us a
+profitable study of a race so alien from our own as is the Indian in
+thought, feeling, and culture. Only long association with Indians can
+enable a white man measurably to comprehend their thoughts and enter
+into their feelings. Such association has been Mr. Grinnell's.--_New
+York Sun._
+
+
+
+
+_Books by Graham Travers._
+
+
+WINDYHAUGH.
+
+_A Novel. By_ GRAHAM TRAVERS, _author of "Mona Maclean. Medical
+Student," "Fellow Travellers," etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50_.
+
+"Windyhaugh" shows an infinitely more mature skill and more subtle
+humor than "Mona Maclean" and a profounder insight into life. The
+psychology in Dr. Todd's remarkable book is all of the right kind;
+and there is not in English fiction a more careful and penetrating
+analysis of the evolution of a woman's mind than is given in
+Wilhelmina Galbraith; but "Windyhaugh" is not a book in which there
+is only one "star" and a crowd of "supers." Every character is
+limned with a conscientious care that bespeaks the true artist, and
+the analytical interest of the novel is rigorously kept in its
+proper place and is only one element in a delightful story. It is a
+supremely interesting and wholesome book, and in an age when
+excellence of technique has reached a remarkable level, "Windyhaugh"
+compels admiration for its brilliancy of style. Dr. Todd paints on a
+large canvas, but she has a true sense of proportion.--_Blackwood's
+Magazine._
+
+For truth to life, for adherence to a clear line of action, for arrival
+at the point toward which it has aimed from the first, such a book as
+"Windyhaugh" must be judged remarkable. There is vigor and brilliancy.
+It is a book that must be read from the beginning to the end and that it
+is a satisfaction to have read.--_Boston Journal._
+
+Its easy style, its natural characters, and its general tone of
+earnestness assure its author a high rank among contemporary
+novelists.--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+MONA MACLEAN.
+
+_Medical Student. 12mo. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, $1.00._
+
+A pleasure in store for you if you have not read this volume. The author
+has given us a thoroughly natural series of events, and drawn her
+characters like an artist. It is the story of a woman's struggles with
+her own soul. She is a woman of resource, a strong woman, and her career
+is interesting from beginning to end.--_New York Herald._
+
+"Mona Maclean" is a bright, healthful, winning story.--_New York Mail
+and Express._
+
+A high-bred comedy.--_New York Times._
+
+
+FELLOW TRAVELLERS.
+
+_12mo. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, $1.00._
+
+The stories are well told; the literary style is above the average, and
+the character drawing is to be particularly praised. ... Altogether, the
+little book is a model of its kind, and its reading will give pleasure
+to people of taste.--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._
+
+"Fellow Travellers" is a collection of very brightly written tales, all
+dealing, as the title implies, with the mutual relations of people
+thrown together casually while travelling.--_London Saturday Review._
+
+
+
+
+"_A Book that will Live._"
+
+DAVID HARUM.
+
+_A Story of American Life. By_ EDWARD NOYES WESTCOTT. _12mo. Cloth,
+$1.50._
+
+
+Thoroughly a pure, original, and fresh American type. David Harum is a
+character whose qualities of mind and heart, eccentricities, and dry
+humor will win for his creator noble distinction. Buoyancy, life, and
+cheerfulness are dominant notes. In its vividness and force the story is
+a strong, fresh picture of American life. Original and true, it is worth
+the same distinction which is accorded the _genre_ pictures of peculiar
+types and places sketched by Mr. George W. Cable, Mr. Joel Chandler
+Harris, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, Miss Wilkins, Miss Jewett, Mr. Garland,
+Miss French, Miss Murfree, Mr. Gilbert Parker, Mr. Owen Wister, and Bret
+Harte.--_Boston Herald._
+
+Mr. Westcott has done for central New York what Mr. Cable, Mr. Page, and
+Mr. Harris have done for different parts of the South, and what Miss
+Jewett and Miss Wilkins are doing for New England, and Mr. Hamlin
+Garland for the West.... "David Harum" is a masterly delineation of an
+American type.... Here is life with all its joys and sorrows.... David
+Harum lives in these pages as he will live in the mind of the reader....
+He deserves to be known by all good Americans; he is one of them in
+boundless energy, in large-heartedness, in shrewdness, and in
+humor.--_The Critic._
+
+True, strong, and thoroughly alive, with a humor like that of Abraham
+Lincoln and a nature as sweet at the core.--_Boston Literary World._
+
+We give Edward Noyes Westcott his true place in American
+letters--placing him as a humorist next to Mark Twain, as a master of
+dialect above Lowell, as a descriptive writer equal to Bret Harte, and,
+on the whole, as a novelist on a par with the best of those who live and
+have their being in the heart of hearts of American readers. If the
+author is dead--lamentable fact--his book will live.--_Philadelphia
+Item._
+
+The main character ... will probably take his place in time beside Joel
+Chandler Harris's and Thomas Nelson Page's and Miss Wilkins's
+creations.--_Chicago Times-Herald._
+
+
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
+
+
+    _D. B. Updike
+    The Merrymount Press
+    104 Chestnut St.
+    Boston_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Snow on the Headlight, by Cy Warman
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30447 ***