Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1913 — ON SECTION NO. 12 [ARTICLE]

ON SECTION NO. 12

What We, Us and Company Did With a Firm Hand to Guide the Undertaking. BY JOHN PHILIP ORTH. A new railroad bad been surveyed through the country within two miles icf Major Charlton’s country home, tand the retired army officer had made ■a bid for and secured the grading to ■be done on section No. 12. The major was a widower with only ■one child —a daughter named May. iShe had returned from school and was waiting, as all girls must wait, land it was generally understood that ' ehe was rather strong-minded for a young girl, it was rather independence than strong-mindedness. Not Ithat she was mannish, but that she [rode around the country on her pony (without a chaperon, fished, swam and (hunted at her pleasure, and could beat [her father at billiards or at almost (Any other game, When the major fcame home and announced that he ihad secured the contract for section [l2 Miss May applauded.and said: "You will want a bookkeeper and a [paymaster, and I will serve as both.” j “But you don’t understand what rsort of help I must employ.” he replied.

“Foreigners, and mostly Italians. It I will be a tough crowd, but that (doesn’t scare me.” “Too tough a crowd for a girl to be [mixed with. I shall count myself [lucky to get along with a row every [two weeks. I am told that I can’t .carry my contract through, do the [best I can-” “Don’t you believe it, daddy. We, rus and company will start In with a firm hand and not let the padrones or I Black Hand take the authority out iof our hands. .1 shan’t expect to do much bossing, but if called upon to take a hand I shan’t run away from HL” “I shall, of course, get a man for [bookkeeper and cashier," observed the fafher as he turned away. But he did not. From the time the •work began until the office of the contractor was ready to step into. Miss May spent most of her time on the ■ground, suggesting and bossing, and ■when the hour arrived she took, oft lher hat 'and gloves and opened the books and pocketed the key of the ease.

“Waft until you see the sort of laborers that are coming!” said the .major as he shook his head. Two days later 300 men arrived — Italians, Slavs and Huns. -They had their own quarters, but they could not fail to hear of the girl’s presence. Indeed, she must come and go in their full sight. They were a hard lot and one or two men dominated all the others. One of the leaders visited the office to say to the major: “Why you have the girl here?”

i ‘‘She is my daughter.” “It makes no deeference. No girl should be here. She makes mistakes and we are cheated.” “When you think you have been cheated come and tell me so.” “But the men don’t like it You must get a man to take her place.” Two or three of the unsuccesful bidders had evidently tampered with the men with a view of getting up a strike at the very outset. It was a puerile excuse they advanced, and it aroused the major into saying:' “I shall not get a man. If you want to raise a row go ahead!” '"lt Is not me. but the men.” "Tell them to strike at any hour they want to!” "Bully for you, daddy!” exclaimed the daughter as the fellow left the office.

“I didn’t want you to come, but I am not going to let them run you out They won’t strike until they can find a better excuse.” Neither did they. The road-bed for the new railroad ran parallel with the highway for a mile and as Miss May rode to and fro she received black looks and heard, men cursing under their breath. It would have been folly to pay any attention to ft. Nothing more was heard from the leader as to the girl’s leaving, and it was two weeks before another call was made. Then the leader announced: “We were hired to work nine hours a day, and you are making it ten. We must have an hour off or more pay.” “Every man of you was hired for ten hours a day,” replied the major, “and I shall pot shorten the time by a minute nor increase the pay by a cent. “The men are very angry.” ■ ’So am I.” ■ “I think they strike, eh?” “If they want to.” • “If they do then they will break and destroy.” “When they begin to do that there will be some shooting!” “So? So? You are not a wise man." “J am wise enough to see your game.” “Will they strike?” asked the girt of her father. “Sure to, after coming with a third pretext” "And they may even attack us?" “They certainly will,” “And we?” “You had better stay home for a few days. “And miss the row? Well, I guess not! We each have a revolver, and can make It very lively for them.” At 9 o’clock next morning the leader delivered his ultimatum—eight hours a day or a strike. "Strike away!" was the reply of the major.

Fifteen minutes later every laborer had thrown down his tools and was cheering and whooping.- They made no other demonstration for some time, but at length they formed in a solid body, and armed with picks, shovels, axes and stones moved down on office and surrounded ft. Then the major did a foolish thing, but one perfectly logical from the standpoint of a man of arms. He threw open the door and stood there and defied the mob. He was not armed, but one can’t look for hondr in such a crowd. After a long minute, in which the men hurled a hundred insults at him. the major was struck in the head by a stone and fell back into the office unconscious. Miss May dragged the body back and closed'and locked the door. There was no rush, of the strikers. She went to the telephone and called and the cook, and said: “Mary, ’the men out here have struck and are making awful threats. Go down to the road and tell the first man that comes along that father is badly hurt and I am locked in the office.”

“I get you, and I’ll send a dozen men!” replied the cook as she hung up the trumpet and made a scoot < Miss May was bathing her father’s wound when the whooping re-com-menced and the rocks began to pelt. It was only a temporary structure, and the splinters soon began to fly. Amidst the fusilade the leader of the mob was heard shouting: “Come out here —we want you! If you don’t come out we’ll try dynamite.” “And I’ll try bullets!” said the girl to herself as a rock came through the window and missed her head by an Inch. There were hoots of derision as the soldier’s daughter rested the barrel of her revolver on the sill of the same window and pulld the trigger. She fired low, to take her targets in the legs, and out of six bullets five drew howls of pain. The mob broke back at her shooting, lugging oft the wounded, and after an interval of ten minutes the leader approached under cover of a flag of truce and called out:

“Open the door to us or we use dynamite and blow you all to ” No answer was ventured, and in a quarter of an hour the mob was ready to carry out the threat. One side of the office was without windows, thus making a safe approach, and a man was creeping forward with a charge that would have rent everything to pieces when the panting and/ palefaced girl heard the hoots of an auto, and next moment the popping of revolvers. The cook had obeyed orders nobly. As it chanced, the first auto to come along contained four men. and it needed but a word to send them speeding away. In five minutes after their arrival the mob was in flight.

When four men get together, in an auto or on the street corner, there is at least one young man among them. If asked to go to the rescue of a maid and her father chain-lightning can hardly keep pace with him. It was the young lawyer. Phillip Fayram, in this case. He was on his way over to the county seat to try a case, and the old gray heads' with him were witnesses. Of course they couldn’t see any romance in the rescue, and they even smiled in a cynical and superior way, but others saw things through different eyes.

The strikers came back after two or three days, and the major’s contract was finished without further trouble. The wounded legs went to the hospital to be cured in time, and tn time the warrior-father made reply to a question: “Yes, by George, take her!” . And some time after peace had been restored the leader of the strikers was heard saying to the man who was creeping up to place the dynamite that day: . "You fool —I fool —all fool but the young laidee. She big heroine! She don’t yell and whoop—she shoot!” (Copyright, 1913, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)