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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..885e142 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69636 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69636) diff --git a/old/69636-0.txt b/old/69636-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 029b236..0000000 --- a/old/69636-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5954 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Salome Shepard, Reformer, by Helen M. -Winslow - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Salome Shepard, Reformer - -Author: Helen M. Winslow - -Release Date: December 25, 2022 [eBook #69636] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALOME SHEPARD, -REFORMER *** - - -[Illustration: Sincerely Yours Helen M Winslow] - - - - - SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER. - - - BY - - HELEN M. WINSLOW. - -[Illustration: ART FOR TRUTH....] - - BOSTON, MASS.: - - =Arena Publishing Company,= - - COPLEY SQUARE, - - 1893. - - - - - Copyright 1893, - BY - HELEN M. WINSLOW. - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. - - - ARENA PRESS. - - - - - “Pardon, gentles all, - The flat, unraised spirit that hath dared - On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth - So great an object.” - SHAKESPEARE. - - - - - SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER. - - - - - I. - - -Salome Shepard gazed wonderingly at the crowd of people in the street, -as she guided her pony-phaeton through the factory precincts. - -“What can be the matter with these people?” she thought. “I’m sure they -ought to have gone to their work before this.” - -It was a wet October day. The narrow street was slippery with the muddy -water that oozed along to the gutters. The factory boardinghouses loomed -up on either side, dingy and desolate. Even the mills looked larger and -coarser, in the gloomy air of the morning. - -As she drove by them, the fair owner listened in vain for the rumble of -machinery. Inside, the great, well-lighted rooms looked dreary and -barn-like in the gray mist that struggled through the windows. - -One hour before, the machinery, shrieking and groaning, had voiced the -protest of the “hands” against their fancied and their real wrongs. One -hour before, every employe had been in his or her place. But the gloom -of the atmosphere could not obscure the suppressed excitement of the -morning. Shortsighted and blind to their best interest, they might have -been; but there was not a man among them who did not feel a tremendous -underlying principle at stake. - -And so, at precisely ten o’clock, the machinery had suddenly and -mysteriously stopped, and every man, woman and child, without a word, -had left the mills. - -All this had happened while Salome Shepard was calling on an elderly -friend of her mother’s at the other end of the town. It had been a -delightfully cosy morning in spite of the rain; and, after a gossipy -fashion, they had passed it in discussing, as women will, the newest -pattern of crochet, the last society-novel, the coming concerts in town. - -Salome’s mood was the comfortable one conduced by such soothing -intellectual food, as she set forth on her homeward drive. The rain had -ceased, and only along the river did the mists hover, suggesting to her -idle fancy the thick smoke which hangs over a smouldering fire. - -But the fire which had been creeping under the life of the Shawsheen -Mills had but just burst into flames, which mounted higher and higher as -the day wore on. - -All through the factory precincts the unwonted excitement was manifest. -Groups of employes were everywhere—on the street-corners, in front of -tenements and boardinghouses, in the middle of the street;—and all were -engaged in absorbing discussion of one exciting theme—the strike. - -Men without coats or hats; women with shawls thrown loosely over their -heads; girls, bonnetless and neglectful of dress; unkempt old women, who -were perhaps the home-makers for these hard-worked and ill-paid people; -all were indifferent save to one subject. - -Even the quick passage, through their midst, of the pony-phaeton and its -mistress failed to attract attention beyond an occasional surly glance -from the men or an envious one from the women. Unmindful of the long -days in store, when there would be ample time to discuss their wrongs, -they remained huddled in excited groups in the wet October air, talking -over the strike,—the famous strike of the Shawsheen Mills. - -“I declare!” muttered the young woman who was hurrying the pony out of -these disagreeable surroundings; “it must be a strike! Nothing else -would crowd them into the street so. I wonder what they want? Dear me! -what nuisances these work-people are. Why can’t they be sensible, and -when they are earning a living, be content? Dear me! if I had the making -over of this world I would make everybody comfortably off, and nobody -rich—unless it were myself,” she added, laughing; for absolute -truthfulness was a necessity of Salome Shepard’s nature, and she knew -perfectly well that she could not do without the luxuries to which she -had always been accustomed. - -“If I had the making over of the world!” - -The words repeated themselves in her mind. If any human being has the -power of making over the world in any smallest degree, something -whispered, that person must be a young, attractive woman, with a vast -property and absolute control of several hundred people, besides two -millions of dollars in her own right. - -“Dear me!” she said aloud, as she drove up the graveled road under the -dripping yellow beeches. “How positively dreadful it must be to be a -reformer! How would I look in a bloomer costume and black bombazine -bonnet? No. Let things alone, keep to your sphere, young woman,—the -proper, well-regulated, protected and chaperoned sphere of a delicate -young lady, and let the world right its own wrongs.” - -She jumped lightly from the phaeton, tossing the reins to James, and -showing her fine, well-turned figure to excellent advantage as she ran -up the broad steps. - -The massive doors turned noiselessly at her approach. She passed through -the fine old hall and went directly up the broad oak staircase to her -room. - -“How comfortable this is,” she said to herself, as the blazing wood-fire -threw flickering shadows over the dainty hangings, the warm rugs and the -choice pictures. - -But even as she drew a long sigh of contentment with her lot, a picture -of wet and muddy streets, thickset with groups of brawny men and -bedraggled, unkempt women, intruded itself, and the sigh changed its -tenor. - -“If I only had the making over of the world!” she said again aloud; and -added resolutely, “but I haven’t.” - - - - - II. - - -The Shawsheen Mills had been established many years before the opening -of this story by Salome’s grandfather, Newbern Shepard. They constituted -one of the chief manufacturing concerns of Shepardtown. They made more -cloth, and that of a better quality, than any other mill outside the -“City of Spindles.” They employed a much larger force of operatives than -any other factory in the place, and had always held a controlling -interest in town affairs. - -When the Shawsheen Mills were first started, blooming girls from all -parts of Massachusetts came swarming to them, glad of a new and -respectable employment,—came with earnest purpose to make this new life -and its outcomes subservient to a better future. The conscientious New -England girl of those days took as much pride in making a perfect web of -cloth as though it were for her own wearing. Aware that her employers -took an interest in her welfare, aside from the fact that she was a part -of the motive power of the mill, she rewarded them with a full -performance of her duty. A mutual goodfellowship had existed, then, -between employer and employed in the years when old Newbern Shepard was -at the head of his mills. - -All this had changed. Newbern Shepard had died after a long and -successful career, leaving the business to his son, Floyd Shepard. The -latter, educated at Harvard, with five years of study afterward in -Germany, had developed little taste for an active business life such as -his father had led. He had, consequently, placed the entire business in -the hands of Otis Greenough, a friend of his college-days and a -hard-headed business man. Floyd Shepard had idled the greater part of -his time before reaching the age of fifty in various parts of the world. - -Then he came home, married a Baltimore belle, and passed his old age in -his native place. - -Even then, he gave little thought to the details of business. He added -to and improved the home of his forefathers, until his house and grounds -were acknowledged to be the finest in the state. After four years of -married life, his young wife died, leaving him one child—a babe of three -days. Then he retired into his study, and lived only among his books. - -“Don’t trouble me with the business,” he would say to Otis Greenough, on -the rare occasions when it seemed necessary to consult the owner of the -mills. “I care nothing as to how you manage the works, and know less how -it should be done. Suit yourself as to details, and keep the mills -paying a good profit. I shall be satisfied.” - -Upon this principle the mills had been run for thirty years. The agent -and his superintendents had devoted themselves to the problem of getting -out more goods and making more money than their competitors, while -keeping the standard of their wares up to its old mark. They had no time -for the problem of human life involved. The first and principal question -had required a severe struggle, with active brains and sharp wits. What -wonder, then, that the increasing mass of operatives had come to be -considered, every year, less as human beings in need of help and -encouragement, and more as mechanical attachments of the mills? - -Only such operatives as had been brought up in the mills realized the -difference. The employes were mostly of the unwashed population, -expecting nothing but a place to earn their living and but scanty pay -for it. - -Having, at the outset, no confidence in their employers, and no feeling -of goodwill towards them, they had no conscientious motive behind their -work. On the contrary, they stood on the defensive, watching for -oppression and tyranny, and ready to take arms against them. - -This was the state of things when the first regularly organized strike -occurred at the Shawsheen Mills. - -Otis Greenough, although an old man, was still at the head of the mills. -Floyd Shepard’s death three years before had made no difference with the -vast business interests in his name. In willing everything he owned to -his daughter, who was already heiress to a large fortune from her -mother’s family, he had provided that Otis Greenough should be chief -agent during the remainder of his life; and that the mills should -continue on the same plan by which they had been run for the past -quarter of a century. - -Otis Greenough was an arbitrary man, with that enormous strength of will -which a man must have who is to control and manage two thousand people -and an increasing business. - -If, in the march of economic progress, he chose to make changes in the -machinery of the mills, he consulted no one, and cared nothing for the -black looks or surly mutterings of the operative who might fancy himself -injured thereby. Had it been hinted to him that his operatives might be -trained to take a personal interest in the success or failure of new -experiments or, indeed, that they had any right to his brotherly -consideration, he would have flouted the idea. - -It was his boast that he never wasted words on the operatives. In short, -he was as indifferent to the rights of Labor as his Lancashire spinners -were to the interests of Capital. Hence the strike. - -At noon of the day that Salome Shepard had driven through the factory -street, Otis Greenough sat in his private office with his two -superintendents, the treasurer and cashier of the mills, and one or two -subordinates. As the bell struck for twelve, five men from the various -departments filed in and presented a written document. They were the -committee appointed by the new Labor Union. - -Mr. Greenough took the paper with an air that showed him to be in -anything but a conciliatory mood. Without opening it, he burst forth -angrily: - -“What, in the name of common sense, is this farce anyhow? What do you -mean by leaving your work and presuming to come here, dictating terms to -_me_?” - -“The paper will explain everything, sir,” replied the foremost of the -committee. “We have our rights—or should have them. The time has come -when we propose to get them. Will you read the petition, sir?” - -“No,” thundered the choleric old man. “Not in your presence. Villard, -treat with them.” Mr. Greenough was too angry to say more. - -Mr. Villard, the younger superintendent, stepped forward. - -“I think,” he said, “that you had better leave us for a time. We shall -need to consider your proposals, whatever they may be. Go now, and come -again later—say at four o’clock.” Agreeing to this proposition, the five -men turned and left the office. Mr. Villard sat down again, waiting for -the agent to speak. - -“The confounded whelps!” ejaculated Mr. Greenough, as soon as he could -find breath. “Open that paper, Villard—the impudent puppies!” - -Without answering, John Villard tore open the envelope, and read the -document aloud: - - _Whereas_, we, the undersigned, believing that our interests demand an - organization which shall promote and protect affairs relating to us as - laboring men; and - - _Whereas_, we have already organized and maintained such a society; it - is now unanimously agreed that we insist upon the recognition of such - a body by our employers, and upon their making certain concessions for - the benefit of that body. - - _Whereas_, there is a ten-hour system established in this state by - law; we hereby _resolve_ that we will refuse to work ten and a half or - eleven hours a day as has been demanded of us. - - _Whereas_, we believe the introduction of the new frames are - detrimental to the interests of the mule-spinners; we _resolve_ that - they must be taken out, and the old mules replaced, with a written - agreement that no more of the obnoxious machinery shall be added for, - at least, five years. - - _Whereas_, there has been an attempt made to reduce our wages, - especially in the weaving department; we hereby _resolve_ that we will - submit to no curtailment of wages, and to demand payment of all wages - weekly, as is the custom in certain other mills in this state. - - Trusting that these our petitions may be granted, our rights - respected, and that harmonious relations will soon be established - between us, we take pleasure in signing ourselves - - “MEMBERS OF THE SHAWSHEEN LABOR UNION.” - -Before John Villard had finished reading the paper, Mr. Greenough had -risen and was pacing the floor excitedly. - -“Shocking!” he exclaimed, as Mr. Villard folded the paper and returned -it to its envelope. “Preposterous! Do they think they can impose upon me -with such a jumble of unreasoning nonsense as that? Labor Union, indeed! -Why, the rascals act as if there were no interests but those of labor. -And a beautiful time they’ve taken to strike—when orders are pouring in -faster than we can possibly keep up with them. A fine time, indeed!” - -“I suppose,” said John Villard, fearlessly, “there seems a slight -injustice to them, in cutting down their wages at such a time.” - -“What right have they to dictate, I should like to inquire?” answered -the irate agent. “If they were not a bigoted, unreasoning set, they’d -know they never can serve the interests of labor in such a way. They’d -realize that they are only biting off their own noses! They have -probably been worked upon by some crank of an agitator. If they were not -ignorant dogs, they’d know that they could best serve the interests of -labor by being faithful to those of capital. Why,” he concluded, his -face growing redder in his wrath, “is this America? Is this our boasted -New England? Is this a free country? By Jove! I’ve heard of this sort of -thing in England, but in this republican land, this boasted region of -freedom—Great Scott! What are we coming to?” - -“It’s this accursed trades-unionism creeping in among us,” put in the -treasurer’s mild voice, as Otis Greenough paused for breath. “I’ve been -expecting it.” - -“Blast it, why didn’t you mention it then?” returned Mr. Greenough. But -the treasurer retired in confusion behind his books and did not answer. - -“Well, Villard,” continued the agent, “I hope now you will give up the -Utopian schemes you’ve been nursing for the elevation of the laboring -classes. You see just what a foolish, unthinking, unreliable set of men -we have to deal with.” - -“On the contrary, sir,” returned the second superintendent, firmly, “I -sympathize, to a degree, with them. I agree that they have taken an -inopportune time to enforce their views, and regret that they could not -have seen fit to keep at work while their petition was being considered; -and I would advise——” - -“I want no man’s advice until I ask it,” interrupted the elder man. -“This is our first strike, and it shall be the last so long as I have -authority here. Humph! They think they can intimidate me! They have -chosen this time because they think I _must_ yield now. They little know -me. Otis Greenough has not run the Shawsheen Mills successfully thirty -years, to be brow-beaten and conquered in the end by a pack of ignorant -laborers.” - -“But how is this to end?” asked the first superintendent, speaking for -the first time. - -“It can end whenever these men will take back their impudent paper and -go to work. Villard, when they show up again—four o’clock did you -say?—you will tell them so. Offer them a chance to go to work to-morrow -morning on the old terms. You needn’t give in to them one inch. Do you -hear? Not a jot or tittle.” - -“And what if they do not accept?” asked Villard. - -“Why, advertise. Advertise far and near. Get new help. We’ll open the -mills and run them, too, right in their very teeth. I’ll show them that -he who has been master here for thirty years is master until he dies.” - - - - - III. - - -The choleric agent’s blood was fairly up, and he now set himself to plan -for the coming warfare. When the committee from the labor union made its -appearance at four o’clock, the agent refused to treat directly with -them. He retired to his inner office, whence issued a moment later an -“open letter to the employes of the Shawsheen Mills.” The circular was -composed and written entirely by himself, and was quite characteristic -of his high-handed authority. It stated that “as the control of an owner -over his property was guaranteed by the law of the land, and was of such -unquestionable character as ought not to be meddled with by any other -individual or combination of individuals, the agent of the Shawsheen -Mills, acting for their owner, would brook no such interference as had -been attempted.” But, in bombastic language, he went on to say that, on -account of the pressure of work, he offered to take back into the mills -such operatives as, after a day’s idleness and a night’s calm -reflection, might decide to come back peacefully, and accept the old -conditions. The circular closed by adding that all returning operatives -must renounce their connection with the new Labor Union, and stating -that the Shawsheen Mills would be immediately re-opened. - -This letter, as might have been expected, only served to fan the -smouldering embers of discord. It was taken at once to the quarters of -the new Union, and angrily discussed. A stormy meeting was held that -evening, and scores of new members were added to the organization, all -unanimously agreeing, not only to keep away from the mills themselves, -but to prevent other operatives from entering them. The trouble which -might have been met at the outset and subdued by candid discussion and a -fair acknowledgment on each side of the claims of the other, was changed -into a barricade of danger between labor and capital over which a battle -was to be fought, involving money and credit and losses on one side, and -daily bread for two thousand people on the other. - -“Come,” said Otis Greenough, emerging from his “den” after the committee -had left the office. “I want you, Villard, and you, too, Burnham,” he -added, turning to the other superintendent, “to go with me this evening, -to the owner of these mills, and lay before her the proceedings of the -day, and our reasons for taking a firm stand. Although, precious little -difference it will make with her, I imagine, how many strikes we have, -until her income is affected! Will you be so good as to state, Villard, -what you are smiling at.” - -“I was thinking, sir, that it is a queer state of affairs, when a person -owning large and influential mills like these, need not know of the -strike or be consulted with regard to it, until it is half over,” -answered Villard. He had no fear of the agent, with whom he was a -favorite, in spite of his seeming harshness. “It seems to me, if I were -a young woman, with unlimited leisure and wealth, I should care to know -something of so tremendous an interest as the Shawsheen Mills -represent—that is, if I owned them.” - -“Ha, ha!” laughed the agent, “that shows how much of a ladies’ man you -are, John. Much you know about the things that interest and amuse the -young ladies. By Jove! I should laugh to see the daughter of Floyd -Shepard meddling with the details of the great business he left her. She -could discuss French and Italian literature, or the different schools of -music and art, by the hour, and fairly inundate you with a flood of -learning; but when it comes to mills—why, she don’t know a loom from a -spinning-jenny—and don’t want to. I’m only going up there as a matter of -form. As for advice, she knows I wouldn’t take it, even if she has any -to offer. But courtesy—proper courtesy,” and Otis Greenough drew himself -up to his fullest height, “and the respect we owe her as the owner of -this property, demand that we go there this evening. I will call for you -in my carriage at half-past seven.” - -And, so saying, he left the office. - -“I reckon the old man is about right,” said Burnham, when they were -alone. “Miss Shepard knows no more about the practical affairs of her -mill, than that little white kitten over there does. She’ll meet us with -a listless, half-bored air, pretending to listen to the statements of -our chief, and all the time be wishing us at the antipodes.” - -“Do you know,” interrupted John Villard, locking the door to the office -as they left it together, “I’ve very little patience with women of that -sort. Think, with her youth and health and money, what a directing, -reforming force in bringing together the conflicting interests of labor -and capital she might be! Great Heavens! I wish I had her opportunity. -I’d make something of it.” - -“Oh, you are too Utopian,” replied Burnham. “It is fortunate she isn’t -that kind. We should be overwhelmed with Schemes for the Amelioration of -the Condition of This, That, and The Other Thing, until there would be -nothing left but bankruptcy for all of us. No. I want no reformers in -petticoats at the head of the Shawsheen Mills. But here I am at my -street. Good-bye, till evening.” - -Salome Shepard passed a dull afternoon. Although a young woman of -resources she found herself in no mood to enjoy any of them after lunch. -The newest volume of essays seemed insufferably dull, and she turned for -relief to the latest novel; but, in spite of the fact that this book was -talked about throughout the country, she soon threw it aside with a -wearied air and sat gazing into the blazing hickory fire. - -Strange! but the red-hot coals formed themselves into a group against -the dull back-log like the groups of miserable, excited men and women of -the morning against a background of rain and fog and muddy streets. It -was an uncomfortable picture, and she rose suddenly, and, going into the -music-room, seated herself at the piano. Chopin’s Nocturnes stood open -on the rack, but she tossed them aside and began some stormy Liszt -music, breaking off when half done and going to the window. - -The rain had begun to fall again and the fog had settled like a pall -over everything farther off than the arched gateway. She wondered if all -those people were still standing in the mud and rain. - -An elderly lady, with soft white hair and exquisite laces, came in. - -Salome ran forward, pushed her aunt’s favorite chair into the position -she liked best, and put her into it. - -“Why did you stop playing? And why did you attempt that brilliant -thing?” said Mrs. Soule. “You are so dreadfully out of practice, you -know.” - -“It wasn’t that,” answered the younger woman; “I’m not in the mood for -playing anything. I doubt if I could get through with ‘Bounding Billows’ -or the ‘Fifteenth Amusement’ to-day. Did you know, aunty, there is a -strike down at the mills?” - -“A strike! Mercy, who has struck?” responded the elder in shocked tones. - -“Why, the operatives, of course. I don’t know why, or anything about it. -I have never shown any interest in the mills,” she went on eagerly and -half-apologetically, “but I should like to know what it is all about—why -they did it—what they want, and all that. I should think Mr. Greenough -would come up here.” - -“He will come as soon as he deems it proper.” Mrs. Soule’s voice was -calmness and precision itself. “It is not nice for young ladies to mix -themselves up in such common things.” - -“But, aunty,” laughed Salome, “strikes are not common things here. We -never had one before. And I am not so very young a lady as to need the -same careful guardianship I had when I was sixteen. I am twenty-seven -years old.” - -“There is no need of saying so upon all occasions, if you are,” replied -her aunt with some asperity. “A strike, like all things connected with, -or originated by the ignorant laboring class, is common in the sense of -being vulgar. Any woman, young or old, brought up as delicately and -carefully as you have been, demeans herself by connection with such -things. You have an agent—a manly and capable one; leave the settlement -of such things to him.” - -“Oh, I’m not going to meddle with the strike. The very suggestion that I -would wish to have anything to do with settling the difficulty makes me -laugh.” - -Salome rose and began to pace the room. “But sometimes, lately, aunty, -it has occurred to me that a young woman of average talent, with a great -business on her hands which employs two thousand people, may have -something to do in life more than to seek her own selfish enjoyment—a -pursuit which, after all, is not elevating and leaves but a restless, -unsatisfied spirit in its wake. I came across some of grandfather’s -manuscripts two or three weeks ago and have been reading them. He wasn’t -like papa. The mills were a part of his very self. The operatives were -almost like so many children to him. I’ve read in his, and in other -books, about the mill-girls of his day. Girls whose working days began -at daylight in winter and ended at half-past seven in the evening; who -had only two dresses to their backs, and those of Merrimack print; whose -profits for a week, after their board was paid, were only two dollars. -But girls who could discuss Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton at their -looms; who read Locke and Abercrombie and Pollock and Young (something I -can’t do!); who sent petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery; -who helped build churches from their pitiful savings; who wrote essays -and poems and stories, even while running their looms; who spent their -evenings in the study of German and French and botany; and who went out, -at last, to become teachers and mothers and missionaries, and, above -all, noble, self-sacrificing, helpful women. And I tell you that, with -all my money and my polished education, I envy them.” - -“Salome, really, you surprise me,” exclaimed the excellent lady who was -listening to her. “Calm yourself, my dear.” - -“Look at the girls in this mill—in my grandfather’s mill to-day—in my -mill,” she went on. “Beings of bangs and bangles and cheap jewelry, of -low aspirations, and correspondingly low morals! They are not to blame -for their penny-dreadful lives, because they know no better. They dream -of nothing higher than their looms and their face-powder, and their -cheap satins and false hair—why should they? They see rich and educated -women like us wrapped entirely in ourselves, each anxious to outshine -the rest, and all seemingly lost in the mad race after fashionable -attire. They do not know, poor things, that we ever think or talk of -higher subjects. I tell you, I feel that I am, somehow, responsible for -them. And yet, I don’t know how to help them. My grandfather could, but -I can’t.” - -“I know nothing of such things,” coldly replied her aunt. “It is not -ladylike to fly into a passion over the fancied wrongs of a lower order -of beings. I beg that you will recollect that you are the daughter of -Cora Le Bourdillon and Floyd Shepard.” - -“And more than that,” Salome whispered to herself as she sought the -quiet of her own room, “I am afraid I am the grand-daughter of Newbern -Shepard.” - - - - - IV. - - -It was nearly eight o’clock when carriage-wheels were heard coming up -the graveled drive-way, and Otis Greenough and his associates were -announced. Salome and her aunt were sitting in the music-room, and came -forward at once; the former with an unmistakable air of eagerness. - -“Tell me about the strike, Mr. Greenough,” she asked, before he had -fairly seated himself. - -“Oh, then, you’d heard of it, eh?” he asked. - -“I saw something of it this morning, driving through the town. I could -not help knowing what it was. But why did they do it? What do they -want?” - -“They did it,” and Otis Greenough sat up with a judicial air, “because -they are rascally dogs, and do not know when they are well off. And they -want?—well,—the earth—more pay, shorter hours, and the Lord knows what -besides.” - -“Well, and why shouldn’t they have it?” - -The question fell like a bomb upon her surprised audience. - -“To be sure, I know very little of these things, practically, although I -have taken the prescribed doses of social economy in my readings under -Professor Townsend,” she went on; “but it has occurred to me, within a -few days, that the laboring classes have very little control over their -own lives, and are not much more than slaves to us who hold the reins of -power.” - -“Bless me!” thought Otis Greenough, staring at her. If his office-door -had suddenly spoken, offering him officious counsel as to his method of -conducting the mills, he could hardly have been more surprised. “Bless -me! No Floyd Shepard about her.” - -“If the operatives are poorly paid, and we are making more money than -ever before (I think I understood you so the other day?),” the young -woman was saying, “why shouldn’t their wages be raised? It seems but -fair, to me.” - -“Much you know about it, little girl,” Mr. Greenough found voice to say, -addressing her as he used to in by-gone days, when she occasionally -strayed into the mills and teased to be taken through them. “Much any -young lady of the world can know of such matters. We would not have you -turn from being your own charming self, and become a learned -blue-stocking, or bloomered reformer; but there are many, many reasons -which come between the questions of profit and loss, and the petty -details of operatives’ wages, which cannot be explained to you here and -now. They were contented enough until some rascal or other, having -become imbued with the spirit of these labor unions starting up all over -the country, must needs organize one here. By Jove! I’ll employ -detectives and hunt out the disturbing elements and shut them up. I have -offered every mother’s son a chance to go back to work to-morrow -morning, on condition that he drops this union business; but I am told -to-night that not one of them will accept. Ignorant creatures! I’ll show -’em what it means to fight a rich and strong concern like this, in the -vain hope of bringing us to their terms.” - -“Meanwhile,” it was Villard who spoke, “we are to go on resisting their -combined ignorance and impatience, and perhaps worse elements, losing -thousands of dollars in the warfare, are we?” - -“Yes, rather than give in one inch to them,” answered Mr. Greenough. -“This is the first organized strike and must be made a warning to future -disturbers. It’s those confounded Englishmen trying to transplant their -foreign ideas to American soil. If we give in to them now, we establish -a bad precedent.” - -“I must confess,” said Villard, “that I do not see it. I have seen -several strikes, and know that generally both sides lose sight of -reason, and determine to fight it out regardless of cost. I am afraid, -with the course you propose to adopt, sir, that we shall go on until the -losses on our side or the suffering and privation on theirs will become -unbearable; and then one side or the other will be forced to yield. If -it should be they, a smouldering resentment will be left, ready to break -out anew at the first convenient season. If we, they will feel -encouraged to try still more arbitrary measures in the future. Or if a -compromise be effected, it will be one that might as well be made -to-morrow.” - -“You talk well for a young man,” admitted Mr. Greenough. “How did you -come by your exceedingly humane and sympathetic views?” - -“I began as an employe myself,” answered Villard, “and I know how they -feel to some extent. I know what it is to work at the lowest drudgery of -a mill, and can imagine how it must seem to have no hope of ever rising -to a higher position. Hard, unremitting toil, long hours with endless -years of hopeless work in prospect, the lowest possible wages, a large -and rapidly increasing family, with perhaps an aged parent or invalid -wife to support—I tell you lots of those fellows have all that to bear, -knowing the utter impossibility of ever saving anything, or of raising -their own condition. I say, sir, looking at life from their standpoint, -it’s mighty hard.” - -“Well, well,” put in Mr. Greenough, testily, “a great many of them want -nothing better. They would not know what to do with a better chance for -life, as you call it, if they had it.” - -“Simply put yourself in their place, sir,” said Villard. “What if you -were forty years younger than you are, and condemned to a life of toil -at the looms, for instance, would you not claim the right to combine -with others of like occupation and interests and ask for a better -chance? These men of ours have taken an unreasonable way of asserting -themselves, but I think they are entitled to our respect, and should be -dealt with as men. An open, fair discussion of the wage question or the -ten-hour law can result in nothing but good for both sides.” - -“You are young,” Mr. Greenough replied, “and believe everything in this -world can be made to run exactly as you want it. When you are older, -you’ll realize better the indifference and general mulishness of the -world, and of operatives in particular. I do not believe in meeting and -deferring to them as equals. They are not worth our efforts, and so long -as they are under the influence of hot-headed devils who pose as labor -reformers, just so long we are going to see trouble.” - -“If we were to make a fair compromise with them,” Mr. Burnham was -speaking for the first time, “and let them see that we, as humane -employers, have a greater desire for their interest than any foreigner -can have, wouldn’t it work a reaction in our favor? From a strictly -business point of view, perhaps it would be money in our pockets.” - -“Yes,” urged Villard, “if we were to show ourselves willing to consider -an intimate knowledge of their needs and thus prove ourselves their best -friends, it would be only a case of practical philanthropy, and one -which would raise our profits every year, I believe. It is only the -first step that costs, you know.” - -“I don’t believe it,” stoutly maintained the agent. “In my day there has -been very little talk of managers and owners deferring to their help. I -hire my own operatives and reserve the right to raise, or lower, their -wages as I please.” - -“But, Mr. Greenough,” broke in Salome eagerly, “don’t you consider their -circumstances at all? Don’t you, for instance, in a driving time, pay -them any higher wages than in dull times? I think there would be nothing -but fairness in that.” - -“My dear young lady,” was the answer in patronizing tones, “don’t bother -your brains with such things. You cannot understand them. Why try?” - -“Imagine our Salome posing as a philanthropist or a social economist,” -interrupted Mrs. Soule’s mellifluous tones. “We had a great laugh over -the idea this afternoon.” - -Salome bit her lip and said nothing. - -“I think,” continued her aunt in the same smooth accents, “that we have -talked business long enough. I am sure, Mr. Greenough, that Salome is, -and will be perfectly satisfied with any course you may see fit to adopt -with regard to the strikers. Women, you know, ladies at least, have no -heads for business, and we, certainly,” with an indescribable turn of -voice on the “we”—“we, certainly, have had no training to fit us for -reformers. And now shall we not have some music? Salome, dear, will you -play that delightful little suite of Moscowzki’s that I like so well?” - -The young woman rose and, going to the piano, did as she was bid, -although somewhat mechanically. Then Mr. Greenough proposed a song from -Mr. Burnham, who possessed a fine baritone voice, and the evening wore -away with music and light conversation. - -When the three men went home, the elder was in fine spirits, in spite of -having been shocked and discomfited to an unusual degree, by the -unexpected disclosure of views which he termed “strong-minded” on the -part of the fair owner of the Shawsheen Mills. - -“If there should come to be hard times and perhaps destitution among the -operatives before this difficulty is settled,” Salome said to John -Villard as he was preparing to go, “such destitution as we read of in -foreign countries in times of labor disturbances, I hope you will let me -do something to relieve it. Strange as it may seem, I have a much better -idea of such a state of affairs there than here—among my own mills.” - -“There will be no such state of affairs, I trust,” was his reply, “as is -pictured in English novels.” - -“You have guessed accurately as to the sources of my information,” she -laughed. - -He smiled too, and continued, - -“Meanwhile, if we pursue the policy proposed,” and he glanced at Mr. -Greenough, who was making gallant speeches to Mrs. Soule, “you might -keep a watchful eye on the help. You could tell, you know, by the women, -if they came to absolute distress. Of course, there is no knowing how -long this thing may last.” - -“Me! You look to me for such a thing,” and it was hard to tell whether -her tone was amused or sarcastic only. “Why, Mr. Villard, I do not know -one of the operatives in the mills—not even by sight. If I were to meet -them on the main thoroughfare to-morrow I should not know them from -other women of their class.” - -John Villard raised his eyebrows and turned to put on his coat without -another word. The situation was incomprehensible to him. - -Salome saw this, and winced under it. She made no further attempt at -conversation, but said good-night graciously to Mr. Greenough and the -older superintendent, recognizing Villard’s parting nod at the door. - -“There,” said her aunt, as they went back into the firelight, “I hope -they won’t feel it necessary to come here and consult with us again so -long as the strike is on. As though you knew or cared anything for it, -my dear! But, of course, they had to come as a matter of form. Any way, -I’m glad it is over. Play something.” - -Salome complied, playing the first thing which came to her mind—the -opening bars of the _Sonata Pathetique_. - -“I wish,” she said to herself as she disrobed for the night, “that I -were a capable woman of affairs—and that John Villard were my agent.” - - - - - V. - - -Not for a week could enough new help be hired to even make a show of -opening the Shawsheen Mills. Labor Unions were a comparatively new thing -in this country, and were not so thoroughly organized as now; and a few -of the old operatives, rather than starve, were glad to go back into the -mills on any condition. But the great majority refused with indignation -to give up their claims, and proceeded to “make things hot,” as they -expressed it, for the “scabs” and “mudsills.” - -Work was attempted in the mills, although many looms stood silent and -the spinning-mules were entirely deserted. Thread for warp was procured -from a neighboring city at no small expense and the mills were run at a -loss, to prove the agent’s assertion that “he would show them who was -manager of the Shawsheen Mills.” - -This sort of thing was kept up four days. On the fifth morning, the -operatives went as usual to the mill, but the machinery, after a few -insufficient groans, gave up in despair and settled into utter quiet. - -What was the matter? - -There was a great hurrying to and fro, and a close examination of belts -and machinery. Word was soon brought up from the basement. The engines -had been tampered with; on each of them the belts had been cut. The -jocularly inclined said the “engines had joined the Union;”—while -everybody wondered what effect this stroke would have on the agent. - -The premises were examined and the night-watchman questioned. Evidently -the deed had been done by some one familiar with the place, but there -was not the slightest clue. He had done well his work, and the mills -were stopped for repairs. - -Otis Greenough blustered about and cursed the whole business; but he was -farther than ever from a compromise, declaring that he would yet beat -them with their own weapons. - -The night-watch was doubled and the mills were opened again the next -day. But the employers were fighting a desperate party and little -calculated their strength. The man who had succeeded so well in his -first attempt to stop the mills risked himself again; and on the second -morning the machinery again refused to start. This time a small wheel -had been removed from each engine and carried away. The water-wheel had -long been in partial disuse and could not be trusted without the -engines. Hence, there was nothing to be done but to stop again for -repairs. This time it was a week before the engines were in running -order. And yet, not a word passed between the agent and the strikers. - -The night-watch were discharged and new ones engaged. A special police -was secured to patrol the mill-yard, and when the mills were again -opened, it was with the avowed determination to keep them going in spite -of every earthly power. - -The next morning, notwithstanding the positive assertions of police and -night-watch that no one had been near the mills, every band connecting -the looms to the machinery above was cut in half a dozen places. Then -the superstitious operatives whispered among themselves that unseen -agencies were linked with the Union, and that the strikers must succeed -in the end; and many of the fainthearted went over to the new labor -party. - -“It is of no use trying to run the mills in this way,” said Mr. Burnham. -“We have already lost several thousand dollars. We must compromise.” - -“Never,” said Mr. Greenough. “The terms of Floyd Shepard’s will grant me -absolute power here, and so long as I live, it shall never be said that -an educated, trained and levelheaded business man was overcome by a lot -of ignorant bullies and agitators. These Labor Unions all over the State -need an example. There is money enough in the mill treasury to fight -them until they starve themselves out. No other mill or corporation -about here will hire them, and it is only a matter of weeks or months -when absolute poverty forces them to yield. Not one inch will I give in -to them. They shall come back as beggars, glad to accept work at even -lower wages than they have ever had. I’ll teach them a lesson.” - -Geoffrey Burnham turned away full of anger that a flourishing business -should be destroyed by one man’s obstinacy. John Villard went back to -the silent looms, full of righteous indignation, not only at the total -disregard of practical business interests, but at the want of humanity -and philanthropy and Christian charity, which by his subordinate -position he must seem to countenance. - -Weeks lengthened themselves into months, and still the Shawsheen Mills -were closed. - -Salome Shepard, after spending the holiday season with friends in New -York, came home, satiated with social success, and a little tired of the -endless pursuit of pleasure. Still the mills lay idle and Otis Greenough -refused to talk any more with her on the subject of the strike. And the -terms of her father’s will held her powerless, even had she chosen to -exercise her authority. - -But she chafed under the knowledge that two thousand people, who were in -a sense dependent upon her for their daily bread, were out of work in -the midst of a hard winter. - -One day she went to walk down among the people who were suffering, now, -for a principle. - -She was amazed at the gaunt, hungry look of the old men; and -self-accused at the pinched and wan faces of the few children who played -in the narrow streets. Unthinking, she had put on a seal-skin cloak. It -was a cold day, and furs, to her, were only a natural accompaniment to -the frosts of winter. - -But going down the uncared-for side-walk, she rebuked herself, noting -the single shawl and calico dress of an old woman who was wearily making -her way a few paces in front of her. Presently the woman stopped, seized -with a paroxysm of coughing. - -Salome came up with her, and looked into the white face, which told of -hard times. - -“Madam,” she said, respectfully, “can I be of any assistance to you? -Shall I not help you home?” - -Her tone and manner were exactly the same she would have used to any of -her aunt’s friends. It did not occur to her to be patronizing or -condescending. - -The old woman stared at her. She was not used to being addressed as -“Madam.” - -“Yes’m,” she said, presently. “I live up to the other end of the street. -If the cough wasn’t so bad, an’ my side didn’t ketch me so! But if I can -git back to my own chair ag’in——” - -Another fit of coughing seized her, and interrupted the “garrulousness -of uncultured old age.” Salome waited until she got breath again and -then took her by the arm, accommodating her steps to the feebler ones. - -Here and there a surprised face peered curiously at her through a dirty -window, knowing who she was, and wondering that she condescended to walk -with old Granny Lancaster. Everywhere a general air of poverty, perhaps -of actual hunger, impressed this woman, who had inherited the -tumble-down tenement houses on each side. - -“I beg your pardon,” she said, “but do you eat nourishing food enough? -Good beef-steak and roast-beef would help your cough more than -medicine.” - -The old woman laughed, a grating, cackling laugh. - -“Beef-steak and roast-beef ain’t for the likes o’ me,” she said. “Meat -of any kind ain’t for us in times o’ strikes. May the Lord above send us -oatmeal enough to keep us through till the mills open ag’in is all I -ask. Here’s my house. Much ’bleeged, lady.” - -Salome wanted to go inside the rickety old door and follow the woman up -the dirty stairway, but she did not say so, and the old woman hobbled up -the steps without asking her in. - -Salome felt impulsively in her pocket, and drawing out her -porte-monnaie, emptied its contents into the dirty, emaciated palm of -Granny Lancaster. Then she turned and walked rapidly back home. - -The next day Otis Greenough called on her. - -“My dear,” he said, after an hour or two passed in desultory -conversation, “may I beg that you will keep away from the operatives? -Impulsive and injudicious charity does them more harm than anything -else. No doubt the part of Lady Bountiful seems a pleasant and desirable -one, but, just now, you are not fitted for it.” - -“What do you mean, sir?” asked she in a puzzled tone. - -“For instance,” he went on, “the money you gave a certain old woman on -the corporation yesterday was taken by her son-in-law last night, and -furnished him an opportunity for a glorious old drunk. I beg your pardon -for using their phraseology. He was arrested before morning for -drunkenness and disorderly conduct.” - -“I do not comprehend,” she stammered. “The woman said they had no meat. -She was actually suffering for nourishing food. I gave the money, -impulsively it is true, but that they need not go hungry.” - -“Now, you see, my dear,” he answered, “just how much encouragement one -gets in trying to do anything for the laboring classes. They turn upon -you and use the goodness of your heart and your generous motives to drag -themselves down to a lower depth of degradation. Good-day, my dear, and -don’t be led away by your feelings.” - -Salome stood looking after him, heart-sick and discouraged. The -world—her part of it, at least—was all wrong, and she, with plenty of -money and an awakening desire to help, was powerless. She ordered the -pony phaeton again and started for a drive. She obeyed a sudden impulse -to go through the factory precincts. There were evidences of a -suppressed excitement. Knots of desperate-looking men stood about. But -they hushed their voices as she drew near, and stood in sullen silence -as she passed. - -“There is evidently something in the wind,” she thought, urging the pony -to quicken his pace. - -She did not know that the committee from the Labor Union had that -morning made a third attempt to treat with her agent and failed. - -“No compromise,” was still his watchword. - -“I’ll send for Marion Shaw,” she said to herself, on her way home an -hour later. “She is a practical, sensible, business-like woman. Perhaps -she will know of some way to help me to help others. And she needs -rest.” - -This idea so inspired her that she arrived home quite elated, and stated -her plan to Mrs. Soule at dinner-time with much animation. - -But later in the evening, the groups of men she had seen on “the -corporation” came back to her mind and caused her a certain feeling of -uneasiness. What had they been talking about so excitedly as she drew -near? - -It was one of those suddenly warm nights in January that succeed, in our -fickle climate, a bitter cold day, and Salome felt an unaccountable -desire to be in the open air. She threw on a warm wrap and hood, and -saying nothing, went out on the piazza, and crossed the lawn to a -favorite walk of hers in summer—a path under a long group of fir-trees -down by the street at the back of the house. - -After a few turns, she heard a peculiar whistle which was answered by -another. - -She withdrew still more into the shadow and waited. Presently two men -met. - -“Well, what’s the news?” eagerly asked one. - -“Sh—sh! not so loud,” replied the other. “It’s all right, and better -than we expected.” - -“Why—how better?” asked the first. - -They spoke lower, so that Salome could scarcely catch the tones. - -“Because,” the first was saying, “the old man himself has gone down to -the mill.” - -“Whe—e—w!” - -“Yes. What on earth possessed him? But then that’s none of our affairs. -If he wants to run the risk of losing his life—that’s his business, not -mine.” - -“Well, but,” and the first voice had a timid note, “that’s going too -far—we were only to blow up the mill—not to kill anybody.” - -“Can’t help that. Fifteen minutes more, if everything works well, and -old man Greenough’s day is over. Jim’s just about lighting the fuse, I -reckon, now. It’s an awful long one, but the fire’ll creep round there -in time.” - -“What about the police?” - -“He’s all right. We’ve fixed him.” - -The voices grew fainter and ceased altogether, only the dull sound of -the men’s footsteps reaching her as they passed down the hill away from -the grounds. - -Salome stood an instant, rooted to the spot. What was this horrible -thing she had heard? - -The factory to be blown up? - -She must go for help. - -And Mr. Greenough down there, risking his life? - -No. There was no time to get help. - -“Fifteen minutes more, if everything works well, and old man Greenough’s -day is over.” - -The whole plot flashed across her bewildered brain. She dashed through -the back-gate and down the deserted street towards the mills. It was a -ten minutes’ walk across that way, but she ran,—flew,—tore down the -lonely road in less than half that time. - -Otis Greenough might be an unreasonable, hot-headed, obstinate agent, -but he was her father’s friend and had loved and petted her when she was -a motherless child. - -What could she do? Raise an alarm? Call for help? Rouse everybody? - -But the fuse was already lighted. - -Where was it? - -Under the office window most likely, since they knew that the old agent -was in there. - -She came in sight of that window. There was a dim light there. All else -was dark. The south wind moaned dismally. - -She hurried faster and came nearer the office window. Under it was -another window with a broken pane, from which hung something she -instantly divined as the fuse. - -Yes. A fiery spark crept closer and closer to the wall. - -By the time she reached the window it was out of her reach. - -Oh, God! could she do nothing? - -She had been sewing on some dainty trifle earlier in the evening, and a -pair of small scissors still hung at her waist. - -Closer drew the spark of fire to the broken window pane, whence it would -disappear to work its fearful errand. It seemed to twinkle and mock at -her in fiendish delight. She grasped the jutting window-frame and jumped -upon the broad sill. - -Thank God, she had it at last. One snip of her scissors, and the spark -of fire dropped harmlessly to the ground. She turned slightly to step -off the window-ledge. Her foot slipped and she fell, a white, faint heap -upon the ground. - - - - - VI. - - -When she opened her eyes again, not only Otis Greenough but John Villard -and an office-boy were bending anxiously over her. - -“My dear girl,” the agent was saying, “bless me, my dear, what is it? -How came you here and who has harmed you?” - -“Don’t be alarmed, sir,” was her reply, as she got on her feet; and -then, somewhat excitedly, she told the events of the last fifteen or -twenty minutes, interrupted, every other sentence, by such ejaculations -as, “Great Scott,” “Bless me,” “The rascals,” “Confound them,” from the -elderly man, while the younger one listened in silent amazement. - -Rapid search was made and the night-watch was found sleeping, in a -stupor which was evidently the work of a drug; while the police were, as -usual, nowhere to be found. - -Salome was taken into the office—not without inward trembling, as she -feared further evidences of the miscreants. - -Mr. Villard soon reported two kegs of gunpowder and a small dynamite -bomb in the room below, at the same time congratulating, most heartily, -the young woman who had saved their lives as well as the mills. - -But her courage was now at a low ebb, and, woman-like, she shivered at -the close proximity of gunpowder, and begged to be taken home. - -Mr. Greenough, who had come to realize the danger to himself and to the -mills which his obstinacy had provoked, was also anxious to leave the -premises and glad to accompany Salome home. - -John Villard, meanwhile, attended to the duty of finding new watchmen -who should be reliable,—a difficult task. Against his will, he promised -Salome not to sleep at the mills, as he had been doing since the -machinery had been tampered with. - -Salome was nearly prostrated when she reached home, and had but little -strength left with which to importune the agent to consent to any terms -for a settlement; but as the old man was, for once, thoroughly -frightened, it was not difficult to exact a promise that he would -consider a compromise. - -Mrs. Soule, when she learned of Salome’s intrepidity,—set forth as it -was by Mr. Greenough’s gratitude and gallant appreciation,—was greatly -concerned for her niece and put her straightway to bed, where, in fact, -she had supposed her to be for the past hour, and where she wept over -and caressed her as she had not done since the girl had left home for -boarding-school. And then, what was far more to the purpose, she gave -her a bath of alcohol and olive oil, and soothed her to sleep. - -Early the next morning the agent of the Shawsheen Mills sent a messenger -over to the dingy room which served as headquarters for the Labor Union, -begging for an interview. - -As this was the first overture of peace from his side, it was natural -that it should be hailed with glee by the officers of the Union. And -although, the day before, the leaders of the strike had been closeted -together in a serious debate as to how much they should yield to -Capital, they now unanimously agreed not to “weaken” in the smallest -degree. - -As for the agent, he had been persuaded to yield every point demanded by -the strikers, insisting only upon the one condition, that the Labor -Union should be disbanded. - -The question of ten hours he granted without a murmur. He quibbled a -long time over the wage question, and the subject of weekly payments, -and only on seeing the dogged determination of the laborers did he come -to terms on that. But he very properly, and too peremptorily, refused to -remove the spinning frames which had formed one subject of contention. -And then he proceeded to overthrow the good effects of what concessions -he had made, by violently denouncing all labor unions, and vigorously -insisting that the one known as the Shawsheen Labor Union be immediately -and forever disbanded. - -“Never,” said the foremost of the committee, “will we submit to so -arbitrary a demand. We have a perfect right to organize our forces and -assert our claims. How can we—a band of day-laborers,—dependent on -capital for a bare living, win a single cause for ourselves without -combinations of this kind? There are scores of questions which involve -not our welfare in one way alone, but our health, our wages, our morals, -our manhood, which we, as single individuals, can never cope with, but -which, as a united force, we can adjust. Besides, in all departments of -labor, the women and children equal or exceed the men. There are to-day -one hundred and seventy-five thousand more women working in mills than -there were ten years ago; and what are they but the weakest and most -dependent of employes? They have no strength to agitate; they have no -power to change any existing order of things. All they can do is to toil -and submit. We owe it to them as men, as husbands, brothers, and sons, -to lighten their burdens. As free American citizens we owe it to -ourselves, to settle the conditions of our own lives, so far as may be. -This can only be done by combinations of the laboring classes strong -enough to compel manufacturers to concede us our rights.” - -“You are right to a degree,” answered Villard, before Mr. Greenough -could swallow his surprise at hearing such sentiments from one of his -operatives; “I believe there are some rights which you can only secure -by a combination of your forces as working-men. But when you let reason -lose its sway, and passion take its place; when you are influenced by -unworthy demagogues and unbalanced cranks, and seek to effect by strikes -and such arbitrary measures what might be better secured by a more -conciliatory course, you must not be surprised if you do not succeed in -bull-dozing a rich concern like this into obedience, and——” - -“And when, by your —— labour unions, you sink so low as to countenance -incendiarism and murder—yes, sirs—that is what you attempted last night, -sirs,—you can’t expect this mill is going to countenance them. I’ll see -you all starve and rot first,” and Otis Greenough’s face was purple with -anger. - -“We have already disclaimed all knowledge in our Union, sir,” said one -of the committee, “of last night’s outrage.” - -“Blast it, what do I care for that?” roared the agent, as usual, out of -temper. “Whether you knew it or not, it was done under cover of your -strike, and your Union, and was one of the precious outgrowths of it. -Give up the —— thing, I say—or there is no compromise with these mills.” - -“There is little use in prolonging this interview, I am afraid,” said -the first of the committee, taking up his hat. - -“Impudent dogs!” said Mr. Greenough, as Villard tried to speak, anxious -to put things on a more satisfactory basis before the meeting closed. -“Let them go. They’ll find hard hoeing before they reach the end of -their row.” - -“And, sir,” retorted a fiery-looking man who had not spoken before, “if -it comes to open war you’ll find us tough customers. We shall fight it -out like men, even if we starve like beasts.” - -And with these words the committee departed, leaving matters worse than -ever before in the affairs of the Shawsheen Mills. - -In vain did the two superintendents plead and argue and threaten the -choleric old agent. His blood was up and he was a veritable charger on -the eve of battle. There was no state board of arbitration then, and -therefore no available way of settling their difficulties except among -themselves. And as discussion only made matters worse, the subject which -was always uppermost in these three men’s minds was tacitly dropped. -Every precaution was taken to insure the mills from the danger it had -escaped the night before, and a detective was obtained from Boston to -hunt out the criminals who had perpetrated the dastardly act. - -At noon, they were all surprised by a note from Miss Shepard. It ran as -follows: - - “DEAR MR. GREENOUGH, - - “As the owner of the Shawsheen Mill property, I hereby appoint a - meeting of all its officers at my house, to-night. Please have them - here at eight o’clock. - - “Pardon me for the liberty I have seemed to take, and believe me ever - a loving and respectful friend, - - “SALOME SHEPARD.” - -“Well, you hear that, boys,” said Mr. Greenough, after reading it aloud. -“Be on hand. Tell the treasurer and cashier and head book-keeper. We’ll -all be there. The Lord only knows what she is up to; but if that young -woman hasn’t got a level head on her shoulders, then I don’t know who -has.” - -“I reckon you’re right, sir,” echoed Mr. Burnham, while John Villard -laughed in his sleeve at the young woman who evidently dreamed of -settling a prolonged strike. “Why,” he said to himself, “she has never -known enough of the practical side of mill-life to recognize one of her -operatives, and hardly knows the different brands of cloth manufactured -by them.” - - * * * * * - -Salome Shepard had waked at an early hour that morning and found herself -unable to sleep again. Her mind was alive with gratitude for the part -she had been able to play the night before, with apprehension for the -future, and with increasing self-accusation for the state of things in -the Shawsheen Mills, both past and present. - -“Pshaw!” she said to herself while dressing, true to her habit of -communing with her own conscience in default of a visible mentor, “how -can I be blamed for the state of things here? The entire business of the -mills was put out of my hands by my father’s will. I could have done no -differently.” - -“You could,” replied that sternest of modern inquisitors—a New England -conscience. “It was in your power to see that the moral and physical -condition of these people was improved and cultivated. It was in your -power to give them better homes and more privileges. It was in your -power to raise their standards of life and to create new ones. But you -have ignored their very existence, and let them live a mean and sordid -life of unremitting toil, in order to furnish you with money to live a -selfish life of luxurious ease.” - -Salome tied the blue ribbons to her wrapper, and giving her crimps a -last touch went down to breakfast. - -Knowing she would be opposed, she said nothing of her plans for the -morning to her aunt, but simply announced, after they had left the -table, that she was going for a long walk. - -Then she went upstairs and put on the plainest costume she owned (which, -by the way, was a tailor-made gown that had cost her one hundred and -fifty dollars), and started for the tenement houses where her operatives -lived. - -It did not occur to her to feel any fear; nor that the miscreants who -had planned the explosion for the previous night might be watching her -footsteps. She felt it incumbent upon her to see for herself exactly how -these people lived, and what they were bearing and suffering in -consequence of the strike. - -In the bright glare of the morning sun, the tenement houses had never -looked so dingy and mean. They were built in Newbern Shepard’s day, and -had received but very few repairs since that time. Although it was cold -January weather, Salome counted a dozen panes of glass gone from the -first house, and noticed that the lower hinge to the front door was -broken. It was a two-story wooden building with four tenements of four -rooms each. - -She ascended the rickety steps and rapped on the door. One of the women -saw her from a front window and came to the door, holding it open only -so far as to permit her to see the strange caller. - -“Good-morning,” said Salome in pleasant tones. - -“Good-morning, miss.” The politeness of Salome’s manner thawed the other -woman, and the door opened a little wider. “Will you walk in?” - -That was precisely what she had come for, and Salome stepped inside with -alacrity. She found herself in the sitting-room and living-room of the -family. It was a meager home. The remnant of a faded oil-cloth was on -the floor. The walls were unpapered and devoid of any attempts at -ornament, except one unframed, dilapidated old lithograph of “The Queen -of the West,”—a buxom young woman with disproportionately large black -eyes, a dress of bright scarlet cut extremely _décolleté_, and cheeks of -a yet more vivid hue. A pine table covered with a stamped red cloth was -littered with cheap, trashy story-papers and pamphlets addressed “To the -Laboring Men of America.” An old lounge, with broken springs, and six -common wooden chairs constituted the other furnishings of the room. - -Salome’s first thought as she looked about her was: - -“I don’t wonder these people get discontented and clamor for something -which seems to them better.” - -But she found, before the forenoon was over, many houses that were not -so pleasant as this. For, once inside these rooms, everything was neat -and clean, and the woman who answered her questions was civil if not -talkative. - -She found that five people lived in these four small rooms: this woman, -her two daughters, a son-in-law, and a grandchild. She also found that -the other tenements contained five, six, and seven people, making -twenty-three in all. There were absolutely no sanitary arrangements, and -she discovered that the sanitation of this tenement house district -consisted only of surface drainage. According to the statements of her -hostess, there was nearly always somebody “ailing” in these houses. - -The first house she went into was a fair sample of the remainder. A few -were slightly better, but more were in a worse condition. In most -instances she was respectfully received, although at three houses she -was met by ungracious people, and received gruff replies to her -kindly-put inquiries. - -Everywhere, strong, able-bodied men were lounging about in enforced -idleness; and one of them, resenting, with true American independence, -this intrusion into the sacred precincts of his miserable home, plainly -intimated that “they was well enough off now, and didn’t want no rich -folks as was livin’ on money _they_ earned, to come pryin’ round their -houses.” Finally, at the last of the tenement houses she was met by a -surly, burly mule-spinner, who gruffly refused her admittance. - -Nothing daunted, however, she sought out a boarding-house for the young -women of the mills. The landlady, recognizing her, invited her in and -willingly told her all about the life of mill-girls, offering, at last, -to show her their rooms. - -Salome gladly accepted and followed the woman up bare, unpainted stairs -to the rooms on the second and third floors. These were small and -perfectly bare of comforts, almost of necessities. The floors were -uncarpeted and guiltless of paint, or even of a very recent application -of soap and water. They had no closets. A common pine bedstead—sometimes -two of them—in each room, two chairs, in one of which stood a tin basin, -while beside it on the floor stood a bucket of water, and a small -bureau, made up the sum total of the furniture. In only one room did -Salome see any evidences of a literary taste, and that, if she had known -it, was a cheap paper, the worst of the sensational class. - -Salome’s heart sank within her. She no longer wondered that the -mill-girls of to-day were a discontented, ignorant set, nor that many of -them sank into lives of degradation. - -“The rooms are good enough for the girls,” said the woman, noticing the -look of disgust on Salome’s tell-tale face. “They seem poor enough to -elegant ladies like you. But these girls know no better. And they are -good enough to sleep off a drunk in,” she added, roughly. - -“You don’t mean to say,” asked her guest, “that any of your girls get -intoxicated?” - -“Intoxicated? I don’t know what else you’d call it, when they have to be -helped in at eleven o’clock Saturday night, and put to bed, and don’t -get up again until Monday morning.” - -Salome was sick with pity and shame for her sex. She no longer -questioned whether she had a mission toward these, her people. - -She went home and wrote the note to Mr. Greenough, given in an earlier -part of this chapter. - - - - - VII. - - -Promptly, at the hour named, Otis Greenough, accompanied by the other -officers of the mill, appeared at the mansion of the Shepard family. - -Tall, beautiful, and always impressive in her bearing, Salome was at her -best to-night. The fire of a new-born purpose was in her face, and a new -force, born of spiritual struggles, stamped upon her brow. - -There are people who can look calmly upon a sunset, and see nothing but -a glare of red and yellow light. There are others who see in it a -glorious picture with matchless tints and shadows. There are yet others, -fewer, indeed, than the rest, but who hold the secret of God’s holy -purpose written more or less plainly in their souls; who see not only -the glare of red and yellow light, whose brilliant tints and deep tones -make an unrivaled picture, but who read something of the deeper meanings -of the Great Artist; who receive into their own hearts some part of the -glowing light which strengthens purpose, and crystallizes hopes and -ideals hitherto dreamy and undefined. - -Salome Shepard had stood at a western window at sunset. In the hush and -stillness of the hour, the poet-quality of her soul had interpreted to -her the meaning of life and the great fact of human brotherhood. And -when she finally drew the curtains on the deepening night, she felt that -a sudden revelation had come to her—that, at last, her life purpose, in -the shape of a sternly defined duty, stood revealed. - -“Well,” said Mr. Greenough, after a few moments of aimless conversation, -for nobody seemed desirous of taking the initiative, “what are you going -to do with us all to-night, little girl? Don’t you think you rather -usurp the privileges of an old man in calling together a meeting to -discuss business, of which he is the legal head? Come, give an account -of yourself and your quixotic actions.” - -“Oh, I beg that none of you will think that.” And Salome looked around -the room appealingly. “I simply wished that we might have a fair and -honest talk. I want every one here to express his views. And I want to -express mine—for at last, thank heaven, I have some.” - -“Getting strong-minded, eh?” retorted Mr. Greenough. “Well, go on. I -suppose you want to practice on us before taking a larger field. Going -to take the suffrage platform? or build school-houses for the niggers? -Or do you aspire to the bureau of Indian Affairs? Which is it?” - -“None of them,” responded Salome, inwardly resenting the untimely jest, -but determined not to show her impatience. “None of them. I propose to -begin nearer home. I propose to go to work, earnestly, and I hope -practically, to raise the condition, morally, mentally and physically, -of my own factory-people.” - -“Bravo!” exclaimed Villard and the head book-keeper. - -“And I have called you here,” pursued Salome, “to ask each and every one -of you to be my assistant and coadjutor. I have not been thinking of -nothing, during the last three months. I am a woman, comparatively -young, and with absolutely no knowledge of the practical side of a -working-man’s life. But I have been thinking, and my conclusions are -these: that a strike is a much more serious matter for the -working-people than it is for us. We act as if they go out on a strike -either to annoy us or to have a good time. I have been down among -them—sought the by-ways and hedges, as it were—and I tell you they are -having anything but a good time. This strike is the outcome of want and -privation, and it has brought the people to still greater want and -privation. I believe they are not a set of noisy malcontents on the -lookout for an opportunity to create a disturbance. On the contrary, -they see in this course the only chance of bringing before the public -questions of vital importance to them. They earn their bread by the -sweat of their brow—and not always good bread either,—while we, as -capitalists, are hoarding up money. At the most, they get very little of -what their work really yields. I desire, above all things, sir, that you -grant their desires and no longer require them to give up their Labor -Union. Capitalists have their Board of Trade, which virtually amounts to -the same thing. Let the workmen have their one chance to assert -themselves by a combination of their forces. And let each side show to -the other that tolerance and Christian charity which each demands from -the other.” - -“What about the tolerance and Christian charity of the outrage they -tried to perpetrate last night?” asked Mr. Greenough. - -“I do not believe the Labor Union is responsible for that,” replied -Salome, with a far-seeing sympathy in her eyes. “Unfortunately it was an -outgrowth of their opinions, passions and prejudices. But you must -confess, sir, that had you met them with the tolerance which the growing -spirit of the age demands, there is little likelihood that matters would -ever have reached the point where such an action could have been -planned. I want this strike ended on any terms. I want to see the -operatives, every one of them, at work again at fair wages. And then, -God helping me, I propose to do something for their elevation—something -to help them live better, cleaner, manly and womanly lives—something -which shall carry out my grandfather’s noble plans, and help make the -factory system of New England one of her grandest achievements.” - -“Miss Shepard is right,” said Mr. Burnham: “our factory, like many -another, has been run too long on the system of _laissez-faire_. I have -come to believe in a political economy which insists upon the liveliest -activity on the part of capitalists, to put their employes upon the best -possible footing as to the material surroundings of life; that they have -all the advantage as to health, morals and happiness which comes from -sanitary regulation and practical education. I believe that only when we -adopt such a political economy as this shall we draw the largest -possible dividends from the products of a community comparatively free -from crime, intemperance, poverty and vice of every kind.” - -“Yes,” urged Villard, “each one of us, laborer or capitalist, has duties -to perform which cannot be shirked or shifted to the shoulders of -Fate—another name for the theory of _laissez-faire_. The new political -economy will demand that every one who, in his or her public or private -capacity, can do anything to relieve misery, to combat evil, to redress -wrong, to assert the right, shall do so with heart and soul.” - -“You see,” said Salome, delighted that two strong, thinking men thus -endorsed and voiced her sentiments, “we have been acting on the Quaker’s -advice to his son: ‘Make money—honestly if you can; but make money.’ We -have forgotten that Christianity says: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as -thyself,’ ‘Do unto others as ye would that men should do unto you,’ -‘Bear one another’s burdens,’ and ‘Love one another.’ But we have -practically said: ‘Love thyself; seek thine own advantage; promote thine -own welfare; put money in thy purse; the welfare of others is not thy -business.’” - -“I must confess,” answered Otis Greenough, speaking slowly and huskily, -“that I cannot, after a life-long devotion to old-fashioned ideas, take -any stock in these new-fangled, impracticable ones. I cannot, at my time -of life, change my ideas; and neither can I endorse your proposition to -make a public spectacle of ourselves in the future. Mills are run to -make money. So long as I hold the position imposed upon me by the late -Floyd Shepard, so long shall I refuse to countenance extravagance and -quixotism. But I am an old man. No one cares any longer what I think. It -is the young people with no experience whose opinions count nowadays. I -am an old man who has had his day——” - -“Don’t, I beg of you, sir, talk like that,” interrupted Salome. “We do -value your opinion; we do intend to refer to your judgment; we——” - -“What is that?” cried Mrs. Soule in alarm, from her seat near the -window. - -“It is some one throwing gravel against the panes,” said the cashier as -a second shower came rattling against the window. He parted the curtains -and looked out. - -“The grounds are full of men. We are mobbed, by George!” - -The old agent’s blood was up in a moment, and regardless of the presence -of ladies he swore in good, set terms, that the rascals should be -arrested and imprisoned for this. - -Then, unconscious of danger, in spite of the attempts of Villard and the -rest to hold him back, he marched, like an old hero, boldly out on to -the veranda which faced a crowd of excited workmen. - -They had held a stormy meeting at the Labor Union, and the worst element -among them had become desperate, and swore to “bring the old man to -terms.” They had gone in a body to the mills, where they hoped to find -some of their employers in consultation. There they had found that the -whole force of their opponents had gone to the great Shepard Mansion. -Nothing daunted, they turned their steps thither, and at every street -corner were joined by the element of hoodlumism which is always -scattered about over the streets of a large and poorly-governed town. - -Hence the mob that confronted the officers of the Shawsheen Mills held -all the elements of danger and disturbance. - -When Otis Greenough’s bald head appeared before them, the crowd set up a -yell of mingled derision and defiance. - -“Give us our rights, old Baldy” shouted one voice. - -“Give us fair play and fair wages,” called another, while worse epithets -were hurled at him, from the roughs in the rear. - -Otis Greenough’s face was purple. - -“This is outrageous!” he exclaimed in hot haste. “What right have you to -come here and defile an honest citizen’s premises with your wretched, -polluting presence?” - -“Stop that, now!” shouted one of the leaders. “Fair play all round. If -you won’t come to us, we’ll come to you, and compel you to make terms, -and decent ones, with us. We want——” - -But the crowd of street idlers who had come in search of excitement, and -not argument, grew restless, and broke in noisily; and when Otis -Greenough opened his mouth to speak again, he was struck squarely in the -face by a handful of gravel and mud. - -Then a sudden hush fell over the mob. - -For what was this unexpected white form which appeared in the doorway, -and advanced to meet them? - -Salome was dressed in a clinging, white, soft serge, with falls of fine -lace at the neck and wrists, and under the dim light of the piazza-lamp, -she seemed like an angel of retribution, her eyes flaming reproach, and -her hands raised in deprecation. - -“Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?” she burst forth, in ringing tones. -“You, who call yourselves honest men, and loyal citizens! You who come -here with a claim for fair play, you who come here to assert the right -of every American to be treated with respect by every other; to insult -and maltreat an old man with white hair—a man whom, as a long associate -in your work, you should honor? Do you come to my house to call forth a -man who was even now listening to plans for the improvement of your -homes and lives and prospects, simply that you may turn yourselves into -a pack of dogs to bark at him? Go home. Lay aside your prejudices and -your low, unworthy passions, and think whether we be entirely in the -wrong. Think whether you are showing yourselves worthy of being trusted? -Go home and weigh calmly your conduct against that of these officers, -and decide for yourselves whether you deserve to be met half-way. And I -give you my word of honor as owner of the Shawsheen Mills, that when you -decide to behave like men and not like beasts, you shall be treated as -men. You shall have good places with good pay. You shall find that we -are willing to do as much as—yes, more, than you are willing to do for -us, and that we will meet you half-way in the open, fair discussion of -all points connected with the labor question.” - -“Three cheers for the lady!” shouted a hoodlum, who cared not which side -he was on, provided he could make a noise. - -But the cheers were stayed, and further demonstration was choked in -utterance. For Otis Greenough fell suddenly at the feet of the woman who -stood there boldly championing him and her sense of right. - -The superintendent carried him quickly within and put him on a sofa; a -physician was hastily summoned, and in a few words Villard dismissed the -mob, now hushed and awe-stricken. - -But Otis Greenough in one moment had passed beyond the disturbances of -howling malcontents, beyond the petty smallness of his old-fashioned and -cramped ideas, out into that world where there is no fear of anarchy and -socialism, no disgrace in being a philanthropist, no bounds to the heart -of love for all mankind, and no limits to the horizon of a larger, -diviner life. - - - - - VIII. - - -Death is never fully realized until he is an actual presence; and Otis -Greenough’s sudden demise before their eyes and almost under, if not by, -their own hands, solemnized and terrified the mob, and brought the -strikers to a sense of the desperate pass to which they had come. - -The members of the Labor Union laid their grievances aside for the time, -and paid every mark of respect to the old agent now that he had passed -beyond the recognition of it. A sudden fit of apoplexy had blotted out -his choleric and intolerant behavior, and left only the remembrance that -he had been their head for many years. - -But when he had been laid away in the new cemetery on Shepard Hill, the -smouldering embers of discord began again to break forth into hot flames -of prejudice and passion. - -Geoffrey Burnham and John Villard were consulting together in the mill -office the day after the funeral, when the door opened and the owner of -the mills walked in. - -“I have come,” she said, in answer to their ill-concealed surprise, “to -talk over the situation of the strike. I want the mills re-opened.” - -“We shall be only too happy to comply with your wishes, Miss Shepard,” -said Burnham, placing a chair in a comfortable light for her. “Upon what -terms do you propose it?” - -“I want to compromise,” she answered, “and give them a better chance -than they have ever had. It may take us some time to decide on the exact -terms. Would it be better, do you think,”—she unconsciously turned to -Villard—“to take them back on the old terms, re-instate them precisely -as they were, and then go on and make our changes?” - -“That would hardly do,” he replied. “Experience has proved them very -jealous of new methods, and unwilling to consent to untried theories. If -we yield everything they demand now, we shall establish a bad precedent; -eh, Burnham?” - -“Decidedly, and we shall meet with opposition if we undertake any -changes. If there is to be a remodeling of the old system, it had better -come now.” - -“There must be a remodeling, it seems to me,” urged Salome. “Dear Mr. -Greenough acted wisely, so far as he could, no doubt; but I feel that -the time is come to make decided changes here. Perhaps I am not very -clear in regard to them, even in my own mind. But I have some idea of -what I want, and I shall be glad to have you both state your convictions -and objections, if you have them, relating to everything I propose.” - -“It will be no light matter,” said Burnham, “to select a plan and -perfect it at once. It must be a work of time and much thought. Still, -what is your idea?” - -“I want to put the relations between us and the employes,” Salome went -on, “on a better footing—an ethical basis, if you like the term. We must -combine the question ‘Will it pay?’ with a higher one, ‘Is it right?’” - -The two men looked at each other. Burnham bit his lip. - -“I do not propose to promise the people an era of absolute prosperity -and uninterrupted progress, and let them take it as a blind destiny -without exertion or sacrifice or patriotism on their part. I want to -teach them to be healthy, intelligent, and virtuous citizens, and to -expect from us the treatment such citizens deserve. I believe that such -a course is for the pecuniary interests of the mill, as well as for -theirs. I have heard enough of the conflicting interests of labor and -capital; and on the other hand I do not believe in the twaddle that -proclaims them one. I believe they are reciprocal, and that we must take -that idea as fundamental.” - -“You propose a radical change, I fear.” Geoffrey Burnham’s tone held a -new respect for this woman whom he had believed wrapped up in the toils -of worldly and shallow aims. - -“Yes, I may as well own it; I do,” assented Salome. “Among my -grandfather’s manuscripts, I came across, the other day, these -sentences: ‘I would like to prove my luminous ideal of what a -superintendent may be among his people. I would like to live long enough -to show the world that the spirit of the Crucified may rule in a -cotton-mill as fully as in the life of a saint.’ That sentence, -gentlemen, must speak for me. In those words lies the germ of my plan of -action.” - -Silence followed her. Geoffrey Burnham told himself that a new era must -be dawning,—the era foreshadowing the millennium, since she who held the -power could so bravely avow her intentions to make the Shawsheen Mills -an experiment in what he called Christian socialism. But John Villard, -after a moment, rose and extended his hand to Salome. - -“I pledge my hearty co-operation,” he said, “and thank God for the -opportunity to prove what a cotton-mill may become by the new Christian -political economy.” - -“Thank you,” said Salome. “And now let us see just what the strikers -demand, and how far we can grant their wishes.” - -John Villard produced the paper which had been presented on the first -day of the strike, and placed it in Salome’s hands. It was the first -time she had seen it. She read it through very carefully. - -“It seems to me there was no need of these long months of idleness,” she -commented, when she had finished the paper. “Now, let us see. First, -they demand recognition, as the Shawsheen Labor Union. I think we may -yield that point, safely enough.” - -“Without modification?” inquired Geoffrey Burnham. - -“Why not?” - -“They will take advantage of us. They will dictate and become arbitrary. -The Labor Union grows by what it feeds on. It will become an elephant on -our hands.” - -“Not if they have something better to take its place,” said Salome. “I -am fully persuaded that they will meet us half-way, if we give them a -union that is better than theirs. Let their union alone for the -present.” - -“I am with you there,” said Villard. “It devolves upon us to change its -character into something that shall be, at least, as helpful as they -_want_ to make this one.” - -“Next, the ten-hour system,” pursued Salome, who was not yet ready to -discuss the improved union. “Certainly there can be no possible -objection against granting this clause?” - -“Certainly not,” said Burnham, feeling himself appealed to. - -“‘The new frames must be taken out and the mules replaced, with a -written agreement that no more of the obnoxious machinery shall be added -for five years.’ That seems rather arbitrary. How is it, Mr. Villard?” - -“It is arbitrary,” he responded. “The frames must be retained. We must -be allowed to adopt improved machines and methods, or where shall we be -in this age of competition? But I think there will be little trouble -with the men, if I am allowed to approach them in the right way. Anyhow, -I will try.” - -“Do so,” was the reply. “Make them see that improved methods are for -their interest as much as for ours. As to the wage-section—were their -wages actually cut down?” - -“Yes,” replied both men. - -“That must not be allowed,” said Salome. “The mills were paying a -handsome profit when this was done, weren’t they?” - -“They were,” said Villard. “Better than for a year before.” - -“Give them their old pay, with the understanding that wages will be -increased when work is heavier. I propose to myself a wild scheme of -profit-sharing, or a sliding scale of wages, in the future.” - -“Good,” cried Villard. “The very thing I’ve been wanting to try. I -believe in it heartily. But where did you get the idea of it?” - -“Oh, I’ve been reading all the practical articles I could find on -political economy, as applied to mills and factories, for some months,” -Salome replied, “and I have evolved some queer theories, I fear; but I -propose to give them a fair trial, unless you pronounce them too -visionary. I am glad you approve of profit-sharing. And you, Mr. -Burnham?” - -“I approve of making the experiment,” said the more cautious -superintendent. “I do not jump at conclusions. Nevertheless, the idea, -though new, looks practicable, and I should like to see it tried.” - -“They have already tried it in one or two places where it is proving a -great success, I believe,” said Salome. “You know the experiment was -tried as long ago as 1831, when Mr. John S. Vandeleur put it into effect -successfully in County Clare, Ireland. The Paris and Orleans Railway -Company began to share profit with its employes in 1844, and the Maison -Leclaire, I think, two years before, both of which have proved very -successful. I do not see why we cannot adopt it.” - -“We can,” asserted Villard, confidently. “It is already being tried on a -small scale by several firms in this country. Why should not we join the -procession?” - -“What are you going to do about the demand for weekly wages?” asked -Burnham. - -“What objections are there?” Salome asked. - -“It will entail extra expense for clerks and book-keepers,” responded -Burnham. “That seems unnecessary.” - -“The men claim that they have to depend in great measure on the credit -system at the stores,” explained Villard. “Their wages coming only once -a month, they get short of money. If sickness or other additional -expense comes upon them, they are often seriously inconvenienced by lack -of their rightful wages. Again, if they are able to put a little money -in the savings-bank, why should they not have the benefit of the -interest that accrues through the month, rather than we? The money is -theirs.” - -“On the other hand,” interrupted Burnham, “those men whose first duty, -on being paid off, seems to lie in getting gloriously drunk, would have -the opportunity just four times as often.” - -“We have a work to do in that direction,” said Salome in a pained voice. -“In a sense we are our brother’s keepers. I half believe that the -solution of the temperance question is largely in the control of the -employers of labor; and that the secondary, and often the primary, -causes of intemperance are bad and unwholesome food, which create a -craving for drink; bad company, which tempts it; squalid houses, which -drive men forth for cheerfulness; and the want of more comfortable -places of resort which leaves them no refuge but the saloons. It is in -our power to remedy all these evils. Give them good sanitation, -well-ventilated houses, comfortable homes, and reading-rooms, and -coffee-parlors, and only the most depraved will be tempted by the low -saloons.” - -“But, Miss Shepard, surely you do not propose all these things?” and -Geoffrey Burnham looked his astonishment. - -“Why not?” was the terse reply. - -“Where will your profits come in? You cannot afford it.” - -Salome smiled. Her money was her own. Why should she not use it as she -pleased? - -“No. For the first year or two I shall not pocket an immense profit; -that is true,” she assented. “But I am not likely to come to want. And -Newbern Shepard’s mills must be put on the basis where he desired, above -all things, to see them during his lifetime. He planned a noble scheme. -It is my birthright and my duty to carry it into effect. It will cost me -something to get the mills where they must be; but it will pay in the -end. Of that I feel sure.” - -“You are quite right,” said John Villard. “What may we not hope for when -the condition of the working-people shall receive that concentrated -attention which has hitherto been devoted to the more favored ranks? -When charity, which has, for ages past, done so much mischief, shall -learn to do good? When the countless pulpits of our country, which have -always been so active in preaching Catholicism or Anglicism, Calvinism -or Armenianism, and all other isms, shall preach pure and simple -Christianity? When, by a healthy environment of the toiling masses, and -the exercise of hygienic sense and science, mankind shall be healthy and -free from questionable instincts and morbidly exaggerated appetites? I -tell you, we cannot even approach an estimate of the extent to which -every improvement, social, moral or material, reacts on the nation’s -ethical and intellectual progress, and the prosperity of her -industries.” - -“But you are taking us entirely away from the question in hand,” said -Geoffrey Burnham, “which was, shall we grant the demand for weekly -wages?” - -“Not so far away as you seem to think,” retorted Villard. “The questions -of sanitation and morality affect them, and us too, as well as the -question of weekly wages. As for the latter, I am in favor of trying it -on.” - -“So am I,” said Salome. “I am in favor of trying every new method until -we can know positively which are the best ones.” - -“With modifications,” said Burnham, smiling at her vehemence. “I don’t -exactly approve of the weekly system, but the majority are against me, -and I may as well cast my vote with yours. Shall we send for their -committee, then, and offer them all concessions, except those relating -to the spinning frames?” - -“Yes, I should do so,” said Salome, “and prepare to open the mills at -once, provided they decide to accept our terms.” - -“That is practically decided already,” laughed Burnham, “by our -accepting theirs. Villard, you may negotiate with them about the frames. -They are inclined to listen to you better than to me, for some reason.” - -“They know I’ve been in their place,” said Villard. “That makes all the -difference in the world to them. They think I understand their side of -the question; that is all.” - -“Then you will confer with them immediately?” said Salome, rising to go. -“And will you make all necessary preparations to open the mills? And -then will you confer with me?” - -“Most certainly, Miss Shepard.” Geoffrey Burnham spoke for both of them. -“But—I beg your pardon, you have not spoken of a new agent. We must have -one, you know. I trust you have made some wise selection?” - -“I am prepared to surprise you,” Salome replied, buttoning her glove. -“You two men will oblige me by transacting all necessary business for -the present, in your positions of first and second superintendents, and -by looking closely after the thousand details which I do not yet -understand. Meanwhile, I shall come to the office every day and, with -your co-operation and kind help, shall learn the business. I have too -many schemes for the general improvement of the Shawsheen Mills and its -operatives, to trust the mills in the hands of a stranger. I propose to -be my own agent. Good-morning.” - -Salome Shepard never looked handsomer, or smiled more sweetly, than she -did when she uttered the last sentence, and closed the door behind her, -leaving her two completely astonished hearers standing in the middle of -the office. - -“Whe-e-w!” ejaculated Geoffrey Burnham, after a little. “How does that -strike you? The Shawsheen Mills run by a ‘female woman,’ as A. Ward -would put it! And, by George! we are expected to stay and work,—under a -woman!” - -John Villard broke into a peal of laughter. “It’s awfully funny at -first,” he said, calming down again. “But, after all, why not? She isn’t -the empty-headed, aimless creature we thought her. She’s read and -studied, and has some very sound notions.” - -“But, Villard—a woman-agent!” gasped Burnham. “We shall be the -laughing-stock of the whole state.” - -“Let them laugh,” answered Villard. “They laugh best who laugh last. And -with her notions, her thirst for further knowledge, her enthusiasm, and, -above all, her money, the Shawsheen Mills will be in a position at the -end of a few years to do the laughing, while those who laugh at us now -will set to studying our methods and come to us for advice.” - -“But she knows nothing of the practical part of mill-economy,” objected -Burnham. “The mills will go to rack and ruin. Jove! Old Mr. Greenough -would turn over in his grave if he could have heard her as she stopped -in the door and said: ‘I propose to be my own agent.’ A woman!” - -“I know,” replied Villard, “that it will seem odd, and perhaps -uncomfortably so, at first, to acknowledge her as head. But, after all, -she does not propose to dictate as to the business itself.” - -“She will,” interrupted Burnham. “Women always do. She will jump at -conclusions, mistake her inferences for logical deductions and the -wisdom which comes only with experience, and, after the first month, -will know more than we do. I know women. They are impulsive and -illogical; and they can’t subvert nature and become good business men.” - -“No; but they may prove good business women,” was Villard’s answer. “We -do not know, yet, what she can or what she will do. I believe she will -be willing to leave the details of the business to us yet, for a long -time. She is not a conceited woman; and although she has the faculty -common to her sex of making some surprising jumps at conclusions, I do -not believe her to be obstinate about them. She proposes to make a study -of the business, and realizes that this is a work of years. And, -besides, what will save the mills is this: she has an extended plan in -manuscript of her grandfather’s scheme for making this an ideal -institution. If she is willing to leave the business to us for the -present, and is capable of adapting Newbern Shepard’s theories of years -ago to the needs of to-day, we are all right, Jeff; and a new era is -about to begin for the Shawsheen Mills.” - -“I only hope we may like it,” assented Burnham doubtfully. “And now for -the conference with the Labor Union.” - - - - - IX. - - -Marion Shaw was one of those women whose lives are a constant giving of -their best, with no thought of return. We have all seen such women. From -the self-sacrificing maiden aunt in the humblest home, up to the -Florence Nightingales and Dorothea Dixes of the world, they are God’s -angels, everywhere, to suffering humanity. - -Marion Shaw and Salome Shepard had been in boarding-school together; and -although the former had been left from the start to support herself and -her widowed mother, the friendship between the two girls had never -abated. - -Marion’s mother had died a year before, and something material had -dropped out of life for the girl. Grief and the solitude which ensued -after her mother’s death told upon her constitution; and when Salome’s -letter of invitation reached her, it was like a boon from Heaven. She -threw up her situation in Madame Blanc’s private school and went to -Shepardtown, arriving there late in the evening, before Salome’s visit -to the counting-room. - -When the latter came home they settled cosily in Salome’s room for an -“old-time talk,” such as they had enjoyed as girls. - -“Why didn’t you let me know you were tired to death with that -interminable teaching?” asked Salome. “I should have had you come to me -long ago. You are as pale as a ghost.” - -“Oh, I’m all right now,” answered Marion, who never cared to talk of -herself. “Tell me about the strike here. I read of it in a Boston -newspaper, when it came on, and again when Mr. Greenough died. But, -after the fashion of newspapers with regard to anything you care -particularly to follow up, they dropped the subject the minute one’s -interest was roused. And your letter was so meager! Yes, it was. You -only write the barest details, and not too many of them. Is the strike -ended?” - -“No, but I hope it will be before night,” Salome replied. “I’ve given -orders this morning that a compromise be made at once. Yes, don’t stare -at me, please. Why shouldn’t I give orders? They’re my mills.” - -“I’m not staring. It’s vulgar to stare, and the lady professors at Mme. -Blanc’s fashionable boarding-school do not stare. Why, it would be as -much as their position is worth!” retorted Marion. “Yes, they’re your -mills, I suppose, and a handsome piece of property they are too, in the -eyes of poor me, who own only the clothes on my back. But, pardon me, -dear, it does seem a little odd to hear Salome Shepard, the most -exclusive and the most fashionable girl at school, talk about giving -orders in a cotton-mill. You’re not getting strong-minded, are you, -dear?” - -“If to begin to take an active interest in two thousand souls, who are -dependent upon my money and the business interests it represents, is to -become strong-minded, I’m afraid I shall have to plead guilty.” Salome -looked narrowly at her friend. Possibly she had mistaken her, and their -sympathies were farther apart than she had hoped. - -“Bless you!” responded Marion heartily, “I’m strong-minded myself; want -to vote and all that. Don’t believe intemperance and lots of other evils -will ever be subdued in this country, until women have something to say, -and say it through the ballot-box. It is not so very dreadful when you -once get on to that platform, is it?” - -“Oh, I hadn’t thought of voting particularly,” Salome hastened to -answer. “I don’t really think I want that. But I do want to do something -for my people.” - -“And you’ll find,” retorted Marion, “before you’ve gone very far, that -if you had the power of legislation, you could help them ten times as -well.” - -“Possibly,” Salome answered, doubtfully. “But, Marion, there are so many -things absolutely necessary to be done for the Shawsheen operatives. If -you could see them and the homes they live in, the temptations to which -they are exposed, the poverty in which they live!” - -“And you propose to go to work among them,—to reform them?” - -“Yes, God helping me; them and the factory system together. Behold me,” -said Salome, rising to her full height, and putting on a mock-tragic -air: “Behold and see: Salome Shepard, Reformer. That’s my platform.” - -“Salome, dear, what do you mean?” Mrs. Soule had just come in. “Don’t -mind her, Marion, she delights in hearing herself talk like a suffrage -leader, lately. I don’t approve of it, as she knows; but I can only wait -for the mood to pass.” - -“Which it never will, aunty dear,” Salome hastened to say. “So long as I -live and am in a condition to work for the people who need substantial -and material aid, as these people do, my life will be devoted to their -service. I cannot go on living the aimless, indifferent life which has -been mine ever since I left school. I must have some active interest, or -I shall stagnate, or, worse still, settle into a cold, hard, selfish -woman of the world. Unfortunately I was born with a heart; unfortunately -for your ideal of the proper young lady of the period, I was born with a -conscience, and this conscience tells me that my fortune was given me -only in trust. It is not mine for selfish enjoyment alone; it is mine to -make the world better and happier and purer.” - -“And you are going to work among those miserable drunken operatives,” -said her aunt coldly, “whose sordid lives, and ungrateful hearts, the -whole of them, are not worth the effort of even one month of your life, -even if you were at all a capable woman of affairs, a woman of judgment -and discretion, a woman of sound business sense,—which you are not.” - -“Yes, ‘among the drunken miserable operatives,’” replied Salome, -ignoring the latter part of her aunt’s speech. “Among those sordid lives -and ungrateful hearts, that were worth the Christ’s dying, and for whom -He worked, living.” - -“You don’t think of joining the Salvation Army, I hope?” exclaimed her -aunt, quite beside herself at this new development of her niece’s -purposes. - -Salome laughed. - -“I shall hardly have the time, aunty. I’ve accepted a position at the -Shawsheen Mills.” - -“A position?” gasped Mrs. Soule. “Oh, Salome! Who offered you—who -_dared_ offer you a _position_?” - -“The fair owner of the mills offered it,” answered Salome, enjoying the -situation to its fullest extent. “And I accepted, aunty. Marion, in me -you see the agent of the Shawsheen Mills!” - -Marion Shaw rose and clasped her friend closely to her bosom. She -admired her splendid courage and avowed principles, and honored this -woman, with money and leisure at her command, who was willing and -anxious to devote her life to service for others. But not so Mrs. Soule. - -She applied a delicate mull and lace handkerchief to her eyes, and wept -to think to what an end had come her years of training; her careful -watch, that Salome should never, by any chance, come in contact with a -lower world; her life-long aim to make of Salome the perfect being -prescribed by her somewhat limited and narrowed rules of ladyhood. - -She begged; she pleaded; she argued; she threatened; she resorted to -ridicule; but Salome stood firm, and now laughingly and then earnestly -defended the course she had taken. - -“It’s of no use, aunty, as you see, for us to argue the case. I do not -forget all your kindness and love for me; but I must choose for myself,” -she said, finally. “I am old enough to decide questions of right and -wrong. Hereafter we will not argue any more. I must do this; you must -submit; and that is all there is about it. Now, let’s make up and be -friends,” and she bent down and kissed her aunt on both cheeks, as she -used to do when she was a little girl. - -“You, a child of Cora de Bourdillon’s!” murmured her aunt, softening a -little. - -“Cora de Bourdillon was my mother,” said Salome. “But before and above -all else, Newbern Shepard was my grandfather. I am like him. I must be -like him. And you must submit to the laws of heredity.” - -So there was never any more prolonged discussion between them. Salome’s -nature being so much the stronger, kind-hearted, weak Mrs. Soule could -not oppose her further. But many times, in after years, was she heard to -deplore the fact that Cora de Bourdillon’s child was so thorough-going -an epitome of Newbern Shepard. - -“A good man,” she would say. “A perfectly honest and well-meaning man; -but not like Us!” - - - - - X. - - -Early that evening Geoffrey Burnham and John Villard were announced. -Mrs. Soule and Salome were alone in the parlors when they came in, but -Marion was sent for. - -“And you’ve brought good news?” asked Salome. “They’ve consented to go -to work again?” - -“Of course,” Burnham replied. “They were only too glad to meet us on any -sort of terms.” - -“Wait till my friend comes down,” said Salome. “She is interested, and -will want to hear the details. Oh, here she is. Miss Shaw, allow me to -present my two confrères (and teachers as well), Mr. Burnham and Mr. -Villard.” - -“And so it is really settled?” Salome asked, “and the mills are to be -opened again?” - -“Monday morning, if you like,” replied Burnham, “or earlier. But to-day -is Wednesday, and there are many things to be done where the mills have -stood idle for months.” - -“I’m so glad,” returned Salome. - -“There is hearty rejoicing throughout the corporation,” said Villard. “I -was coming through there to-night and met a couple of little boys with -bundles of groceries in their arms. The smallest looked up and smiled. -‘We’re going to have a good supper of meat and potato to-night,’ he -said. ‘The mills are going to open and pa’s got work.’ I asked him how -long since he had had meat, and he said not since Christmas; and even -then he only had a turkey’s wing that somebody gave him.” - -“Poor boy! Tell me about your conference with the Labor Union.” - -“It passed off smoothly,” Villard went on. “Burnham told him we came -from you, and were prepared to make terms with them. We only saw the -committee you know, and they are to lay our terms before the Union -to-night; but there is no doubt that they will accept. They are really -very sensible and shrewd, those fellows on the committee, eh, Burnham?” - -“Remarkably,” replied the first superintendent. “I didn’t know we had -such intelligent men.” - -“But it is our business to know it,” Villard returned, and Salome nodded -her head. “We laid our plans before them, and told them that we would -concede all their wishes, except about the machinery of course. And one -of their own number spoke up promptly and said it was hot-headed bigotry -on their part that had made them stick for the removal of the frames. -And that most of them, even the Lancaster spinners, had come to see that -every improvement to the mills meant an improvement of their condition. -Then the secretary wanted to know if they were to be allowed to exist as -a Union. Burnham told them that you were taking a great interest in the -management of the mills; and that we all believe that no harm can come -of their organizing themselves into an association, provided they were -willing to be reasonable, and to confer with us before taking extreme -measures again. He begged them to believe that you are their friend, and -want them all to have a fair chance. And he ended by assuring them that -we, as superintendents, fully concurred with you; and that he hoped they -would be willing to start on a new basis, and to consider our interests -as they expect and desire us to remember theirs. Burnham did himself -proud, Miss Shepard, and I could see they were a good deal affected by -his conduct.” - -“I am covered with blushes,” declared Burnham. “Spare my modesty.” - -“Blushing must be a novel sensation to you,” retorted Villard. “The -leaders shook hands with us when we came away and thanked us for what we -had said, assuring us that they would be ready to enter the mills again -at once. And a different spirit is evident to-night, all through the -corporation.” - -“Don’t be too sanguine,” interrupted Burnham. “We’re not through the -woods yet. And there are several ends to be achieved before the -millennium dawns.” - -“I should like,” said Salome, “if it will not bore you too much, to -outline the general plan I have formed for raising the condition of -things at the mills.” - -“Nothing would give us greater pleasure than such a proof of your -confidence,” replied Burnham. - -“And we can assure you beforehand,” said Villard, “of our hearty -co-operation.” - -No one but Salome noticed that her aunt had quietly slipped away when -she spoke of her plan. Mrs. Soule did not care to hear Salome “talk -shop.” - -“In the first place,” Salome began, “are the mills all they should be? -Are they well lighted, aired and drained? Is the machinery such as to -benefit both the operators and the business interests of the mills?” - -“No, they are not quite up to modern standards,” Villard replied, -promptly. - -“I don’t know,” pursued Burnham, “but they are quite as good as the -average. There are many worse mills than the Shawsheen.” - -“That isn’t the point,” Salome replied. “Are there any better? Or are -they capable of improvement?” - -“Well, yes, if you don’t consider expense,” assented Burnham. - -“Are they well-lighted? Are their sanitary conditions good?” - -“They are very well-lighted indeed,” said Villard; “your grandfather -built much in advance of his time, and the mills are all light and -strong. But they need better ventilation in cold weather; and, as you -know, sanitary science in Newbern Shepard’s day was hardly up to modern -demands.” - -“I propose putting in the best drainage system we can find. I propose -bath-rooms, wash-rooms and elevators.” - -“Good!” said both her superintendents. - -“As for machinery, you will know what is needed there. We want the -latest improved methods of doing our work. It will not do for us to be -behind the times, or the world will laugh at our philanthropic efforts. -The standard of the mills must be as high now as it was in my -grandfather’s day. Nothing but the best of goods, made after the most -approved modern methods, must go out from us. Otherwise the world will -say we are visionary and lack good business sense.” - -“That is true,” assented Burnham. “The business must not suffer.” - -“At the same time, I want the mills made so pleasant and comfortable -that our operatives will prefer them to any other, knowing that we -propose to consult their interests and happiness in little things, as we -desire that they shall consult ours in great. Then their homes. Those -old rickety tenement houses must be abolished from the face of the -earth.” - -“Hear, hear,” cried Villard, “they have long been an eyesore to me.” - -“They are a disgrace to us,” was Salome’s emphatic answer. - -“But you can’t do that all at once,” said Burnham. “That is something -that will take time.” - -“It is April now,” said Salome. “I propose to begin at once on new -houses for the operatives. They will have to stay where they are for the -summer, but by cold weather I mean that every one of them shall be in -new quarters.” - -“Whew!” said Burnham; “you _are_ a woman of business, Miss Shepard. But -you will have your hands full this year to build new houses for two -thousand people.” - -“It can be done though,” Villard replied. “There are plenty of -carpenters and builders to be had. What kind of tenements do you -propose?” - -“I have not fully decided. At first I thought of having single cottages -for every family, with a tiny plot of land for each. But sometimes I -wonder if some of the plans for model tenement houses would not be more -feasible. What do you think?” - -“There are advantages in both,” said Burnham. “It is doubtful if many of -the operatives would appreciate a whole house, or take good care of one. -On the other hand, the best tenement house system in the world has its -drawbacks.” - -“In a country-place where there is room enough, as there is here,” -advised Villard, “it seems to me that the single cottage system is the -better. Each family can then have a certain privacy, impossible to the -tenement house system. They can soon be educated up to caring for their -places, and, I think, will soon come to take pride in them. They may not -pay, at first; but they will serve a higher purpose. I have thought it -would be a fine thing,—in the Utopia of which I have often dreamed,—if, -connected with such a factory as this, could be built some substantial, -inexpensive cottages which could be sold to the working-men with -families, on very easy terms. Let them occupy them as tenants, for -instance, until their rentals amount to a certain sum—say two hundred -dollars,—unless they have been fortunate enough to have saved that -amount, which they can pay down, and then let them take a deed of the -place and give us a mortgage. Pardon me, Miss Shepard, I am only -supposing a case.” - -“And quite a supposable one,” said Salome, her eyes glowing. “Why can’t -it be done?” - -“Doubtful if any of them would burden themselves with a debt like that,” -demurred Burnham. - -“I think they would,” Villard responded. “The desire for a home of one’s -own is an instinct which is implanted in every human breast. If the -steadier, more sensible men of the mills could be induced to try it, it -would soon become the ambition of all the younger ones to own their -homes. I am sure the overseers, at least, would like to try it. So many -of our operatives live in a hand-to-mouth fashion, never saving -anything. Let them see that what they pay for rent will be credited to -them; that they are actually saving that money, and they will, for the -most part, gladly fall in with the scheme. And when a man begins to save -up money, and to feel that he is worth something, his self-respect -increases and ambition makes a man of him. I tell you, I believe the -thing could be done here, and the condition of our working-men be vastly -improved by it.” - -“We will, at least, make the experiment,” said Salome earnestly. “At -first a wild dream came to me of building model tenement houses and -practically giving them the rent. But I soon came to see that it would -be better for them to pay what they could afford for improved -conditions.” - -“That would be far wiser,” said Villard. “To make them objects of -charity would be to lower their condition in the long run.” - -“Then I have a plan for the girls,” Salome went on. “So many of them -live in those dreadful boardinghouses. I’ve been into one, and I wonder -how any girl can keep her self-respect and live there. I am going to -build a large building, which shall have plenty of light, airy bedrooms, -prettily and inexpensively furnished; so that a girl may feel that she -has a cosy little spot somewhere on earth of her very own. I am going to -have model bath-rooms and a large, cheerful dining-room. There will be a -matron to the establishment who will be like a mother to the girls; not -one who will care nothing whether her girls are sober and respectable, -or miserable and besotted, so long as they pay. This woman will win the -confidence of the girls, and lead them into habits of personal -cleanliness and common sense; she will take an interest in their little -personal affairs, and advise them kindly and judiciously. In short, she -will make a home for them in the truest sense of the word.” - -“You will have to have her made to order, Salome,” interrupted Marion -from the sofa where she had been an interested listener. “Such paragons -do not exist.” - -“And would scarcely be appreciated by the average factory girl if they -did,” added Burnham, smiling at Marion. - -“I shall have a large and pleasant parlor with a piano and a comfortable -reading-room,” Salome continued, as though not hearing; “I don’t suppose -the girls, judging from what I hear and see of them, will care much for -reading at first; but if I put plenty of light, healthful literature in -their way, with illustrated books and good pictures on the walls, they -will gradually come to like them. And then, there must be weekly -entertainments, and perhaps a hall.” - -“And what about the young men?” inquired Villard. “Are you going to -leave our sex out in the cold?” - -“Yes, if you educate the girls so much above them, what are the young -fellows to do?” - -“They shall have such a boarding-house too,” said Salome, “only we’ll -call them Unions. I hate the name boarding-house, and I should think -they would; and then, by and by, there are still other schemes in my -mind. There are children, plenty of them, on the corporation. They are -poor, sickly, unkempt, uncared-for. All this must be changed.” - -“That will come, I think,” said Burnham, “with their improved conditions -and surroundings. It is unhealthful where they now are. Shall you build -the new houses there?” - -“Oh, no, I forgot to say,” answered Salome, “that we must put up their -new quarters on the hill, the other side of the mills. It is much -pleasanter up there, and a far more healthful locality. Work on them can -begin right away. Will you find me the proper man to undertake the -building of the houses, Mr. Villard?” - -John Villard’s heart fairly burned with enthusiasm. This was a project -he had long cherished, although he had been entirely without means or -prospect of ever being able to carry it out. - -“You may be sure I will do my best,” he answered. - -“And we will reserve the power of directing and planning the buildings -ourselves,” she added. - -“I’m glad you’re going to do something for the children,” said Marion. -“If you don’t succeed in improving things in this generation much, you -will in the next, if you educate the children.” - -“That is what I propose to do,” said Salome. “They must have better -schools than they ever had.” - -“And be compelled to attend them,” interposed Burnham. - -“Oh, there are so many things to be done. It will take years to get -everything in working order.” - -“You have laid out a beautiful scheme, Miss Shepard,” remarked Geoffrey -Burnham, “and in most respects a practical one. But you must not be too -sanguine. These people are ignorant,—fairly steeped in ignorance. They -are jealous, too, and doubtless will mistrust your motives, and believe -you have some selfish reason behind all your endeavor.” - -“I have,” laughed Salome. “I want my mills to be models, and my people -to be the best, most skilled, most intelligent, and most progressive -community in America.” - -“Bravo!” said Villard. “So do I.” - -“I am not so sanguine as you may think,” Salome went on. “I know they -are ignorant. How should they be anything else? All their lives they’ve -been used as we use the machines in the factory,—to make good cloth, and -plenty of money. Nobody has thought of their welfare, or cared what they -did, or thought, or became, when working-hours were over. How do we know -what sort of men they are, or what capabilities they possess? I read -somewhere, only the other day, that there may still be Fichtes tending -geese, and Robert Burns’ toiling on the farm; that there may be, yet, -successors of William Dean Howells at the type-forms, of T. B. Aldrich -at the book-keeper’s desk, of Mark Twain at the pilot-wheel. We have no -right to keep them back. But this writer went on to say, that the world -has less need of them, even, than of those who cannot aspire to thrive -outside the shop, and who go to their daily toil knowing that their -highest hope must be not to get ‘out of a job’ and not to have their -wages cut. I don’t suppose they will, at once, appreciate our efforts to -better their condition. Possibly they will oppose us at first; but we -can have no better task to perform than to make them prosperous, -contented and joyous in their work. And by making a man of the -operative, I fully believe we shall bring material prosperity to the -mills.” - -“But the expense,” urged Burnham. “Have you calculated that? I doubt if -the mills could stand so heavy a burden all at once.” - -“I have calculated the expense,” Salome answered him. “And what cannot -be done from the yearly profits of the mills, I will do myself.” - -“We shall be eagerly watched by the whole manufacturing world,” said -Burnham. - -“So much the better,” added Villard. “It is time somebody set the -example. If we succeed in carrying out all these plans, and keep the -mills on a paying basis as well, it will be the beginning of a mighty -reform in the working-man’s world. I believe we can succeed.” - -“You will be called quixotic and all sorts of pleasant things, Salome,” -said her friend Marion. - -“The beginner in any reform is always called a crank, if nothing worse,” -replied Salome. “If I chose to build a million-dollar castle to live in -myself; if I preferred to dress in cloth of gold and silver; if I -insisted upon eating off solid gold dishes; or even if I were to endow a -church or a female college, the world would admire and praise me, and -say these things are a rich woman’s prerogative. If I choose instead to -spend my fortune on the Shawsheen Mills, and elevate by its judicious -expenditure two thousand operatives for whom I ought to feel morally and -socially responsible, the world will probably wonder and call me -quixotic. Christ Himself was called a fanatic. Most people to-day, if -they voiced their real sentiments, would wonder that He could be so -democratic as to die for the whole world, ignorant, uncultivated, -detestable sinners, and all.” - -One of those silences fell upon the room, that always follows the -mention of Christ’s name in a conversation not strictly “religious” in -character. Marion was admiring the courage of her friend; Burnham was -rather taken aback at this fearless reference to a Being whom he seldom -heard mentioned outside the churches; and Villard was surprised and -delighted with this unworldly woman of the world, and her avowal of -principles and hopes and wishes which he had cherished for years. He was -the first to speak. - -“You must have done some hard thinking,—and a good deal of reading, in -the past six months.” - -“Yes,” answered Salome. “I have. I have read everything I could think or -hear of, on subjects bearing on this case; and I have lain awake many a -night, since it was really borne in upon me that I have something to do -here, planning my work. But the greater part of the credit, if there is -any, in my plans, lies with my grandfather. He thought out many of these -things, years ago; I have simply adapted his theories to our modern -times and conditions.” - - - - - XI. - - -And so the great strike ended. - -Had Salome realized the burden of care which she was taking upon -herself, it is doubtful whether she would have assumed it as cheerfully -as she did. But as weeks rolled into months, and responsibilities -multiplied and cares increased until she became as hard a worker as any -in the mills, she did not flinch. She had put her hand to the plough, -and it did not once occur to her to turn back. - -She went to the office of the mills the day they were opened, and began -to study, thoroughly, the details of the business. Villard and Burnham -were her teachers, and both were often astonished at her business -keenness and cool judgment. She had pressed Marion into service -immediately, and always took her to the counting-room, where the two -staid throughout the entire morning, going home to lunch at two, and -usually remaining there the rest of the day. But always, whether she was -in the house, or out driving, or overseeing the new houses, which were -progressing rapidly, Salome’s one thought was the improvement of -conditions at the Shawsheen Mills. - -When Marion had been with her a week, Salome said to her: - -“Marion, I want you to stay with me all the time.” - -“I should be so glad,” replied her friend, “but I can’t afford it. I -shall have to go out into the world again, before long, to earn my -living, dear; but I will stay here as long as I can.” - -“You good girl!” was Salome’s answer. “Why not stay here and earn your -living? I want a companion, shall very soon need a secretary, and as -soon as I get things in running order, ought to have a woman like you to -help draw in my people. You need a congenial place at a comfortable -salary. Now, why not stay? I will pay you a thousand dollars a year.” - -Marion drew a breath of astonishment. - -“It isn’t worth that,” she said; “Madame Blanc only paid me seven -hundred.” - -“Madame Blanc is not fixing a scale of wages for me,” said Salome; “as -to your ‘worth,’ my dear, I must judge of that. When we get fairly at -work, I shall give you enough to do, and you will find yourself a very -busy woman. Besides, if I had a young man to do what I want you to do -for me, he would ask a thousand dollars, wouldn’t he? And why shouldn’t -you have it? Because you are a woman?” - -Marion was not demonstrative. On the contrary, she had a great deal of -the true New England reserve; but she got up and went over to her -friend, put both arms around her neck and then——cried. - -“If you could know what a chance this is for me!” she said at last. “If -you had known what a dreary thing existence had become, and what a -hopeless prospect I had in the future! And now, to live here and work -with you,—in your grand scheme,—Oh, Salome!” And she wept again. - -“Then I will put the care of the cottages into your hands first of all,” -said Salome, patting her cheek. “You’ve kept house and know what one -ought to be like for an ordinary family,—what things are necessary for -the comfort of the household and convenience of the housewife. I don’t. -I should be as apt to build expensive music-rooms and leave out the -pantries, as any way. Go ahead, and get up as nice houses as you can, at -$1,500, $2,000 and $2,500 a piece. Mr. Villard thinks none of the -employes will care to buy anything more expensive. Here is the -architect’s address,” and she handed Marion a card. - -But the building of the model boarding-house was a project too dear to -Salome’s heart for her to easily relinquish to others. Her plan, as she -had presented it to Villard and Burnham, grew and magnified itself until -her co-laborers had to resort to all sorts of arguments to keep her from -wild extravagance. - -She had begun by planning for the factory girls a house which should be -really a home; but as she went about among the operatives, and began to -get an inkling of what the young men of the mills really were, of the -bare, desolate dens which gave them shelter, she did not wonder that -they resorted to the streets for comfort and amusement. She began to see -how the young men and girls who entered the mills could scarcely help -drifting into low and unworthy lives; and she grew more determined to do -something to raise them to a higher plane of living. - -Her grandfather’s manuscripts did not help her much here. In Newbern -Shepard’s day, the factory-hand had not sunk to such ignorance or even -degradation, as he has, in some instances, in later times; and in those -more democratic times, it had not been so hard for him to rise above the -level of his kind. In that day, too, it had been possible for him to -find a home, in the true sense of the word, with families of a certain -degree of refinement. But in Salome’s more modern times, she saw, and -grieved, that the factory boarding-places were of the sort that dragged -the operatives down and kept them on a lower plane, even, than the -Shawsheen tenement system. - -She consulted much with the superintendents and with Marion. She visited -the large cities and thoroughly examined the young men’s and young -women’s various houses and unions. She got ideas from all, but a -perfected plan from none. Finally, she collaborated with her architect, -Robert Fales, and soon had her model boarding-house on paper. After that -it was only a work of days to begin on the foundations of the -institution. - -The operatives at the Shawsheen Mills gazed on all these changes with -curious interest, which, however, they carefully suppressed when any of -their superiors were about. The average independent American citizen, as -he exists among working-men, does not care to pose as an object of even -partial charity. He delights in crying out against Capital, and -clamoring for a share of the Profits; but when it comes to actual taking -of what he does not feel he has earned, he is more backward. - -The Shawsheen operatives, in spite of the promises which had been made, -had gone to work again with little hope that the state of affairs for -them would be any better in future than in the past. As days went by, -and they saw Salome Shepard come to the mills every morning, and knew -that she was personally interested in them as her people, they were -skeptical of any results for good. And when they began to hear it -whispered that she, a woman, was the actual head of the Shawsheen Mills, -some of them talked earnestly of leaving. What! they—strong, -able-bodied, skilled mechanics—work under a woman? - -But they didn’t go. A dull season was upon them, and work scarce. Other -mills were shutting down and sending their operatives into two months of -enforced idleness. The Shawsheen hands were forced to stay where they -were and be thankful for a chance to work. - -Then, as the story that they were to be furnished with new and better -homes gained credence among them, their first real interest dawned. Many -did not believe their conditions would be bettered; many, even, did not -care; and most of them grumbled because their rents would probably be -high, and said the new buildings were only a means to grind the poor and -extort more money from them, to put into a rich woman’s pocket. Such is -the thankless task of the philanthropist. - -Salome heard something of this, but did not allow the knowledge to -disquiet her. - -“A few months will convince them,” she said, quietly. “No wonder they -are on the lookout for oppression and extortion. As near as I can judge, -this factory has long been run on a plan to warrant them in such a -belief.” And this was all she ever said against Otis Greenough’s method -of administering affairs at the mills. - -As the summer went by, Salome’s friends in the town began to wonder at -her extravagant outlay, as they called it. They prophesied that she -would soon tire of her new amusement, and leave the houses unfinished, -when her projects would fall flat. Some of them came to her and -remonstrated, on the ground that her inexperience in financial affairs -was cause enough for her leaving the Shawsheen Mills and the employes as -they had been. But invariably she replied, that if she had chosen to -build herself a million-dollar castle, they would have approved of her; -but because she proposed to spend a half-million on the mill property, -all of which she felt sure would return to her some day with interest, -she was called extravagant and foolish. - -“But if you had built the million-dollar house,” said Mrs. Greenough, -“it would have been a great thing for the place. Think what an ornament -to Shepardtown it would be!” - -“And think what an improvement—what a great thing for Shepardtown—it -will be to tear away those miserable, tumble-down tenements on Shawsheen -alley, and to add a hundred neat and cosy houses to the hill,” she -retorted. “And, besides, you haven’t seen my—well, my Institution (I -haven’t named it yet). Think what an ornament that will be to the -place.” - -But as nobody realized what the “Institution” of her dreams was to be, -Salome got no sympathy from her friends. Curiosity increased on all -hands, as the summer waned and an immense brick structure grew apace on -the hill. It had a square, dome-like center, with huge wings on each -side. But the workmen were sworn to secrecy, and nobody was allowed to -go inside from the time the building was far enough advanced to allow of -its entrances being fastened up. - - - - - XII. - - -It was finished at last. The plasterers and painters and plumbers had -done their last stroke of work and departed, leaving the keys with -Salome, as she had requested. On the same afternoon, she sent for Robert -Fales, and together they showed Burnham and Villard, with Marion Shaw -and Mrs. Soule—who was as anxious as any of them to see the place, -although she would not own it—over the new building. - -A broad flight of stone steps led up to the main entrance. The wooden -framework, which had concealed the façade, had been taken down, and -there, over the massive doorway, was the name of Salome’s “Institution,” -carved in red sandstone—“NEWBERN SHEPARD HALL.” - -“Why not simply Shepard Hall?” said Burnham, as they stood looking up at -it. - -“Or Salome Shepard Hall?” put in Mrs. Soule’s voice, for she felt that -it would be like the rest of her niece’s folly to have her name carved -in stone up there. - -“Auntie!” exclaimed Salome reprovingly; then, turning to Geoffrey -Burnham—“Shepard Hall might have meant me, or it might have meant my -father, or the whole race of us in general. This building is a memorial -to Newbern Shepard, not to his family. How do you like the design of the -façade?” - -The building was of red brick, with massive trimmings of red sandstone, -and was substantial and useful in general appearance, rather than -ornate. - -“Ten times as expensive as you needed,” was her aunt’s comment. - -“Yes,” answered Burnham, to whom the remark was directed. “A cheap, -wooden building would have answered the purpose, I should say.” - -“Perhaps,” laughed Salome; “but I am not putting up wooden monuments to -my grandfather’s memory. Besides, you don’t know my purpose, yet.” - -“Something quixotic and unnecessary, I’m afraid, my dear,” answered Mrs. -Soule. - -Salome did not answer but led the way up the stairway, and unlocked the -heavy doors These opened into a vestibule leading into a large room -fitted up with bookcases and tables. - -“This is the library,” said she. “Now, see the two reading-rooms, one on -each side. One is for the girls, and one for the young men.” - -They passed out into the one designed for the girls,—a pleasant airy -room with plenty of light and space. The walls were tinted and the -woodwork was in the natural finish. Nothing in the way of furnishing -had, of course, been done. Beyond the reading-room was another large -class-room, and opening from it were several smaller ones. These all -occupied one wing of the new building. - -“What do you propose to have done with all these rooms?” asked some one. - -Salome looked over to John Villard and smiled. - -“I’ve read and studied ‘All Sorts and Conditions of Men’ to some -purpose,” she said; “I propose, as time goes on, to have various -practical and useful things taught the girls here. Dressmaking for -instance, and millinery and domestic science. The conveniences for that, -though, are in the basement.” - -She led the way by a flight of stairs that led from a side-entrance, at -the end of the wing, to the basement. There was a spacious hall with -rows of hooks to hang garments on. From this, opened a large and -pleasant dining-room. Under the main portion of the building was a great -kitchen with ranges and all the modern appliances of a hotel kitchen, -though on a smaller scale. - -“Isn’t this rather elaborate for a factory boarding-house?” asked -Burnham; “for, I take it, that is one of your objects, at least, if not -the primary one.” - -“I approve of this,” said Mrs. Soule judicially. “It’s poor policy to -fit out a kitchen with cheap stuff. Give servants the best of everything -to do with, and teach them how to take care of them.” - -“Miss Shepard has gone over the subject very carefully,” said Mr. Fales, -“and, I must say, has shown most excellent judgment in everything. As -you say, madam, it’s only money wasted to put cheap stuff into a -building like this.” - -“Now, look through the pantries and larder and laundry,” Salome -interrupted; “I think, for a woman who knows absolutely nothing of the -details of housekeeping, I’ve excelled myself.” She spoke boastfully and -shook her head at Marion, at the close of her speech. - -“How much of it did Miss Shaw plan?” slyly asked Geoffrey Burnham. - -“Every bit of it, below the main floor,” responded Salome. “Since you -seem incapable of believing that I did it, I may as well own that Marion -and Mr. Fales planned the whole of the basement, and that I, in my -ignorance, could only look on and admire. But they did so well that now -I am inclined to take all the glory to myself.” - -They passed through the basement, coming up at the other end of the -building, and found themselves in the young men’s wing. Here, besides -the reading-rooms and class-room, was another fitted with two or three -workbenches. - -“I propose to give them a chance to take an industrial education,” said -Salome, “if they should want it.” - -“I declare!” ejaculated Mrs. Soule. “To give skilled mechanics a chance -to take lessons at the work-bench! You are out of your mind, child.” - -“I didn’t plan it for skilled mechanics, auntie,” said Salome gently, -“although they may come if they want to. But you know, or ought to, that -the majority of our men can only perform one kind of work. They may be -nearly perfect in their special branch, but are almost helpless when it -comes to handling the hammer and saw and chisel. If they learn the -proper use of these things, it will not only increase their knowledge in -that direction, it will broaden them in other ways.” - -“I don’t see how,” persisted her aunt. - -“Besides,” put in John Villard, “if it does no other good, if the -experiment keeps a few of our fellows off the street at night and -develops a new taste, it will be worth while.” - -“Well, perhaps you are right,” said Mrs. Soule, “but no such philosophy -or philanthropy was taught in my day.” - -“‘The world do move,’ auntie,” laughed Salome. “Now, shall we go -upstairs?” - -A broad flight of steps from the hallway at the end of the wing led up -to the second floor, which was just like the one on the girls’ wing. -Upstairs, the broad corridor ran through the middle of the wing, with -bedrooms opening from either side. In the main body of the building, -under the dome, was a large hall, fitted up with movable seats, and -having a raised platform at the front. - -“This is the pride of my heart,” Salome announced, as she ushered her -friends into it. “If any one dares to criticise it, woe be unto him! Mr. -Burnham, what fault can you find with this?” - -They all laughed at her inconsistency. - -“I should not dare make it known, if I had any,” he said. “But may I ask -what it is for?” - -“Why, to hold meetings in, and lectures and things,” she answered, -quickly; “what did you suppose?” - -“Oh! And for the Labor Unions to congregate in and plan how they may -overthrow and destroy you, I suppose,” scoffed Burnham. “And it is a -capital place to breed the next strike.” - -“There will be no ‘next strike,’” was the confident answer. “And as for -the rest, wait and see. I had the seats all movable because once in a -while there will be a party, and they will want the floor for dancing.” - -“Salome! Not dancing?” cried her aunt. - -“Why not? The floor is an excellent one for dancing. I saw to that -myself,” said she, purposely misunderstanding her relative. - -“You are not going to let them have their low dances here?” Mrs. Soule’s -tone showed how much the idea horrified her. - -“Low dances? Certainly not,” said her niece. “But we are going to show -them how to have something better. We are going to lift them above -wanting a low entertainment of any kind, and teach them how such things -are carried on by better people,—by us, for example.” - -“Salome, you don’t mean me to understand that you are going to come and -dance here, yourself?” - -“Perhaps, though I had not thought of it. But why not?” continued the -perverse niece. “Mr. Villard, will you lead the first figure with me, on -our opening night?” - -“With the greatest pleasure in the world,” said he, with a thrill at his -heart which he did not recognize. - -Mrs. Soule sat down on a convenient window-seat. - -“What would your father say?” she murmured. - -“I never knew my father well enough to judge.” Salome answered, with a -slight tinge of bitterness in her tone. “But I know what my grandfather -would say. I am going to put a piano in here,—or would you have an -organ?—and I intend that this hall shall be the rallying place of the -young people. I’m also going to give a course of entertainments here -during the winter, twice a week; I’m not going to begin with lectures -and heavy ‘intellectual treats;’ but I will gradually lead up to them -with concerts and even a minstrel show or two.” - -“Salome,” gasped her aunt feebly from the window-sill. - -“You see, if we begin by shooting over their heads, they won’t come at -all,” said Salome. “But if we begin with something light and amusing, -and not too far above their level, and gradually raise the tone of the -entertainments, they’ll find themselves attending lectures and other -sugar-coated forms of intellectual betterment, and like them; and never -mistrust that I am working out a mission on their unsuspecting heads.” - -“I’m glad you realize something of their present intellectual -condition,” said John Villard, who had been unusually silent and grave -while looking over the new building; “and realize that it’s only -gradually that we can bring them, as a class, up to a higher grade as -intelligent young people.” - -“Oh, I do,” said Salome, “I’ve seen too much of them, myself, this -summer. At first, I was appalled by the absolute lack of common -knowledge among the average girls. But there are a few, I know, who have -already improved the slight advantages they’ve had; and these few I -shall rely on to help me by their influence in raising the rest; the -‘little leaven,’ you know. It seems to me, that only by raising the -intellectual condition, and the educational aspiration, can we hope to -accomplish anything of permanent value to the mills.” - -“That is the only way,” was Villard’s response. “And, Miss Shepard,” he -said, hurriedly, for the others had already scattered through the girls’ -wing, leaving them alone, “I want to say that, as I believe you have -found the only true solution to the main questions of the labor problem, -I pledge myself to heartily sustain you in every way. You have only to -command me, and I am ready.” - -Why did Salome turn away to hide the vivid blush that suddenly swept -over her face? - -“I am sure of that,” she said, presently, with an effort, “I have -counted on you from the first. I shall try, by my own personal efforts, -to help the factory girls. But I shall depend on you, and you alone, to -manage the young men.” - -“I shall not fail you,” was all he said, as Salome locked the door of -the hall behind them, and they went over the girl’s wing to find the -others. - -The bedrooms on this wing were like those on the other side. There were -ample closets and plenty of light and air and window space. The rooms -were not spacious, but they were complete in every respect, and a vast -improvement on anything the Shawsheen mill-girls had ever seen. - -“I did not want large rooms,” said Salome; “I think it is better to put -not more than two girls in a room. I shall put two single beds in each, -and fit up the rooms with everything necessary for comfort; then I shall -insist that the girls keep their own rooms in the best of order. Oh, -you’ll see what a disciplinarian I shall be!” - -The third floor was entirely given up to bedrooms, the two wings being -entirely separated from each other by the upper portion of the hall -which extended to the top of the dome. Every part of the building was -beautifully finished, well-lighted, and planned for general, practical -convenience. - -“There, if I never do anything else,” said Salome, after they had come -out of the place, and stood looking back at it, “I shall feel that I -have raised a suitable monument to old Newbern Shepard. I believe, if he -could have lived until now, that he would have done the same thing -himself—only better.” - -“He couldn’t, Miss Shepard,” said Villard. “It is absolutely perfect.” - -“Yes,” admitted Burnham, “it is. But do you realize, Miss Shepard, what -an elephant you’ve got on your hands? It’s going to be a fearful tax on -your mind and strength to keep it up, and to carry out half you’ve -planned.” - -“Well, what were health and strength given me for?” Salome asked, with -the abruptness which sometimes characterized her. - -“Most young women find a solution to that question without running an -eleemosynary institution,” was Burnham’s mental comment; but he said -nothing. - -“I expect to see my happiest days while I have the care of this -establishment. I’m sure I never was so happy as I’ve been for the past -six months. Now, I must finish this great house. I shall need all the -suggestions and practical aid you can each give me, especially about the -libraries and reading-rooms. As to the selection of books, I’m going to -begin with a comparative few. Will you two gentlemen come up to the -house to-morrow night, prepared to help make out a suitable list?” - -“You forget that I have to go to New York to-morrow,” said Burnham. “But -Villard can go; and I can help afterwards, you know.” - -“As soon as we get everything in readiness,” pursued Salome, “we will -have a formal opening. We’ll have music and something good to eat, and a -little talking, and perhaps a dance to close with.” Salome looked -wickedly at her aunt, but the latter paid no heed. “Remember your -promise, Mr. Villard.” - -“I shall not be the one to forget it,” he answered. - -They separated very soon, Salome and her aunt and Marion taking the -architect home with them, and Burnham and Villard going back to the -mills. - -But all through the afternoon, and all through the watches of the night, -one sentence repeated itself to John Villard’s heart, comforting and -helping him, strangely: “I have counted on you from the first.” - - - - - XIII. - - -It was Halloween when the new building was formally opened. Up to that -time, only a few privileged persons were allowed to enter its sacred -portals; but every one connected with the Shawsheen Mills was invited to -be present at the opening. - -On the hill, back of the mills, stood one hundred new cottages, each -costing from fifteen to twenty-five hundred dollars, and all ready for -occupancy; but as yet none of the mill-hands had seen the inside of one -of them. - -It had been a work of no small magnitude to find a suitable matron for -the Newbern Shepard Hall. But, finally, the widow of a former physician -in Shepardtown, a woman of excellent character and judgment, and with -some experience as matron of a young ladies’ school, was secured and -duly installed in the two pleasant rooms set apart for her in the girls’ -wing. - -John Villard had relieved Salome’s mind of another perplexity, by -offering to take up permanent quarters for himself in the young men’s -side; for, although she had felt the necessity of such an arrangement, -she had not liked to ask him to give up what she rightly guessed were -more congenial apartments in a quiet corner of the town. But he felt -that his influence would be needed at the Hall, and that he could do the -work which he hoped to do much better, if he were in the midst of the -young men whom he wished to interest in many ways. And before Halloween, -he was comfortably settled in two rooms at the Hall. - -The evening came, clear and cold; such an evening as only the last of -October can give. The building was brilliantly lighted from top to -bottom, and decorated with flags and evergreen. Outside, Chinese -lanterns and bunting lined both sides of the walk up to the main -entrance, and helped to give it a holiday air. A band of -street-musicians, who happened to be in town, had been engaged and were -stationed in front of the building, where their tolerably harmonious -strains gave just as much pleasure to the not over-critical audience -that was fast assembling, as Thomas’ or Seidl’s men could have afforded -them. - -Inside, Salome waited impatiently. Without any premeditated plan, -Villard and Burnham placed her and Marion, with Mrs. Soule in the -background—for she “declined to be introduced to these persons”—in the -center of the library; and forming themselves into a reception -committee, they drafted into service a few of the best-appearing young -men, who presented every comer to the owner of the mills and her friend. -After giving each one a cordial welcome and hand-shake, Salome told them -they were free to inspect the new building as they pleased; and, -consequently, every mill-hand, accompanied by every other member of his -or her family, went critically over the wonderful new building, which -seemed to their unaccustomed eyes a structure of unwonted magnificence, -and furnished in a most luxurious style. - -It had been fitted up inexpensively, but with the utmost good taste. No -carpets were on the floors, but American rugs abounded wherever they had -seemed necessary. The library furniture was of plain, substantial oak, -like the heavy woodwork of the room. Throughout the rest of the house, -bedrooms, dining-rooms, and class-rooms were furnished with strong, -neat, ash furniture. There were a few good engravings on the walls of -the principal rooms, and the bookcases were about half-filled with -literature of a harmless and interesting, if light quality. They had all -agreed it would not be best to fill the shelves at first, but to watch -the popular taste and to “leave room for improvement,” as Marion said. - -The operatives were simply astonished at what they saw. Some were even -yet incredulous, and whispered that they would not be willing nor able -to live in such a place; but many of the girls’ eyes brightened as they -inspected their new quarters, and showed a determination, on the part of -their owners, to come in for some of the good times they saw in store. -It is doubtful if even the lowest ones there did not feel a new -self-respect creeping up in their hearts. Dress may not make the man, -but surroundings often do the woman. - -By half-past eight the stream of people stopped pouring through the big -front doors. Everybody had come in, shaken hands with Salome and Marion, -and passed along, scattering themselves over the building. - -“Now let’s get every one into the hall, above,” said Salome, “and have a -little talking and some music.” - -It was some little time before the crowd of visitors could be gathered -in one place, but after a while the hall was well filled, and the -musicians installed in their place. The sound of the band, indoors, -proved an effectual summons for the stragglers. For the first time, -Salome, on the platform, faced a surging, eager crowd of her own people -in Newbern Shepard Hall. - -She had wanted one of her two “faithful henchmen” to take the lead -to-night; but they had each refused, saying she was better fitted than -they; that it was eminently her own affair and not theirs, and that the -success of the opening depended on her alone. The last argument was -enough, and, much to Mrs. Soule’s horror at seeing “Cora de Bourdillon’s -daughter” in such a plight, Salome presided over her first -meeting,—“exactly as if she were one of those ‘woman’s rights women.’” - -When the musicians had finished, Salome stepped forward, and not without -some inward quaking, made her first speech. - -It was an occasion the Shawsheen Mill hands never forgot. Salome, always -well and appropriately dressed, had not slighted them by refusing to -appear at her best. She wore a white China silk costume, rightly -thinking her young people would be readily reached by the gospel of good -clothes. Her gown was simply made, but fitted exquisitely her -well-proportioned figure. Neck and wrists were finished with beautiful -old point lace, and she did not scorn to wear her grandmother’s -diamonds. - -Her attractive appearance, her cordial and interested manner, and her -winning voice had pleaded her cause with the critical operatives before -she had uttered a half-dozen sentences. Her sincerity and earnestness -went straight to their sensibilities, and, before she had suspected it, -every heart in the room was hers. - -“My dear friends,” she began, “I never made a speech in my life, and -cannot now. I never stood on a platform before; and only my interest in -every one of you brings me here to-night. I only want to say that this -building, which you see now for the first time, and which I hope will -prove a happy home for many of you, is built to my grandfather’s memory. -Some who are present to-night remember him and love him still, I hope.” - -Here several gray-haired men in the audience nodded their heads, and one -was heard to mutter, “Ay, ay, we do.” - -“If he had lived, I think everything in the factory would have been -different. Your lives would have been different; and mine, too, perhaps. -For one thing, I don’t believe you and I would have grown up strangers -to each other. You know, by this time, I am sure, that I have a glorious -plan for making the Shawsheen Mills the best on earth. - -“Not by tearing down mills and building new and more elegant ones; not -alone by making costly improvements; but by having—and mind, this is the -only way it can be done,—by having the best and most conscientious and -intelligent class of operatives in this country,—and that will mean, of -course, in the world. Now, you all know I cannot do this alone; every -one of you has a part in carrying out this plan of mine. And unless you -all agree to help, it will fail. Don’t think I want you to do any -impossible thing. I only want every one of you to be the best and do the -best you possibly can. You and I are going to have some splendid times -in the future. We’re going to get better acquainted with each other. We -are going to become real friends. On your part, you are going to deserve -my good opinion and my honest friendship; on my part, I’m going to -deserve your confidence and trust and love; and between us we are going -to show the people of Massachusetts that a cotton-factory can become -something more than a great machine to grind out yards and yards of -unbleached sheeting; and that its operatives can become something better -and greater than so many smaller wheels in the machinery. We will show -that a factory community may be, and is, a prosperous, happy, contented -and intelligent people.” - -Some of the young men could contain themselves no longer, and broke into -enthusiastic applause as Salome uttered the last sentiment. Villard -chuckled secretly as he observed that the leaders in it were the heads -of the committees in the recent strike. - -“I’m so glad you agree with me,” said Salome heartily, when the noise -had subsided. “Now, I want to tell you about this house. The rooms are -all ready for occupancy. I think there are accommodations for all who -care to come. You are to leave the old boardinghouses on the -corporation, and I shall have them taken down at once. The price of -board will remain the same as at the old houses. The reading-rooms are -ready, the library is yours, and we shall soon find means of -entertainment and work, which will keep us all contented, I hope. Mr. -Villard will occupy rooms on this floor, and the matron, whom I will -shortly present to you, will be on the girls’ wing. There will be but -few rules, and those, I trust, not irksome. I cannot imagine that any -one will not be willing to obey them. The new houses on the hill are all -ready for the families on the corporation to move into. A few of the -larger and better houses are to be let at an increased rental; but most -of them will be let at the old rates. We have a plan, by which any one -who wants to, may, after a little, buy a house and pay for it by monthly -installments, just the same as you pay rent. But I will not go into -details. Mr. Fales will be at the first cottage on the hill, and you can -all make arrangements with him at any time after to-morrow morning. Now -I have talked too long, I know, and am going to stop. I want to have you -hear what Mr. Burnham and Mr. Villard have to say; but first we must -have some music.” - -If Salome could have read the trembling waves of sympathy and reverence -which were already vibrating from the hearts of the young people whom -she had addressed, she would not have sat down with the feeling of -self-distrust and failure which followed her speech. The experience, the -very atmosphere, was unique in the history of industrial experiments. - -The two superintendents followed the band with speeches that were -characteristic of each. Burnham’s, witty and tinged with sarcasm, but -friendly and cordial enough; and Villard’s, strong with earnest purpose -and full of brotherly love. The matron, Mrs. French, was presented, -also, and her few remarks won a friendly recognition among the young -folks; and then Salome announced that the meeting would adjourn to the -dining-rooms in the basement. - -More refined audiences than hers have not been slow to exchange an -atmosphere of sentiment and intellectuality for one of prosaic salads -and cold meats, and more fanciful ices and coffee; and the Shawsheen -operatives were soon encountering a more æsthetic collation, it is -probable, than had ever been served them before. But as it was a -bountiful one, they acted well their part and found no fault. - -The crowning delight of the evening came afterward. The young men were -asked to lend a hand, and soon the floor was cleared in the large hall, -and word was circulated through the house that the evening’s -entertainment would close with dancing. Nothing could have gone so far -toward convincing the mill-hands that Salome had meant what she said, -than this concession to their social rights, unless it was the fact that -she, herself,—the haughty, aristocratic daughter of Floyd Shepard, whom -they had looked upon with envy not unmixed with hatred,—that she should -lead the dance with the younger superintendent. An orchestra of three -pieces was selected from the band of musicians, and Marion and Salome, -by turns, furnished the piano accompaniment. Salome claimed her promise -from Villard and danced merrily, not only the first figure but several -others. Mrs. Soule was too much overcome by all she had seen and heard -to endure this, and was taken home; but the others staid until the -midnight hour tolled, and the dancers had all bidden good-night to their -newly-developed friends and gone home enthusiastic in their praise of -the new order of things in the mill _régime_, and, especially, of the -woman who was opening to them the wider doors of opportunity. - - - - - XIV. - - -John Villard passed a wakeful night in his new rooms at Newbern Shepard -Hall. A strange and unwonted feeling had taken possession of him; one -which he was slow to recognize, but which cried loudly to him of his -folly and presumption, even while it refused to be put off. - -After that first dance, Salome had paused by an open window and he had -stood idly watching her. Suddenly a tremendous desire to clasp her in -his arms, to hold her close, to demand her full surrender, swept over -him. So sudden and strong was the passion, that it was with difficulty -that he kept from seizing the soft hand which lay dangerously near on -the window-sill. So over-mastering was it, that he dared not stay or -even speak. He turned on his heel and went out under the quiet stars, -alone. - -In the days when she had held aloof from the mill, and the -superintendents scarcely ever saw her, Geoffrey Burnham had regarded her -as “something too bright and good for human nature’s daily food,” -looking upon her as immensely above him, socially speaking. But now that -she had become familiarly associated with them in the daily affairs and -interests of the mill, Burnham thought of her as having entered the -field of good comradeship, and felt that friendly, if not exactly equal, -terms existed between them. - -With John Villard it was different. He had begun by looking with a -certain degree of scorn upon a woman who held tremendous interests so -lightly as she had done in the old days. He had felt for her all the -contempt a man who does not know them—a man with serious purposes—may -feel for the irresponsible butterflies he imagines society-girls to be. -With her deeper interest in the side of life which interested him, and -her efforts to raise the standard of the mills, her realization of what -to him was a sacred object in life and her devotion to it, his thought -of her had changed. - -With him, familiar every-day contact had not made of her a comrade, in -the ordinary sense of the word. Her beauty and refinement, together with -the consciousness which never left his sensitive soul, that it was her -wealth and her generosity which made the new conditions possible,—these -things only served to raise her to a pedestal where she stood, forever -apart from the rest of the universe,—a woman to be revered and -worshiped; not a woman to be aspired to. - -Suddenly, he found himself in love with her. The tide of feeling which -swept over him was one that no man could mistake. It was not enough that -he might worship her on her pedestal, with a devotion silent and -unknown. He wanted to hold her in his arms. He wanted her eyes to droop -before his glance—not to look at him in the steady fashion he knew so -well. He wanted to feel her heart beating against his. He wanted to kiss -her. - -“Poor fool!” he told himself, a hundred times that night. “As if she -would even look at me—a poor factory-boy, self-educated, self-trained, -and—yes, self-conceited!” - -He remembered his youth; how poor he had been; how he had studied by -moonlight to save the expense of a candle; how he had worked all through -his boyhood in a cotton-mill, that he might help his older sister to -support their mother; how, after his mother had died and his sister -married, he had remained poor and alone and almost friendless; how -little he had seen and known of women; how utterly lacking he was in all -the graces of society and the refinements that he supposed to come from -outward polish only; in short, how utterly at variance with her tastes -and interests and aims his life had been. - -He remembered her life of luxury, of travel, of careful training, and -the indulgence of cultivated, æsthetic tastes. What was he, that he -should dare to even think of her? What but a presumptuous fool, that he -should dream of touching even her frail, white hand? And yet, her eyes -had drooped when they met his that day, when they all went over the Hall -together. Stay—what did it mean? Did she?—could she feel?—but, no. He -was a presumptuous idiot to think of it. - -He paced the floor for an hour. Then he lit a cigar and, under its -peaceful influences, he tried again to fix his mind on the mills, on the -changed condition of things, on anything,—but her. Still, constantly, -over and over, her tall, white-robed figure took shape in the curling -wreaths of vapor, and he fell to dreaming what it would be like to have -a happy home of his own, with her as its center and joy. - -Again, he was exasperated with himself and called himself hard names. He -threw away the half-smoked weed and resolutely prepared for bed; but -only to toss wearily about, combating himself on the old grounds until -the dawn, pushing its way through the crevices of his blinds, told him -to rise and set his face again toward the workaday world. It was the -first time that hard-working, earnest, practical John Villard had ever -passed a sleepless night. - -He had hardly seen how he was to bear the daily contact with Salome, -after that. He was too modest and too honest with himself to dream that -there might be any hope for him. He had, at one time during the night, -thought of leaving the mills, and going away to try a new and easier -life than this promised to be. Then he called himself a coward and -remembered her words: - -“I have depended on you from the first,” and he determined to stay, cost -what it might. Besides, all his hopes and interests were with the -Shawsheen workers. No: he could not leave them, he could not leave her -now. - -So he went forth in the morning, unchanged in outward appearance, and -yet, stronger and better for this first grand fight with himself. And he -met her with his usual deferential bow and smile when, by and by, she -came to the office for her usual morning’s study of business affairs. - -It was unanimously agreed that the opening of the Hall had been a grand -success. The mill-hands, themselves, seemed to feel the new attitude -into which they had suddenly stepped, and were already brighter and more -hopeful. - -On her way to the mills, Salome had met a young overseer, who was -hurrying in to town for something. She greeted him pleasantly, calling -him by name, when, to her surprise, he stopped. - -“I’d like to thank you, Miss Shepard,” the burly young fellow began, -“for what you are doing for us. If all the employers took the interest -in their operatives as you do in us, we’d want no more Unions, and -there’d be no more strikes. I’m thinking you’ve got ahead of the rest of -us on the labor question, and found the right answer to it.” - -“I’m very glad to hear you say that,” Salome answered, with a glow at -her heart which no speech from a man of the world had ever produced. “I -want to find it, if I haven’t yet. But, you know it doesn’t depend on me -alone. I may try, as hard as I can, but if you people don’t co-operate -with me, I’m helpless. I want to depend on you, Mr. Brady.” - -“And you can that, miss,” was the hearty answer. “You’ve got us all on -your side now, sure. I went up this morning to see the houses. They are -fine ones, too.” - -“And did you pick out one for yourself, Mr. Brady? You are married, I -believe?” - -“I am that; and I’ve got as good a wife as ever the saints sent to bless -a man. Yes, I picked out the one I liked best; but the woman’ll have to -see it first, you know. And then, do you know, I think I’ll buy it. The -terms are so easy, and I’ve a little money laid by, that I’d like to -use; and I’m thinking Carrie’d be happier in a home of our own.” - -“Now, that’s sensible of you,” said Salome, delighted that her houses -were in such good prospect of pleasing. “If you do it, I’ve no doubt a -good many others will. And, by and by, we shall have quite a community -of property owners.” - -Brady straightened himself up unconsciously at the word, touched his hat -and passed on, his heart warmed and gratified by the kindly notice; -while Salome entered the office in unusually good spirits. - -“It seems to me,” she began, addressing herself to Burnham, “that -everything is swinging round into the circle of my plans far better than -I had dared hope. I expected opposition, or at least indifference, on -the part of the operatives. On the contrary, they are all as delighted -with the state of affairs as I am.” - -“Why shouldn’t they be?” was Burnham’s comment. “They’d be ungrateful -wretches if they weren’t. They’ve far more to gain than you have to -lose, remember.” - -“But you’ve been trying to make me believe,” pursued Salome, “that they -didn’t want their condition improved; that they were satisfied to be let -alone; and that they’d resist every improvement I offered.” - -“Wait a little and see;” Burnham tried to make his tone impartial, if -not skeptical; “you’ve only begun yet. Don’t expect the habits of months -and years, the loose customs and low tastes, are going to be overthrown -in a single night. The affair of last night, for instance, was doubtless -the most orderly entertainment and the quietest dance they ever had. But -it don’t follow that they will all of them be satisfied to drop entirely -the old order of low dances when they had plenty to drink, even if they -didn’t have salads and coffee, or ice-cream and cake. There’s no telling -how many of them will be stealing off to those places before winter is -over.” - -“Then we must get up some form of entertainment that will hold them to -us,” said Salome firmly. “They sha’n’t fall back, if anything we can -compass can save them.” - -Villard looked across his big ledger at her, as if she had been an angel -sent from Heaven direct, to preach a higher political economy to the -cotton factories of earth. She caught his look and smiled back at him; -but she said no more. - -She did not speak to him until just as she was ready to go home. - -“How do you like your new quarters, Mr. Villard?” she said, then. “I -hope you rested well last night?” - -Villard remembered his sleepless hours vaguely, as in a dream. She -looked so bright and untroubled herself. - -“You deserted me after that first dance. Did I dance so badly that you -feared or dreaded to be caught by me again? If it hadn’t been for Mr. -Burnham and Mr. Fales I should have felt quite a wall-flower.” - -“You never could be that, Miss Shepard,” poor Villard managed to say. - -“Well, as soon as the young people get moved in we must start some -classes. I know a good dressmaker whom I can get, and Marion will teach -them some other things, if they want it.” - -She lingered some minutes, talking over the Hall and her plans, and left -him with a confused image of herself mixing up with the figures of the -ledger in a most incongruous way. Alas! John Villard was to have many a -hard fight with himself before he could drive away that image at will. - -The young operatives—and all that dwelt within the corporation -boarding-house walls—began that very night to pick up their effects, and -make ready to move into their new quarters. Mrs. French had all she -could attend to in preparing for her large family, assigning rooms, and -attending to the thousand details of opening the Hall. But before the -week was closed, every old boarding-house was closed and the new home -full. - -Marion Shaw found her time altogether occupied. Her work was to lie -directly among the girls, as Villard’s influence was to save the boys -and young men. Marion had a gentle and pleasing manner that made friends -everywhere she went. She had had a good deal of experience in managing -boarding-school girls, and although they are a widely different class -from factory girls, human nature—girl-nature, is the same everywhere. -Before the week was over, Marion had made friends with many of the -girls, and had already interested them in keeping their rooms tidy, in -forming a girls’ club, which should embrace all sorts of good ends, and -in rousing in them what was of infinite value in the work she had laid -out,—a desire to become as near like her and Salome as it was possible -for them to be. - -“We shall have to endure the cross of having them cut all their dresses -like ours, wear ribbons like ours, do up their hair like ours, and get -up the most astonishing hats purporting to be like ours,” said she to -Salome one night; “but if it all comes of their wanting to be like -us,—you understand me, dear,—I mean of their wanting to reach a higher -ideal of course,—we can bear it.” - -“We shall have to,” was the answer. “The truth of it is, they will be -trying to copy our habits and manners and characters, too.” - -“Then we shall have to be all the more careful,” said Marion seriously. - -Life to Marion Shaw was a serious thing. Although she was but -twenty-seven years old, she had come to realize that life may not be for -any what the fancy of youth pictures it; and even to realize that the -highest good which life can hold is not to be happy. Already she knew -that happiness is but a relative term, and that only by ceasing to -search and plan for it, can any of us find it even in small degree. - -Just now, she walked dangerously near to happiness. On the opening -night, Geoffrey Burnham had kept closely at her side all the evening, -and after the affair was over, he had walked home with her, while Robert -Fales had gone ahead with Salome. - -At the door, the two had paused a little, looking at the exquisite, -moonlit October night. Suddenly the extraordinary interest Burnham had -felt in this young woman had culminated. He seized both her hands in -his, and pressed them close to his breast. - -“Why have you not come to me before?” he murmured, passionately. “Why -have you waited all these years?” - -“I was waiting for you,” she answered, with a smile. - - - - - XV. - - -One evening in January, Salome and Marion went over early to Newbern -Shepard Hall. Marion’s duties called her there every evening, and she -was seldom unaccompanied by her friend. - -The success of Salome’s schemes for the interest of the working-girls -seemed already assured. Although the Hall had been open but little more -than two months, classes in dressmaking and millinery and in domestic -science were already established, and were well attended. Some girls -there were, it is true, who felt that, after working all day, they were -entitled to an idle evening, or to the right of amusing themselves after -their own fashion. But plenty of young women had been found to open the -classes, and the number was steadily increasing. No strong measures had -been taken to induce these girls to join. Marion had talked with some of -them individually, at first, and found a few who, half skeptically, had -consented to try the dressmaking class, as an experiment. Then the -announcement was made that a class would be opened on a certain night, -and twenty-six girls were present. Instruction in sewing, cutting and -fitting was given free to any woman connected with the Shawsheen Mills. -As the girls had been paying exorbitant prices for having cheap material -poorly made up, and as Salome had provided instructors from the best -dressmaking establishment Shepardtown afforded, the girls were not slow -to see the benefit that would come to them. - -The young wives of operatives, too, women with houses and children to -care for, then began to avail themselves of the privileges which the -class afforded. So that, on this January evening, there were over a -hundred and fifty women in the classes, and another room had been opened -to them on the ground floor. - -It was the same with other classes. At first, the young women had joined -with the older ones in “pooh-poohing” the cooking and housekeeping -lectures and demonstrations. The idea that they and their mothers did -not know how to cook, and that Salome, who knew absolutely nothing of -such matters, essayed to teach them, was a most distasteful one. But -when they found that a celebrated teacher was to come out twice a week -from Boston, and give demonstrations in the model class-rooms below, and -that a graduate of the Boston Cooking School had been engaged to take -charge of the lessons every evening, they, the young married women from -the cottages, especially, dropped in from curiosity; and although they -had come to scoff, they remained to cook. In short, they had become -deeply interested in the new ways of housekeeping, and were surprised -and delighted to find a way of making their few dollars go farther and -procure a better and more healthful living. Consequently, these classes, -too, were full, although the older matrons did not yet give up their -prejudices. - -Among the girls who had not yet joined the classes, there were many who -sat quietly in their own rooms or in the large reading-rooms, and -enjoyed the current magazines and papers, or gossiped quietly and -harmlessly about the fashions and each other—not altogether unlike women -of higher pretensions. It was astonishing, even to Salome, who had, from -the first, believed in her girls, how few of them went out on the -streets at night. - -“It is not astonishing to me,” said Marion, that January evening, in -reply to a remark from her friend to this effect. “The girls are tired -at night and are only too glad to have a pleasant, light and -steam-heated place to stay in. Their rooms at the old boardinghouses -were cold, barren and dismal. In winter weather they could not sit in -them, and the so-called parlor was not much better. When I was at Mme. -Blanc’s one of her servant girls went wrong. I shall never forget -something she said. When Madame heard of it, she sent for the girl and -asked her, bitterly, what had made her bring such a scandalous thing -upon a select house like hers. I was in her room at the time. The poor -girl looked up at Mme. Blanc and said, ‘O, ma’am, you’re awful -particular about where your young ladies spend their evenings,—girls -that you’re paid for looking after. But us servant girls—how did you -look after us? You didn’t allow us a light in our own rooms, or to speak -above a whisper in the kitchen, or seem to think we was human beings at -all. What else could we do, but go out on the street when we wanted a -bit of freedom? And once, on the street, ma’am, girls like us ain’t -never safe. If you’d looked out for me, ma’am, and treated me as well as -you treat your own dog or cat, it would never have happened.’ Poor -Madame was overcome entirely, and the girl left her white with rage. But -she looked after her servants more closely afterward, and kept them in -at night in warm rooms. I don’t believe our girls want to do -wrong,—especially if we make it comfortable for them to do right.” - -On the young men’s side, things had gone equally well. There was a class -of them who, like their fathers before them, were sturdy, honest and -faithful. It was a small class, but upon these John Villard depended to -counteract the influence of the lower foreign element that had crept in; -and to the pride of these he appealed, both directly and indirectly, in -his efforts to establish a better social atmosphere among the -operatives. - -With a few of these to begin with, he had opened an evening school on -the other wing of the Hall; and, as in the case of the women’s classes, -it had increased in numbers and interest from the start. The overseers, -almost to a man, gladly availed themselves of its opportunities for the -education that the true American always feels the need for; and they, -with the better class of men from the looms and mules, set the example -for others to follow. - -No better man for the work could have been chosen than John Villard. He -had come up under much the same conditions that governed them. He had -begun on the lowest round, and worked up to the position he now -occupied, by hard work and the closest application to business. This -fact, together with his attitude toward them during the strike, had made -him a favorite with nearly every man on the works. They felt that they -could place the utmost confidence in Villard; and in the Shawsheen -Mills, as everywhere, a rugged sincerity and honesty of purpose carried -a weight that even the most unstable felt. - -The lecture-hall was usually packed at the weekly entertainment which -Salome provided, and a new feeling of content and self-respect had begun -to permeate the mills. Make a man who has been looked upon as a mere -machine feel that he is estimated at something near the worth which -every human being feels in his heart that he is entitled to, and you -have done much to raise him to a higher social standard. For the first -time since old Newbern Shepard’s day, the mill-hands began to feel a -just pride in being individual American citizens. Unconsciously, both -men and women were setting their faces toward the higher standards which -Villard by his life, and Salome by her newly awakened energy, had set -for them. - -At the mills, affairs were on a most flourishing basis. The Shawsheen -brand of cloth was too well known to allow of a few months shutdown of -the mills making any difference in the law of demand. Orders had -increased, even while the mills were closed, and they had been worked to -their utmost capacity ever since they had opened. Never had the -Shawsheen Mills been more prosperous than at the beginning of January, -or their future looked brighter. - -When Villard had opened his evening school he invited Burnham to -co-operate with him; but the latter had put him off without a definite -reply, and not until the afternoon of the day referred to in the -beginning of this chapter had Villard asked him whether or not he might -count on his assistance. Burnham occasionally looked in at the Hall of -an evening, but Villard had begun to suspect that this was principally -for the purpose of seeing Marion Shaw. - -“Well, to tell the truth,” Burnham finally admitted, “I’ve no taste for -this sort of thing. Oh, yes; it’s a good scheme, and seems to be working -first-rate; but I’m not the right fellow for the place. I don’t like -philanthropic work, never did, never shall. I work hard enough during -the day. I need rest and freedom at night.” - -Villard smiled. - -“And I suppose I don’t do anything day-times and need this sort of thing -as recreation and intellectual stimulus?” His tone was sarcastic, for he -had little patience with selfishness in any form. - -“No, not that,” said Burnham. “You work hard enough—too hard, in fact. -But all this is more in your line. You’re like Miss Shepard; you’re both -of you happier working yourselves to death for others. Now, I’m not -built on that plan. I’ve no faculty for teaching, and I’m sure that my -well-meant efforts to meet the men half-way are looked upon by them as -condescension on my part.” - -He waited an instant for Villard to speak, but no answer came. - -“I can’t help it. I wasn’t born to the manor, so to speak. I didn’t come -up from the ranks, as you know. I suppose they’d believe in me more, if -I had. But you know that my father put me under Mr. Greenough to learn -the business, only after I had graduated from college and fooled away a -year in Europe. I sometimes doubt if I’m not out of place in this mill -as it is run nowadays.” - -“Oh, no, not that,” put in Villard hastily. “You’re too good a business -man. We couldn’t spare you.” - -“I can see how it’s all coming out,” Burnham continued, as if he had not -heard Villard. “You two” (Villard’s heart jumped at the words) “will go -on and make a model institution of the Shawsheen Mills. I should doubt -if you made a profitable one, only that I know you’ve got a mighty good -business head on your shoulders; and, I say, the way Miss Shepard is -developing is a caution to us men. I’d no idea she’d take such a -practical turn, or learn the details so readily. Oh, I can see where -it’s going to end. She’ll be the recognized head and you’ll be her first -assistant. As for me, I sha’n’t be in it. I shall have resigned.” - -“Jeff!” It was only occasionally that these two called each other by -their boyhood names. - -“Yes, I don’t think I should care to have it known that I worked under a -woman, much as I admire and respect Miss Shepard. There’d be no other -way, unless I married her!” - -Villard turned pale with sudden, inward rage, but he said nothing. - -“Don’t think I’d have much chance there, though,” Burnham went on -lightly. “You’re more her style. And you’re both so much wrapped up in -good works that you’ve no time for faith in each other, beyond what you -waste in philanthropic effort. Miss Shepard don’t seem to be the -marrying kind. I don’t believe she ever thinks of a man unless he has -the merit of being an operative in the mills.” - -“And since you’re bent on discussing matrimonial matters,” observed -Villard, with sarcasm, “how about Miss Shaw? And when are the -wedding-cards to be issued?” - -Burnham shook the ashes from his cigar and looked at his watch -critically. - -“Marion Shaw is a fine girl,” he said. “She’s the right kind of woman to -tie to; but”—and Burnham took up his hat to go out—“I’m not the marrying -kind either.” - -So Villard had come to understand that he must take care of his evening -school as best he could alone. - -Robert Fales had settled in Shepardtown. There were to be more cottages -built in the spring, and to him Salome had alone confided her plan of -erecting a new church which should be named for her grandfather. When -the evening school began to grow, he went to Villard and offered his -services as assistant, and had proved a most valuable one. - -This evening Salome looked in upon them, and asked Villard if he could -give her a few moments after the class. - -“I shall be very glad,” he replied. “I have been working up the idea you -spoke about the other day, and wanted to talk with you about it.” - -“The profit-sharing scheme?” asked Salome. “That’s just what I wanted to -speak of. It seems to me we ought, now, at the beginning of the year, to -get it into manageable shape, and tell the men, so that they may know -what to expect. I will be in the reception-room when your class is -through.” - -Much as Villard was interested in his work the remaining hour dragged a -little. The prospect of a quiet _tête-à-tête_ with Salome, even on so -unromantic a subject as profit-sharing, was too alluring. - -But, at last, he found himself face to face with her, and for a few -moments forgot all else in the pleasure of listening to her voice and -watching the curve of her chin and mobile lips, as she talked of -immaterial things. - -“And now, what kind of a plan have you formulated as to the -profit-sharing?” she asked, after a little. - -“Profits—oh, yes,” said Villard, suddenly brought to himself. “I have -examined all the accounts of such experiments in foreign countries, and -tried to remember the differing conditions and better wages here. I have -prepared a rough draft of a circular which I thought perhaps you might -like to send out among the hands. Do you want to see it?” - -“Of course,” was the answer. - -“I don’t pretend it is complete, you know,” he went on, drawing a folded -paper from his inner pocket. “It is only an abstract, but—here it is.” - -“Read it to me, please,” said Salome. - -He would rather have had her read it, while he watched her face; but he -complied. - -“For some time past,” the circular read, “the subject of co-operation in -some form has been considered by the Shawsheen Mills. Believing that -capital and labor are interdependent and their interests identical, it -has been decided to adopt some plan by which the laborer may obtain a -share of the product in proportion to the profits of the scheme, at the -same time guaranteeing his wages against the time of loss. - -“It is now proposed, therefore, to divide a sum among the Shawsheen -employes, each year in which there are surplus profits, over and above -wages earned. - -“Understand, that before anything can be set apart for this purpose, -wages must be paid, interest must be paid, and a fair profit on capital -must be paid. In addition to this, an additional amount must be set -aside to make good the wear and tear of buildings and machinery, and to -strengthen reserve funds against a time of depression. - -“Ordinarily, the sum above all these amounts must be small, and must -differ, of course, with the fluctuations of the market, the depression -of trade, and the wear of machinery from year to year. It will be -readily seen, also, that the sum to be divided will be enlarged by extra -care and attention on the part of employes. Every weaver who makes a -mis-pick, every burler who slights her work, every spinner who makes a -needless knot; in short, every person who makes an unnecessary waste of -any kind, makes the amount to be divided smaller, by making a loss to -the concern; and, on the other hand, if every person in the mill attends -to the little savings, the wool-washers saving every scrap of wool, the -spinners making less waste, the weavers weaving up the whole bobbin, and -so on through all the branches, a great saving can be made which will -effectually increase the sum to be divided; and it will be for the -direct interest of every employe to exercise such increased care and -diligence. - -“The mode of distributing this bonus will be by making a dividend of so -much per cent. upon the wages earned by each person. If, after all -contingencies are provided for, there is not enough left to make a -dividend of one per cent., no dividend will be made for that year. In -case of a dividend it will be paid on and after the first day of May in -each year to all employes who have been in employ at the Shawsheen Mills -for at least seven months during the year, and shall not have been -discharged for drunken or disorderly conduct. The amount of wages earned -during the year preceding the first of April shall be the amount upon -which the bonus for each individual shall be computed. - -“The profit for the present year, if there be a dividend, will be paid -on or after the first day of May. Let every person connected with the -mills work so faithfully, making every effort toward a wise economy, -that the first dividend shall be an encouraging one.” - -John Villard stopped reading the circular and looked across at Salome. -She was regarding him with a fixed look of admiration and reverence, -such as a good woman feels for but one man in a lifetime. For an instant -his pulses leaped; but he was too modest a man to believe in his own -good fortune. - -“Well, what do you think of it?” he asked. - -His words brought her to herself. Her expression faded to one of mere -brightness, and became less frankly honest. - -“I think it capital,” she said. “I do not see how it can be improved. -Will you let me take it home and consider it?” - -“Of course,” he assented. “You know I do not pretend it is perfect. But -it seems to me we risk nothing in trying it.” - -Salome rose to go and reached out her hand for the manuscript. Some -pieces had fallen on the table and in gathering them up, their hands -brushed against each other. - -An electric thrill shot through the frame of each. Salome stood, -blushing and sweet, suddenly conscious that a crucial moment in her life -had come. Had Villard but spoken, had he but clasped the hand that still -remained near his! - -But, ever depreciating himself and knowing absolutely nothing of the -heart of woman, he turned abruptly away, bringing Salome back to herself -with a hasty “good-evening.” And then he strode away to the outer air, -asking himself, savagely, why he was so weak and boyish because a pretty -woman happened to touch his hand. - - - - - XVI. - - -All through the winter months, Geoffrey Burnham and Marion Shaw were -constantly meeting. As Burnham had intimated to Villard, he had taken -only a superficial interest in the philanthropic or ethical side of -mill-economy. But he was often at the Hall of an evening; and upon -pleasant nights, when the ladies walked over from the Shepard mansion, -he accompanied them home after the evening’s engagement. If it were -early, as on ordinary occasions, he went in and sat chatting with them -for an hour or two. Mrs. Soule always welcomed him, and although she -never went to the Hall, she found ample opportunities of telling him how -many lonely hours it caused her. - -“I often wish Salome cared half as much,” she used plaintively to say on -these occasions, “for a living aunt as for a dead grandfather.” - -Often, Burnham sang to Salome’s accompaniment, his rich tenor voice -lending pathos, and his ardent glances a meaning, for Marion in the -love-songs he sang so well. The latter sat silent at such times, a quiet -content wrapping her round, forgetting the past, ignoring the future. - -“A blind man’s paradise,” she told herself it was, as the weeks rolled -by, and the glamour of a scarcely hinted but very evident passion waited -in vain for more than the vaguest expression. - -Sometimes the two were left alone for a while, when the conversation -took a fitful tone, as if uncertain whether to be light and frivolous, -or tender and deep. Several times Burnham had seized Marion’s -unresisting hand and kissed it passionately; and, finally, one evening -when they were alone, he had put his arm about her waist and drawn her -close to him. - -“Why have we not had each other all these years?” he asked, looking into -her sweet, confused eyes. “What cruel fate has kept you from me?” - -“It does not matter, does it, so long as we have each other now?” Marion -had asked in reply. And then he had bent and kissed the pure white brow -and the clustering rings of hair. - -After this, every night, Marion, kneeling by her bedside alone, thanked -God for the love that had come to brighten her bereaved life. - -And Burnham? Did he realize what he might be doing when he won this true -and loyal woman’s heart? At first, he, too, was happy in the present. -The past held nothing which he was proud to remember; and into the -future he stubbornly refused to look. He had, for years,—“since his days -of adolescence,” he told himself,—had no interest in women, although he -knew that, in a place like Shepardtown, he was the object of several -fond mammas’ machinations, and the admiration of most of the village -girls. He had never met Marion’s counterpart. She interested and -fascinated him. Simple and childish in many ways, she was grave and -dignified in others. Her life, he could see, would be spent for others. -She was one of those women who are a constant sacrifice to the world -around them; who give openly and always of their best, asking and -expecting little in return. In short-Burnham knew it as well as any one -could—she was a woman whose life and love and utmost service would be -absorbed by a selfish man, only to be as unappreciated as they were -undeserved on his part. And yet, ever since their first meeting, months -before, there had been that subtle consciousness of each other drawing -them on, that wave of feeling on meeting, that positive yearning when -they were separated. - -After Villard’s pointed questioning regarding Marion, Burnham began to -question himself seriously. At first, when thoughts of the future had -intruded into his calm moments, he thought of her as his wife; of -himself as settled down in a house of his own; he even expected to be -happy. But he did not put his thoughts into words. When he was with -Marion, he avoided—not so much from intention perhaps as from a -reluctance to break the spell of romance which hung over them—any -mention of different relations in the future. - -It was April before he brought himself to face about and look at the -subject, calmly and seriously. Just where was he drifting with Marion? - -One day he allowed himself to let fall some remark about her to -Villard,—not in any way implying their peculiar relations, but yet -speaking of her in such a way that Villard drew himself up to his -straightest, and looked him in the eye a full moment. Not a word was -said, but at that instant, Burnham felt the disagreeable consciousness -of being a scoundrel. - -He went home that evening and tried to read. Then he tried to smoke. -Then he thought of going over to the Shepard mansion. He finally decided -on sitting down and squarely meeting an issue that should have been -faced six months before. - -Geoffrey Burnham was thirty-seven years old. He had considered only his -own taste and desires ever since he was born. When he was a boy, if he -had wanted anything, he had it. If his father did not grant his every -wish his mother would. And she, poor woman, had fostered in him the idea -that all his personal, imperious desires were meant, always, to be -immediately granted. The conquering of Self had been no part of his -early discipline. - -His father died when he was in Europe. When he came home, and entered -the mills,—an arrangement the father effected just before his -decease,—his pretty, white-faced mother had come to Shepardtown to be -near her son. For him she lived and would die. Yielding weakly in -everything to him, she avenged her position by setting herself against -all other women. Salome had called upon her, and had invited her to her -house, but in vain. Mrs. Burnham went nowhere, and wanted to see no one. -Her son was all in all to her. And but for the constant fear that he -would marry the handsome Miss Shepard, who, with all her wealth, she -felt sure, would crowd her completely out of her son’s heart and home, -she would have been a comparatively happy woman. Incredible to -larger-hearted women, as it seems, there are women so selfish in their -devotion to an only son, as to wreck his life, so far as its being of -any practical value to himself and others is concerned, by the strength -of their own weak persistence. - -Burnham thought of his mother. He remembered the comfortable habits he -had settled into; he wondered if any other woman would ever let him -smoke in the best room in the house, or submit to his will when he -chose, as he often did for days together, to speak only in monosyllables -in his own house. He felt that, should he marry, his habits would all -have to be changed; that the solitude which he prized, when he felt so -inclined, might be absolute no longer. He remembered his mother’s -peculiarities, and said to himself that there would be a devil of a row, -should he undertake to bring a wife home. There might be constant -bickerings, and that he never could abide. No; better let women alone. - -Then he thought of Marion and sighed. Her tender eyes, when he parted -from her two nights before, came up before him. - -“Hang it,” he asked himself; “just how far have I gone with her, -anyway?” - -He felt himself a scoundrel again, to his credit be it written. But -then, there were the habits of a lifetime, and his mother to be -remembered. Could he overthrow all his established convictions? - -And yet, just what might Marion be expecting of him? No, he had given -her no definite encouragement in words. Still, one never can tell how a -good, pure woman is going to take these things. - -Burnham went out under the April sky and walked up and down the concrete -walk bareheaded, until his mother, from her window, reminded him for the -third time that he would certainly get cold out there; and shouldn’t she -make him a cup of hot negus? Then he came in and renewed the conflict. - -“I’ve let the thing run too long,” he said to himself, as he gazed into -the open wood-fire, having refused the decoction his mother had -patiently brought him. “I’ll have a reckoning with myself to-night, and -decide this thing once for all.” - -Burnham was a decided man, and, once determined, seldom changed his -mind. He boasted, sometimes, of that quality, forgetting that it is only -an ignorant or an unprogressive soul which will never acknowledge itself -in the wrong, or change its course from the one marked out, perhaps in -obstinacy or error. - -Until midnight he argued with himself, although, unconsciously, his mind -had been secretly made up at the start. When the clock struck twelve he -rose and got together his writing materials. - -He had fully decided that it would be folly for him to marry Marion -Shaw. She was a rarely devoted, unselfish woman, and a most lovable one; -but he knew himself, he said, and if she married him she would do so -only to be unhappy in the end. She could not be otherwise, living with -him and his mother. - -But how was he to withdraw from the delicate situation in which he had -foolishly placed himself? There was, he decided, but one way. - -For a year, now, Salome Shepard had been making a deep and practical -study of the mills and their operation. She had proved a wonderfully apt -scholar, her womanly intuition often grasping, in a few minutes, details -which he had been months in learning. He doubted if, should occasion -require it, she could not run the mills alone. With Villard—honest, -faithful soul!—to help her, Burnham felt that there was no longer any -need of his services at the Shawsheen Mills. There was another -superintendency in a mill at Lowell which stood open to him, whenever he -chose to take it. There were some things about it that he would not -like; but he must not remain on dangerous ground. He took great credit -to himself as he reflected that honor required him not to trifle with -Marion’s feelings another day. He virtuously decided to take himself out -of her way. Once gone from her she would cease to feel his attraction -and forget the tender scenes between them. He would resign his -connection with the Shawsheen Mills. - -He sat down and wrote the letter of resignation. Then he went to bed and -slept. He, like Villard, had kept awake hours for a woman. But he was -not the man to conquer his selfish nature, or to grow stronger by -fighting himself. - - * * * * * - -The next morning Salome found Villard alone in the inner office of the -mills. A note lay on her desk. It was Burnham’s resignation. - -She uttered an exclamation of surprise, and turned to Villard. - -“Did you know about this?” she asked, handing him the note. - -Villard looked as astonished as though a dynamite bomb had exploded in -the mill-yard. - -“Not a word,” he said. “But stay, he did hint at something, months ago; -but I never gave it a second thought. ‘Decided that he is no longer -needed on the works, and an opportunity having offered to better his -condition.’ H’m! Those are his reasons? Strange he hadn’t mentioned the -matter to me although it _was_ his own business.” - -“But what are we going to do? Can’t we get him back?” asked Salome. - -“We can try,” was the reply, “but Burnham is a pretty determined fellow -when he fairly makes up his mind. Shall I go over and see him?” - -“If you please. Tell him to come back with you; I want to persuade him -to stay if I can.” - -Villard went over to Burnham’s house, but he had already gone to Lowell -to complete arrangements to enter the new position. Mrs. Burnham knew -nothing of either this plan or her son’s sudden resignation. Villard -returned to Salome. - -“What are we going to do,” she asked, “supposing he refuses to come -back—even at an increased salary?” - -“Don’t you think you and I can run the business alone for a while?” -returned Villard, “at least until we can find a good man. Good -superintendents don’t grow on every bush.” - -“Do you think I am capable of taking his place—with your help, of -course?” Salome looked earnestly at him. - -“I think you are quite capable of doing anything noble and great,” he -answered, fervently. - -“With your help,” she said, in a low tone. “Of course I will do -anything, and shall be only too proud,” she hastened to add, “if I have -succeeded in learning enough of the business to be of any use.” - -Villard looked again at her averted eyes, and checked an impulse to say -something more. Had he known a tenth as much of women as of cotton -factories, his fortune and happiness had been in his own hands. But he -honestly thought she had turned away her eyes and spoken the last -sentence to turn him away from saying more; while she was saying to -herself as she turned to her desk again: - -“Will he never, never speak? It will come, some time, I am sure, but -will he never dare?” - - - - - XVII. - - -Burnham returned to Shepardtown only to tell his mother that he should -go to Lowell immediately. He had accepted the standing offer there, and -expected to begin at once. - -In vain Salome offered him an increase of salary. And as he was -evidently bent on going, she would not urge him to remain in her employ. -But both she and Villard could assign but one reason for his sudden -determination. Both felt sure that he had offered himself to Marion and -that she had refused him. - -Intimate as Salome and Marion were, no discussion of love-matters ever -entered their conversation. With each, love was too high and sacred a -thing to be bruited about, even in a conversation between friends. In -their younger days, when Marion had shyly announced her engagement to a -young law-student, there had been no silly or sentimental waste of words -between them on the subject. And now, perhaps because both women felt -the stirrings of a deep passion in their inmost heart, no reference to -the subject was ever made. - -When Salome went home to lunch, she told Marion of Burnham’s -resignation; but beyond a momentary look of blank astonishment Marion’s -face gave no sign. And Salome’s feeling for her friend was too deep and -too delicate, to ask for what she did not choose to tell voluntarily. - -Burnham would have been glad to leave town without risking himself in -Marion’s presence again. - -He feared to trust himself with her, in the presence of the strange -attraction she had held for him. But common courtesy demanded that he -should call at the Mansion to leave his good-byes. - -Marion heard the news of his resignation with a strange sinking of the -heart. Something told her that this was the end of her foolish, happy -dream. And although she loyally refused to acknowledge her doubts, the -strange presaging which was something more than presentiment lurked in -her heart all day, and kept her uneasy and restless. She half expected -Burnham to come in and by a few words settle the question of their -relations. She even asked herself, how she could best leave Shepardtown -if he insisted upon taking her to Lowell. - -But he did not come until evening. Then it happened, as events will in -this strange world, that she was with her classes at the Hall. Salome -was unusually tired that evening and had remained quietly at home. -Burnham dropped in about eight o’clock, sat for half an hour with her -and Mrs. Soule, and then bade them good-bye, leaving his adieu for -Marion. He did not go to the Hall, although she half expected him all -through the long evening. The next morning he took an early train for -Lowell. - -When Marion came home she heard in amazement that Burnham had been there -and gone. Salome gave her his word of parting. - -“And was that all?” Marion asked, with strained voice and blazing -cheeks. - -“That was all. Tell me, dear,” asked Salome, for the first time, “was -there any trouble between you? Had you anything to do with his going?” - -“No, nothing,” and Marion was gone to her room. - -On the first day of May, the experiment of profit-sharing was put into -effect for the first time at the Shawsheen Mills. In spite of the -strike, and the enforced idleness of several months which had followed, -previous to the year just passed, this had been a successful one, and -when the divisions for capital, machinery and reserve fund had been set -aside, there still remained a surplus which gave a dividend of four and -a half per cent. In some cases, this dividend on wages made a very -considerable sum, and in all cases the operatives felt a new sensation -of direct responsibility and connection with the mills. Besides the -addition of this money to their wages, the feeling of brotherhood and -ownership it engendered was, Villard declared, quite worth the -experiment. - -Another circular was sent out, urging the operatives to increased care -in saving and painstaking in order that the dividend might be larger -another year. And the good results of the plan were directly manifest in -the work of nearly every employe. - -A little incident which occurred soon after this did much to convince -the men of the changed relations in which they now stood towards their -employers. - -An overseer had been tyrannizing over the spinners until they would -endure it no longer. In Mr. Greenough’s day, it is more than probable -that the matter would have culminated in a lock-out or a strike. - -But with the new order of things came a greater feeling of confidence in -Villard. Five of the spinners, therefore, with the consent of the -others, went personally to the superintendent. - -After hearing their story, Villard promised to settle their grievance, -and quite a discussion of economic questions concerning Capital _versus_ -Labor followed. - -“You men have labor to sell,” said Villard, “and we buy it. We have the -products of your labor to sell, and the commission merchants and others -buy it. As much courtesy and fair dealing should exist between us, as I -like to have between us and the men to whom we sell. We would not take -insolence from a broker’s clerk; you need not put up with the tyranny of -an overseer.” - -These words, repeated to the other employes, were the most powerful -preventive against strikes ever tried in the Shawsheen Mills. - -As the summer advanced, other new cottages were built on the hill to -accommodate the growing demand from the operatives. All those built the -previous year were occupied, and many of them had been bought on the -installment plan. Although the community around the Shawsheen factories, -as it now existed, had come suddenly into its new relation, it already -represented almost an ideal one. It was already a practical lesson in -social economics, which many a reformer and many a capitalist would do -well to study. To be a capitalist even in a small way is to learn to -respect capital. The fact that these men owned their small plots of -ground and their cottages (even if they were mortgaged for the greater -part of their value) was already dignifying the laborer by the tangible -proof of his own value. - -By this time, Salome had come to know every family who were in the -employ of the mills. Was there trouble coming to any household, was -there sickness, was there affliction among them, they all turned to her -for help and sympathy, encouragement or congratulation. The smallest -events—the birth of a baby, the progress of measles, the love affairs of -the young, the querulous complaints of the old—were all of interest to -her; and they, in return, appreciated her kindness and returned it with -a loyalty of service that did her soul good. - -Salome often declared, laughingly, that her relations to them were truly -patriarchal. An atmosphere of content and friendliness prevailed where -there had been jealousy and bickering. - -The popular entertainments were kept up during the summer. There were -concerts, at which local talent (often some operative who possessed the -faculty of singing a song) appeared. Salome, herself, often presided at -the piano, and Marion frequently lent her voice; their theory being that -young people who took little or no vacation in summer needed some sort -of recreation in summer as in winter. - -Towards the close of the summer, as Salome came out of the Hall one -evening, one of the young men came up to her side, and asked if he might -speak to her alone. - -“Certainly,” she said; “Mr. Fales, will you walk ahead with Marion, -while O’Donovan walks home with me?” - -She remembered the young fellow perfectly. She had seen him first during -the strike, a handsome young dare-devil who seemed, in fact, to be one -of the ringleaders among the younger men. When the mills had re-opened, -she had taken an uncommon interest in him. He was a faithful and -industrious man, and when, after a few weeks of sneering at the -“new-fangled notions,” he had settled into harmony with the strange -atmosphere, he had tried to improve himself in many ways. When Villard -took charge of the evening school, he had held aloof for a few weeks, -but at last joined one of Fales’ classes. In their entertainments and -dances, he had taken leading parts; and that day, Villard had offered -him the post of overseer in one of the minor departments at the mills. -It was quite a step up for the young man, and Villard had been surprised -at his hesitation in accepting the offer. - -Salome knew all this; and as she heartily liked the fellow, she -determined to influence him for his own interest. - -O’Donovan was silent for some moments, after they started, doubtless -being unaccustomed to escort ladies of her degree in that friendly way. -But Salome soon put him at his ease by her kind and easy manner. - -“And so you’re going to be promoted,” she said, after a little. “I hope -you like that?” - -“Miss Shepard,” he blurted out in confused speech, “that’s what I want -to talk about. There’s something—I mean, I want to tell—I _ought_ to -tell you something, Miss Shepard.” - -“Very well. It oughtn’t to be very difficult to do that,” and her tone -was cordial and encouraging. - -“I don’t think I ought to take the position—unless you say so. But I -expect you’ll put me in irons, if I tell you. Only—well, the other -fellows would say I was a blasted fool—barrin’ your presence, miss.” - -“Why, John,” exclaimed Salome wonderingly. For the young man was in a -great state of excitement. “What can it be? Surely, you know you need -not be afraid of me?” - -“You remember the night some one tried to blow up the mill—and Mr. -Greenough—and Mr. Villard——” Salome stood still and gazed through the -summer moonlight at her strange escort. He did not look up, but stood -like a culprit before her. - -“I don’t know how you managed to find out and save ’em,” he went on. -“Miss Shepard—it was me.” - -“You? John O’Donovan!” For an instant there was silence. - -“Go on,” she said, when she could command her voice. “Tell me all.” - -“It was John Ross that planned it and put me up to it. When he died, I -wondered if he hadn’t told you or Mr. Villard. Ever since then, I’ve -been trying to, but somehow I couldn’t—tell Mr. Villard—nor you -neither.—It was John Ross that planned it. He called me a coward and a -scab—and, finally, well—you know I was a crazy fool then, with the rest -of ’em.—It ain’t no use talkin’, miss, but we all discussed and brooded -over things until we were half out of our heads. If any one of us had -weakened first, we’d all give up, and the strike would have bu’st; -but—well, ’tain’t no use talkin’, I s’pose. I’ve confessed, and you can -have me put in irons, if you want to.” - -“How did you come to want to tell me, John?” Salome said softly. - -“Oh, miss, when I found how you saved the mill that night, and the lives -of those two men, I went down on my knees with thankfulness. It somehow -seemed to open my eyes to where I’d been standin’. Then, when the mills -opened and you took us back, and when you commenced to take an interest -in us; when you built that beautiful big Hall, and all them cottages; -and, if you’ll pardon me for sayin’ it, when you begun walkin’ thro’ the -mills yourself, speakin’ a pleasant word to us all and smilin’ at us as -if we were all your equals, miss—and you a saint,——it was then I seemed -no better’n a murderer. And when John Ross died, and the detectives gave -up lookin’ for the men, it was bore in on me as how I ought to confess; -and to-day, when Mr. Villard called me into the office and praised my -work, and said I’d been faithful and trustworthy——_trustworthy_, -ma’am!—why, then, I couldn’t stand it no longer.” - -The young man stood silent in the moonlight. Salome’s eyes were filled -with tears. - -“John,” she said, “you are a noble fellow. It is no more than right that -you should confess this to me, but not all fellows in your place could -do it. You can because you have the making of a man in you.” - -The young man looked up. - -“And what are you goin’ to do with me?” he asked. - -“Will you do just what I say?” returned Salome. - -“I will, indeed,” he said. - -“Then I want you to go to Mr. Villard to-morrow morning and tell him you -accept the place. Then do your best, and deserve better things in -future.” - -“Miss Shepard!” Young O’Donovan fairly gasped. - -“John,” she went on, and she seemed to him like the pictures of saints -in the church, as she stood in her white gown in the silvery light, “if -your scheme had succeeded, you would not only have destroyed most -valuable property of mine; you would have killed two of my dearest -friends; but you have turned over a new leaf. I feel sure that nothing -will ever induce you to consent to anything of the kind again.” - -“Never, so help me Heaven!” he exclaimed, fervently. - -“Now, you have confessed like a man, I will forgive like a woman. You -will accept the new place. You will go on studying and improving -yourself, and some day I shall be proud of you, and you will be proud -that you once had the manliness to come to me and confess a crime. Now, -we will bury the thing forever, and never speak of it again. Only -promise me you will go to Mr. Villard in the morning and do as I ask -you.” - -“I promise,” said the young man solemnly. Then he dropped on his knees -and seizing her hand, bent his head reverently upon it. - -“If the God in Heaven above is like you,” he said, “He is a God worth -serving.” - -“My poor forgiveness resembles His, John, only as a drop of rain -resembles the mighty ocean.” - -They walked silently home, and O’Donovan left her with a new purpose in -his heart that has never left it since. He is to-day a thriving -Christian gentleman. Dare any one say it would have been better to -condemn him as a law-breaker? - -“Nobody but a woman, I suppose, would have dealt justice so,” said -Salome to herself, as she put out her light an hour later, and turned to -the window—“nobody but John Villard.” - - - - - XVIII. - - -A year rolled by—a year of prosperity to the Shawsheen Mills, and of -growth and improvement in the condition of their operatives. John -Villard had been made first superintendent and a new man had taken his -place. Salome continued to act as her own agent and had developed a keen -love and tact for the business,—a condition of affairs which Mrs. Soule -never ceased to bemoan. - -The young people at the Hall were more than ever the dearest objects of -her solicitude. In most cases, their elevation had been steady and -substantial. Young men had become self-respecting and carried themselves -with increased dignity. Young women gradually grew less frivolous and -more earnest. Thrown together under so much better conditions than -formerly, both sexes emulated the politeness which they were quick to -notice between Villard and Salome. They became more quiet and decorous; -they read a better class of books; they began, in their way, to -cultivate higher tastes than had been known in the old factory -boarding-house or among the tumble-down tenement houses. Several -marriages had taken place, at which Salome had acted as the girl’s -guardian, giving away the bride. Young O’Donovan’s was the first of -these. His increased pay as overseer enabled him to marry Kitty Kendall, -to whom he had long been devoted; and the young bridegroom was even -happier than the bride when Salome offered to act in that capacity. -Neither of them would have dared ask it of her, but her evident -willingness to act on this occasion encouraged those who came after, -until Salome said she felt all the responsibilities of a mother with a -large family of daughters. - -As Villard saw all this marrying and giving in marriage, he grew, at -times, more restless. There were occasions when he came suddenly upon -Salome, or, perhaps during their rare talks together, when he felt sure -for a moment that she felt for him more than a friendly interest. But, -remembering his comparative poverty, he never spoke the one word which -would have broken down all barriers. And Salome successfully concealed -her feeling for him, not daring, even, to examine it herself. So they -had drifted on, more than friends and less than lovers, through another -year. - -There came, at last, the first period of absence from each other since -Mr. Greenough’s death. Daily association, pleasant as it is, cannot -teach lovers how much they love, as can a short separation. - -The second dividend of the mills had been declared, each operative -getting three and a half per cent., this time, on their wages. When the -work consequent on this transaction was closed up, it was decided to put -new machinery in the lower mills. There was an improved kind in one of -the Holyoke mills, and it was decided that Villard should go, -personally, to examine its workings, leaving Salome and the second -superintendent alone for a few days. - -Villard had made his preparations to start with a strange sinking at the -heart. He was not a man to indulge in silly presentiment, but he could -not feel any enthusiasm about going. He had not taken two days away from -the mills in two years, and was justly entitled to a vacation; but every -time he thought of going to Holyoke, his heart sank within him. - -He thought it was because he must leave Salome, and chided himself for -his sentimental fancies. He told himself to be a man; not a silly fool. -And, finally, he refused to think of his premeditated journey, since he -could not do so comfortably. - -He was to leave Shepardtown on a seven-thirty express, west. Salome -remained at the office unusually late that afternoon. She made him go -carefully over her various duties, and recount, over and over again, -everything necessary for her to say or do while he was gone. - -The other superintendent was called away early, and she was left alone -with Villard in the inner office, the clerks coming in and out and -Marion dropping in once on a trifling errand. - -Finally, she said: - -“Well, I suppose I must bid you good-bye. I hope you won’t be gone -long.” - -She held out her hand and Villard took it. A subtle fire shot from it -straight to Villard’s heart. He looked up. Were her eyes, so soft and -kind, suffused with tears? Was this the strong, self-reliant Salome? - -“Miss Shepard, Salome,” he burst out, incoherently, “I——” - -“Come right in this way,” said a hearty voice at the other door. -“Villard will tell you what you want to know——” - -“Good-bye,” said Salome again, in the most matter-of-fact tone, -releasing her hand just in time, as the other superintendent ushered in -a buyer from the west. “Good-bye and good luck;” and turning, she walked -away with the nonchalant air which a woman knows so well how to assume, -even at the most serious moment of her life. - -Poor Villard was both confused and exalted by the sudden dawn of -blessedness, which had as suddenly faded. He turned to the buyer but was -incoherent, and gave wrong prices on the last shipment of cotton, so -that his customer felt obliged to call him back to his senses by a not -over-delicate allusion to the parting he was shrewd enough to guess he -had interrupted. - -Salome went home in a strangely depressed mood. She ate but little -dinner, and excusing herself early in the evening on the plea of unusual -weariness, she retired to her room, undressed and donned a silken -night-wrapper, only to lie awake all night, worrying herself with -fruitless questioning. In the watches of the night and under cover of -the dark, she told herself that she had given her heart unsought; that -had Villard loved her as she did him, nothing could have kept him from -saying so; that she had been vain and conceited in fancying that, under -his quiet demeanor, he loved her. - -Then she remembered his sudden, yearning look when he had grasped her -hand, and that, from the depths of his great, manly heart, he had called -her “Salome.” And then, woman-like, she shed a few hot tears of -gratitude and impatience. - -Marion Shaw, meanwhile, had gone to the Hall alone that evening. Her -work among the mill-girls had grown dearer to her heart with every -month. Most of the girls loved her now, and looked upon her as a -comrade, though walking on much higher ground than they. Many of them -had secret aspirations to reach the standard of her ideals, as they -dimly conceived it, and were the better for trying. - -Marion had not had a long fight with herself when weeks had rolled into -months, and she heard no word from Burnham. - -She had always been an individual girl—one who thought for herself, who -set high ideals for herself, who believed that one only does one’s duty -by living at one’s highest and noblest. - -When she was a mere girl she had become acquainted with a young -college-student, and their friendship ripened into love. When she became -engaged to Ralph Leland, Marion looked upon her betrothal as no less -sacred than a marriage vow. When, after a few years of study and close -confinement in a theological seminary, Leland had shown symptoms of -consumption and been ordered to Colorado, her mother was slowly nearing -her death, with the same disease. It had wrung her heart with anguish to -decide between them, but Leland had said: - -“Stay with your mother, Marion. She cannot live long and needs you with -her to the end. I shall live many years, and, I feel confident, may yet -entirely recover. It is hard, but your mother can have but a year or two -at the most. I hope to live for many years. And we could neither of us -be happy if we remembered her here, sorrowing and suffering alone.” - -And so Marion had staid to nurse her dying mother, and Ralph Leland had -gone west to seek health and strength. In two months he was seized with -congestion of the lungs and died suddenly, away from all friends and -apart from her. - -What Marion suffered at this time, only a woman can understand. What she -endured, only a woman who has gone down into the blackness of despair -can conceive. Her mother failing gradually, her lover gone, what wonder -that, for a time, life seemed a blank? - -After the first, she had not talked about Ralph, but nursed his memory -silently, day and night. For eighteen months, she took sole care of her -mother, seeing her slip away into the “great unknown,” inch by inch. -Never did the mother realize that she was going to die, and she -constantly made plans for the next season when she was going to be “so -much better.” Often Marion, knowing she was soon to be motherless, would -leave her low seat near her mother, and stand behind the invalid’s chair -to hide the tears that welled up, even while she agreed with the -invalid’s plans. - -Day by day, the gnawing agony of seeing her mother slowly dying before -her melted into and overshadowed the loss of that love which was to have -shielded and defended her till death. But she never gave way, before -mortal eyes, to her sorrow; and she never failed to minister to the -mother who so needed her care. - -By and by she was left alone. Then, for the first time, did the awful -sense of loss overpower her. For days she did not sleep or take any -nourishment. Then she rallied and girded herself for the struggle for -existence which such women must make, and which, in her case, had been -eased by the door which Salome had opened to her. - -Through all her trials and discouragement, Ralph Leland had been a -present reality to her. Even since the first blackness of darkness she -had believed that somewhere, somehow, she would meet him as of old, and -they would live again for each other. Then she came to believe that he -loved her still, wherever in God’s great universe he might be. - -“When he was in Colorado,” she used to say to herself, “I never had a -doubt that he loved me still. If he had gone to the farthest corner of -the earth I should not have dreamed of his forgetting me. Why should I -now, when he has only gone to a remoter part of the universe?” - -This thought was the one, calm, sustaining help to her in all her work. -And in this belief she was strong to take up any burden which might be -laid upon her. - -When she came to Shepardtown and met Burnham, she had been struck by the -subtle, strange resemblance to Ralph which she saw in him. It was more -than the mere resemblance of feature. It was the resemblance of -expression, of looks, of the intangible essence of life. - -From this point on, so long as she came in daily contact with Burnham, -she was fascinated by this ever-recurring resemblance; sometimes she was -half-persuaded that it was Leland who talked or sang to her, and she sat -watching him in dreamy remembrance of the old days, before her mother or -Ralph had sickened. As she grew gradually to believe that Burnham loved -her, she thanked Heaven that a good man’s love was to brighten her life -once more. When the veil was rent away, and she saw that Burnham was not -the true, white-souled knight she had thought him, and realized that he -was not the ideal she had believed and trusted in, she was surprised to -find that she no longer loved him. And then she thought out the true -solution. - -On the night of Villard’s departure, as has been said, Marion had gone -to the work she most delighted in—her work among the girls. There were -classes to be overlooked, and her own special one in singing to be -taught. She was half through the musical hour, when she turned suddenly -towards the door. There stood Geoffrey Burnham. - -Afterwards she remembered how little feeling the sight of him caused -her. But then she said pleasantly: - -“Oh, won’t you walk in and hear us sing? My girls have made decided -improvement since you heard us last,” and she went on composedly with -the class. - -Burnham looked on wonderingly. As he watched this self-possessed young -woman, his old passion flamed up within him. He had never cared for her -as at that moment. When the class was over, she advanced toward him. - -“Aren’t you going to shake hands with a fellow?” he said, holding out -his own. - -“Certainly,” she said, without the least emotion. He would have retained -his hold upon her hand, but she withdrew it, saying: - -“To what accident are we indebted for this unexpected pleasure?” - -“I came,” he said, “on business. I must see Villard. But they tell me he -won’t be home for several days. There’s a certain combination of forces -we want to get him into, if possible.” - -“You won’t, you know,” laughed Marion, “unless it’s for the good of the -working-men.” - -“Well, it is,” answered Burnham. “A society is being planned for Lowell, -which will do for the operatives there something like that which Villard -and Salome and you have been doing here. I said I would come down and -consult with him to-night. Besides, I——can’t you guess any other reason -for my coming?” - -“Oh, plenty of them,” replied Marion indifferently. “I suppose you feel -a friendship for all who were once your people, and rather want to see -them once more.” - -“Not that, at all,” said he significantly, determined now that she -should hear him out. “Are you going home? May I walk down with you?” - -Marion gave her permission and went for her wraps. She half felt what -was coming, but she was strangely apathetic. - -When they were out under the stars, the talk began in commonplaces; but -Burnham soon veered it round where he chose. - -“Why are you so cold?” he asked, half querulously. - -“Cold?” she repeated, purposely misunderstanding him. “I’m not cold. -This wrap I have on is warmer than it looks.” - -“And your heart,—is that?” retorted he. - -Marion did not answer. - -“You know I love you. I—know you once loved me,” he went on, losing his -head, as a consequence of her indifference. “Perhaps you resented my -treating you as I did. Perhaps I didn’t do right, going off that way, -without a word; but I thought it better so. You see—my mother,—and -I,—Marion Shaw!”—he seized her hand, grasping it in both his own—“will -you marry me?” - -Marion withdrew her hand. - -It was cool, and she felt like a spectator at stage theatricals which -did not concern her. - -“Marion, you did love me, you can’t deny it!” he said. “What is the -trouble?” - -“I’m sorry you have brought this subject up to-night,” she said, gently. -“It had much better have remained dead and buried.” - -“Marion Shaw, you shall not evade me so,” retorted Burnham, led on by -her steady refusal to respond to his passion. “You did love me—I was -sure of it—or else, you are the basest of coquettes, and were playing -with me. And now you are tired of me!” - -“As you were of me!” she blazed out, now roused into speech. “Listen, -since you dare address me as you do. I did not love you. You thought I -did. I thought I did. When you found it convenient for some reason, I -neither know nor care what, to leave me without a word, I found, for the -first time, that I was only in love with _being_ in love. No,—wait until -I am through. Ten years ago I became engaged to the bravest and best and -truest man that ever lived.” Marion’s voice broke, but she went on. “He -died and I kept on loving his memory, loving him wherever he might be. -When I met you, the striking resemblance you bore to him smote me like -an electric shock. You seemed good and noble like him, and under the -glamour of your constant presence and evident fancy for me, I allowed -myself to drift into a sentimental feeling for you. I now see what that -feeling was. It was only a love of being in love; and you happened to be -the one man I have met so far, and I hope the only one I shall ever -meet, capable of calling that feeling out. You have compelled me to -speak plainly. I hope you are satisfied. This is our gate. Miss Shepard -has retired, but she will be glad to see you at the office in the -morning. Good-night.” And Marion left him standing rooted to the ground -where she left him. - -For a few days Burnham felt himself a badly used man. He had loved and -his love had been trampled on, he said to himself. - -He went back to Lowell the next day, promising to write Villard; and a -week after, when he had settled down at home again with his dainty and -querulous mother, he went calmly over the ground of his defeat. - -“She never did a more sensible thing in her life,” he declared, as he -lighted his pipe, at last. “It would have been an awful bore to have to -live up to her ideal.” - - - - - XIX. - - -Three days passed at the mills with no special incident. To Salome they -seemed the dullest she had ever known. For the first time, she -discovered that the Shawsheen Mills and the condition of its operatives -was not enough to satisfy the inmost longings of her heart, or to still -its disquietude. Without the presence of John Villard, and the constant -inspiration of his presence, life lost its zest and sparkle. - -When the three days were over, Salome went to her pillow at night with a -sense of relief. Until now, she had not realized what her position at -the head of the mills might mean without Villard. She saw that without -him she could have done little, and would have made many mistakes—a fact -which it was good for her to realize. And then she remembered, with -sudden terror, that he might leave her at any moment, as Burnham had -done. - -“He will be home in the morning,” she said to her disquieted heart, “and -I will offer him a share in the business. I will make him a partner, and -then I shall never lose him.” And even in the darkness of night and the -privacy of her own room, she resolutely put away from herself any other -contingency. - -The morning dawned beautiful, fresh and balmy, as only a spring morning -late in May can dawn in New England. Salome dressed herself with unusual -care. A strange, happy feeling under-ran all her thoughts. She would not -think of him; she would not look forward to his coming; but, for her, -all the gladness of the May morning, all the blossoming of spring -flowers, all the caroling of joyous birds, meant only that Villard had -arrived in Shepardtown on the night express, and that she would see him -in an hour or two. She did not hurry her preparations for -breakfast,—this was such a strange, delightful mood. She looked at her -own reflection in the mirror, thinking unconsciously of making herself -fair for him. She sang snatches of merry song from the last comic opera, -laughing to herself as she recalled how her nurse used to forbid her -singing before the morning meal, and how she used to repeat, in a -lugubrious tone, the old sign: - - “If you sing before breakfast, - You’ll cry before night.” - -And, still singing, she stopped at her aunt’s room, only to find that -everybody had gone downstairs before her. - -Mrs. Soule and Marion were chatting pleasantly over their hot-house -grapes when she entered the breakfast-room. The morning papers lay -untouched beside Salome’s plate. She took her place and leisurely pared -an orange. Afterwards she remembered the time she wasted in cutting the -peel into fantastic shapes. - -“Has nobody looked at the papers?” she asked, after a while. “I declare, -how self-absorbed we are growing. Who knows but the world has, half of -it, come to an end, over night?” - -She picked up one of the papers—the one which contained the most -startling head-lines, the most sickening sensations. Opening it, her -eyes became riveted to the front page. Her face paled. She grew whiter, -but no one noticed. When Marion looked up, the paper was falling from -Salome’s hand, and she had fallen back in her chair—faint, speechless -with terror. - -With a cry, Marion sprang to her side; but Salome, by a tremendous -effort, recovered herself. - -“Read it,” she gasped, “and tell me what to do.” - -Marion picked up the paper, and read: - - HORRIBLE ACCIDENT ON THE ALBANY ROAD. - - THIRTEEN KILLED AND TWENTY WOUNDED. - - TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER DUE TO CARELESSNESS. - - PROMINENT BUSINESS MEN OF BOSTON AND SHEPARDTOWN AMONG THE INJURED. - -Running her eye hastily down the column, Marion gathered that the night -express had been crashed into by a heavy freight; that both trains had -been thrown off the track; that many passengers had been killed, -scalded, mangled or bruised. - -She looked quickly over the list of killed. There were no familiar -names; but at the head of the wounded was: - -“John Villard of Shepardtown. Fatally injured. Impossible to recover.” - -She turned to Salome, who was already leaving the table. - -“Help me to get ready,” she said. “I must go to him immediately.” Marion -marveled to see her so calm; but she knew only too well the anguish -concealed in the woman’s heart below. - -“What is it? What are you going to do? Why does not some one tell me?” -asked Mrs. Soule. - -“Dear auntie,” and Salome bent and kissed the fair, soft cheek, “there -has been a terrible accident to the train that Mr. Villard was coming -home on. I am going to him. He is dying.” Then she left the room. - -In less than an hour she was at the railway station, waiting for the -train to Boston. At the last moment, Mrs. Soule, having recovered from -the shock which the news had given her, had tried to dissuade her niece -from going. - -It seemed to her that this was the strangest thing her unaccountable -niece had ever done. She really must remonstrate with her on the -impropriety of her conduct. And seeing that Salome would not be -restrained from making this erratic trip, she proposed to go, too, as -chaperon. Only Salome must wait for the noon train, as she could not -possibly get ready for an earlier one. - -“The noon train!” exclaimed Salome, buttoning her gloves. “No, auntie, -Mr. Villard may not live until then. I shall go to him at once. You -forget that I am no longer a young girl. I am a business woman, and my -chief assistant lies dying.” She bent over and kissed her aunt, who was -still remonstrating, and ran down the steps to the waiting carriage, -where Marion had already taken her seat. - -Marion, too, had offered to go with her; but Salome had only replied: - -“No, dear. If you will take my place here, that is all I ask.” - -And when the train finally drew out of Shepardtown, and she had left her -friend standing on the platform, she gave an involuntary sigh. Only the -strong heart, which can best bear its grief alone, will understand her -feeling. - -The train had never seemed so slow to her. Strained and anxious with -that nervous intensity which makes a woman waste her strength in a -half-conscious physical effort to propel, by her own will-power, the -great, unsympathetic, methodical engine, she sat straight up in her seat -with heart and soul benumbed. Constantly before her, was the picture of -John Villard—mangled, bleeding, dying—perhaps dead. Her brain reeled as -she thought of him lying pale and cold in death. - -She remembered how, only three days ago, he had clasped her hand and -looked into her eyes; how he had called her “Salome,” his voice deep and -tender with emotion. Dead? No, it could not be. And still the long, -unfeeling train stopped to take on its horde of passengers, or to let -off a working-man or a school-girl. - -The hour’s ride to Boston seemed to her an eternity; and when, at last, -they rolled into the long, covered shed, Salome was first to reach the -steps, and first to touch the platform. - -Ordering a carriage, she was soon on her way across the city. But here -again the slowness of her progress drove her nearly frantic. She called -to the driver and told him she would double his fee if he caught the -next train for the scene of the accident. He did not know what time that -would be, but he accepted the offer and drove at such a rate of speed -that an agent of the Humane Society ran after him to catch his -number,—and did not succeed. - -When they reached the Albany station, Salome threw him the smallest bill -she had, a two-dollar one,—and without waiting for the change, hastened -to the ticket-office. It was beset with more than the usual crowd of -curious questioners and eager passengers, whose plans the accident had -thrown into confusion. It was some minutes before Salome could reach the -window. She was about to turn away in despair when the agent recognized -her. - -“Let that lady pass, there,” he said, authoritatively; and then Salome -learned that a relief train had been sent early in the morning, that -another would be starting in ten minutes, and that regular trains would -be run in the course of an hour or two, “carrying by,” at Jones’s -Crossing, where the accident had occurred. - -“And the injured ones, are they still——” her voice failed her. - -“They are still living,” answered the agent. “But some of them are so -badly hurt they must die. Stand back there, one minute,” he said to the -crowd. “Well, I don’t know, miss, whether you could go on the relief -train. You might go out and ask, though they’ve shut down on the crowd.” - -Salome turned away. For the first time since breakfast a clear thought -came into her brain. She went out to the train-gate. - -No, they could not take any one. There were so many wanting to go, and -they only took one car. Oh, a friend of the injured? Well, she must go -to the division superintendent, or the general passenger agent. There -was the “G. P. A.” over there. - -Salome walked over to the official designated,—a pleasant gentleman with -kind eyes. - -“I am Miss Shepard of Shepardtown,” she said; “my chief superintendent -is among the injured, and is probably dying. He has no friends, and I -must get to him. Can you help me?” - -The official took out a little book, wrote her name on a blank pass, and -handed it to her. - -“Anything we can do for him or for you, Miss Shepard, we shall be glad -to do. You needn’t hesitate to ask. Your grandfather was once kind to -me, when I was a poor boy.” - -The passenger agent hurried away to the engine, giving some last orders, -and Salome did not have a chance to thank him. - -“You’ll have to hurry, miss,” a brakeman said who was standing near. -“The train is going.” - -A moment later she was on the way for Jones’s Crossing. - -This train had the right of way and a clear track for some distance. -They seemed to fly, as they sped out through the suburbs into the -country beyond. - -The bloom of the May morning was still on the tender, up-springing grass -and the fresh foliage of the trees. Birds sang cheerfully on, in spite -of the thundering engine on its way to the scene of woe. But there was -no more beauty in the world for Salome. - -Three or four physicians sat in the corner of the one baggage-car which -they all occupied together, and, used as they were to scenes of death -and suffering, talked indifferently of politics and the misdoings of -Congress. The brakeman laughed as the conductor passed him with some -trivial remark. To Salome it seemed that she alone, of all the world, -cared because thirteen persons lay dead and twenty more were fatally -injured, a few miles away. - -Afterwards, when she saw the tenderness and courageous sympathy of these -people among the suffering, she reversed her judgment. - -A small woman in black sat at the opposite end of the car, and was the -only other passenger. - -“Who is that?” She stopped the conductor to ask the question, at last -drawn out of her own sorrow by the pathetic attitude of the woman’s -figure. - -“That’s the engineer’s mother. He is fatally hurt. He’s the last of her -five boys, and her sole dependence. It’s pretty rough on her; but the -boys won’t let her suffer.” - -His words came like a reproach to her. What right had she, with all her -wealth and friends and pleasures, to think of herself as the only -suffering one? What was her sorrow, compared to that of this bereaved -mother? - -She felt an impulse to go over to the motionless figure and speak a word -of comfort. And then she felt the train slacking up. - -“We’re almost there,” the conductor said, as he passed her again. - -When the train stopped, two of the physicians, having heard who she was, -came forward with offers of assistance. The others were kindly aiding -the pathetic old lady in black. - -And then Salome found herself face to face with such a scene as she had -never even dreamed of. - -The public is, through the “enterprising” journalistic system of the -present day, already too familiar with such scenes of sickening horror. -To Salome, this one came as the vivid realization of things she had -hitherto carefully avoided in the newspapers. - -At first, she turned faint and sick at the prospect. Several dead bodies -lay plainly in sight, partially covered with a blanket. The living must -first be cared for; and groans on every side, from those who, even yet, -had not been extricated from the debris, told how much still remained to -be done. - -“Tell me,” she said, catching at the arm of a doctor who had been on the -ground since daybreak, “where is Mr. Villard?” - -“Villard? Let’s see—tall man? Dark hair and full beard? Yes. He was -removed to the tavern over there an hour ago.” And he passed on to -another sufferer. - -Salome looked across the railroad track, in the direction the physician -had pointed. There was a country store, a “tavern,” and three or four -less pretentious buildings. - -Hastily she clambered over the torn-up track, down the embankment and -across the narrow, open field. There were no signs of life around the -group of houses. Everybody was at the scene of the accident. - -She walked into the tavern. It seemed to be deserted. Through the narrow -hall she could see, at the end of the building, a dining-room; at one -side was the office, where no one was in view. The clerk heard her step, -however, and came hastily from the dining-room. - -“Is there a Mr. Villard here?” she began—“a patient, from the accident?” - -“There are three men upstairs who were hurt,” the clerk answered. -“There’s no one here to tend office, or I’d show you up.” - -“I must find him. Is there no one to show me the way?” she asked, -impatient at this last trivial delay. - -“They’re each in different rooms up there,” was the reply. “Walk right -up the stairs. There’s nurses up there. They’ll tell you.” - -Salome turned up the narrow, dingy staircase. At the top there was no -one in sight. Groans came from behind a closed door. Inside, she could -hear voices, subdued to an undertone. In the absolute silence, she heard -the word “amputation.” Could this be Villard’s room? - -She leaned against the wall, unable to try that latch. While she stood -there, helpless and dazed, she lifted her eyes to the opposite doorway. -It was open. - -Inside, there seemed to be no one. Certainly there was no attendant. She -stepped forward and looked in. There, on the white, clean bed, lay the -form of John Villard, his face whiter than the pillow it rested against, -his dark hair contrasting strangely with his paleness. - -With the sight, all the repressed love of the last two years swept over -Salome like a resistless impulse. A hand seemed clutching at her heart. -Her limbs seemed paralyzed; but in an instant she was beside the bed, -looking down at the closed eyes. A terrible fear that he was dead swept -over her. With an inarticulate groan, she knelt beside him and laid her -hand against his face. - -He opened his eyes and smiled faintly. He thought he had died and -reached Heaven. - - - - - XX. - - -Villard’s convalescence was slow and tedious. When Salome had found him, -his dislocated shoulder had been restored to place, and his broken ankle -set. Then, as there were not nurses enough for the great need, he had -been left alone. - -What passed in that first ten minutes after Salome had found him is -still a sacred memory between them. At last, she said, looking at him -through wet eyes, “You must have a nurse.” - -“Oh, Salome, do not leave me,” he answered; and his voice, weakened from -his injuries and tender with the passion which, at last, he had not been -afraid to declare, was like music to her heart. - -She bent her blushing face upon the pillow beside him. “May I stay and -take care of you?” she asked, softly. - -“May you? Oh, Salome!” - -Another silence fell between them. Both hearts were too full for words. - -“Then we must be married to-day.” Salome had waited a little for him to -say it; but, manlike, he had not been thinking of the proprieties. - -“I cannot leave you to hired nurses now,” she murmured. “So, there is -only this one way out of it.” - -“And a blessed way it is.” - -And so they were married, that bright May morning, amid scenes of -anguish, and while Villard still hovered near the gates of death. And -for weeks they remained at “Jones’s Tavern,” he ill, wretched, racked -with pain; she, bearing the trials and discomforts of the place, vigils -of long night-watches, the dull, dragging anxiety; and yet, there was -never a happier or more blessed honeymoon. - -When he was able to be moved on a stretcher, he was taken to -Shepardtown. Their home-coming was a glad one, although it was -necessarily quiet. Every operative in the mills had been at the station, -when the train that bore the two who had done so much for them came -steaming in. Salome nodded to many of them, with moist but happy eyes. -But the family physician, who had met them in Boston, would allow of no -hand-shaking. - -“Time enough for that by and by,” he told the men who stood foremost in -the crowd. “Do you want to kill him?” - -He could not prevent several of the strongest ones from stepping -forward, however, and taking the stretcher in their own hands, and -bearing Villard very gently to the waiting carriage. - -“I never thought to enter this house so,” Villard whispered to Salome, -when he was carefully borne up the stairs in the Shepard mansion and -placed tenderly in bed. - -“Thank Heaven, you were permitted to come, even _so_,” she replied, with -a shudder. He had been so near Death’s door, instead! - -“I can’t and won’t say I approve of what you’ve done,” said Mrs. Soule -that night. “If you must marry him at all, I could not see why you -should want to do it then and there. You might have waited, I think, and -had such a wedding as befits a daughter of the Bourdillons. Besides, all -this watching and care has pulled you down. You look pale and worn. -You’ll lose your beauty before you are thirty-five.” - -Salome did not answer. These matters seemed so trivial. - -“I suppose, at least, you’ll give a reception when he gets well enough. -You really owe it to society and your own position. All your father’s, -your mother’s, and your own friends will expect it. You have planned for -that, I suppose? Since you had no wedding gown, you ought to give -Redfern _carte blanche_ for your reception gown. Have you written them?” - -“Auntie,” said Salome, “John and I have been, in these past weeks, where -we did not think of party gowns.” - -“No, I suppose there was not much at Jones’s Crossing to remind you of -them. But now, you certainly are thinking of one _now_?” - -Salome sighed. There was really no use in expecting her little, -exquisite, cameo-cut aunt to understand her. - -“I suppose we may give some sort of reception. All my people are waiting -anxiously to see John,” she said. - -“Factory-people!” exclaimed Mrs. Soule indignantly; but her niece had -moved away. - -It was several weeks later, when Villard was first able to come -downstairs. As soon as possible for him to bear the excitement, the -operatives were invited to the house one evening, and permitted to shake -hands with the man whom they had always considered their friend, and to -whom they had now become closely endeared. The marriage between him and -Salome had, somehow, seemed to draw him closer to them. They were now -his people as well as hers. - -“This isn’t going to take you away from us at the Hall?” said one of the -young men during the evening. “Mr. Fales and Mr. Welman are good—but -they are not you.” - -“I shall be there every evening,” was Villard’s reply. “I am much more -anxious not to lose you than you can be not to lose me.” - -“I don’t know about that,” the younger one said. - -When they had all gone away, and Marion had sent them both upstairs for -the night, Salome drew her husband down to her favorite seat in a cosy -bay-window, where the August moon was streaming in through vines and -foliage, making a checkered radiance around them. - -“John,” she began, “I have a plan to tell you.” - -“What is it, dear?” he asked, drawing her head to his shoulder. - -“I am going to retire from active business.” She laughed softly. - -“What _can_ you mean?” - -“Can’t you see? I’m going to retire. You are now the head of the -Shawsheen Mills.” - -Villard said nothing. In spite of the great love between them, he could -not forget that she was wealthy nor that he was poor. - -“I have to-day made over the entire mill property to you,” she went on. -“I am not going to have it said that your wife has all the money and all -the power, and that you are only her dependent.” - -“Salome! you dear, generous heart,” said Villard brokenly; “I cannot -accept.” He felt that she had divined his sensitiveness, although she -had been too delicate to speak of it. “I am poor, but I am not a -beggar.” - -“And I, too, am proud,” she replied, laying her hand on his cheek. “I -will not have people saying that you are tied to a rich wife and are -subject to her whims. Oh, I know how they talk; I have seen and heard -them all my life! Why, they would say you were a fortune-hunter.” - -“You do not think so?” he asked, gently. - -“Confess, dear,” she answered him. “If it had not been for that, -wouldn’t you have spoken long ago?” - -Villard pressed her closer. - -“I came very near it, as it was,” he said, presently. “But I could not -bear to be thought that.” - -“I had the necessary papers made out this afternoon,” she said after an -eloquent silence, “when I was out. So you see the thing is done whether -you will or not. You need have no hesitation. I still have a large -fortune left, you know, from the Bourdillons.” - -“If it were anybody else in the world but my noble, generous wife,” he -began, “I would refuse, even now.” - -“If it were any one else but my noble husband,” she replied, “I could -not yield control of the mills, and all the plans I have cherished for -the employes. But I know in whom I trust,” and her eyes shone with -wifely pride and affection. - -“There are still so many things to do,” said Villard, a little later. “I -know I can always depend on you to help me.” - -“Oh, I am not laying down the work and retiring to the old life of -idleness,” was the reply. “I shall leave the management of the mills to -their new owner. It’s no part of a married woman’s business to manage -her husband’s office. But I shall have all the more leisure left for -doing good. I have no end of schemes to lay before you; and, I have no -doubt, you have wiser plans than mine.” - -“I am glad, on the whole,” said Villard thoughtfully, “that you are -going to have more freedom. You are tired and worn with watching and -caring for me,—dear, blessed soul that you are. Your burdens, in the -past two years, have been borne marvelously well. Any other woman would -have given way long ago. But, after all, I am a selfish man.” - -“You, John!” - -“Yes. I must confess, I want you all to myself, a part of the time.” - -“All I have and all I am, dear, is yours. And yet, I cannot help feeling -that we have still a great work to do. Employers, on all sides, are -looking to see us fail in our attempts. As we stand or fall, will -factories outside of Shepardtown be benefited or injured.” - -“I remember what you once said, Salome. Your brave words were a -watchword with me many a time when my courage was low.” - -“What were they?” - -“‘We want to show the world that the spirit of Him crucified may rule in -a cotton-mill as fully as in the life of a saint.’ My darling, nobody -but you would have had the courage to say that. We will take the -sentiment as our rule of life.” - -“And act on Rossetti’s beautiful words,” added Salome: - - “And though age wearies by the way, - And hearts break in the furrow, - We’ll sow the golden grain to-day, - The harvest reap to-morrow! - Build up heroic lives, and all - Be like the sheathen saber, - Ready to flash out at God’s call, - Oh, Chivalry of Labor!” - -And then they sat silent in the checkered moonlight. - - - THE END. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: Books] - - _From the Press of the Arena Publishing Company._ - - -=The Rise of the Swiss Republic.= - - By W. D. MCCRACKAN, A. M. - - It contains over four hundred pages, printed from new and handsome - type, on a fine quality of heavy paper. The margins are wide, and - the volume is richly bound in cloth. - - Price, postpaid, $3.00. - - -=Sultan to Sultan.= - - By M. 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Wheeler has put - before the public some of the clearest statements of logical ideas - regarding humanity’s present aspects, its inherent and manifest - powers, and its future, that we have ever read. The book is strong, - keen, powerful; running over with thought, so expressed as to - clearly convey the author’s ideas; everything is to the point, - nothing superfluous—and for this it is specially admirable.—_The - Boston Times._ - - Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. - - - - -COPLEY SQUARE SERIES. - - -=I. Bond-Holders and Bread-Winners.= - - By S. S. KING, Esq., Kansas City, Kansas. The most powerful book of - the year. Its argument is irresistible. You should read it. - - President L. L. POLK, National F. A. and I. U., says: “It should be - placed in the hands of every voter of this country.” - -Price, postpaid, 25 cents; per hundred, $12.50. - - -=II. Money, Land, and Transportation.= - - CONTENTS: - - =1. A New Declaration of Rights.= _Hamlin Garland._ - =2. The Farmer, Investor, and the Railway.= _C. Wood Davis._ - =3. The Independent Party and Money at Cost.= _R. B. Hassell._ - - Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10. - - -=III. Industrial Freedom. The Triple Demand of Labor.= - - CONTENTS: - - =1. The Money Question.= _Hon. John Davis._ - =2. The Sub-Treasury Plan.= _C. C. Post._ - =3. The Railroad Problem.= _C. Wood Davis and Ex-Gov. Lionel A. - Sheldon._ - - Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10. - - -_For sale by all booksellers. Sent postpaid upon receipt of the price._ - - - =Arena Publishing Company, - Copley Square, BOSTON, MASS.= - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in - spelling. - 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. - 3. 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Winslow</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Salome Shepard, Reformer</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Helen M. Winslow</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: December 25, 2022 [eBook #69636]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER ***</div> - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_frontispiece.jpg' alt='Sincerely Yours Helen M Winslow' class='ig001'> -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c001'>SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER.</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>BY</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>HELEN M. WINSLOW.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='ART FOR TRUTH....' class='ig001'> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>BOSTON, MASS.:</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'><span class='fixed'>Arena Publishing Company,</span></span></div> - <div class='c003'>COPLEY SQUARE,</div> - <div class='c003'>1893.</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='small'>Copyright 1893,</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>BY</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>HELEN M. WINSLOW.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='small'>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</span></div> - <div class='c002'><span class='small'>ARENA PRESS.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c005'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in10'>“Pardon, gentles all,</div> - <div class='line'>The flat, unraised spirit that hath dared</div> - <div class='line'>On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth</div> - <div class='line in10'>So great an object.”</div> - <div class='line in32'><span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER.</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c006'>I.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Salome Shepard gazed wonderingly at the -crowd of people in the street, as she guided -her pony-phaeton through the factory precincts.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What can be the matter with these people?” -she thought. “I’m sure they ought to have -gone to their work before this.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was a wet October day. The narrow -street was slippery with the muddy water that -oozed along to the gutters. The factory -boardinghouses loomed up on either side, -dingy and desolate. Even the mills looked -larger and coarser, in the gloomy air of the -morning.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>As she drove by them, the fair owner listened -in vain for the rumble of machinery. Inside, -the great, well-lighted rooms looked dreary -and barn-like in the gray mist that struggled -through the windows.</p> - -<p class='c008'>One hour before, the machinery, shrieking -and groaning, had voiced the protest of the -“hands” against their fancied and their real -wrongs. One hour before, every employe had -been in his or her place. But the gloom of the -atmosphere could not obscure the suppressed -excitement of the morning. Shortsighted and -blind to their best interest, they might have -been; but there was not a man among them -who did not feel a tremendous underlying -principle at stake.</p> - -<p class='c008'>And so, at precisely ten o’clock, the machinery -had suddenly and mysteriously stopped, and -every man, woman and child, without a word, -had left the mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>All this had happened while Salome Shepard -was calling on an elderly friend of her mother’s -at the other end of the town. It had been a -delightfully cosy morning in spite of the rain; -and, after a gossipy fashion, they had passed -it in discussing, as women will, the newest -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>pattern of crochet, the last society-novel, the -coming concerts in town.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome’s mood was the comfortable one conduced -by such soothing intellectual food, as -she set forth on her homeward drive. The -rain had ceased, and only along the river did -the mists hover, suggesting to her idle fancy -the thick smoke which hangs over a smouldering -fire.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But the fire which had been creeping under -the life of the Shawsheen Mills had but just -burst into flames, which mounted higher and -higher as the day wore on.</p> - -<p class='c008'>All through the factory precincts the unwonted -excitement was manifest. Groups of -employes were everywhere—on the street-corners, -in front of tenements and boardinghouses, -in the middle of the street;—and all -were engaged in absorbing discussion of one -exciting theme—the strike.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Men without coats or hats; women with -shawls thrown loosely over their heads; girls, -bonnetless and neglectful of dress; unkempt -old women, who were perhaps the home-makers -for these hard-worked and ill-paid people; all -were indifferent save to one subject.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>Even the quick passage, through their midst, -of the pony-phaeton and its mistress failed to -attract attention beyond an occasional surly -glance from the men or an envious one from the -women. Unmindful of the long days in store, -when there would be ample time to discuss -their wrongs, they remained huddled in excited -groups in the wet October air, talking over -the strike,—the famous strike of the Shawsheen -Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I declare!” muttered the young woman -who was hurrying the pony out of these disagreeable -surroundings; “it must be a strike! -Nothing else would crowd them into the street -so. I wonder what they want? Dear me! -what nuisances these work-people are. Why -can’t they be sensible, and when they are earning -a living, be content? Dear me! if I had -the making over of this world I would make -everybody comfortably off, and nobody rich—unless -it were myself,” she added, laughing; -for absolute truthfulness was a necessity of -Salome Shepard’s nature, and she knew perfectly -well that she could not do without the -luxuries to which she had always been accustomed.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>“If I had the making over of the world!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The words repeated themselves in her mind. -If any human being has the power of making -over the world in any smallest degree, something -whispered, that person must be a young, -attractive woman, with a vast property and -absolute control of several hundred people, -besides two millions of dollars in her own right.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Dear me!” she said aloud, as she drove -up the graveled road under the dripping yellow -beeches. “How positively dreadful it must be -to be a reformer! How would I look in a -bloomer costume and black bombazine bonnet? -No. Let things alone, keep to your sphere, -young woman,—the proper, well-regulated, -protected and chaperoned sphere of a delicate -young lady, and let the world right its own -wrongs.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She jumped lightly from the phaeton, tossing -the reins to James, and showing her fine, well-turned -figure to excellent advantage as she ran -up the broad steps.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The massive doors turned noiselessly at her -approach. She passed through the fine old -hall and went directly up the broad oak staircase -to her room.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>“How comfortable this is,” she said to herself, -as the blazing wood-fire threw flickering -shadows over the dainty hangings, the warm -rugs and the choice pictures.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But even as she drew a long sigh of contentment -with her lot, a picture of wet and -muddy streets, thickset with groups of brawny -men and bedraggled, unkempt women, intruded -itself, and the sigh changed its tenor.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If I only had the making over of the -world!” she said again aloud; and added resolutely, -“but I haven’t.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span> - <h2 class='c006'>II.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>The Shawsheen Mills had been established -many years before the opening of this story -by Salome’s grandfather, Newbern Shepard. -They constituted one of the chief manufacturing -concerns of Shepardtown. They made -more cloth, and that of a better quality, than -any other mill outside the “City of Spindles.” -They employed a much larger force of operatives -than any other factory in the place, and -had always held a controlling interest in town -affairs.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the Shawsheen Mills were first started, -blooming girls from all parts of Massachusetts -came swarming to them, glad of a new and -respectable employment,—came with earnest -purpose to make this new life and its outcomes -subservient to a better future. The conscientious -New England girl of those days took as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>much pride in making a perfect web of cloth -as though it were for her own wearing. Aware -that her employers took an interest in her welfare, -aside from the fact that she was a part of -the motive power of the mill, she rewarded -them with a full performance of her duty. A -mutual goodfellowship had existed, then, between -employer and employed in the years -when old Newbern Shepard was at the head -of his mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>All this had changed. Newbern Shepard -had died after a long and successful career, -leaving the business to his son, Floyd Shepard. -The latter, educated at Harvard, with five years -of study afterward in Germany, had developed -little taste for an active business life such as -his father had led. He had, consequently, -placed the entire business in the hands of Otis -Greenough, a friend of his college-days and a -hard-headed business man. Floyd Shepard -had idled the greater part of his time before -reaching the age of fifty in various parts of -the world.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then he came home, married a Baltimore -belle, and passed his old age in his native -place.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>Even then, he gave little thought to the -details of business. He added to and improved -the home of his forefathers, until his -house and grounds were acknowledged to be the -finest in the state. After four years of married -life, his young wife died, leaving him one child—a -babe of three days. Then he retired into -his study, and lived only among his books.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t trouble me with the business,” he -would say to Otis Greenough, on the rare -occasions when it seemed necessary to consult -the owner of the mills. “I care nothing as to -how you manage the works, and know less -how it should be done. Suit yourself as to -details, and keep the mills paying a good profit. -I shall be satisfied.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Upon this principle the mills had been run -for thirty years. The agent and his superintendents -had devoted themselves to the problem -of getting out more goods and making -more money than their competitors, while keeping -the standard of their wares up to its old -mark. They had no time for the problem of -human life involved. The first and principal -question had required a severe struggle, with -active brains and sharp wits. What wonder, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>then, that the increasing mass of operatives -had come to be considered, every year, less as -human beings in need of help and encouragement, -and more as mechanical attachments of -the mills?</p> - -<p class='c008'>Only such operatives as had been brought -up in the mills realized the difference. The -employes were mostly of the unwashed population, -expecting nothing but a place to earn -their living and but scanty pay for it.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Having, at the outset, no confidence in their -employers, and no feeling of goodwill towards -them, they had no conscientious motive behind -their work. On the contrary, they stood on -the defensive, watching for oppression and -tyranny, and ready to take arms against them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>This was the state of things when the first -regularly organized strike occurred at the -Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Otis Greenough, although an old man, was -still at the head of the mills. Floyd Shepard’s -death three years before had made no difference -with the vast business interests in his name. -In willing everything he owned to his daughter, -who was already heiress to a large fortune -from her mother’s family, he had provided that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>Otis Greenough should be chief agent during -the remainder of his life; and that the mills -should continue on the same plan by which -they had been run for the past quarter of a -century.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Otis Greenough was an arbitrary man, with -that enormous strength of will which a man -must have who is to control and manage two -thousand people and an increasing business.</p> - -<p class='c008'>If, in the march of economic progress, he -chose to make changes in the machinery of the -mills, he consulted no one, and cared nothing -for the black looks or surly mutterings of the -operative who might fancy himself injured -thereby. Had it been hinted to him that his -operatives might be trained to take a personal -interest in the success or failure of new experiments -or, indeed, that they had any right to his -brotherly consideration, he would have flouted -the idea.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was his boast that he never wasted words -on the operatives. In short, he was as indifferent -to the rights of Labor as his Lancashire -spinners were to the interests of Capital. Hence -the strike.</p> - -<p class='c008'>At noon of the day that Salome Shepard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>had driven through the factory street, Otis -Greenough sat in his private office with his -two superintendents, the treasurer and cashier -of the mills, and one or two subordinates. As -the bell struck for twelve, five men from the -various departments filed in and presented a -written document. They were the committee -appointed by the new Labor Union.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mr. Greenough took the paper with an air -that showed him to be in anything but a -conciliatory mood. Without opening it, he -burst forth angrily:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What, in the name of common sense, is -this farce anyhow? What do you mean by -leaving your work and presuming to come here, -dictating terms to <em>me</em>?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The paper will explain everything, sir,” -replied the foremost of the committee. “We -have our rights—or should have them. The -time has come when we propose to get them. -Will you read the petition, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No,” thundered the choleric old man. “Not -in your presence. Villard, treat with them.” -Mr. Greenough was too angry to say more.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mr. Villard, the younger superintendent, -stepped forward.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>“I think,” he said, “that you had better -leave us for a time. We shall need to consider -your proposals, whatever they may be. -Go now, and come again later—say at four -o’clock.” Agreeing to this proposition, the -five men turned and left the office. Mr. Villard -sat down again, waiting for the agent to speak.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The confounded whelps!” ejaculated Mr. -Greenough, as soon as he could find breath. -“Open that paper, Villard—the impudent -puppies!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Without answering, John Villard tore open -the envelope, and read the document aloud:</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Whereas</em>, we, the undersigned, believing that our interests -demand an organization which shall promote and protect -affairs relating to us as laboring men; and</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Whereas</em>, we have already organized and maintained such a -society; it is now unanimously agreed that we insist upon the -recognition of such a body by our employers, and upon their -making certain concessions for the benefit of that body.</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Whereas</em>, there is a ten-hour system established in this state -by law; we hereby <em>resolve</em> that we will refuse to work ten and -a half or eleven hours a day as has been demanded of us.</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Whereas</em>, we believe the introduction of the new frames are -detrimental to the interests of the mule-spinners; we <em>resolve</em> -that they must be taken out, and the old mules replaced, with -a written agreement that no more of the obnoxious machinery -shall be added for, at least, five years.</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Whereas</em>, there has been an attempt made to reduce our -wages, especially in the weaving department; we hereby -<em>resolve</em> that we will submit to no curtailment of wages, and to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>demand payment of all wages weekly, as is the custom in -certain other mills in this state.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Trusting that these our petitions may be granted, our rights -respected, and that harmonious relations will soon be established -between us, we take pleasure in signing ourselves</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Members of the Shawsheen Labor Union</span>.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>Before John Villard had finished reading -the paper, Mr. Greenough had risen and was -pacing the floor excitedly.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Shocking!” he exclaimed, as Mr. Villard -folded the paper and returned it to its envelope. -“Preposterous! Do they think they can -impose upon me with such a jumble of unreasoning -nonsense as that? Labor Union, indeed! -Why, the rascals act as if there were -no interests but those of labor. And a beautiful -time they’ve taken to strike—when orders -are pouring in faster than we can possibly keep -up with them. A fine time, indeed!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I suppose,” said John Villard, fearlessly, -“there seems a slight injustice to them, in cutting -down their wages at such a time.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What right have they to dictate, I should -like to inquire?” answered the irate agent. -“If they were not a bigoted, unreasoning set, -they’d know they never can serve the interests -of labor in such a way. They’d realize that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>they are only biting off their own noses! They -have probably been worked upon by some -crank of an agitator. If they were not ignorant -dogs, they’d know that they could best -serve the interests of labor by being faithful to -those of capital. Why,” he concluded, his -face growing redder in his wrath, “is this -America? Is this our boasted New England? -Is this a free country? By Jove! I’ve heard -of this sort of thing in England, but in this -republican land, this boasted region of freedom—Great -Scott! What are we coming to?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It’s this accursed trades-unionism creeping -in among us,” put in the treasurer’s mild voice, -as Otis Greenough paused for breath. “I’ve -been expecting it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Blast it, why didn’t you mention it then?” -returned Mr. Greenough. But the treasurer -retired in confusion behind his books and did -not answer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, Villard,” continued the agent, “I -hope now you will give up the Utopian schemes -you’ve been nursing for the elevation of the -laboring classes. You see just what a foolish, -unthinking, unreliable set of men we have to -deal with.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>“On the contrary, sir,” returned the second -superintendent, firmly, “I sympathize, to a -degree, with them. I agree that they have -taken an inopportune time to enforce their -views, and regret that they could not have seen -fit to keep at work while their petition was -being considered; and I would advise——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I want no man’s advice until I ask it,” -interrupted the elder man. “This is our first -strike, and it shall be the last so long as I have -authority here. Humph! They think they -can intimidate me! They have chosen this -time because they think I <em>must</em> yield now. -They little know me. Otis Greenough has not -run the Shawsheen Mills successfully thirty -years, to be brow-beaten and conquered in the -end by a pack of ignorant laborers.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But how is this to end?” asked the first -superintendent, speaking for the first time.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It can end whenever these men will take -back their impudent paper and go to work. -Villard, when they show up again—four o’clock -did you say?—you will tell them so. Offer -them a chance to go to work to-morrow morning -on the old terms. You needn’t give in to them -one inch. Do you hear? Not a jot or tittle.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>“And what if they do not accept?” asked -Villard.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why, advertise. Advertise far and near. -Get new help. We’ll open the mills and run -them, too, right in their very teeth. I’ll show -them that he who has been master here for -thirty years is master until he dies.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span> - <h2 class='c006'>III.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>The choleric agent’s blood was fairly up, -and he now set himself to plan for the coming -warfare. When the committee from the labor -union made its appearance at four o’clock, the -agent refused to treat directly with them. He -retired to his inner office, whence issued a -moment later an “open letter to the employes -of the Shawsheen Mills.” The circular was -composed and written entirely by himself, and -was quite characteristic of his high-handed -authority. It stated that “as the control of -an owner over his property was guaranteed -by the law of the land, and was of such unquestionable -character as ought not to be -meddled with by any other individual or combination -of individuals, the agent of the Shawsheen -Mills, acting for their owner, would brook -no such interference as had been attempted.” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>But, in bombastic language, he went on to say -that, on account of the pressure of work, he -offered to take back into the mills such operatives -as, after a day’s idleness and a night’s -calm reflection, might decide to come back -peacefully, and accept the old conditions. The -circular closed by adding that all returning -operatives must renounce their connection with -the new Labor Union, and stating that the -Shawsheen Mills would be immediately re-opened.</p> - -<p class='c008'>This letter, as might have been expected, -only served to fan the smouldering embers of -discord. It was taken at once to the quarters -of the new Union, and angrily discussed. A -stormy meeting was held that evening, and -scores of new members were added to the organization, -all unanimously agreeing, not only to -keep away from the mills themselves, but to -prevent other operatives from entering them. -The trouble which might have been met at the -outset and subdued by candid discussion and a -fair acknowledgment on each side of the claims -of the other, was changed into a barricade of -danger between labor and capital over which -a battle was to be fought, involving money and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>credit and losses on one side, and daily bread -for two thousand people on the other.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Come,” said Otis Greenough, emerging from -his “den” after the committee had left the -office. “I want you, Villard, and you, too, -Burnham,” he added, turning to the other -superintendent, “to go with me this evening, -to the owner of these mills, and lay before her -the proceedings of the day, and our reasons for -taking a firm stand. Although, precious little -difference it will make with her, I imagine, how -many strikes we have, until her income is -affected! Will you be so good as to state, -Villard, what you are smiling at.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I was thinking, sir, that it is a queer state -of affairs, when a person owning large and influential -mills like these, need not know of the -strike or be consulted with regard to it, until it -is half over,” answered Villard. He had no -fear of the agent, with whom he was a favorite, -in spite of his seeming harshness. “It seems -to me, if I were a young woman, with unlimited -leisure and wealth, I should care to know -something of so tremendous an interest as the -Shawsheen Mills represent—that is, if I owned -them.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>“Ha, ha!” laughed the agent, “that shows -how much of a ladies’ man you are, John. -Much you know about the things that interest -and amuse the young ladies. By Jove! I -should laugh to see the daughter of Floyd -Shepard meddling with the details of the great -business he left her. She could discuss French -and Italian literature, or the different schools -of music and art, by the hour, and fairly inundate -you with a flood of learning; but when it -comes to mills—why, she don’t know a loom -from a spinning-jenny—and don’t want to. -I’m only going up there as a matter of form. -As for advice, she knows I wouldn’t take it, -even if she has any to offer. But courtesy—proper -courtesy,” and Otis Greenough drew -himself up to his fullest height, “and the respect -we owe her as the owner of this property, demand -that we go there this evening. I will call for -you in my carriage at half-past seven.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>And, so saying, he left the office.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I reckon the old man is about right,” said -Burnham, when they were alone. “Miss -Shepard knows no more about the practical -affairs of her mill, than that little white kitten -over there does. She’ll meet us with a listless, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>half-bored air, pretending to listen to the statements -of our chief, and all the time be wishing -us at the antipodes.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Do you know,” interrupted John Villard, -locking the door to the office as they left it -together, “I’ve very little patience with -women of that sort. Think, with her youth -and health and money, what a directing, -reforming force in bringing together the conflicting -interests of labor and capital she might -be! Great Heavens! I wish I had her opportunity. -I’d make something of it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, you are too Utopian,” replied Burnham. -“It is fortunate she isn’t that kind. We -should be overwhelmed with Schemes for the -Amelioration of the Condition of This, That, -and The Other Thing, until there would be -nothing left but bankruptcy for all of us. No. -I want no reformers in petticoats at the head -of the Shawsheen Mills. But here I am at my -street. Good-bye, till evening.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome Shepard passed a dull afternoon. -Although a young woman of resources she -found herself in no mood to enjoy any of them -after lunch. The newest volume of essays -seemed insufferably dull, and she turned for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>relief to the latest novel; but, in spite of the -fact that this book was talked about throughout -the country, she soon threw it aside with a -wearied air and sat gazing into the blazing -hickory fire.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Strange! but the red-hot coals formed themselves -into a group against the dull back-log -like the groups of miserable, excited men and -women of the morning against a background -of rain and fog and muddy streets. It was an -uncomfortable picture, and she rose suddenly, -and, going into the music-room, seated herself -at the piano. Chopin’s Nocturnes stood open -on the rack, but she tossed them aside and -began some stormy Liszt music, breaking off -when half done and going to the window.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The rain had begun to fall again and the -fog had settled like a pall over everything -farther off than the arched gateway. She -wondered if all those people were still standing -in the mud and rain.</p> - -<p class='c008'>An elderly lady, with soft white hair and -exquisite laces, came in.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome ran forward, pushed her aunt’s favorite -chair into the position she liked best, and -put her into it.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>“Why did you stop playing? And why did -you attempt that brilliant thing?” said Mrs. -Soule. “You are so dreadfully out of practice, -you know.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It wasn’t that,” answered the younger -woman; “I’m not in the mood for playing anything. -I doubt if I could get through with -‘Bounding Billows’ or the ‘Fifteenth Amusement’ -to-day. Did you know, aunty, there -is a strike down at the mills?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“A strike! Mercy, who has struck?” responded -the elder in shocked tones.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why, the operatives, of course. I don’t -know why, or anything about it. I have never -shown any interest in the mills,” she went on -eagerly and half-apologetically, “but I should -like to know what it is all about—why they did -it—what they want, and all that. I should -think Mr. Greenough would come up here.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“He will come as soon as he deems it -proper.” Mrs. Soule’s voice was calmness and -precision itself. “It is not nice for young -ladies to mix themselves up in such common -things.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But, aunty,” laughed Salome, “strikes are -not common things here. We never had one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>before. And I am not so very young a lady -as to need the same careful guardianship I -had when I was sixteen. I am twenty-seven -years old.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There is no need of saying so upon all -occasions, if you are,” replied her aunt with -some asperity. “A strike, like all things connected -with, or originated by the ignorant laboring -class, is common in the sense of being -vulgar. Any woman, young or old, brought -up as delicately and carefully as you have -been, demeans herself by connection with such -things. You have an agent—a manly and -capable one; leave the settlement of such -things to him.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I’m not going to meddle with the strike. -The very suggestion that I would wish to have -anything to do with settling the difficulty -makes me laugh.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome rose and began to pace the room. -“But sometimes, lately, aunty, it has occurred -to me that a young woman of average talent, -with a great business on her hands which employs -two thousand people, may have something -to do in life more than to seek her own -selfish enjoyment—a pursuit which, after all, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>is not elevating and leaves but a restless, unsatisfied -spirit in its wake. I came across -some of grandfather’s manuscripts two or three -weeks ago and have been reading them. He -wasn’t like papa. The mills were a part of his -very self. The operatives were almost like so -many children to him. I’ve read in his, and in -other books, about the mill-girls of his day. -Girls whose working days began at daylight in -winter and ended at half-past seven in the -evening; who had only two dresses to their -backs, and those of Merrimack print; whose -profits for a week, after their board was paid, -were only two dollars. But girls who could -discuss Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton at their -looms; who read Locke and Abercrombie and -Pollock and Young (something I can’t do!); -who sent petitions to Congress for the abolition -of slavery; who helped build churches from -their pitiful savings; who wrote essays and -poems and stories, even while running their -looms; who spent their evenings in the study -of German and French and botany; and -who went out, at last, to become teachers and -mothers and missionaries, and, above all, noble, -self-sacrificing, helpful women. And I tell you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>that, with all my money and my polished -education, I envy them.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome, really, you surprise me,” exclaimed -the excellent lady who was listening to her. -“Calm yourself, my dear.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Look at the girls in this mill—in my grandfather’s -mill to-day—in my mill,” she went -on. “Beings of bangs and bangles and cheap -jewelry, of low aspirations, and correspondingly -low morals! They are not to blame for -their penny-dreadful lives, because they know -no better. They dream of nothing higher than -their looms and their face-powder, and their -cheap satins and false hair—why should they? -They see rich and educated women like us -wrapped entirely in ourselves, each anxious to -outshine the rest, and all seemingly lost in the -mad race after fashionable attire. They do -not know, poor things, that we ever think or -talk of higher subjects. I tell you, I feel that -I am, somehow, responsible for them. And yet, -I don’t know how to help them. My grandfather -could, but I can’t.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I know nothing of such things,” coldly -replied her aunt. “It is not ladylike to fly -into a passion over the fancied wrongs of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>lower order of beings. I beg that you will -recollect that you are the daughter of Cora Le -Bourdillon and Floyd Shepard.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And more than that,” Salome whispered to -herself as she sought the quiet of her own -room, “I am afraid I am the grand-daughter -of Newbern Shepard.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span> - <h2 class='c006'>IV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>It was nearly eight o’clock when carriage-wheels -were heard coming up the graveled -drive-way, and Otis Greenough and his associates -were announced. Salome and her aunt -were sitting in the music-room, and came forward -at once; the former with an unmistakable -air of eagerness.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Tell me about the strike, Mr. Greenough,” -she asked, before he had fairly seated himself.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, then, you’d heard of it, eh?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I saw something of it this morning, driving -through the town. I could not help knowing -what it was. But why did they do it? What -do they want?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They did it,” and Otis Greenough sat up -with a judicial air, “because they are rascally -dogs, and do not know when they are well off. -And they want?—well,—the earth—more pay, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>shorter hours, and the Lord knows what besides.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, and why shouldn’t they have it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The question fell like a bomb upon her surprised -audience.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“To be sure, I know very little of these -things, practically, although I have taken the -prescribed doses of social economy in my readings -under Professor Townsend,” she went on; -“but it has occurred to me, within a few days, -that the laboring classes have very little control -over their own lives, and are not much more -than slaves to us who hold the reins of -power.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Bless me!” thought Otis Greenough, staring -at her. If his office-door had suddenly -spoken, offering him officious counsel as to -his method of conducting the mills, he could -hardly have been more surprised. “Bless me! -No Floyd Shepard about her.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If the operatives are poorly paid, and we -are making more money than ever before (I -think I understood you so the other day?),” -the young woman was saying, “why shouldn’t -their wages be raised? It seems but fair, to -me.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>“Much you know about it, little girl,” Mr. -Greenough found voice to say, addressing her -as he used to in by-gone days, when she occasionally -strayed into the mills and teased to be -taken through them. “Much any young lady -of the world can know of such matters. We -would not have you turn from being your own -charming self, and become a learned blue-stocking, -or bloomered reformer; but there are -many, many reasons which come between the -questions of profit and loss, and the petty details -of operatives’ wages, which cannot be explained -to you here and now. They were contented -enough until some rascal or other, having -become imbued with the spirit of these labor -unions starting up all over the country, must -needs organize one here. By Jove! I’ll employ -detectives and hunt out the disturbing -elements and shut them up. I have offered -every mother’s son a chance to go back to work -to-morrow morning, on condition that he drops -this union business; but I am told to-night -that not one of them will accept. Ignorant -creatures! I’ll show ’em what it means to -fight a rich and strong concern like this, in the -vain hope of bringing us to their terms.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>“Meanwhile,” it was Villard who spoke, -“we are to go on resisting their combined -ignorance and impatience, and perhaps worse -elements, losing thousands of dollars in the -warfare, are we?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, rather than give in one inch to them,” -answered Mr. Greenough. “This is the first -organized strike and must be made a warning -to future disturbers. It’s those confounded -Englishmen trying to transplant their foreign -ideas to American soil. If we give in to them -now, we establish a bad precedent.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I must confess,” said Villard, “that I do -not see it. I have seen several strikes, and -know that generally both sides lose sight of -reason, and determine to fight it out regardless -of cost. I am afraid, with the course you propose -to adopt, sir, that we shall go on until the -losses on our side or the suffering and privation -on theirs will become unbearable; and then -one side or the other will be forced to yield. -If it should be they, a smouldering resentment -will be left, ready to break out anew at -the first convenient season. If we, they -will feel encouraged to try still more arbitrary -measures in the future. Or if a compromise -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>be effected, it will be one that might as well be -made to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You talk well for a young man,” admitted -Mr. Greenough. “How did you come by your -exceedingly humane and sympathetic views?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I began as an employe myself,” answered -Villard, “and I know how they feel to some -extent. I know what it is to work at the lowest -drudgery of a mill, and can imagine how it -must seem to have no hope of ever rising to a -higher position. Hard, unremitting toil, long -hours with endless years of hopeless work in -prospect, the lowest possible wages, a large and -rapidly increasing family, with perhaps an aged -parent or invalid wife to support—I tell you -lots of those fellows have all that to bear, knowing -the utter impossibility of ever saving anything, -or of raising their own condition. I say, -sir, looking at life from their standpoint, it’s -mighty hard.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, well,” put in Mr. Greenough, testily, -“a great many of them want nothing better. -They would not know what to do with a better -chance for life, as you call it, if they had it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Simply put yourself in their place, sir,” -said Villard. “What if you were forty years -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>younger than you are, and condemned to a life -of toil at the looms, for instance, would you not -claim the right to combine with others of like -occupation and interests and ask for a better -chance? These men of ours have taken an -unreasonable way of asserting themselves, but -I think they are entitled to our respect, and -should be dealt with as men. An open, fair -discussion of the wage question or the ten-hour -law can result in nothing but good for both -sides.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You are young,” Mr. Greenough replied, -“and believe everything in this world can be -made to run exactly as you want it. When -you are older, you’ll realize better the indifference -and general mulishness of the world, and -of operatives in particular. I do not believe in -meeting and deferring to them as equals. They -are not worth our efforts, and so long as they -are under the influence of hot-headed devils -who pose as labor reformers, just so long we -are going to see trouble.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If we were to make a fair compromise with -them,” Mr. Burnham was speaking for the -first time, “and let them see that we, as -humane employers, have a greater desire for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>their interest than any foreigner can have, -wouldn’t it work a reaction in our favor? From -a strictly business point of view, perhaps it -would be money in our pockets.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” urged Villard, “if we were to show -ourselves willing to consider an intimate knowledge -of their needs and thus prove ourselves -their best friends, it would be only a case of -practical philanthropy, and one which would -raise our profits every year, I believe. It is -only the first step that costs, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t believe it,” stoutly maintained the -agent. “In my day there has been very little -talk of managers and owners deferring to their -help. I hire my own operatives and reserve the -right to raise, or lower, their wages as I please.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But, Mr. Greenough,” broke in Salome -eagerly, “don’t you consider their circumstances -at all? Don’t you, for instance, in a driving -time, pay them any higher wages than in dull -times? I think there would be nothing but -fairness in that.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“My dear young lady,” was the answer in -patronizing tones, “don’t bother your brains -with such things. You cannot understand -them. Why try?”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>“Imagine our Salome posing as a philanthropist -or a social economist,” interrupted Mrs. -Soule’s mellifluous tones. “We had a great -laugh over the idea this afternoon.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome bit her lip and said nothing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I think,” continued her aunt in the same -smooth accents, “that we have talked business -long enough. I am sure, Mr. Greenough, that -Salome is, and will be perfectly satisfied with -any course you may see fit to adopt with -regard to the strikers. Women, you know, -ladies at least, have no heads for business, and -we, certainly,” with an indescribable turn of -voice on the “we”—“we, certainly, have had -no training to fit us for reformers. And now -shall we not have some music? Salome, dear, -will you play that delightful little suite of -Moscowzki’s that I like so well?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The young woman rose and, going to the -piano, did as she was bid, although somewhat -mechanically. Then Mr. Greenough -proposed a song from Mr. Burnham, who possessed -a fine baritone voice, and the evening -wore away with music and light conversation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the three men went home, the elder -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>was in fine spirits, in spite of having been -shocked and discomfited to an unusual degree, -by the unexpected disclosure of views which he -termed “strong-minded” on the part of the -fair owner of the Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If there should come to be hard times and -perhaps destitution among the operatives before -this difficulty is settled,” Salome said to John -Villard as he was preparing to go, “such destitution -as we read of in foreign countries in -times of labor disturbances, I hope you will -let me do something to relieve it. Strange as -it may seem, I have a much better idea of -such a state of affairs there than here—among -my own mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There will be no such state of affairs, I -trust,” was his reply, “as is pictured in English -novels.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You have guessed accurately as to the -sources of my information,” she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He smiled too, and continued,</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Meanwhile, if we pursue the policy proposed,” -and he glanced at Mr. Greenough, who -was making gallant speeches to Mrs. Soule, -“you might keep a watchful eye on the help. -You could tell, you know, by the women, if they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>came to absolute distress. Of course, there is no -knowing how long this thing may last.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Me! You look to me for such a thing,” and -it was hard to tell whether her tone was amused -or sarcastic only. “Why, Mr. Villard, I do -not know one of the operatives in the mills—not -even by sight. If I were to meet them on -the main thoroughfare to-morrow I should -not know them from other women of their -class.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard raised his eyebrows and turned -to put on his coat without another word. The -situation was incomprehensible to him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome saw this, and winced under it. She -made no further attempt at conversation, but -said good-night graciously to Mr. Greenough -and the older superintendent, recognizing -Villard’s parting nod at the door.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There,” said her aunt, as they went back -into the firelight, “I hope they won’t feel it -necessary to come here and consult with us -again so long as the strike is on. As though -you knew or cared anything for it, my dear! -But, of course, they had to come as a matter -of form. Any way, I’m glad it is over. Play -something.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>Salome complied, playing the first thing -which came to her mind—the opening bars of -the <cite>Sonata Pathetique</cite>.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I wish,” she said to herself as she disrobed -for the night, “that I were a capable woman -of affairs—and that John Villard were my -agent.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span> - <h2 class='c006'>V.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Not for a week could enough new help be -hired to even make a show of opening the -Shawsheen Mills. Labor Unions were a comparatively -new thing in this country, and were -not so thoroughly organized as now; and a -few of the old operatives, rather than starve, -were glad to go back into the mills on any -condition. But the great majority refused -with indignation to give up their claims, and -proceeded to “make things hot,” as they -expressed it, for the “scabs” and “mudsills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Work was attempted in the mills, although -many looms stood silent and the spinning-mules -were entirely deserted. Thread for warp was -procured from a neighboring city at no small -expense and the mills were run at a loss, to -prove the agent’s assertion that “he would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>show them who was manager of the Shawsheen -Mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>This sort of thing was kept up four days. -On the fifth morning, the operatives went as -usual to the mill, but the machinery, after a -few insufficient groans, gave up in despair and -settled into utter quiet.</p> - -<p class='c008'>What was the matter?</p> - -<p class='c008'>There was a great hurrying to and fro, and -a close examination of belts and machinery. -Word was soon brought up from the basement. -The engines had been tampered with; on each -of them the belts had been cut. The jocularly -inclined said the “engines had joined -the Union;”—while everybody wondered -what effect this stroke would have on the agent.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The premises were examined and the night-watchman -questioned. Evidently the deed had -been done by some one familiar with the place, -but there was not the slightest clue. He had -done well his work, and the mills were stopped -for repairs.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Otis Greenough blustered about and cursed -the whole business; but he was farther than -ever from a compromise, declaring that he -would yet beat them with their own weapons.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>The night-watch was doubled and the mills -were opened again the next day. But the employers -were fighting a desperate party and little -calculated their strength. The man who had -succeeded so well in his first attempt to stop the -mills risked himself again; and on the second -morning the machinery again refused to start. -This time a small wheel had been removed -from each engine and carried away. The -water-wheel had long been in partial disuse and -could not be trusted without the engines. -Hence, there was nothing to be done but to stop -again for repairs. This time it was a week -before the engines were in running order. -And yet, not a word passed between the agent -and the strikers.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The night-watch were discharged and new -ones engaged. A special police was secured to -patrol the mill-yard, and when the mills were -again opened, it was with the avowed determination -to keep them going in spite of every -earthly power.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The next morning, notwithstanding the -positive assertions of police and night-watch -that no one had been near the mills, every -band connecting the looms to the machinery -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>above was cut in half a dozen places. Then -the superstitious operatives whispered among -themselves that unseen agencies were linked -with the Union, and that the strikers must -succeed in the end; and many of the fainthearted -went over to the new labor party.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is of no use trying to run the mills in this -way,” said Mr. Burnham. “We have already -lost several thousand dollars. We must compromise.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Never,” said Mr. Greenough. “The terms -of Floyd Shepard’s will grant me absolute -power here, and so long as I live, it shall never -be said that an educated, trained and levelheaded -business man was overcome by a lot -of ignorant bullies and agitators. These Labor -Unions all over the State need an example. -There is money enough in the mill treasury to -fight them until they starve themselves out. -No other mill or corporation about here will -hire them, and it is only a matter of weeks -or months when absolute poverty forces them -to yield. Not one inch will I give in to them. -They shall come back as beggars, glad to -accept work at even lower wages than they -have ever had. I’ll teach them a lesson.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>Geoffrey Burnham turned away full of anger -that a flourishing business should be destroyed -by one man’s obstinacy. John Villard went -back to the silent looms, full of righteous -indignation, not only at the total disregard of -practical business interests, but at the want of -humanity and philanthropy and Christian charity, -which by his subordinate position he must -seem to countenance.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Weeks lengthened themselves into months, -and still the Shawsheen Mills were closed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome Shepard, after spending the holiday -season with friends in New York, came home, -satiated with social success, and a little tired of -the endless pursuit of pleasure. Still the mills -lay idle and Otis Greenough refused to talk any -more with her on the subject of the strike. -And the terms of her father’s will held her -powerless, even had she chosen to exercise her -authority.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But she chafed under the knowledge that -two thousand people, who were in a sense dependent -upon her for their daily bread, were -out of work in the midst of a hard winter.</p> - -<p class='c008'>One day she went to walk down among the -people who were suffering, now, for a principle.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>She was amazed at the gaunt, hungry look -of the old men; and self-accused at the -pinched and wan faces of the few children who -played in the narrow streets. Unthinking, she -had put on a seal-skin cloak. It was a cold -day, and furs, to her, were only a natural -accompaniment to the frosts of winter.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But going down the uncared-for side-walk, -she rebuked herself, noting the single shawl -and calico dress of an old woman who was -wearily making her way a few paces in front -of her. Presently the woman stopped, seized -with a paroxysm of coughing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome came up with her, and looked into -the white face, which told of hard times.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Madam,” she said, respectfully, “can I be -of any assistance to you? Shall I not help -you home?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Her tone and manner were exactly the same -she would have used to any of her aunt’s -friends. It did not occur to her to be patronizing -or condescending.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The old woman stared at her. She was not -used to being addressed as “Madam.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes’m,” she said, presently. “I live up -to the other end of the street. If the cough -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>wasn’t so bad, an’ my side didn’t ketch me -so! But if I can git back to my own chair -ag’in——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Another fit of coughing seized her, and -interrupted the “garrulousness of uncultured -old age.” Salome waited until she got breath -again and then took her by the arm, accommodating -her steps to the feebler ones.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Here and there a surprised face peered -curiously at her through a dirty window, knowing -who she was, and wondering that she condescended -to walk with old Granny Lancaster. -Everywhere a general air of poverty, perhaps -of actual hunger, impressed this woman, who -had inherited the tumble-down tenement houses -on each side.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I beg your pardon,” she said, “but do you -eat nourishing food enough? Good beef-steak -and roast-beef would help your cough more -than medicine.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The old woman laughed, a grating, cackling -laugh.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Beef-steak and roast-beef ain’t for the likes -o’ me,” she said. “Meat of any kind ain’t for -us in times o’ strikes. May the Lord above -send us oatmeal enough to keep us through -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>till the mills open ag’in is all I ask. Here’s my -house. Much ’bleeged, lady.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome wanted to go inside the rickety old -door and follow the woman up the dirty stairway, -but she did not say so, and the old woman -hobbled up the steps without asking her in.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome felt impulsively in her pocket, and -drawing out her porte-monnaie, emptied its -contents into the dirty, emaciated palm of -Granny Lancaster. Then she turned and -walked rapidly back home.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The next day Otis Greenough called on her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“My dear,” he said, after an hour or two -passed in desultory conversation, “may I beg -that you will keep away from the operatives? -Impulsive and injudicious charity does them -more harm than anything else. No doubt the -part of Lady Bountiful seems a pleasant and -desirable one, but, just now, you are not fitted -for it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What do you mean, sir?” asked she in a -puzzled tone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“For instance,” he went on, “the money -you gave a certain old woman on the corporation -yesterday was taken by her son-in-law -last night, and furnished him an opportunity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>for a glorious old drunk. I beg your -pardon for using their phraseology. He was -arrested before morning for drunkenness and -disorderly conduct.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I do not comprehend,” she stammered. -“The woman said they had no meat. She was -actually suffering for nourishing food. I gave -the money, impulsively it is true, but that -they need not go hungry.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Now, you see, my dear,” he answered, -“just how much encouragement one gets in -trying to do anything for the laboring classes. -They turn upon you and use the goodness of -your heart and your generous motives to drag -themselves down to a lower depth of degradation. -Good-day, my dear, and don’t be led -away by your feelings.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome stood looking after him, heart-sick -and discouraged. The world—her part of it, -at least—was all wrong, and she, with plenty -of money and an awakening desire to help, was -powerless. She ordered the pony phaeton -again and started for a drive. She obeyed a -sudden impulse to go through the factory precincts. -There were evidences of a suppressed -excitement. Knots of desperate-looking men -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>stood about. But they hushed their voices as -she drew near, and stood in sullen silence as -she passed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There is evidently something in the wind,” -she thought, urging the pony to quicken his -pace.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She did not know that the committee from -the Labor Union had that morning made a -third attempt to treat with her agent and -failed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No compromise,” was still his watchword.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’ll send for Marion Shaw,” she said to -herself, on her way home an hour later. “She -is a practical, sensible, business-like woman. -Perhaps she will know of some way to help me -to help others. And she needs rest.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>This idea so inspired her that she arrived -home quite elated, and stated her plan to Mrs. -Soule at dinner-time with much animation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But later in the evening, the groups of men -she had seen on “the corporation” came back -to her mind and caused her a certain feeling of -uneasiness. What had they been talking about -so excitedly as she drew near?</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was one of those suddenly warm nights -in January that succeed, in our fickle climate, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>a bitter cold day, and Salome felt an unaccountable -desire to be in the open air. She threw -on a warm wrap and hood, and saying nothing, -went out on the piazza, and crossed the lawn -to a favorite walk of hers in summer—a path -under a long group of fir-trees down by the -street at the back of the house.</p> - -<p class='c008'>After a few turns, she heard a peculiar -whistle which was answered by another.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She withdrew still more into the shadow and -waited. Presently two men met.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, what’s the news?” eagerly asked -one.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Sh—sh! not so loud,” replied the other. -“It’s all right, and better than we expected.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why—how better?” asked the first.</p> - -<p class='c008'>They spoke lower, so that Salome could -scarcely catch the tones.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Because,” the first was saying, “the old -man himself has gone down to the mill.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Whe—e—w!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes. What on earth possessed him? But -then that’s none of our affairs. If he wants to -run the risk of losing his life—that’s his -business, not mine.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, but,” and the first voice had a timid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>note, “that’s going too far—we were only to -blow up the mill—not to kill anybody.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Can’t help that. Fifteen minutes more, -if everything works well, and old man Greenough’s -day is over. Jim’s just about lighting -the fuse, I reckon, now. It’s an awful -long one, but the fire’ll creep round there in -time.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What about the police?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“He’s all right. We’ve fixed him.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The voices grew fainter and ceased altogether, -only the dull sound of the men’s footsteps -reaching her as they passed down the hill away -from the grounds.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome stood an instant, rooted to the spot. -What was this horrible thing she had heard?</p> - -<p class='c008'>The factory to be blown up?</p> - -<p class='c008'>She must go for help.</p> - -<p class='c008'>And Mr. Greenough down there, risking his -life?</p> - -<p class='c008'>No. There was no time to get help.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Fifteen minutes more, if everything works -well, and old man Greenough’s day is over.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The whole plot flashed across her bewildered -brain. She dashed through the back-gate and -down the deserted street towards the mills. It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>was a ten minutes’ walk across that way, but she -ran,—flew,—tore down the lonely road in less -than half that time.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Otis Greenough might be an unreasonable, -hot-headed, obstinate agent, but he was her -father’s friend and had loved and petted her -when she was a motherless child.</p> - -<p class='c008'>What could she do? Raise an alarm? Call -for help? Rouse everybody?</p> - -<p class='c008'>But the fuse was already lighted.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Where was it?</p> - -<p class='c008'>Under the office window most likely, since -they knew that the old agent was in there.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She came in sight of that window. There -was a dim light there. All else was dark. -The south wind moaned dismally.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She hurried faster and came nearer the office -window. Under it was another window with a -broken pane, from which hung something she -instantly divined as the fuse.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Yes. A fiery spark crept closer and closer -to the wall.</p> - -<p class='c008'>By the time she reached the window it was -out of her reach.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Oh, God! could she do nothing?</p> - -<p class='c008'>She had been sewing on some dainty trifle -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>earlier in the evening, and a pair of small -scissors still hung at her waist.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Closer drew the spark of fire to the broken -window pane, whence it would disappear to work -its fearful errand. It seemed to twinkle and -mock at her in fiendish delight. She grasped -the jutting window-frame and jumped upon the -broad sill.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Thank God, she had it at last. One snip of -her scissors, and the spark of fire dropped harmlessly -to the ground. She turned slightly to -step off the window-ledge. Her foot slipped -and she fell, a white, faint heap upon the -ground.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> - <h2 class='c006'>VI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>When she opened her eyes again, not only -Otis Greenough but John Villard and an office-boy -were bending anxiously over her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“My dear girl,” the agent was saying, “bless -me, my dear, what is it? How came you here -and who has harmed you?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t be alarmed, sir,” was her reply, as -she got on her feet; and then, somewhat -excitedly, she told the events of the last fifteen -or twenty minutes, interrupted, every other -sentence, by such ejaculations as, “Great Scott,” -“Bless me,” “The rascals,” “Confound them,” -from the elderly man, while the younger one -listened in silent amazement.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Rapid search was made and the night-watch -was found sleeping, in a stupor which was evidently -the work of a drug; while the police -were, as usual, nowhere to be found.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>Salome was taken into the office—not without -inward trembling, as she feared further -evidences of the miscreants.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mr. Villard soon reported two kegs of gunpowder -and a small dynamite bomb in the -room below, at the same time congratulating, -most heartily, the young woman who had saved -their lives as well as the mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But her courage was now at a low ebb, and, -woman-like, she shivered at the close proximity -of gunpowder, and begged to be taken home.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mr. Greenough, who had come to realize the -danger to himself and to the mills which his -obstinacy had provoked, was also anxious to leave -the premises and glad to accompany Salome -home.</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard, meanwhile, attended to the -duty of finding new watchmen who should be -reliable,—a difficult task. Against his will, he -promised Salome not to sleep at the mills, as he -had been doing since the machinery had been -tampered with.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome was nearly prostrated when she -reached home, and had but little strength left -with which to importune the agent to consent -to any terms for a settlement; but as the old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>man was, for once, thoroughly frightened, it -was not difficult to exact a promise that he -would consider a compromise.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mrs. Soule, when she learned of Salome’s -intrepidity,—set forth as it was by Mr. Greenough’s -gratitude and gallant appreciation,—was -greatly concerned for her niece and put her -straightway to bed, where, in fact, she had supposed -her to be for the past hour, and where -she wept over and caressed her as she had not -done since the girl had left home for boarding-school. -And then, what was far more to the -purpose, she gave her a bath of alcohol and -olive oil, and soothed her to sleep.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Early the next morning the agent of the -Shawsheen Mills sent a messenger over to the -dingy room which served as headquarters for -the Labor Union, begging for an interview.</p> - -<p class='c008'>As this was the first overture of peace from -his side, it was natural that it should be hailed -with glee by the officers of the Union. And -although, the day before, the leaders of the -strike had been closeted together in a serious -debate as to how much they should yield to -Capital, they now unanimously agreed not to -“weaken” in the smallest degree.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>As for the agent, he had been persuaded to -yield every point demanded by the strikers, insisting -only upon the one condition, that the -Labor Union should be disbanded.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The question of ten hours he granted without -a murmur. He quibbled a long time over -the wage question, and the subject of weekly -payments, and only on seeing the dogged determination -of the laborers did he come to terms -on that. But he very properly, and too -peremptorily, refused to remove the spinning -frames which had formed one subject -of contention. And then he proceeded to -overthrow the good effects of what concessions -he had made, by violently denouncing all -labor unions, and vigorously insisting that the -one known as the Shawsheen Labor Union be -immediately and forever disbanded.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Never,” said the foremost of the committee, -“will we submit to so arbitrary a demand. We -have a perfect right to organize our forces and -assert our claims. How can we—a band of -day-laborers,—dependent on capital for a bare -living, win a single cause for ourselves without -combinations of this kind? There are scores of -questions which involve not our welfare in one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>way alone, but our health, our wages, our -morals, our manhood, which we, as single individuals, -can never cope with, but which, as a -united force, we can adjust. Besides, in all -departments of labor, the women and children -equal or exceed the men. There are to-day -one hundred and seventy-five thousand more -women working in mills than there were ten -years ago; and what are they but the weakest -and most dependent of employes? They have -no strength to agitate; they have no power to -change any existing order of things. All they -can do is to toil and submit. We owe it to -them as men, as husbands, brothers, and sons, -to lighten their burdens. As free American -citizens we owe it to ourselves, to settle the -conditions of our own lives, so far as may be. -This can only be done by combinations of the -laboring classes strong enough to compel manufacturers -to concede us our rights.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You are right to a degree,” answered Villard, -before Mr. Greenough could swallow his -surprise at hearing such sentiments from one of -his operatives; “I believe there are some rights -which you can only secure by a combination of -your forces as working-men. But when you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>let reason lose its sway, and passion take its -place; when you are influenced by unworthy -demagogues and unbalanced cranks, and seek -to effect by strikes and such arbitrary measures -what might be better secured by a more conciliatory -course, you must not be surprised if -you do not succeed in bull-dozing a rich concern -like this into obedience, and——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And when, by your —— labour unions, you -sink so low as to countenance incendiarism and -murder—yes, sirs—that is what you attempted -last night, sirs,—you can’t expect this mill is -going to countenance them. I’ll see you all -starve and rot first,” and Otis Greenough’s face -was purple with anger.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We have already disclaimed all knowledge -in our Union, sir,” said one of the committee, -“of last night’s outrage.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Blast it, what do I care for that?” roared -the agent, as usual, out of temper. “Whether -you knew it or not, it was done under cover of -your strike, and your Union, and was one of the -precious outgrowths of it. Give up the —— -thing, I say—or there is no compromise with -these mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There is little use in prolonging this interview, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>I am afraid,” said the first of the committee, -taking up his hat.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Impudent dogs!” said Mr. Greenough, as -Villard tried to speak, anxious to put things on -a more satisfactory basis before the meeting -closed. “Let them go. They’ll find hard -hoeing before they reach the end of their row.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And, sir,” retorted a fiery-looking man who -had not spoken before, “if it comes to open -war you’ll find us tough customers. We shall -fight it out like men, even if we starve like -beasts.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>And with these words the committee departed, -leaving matters worse than ever before in the -affairs of the Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>In vain did the two superintendents plead -and argue and threaten the choleric old agent. -His blood was up and he was a veritable charger -on the eve of battle. There was no state board -of arbitration then, and therefore no available -way of settling their difficulties except among -themselves. And as discussion only made -matters worse, the subject which was always -uppermost in these three men’s minds was -tacitly dropped. Every precaution was taken -to insure the mills from the danger it had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>escaped the night before, and a detective was -obtained from Boston to hunt out the criminals -who had perpetrated the dastardly act.</p> - -<p class='c008'>At noon, they were all surprised by a note -from Miss Shepard. It ran as follows:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Dear Mr. Greenough</span>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“As the owner of the Shawsheen Mill property, -I hereby appoint a meeting of all its -officers at my house, to-night. Please have -them here at eight o’clock.</p> - -<p class='c009'>“Pardon me for the liberty I have seemed to -take, and believe me ever a loving and respectful -friend,</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Salome Shepard</span>.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, you hear that, boys,” said Mr. Greenough, -after reading it aloud. “Be on hand. -Tell the treasurer and cashier and head book-keeper. -We’ll all be there. The Lord only -knows what she is up to; but if that young -woman hasn’t got a level head on her shoulders, -then I don’t know who has.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I reckon you’re right, sir,” echoed Mr. -Burnham, while John Villard laughed in his -sleeve at the young woman who evidently -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>dreamed of settling a prolonged strike. -“Why,” he said to himself, “she has never -known enough of the practical side of mill-life -to recognize one of her operatives, and hardly -knows the different brands of cloth manufactured -by them.”</p> - -<hr class='c011'> - -<p class='c008'>Salome Shepard had waked at an early hour -that morning and found herself unable to -sleep again. Her mind was alive with -gratitude for the part she had been able to -play the night before, with apprehension for -the future, and with increasing self-accusation -for the state of things in the Shawsheen Mills, -both past and present.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Pshaw!” she said to herself while dressing, -true to her habit of communing with her own -conscience in default of a visible mentor, -“how can I be blamed for the state of things -here? The entire business of the mills was -put out of my hands by my father’s will. I -could have done no differently.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You could,” replied that sternest of -modern inquisitors—a New England conscience. -“It was in your power to see that the moral -and physical condition of these people was improved -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>and cultivated. It was in your power -to give them better homes and more privileges. -It was in your power to raise their standards of -life and to create new ones. But you have -ignored their very existence, and let them live -a mean and sordid life of unremitting toil, in -order to furnish you with money to live a -selfish life of luxurious ease.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome tied the blue ribbons to her wrapper, -and giving her crimps a last touch went down -to breakfast.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Knowing she would be opposed, she said -nothing of her plans for the morning to her -aunt, but simply announced, after they had -left the table, that she was going for a long -walk.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then she went upstairs and put on the -plainest costume she owned (which, by the way, -was a tailor-made gown that had cost her one -hundred and fifty dollars), and started for the -tenement houses where her operatives lived.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It did not occur to her to feel any fear; nor -that the miscreants who had planned the explosion -for the previous night might be watching -her footsteps. She felt it incumbent upon -her to see for herself exactly how these people -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>lived, and what they were bearing and suffering -in consequence of the strike.</p> - -<p class='c008'>In the bright glare of the morning sun, the -tenement houses had never looked so dingy and -mean. They were built in Newbern Shepard’s -day, and had received but very few repairs -since that time. Although it was cold January -weather, Salome counted a dozen panes of -glass gone from the first house, and noticed -that the lower hinge to the front door was -broken. It was a two-story wooden building -with four tenements of four rooms each.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She ascended the rickety steps and rapped -on the door. One of the women saw her from -a front window and came to the door, holding -it open only so far as to permit her to see the -strange caller.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Good-morning,” said Salome in pleasant -tones.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Good-morning, miss.” The politeness of -Salome’s manner thawed the other woman, and -the door opened a little wider. “Will you -walk in?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>That was precisely what she had come for, -and Salome stepped inside with alacrity. She -found herself in the sitting-room and living-room -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>of the family. It was a meager home. -The remnant of a faded oil-cloth was on the -floor. The walls were unpapered and devoid -of any attempts at ornament, except one unframed, -dilapidated old lithograph of “The -Queen of the West,”—a buxom young woman -with disproportionately large black eyes, a -dress of bright scarlet cut extremely <i><span lang="fr">décolleté</span></i>, -and cheeks of a yet more vivid hue. A pine -table covered with a stamped red cloth was -littered with cheap, trashy story-papers and -pamphlets addressed “To the Laboring Men -of America.” An old lounge, with broken -springs, and six common wooden chairs constituted -the other furnishings of the room.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome’s first thought as she looked about -her was:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t wonder these people get discontented -and clamor for something which seems -to them better.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>But she found, before the forenoon was over, -many houses that were not so pleasant as this. -For, once inside these rooms, everything was -neat and clean, and the woman who answered -her questions was civil if not talkative.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She found that five people lived in these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>four small rooms: this woman, her two -daughters, a son-in-law, and a grandchild. -She also found that the other tenements contained -five, six, and seven people, making -twenty-three in all. There were absolutely no -sanitary arrangements, and she discovered that -the sanitation of this tenement house district -consisted only of surface drainage. According to -the statements of her hostess, there was nearly -always somebody “ailing” in these houses.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The first house she went into was a fair -sample of the remainder. A few were slightly -better, but more were in a worse condition. In -most instances she was respectfully received, -although at three houses she was met by ungracious -people, and received gruff replies to -her kindly-put inquiries.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Everywhere, strong, able-bodied men were -lounging about in enforced idleness; and one -of them, resenting, with true American independence, -this intrusion into the sacred precincts -of his miserable home, plainly intimated -that “they was well enough off now, and didn’t -want no rich folks as was livin’ on money <em>they</em> -earned, to come pryin’ round their houses.” -Finally, at the last of the tenement houses she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>was met by a surly, burly mule-spinner, who -gruffly refused her admittance.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Nothing daunted, however, she sought out a -boarding-house for the young women of the -mills. The landlady, recognizing her, invited -her in and willingly told her all about the life -of mill-girls, offering, at last, to show her their -rooms.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome gladly accepted and followed the -woman up bare, unpainted stairs to the rooms -on the second and third floors. These were -small and perfectly bare of comforts, almost of -necessities. The floors were uncarpeted and -guiltless of paint, or even of a very recent application -of soap and water. They had no closets. -A common pine bedstead—sometimes two of -them—in each room, two chairs, in one of -which stood a tin basin, while beside it on the -floor stood a bucket of water, and a small -bureau, made up the sum total of the furniture. -In only one room did Salome see any evidences -of a literary taste, and that, if she had known -it, was a cheap paper, the worst of the sensational -class.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome’s heart sank within her. She no -longer wondered that the mill-girls of to-day -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>were a discontented, ignorant set, nor that -many of them sank into lives of degradation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The rooms are good enough for the girls,” -said the woman, noticing the look of disgust -on Salome’s tell-tale face. “They seem poor -enough to elegant ladies like you. But these -girls know no better. And they are good -enough to sleep off a drunk in,” she added, -roughly.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You don’t mean to say,” asked her guest, -“that any of your girls get intoxicated?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Intoxicated? I don’t know what else -you’d call it, when they have to be helped in -at eleven o’clock Saturday night, and put to -bed, and don’t get up again until Monday -morning.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome was sick with pity and shame for -her sex. She no longer questioned whether -she had a mission toward these, her people.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She went home and wrote the note to Mr. -Greenough, given in an earlier part of this -chapter.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span> - <h2 class='c006'>VII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Promptly, at the hour named, Otis Greenough, -accompanied by the other officers of the -mill, appeared at the mansion of the Shepard -family.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Tall, beautiful, and always impressive in her -bearing, Salome was at her best to-night. -The fire of a new-born purpose was in her -face, and a new force, born of spiritual struggles, -stamped upon her brow.</p> - -<p class='c008'>There are people who can look calmly upon -a sunset, and see nothing but a glare of red and -yellow light. There are others who see in it -a glorious picture with matchless tints and -shadows. There are yet others, fewer, indeed, -than the rest, but who hold the secret of God’s -holy purpose written more or less plainly in -their souls; who see not only the glare of red -and yellow light, whose brilliant tints and deep -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>tones make an unrivaled picture, but who read -something of the deeper meanings of the Great -Artist; who receive into their own hearts some -part of the glowing light which strengthens -purpose, and crystallizes hopes and ideals -hitherto dreamy and undefined.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome Shepard had stood at a western -window at sunset. In the hush and stillness -of the hour, the poet-quality of her soul -had interpreted to her the meaning of life -and the great fact of human brotherhood. -And when she finally drew the curtains on the -deepening night, she felt that a sudden revelation -had come to her—that, at last, her life -purpose, in the shape of a sternly defined duty, -stood revealed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well,” said Mr. Greenough, after a few -moments of aimless conversation, for nobody -seemed desirous of taking the initiative, -“what are you going to do with us all to-night, -little girl? Don’t you think you rather usurp -the privileges of an old man in calling together -a meeting to discuss business, of which he is -the legal head? Come, give an account of -yourself and your quixotic actions.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I beg that none of you will think -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>that.” And Salome looked around the room -appealingly. “I simply wished that we might -have a fair and honest talk. I want every one -here to express his views. And I want to express -mine—for at last, thank heaven, I have -some.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Getting strong-minded, eh?” retorted Mr. -Greenough. “Well, go on. I suppose you -want to practice on us before taking a larger -field. Going to take the suffrage platform? -or build school-houses for the niggers? Or do -you aspire to the bureau of Indian Affairs? -Which is it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“None of them,” responded Salome, inwardly -resenting the untimely jest, but determined -not to show her impatience. “None of them. -I propose to begin nearer home. I propose to -go to work, earnestly, and I hope practically, -to raise the condition, morally, mentally and -physically, of my own factory-people.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Bravo!” exclaimed Villard and the head -book-keeper.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And I have called you here,” pursued -Salome, “to ask each and every one of you to -be my assistant and coadjutor. I have not -been thinking of nothing, during the last three -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>months. I am a woman, comparatively young, -and with absolutely no knowledge of the practical -side of a working-man’s life. But I have -been thinking, and my conclusions are these: -that a strike is a much more serious matter for -the working-people than it is for us. We act -as if they go out on a strike either to annoy us -or to have a good time. I have been down -among them—sought the by-ways and -hedges, as it were—and I tell you they -are having anything but a good time. -This strike is the outcome of want and privation, -and it has brought the people to still -greater want and privation. I believe they are -not a set of noisy malcontents on the lookout -for an opportunity to create a disturbance. -On the contrary, they see in this course the -only chance of bringing before the public questions -of vital importance to them. They earn -their bread by the sweat of their brow—and -not always good bread either,—while we, as -capitalists, are hoarding up money. At the -most, they get very little of what their work -really yields. I desire, above all things, sir, -that you grant their desires and no longer -require them to give up their Labor Union. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>Capitalists have their Board of Trade, which -virtually amounts to the same thing. Let the -workmen have their one chance to assert themselves -by a combination of their forces. And -let each side show to the other that tolerance -and Christian charity which each demands -from the other.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What about the tolerance and Christian -charity of the outrage they tried to perpetrate -last night?” asked Mr. Greenough.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I do not believe the Labor Union is responsible -for that,” replied Salome, with a far-seeing -sympathy in her eyes. “Unfortunately -it was an outgrowth of their opinions, passions -and prejudices. But you must confess, sir, -that had you met them with the tolerance -which the growing spirit of the age demands, -there is little likelihood that matters would -ever have reached the point where such an -action could have been planned. I want this -strike ended on any terms. I want to see the -operatives, every one of them, at work again at -fair wages. And then, God helping me, I propose -to do something for their elevation—something -to help them live better, cleaner, -manly and womanly lives—something which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>shall carry out my grandfather’s noble plans, -and help make the factory system of New -England one of her grandest achievements.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Miss Shepard is right,” said Mr. Burnham: -“our factory, like many another, has been run -too long on the system of <i><span lang="fr">laissez-faire</span></i>. I have -come to believe in a political economy which -insists upon the liveliest activity on the part of -capitalists, to put their employes upon the best -possible footing as to the material surroundings -of life; that they have all the advantage -as to health, morals and happiness which comes -from sanitary regulation and practical education. -I believe that only when we adopt such -a political economy as this shall we draw the -largest possible dividends from the products of -a community comparatively free from crime, -intemperance, poverty and vice of every kind.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” urged Villard, “each one of us, -laborer or capitalist, has duties to perform -which cannot be shirked or shifted to the -shoulders of Fate—another name for the theory -of <i><span lang="fr">laissez-faire</span></i>. The new political economy -will demand that every one who, in his or her -public or private capacity, can do anything to -relieve misery, to combat evil, to redress wrong, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>to assert the right, shall do so with heart and -soul.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You see,” said Salome, delighted that two -strong, thinking men thus endorsed and voiced -her sentiments, “we have been acting on the -Quaker’s advice to his son: ‘Make money—honestly -if you can; but make money.’ We -have forgotten that Christianity says: ‘Thou -shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,’ ‘Do unto -others as ye would that men should do unto -you,’ ‘Bear one another’s burdens,’ and ‘Love -one another.’ But we have practically said: -‘Love thyself; seek thine own advantage; promote -thine own welfare; put money in thy purse; -the welfare of others is not thy business.’”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I must confess,” answered Otis Greenough, -speaking slowly and huskily, “that I cannot, -after a life-long devotion to old-fashioned ideas, -take any stock in these new-fangled, impracticable -ones. I cannot, at my time of life, change -my ideas; and neither can I endorse your proposition -to make a public spectacle of ourselves -in the future. Mills are run to make money. -So long as I hold the position imposed upon -me by the late Floyd Shepard, so long shall -I refuse to countenance extravagance and quixotism. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>But I am an old man. No one cares -any longer what I think. It is the young -people with no experience whose opinions count -nowadays. I am an old man who has had his -day——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t, I beg of you, sir, talk like that,” -interrupted Salome. “We do value your -opinion; we do intend to refer to your judgment; -we——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What is that?” cried Mrs. Soule in alarm, -from her seat near the window.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is some one throwing gravel against the -panes,” said the cashier as a second shower -came rattling against the window. He parted -the curtains and looked out.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The grounds are full of men. We are -mobbed, by George!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The old agent’s blood was up in a moment, -and regardless of the presence of ladies he -swore in good, set terms, that the rascals -should be arrested and imprisoned for this.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then, unconscious of danger, in spite of the -attempts of Villard and the rest to hold him -back, he marched, like an old hero, boldly out -on to the veranda which faced a crowd of -excited workmen.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>They had held a stormy meeting at the -Labor Union, and the worst element among -them had become desperate, and swore to -“bring the old man to terms.” They had gone -in a body to the mills, where they hoped to -find some of their employers in consultation. -There they had found that the whole force -of their opponents had gone to the great -Shepard Mansion. Nothing daunted, they -turned their steps thither, and at every street -corner were joined by the element of hoodlumism -which is always scattered about over the -streets of a large and poorly-governed town.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Hence the mob that confronted the officers -of the Shawsheen Mills held all the elements -of danger and disturbance.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When Otis Greenough’s bald head appeared -before them, the crowd set up a yell of mingled -derision and defiance.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Give us our rights, old Baldy” shouted one -voice.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Give us fair play and fair wages,” called -another, while worse epithets were hurled at -him, from the roughs in the rear.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Otis Greenough’s face was purple.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“This is outrageous!” he exclaimed in hot -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>haste. “What right have you to come here -and defile an honest citizen’s premises with -your wretched, polluting presence?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Stop that, now!” shouted one of the leaders. -“Fair play all round. If you won’t come to -us, we’ll come to you, and compel you to make -terms, and decent ones, with us. We want——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>But the crowd of street idlers who had come -in search of excitement, and not argument, grew -restless, and broke in noisily; and when Otis -Greenough opened his mouth to speak again, -he was struck squarely in the face by a handful -of gravel and mud.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then a sudden hush fell over the mob.</p> - -<p class='c008'>For what was this unexpected white form -which appeared in the doorway, and advanced -to meet them?</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome was dressed in a clinging, white, soft -serge, with falls of fine lace at the neck and -wrists, and under the dim light of the piazza-lamp, -she seemed like an angel of retribution, -her eyes flaming reproach, and her hands raised -in deprecation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?” she -burst forth, in ringing tones. “You, who call -yourselves honest men, and loyal citizens! You -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>who come here with a claim for fair play, you -who come here to assert the right of every -American to be treated with respect by every -other; to insult and maltreat an old man with -white hair—a man whom, as a long associate -in your work, you should honor? Do you -come to my house to call forth a man who -was even now listening to plans for the improvement -of your homes and lives and prospects, -simply that you may turn yourselves into -a pack of dogs to bark at him? Go home. -Lay aside your prejudices and your low, unworthy -passions, and think whether we be -entirely in the wrong. Think whether you are -showing yourselves worthy of being trusted? -Go home and weigh calmly your conduct -against that of these officers, and decide for -yourselves whether you deserve to be met half-way. -And I give you my word of honor as -owner of the Shawsheen Mills, that when you -decide to behave like men and not like beasts, -you shall be treated as men. You shall have -good places with good pay. You shall find -that we are willing to do as much as—yes, -more, than you are willing to do for us, and -that we will meet you half-way in the open, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>fair discussion of all points connected with the -labor question.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Three cheers for the lady!” shouted a -hoodlum, who cared not which side he was on, -provided he could make a noise.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But the cheers were stayed, and further demonstration -was choked in utterance. For -Otis Greenough fell suddenly at the feet of -the woman who stood there boldly championing -him and her sense of right.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The superintendent carried him quickly within -and put him on a sofa; a physician was hastily -summoned, and in a few words Villard dismissed -the mob, now hushed and awe-stricken.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But Otis Greenough in one moment had -passed beyond the disturbances of howling -malcontents, beyond the petty smallness of his -old-fashioned and cramped ideas, out into that -world where there is no fear of anarchy and -socialism, no disgrace in being a philanthropist, -no bounds to the heart of love for all mankind, -and no limits to the horizon of a larger, -diviner life.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span> - <h2 class='c006'>VIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Death is never fully realized until he is an -actual presence; and Otis Greenough’s sudden -demise before their eyes and almost under, if -not by, their own hands, solemnized and terrified -the mob, and brought the strikers to a sense of -the desperate pass to which they had come.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The members of the Labor Union laid their -grievances aside for the time, and paid every -mark of respect to the old agent now that he -had passed beyond the recognition of it. A -sudden fit of apoplexy had blotted out his -choleric and intolerant behavior, and left only -the remembrance that he had been their head -for many years.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But when he had been laid away in the new -cemetery on Shepard Hill, the smouldering -embers of discord began again to break forth -into hot flames of prejudice and passion.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>Geoffrey Burnham and John Villard were consulting -together in the mill office the day after -the funeral, when the door opened and the -owner of the mills walked in.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I have come,” she said, in answer to their -ill-concealed surprise, “to talk over the situation -of the strike. I want the mills re-opened.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We shall be only too happy to comply -with your wishes, Miss Shepard,” said Burnham, -placing a chair in a comfortable light for -her. “Upon what terms do you propose it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I want to compromise,” she answered, -“and give them a better chance than they have -ever had. It may take us some time to decide -on the exact terms. Would it be better, do you -think,”—she unconsciously turned to Villard—“to -take them back on the old terms, re-instate -them precisely as they were, and then go -on and make our changes?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That would hardly do,” he replied. “Experience -has proved them very jealous of new -methods, and unwilling to consent to untried -theories. If we yield everything they demand -now, we shall establish a bad precedent; eh, -Burnham?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Decidedly, and we shall meet with opposition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>if we undertake any changes. If there is -to be a remodeling of the old system, it had -better come now.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There must be a remodeling, it seems to -me,” urged Salome. “Dear Mr. Greenough -acted wisely, so far as he could, no doubt; but -I feel that the time is come to make decided -changes here. Perhaps I am not very clear in -regard to them, even in my own mind. But I -have some idea of what I want, and I shall be -glad to have you both state your convictions -and objections, if you have them, relating to -everything I propose.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It will be no light matter,” said Burnham, -“to select a plan and perfect it at once. It -must be a work of time and much thought. -Still, what is your idea?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I want to put the relations between us and -the employes,” Salome went on, “on a better -footing—an ethical basis, if you like the term. -We must combine the question ‘Will it pay?’ -with a higher one, ‘Is it right?’”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The two men looked at each other. Burnham -bit his lip.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I do not propose to promise the people an -era of absolute prosperity and uninterrupted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>progress, and let them take it as a blind destiny -without exertion or sacrifice or patriotism on -their part. I want to teach them to be healthy, -intelligent, and virtuous citizens, and to expect -from us the treatment such citizens deserve. -I believe that such a course is for the pecuniary -interests of the mill, as well as for theirs. I -have heard enough of the conflicting interests -of labor and capital; and on the other hand I -do not believe in the twaddle that proclaims -them one. I believe they are reciprocal, -and that we must take that idea as fundamental.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You propose a radical change, I fear.” -Geoffrey Burnham’s tone held a new respect -for this woman whom he had believed wrapped -up in the toils of worldly and shallow aims.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, I may as well own it; I do,” assented -Salome. “Among my grandfather’s manuscripts, -I came across, the other day, these -sentences: ‘I would like to prove my luminous -ideal of what a superintendent may be among -his people. I would like to live long enough -to show the world that the spirit of the Crucified -may rule in a cotton-mill as fully as in -the life of a saint.’ That sentence, gentlemen, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>must speak for me. In those words lies the -germ of my plan of action.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Silence followed her. Geoffrey Burnham -told himself that a new era must be dawning,—the -era foreshadowing the millennium, since she -who held the power could so bravely avow her -intentions to make the Shawsheen Mills an -experiment in what he called Christian socialism. -But John Villard, after a moment, rose -and extended his hand to Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I pledge my hearty co-operation,” he said, -“and thank God for the opportunity to prove -what a cotton-mill may become by the new -Christian political economy.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Thank you,” said Salome. “And now -let us see just what the strikers demand, and -how far we can grant their wishes.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard produced the paper which had -been presented on the first day of the strike, -and placed it in Salome’s hands. It was the -first time she had seen it. She read it through -very carefully.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It seems to me there was no need of these -long months of idleness,” she commented, -when she had finished the paper. “Now, let -us see. First, they demand recognition, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>the Shawsheen Labor Union. I think we may -yield that point, safely enough.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Without modification?” inquired Geoffrey -Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why not?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They will take advantage of us. They -will dictate and become arbitrary. The Labor -Union grows by what it feeds on. It will become -an elephant on our hands.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Not if they have something better to take -its place,” said Salome. “I am fully persuaded -that they will meet us half-way, if we give them -a union that is better than theirs. Let their -union alone for the present.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am with you there,” said Villard. “It -devolves upon us to change its character into -something that shall be, at least, as helpful as -they <em>want</em> to make this one.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Next, the ten-hour system,” pursued Salome, -who was not yet ready to discuss the -improved union. “Certainly there can be -no possible objection against granting this -clause?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Certainly not,” said Burnham, feeling himself -appealed to.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“‘The new frames must be taken out and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>the mules replaced, with a written agreement -that no more of the obnoxious machinery shall -be added for five years.’ That seems rather -arbitrary. How is it, Mr. Villard?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is arbitrary,” he responded. “The -frames must be retained. We must be allowed -to adopt improved machines and methods, or -where shall we be in this age of competition? -But I think there will be little trouble with -the men, if I am allowed to approach them in -the right way. Anyhow, I will try.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Do so,” was the reply. “Make them see -that improved methods are for their interest as -much as for ours. As to the wage-section—were -their wages actually cut down?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” replied both men.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That must not be allowed,” said Salome. -“The mills were paying a handsome profit -when this was done, weren’t they?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They were,” said Villard. “Better than -for a year before.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Give them their old pay, with the understanding -that wages will be increased when -work is heavier. I propose to myself a wild -scheme of profit-sharing, or a sliding scale of -wages, in the future.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>“Good,” cried Villard. “The very thing -I’ve been wanting to try. I believe in it -heartily. But where did you get the idea of -it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I’ve been reading all the practical -articles I could find on political economy, as -applied to mills and factories, for some months,” -Salome replied, “and I have evolved some queer -theories, I fear; but I propose to give them a -fair trial, unless you pronounce them too visionary. -I am glad you approve of profit-sharing. -And you, Mr. Burnham?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I approve of making the experiment,” said -the more cautious superintendent. “I do not -jump at conclusions. Nevertheless, the idea, -though new, looks practicable, and I should -like to see it tried.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They have already tried it in one or two -places where it is proving a great success, I -believe,” said Salome. “You know the experiment -was tried as long ago as 1831, when -Mr. John S. Vandeleur put it into effect successfully -in County Clare, Ireland. The Paris -and Orleans Railway Company began to share -profit with its employes in 1844, and the Maison -Leclaire, I think, two years before, both of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>which have proved very successful. I do not -see why we cannot adopt it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We can,” asserted Villard, confidently. -“It is already being tried on a small scale by -several firms in this country. Why should not -we join the procession?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What are you going to do about the demand -for weekly wages?” asked Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What objections are there?” Salome -asked.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It will entail extra expense for clerks and -book-keepers,” responded Burnham. “That -seems unnecessary.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The men claim that they have to depend -in great measure on the credit system at the -stores,” explained Villard. “Their wages -coming only once a month, they get short of -money. If sickness or other additional expense -comes upon them, they are often seriously -inconvenienced by lack of their rightful wages. -Again, if they are able to put a little money in -the savings-bank, why should they not have the -benefit of the interest that accrues through the -month, rather than we? The money is theirs.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“On the other hand,” interrupted Burnham, -“those men whose first duty, on being paid off, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>seems to lie in getting gloriously drunk, would -have the opportunity just four times as -often.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We have a work to do in that direction,” -said Salome in a pained voice. “In a sense we -are our brother’s keepers. I half believe that -the solution of the temperance question is -largely in the control of the employers of labor; -and that the secondary, and often the primary, -causes of intemperance are bad and unwholesome -food, which create a craving for drink; -bad company, which tempts it; squalid houses, -which drive men forth for cheerfulness; and -the want of more comfortable places of resort -which leaves them no refuge but the saloons. -It is in our power to remedy all these evils. -Give them good sanitation, well-ventilated -houses, comfortable homes, and reading-rooms, -and coffee-parlors, and only the most depraved -will be tempted by the low saloons.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But, Miss Shepard, surely you do not propose -all these things?” and Geoffrey Burnham -looked his astonishment.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why not?” was the terse reply.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Where will your profits come in? You -cannot afford it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>Salome smiled. Her money was her own. -Why should she not use it as she pleased?</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No. For the first year or two I shall not -pocket an immense profit; that is true,” she -assented. “But I am not likely to come to -want. And Newbern Shepard’s mills must -be put on the basis where he desired, above all -things, to see them during his lifetime. He -planned a noble scheme. It is my birthright -and my duty to carry it into effect. It will -cost me something to get the mills where they -must be; but it will pay in the end. Of that -I feel sure.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You are quite right,” said John Villard. -“What may we not hope for when the condition -of the working-people shall receive that -concentrated attention which has hitherto been -devoted to the more favored ranks? When -charity, which has, for ages past, done so much -mischief, shall learn to do good? When the -countless pulpits of our country, which have -always been so active in preaching Catholicism -or Anglicism, Calvinism or Armenianism, and -all other isms, shall preach pure and simple -Christianity? When, by a healthy environment -of the toiling masses, and the exercise of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>hygienic sense and science, mankind shall be -healthy and free from questionable instincts and -morbidly exaggerated appetites? I tell you, -we cannot even approach an estimate of the -extent to which every improvement, social, -moral or material, reacts on the nation’s ethical -and intellectual progress, and the prosperity of -her industries.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But you are taking us entirely away from -the question in hand,” said Geoffrey Burnham, -“which was, shall we grant the demand for -weekly wages?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Not so far away as you seem to think,” -retorted Villard. “The questions of sanitation -and morality affect them, and us too, as -well as the question of weekly wages. As -for the latter, I am in favor of trying it -on.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“So am I,” said Salome. “I am in favor -of trying every new method until we can know -positively which are the best ones.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“With modifications,” said Burnham, smiling -at her vehemence. “I don’t exactly approve -of the weekly system, but the majority -are against me, and I may as well cast my vote -with yours. Shall we send for their committee, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>then, and offer them all concessions, except -those relating to the spinning frames?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, I should do so,” said Salome, “and -prepare to open the mills at once, provided -they decide to accept our terms.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That is practically decided already,” -laughed Burnham, “by our accepting theirs. -Villard, you may negotiate with them about -the frames. They are inclined to listen to you -better than to me, for some reason.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They know I’ve been in their place,” said -Villard. “That makes all the difference in -the world to them. They think I understand -their side of the question; that is all.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then you will confer with them immediately?” -said Salome, rising to go. “And will -you make all necessary preparations to open the -mills? And then will you confer with me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Most certainly, Miss Shepard.” Geoffrey -Burnham spoke for both of them. “But—I -beg your pardon, you have not spoken of a -new agent. We must have one, you know. -I trust you have made some wise selection?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am prepared to surprise you,” Salome -replied, buttoning her glove. “You two men -will oblige me by transacting all necessary business -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>for the present, in your positions of first -and second superintendents, and by looking -closely after the thousand details which I do -not yet understand. Meanwhile, I shall come -to the office every day and, with your co-operation -and kind help, shall learn the business. -I have too many schemes for the general -improvement of the Shawsheen Mills and its -operatives, to trust the mills in the hands of -a stranger. I propose to be my own agent. -Good-morning.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome Shepard never looked handsomer, or -smiled more sweetly, than she did when she -uttered the last sentence, and closed the door -behind her, leaving her two completely astonished -hearers standing in the middle of the -office.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Whe-e-w!” ejaculated Geoffrey Burnham, -after a little. “How does that strike you? -The Shawsheen Mills run by a ‘female woman,’ -as A. Ward would put it! And, by George! -we are expected to stay and work,—under a -woman!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard broke into a peal of laughter. -“It’s awfully funny at first,” he said, calming -down again. “But, after all, why not? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>She isn’t the empty-headed, aimless creature -we thought her. She’s read and studied, and -has some very sound notions.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But, Villard—a woman-agent!” gasped -Burnham. “We shall be the laughing-stock -of the whole state.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Let them laugh,” answered Villard. “They -laugh best who laugh last. And with her -notions, her thirst for further knowledge, her -enthusiasm, and, above all, her money, the -Shawsheen Mills will be in a position at the -end of a few years to do the laughing, while -those who laugh at us now will set to studying -our methods and come to us for advice.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But she knows nothing of the practical -part of mill-economy,” objected Burnham. “The -mills will go to rack and ruin. Jove! Old -Mr. Greenough would turn over in his grave -if he could have heard her as she stopped -in the door and said: ‘I propose to be my -own agent.’ A woman!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I know,” replied Villard, “that it will -seem odd, and perhaps uncomfortably so, at first, -to acknowledge her as head. But, after all, -she does not propose to dictate as to the -business itself.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>“She will,” interrupted Burnham. “Women -always do. She will jump at conclusions, -mistake her inferences for logical deductions and -the wisdom which comes only with experience, -and, after the first month, will know more than -we do. I know women. They are impulsive -and illogical; and they can’t subvert nature and -become good business men.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No; but they may prove good business -women,” was Villard’s answer. “We do not -know, yet, what she can or what she will do. -I believe she will be willing to leave the details -of the business to us yet, for a long time. She -is not a conceited woman; and although she -has the faculty common to her sex of making -some surprising jumps at conclusions, I do not -believe her to be obstinate about them. She -proposes to make a study of the business, and -realizes that this is a work of years. And, -besides, what will save the mills is this: she -has an extended plan in manuscript of her -grandfather’s scheme for making this an ideal -institution. If she is willing to leave the -business to us for the present, and is capable -of adapting Newbern Shepard’s theories of -years ago to the needs of to-day, we are all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>right, Jeff; and a new era is about to begin -for the Shawsheen Mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I only hope we may like it,” assented -Burnham doubtfully. “And now for the -conference with the Labor Union.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span> - <h2 class='c006'>IX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Marion Shaw was one of those women whose -lives are a constant giving of their best, with -no thought of return. We have all seen such -women. From the self-sacrificing maiden aunt -in the humblest home, up to the Florence -Nightingales and Dorothea Dixes of the world, -they are God’s angels, everywhere, to suffering -humanity.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion Shaw and Salome Shepard had been -in boarding-school together; and although the -former had been left from the start to support -herself and her widowed mother, the friendship -between the two girls had never abated.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion’s mother had died a year before, and -something material had dropped out of life -for the girl. Grief and the solitude which -ensued after her mother’s death told upon her -constitution; and when Salome’s letter of invitation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>reached her, it was like a boon from -Heaven. She threw up her situation in -Madame Blanc’s private school and went to -Shepardtown, arriving there late in the evening, -before Salome’s visit to the counting-room.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the latter came home they settled cosily -in Salome’s room for an “old-time talk,” such -as they had enjoyed as girls.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why didn’t you let me know you were -tired to death with that interminable teaching?” -asked Salome. “I should have had you -come to me long ago. You are as pale as a -ghost.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I’m all right now,” answered Marion, -who never cared to talk of herself. “Tell me -about the strike here. I read of it in a Boston -newspaper, when it came on, and again when -Mr. Greenough died. But, after the fashion -of newspapers with regard to anything you -care particularly to follow up, they dropped -the subject the minute one’s interest was -roused. And your letter was so meager! Yes, -it was. You only write the barest details, and -not too many of them. Is the strike ended?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, but I hope it will be before night,” -Salome replied. “I’ve given orders this morning -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>that a compromise be made at once. Yes, -don’t stare at me, please. Why shouldn’t I -give orders? They’re my mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m not staring. It’s vulgar to stare, and -the lady professors at Mme. Blanc’s fashionable -boarding-school do not stare. Why, it -would be as much as their position is worth!” -retorted Marion. “Yes, they’re your mills, I -suppose, and a handsome piece of property -they are too, in the eyes of poor me, who own -only the clothes on my back. But, pardon -me, dear, it does seem a little odd to hear -Salome Shepard, the most exclusive and the -most fashionable girl at school, talk about -giving orders in a cotton-mill. You’re not -getting strong-minded, are you, dear?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If to begin to take an active interest in -two thousand souls, who are dependent upon my -money and the business interests it represents, -is to become strong-minded, I’m afraid I shall -have to plead guilty.” Salome looked narrowly -at her friend. Possibly she had mistaken -her, and their sympathies were farther apart -than she had hoped.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Bless you!” responded Marion heartily, -“I’m strong-minded myself; want to vote and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>all that. Don’t believe intemperance and lots -of other evils will ever be subdued in this -country, until women have something to say, -and say it through the ballot-box. It is not -so very dreadful when you once get on to that -platform, is it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I hadn’t thought of voting particularly,” -Salome hastened to answer. “I don’t -really think I want that. But I do want to do -something for my people.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And you’ll find,” retorted Marion, “before -you’ve gone very far, that if you had the power -of legislation, you could help them ten times -as well.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Possibly,” Salome answered, doubtfully. -“But, Marion, there are so many things -absolutely necessary to be done for the Shawsheen -operatives. If you could see them and the -homes they live in, the temptations to which -they are exposed, the poverty in which they -live!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And you propose to go to work among -them,—to reform them?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, God helping me; them and the -factory system together. Behold me,” said -Salome, rising to her full height, and putting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>on a mock-tragic air: “Behold and see: Salome -Shepard, Reformer. That’s my platform.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome, dear, what do you mean?” Mrs. -Soule had just come in. “Don’t mind her, -Marion, she delights in hearing herself talk -like a suffrage leader, lately. I don’t approve -of it, as she knows; but I can only wait for -the mood to pass.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Which it never will, aunty dear,” Salome -hastened to say. “So long as I live and am -in a condition to work for the people who need -substantial and material aid, as these people do, -my life will be devoted to their service. I cannot -go on living the aimless, indifferent life -which has been mine ever since I left school. -I must have some active interest, or I shall -stagnate, or, worse still, settle into a cold, hard, -selfish woman of the world. Unfortunately I -was born with a heart; unfortunately for your -ideal of the proper young lady of the period, I -was born with a conscience, and this conscience -tells me that my fortune was given me only in -trust. It is not mine for selfish enjoyment -alone; it is mine to make the world better and -happier and purer.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And you are going to work among those -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>miserable drunken operatives,” said her aunt -coldly, “whose sordid lives, and ungrateful -hearts, the whole of them, are not worth the -effort of even one month of your life, even if -you were at all a capable woman of affairs, a -woman of judgment and discretion, a woman -of sound business sense,—which you are not.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, ‘among the drunken miserable operatives,’” -replied Salome, ignoring the latter part -of her aunt’s speech. “Among those sordid -lives and ungrateful hearts, that were worth -the Christ’s dying, and for whom He worked, -living.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You don’t think of joining the Salvation -Army, I hope?” exclaimed her aunt, quite -beside herself at this new development of her -niece’s purposes.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome laughed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall hardly have the time, aunty. I’ve -accepted a position at the Shawsheen Mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“A position?” gasped Mrs. Soule. “Oh, -Salome! Who offered you—who <em>dared</em> offer -you a <em>position</em>?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The fair owner of the mills offered it,” -answered Salome, enjoying the situation to -its fullest extent. “And I accepted, aunty. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>Marion, in me you see the agent of the Shawsheen -Mills!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion Shaw rose and clasped her friend -closely to her bosom. She admired her splendid -courage and avowed principles, and honored -this woman, with money and leisure at her -command, who was willing and anxious to devote -her life to service for others. But not so -Mrs. Soule.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She applied a delicate mull and lace handkerchief -to her eyes, and wept to think to what -an end had come her years of training; her -careful watch, that Salome should never, by any -chance, come in contact with a lower world; -her life-long aim to make of Salome the perfect -being prescribed by her somewhat limited and -narrowed rules of ladyhood.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She begged; she pleaded; she argued; she -threatened; she resorted to ridicule; but -Salome stood firm, and now laughingly and -then earnestly defended the course she had -taken.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It’s of no use, aunty, as you see, for us to -argue the case. I do not forget all your kindness -and love for me; but I must choose for -myself,” she said, finally. “I am old enough -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>to decide questions of right and wrong. Hereafter -we will not argue any more. I must do -this; you must submit; and that is all there -is about it. Now, let’s make up and be friends,” -and she bent down and kissed her aunt on both -cheeks, as she used to do when she was a little -girl.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You, a child of Cora de Bourdillon’s!” -murmured her aunt, softening a little.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Cora de Bourdillon was my mother,” said -Salome. “But before and above all else, Newbern -Shepard was my grandfather. I am like -him. I must be like him. And you must -submit to the laws of heredity.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>So there was never any more prolonged discussion -between them. Salome’s nature being -so much the stronger, kind-hearted, weak Mrs. -Soule could not oppose her further. But many -times, in after years, was she heard to deplore -the fact that Cora de Bourdillon’s child was -so thorough-going an epitome of Newbern -Shepard.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“A good man,” she would say. “A perfectly -honest and well-meaning man; but not -like Us!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span> - <h2 class='c006'>X.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Early that evening Geoffrey Burnham and -John Villard were announced. Mrs. Soule and -Salome were alone in the parlors when they -came in, but Marion was sent for.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And you’ve brought good news?” asked -Salome. “They’ve consented to go to work -again?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Of course,” Burnham replied. “They -were only too glad to meet us on any sort of -terms.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Wait till my friend comes down,” said -Salome. “She is interested, and will want to -hear the details. Oh, here she is. Miss Shaw, -allow me to present my two confrères (and -teachers as well), Mr. Burnham and Mr. Villard.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And so it is really settled?” Salome asked, -“and the mills are to be opened again?”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>“Monday morning, if you like,” replied Burnham, -“or earlier. But to-day is Wednesday, -and there are many things to be done where -the mills have stood idle for months.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m so glad,” returned Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There is hearty rejoicing throughout the -corporation,” said Villard. “I was coming -through there to-night and met a couple of little -boys with bundles of groceries in their arms. -The smallest looked up and smiled. ‘We’re -going to have a good supper of meat and potato -to-night,’ he said. ‘The mills are going to -open and pa’s got work.’ I asked him how -long since he had had meat, and he said not -since Christmas; and even then he only had -a turkey’s wing that somebody gave him.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Poor boy! Tell me about your conference -with the Labor Union.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It passed off smoothly,” Villard went on. -“Burnham told him we came from you, and -were prepared to make terms with them. We -only saw the committee you know, and they -are to lay our terms before the Union to-night; -but there is no doubt that they will accept. -They are really very sensible and shrewd, -those fellows on the committee, eh, Burnham?”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>“Remarkably,” replied the first superintendent. -“I didn’t know we had such intelligent -men.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But it is our business to know it,” Villard -returned, and Salome nodded her head. “We -laid our plans before them, and told them -that we would concede all their wishes, except -about the machinery of course. And one of -their own number spoke up promptly and said -it was hot-headed bigotry on their part that -had made them stick for the removal of the -frames. And that most of them, even the -Lancaster spinners, had come to see that every -improvement to the mills meant an improvement -of their condition. Then the secretary -wanted to know if they were to be allowed to -exist as a Union. Burnham told them that you -were taking a great interest in the management -of the mills; and that we all believe that no -harm can come of their organizing themselves -into an association, provided they were -willing to be reasonable, and to confer with us -before taking extreme measures again. He -begged them to believe that you are their -friend, and want them all to have a fair chance. -And he ended by assuring them that we, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>superintendents, fully concurred with you; and -that he hoped they would be willing to start on -a new basis, and to consider our interests as -they expect and desire us to remember theirs. -Burnham did himself proud, Miss Shepard, and -I could see they were a good deal affected by -his conduct.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am covered with blushes,” declared -Burnham. “Spare my modesty.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Blushing must be a novel sensation to -you,” retorted Villard. “The leaders shook -hands with us when we came away and -thanked us for what we had said, assuring -us that they would be ready to enter the -mills again at once. And a different spirit -is evident to-night, all through the corporation.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t be too sanguine,” interrupted Burnham. -“We’re not through the woods yet. -And there are several ends to be achieved -before the millennium dawns.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I should like,” said Salome, “if it will -not bore you too much, to outline the general -plan I have formed for raising the condition of -things at the mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Nothing would give us greater pleasure -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>than such a proof of your confidence,” replied -Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And we can assure you beforehand,” said -Villard, “of our hearty co-operation.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>No one but Salome noticed that her aunt -had quietly slipped away when she spoke of -her plan. Mrs. Soule did not care to hear -Salome “talk shop.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“In the first place,” Salome began, “are -the mills all they should be? Are they well -lighted, aired and drained? Is the machinery -such as to benefit both the operators and the -business interests of the mills?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, they are not quite up to modern -standards,” Villard replied, promptly.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t know,” pursued Burnham, “but -they are quite as good as the average. There -are many worse mills than the Shawsheen.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That isn’t the point,” Salome replied. -“Are there any better? Or are they capable -of improvement?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, yes, if you don’t consider expense,” -assented Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Are they well-lighted? Are their sanitary -conditions good?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They are very well-lighted indeed,” said -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>Villard; “your grandfather built much in -advance of his time, and the mills are all light -and strong. But they need better ventilation -in cold weather; and, as you know, sanitary -science in Newbern Shepard’s day was hardly -up to modern demands.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I propose putting in the best drainage -system we can find. I propose bath-rooms, -wash-rooms and elevators.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Good!” said both her superintendents.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“As for machinery, you will know what is -needed there. We want the latest improved -methods of doing our work. It will not do -for us to be behind the times, or the world -will laugh at our philanthropic efforts. The -standard of the mills must be as high now as -it was in my grandfather’s day. Nothing but -the best of goods, made after the most approved -modern methods, must go out from us. -Otherwise the world will say we are visionary -and lack good business sense.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That is true,” assented Burnham. “The -business must not suffer.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“At the same time, I want the mills made so -pleasant and comfortable that our operatives -will prefer them to any other, knowing that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>we propose to consult their interests and happiness -in little things, as we desire that they -shall consult ours in great. Then their homes. -Those old rickety tenement houses must be -abolished from the face of the earth.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Hear, hear,” cried Villard, “they have -long been an eyesore to me.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They are a disgrace to us,” was Salome’s -emphatic answer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But you can’t do that all at once,” said -Burnham. “That is something that will take -time.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is April now,” said Salome. “I propose -to begin at once on new houses for the -operatives. They will have to stay where they -are for the summer, but by cold weather I -mean that every one of them shall be in new -quarters.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Whew!” said Burnham; “you <em>are</em> a -woman of business, Miss Shepard. But you -will have your hands full this year to build -new houses for two thousand people.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It can be done though,” Villard replied. -“There are plenty of carpenters and builders -to be had. What kind of tenements do you -propose?”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>“I have not fully decided. At first I -thought of having single cottages for every -family, with a tiny plot of land for each. But -sometimes I wonder if some of the plans for -model tenement houses would not be more -feasible. What do you think?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There are advantages in both,” said Burnham. -“It is doubtful if many of the operatives -would appreciate a whole house, or take -good care of one. On the other hand, the best -tenement house system in the world has its -drawbacks.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“In a country-place where there is room -enough, as there is here,” advised Villard, “it -seems to me that the single cottage system is -the better. Each family can then have a -certain privacy, impossible to the tenement -house system. They can soon be educated up -to caring for their places, and, I think, will -soon come to take pride in them. They may -not pay, at first; but they will serve a higher -purpose. I have thought it would be a fine -thing,—in the Utopia of which I have often -dreamed,—if, connected with such a factory as -this, could be built some substantial, inexpensive -cottages which could be sold to the working-men -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>with families, on very easy terms. -Let them occupy them as tenants, for instance, -until their rentals amount to a certain sum—say -two hundred dollars,—unless they have -been fortunate enough to have saved that -amount, which they can pay down, and then -let them take a deed of the place and give us -a mortgage. Pardon me, Miss Shepard, I am -only supposing a case.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And quite a supposable one,” said Salome, -her eyes glowing. “Why can’t it be done?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Doubtful if any of them would burden -themselves with a debt like that,” demurred -Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I think they would,” Villard responded. -“The desire for a home of one’s own is an instinct -which is implanted in every human breast. -If the steadier, more sensible men of the mills -could be induced to try it, it would soon become -the ambition of all the younger ones to -own their homes. I am sure the overseers, at -least, would like to try it. So many of our -operatives live in a hand-to-mouth fashion, -never saving anything. Let them see that -what they pay for rent will be credited -to them; that they are actually saving that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>money, and they will, for the most part, gladly -fall in with the scheme. And when a man -begins to save up money, and to feel that he is -worth something, his self-respect increases and -ambition makes a man of him. I tell you, I -believe the thing could be done here, and the -condition of our working-men be vastly improved -by it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We will, at least, make the experiment,” -said Salome earnestly. “At first a wild dream -came to me of building model tenement houses -and practically giving them the rent. But I -soon came to see that it would be better for -them to pay what they could afford for improved -conditions.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That would be far wiser,” said Villard. -“To make them objects of charity would be to -lower their condition in the long run.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then I have a plan for the girls,” Salome -went on. “So many of them live in those -dreadful boardinghouses. I’ve been into one, -and I wonder how any girl can keep her self-respect -and live there. I am going to build a -large building, which shall have plenty of light, -airy bedrooms, prettily and inexpensively furnished; -so that a girl may feel that she has a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>cosy little spot somewhere on earth of her very -own. I am going to have model bath-rooms -and a large, cheerful dining-room. There will -be a matron to the establishment who will be -like a mother to the girls; not one who will -care nothing whether her girls are sober and -respectable, or miserable and besotted, so -long as they pay. This woman will win the -confidence of the girls, and lead them into -habits of personal cleanliness and common -sense; she will take an interest in their little -personal affairs, and advise them kindly and -judiciously. In short, she will make a home -for them in the truest sense of the word.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You will have to have her made to order, -Salome,” interrupted Marion from the sofa where -she had been an interested listener. “Such -paragons do not exist.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And would scarcely be appreciated by the -average factory girl if they did,” added Burnham, -smiling at Marion.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall have a large and pleasant parlor -with a piano and a comfortable reading-room,” -Salome continued, as though not hearing; “I -don’t suppose the girls, judging from what I -hear and see of them, will care much for reading -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>at first; but if I put plenty of light, healthful -literature in their way, with illustrated books -and good pictures on the walls, they will -gradually come to like them. And then, there -must be weekly entertainments, and perhaps a -hall.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And what about the young men?” inquired -Villard. “Are you going to leave our sex out -in the cold?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, if you educate the girls so much above -them, what are the young fellows to do?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They shall have such a boarding-house -too,” said Salome, “only we’ll call them -Unions. I hate the name boarding-house, -and I should think they would; and then, by -and by, there are still other schemes in my mind. -There are children, plenty of them, on the -corporation. They are poor, sickly, unkempt, -uncared-for. All this must be changed.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That will come, I think,” said Burnham, -“with their improved conditions and surroundings. -It is unhealthful where they now are. -Shall you build the new houses there?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, no, I forgot to say,” answered Salome, -“that we must put up their new quarters on -the hill, the other side of the mills. It is much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>pleasanter up there, and a far more healthful -locality. Work on them can begin right away. -Will you find me the proper man to undertake -the building of the houses, Mr. Villard?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard’s heart fairly burned with enthusiasm. -This was a project he had long -cherished, although he had been entirely -without means or prospect of ever being able -to carry it out.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You may be sure I will do my best,” he -answered.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And we will reserve the power of directing -and planning the buildings ourselves,” she added.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m glad you’re going to do something for -the children,” said Marion. “If you don’t -succeed in improving things in this generation -much, you will in the next, if you educate the -children.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That is what I propose to do,” said Salome. -“They must have better schools than they ever -had.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And be compelled to attend them,” interposed -Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, there are so many things to be done. It -will take years to get everything in working -order.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>“You have laid out a beautiful scheme, Miss -Shepard,” remarked Geoffrey Burnham, “and -in most respects a practical one. But you -must not be too sanguine. These people are -ignorant,—fairly steeped in ignorance. They -are jealous, too, and doubtless will mistrust -your motives, and believe you have some selfish -reason behind all your endeavor.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I have,” laughed Salome. “I want my -mills to be models, and my people to be the -best, most skilled, most intelligent, and most -progressive community in America.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Bravo!” said Villard. “So do I.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am not so sanguine as you may think,” -Salome went on. “I know they are ignorant. -How should they be anything else? All their -lives they’ve been used as we use the machines -in the factory,—to make good cloth, and plenty -of money. Nobody has thought of their welfare, -or cared what they did, or thought, or -became, when working-hours were over. How -do we know what sort of men they are, or what -capabilities they possess? I read somewhere, -only the other day, that there may still be -Fichtes tending geese, and Robert Burns’ toiling -on the farm; that there may be, yet, successors -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>of William Dean Howells at the type-forms, of -T. B. Aldrich at the book-keeper’s desk, of -Mark Twain at the pilot-wheel. We have no -right to keep them back. But this writer went -on to say, that the world has less need of them, -even, than of those who cannot aspire to thrive -outside the shop, and who go to their daily toil -knowing that their highest hope must be not -to get ‘out of a job’ and not to have their -wages cut. I don’t suppose they will, at once, -appreciate our efforts to better their condition. -Possibly they will oppose us at first; but we -can have no better task to perform than to -make them prosperous, contented and joyous -in their work. And by making a man of the -operative, I fully believe we shall bring material -prosperity to the mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But the expense,” urged Burnham. “Have -you calculated that? I doubt if the mills could -stand so heavy a burden all at once.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I have calculated the expense,” Salome -answered him. “And what cannot be done from -the yearly profits of the mills, I will do myself.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We shall be eagerly watched by the whole -manufacturing world,” said Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“So much the better,” added Villard. “It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>is time somebody set the example. If we -succeed in carrying out all these plans, and keep -the mills on a paying basis as well, it will be -the beginning of a mighty reform in the working-man’s -world. I believe we can succeed.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You will be called quixotic and all sorts of -pleasant things, Salome,” said her friend Marion.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The beginner in any reform is always -called a crank, if nothing worse,” replied -Salome. “If I chose to build a million-dollar -castle to live in myself; if I preferred to dress -in cloth of gold and silver; if I insisted upon -eating off solid gold dishes; or even if I were -to endow a church or a female college, the -world would admire and praise me, and say -these things are a rich woman’s prerogative. -If I choose instead to spend my fortune on the -Shawsheen Mills, and elevate by its judicious -expenditure two thousand operatives for whom -I ought to feel morally and socially responsible, -the world will probably wonder and call me -quixotic. Christ Himself was called a fanatic. -Most people to-day, if they voiced their real -sentiments, would wonder that He could be so -democratic as to die for the whole world, ignorant, -uncultivated, detestable sinners, and all.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>One of those silences fell upon the room, -that always follows the mention of Christ’s -name in a conversation not strictly “religious” -in character. Marion was admiring the courage -of her friend; Burnham was rather taken -aback at this fearless reference to a Being -whom he seldom heard mentioned outside the -churches; and Villard was surprised and delighted -with this unworldly woman of the world, -and her avowal of principles and hopes and -wishes which he had cherished for years. He -was the first to speak.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You must have done some hard thinking,—and -a good deal of reading, in the past six -months.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” answered Salome. “I have. I have -read everything I could think or hear of, on -subjects bearing on this case; and I have lain -awake many a night, since it was really borne in -upon me that I have something to do here, planning -my work. But the greater part of the -credit, if there is any, in my plans, lies with my -grandfather. He thought out many of these -things, years ago; I have simply adapted his -theories to our modern times and conditions.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>And so the great strike ended.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Had Salome realized the burden of care -which she was taking upon herself, it is doubtful -whether she would have assumed it as -cheerfully as she did. But as weeks rolled -into months, and responsibilities multiplied -and cares increased until she became as hard a -worker as any in the mills, she did not flinch. -She had put her hand to the plough, and it -did not once occur to her to turn back.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She went to the office of the mills the day -they were opened, and began to study, thoroughly, -the details of the business. Villard and -Burnham were her teachers, and both were -often astonished at her business keenness and -cool judgment. She had pressed Marion into -service immediately, and always took her to -the counting-room, where the two staid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>throughout the entire morning, going home to -lunch at two, and usually remaining there the -rest of the day. But always, whether she was -in the house, or out driving, or overseeing the -new houses, which were progressing rapidly, -Salome’s one thought was the improvement of -conditions at the Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When Marion had been with her a week, -Salome said to her:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Marion, I want you to stay with me all the -time.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I should be so glad,” replied her friend, -“but I can’t afford it. I shall have to go out -into the world again, before long, to earn my -living, dear; but I will stay here as long as I -can.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You good girl!” was Salome’s answer. -“Why not stay here and earn your living? -I want a companion, shall very soon need a -secretary, and as soon as I get things in running -order, ought to have a woman like you -to help draw in my people. You need a congenial -place at a comfortable salary. Now, -why not stay? I will pay you a thousand -dollars a year.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion drew a breath of astonishment.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>“It isn’t worth that,” she said; “Madame -Blanc only paid me seven hundred.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Madame Blanc is not fixing a scale of -wages for me,” said Salome; “as to your -‘worth,’ my dear, I must judge of that. When -we get fairly at work, I shall give you enough -to do, and you will find yourself a very busy -woman. Besides, if I had a young man to do -what I want you to do for me, he would ask a -thousand dollars, wouldn’t he? And why -shouldn’t you have it? Because you are a -woman?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion was not demonstrative. On the contrary, -she had a great deal of the true New -England reserve; but she got up and went over -to her friend, put both arms around her neck -and then——cried.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If you could know what a chance this is -for me!” she said at last. “If you had known -what a dreary thing existence had become, and -what a hopeless prospect I had in the future! -And now, to live here and work with you,—in -your grand scheme,—Oh, Salome!” And she -wept again.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then I will put the care of the cottages -into your hands first of all,” said Salome, patting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>her cheek. “You’ve kept house and know -what one ought to be like for an ordinary -family,—what things are necessary for the -comfort of the household and convenience of -the housewife. I don’t. I should be as apt -to build expensive music-rooms and leave -out the pantries, as any way. Go ahead, and -get up as nice houses as you can, at $1,500, -$2,000 and $2,500 a piece. Mr. Villard -thinks none of the employes will care to buy -anything more expensive. Here is the architect’s -address,” and she handed Marion a card.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But the building of the model boarding-house -was a project too dear to Salome’s heart -for her to easily relinquish to others. Her -plan, as she had presented it to Villard and -Burnham, grew and magnified itself until her -co-laborers had to resort to all sorts of arguments -to keep her from wild extravagance.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She had begun by planning for the factory girls -a house which should be really a home; -but as she went about among the operatives, -and began to get an inkling of what the young -men of the mills really were, of the bare, desolate -dens which gave them shelter, she did -not wonder that they resorted to the streets for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>comfort and amusement. She began to see how -the young men and girls who entered the mills -could scarcely help drifting into low and unworthy -lives; and she grew more determined -to do something to raise them to a higher -plane of living.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Her grandfather’s manuscripts did not help -her much here. In Newbern Shepard’s day, -the factory-hand had not sunk to such ignorance -or even degradation, as he has, in some -instances, in later times; and in those more -democratic times, it had not been so hard for -him to rise above the level of his kind. In -that day, too, it had been possible for him to -find a home, in the true sense of the word, -with families of a certain degree of refinement. -But in Salome’s more modern times, she saw, -and grieved, that the factory boarding-places -were of the sort that dragged the operatives -down and kept them on a lower plane, even, -than the Shawsheen tenement system.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She consulted much with the superintendents -and with Marion. She visited the large -cities and thoroughly examined the young -men’s and young women’s various houses and -unions. She got ideas from all, but a perfected -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>plan from none. Finally, she collaborated -with her architect, Robert Fales, and soon had -her model boarding-house on paper. After -that it was only a work of days to begin on -the foundations of the institution.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The operatives at the Shawsheen Mills gazed -on all these changes with curious interest, -which, however, they carefully suppressed when -any of their superiors were about. The average -independent American citizen, as he exists -among working-men, does not care to pose as -an object of even partial charity. He delights -in crying out against Capital, and clamoring for -a share of the Profits; but when it comes to -actual taking of what he does not feel he has -earned, he is more backward.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The Shawsheen operatives, in spite of the -promises which had been made, had gone to -work again with little hope that the state of -affairs for them would be any better in future -than in the past. As days went by, and they -saw Salome Shepard come to the mills every -morning, and knew that she was personally interested -in them as her people, they were skeptical -of any results for good. And when they began -to hear it whispered that she, a woman, was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>the actual head of the Shawsheen Mills, some -of them talked earnestly of leaving. What! -they—strong, able-bodied, skilled mechanics—work -under a woman?</p> - -<p class='c008'>But they didn’t go. A dull season was upon -them, and work scarce. Other mills were shutting -down and sending their operatives into -two months of enforced idleness. The Shawsheen -hands were forced to stay where they -were and be thankful for a chance to work.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then, as the story that they were to be -furnished with new and better homes gained -credence among them, their first real interest -dawned. Many did not believe their conditions -would be bettered; many, even, did not -care; and most of them grumbled because -their rents would probably be high, and said -the new buildings were only a means to grind -the poor and extort more money from them, to -put into a rich woman’s pocket. Such is the -thankless task of the philanthropist.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome heard something of this, but did not -allow the knowledge to disquiet her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“A few months will convince them,” she -said, quietly. “No wonder they are on the -lookout for oppression and extortion. As near -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>as I can judge, this factory has long been run -on a plan to warrant them in such a belief.” -And this was all she ever said against Otis -Greenough’s method of administering affairs -at the mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>As the summer went by, Salome’s friends in -the town began to wonder at her extravagant -outlay, as they called it. They prophesied that -she would soon tire of her new amusement, and -leave the houses unfinished, when her projects -would fall flat. Some of them came to her and -remonstrated, on the ground that her inexperience -in financial affairs was cause enough for -her leaving the Shawsheen Mills and the -employes as they had been. But invariably -she replied, that if she had chosen to build -herself a million-dollar castle, they would have -approved of her; but because she proposed -to spend a half-million on the mill property, -all of which she felt sure would return to her -some day with interest, she was called extravagant -and foolish.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But if you had built the million-dollar -house,” said Mrs. Greenough, “it would have -been a great thing for the place. Think what -an ornament to Shepardtown it would be!”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>“And think what an improvement—what a -great thing for Shepardtown—it will be to -tear away those miserable, tumble-down tenements -on Shawsheen alley, and to add a hundred -neat and cosy houses to the hill,” she -retorted. “And, besides, you haven’t seen my—well, -my Institution (I haven’t named it -yet). Think what an ornament that will be -to the place.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>But as nobody realized what the “Institution” -of her dreams was to be, Salome got no -sympathy from her friends. Curiosity increased -on all hands, as the summer waned and an -immense brick structure grew apace on the hill. -It had a square, dome-like center, with huge -wings on each side. But the workmen were -sworn to secrecy, and nobody was allowed to go -inside from the time the building was far -enough advanced to allow of its entrances being -fastened up.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>It was finished at last. The plasterers and -painters and plumbers had done their last -stroke of work and departed, leaving the keys -with Salome, as she had requested. On the -same afternoon, she sent for Robert Fales, and -together they showed Burnham and Villard, -with Marion Shaw and Mrs. Soule—who was -as anxious as any of them to see the place, -although she would not own it—over the new -building.</p> - -<p class='c008'>A broad flight of stone steps led up to the -main entrance. The wooden framework, which -had concealed the façade, had been taken down, -and there, over the massive doorway, was the -name of Salome’s “Institution,” carved in red -sandstone—“<span class='sc'>Newbern Shepard Hall</span>.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why not simply Shepard Hall?” said -Burnham, as they stood looking up at it.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>“Or Salome Shepard Hall?” put in Mrs. -Soule’s voice, for she felt that it would be like -the rest of her niece’s folly to have her name -carved in stone up there.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Auntie!” exclaimed Salome reprovingly; -then, turning to Geoffrey Burnham—“Shepard -Hall might have meant me, or it might have -meant my father, or the whole race of us in -general. This building is a memorial to Newbern -Shepard, not to his family. How do you -like the design of the façade?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The building was of red brick, with massive -trimmings of red sandstone, and was substantial -and useful in general appearance, rather -than ornate.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Ten times as expensive as you needed,” -was her aunt’s comment.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” answered Burnham, to whom the remark -was directed. “A cheap, wooden building -would have answered the purpose, I should say.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Perhaps,” laughed Salome; “but I am not -putting up wooden monuments to my grandfather’s -memory. Besides, you don’t know my -purpose, yet.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Something quixotic and unnecessary, I’m -afraid, my dear,” answered Mrs. Soule.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>Salome did not answer but led the way up -the stairway, and unlocked the heavy doors -These opened into a vestibule leading into a -large room fitted up with bookcases and -tables.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“This is the library,” said she. “Now, see -the two reading-rooms, one on each side. One -is for the girls, and one for the young men.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>They passed out into the one designed for -the girls,—a pleasant airy room with plenty of -light and space. The walls were tinted and -the woodwork was in the natural finish. Nothing -in the way of furnishing had, of course, -been done. Beyond the reading-room was another -large class-room, and opening from it -were several smaller ones. These all occupied -one wing of the new building.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What do you propose to have done with -all these rooms?” asked some one.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome looked over to John Villard and -smiled.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’ve read and studied ‘All Sorts and Conditions -of Men’ to some purpose,” she said; -“I propose, as time goes on, to have various -practical and useful things taught the girls -here. Dressmaking for instance, and millinery -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>and domestic science. The conveniences for -that, though, are in the basement.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She led the way by a flight of stairs that led -from a side-entrance, at the end of the wing, to -the basement. There was a spacious hall with -rows of hooks to hang garments on. From -this, opened a large and pleasant dining-room. -Under the main portion of the building was a -great kitchen with ranges and all the modern -appliances of a hotel kitchen, though on a -smaller scale.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Isn’t this rather elaborate for a factory -boarding-house?” asked Burnham; “for, I -take it, that is one of your objects, at least, if -not the primary one.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I approve of this,” said Mrs. Soule judicially. -“It’s poor policy to fit out a kitchen -with cheap stuff. Give servants the best of -everything to do with, and teach them how to -take care of them.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Miss Shepard has gone over the subject -very carefully,” said Mr. Fales, “and, I must -say, has shown most excellent judgment in -everything. As you say, madam, it’s only -money wasted to put cheap stuff into a building -like this.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>“Now, look through the pantries and larder -and laundry,” Salome interrupted; “I think, -for a woman who knows absolutely nothing of -the details of housekeeping, I’ve excelled myself.” -She spoke boastfully and shook her head -at Marion, at the close of her speech.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“How much of it did Miss Shaw plan?” -slyly asked Geoffrey Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Every bit of it, below the main floor,” -responded Salome. “Since you seem incapable -of believing that I did it, I may as well -own that Marion and Mr. Fales planned the -whole of the basement, and that I, in my ignorance, -could only look on and admire. But -they did so well that now I am inclined to take -all the glory to myself.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>They passed through the basement, coming -up at the other end of the building, and found -themselves in the young men’s wing. Here, -besides the reading-rooms and class-room, -was another fitted with two or three workbenches.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I propose to give them a chance to take -an industrial education,” said Salome, “if they -should want it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I declare!” ejaculated Mrs. Soule. “To -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>give skilled mechanics a chance to take lessons -at the work-bench! You are out of your mind, -child.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I didn’t plan it for skilled mechanics, -auntie,” said Salome gently, “although they -may come if they want to. But you know, -or ought to, that the majority of our men can -only perform one kind of work. They may be -nearly perfect in their special branch, but are -almost helpless when it comes to handling the -hammer and saw and chisel. If they learn the -proper use of these things, it will not only increase -their knowledge in that direction, it will -broaden them in other ways.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t see how,” persisted her aunt.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Besides,” put in John Villard, “if it does -no other good, if the experiment keeps a few -of our fellows off the street at night and -develops a new taste, it will be worth while.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, perhaps you are right,” said Mrs. -Soule, “but no such philosophy or philanthropy -was taught in my day.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“‘The world do move,’ auntie,” laughed -Salome. “Now, shall we go upstairs?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>A broad flight of steps from the hallway at -the end of the wing led up to the second floor, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>which was just like the one on the girls’ wing. -Upstairs, the broad corridor ran through the -middle of the wing, with bedrooms opening -from either side. In the main body of the -building, under the dome, was a large hall, -fitted up with movable seats, and having a -raised platform at the front.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“This is the pride of my heart,” Salome -announced, as she ushered her friends into it. -“If any one dares to criticise it, woe be unto -him! Mr. Burnham, what fault can you find -with this?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>They all laughed at her inconsistency.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I should not dare make it known, if I had -any,” he said. “But may I ask what it is -for?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why, to hold meetings in, and lectures and -things,” she answered, quickly; “what did you -suppose?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh! And for the Labor Unions to congregate -in and plan how they may overthrow -and destroy you, I suppose,” scoffed Burnham. -“And it is a capital place to breed the -next strike.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There will be no ‘next strike,’” was the -confident answer. “And as for the rest, wait -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>and see. I had the seats all movable because -once in a while there will be a party, and they -will want the floor for dancing.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome! Not dancing?” cried her aunt.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why not? The floor is an excellent -one for dancing. I saw to that myself,” -said she, purposely misunderstanding her relative.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You are not going to let them have their -low dances here?” Mrs. Soule’s tone showed -how much the idea horrified her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Low dances? Certainly not,” said her -niece. “But we are going to show them how -to have something better. We are going to -lift them above wanting a low entertainment of -any kind, and teach them how such things -are carried on by better people,—by us, for -example.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome, you don’t mean me to understand -that you are going to come and dance here, -yourself?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Perhaps, though I had not thought of it. -But why not?” continued the perverse niece. -“Mr. Villard, will you lead the first figure with -me, on our opening night?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“With the greatest pleasure in the world,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>said he, with a thrill at his heart which he did -not recognize.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mrs. Soule sat down on a convenient window-seat.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What would your father say?” she murmured.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I never knew my father well enough to -judge.” Salome answered, with a slight tinge -of bitterness in her tone. “But I know what -my grandfather would say. I am going to put -a piano in here,—or would you have an organ?—and -I intend that this hall shall be the rallying -place of the young people. I’m also going -to give a course of entertainments here during -the winter, twice a week; I’m not going to begin -with lectures and heavy ‘intellectual treats;’ -but I will gradually lead up to them with concerts -and even a minstrel show or two.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome,” gasped her aunt feebly from the -window-sill.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You see, if we begin by shooting over their -heads, they won’t come at all,” said Salome. -“But if we begin with something light and -amusing, and not too far above their level, and -gradually raise the tone of the entertainments, -they’ll find themselves attending lectures and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>other sugar-coated forms of intellectual betterment, -and like them; and never mistrust that I -am working out a mission on their unsuspecting -heads.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m glad you realize something of their -present intellectual condition,” said John Villard, -who had been unusually silent and grave -while looking over the new building; “and -realize that it’s only gradually that we can -bring them, as a class, up to a higher grade as -intelligent young people.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I do,” said Salome, “I’ve seen too much -of them, myself, this summer. At first, I was -appalled by the absolute lack of common knowledge -among the average girls. But there are -a few, I know, who have already improved the -slight advantages they’ve had; and these few -I shall rely on to help me by their influence in -raising the rest; the ‘little leaven,’ you know. -It seems to me, that only by raising the intellectual -condition, and the educational aspiration, -can we hope to accomplish anything of -permanent value to the mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That is the only way,” was Villard’s -response. “And, Miss Shepard,” he said, -hurriedly, for the others had already scattered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>through the girls’ wing, leaving them alone, -“I want to say that, as I believe you have -found the only true solution to the main questions -of the labor problem, I pledge myself to -heartily sustain you in every way. You have -only to command me, and I am ready.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Why did Salome turn away to hide the vivid -blush that suddenly swept over her face?</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am sure of that,” she said, presently, with -an effort, “I have counted on you from the -first. I shall try, by my own personal efforts, -to help the factory girls. But I shall depend -on you, and you alone, to manage the young -men.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall not fail you,” was all he said, as -Salome locked the door of the hall behind them, -and they went over the girl’s wing to find the -others.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The bedrooms on this wing were like those -on the other side. There were ample closets -and plenty of light and air and window space. -The rooms were not spacious, but they were -complete in every respect, and a vast improvement -on anything the Shawsheen mill-girls had -ever seen.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I did not want large rooms,” said Salome; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>“I think it is better to put not more than two -girls in a room. I shall put two single beds in -each, and fit up the rooms with everything -necessary for comfort; then I shall insist that -the girls keep their own rooms in the best of -order. Oh, you’ll see what a disciplinarian I -shall be!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The third floor was entirely given up to bedrooms, -the two wings being entirely separated -from each other by the upper portion of the -hall which extended to the top of the dome. -Every part of the building was beautifully -finished, well-lighted, and planned for general, -practical convenience.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There, if I never do anything else,” said -Salome, after they had come out of the place, -and stood looking back at it, “I shall feel -that I have raised a suitable monument to old -Newbern Shepard. I believe, if he could have -lived until now, that he would have done the -same thing himself—only better.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“He couldn’t, Miss Shepard,” said Villard. -“It is absolutely perfect.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes,” admitted Burnham, “it is. But do -you realize, Miss Shepard, what an elephant -you’ve got on your hands? It’s going to be a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>fearful tax on your mind and strength to keep -it up, and to carry out half you’ve planned.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, what were health and strength given -me for?” Salome asked, with the abruptness -which sometimes characterized her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Most young women find a solution to that -question without running an eleemosynary institution,” -was Burnham’s mental comment; -but he said nothing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I expect to see my happiest days while I -have the care of this establishment. I’m sure -I never was so happy as I’ve been for the past -six months. Now, I must finish this great -house. I shall need all the suggestions and -practical aid you can each give me, especially -about the libraries and reading-rooms. As to -the selection of books, I’m going to begin with -a comparative few. Will you two gentlemen -come up to the house to-morrow night, prepared -to help make out a suitable list?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You forget that I have to go to New York -to-morrow,” said Burnham. “But Villard can -go; and I can help afterwards, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“As soon as we get everything in readiness,” -pursued Salome, “we will have a formal opening. -We’ll have music and something good -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>to eat, and a little talking, and perhaps a dance -to close with.” Salome looked wickedly at -her aunt, but the latter paid no heed. “Remember -your promise, Mr. Villard.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall not be the one to forget it,” he -answered.</p> - -<p class='c008'>They separated very soon, Salome and her -aunt and Marion taking the architect home -with them, and Burnham and Villard going -back to the mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But all through the afternoon, and all -through the watches of the night, one sentence -repeated itself to John Villard’s heart, comforting -and helping him, strangely: “I have -counted on you from the first.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>It was Halloween when the new building -was formally opened. Up to that time, only a -few privileged persons were allowed to enter -its sacred portals; but every one connected -with the Shawsheen Mills was invited to be -present at the opening.</p> - -<p class='c008'>On the hill, back of the mills, stood one -hundred new cottages, each costing from -fifteen to twenty-five hundred dollars, and all -ready for occupancy; but as yet none of the -mill-hands had seen the inside of one of them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It had been a work of no small magnitude -to find a suitable matron for the Newbern -Shepard Hall. But, finally, the widow of a -former physician in Shepardtown, a woman of -excellent character and judgment, and with -some experience as matron of a young ladies’ -school, was secured and duly installed in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>two pleasant rooms set apart for her in the -girls’ wing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard had relieved Salome’s mind of -another perplexity, by offering to take up permanent -quarters for himself in the young -men’s side; for, although she had felt the -necessity of such an arrangement, she had not -liked to ask him to give up what she rightly -guessed were more congenial apartments in a -quiet corner of the town. But he felt that his -influence would be needed at the Hall, and -that he could do the work which he hoped to -do much better, if he were in the midst of the -young men whom he wished to interest in -many ways. And before Halloween, he was -comfortably settled in two rooms at the Hall.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The evening came, clear and cold; such an -evening as only the last of October can give. -The building was brilliantly lighted from top -to bottom, and decorated with flags and evergreen. -Outside, Chinese lanterns and bunting -lined both sides of the walk up to the main -entrance, and helped to give it a holiday air. A -band of street-musicians, who happened to be -in town, had been engaged and were stationed -in front of the building, where their tolerably -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>harmonious strains gave just as much pleasure -to the not over-critical audience that was fast -assembling, as Thomas’ or Seidl’s men could -have afforded them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Inside, Salome waited impatiently. Without -any premeditated plan, Villard and Burnham -placed her and Marion, with Mrs. Soule -in the background—for she “declined to be -introduced to these persons”—in the center of -the library; and forming themselves into a -reception committee, they drafted into service -a few of the best-appearing young men, who -presented every comer to the owner of the -mills and her friend. After giving each one a -cordial welcome and hand-shake, Salome told -them they were free to inspect the new building -as they pleased; and, consequently, every -mill-hand, accompanied by every other member -of his or her family, went critically over the -wonderful new building, which seemed to their -unaccustomed eyes a structure of unwonted -magnificence, and furnished in a most luxurious -style.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It had been fitted up inexpensively, but with -the utmost good taste. No carpets were on -the floors, but American rugs abounded wherever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>they had seemed necessary. The library -furniture was of plain, substantial oak, like the -heavy woodwork of the room. Throughout -the rest of the house, bedrooms, dining-rooms, -and class-rooms were furnished with strong, -neat, ash furniture. There were a few good -engravings on the walls of the principal rooms, -and the bookcases were about half-filled with -literature of a harmless and interesting, if light -quality. They had all agreed it would not be -best to fill the shelves at first, but to watch the -popular taste and to “leave room for improvement,” -as Marion said.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The operatives were simply astonished at -what they saw. Some were even yet incredulous, -and whispered that they would not be willing -nor able to live in such a place; but many -of the girls’ eyes brightened as they inspected -their new quarters, and showed a determination, -on the part of their owners, to come in for some -of the good times they saw in store. It is doubtful -if even the lowest ones there did not feel a -new self-respect creeping up in their hearts. -Dress may not make the man, but surroundings -often do the woman.</p> - -<p class='c008'>By half-past eight the stream of people -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>stopped pouring through the big front doors. -Everybody had come in, shaken hands with -Salome and Marion, and passed along, scattering -themselves over the building.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Now let’s get every one into the hall, -above,” said Salome, “and have a little talking -and some music.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was some little time before the crowd of -visitors could be gathered in one place, but -after a while the hall was well filled, and the -musicians installed in their place. The sound -of the band, indoors, proved an effectual summons -for the stragglers. For the first time, -Salome, on the platform, faced a surging, eager -crowd of her own people in Newbern Shepard -Hall.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She had wanted one of her two “faithful -henchmen” to take the lead to-night; but -they had each refused, saying she was better -fitted than they; that it was eminently her own -affair and not theirs, and that the success of -the opening depended on her alone. The -last argument was enough, and, much to -Mrs. Soule’s horror at seeing “Cora de Bourdillon’s -daughter” in such a plight, Salome -presided over her first meeting,—“exactly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>as if she were one of those ‘woman’s rights -women.’”</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the musicians had finished, Salome -stepped forward, and not without some inward -quaking, made her first speech.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was an occasion the Shawsheen Mill hands -never forgot. Salome, always well and appropriately -dressed, had not slighted them by refusing -to appear at her best. She wore a white -China silk costume, rightly thinking her young -people would be readily reached by the gospel -of good clothes. Her gown was simply -made, but fitted exquisitely her well-proportioned -figure. Neck and wrists were finished -with beautiful old point lace, and she did not -scorn to wear her grandmother’s diamonds.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Her attractive appearance, her cordial -and interested manner, and her winning -voice had pleaded her cause with the critical -operatives before she had uttered a half-dozen -sentences. Her sincerity and earnestness went -straight to their sensibilities, and, before she -had suspected it, every heart in the room was -hers.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“My dear friends,” she began, “I -never made a speech in my life, and cannot -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>now. I never stood on a platform before; and -only my interest in every one of you brings me -here to-night. I only want to say that this -building, which you see now for the first time, -and which I hope will prove a happy home for -many of you, is built to my grandfather’s -memory. Some who are present to-night remember -him and love him still, I hope.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Here several gray-haired men in the audience -nodded their heads, and one was heard to mutter, -“Ay, ay, we do.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If he had lived, I think everything -in the factory would have been different. -Your lives would have been different; and mine, -too, perhaps. For one thing, I don’t believe -you and I would have grown up strangers to -each other. You know, by this time, I am sure, -that I have a glorious plan for making the -Shawsheen Mills the best on earth.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Not by tearing down mills and building -new and more elegant ones; not alone by making -costly improvements; but by having—and -mind, this is the only way it can be done,—by -having the best and most conscientious and intelligent -class of operatives in this country,—and -that will mean, of course, in the world. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>Now, you all know I cannot do this alone; -every one of you has a part in carrying out -this plan of mine. And unless you all agree -to help, it will fail. Don’t think I want you to -do any impossible thing. I only want every -one of you to be the best and do the best you -possibly can. You and I are going to have -some splendid times in the future. We’re -going to get better acquainted with each other. -We are going to become real friends. On your -part, you are going to deserve my good opinion -and my honest friendship; on my part, I’m -going to deserve your confidence and trust and -love; and between us we are going to show -the people of Massachusetts that a cotton-factory -can become something more than a -great machine to grind out yards and yards of -unbleached sheeting; and that its operatives -can become something better and greater than -so many smaller wheels in the machinery. We -will show that a factory community may be, and -is, a prosperous, happy, contented and intelligent -people.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Some of the young men could contain themselves -no longer, and broke into enthusiastic -applause as Salome uttered the last sentiment. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>Villard chuckled secretly as he observed that -the leaders in it were the heads of the committees -in the recent strike.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m so glad you agree with me,” said -Salome heartily, when the noise had subsided. -“Now, I want to tell you about this house. -The rooms are all ready for occupancy. I think -there are accommodations for all who care to -come. You are to leave the old boardinghouses -on the corporation, and I shall have them -taken down at once. The price of board will -remain the same as at the old houses. The -reading-rooms are ready, the library is yours, -and we shall soon find means of entertainment -and work, which will keep us all contented, I -hope. Mr. Villard will occupy rooms on this -floor, and the matron, whom I will shortly present -to you, will be on the girls’ wing. There -will be but few rules, and those, I trust, not -irksome. I cannot imagine that any one will -not be willing to obey them. The new houses -on the hill are all ready for the families on the -corporation to move into. A few of the larger -and better houses are to be let at an increased -rental; but most of them will be let at the -old rates. We have a plan, by which any -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>one who wants to, may, after a little, buy a house -and pay for it by monthly installments, just -the same as you pay rent. But I will not go -into details. Mr. Fales will be at the first cottage -on the hill, and you can all make arrangements -with him at any time after to-morrow -morning. Now I have talked too long, I know, -and am going to stop. I want to have you -hear what Mr. Burnham and Mr. Villard have -to say; but first we must have some music.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>If Salome could have read the trembling -waves of sympathy and reverence which were -already vibrating from the hearts of the young -people whom she had addressed, she would not -have sat down with the feeling of self-distrust -and failure which followed her speech. The -experience, the very atmosphere, was unique in -the history of industrial experiments.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The two superintendents followed the band -with speeches that were characteristic of each. -Burnham’s, witty and tinged with sarcasm, but -friendly and cordial enough; and Villard’s, -strong with earnest purpose and full of brotherly -love. The matron, Mrs. French, was presented, -also, and her few remarks won a -friendly recognition among the young folks; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>and then Salome announced that the meeting -would adjourn to the dining-rooms in the -basement.</p> - -<p class='c008'>More refined audiences than hers have not -been slow to exchange an atmosphere of sentiment -and intellectuality for one of prosaic -salads and cold meats, and more fanciful ices -and coffee; and the Shawsheen operatives were -soon encountering a more æsthetic collation, -it is probable, than had ever been served them -before. But as it was a bountiful one, they -acted well their part and found no fault.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The crowning delight of the evening came -afterward. The young men were asked to -lend a hand, and soon the floor was cleared -in the large hall, and word was circulated -through the house that the evening’s entertainment -would close with dancing. Nothing -could have gone so far toward convincing -the mill-hands that Salome had meant what -she said, than this concession to their social -rights, unless it was the fact that she, herself,—the -haughty, aristocratic daughter of Floyd -Shepard, whom they had looked upon with -envy not unmixed with hatred,—that she should -lead the dance with the younger superintendent. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>An orchestra of three pieces was selected -from the band of musicians, and Marion and -Salome, by turns, furnished the piano accompaniment. -Salome claimed her promise from -Villard and danced merrily, not only the first -figure but several others. Mrs. Soule was too -much overcome by all she had seen and heard -to endure this, and was taken home; but the -others staid until the midnight hour tolled, and -the dancers had all bidden good-night to their -newly-developed friends and gone home enthusiastic -in their praise of the new order of -things in the mill <i><span lang="fr">régime</span></i>, and, especially, of -the woman who was opening to them the wider -doors of opportunity.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XIV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>John Villard passed a wakeful night in -his new rooms at Newbern Shepard Hall. A -strange and unwonted feeling had taken possession -of him; one which he was slow to -recognize, but which cried loudly to him of -his folly and presumption, even while it refused -to be put off.</p> - -<p class='c008'>After that first dance, Salome had paused by -an open window and he had stood idly watching -her. Suddenly a tremendous desire to -clasp her in his arms, to hold her close, to -demand her full surrender, swept over him. So -sudden and strong was the passion, that it was -with difficulty that he kept from seizing the -soft hand which lay dangerously near on the -window-sill. So over-mastering was it, that he -dared not stay or even speak. He turned on -his heel and went out under the quiet stars, -alone.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>In the days when she had held aloof from -the mill, and the superintendents scarcely ever -saw her, Geoffrey Burnham had regarded her -as “something too bright and good for human -nature’s daily food,” looking upon her as immensely -above him, socially speaking. But -now that she had become familiarly associated -with them in the daily affairs and interests of -the mill, Burnham thought of her as having -entered the field of good comradeship, and -felt that friendly, if not exactly equal, terms -existed between them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>With John Villard it was different. He had -begun by looking with a certain degree of -scorn upon a woman who held tremendous interests -so lightly as she had done in the old -days. He had felt for her all the contempt a -man who does not know them—a man with -serious purposes—may feel for the irresponsible -butterflies he imagines society-girls to be. With -her deeper interest in the side of life which -interested him, and her efforts to raise the -standard of the mills, her realization of what -to him was a sacred object in life and her devotion -to it, his thought of her had changed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>With him, familiar every-day contact had not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>made of her a comrade, in the ordinary sense -of the word. Her beauty and refinement, together -with the consciousness which never left -his sensitive soul, that it was her wealth and -her generosity which made the new conditions -possible,—these things only served to raise her -to a pedestal where she stood, forever apart -from the rest of the universe,—a woman to be -revered and worshiped; not a woman to be -aspired to.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Suddenly, he found himself in love with her. -The tide of feeling which swept over him was -one that no man could mistake. It was not -enough that he might worship her on her -pedestal, with a devotion silent and unknown. -He wanted to hold her in his arms. He wanted -her eyes to droop before his glance—not to -look at him in the steady fashion he knew so -well. He wanted to feel her heart beating -against his. He wanted to kiss her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Poor fool!” he told himself, a hundred -times that night. “As if she would even look -at me—a poor factory-boy, self-educated, self-trained, -and—yes, self-conceited!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>He remembered his youth; how poor he had -been; how he had studied by moonlight to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>save the expense of a candle; how he had -worked all through his boyhood in a cotton-mill, -that he might help his older sister to support -their mother; how, after his mother had -died and his sister married, he had remained -poor and alone and almost friendless; how -little he had seen and known of women; how -utterly lacking he was in all the graces of society -and the refinements that he supposed to -come from outward polish only; in short, how -utterly at variance with her tastes and interests -and aims his life had been.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He remembered her life of luxury, of travel, -of careful training, and the indulgence of -cultivated, æsthetic tastes. What was he, that -he should dare to even think of her? What -but a presumptuous fool, that he should dream -of touching even her frail, white hand? And -yet, her eyes had drooped when they met his -that day, when they all went over the Hall -together. Stay—what did it mean? Did she?—could -she feel?—but, no. He was a presumptuous -idiot to think of it.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He paced the floor for an hour. Then he -lit a cigar and, under its peaceful influences, he -tried again to fix his mind on the mills, on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>changed condition of things, on anything,—but -her. Still, constantly, over and over, her -tall, white-robed figure took shape in the curling -wreaths of vapor, and he fell to dreaming -what it would be like to have a happy home of -his own, with her as its center and joy.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Again, he was exasperated with himself and -called himself hard names. He threw away the -half-smoked weed and resolutely prepared for -bed; but only to toss wearily about, combating -himself on the old grounds until the dawn, -pushing its way through the crevices of his -blinds, told him to rise and set his face again -toward the workaday world. It was the first -time that hard-working, earnest, practical John -Villard had ever passed a sleepless night.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He had hardly seen how he was to bear the -daily contact with Salome, after that. He was -too modest and too honest with himself to -dream that there might be any hope for him. -He had, at one time during the night, thought -of leaving the mills, and going away to try a -new and easier life than this promised to be. -Then he called himself a coward and remembered -her words:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I have depended on you from the first,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>and he determined to stay, cost what it might. -Besides, all his hopes and interests were with -the Shawsheen workers. No: he could not -leave them, he could not leave her now.</p> - -<p class='c008'>So he went forth in the morning, unchanged -in outward appearance, and yet, stronger and -better for this first grand fight with himself. -And he met her with his usual deferential bow -and smile when, by and by, she came to the -office for her usual morning’s study of business -affairs.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was unanimously agreed that the opening -of the Hall had been a grand success. The -mill-hands, themselves, seemed to feel the new -attitude into which they had suddenly stepped, -and were already brighter and more hopeful.</p> - -<p class='c008'>On her way to the mills, Salome had met a -young overseer, who was hurrying in to town -for something. She greeted him pleasantly, -calling him by name, when, to her surprise, he -stopped.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’d like to thank you, Miss Shepard,” the -burly young fellow began, “for what you are -doing for us. If all the employers took the -interest in their operatives as you do in us, -we’d want no more Unions, and there’d be no -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>more strikes. I’m thinking you’ve got ahead -of the rest of us on the labor question, and -found the right answer to it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m very glad to hear you say that,” -Salome answered, with a glow at her heart -which no speech from a man of the world had -ever produced. “I want to find it, if I haven’t -yet. But, you know it doesn’t depend on -me alone. I may try, as hard as I can, but if -you people don’t co-operate with me, I’m helpless. -I want to depend on you, Mr. Brady.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And you can that, miss,” was the hearty -answer. “You’ve got us all on your side now, -sure. I went up this morning to see the houses. -They are fine ones, too.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And did you pick out one for yourself, Mr. -Brady? You are married, I believe?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am that; and I’ve got as good a wife as -ever the saints sent to bless a man. Yes, I -picked out the one I liked best; but the -woman’ll have to see it first, you know. And -then, do you know, I think I’ll buy it. The -terms are so easy, and I’ve a little money laid -by, that I’d like to use; and I’m thinking -Carrie’d be happier in a home of our own.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Now, that’s sensible of you,” said Salome, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>delighted that her houses were in such good -prospect of pleasing. “If you do it, I’ve no -doubt a good many others will. And, by and -by, we shall have quite a community of property -owners.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Brady straightened himself up unconsciously -at the word, touched his hat and passed on, -his heart warmed and gratified by the kindly -notice; while Salome entered the office in -unusually good spirits.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It seems to me,” she began, addressing herself -to Burnham, “that everything is swinging -round into the circle of my plans far better -than I had dared hope. I expected opposition, -or at least indifference, on the part of the -operatives. On the contrary, they are all as -delighted with the state of affairs as I am.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why shouldn’t they be?” was Burnham’s -comment. “They’d be ungrateful wretches -if they weren’t. They’ve far more to gain -than you have to lose, remember.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But you’ve been trying to make me believe,” -pursued Salome, “that they didn’t want their -condition improved; that they were satisfied to -be let alone; and that they’d resist every improvement -I offered.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>“Wait a little and see;” Burnham tried to -make his tone impartial, if not skeptical; -“you’ve only begun yet. Don’t expect the -habits of months and years, the loose customs -and low tastes, are going to be overthrown in -a single night. The affair of last night, for -instance, was doubtless the most orderly entertainment -and the quietest dance they ever had. -But it don’t follow that they will all of them be -satisfied to drop entirely the old order of low -dances when they had plenty to drink, even if -they didn’t have salads and coffee, or ice-cream -and cake. There’s no telling how many of -them will be stealing off to those places before -winter is over.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then we must get up some form of -entertainment that will hold them to us,” -said Salome firmly. “They sha’n’t fall -back, if anything we can compass can save -them.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard looked across his big ledger at her, -as if she had been an angel sent from Heaven -direct, to preach a higher political economy to -the cotton factories of earth. She caught his -look and smiled back at him; but she said no -more.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>She did not speak to him until just as she -was ready to go home.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“How do you like your new quarters, Mr. -Villard?” she said, then. “I hope you rested -well last night?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard remembered his sleepless hours -vaguely, as in a dream. She looked so bright -and untroubled herself.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You deserted me after that first dance. -Did I dance so badly that you feared or dreaded -to be caught by me again? If it hadn’t been -for Mr. Burnham and Mr. Fales I should have -felt quite a wall-flower.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You never could be that, Miss Shepard,” -poor Villard managed to say.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, as soon as the young people get moved -in we must start some classes. I know a good -dressmaker whom I can get, and Marion will -teach them some other things, if they want it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She lingered some minutes, talking over the -Hall and her plans, and left him with a confused -image of herself mixing up with the -figures of the ledger in a most incongruous way. -Alas! John Villard was to have many a hard -fight with himself before he could drive away -that image at will.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>The young operatives—and all that dwelt -within the corporation boarding-house walls—began -that very night to pick up their effects, -and make ready to move into their new quarters. -Mrs. French had all she could attend to in preparing -for her large family, assigning rooms, and -attending to the thousand details of opening -the Hall. But before the week was closed, -every old boarding-house was closed and the -new home full.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion Shaw found her time altogether -occupied. Her work was to lie directly among -the girls, as Villard’s influence was to save the -boys and young men. Marion had a gentle -and pleasing manner that made friends everywhere -she went. She had had a good deal of -experience in managing boarding-school girls, -and although they are a widely different class -from factory girls, human nature—girl-nature, -is the same everywhere. Before the week -was over, Marion had made friends with many -of the girls, and had already interested them -in keeping their rooms tidy, in forming a girls’ -club, which should embrace all sorts of -good ends, and in rousing in them what was of -infinite value in the work she had laid out,—a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>desire to become as near like her and Salome -as it was possible for them to be.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We shall have to endure the cross of -having them cut all their dresses like ours, -wear ribbons like ours, do up their hair like -ours, and get up the most astonishing hats -purporting to be like ours,” said she to Salome -one night; “but if it all comes of their wanting -to be like us,—you understand me, dear,—I -mean of their wanting to reach a higher -ideal of course,—we can bear it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We shall have to,” was the answer. -“The truth of it is, they will be trying to copy -our habits and manners and characters, too.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then we shall have to be all the more -careful,” said Marion seriously.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Life to Marion Shaw was a serious thing. -Although she was but twenty-seven years old, -she had come to realize that life may not be -for any what the fancy of youth pictures it; -and even to realize that the highest good -which life can hold is not to be happy. -Already she knew that happiness is but a -relative term, and that only by ceasing to search -and plan for it, can any of us find it even in -small degree.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>Just now, she walked dangerously near to -happiness. On the opening night, Geoffrey -Burnham had kept closely at her side all the -evening, and after the affair was over, he had -walked home with her, while Robert Fales had -gone ahead with Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>At the door, the two had paused a little, -looking at the exquisite, moonlit October night. -Suddenly the extraordinary interest Burnham -had felt in this young woman had culminated. -He seized both her hands in his, and pressed -them close to his breast.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why have you not come to me before?” -he murmured, passionately. “Why have you -waited all these years?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I was waiting for you,” she answered, with -a smile.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>One evening in January, Salome and Marion -went over early to Newbern Shepard Hall. -Marion’s duties called her there every evening, -and she was seldom unaccompanied by her -friend.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The success of Salome’s schemes for the interest -of the working-girls seemed already -assured. Although the Hall had been open -but little more than two months, classes in -dressmaking and millinery and in domestic -science were already established, and were well -attended. Some girls there were, it is true, -who felt that, after working all day, they were -entitled to an idle evening, or to the right of -amusing themselves after their own fashion. -But plenty of young women had been found -to open the classes, and the number was steadily -increasing. No strong measures had been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>taken to induce these girls to join. Marion -had talked with some of them individually, at -first, and found a few who, half skeptically, -had consented to try the dressmaking class, as -an experiment. Then the announcement was -made that a class would be opened on a certain -night, and twenty-six girls were present. -Instruction in sewing, cutting and fitting was -given free to any woman connected with the -Shawsheen Mills. As the girls had been paying -exorbitant prices for having cheap material -poorly made up, and as Salome had provided -instructors from the best dressmaking establishment -Shepardtown afforded, the girls were -not slow to see the benefit that would come to -them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The young wives of operatives, too, women -with houses and children to care for, then -began to avail themselves of the privileges -which the class afforded. So that, on this January -evening, there were over a hundred and -fifty women in the classes, and another room -had been opened to them on the ground -floor.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was the same with other classes. At first, -the young women had joined with the older -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>ones in “pooh-poohing” the cooking and -housekeeping lectures and demonstrations. -The idea that they and their mothers did not -know how to cook, and that Salome, who knew -absolutely nothing of such matters, essayed to -teach them, was a most distasteful one. But -when they found that a celebrated teacher was -to come out twice a week from Boston, and give -demonstrations in the model class-rooms below, -and that a graduate of the Boston Cooking -School had been engaged to take charge of -the lessons every evening, they, the young -married women from the cottages, especially, -dropped in from curiosity; and although they -had come to scoff, they remained to cook. In -short, they had become deeply interested in the -new ways of housekeeping, and were surprised -and delighted to find a way of making their -few dollars go farther and procure a better and -more healthful living. Consequently, these -classes, too, were full, although the older -matrons did not yet give up their prejudices.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Among the girls who had not yet joined the -classes, there were many who sat quietly in -their own rooms or in the large reading-rooms, -and enjoyed the current magazines and papers, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>or gossiped quietly and harmlessly about the -fashions and each other—not altogether unlike -women of higher pretensions. It was astonishing, -even to Salome, who had, from the first, -believed in her girls, how few of them went -out on the streets at night.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is not astonishing to me,” said Marion, -that January evening, in reply to a remark from -her friend to this effect. “The girls are tired -at night and are only too glad to have a pleasant, -light and steam-heated place to stay in. Their -rooms at the old boardinghouses were cold, barren -and dismal. In winter weather they could -not sit in them, and the so-called parlor was not -much better. When I was at Mme. Blanc’s -one of her servant girls went wrong. I shall -never forget something she said. When Madame -heard of it, she sent for the girl and asked -her, bitterly, what had made her bring such a -scandalous thing upon a select house like hers. -I was in her room at the time. The poor girl -looked up at Mme. Blanc and said, ‘O, ma’am, -you’re awful particular about where your young -ladies spend their evenings,—girls that you’re -paid for looking after. But us servant girls—how -did you look after us? You didn’t allow -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>us a light in our own rooms, or to speak above -a whisper in the kitchen, or seem to think we was -human beings at all. What else could we do, -but go out on the street when we wanted a bit -of freedom? And once, on the street, ma’am, -girls like us ain’t never safe. If you’d looked -out for me, ma’am, and treated me as well as -you treat your own dog or cat, it would never -have happened.’ Poor Madame was overcome -entirely, and the girl left her white with rage. -But she looked after her servants more closely -afterward, and kept them in at night in warm -rooms. I don’t believe our girls want to do -wrong,—especially if we make it comfortable -for them to do right.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>On the young men’s side, things had gone -equally well. There was a class of them who, -like their fathers before them, were sturdy, -honest and faithful. It was a small class, but -upon these John Villard depended to counteract -the influence of the lower foreign element -that had crept in; and to the pride of these -he appealed, both directly and indirectly, in -his efforts to establish a better social atmosphere -among the operatives.</p> - -<p class='c008'>With a few of these to begin with, he had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>opened an evening school on the other wing of -the Hall; and, as in the case of the women’s -classes, it had increased in numbers and interest -from the start. The overseers, almost to a -man, gladly availed themselves of its opportunities -for the education that the true American -always feels the need for; and they, with the -better class of men from the looms and mules, -set the example for others to follow.</p> - -<p class='c008'>No better man for the work could have been -chosen than John Villard. He had come up -under much the same conditions that governed -them. He had begun on the lowest round, -and worked up to the position he now occupied, -by hard work and the closest application to -business. This fact, together with his attitude -toward them during the strike, had made him -a favorite with nearly every man on the works. -They felt that they could place the utmost -confidence in Villard; and in the Shawsheen -Mills, as everywhere, a rugged sincerity and -honesty of purpose carried a weight that even -the most unstable felt.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The lecture-hall was usually packed at the -weekly entertainment which Salome provided, -and a new feeling of content and self-respect -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>had begun to permeate the mills. Make a -man who has been looked upon as a mere -machine feel that he is estimated at something -near the worth which every human being feels -in his heart that he is entitled to, and you have -done much to raise him to a higher social -standard. For the first time since old Newbern -Shepard’s day, the mill-hands began to feel -a just pride in being individual American -citizens. Unconsciously, both men and women -were setting their faces toward the higher -standards which Villard by his life, and -Salome by her newly awakened energy, had -set for them.</p> - -<p class='c008'>At the mills, affairs were on a most flourishing -basis. The Shawsheen brand of cloth was -too well known to allow of a few months shutdown -of the mills making any difference in the -law of demand. Orders had increased, even -while the mills were closed, and they had been -worked to their utmost capacity ever since they -had opened. Never had the Shawsheen Mills -been more prosperous than at the beginning of -January, or their future looked brighter.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When Villard had opened his evening school -he invited Burnham to co-operate with him; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>but the latter had put him off without a -definite reply, and not until the afternoon of -the day referred to in the beginning of this -chapter had Villard asked him whether or not -he might count on his assistance. Burnham -occasionally looked in at the Hall of an evening, -but Villard had begun to suspect that this -was principally for the purpose of seeing -Marion Shaw.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, to tell the truth,” Burnham finally -admitted, “I’ve no taste for this sort of thing. -Oh, yes; it’s a good scheme, and seems to be -working first-rate; but I’m not the right fellow -for the place. I don’t like philanthropic work, -never did, never shall. I work hard enough -during the day. I need rest and freedom at -night.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard smiled.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And I suppose I don’t do anything day-times -and need this sort of thing as recreation -and intellectual stimulus?” His tone was -sarcastic, for he had little patience with selfishness -in any form.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, not that,” said Burnham. “You -work hard enough—too hard, in fact. But all -this is more in your line. You’re like Miss -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>Shepard; you’re both of you happier working -yourselves to death for others. Now, I’m not -built on that plan. I’ve no faculty for teaching, -and I’m sure that my well-meant efforts to -meet the men half-way are looked upon by -them as condescension on my part.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>He waited an instant for Villard to speak, -but no answer came.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I can’t help it. I wasn’t born to the manor, -so to speak. I didn’t come up from the ranks, -as you know. I suppose they’d believe in me -more, if I had. But you know that my -father put me under Mr. Greenough to learn -the business, only after I had graduated from -college and fooled away a year in Europe. I -sometimes doubt if I’m not out of place in this -mill as it is run nowadays.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, no, not that,” put in Villard hastily. -“You’re too good a business man. We couldn’t -spare you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I can see how it’s all coming out,” Burnham -continued, as if he had not heard Villard. -“You two” (Villard’s heart jumped at the -words) “will go on and make a model institution -of the Shawsheen Mills. I should -doubt if you made a profitable one, only that I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>know you’ve got a mighty good business head -on your shoulders; and, I say, the way Miss -Shepard is developing is a caution to us men. -I’d no idea she’d take such a practical turn, or -learn the details so readily. Oh, I can see where -it’s going to end. She’ll be the recognized head -and you’ll be her first assistant. As for me, I -sha’n’t be in it. I shall have resigned.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Jeff!” It was only occasionally that these -two called each other by their boyhood names.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes, I don’t think I should care to have it -known that I worked under a woman, much -as I admire and respect Miss Shepard. There’d -be no other way, unless I married her!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard turned pale with sudden, inward rage, -but he said nothing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t think I’d have much chance there, -though,” Burnham went on lightly. “You’re -more her style. And you’re both so much -wrapped up in good works that you’ve no time -for faith in each other, beyond what you waste -in philanthropic effort. Miss Shepard don’t -seem to be the marrying kind. I don’t believe -she ever thinks of a man unless he has the -merit of being an operative in the mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And since you’re bent on discussing matrimonial -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>matters,” observed Villard, with sarcasm, -“how about Miss Shaw? And when are the -wedding-cards to be issued?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Burnham shook the ashes from his cigar and -looked at his watch critically.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Marion Shaw is a fine girl,” he said. “She’s -the right kind of woman to tie to; but”—and -Burnham took up his hat to go out—“I’m not -the marrying kind either.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>So Villard had come to understand that he -must take care of his evening school as best -he could alone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Robert Fales had settled in Shepardtown. -There were to be more cottages built in the -spring, and to him Salome had alone confided her -plan of erecting a new church which should be -named for her grandfather. When the evening -school began to grow, he went to Villard and -offered his services as assistant, and had proved -a most valuable one.</p> - -<p class='c008'>This evening Salome looked in upon them, -and asked Villard if he could give her a few -moments after the class.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall be very glad,” he replied. “I have -been working up the idea you spoke about the -other day, and wanted to talk with you about it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>“The profit-sharing scheme?” asked Salome. -“That’s just what I wanted to speak of. It -seems to me we ought, now, at the beginning of -the year, to get it into manageable shape, and -tell the men, so that they may know what to -expect. I will be in the reception-room when -your class is through.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Much as Villard was interested in his work -the remaining hour dragged a little. The -prospect of a quiet <i><span lang="fr">tête-à-tête</span></i> with Salome, even -on so unromantic a subject as profit-sharing, -was too alluring.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But, at last, he found himself face to face -with her, and for a few moments forgot all else -in the pleasure of listening to her voice and -watching the curve of her chin and mobile lips, -as she talked of immaterial things.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And now, what kind of a plan have you -formulated as to the profit-sharing?” she -asked, after a little.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Profits—oh, yes,” said Villard, suddenly -brought to himself. “I have examined all -the accounts of such experiments in foreign -countries, and tried to remember the differing -conditions and better wages here. I have -prepared a rough draft of a circular which I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>thought perhaps you might like to send out -among the hands. Do you want to see it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Of course,” was the answer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t pretend it is complete, you know,” -he went on, drawing a folded paper from his -inner pocket. “It is only an abstract, but—here -it is.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Read it to me, please,” said Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He would rather have had her read it, while -he watched her face; but he complied.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“For some time past,” the circular read, -“the subject of co-operation in some form has -been considered by the Shawsheen Mills. -Believing that capital and labor are interdependent -and their interests identical, it has -been decided to adopt some plan by which the -laborer may obtain a share of the product in -proportion to the profits of the scheme, at the -same time guaranteeing his wages against the -time of loss.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It is now proposed, therefore, to divide a -sum among the Shawsheen employes, each year -in which there are surplus profits, over and -above wages earned.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Understand, that before anything can be -set apart for this purpose, wages must be paid, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>interest must be paid, and a fair profit on -capital must be paid. In addition to this, an -additional amount must be set aside to make -good the wear and tear of buildings and machinery, -and to strengthen reserve funds against -a time of depression.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Ordinarily, the sum above all these amounts -must be small, and must differ, of course, with -the fluctuations of the market, the depression of -trade, and the wear of machinery from year to -year. It will be readily seen, also, that the -sum to be divided will be enlarged by extra -care and attention on the part of employes. -Every weaver who makes a mis-pick, every -burler who slights her work, every spinner who -makes a needless knot; in short, every person -who makes an unnecessary waste of any kind, -makes the amount to be divided smaller, by -making a loss to the concern; and, on the -other hand, if every person in the mill attends -to the little savings, the wool-washers saving -every scrap of wool, the spinners making less -waste, the weavers weaving up the whole -bobbin, and so on through all the branches, a -great saving can be made which will effectually -increase the sum to be divided; and it will be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>for the direct interest of every employe to -exercise such increased care and diligence.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The mode of distributing this bonus will be -by making a dividend of so much per cent. upon -the wages earned by each person. If, after all -contingencies are provided for, there is not -enough left to make a dividend of one per -cent., no dividend will be made for that year. -In case of a dividend it will be paid on and -after the first day of May in each year to all -employes who have been in employ at the -Shawsheen Mills for at least seven months -during the year, and shall not have been -discharged for drunken or disorderly conduct. -The amount of wages earned during the year -preceding the first of April shall be the -amount upon which the bonus for each individual -shall be computed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The profit for the present year, if there be -a dividend, will be paid on or after the first -day of May. Let every person connected with -the mills work so faithfully, making every -effort toward a wise economy, that the first -dividend shall be an encouraging one.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>John Villard stopped reading the circular -and looked across at Salome. She was regarding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>him with a fixed look of admiration and -reverence, such as a good woman feels for but -one man in a lifetime. For an instant his -pulses leaped; but he was too modest a man to -believe in his own good fortune.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, what do you think of it?” he -asked.</p> - -<p class='c008'>His words brought her to herself. Her -expression faded to one of mere brightness, -and became less frankly honest.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I think it capital,” she said. “I do not see -how it can be improved. Will you let me take -it home and consider it?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Of course,” he assented. “You know I -do not pretend it is perfect. But it seems to -me we risk nothing in trying it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome rose to go and reached out her hand -for the manuscript. Some pieces had fallen -on the table and in gathering them up, their -hands brushed against each other.</p> - -<p class='c008'>An electric thrill shot through the frame of -each. Salome stood, blushing and sweet, -suddenly conscious that a crucial moment in -her life had come. Had Villard but spoken, -had he but clasped the hand that still remained -near his!</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>But, ever depreciating himself and knowing -absolutely nothing of the heart of woman, he -turned abruptly away, bringing Salome back -to herself with a hasty “good-evening.” And -then he strode away to the outer air, asking -himself, savagely, why he was so weak and -boyish because a pretty woman happened to -touch his hand.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XVI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>All through the winter months, Geoffrey -Burnham and Marion Shaw were constantly -meeting. As Burnham had intimated to Villard, -he had taken only a superficial interest -in the philanthropic or ethical side of mill-economy. -But he was often at the Hall of an -evening; and upon pleasant nights, when the -ladies walked over from the Shepard mansion, -he accompanied them home after the evening’s -engagement. If it were early, as on ordinary -occasions, he went in and sat chatting with -them for an hour or two. Mrs. Soule always -welcomed him, and although she never went to -the Hall, she found ample opportunities of -telling him how many lonely hours it caused -her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I often wish Salome cared half as much,” -she used plaintively to say on these occasions, -“for a living aunt as for a dead grandfather.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>Often, Burnham sang to Salome’s accompaniment, -his rich tenor voice lending pathos, -and his ardent glances a meaning, for Marion -in the love-songs he sang so well. The latter -sat silent at such times, a quiet content wrapping -her round, forgetting the past, ignoring -the future.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“A blind man’s paradise,” she told herself it -was, as the weeks rolled by, and the glamour -of a scarcely hinted but very evident passion -waited in vain for more than the vaguest expression.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Sometimes the two were left alone for a -while, when the conversation took a fitful tone, -as if uncertain whether to be light and frivolous, -or tender and deep. Several times Burnham -had seized Marion’s unresisting hand and -kissed it passionately; and, finally, one evening -when they were alone, he had put his arm -about her waist and drawn her close to him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why have we not had each other all these -years?” he asked, looking into her sweet, confused -eyes. “What cruel fate has kept you -from me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It does not matter, does it, so long as we -have each other now?” Marion had asked in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>reply. And then he had bent and kissed the -pure white brow and the clustering rings of -hair.</p> - -<p class='c008'>After this, every night, Marion, kneeling by -her bedside alone, thanked God for the love -that had come to brighten her bereaved life.</p> - -<p class='c008'>And Burnham? Did he realize what he -might be doing when he won this true and -loyal woman’s heart? At first, he, too, was -happy in the present. The past held nothing -which he was proud to remember; and into the -future he stubbornly refused to look. He had, -for years,—“since his days of adolescence,” -he told himself,—had no interest in women, -although he knew that, in a place like Shepardtown, -he was the object of several fond mammas’ -machinations, and the admiration of most -of the village girls. He had never met -Marion’s counterpart. She interested and fascinated -him. Simple and childish in many -ways, she was grave and dignified in others. -Her life, he could see, would be spent for -others. She was one of those women who are -a constant sacrifice to the world around them; -who give openly and always of their best, asking -and expecting little in return. In short-Burnham -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>knew it as well as any one could—she -was a woman whose life and love and -utmost service would be absorbed by a selfish -man, only to be as unappreciated as they were -undeserved on his part. And yet, ever since -their first meeting, months before, there had -been that subtle consciousness of each other -drawing them on, that wave of feeling on -meeting, that positive yearning when they were -separated.</p> - -<p class='c008'>After Villard’s pointed questioning regarding -Marion, Burnham began to question himself -seriously. At first, when thoughts of the -future had intruded into his calm moments, he -thought of her as his wife; of himself as settled -down in a house of his own; he even expected -to be happy. But he did not put his thoughts -into words. When he was with Marion, he -avoided—not so much from intention perhaps -as from a reluctance to break the spell of romance -which hung over them—any mention -of different relations in the future.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was April before he brought himself to -face about and look at the subject, calmly and -seriously. Just where was he drifting with -Marion?</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>One day he allowed himself to let fall some -remark about her to Villard,—not in any way -implying their peculiar relations, but yet speaking -of her in such a way that Villard drew himself -up to his straightest, and looked him in -the eye a full moment. Not a word was said, -but at that instant, Burnham felt the disagreeable -consciousness of being a scoundrel.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He went home that evening and tried to read. -Then he tried to smoke. Then he thought of -going over to the Shepard mansion. He finally -decided on sitting down and squarely meeting -an issue that should have been faced six months -before.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Geoffrey Burnham was thirty-seven years old. -He had considered only his own taste and -desires ever since he was born. When he was -a boy, if he had wanted anything, he had it. -If his father did not grant his every wish his -mother would. And she, poor woman, had -fostered in him the idea that all his personal, -imperious desires were meant, always, to be -immediately granted. The conquering of Self -had been no part of his early discipline.</p> - -<p class='c008'>His father died when he was in Europe. -When he came home, and entered the mills,—an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>arrangement the father effected just before his -decease,—his pretty, white-faced mother had -come to Shepardtown to be near her son. For -him she lived and would die. Yielding weakly -in everything to him, she avenged her position -by setting herself against all other women. -Salome had called upon her, and had invited -her to her house, but in vain. Mrs. Burnham -went nowhere, and wanted to see no one. Her -son was all in all to her. And but for the -constant fear that he would marry the handsome -Miss Shepard, who, with all her wealth, she -felt sure, would crowd her completely out of -her son’s heart and home, she would have been -a comparatively happy woman. Incredible to -larger-hearted women, as it seems, there are -women so selfish in their devotion to an only -son, as to wreck his life, so far as its being -of any practical value to himself and others is -concerned, by the strength of their own -weak persistence.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Burnham thought of his mother. He remembered -the comfortable habits he had settled -into; he wondered if any other woman would -ever let him smoke in the best room in the -house, or submit to his will when he chose, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>he often did for days together, to speak only -in monosyllables in his own house. He felt -that, should he marry, his habits would all -have to be changed; that the solitude which -he prized, when he felt so inclined, might be -absolute no longer. He remembered his -mother’s peculiarities, and said to himself that -there would be a devil of a row, should he -undertake to bring a wife home. There might -be constant bickerings, and that he never -could abide. No; better let women alone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then he thought of Marion and sighed. -Her tender eyes, when he parted from her two -nights before, came up before him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Hang it,” he asked himself; “just how -far have I gone with her, anyway?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>He felt himself a scoundrel again, to his -credit be it written. But then, there were the -habits of a lifetime, and his mother to be -remembered. Could he overthrow all his -established convictions?</p> - -<p class='c008'>And yet, just what might Marion be -expecting of him? No, he had given her no -definite encouragement in words. Still, one -never can tell how a good, pure woman is -going to take these things.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>Burnham went out under the April sky and -walked up and down the concrete walk bareheaded, -until his mother, from her window, -reminded him for the third time that he would -certainly get cold out there; and shouldn’t -she make him a cup of hot negus? Then he -came in and renewed the conflict.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’ve let the thing run too long,” he said -to himself, as he gazed into the open wood-fire, -having refused the decoction his mother had -patiently brought him. “I’ll have a reckoning -with myself to-night, and decide this thing -once for all.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Burnham was a decided man, and, once -determined, seldom changed his mind. He -boasted, sometimes, of that quality, forgetting -that it is only an ignorant or an unprogressive -soul which will never acknowledge itself in the -wrong, or change its course from the one marked -out, perhaps in obstinacy or error.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Until midnight he argued with himself, -although, unconsciously, his mind had been -secretly made up at the start. When the clock -struck twelve he rose and got together his -writing materials.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He had fully decided that it would be folly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>for him to marry Marion Shaw. She was a -rarely devoted, unselfish woman, and a most -lovable one; but he knew himself, he said, and -if she married him she would do so only to be -unhappy in the end. She could not be otherwise, -living with him and his mother.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But how was he to withdraw from the delicate -situation in which he had foolishly placed -himself? There was, he decided, but one way.</p> - -<p class='c008'>For a year, now, Salome Shepard had been -making a deep and practical study of the mills -and their operation. She had proved a wonderfully -apt scholar, her womanly intuition often -grasping, in a few minutes, details which he -had been months in learning. He doubted if, -should occasion require it, she could not run -the mills alone. With Villard—honest, faithful -soul!—to help her, Burnham felt that there -was no longer any need of his services at the -Shawsheen Mills. There was another superintendency -in a mill at Lowell which stood -open to him, whenever he chose to take it. -There were some things about it that he would -not like; but he must not remain on dangerous -ground. He took great credit to himself -as he reflected that honor required him not to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>trifle with Marion’s feelings another day. He -virtuously decided to take himself out of her -way. Once gone from her she would cease to -feel his attraction and forget the tender scenes -between them. He would resign his connection -with the Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He sat down and wrote the letter of resignation. -Then he went to bed and slept. He, -like Villard, had kept awake hours for a -woman. But he was not the man to conquer -his selfish nature, or to grow stronger by -fighting himself.</p> - -<hr class='c011'> - -<p class='c008'>The next morning Salome found Villard -alone in the inner office of the mills. A note -lay on her desk. It was Burnham’s resignation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She uttered an exclamation of surprise, and -turned to Villard.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Did you know about this?” she asked, -handing him the note.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard looked as astonished as though a -dynamite bomb had exploded in the mill-yard.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Not a word,” he said. “But stay, he did -hint at something, months ago; but I never -gave it a second thought. ‘Decided that he -is no longer needed on the works, and an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>opportunity having offered to better his condition.’ -H’m! Those are his reasons? -Strange he hadn’t mentioned the matter to me -although it <em>was</em> his own business.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“But what are we going to do? Can’t we -get him back?” asked Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We can try,” was the reply, “but Burnham -is a pretty determined fellow when he -fairly makes up his mind. Shall I go over -and see him?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If you please. Tell him to come back -with you; I want to persuade him to stay if I -can.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard went over to Burnham’s house, -but he had already gone to Lowell to complete -arrangements to enter the new position. -Mrs. Burnham knew nothing of either this -plan or her son’s sudden resignation. Villard -returned to Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What are we going to do,” she asked, -“supposing he refuses to come back—even at -an increased salary?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Don’t you think you and I can run the -business alone for a while?” returned Villard, -“at least until we can find a good man. Good -superintendents don’t grow on every bush.”</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>“Do you think I am capable of taking his -place—with your help, of course?” Salome -looked earnestly at him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I think you are quite capable of doing -anything noble and great,” he answered, -fervently.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“With your help,” she said, in a low tone. -“Of course I will do anything, and shall be -only too proud,” she hastened to add, “if I -have succeeded in learning enough of the -business to be of any use.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard looked again at her averted eyes, and -checked an impulse to say something more. -Had he known a tenth as much of women as -of cotton factories, his fortune and happiness -had been in his own hands. But he honestly -thought she had turned away her eyes and -spoken the last sentence to turn him away from -saying more; while she was saying to herself -as she turned to her desk again:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Will he never, never speak? It will come, -some time, I am sure, but will he never dare?”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XVII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Burnham returned to Shepardtown only to -tell his mother that he should go to Lowell -immediately. He had accepted the standing -offer there, and expected to begin at once.</p> - -<p class='c008'>In vain Salome offered him an increase of -salary. And as he was evidently bent on -going, she would not urge him to remain in -her employ. But both she and Villard could -assign but one reason for his sudden determination. -Both felt sure that he had offered himself -to Marion and that she had refused him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Intimate as Salome and Marion were, no -discussion of love-matters ever entered their -conversation. With each, love was too high -and sacred a thing to be bruited about, even -in a conversation between friends. In their -younger days, when Marion had shyly -announced her engagement to a young law-student, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>there had been no silly or sentimental -waste of words between them on the subject. -And now, perhaps because both women felt -the stirrings of a deep passion in their inmost -heart, no reference to the subject was ever -made.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When Salome went home to lunch, she told -Marion of Burnham’s resignation; but beyond -a momentary look of blank astonishment -Marion’s face gave no sign. And Salome’s -feeling for her friend was too deep and too -delicate, to ask for what she did not choose to -tell voluntarily.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Burnham would have been glad to leave -town without risking himself in Marion’s -presence again.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He feared to trust himself with her, in the -presence of the strange attraction she had held -for him. But common courtesy demanded -that he should call at the Mansion to leave -his good-byes.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion heard the news of his resignation -with a strange sinking of the heart. Something -told her that this was the end of her -foolish, happy dream. And although she -loyally refused to acknowledge her doubts, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>the strange presaging which was something -more than presentiment lurked in her heart -all day, and kept her uneasy and restless. She -half expected Burnham to come in and by a -few words settle the question of their relations. -She even asked herself, how she could best -leave Shepardtown if he insisted upon taking -her to Lowell.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But he did not come until evening. Then -it happened, as events will in this strange -world, that she was with her classes at the -Hall. Salome was unusually tired that evening -and had remained quietly at home. Burnham -dropped in about eight o’clock, sat for -half an hour with her and Mrs. Soule, and -then bade them good-bye, leaving his adieu -for Marion. He did not go to the Hall, -although she half expected him all through the -long evening. The next morning he took an -early train for Lowell.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When Marion came home she heard in -amazement that Burnham had been there and -gone. Salome gave her his word of parting.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And was that all?” Marion asked, with -strained voice and blazing cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That was all. Tell me, dear,” asked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>Salome, for the first time, “was there any -trouble between you? Had you anything to -do with his going?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, nothing,” and Marion was gone to her -room.</p> - -<p class='c008'>On the first day of May, the experiment of -profit-sharing was put into effect for the first -time at the Shawsheen Mills. In spite of the -strike, and the enforced idleness of several -months which had followed, previous to the year -just passed, this had been a successful one, and -when the divisions for capital, machinery and reserve -fund had been set aside, there still remained -a surplus which gave a dividend of four and -a half per cent. In some cases, this dividend -on wages made a very considerable sum, and in -all cases the operatives felt a new sensation of -direct responsibility and connection with the -mills. Besides the addition of this money to -their wages, the feeling of brotherhood and -ownership it engendered was, Villard declared, -quite worth the experiment.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Another circular was sent out, urging the -operatives to increased care in saving and -painstaking in order that the dividend might -be larger another year. And the good results -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>of the plan were directly manifest in the work -of nearly every employe.</p> - -<p class='c008'>A little incident which occurred soon after -this did much to convince the men of the -changed relations in which they now stood -towards their employers.</p> - -<p class='c008'>An overseer had been tyrannizing over the -spinners until they would endure it no longer. -In Mr. Greenough’s day, it is more than probable -that the matter would have culminated in -a lock-out or a strike.</p> - -<p class='c008'>But with the new order of things came a -greater feeling of confidence in Villard. Five -of the spinners, therefore, with the consent -of the others, went personally to the superintendent.</p> - -<p class='c008'>After hearing their story, Villard promised -to settle their grievance, and quite a discussion -of economic questions concerning Capital -<em>versus</em> Labor followed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You men have labor to sell,” said Villard, -“and we buy it. We have the products of -your labor to sell, and the commission merchants -and others buy it. As much courtesy -and fair dealing should exist between us, as I -like to have between us and the men to whom -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>we sell. We would not take insolence from a -broker’s clerk; you need not put up with the -tyranny of an overseer.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>These words, repeated to the other employes, -were the most powerful preventive against -strikes ever tried in the Shawsheen Mills.</p> - -<p class='c008'>As the summer advanced, other new cottages -were built on the hill to accommodate the -growing demand from the operatives. All -those built the previous year were occupied, -and many of them had been bought on the -installment plan. Although the community -around the Shawsheen factories, as it now -existed, had come suddenly into its new relation, -it already represented almost an ideal one. -It was already a practical lesson in social -economics, which many a reformer and many a -capitalist would do well to study. To be a -capitalist even in a small way is to learn to -respect capital. The fact that these men -owned their small plots of ground and their -cottages (even if they were mortgaged for the -greater part of their value) was already dignifying -the laborer by the tangible proof of his -own value.</p> - -<p class='c008'>By this time, Salome had come to know -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>every family who were in the employ of the -mills. Was there trouble coming to any -household, was there sickness, was there affliction -among them, they all turned to her for -help and sympathy, encouragement or congratulation. -The smallest events—the birth -of a baby, the progress of measles, the love -affairs of the young, the querulous complaints -of the old—were all of interest to her; and -they, in return, appreciated her kindness and -returned it with a loyalty of service that did -her soul good.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome often declared, laughingly, that -her relations to them were truly patriarchal. -An atmosphere of content and friendliness -prevailed where there had been jealousy and -bickering.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The popular entertainments were kept up -during the summer. There were concerts, at -which local talent (often some operative who -possessed the faculty of singing a song) -appeared. Salome, herself, often presided at -the piano, and Marion frequently lent her -voice; their theory being that young people who -took little or no vacation in summer needed -some sort of recreation in summer as in winter.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>Towards the close of the summer, as Salome -came out of the Hall one evening, one of the -young men came up to her side, and asked if -he might speak to her alone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Certainly,” she said; “Mr. Fales, will you -walk ahead with Marion, while O’Donovan -walks home with me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She remembered the young fellow perfectly. -She had seen him first during the strike, a -handsome young dare-devil who seemed, in -fact, to be one of the ringleaders among the -younger men. When the mills had re-opened, -she had taken an uncommon interest in him. -He was a faithful and industrious man, and -when, after a few weeks of sneering at the -“new-fangled notions,” he had settled into -harmony with the strange atmosphere, he had -tried to improve himself in many ways. When -Villard took charge of the evening school, -he had held aloof for a few weeks, but at -last joined one of Fales’ classes. In their -entertainments and dances, he had taken leading -parts; and that day, Villard had offered -him the post of overseer in one of the minor -departments at the mills. It was quite a step -up for the young man, and Villard had been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>surprised at his hesitation in accepting the -offer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome knew all this; and as she heartily -liked the fellow, she determined to influence -him for his own interest.</p> - -<p class='c008'>O’Donovan was silent for some moments, -after they started, doubtless being unaccustomed -to escort ladies of her degree in that friendly -way. But Salome soon put him at his ease by -her kind and easy manner.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And so you’re going to be promoted,” she -said, after a little. “I hope you like that?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Miss Shepard,” he blurted out in confused -speech, “that’s what I want to talk about. -There’s something—I mean, I want to tell—I -<em>ought</em> to tell you something, Miss Shepard.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Very well. It oughtn’t to be very difficult -to do that,” and her tone was cordial and encouraging.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t think I ought to take the position—unless -you say so. But I expect you’ll put -me in irons, if I tell you. Only—well, the -other fellows would say I was a blasted fool—barrin’ -your presence, miss.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why, John,” exclaimed Salome wonderingly. -For the young man was in a great -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>state of excitement. “What can it be? -Surely, you know you need not be afraid of -me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You remember the night some one tried -to blow up the mill—and Mr. Greenough—and -Mr. Villard——” Salome stood still and gazed -through the summer moonlight at her strange -escort. He did not look up, but stood like a -culprit before her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t know how you managed to find -out and save ’em,” he went on. “Miss -Shepard—it was me.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You? John O’Donovan!” For an instant -there was silence.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Go on,” she said, when she could command -her voice. “Tell me all.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“It was John Ross that planned it and put -me up to it. When he died, I wondered if he -hadn’t told you or Mr. Villard. Ever since -then, I’ve been trying to, but somehow I -couldn’t—tell Mr. Villard—nor you neither.—It -was John Ross that planned it. He called -me a coward and a scab—and, finally, well—you -know I was a crazy fool then, with the -rest of ’em.—It ain’t no use talkin’, miss, but -we all discussed and brooded over things until -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>we were half out of our heads. If any one of -us had weakened first, we’d all give up, and the -strike would have bu’st; but—well, ’tain’t no -use talkin’, I s’pose. I’ve confessed, and you -can have me put in irons, if you want to.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“How did you come to want to tell me, -John?” Salome said softly.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, miss, when I found how you saved the -mill that night, and the lives of those two men, -I went down on my knees with thankfulness. -It somehow seemed to open my eyes to where -I’d been standin’. Then, when the mills -opened and you took us back, and when you -commenced to take an interest in us; when -you built that beautiful big Hall, and all -them cottages; and, if you’ll pardon me for -sayin’ it, when you begun walkin’ thro’ the -mills yourself, speakin’ a pleasant word to us -all and smilin’ at us as if we were all your -equals, miss—and you a saint,——it was then -I seemed no better’n a murderer. And when -John Ross died, and the detectives gave up -lookin’ for the men, it was bore in on me as -how I ought to confess; and to-day, when Mr. -Villard called me into the office and praised -my work, and said I’d been faithful and trustworthy——<em>trustworthy</em>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>ma’am!—why, then, -I couldn’t stand it no longer.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The young man stood silent in the moonlight. -Salome’s eyes were filled with tears.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“John,” she said, “you are a noble fellow. -It is no more than right that you should confess -this to me, but not all fellows in your place -could do it. You can because you have the -making of a man in you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The young man looked up.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And what are you goin’ to do with me?” -he asked.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Will you do just what I say?” returned -Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I will, indeed,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then I want you to go to Mr. Villard to-morrow -morning and tell him you accept the -place. Then do your best, and deserve better -things in future.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Miss Shepard!” Young O’Donovan fairly -gasped.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“John,” she went on, and she seemed to him -like the pictures of saints in the church, as she -stood in her white gown in the silvery light, -“if your scheme had succeeded, you would not -only have destroyed most valuable property of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>mine; you would have killed two of my dearest -friends; but you have turned over a new -leaf. I feel sure that nothing will ever induce -you to consent to anything of the kind again.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Never, so help me Heaven!” he exclaimed, -fervently.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Now, you have confessed like a man, I -will forgive like a woman. You will accept -the new place. You will go on studying and -improving yourself, and some day I shall be -proud of you, and you will be proud that you -once had the manliness to come to me and -confess a crime. Now, we will bury the thing -forever, and never speak of it again. Only -promise me you will go to Mr. Villard in the -morning and do as I ask you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I promise,” said the young man solemnly. -Then he dropped on his knees and seizing her -hand, bent his head reverently upon it.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If the God in Heaven above is like you,” -he said, “He is a God worth serving.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“My poor forgiveness resembles His, John, -only as a drop of rain resembles the mighty -ocean.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>They walked silently home, and O’Donovan -left her with a new purpose in his heart that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>has never left it since. He is to-day a thriving -Christian gentleman. Dare any one say it -would have been better to condemn him as a -law-breaker?</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Nobody but a woman, I suppose, would -have dealt justice so,” said Salome to herself, -as she put out her light an hour later, and -turned to the window—“nobody but John -Villard.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XVIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>A year rolled by—a year of prosperity to -the Shawsheen Mills, and of growth and improvement -in the condition of their operatives. -John Villard had been made first superintendent -and a new man had taken his place. -Salome continued to act as her own agent and -had developed a keen love and tact for the -business,—a condition of affairs which Mrs. -Soule never ceased to bemoan.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The young people at the Hall were more than -ever the dearest objects of her solicitude. In -most cases, their elevation had been steady and -substantial. Young men had become self-respecting -and carried themselves with increased -dignity. Young women gradually grew less -frivolous and more earnest. Thrown together -under so much better conditions than formerly, -both sexes emulated the politeness which they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>were quick to notice between Villard and Salome. -They became more quiet and decorous; they -read a better class of books; they began, in their -way, to cultivate higher tastes than had been -known in the old factory boarding-house or -among the tumble-down tenement houses. Several -marriages had taken place, at which Salome -had acted as the girl’s guardian, giving away -the bride. Young O’Donovan’s was the first of -these. His increased pay as overseer enabled -him to marry Kitty Kendall, to whom he had -long been devoted; and the young bridegroom -was even happier than the bride when Salome -offered to act in that capacity. Neither of -them would have dared ask it of her, but her -evident willingness to act on this occasion encouraged -those who came after, until Salome -said she felt all the responsibilities of a mother -with a large family of daughters.</p> - -<p class='c008'>As Villard saw all this marrying and giving -in marriage, he grew, at times, more restless. -There were occasions when he came suddenly -upon Salome, or, perhaps during their rare -talks together, when he felt sure for a moment -that she felt for him more than a friendly -interest. But, remembering his comparative -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>poverty, he never spoke the one word which -would have broken down all barriers. And -Salome successfully concealed her feeling for -him, not daring, even, to examine it herself. -So they had drifted on, more than friends and -less than lovers, through another year.</p> - -<p class='c008'>There came, at last, the first period of -absence from each other since Mr. Greenough’s -death. Daily association, pleasant as it is, cannot -teach lovers how much they love, as can a -short separation.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The second dividend of the mills had been -declared, each operative getting three and a -half per cent., this time, on their wages. When -the work consequent on this transaction was -closed up, it was decided to put new machinery -in the lower mills. There was an improved -kind in one of the Holyoke mills, and it was -decided that Villard should go, personally, to -examine its workings, leaving Salome and the -second superintendent alone for a few days.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard had made his preparations to start -with a strange sinking at the heart. He was -not a man to indulge in silly presentiment, but -he could not feel any enthusiasm about going. -He had not taken two days away from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>mills in two years, and was justly entitled to a -vacation; but every time he thought of going -to Holyoke, his heart sank within him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He thought it was because he must leave -Salome, and chided himself for his sentimental -fancies. He told himself to be a man; not a -silly fool. And, finally, he refused to think of -his premeditated journey, since he could not do -so comfortably.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He was to leave Shepardtown on a seven-thirty -express, west. Salome remained at -the office unusually late that afternoon. She -made him go carefully over her various duties, -and recount, over and over again, everything -necessary for her to say or do while he was -gone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The other superintendent was called away -early, and she was left alone with Villard in the -inner office, the clerks coming in and out and -Marion dropping in once on a trifling errand.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Finally, she said:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, I suppose I must bid you good-bye. -I hope you won’t be gone long.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She held out her hand and Villard took it. -A subtle fire shot from it straight to Villard’s -heart. He looked up. Were her eyes, so soft -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>and kind, suffused with tears? Was this the -strong, self-reliant Salome?</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Miss Shepard, Salome,” he burst out, incoherently, -“I——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Come right in this way,” said a hearty -voice at the other door. “Villard will tell you -what you want to know——”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Good-bye,” said Salome again, in the most -matter-of-fact tone, releasing her hand just in -time, as the other superintendent ushered in a -buyer from the west. “Good-bye and good -luck;” and turning, she walked away with -the nonchalant air which a woman knows so -well how to assume, even at the most serious -moment of her life.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Poor Villard was both confused and exalted -by the sudden dawn of blessedness, which had -as suddenly faded. He turned to the buyer -but was incoherent, and gave wrong prices on -the last shipment of cotton, so that his customer -felt obliged to call him back to his -senses by a not over-delicate allusion to the -parting he was shrewd enough to guess he had -interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome went home in a strangely depressed -mood. She ate but little dinner, and excusing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>herself early in the evening on the plea of -unusual weariness, she retired to her room, undressed -and donned a silken night-wrapper, -only to lie awake all night, worrying herself -with fruitless questioning. In the watches of -the night and under cover of the dark, she -told herself that she had given her heart unsought; -that had Villard loved her as she did -him, nothing could have kept him from saying -so; that she had been vain and conceited in -fancying that, under his quiet demeanor, he -loved her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Then she remembered his sudden, yearning -look when he had grasped her hand, and that, -from the depths of his great, manly heart, he -had called her “Salome.” And then, woman-like, -she shed a few hot tears of gratitude and -impatience.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion Shaw, meanwhile, had gone to the -Hall alone that evening. Her work among -the mill-girls had grown dearer to her heart -with every month. Most of the girls loved -her now, and looked upon her as a comrade, -though walking on much higher ground -than they. Many of them had secret aspirations -to reach the standard of her ideals, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>they dimly conceived it, and were the better -for trying.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion had not had a long fight with herself -when weeks had rolled into months, and -she heard no word from Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She had always been an individual girl—one -who thought for herself, who set high ideals -for herself, who believed that one only does -one’s duty by living at one’s highest and noblest.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When she was a mere girl she had become -acquainted with a young college-student, and -their friendship ripened into love. When she -became engaged to Ralph Leland, Marion -looked upon her betrothal as no less sacred -than a marriage vow. When, after a few -years of study and close confinement in a -theological seminary, Leland had shown -symptoms of consumption and been ordered to -Colorado, her mother was slowly nearing her -death, with the same disease. It had wrung -her heart with anguish to decide between them, -but Leland had said:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Stay with your mother, Marion. She -cannot live long and needs you with her to the -end. I shall live many years, and, I feel confident, -may yet entirely recover. It is hard, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>but your mother can have but a year or two -at the most. I hope to live for many years. -And we could neither of us be happy if we -remembered her here, sorrowing and suffering -alone.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>And so Marion had staid to nurse her dying -mother, and Ralph Leland had gone west to -seek health and strength. In two months he -was seized with congestion of the lungs and -died suddenly, away from all friends and apart -from her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>What Marion suffered at this time, only a -woman can understand. What she endured, -only a woman who has gone down into the -blackness of despair can conceive. Her -mother failing gradually, her lover gone, what -wonder that, for a time, life seemed a blank?</p> - -<p class='c008'>After the first, she had not talked about -Ralph, but nursed his memory silently, day -and night. For eighteen months, she took -sole care of her mother, seeing her slip away -into the “great unknown,” inch by inch. -Never did the mother realize that she was -going to die, and she constantly made plans for -the next season when she was going to be “so -much better.” Often Marion, knowing she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>was soon to be motherless, would leave her low -seat near her mother, and stand behind the -invalid’s chair to hide the tears that welled -up, even while she agreed with the invalid’s -plans.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Day by day, the gnawing agony of seeing -her mother slowly dying before her melted -into and overshadowed the loss of that love -which was to have shielded and defended her -till death. But she never gave way, before -mortal eyes, to her sorrow; and she never -failed to minister to the mother who so needed -her care.</p> - -<p class='c008'>By and by she was left alone. Then, for -the first time, did the awful sense of loss overpower -her. For days she did not sleep or -take any nourishment. Then she rallied and -girded herself for the struggle for existence -which such women must make, and which, in -her case, had been eased by the door which -Salome had opened to her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Through all her trials and discouragement, -Ralph Leland had been a present reality to her. -Even since the first blackness of darkness she -had believed that somewhere, somehow, she -would meet him as of old, and they would live -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>again for each other. Then she came to -believe that he loved her still, wherever in -God’s great universe he might be.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“When he was in Colorado,” she used to -say to herself, “I never had a doubt that he -loved me still. If he had gone to the farthest -corner of the earth I should not have dreamed -of his forgetting me. Why should I now, -when he has only gone to a remoter part of the -universe?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>This thought was the one, calm, sustaining -help to her in all her work. And in this belief -she was strong to take up any burden which -might be laid upon her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When she came to Shepardtown and met -Burnham, she had been struck by the subtle, -strange resemblance to Ralph which she saw in -him. It was more than the mere resemblance -of feature. It was the resemblance of expression, -of looks, of the intangible essence of life.</p> - -<p class='c008'>From this point on, so long as she came in -daily contact with Burnham, she was fascinated -by this ever-recurring resemblance; sometimes -she was half-persuaded that it was Leland who -talked or sang to her, and she sat watching him -in dreamy remembrance of the old days, before -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>her mother or Ralph had sickened. As she grew -gradually to believe that Burnham loved her, -she thanked Heaven that a good man’s love was -to brighten her life once more. When the -veil was rent away, and she saw that Burnham -was not the true, white-souled knight she had -thought him, and realized that he was not the -ideal she had believed and trusted in, she was -surprised to find that she no longer loved him. -And then she thought out the true solution.</p> - -<p class='c008'>On the night of Villard’s departure, as has -been said, Marion had gone to the work she -most delighted in—her work among the girls. -There were classes to be overlooked, and her -own special one in singing to be taught. She -was half through the musical hour, when she -turned suddenly towards the door. There -stood Geoffrey Burnham.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Afterwards she remembered how little feeling -the sight of him caused her. But then she -said pleasantly:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, won’t you walk in and hear us sing? -My girls have made decided improvement since -you heard us last,” and she went on composedly -with the class.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Burnham looked on wonderingly. As he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>watched this self-possessed young woman, his -old passion flamed up within him. He had -never cared for her as at that moment. When -the class was over, she advanced toward him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Aren’t you going to shake hands with a -fellow?” he said, holding out his own.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Certainly,” she said, without the least emotion. -He would have retained his hold upon -her hand, but she withdrew it, saying:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“To what accident are we indebted for this -unexpected pleasure?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I came,” he said, “on business. I must -see Villard. But they tell me he won’t be -home for several days. There’s a certain combination -of forces we want to get him into, if -possible.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You won’t, you know,” laughed Marion, -“unless it’s for the good of the working-men.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Well, it is,” answered Burnham. “A -society is being planned for Lowell, which will -do for the operatives there something like that -which Villard and Salome and you have been -doing here. I said I would come down and -consult with him to-night. Besides, I——can’t -you guess any other reason for my coming?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, plenty of them,” replied Marion indifferently. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>“I suppose you feel a friendship for -all who were once your people, and rather want -to see them once more.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Not that, at all,” said he significantly, -determined now that she should hear him out. -“Are you going home? May I walk down -with you?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion gave her permission and went for -her wraps. She half felt what was coming, -but she was strangely apathetic.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When they were out under the stars, the -talk began in commonplaces; but Burnham -soon veered it round where he chose.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Why are you so cold?” he asked, half -querulously.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Cold?” she repeated, purposely misunderstanding -him. “I’m not cold. This wrap I -have on is warmer than it looks.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And your heart,—is that?” retorted he.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion did not answer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You know I love you. I—know you once -loved me,” he went on, losing his head, as a -consequence of her indifference. “Perhaps -you resented my treating you as I did. Perhaps -I didn’t do right, going off that way, -without a word; but I thought it better -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>so. You see—my mother,—and I,—Marion -Shaw!”—he seized her hand, grasping it in -both his own—“will you marry me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion withdrew her hand.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It was cool, and she felt like a spectator at -stage theatricals which did not concern her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Marion, you did love me, you can’t deny -it!” he said. “What is the trouble?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I’m sorry you have brought this subject up -to-night,” she said, gently. “It had much -better have remained dead and buried.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Marion Shaw, you shall not evade me so,” -retorted Burnham, led on by her steady refusal -to respond to his passion. “You did love me—I -was sure of it—or else, you are the basest -of coquettes, and were playing with me. And -now you are tired of me!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“As you were of me!” she blazed out, now -roused into speech. “Listen, since you dare -address me as you do. I did not love you. -You thought I did. I thought I did. When -you found it convenient for some reason, I -neither know nor care what, to leave me without -a word, I found, for the first time, that I -was only in love with <em>being</em> in love. No,—wait -until I am through. Ten years ago I became -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>engaged to the bravest and best and truest man -that ever lived.” Marion’s voice broke, but she -went on. “He died and I kept on loving his -memory, loving him wherever he might be. -When I met you, the striking resemblance you -bore to him smote me like an electric shock. -You seemed good and noble like him, and -under the glamour of your constant presence -and evident fancy for me, I allowed myself to -drift into a sentimental feeling for you. I now -see what that feeling was. It was only a love -of being in love; and you happened to be the -one man I have met so far, and I hope the -only one I shall ever meet, capable of calling -that feeling out. You have compelled me to -speak plainly. I hope you are satisfied. This -is our gate. Miss Shepard has retired, but she -will be glad to see you at the office in the -morning. Good-night.” And Marion left -him standing rooted to the ground where she -left him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>For a few days Burnham felt himself a badly -used man. He had loved and his love had -been trampled on, he said to himself.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He went back to Lowell the next day, promising -to write Villard; and a week after, when he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>had settled down at home again with his dainty -and querulous mother, he went calmly over the -ground of his defeat.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“She never did a more sensible thing in her -life,” he declared, as he lighted his pipe, at -last. “It would have been an awful bore to -have to live up to her ideal.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XIX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Three days passed at the mills with no -special incident. To Salome they seemed the -dullest she had ever known. For the first time, -she discovered that the Shawsheen Mills and -the condition of its operatives was not enough -to satisfy the inmost longings of her heart, or -to still its disquietude. Without the presence -of John Villard, and the constant inspiration -of his presence, life lost its zest and sparkle.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the three days were over, Salome went -to her pillow at night with a sense of relief. -Until now, she had not realized what her position -at the head of the mills might mean without -Villard. She saw that without him she -could have done little, and would have made -many mistakes—a fact which it was good for -her to realize. And then she remembered, -with sudden terror, that he might leave her at -any moment, as Burnham had done.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>“He will be home in the morning,” she said -to her disquieted heart, “and I will offer him -a share in the business. I will make him a -partner, and then I shall never lose him.” -And even in the darkness of night and the -privacy of her own room, she resolutely put -away from herself any other contingency.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The morning dawned beautiful, fresh and -balmy, as only a spring morning late in May -can dawn in New England. Salome dressed -herself with unusual care. A strange, happy -feeling under-ran all her thoughts. She would -not think of him; she would not look forward -to his coming; but, for her, all the gladness of -the May morning, all the blossoming of spring -flowers, all the caroling of joyous birds, meant -only that Villard had arrived in Shepardtown -on the night express, and that she would see him -in an hour or two. She did not hurry her -preparations for breakfast,—this was such a -strange, delightful mood. She looked at her -own reflection in the mirror, thinking unconsciously -of making herself fair for him. She -sang snatches of merry song from the last -comic opera, laughing to herself as she recalled -how her nurse used to forbid her singing before -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>the morning meal, and how she used to repeat, -in a lugubrious tone, the old sign:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“If you sing before breakfast,</div> - <div class='line'>You’ll cry before night.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'>And, still singing, she stopped at her aunt’s -room, only to find that everybody had gone -downstairs before her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Mrs. Soule and Marion were chatting pleasantly -over their hot-house grapes when she -entered the breakfast-room. The morning -papers lay untouched beside Salome’s plate. -She took her place and leisurely pared an -orange. Afterwards she remembered the time -she wasted in cutting the peel into fantastic -shapes.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Has nobody looked at the papers?” she -asked, after a while. “I declare, how self-absorbed -we are growing. Who knows but -the world has, half of it, come to an end, over -night?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She picked up one of the papers—the one -which contained the most startling head-lines, -the most sickening sensations. Opening it, her -eyes became riveted to the front page. Her -face paled. She grew whiter, but no one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>noticed. When Marion looked up, the paper was -falling from Salome’s hand, and she had fallen -back in her chair—faint, speechless with terror.</p> - -<p class='c008'>With a cry, Marion sprang to her side; but -Salome, by a tremendous effort, recovered herself.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Read it,” she gasped, “and tell me what -to do.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion picked up the paper, and read:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>HORRIBLE ACCIDENT ON THE ALBANY ROAD.</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Thirteen Killed and Twenty Wounded.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Terrible Slaughter due to Carelessness.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Prominent Business Men of Boston and Shepardtown among the Injured.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>Running her eye hastily down the column, -Marion gathered that the night express had -been crashed into by a heavy freight; that -both trains had been thrown off the track; -that many passengers had been killed, scalded, -mangled or bruised.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She looked quickly over the list of killed. -There were no familiar names; but at the head -of the wounded was:</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>“John Villard of Shepardtown. Fatally -injured. Impossible to recover.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>She turned to Salome, who was already leaving -the table.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Help me to get ready,” she said. “I must -go to him immediately.” Marion marveled to -see her so calm; but she knew only too well the -anguish concealed in the woman’s heart below.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What is it? What are you going to do? -Why does not some one tell me?” asked Mrs. -Soule.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Dear auntie,” and Salome bent and kissed -the fair, soft cheek, “there has been a terrible -accident to the train that Mr. Villard was -coming home on. I am going to him. He is -dying.” Then she left the room.</p> - -<p class='c008'>In less than an hour she was at the railway -station, waiting for the train to Boston. At -the last moment, Mrs. Soule, having recovered -from the shock which the news had given her, -had tried to dissuade her niece from going.</p> - -<p class='c008'>It seemed to her that this was the strangest -thing her unaccountable niece had ever done. -She really must remonstrate with her on the -impropriety of her conduct. And seeing that -Salome would not be restrained from making -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>this erratic trip, she proposed to go, too, as -chaperon. Only Salome must wait for the -noon train, as she could not possibly get ready -for an earlier one.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“The noon train!” exclaimed Salome, buttoning -her gloves. “No, auntie, Mr. Villard -may not live until then. I shall go to him at -once. You forget that I am no longer a young -girl. I am a business woman, and my chief -assistant lies dying.” She bent over and kissed -her aunt, who was still remonstrating, and ran -down the steps to the waiting carriage, where -Marion had already taken her seat.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Marion, too, had offered to go with her; but -Salome had only replied:</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, dear. If you will take my place here, -that is all I ask.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>And when the train finally drew out of -Shepardtown, and she had left her friend standing -on the platform, she gave an involuntary -sigh. Only the strong heart, which can best -bear its grief alone, will understand her feeling.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The train had never seemed so slow to her. -Strained and anxious with that nervous intensity -which makes a woman waste her strength -in a half-conscious physical effort to propel, by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>her own will-power, the great, unsympathetic, -methodical engine, she sat straight up in her -seat with heart and soul benumbed. Constantly -before her, was the picture of John Villard—mangled, -bleeding, dying—perhaps dead. -Her brain reeled as she thought of him lying -pale and cold in death.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She remembered how, only three days ago, -he had clasped her hand and looked into her -eyes; how he had called her “Salome,” his -voice deep and tender with emotion. Dead? -No, it could not be. And still the long, unfeeling -train stopped to take on its horde of -passengers, or to let off a working-man or a -school-girl.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The hour’s ride to Boston seemed to her an -eternity; and when, at last, they rolled into the -long, covered shed, Salome was first to reach -the steps, and first to touch the platform.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Ordering a carriage, she was soon on her way -across the city. But here again the slowness -of her progress drove her nearly frantic. She -called to the driver and told him she would -double his fee if he caught the next train for -the scene of the accident. He did not know -what time that would be, but he accepted the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>offer and drove at such a rate of speed that an -agent of the Humane Society ran after him to -catch his number,—and did not succeed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When they reached the Albany station, -Salome threw him the smallest bill she had, a -two-dollar one,—and without waiting for the -change, hastened to the ticket-office. It was -beset with more than the usual crowd of curious -questioners and eager passengers, whose plans -the accident had thrown into confusion. It -was some minutes before Salome could reach -the window. She was about to turn away in -despair when the agent recognized her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Let that lady pass, there,” he said, authoritatively; -and then Salome learned that a -relief train had been sent early in the morning, -that another would be starting in ten minutes, -and that regular trains would be run in the -course of an hour or two, “carrying by,” at -Jones’s Crossing, where the accident had -occurred.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And the injured ones, are they still——” -her voice failed her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They are still living,” answered the agent. -“But some of them are so badly hurt they -must die. Stand back there, one minute,” he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>said to the crowd. “Well, I don’t know, miss, -whether you could go on the relief train. You -might go out and ask, though they’ve shut -down on the crowd.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome turned away. For the first time since -breakfast a clear thought came into her brain. -She went out to the train-gate.</p> - -<p class='c008'>No, they could not take any one. There -were so many wanting to go, and they only -took one car. Oh, a friend of the injured? -Well, she must go to the division superintendent, -or the general passenger agent. There -was the “G. P. A.” over there.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome walked over to the official designated,—a -pleasant gentleman with kind eyes.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am Miss Shepard of Shepardtown,” she -said; “my chief superintendent is among the injured, -and is probably dying. He has no friends, -and I must get to him. Can you help me?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The official took out a little book, wrote her -name on a blank pass, and handed it to her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Anything we can do for him or for you, -Miss Shepard, we shall be glad to do. You -needn’t hesitate to ask. Your grandfather -was once kind to me, when I was a poor boy.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>The passenger agent hurried away to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>engine, giving some last orders, and Salome -did not have a chance to thank him.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You’ll have to hurry, miss,” a brakeman said -who was standing near. “The train is going.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>A moment later she was on the way for -Jones’s Crossing.</p> - -<p class='c008'>This train had the right of way and a clear -track for some distance. They seemed to fly, -as they sped out through the suburbs into the -country beyond.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The bloom of the May morning was still on -the tender, up-springing grass and the fresh -foliage of the trees. Birds sang cheerfully on, -in spite of the thundering engine on its way to -the scene of woe. But there was no more -beauty in the world for Salome.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Three or four physicians sat in the corner -of the one baggage-car which they all occupied -together, and, used as they were to scenes of -death and suffering, talked indifferently of -politics and the misdoings of Congress. The -brakeman laughed as the conductor passed -him with some trivial remark. To Salome it -seemed that she alone, of all the world, cared -because thirteen persons lay dead and twenty -more were fatally injured, a few miles away.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>Afterwards, when she saw the tenderness -and courageous sympathy of these people -among the suffering, she reversed her judgment.</p> - -<p class='c008'>A small woman in black sat at the opposite -end of the car, and was the only other passenger.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Who is that?” She stopped the conductor -to ask the question, at last drawn out of her -own sorrow by the pathetic attitude of the -woman’s figure.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“That’s the engineer’s mother. He is -fatally hurt. He’s the last of her five boys, -and her sole dependence. It’s pretty rough on -her; but the boys won’t let her suffer.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>His words came like a reproach to her. -What right had she, with all her wealth and -friends and pleasures, to think of herself as the -only suffering one? What was her sorrow, -compared to that of this bereaved mother?</p> - -<p class='c008'>She felt an impulse to go over to the motionless -figure and speak a word of comfort. And -then she felt the train slacking up.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“We’re almost there,” the conductor said, -as he passed her again.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When the train stopped, two of the physicians, -having heard who she was, came forward with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>offers of assistance. The others were kindly -aiding the pathetic old lady in black.</p> - -<p class='c008'>And then Salome found herself face to face -with such a scene as she had never even dreamed -of.</p> - -<p class='c008'>The public is, through the “enterprising” -journalistic system of the present day, already -too familiar with such scenes of sickening horror. -To Salome, this one came as the vivid realization -of things she had hitherto carefully avoided -in the newspapers.</p> - -<p class='c008'>At first, she turned faint and sick at the -prospect. Several dead bodies lay plainly in -sight, partially covered with a blanket. The -living must first be cared for; and groans on -every side, from those who, even yet, had -not been extricated from the debris, told how -much still remained to be done.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Tell me,” she said, catching at the arm of a -doctor who had been on the ground since daybreak, -“where is Mr. Villard?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Villard? Let’s see—tall man? Dark -hair and full beard? Yes. He was removed -to the tavern over there an hour ago.” And -he passed on to another sufferer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome looked across the railroad track, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>the direction the physician had pointed. There -was a country store, a “tavern,” and three or -four less pretentious buildings.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Hastily she clambered over the torn-up track, -down the embankment and across the narrow, -open field. There were no signs of life around -the group of houses. Everybody was at the -scene of the accident.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She walked into the tavern. It seemed to be -deserted. Through the narrow hall she could -see, at the end of the building, a dining-room; -at one side was the office, where no one was in -view. The clerk heard her step, however, and -came hastily from the dining-room.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Is there a Mr. Villard here?” she began—“a -patient, from the accident?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“There are three men upstairs who were -hurt,” the clerk answered. “There’s no one -here to tend office, or I’d show you up.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I must find him. Is there no one to show -me the way?” she asked, impatient at this -last trivial delay.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“They’re each in different rooms up there,” -was the reply. “Walk right up the stairs. -There’s nurses up there. They’ll tell you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome turned up the narrow, dingy staircase. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>At the top there was no one in sight. -Groans came from behind a closed door. Inside, -she could hear voices, subdued to an -undertone. In the absolute silence, she heard -the word “amputation.” Could this be Villard’s -room?</p> - -<p class='c008'>She leaned against the wall, unable to try -that latch. While she stood there, helpless and -dazed, she lifted her eyes to the opposite doorway. -It was open.</p> - -<p class='c008'>Inside, there seemed to be no one. Certainly -there was no attendant. She stepped forward -and looked in. There, on the white, clean bed, -lay the form of John Villard, his face whiter -than the pillow it rested against, his dark hair -contrasting strangely with his paleness.</p> - -<p class='c008'>With the sight, all the repressed love of the -last two years swept over Salome like a resistless -impulse. A hand seemed clutching at her -heart. Her limbs seemed paralyzed; but in an -instant she was beside the bed, looking down -at the closed eyes. A terrible fear that he was -dead swept over her. With an inarticulate -groan, she knelt beside him and laid her hand -against his face.</p> - -<p class='c008'>He opened his eyes and smiled faintly. He -thought he had died and reached Heaven.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span> - <h2 class='c006'>XX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c007'>Villard’s convalescence was slow and tedious. -When Salome had found him, his dislocated -shoulder had been restored to place, and his -broken ankle set. Then, as there were not -nurses enough for the great need, he had been -left alone.</p> - -<p class='c008'>What passed in that first ten minutes after -Salome had found him is still a sacred -memory between them. At last, she said, looking -at him through wet eyes, “You must have -a nurse.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, Salome, do not leave me,” he answered; -and his voice, weakened from his -injuries and tender with the passion which, at -last, he had not been afraid to declare, was -like music to her heart.</p> - -<p class='c008'>She bent her blushing face upon the pillow -beside him. “May I stay and take care of -you?” she asked, softly.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>“May you? Oh, Salome!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Another silence fell between them. Both -hearts were too full for words.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Then we must be married to-day.” Salome -had waited a little for him to say it; but, manlike, -he had not been thinking of the proprieties.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I cannot leave you to hired nurses now,” -she murmured. “So, there is only this one -way out of it.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And a blessed way it is.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>And so they were married, that bright -May morning, amid scenes of anguish, and -while Villard still hovered near the gates of -death. And for weeks they remained at -“Jones’s Tavern,” he ill, wretched, racked with -pain; she, bearing the trials and discomforts of -the place, vigils of long night-watches, the dull, -dragging anxiety; and yet, there was never a -happier or more blessed honeymoon.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When he was able to be moved on a -stretcher, he was taken to Shepardtown. Their -home-coming was a glad one, although it was -necessarily quiet. Every operative in the mills -had been at the station, when the train that -bore the two who had done so much for them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>came steaming in. Salome nodded to many of -them, with moist but happy eyes. But the -family physician, who had met them in Boston, -would allow of no hand-shaking.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Time enough for that by and by,” he -told the men who stood foremost in the crowd. -“Do you want to kill him?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>He could not prevent several of the strongest -ones from stepping forward, however, and -taking the stretcher in their own hands, and bearing -Villard very gently to the waiting carriage.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I never thought to enter this house so,” -Villard whispered to Salome, when he was -carefully borne up the stairs in the Shepard -mansion and placed tenderly in bed.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Thank Heaven, you were permitted to -come, even <em>so</em>,” she replied, with a shudder. -He had been so near Death’s door, instead!</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I can’t and won’t say I approve of what -you’ve done,” said Mrs. Soule that night. “If -you must marry him at all, I could not see why -you should want to do it then and there. You -might have waited, I think, and had such a -wedding as befits a daughter of the Bourdillons. -Besides, all this watching and care has -pulled you down. You look pale and worn. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>You’ll lose your beauty before you are thirty-five.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome did not answer. These matters -seemed so trivial.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I suppose, at least, you’ll give a reception -when he gets well enough. You really owe it -to society and your own position. All your -father’s, your mother’s, and your own friends -will expect it. You have planned for that, I -suppose? Since you had no wedding gown, you -ought to give Redfern <i><span lang="fr">carte blanche</span></i> for your -reception gown. Have you written them?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Auntie,” said Salome, “John and I have -been, in these past weeks, where we did not -think of party gowns.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“No, I suppose there was not much at -Jones’s Crossing to remind you of them. But -now, you certainly are thinking of one <em>now</em>?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Salome sighed. There was really no use in -expecting her little, exquisite, cameo-cut aunt -to understand her.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I suppose we may give some sort of reception. -All my people are waiting anxiously to -see John,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Factory-people!” exclaimed Mrs. Soule -indignantly; but her niece had moved away.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>It was several weeks later, when Villard was -first able to come downstairs. As soon as -possible for him to bear the excitement, the -operatives were invited to the house one evening, -and permitted to shake hands with the man -whom they had always considered their friend, -and to whom they had now become closely endeared. -The marriage between him and -Salome had, somehow, seemed to draw him -closer to them. They were now his people as -well as hers.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“This isn’t going to take you away from us -at the Hall?” said one of the young men during -the evening. “Mr. Fales and Mr. Welman -are good—but they are not you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I shall be there every evening,” was Villard’s -reply. “I am much more anxious not -to lose you than you can be not to lose me.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I don’t know about that,” the younger one -said.</p> - -<p class='c008'>When they had all gone away, and Marion -had sent them both upstairs for the night, -Salome drew her husband down to her favorite -seat in a cosy bay-window, where the August -moon was streaming in through vines and foliage, -making a checkered radiance around them.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>“John,” she began, “I have a plan to tell -you.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What is it, dear?” he asked, drawing her -head to his shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am going to retire from active business.” -She laughed softly.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What <em>can</em> you mean?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Can’t you see? I’m going to retire. You -are now the head of the Shawsheen Mills.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard said nothing. In spite of the great -love between them, he could not forget that -she was wealthy nor that he was poor.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I have to-day made over the entire mill property -to you,” she went on. “I am not -going to have it said that your wife has all the -money and all the power, and that you are -only her dependent.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Salome! you dear, generous heart,” said -Villard brokenly; “I cannot accept.” He -felt that she had divined his sensitiveness, -although she had been too delicate to speak of -it. “I am poor, but I am not a beggar.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And I, too, am proud,” she replied, laying -her hand on his cheek. “I will not have -people saying that you are tied to a rich wife -and are subject to her whims. Oh, I know -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>how they talk; I have seen and heard them -all my life! Why, they would say you were -a fortune-hunter.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You do not think so?” he asked, gently.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Confess, dear,” she answered him. “If it -had not been for that, wouldn’t you have -spoken long ago?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Villard pressed her closer.</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I came very near it, as it was,” he said, -presently. “But I could not bear to be -thought that.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I had the necessary papers made out this -afternoon,” she said after an eloquent silence, -“when I was out. So you see the thing is -done whether you will or not. You need have -no hesitation. I still have a large fortune left, -you know, from the Bourdillons.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If it were anybody else in the world but -my noble, generous wife,” he began, “I would -refuse, even now.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“If it were any one else but my noble -husband,” she replied, “I could not yield -control of the mills, and all the plans I have -cherished for the employes. But I know in -whom I trust,” and her eyes shone with wifely -pride and affection.</p> - -<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>“There are still so many things to do,” said -Villard, a little later. “I know I can always -depend on you to help me.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Oh, I am not laying down the work and -retiring to the old life of idleness,” was the -reply. “I shall leave the management of the -mills to their new owner. It’s no part of a -married woman’s business to manage her husband’s -office. But I shall have all the more -leisure left for doing good. I have no end of -schemes to lay before you; and, I have no -doubt, you have wiser plans than mine.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I am glad, on the whole,” said Villard -thoughtfully, “that you are going to have more -freedom. You are tired and worn with watching -and caring for me,—dear, blessed soul that -you are. Your burdens, in the past two years, -have been borne marvelously well. Any other -woman would have given way long ago. But, -after all, I am a selfish man.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“You, John!”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“Yes. I must confess, I want you all to -myself, a part of the time.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“All I have and all I am, dear, is yours. -And yet, I cannot help feeling that we have -still a great work to do. Employers, on all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>sides, are looking to see us fail in our attempts. -As we stand or fall, will factories outside of -Shepardtown be benefited or injured.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“I remember what you once said, Salome. -Your brave words were a watchword with me -many a time when my courage was low.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“What were they?”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“‘We want to show the world that the -spirit of Him crucified may rule in a cotton-mill -as fully as in the life of a saint.’ My darling, -nobody but you would have had the courage -to say that. We will take the sentiment as our -rule of life.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>“And act on Rossetti’s beautiful words,” -added Salome:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And though age wearies by the way,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And hearts break in the furrow,</div> - <div class='line'>We’ll sow the golden grain to-day,</div> - <div class='line in2'>The harvest reap to-morrow!</div> - <div class='line'>Build up heroic lives, and all</div> - <div class='line in2'>Be like the sheathen saber,</div> - <div class='line'>Ready to flash out at God’s call,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Oh, Chivalry of Labor!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>And then they sat silent in the checkered -moonlight.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>THE END.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003'> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_books.jpg' alt='Books' class='ig001'> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><em>From the Press of the Arena Publishing Company.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c007'><strong>The Rise of the Swiss Republic.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>W. D. McCrackan</span>, A. M.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It contains over four hundred pages, printed from new and handsome -type, on a fine quality of heavy paper. The margins are wide, and the -volume is richly bound in cloth.</p> - -<p class='c014'>Price, postpaid, $3.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Sultan to Sultan.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>M. French-Sheldon</span> (Bebe Bwana).</p> - -<p class='c015'>Being a thrilling account of a remarkable expedition to the Masai and -other hostile tribes of East Africa, which was planned and commanded -by this intrepid woman. <strong>A Sumptuous Volume of Travels.</strong> -Handsomely illustrated; printed on coated paper and richly bound in -African red silk-finished cloth.</p> - -<p class='c014'>Price, postpaid, $5.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>The League of the Iroquois.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Benjamin Hathaway</span>.</p> - -<p class='c015'>It is instinct with good taste and poetic feeling, affluent of picturesque -description and graceful portraiture, and its versification is fairly -melodious.—<cite>Harper’s Magazine.</cite></p> - -<p class='c015'>Has the charm of Longfellow’s “Hiawatha.”—<cite>Albany Evening -Journal.</cite></p> - -<p class='c015'>Of rare excellence and beauty.—<cite>American Wesleyan.</cite></p> - -<p class='c015'>Evinces fine qualities of imagination, and is distinguished by remarkable -grace and fluency.—<cite>Boston Gazette.</cite></p> - -<p class='c015'>The publication of this poem alone may well serve as a mile-post in -marking the pathway of American literature. The work is a marvel -of legendary lore, and will be appreciated by every earnest reader.—<cite>Boston -Times.</cite></p> - -<p class='c014'>Price, postpaid, cloth, $1.00; Red Line edition, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Songs.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Neith Boyce.</span> Illustrated with original drawings by -<span class='sc'>Ethelwyn Wells Conrey</span>. A beautiful gift book. Bound -in white and gold. Price, postpaid, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>The Finished Creation, and Other Poems.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Benjamin Hathaway</span>, author of “The League of the -Iroquois,” “Art Life,” and other Poems. Handsomely -bound in white parchment vellum, stamped in silver. Price, -postpaid, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Wit and Humor of the Bible.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By Rev. <span class='sc'>Marion D. Shutter</span>, D.D. A brilliant and reverent -treatise. Published only in cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Son of Man; or, Sequel to Evolution.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Celestia Root Lang.</span> Published only in cloth.</p> - -<p class='c015'>This work, in many respects, very remarkably discusses the next -step in the Evolution of Man. It is in perfect touch with advanced -Christian Evolutionary thought, but takes a step beyond the present -position of Religion Leaders.</p> - -<p class='c014'>Price, postpaid, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Along Shore with a Man of War.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Marguerite Dickins</span>. A delightful story of travel, delightfully -told, handsomely illustrated, and beautifully bound. -Price, postpaid, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Evolution.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>Popular lectures by leading thinkers, delivered before the -Brooklyn Ethical Association. This work is of inestimable -value to the general reader who is interested in Evolution as -applied to religious, scientific, and social themes. It is the joint -work of a number of the foremost thinkers in America to-day. -One volume, handsome cloth, illustrated, complete index. -408 pp. Price, postpaid, $2.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Sociology.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>Popular lectures by eminent thinkers, delivered before the -Brooklyn Ethical Association. This work is a companion -volume to “Evolution,” and presents the best thought of -representative thinkers on social evolution. One volume, -handsome cloth, with diagram and complete index. 412 pp. -Price, postpaid, $2.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Jason Edwards: An Average Man.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Hamlin Garland</span>. A powerful and realistic story of -to-day. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Who Lies? An Interrogation.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Blum</span> and <span class='sc'>Alexander</span>. A book that is well worth reading. -Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Main Travelled Roads.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>Six Mississippi Valley stories. By <span class='sc'>Hamlin Garland</span>.</p> - -<p class='c015'>“The sturdy spirit of true democracy runs through this book.”—<cite>Review -of Reviews.</cite></p> - -<p class='c014'>Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Irrepressible Conflict Between Two World-Theories.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By Rev. <span class='sc'>Minot J. Savage</span>. The most powerful presentation -of Theistic Evolution <em>versus</em> Orthodoxy that has ever appeared. -Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Is This Your Son, My Lord?</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Helen H. Gardener</span>. The most powerful novel written -by an American. A terrible <em>expose</em> of conventional immorality -and hypocrisy. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter?</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Helen H. Gardener</span>. A brilliant novel of to-day, dealing -with social purity and the “age of consent” laws. Price: -paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>A Spoil of Office.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>A novel. By <span class='sc'>Hamlin Garland</span>. The truest picture of -Western life that has appeared in American fiction. Price: -paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Lessons Learned from Other Lives.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>B. O. Flower</span>.</p> - -<p class='c015'>There are fourteen biographies in this volume, dealing with the lives -of Seneca and Epictetus, the great Roman philosophers; Joan of Arc, -the warrior maid; Henry Clay, the statesman; Edwin Booth and -Joseph Jefferson, the actors; John Howard Payne, William Cullen -Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, Alice and Phœbe Cary, and John G. Whittier, -the poets; Alfred Russell Wallace, the scientist; Victor Hugo, the many-sided -man of genius.</p> - -<p class='c015'>“The book sparkles with literary jewels.”—<cite>Christian Leader</cite>, Cincinnati, -Ohio.</p> - -<p class='c014'>Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth. $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>The Dream Child.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>A fascinating romance of two worlds. By <span class='sc'>Florence Huntley</span>. -Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>A Mute Confessor.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>The romance of a Southern town. By <span class='sc'>Will N. Harben</span>, -author of “White Marie,” “Almost Persuaded,” etc. Price: -paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Redbank; Life on a Southern Plantation.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>M. L. Cowles</span>. A typical Southern story by a Southern -woman. Price: paper, 00; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Psychics. Facts and Theories.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By Rev. <span class='sc'>Minot J. Savage</span>. A thoughtful discussion of -Psychical problems. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Civilization’s Inferno: Studies in the Social Cellar.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>B. O. Flower</span>. I. Introductory chapter. II. Society’s -Exiles. III. Two Hours in the Social Cellar. IV. The -Democracy of Darkness. V. Why the Ishmaelites Multiply. -VI. The Froth and the Dregs. VII. A Pilgrimage and a -Vision. VIII. Some Facts and a Question. IX. What of the -Morrow? Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Salome Shepard, Reformer.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>Helen M. Winslow</span>. A New England story. Price: -paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>The Law of Laws.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>S. B. Wait</span>. The author takes advance metaphysical -grounds on the origin, nature, and destiny of the soul.</p> - -<p class='c015'>“It is offered as a contribution to the thought of that unnumbered -fraternity of spirit whose members are found wherever souls are sensitive -to the impact of the truth and feel another’s burden as their -own.”—<cite>Author’s Preface.</cite></p> - -<p class='c014'>256 pages; handsome cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>Life. A Novel.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>William W. Wheeler</span>. A book of thrilling interest from -cover to cover.</p> - -<p class='c015'>In the form of a novel called “<span class='sc'>Life</span>,” William W. Wheeler has put -before the public some of the clearest statements of logical ideas -regarding humanity’s present aspects, its inherent and manifest -powers, and its future, that we have ever read. The book is strong, -keen, powerful; running over with thought, so expressed as to clearly -convey the author’s ideas; everything is to the point, nothing superfluous—and -for this it is specially admirable.—<cite>The Boston Times.</cite></p> - -<p class='c014'>Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c016'><span class='large'>COPLEY SQUARE SERIES.</span></p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>I. Bond-Holders and Bread-Winners.</strong></p> - -<p class='c014'>By <span class='sc'>S. S. King</span>, Esq., Kansas City, Kansas. The most powerful -book of the year. Its argument is irresistible. You should -read it.</p> - -<p class='c015'>President <span class='sc'>L. L. Polk</span>, National F. A. and I. U., says: “It should be -placed in the hands of every voter of this country.”</p> - -<p class='c008'>Price, postpaid, 25 cents; per hundred, $12.50.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>II. Money, Land, and Transportation.</strong></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='small'>CONTENTS:</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-l c017'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><strong>1. A New Declaration of Rights.</strong> <em>Hamlin Garland.</em></div> - <div class='line'><strong>2. The Farmer, Investor, and the Railway.</strong> <em>C. Wood Davis.</em></div> - <div class='line'><strong>3. The Independent Party and Money at Cost.</strong> <em>R. B. Hassell.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10.</p> - -<p class='c007'><strong>III. Industrial Freedom. The Triple Demand of -Labor.</strong></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='small'>CONTENTS:</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-l c017'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><strong>1. The Money Question.</strong> <em>Hon. John Davis.</em></div> - <div class='line'><strong>2. The Sub-Treasury Plan.</strong> <em>C. C. Post.</em></div> - <div class='line'><strong>3. The Railroad Problem.</strong> <em>C. Wood Davis and Ex-Gov. Lionel A. Sheldon.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10.</p> - -<p class='c007'><em>For sale by all booksellers. Sent postpaid upon receipt of -the price.</em></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><strong>Arena Publishing Company,</strong></div> - <div><strong>Copley Square, BOSTON, MASS.</strong></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003'> -</div> -<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> - -<div class='chapter ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. - - </li> - <li>Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALOME SHEPARD, REFORMER ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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