BLACK. 
 
 F. GIBBONS
 
 THOSE 
 BLACK DIAMOND 
 
 MEN
 
 jt jf
 
 THOSE 
 BLACK DIAMOND 
 
 MEN 
 
 A Tale of the Anthrax Valley 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM FUTHEY GIBBONS 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 1902
 
 COPYRIGHT 1902 BY 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 (June)
 
 To 
 
 My Comrade 
 
 2129747
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 SOMETIME when the light of a winter sunset is 
 flooding the street, let the reader look narrowly 
 at a stream of coal as it slides along the chute 
 across the sidewalk. If the lumps are large and ruSty, 
 he may see that they are stained a blood red. It is only 
 the oxide of iron. Yet coal cannot be obtained except 
 at the cost of life. 
 
 The miner s life calls for risk and sacrifice, not only 
 for himself, but equally for others. This sort of life 
 develops heroism. Yet there are no stage-heroes in the 
 mines, only plain men. If one is in danger of death, 
 his comrades will risk their own lives for him, and 
 that is all there is about it. But he who leads the 
 rescuing party is no hero in his own eyes; just an 
 average sort of man who may need to be " brought 
 out " himself to-morrow. 
 
 The characters in this book are fictitious : the char 
 acteristics are real. Such things as are here recorded 
 happen every day. For nearly fifteen years the lights 
 and shadows in these pages have fallen across the 
 author s path as he has gone among this people. 
 
 One of the hindrances to an understanding of other 
 classes is a lack of imagination. It is difficult for one 
 whose life has been clean and safe to put himself in the 
 
 7
 
 8 FOREWORD 
 
 place of another who is constantly struggling in the 
 dark. Because those who know nothing of the miner s 
 life find it so hard to sympathize with him in his needs 
 and temptations, this book has been written. 
 
 Some of the incidents here narrated have made their 
 appearance in periodical form. They are here ampli 
 fied and presented in their proper relation. 
 
 W. F. G.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 15 
 
 II. THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT .... 27 
 
 III. COALTON BARRACKS 43 
 
 IV. A TOY SOLDIER 57 
 
 V. THE HERETIC S PARISH 77 
 
 VI. AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 89 
 
 VII. THE UNDOING OF THE HOUSE OF GOOCH . . . 103 
 
 VIII. THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 125 
 
 IX. A ONE-MULE MAN 137 
 
 X. THE COST OF MINING 157 
 
 XI. THE EXPENSE OF TRANSPORTATION .... 171 
 
 XII. THE BURNING CULM DUMP 181 
 
 XIII. A MAGYAR PARADISE 199 
 
 XIV. THE SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH . . . .211 
 XV. AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 225 
 
 XVI. CASEY S SPEAK-EASY 245 
 
 XVII. ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 255 
 
 XVIII. MARY Liz IN THE OLD MOGUL S DEN . . . 269 
 
 XIX. THE OLD MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND . . . 281 
 
 XX. THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 290 
 
 9
 
 io CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXI. THE PROBATION OF REV. ARCHIBALD HUDDERFIELD . 303 
 XXII. THE STRIKE OF THE "MALGAMATED TERRORS . .317 
 
 XXIII. A SCAB SLATE PICKER 337 
 
 XXIV. IN THE SINKAGES 357 
 
 XXV. THE SULPHURING OF SUNDERLAND RED . . . 365 
 
 XXVI. A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY .... 375
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IMPRISONED BY A FALL OF ROOF . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 HOW THE UNDERGROUND HALF WORK . 80 
 "WEH IST HIM UP THE SHAFT" . . .144 
 THE OFFICERS OF THE MALGAMATED TER 
 RORS 328 
 
 "THEY WERE FIGHTING THE FIRE FACE TO 
 
 FACE" 368
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION
 
 " Be not so busy with your own career, 
 However noble, that you cannot hear 
 The sighs of those who look to you for help, 
 For this is purchasing success too dear." 
 
 DUER. 
 
 " W hen we are poor, we always have very clear ideas 
 of the duties vf the rich; but when we gain money, 
 we are experts in the science of showing the poor how 
 to behave." PUCK.
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 
 
 IT was the day when the strike was declared. The 
 Old Mogul was relieving his feelings by the use 
 of picturesque profanity. Everybody about the 
 office of the Anthrax Valley Railroad knew that the 
 President was mad. It was a fact which he made 
 no effort to conceal. He was in truth in a most vil 
 lainous temper; not so much at the unfortunate victims 
 of his ill-humour, or even the persons who were the 
 authors of his trouble. The Old Mogul was mad at 
 himself. 
 
 " Of all the infernal, single-tracked, narrow-gauged, 
 local freight torn-fools, I am the worst." 
 
 He had allowed himself to be forced into a false 
 position towards his employees. As a result the men 
 who worked in the mines of the company had struck, 
 and now the men who were on the railroad were 
 going on strike. The Old Mogul had never before in 
 all his life had a strike on his hands. 
 
 It was all on account of the " gentlemen s agree 
 ment." As if half-a-dozen New York bankers, who 
 would not know a mine-mule from a goat, could settle 
 the trouble without hearing the men s side of the 
 case! A gentlemen s agreement forsooth! The Old 
 Mogul had cursed the aforesaid agreement both si- 
 
 15
 
 16 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 lently and audibly, out of the office and in the office, 
 across the velvet-carpeted floors and up and down the 
 halls. But all his objurgations failed to free him from 
 the consequences of the agreement, or to relieve his 
 feelings. The fault was his own. 
 
 It is well-known that the coal-roads are the most 
 prosperous corporations under the sun and the Old 
 Mogul s road was the most brutally prosperous of 
 them all. 
 
 This magnate kept his office in the city of Carbon- 
 ville instead of in New York, where all the rail 
 road presidents go. If he had only been willing to 
 move, and thus taken himself out of the range of the 
 pitiful people whom his company fed by giving them 
 work in the mines, and, incidentally killed, he would 
 have avoided many an uncomfortable interview with 
 the survivors. But Hatton, as a boy, had tramped 
 over the Pennsylvania mountains and drudged as a 
 youth on the towpath of the canal, which he had after 
 wards bankrupted; and he loved the land of his birth 
 more than the cities of the stranger. Furthermore, 
 he was obstinate. His road controlled the anthracite 
 market and he would not go to the city to sell his 
 coal. Let the brokers come to him and sue for a re 
 duction in freight rates. He knew when he had a 
 cinch. 
 
 So the city of Carbonville grew larger and the rail 
 road office buildings waxed higher and broader as the 
 profits of the coal baron increased. Yet in spite of its 
 enormous and increasing enterprises, the Anthrax 
 Valley Railroad was involved in continual, petty dis-
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 17 
 
 putes with the aggrieved owners of deceased livestock, 
 especially cows which had come to their death through 
 persistent determination to cross from one narrow 
 meadow to another by way of the track. The cows 
 had had their rights on the rocky banks of the creek 
 for a far longer period of time than the railroad. But 
 such rights were not respected very highly by engineers 
 when they came skating down the grades with a hun 
 dred coal cars behind them. 
 
 As a result, the department of claims and damages 
 ran on full time, and the " mourner s bench " where 
 the claimants sat was seldom vacant. So long as 
 the amounts paid out for losses were kept below a cer 
 tain figure, all went well. But if the road had been 
 compelled to go into court to pay for the life of some 
 human victim, then the Old Mogul was apt to refuse 
 to pass the applications for damage done to cattle. 
 That meant trouble for the department. 
 
 Not all the cases were tragedies. There was " the 
 celebrated case of Angela s cow." Angela Jindy was 
 an old Italian woman. She seemed very old, for she 
 was a grandmother with a wrinkled face and knotted 
 hands, although only forty. She was a widow who 
 had followed her son to America. In Italy she had 
 toiled in the fields, but in the Anthrax Valley there 
 was no farm land to cultivate; so, while the daughter- 
 in-law kept the house, Angela picked coal from the 
 dumps and carried it home on her head, sometimes 
 carrying one of her son s babies on her hip besides. 
 
 It happened that Angela had visited the depart 
 ment of claims and damages at the same time that
 
 18 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the Old Mogul was telling the labour union men that 
 he would stand by the " gentlemen s agreement." 
 
 The men could have understood the uncomplicated 
 wrath of the Old Mogul. They were used to that. 
 But they were puzzled by his efforts at self-restraint, 
 and his refusal to arbitrate. 
 
 This is not my day to thresh this thing out with 
 you," he said when they had stated their case. " I ll 
 stand by the gentlemen s agreement. We have de 
 cided not to discuss this thing with the men at all. 
 I m talking to you fellows now only as private in 
 dividuals and it might as well stop right here. I ve 
 about run out of conversation." 
 
 " But, Mr. Hatton, we re willing to arbitrate 
 
 " There s nothing to arbitrate, I say," said the 
 President with something of his natural testiness. " I 
 stand by the gentlemen s agreement." 
 
 " Mr. Hatton, you ve always been willing to do the 
 fair thing. Why not arbitrate this? Bishop Vaux 
 has agreed to be one " 
 
 " Let him go to blazes and arbitrate the case of 
 the men that made the agreement ! " shouted the Old 
 Mogul. " I ve got no time for all this talk about arbi 
 tration. You can either handle the soft coal which 
 this road intends to haul, or you can strike right here 
 on the carpet, and then go to the paymaster and get 
 your time. That s all. Now there s room for you on 
 the sidewalk ! " 
 
 When the Old Mogul had somewhat exhausted his 
 stock of expletives he visited the department of claims 
 and damages himself to consult certain files that could
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 19 
 
 not be brought to his office. It had been a stormy 
 time for the chief clerk, for the President had not 
 found matters in just the shape he wished. As he left 
 the department he almost ran into the arms of old 
 Angela, who had risen from the " mourner s bench " 
 when the door opened. The Mogul called sharply: 
 " Matthews, I wish you d clear off these cases and 
 not have the office clogged up with a lot of garlicky 
 Italians ! " 
 
 The chief clerk had worked for the Company for 
 twenty-six years, almost as long as the Mogul him 
 self; but he had not risen to be President. He knew 
 that when Mr. Hatton was in that temper there was 
 no use to make any answer, so he pretended to be busy 
 hunting for the lost files and left the Mogul to wrestle 
 with Angela. 
 
 " Please, Mr. Mogul, my capra you have killed at 
 twenty- four August, train numero twenty. I have no 
 money. No can buy milk." 
 
 " Eh? What s that? I guess we didn t kill your 
 cow." 
 
 Angela repeated her statement with parrot-like ex 
 actness. 
 
 " Bring me the running-sheet for August twenty- 
 fourth," the Mogul called. 
 
 " You see there s no cow reported killed here," he 
 said holding up the sheet as though she could read its 
 contents. 
 
 " Mr. Hatton, you don t understand her language. 
 She isn t complaining about the loss of a c " 
 
 The President of the Anthrax Valley Railroad
 
 io THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 turned to the clerk, " When I need your advice about 
 conducting the business of this railroad, I ll request it. 
 If you will find those files, I shall be much obliged to 
 you." Turning back to Angela he said with chilly 
 politeness : " Madam, you must bring proof if you 
 expect us to pay any attention to your claim. We 
 keep a careful record and there is no entry here which 
 agrees with your claim." 
 
 " But my son he see train numero twenty. My son, 
 he come many time. I also come many time. He 
 say," pointing to the clerk, " you will give no money. 
 He say my capra too little. But he was all-a me have ! 
 Then the lawyer he tell-a my son " 
 
 " If you ve called in a shyster lawyer to press your 
 claim, I won t have anything to do with him or with 
 your claim either. I m busy now. You d better go 
 home." 
 
 " Please, Mr. Mogul, hear what I tell-a you. The 
 lawyer he say will mak-a ap-pli-ca-tion for large 
 amount. After you pay, must-a give him half. 
 Please, Mr. Mogul, why you pay so much to him? 
 Why no pay me? " 
 
 " I won t pay him, nor I won t pay you. Do you 
 understand? You can t collect your claim for your 
 cow by law." 
 
 " No, Mr. Mogul, I have no cow. I have no money. 
 No can buy milk for bambino. You have kill-a my 
 capra. Engine numero twenty, he kill-a my capra 
 what you call? He give milk for bambino. Poor 
 bambino! Now he was no milk to eat. He look-a 
 bad ! He will die. See ! " From the shawl which she
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 21 
 
 had slung across one shoulder down to the opposite 
 hip, Angela produced a weazened Italian baby and held 
 it out to the Old Mogul. 
 
 Now the Mogul, in spite of his rough words and 
 obstinate ways, could not bear to think about suffer 
 ing children. 
 
 " Never mind about the baby," he hastened to say. 
 " I suppose this was the best cow you ever had? " 
 
 " No, he not what you call the best-a cow. But 
 he give milk so rich so strong. Now he was all-a 
 gone. What you say? We got left." 
 
 Angela folded her threadbare shawl about the babe 
 with such an air of injured dignity that the Mogul 
 stopped laughing. 
 
 " How much do you claim? Fifty dollars? " 
 
 Angela could not tell whether he was making sport 
 of her; the amount seemed so princely. She replied 
 simply : " No, Mr. Mogul ; not half-a that much. I 
 want to make square." 
 
 The President looked searchingly into Angela s 
 face, as if to see what hidden motive might be in her 
 mind for such an admission concerning the value of 
 her property. He was not accustomed to conscientious 
 scruples on the part of the public when dealing with 
 the corporation of which he was the head. 
 
 " I guess you don t care much for your cow," he 
 said with pretended harshness. " You d better go 
 along." 
 
 Then the fountains of Angela s feelings were loosed. 
 Was not this, her capra, the staff and support of her 
 grandchildren s helpless infancy ? Had she not grown
 
 22 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 up in the bosom of the family? Would she not come 
 home to be milked when called, even from the farthest 
 limits to which the sound of their voices could reach? 
 And the bambino, was she not growing daily weaker 
 for want of proper food, while the milk trust added 
 every month another cent per quart to the price? And 
 the boy, her son s first-born, poor crippled child, was 
 he not failing also? And little Pippenella, had she 
 not had the " ammonia " and had not the doctor 
 said she must have milk? All this and more, a great 
 deal more, she poured forth in a flood of fluent Italian 
 and halting English, until the Mogul showed signs of 
 relenting. There were tears in her eyes as she said, 
 " He no good-a much, but he all-a we got. Now we 
 was hard luck-a ! " 
 
 The old Mogul called: " Make out a check for fifty 
 dollars, and send a boy to the paymaster to get it 
 cashed. Bring gold," he called as the messenger dis 
 appeared from the office. 
 
 " There s twenty-five dollars for your cow and 
 twenty-five dollars for telling the truth," he said, hand 
 ing her the money. 
 
 " Mr. Mogul, I no have-a cow." 
 
 " I know you haven t. But you can buy one now 
 and have plenty of milk for the baby. There ! There ! 
 Never mind that," and he escaped into the inner office 
 to avoid the shower of kisses which Angela was en 
 deavouring to rain upon his hands. 
 
 The old woman had not climbed the mountain of 
 coal dust behind which her son s cabin stood, before
 
 THE SOULLESS CORPORATION 23 
 
 the Second Vice-President came out of the account 
 ant s office wearing a smile so wide that it fairly over 
 flowed the boundaries of his face. Being a privileged 
 person, he pushed into the Old Mogul s private office 
 and a minute later the halls echoed shouts of laughter. 
 
 Perhaps it would not have seemed so funny if ev 
 erybody had not been so excited about the strike. 
 
 " How s the market on goats to-day? " the Second 
 Vice-President managed to ask the Old Mogul when 
 he could control his voice. " I hear the price is up 
 about six hundred points. I had a notion to take a 
 flyer on the market myself. If you are short I could 
 furnish you with a thousand or so black-faced Italian 
 nanny-goats, live ones, that is, if you really want to 
 buy." 
 
 " See here, what the deuce are you cackling about? 
 You ve been putting up some sort of job on me, I 
 suppose. Out with it! " 
 
 "Job nothing! " the Vice-President shrieked, going 
 off into another spasm. " You set up the job on your 
 self. I leave it to Matthews. He tried to set you 
 straight on the Italian lingo for goat and you wouldn t 
 let him talk. Didn t he tell you that capra wasn t the 
 Italian for cow ? Fifty dollars ! Holy smoke ! " and 
 then his feelings overpowered him again. 
 
 For one full minute the Old Mogul faced his fellow 
 officer in silence, then he said, as the latter paused for 
 breath, 
 
 " Won t you kindly oblige me by going to thunder? " 
 
 In the meantime the message was passing from desk
 
 24 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 to desk in the outer offices: " The boss has just paid 
 an old dago woman fifty dollars for a bloomin , black- 
 faced, nanny-goat dead! " 
 
 Before the mirth had subsided, a messenger came 
 from the inner office of the Old Mogul bearing a 
 check for fifty dollars, drawn on his private account, 
 in favour of the paymaster of the Anthrax Valley 
 Railroad. 
 
 Then the second message went round : " The boss 
 paid for that goat out of his own pocket, like a little 
 man." 
 
 " Whatever else you may say about him, the Old 
 Mogul pays the freight ! " It was old Matthews, the 
 clerk in the claims department, who said this, and the 
 remark shows that he was of a forgiving spirit. 
 
 It was by such business methods as this that the Old 
 Mogul kept his hold as President of the Anthrax 
 Valley Railroad, long past the age when most men are 
 forced to retire by the younger stockholders.
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT
 
 Man am I grown, a man s work must I do. 
 Follow the deer? Follow the Christ, the King, 
 Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King." 
 
 TENNYSON.
 
 II 
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 
 
 THE news that the Old Mogul was determined to 
 stand by the gentlemen s agreement, and that 
 he would not meet the men of the Union to 
 arbitrate the questions at issue, brought things to a 
 stand still. Except for its passenger trains, the An 
 thrax Valley Railroad was not able to move a wheel. 
 At the mines everything was silent. But for the watch 
 men, and the pump runners who kept the mines from 
 flooding, the shafts were abandoned. 
 
 Every sort of business suffered. The streets were 
 full of idle men, but the stores were empty. An in 
 definable gloom and apprehension filled the air. 
 
 A week after the strike was declared the Bishop of 
 Anthrax sat in his study wrinkling up his episcopal 
 brows. Since coming to Carbonville no affair of his 
 diocese had brought such tense lines into his strong, 
 kindly face. The old man was gathering up his forces 
 and arranging his arguments. He knew that he would 
 need all his energies for the struggle which was to 
 begin within the next few minutes. The Bishop was 
 so strong a man that he did not often need to call up his 
 reserve forces ; but a man is so much harder to manage 
 than men! 
 
 Bishop Vaux had need of men. His diocese had 
 
 27
 
 28 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 recently grown both in wealth and in population more 
 rapidly than any other section of the Eastern States. 
 The coal mining industry had developed marvellously. 
 Vast hordes of foreigners were pouring into the region 
 as fast as the immigration bureau would allow them 
 to land. The condition of these foreigners was miser 
 able indeed. Many of them were desperately poor. 
 Until the contract labour laws had prevented it, the 
 corporations, whenever a strike occurred, had brought 
 new droves of Slavs or Italians to the mines to take 
 the places of the English speaking miners who were 
 demanding better wages. English became almost an 
 unknown tongue on the streets of the straggling towns 
 where rival nationalities formed their " Little Italics " 
 or " New Hungaries " or " Polanders Patches." 
 
 When these communities were first established, the 
 houses were mere shanties, often built of sticks or 
 stones or even earth heaped together in the rudest man 
 ner, and roofed with sheet iron from the powder kegs 
 of the miners. 
 
 A later stage of this village life was the establish 
 ment of boarding houses, into some of which as many 
 as twenty men were gathered in one room. Each man 
 slept on the floor on his own narrow, straw-filled bed. 
 During the day, his bed was piled against the wall. 
 At the head of the bunk stood his individual sack of 
 flour, while his piece of smoked meat hung from the 
 wall. It was the duty of the " boarding- frau " to pre 
 pare the food of each man separately from his own 
 supplies at any time of the day when he might be 
 through his work.
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 19 
 
 The men had but few amusements, and no intel 
 lectual uplift. In almost every house there was some 
 musician whose skill upon the accordion was confined 
 to the production of a few monotonous wailings of the 
 homeland. 
 
 Beside the food with which each man provided him 
 self, he also kept a full supply of liquor. On pay days 
 the men of the boarding house clubbed together and 
 bought cheap whiskey by the pailful. Then the pail 
 was placed in the middle of the room and the men took 
 turns at the dipper, sometimes marching around in a 
 circle, singing and dancing. Soon the house would be 
 filled with brawling men and later with those who were 
 too stupefied even to fight. 
 
 In this way the men lived until those who were more 
 thrifty could save money enough to bring their wives 
 or sweethearts from the fatherland and to establish 
 homes for themselves. 
 
 Among this cosmopolitan population the moral need 
 was even greater than the physical. Freed from the 
 restraints of strong paternal governments, the nat 
 ural impulse of this peasant population soon ran to 
 license. Even those who were inclined toward right 
 eousness grew perplexed amid the varying standards 
 of morality. When the opportunity for religious wor 
 ship was lost, the desire soon perished. Laws were 
 held in contempt. Fear alone restrained the passions 
 of men. The children grew up utterly ignorant, or 
 nearly untaught, and threatened to outdo their par 
 ents in wickedness. The sons of the stranger were 
 entering into possession of the fairest inheritance of
 
 30 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 those who had founded in the state of Pennsylvania an 
 asylum for the oppressed. Liberty was threatened by 
 anarchy; learning was throttled by ignorance. The 
 lawlessness of the Klondike prevailed in the heart of 
 a Christian civilization. 
 
 The first miners who had worked in the Anthrax 
 Valley spoke English, coming principally from Eng 
 land, Ireland or Wales. Some of these people had been 
 members of the Church of England and hence came 
 naturally under the care of Bishop Vaux. Many more 
 came from the liturgical churches of the Continent and 
 could be reached by the church, if only missionary pas 
 tors could be found for the field. 
 
 But the men were lacking. The Bishop had just 
 come from the delivery of an address before the grad 
 uating class of the theological school of his denomina 
 tion. He had asked for a dozen men to volunteer for 
 service among these foreigners and he came away bear 
 ing the promise of one man to consider the question of 
 entering the field as a missionary. 
 
 It. was the more discouraging to the Bishop because 
 there were points here and there where the church had 
 once been established. In the days when the lumber 
 industry thrived and afterwards when farming was 
 the occupation of the people, churches had been built. 
 At Coalton a flourishing church had once existed. But 
 now even this was dying. As the Bishop traversed the 
 naked, dreary territory in the vicinity of Coalton, 
 which was enormously more prosperous since the 
 wealth below the surface had been developed, there 
 was not one rector who required his care. There were
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 31 
 
 people in abundance; indeed the Anthrax Valley was 
 almost like a continuous village along the line of the 
 railroad. But there was hardly a church of any 
 denomination, except here and there a Roman Catho 
 lic church. The development of the country had out 
 run the church, and the fact lay heavily on the Bishop s 
 heart. 
 
 His face broke into a smile of welcome as his secre 
 tary announced young Warne, who had arrived 
 promptly at five o clock to keep his appointment. Even 
 though the Bishop was troubled about the issue of the 
 interview, he smiled; for Warne was a man to rejoice 
 over. In appearance the young man was commanding. 
 His features were clear-cut, handsome and classic. 
 Long limbed, deep chested, well balanced, it was no 
 wonder that he had been easily the best all-around man 
 in his class in college, in athletics, in the class-room 
 and in society. 
 
 As he rose to greet him, a distinct wish framed itself 
 in the Bishop s mind that such a young man might 
 have been his own son. There was something so 
 sane, so frank and winning about him, something so 
 imperious and so well-fitted to command success, that 
 the Bishop already saw him, in his mind s eye, as his 
 own successor in the episcopal chair. 
 
 The wish was no new one in the good man s mind. 
 Warne was the son of his earliest and most steadfast 
 friend. Long before he was Bishop of Anthrax, 
 Warne s father had stood by his side in every enter 
 prise undertaken by the church. Warne s house had 
 been a veritable home for the Bishop and the clergy.
 
 32 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 No secular interests had ever been so dear to the 
 family as those of the Bishop and the church. But 
 now, after all the years that the young man had spent 
 in his theological training, Henry Martyn Warne had 
 come to give the Bishop the reasons why he could not 
 take orders in the church. 
 
 Now that he had really come to the point, Warne 
 found it hard to begin. Yet it was not his custom to 
 shirk hard things; so as soon as they were seated, he 
 plunged into the difficult subject. 
 
 " You know that my father always wanted me to 
 prepare for the ministry; and before she died, my 
 mother " 
 
 He hesitated a moment at the mention of his 
 mother s name and the Bishop hastened to say : 
 
 " My boy, I knew all this from your birth. Yes, 
 you were destined for the church even before your 
 birth. You cannot you dare not ignore those dedi 
 catory vows." 
 
 " That s the very point. How can I be bound by an 
 agreement in the making of which I had no voice? 
 You don t mean to say that I am bound to fulfill a 
 promise made before I was born? " 
 
 The Bishop had counted greatly on the influence 
 which the wish of Warne s mother was likely to have 
 upon her son. Indeed he had intended to reserve that 
 for his final argument, if necessary. But he had been 
 betrayed by Warne s words and his own eagerness into 
 bringing this motive to bear upon Warne at the very 
 beginning of their conference. When he saw how the 
 young man felt, he knew better than to press the point.
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 33 
 
 " Let me hear your own reasons," he said. 
 
 " Well, for one thing, I think that by temperament, 
 I am not at all fitted for the work. Imagine what it 
 would mean to a man brought up as I have been to 
 have my own way, to be dictated to by a congrega 
 tion. Suppose some of the tabbies of the parish 
 began to criticise me for wearing a business suit 
 on week-days, for instance. Just now I could laugh 
 at such a thing as that, even if it were made an 
 issue in the management of the parish, but maybe I 
 couldn t if it came on top of a number of similar irri 
 tations. Hendricks, of my class, told me that a lot of 
 busybodies in his church went for him because he wore 
 a red tie when he rode his bicycle. At the same time 
 the real interests of the parish were committed to the 
 hands of a shady banker and a stupid brewer. The 
 banker used his position as a church warden to influ 
 ence people to put their money into his hands and then 
 embezzled the funds of the church and those of every 
 body else whom he could persuade to trust him, includ 
 ing all the brewer s savings. All this in spite of what 
 Hendricks could do to warn him. I m afraid I would 
 have said things that were not polite, if I had had to 
 deal with such an assortment of idiots." 
 
 " But surely this isn t your principal reason ? " 
 
 " No ; but it leads to it. When my father died, there 
 were matters connected with the estate which could 
 not be entrusted to others. Up to that time I had had 
 no experience in business. I had always regarded my 
 self as a candidate for orders and it was with reluc 
 tance that I undertook the control of the estate. But
 
 34 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 when I had once begun, I was fascinated with the stir 
 of active business life. It seems to me now when 
 I look back that up to this time I had lived in a land of 
 dreams. The estate has engrossed my time and ener 
 gies for the last three years. Then came that Hatton 
 matter. I don t feel that I have done anything that 
 anyone else might not have done, but that deal with 
 Hatton has turned out rather successfully. Now why 
 can t I use for the glory of God whatever powers I 
 may have just as well in making money as in labour 
 ing in the ministry ? Can t I make money and do good 
 with it? I know that father did, for I have seen his 
 private accounts." 
 
 " Henry, your father was one man among a thou 
 sand. If we had more such men, business would be 
 done to the glory of God." 
 
 " That s just my point. I want to work that way. 
 So many great business transactions are shady. There 
 is a glaring audacity about them, or something else, 
 which blinds the successful manipulator to the fact 
 that a moral wrong has been done to somebody." 
 
 "Are you sure that you could resist temptation any 
 better than others ? " 
 
 "No; but I mean to try. I have my father s ex 
 ample to help to keep me straight." 
 
 " Do you think a man ought to speculate for the 
 glory of God ? " 
 
 " Yes, if he speculates at all." 
 
 " Let me see : I think you said you were concerned 
 in the Hatton deal. I did not know that before. 
 Would your father have gone into that ? "
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 35 
 
 " I don t think so, because he was opposed to specu 
 lation of any sort. But anybody else would have 
 done just as I did, if he had happened to see that the 
 Anthrax people must have that land. I don t claim 
 any superior ability. I just happened to see it and se 
 cured an option before anybody else did. It was per 
 fectly fair. Hatton was trying to buy the land, 
 through a third party, for less than its value. I beat 
 him at his own game." 
 
 " Henry, I am not a business man and I didn t know 
 all the details of the matter. But, if I understand it, 
 you sold to Mr. Hatton a strip of land which the Rail 
 road had to have for its new coal yards, for many times 
 what it cost you. You had what you call a cinch. 
 Do you think that accords with the Sermon on the 
 Mount ? Could that be done to the glory of God ? " 
 
 It was Warne s turn now to feel that his best card 
 had been played and lost. As he was silent, the Bishop 
 went on : " Don t you see the desperate need of the 
 work of the church here in these mining valleys? 
 Don t you see how these poor people need you? God 
 has given you wealth; ought you not to use 
 it and your time for Him? These people have real 
 grievances as well as desperate needs: do you know 
 anything about them? Here s this painful strike, for 
 instance. Your wealth and business interests bring 
 you into touch with the coal operators, on the one 
 hand; might you not come into sympathy with the 
 miners on the other? You might help to settle this 
 strike or to prevent trouble in the future, if you chose." 
 
 " You overestimate my ability, Bishop."
 
 36 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 I believe you could fulfill my hopes, if you only 
 would." 
 
 " That reminds me of another reason I meant to 
 give why I seem to be particularly fitted for a business 
 career. You know I am a member of the National 
 Guard, the Twenty-fifth Regiment. I have lately been 
 elected lieutenant, and I am surprised to find how the 
 men have stood by me. If I have a knack for man 
 aging men, it will be a great factor in business success." 
 
 The Bishop answered slowly : " Yes, but for the 
 work of the Master, would not that qualification be 
 of great value there too?" 
 
 Warne was silent. 
 
 " Do you wish that you wished to enter the minis 
 try? " the Bishop asked. " You ought not to take or 
 ders unless you feel so strongly impelled towards the 
 service of Christ in the church that you cannot help 
 it." 
 
 A slow flush mounted Warne s face. " I don t be 
 lieve I do wish it," he said. 
 
 " That ought to settle the matter," said the Bishop, 
 quietly. 
 
 Warne was silent again. 
 
 " Are you sure there is nothing more to tell me? " 
 the Bishop asked. 
 
 " Well, sir, there is one thing more that I want to 
 discuss with you. I didn t want to tell you about it 
 until we had settled the first question, although it has 
 nothing to do with my reasons for declining the minis 
 try. 
 
 " I needn t tell you that Helen and I have always
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 37 
 
 been good friends. Since I have had this deal on my 
 hands and my father s estate to settle I have not been 
 able to come to visit you as often as I used to. I be 
 lieve you know how much I think of her. I don t 
 know exactly how she feels towards me, for she has 
 been just a trifle shy of me recently. But it has been 
 the dream of my life, and I want now to have your 
 permission to ask her to become my wife." 
 
 The Bishop did not speak for a moment. Then 
 he put out his hand and covered the strong 1 young hand 
 that rested on the corner of his desk. " My boy, I 
 have prayed for this for years," was all he could 
 say. 
 
 Warne bowed his head in silence. It seemed almost 
 as though the Bishop stood by the altar. " Pray for it 
 now," he said reverently. 
 
 " If I give my consent to your suit for Helen s hand, 
 will you promise to enter the ministry ? " 
 
 The younger man looked up quickly. His face 
 showed the injury which he felt. Was this the man 
 who criticised business deals? Was this the Bishop 
 whom he had pictured standing by the altar ? 
 
 " I fear you have let yourself be influenced by your 
 love for Helen," the Bishop went on in a level voice. 
 " You have heard, perhaps, some of the hardships 
 which clergymen s wives have been called upon to 
 suffer. You want to shield Helen from possible hard 
 ship and annoyance which even the possession of wealth 
 cannot prevent." 
 
 " Why do you talk to me in this way ? I have said 
 that I do not feel called upon to make any such sacri-
 
 38 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 fice of my personal tastes and ambitions. Helen has 
 not entered into the case. I don t feel it and that s 
 all there is about it." 
 
 " Let me tell you something more that may help 
 you to see your duty to make the sacrifice. About a 
 month ago I preached on the duty of the church to 
 send out missionaries." 
 
 " I read it. It was a strong sermon and it was that 
 which made me canvass my own feelings again and 
 that brought me here to-day. But I could not make 
 such a sacrifice." 
 
 The Bishop nodded and then went on : "I felt 
 very keenly the need of this work and I urged as 
 strongly as I could that here was a duty which we dare 
 not shirk. Since I have been Bishop of the diocese, 
 we have never had one single man in this parish or 
 dained to the ministry, much less to go abroad as a 
 missionary. I have counted on you, Henry, to take up 
 the work " 
 
 " But do you think this is fair to use such arguments 
 to press me into a calling which I respect most highly, 
 but for which I have said more than once I felt no 
 overwhelming desire? I don t think you ought " 
 
 " Wait till I have finished. I say that I felt most 
 deeply this lack of results in my ministry. After the 
 sermon I gave out that hymn of Bishop How s, writ 
 ten you may remember not for the unregenerate, but 
 for Christian people, 
 
 O Jesus thou art standing 
 
 Outside the fast closed door, 
 In lowly patience waiting 
 To cross the threshold o er.
 
 THE BISHOP S VULNERABLE POINT 39 
 
 Before I dismissed the congregation, I said I would 
 meet in my study anyone whose heart had been stirred 
 to take up the work. At the appointed time a young 
 woman came. She had been tenderly reared. I be 
 lieve she has been one of the most devout Christians 
 among us from her earliest years. Her mother her 
 mother is dead. She is the very stay and prop of her 
 father s declining years that is, I would say, she 
 stands very close to his heart. When she told me that 
 she had come in response to my invitation, I could only 
 say, Oh, my dear girl, I didn t mean you! I don t 
 see how we can spare you ! I am telling you this be 
 cause I want you to understand the sacrifice. Henry, 
 neither you nor I have ever made such a sacrifice as 
 my as this young woman is making." 
 
 The gong of the cathedral clock on the mantel 
 chimed the hour and then silence fell between the two 
 men for some minutes. 
 
 " I don t feel that I have the right to go into this 
 matter any further," the Bishop resumed. " This 
 much, however, I can say : It had not been my sermon 
 that moved her. The one thing she referred to as 
 having influenced her was that verse of How s, 
 
 O Jesus, thou art knocking: 
 
 And lo! that hand is scarred, 
 And thorns thy brow encircle, 
 
 And tears thy face have marred : 
 Oh, love that passeth knowledge, 
 
 So patiently to wait ! 
 Oh, sin that hath no equal, 
 
 So fast to bar the gate ! 
 
 It wasn t to me she was answering the question ; it was 
 to the Master. Henry, it was Helen who said this!
 
 40 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 She is going to China as a foreign missionary ; I can 
 not cannot let her go ! Will you help me ? Go down 
 to the music room and see her." 
 
 Half an hour later, as the Bishop paced past the 
 window of his study, he saw Warne cross the snow- 
 covered lawn in the darkness. He had forgotten his 
 umbrella and his overcoat. The young man s strong 
 figure seemed bent and his step was uncertain. Within 
 the house a strain from the hymn which the Bishop 
 had quoted pierced the darkness like a wail of re 
 nunciation. The Bishop cast himself upon the floor 
 beside the window and lifted his hands towards the 
 stars in the distant sky.
 
 COALTON BARRACKS
 
 // Jesus Christ is a man 
 
 And only a man, / say 
 That of all mankind I cleave to him, 
 
 And to him will I cleave alway. 
 
 If Jesus Christ is a god 
 
 And the only God, I swear 
 I will follow him through Heaven and hell 
 
 The earth, the sea and the air." 
 
 GILDER.
 
 Ill 
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 
 
 WHEN Bishop Vaux was asked to act as an 
 arbitrator between the Old Mogul and his 
 employees, it developed that there were two 
 distinct elements among the men; those who were anx 
 ious to fight the Company, and those who wished to 
 live in peace. Many of the latter were men with fami 
 lies who could not bear the risk of starvation if the 
 strike should be prolonged. 
 
 While the wives of some of the men were eager for 
 the strike, most of the women of the community 
 strongly opposed it. 
 
 Those who were most desirous were the younger 
 men and boys, who had never known its miseries. 
 
 " Now, Micky, darlin , be sure ye vote agin the 
 sthrike in the Union to-night," Mrs. Phelan had said. 
 
 " Sure, Mother, how c n I vote agin the sthrike an 
 me the prisident iv the Malgamated Terrors ? " 
 
 " If ye do vote to sthrike, ye ll find iviry sthitch iv 
 yer clothes in the toob to-morra," concluded Mrs. Phe 
 lan. 
 
 Mick secretly determined to escape the consequences 
 by sleeping in his clothes that night. 
 
 Chief among those who were opposed to the strike 
 was a big kindly Englishman named Hudderfield, 
 
 43
 
 44 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 whom everybody called Sunderland Red. Hudder- 
 field had struggled for peace until the Old Mogul 
 made arbitration impossible. Then he went out and 
 got drunk. Such a statement as this would not be 
 made in some social circles, but society in Coal- 
 ton is not squeamish about facts of this sort. It was 
 not very often that Sunderland Red did get drunk, 
 but when he did his debauch was likely to be a pro 
 longed one. 
 
 He was rather a picturesque figure as he wavered 
 down the street through the snow. His gait was due 
 rather to lameness than to the effects of the liquor, for 
 Sunderland Red did not get drunk in the same way as 
 other men. Neither his body nor his brain was para 
 lyzed by drink, only shaken and excited into abnormal 
 activity. 
 
 Although well along in middle life, his magnificent 
 strength was well preserved. His hair was hardly 
 touched with gray; his body but little bent with the 
 crushing toil and hardship of the mines. His face, 
 when he was clean and sober, was really noble. It was 
 almost a typical English face; such a face as John 
 Bunyan might have worn, before his conversion. 
 
 He was still dressed in his mining clothes. His out 
 fit consisted of blue overalls, dark flannel shirt with 
 the sleeves cut off at the elbows, covered with a loose 
 coat well soaked with oil. His feet were shod with 
 heavy, hob-nailed shoes and his legs encased in a pair 
 of flapping boot tops like a pair of leggins. Topping 
 all the rest, he wore a heavy oil-cloth hat that some 
 what resembled a fireman s helmet.
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 45 
 
 Two persons stood watching him from the door of 
 Mark Owens saloon as he passed out the street lead 
 ing up into the mountain, the saloon-keeper himself 
 and Bruce Hardin a handsome young patrician in cor 
 duroy suit and high-laced surveyors boots. There 
 was a suspicion of redness about the young man s 
 eyes and a certain hardness about the lips which be 
 tokens the steady drinker. Hardin well knew that 
 he was not popular with the men. Before the strike 
 he had been accustomed to drop into Mark Owens 
 saloon when passing and he always made it a point 
 to treat any of the men who might happen to be there 
 in the hope of gaining favour. Since the strike they 
 avoided him, but he still continued to drop into the 
 saloon. 
 
 " Sunderland Red is pretty well corned this morn 
 ing," he remarked, pointing to the older man as he 
 struggled up the steep hillside. " A pity too, for 
 he s a good fellow when he s sober," and the handsome 
 face drew itself into an unpleasant sneer which belied 
 the words. 
 
 " Any man who drinks whiskey is a fool," observed 
 the saloon-keeper sententiously. " I ve said so before 
 and I ll say so again." 
 
 " Rather hard on some of us, Owens. Hard on 
 yourself too." 
 
 " I never took but two drinks of whiskey in all of 
 my life. Any man s a fool who drinks the stuff. I 
 always said so." Strangely enough the saloon-keeper 
 spoke the truth about his accustomed warning s against 
 drink. " I ve said so to old Hudderfield. He knows
 
 46 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 he s no business to drink rum. But it s no use. 
 There s the result. Makin a fool of himself ! 
 
 " Now take a man like Breece," Owens went on. 
 " He ain t reckless about drink, like Sunderland Red 
 is. Takes a glass o beer or so reg lar an knows when 
 he s got enough. Breece is quite a religious sort o 
 feller. He always went to the Piscopal church so long 
 as they had services here. He s had all his kids bap 
 tised an* promised that they shall fight the devil an 
 all his works. He won t go to this here Salvation 
 Army barracks here, cause he says they ain t reg lar. 
 But he always says his prayers every night fore he 
 goes to bed, unless it might be some night when he 
 was kind o sleepy like from drink an forgot em, or 
 fell asleep in his chair an never went to bed at all. I 
 think the Lord oughtn t to blame him under the cir 
 cumstances." 
 
 But however interesting Sunderland Red s short 
 comings or Mark Owens temperance principles, it 
 was not to be expected that either should continue to 
 engross public attention when there were rumours 
 afloat that the troops were to arrive that day. There 
 had been some damage done by the strikers to the 
 company s property on the day before and the sheriff 
 and his deputies had been driven from the field. Vio 
 lence had prevailed in other portions of the region and 
 the troops were already gathered in their armories, so 
 that it was no surprise to the group gathered in 
 Owens saloon when it was announced positively that 
 the troops were coming that day. 
 
 " There ain t no use to bring them toy soldiers up
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 47 
 
 here to settle this strike," Owens proclaimed. " It ll 
 only make trouble. If any soldiers has got to come, 
 this is the time for the reg lars. If the companies 
 can organize themselves into big syndicates, they ll 
 find that the men can malgamate theirselves into one 
 big union. There s going to be trouble. You ll 
 see! ; 
 
 No doubt Owens was right about the matter. The 
 union was in complete control of the town of Coalton 
 without striking a single blow. How wisely it would 
 use its power was yet to be seen. But the first effect 
 was to paralyze all business, except that of the saloons. 
 The trouble would come when the company should at 
 tempt to start its works with imported men. 
 
 In the meantime Sunderland Red continued towards 
 the deserted timber road which led into the moun 
 tains. At the upper end of the town he passed an old 
 building once used for a meat shop. In front there 
 was a muslin sign, intended to be lighted up at night, 
 bearing the words 
 
 SALVATION ARMY 
 COALTON BARRACKS 
 
 " Seems to me I remember the Salvation Army back 
 in Sunderland," he said to himself. " My sister used 
 to want me to go with her and I wouldn t. Never 
 cared much for religion then. Don t seem to care
 
 48 
 
 much for it now. Wonder if my sister s living yet? 
 It s a long- time since I heard from her. Wonder if 
 she d have anything to do with me now? I ain t fit 
 to be with folks; not the way I am. I m glad I haven t 
 any wife or folks. I ll go out here in the mountains 
 somewhere and He did not finish the sentence 
 
 even to himself. 
 
 Farther up the hillside he toiled through the snow, 
 across the folds of the barren mountains. The tim 
 ber had been cut, but there were a few straggling laurel 
 bushes left. Otherwise the whole landscape was a 
 great white waste. Sometimes he rushed down the 
 sides of a ravine, but for the most part he climbed 
 higher and higher. 
 
 For a little time the sun shone out; then the sky 
 grew leaden and threatened more snow. But he did 
 not mind the cold. Occasionally he sat down and once 
 or twice he cried aloud. At last he turned and started 
 straight for the village. 
 
 On that very morning, in order that he might know 
 the condition of affairs, the colonel of the regiment 
 which was to be sent into the region of Coalton had 
 detailed three of his lieutenants for secret service work. 
 For one day they had been in touch with the mine 
 owners and now they were going through the Anthrax 
 Valley. But they discovered nothing more than bla 
 tant talkers about the saloons until just before dark, 
 when they saw from a distance a crowd of men pass 
 ing behind the dump of the Hatton breaker, some of 
 them carrying bags. Hastily dispatching one of their 
 number for help, the two young officers hurried to the
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 49 
 
 dump only to find that the men had disappeared. Vi 
 sions of dynamite and damage to the company s prop 
 erty were pictured to their minds. 
 
 An Irishman standing before the door of a dis 
 mantled freight car at the foot of the dump took his 
 pipe from his mouth and politely wished them good 
 evening. 
 
 " Which way did those men turn who passed here 
 about fifteen minutes ago?" 
 
 " Sure, and no min did I see pass here at all, at 
 all ! " 
 
 " There was quite a crowd of them. Some of them 
 were carrying bags. Do you know what they were 
 doing?" 
 
 " Is it bags ye say? Sure they were doin nothin , 
 so long as they were carryin their bags; but by this 
 toime they ll be fightin their cocks at all. Which way 
 did ye say they wint? Sure it s a dirty trick they ve 
 played me not to tell me whin they had a cock fight 
 to pull off, an me the bist judge iv a fightin cock in 
 the howl county iv Anthracite ! " Casey s anger was 
 evidently so genuine that they could not doubt that he 
 was telling them the truth about the men with the bags. 
 
 " Sure ye don t know which way they wint at all ? 
 Cum wid me, gintlemin an if ye ll show me fware ye 
 seen thim last we ll soon cum up wid thim. An if 
 ye ve got but a little money to bet, I ll put ye nixt to 
 a sure thing in fightin cocks fware ye kin aisy double 
 yer money." 
 
 While these things were taking place, Sunderland 
 Red was making his way wearily back toward Coalton.
 
 50 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 It was long after dark when he reached the town. 
 There were lights now in the Salvation Army barracks 
 and he went in. A meeting was in progress and a 
 woman s voice was heard in prayer. Then they sang 
 the hymn, " Whiter Than Snow." 
 
 There were but a handful of people present; three 
 or four women, with patient faces and toil-hardened 
 hands, a half-grown boy, two or three children who 
 were cuddled against their mothers to keep warm and 
 a half-silly Hungarian, known only as Yawcup, who 
 always attended every sort of meeting. Until Sunder- 
 land Red entered, there were no other persons present, 
 except those named and the leader, Brother Smiler. 
 At that time Brother Smiler was not so well known as 
 he has since become, but he had all the force and fire 
 which have since made him so famous in fighting the 
 battles of the Lord. 
 
 Brother Smiler rose and began to speak rapidly. " I 
 suppose this is the last meeting in Coalton Barracks," 
 he said. 
 
 " I left this matter with the Lord; but I ain t tryin 
 to put no blame on Him. I ve been to every place in 
 town to-day, every saloon in all the Patches, tryin to 
 sell War Cry s, and I didn t sell one. I ve invited 
 every man I saw to come to this meeting to-night, 
 and they ain t here. I told the Lord that if He wanted 
 me to stay, I d stay ; but He must give me a sign. The 
 Commander is writing to me to come to New York 
 where he d give me a recruiting station. It looks as 
 if nothing could be done here until this strike s over. 
 Seems as if the men in this town don t care nothing
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 51 
 
 for their soul s salvation, but just nothing 1 but strike, 
 strike. 
 
 " O, God," he cried vehemently, " if the men and old 
 Mr. Hatton would only hear the message of Jesus 
 Christ ! They re all talking about the strike and their 
 rights and they won t either party hear the Gospel 
 message. I m afraid there ll be trouble and bloodshed 
 before this thing s settled. I wanted to stay right 
 here until it was over. I asked the Lord to give me a 
 sign and He s done it; but it ain t the sign I wanted. 
 I asked Him to fill this place with men to-night and to 
 save souls. Instead He s sent me the tickets to New 
 York, and the men are in the saloons. O, Lord, save 
 the souls of these men here in the mines ! " His voice 
 rose to an agonizing pitch and then sank into silence. 
 
 " We haven t had much to eat in the last few 
 weeks," he went on. As he said this the shabby form 
 of the speaker s wife seemed to shrink under her blue 
 and red uniform and the two children clung a little 
 closer to her side. "I ain t complaining about it; 
 when the men are on strike, they haven t much to 
 give. We were willing to stay and starve with the 
 rest of you people here, if it was the Lord s will. But 
 the Commander says, come to New York, where the 
 work is waiting for somebody to take it up. So I 
 guess this is the last meeting we ll have here in the 
 Coalton Barracks. The Lord will raise up somebody 
 to carry on the work to the glory of His name; but I 
 did wish I might see it when the blessing came! " 
 
 Then his speech turned into a prayer for the people 
 of Coalton, broken, pleading, argumentative almost.
 
 52 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 When he ceased, Sunderland Red rose. You all 
 know who I am," he said simply. You all know 
 what kind of a life I ve lived. I ve been on a tear for 
 a week and I came home this morning because I had no 
 more money. It was just before breakfast that I got 
 in and I was feeling pretty rocky. I didn t want any 
 thing to eat, so I sat down by the fire and fell asleep 
 for a while. Pretty soon along came Teed to me 
 that was the little child of my boarding mistress and 
 she says Why, Red, you look bad this morning. 
 Teedie will tidy you up a bit. Then she climbed into 
 my lap and combed my hair and she brought me a 
 towel and washed my face. And then she said, Why 
 don t you pay me, Red? meaning that I should kiss 
 her. But I couldn t kiss her, being the way I was. So 
 I pretended I didn t understand her and gave her an 
 English penny-piece that I always carried in my 
 pocket, which was all I had. But it hurt her feelings 
 that I wouldn t kiss her the same as I always did and 
 she went into the front room and said to her mother, 
 Red don t love Teed any more, so grieved like as if 
 she was fit to cry. 
 
 " I couldn t stand that, so I put on my shoes and 
 my boot-tops again and went out. You know how it 
 snowed last night. Well, I went out on the mountains 
 where the snow lay on everything. It was so white 
 and still-like, that I could hardly bear it. It was all 
 so white and I was in my dirty clothes, the same as I 
 am now. I felt so bad not fit to be with folks. I 
 thought I would just go farther and farther and lie
 
 COALTON BARRACKS 53 
 
 down in the snow and never go back where Teed or 
 anybody would be the worse for me. All the time 
 it kept coming to me just like my sister used to sing 
 when I was a little chap in Sunderland, Whiter than 
 Snow. And I said, No ! not for me, and I went on. 
 I came to the top of a steep ledge of rock where they 
 might think I had stumbled, but I was afraid to fling 
 myself over; I was afraid of God. I went on all day. 
 Sometimes I ran. Sometimes I sat down. Sometimes 
 I turned back for a while. But all the time I could 
 hear the words, Whiter than snow. And I called 
 out It s a lie ! It s a lie ! It s not for me ! 
 
 " I ain t drunk now. At least the liquor s dying out 
 in me. I know what I m saying. I I want to be a 
 better man. If the Lord Jesus will take me, I wish He 
 would, the same as you said. And I ll take Him and 
 be a better man. I ve been a pretty wicked fellow, but 
 I m willing to do whatever He wants of me." 
 
 One other interested auditor there was, although he 
 was not within the building. Young Lieutenant 
 Warne who was reconnoitering for the Colonel of the 
 Twenty-fifth, had seen the lights in the building. Com 
 ing up from the rear, the two young officers stood for 
 a few minutes while Smiler made his address. 
 
 " Come along," said the second officer, " we ve noth 
 ing coming to us here." 
 
 He moved away from the building, but Warne still 
 lingered while Sunderland Red told his story. To 
 him it seemed as if he did have business there. The 
 intense earnestness of both these men, the poverty-
 
 54 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 stricken bareness of the place, the pathetic wish on the 
 part of each to do something for the Master, gripped 
 him strangely. 
 
 " Come on, Warne," said the second officer pro 
 fanely. " Don t be a fool! It s only a dashed Metho 
 dist meeting ! "
 
 A TOY SOLDIER
 
 / am the master of my fate, 
 I am the captain of my soul." 
 
 HENLEY.
 
 IV 
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 
 
 IN the background a vast mass, black, deformed, 
 menacing. At the foot of the sombre culm 
 dump, a spot of blue like a soldier s overcoat. 
 In the foreground the newly-fallen March snow was 
 tracked as if by men running. Somehow, the blue 
 figure and the black dump seemed to belong together, 
 like complementary colours. 
 
 Except for the figure in blue, the path along the 
 dump was empty for the first time during the day. 
 Five minutes before the dump had been swarming with 
 people. Usually there was hardly an hour during the 
 daylight when it was not occupied by women and chil 
 dren picking fragments of coal from among the culm. 
 
 All that morning a woman with a babe bound to 
 her hip by her shawl had toiled with frenzied haste to 
 fill her sacks. The soldiers were coming ! The rumour 
 of their approach filled every heart with a fierce de 
 termination to fight. In order that she might be free 
 to fight she must have coal. 
 
 " Yawcup," she screamed in the Magyar tongue, 
 " why will you not help me to carry home these sacks 
 of coal to-day? The gendarmes will be here and then 
 we can pick no more coal to keep the children warm." 
 
 57
 
 58 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 But Yawcup only shifted his pipe and passed on in the 
 direction of the saloon. 
 
 A forlorn creature she was, this little Hungarian 
 Katya, with a figure that might once have been petite, 
 but now had grown stocky. In spite of the cold she 
 was but poorly clad. Her bare, blackened feet show 
 ing beneath her draggled skirt added the last touch of 
 misery to her pathetic figure. Her face had once 
 shown a sort of childish, care-free prettiness, but it 
 was pinched and eager now. 
 
 Then the soldiers had come and the frightened 
 mother, like some wild creature of the woods, had hur 
 ried her brood of children from the dump to her cabin, 
 for fear of violence. 
 
 The thin blue haze of powder smoke had not yet 
 risen to the top of the mountain of culm before the 
 crowds which thronged the path and the dump had 
 scattered, the soldiers for reinforcements, the strikers 
 well, they themselves hardly knew why. 
 
 Both sides seemed to have forgotten the figure in 
 blue. The towering dump seemed almost to threaten 
 with extinction the unimportant spot of colour at its 
 base. A few tons of coal dust moved a few feet from 
 the lowering bank would bury the dead, if the man 
 were dead, and remove all the marks of bloody conflict. 
 
 Nothing is more striking in the anthracite coal 
 regions than these sombre mountains of black waste 
 which often cover acres of ground. Black spots they 
 are in the landscape, for except during the bitterest 
 weather the snow melts as it falls on the towering sides 
 of the heap. Piled up by the machinery in the break-
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 59 
 
 ers, they often hide the breaker itself from view; so 
 that the wives of the miners can no more see their 
 children working in the breaker but a short distance 
 away from the houses than they can see their husbands 
 when they are at work a mile away under ground. 
 
 The culm dump is the squalid prospect of thousands 
 of miners homes. So near to some that even the sky 
 seems to be shut out of sight ; so near to many others 
 that every corner of the house is soiled with the grime 
 which blows through the cracks of the doors and win 
 dows and makes cleanliness of clothing and person im 
 possible; near enough also, if the giant dump should 
 be on fire, for the stifling sulphur gas to bleach all 
 colour from the faces of the children. 
 
 The cabin of the little Hungarian mother stood 
 opposite to the place where the fallen soldier lay. 
 When there was no further danger of violence the 
 woman stole to the dismal front room and looked long 
 at the hulk in blue. It was not a handsome figure, 
 lying there in a shapeless heap. The shoulders which 
 had been so square had sunk across the knees as he 
 lay; the head had disappeared in the folds of the over 
 coat. One arm stretched out rigidly, showing a white 
 wrist and hand. But for this hand there would have 
 been no certain mark to show that the blue hulk was 
 human. The man had fallen in his tracks when the 
 bullet struck him, fallen like a lump of putty. 
 
 There had been strikes before in the anthracite coal 
 regions and the militia had been called upon to pre 
 serve the peace not once nor twice; but there had never 
 been a strike so momentous as the one which came at
 
 60 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the end of the great era of consolidation and before the 
 hard times began. During that period of good times 
 the great coal and carrying companies had formed 
 enormous syndicates, while the men had amalgamated 
 themselves into one immense labour union. 
 
 When the soldiers marched in that morning Owens 
 had stood haranguing a crowd from the steps of his 
 saloon. 
 
 " You don t have to be afraid of these toy soldiers," 
 he said. " They won t hurt you. Their officers are a 
 set of dudes, the sons of rich men. They don t know 
 nothin about fightin . An the men in the ranks are 
 your friends. Just stand up to them an they ll run." 
 
 The young lieutenant in charge of the squad moved 
 quietly a few steps nearer to the saloon. Owens s 
 voice was plainly audible now. 
 
 " It stands to reason that these little blue devils 
 won t fight," the saloon-keeper was saying. " Why 
 there ain t a man of em in the ranks but what has 
 got some cousin in the union. When it comes to the 
 pinch they won t hurt you. Knock the officers out an 
 the men " 
 
 " Sergeant," said the young lieutenant sharply, " ar 
 rest that man on the steps. Close his saloon and seal 
 it. Disperse the crowd and set a guard at the door." 
 
 The men moved off sullenly as the file of soldiers 
 approached, but the numbers grew greater rather than 
 fewer as they moved down the street toward the Hat- 
 ton breaker and dump. 
 
 But Owens had spoken the truth after all. It was 
 a case where the regulars were needed. The regulars
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 61 
 
 whom nobody loved and everybody hated; whom no 
 body despised and everybody feared; who had no 
 cousins and no favourites; who belonged to no lodges 
 and joined no labour unions; who received no boxes 
 from home containing roast chicken and jelly cake 
 and who carried no wreaths on their bayonets. 
 
 But the militia had sworn to uphold the constitu 
 tion of Pennsylvania and they were ready to die rather 
 than to break their solemn oath unless indeed they 
 should be smitten with sudden panic and run away. 
 
 At four o clock the first skirmish was over. The 
 path was cleared of soldiers and the crest of the dump 
 free from strikers. The field was empty, except for 
 the motionless figure in blue and the little Hungarian 
 woman. 
 
 The melted snow water had partly revived the officer 
 and the woman was ready to minister to his needs. It 
 was painful work for the man to struggle back to con 
 sciousness. How had it all happened? Where were 
 the boys that they had left him there alone? Why 
 could he not move? 
 
 Presently the events of the day began to come back 
 to him. He lived them over again, point by point. 
 They were hurrying along the edge of the culm dump 
 again, so as to drive the strikers from the top of the 
 bank. The boys did not relish the job greatly and he 
 was urging them on. He remembered one man par 
 ticularly, who stood at the left of the column, who 
 was especially sullen. He would get himself into 
 trouble if he were not more ready to obey. 
 
 The officer could not quite remember what happened
 
 62 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 next. The strikers had swarmed over the crest and 
 out of the gullies between the folds of the pile of 
 culm. There had been a hailstorm of stones and here 
 and there a pistol shot. He had shouted to steady the 
 men but the strikers were raising pandemonium above. 
 He had tried to bring the men together, but the black 
 mass of culm seemed to pour out hundreds of men 
 and boys with stones and weapons, bent on separating 
 the men on the left from the main body of the militia. 
 Then somebody shouted " Fire! " There was a scatter 
 ing volley and then the soldiers ran, yes, ran ! There 
 was only a handful and the strikers numbered hun 
 dreds. That was the time the officer had gone down 
 in his tracks. 
 
 While he struggled to recall these events, his un 
 injured hand sought to find the wound which was 
 soaking his clothing with blood. It still felt so numbed 
 that he could not tell where he was hit nor how badly, 
 until suddenly he realised that the principal trouble 
 was below the shoulder blade and that there was an 
 other hole in the armpit and one in the arm. When 
 this fact dawned on him, the young lieutenant began 
 to hate himself and almost to wish that the bullet had 
 gone a little lower, so that he might have died. 
 
 Wounded in the back! Then he must have been 
 running away too. He strove in vain to recall his last 
 act before he fell, but now everything seemed con 
 fused, unreal. He could think of nothing but the 
 ignominy of his wound. In reality there was no more 
 feeling in it than there had been before, but it seemed 
 to burn, until the agony was unendurable. He no
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 63 
 
 longer wished for the rescue party; in fact he dreaded 
 to have the men return to find him wounded like a 
 craven. 
 
 Then his future rose before him. This wound 
 changed everything. He had thought to be a candi 
 date for orders. He, who was wounded in the back! 
 A coward who could not even face a mob of angry 
 men ! Where were the lofty ideals of his youth ? Had 
 his ideals been worthy of the name? Only the night 
 before when it became certain that there would be a 
 clash between the troops and the strikers he had written 
 to Bishop Vaux telling of his decision to take orders. 
 He was glad that the letter was not yet mailed ! 
 
 While consciousness lasted he prayed not for 
 rescue as he had before he realized the shame of his 
 wound, but a prayer of thanksgiving that the test 
 had come to him before he was irrevocably committed 
 to the service of the church. If he was such a coward, 
 he rejoiced that he should never have the opportunity 
 to disgrace the cause of Christ. Yet even in the midst 
 of his half-coherent prayer, he found himself asking 
 that cowardice should be removed from him and be 
 seeching for one more chance. 
 
 This whole matter of entering the ministry had been 
 such a weary, perplexing struggle. At first he had 
 easily drifted into the idea because his parents wished 
 it. Later his sturdy young manhood revolted from 
 a ready-made career through another s wish, and he 
 had definitely resolved not to take orders. Still later 
 when Helen Vaux would have gone abroad as a mis 
 sionary, he canvassed the matter again, wistfully de-
 
 64 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 siring to come to a different conclusion. But even 
 with the possibility of wedding the woman he loved, 
 he was true to his decision not to take orders. 
 
 Then had come the strike and the call for the militia. 
 In the performance of his duty to the State during the 
 winter, he had come into touch with misery and 
 degradation more desperate than any he had imagined 
 to exist. While the poverty of the people weighed 
 on his <spirit, he could not escape from the thought 
 that their spiritual need was still more desperate. He 
 grew more restless until at last he had written to the 
 bishop that he must offer himself to the church. 
 
 And now had come this shameful wound. He was 
 a coward! Not fit for the Master s service. The 
 wound in the back was the sign. 
 
 Then there was another period when the cold was 
 forgotten and the sting of his wound was eased, a 
 period of blissful unconsciousness, broken all too soon 
 by the feeling that he was being dragged over rough 
 ground as if by fiends that were bent on torture. 
 Then liquor was poured between his teeth and pres 
 ently the young officer knew that he was being warmed 
 and chafed by a woman s hands rough, heavy hands 
 they were, but still a woman s. 
 
 " T ank Gott! he open his eyes once again. It s 
 Mr. Heinrich. Can t you speak to me, Mr. Heinrich ? 
 Keep back there children. Don t you know who it is, 
 Mr. Heinrich?" 
 
 " Why, yes," he said slowly. " I know your voice, 
 but I can t Why why it s little Katya! Why 
 Katya, it s a long time since I saw you. Not since
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 65 
 
 you moved away. We didn t know what had become 
 of you. Where s Yawcup? " 
 
 " Yawcup? Pst!" with a contemptuous gesture 
 which spilled the liquor. " Out somewhere with the 
 strikers ! " 
 
 Ah yes! The strikers; he remembered now what it 
 was that made his shoulder ache so. For the moment, 
 until Katya s word about the strikers had recalled him 
 to the present, Lieutenant Warne was back in his boy 
 hood again. How often he had listened to the story 
 of little Katya s trials. 
 
 She was a pathetic little figure; yet always so cheer 
 ful. Nobody had ever to bear so many hardships as 
 little Katya, yet nobody was ever so utterly uncrushed 
 by them. Her unfailing reply when one asked her 
 how she was getting along was a bird-like chirp, " Oh, 
 goot ! " accompanied by a most ecstatic smile. Very 
 likely she did not know that the English language con 
 tained any other form of response, for when the hus 
 band of her youth, who had brought her as a bride to 
 America, was burned to death in the mines by an ex 
 plosion of gas, she had proclaimed her cheerfulness 
 in sorrow by her reply to a neighbour s sympathy by 
 the response that she was " gettin along goot ! " 
 
 Then Katya forsook the mines for the city, where 
 young Warne s mother had taken her under her pro 
 tection. After her baby was born she became the 
 laundress at the Warne household. Then after a few 
 months she had declared herself about to marry again, 
 a man of her sister s choice. The Warnes had done all 
 in their power to dissuade her from the match; partly
 
 66 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 in horror over the recent bereavement and partly be 
 cause Yawcup seemed utterly unfit to assume the cares 
 of a family. Katya had only one reply to all their 
 arguments; " Single woman, she no goot. She must 
 have a man to take of her the care. In my country, 
 no single woman, all married." Even Mr. Warne s 
 authority was invoked in vain. " You big boss, no 
 can understand. Missy boss, she got you; single 
 woman no goot." 
 
 So Katya and Yawcup were married in due time. 
 Before many days they quarrelled violently because 
 Katya could not find more places to wash, so that 
 Yawcup might be supported in greater luxury. She 
 still worked for the Warnes, although Mrs. Warne 
 had declared that she should not do so, if she con 
 tinued to allow that worthless Yawcup to abuse her. 
 But Katya s cheerfulness never failed her. She con 
 tinued to hide her bruises and to wash the family linen 
 of the Warnes. It is not usually considered an amus 
 ing experience when the husband forms the habit of 
 beating his wife; but Katya s cheerfulness almost 
 made it seem so. One sad day Yawcup, who was 
 theoretically the bread-winner and as such the lord 
 and master of the family, conceived the idea that they 
 could do better if they should move into the coal fields. 
 
 Then the family drifted, chasing the phantom of 
 " good work " from one mining settlement to another, 
 each succeeding home being a shade more forlorn and 
 cheerless than the last. The tenant who becomes no 
 torious for his belief that it is cheaper to move than 
 to pay the last month s rent does not have his choice
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 67 
 
 of houses, not even of company houses remodelled from 
 abandoned mule barns. But Katya s brave heart never 
 failed her and life was always " goot " with her, even 
 when they moved into the forlorn shanty at the foot 
 of the huge culm dump. 
 
 Warne was recalled from his review by a cry from 
 one of Katya s children, telling in the Magyar tongue 
 that the strikers were returning. The house swarmed 
 with children, babies whom Warne had never seen 
 before. When Katya had driven all but the youngest 
 to the inner room, Warne improved the interval of 
 comparative quiet to ask how things were going with 
 her family. 
 
 " Oh, we get along goot," she said. " Steve he get 
 a big boy now. He can work in the breaker. Yawcup 
 he no goot; he no work mooch." 
 
 Now it is a delicate matter to ask a wife whether 
 her husband is still in the habit of getting drunk, and 
 whether he still indulges in the habit of beating her, 
 whether drunk or sober; but the world in which Katya 
 lived is not squeamish about answering questions that 
 involve such details. So when Warne had delicately 
 inquired how m atters stood between husband and 
 wife, Katya said: "Poouf! That no make mooch ac 
 count. Some one day he beat me little; some anoder 
 day, he no beat. I jump aroundt quvick. I no stand 
 still any more. He no can come oop. He no can hurt 
 mooch. He no work; no get strong mooch. How 
 soon gendarmes come back? " 
 
 Before the soldiers with reinforcements and with 
 the surgeon came back to the culm pile, the strikers
 
 68 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 had gathered again in force. The regulars would 
 have foreseen and prevented this. It was a very dif 
 ferent sort of crowd from that which first faced the 
 militia. The first crowd had been sullen and self- 
 distrustful; the second mob was arrogantly determined 
 that the soldiers should not gain possession of the 
 dump which was the vantage ground and the key to 
 the possession of the breaker. After the first shot 
 had been fired and the strikers had chased the militia 
 the men seemed to be possessed with the courage 
 of demons. The yells that at first proclaimed their 
 victory now sounded their defiance. The mob had 
 grown fourfold and was now swaggering back to 
 wards the dump drunk with the sense of its own 
 prowess. When the militia should return with re 
 inforcements, the captain would find his work cut 
 out for him. 
 
 The ruling passion with most of the peasant immi 
 grants who come to America is fear. Perhaps it is 
 because they find themselves without the protection 
 of a strong paternal government, or perhaps it is the 
 natural reaction after the break which has separated 
 them from customs and institutions centuries old. 
 Whatever may be the cause, fear prompts nine men 
 out of ten to provide themselves with some weapon of 
 defence. But whoever else the foreigner fears, he 
 does not fear the police and the militia. Did he not 
 help to elect the constable? As for the militia, are not 
 the strikers themselves as well armed as these sol 
 diers? 
 
 It was most unfortunate, therefore, that some one
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 69 
 
 should have suggested that the rabble should go across 
 to the little Hungarian home in order to exult over 
 the fallen foe in the person of Lieutenant Warne. 
 Katya heard their shouts. Having packed her children 
 into the closet, she rushed to the door. As soon as 
 she divined their purpose, she ran out of the gate 
 and down the road to meet the mob. For a few 
 minutes she delayed the leaders at the corner of the 
 lot. The path was narrow here, being bounded on 
 the one side by the Anthrax creek and on the other 
 by a stone wall which prevented the culm dump from 
 sliding down and burying the roadway. Finding that 
 the men were determined to disregard her pleas, and 
 push past her into the lot and into the house, Katya 
 seized a long-handled shovel which lay by her coal 
 shed and scrambled to the top of the retaining wall 
 of the dump. 
 
 For months fire had been eating into the heart of 
 the dump at this point. Into this burning mass of 
 coal dirt Katya thrust her shovel and before the leaders 
 could pass into the gate, indeed before they realized 
 her purpose, she had scattered the burning culm and 
 cinder in their faces. Fortunately for her the wind 
 whirled down the narrow valley in such a direction 
 that the ashes and the stifling gases which her busy 
 shovel set free were carried away from the wall into 
 the eyes and lungs of the crowd. Like a stubby god 
 dess of fury she stood, inconsequently beating the air 
 with her shovel and hurling Hungarian defiance at the 
 mob of strikers. 
 
 It was her hour of triumph. The men in the rear
 
 70 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 shrieked with delight, as those in front sputtered 
 angrily for a few minutes. While those in front 
 backed off, attempting to rid the creases of their cloth 
 ing and their hats of the burning cinders, the mob, 
 moved by one of those sudden inexplicable spasms 
 of humour which often sweep over a company of 
 people, good naturedly fell back to the end of the 
 dump. 
 
 All but one man. Yawcup, considerably under the 
 influence of liquor, stood forth from the crowd to 
 bring Katya to her senses. As for Katya, her divine 
 fury seemed to forsake her. 
 
 " Make the shovel back," Yawcup shouted in Eng 
 lish. 
 
 Katya obeyed, meekly enough. Yawcup followed 
 her retreat with certain exhortations, half Magyar, half 
 English, but wholly profane, calculated to impress 
 upon Katya s mind that she was by many degrees the 
 most foolish woman in Anthracite county. 
 
 " Why for you one blank fool make yourself with 
 cinder?" he brawled. "Why for you bring the 
 double-dashed soldier mine house in? Make him 
 out." 
 
 Katya had by this time reached the door step. She 
 replied in her own language that the man was the well 
 born Heinrich, the honoured son of her dear patroness, 
 Mrs. Warne. The honoured master was badly 
 wounded. Did Yawcup not remember how kind he 
 had been to them ? 
 
 But Yawcup was bent on disciplining Katya in a 
 manner which should bring him public applause. So,
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 71 
 
 disregarding her repeated plea not to enter the house, 
 he came roughly up the step. 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. If Yawcup had 
 
 looked into Katya s eyes he would have seen his 
 
 danger. But he was bent on having his own way. 
 
 You drag him in; you must drag him out! " he said, 
 
 lifting his hand to force her. 
 
 Perhaps it was the remembrance of her dear Mrs. 
 Warne; perhaps it was the long years of indignity 
 that she had suffered; but when Katya saw Yawcup s 
 hand raised to strike her, a sort of madness like that 
 she had felt on the wall of the culm dump filled her 
 soul. Blindly she rushed at her lord and master, 
 dodging the blow he tried to strike and planting her 
 heavy right hand, red and hardened with labour, 
 squarely on Yawcup s neck. That was the only blow 
 which the mob down by the end of the dump could 
 distinguish. During the rest of the struggle, a furious 
 figure, with wildly waving arms was seen to come into 
 frequent and violent contact with Yawcup. 
 
 As for Yawcup, after his first attempt to strike, he 
 offered only a feeble resistance. And long before the 
 delighted crowd of strikers could come near enough 
 to enjoy the performance, Yawcup had gone down, 
 face foremost, into the slush while Katya sat across 
 his hips pounding his head up and down on the ground. 
 
 When her frenzy had spient itself somewhat, she 
 asked : " Shall the well-born Heinrich stay in the house 
 now? " 
 
 In his daze Yawcup had forgotten all about the 
 well-born soldier and his own intent to discipline
 
 72 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Katya. He could only groan and promise feebly, 
 Yes, Grott in Himmel ! Let him stay ! Only you no 
 pound my head ! " 
 
 When the crowd of strikers came up again to the 
 little house the door was locked and all was silent 
 within. Katya, with the two wounded men on her 
 hands, was rendering aid to the injured. 
 
 While the strikers were still laughing and calling 
 for Yavvcup, Whiz Nicol, one of the pickets of the 
 strikers, ran breathlessly down the road from the 
 breaker. He flung himself into the midst of the crowd 
 before he could persuade anyone to listen to him. 
 " You fools," he stormed. " What have you been 
 doin this half-hour that you ve let the whole company 
 from the Twenty-fifth walk right up on the other side 
 of the dump to the breaker? You ve done us dirt! 
 You ve give the whole snap away ! You ll see the blue 
 devils swarmin over the top of the dump in the next 
 two minutes, while youse id jits stand here amusin 
 yourselves teasin this lame Hungarian. O, youse 
 needn t swear about it now! The game s up, here. 
 Might as well sneak off." 
 
 Half an hour later when Major Creigan was ban 
 daging Warne s wounds, he stopped abruptly. 
 
 " Why, Lieutenant, how did you get hit by one of 
 our own men ? " 
 
 " I don t know anything about it," Warne said 
 wretchedly. His face was drawn and old, but not with 
 the pain. It was bad enough that the physician must 
 know that he had been hit in the back; why should he 
 be so heartless as to ask an explanation?
 
 A TOY SOLDIER 73 
 
 Yawcup said something in his own language to 
 Katya. 
 
 " Yawcup, he know," she cried. " Yawcup, he say 
 the gracious sir, he try to make the gendarmes go up 
 the bank. They no will go. One gendarme, he stand 
 way off on end. He make shoot at the honoured 
 master. Then Mr. Heinrich fall. The men all run 
 way. Then Yawcup he come up from behind the 
 bank of the creek." 
 
 "What s that?" cried Warne rousing up. "The 
 man on the end? I know him. I remember that he 
 was behaving badly. He shot me? The cur No, 
 I can forgive him for that. Now I can go to the 
 bishop, if I get over this. But, Doctor, I didn t turn 
 my back ! I didn t run ! " 
 
 " No, my boy," the surgeon replied, " this wound 
 shows you didn t run," and he blew his nose violently 
 before taking up the bandages again. 
 
 But Yawcup wonders to this day why the young 
 officer shook hands with him so heartily and how a 
 wounded man could grip his hand so hard.
 
 THE HERETIC S PARISH
 
 The hero is not fed on sweets, 
 Daily his own heart lie cats, 
 The chambers of the great are jails, 
 And head winds right for royal sails." 
 
 EMERSON.
 
 THE HERETIC S PARISH 
 
 WHEN the Reverend Henry Martyn Warne 
 had recovered from his wound and had 
 passed his year s diaconate the first thing 
 which he discovered after his consecration was that he 
 was a heretic! At least to his own conscience he 
 seemed to be. It was not that he had as yet adopted 
 any positive views which he was sure were in conflict 
 with the Articles of Religion; but he was sincerely 
 troubled lest the opinions he held might grow into the 
 rankest heresy. 
 
 It came to pass when the young clergyman unbur 
 dened his conscience to Bishop Vaux and asked for 
 advice that the bishop replied, " Do nothing at all 
 at present." 
 
 " But, Bishop, it seems to be dishonest " 
 
 " You have been honest enough to tell me. Never 
 mind telling your wardens, you are not responsible 
 to them; and as for your people, preach what you are 
 sure about and let your doubts rest. It will be time 
 enough to try you for heresy when you have formu 
 lated your beliefs. In the meantime I have a place 
 for you as rector in Coalton. The town is growing, 
 and you will do better work up there than if you 
 
 77
 
 7 8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 should go to a larger place. There s work to be done. 
 In a year or two, if you are still troubled with these 
 doubts, we will consult further about the matter." 
 
 " Coalton is a forlorn place," the bishop went on; 
 " and for some reasons I dislike to send you there." 
 He did not say that it was because the young man must 
 go alone, while Helen served her novitiate in a distant 
 city. But Warne knew and sympathised in silence. 
 
 " What has been done there within the past few 
 years ? " he asked. 
 
 " Just a handful of people gathered and wardens 
 elected. The work is all to be done yet, if you ll un 
 dertake it?" 
 
 " If you say so, I ll try, Bishop." And so the matter 
 was settled. 
 
 The church and the rectory of the new charge were 
 situated well enough on a commanding ridge, but the 
 most of the town of Coalton clung to the bases of the 
 steep mountain sides along the edge of a narrow valley. 
 The Anthrax creek that poured swiftly through the 
 valley ran black with coal dirt for part of the year. 
 During the summer months it left its bed of stones 
 bare and red with iron rust from the mine water, to 
 blaze back the heat of the sun. 
 
 The night after the rector s arrival at Coalton, his 
 warden, owner of one of the mines of Coalton, called 
 to take him over the parish. As they walked along 
 the back streets, songs and cries came from the cur 
 tained windows of the saloons. 
 
 " You see to-dav is pay-day," the warden explained. 
 " There s always lots of rum over here after the men
 
 THE HERETICS PARISH 79 
 
 are paid, but it isn t so bad at other times. Maybe I 
 oughtn t to have brought you." 
 
 The rector s heart was stirred at the sights and 
 sounds of wickedness. " We ll start a mission over 
 here," he said. 
 
 " But but, Mr. Warne, this is your parish." 
 
 "This! These dens?" 
 
 " I supposed the bishop had told you where your 
 work would lie." 
 
 Then came a running commentary on the people 
 they passed. 
 
 " That man standing by the door of the saloon is 
 one of our attendants, Breece by name. I m afraid he s 
 pretty drunk to-night. He looks much better when 
 he s clean and sober. Yes, that youngster is rather 
 a ragamuffin, but there isn t a brighter boy in the 
 Sunday-school. He s rather a hard case, but what 
 could you expect? His father was killed in the strike 
 last year. There were five of our men killed by that 
 volley from the soldiers, besides three little children 
 and two women." 
 
 Rector Warne remembered with a throb of thank 
 fulness that his wound had put him out of action before 
 any blood but his own had been shed. 
 
 " It was down this street that the soldiers came," 
 the warden went on, " and in these shanties on the 
 other side of the Patch that the women and children 
 were killed. That was a dark time for Coalton, Mr. 
 Warne." 
 
 The rector did not seem to care to discuss the strike, 
 yet he felt that he must say something. " Did the
 
 8o THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 men feel that anything was accomplished by the 
 strike? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh yes, various things. The companies granted 
 them ten cents per ton increase, after they had lost 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars through the idleness 
 of the mines. On the other hand the miners suffered 
 to the point of starvation before they would com 
 promise. When the soldiers crushed the strike, blood 
 shed accompanied the act, and hate and distrust fol 
 lowed it. That s accomplishing a good deal, isn t it? 
 The community hasn t recovered from it yet. But 
 I m afraid, Mr. Warne, I ll make you want to leave 
 town before you begin work among us. Shall we go 
 home now ? " 
 
 " No, not unless you are tired. Please take me 
 clear through town and tell me all about it; I want 
 to know what I have before me." 
 
 " You must not be too hard on these men, Mr. 
 Warne. They have a great many temptations. For 
 instance, there are scores of them here in the saloons 
 to-night who came in to get change." 
 
 " What do they want with change? " 
 
 " Why, you know to-day is pay-day. Each miner 
 is a contractor with the company, that is, each man 
 who has passed the mine inspector s examination is 
 given a legal right to take out coal. But in order to 
 do his work successfully, he must have helpers. All 
 the work done under contract with the company in a 
 particular chamber is paid for by the company to the 
 contracting miner. If the mines are working steadily, 
 he will have from two to four hundred dollars put into
 
 THE HERETIC S PARISH 81 
 
 his hands on pay-day in ten or twenty dollar bills. 
 Each of his helpers will have a fraction of this amount 
 coming to him. So the men get into the habit of 
 going to the saloon to get change, and of course they 
 don t want the saloon-keeper to change their money 
 without buying drinks." 
 
 " But do you mean to say that there is nobody 
 cares enough for the souls of these men and boys to 
 change their money for them without subjecting them 
 to the temptation of drink?" 
 
 " Well, you see the miners labourers are often for 
 eigners and they want a place where they can talk 
 over the amount of their wages and figure it out for 
 themselves. Then the money must be laid down on 
 the bar in piles, so that each may see for himself that 
 his neighbour gets no more than he has. In case of 
 dispute, the barkeeper is the umpire." 
 
 " But couldn t they do this at a store? " 
 
 " The stores have no time to bother with them. Be 
 sides the men are dirty and their clothes are covered 
 with oil and the stores are crowded and rushed on 
 pay-days. The saloonkeeper doesn t mind the dirt and 
 he has plenty of time. Then again the stores often 
 run out of change, but the saloons are well supplied." 
 
 " Why couldn t the church rent a building over here 
 and bring a few thousand dollars in small change out 
 from Carbonville every pay-day, so as to stop this 
 wretched business? " 
 
 " They do that in Carbonville at the Y. M. C A. 
 But then that s a city. We might have trouble if we 
 tried it here. The saloon men would fight it."
 
 82 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The rector s eyes flashed. " I should enjoy that 
 kind of a fight," he said quietly. " At any rate, I 
 believe the Lord would be on our side." 
 
 They had just reached an electric light, under which 
 a group of children were playing hop-scotch, when a 
 sudden silence fell upon the whole street. A dark 
 bulk loomed up slowly in the distance. No one could 
 have told just how the word passed on in advance that 
 the ambulance was coming, but instantly the laughter 
 of the children was hushed and other sounds ceased, 
 until all was silent as death. So it remained except 
 for the shrill staccato of one youngster, who burst out 
 crying as he ran swiftly towards his home, firmly per 
 suaded that his father s body was following him in the 
 ambulance. Doors flew open all along the street and 
 anxious women peered out, clutching at throat or 
 breast even though their husbands or brothers were 
 beside them. Slowly the black shape passed, the 
 driver with his head bent forward and his eyes fastened 
 on the ground. 
 
 The crowd that walked behind the wagon answered 
 all the eager questions. 
 
 " A Hungarian. Yes, dead. Named Klechi or 
 something. Lived down in the Patch somewhere." 
 
 A sigh of relief broke from the lips of a woman 
 in the doorway; yet there were tears too. 
 
 " Sure I m glad it wasn t annywan iv our kind that 
 was kilt! But the poor fellow has folks iv his own 
 kind no doubt. May God rest his sowl ! " 
 
 " There s many a one brought home like that, Mr. 
 Warne," the warden said. " In looking over the rec-
 
 THE HERETIC S PARISH 83 
 
 ords of the church the other day, I found that less 
 than one-half of the deaths recorded among the miners 
 of our parish were from natural causes, as you may 
 say. And even of those, some were from miners 
 asthma and others from pneumonia brought on by the 
 men coming out of the mines in wet clothes which 
 freeze on their backs before they can get home. You 
 don t wonder they put whiskey in their boots to keep 
 them warm." 
 
 The rector had not stirred from the spot beneath the 
 lamp where he first saw the ambulance. " Let s go 
 home," he said. " I ve seen all I care for to-night." 
 
 Warne s first visitor was not a parishioner. Indeed 
 she did not know that she was visiting the rector, or 
 she might not have dared to enter the rectory. The 
 housekeeper had left the front door unlocked and so 
 the old woman had entered without the formality of 
 ringing the bell. Once inside, she wandered about until 
 she reached the study. Standing just inside the cur 
 tained doorway, she made a slight noise to attract Mr. 
 Warne s attention. 
 
 She was a dried-up, bent, old woman, with a pleas 
 ing, rubicund countenance in which the wrinkles which 
 indicated shrewdness were criss-crossed with about an 
 equal number indicating kindliness. 
 
 "Well?" he said, thinking it was his housekeeper, 
 without raising his eyes from the line he was writing. 
 
 "It s a foine winther s day," she said, drawing a 
 step nearer to the desk where he sat. 
 
 He rose and placed a chair for her, but she refused to 
 sit down.
 
 84 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " It s a nice place ye have here at all. Sure ye must 
 be very comfortable here durin the cold weather." 
 
 " Will you tell me, please, what I can do for you? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " Well thin, yer honour," she said, consenting under 
 necessity to waive further polite remarks, " I ve some 
 tickets here that I t ought a gintleman like yersilf 
 would be buyin ," fumbling in the bosom of her dress 
 as she spoke, and producing some greasy strips of num 
 bered pink cardboard. 
 
 " I don t want them," said Warne, without touching 
 them. 
 
 " But ye haven t looked at thim! " she said simply. 
 " Ye don t know what ye ll miss. It s for a neighbour 
 iv mine, Tim Phelan, that I m sellin thim. The poor 
 man ! he got his eye hurted, an the b ys is givin him 
 a binefit. He s got five wake childer an it s four 
 months now since he c u d do a tap. God help us all ! 
 We anny wan iv us might be in the same state nixt. 
 Ye niver c n tell at all, whin ye goes intil the mines, 
 what day ye ll come out kilt. We ought all to help 
 wan another as far as we c n. Ye ll take all iv thim 
 tickets, for sure? A gintleman like yersilf, won t feel 
 the price iv thim, an ye might save the cost, if ye 
 win the prize." 
 
 " The prize ? What in the world do you mean ? " 
 
 " Sure the prize in the raffle! It s a foine feather 
 bed entirely. An besides, the tickets admits ye to the 
 binefit ball that they ll be holdin overhead the hotel 
 where the drawin s to take place. Tis Mark Owens 
 hotel, right up the hill an forninst the breaker. Per-
 
 THE HERETIC S PARISH 85 
 
 haps a gintleman like yersilf wouldn t care for the ball, 
 but ye c u d buy the whole four iv the tickets for yer 
 frinds. Tw u d help poor Phelan along, an you d 
 niver feel it." She laid four tickets down on his desk 
 as she spoke. 
 
 " But I don t believe in raffles," the rector managed 
 to say when she paused a moment for breath. 
 
 " But Squire Barber himsilf will conduct it, a 
 man that s niver been accused iv annything crooked. 
 An the bed! Oh! it s a foine bed entirely! Sure, the 
 bist bed they had in the house an but little used. Take 
 two tickets, thin, if ye don t want the four iv thim. 
 It s great merit that ye ll make, an as foine a bed as 
 there is in the town!" 
 
 " You don t understand me; I don t think a raffle is 
 right." 
 
 " But don t I say to ye, that the poor man was sick 
 these four month past? He s got his eye hurted that 
 bad he can t work." 
 
 She did not mention the fact that the eye had been 
 injured in an argument over the relative merits of two 
 rival beneficial societies, and that the society for which 
 Phelan had so valiantly done battle had gone into bank 
 ruptcy only a week after he had been wounded, leaving 
 him without benefits from the lodge. 
 
 " But I don t like raffling. It s gambling. I don t 
 think it is right." 
 
 " Is it gamblin ye say? Sure there won t be a card 
 in the house, at laste not outside the bar-room. Twill 
 all be done by Squire Barber, blindfolded as fair as 
 ye plaze, an drawin the numbers out iv his hat. Be-
 
 86 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 sides the man has five wake childer, an what c u d he 
 do, if his frinds didn t give him this binefit? Say 
 ye ll take this wan ticket annyhow? I ll wait till 
 afther the nixt pay for the money. Tis but a dollar, 
 an ye d have the same chanst as annywan ilse to win 
 a foine feather bed." 
 
 She stood a moment longer till the housekeeper, 
 who had been summoned, led her away. As she 
 went down the hall he heard the story of the five weak 
 children repeated. The housekeeper, being a woman, 
 quickly disposed of her by turning her over to the cab 
 man who had come to take the rector to a funeral; 
 while the cabman, having no one to call to his assist 
 ance, or being hopeful of winning the fine feather bed, 
 purchased one of the tickets which Mr. Warne had 
 refused.
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY
 
 / smiled to think God s greatness 
 Flowed round our incompleteness, 
 Round our restlessness His rest." 
 
 E. B. BROWNING.
 
 VI 
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 
 
 WARNE S first funeral was that of Mrs. Breece, 
 whose husband had been indulging in pay 
 day festivities on the night of the rector s 
 first round of his parish. During the week which fol 
 lowed the rector s arrival in Coalton Mrs. Breece had 
 quietly passed out of life into the peace of God. The 
 little four-roomed company house in which the serv 
 ices were held seemed so pitifully bare and the circum 
 stances of her death so sad that the rector was pro 
 foundly moved as he performed the offices of the 
 church. While his own heart found comfort in the 
 thought of the dead woman s undoubted piety, his 
 whole delicate nature revolted at the barren unloveli- 
 ness of the funeral arrangements. On the way to the 
 grave, he had put aside his own feelings and tried to 
 console the husband and children who rode in the same 
 carriage with him ; but on the return from the ceme 
 tery he had given himself over to his own sad medita 
 tions, feeling also that perhaps his companions would 
 prefer silence. 
 
 He was therefore somewhat disturbed when Breece 
 began speaking of a certain Mike McCarty, a well 
 known character of the town, who had caused trouble 
 
 89
 
 90 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 by interrupting the services of the church during the 
 incumbency of a former rector. 
 
 Seeing that Warne had shown but slight interest 
 in the recital, Breece warmed up and asked, " What 
 wouldst tha do, parson, if he should come to church 
 some mornin an make trouble for thee? " 
 
 " I suppose I should rebuke him, and if he persisted 
 I should call on the wardens to do their duty and 
 eject him from the church." 
 
 " Huh ! There s no warden like to be there but 
 hold Ardin. I should like to watch him puttin Mike 
 McCarty hout, specially if he wer full o liquor ! 
 
 " Parson, didst tha never earn tell o Zed Miller, 
 the Hinglish fightin parson? Ah, he wer a rare 
 one! Come from the same part o Sunderland where 
 I wer born. A great preacher in his day an the 
 Lord s champion. Mr. Warne, I don t want to tell 
 thee what s thy duty, but when Zed Miller wer inter 
 fered wi he went hout in the name o the Lord and 
 punished his tormentor. 
 
 " I ve earn my father tell it wer like this : A big 
 Cornishman come to the meetin s night hafter night, 
 an he did so to make sport an mock of it all. At first 
 the preacher he told him, quiet-like, to behave. Then 
 he give him public warnin , but it done no good. One 
 night, just hafter Zed Miller had give hout his text, 
 the man they called him George, fetched hout a 
 loud haw-haw an slapped his knee that you could ave 
 card it houtside the church. Zed Miller come down 
 from the pulpit an walked to the seat where George 
 wer set, an he reached hover an took him by
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 91 
 
 the coat. George, he says, I told thee not to dis 
 turb this meetin again. Now tha must come wi me. 
 I m the Lord s champion. The Lord an I are goin to 
 whip thee. George wer a big man hisself an the 
 preacher a big man, so he didn t dare to old back, but 
 come right hout. Well, they went houtside an stripped 
 off their coats an right at it. George wer pretty 
 andy wi his fists, but the preacher seemed to ave the 
 reach on him an it wern t long till he had him whipped. 
 I m goin to thump thee good, George, he said, until 
 tha s had enough, an he belted him one more an 
 George give up. Then he made him get up an when 
 he had washed his face an the preacher had washed 
 his own hands and tidied hisself up a bit, he led 
 George up to the front seat an went on wi his sermon. 
 That wer a man for you ! " 
 
 No man had ever gone to work more earnestly than 
 Rector Warne. Sleeping, he dreamed of impossible 
 things to do for his parish, and waking, he put all pos 
 sible plans into operation. With such helpers as he 
 could find, he reorganised the Sunday-school. Just 
 at first the little church was well filled both morning 
 and evening, until the population had satisfied its curi 
 osity by hearing the new clergyman. But presently the 
 audiences settled down into the usual handful of regu 
 lar and irregular attendants. The rector was doing 
 his best to instruct and uplift his people, but it was 
 up-hill work. 
 
 His first effort was in behalf of Mrs. McCarty, the 
 washerwoman of the clerical linen. She was a dumb, 
 patient creature, still quite young, but looking wofully
 
 92 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 faded from hard work and abuse. Her husband, Mike, 
 was a good sort of fellow when sober, but notoriously 
 ugly when drunk. Only three weeks after his wife 
 began to wash at the rectory he had driven her from 
 his home in fear of her life. When the rector heard 
 of this he sought Mrs. McCarty to see whether some 
 thing could not be done to prevent her husband from 
 getting liquor. Mrs. McCarty, smarting under her 
 sense of wrong, told Mr. Warne that Mark Owens 
 was to blame for most of her troubles. She could 
 swear that he had sold to Mike while he was drunk, 
 and that, too, against her orders. He had also, to her 
 certain knowledge, sold whiskey on Sunday and to 
 minors. Here was a clear case. The rector at once 
 caused the man s arrest and had Mrs. McCarty sum 
 moned as the chief witness. But at the hour appointed 
 for the hearing she did not appear, and Squire Barber 
 refused to hold the saloon-keeper on the evidence of 
 the other witnesses. On the following day Warne 
 discovered that she had gone to the firemen s picnic, 
 the saloon-keeper having bought her a railroad ticket 
 and given her a five-dollar bill besides. 
 
 " That s more than I would have got out of it, if 
 Owens had been sent to jail," she said. " Besides, 
 he s been a good neighbour to us when we were in 
 trouble. And then the baby was sick, and I thought 
 the picnic might do him good, poor little fellow ! So I 
 thought I wouldn t go to the Squire s." 
 
 At half-past eight, a week later, Warne was, hur 
 rying home through Reagan s Lane, when he heard 
 a muffled scream coming from McCarty s house. Com-
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 93 
 
 ing- nearer, he made out the cry to be a call for help. 
 Warne stopped instantly. 
 
 He did not know that the etiquette of Rea 
 gan s Lane requires that, so long as a family fight is 
 continued in-doors, the neighbours are supposed to be 
 unconscious of its progress. It is only when the de 
 feated party rushes from the house to call murder 
 that outsiders are supposed to take any notice of such 
 unpleasantnesses. The rector, being ignorant of this 
 rule of good breeding, must therefore be excused for 
 what he did. 
 
 Springing upon the step, he rapped sharply with one 
 hand while trying the door with the other. The door 
 was locked. The noise stopped for a minute, and a 
 thick, uncertain voice framed itself into curses on the 
 intruder. The rector instantly called to be admitted, 
 and improved the lull in hostilities to push aside the 
 curtain from the half-raised window. 
 
 It is hard to make rules of etiquette that shall cover 
 all possible emergencies : even the code of Reagan s 
 Patch was imperfect. It happened that on this night 
 McCarty, having locked the doors and pocketed the 
 keys, had begun to abuse his wife by beating her with 
 a mining needle. He had struck her once, before the 
 clergyman s coming interrupted him. The woman, 
 who was fast losing consciousness, from the blow of 
 the iron rod, had sunk down sobbing in a forlorn heap 
 behind the rocking-chair, whence her lord and master, 
 by various unsteady thrusts with the rod was endeav 
 ouring to dislodge her. The rector, since all codes of 
 etiquette would have agreed in pronouncing this a time
 
 94 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 for outside interference, sprang quickly through the 
 window, calling to the man to stop such brutal work. 
 
 McCarty looked at him stupidly for a moment. Then 
 he began to explain. " Woman sh drunk," he said 
 profanely. " I ve told her not to get drunk more n a 
 dozen timesh, but she won t mind me. Found her 
 thish away when I come home. Knowed right away 
 what sh a matter. I m a-goin to sober her up. Pound 
 the solesh of her feet. Besht way in the world to 
 sober up a woman. Fact! you know how tish yer- 
 self." 
 
 Mr. McCarty delivered himself of this information 
 by instalments, his statements being interrupted by 
 various efforts on the part of the rector to induce him 
 to desist from his laudable purpose of securing sobriety 
 on the part of his wife. 
 
 Finally his patience gave way. " What sh thish 
 bishnesh to you? Who re you, annyhow? Musht be 
 drunk yerself ! You betther go outside." 
 
 Then to show that he had enough of such undesir 
 able company, Mr. McCarty turned his attention to 
 his wife s case again, aiming a most vicious blow with 
 the iron rod at her unprotected foot. 
 
 As he raised the iron, the rector snatched it and 
 threw it out the window. For half a second McCarty 
 stared at the minister in speechless rage. Then he 
 precipitated himself with all his force on the clergy 
 man, striking out blindly and bearing him down to 
 wards the floor. For one breathless minute the rector 
 struggled as for his life; then the two men fell heavily 
 but the rector was on top.
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 95 
 
 " You scoundrel ! " panted Warne. " What do you 
 mean by treating your wife in this manner? You 
 
 brute! You " There was nothing more that he 
 
 could say. Even what he had said sounded to him 
 like oaths. 
 
 " Go and get somebody help me take this man to 
 jail," said the rector, turning- his head towards Mrs. 
 McCarty. Then, remembering that the man was her 
 husband, he corrected himself, " I mean to help me put 
 him to bed." But Mrs. McCarty could not help him. 
 She had fainted. 
 
 It is not easy, even for one who is in constant prac 
 tice, to hold down an antagonist who weighs forty 
 pounds more than himself, unless he diverts the efforts 
 of his enemy to rise, by punishing him with blows. But 
 Warne, very naturally, was badly out of training; 
 indeed, the one fight he had had during his public 
 school days could hardly be called putting him into 
 training at all. 
 
 So he soon found that McCarty was going to turn 
 the tables and perhaps get him down, with no scruples 
 about punishing him, unless he should pursue an 
 aggressive policy, or some one should come to his 
 help. He hesitated about striking the man, and so, 
 while McCarty struggled more and more successfully 
 to free himself, Warne betook himself to prayer 
 subject to interruptions. 
 
 " O Lord, help ! " he prayed, " make bare Thine 
 holy arm ! " 
 
 But no deliverer came and here McCarty gave a 
 tremendous upheaval.
 
 96 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " O Lord, help me ! to thrash this fellow until he 
 can t do any further damage! " 
 
 Just then McCarty succeeded in throwing his right 
 arm about the rector s neck and pushing him partly 
 off his prostrate body. The rector felt something snap 
 in his shoulder. It seemed to him that not only was 
 his prayer unheard, but that the Lord had altogether 
 forsaken him. Then McCarty s fingers began to close 
 uncomfortably about his antagonist s throat. 
 
 "O Lord, forgive me if it s wrong!" gasped the 
 rector, and then his long fingers instinctively sought 
 McCarty s throat in turn. He was now lying at 
 right angles across the miner s body; with his 
 knees he held down one of McCarty s arms, with his 
 left hand he wrenched loose the fumbling fingers from 
 his own throat and held the hand down to the floor, 
 while with his right hand he grasped his big antagonist 
 by the neck. The man tried to bite, and bounced the 
 rector up and down with his chest; but the long, wiry 
 fingers never let go their grasp at the shaggy throat. 
 It was not in vain that Warne had held the cham 
 pionship as tennis-player while in the seminary. 
 
 " I tell you the preacher was a chokin him," said 
 the big " mule-whacker " who was the first to 
 hear the fracas and come to the rector s assistance. 
 He was addressing an interested group of listeners 
 on the steps of the company store the next evening. 
 " Davis, says he, a-turnin round like this when he 
 heard me drop through the window, Davis, help me 
 to put this man to bed ! To bed ! Wouldn t that jar
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 97 
 
 you ? He looks as if you had him ready for bed/ 
 says I. No/ says he, I guess it ll be better to call 
 the constable to take him to the lock-up. An I didn t 
 have no trouble to take Mister McCarty along all by 
 myself last night. He was as sober as a judge, when 
 he got his wind again, an as meek as a lamb, after them 
 white fingers got offen his neck." 
 
 " What about the woman?" some one asked, after 
 the matter had been pretty thoroughly discussed. 
 
 " Oh, she must be used to such things by this time ! 
 I guess she wasn t much hurt." 
 
 " I heard the parson was for gettin a rig and takin 
 her to Carbonville to the hospital." 
 
 " So he was. I hope you ll allow me/ he says to 
 her, bringin her a drink an bathin her forehead. 
 Poor thing, I think she was so ashamed to have her 
 husband ketched in such a dirty trick that she wanted 
 us all to go away an leave her alone. But the parson 
 wouldn t hear to it. I couldn t sleep, if I thought you 
 were here alone an sufferin / he says. An just then 
 Dr. Creigan happened to come along an hauled her 
 down to his house an give her somethin to make her 
 sleep." 
 
 That night, for the first time in weeks, Warne 
 reviewed his heresies. His injured collar bone kept 
 him awake a good deal. Since coming to Coalton he 
 had lacked time to reflect upon his own affairs. Some 
 times he had been so tired that he fell asleep on his 
 knees during his devotions. As he went over in his 
 mind the events of the evening, he was in doubt about
 
 98 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the answer to his prayer. To be sure, Davis had 
 come in, but not in time to preclude the necessity of 
 violence. 
 
 He wondered whether he had done right. Then he 
 was troubled for fear the church might suffer through 
 his action. 
 
 Once he would have been certain that the men would 
 be angry because he had laid hands on McCarty; now 
 he was not certain but that they would approve of 
 him. At any rate he would go to the jail to visit 
 McCarty in the morning. He fell asleep at length, 
 not quite sure which particular heresy it was that 
 should concern him. 
 
 When the rector reached the jail he found McCarty 
 without the least resentment and quite ready to see 
 him. The prisoner wore no collar and he had black 
 marks upon his neck. In spite of the best intentions 
 on both sides the interview at first, was somewhat con 
 strained. It was rather embarrassing to offer spiritual 
 consolation to a man whom he had been trying to choke 
 only a few hours before. But he dealt faithfully with 
 McCarty, who listened in silence to all he had to say. 
 
 Warne would have gone away from the prison feel 
 ing that there had been nothing accomplished by his 
 visit, if McCarty had not said just as he was about 
 to leave, 
 
 " Why don t ye pray that other prayer f r me? " 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 " Why the wan ye prayed last night before ye was 
 chokin me."
 
 AN EXTIRPATED HERESY 99 
 
 The rector saw that the man was absolutely sincere. 
 
 " Ye prayed for help whin I was jist gettin the 
 betther iv ye last night, an although I near bruk yer 
 collar bone, He helped you. Pray f r me now; I need 
 help!" 
 
 Then the rector sank to his knees on the iron thresh 
 old of the cell and bowed his head against the bars, 
 while McCarty on his side of the grating knelt also. 
 Warne s uninjured arm found its way through the 
 iron barrier across the man s bowed shoulders. Then 
 the rector poured out a prayer the like of which was 
 not found even in the Service for Visitation. When 
 the rector had finished and at his request, McCarty 
 himself prayed: 
 
 " O Lord, I don t know how to pray to you at all, at 
 all. But whin this man prayed you heard him. Make 
 bare thy howly ar-rum. Now Lord, you helped him; 
 why won t you help me? I m in prison, a place where 
 I niver was before. I can t help meself; it s all on 
 account of the dhrink. Lord, help me help me ! " 
 
 And who shall say that He who hears the sighing of 
 the prisoner, bound in affliction and with bonds of evil 
 habit that are stronger than iron, did not hear that 
 prayer ? 
 
 So it came to pass that on that day one of the rector s 
 heresies perished.
 
 THE UNDOING 
 OF THE HOUSE OF GOOCH
 
 " The toad beneath the harrow knows 
 Exactly where each tooth-point goes; 
 The butterfly upon the road 
 Preaches contentment to that toad." 
 
 KIPLING.
 
 VII 
 
 THE UNDOING OF THE HOUSE OF GOOCH 
 
 < < "^K 7" OU work late to-night. Evidently you don t 
 
 keep union hours." Rector Warne paused 
 
 a minute in friendly interest where Mr. 
 
 Gooch was busily working away on the roof of a new 
 
 house. 
 
 " The union asn t nothink to do with this job," he 
 said. " Hexcept layin the stone for the foundation 
 an framin the timbers of the ouse, there asn t no 
 body ad naught to do with the buildin o this ouse 
 but William Gooch, that s me. I m fair proud o 
 the job too an when I get the missus an the young 
 ones ere, as I will ave, please Gawd, afore many 
 days, w y we ll all be as appy as kittings." 
 
 The rector made a mental note to visit the new 
 family as soon as they should be settled, to see that 
 they were properly located in the church. After a 
 few minutes further conversation about his family 
 and his house, the rector passed on, leaving Mr. Gooch 
 to proceed with his work. 
 
 Mr. Gooch went on nailing the sheet iron from blast 
 ing powder kegs over the roofing boards of the lean-to 
 kitchen. In spite of the fact that he had been hard at 
 work all day in the mines, he whistled as cheerfully as 
 
 103
 
 104 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 if it had been ten o clock in the morning. As he bent 
 over his work he was lighted by his miner s lamp 
 fastened to his oil-cloth hat. The blows of his hammer 
 upon the sheet iron rang out with a sharp, metallic 
 clangour which would have made sleep impossible for 
 the denizens of Reagan s Patch, if they had not been ac 
 customed to the continual clanking and shrieking of 
 the coal trains all night long, and the infernal din of 
 the coal breaker throughout the day. The only noise 
 which could arouse Reagan s Patch from its slumbers 
 was a fight, and Mr. Gooch was not a fighting man. 
 
 Mr. Gooch s house was almost finished. To be sure, 
 there was quite a space which had not been weather- 
 boarded, but then that was well up toward the eaves, 
 where the rain was not likely to come through. It 
 was a brilliant economical suggestion which led Mr. 
 Gooch to use the sheet iron from old powder kegs for 
 roofing material. He had no money left with which 
 to buy shingles, and he had plenty of powder kegs. 
 The coal company forced its men to buy the useless 
 kegs in which their powder came. By tearing these 
 kegs to pieces and using them in place of shingles he 
 would have a fire proof roof with no extra expense. 
 When he had driven the last nail he climbed down 
 from the roof, entered the new house, and, without 
 undressing, fell asleep on the rough bunk in which he 
 had been sleeping ever since there had been shelter 
 enough to call a house. 
 
 While Mr. Gooch was putting the last sheet iron 
 strips on his house, the big White Star steamer was 
 coming into port in New York. Down among the
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE 0/GOOCH 105 
 
 steerage passengers a woman and three children, all 
 girls, stood looking curiously at the lights of the great 
 city which seemed to be drawing nearer. They were 
 dazed and untidy after their voyage. The high-heeled 
 shoes and cheap foreign finery of the woman seemed 
 strangely out of place. In the morning, when the 
 other passengers had landed, they would be allowed 
 to enter the detention pen. Then they would be inter 
 rogated by various officials of the immigration bureau, 
 passed through various gateways and offices, and finally 
 carried on a slow train to the anthracite coal regions 
 in Pennsylvania and the little house built by the hus 
 band and father. 
 
 It was all so new and strange to them ! The barren 
 mountains were not at all like England, nor the 
 wooden railroad bridges, the frame houses, the un 
 familiar speech. 
 
 " Tell us which way to go to Reagan s Rag, sir ? " 
 the woman asked, when they stood alone on the plat 
 form of the station at Coalton, beside their old coun 
 try " boxes " and bundles of bedding tied up in sheets 
 that were blackened from steamer and railroad travel. 
 
 The man failed at first to understand the purport 
 of her timid question. " Which way is it to Reagan s 
 Rag? " she repeated. 
 
 "Reagan s what?" 
 
 " Reagan s Rag, sir. Me usband as built us a ouse 
 there. He works in the Atton Colliery," she added, 
 seeing that the man still failed to understand her. 
 
 " O, you mean Reagan s Patch! he laughed, point 
 ing out the way, " Don t let any of the goats eat
 
 106 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 you," he called after her. " I guess green things are 
 rather scarce down that way." 
 
 When at last they toiled up to the door of the house 
 which Mr. Gooch had built, even the children bearing 
 their share of the heavy burden of baggage, it was 
 only to find that the door was locked and the place ap 
 parently deserted. Within was the rusty stove, a few 
 pieces of furniture from the second hand store, and 
 the bunk which Mr. Gooch had made. They set down 
 their bundles and waited, eagerly watching for the 
 coming of their loved one. 
 
 Old Davis found them there when he went by to feed 
 the Company s mules in the pen outside the mine. He 
 stopped curiously in the dust where Mr. Gooch had 
 meant at some future time to build a fence. 
 
 " Was you waitin for some one? " he asked. 
 
 " I m lookin for me usband, sir, William Gooch. 
 Can you tell me where to seek im ? " 
 
 " Your husband ! You don t mean to say " he 
 began. " William Gooch, did you say ? Good Lord ! " 
 he cried. " Why, woman wait a minute," he broke 
 off and stepped behind the house. " I suppose I might 
 have known that old Hoochi-coochi wasn t buildin 
 that house to live alone," he said to himself. " But, 
 thunder ! Did anybody ever see the like o this ? The 
 man just killed by a blast and buried by the town, be 
 cause he had no friends, and now right on the heels of 
 it all, here comes his widow and children askin for her 
 husband! Well, anyhow she didn t find her husband 
 married to another woman, as Casey s wife did when 
 she came over."
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE o/GOOCH 107 
 
 It were better that the history of the house of Gooch 
 for the next year or two remain untold. The end 
 of it all was that Mrs. Gooch went into business. 
 She could not keep boarders, because she could not 
 cook American food. Nor could she do washing, be 
 cause a score of other women, who had lived long 
 in Reagan s Patch, waited for every washing that 
 was to be done. There was a great deal of it too, 
 for the dust from the coal dump soiled everything, 
 so that even carpets must be washed frequently; but 
 there was nobody to hire washerwomen, except the 
 wives of the saloon keepers and the wives of the min 
 ing bosses. 
 
 So since there was nothing else to be done, Mrs. 
 Gooch went into the business of selling bottled beer, 
 without the formality of appearing before the license 
 court. She had been the barmaid in an English inn. 
 and this gave her the necessary experience about deal 
 ing out liquors, while a ready tongue made her popular 
 with her customers and insured her success. The 
 fact that she was not obliged to pay the license fee, 
 which Owens found so burdensome, made her business 
 still more profitable. 
 
 But the chief reason for her great success, lay in the 
 fact that the community at large approved. Not that 
 anybody actually wished to see the laws broken, but 
 that many people did not believe in the restrictions of 
 the license laws, while they did sympathise with the 
 widow, who had no other way to make a living than 
 by selling unlicensed beer. If Mr. Gooch had lived 
 things might have been different. No doubt Mrs.
 
 io8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Gooch would have been a model wife and mother, and 
 her children would have been washed and brushed and 
 sent to Sunday-school. But now it was very little 
 time she could give to the care of the children. 
 
 Two men did not uphold her effort to earn a liveli 
 hood : Rector Warne, who found her unlicensed saloon 
 a hindrance in his effort to revive the little Episcopal 
 church, and Mark Owens, who represented the dignity 
 of licensed saloon-keeping. 
 
 Mark Owens and the rector had failed to get along 
 very well together, which was a pity, considering how 
 well their first acquaintance promised. Perhaps it was 
 Owens unfortunate misapprehension in connection 
 with their first meeting, soon after the rector came to 
 Coalton, that hindered their further intimacy. 
 
 The rector had visited Owens and had been very 
 cordially received by him. He was so pleased with 
 his visitor that he offered him a drink of his best 
 whiskey. Some men came in just then who did want 
 liquor and Mr. Warne took his leave. 
 
 " What in blazes was the new preacher doin here, 
 Owens? " one of the men asked. " Are you goin to 
 get religion ? " 
 
 Owens snorted. " Some fellows is fools, an some 
 is too smart for em. There s no use for you to tell 
 me that he s the preacher. Why I talked with that man 
 for half an hour, an he s a good fellow ! " 
 
 Owens had had to stand so much joking about the 
 incident that he felt he must antagonize the rector 
 somewhat to even up matters. When it came to the
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE <?/ GOOCH 109 
 
 matter of Mrs. Gooch s speak-easy Owens was ready 
 to make peace. 
 
 " Why don t your church people appear against 
 these miserable speak-easies ? " he asked. " How can 
 a man like me do a decent business and keep a decent 
 place, when you can get a drink in any little dog hole? 
 Some Hitalian or Russian Jew or Slav will buy a bar 
 rel of beer, without no license or nothin , and go right 
 to work to sellin , same as I do who pay a big license 
 fee. And they ain t all Hi s and Huns that s in the 
 business, neither. There s some Protestants that s 
 come to town that s just as bad as the worst of the 
 Hi s." 
 
 Owens was well aware that when Mrs. Gooch s 
 child had sickened and died during the awful heat of 
 their first summer in America, it was the rector who 
 had been called to administer spiritual comfort to the 
 sorrowing mother. 
 
 " It s hard to get evidence. If you know these 
 things to be true, Mr. Owens, and if you are the chief 
 sufferer, why don t you do the prosecuting? " 
 
 The rector was sure that Owens had so often been 
 guilty of breaking the liquor laws himself that he 
 would not dare to appear against Mrs. Gooch. 
 
 So it came about that between those who could not 
 or would not and those who dared not prosecute, Mrs. 
 Gooch passed a most profitable season of law-breaking. 
 
 It was just at the beginning of Lent that the first 
 sign of danger to Mrs. Gooch s business appeared. A 
 bitter February wind was blowing clouds of dust from
 
 no THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the huge culm heap down the icy streets of Reagan s 
 Patch. It is a peculiarity of the culm dump that the 
 waste of which it is composed lies loosely, so that the 
 water drains off and the mass does not freeze. There 
 fore when the wind blows, either in summer or win 
 ter, fine particles of coal dust are carried abroad until 
 the whole landscape, houses, trees and even the snow, 
 is blackened. 
 
 The Sunday evening Lenten service had just closed., 
 Mrs. Burt Hatton, the Old Mogul s daughter-in-law, 
 and her guest, Helen Vaux, were on their way home 
 from church. While the two women stood waiting for 
 a car on the corner where a squalid lane came down the 
 hill from Reagan s Patch into the main thoroughfare of 
 the town, a little child was driven by the wind down 
 the narrow street. She appeared to be not more than 
 three years old. Her only wrap was a small pink 
 shawl, which was dragging after her. The shawl had 
 been wet and was frozen until it crackled as the wind 
 whipped it against her heels. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton sprang forward with a little cry. 
 " Why, you poor tot ! Where s your mother ? " 
 
 The child regarded her wonderingly while Mrs. 
 Hatton covered her with the folds of her heavy cloak, 
 her face tender with feeling. 
 
 " What is your name, dear? Where do you come 
 from ? Tell me, can t you ? " 
 
 Further questioning and persuasion elicited the fact 
 that the child s name was Beatrice and that her mother 
 was " givin the men a drink." 
 
 While the two women toiled up the hill whence the
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE o/GOOCH in 
 
 girl had come, carrying her by turns, they saw an 
 older child leave one of the houses and pass quickly in 
 the direction of Mrs. Gooch s lighted speak-easy. A 
 woman who might have been the child s mother stood 
 at the gate, watching her as she ran to the back door 
 of the unlicensed saloon. 
 
 When they came up to the woman, Mrs. Hatton 
 opened her cloak and drew near to the fence where the 
 woman waited. " Can you tell me whose child this 
 is? " she said. 
 
 " Sure, it s Mrs. Gooch s Be trice. An where did 
 yez find her this cold night? It s a great wan for 
 runnin away she is. Aw, Be trice, ye naughty gur-rl 
 ye ! I ll take her from yez, mum. It s mesilf that was 
 jist on the pint iv cursin her mother, for takin al 
 me man s money for drink, an sellin to him till he 
 won t be fit to go to wor-rk to-morrow. But I can t 
 see the poor child iv her freeze to death on the streets 
 sich a night as this. May be her mother w u d do me 
 the favour to sell no more drink to me Dinnis, if I tuk 
 her along home. I ve sint me own little Annie up 
 there to bring him back, but it s no certainty that he ll 
 come wid her." 
 
 When they were on their way home again, Helen 
 burst out, " O, Kate, do you have such things as this 
 up here? I thought I d seen all of such scenes that 
 I could bear in the city. Among these rugged moun 
 tains, people ought to be good. What an awful 
 creature that child s mother must be! I was glad the 
 Irish woman offered to take the child home. I didn t 
 want to see her."
 
 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " I supposed you knew, Helen. I have never known 
 anything else. We have always lived at the other end 
 of the town and come to church in the carriage, so 
 that we don t need to get into contact with these for 
 eigners. If you can t help such things, what s the 
 use to know about them? " 
 
 " But you can help ! I should think you d want to 
 come in contact with them. Why they re real heathen 
 right here at your door. Just think of that little child 
 on the street such a night as this, while her mother 
 was drinking with those " 
 
 "O, Helen, don t!" Mrs. Hatton begged. "She 
 is just the age of my baby. Oh, why should my baby 
 die, while God lets this uncared-for waif live? Surely 
 I was as fit to bring her up as this woman in the speak 
 easy." 
 
 " Forgive me, dear," was all Helen could say. " I 
 was so indignant at that wretched woman." 
 
 " Helen, I don t believe you can ever understand 
 how hard life has been for me during these years since 
 we left College. How little we thought then, when we 
 said good-bye after Commencement, what was in store 
 for us ! " 
 
 " Tell me about it, dear. Sometimes it helps." The 
 tone had a caress in it. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton began bravely, but her voice broke now 
 and then with a sob. " Oh ! I ve made such a mess of 
 it all ! My own life and other people s too. You 
 knew about my runaway marriage. Romantic, I 
 thought it, but it was only selfish. I had always done 
 as I pleased and although father didn t want me to
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE o/GOOCH 113 
 
 marry Burt, I would anyhow. Burt had always done 
 as he pleased, too; so you see how easily we came into 
 conflict. You weren t surprised when the end came 
 and we separated ? " 
 
 " I was so sorry, dear ! " 
 
 " I was proud and thought I was glad to be free 
 of the bonds, as my lawyer put it. But, Helen, when 
 I went down alone into the valley and came back with 
 my baby, I saw some things more plainly. Think of 
 it ! My child never saw her father. Burt would have 
 been so proud of her ! " 
 
 She choked a moment and then said brokenly, " I 
 suppose I loved her too well; but she was all I had to 
 love. I suppose God took her to punish me." 
 
 " Kate, I don t believe that you loved your baby 
 too much. I don t believe you could." 
 
 " Why, Helen, a very good woman said to me that 
 she supposed I might idolize my baby, so that God had 
 to take her away from me." 
 
 "God isn t jealous of our human loves; He is a 
 God of love, not of hate." 
 
 " I try to believe it," she said at length. " But what 
 am I to do? " she went on piteously. " I am just a 
 weary woman, who knows that she has made a failure 
 of it all. And now I can t even stir from home with 
 out seeing some neglected child that makes my arms 
 ache for my own baby." 
 
 " Find some sort of work where you can help to 
 make life easier for somebody whose sorrow is greater 
 than your own." 
 
 " O, Helen, you could do this; but I can t! Unless
 
 ii4 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 it was some child like this one we saw to-night, I 
 could not bring myself to do such work." 
 
 In her own mind Helen determined that it should 
 be this very child of the speak-easy. She would put 
 aside her own repugnance for the mother, and for 
 the child s sake and for Mrs. Hatton s sake, she would 
 visit Mrs. Gooch the very next day. 
 
 That same night it was reported to Rector Warne 
 that Mrs. Gooch was selling liquor again and he re 
 solved to visit her in the morning. 
 
 Helen reached the speak-easy first. 
 
 She was received with great delight by Mrs. Gooch 
 and given a seat of honour in the bare front room. Al 
 though there was but little furniture, there were lace 
 curtains at the windows and some gaudy tissue paper 
 flowers on the wall. Among them hung the coffin 
 plate of the child who had died during the previous 
 summer. In the kitchen stood a table with an untidy 
 clutter of dishes and broken food. The unpainted 
 wood work of the house began to show spots of grease 
 and marks of grimy fingers which were not all made 
 by children. 
 
 No, Mary Liz did not go to school. She needed her 
 to grabble coal from the dump. Be trice? No, Be trice 
 was not out of bed yet. She was not very well. She 
 coughed in the night. Her food didn t agree with her 
 cither. No, she never took pains about the food of her 
 children; just gave them bread and tea and a bit of 
 bacon, the same as she had herself. Strong meat 
 would make strong babies. She knew, for she had 
 raised three, and buried five.
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE 0/GOOCH 115 
 
 While Helen was still in the front room, there came 
 a knock at the back door and Mrs. Gooch, anticipating 
 a possible customer, hastened out and closed the door. 
 It was Rector Warne. The door being thin, Helen 
 could not help hearing a part of the conversation. 
 
 The rector came straight to the point. " I ve come 
 to talk to you about this illicit liquor business. It 
 must be stopped at once." 
 
 The widow looked rather startled. " I ain t done 
 nothink," she said. " It s the only w y I have to keep 
 me ome." 
 
 " But you re breaking the laws by selling drink 
 without a license, and it can t go on any longer." 
 
 " Mr. Warne, I m just a poor widow tryin to sup 
 port me little ome. I aven t done so bad, sir, thank 
 Gawd. If I could hafford to do it, I d be willin to keep 
 the laws. I would ave kept a plyce meself, the same 
 as Mark Howens, if I could; but I m too poor. I d 
 ave ad me license pypers same as you want me to 
 do long ago, an kept the laws all nice an reg lar, 
 an come to church of a Sunday. I can t elp bein 
 poor! It ll be very ard for me, sir, to p y the license 
 fee, an I don t know if I can get the pypers ! " Here 
 she seemed to be on the point of tears. " If you would 
 please to sign the pypers, sir, when I applied for li 
 cense, m y be the judge would give it to me. It s quite 
 a bit o money, sir, to p y out. If you d be so kind, 
 sir, to go me byle, they might trust me for it, or let 
 me p y it by the month." 
 
 Mr. Warne s view of the case did not seem to be 
 making much impression upon the mind of Mrs.
 
 n6 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Gooch. So he rose to lend force to his words and to 
 take his leave. " Mrs. Gooch, you must give up this 
 whole business. Licensed or unlicensed, you are doing 
 wrong in the sight of God." 
 
 Mrs. Gooch now began to wail loudly. " But 
 what ll I do, sir ? Ere s me ome an me little children 
 that depends on me for their bread ! " 
 
 There was a sound from the room within and then 
 the closing of the front door as Helen took her de 
 parture. 
 
 " I aven t done nothink," the widow went on be 
 tween her sobs. " Just sold a bit candy an soft stuff 
 to me neighbours." 
 
 " Do you mean to declare," asked the rector sternly, 
 " that you sell no liquor here, no beer or whiskey ? " 
 
 "Who said whiskey, sir?" she bawled, forgetting 
 her grief. "Was it that Ungarian Katya? Of all 
 the bare-faced, oudacious bla guards and liars on the 
 top o Gawd s hearth " 
 
 " Never mind," interrupted Warne. " Tell me the 
 truth now; haven t you sold beer, and whiskey too, 
 right here in this room within a week? Weren t you 
 selling last night? " 
 
 There was no evading the rector s searching glance. 
 Mrs. Gooch s eyes fell. " I suppose I ave sold a drop 
 or two o beer," she admitted. " But us hold country 
 people doesn t look on beer as an intoxicatin drink, 
 sir, as you may s y. But what can a poor woman do? 
 The ouse over our eads is all I ave; the ground ain t 
 pyde for yet. If you make trouble for me, I aven t a 
 friend to turn to. Me poor dead usband s gone, an
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE o/GOOCH 117 
 
 me an little Be trice an Mary Liz must go out into 
 the street ! " 
 
 " Mrs. Gooch," he said slowly, " you must choose 
 one thing or the other now. A month ago I offered 
 you a chance to take care of the kindergarten rooms 
 of the Grace church up in Mudtown " 
 
 " But I can t give up me ome, sir. Me usband 
 built it for me. An the patch up at Mudtown is 
 filled up with Ungarians an Rooshians, they s y. I d 
 ave to live in that big store buildin , an it s deadly 
 lonesome, sir. The room down stairs is so big that I 
 couldn t eat it with me little stove in winter. I can t 
 go there, sir. There s nobody to speak to. Why I d 
 fair die of omesickness." 
 
 Mrs. Gooch had now reached the point of real tears. 
 The rector stood silent for a minute. " I m very sorry, 
 but I ve nothing else to offer. Don t forget what I 
 have said about selling any more drink. You d better 
 throw away any liquor that you have on hand, so you 
 won t be tempted. We won t let you come to want, but 
 I can t allow any more liquor to be sold here." 
 
 As he left the house, he recognised Helen s figure 
 rapidly disappearing down the street. Without hesi 
 tation he quickened his pace and soon overtook her. 
 " I didn t expect to see you here," he said. 
 
 Helen s face was flushed and she held her head very 
 straight. She extended her hand. 
 
 He greeted her as he might have done if they had 
 parted over night instead of nearly two years before. 
 " I saw you in church with Mrs. Hatton. I ve writ 
 ten asking your permission to call, but I am sure the
 
 n8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 letter could not have reached you yet. I asked if I 
 might not see you while here, just as if nothing had 
 happened. O, Helen," he began intensely, " can t we 
 go back again and go on as we did while you were still 
 a girl in " 
 
 But Helen was not quite ready to take up personal 
 matters. 
 
 " A dreary section of the country this is, isn t it? " 
 
 " Indeed it is. I can t tell you how it depressed me 
 when I first came to Coalton. I used to tramp over 
 the barren country till I was weary in body as well as 
 mind. And then the tragedies ! I used to go home to 
 the rectory so lonely and blue, and there was no one 
 to lighten the dreariness." 
 
 The girl s eyes softened and she half-turned toward 
 him, when he blunderingly continued, " but I ve grown 
 used to that now and don t mind." 
 
 Her figure stiffened a trifle and there was a touch 
 of resentment in her voice as she said, " I thought you 
 were heartless with that poor woman. I was there 
 when you came in and couldn t help hearing. Why 
 did you treat her so? Can t you see the matter from 
 the woman s point of view?" 
 
 " I m afraid I can t. I m only a man. I m trying 
 to see it from the point of view of the other women. 
 Helen, you can t imagine how much harm she is ca 
 pable of doing. You don t know how she is actually 
 robbing the children of the neighbourhood of necessary 
 food. Of course she s anxious to keep her own home, 
 but she is destroying the homes and happiness of a 
 score of other women."
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE 0/GOOCH 119 
 
 " But why should you be the one to do this? Won t 
 the church suffer? Won t she think that you are hard 
 hearted?" 
 
 " I am not doing it. I have stood between her and 
 Mark Owens who has bought the mortgage on her 
 house. Now if she doesn t quit the business, I ll with 
 draw and let him foreclose." 
 
 " But where will she go? What will she do? " 
 
 " I ve offered her a place in the kindergarten at 
 Mudtown." 
 
 " Oh! did you? " said Helen with a thrill of pleas 
 ure in her voice. The rector felt the difference. 
 
 " Come, take a walk with me, Helen, please. I ll 
 show you the parish." 
 
 Yes, Helen would go. Down in her heart there 
 was still a desire to see all of life through the eyes of 
 Henry Warne. So they ranged from one straggling 
 street to another, past long rows of company houses, 
 all built after the same hideous pattern and all painted 
 the same dingy, metallic red. The gutters were choked 
 with filthy ice, the fence corners showed dead smart- 
 weeds and burdock stalks through the snow. Rusty 
 tin cans and old shoes driven full of hob nails lay in 
 the middle of the streets. Gates sagged. The pickets 
 of the fences and the rails had often been split up for 
 kindling. In some places even the posts had been 
 chopped down for the same purpose. 
 
 As they walked they talked of what Warne had 
 promised, at least to himself, to leave untouched, 
 Helen s life since she had chosen a missionary career 
 and refused to be his wife. He asked swift, sympa-
 
 120 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 thetic questions, when once the subject was fairly in 
 troduced, and she found the reserve which she thought 
 she wanted to remain between them, melt away. As 
 the walk lengthened she saw that mission work in 
 the slums of the great city where she had gone when 
 the war in China made the foreign field impossible to 
 her, was very much like the mission work for these 
 poor foreigners among the mines for whom Warne 
 was giving his life. Something of the same horror 
 which she had felt when she and Kate Hatton stood by 
 the speak-easy the night before came over her. 
 
 " Let s go home," Helen said at length, just as the 
 rector himself had said to his warden. " I didn t 
 dream that you had so much need here. O, Henry, 
 isn t there some way to make it better? " 
 
 " Come and help me, dearest," he said simply. " By 
 God s grace we can do something." 
 
 Grimy, sodden Coalton ! Could she make this place 
 her home? 
 
 There would be none of the romance of missions 
 about life in Coalton. And yet it was no new knowl 
 edge to the heart of Helen Vaux that to walk side by 
 side and hand in hand with Henry Warne anywhere 
 was the sweetest earthly thought she had ever known. 
 Having felt once that she must put it aside for a more 
 imperative call, her womar s soul had shrunk from 
 confessing even to herself the sweetness of this re 
 current thought. 
 
 When at last her sweet, grave face was turned to 
 wards her lover, Helen did not answer with many 
 words, but what she said was enough to glorify to him
 
 The UNDOING of the HOUSE 0/GOOCH 121 
 
 even the mountain of culm which towered above them. 
 They walked home past Mrs. Gooch s house in that 
 beautiful silence which needs no words. 
 
 The rector and Helen did not visit Mrs. Gooch s 
 house again until after the mine which lay beneath 
 Reagan s Patch had suffered from a serious cave-in. 
 Then they went out to see the damage. 
 
 The ground was cracked in long gaping seams clear 
 across the street. In the mines below, a blast had 
 opened a pocket of quicksand and the lot on which 
 Mr. Gooch had built his house was directly over it. 
 The house had sunk until the roof was nearly on a 
 level with the street. The lean-to kitchen with its 
 sheet-iron roof had gone down first, and the main part 
 of the house had tipped backward upon it, like a ship 
 going down on its beam ends. The strip of sheathing 
 which the weather-boards had not covered was now 
 below the level of the ground, and the water from the 
 gutter was pouring through it. 
 
 Mrs. Gooch and the children had climbed out the 
 front window when the house began to settle and some 
 of the men from the neighbourhood had taken out a 
 part of the furniture from the front room, including 
 the coffin plate and the tissue paper flowers. As for 
 the beer kegs in the cellar and the boxes of bottles 
 they had gone down first, followed by the rusty kitchen 
 stove. Seeing no prospect of a successful establish 
 ment in Reagan s Patch, Mrs. Gooch had bought a 
 new stock of liquors and moved to Higgin s Patch be 
 yond the boundaries of Coalton.
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK
 
 " Evil is urought by want of thought 
 As well as want of heart." 
 
 HOOD.
 
 VIII 
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 
 
 IT is not entirely certain what Bishop Vaux would 
 have thought of the fact that in the back yard 
 of the Coalton rectory there was a full-blooded 
 red pyle. There was nothing to distinguish the rec 
 tor s red pyle from any worldly fighting-cock. He 
 had the same snaky head, the same wicked eyes, the 
 same powerful wings; his spurs were almost stiff 
 enough to force their way unshod through a leather 
 boot-leg, let alone through the neck of any cock that 
 dared to stand up against him. There is a story that 
 the red pyle once killed a weasel which was trying to 
 pick up its breakfast out of a brood of young game- 
 chicks, actually driving his spur into the creature s 
 brain before it could escape. But that was before the 
 red pyle fell into the hands of the rector, and there is 
 no way to verify the story. 
 
 Mr. Warne never would have owned him at all, if 
 it had not been for William Bugdale. Bugdale was 
 the promoter of most of the cocking mains between 
 Coalton and Carbonville. Cock-fights between the 
 two rival places were always popular, but the fight in 
 which the rector won the red pyle rose to the dignity 
 of an historic event. The battle took place at sunset 
 
 125
 
 126 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 on the last Saturday night of July, which was also 
 pay-day. All the sporting men of both places were on 
 the edge of the old reservoir above the Coalton breaker. 
 Mark Owens was the referee, and Pete Casey was the 
 stakeholder. Three hundred dollars were put up for 
 the best three in five. 
 
 The main was only fairly begun. One speckled 
 two-year-old from Coalton had been disabled, and the 
 red pyle, entered by the Coalton party, had just worsted 
 the Carbonville bird. The third match was beginning, 
 when " Spike " Dolan s boy slid down the embank 
 ment and broke into the shouts and oaths of the ring 
 with an excited gesture: 
 
 "Cheese it! Here s de preacher! Mr. Warne s 
 right out de udder side o de bank." 
 
 The men started up uneasily, the shouts sinking 
 into gutteral silence. William Bugdale profanely con 
 signed the rector to torment, and with him all bishops, 
 clergy, and laity who interfere with the business of 
 other people, and then gave as his advi ce that the 
 fight go on in spite of these condemned worthies. It 
 was this advice of William Bugdale that gave the 
 rector his opportunity. It would have been better if 
 the men had scattered until Mr. Warne had passed on, 
 and then come back to settle the fight for the cham 
 pionship at their leisure and in peace. 
 
 Bruce Hardin, who was among the men, skulked 
 behind a pile of mine ties at the first mention of the 
 rector s name. 
 
 " I can t afford to be caught here," he whispered. 
 " Come on with the birds, till he goes away."
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 127 
 
 But instead of catching up the birds and retiring 
 until Mr. Warne was safely out of the way, young 
 Mick Phelan, who had charge of the remaining Car- 
 bonville cocks, untied the sacks, turned them all into 
 the ring at once, and then disappeared before the 
 crowd from Coalton could punish him for his treach 
 ery. The red pyle, beset by four birds at once, was 
 doing his best to hold his own in spite of the terrible 
 odds. Avoiding their attack as well as possible, he 
 finished the bird with which he had been fighting, and 
 then attacked the strongest of the three remaining 
 adversaries. The Coalton crowd, frantic at the sight 
 of their champion so unfairly matched, would have 
 trampled under foot the cocks of the Carbonville party. 
 But the referee instantly rose to the occasion, and 
 ordered that the remaining three birds of the Coalton 
 crowd should be added to the ring. 
 
 In the meantime Warne had pushed on rapidly 
 until he came to the top of the embankment. He 
 paused but an instant to gain breath and to survey 
 the motley crowd below. Then he cried out, in ring 
 ing tones, " For shame, men ! Have you no manhood, 
 to set God s living, feeling creatures to torture one 
 another like that? " 
 
 Only a few of the men looked around. The rector 
 went on to urge those nearest to him to leave such 
 brutal sport and come with him to separate the fight 
 ing roosters. Some laughed uneasily, others moved 
 away, while one or two wavered ; but, as no one com 
 plied with his exhortations, the rector pressed through 
 the crowd alone to the edge of the ring.
 
 128 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The cocks were now in battle royal, almost evenly 
 matched. They paid not the slightest heed to what 
 was going 1 on about them. The rector waved nis 
 hand once or twice in futile endeavour to frighten 
 them apart, and was just reaching out his umbrella to 
 intercept the red pyle, when William Bugdale sprang 
 forward, presented his brawny shoulder under the 
 rector s outstretched arm, whirled him quickly around, 
 and, without heeding his protest, began to push him 
 backward up the hill toward the top of the reservoir. 
 
 The movement was ridiculously tmclerical, more 
 like an awkward colt being backed out of the wrong 
 stall than anything else. The minister never would have 
 found himself in such an undignified position if he had 
 only stayed at home that Saturday night. There he 
 would have been safe and cool and away from all 
 disagreeable sights and sounds. But the rector had 
 a theory that he got some of his best sermons while 
 wandering about the dark corners of his parish. 
 Whether or not this theory was correct, it is certain 
 that some of the preacher s parishioners were disturbed 
 in their Sabbath slumbers as the result of his wander 
 ings abroad. 
 
 There was really no excuse for Warne s being abroad 
 that Saturday night. It was only two weeks since he 
 had brought Helen Vaux to the fine old rectory as his 
 wife, and there is no doubt that he should have been at 
 home with her. He had longed for years for her; he 
 was profoundly impressed with the nobility and sweet 
 ness of her character, and was almost humbled by the
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 129 
 
 loftiness of her ideals. All this made it the more fitting 
 that he should have been on his own veranda, except 
 that it had sent him forth to make sure that Mrs. Gooch 
 was not without food over Sunday. 
 
 But, if he must go, why should he choose the night 
 after pay-day, of all the days in the month? Why 
 not wait until the usual proportion of the wages of the 
 community had got safely into the hands of the saloon 
 keepers and the sporting fraternity and the men had 
 settled down to grumble at the hard times and poor 
 work about the mines? Nobody wanted the rector to 
 be abroad on pay-night. His own people die} not like 
 their spiritual adviser to see the sights incident to that 
 lively season, and those who were outside the church 
 were still less anxious to have him about, unless, in 
 deed, some member of his flock happened to be " mak 
 ing a holy show of himself " about one of the saloons : 
 then the scoffers were quite willing that Mr. Warne 
 should see all that was to be seen. 
 
 But to have the rector come upon a man of his own 
 congregation drunk was one thing, while it was quite 
 another matter to have him catch the sporting element 
 of the community in the midst of a cock-fight. There 
 might be church law against drunkenness, but there 
 was statute law against cock-fighting. Rector Warne 
 was known to deal very tenderly with the weak 
 brethren of his flock who had fallen under the power 
 of the cup, although the men whom he visited and 
 with whom he prayed, did not consider such interviews 
 pleasant. But it was not known just how leniently
 
 i 3 o THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the rector would regard the subject of cock-fighting. 
 Indeed, it was very seriously doubted whether he would 
 deal leniently with the offenders at all. 
 
 There is a tradition concerning old Father Hill, 
 who had been the locum tcnens in the church of Car- 
 bonville many years before, that he enjoyed a match 
 as keenly as anyone else. One Sunday afternoon, 
 so the story went, he had chanced upon a crowd under 
 the lee of a culm-dump watching a couple of cocks 
 fighting. The old man was declared to have said, " I 
 suppose they got to fighting of their own accord, 
 boys; nobody would set them to fight on Sunday, I m 
 sure. Might as well let them have it out now; it s 
 got to be settled some time." But Rector Warne was 
 not Father Hill by any means, and it was more than 
 suspected that he would have called on the police to 
 stop the fight, if the promoters of the main had not 
 taken care to choose the reservoir as a battle-ground 
 just because it was outside the jurisdiction of the 
 police. 
 
 It was therefore only a partial relief when William 
 Bugdale shouldered the rector to the top of the em 
 bankment. Bugdale paused a moment, purple-faced 
 from his exertion and hot with anger. " Now th d 
 better go," he said. " If I c d lift th hup this bank, 
 what does th think I c d do to throw th down that 
 un?" 
 
 " Parson," shouted Mark Owens, not unkindly, 
 "you d better take a walk." 
 
 The rector stepped past Bugdale and faced the ring 
 again. The red pyle and his speckled foe, the only
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 131 
 
 two that were shod with steel spurs for fighting, were 
 now facing each other, panting and covered with 
 blood, each watching the other for a chance to strike, 
 and raising and lowering their heads as they feinted 
 and sparred for advantage. The men had ceased to 
 watch the fighting birds, and were all looking up at 
 him. He pushed forward to the edge of the em 
 bankment and balanced himself on the crumbling 
 reservoir as he did sometimes on the edge of the pul 
 pit platform on Sundays before he began his sermon. 
 
 * You may throw me down, if you will, I have no 
 doubt that you are strong enough to do so," he began, 
 in a clear, high voice, speaking to Bugdale without 
 looking at him; "but I will not go down. Even if 
 you throw me down, I will not be silent; you must 
 hear me. Jacob Breece, and you, Mark Owens, and 
 you, William Bugdale, and all the rest of you who 
 are engaged in this shameful business, you are doing 
 a wrong in the sight of Almighty God ! " 
 
 " When he said Jacob Breece," said that individual 
 in telling the story afterwards, " it went through me 
 same as a knife. But it beats me to this day to know 
 ow he saw me, when I wer down behind a pile o 
 ties, where I d gone after Mick Phelan when he let 
 hall them birds hout on my red pyle. Some ow I ad 
 to stand hup when he called me name, an then he went 
 on to give it to us the worst you ever eard. The 
 Jedgment Day won t be no worse. He took us hup 
 before the White Throne like, an it kind o seemed 
 to me as though he wer a-goin to be one o the wit 
 nesses against us hall, the way he went for us there.
 
 132 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 His voice kep gettin clearer an solemner, only it 
 wer so havvful sad, an then all at once he rung hout 
 a command, like he wer blowin on a trumpet, an 
 then stopped: 
 
 " In the name of the Lord Jehovah, I command 
 you to stop this fight instantly! 
 
 Breece paused for a moment in his tale, and then 
 went on : " He looked grand nothin short of it. He 
 just looked hawful, as he stood there, in the last red 
 o the sunlight, stretchin hup his long harm an never 
 movin a muscle, whilst you could ear the sound of 
 his voice come hechoin back from the mountain above. 
 I felt as if the bank would fall in on me; an I kind 
 o wished it would. I wanted go an ide meself some- 
 wheres only it seemed as if I couldn t move. The 
 reservoy wer still as a church, hall exceptin the 
 flappin o them birds down in the middle of the ring-. 
 But nobody looked to see which wer gettin the best of 
 it. You might a thought we wer a-waitin for him 
 to begin to pray only, some ow, he didn t seem like 
 a preacher, either. I d been to church afore that night, 
 of course I ad, but when the parson said it ad to 
 stop, we never thought he wer preachin or nothin ; 
 we thought he meant it. I remember I wondered that 
 the birds didn t stop fightin theirselves an them 
 jest gettin ot an wild with blood. It wasn t as if 
 some man ad said we wer to stop; it wer as if " 
 Breece sunk his voice as nearly into a whisper as was 
 possible for him " it wer as if it wer some hangel! 
 
 "Did the men mind him? Why, they ad to mind 
 him! Didn t I tell you it was like the Jedgment Day?
 
 THE RECTOR S GAME COCK 133 
 
 Wully Bugdale could easy ave broke his face as he 
 stood there, or pitched him ead an eels down the 
 reservoy bank. But he only made two slidin steps 
 an caught the speckled bird jest as the red pyle wer 
 a-holdin him down to carve his ead hoff. I grabbed 
 my red pyle right back o the wings an whopped him 
 into the bag afore he knew what wer appenin . 
 
 " The match is hoff, permanent, says Bill. 
 
 " I thank you, men, says the parson. Then he 
 went on to make us a speech a kind o po try some 
 of it about kindness to the least o God s creatures; 
 but I forget what it wer , hexcept that he said just 
 before he stopped that hevil wer wrought for want 
 of eart as well as for want o thought. 
 
 " He ll pronounce the benedicshee next, says Bill 
 to me on the quiet. Then he says hout loud, This 
 ere match bein declared hoff 
 
 " It hain t been declared hoff yit, says Mick Phe- 
 lan from behind the pile o ties. 
 
 " Oh, it s hoff all right enough, you bla guard ! It 
 wer you as fouled the bird, says Mark Owens, 
 swearin at Mick under his breath, for the men wer 
 afraid to touch Mick or even to cuss him hout loud 
 while the rector wer there. 
 
 " I ll howld the bags fer ye, Owens, says Pete 
 Casey, while ye go out behind the pile o ties an 
 cuss the little divil, so ye c n give yer whole attintion 
 to the job. 
 
 " This match bein declared hoff, says Bill again, 
 louder than ever, lookin straight toward the pile o ties 
 as he spoke, yous sports c n come an git your stakes.
 
 i 3 4 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " I don t want no stakes, says one fellow from 
 Mudtown, give the boodle to the parson. Nor me 
 neither ! Nor me ! yells one an another. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I cannot take your money, says the 
 rector, as perlite as if he wer refusin a third cup o 
 tea in a parlour. You need the money for your fam- 
 
 erlies. Thank you for your good will he says, 
 
 beginnin another speech. 
 
 " But Bill Bugdale cut him short : Yous men that 
 has famerlies, come an git yer bood. You sports like 
 me an Jake ere an Casey c n watch an see me put 
 hall that s left of the stuff that s in this box into the 
 ands of Mr. Warne, to use for missionaryin or any 
 way he likes. 
 
 " That s hall. Only see ere I ain t ashamed to 
 tell it, but it seems queer the rector got old o some 
 o us, specially me, afore I left the ring, an we j ined 
 the confirmation class. I ve give hup the drink, an 
 I m goin to be a better man. I give Mr. Warne my 
 refd pyle right there in the ring that night, an I ain t 
 seen him since. The rector wer goin to invite his 
 Bible-class around to heat him, once; but I told him 
 I hadn t no eart for it : so he give that hup. He tells 
 me now that the red pyle is as peaceable as a turtle 
 dove an* stays appy an contented-like in the back 
 yard o the rectory. Poor fellow! He s gettin hold, 
 I fancy. Well, hall of us has our day."
 
 A ONE-MULE MAN
 
 " God made bees, and bees made honey, 
 God made man, and man made money; 
 Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin, 
 So God made a coal-pit to put the devil in." 
 
 ANON.
 
 IX 
 
 A ONE-MULE MAN 
 
 HE was just a one-mule man. Not that Henry 
 Morris cared that it was only a mule he 
 drove. The trouble was that it was but one 
 mule. Indeed, it was not a question of mules, but of 
 money, for the man who drives two mules in a coal 
 mine draws more pay than a one-mule man. 
 
 Morris had not cared about the pay when he used 
 to take his money home and throw it into his mother s 
 lap. But now, that he and pretty Rosy Kline were 
 sweethearts, it fired him with unholy passion when 
 Buck Davis referred to him as " that one-mule man." 
 He had fought with Buck and ground his face into 
 the cinder walk, but this did not alter the fact about 
 the number of mules that he drove. 
 
 It would be years, perhaps, before Morris would 
 have more than one mule. If enough drivers and 
 runners were killed, he might be promoted rapidly 
 enough to be in a position to marry Rosy within a year. 
 On the other hand, he might be injured himself, and 
 then good-bye to Rosy; for how could a cripple ex 
 pect to win so choice a bride? If he did not get the 
 rise in wages for which he hoped, somebody might 
 rob him of Rosy. Anyone who had ever seen Rosy
 
 138 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 would understand why the thought made him savage. 
 Davis had a house and a good income to offer Rosy, 
 and could make her very comfortable. But then Davis 
 was too old and a widower and Rosy didn t want him. 
 
 The evening before the fight with Davis, when 
 Morris and Rosy sat under the crab-apple tree near 
 the new company houses, he had gone over a part of 
 this with her. There was a scent of wild crab-apple 
 blossoms in the air, an elusive, indefinable sweetness 
 wholly foreign to the air of the dingy settlement at 
 every other season of the year. It suggested poetry, 
 green fields, bird songs, serenade music in the moon 
 light, anything else than the hard, black outlines of 
 the culm-dump etched against the steam-whitened sky. 
 The perfume had need to bring suggestions of sweet 
 sounds and green fields, for there was absolutely no 
 hint of such things in the landscape. Everything green 
 except the crab-tree had perished. But the cows could 
 not break it over, the goats could not destroy it, and 
 Davis, the stable boss, could not cut it down without 
 lacerating his wrists. So it stood. 
 
 For one brief week the children would gather its 
 creamy pink blossoms; for one day the Italian and 
 Hungarian peasants would carry the fragrant circu 
 lar wreaths and lay them on the graves of their dead 
 in the cemetery, when the Grand Army of the Re 
 public strewed flowers upon their fallen comrades. 
 Then they would go back to their unlovely toil and to 
 the smell of cinders reeking with the gases and steam 
 of the ash dump. 
 
 While Morris and Rosy sat under the crab-tree, he
 
 A ONE-MULE MAN 139 
 
 talked about the possibility of injury to himself, and 
 she clung to him in a way that made him dwell on 
 the subject to an extent that any miner would have 
 scorned to do unless, perhaps, there was a Rosy to 
 do some clinging. Rosy was so charming that he had 
 told her he was ready to eat her up. There is no tell 
 ing what foolish plan for their immediate marriage the 
 young man might not have persuaded her to accept, if 
 her mother had not called Rosy into the house. Until 
 Henry could show in the manila envelope which con 
 tained his monthly pay a sum sufficient to discharge 
 the bill at the store, and the rent, with something 
 left, the mother would not consent to listen to pro 
 posals of marriage ; and Rosy could not think of going 
 against her mother s will. Rosy had told him this, as 
 gently as she could, while they were seated under the 
 crab. She had also vowed that she would wait until 
 the company intrusted him with another mule. But 
 Henry could not get rid of the thought that some man 
 might appear with a bulkier pay envelope and that the 
 mother, with her old-country notions about marriage, 
 might force Rosy to accept the robber. 
 
 So on this particular spring morning Henry sat and 
 scowled at the stunted laurel-bushes which grew about 
 the mouth of the shaft of the Hatton mine, while he 
 waited for the cage to take him down to his mule. 
 On the way down he heard the inside foreman telling 
 one of the men that young Burt Hatton was to bring 
 down a party of New England coal-dealers on that 
 day to inspect the mine. In his heart Henry hated the 
 coal-dealers; for they were responsible, he felt, for the
 
 140 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 meager wages he was paid and for the one mule. 
 Henry had heard a Socialist lecturer, who said that 
 the dealers fixed the price of coal and the quantity to 
 be mined. He had called the miners slaves of the 
 market. It all sounded very grand. 
 
 In the meantime the members of the Coal-dealers 
 Protective Association had not yet breakfasted at the 
 sumptuous hotel where they were quartered. Up to 
 this time their visit to the anthracite coal region had 
 been one continuous round of banquets, receptions, 
 and excursions. Perhaps there would have been no 
 trouble at all if that foolish Scidmore had not insisted 
 that they should see the inside workings of the coal 
 mines. Accordingly, as assistant secretary, he had ar 
 ranged to have the private electric car of the president 
 of the trolley railway take them to the suburbs of 
 Coalton for a trip through the great Hatton mine. 
 The secretary-in-chief would never have consented to 
 such a trip as this, if Scidmore had not settled the 
 matter without consulting the association. 
 
 Some of the men hesitated a little about going into 
 the mine because of the danger; but the younger ele 
 ment, led by Scidmore, were ready to laugh at their 
 fears. So before they rightly knew what they were 
 about, they found themselves huddled together in a 
 somewhat bewildered group in the main gangway of 
 the mine, which was much like a murky grimy cellar, 
 very damp and very draughty. 
 
 At the foot of the shaft, they were plunged at once 
 into the very busiest spot in the mine. The inrushing 
 air drawn by the ventilating fans caused the lights to
 
 A ONE-MULE MAN 141 
 
 flare so that they made but faint impression upon the 
 gloom. Machinery crashed and roared. Gongs and 
 warning bells jarred their nerves with the apprehen 
 sion of unseen danger. The floor was a network of 
 tracks and a cobweb of cables to entrap the feet. The 
 roof hung low enough to menace their heads. Whole 
 trains of low mine cars that were being shifted on the 
 switches threatened to crush the unwary. Drivers 
 and switchmen shouted warnings and imprecations. 
 Mules threaded their way in the darkness and brushed 
 their shaggy sides against the well-dressed brokers. It 
 was a Broadway blockade in the dark. 
 
 Back from the main shaft the character of the 
 sounds changed somewhat. The mine became sinister. 
 Menacing sounds lurked along the galleries. Danger 
 crept up in the dark and then threatened with sudden 
 malevolence. The strange, far-off humming of the 
 cables running over distant wheels and wooden rollers, 
 suddenly changed to the deafening rush of a trip of 
 cars that seemed about to spring upon and crush the 
 party. When this had passed, out of the ominous 
 silence came the explosive throb of a blast, which 
 seemed to rock the solid walls and threatened to bring 
 down a thousand feet of rock upon their heads. 
 
 At the foot of the first plane they found the fire- 
 boss, Hudderfield, known to everybody as Sunderland 
 Red. Since the day when as a baby he was carried 
 into the coal mines to cure the whooping cough, in 
 Sunderland, England, Hudderfield had almost literally 
 grown up in the mines. While others pined for the 
 light, he thrived in the darkness. His stocky figure did
 
 142 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 not droop, although he had spent fifty years under 
 ground. As fire-boss, it was his business to enter 
 every chamber of the mines each day before the miners 
 came in the morning, to test the condition of the air 
 with his safety lamp in order to secure the men from 
 danger of being burned by the explosion of gas col 
 lected during the night. If his chalk-mark were lack 
 ing at the entrance of any chamber, the workman not 
 only risked his own life by going into it, but the lives 
 of all the men in the mine. 
 
 The first spot which the visitors sought was the 
 mule barn. Here Davis, the stable boss reigned. It 
 would not do to say that Davis was only a mule 
 whacker, although his work was to attend to the varied 
 needs of some forty ridge-backed, singed-bellied mules, 
 with galled shoulders, scraped legs or contracted 
 hoofs, with here and there an eye missing or an ear 
 cropped, with homicidal tempers and with tricks 
 enough to graduate any one of the outfit into the 
 circus. It was no ordinary genius who could pre 
 side over such an aggregation. And when to the 
 troubles of such a situation was added the oversight 
 of an equal number of driver boys, trained in the 
 breaker, it is easy enough to understand why Davis 
 believed himself to be predestinated to end his life 
 in an asylum. That is, of course, if he should escape 
 violent death from a fall of rock or a runaway trip 
 of cars, or, what he regarded as much less dangerous, 
 from the hoofs or teeth of the mules. Other mule 
 whackers have died of lockjaw through having been
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 143 
 
 playfully chewed, or have been kicked or squeezed to 
 an ignominious death by the mules themselves. But 
 Davis did not trouble himself about that. 
 
 Davis, the stable boss, was a specialist. His specialty 
 was mules. Not only did he feed them and groom them 
 and harness them and stable them in the stalls built 
 for their use near the foot of the shaft, but he doc 
 tored their ailments and studied their happiness. His 
 day began at four A. M. Except for a short rest 
 at the breakfast hour of ordinary mortals, while the 
 mules were busy in the various gangways and cham 
 bers of the mines, he spent the rest of the working day 
 in the society of the mules. If the coal was coming 
 out rapidly and he had no baled hay or grain to bring 
 down the shaft, he might not see daylight for weeks 
 at a time. 
 
 While the coal dealers were inspecting the stable, sev 
 eral uncomplimentary remarks were made about mules. 
 Davis ignored all these until Scidmore s insolent ig 
 norance forced him to speak. 
 
 " When you come to think of it, the mule ain t to 
 blame. If there s anything on top of God s earth that 
 has a harder time than a mule that has to work under 
 the earth, why I pity it. Ain t there some heathens 
 that think that when you die you ll be born over again 
 into a beast or something, if you don t play a square 
 game the first deal? You don t suppose there s any 
 truth in it do you? I reckon it would keep a man 
 pretty near straight, if he thought he might wake 
 up some day and find himself inside a mule s hide
 
 144 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 a-workin in a mine! If you ve formed the habit of 
 makin an ass of yourself, young man, you d best take 
 warnin . 
 
 " I hear they re goin to put in electric motors to 
 haul the cars," he went on as if he had not heard 
 the laugh of the coal brokers at Scidmore s expense. 
 " If that s so, I guess the Lord an the Hatton Coal 
 Company must love the mules. An the mule ain t a 
 very lovable kind o creetur. Not particularly. 
 Specially after he s been in the mines without scein 
 daylight for a year or so. They have all sorts of 
 drivers an the boys lick em an gash em an burn 
 em with their lamps on the belly an all sorts o places 
 to make em pull more cars than they ought to pull 
 up the steep pitches. By the time a mule s been through 
 that kind o picknickin for eighteen months or so, he s 
 apt to get a leetle irritable, unless he s jest naturally 
 too good tempered for this world. If he s that way, 
 he ll lay down an die. Fact is, most of em gets so 
 infernal ornery before that time that nobody can dc 
 nothin with em." 
 
 " What happens then ? " asked Scidmore, who was 
 interested in spite of his pique. 
 
 " O, when he gets so naturally cantankerous that 
 nobody can drive him, we h ist him up the shaft, an 
 let him spend a Sunday or a week out doors. Say, I 
 don t suppose you ever saw a mule when he got off 
 the cage at the top o the shaft ? It d do you good. T 
 went to school once you wouldn t believe it, but I 
 did. I was there about a month an durin that time 
 I did somethin that made the teacher mad. She said
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 145 
 
 she d keep me in an whip me after school. That after 
 noon her beau come to the school for her, an the 
 teacher let me off. I ain t been back since. But I 
 wasn t no gladder than them mules is when they find 
 themselves on top o ground stead of under it. Why 
 they jest jump sideways all over the pen. Sometimes 
 one of em will tremble all over, as if he was scairt o 
 the light or the big broad earth or something. Some 
 times he ll go feelin his way round with his forefeet. 
 Sometimes he ll lay down. Sometimes he ll bray! 
 It s all accordin to his disposition. Just like men. 
 But he s glad all right enough ! " 
 
 Then the party must see the actual work of mining. 
 
 Half an hour later as they left a chamber where they 
 had been watching the process, a number of men came 
 running down the gangway. For a moment Hatton 
 held up his lamp and watched the flame. Then he said 
 very quietly, " We go back now." 
 
 " I m glad that miserable wind has stopped blow 
 ing," said Scidmore. " On the way in it blew so hard 
 that I could hardly keep my lamp burning." 
 
 " Mr. Scidmore," said Hatton, slowly, " if that 
 wind doesn t blow again, in a little while you won t 
 be able to breathe this air. Something is wrong, and 
 we must reach the foot of the shaft as quickly as 
 possible." 
 
 Arriving at the shaft, the word which had been tele 
 phoned down went round that there had been an ex 
 plosion in the boiler-room, which had stopped the ven- 
 tilating-fans and the hoisting machinery. There was 
 nothing for it but to climb the ladders to reach the
 
 146 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 top. Several of the driver boys and younger miners 
 had already gone out of sight up the ladders. 
 
 " This is the worst hole we ve been in yet worse 
 than when the Street slumped last winter," Scidmore 
 said. 
 
 " I wish he d keep his fool clack quiet," said some 
 one in the rear of the party, and the association agreed 
 with him. 
 
 When Hatton came up there was a hush among the 
 miners until he said, " Men, I want our friends to 
 have a chance to climb the ladders. You ll have to 
 help them. I ll stay here until the last man is out. 
 I want one of you to go with each one in this party 
 to show them how to climb and to help them, if they 
 need help." 
 
 " I don t need anybody to show me how to climb a 
 ladder!" blustered one young broker. "Just show 
 me the ladder ! " 
 
 That the ladder! The elegant coal-brokers looked 
 at the grimy timbers built like a log cabin around the 
 sides of the shaft, then at the gray patch of light in 
 the eternity above them, and then into one another s 
 faces for a moment in blank amazement. They fell 
 on Hatton with voluble protests. They could never 
 do it. Why, a fire-escape was a promenade in com 
 parison ! Did he mean to say that the miners were 
 obliged to face such risks? It wasn t right! There 
 ought to be a law to prohibit such risks! How far 
 was it to the top ? It was preposterous ! 
 
 " That s the ladder, gentlemen. It is the only way 
 out. There is the top, eleven hundred feet above.
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 147 
 
 Every moment increases the danger, so the sooner you 
 start the better. Mr. Scidmore, you take this side. 
 Morris, let somebody else take care of that mule and 
 you go with Mr. Scidmore. Here, Hudderfield, you 
 go with this man. All I can say is, Be careful. Take 
 it slowly." 
 
 Morris and Scidmore started to climb together. 
 
 "Did you ever climb up this way before?" Scid 
 more asked. 
 
 " Not this shaft, but up the second opening, when the 
 breaker burned at the top of this shaft. That time 
 the shaft was full of smoke. We had all we could do 
 to get out." 
 
 Before the first hundred feet were covered, the 
 broker was panting and trembling from the unaccus 
 tomed exertion. 
 
 " Better throw off your coat, sir," Morris suggested. 
 
 " I can t take it off and keep my hold. Could you 
 help me?" In a minute the coat and vest, with Mr. 
 Scidmore s silk hat, lay at the bottom of the shaft. 
 
 As each man of the visiting party came forward to 
 mount the ladders, a grimy miner stepped out to ac 
 company him. To the credit of the miners let it be 
 said that there was no objection made, although they 
 knew that elderly millionaires, weighing two hundred 
 or more, seldom keep up their gymnasium practice. 
 
 " I can t go any further without resting," Mr. Scid 
 more groaned presently. " I don t see how I am ever 
 going to get out alive. Put your hand in my pocket 
 and take out my watch and my money. Do as I tell 
 you," he commanded, as Morris protested. " I ll give
 
 148 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 you what s in the purse, if you get me out of this all 
 right. There s nearly a hundred in that. Yes, I ll 
 make it two-fifty if you get me up." 
 
 "Do you think I m a bloodsucker? I ain t doing 
 this job for pay. I need money just now as bad as 
 anybody; but I don t have to be bribed to help a man 
 out of danger. Don t you know that there are men in 
 the mines who have carried an injured dago up such 
 a place as this on their shoulders, rather than let him 
 die at the foot of the shaft? Do you suppose I want 
 your blood on my hands? I m ready to do all I can 
 for you ; and I don t want your money, nohow ! " 
 
 Stifling waves of heat began to surge upwards, a 
 reek of smoke and oil. The steam pipes, in spite of 
 their asbestos coverings, gave off a large amount of 
 heat. One and another of the men began to look up 
 wards, but the gray patch at the top seemed as small 
 as ever. The sweltering climbers began to go more 
 slowly. Then Hatton passed up the word : 
 
 " Let the men who are freshest pass on, while the 
 others take turns resting on the platforms." 
 
 A little later he called up : " Don t hold the plat 
 forms too long. Show the men how to rest at the 
 corners. Each miner must hang below his com 
 panion." 
 
 Presently there was a swish of falling water, like 
 the first big drops of a thunder-storm. Hatton 
 shouted, "They ve turned the fire-hose on us!" 
 Whereat Scidmore swore. Morris looked at his com 
 panion for a moment in silence. 
 
 " You ought to thank God, young man, instead of
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 149 
 
 swearing," he said, simply. " That drip of water is 
 carrying down a current of fresh air that ll maybe 
 save our lives." 
 
 After a few moments the air did seem cooler, and 
 although the water fell faster and drenched them until 
 their clothes hung heavy on their shoulders, yet they 
 breathed more easily and climbed more steadily. 
 
 Still, it was a weary struggle. Fingers were lacer 
 ated and benumbed; arms ached until it seemed as 
 though they would be drawn from their sockets; heads 
 buzzed and swam, so that the brain seemed hardly to 
 direct the movements of climbing, while the hands 
 went on fumbling automatically for the timbers. No 
 man passed a platform now without resting. It seemed 
 to the climber that he had hardly begun to relax his 
 weary muscles and catch his breath until some savage 
 face, which seemed in the increasing light to be blacker 
 and more haggard than the last, appeared over the 
 edge of the platform and demanded the place. 
 
 When the brokers reached the top of the shaft, men 
 were ready to seize each climber by the arms and hoist 
 him into safety. The coal company s ambulance stood 
 backed up by the engine-house. Carriages had been 
 summoned, blankets were in readiness, and each shiver 
 ing coal-dealer was wrapped up and hurried off to the 
 hotel. 
 
 The alarm had been given by the blowing of a long 
 blast upon the whistle of the breaker. In an incredibly 
 short space of time an immense crowd had gathered. 
 Old men, the clerks and drivers from the stores, bare 
 headed women, some with little children in their arms,
 
 150 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 others with the flour of baking day still upon their 
 hands and reddened arms, crowded about the mouth 
 of the gaping shaft. Two grizzled miners held the 
 nozzle of the hose which was pouring water into the 
 shaft. These passed back the word that there were 
 voices heard in the darkness below. The officials of 
 the company were kept busy denying rumours that 
 there had been loss of life. The old men declared that 
 there was no danger to the workmen, however it might 
 go with the visitors. But the women were not to be 
 quieted. They had heard such things before. If there 
 was no danger, why was the ambulance there with 
 bandages for the injured, blankets for those who 
 might be burned, and sheets for the dead, who did not 
 need to be warmed after the physical shock of an 
 accident. 
 
 Rector Warne came up soon after the alarm was 
 sounded. Back and forth among the excited watchers 
 he passed, now stopping to cheer some sobbing wife 
 or mother, now repeating some word of encourage 
 ment from the officials for the comfort of some 
 anxious sister. 
 
 " He knows no more n the rist iv us; " Mrs. Phe- 
 lan said, " but he s a good man, annyhow, an* God 
 bless him, I say ! " 
 
 The crowd of women and children from the village, 
 alarmed by the sight of the ambulance, grew greater 
 every moment. As each of the miners climbed out, 
 he was pounced upon by some anxious member of his 
 family. The men laughed at the needless excitement
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 151 
 
 of the women, but they could not reassure those whose 
 fathers or husbands had not yet come to the surface. 
 
 It was through Hatton s management that the men 
 came up safely. He seemed to be just where he was 
 needed upon the ladders, generally coming to the re 
 lief of some miner who found his fellow-climber too 
 heavy a burden to be sustained alone. For the last 
 two hundred feet, Hatton had brought up a double 
 guard of miners for those members of the party who 
 seemed likely to become exhausted. These two guards 
 climbed with their shoulders beneath the arms of their 
 burden, thus supporting and guarding him as well. 
 
 At last the women were all quiet but two. A little 
 apart from the rest, Rosy Kline sat on the bumpers 
 of a low mine car, her face flushed with anxiety yet 
 tearless, rocking to and fro, and never taking her 
 eyes from the shaft. Her mother hovered over her, 
 weeping softly. The scene brought back the tragedy 
 of her own life, when she had waited for days, with 
 other agonized women, for the husband who never 
 came back to her. 
 
 " Don t look so, Rosy, darling," she whispered, cut 
 to the heart by the despair in Rosy s face. " I won t 
 say anything more against your marrying him. He 
 can come and live with us, and we ll get along some 
 how." 
 
 " If he comes out, mother." 
 
 "Don t say that, child; he ll come out all right." 
 
 In the meantime Morris was having a struggle with 
 Mr. Scidmore, the last of the visitors to come up. The
 
 152 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 secretary had dragged himself painfully up towards 
 the top of the shaft, when some weakening of the 
 heart s action left him limp and almost unconscious, 
 a tremendous dead weight on Morris s young shoul 
 ders. Morris crowded him towards the corner, brac 
 ing his own legs between the logs on one side while 
 he rested his back on the other side, and clinging with 
 a death-grip to the logs with one hand. With the 
 other arm he managed to balance Mr. Scidmore s body 
 and hold it against the wall, meantime calling for help 
 from above. It was but a little time until a rope 
 was lowered, and the nerveless figure of Scidmore was 
 hoisted up the shaft. 
 
 It was Hatton himself who climbed back into the 
 shaft when the rope was lowered, and who came up 
 beside Morris, the last man to leave the shaft. 
 
 As soon as the coal dealers were safely at the hotel, 
 they began with frantic haste to send telegrams to 
 their families. Scidmore s message to his wife was 
 typical. It read as follows : 
 
 " Disregard sensational reports which may be published con 
 cerning Hatton mine disaster this morning. All our party escaped 
 death and injury. Further engagements cancelled and investi 
 gations abandoned. Expect me home Saturday." 
 
 It was these telegrams which provoked the publica 
 tion of the facts regarding the accident. The city 
 editor of the Anthrax Herald, had written for his own 
 paper a ten line item reciting the injury to the fan 
 house, but the excitement which the visiting coal mag 
 nates showed seemed so amusing that he telegraphed 
 a column of stuff to a certain New York paper
 
 THE ONE-MULE MAN 153 
 
 describing in detail the adventure. It appeared the 
 next day under the heading: 
 
 MILLIONAIRES IN A PLIGHT! 
 AN i loo-FOOT SHOWER-BATH 
 
 The editor had an eye for the picturesque and he had 
 never missed an opportunity since the day he left the 
 dump to enter the newspaper office. 
 
 On the second day after his climb Mr. Scidmore felt 
 able to leave his bed. Toward evening he presented 
 himself at the home of Rosy Kline inquiring for 
 Morris. 
 
 " He hasn t come up from work yet," Rosy an 
 swered. 
 
 You don t mean he has gone back into that dread 
 ful shaft!" 
 
 " Why, yes; they repaired the machinery in a little 
 while, and he was at work again yesterday. He can t 
 afford to be idle when the mines work." 
 
 " Are you his wife? " 
 
 " No, not not yet. A man can t support a wife 
 on a one-mule job." 
 
 " Ah! I see. Now look here; if Morris could man 
 age a big fellow like me, don t you think he could 
 manage more than one mule? " 
 
 " Of course he could, if the company would only 
 give him a chance."
 
 154 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " Well, the company is going to give him a chance. 
 I ve been talking to Mr. Hatton, and he has promised 
 that he shall have a place in some new gangway run 
 ning cars, I think he called it. That ought to enable 
 him to support a wife. That s Mr. Hatton s part. For 
 my own part, I offered to pay your husband I mean 
 Mr. Morris if he would bring me up alive, and he 
 grew angry. But if you and he should happen to get 
 married, and if you should want to use some furniture 
 which will be put into one of the new houses down 
 here in Reagan s Patch, I believe you call it, the house 
 with the wild crab-apple tree in the yard why, I 
 should be glad to give you the furniture for a wedding 
 present." 
 
 When Rosy told Henry about it that evening, she 
 lamented that Mr. Scidmore had gone before she could 
 thank him properly. 
 
 " Maybe he ll come to the wedding," Henry said, 
 " and you and I will thank him then." 
 
 " Who said there was going to be a wedding? " she 
 asked, saucily. Then she added, with a little shake 
 of her head : " Mother says she ll give us a pig. Won t 
 we be just set up in housekeeping? "
 
 THE COST OF MINING
 
 There are countless heroes who live and die 
 
 Of whom we have never heard; 
 For the great, big, brawling world goes by 
 
 With hardly a look or word; 
 And one of the bravest and best of all 
 
 Of whom the list can boast 
 Is the man who falls on duty s call, 
 
 The man who dies at his post." 
 
 ANON.
 
 A 
 
 X 
 
 THE COST OF MINING 
 
 N unusual bulletin, in large capitals, on the out 
 side of the frame office of the Number Five 
 Colliery, 
 
 WORK TO-MORROW 
 
 An unwonted stir among 1 the men, both inside and out 
 side the mine. New mine cars standing in order on 
 the switches. New wire ropes on the slopes. Clean 
 yellow sticks of timber here and there beside the grimy 
 machinery and weather-boarding of the breaker. While 
 other collieries had been working after the strike the 
 Number Five mine had been idle. But now work was 
 to be resumed. Three or four men seated in an office 
 which was as beautifully furnished as any parlour, had 
 decided that it was time to seek a dividend from this 
 particular piece of property. Nearly a thousand men 
 and boys would be affected by this decision. No won 
 der there was rejoicing. 
 
 A long, hilly road of black culm and cinder, with a 
 dirty snow-bank on one side, chilling in the early 
 mountain twilight. A rickety wagon, drawn by two 
 
 157
 
 158 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 smoking horses, toiling up the hill. A forlorn huddle 
 of furniture, shaking and sliding as the wagon creaked 
 and the horses strained over the hummocks. A short, 
 gaunt man walking ahead of the team, a boy and a girl 
 running beside him, and a woman with a baby seated 
 with the driver. The Hetheringtons were coming back 
 to Coalton, in the hope of steady work and better times. 
 
 The man s gait and appearance were those of an old 
 man, although he was but little past thirty. There was 
 a peculiarity in his walk which made him seem almost 
 ape-like in his carriage. His head was bent, his 
 shoulders drooped forward, his knees were crooked, 
 while his hands hung so far to the front of his body 
 that they almost touched his knee-caps. In appear 
 ance he resembled nothing so much as the man-ape of 
 the tropical forest. 
 
 It is the stamp of the mines left on the body by years 
 spent under ground in the narrow veins of coal. 
 It often happens that a miner breaks down in health 
 at forty, after thirty years in the mines. As soon as he 
 begins to grow towards manhood, he must bow his 
 shoulders and bend his back all day long. No wonder 
 that character as well as figure suffers deterioration. 
 
 When the man came back to the wagon where his 
 wife rode and lifted his head, his form lost its abject 
 appearance. His face was kindly and noble. 
 
 " Here we are," he said. 
 
 "O, Jim! Is this the house? Isn t this where little 
 Hungarian Katya lived when her man was burned to 
 death?" 
 
 " This is the house."
 
 THE COST OF MINING 159 
 
 " And isn t this where the Breece family lived when 
 their boy was killed; didn t the McCartys have the 
 fever here and wasn t there an Italian lived here who 
 was arrested for murder ? " 
 
 " Now don t be foolish, little girl : it s the best we 
 can do." 
 
 " O, Jim, I wish you wouldn t go back into the mines 
 again! Don t let s go into that house! I can t bear 
 to have you put your life in danger for the sake of me 
 and the children. What would we do if you were 
 killed ? Let s go down to the flats and work there. We 
 can manage to live somehow, even if the wages are 
 small." 
 
 " What makes you talk like this? You re a miner s 
 daughter; you should have more pluck." 
 
 " I know I m foolish, but you can t think how dread 
 ful it is every time you hear wheels on the road to look 
 out for the ambulance. Every time it has ever come 
 our way I knew it was coming somehow, even if it was 
 in the middle of the night. It s bad enough to pass 
 the shed by the mines and see the great black doors 
 in the back like a hearse staring at you as you pass. 
 But oh, when it turns up the street towards the Patch 
 every woman is like to faint she s that sick with fear 
 until she knows the great, black thing is not to come to 
 her with its load of sorrow. Why when that Hun 
 garian was brought home in Reagan s Patch to the 
 house next to us I just fell down with fright, I was 
 that scared. I ve always thought that was the reason 
 why this baby was such a timid little thing. You can t 
 help it, you just feel you must scream if the ugly thing
 
 160 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 comes another step nearer to you. Now if I should see 
 it coming up this long hill, I d know it was for me, 
 since there s no other house up here. Don t let s go 
 into the house; let s go back! " and she began to sob 
 at the prospect. 
 
 Her husband s rough hand lay a moment on her hair. 
 " Come, little girl," he said, " you know we can t go 
 back. I haven t the money to pay for taking the things 
 back and there s nothing to do there which would keep 
 you and the children from want. Besides the work on 
 the flats kills me. I can t stand it like I can working in 
 the cool of the mines." 
 
 " But Jim we ve the twenty dollars you earned dig 
 ging that well on the flats. We could live on that for a 
 little while until 
 
 " I m fair sorry, little girl, about it I oughtn t to 
 have done it at least not without telling you about it. 
 But the twenty dollars is gone 
 
 " Why, Jim, what do you mean ? " 
 
 " I had to do it," he went on doggedly. " Things 
 about the mines don t go the way they used to in the 
 old days when old Mr. Hardin managed the business 
 himself. These big companies can t keep track of 
 things the same way 
 
 " But Jim, our twenty dollars ? What became of 
 that? What has the Company to do with it? You 
 didn t earn it from the Company? " 
 
 " It didn t go to the Company. It was Bruce Hardin. 
 I m ashamed to tell you. I had to pay twenty dollars 
 to get a job of work. He wanted fifty. It s timber-
 
 THE COST OF MINING 161 
 
 ing and brattice work it s good work and I can soon 
 make it up." 
 
 " You mean that you bribed the Company to give 
 you work? " 
 
 " I had to do it. This young Bruce Hardin got my 
 money for the job." 
 
 " My father would have killed him, if he d asked 
 money from him." 
 
 " It was that or starve." 
 
 " Jim, you ve bribed them to let them kill you ! It 
 isn t right ! " 
 
 " O, don t say that. I know it isn t right, but I 
 couldn t help it. Many a man lives to be old working 
 in the mines and never gets hurt." 
 
 " Yes, and when he gets old the Company pays him a 
 boy s wages for tending door or watching at nights, 
 that is if he isn t too near dead with miners asthma ! " 
 Her mood had grown bitter, although the tears still 
 lay on her cheeks. But she came down from the wagon 
 and went into the house. 
 
 " Well it s got a good sized kitchen, I will say that 
 for it," said the woman, carrying the fair-haired baby 
 over the threshold of the dingy little house. 
 
 Presently she came up from the cellar. " Why, Jim, 
 this is the very house that s over that bad piece of roof 
 where the heat and steam from the mine comes up into 
 the cellar ! " 
 
 " I know it is. I ve got to timber up the roof just 
 about under here to-night, so as to let the men go 
 safely to their work in the morning."
 
 162 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " You may be able to do that, but what about keep 
 ing things to eat in the cellar? And how are you going 
 to sleep here if you work at night? You re a poor 
 sleeper in the daytime anyhow. But here the blasts 
 under the house will fairly shake you out of bed. I 
 remember now that Ellen Breece told me when they 
 were cutting the gangway up here, the shots they used 
 to fire with dynamite would spill the water out of the 
 kettle on the stove, and when they were right under 
 the house, they had to wire the pipe fast to the stove 
 below as well as to the chimney above to prevent the 
 shock from throwing it off every time." 
 
 " Well, well, it s the best we can do. Let s get the 
 things into the house while I can help you." 
 
 A man is not of much use at a moving, unless he 
 be a handy man at other times. Hetherington, who 
 was skillful from much experience, soon set up the 
 stove and wired the pipe. But the driver, a lout who 
 had grown callous by having moved many families, 
 and being anxious to be gone before night, set the 
 goods out of the wagon into the mud or hung them 
 from the posts of the dismantled fence, from which 
 some former tenant had burned the rails and pickets 
 for kindling wood. Mrs. Hetherington busied herself 
 putting up the bed, while the girl held the baby. In the 
 meantime Hetherington carried the boxes and trunk 
 containing their supply of clothing to the second story, 
 lighting himself by fastening his miner s lamp to the 
 top of his boot. 
 
 But the baby soon grew too cross to be neglected, 
 and the children were sleepy and so went off to bed.
 
 THE COST OF MINING i6j 
 
 The mother toiled on after that, busy with setting 1 
 things to rights, until time for her husband to leave 
 home to begin work on the night shift, which must be 
 in the mine at eleven o clock. He ate his supper while 
 she packed his dinner pail. Then he drew on his rubber 
 boots and tucked his oily overalls into their tops, put 
 on his oil-skin hat, after lighting the lamp that was at 
 tached, and took up his tools to leave. 
 
 " Well, good-bye, little girl," he said leaning over 
 to kiss her. " Now be sure you keep a good heart and 
 it ll all come out right." 
 
 " Good-bye. Now do be careful of yourself." 
 Then she threw herself beside the baby after filling 
 the stove with coal and locking the door. The baby 
 stirred once or twice during the night, but the woman 
 slept on, wearied out with the long ride on the shaking 1 
 wagon and the heavy work of moving. 
 
 ***** 
 
 An hour before daylight another team climbed 
 the hill, drawing a covered wagon. It was square, 
 massive, top-heavy, high enough for a man to stand 
 erect inside, a gloomy affair with doors in the 
 back that had panes of glass in them; more like a 
 hearse than an ordinary wagon. Two men walked 
 behind it and two rode on the seat with the driver. 
 The men smoked their pipes all but one, Henry 
 Morris. He lagged behind his companion as though 
 he found his feet heavy. It was cold and the winter 
 wind had frozen his water-soaked trousers until they 
 crackled with each step; but it was not the cold that 
 made him shiver.
 
 164 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The wagon was fitted with carefully adjusted 
 springs so that the load did not joggle or slide as a 
 load of furniture would have done, but Morris rushed 
 forward and lifted his hand as if to steady the wagon 
 when it jolted over a stone in the road. 
 
 Hetherington was coming back to the little house on 
 the hill. Like a hero from the field of battle they were 
 bringing him home. With one companion he had 
 been at work in the mine at the point under his own 
 house where the dangerous piece of roof lay. There 
 had been a preliminary fall of roof which struck down 
 both men. Hetherington, who was only slightly in 
 jured, had dragged his comrade into safety and then 
 gone back into the dangerous gallery to warn the men 
 who were still further in. It is an unwritten law in 
 the code of the miner that no man ever flees from 
 threatened danger in the mines leaving unwarned those 
 who would be in greater danger than himself, unless 
 all hope of their escape is cut off. While he was pass 
 ing a second time beneath his house through the dan 
 gerous gangway, a second fall of rock from the roof 
 occurred which crushed out the noble, patient spirit. 
 
 When the ambulance reached the little house on the 
 mountain side, Davis halted his mules in front of the 
 ruined picket fence and the two men climbed down 
 slowly from the seat. Three of the men, one at the 
 front and two behind, removed the load, while Morris, 
 the wretch who had drawn the lot and must break the 
 news, knocked at the door. The men pocketed their 
 pipes and extinguished the lamps in their hats, all ex 
 cept the driver, who kept himself well out of sight on
 
 THE COST OF MINING 165 
 
 the seat of the ambulance. In the gray darkness the 
 men found their way to the fence and leaned their 
 burden on a post, waiting for the woman within the 
 house to light a lamp and open the door. 
 
 " Where s your husband ? There s been an acci 
 dent, Mrs. Hetherington," mumbled the wretched 
 man at the door. " We ve come that is, I mean, 
 
 we ve brought " then the carefully prepared 
 
 speech which Morris had conned fled utterly out of his 
 mind and he stood silent. 
 
 "Whist! man, a minit," McCarty broke into the 
 silence. " Kape the light back, Davis. Let me spake 
 it, Hank, if ye can t do better than that. Poor Jim ! 
 He got hurted, mum, by a fall o roof a fwile ago " 
 
 " Oh, he s killed ! " cried the woman, catching sight 
 of the figure shrouded with the blanket on the oil 
 cloth cover of the mattress. " It s Jim, she gasped, 
 throwing herself beside the stretcher and reaching out 
 her arms as if to grasp the body. 
 
 She would have lifted the blanket, but Morris 
 gently held her back. " No, you mustn t," he man 
 aged to rasp out. " The rock fell on his head." Blood 
 and coal dirt do not make a sightly mixture. 
 
 " Here s his watch and some things we found in his 
 pockets. We were afraid they might fall out and get 
 lost on the way down the gangway." But Mrs. Heth 
 erington did not touch the pitiful bits of property he 
 held out. 
 
 " O, Jim ! I knew that you d be brought home to 
 me in that dreadful ambulance, if you went into the 
 mines. He can t speak to me! O, Jim! Jim!" her
 
 i66 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 voice rose to a staccato and then sank into silence, as 
 she knelt by the stretcher. 
 
 " There, there, niver mind, mum. All of us has to 
 come home this way some time. Let us bring him in," 
 said McCarty from the head of the stretcher. " Don t 
 wake the childer," he added as one of the men stum 
 bled on the threshold. 
 
 The men stood around awkwardly, nursing their 
 hats. Even McCarty was silent now. " I guess we d 
 better be goin , b ys," he said at length. " I ll sind 
 me wife right up, Mrs. Hetherington." 
 
 " I ll go straight to the undertaker s, before he has 
 his breakfast," said Morris, anxious to do something. 
 
 The men climbed into the ambulance, which drove 
 heavily down the hill; the children slept on; the 
 whistles blew to waken the men for the first regular 
 day shift of work at the Number Five Colliery since 
 the strike, while the woman sat at the head of her 
 shabby bed alone with her dead. 
 
 There Rector Warne found her, dry-eyed and dazed. 
 She did not look up even when he had finished his 
 ministrations. 
 
 Helen had gone with her husband. Mrs. McCarty, 
 who had been with the widow since morning, followed 
 the rector and Helen outside the door when they came 
 to leave. 
 
 " That s just the way she has been all day long. 
 She doesn t speak nor ask for her baby nor anything. 
 That s just where she sank down when they brought 
 her husband home at daylight. I don t know what 
 to do!"
 
 THE COST OF MINING 167 
 
 " Where is her baby? " Helen asked. 
 
 " In one of the houses down at the foot of the hill. 
 There s a woman there with a young baby, who has 
 been keeping it all day until she ll ask for it. It would 
 fret her to nurse it if it was here." 
 
 "Won t you bring it home?" Helen asked. "I 
 think I can rouse her. If I were in her place and had 
 a baby that s what would help me." 
 
 When it was brought up the hill, Helen took the 
 babe and laid it on the foot of the bed beside which 
 the woman sat. She did not seem to see the child 
 at first nor to note its cry. Going close to her, Helen 
 bent down and placed her hands on both of the 
 woman s shoulders. 
 
 " It s your baby, Mrs. Hetherington," she said 
 gently, as if speaking to a child that could not under 
 stand; " your baby and his." She stooped down and 
 kissed her on the forehead. Then she stepped softly 
 from the room, but as she did so she saw the woman 
 start from her place and gather her babe to her breast.
 
 THE EXPENSE 
 OF TRANSPORTATION
 
 Sorrow s crown of sorrow is remembering happier 
 
 things." 
 
 TENNYSON.
 
 XI 
 
 THE EXPENSE OF TRANSPORTATION 
 
 BISHOP VAUX was returning to his home from 
 an episcopal tour. He was very weary and 
 somewhat lonesome since Helen had gone to 
 brighten the old rectory at Coalton. He was there 
 fore well satisfied that the car was nearly unoccupied, 
 so that he could have two seats to himself. 
 
 He sank into a restful position and looked out of 
 the window. It was a dreary prospect : acres of black, 
 barren desolation where the waste from the mines had 
 covered the earth or killed the verdure. Huddled 
 along the sides of the valley and crowded by the tower 
 ing culm piles were the straggling homes of the 
 miners. 
 
 What inspiration, moral or mental, could they re 
 ceive amid such colossal ugliness? What wonder that 
 there were crimes and debauchery! The bishop felt 
 the pathos of the crowded, throbbing life of the dis 
 trict through which the train was passing, and for 
 the time being he identified himself with the people. 
 He closed his eyes as if in prayer, w r hile the stately 
 liturgy of his church sounded in his ears : " O God, 
 Thou knowest us to be set in the midst of so many 
 and great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our 
 nature we cannot always stand upright." 
 
 171
 
 172 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The train stopped at Mudtown station and two 
 young women entered. One of them was Mrs. Henry 
 Morris, whom the bishop remembered to have con 
 firmed; the other was a. stranger. There was some 
 thing incongruous about her dress which a man could 
 not well define. The various articles of conventional 
 mourning which she wore bore evidences of having 
 been borrowed for the occasion and they had not all 
 been borrowed from the same person. Her black 
 gloves were new and so was the black-bordered hand 
 kerchief which she carried. 
 
 If there needed any other proof that the trip was 
 not taken for pleasure or for business, the girl s face 
 would have been accepted as evidence. It was the 
 pert, doll-baby face of a " silk-mill sissie," as the girls 
 who worked in the new mill were called by those who 
 felt themselves above that sort of work. The indus 
 try was one which had been but recently introduced. 
 It was a well-placed industry because there were so 
 many more girls in the coal regions than could find 
 employment. But the wages which the mills offered 
 were so pitifully small that many miners refused to 
 let their daughters go to work at all. Those who 
 did work were dissatisfied and more than one strike 
 had occurred. 
 
 The girl s saucy eyes were heavy and dark and the 
 little mouth was drawn with grief. Both sat in abso 
 lute silence. As soon as the station was left behind 
 and the conductor had taken up their tickets, the girl 
 settled down to look out the window, while Mrs. 
 Morris anxiously watched her companion. They had
 
 EXPENSE OF TRANSPORTATION 173 
 
 no baggage, except a package wrapped in newspaper, 
 which evidently contained a pair of shoes, more com 
 fortable than the new ones worn by the girl, and a 
 crape veil, made visible through a rent in the wrap 
 ping. 
 
 Bishop Vaux was just beginning to read his paper 
 when he noticed for the first time that the girl was 
 crying. Then he saw that her companion was trying 
 to comfort her. For a mile or two nothing more oc 
 curred and then the train passed a way station at the 
 foot of the mountain, which the brakeman announced 
 noisily. The train now began in earnest to ascend the 
 mountain, zig-zagging its way towards the crest, not 
 by swinging around sharp curves but by switching 
 back and forth in a perfect cat s staircase. Half of the 
 time the engine which had started out at the head of 
 the train went first and the other half the " pusher," 
 which had stood in the rear, led the way. 
 
 When the train passed one of these switches the 
 girl burst out weeping afresh, her poor, common 
 place, little face looking more babyish and pathetic 
 than ever in her grief. Mrs. Morris was crying too, 
 but softly, as she tried to comfort her, but although the 
 girl was evidently doing her best to control herself, her 
 sobs grew deeper and stronger. Soon she raised the 
 window and turned her head so far out that the bishop 
 could not see her face. But he saw that the sobs shook 
 her whole frame. 
 
 Now the bishop, like most men, did not enjoy ex 
 hibitions of grief which he could not comfort, so he 
 rose and walked to the back of the car, thinking that
 
 174 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the women would be less embarrassed if left to them 
 selves. 
 
 The brakeman came in and sat down in the rear 
 seat, ready to throw the switch when they should 
 reach the sharp point at Panther Ledge, where the 
 train changed its direction for the last time before 
 reaching the crest of the mountain. The end of the 
 switch ran out at this point to the edge of the " hog 
 back " of rocks which made the foundation of the 
 mountain until one might look off the edge of a preci 
 pice which fell away several hundred feet in sheer 
 descent. 
 
 " Bad place for a runaway here," the brakeman 
 said, noticing that the bishop crossed the car to look 
 into the ravine at the clusters of Italian shanties, which 
 looked like toy houses clinging to the creek bank 
 below. 
 
 " How could a train run away down here, when all 
 the coal is hauled up? " he asked. 
 
 "Break in two," the brakeman said; "or the crew 
 go to sleep. Why, the men can t help falling asleep 
 sometimes. They re human. Of course they mustn t 
 get caught. But they have to sleep some time. Why 
 I know men that will leave home to-day and won t 
 get back, maybe for a week. You see the road hasn t 
 got any good terminals at tide- water and so the coal 
 trains are run in on switches as near New York as 
 they can get and kept there until there s room for 
 them in the yards. If the switch is located at a tele 
 graph station, they may annul the train and the crew 
 loses a chance to make their wages while they have
 
 EXPENSE OF TRANSPORTATION 175 
 
 nothin to do; but if the switch is off a ways they may 
 lay there for the best part of a week. That s when 
 the boys sleep. But they don t always strike it so 
 lucky. Sometimes they have to keep runnin day and 
 night, hour and minute, for a week. Then they ve 
 got to catch their sleep where they can. Why I ve 
 known men that have drawn their pay for fifty-six 
 days in one month, day and night, double time. 
 Such hogs for work as that wouldn t sleep at home 
 more than a few hours at a time for a month. Old 
 Chris, who runs 276, has got so that he wakes up after 
 he s had four or five hours in bed, and if there s no 
 call waitin for him with the woman, he goes up to 
 the round house to find out whether he s been dis 
 charged. 
 
 " Why, I can t go to sleep to this day without 
 kinkin up my elbow like this, the way I used to hitch 
 it round the brake-rod when I was brakin on the 
 coal train, to keep me from tumblin off under the 
 wheels, if I should happen to fall asleep." 
 
 They were just passing a train of empty coal cars 
 on a siding when the bishop looked off for a mo 
 ment and when he looked back he saw that the girl 
 who had been sobbing so violently had slid down on 
 the seat and was resting on the arm of her fellow 
 traveller. Mrs. Morris was shaking her and looking 
 back in a frightened way, as if for help. As there 
 were no women on the car the bishop now hastened 
 forward to offer his services. 
 
 Before he reached the seat, a man who looked as 
 though he might be a physician had come up and was
 
 i;6 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 instructing the frightened woman to loosen the dress 
 of her fainting companion. Then while he sent one of 
 the men to the cooler for water he turned to the group 
 of travelling salesmen and others who had started 
 from their seats and inquired for some liquor. One 
 of them met the bishop in the aisle. 
 
 " Say, you haven t got a flask about you, have you ? 
 Queer ! " he went on, " When you don t need it, you re 
 dead sure to strike a gang, loaded every mother s son 
 of em, and all wantin to treat. Now here s this little 
 thing fainted and there isn t a man in the whole outfit 
 got a drop on his person." 
 
 The doctor now summoned the brakeman while one 
 of the salesmen ruined the cheap crape on the girl s 
 dress with the water he was awkwardly sprinkling 
 in her face. Mrs. Morris had ceased crying now, but 
 she kept calling piteously, " Janet, wake up! O, Janet, 
 speak to me ! " 
 
 The brakeman then came in, armed with a pint 
 bottle he had obtained from an Italian in the immi 
 grant car ahead, and at the doctor s directions poured 
 out a small quantity in the glass and held it to the 
 girl s blue lips. She had recovered enough by this 
 time to shake her head; but the doctor made her drink. 
 Then the brakeman threw two seats together, the 
 doctor offered his overcoat for a pillow and the girl 
 lay down. The doctor motioned all the men away 
 except the brakeman. 
 
 " She seems to know him. I can t make out what s 
 the matter with her," he said. " She was shivering 
 and moaning just before she fainted. I could hear her
 
 EXPENSE OF TRANSPORTATION 177 
 
 from where I sat, saying over and over, O ! we re 
 coming to it ! Coming to it ! as though she were 
 afraid. It s some nervous excitement and it may do 
 her good, perhaps, to tell him what s the matter." 
 
 The brakeman leaned over the seat for a minute, 
 saying a few words to the girl and talking a little more 
 to her friend. Then he went out at a signal from the 
 engineer and did not come back into the car again. 
 
 When things had quieted down, the girl called Janet 
 lying with her eyes shut and Mrs. Morris sitting oppo 
 site to her looking out of the window, the bishop fol 
 lowed the brakeman into the smoking car to ask what 
 he knew about the cause of the girl s grief. 
 
 " It s tough," he said. " Just as tough as you ever 
 see. Billy Kline was one of the best men on this di 
 vision. Everybody liked him. I went ahead and 
 asked old Tom about this girl. Her name s Breece. 
 Tom s the baggage master. Tom knows the little 
 plans of all the fellows. They all take him into their 
 confidence and he never tells on one of em not so 
 long as he s alive. 
 
 "Dead? Yes; didn t I tell you? Billy was killed 
 night before last back here at Panther Ledge, the long 
 switch we just passed. Train of coal cars broke apart 
 comin up the grade. The engineer called for brakes, 
 and Billy ran back to save the broken section of the 
 train from running off Panther Ledge. He was the 
 boy that saved the Company s property for them all 
 right enough, for they found where he d put the brakes 
 on three or four cars. He must have stumbled or run 
 off the end of the broken section in the dark some-
 
 178 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 how and was cut to pieces by the second section. Poor 
 fellow ! Wasn t a handsomer, quicker man or a better 
 one on this whole division. 
 
 "What s that? Yes; that s his little girl. She s 
 goin down to the funeral. The lodge has charge. 
 We sent a handsome floral piece, gates ajar. I d like 
 to go myself, but I can t get off. The Company s 
 mighty particular these days since the strike. Won t 
 let men off nor give them many privileges if they be 
 long to the Brotherhood. 
 
 " Old Tom says Billy and the girl was goin to be 
 married after the next pay. They did talk about 
 gettin married quite a while back, but then the Com 
 pany cut down our wages and then the strike come 
 and so they had to put it off. If she was Billy s widow 
 now she d get benefit from the lodge, that s one thing. 
 But maybe it s better the way it is. I don t know. 
 
 "Yes; right back there where she went to pieces, 
 that s where Billy was killed. Poor Billy ! "
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP
 
 I held it truth, with him who sings 
 To one clear harp in divers tones, 
 That men may rise on stepping-stones 
 
 Of their dead selves to higher things/ 
 
 TENNYSON.
 
 XII 
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 
 
 MRS. GOOCH, with bag and baggage, was 
 leaving Higgins s Patch because of the Hun 
 garians. 
 
 There was at least one thing to be said in favour 
 of Higgins s Patch : it made absolutely no pretensions. 
 It is difficult to imagine what pretensions such a village 
 could make, unless it claimed to have more microbes 
 to the cubic foot of air than any other settlement in the 
 Anthrax Valley. To be sure the people would not 
 know a microbe from a mastodon, if they could see the 
 two together ; but it is not likely they would be unduly 
 puffed up with pride even if a mastodon were to be un 
 earthed from the swamp, upon the edge of which the 
 town was built. 
 
 There were other villages, with almost as many 
 disease germs at large in the atmosphere, which did 
 make pretensions ; not scientific nor sanitary, but social 
 pretensions. There was McGuickin s Patch, for in 
 stance, on the other side of the culm dump, where the 
 ladies considered themselves really quite aristocratic. 
 There was not a single Hungarian family within their 
 exclusive bounds. The McGuickin s Patchers turned 
 their noses still further up for their noses were well 
 
 181
 
 182 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 turned up by nature to begin with at the society of 
 Higgins s Patch. 
 
 " They bees mostly furriners," said these patri 
 cians, " an thim as ain t no more silf-rispict than to 
 live amongst sich furriners." 
 
 But now even Mrs. Gooch and Mary Liz were leav 
 ing Higgins s Patch. Society always tends to grow 
 more and more exclusive. Even the children in Mc- 
 Guickin s Patch recognised that there was a social 
 difference and they emphasised it by stoning off the 
 Hungarian children when they came without their 
 mothers to pick coal on their side of the dump. The 
 very dogs were driven off. 
 
 Besides children, who always swarm among the 
 culm dumps, there are certain animals which are found 
 there. Goats, geese, game cocks and cows. These 
 creatures, together with dogs, cats, pigs, parrots, fer 
 rets and white mice, are not unknown elsewhere; but 
 some of them have a peculiar significance in the coal 
 regions. They are partly an index to the nationality 
 of their owners and partly the clew to their social 
 standing. 
 
 There are the geese, for instance. These are mostly 
 Irish, but not the most aristocratic Irish. They can 
 live in the cook shanties of McGuickin s Patch during 
 the winter and in the open sewers in the streets when 
 the freezing weather is past. There is a great deal of 
 water in the coal regions. It is pumped out of the 
 mines by gigantic steam pumps. When it has been 
 brought to the surface, the coal company gives nature 
 an opportunity to take all further care of this water.
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 183 
 
 Hence there are frequent swamps and puddles of black 
 oil-covered ooze. Here the geese thrive. But they are 
 not the ornamental water-fowl of the farm-yard or 
 the park, for every white feather is blackened with the 
 oily waste and every crack of their yellow feet is 
 stained by the culm. 
 
 The goats are Italian. Pigs may be kept by the Po- 
 landers and game cocks by the English, but the goats 
 keep themselves. Pigeons must have their cotes and 
 the cow her stable, but the goats need nothing; they 
 have the earth. They will find their own food, pro 
 vide their own shelter and fight their own battles. So 
 they inherit the land and no man makes them afraid. 
 
 The cow is a hostage to fortune and a sign of the 
 permanency of the family. She is an aristocrat, while 
 the dog is an outcast. Anybody, even an Hungarian, 
 can keep a dog; but nobody keeps a cow except those 
 persons who own their homes and who are of a thrifty 
 disposition. If a woman owns a cow she sells milk 
 generally by the pint and may even have an account 
 with the savings bank. The cow must be stabled, 
 which means that the men folks of the family build 
 a shanty for her out of sheet-iron powder-kegs or 
 dynamite boxes. These shanties are most picturesque 
 when their stencilled warnings " dangerous " and 
 " high explosive " are turned outward and nailed up 
 side down. But the cow is not kept confined in this 
 tiny box of a stable like a cartridge in a case. She 
 wanders about the streets and alleys picking up her 
 living of potato peelings and cabbage leaves from the 
 ash heaps. Occasionally there is a garden and she
 
 1 84 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 soon learns to open gates or break fences that she may 
 levy tribute on its luscious greenness. Perhaps that 
 is why the bright boy of the family studies law or takes 
 to bar-keeping; either to defend the family cow be 
 fore the justice of the peace or to compromise with the 
 owner of the garden over sundry glasses of liquor. 
 In either case the boy is likely to take to politics eventu 
 ally, so the result is the same. But it is the possession 
 of the cow which is the first stepping stone of the fam 
 ily toward greatness. 
 
 The Gooches had no animals of any kind, unless 
 a forlorn, half-dead kitten could be counted. Mary 
 Liz had rescued this kitten from a detachment of the 
 Malgamated Terrors from the coal breaker. She had 
 fought for the kitten with such fury that even the 
 Terrors had been awed. After she obtained possession 
 of it, she had nursed it as tenderly as a mother nurses 
 a sick baby. It had great need for tender nursing 
 after its experience with the breaker boys. 
 
 But if the kitten needed Mary Liz as a friend, the 
 child needed a comforter too. She wondered how it 
 would have been if little Beatrice had lived. She had 
 loved her sister very tenderly and grieved for her with 
 childish abandonment, when the little one panted her 
 life away in an attack of pneumonia. Mary Liz would 
 never forget how Mrs. Warne had brought dainty 
 clothes and cried over the dead child and over her. 
 She liked to remember the waxen face and fingers. 
 How lovely it must be to lie still forever in a dress so 
 clean and with such beautiful white flowers in her hands 
 always !
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 185 
 
 Until the Hungarians came to occupy the houses of 
 Higgins s Patch, many of the miserable shanties had 
 been empty. The houses were so old and the tenants 
 who occupied them were so transient that the owners 
 had found it was not worth while to try to collect the 
 rents. For moral as well as for physical reasons it 
 would have been a good thing if a general conflagra 
 tion had cleared the earth of Higgins s Patch. 
 
 But so long as the houses stood, people came and 
 went without hindrance. With no outside interfer 
 ence the inhabitants lived in comparative peace with all 
 the world, fearing neither the landlord, the tax-col 
 lector, nor the malaria. 
 
 But their peace was only comparative, for if they 
 were free from fears without they were not always 
 free from wars within. But now that Mrs. Gooch was 
 moving away, it might be that the reign of perfect 
 peace was about to begin. In reality Mrs. Gooch 
 was not leaving the town willingly, neither was her 
 departure on account of her health, nor yet because of 
 the society, altogether. It was rather for economic 
 reasons. 
 
 Mrs. Gooch s ostensible business had been the sale 
 of old rags and bottles ; but in reality she had continued 
 to do a quiet little trade in filling empty bottles for 
 thirsty customers. That is, a rather quiet trade. A 
 regard for the truth makes it absolutely necessary to 
 say that the internal peace of the town was more often 
 disturbed by reason of the contents of Mrs. Gooch s 
 bottles than by any other agency even by the Hun 
 garian beer barrels. By the way, it was these same
 
 186 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 beer barrels that were driving Mrs. Gooch, with her 
 modest bottle trade, to seek a more promising business 
 opening elsewhere. The Hungarians preferred to buy 
 directly from the breweries, so as to get the benefit 
 of wholesale rates. Thus does an alien population dis 
 courage home industry and the strong hand of capital 
 oppress the weaker dealer. 
 
 " We re goin to move this hafternoon, Mary Liz," 
 Mrs. Gooch had announced one day in February. 
 " There s no chanst in Iggins s Patch for a decent 
 woman to make a livin , since these Ungarians an for 
 eigners has come ere. I see that the Ardin ouse is 
 hempty. That s where that rich family lived that 
 once eld all the coal lands in this part o the Han- 
 thrax Valley. Well, some as good luck an some as 
 poor, but it seems we ve ad our share o bad luck since 
 we come to this country ! " 
 
 It was a forlorn day for moving. The sleet fell; 
 not the hard, buckshotty kind of sleet that rolls off 
 when it has done its worst to blind its victim, but the 
 half-frozen kind that sticks and then freezes fast. 
 
 Mary Liz didn t like to move on sleety days. She 
 was used to moving, so far as that went. The Gooches 
 moved often because Mrs. Gooch didn t like the 
 neighbours, so she said; but Mary Liz noticed, at last, 
 that the change always took place after the agent had 
 come vainly and angrily for the rent. 
 
 It wasn t much trouble to move. That was one com 
 fort. The things could all be loaded into a one-horse 
 wagon. The stove, the table, the bedstead and some 
 barrels filled the bottom of the wagon, while the two
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 187 
 
 chairs which they owned were hung from the con 
 veniently projecting bedposts. Mary Liz always sat 
 on the table and carried the kitten. 
 
 The Hardin house, at the foot of the culm dump, 
 was a very old one. The only reason why the Gooch 
 family deigned to occupy it was that there were no 
 more empty houses which the owners would lease to 
 them. It was now well known that they never would 
 pay the rent, so long as they could hire for a dollar, 
 a team with which to move. 
 
 The dismal house into which Mrs. Gooch was mov 
 ing had once been the finest in the neighbourhood. 
 In its palmy days it had been the home of the Hardin 
 family who had grown so wealthy through the de 
 velopment of coal lands. It was there that the beau 
 tiful Mrs. Hatton, then Kate Hardin, had been born 
 and there also that Bruce Hardin, who was now be 
 coming notorious for more reasons than one, had 
 grown up. When the house was new Kate Hardin s 
 mother had entered it as a bride. That was before 
 coal was discovered. Then there had been a sweet- 
 brier rose by the south window and masses of day 
 lilies planted along the walk to the gate. In that day 
 Whiskey Hill was still a forest and the ground where 
 the breaker and the dump were located was the finest 
 bit of meadow in the valley. 
 
 The house then stood on the edge of the pine forest. 
 Down by the banks of the creek the witch hazels shook 
 their horned pods and flung their yellow-fingered blos 
 soms over the fallen leaves of November. Mrs. Har 
 din as a bride had been accustomed to cross the red-
 
 i88 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 olent, needle-carpeted forest every evening to meet 
 her husband. A few years later little Kate scampered 
 ahead of her mother, while Bruce sometimes chased a 
 scarlet tanager that flashed among the thickets of hazel 
 and rhododendron or worried a chipmunk hiding 
 among the fragments of white pudding-stone piled 
 into a rude fence beside the path. 
 
 Then the railroad came and spoiled the meadow 
 and frightened the orioles from their swaying nest in 
 the elm tree by the gate. Then Mr. Hardin had be 
 come joint owner in the breaker which sprang up in 
 the meadow. He grew rich by buying land adjacent to 
 his own, retaining the coal and selling the surface 
 in town lots as the town of Coalton grew in his direc 
 tion. Before the dump had completely ruined the view 
 from the porch of his home, he left it to move into 
 the most desirable house in Coalton away from the 
 increasing grime and clamour of the breaker. 
 
 But if the breaker had made life in the Hardin 
 house intolerable in the early days of comparative 
 cleanliness and leisurely methods, how much less bear 
 able when improved machinery brought hundreds of 
 tons of coal to the surface every day. When the 
 second shaft was driven through the quicksand of 
 the valley, great air compressors had filled the caisson 
 which was sunk into the shaft. This compressed air 
 also carried up a continual stream of water, mud and 
 stones to the surface, flinging forth as if from a mortar 
 a six-inch stream as many times per minute as men 
 working under the awful forty-pound pressure of the 
 air in the caisson could manipulate the machinery.
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 189 
 
 Only a little less violent was the new mechanism for 
 discharging 1 the waste from the breaker after the shaft 
 had been finished and the mine put into operation. A 
 black geyser of oily mud vomited forth from the foot 
 of the breaker, blighting every living thing it touched, 
 while an inky banner of dust streamed from the rolls 
 above toward the house on the hillside. 
 
 Added to all these discomforts was the shrieking of 
 the machinery of the breaker. Endless chains, pre 
 cisely like those of a bicycle except that the links were 
 nearly two feet long, armed with scoops or scrapers, 
 conveyed the coal to the breaker screens. The grind 
 ing clamour of the insatiable rolls and the infernal 
 stridor of the chains assaulted the ear incessantly until 
 it ached for silence. 
 
 Amid such surroundings what wonder that the 
 home of the Hardin family soon fell under blight and 
 decay. The green perished from the trees and shrubs 
 and left them bare and blackened. The house be 
 came covered with grime until from the roof to the 
 foundation it was one monotone of ashy black. The 
 yard became the thoroughfare for many feet which 
 trod the path that skirted the dump. The fence and 
 the outbuildings were used for kindling. The lilies 
 were tramped to death. Last of all the sweet-brier 
 gave up its beautiful life, choked with the gas gener 
 ated by the fire which had begun to eat into the heart 
 of the dump. 
 
 When Mrs. Gooch moved into the Hardin home 
 stead the fire had been burning night and day, sum 
 mer and winter for some three years. Except when
 
 190 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 the wind came from the south, there was always a 
 strong smell of sulphur gas. The heap did not burn 
 very rapidly because there was a good deal of slate 
 mixed with the coal dust. Farther down, where the 
 fire had burned itself out, there were fantastic pillars 
 of cinder, varying in colour from pinkish red to purple 
 and black. 
 
 Every night the fire changed its shape a little. 
 When the Goodies first moved it was like a red sore 
 eating its way into the heart of the heap. Then 
 it slowly grew larger, until it looked like a huge capital 
 V turned upside down. After several days the cor 
 ners rounded off until it looked like an enormous 
 grinning skull, with a great yawning mouth at the 
 bottom. The fire could not be seen on bright days, 
 for then the dump seemed to be only a reddish heap 
 of ashes; but at night the coals were fiery red, with 
 long tongues of blue and yellow flame chasing one 
 another along the lurid mass. 
 
 Mary Liz used to watch these changes from the 
 window of the one habitable room upstairs as she lay 
 in bed at night. Sometimes when there had been a 
 good deal of fresh culm dumped on during the day 
 and the fire burned with especial fierceness, the flames 
 frightened her. Then her little, white face would 
 grow whiter as she watched them. She almost feared 
 to go to sleep lest the hungry flames should leap across 
 and devour the miserable shell of a house. At other 
 times, when she was cold and lonely during her 
 mother s absence at nights, the great, glowing bed of 
 coals seemed like a friend and comforter.
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 191 
 
 One morning her mother came home drunk. This 
 did not happen very often ; but there had been a raffle 
 the night before in one of the saloons on Whiskey Hill, 
 at which Mrs. Gooch had won a red plush picture 
 frame. Having no pictures of any kind, she sold the 
 prize back to the saloon-keeper and celebrated her 
 good fortune. 
 
 "Why aven t you some at to heat in the ouse?" 
 her mother demanded unreasonably. " I must ave 
 me meat an me drink reg lar, or I can t do me work." 
 
 Now this was the unkindest question of all, for 
 Mary Liz had had nothing to eat since noon of the 
 day before. 
 
 " What ave you done with the meat I brought ome 
 last night ? There was enough for two days an you ve 
 heat the ole of it." 
 
 " Why, mother, hinny, you never come home last 
 night at all. I stayed the whole night alone in the 
 house," cried Mary Liz, forgetting for the moment 
 that she must not contradict her mother when she 
 was drunk. 
 
 Then Mrs. Gooch grew angry. " You ve carried it 
 hoff an id it. You re no better nor a thief. An 
 then you ll lie to me an say I never brought no meat 
 to the ouse, not so much as a loaf or a erring. You re 
 naught but a bla guard an a thief " and much more 
 to the same effect. 
 
 The matter ended by Mrs. Gooch locking the weep 
 ing child into the house for punishment and going 
 back to the village. 
 
 It happened on this particular day that the wind
 
 i 9 2 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 was driving the ashes and coal gas from the burning 
 pile straight through the cracks and broken window- 
 panes into the upper room where Mary Liz was im 
 prisoned. She tried to stuff the empty sash with an 
 old ticking, but the choking gas seemed to come in as 
 badly as ever. 
 
 When her mother came home, after vainly trying to 
 get more credit for liquor at Casey s, she found Mary 
 Liz in a forlorn heap on the floor, her face flushed, 
 her eyes swollen and her breath coming in laboured 
 gasps. 
 
 " The girl s sulphured, that s what s the matter 
 with her," said the neighour to whom Mrs. Gooch, 
 now partly sobered, had carried Mary Liz for help. 
 " Here, you loosen her dress, while I go down to the 
 creek for some water." 
 
 " It s good you found her when you did," panted 
 Mrs. Dolan, while she poured the water over Mary 
 Liz s neck and chest. " A little more would have 
 finished her." 
 
 In the afternoon, when the breaker whistle blew 
 "all over; work to-morrow," Sunderland Red ap 
 peared. Nobody ever wondered or took offence when 
 his big, kindly face looked in at the door, without 
 invitation. 
 
 " I hear that the little one was a bit sulphured this 
 morning," he said in a kindly tone. " But I see from 
 the look of her that she ll get over it finely." 
 
 When he was leaving he paused by the door to say : 
 " There s that which is worse than sulphur that you ve
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 193 
 
 brought into the life of Mary Liz, Mrs. Gooch. May 
 hap, she ll not get rid of that." 
 
 "I can attend to that, Mr. Udderfield." Mrs. 
 Gooch tightened up the muscles of her mouth as she 
 spoke. 
 
 " Not without His help, I ve tried it alone and I 
 couldn t do it," he said simply. " Mrs. Gooch, you 
 had a good mother, I doubt not; will Mary Liz be 
 able to say as much for hers ? Will she remember that 
 her mother knelt by her bed at night alongside of her 
 and soothed her to sleep with a prayer? " 
 
 Mrs. Gooch tightened her lip still more and the old 
 man slipped out. 
 
 For a month and more Mrs. Gooch kept as careful 
 watch over Mary Liz as though she had not been 
 eight years old and well able, by long experience to 
 care for herself. Whenever the north wind blew the 
 gas into the little house at nights, they slept at Mrs. 
 Dolan s. When the gas was bad by day Mrs. Gooch 
 went off to Whiskey Hill and Mary Liz went to the 
 coal sheds if it was wet, or played by the side of 
 Anthrax Creek if the weather was fine. 
 
 One day in May when Mrs. Gooch had been away 
 to help Mrs. Casey, Mary Liz sat on the top of the 
 culm heap waiting for her mother to return with the 
 supper. When it had grown almost dark she made 
 out the figure of her mother coming unsteadily toward 
 her along the top of the culm bank. 
 
 There was a steep path from the top of the moun 
 tain of coal dirt to the door of the little house below,
 
 i 9 4 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 but Mrs. Gooch was in no condition to-night to take 
 this short cut. Besides, the fire had eaten its way close 
 to the top of the heap where the path began. 
 
 " Let me have the basket, mother; and do take care, 
 it s so dark going down this path." 
 
 Now Mrs. Gooch always returned from Casey s 
 in a bad temper. It angered her to-night to think that 
 Mary Liz had detected so soon that she was not fit 
 to take care of herself. So, when Mary Liz clutched 
 at her dress as her mother stumbled, her wrath blazed 
 out into abuse. 
 
 However it was, whether she stepped aside to let 
 Mary Liz pass, or whether she tried to strike her, she 
 sprawled backwards heavily and in another moment 
 was sliding down the bank away from the path to 
 wards the fire. 
 
 Mary Liz sprang forward to catch her mother and 
 instantly felt herself slipping with an avalanche of 
 coal dust down toward the terrible blue flames. 
 
 The motion was not very rapid. She could see her 
 mother s white, scared face in the darkness and she 
 had time to catch her round the neck and help her 
 into a partly sitting position before the moving mass 
 settled into the fiery crater. Then the sliding grew 
 slower and stopped, leaving them on a little, black 
 island in the midst of the ring of fire. 
 
 Mrs. Gooch was flinging her hands and screaming 
 but Mary Liz did not hesitate. Partly through in 
 stinct, partly through conviction that they never could 
 climb up to the path again through the suffocating
 
 THE BURNING CULM DUMP 195 
 
 dust and fire, she seized her mother s hand and started 
 for the foot of the bank. 
 
 "Come on! Quick!" was all she said; and her 
 mother, awed into silent obedience, followed by her 
 side. 
 
 It was a dreadful journey. Deep down into the 
 hot, stifling ashes they sank. Although they threw 
 themselves forward with all their strength, it seemed 
 that they hardly moved onward. Then the heat be 
 came more intense, the pain sharper and sharper, until 
 at last, when it seemed to Mary Liz that she could 
 hold her breath no longer and that she was burning 
 all over, she found that they were stumbling on firm 
 ground once more and that the agonizing fight for life 
 had come to an end. 
 
 Here Hudderfield found them, Mrs. Gooch moaning 
 over Mary Liz as she lay with her feet in the muddy 
 waters of Anthrax Creek, her brown hair singed and 
 her scanty skirts burned almost to the waist. 
 
 Mrs. Gooch need not have been afraid that the old 
 man would then renew his often repeated admonitions 
 upon her drinking habits. No woman s hand could 
 have been more tender than his hardened hands as 
 he lifted them into the ambulance of the Company 
 which he had summoned to take them to the hospital, 
 lie was used to suffering, and if it had been himself 
 he would not have made a moan; but there were tears 
 in his eyes when he thought of the profitless agony 
 and he cried " Poor child, poor child ! " into the empty 
 darkness of the shadow which the dump cast.
 
 196 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 That week Mrs. Gooch s furniture was moved once 
 more. This time it was by Rector Warne, who stored 
 it in his barn. The house beside the dump was torn 
 down and the yard used as a place to dump ashes from 
 the furnaces. 
 
 Two weeks later Mrs. Gooch was discharged from 
 the city hospital, but it was more than three months 
 before Mary Liz was well enough to leave. When at 
 last she and her mother sat down in the kitchen of 
 the home where Mrs. Gooch had taken service, her 
 mother said in an embarrassed sort of way: 
 
 " You re to go to school, Mary Liz, Mr. Warne 
 says. And Mary Liz you needn t be afryde o 
 me any more. When I went to see about me things, 
 Casey met me an giv me a pint flask of liquor. I 
 went down to the foot of the dump an flung it into 
 the flames. An there, by God s elp, it shall stay."
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE
 
 "A child s sob in the darkness curses deeper 
 Than a strong man in his wrath." 
 
 E. B. BROWNING.
 
 XIII 
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE 
 
 THERE were seven electric buttons ranged along 
 the front of the rosewood desk of the Old 
 Mogul, waiting to be pushed. The Old Mo 
 gul was looking over his mail and talking to his caller 
 in a jerky fashion at the same time. Every now and 
 then he would push one of these buttons in an absent- 
 minded sort of way. When the Old Mogul pressed 
 any one of those buttons, somebody at the other end 
 of the wire usually jumped. If he failed to jump, 
 there was an explosion of wrath on the part of the 
 Old Mogul. 
 
 The Magyar kindergarten started with the press 
 ing of one of those ivory-headed buttons. Rector 
 Warne had called by appointment and found the Old 
 Mogul busy. In fact Mr. Hatton had forgotten all 
 about the appointment and at first was disposed not 
 to see his visitor. 
 
 " Be quick ! " he said. " Until I get our new branch 
 road in running order, I have to work days and nights 
 and Sundays; but I have all the rest of the time to 
 myself." 
 
 With this encouraging remark to spur him on, the 
 rector stated his case in behalf of the kindergarten 
 as forcibly and as briefly as he could. But he had 
 
 199
 
 200 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 hardly begun to talk before the Old Mogul made an 
 attack upon the pile of mail before him. He opened 
 letter after letter, while the rector poured his very 
 soul into his plea for the helpless children growing up 
 in utter neglect and ignorance. His plea grew fainter, 
 and his carefully prepared eloquence of facts seemed 
 to fail him, as the mass of papers spread wider and 
 farther upon the desk; but when the millionaire, hav 
 ing exhausted his pile of letters, reached for the morn 
 ing paper, the rector, his voice choking into a half- 
 articulate murmur of disappointment, rose to leave. 
 
 It was not a pleasant experience for Warne to 
 visit the Old Mogul to plead for money. In the days 
 when he had first undertaken the management of his 
 father s estate Warne thought that the Old Mogul 
 must seek him. Then he found that the railroad 
 president by a sharp manoeuvre of the stock market 
 had turned the tables and had ruined him. 
 
 The loss of his estate had made several things hard 
 for him. He thought it would prove hard to ask Helen 
 to share his life work, but no two people ever enjoyed 
 comparative poverty more than had Mr. and Mrs. 
 Warne during the two years that had passed since 
 Helen came to the rectory. 
 
 Only a few weeks before, a wonderful event had 
 happened, the like of which had not occurred in the 
 staid old house for more than a score of years. In the 
 sunniest room of the rectory in the midst of a mass of 
 soft cambrics and filmy woollens that were marvellous 
 to behold in themselves, was hidden away die greatest 
 wonder of all, the mystery of a new life.
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE 201 
 
 However deeply this new-found marvel had affected 
 the rector, he never would have dreamed of bringing 
 such matters to the attention of the Old Mogul, if it 
 had not happened that a few days after the birth of 
 his own child a Hungarian child had been born in the 
 Patch at Number Four. Its mother was a stranger 
 from Lithuania. Her dialect being somewhat differ 
 ent from that of any of the other denizens of the cos 
 mopolitan Patch, she had found no welcome await 
 ing her when she arrived from Europe. Her hus 
 band, who had left his bride a few months before, 
 had sent his best month s wages to pay the passage to 
 America. When the woman reached the Patch she 
 found that his spine had been injured by a fall of roof 
 in the mines and that he had been taken to the hos 
 pital at Carbonville. Twice every week, as often as 
 the rules of the institution permitted visitors, she 
 spent the afternoon by his bedside. One day she 
 did not come and on the next the boarding frau went 
 to the hospital to say that the neighbours, attracted 
 by the cries of a new born child, had broken into the 
 house to find that the wife had suffered alone the 
 agonies of the primal curse, only to die when she had 
 brought forth her son. 
 
 The rector had not meant to tell this, but the ap 
 parent indifference of the Old Mogul to the needs 
 of the people for whom he was pleading so wrought 
 upon his feelings that before he rightly realized what 
 he was doing he found himself in the midst of the 
 recital. 
 
 Then the Old Mogul pressed the button.
 
 302 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " Hold on," he said to the rector, at the same time 
 turning to his private secretary who came in answer to 
 the bell. " Barrett, we ve no Huns on our pay-roll at 
 Number Four now, have we? " 
 
 " Lot s of them." 
 
 " I thought we cleaned them out when we bought 
 the Graham houses? " 
 
 " So we did." 
 
 " Then how in thunder did they get back? Must I 
 be hetcheled every week about those infernal Huns? 
 I gave specific directions that no more houses were 
 to be rented to shanty bosses or boarding fraus. Why 
 wasn t that attended to? " The Old Mogul hammered 
 the rosewood desk with his fist as he spoke. 
 
 " It was attended to. The place is full of Huns, 
 but they don t keep boarding shanties any longer. 
 They ve sent to the old country for their wives and 
 families. Some of them have bought their homes. 
 We never could have sold the houses to anybody else 
 in the world. Those who own their houses may keep 
 a few boarders." 
 
 " This man says that the place is full of children ! " 
 , " It swarms with them." 
 . " That ll do." 
 
 The Old Mogul waited until his secretary was out 
 of hearing. Then he turned toward the rector with 
 the air of a man keeping up his defence. 
 
 " Why do you come to us about these kids? Why 
 can t they go to the public schools. I m sure we pay 
 taxes enough. We ve paid thousands of dollars in that 
 township. And what s the good of it? Men are
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE 203 
 
 elected on the school board who can hardly write their 
 names." The Old Mogul seemed about to pound the 
 desk again, but the rector never winced. 
 
 " A set of thieves, too," he went on. " Why, some 
 time ago one of these fellows moved out of one of our 
 houses into the city. He hadn t worked at anything 
 for years. But he took with him lace curtains, fine 
 new carpets and a handsome piano! Out of that five- 
 roomed shanty, mind you ! He hadn t done a thing but 
 live like a lord off us all these years. Living on the 
 proceeds yet, like as not." 
 
 " If you feel that way about it, why don t you go to 
 work to stop it. I should be glad to help you 
 fight." 
 
 "By gravy, we will; and I ll hold you to your 
 promise." 
 
 " Then don t you think you could afford to give me 
 for this kindergarten some of the money that they are 
 stealing? " 
 
 The Old Mogul was not without a sense of humour. 
 " But you haven t told me why they can t go to the 
 public school? " he said. 
 
 " You haven t given me a chance. But I ll tell you 
 now. There is no school in Graham s Patch. Besides 
 they can t speak English, and they have no way to 
 learn." 
 
 " If that s the case, what do you propose to do? " 
 
 The rector brightened up again, presenting a new 
 series of facts obtained from the census reports, the 
 assessment lists and the school register of the town 
 ship. " I want to give these children a chance. You
 
 204 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 believe in fair play, so I came to you. Your company 
 brought these people here, so you ought to help us. 
 We propose to open a kindergarten for their children; 
 mix up these foreign children with some English- 
 speaking children; prepare them for the public school, 
 and at the same time teach them something good in 
 stead of letting them learn all sorts of evil on the 
 streets. You believe in that, don t you ? " 
 
 The Old Mogul drew out a small leather-covered 
 book and wrote rapidly. In a minute he turned and 
 handed the rector a slip of pale green paper with some 
 figures written on it, which fairly took away his breath. 
 
 " I suppose you re right when you say we re re 
 sponsible for getting these people here, and that we 
 must look after them. If you can run a school of this 
 sort for a year at the figure you name, you may count 
 on us for that much annually. But, remember, nothing 
 more." 
 
 Then the Old Mogul pushed another button and the 
 interview came to an end. Time, eleven minutes. 
 
 Number Four, as it is marked on the maps of the 
 coal company, or Graham s Patch, as it is called by 
 the agents of the installment houses, does not appear 
 on the county maps. It has neither name nor corpo 
 rate existence, being only part of a township which 
 stretches for miles over barren mountains, which are 
 almost uninhabited except here and there where the 
 coal measures were spared in the erosion that took 
 place during the Glacial Age. The village does not 
 contain so much as a store. It used to have a company 
 store in the old days before the individual coal oper-
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE 205 
 
 ators were driven out of business by the large com 
 panies. 
 
 In those palmy days before the labour unions began 
 their war upon the companies through contract labour 
 laws and anti-store-scrip bills, the companies used 
 to hire their men in Europe, compel them to live in 
 company houses, pay them in company scrip, and force 
 them to buy their goods at the company store, which 
 sold everything at the highest prices from cradles to 
 coffins. In those days the company retained a part 
 of the men s wages to pay the company doctor and, in 
 some cases even, another portion of the wages for 
 the company priest. The company sold everything, 
 food, fuel, clothing and furniture. It touched the 
 miner s life at every point from birth to death. It 
 even administered a " keg fund " insurance company 
 for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the 
 men who were killed. If the miner went outside of 
 the company s jurisdiction during his lifetime, it was 
 necessary for him to have his scrip money discounted 
 into legal United States money. 
 
 Number Four was one of a chain of villages which 
 have grown up around the coal breakers. Although 
 there were more than seven hundred people within its 
 bounds, there were, at the last election, only nine 
 voters. There was no saloon within the straitened 
 limits of the village, for the company would not allow 
 any of its houses to be used for the sale of liquor; 
 but that did not hinder the delivery-wagons from the 
 brewery in the adjacent city from leaving kegs of 
 beer at the various houses immediately after pay-day.
 
 206 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Besides this, whiskey, by the drink or by the bucketful, 
 could be bought across the swamp from Casey the 
 squatter, who had some sort of title to the land 
 and a still more doubtful right to sell liquor. Thus 
 it will be seen that, however a community can man 
 age to exist without store, post-office, school or church 
 in the anthracite coal regions, the sacred liberties of its 
 inhabitants must not be abridged by depriving them of 
 the opportunity to get drunk. 
 
 Into this community the kindergarten came; later, 
 the community came into the kindergarten, but not 
 until the slow, suspicious foreigners had convinced 
 themselves that there was no scheme on foot to make 
 financial profit out of them. If he had to begin over 
 again, the rector would lend impressive interest to 
 his enterprise by taking with him on his first round 
 a policeman in full uniform. The first answer where 
 he succeeded in making himself understood was in 
 variably, " Me got no money." 
 
 The kindergarten was started in the building which 
 had once been used as a company store. The room 
 was made attractive by pictures, flowers and after 
 ward by the work of the children themselves. Soon 
 the old store room became the brightest spot in the 
 lives of the little Magyars, who had absolutely no 
 place else to play in but the filthy streets. 
 
 On the hills about the village there were sinkages, 
 where the earth gaped with dangerous cracks, or fell 
 into great holes when the miners " robbed the pillars " 
 underneath ; in the valley there was a slump of black 
 mud from the culm pile, which killed the few hemlocks
 
 A MAGYAR PARADISE 207 
 
 and the hazel bushes which were left along the banks 
 of the creek. 
 
 There had been one large rock maple left at the 
 upper edge of the town, the only shade-tree in sight. 
 But the children broke the fence which ran beneath 
 its shade by climbing upon the rails to tie strands of 
 old wire cable to the limbs of the tree for a swing. This 
 set the Company s mules at liberty. Then the stable- 
 boss ordered the tree to be cut down and the chil 
 dren see-sawed across beer barrels in the sun. That 
 was before the kindergarten opened. After it had 
 been in operation for a month Casey summed up the 
 sentiment of the community when he said: 
 
 " Sure, it s thim Hungarians that s the most for- 
 chunate people in the valley in these days. I was 
 down be this new school the other day an seen thim 
 clancin an gallivantin around inside. It s that con- 
 tinted they are, that they ll niver want to lave the 
 place even to go to Hivin." 
 
 Why should they? To them it was Heaven.
 
 THE SCHOOL 
 IN GRAHAM S PATCH
 
 Go out, children, from the mine and from the city, 
 Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do; 
 Pluck your handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty, 
 Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through! 
 But they answer, Are your coivslips of the meadows 
 Like our weeds anear the mine? 
 Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows 
 From your pleasures fair and fine! 
 
 E. B. BROWNING,
 
 XIV 
 
 THE SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 
 
 THE whistle of the Hatton breaker had blown 
 the long blast which meant " Work over 
 for the day." The men, with blackened faces 
 and garments, were straggling homeward, while the 
 wives at home began hurrying the kitchen fires so that 
 their husbands might not be kept waiting for supper 
 when they reached home. 
 
 Henry Morris came rather later than the rest. He 
 had been made assistant foreman in the mine and 
 his new duties kept him longer than the men. Two 
 little fair-haired toddlers stood by the gate under the 
 wild crab apple tree watching for his return. While 
 he was still far down the street they recognized him, 
 in spite of the disfiguring black upon his face. They 
 raced towards h im, hand in hand, and seized his square 
 dinner pail. 
 
 He would not let them touch him for he was inky 
 black. There was nothing of the African s oily brown 
 in the color of his skin ; it was rather like dusty ebony. 
 
 The children quickly rifled his dinner pail, the 
 scraps of bread and pieces of cheese seeming to them 
 far more tasty than the choicest dish that would pres 
 ently be brought steaming to the supper table. 
 
 211
 
 212 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Just before he reached home the rector overtook 
 him. 
 
 " Mr. Warne, that s a great scheme of yours." 
 
 "I m sure of it. Which one do you mean?" 
 Whatever else might be charged against his ministry, 
 the rector never failed to keep new work laid out for 
 his people to take up. 
 
 " Why the school for the Huns and the dagoes 
 kids down at Number Four. It s great." 
 
 " Why do you think it s great ? " 
 
 " Oh, because I know how it was myself. Boys that 
 live here about the mines won t go to school." 
 
 " Why not. Didn t you go to school? " 
 
 " Not much. What I learned I got mostly after I 
 grew up. You see the boys get used to playing on the 
 streets. The drivers of the beer wagons give them 
 rides and the delivery men take them around to do 
 errands for them. When they get older they go swim 
 ming, or hop the coal trains. No wonder school is 
 dead slow for them." 
 
 " I thought it was their mothers who took them out 
 of school to set them to work." 
 
 " Some of them may be set to work before they are 
 of legal age to keep them out of danger." 
 
 " Do you think the boys really learn to dislike 
 school before they are old enough to be enrolled ? " 
 
 " I know it. Here the other night I saw a gang 
 of little fellows, some of them no older than my Karl, 
 stealing sand from a Lithuanian down here under the 
 electric light. There was any quantity of sand in the 
 street; but the boys wanted to devil the Jew who had
 
 SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 213 
 
 paid for the building sand to repair his cellar wall. 
 The poor fellow don t know much English except 
 swear words and the boys thought it was very amus 
 ing to hear him get the cuss words wrong. They stop 
 ped when I shamed them and a few of them came into 
 my house with the fellows I teach." 
 
 " What do you mean about teaching them in your 
 house? " 
 
 " Oh, my buddy and some of the rest of the fellows 
 come every night and I do the best I can for them. 
 Some of them have been coming for about two years." 
 
 " Why, Henry, I didn t know before that you were 
 a teacher." 
 
 " You don t know it yet. I can only help them a 
 little. But it s better than to have them hanging about 
 Mark Owens saloon, or plaguing the life out of Let 
 tish Joe, down by the light. They re not drinking 
 fellows not yet. But they soon get at it, if they ve 
 no place to go but the saloon." 
 
 " Henry, I think that s fine; may I come down to 
 night?" 
 
 On the night when Warne and Helen visited the 
 little home by the wild crab apple tree they found 
 rather a motley gathering of men and boys about the 
 kitchen table. The rector by their invitation gave 
 suggestions here and there concerning their lessons, 
 while Helen and Rosy discussed the relative acquire 
 ments of their babies in the front room. 
 
 That was the beginning. When the rector offered 
 the use of the kindergarten room and promised to 
 supply other teachers for this evening school the men
 
 214 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 gladly accepted. Here afterward Sunderland Red 
 found a place for work. But there were comparatively 
 few of those who did not speak English who could be 
 persuaded to come to the school. That difficulty must 
 be met in another way. 
 
 It was Mark Owens who explained the method by 
 which this could be done. " You ve got to ketch a Hi 
 or a Hun while he s young, if you want to make a de 
 cent white man out of him. If you don t get him 
 while he s young, smash him up in the mines or under 
 the cars and keep him in the hospital for a year or two. 
 By that time he s beginnin to get white and you can 
 get some ideas into his head somewhere this side of 
 the flood." 
 
 It was because she had caught them young that the 
 teacher of the kindergarten had been so successful in 
 cleaning up and civilising the young foreign savages 
 of the Number Four Patch. 
 
 When the little scholars came into the kindergarten 
 room flooded with light from the large show windows, 
 yet cool, clean and ample, cheerful with pictures of 
 animals, birds and copies of the Old Masters instead 
 of the dingy saints of their own narrow homes, they 
 invariably stood still for a time somewhat dazed by 
 their surroundings. The room seemed to them almost 
 like an entrance to Heaven. 
 
 But if the room, after the removal of the counters, 
 might be likened to Heaven by some stretch of the 
 imagination the teacher was surely one of the shin 
 ing angels. Before the rector had transformed the 
 Old Mogul s check into clay, blocks, cards, and all the
 
 SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 215 
 
 dainty knick-knacks for the kindergarten, he wrestled 
 with the problem of obtaining a teacher. What kind 
 of kindergartner could be found for four hundred dol 
 lars a year ? That depends. 
 
 In this case it depended upon the self-sacri 
 ficing zeal of the teacher, who had been rejected by 
 the missionary board of her church because there were 
 no funds to send her to the home field. So the Rector 
 found a teacher, one of a thousand even among those 
 choicest of all the chosen ones, the true kindergartners. 
 Of Bohemian blood, she was able also to speak the 
 Magyar language, and so found ready access to the 
 hearts and homes of the Graham s Patchers. With 
 the missionary spirit of the ancient Bohemian Brethren 
 in her heart, it was all that Rector Warne could do to 
 keep her from a modern martyrdom by working herself 
 to death. 
 
 After having taught her kindergarten in the morn 
 ing she spent five evenings every week in the night- 
 school. She also taught a sewing-school on Saturday 
 afternoons, with occasional instruction in dressmak 
 ing to the little mothers who brought the babies to the 
 kindergarten and then stayed because it was so pleas 
 ant. Besides aJl this and her visiting in the homes of 
 her scholars, she did as much Sunday-school and mis 
 sionary work as could be crowded into her day of rest. 
 She did not know that this was heroic; she did not 
 even suspect it. She was simply a somewhat frail- 
 looking missionary teacher doing an obscure work 
 among some neglected Magyars in a pocket among 
 the hills in the slums of the Pennsylvania coal fields.
 
 216 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 A kindergarten is no longer an unusual sight, but 
 such a school as that in Graham s Patch could not be 
 duplicated, probably, outside of the coal regions. The 
 children kept coming until there were forty queer, 
 Magyar names on the roll with an average attendance 
 of thirty-three. 
 
 " How do you manage to take care of so many? " 
 asked Warne. 
 
 " Why, I have to," she replied brightly. 
 
 " But suppose more needy children come in ? " 
 
 " Well, I m not exactly anxious for more children; 
 but they re so neglected at home, that I ought to let 
 them stay, even if I can t do them justice. 
 
 "Why not let some of the older children go?" 
 
 "O, I can t do that, Mr. Warne! They re begin 
 ning to be so loving toward me and so much more 
 gentle toward each other. It would break their hearts 
 if I should turn them out into the street again." 
 
 So the rector was obliged to prohibit positively any 
 further increase of membership. 
 
 They were not quite all Magyars, however. There 
 was Rosy Kline-Morris s little flaxen-haired, German- 
 American Karl. At the same time that his mother 
 brought him, Hungarian Katya brought her two 
 swarthy little girls. The two nationalities stared at 
 one another half-shyly, hali-belligerently for a while. 
 Their back yards joined but Katya was a " foreigner " 
 because she had waited to cross the sea until she was 
 a woman grown while Rosy had left the Fatherland 
 as an infant. Both mothers stayed for a time watch-
 
 SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 217 
 
 ing the children at their games and when they went 
 up the street they walked side by side. 
 
 Fortunately, not many children came on the first 
 day, for they were so awkward and shy that the most 
 the teacher could do was to get the boys to hang up 
 their caps in a tentative sort of fashion, as if they 
 might need them at any moment in case the new 
 school did not meet with their approval. They would 
 have stampeded if they had had spirit enough. 
 
 One or two did disappear during the first morn 
 ing, only to be brought back ignominiously by their 
 mothers, who explained that they had been well 
 thrashed. These mothers almost lost faith in the 
 school when it was explained that there was to be no 
 whipping. The girls absolutely refused to take off 
 their handkerchief head-dresses with their riotous pro 
 fanity of aniline colours. They did consent to remove 
 their shawls when they were required to join hands 
 to form the circle. It looked at first as if the exercises 
 would fail to interest the children. 
 
 None of the ordinary stories, nature-songs or games 
 made them forget their shyness. Apparently, they 
 did not know how to play. But at last, by happy in 
 spiration, the missionary and the rector joined hands 
 in the middle of the ring and imitated the playing of a 
 hurdy-gurdy, calling on the children to dance to the 
 music of the song. Then the Maygar blood thawed 
 out and the little exiles from the Old World city slums 
 to the New World country slums forgot themselves 
 while they capered about the floor.
 
 2i8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The children learned to love other games too. They 
 learned about the birds not the sparrows that fight in 
 the dusty street, but real birds that sing and that some 
 times visit even Graham s Patch. They learned about 
 the fishes that live in the mountain streams, where 
 the mine water does not come to kill every living 
 thing it touches. They learned still more about the 
 butterflies, for the butterflies hover about the burdocks 
 and thistles which grow in the town. They had a box 
 in which to keep the chrysalides which they collected 
 and there was always great joy when a butterfly was 
 " borned." 
 
 The language of the kindergarten was English, al 
 though at first some of the commands had to be re 
 peated in their native tongue. However, not all the 
 children learned their English in the kindergarten. 
 There was little Veronica Klechi, who replied proudly 
 to the question whether she could speak English, 
 " Ock, yis ! Oi kin spake Inglish fer yez as foine as 
 the bist o thim." 
 
 The attendance kept up wonderfully well, even in 
 bad weather and in spite of the fact that there were 
 no sidewalks in the town. Sidewalks are not a neces 
 sity, except in that effete stage of civilization where 
 juvenile wet feet are blamed for bronchitis. Yet the 
 mothers were not careless according to their light. 
 Two little ones, the children of Hungarian Katya, who 
 lived at a considerable distance came to the kinder 
 garten morning after morning riding on their mother s 
 back, or rather on her hips, for they both rode at one 
 time. Katya s back seemed to have been made to bear
 
 SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 219 
 
 burdens, but she panted for breath sometimes when 
 the snow was very deep. 
 
 " Aren t they too heavy? " the teacher asked. 
 
 " They pretty heavy, but me get along goot." 
 
 "Why not get overshoes and leggings for them?" 
 
 " O ! him cost too much money ! " 
 
 Always the same cry, the money ! The money must 
 be saved to pay the installments on the sewing ma 
 chines, which they often did not know how to use, or 
 the looking-glasses or the albums for which they 
 had no need. 
 
 It was bad enough to have to buy shoes for the 
 school; if the children had stayed at home during the 
 winter they could have run barefoot. 
 
 There was one feature of the kindergarten work 
 which proved a failure, the mothers meeting. Mrs. 
 Warne provided cake and the teacher brought sugar 
 and tea. The teacher carried the invitations herself to 
 the homes, but when the afternoon came only two 
 half -grown girls and lame Yawcup, Katya s husband, 
 appeared. 
 
 It was manifestly too ludicrous to attempt to talk to 
 these as mothers, so they ate the cake without enthu 
 siasm and appointed another afternoon. That is to 
 say Mrs. Warne and the teacher were without enthu 
 siasm; Yawcup was so stirred up that he disposed of 
 all the cake that the teacher brought out. 
 
 Again the teacher went to the homes, but this time 
 even the girls failed to appear and Yawcup was told 
 that there would be no more mothers meetings for 
 the time being.
 
 220 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The truth dawned upon the kindergartner that the 
 afternoon was the busy part of the mothers day. Min 
 ers wives are at leisure in the morning, except when 
 their husbands work on the night shift. It is in the 
 morning that the gossips shroud their heads in shawls 
 and flit from house to house, leaving their own cluttered 
 breakfast tables and untidy kitchens untouched. Some 
 time during the early afternoon, or even before noon, 
 if the work is easy, the miner comes home. If there is 
 no " shifting shanty," his kitchen must be the bath 
 room in which he strips off his grimy outer garments. 
 No wonder the floors are blackened : dripping oil and 
 sooty smoke, to say nothing of the coal dust itself, 
 have stiffened his clothing and hair and blackened his 
 skin. 
 
 It is the proper form for the miner s wife to be 
 on hand to prepare her husband s bath. She must 
 bring his best clothes; see that the water in the wash 
 tub is heated to the right temperature; carry away his 
 dirty clothes when he has washed; have his dinner 
 hot when he is ready or his pipe if he does not choose 
 to eat. Then she goes to work to scrub the floor and 
 clear up the house. It is little wonder that her hus 
 band, having dressed himself in his best clothes goes 
 off to the saloon to escape from the house cleaning 
 process. 
 
 It was not surprising then that the mothers did 
 not attend the meetings for them at the kinder 
 garten, or that they did not alw r ays succeed in getting 
 the children off in the morning with clean hands and 
 faces. But to their credit let it be said that they gen-
 
 SCHOOL IN GRAHAM S PATCH 221 
 
 erally did come clean. Of course the teacher still 
 needed the basin and brush for emergency cases, but 
 the influence of the school was shown in the fact that 
 each day they were less needed. Fond as the children 
 were of the teacher, it was not a coveted honour to be 
 scrubbed by her hands. But while hands and faces 
 were nearly always scrupulously clean, the clothes 
 were not always what could be desired. The hard- 
 worked mothers, who had to carry their wash-water, 
 did not take kindly to extra laundry work. 
 
 In the quantity of clothing worn there also began 
 to be some improvement. In time it might come to 
 be the fashion for the mothers to buy flannels for 
 the children instead of earrings, or even milk instead 
 of beer. The homes, too, showed the effect of the 
 kindergarten. They were not quite so squalid as at 
 first, and there was some effort made to induce the 
 grass and even flowers to grow in the unkempt side 
 yards. English was no longer an unknown tongue. 
 A few of the older scholars, who had graduated from 
 the kindergarten went to the new public school which 
 was built within reach of Graham s Patch. They 
 learned that there was something in this American 
 world besides the coal breaker for the boys and a life 
 of hopeless drudgery for the girls. They had become 
 a part of the great Republic a very small part, but 
 they were no longer aliens. 
 
 Some two years after the first interview, the Old 
 Mogul sent for the rector and said : " I was in your 
 kindergarten down at Number Four the other day, 
 and saw thirty-five little youngsters there that could
 
 222 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 hardly have been told from white children. If you 
 can get another teacher like that one you have, I wish 
 you d send for her. The Company wants to open a 
 school. Since you people at the mission have gone 
 into politics we ve saved enough on taxes to afford 
 a few luxuries. We ll charge up the running ex 
 penses to the mine, and open another kindergarten at 
 Number Five. Can you furnish us with the teacher ? "
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT
 
 The threads our hands in blindness spin 
 No self-determined plan weaves in; 
 The shuttle of the unseen powers 
 Works out a pattern not as ours." 
 
 WHITTIER.
 
 XV 
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 
 
 * T DECLARE there s that Hungarian beggar 
 
 coming again ! It s only a week since he was 
 
 here before, and I gave him five cents to get 
 
 rid of him. Well, he ll get nothing here to-day," said 
 
 Mrs. Hatton, decidedly. 
 
 Going to the window she shook her head vigorously, 
 exclaiming in a constantly rising tone, "No money, 
 no money, no money ! There, I hope I m rid of him ! " 
 she said, turning to her visitor with some vehemence 
 still noticeable in her voice. 
 
 The man carefully closed the gate, and was turning 
 to leave when Mrs. Warne, who was visiting her 
 friend, caught sight of him. 
 
 " Why, it s Andro Klechi," she said, rising. " You 
 won t mind if I call after him? I want him to do a 
 little work for me." 
 
 " O Andro," she called, " how you making out, 
 now? " 
 
 Mrs. Hatton settled back with rather an indulgent 
 smile. She was getting used to Mrs. Warne s vaga 
 ries. " Another of Helen s friends," she thought. 
 " I wonder if she will think it necessary to introduce 
 him ? The idea of being chummy with that ugly Hun 
 garian ! " 
 
 225
 
 226 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The shrinking figure turned, a faint smile coming 
 to his thin lips as he recognised an old friend. His 
 answer was a mixture of English and Magyar, in 
 which Magyar largely predominated, but Mrs. Warne 
 presently made out that he was " Middlin ." 
 
 "When can come do a little work in my garden? 
 Can come to-morrow, set out cabbage? All right. 
 Come early come right quick," she corrected, fear 
 ing he might not understand he was invited to break 
 fast : " Come before breakfast." 
 
 " Your friend is a trifle dirty, isn t he? You might 
 suggest a bath. Helen, I don t see how you could talk 
 so to him? " 
 
 " Oh," said Mrs. Warne, purposely misunderstand 
 ing the last remark, " It s easy enough to talk to 
 Andro when once you know him. I ve often thought 
 I would learn his language, so I could talk better to 
 him; I pity the poor fellow so." 
 
 " I suppose this is another of the cases you re con 
 stantly running across, where you find a most remark 
 able character, having the choicest traits, like that 
 dreadful speak-easy keeper, Casey, although to my 
 eyes and those of all the unregenerate, they are the 
 commonest, stupidest, dirtiest of mortals." 
 
 " Kate, you must not put yourself in the wrong, 
 even in your own eyes. You know you have become 
 interested in these poor people or you would not want 
 to work in the settlement house." 
 
 " Oh, that s different. In regard to that matter, I 
 simply say, Go to now; on Tuesdays and Thursdays 
 I ll go to Carbonville to the settlement house and help
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 227 
 
 elevate the mob. But that s vastly different from be 
 ing interested in them all the time as you and the 
 rector are. When I m invited by you to meet a few 
 of your friends, I never know whether I ll find some of 
 the most exclusive set from Carbonville or some of 
 your miners. I never know whether to dress up or to 
 prepare disinfectants. Now if this unwashed Hun 
 garian friend of yours had come to the settlement 
 house, on my day there, I should have been tremen 
 dously interested in him and sympathetic. But to-day 
 when I wanted to talk to you, he only annoyed me. 
 This is Wednesday and my day for receiving and not 
 my day for philanthropy. All I can think of now is, 
 Why didn t he stay in his own country? " 
 
 " Because he got sick and had to go to the hospital, 
 or poorhouse, or something. Then the government 
 paid his passage to this country to get rid of 
 him." 
 
 " Well, why don t He go to work now, instead of 
 begging?" 
 
 " Because he s sick. He grew better when he first 
 came to this country and got work in the mines. But 
 it was a job where he was wet all the time, and in two 
 weeks he had rheumatic fever. Now he has a case of 
 chronic rheumatism. Dr. Creigan wrote his story 
 for him in the book he carries, because he is the direc 
 tor of the poor for the county as well as physician in 
 the hospital where Andro was sick. If the man doesn t 
 get back to his own country pretty soon he will be 
 come a charge on the county. So they told him if he 
 could raise money enough to pay half his passage, the
 
 228 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 county would give him the other half to get him 
 off their hands." 
 
 " Where does he live? " 
 
 " Oh, little Hungarian Katya lets him have his 
 bunk in her house over in the Patch. He sleeps down 
 stairs with one of the children." 
 
 It is the poor who are truly charitable; people who 
 are fairly prosperous find self-denial inconvenient. 
 
 "Has he no friends?" 
 
 " None that he knows where to find. He left a wife 
 and five children when he came to this country, seven 
 years ago, but he has lost all trace of them. He has 
 not heard from them even once. They were miserably 
 poor. After he came here he was taken sick. For a 
 year his head was bad, he says. The letters they 
 wrote must have been lost. The family in the old 
 country must have moved to some other place. He 
 spends his time in wandering from one post-office to 
 another. Wherever he goes he is always seeking at 
 the post-office for letters from his kin. He showed 
 me their pictures once his wife and himself and their 
 oldest baby. The oddest-looking old thing you ever 
 saw. They never had any pictures taken of the others 
 they were too poor afterward." 
 
 As Mrs. Warne went toward the rectory, Mrs. 
 Hatton s carriage came to the door. She leaned back 
 on the cushions a trifle wearily, giving the order for 
 the boulevard by Sky Summit and home. On the 
 way home, at the turn of the boulevard which over 
 looks Coalton, she stopped the carriage and walked to 
 the ledge of rock to look at the scene spread at her
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 229 
 
 feet. Notwithstanding all the sorrowful days which 
 she had spent in this valley, she loved every foot of it. 
 Even the great, black culm piles did not seem ugly at 
 this distance. The queer-shaped breakers, dotted all 
 through the valley and along the mountain sides, were 
 unique, if not altogether artistic. 
 
 But that which delighted her most was the intense 
 activity of the scene. She was so far above it that 
 no sound came to her. Yet everywhere there was 
 motion. Railroad trains disappeared and reappeared 
 behind the spurs of the mountain. Cars drawn by 
 mules ran out to the point of a culm dump and dis 
 charged the black waste without jar or noise. Up 
 the long slanting planes great wire cables wrenched 
 the loaded cars or dropped the emptied ones so quickly 
 that they looked like shuttles in some huge loom. Col 
 umns of steam rose on every side like gigantic white 
 ostrich plumes blown by a violent wind. Since the 
 coal which generated all this steam was anthracite, no 
 blot of smoke obscured the valley; every detail of the 
 landscape was etched distinctly in black and white. 
 She was too far above it all for the grime and squalor 
 and dust to be apparent. 
 
 Her carriage was waiting at the bend above, and 
 as she turned to enter it, she was suddenly attracted by 
 a movement at the foot of the culm pile at Number 
 Five Breaker. Almost by intuition she understood 
 the scene. She saw a forlorn childish figure stag 
 gering under a bag of coal, gathered from the pile 
 of waste; saw her slip and fall, spilling the load; saw 
 the childish abandonment of grief, and then saw a
 
 230 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 man s swift approach; saw him stop and help the child, 
 gather up the coal, swing the heavy sack to his own 
 shoulder and walk quickly in the direction of the 
 Italian shanties on Whiskey Hill. There was a lump 
 in Mrs. Hatton s throat as she recognised that the 
 man s figure was that of Burt Hatton, the husband 
 from whom she had been separated. 
 
 As her carriage turned the corner north of the culm 
 dump of the Number Five Breaker, the horses shied at 
 a shambling figure. Mrs. Hatton ordered the car 
 riage stopped, but Andro did not recognise in the 
 friendly face which smiled at him the woman who had 
 repulsed him earlier in the afternoon. To this day, 
 he wonders why the beautiful lady stopped her car 
 riage to give him the generous coin? 
 
 Andro did not set out the cabbages on the next day 
 as Mrs. Warne had planned. He would have obeyed 
 her, of course, if she had positively commanded him 
 to set them out; but he besought her with earnest 
 ness not to waste good cabbage plants when the sun 
 was " hot, so hot." Though Andro s word for wilt 
 failed him his sign language did not. So he quickly 
 made Mrs. Warne understand that if the cabbages 
 were planted that day they would close their eyes and 
 lay their heads upon the earth from which they could 
 never be raised; while if she trusted to him to choose 
 a suitable day for planting, the cabbages would spring 
 into life and greatness before her very eyes. 
 
 On the next Sunday morning, just as Mrs. Warne 
 was leaving the rector s study door, after performing
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 231 
 
 her self-imposed task of assisting him to put on 
 his gown for the service, she heard Mrs. Hatton s 
 carriage drive up. She bent over her husband s chair 
 and kissed him softly on the temple as she said, " God 
 bless the message, Henry ! " 
 
 Her eyes were still shining and her mouth had 
 upon it a tender smile when she saw Mrs. Hatton run 
 up the steps of the rectory porch, trying to control 
 her laughter. 
 
 " Helen, are you sure your friend Andro will get 
 those cabbage plants set out where you want them ? " 
 
 "Kate! Andro isn t setting out those plants this 
 morning! " 
 
 " Oh, but he is. He told me it was going to rain 
 and they would do well." 
 
 Mrs. Warne hurried to the garden. There was 
 Andro planting a row of cabbages as calmly and as 
 openly in the rectory garden as he might have done in 
 the front yard of the most unregenerate shanty in 
 Reagan s Patch. 
 
 Mrs. Warne s swift glance took in the questioning- 
 eyes of more than one passer-by. She also saw with 
 satisfaction that the study shades were down. The 
 rector s prayer as he crossed to the church would not 
 be interrupted by the unholy work in the garden. Then 
 she applied herself to Andro. 
 
 " Stop! Stop ! Andro ; it is Sunday ! " 
 
 Andro looked up in mild surprise. " Will rain," 
 he said, pointing to the clouds. 
 
 " Yes, I have no doubt it will rain. But I will not
 
 232 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 have you set the plants out to-day. It s Sunday go 
 church rest," said Mrs. Warne growing more ex 
 cited every moment. 
 
 "To-day, good day; will rain," replied Andro still 
 working away. 
 
 "Man, will you stop! You mustn t set them out 
 to-day! It s Sunday. Checki! I say. I ll call the 
 police. I ll tell your priest. I ll tell Father Stephen, 
 if you don t checki right quick ! " cried Mrs. Warne, 
 rinding the English language totally inadequate for 
 the situation. 
 
 " Prest no good. Will rain," said Andro, digging 
 another hole in the soft earth with the middle finger 
 of his right hand. 
 
 " Get out the Prayer Book and try that on him," 
 laughed Mrs. Hatton coming up. " I wonder what 
 would be the best part to read to an obdurate gardener 
 bent upon planting cabbage on the Sabbath day? 
 You might as well give it up. As you stand out here 
 trying to make him stop, it looks for all the world as 
 though you were bossing the job and I must say it 
 looks as though you were a pretty hard boss to please, 
 when you are going on at this rate." 
 
 Mrs. Warne tried to look reproachfully at her 
 friend. She had been almost ready to cry with vexa 
 tion when Mrs. Hatton came up, but her laugh had 
 saved her. 
 
 " He seems to think it s a work of necessity. Don t 
 you see, Helen, it s a matter of conscience with him. 
 There is no use to try to stop him. Come on, or we 
 shall be late to church."
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 233 
 
 When Mrs. Warne came home from the church 
 service at noon, she looked with a sort of shamefaced 
 satisfaction at the long rows of cabbage plants stand 
 ing up stiff and straight in the showers of rain. She 
 found Andro in the kitchen, drying his coat by the 
 fire, and smoking his iron pipe with great con 
 tent. 
 
 She could not help reproving him for his unholy 
 breach of the Sabbath day, which had exposed her to 
 the criticisms of her neighbours. She further gave 
 him sundry warnings about keeping the Sabbath in 
 the future. 
 
 But to all this Andro placidly replied, " Me know 
 would rain. Him plants grow big, so," and Andro 
 made a bony circle with his thin arms to show how big 
 he meant. 
 
 It was soon after this that Andro happened one af 
 ternoon to call at the post-office in Mudtown in his 
 vain search for the letter from home which never 
 came. In the office at Mudtown, which bears a more 
 euphonious name in the official list of post-offices, all 
 the letters bearing foreign names are placed in a glass 
 frame so that the patrons of the office may be able to 
 see for themselves whether or not they have received 
 any mail. From this glass case Andro was turning 
 away with a heavy sigh, when he found himself con 
 fronted by the sexton of the Wayside Cemetery, a 
 rugged, middle-aged native American. 
 
 The sexton talked in a high voice, and kept repeat 
 ing his questions until Andro answered, while Andro 
 in his turn asked many things in such a timid, shrink-
 
 234 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 ing tone that the American hardly had the patience 
 to answer him at all. 
 
 They succeeded, after much effort, in making each 
 other understand certain facts. The sexton learned 
 that Andro had had a son, named Jan Klechi, that 
 this son had gone into the Austrian army, and that he 
 was about as tall as Andro himself. 
 
 Andro, on his part, was finally made to understand 
 that the county of Anthracite had recently paid for the 
 burial of a young man named John Klechi, who had 
 died from injuries received in the mines; that he had 
 died in the poorhouse; that he was buried in grave 
 number 643 at Wayside Cemetery; that the sexton 
 did not know where he came from nor anything about 
 his friends. 
 
 Poor Andro. He walked in a dazed sort of way 
 to where the street crossed the railroad, and then 
 sat down on a bank of coal dirt with his back against 
 a telegraph-pole. 
 
 So Jan had come to this country, after all, to seek 
 him ! His son, his dear first-born ! The emperor 
 had taken him for the army. And now he was dead. 
 He had been so near, and yet had died without seeing 
 his fathei. And the rest, where were they? Were 
 they dead, too? Ah! the Holy Mother pity and rest 
 his soul! 
 
 The little group of loungers on the post-office steps 
 had silently watched the stooping figure of Andro 
 until he disappeared over the embankment of the rail 
 road. Then Prydup, the shoemaker, spoke: 
 
 " Kind o hard on the old man, ain t it ? You know
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 235 
 
 he s been hunting for his folks for years. Them Huns 
 are a tough lot generally, but I reckon they ve got 
 feelings same as anybody else." 
 
 " This case is one of Bruce Hardin s victims," said 
 the sexton. 
 
 " What, Bruce Hardin that s arrested for stealing 
 from the Hatton Company? How s he Hardin s 
 victim? " 
 
 " Why, you see Hardin cheated the Company with 
 one hand, and the men with the other. He was a 
 sharp fellow, he was." 
 
 " Oh yes, he s sharp enough; but he ll get his dues 
 this time. The Company ain t like to let up on him." 
 
 " No, he won t get his dues, either. He was the 
 cause of the death of this young Hun. Hardin had 
 been mixing culm dirt with the powder he sold to the 
 Huns, and made it so rotten that it wouldn t go off 
 more than half the time. This young fellow got tired 
 of waiting for the blast to go off. So he went back, 
 thinking that the blast wouldn t shoot. About the 
 time he got back it caught fire, and he was so badly 
 hurt that he died from the effects." 
 
 "Well, it s too bad," Prydup declared. "The 
 Hungarians are cheated right and left. I know 
 they re a tough set, and ain t citizens; and if they 
 are, they don t know whether they re voting for the 
 Duke of Austria or the Sheriff of Anthracite; but I 
 declare it isn t fair. Why, they have to pay two prices 
 for everything, and get adulterated goods into the 
 bargain. It s a wonder the government don t charge 
 them extra for postage-stamps. I say "
 
 236 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " See here, Tom Prydup," broke in the postmaster, 
 who felt that by Tom s outburst of eloquent indigna 
 tion his honour as a retail merchant was assailed, as 
 well as the reputation of the postal department of the 
 United States, as represented in his person, " I just 
 want to ask you one question. It s all well enough 
 to talk about live and let live, but do you practise 
 what you preach? Say, now how much cheaper do 
 you mend shoes for these down-trodden Hungarians, 
 as you call them, than you do for other people? " 
 
 " Why, I can t afford to mend em any cheaper for 
 them n I do for others." 
 
 " Well, do you mend em as cheap? " 
 
 " Well, you see," said the shoemaker, willing to 
 justify himself, " they are such a splay-footed tribe 
 that I have to get new lasts mostly, and of course I 
 have to charge em a little more until I make it up." 
 
 "Oh, yes; and when they ve bought a new lot of 
 splay-footed lasts, I suppose you ll mend their shoes 
 for half price." And so the conversation ended. 
 
 Andro sat for a long time on the embankment. Sud 
 denly he got up. He would walk to the Wayside 
 Cemetery that afternoon. 
 
 It was not more than three miles away, but Andro 
 was so tormented with rheumatism that it was nearly 
 dark before he reached the place. 
 
 At last he found the grave, with the number painted 
 on a shingle with thin black paint which had dripped 
 down after the shingle had been set in the ground. 
 
 The boys who live in the neighbourhood of Way 
 side Cemetery are not more hard-hearted than the
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 237 
 
 average boy; but the summer vacation had just be 
 gun, and they were not yet used to their new-found 
 liberty. 
 
 On this particular evening they had been to the 
 river for a swim, and were returning in the moonlight 
 when they discovered Andro on his knees beside the 
 newly found grave of his son. 
 
 At first the boys were rather startled at the figure 
 in the moonlight, and a few armed themselves with 
 stones. Then they became curious, and went close 
 enough to hear the prayers which the poor fellow was 
 mumbling in his own tongue. 
 
 " Why, it s old Andro ! " said the storekeeper s son. 
 
 "Ah there, Andro!" 
 
 " Hello, Andro! What you bout? " 
 
 " Hello, old man! How you comin up? " 
 
 Andro paid not the slightest heed to these inter 
 ruptions; indeed, it is doubtful whether he heard them. 
 He was back in his own country now, in his imagina 
 tion; his prayer for the soul of his son had carried 
 him out of all remembrance of time and place. 
 
 Presently one of the boys in the back of the group 
 flung a stone with a clatter against the fence. Then 
 another stone flew over Andre s head. 
 
 " Oh don t ! Don t hit the poor old man ! " 
 
 It was not intentional, but one of the stones that 
 had been thrown struck the kneeling man on the foot. 
 He stopped praying and got up. The boys scattered 
 and ran, but the old man had no desire to chase them. 
 He went over and sat on the fence, sore-hearted and 
 weary.
 
 2j8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 A few days later Andro brought a headboard in 
 the shape of a cross, with strips nailed from the top 
 to the ends of the transverse limb, making a sort of 
 roof over the cross. This was coloured sky-blue, and 
 upon it some unskillful person had painted : 
 
 643 
 
 HIer RuHet 
 JaN kLecHI 
 
 1899 
 
 Some weeks after Andro had set up the cross over 
 the grave he called to see Mrs. Warne again. From 
 him she learned that he would have to sacrifice his 
 little store of savings to pay for the mass to be per 
 formed by the priest in the little Greek Catholic 
 Church at Hunter s Valley for the repose of his son s 
 soul. 
 
 The price would be twenty dollars an outrageous 
 sum to ask from this poor, starved creature, she said 
 to herself. Andro seemed also to think it was very 
 expensive, for he kept saying pathetically, " Him cost 
 so big, so big! " 
 
 Of course this would postpone for months his trip 
 back to his native land.
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 239 
 
 Mrs. Warne had a severe struggle with her con 
 science before she could bring herself to believe that 
 it would be right for her to give Andro a present when 
 he was about to spend so much on what she called, 
 for want of a better term, " popish superstition ! " 
 
 However, when he tried to tell her how proud he 
 had been of this son when a baby, her conscience 
 yielded the point, and she went to get him the 
 money. 
 
 Andro looked in speechless silence for a moment at 
 the piece of gold which she placed in his hand, and 
 then began to cover her hand with kisses in the excess 
 of his gratitude. 
 
 It was an unusual scene. Andro s tears were wet 
 ting her hand as he kissed it, and Mrs. Warne herself 
 was so affected by his gratitude that she only managed 
 to recover herself by asking him, rather sharply, 
 whether he had had any dinner that day. 
 
 But it was not to get his dinner nor to ask for 
 financial assistance that Andro had called on Mrs. 
 Warne that summer day. He had come to ask that 
 she would supply him with certain slips and cuttings 
 from her flowers, that he might plant them upon the 
 grave of his son. Of course she gave him his choice, 
 not of cuttings only, but of whatever potted plants 
 she had that were suitable for his purpose. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton came with her carriage and took her 
 and the flowers to the Wayside Cemetery that very 
 afternoon. 
 
 When they reached Wayside they found Andro 
 armed with a trowel waiting by the gate.
 
 240 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The two women waited in silence while Andro 
 planted the flowers. 
 
 As they came back to the street a stout Hungarian 
 woman, wearing a gay handkerchief instead of a bon 
 net, accompanied by two half-grown, bullet-headed 
 boys, passed on the other side. Mrs. Warne had 
 turned to say good-bye to Andro, when she saw his 
 eyes widen with surprise and longing. The muscles 
 of his face were twitching, and his lips were moving 
 as if he were praying. 
 
 He went slowly through the dust across the street, 
 holding out his hands as if to steady himself. There 
 was a quick exchange of words in a barbarous tongue, 
 and then the stout woman seized Andro about the 
 waist, and began rocking him from side to side as 
 though he had been a baby, while the boys stared at 
 him with their little black eyes as though he had been 
 an apparition from the graveyard. 
 
 " O Kate ! It must be that Andro has found his 
 people ! " cried Mrs. Warne. " Come, let s go over." 
 
 Andro came toward them as they crossed the street. 
 The old, hopeless, hunted look was lost from his face. 
 
 " My familie ! My familie ! " he kept saying over 
 and over again, pointing from his wife to his boys. 
 
 While Mrs. Warne and Mrs. Hatton were gravely 
 shaking hands all round, Andro was pointing back 
 toward the pauper grave with the blue cross. " Him 
 not my Jan ! My Jan in Carbonville ! They all come 
 back. Him some anoder fellow." 
 
 Was it any wonder the happy fellow could not keep 
 still? His rheumatic legs seemed to lose their stiff-
 
 AN ASSISTED IMMIGRANT 241 
 
 ness and his back to straighten as they showered upon 
 him fresh congratulations. To be sure, he did not 
 understand one word in ten they were saying to him, 
 and Mrs. Andro and the boys not one in a hundred, 
 but they all rejoiced together most heartily. 
 
 As they were on their way home, Mrs. Hatton said, 
 " You might have saved your flowers, Helen." 
 
 What Mrs. Warne said was : " Kate, don t for the 
 world tell anybody about that mass! I ll tell Henry 
 myself, although with his low church principles he ll 
 almost want to excommunicate me. Poor old Andro 
 will seem to him almost as bad as the Scarlet Woman 
 herself."
 
 CASEY S SPEAK-EASY
 
 " What this country really needs is some kind of 
 reform movement that will not interfere with any 
 body s plans." ANON.
 
 XVI 
 
 CASEY S SPEAK-EASY 
 
 SOME of the " patches," as the villages in the coal 
 regions are called, are dry and some are other 
 wise. The patches of company houses are gen 
 erally without saloon privileges, while the other vil 
 lages are well supplied. The village in which the kin 
 dergarten was established was a dry patch, but Casey 
 helped to mitigate this condition of affairs. 
 
 Casey kept a saloon and an illicit one at that. 
 Everybody said so, but Casey himself. He denied it 
 point blank and gave various reasons why he did not, 
 the chief reason being that he didn t. He also gave 
 various explanations of the fact that the bottlers 
 wagon and the beer truck and the " snake wagon " 
 with its load of whiskey jugs all stopped at his door 
 and deposited generous loads just before each pay day. 
 
 The old woman, he was more than sorry to say, 
 " liked a wee drap iv the crayture." Besides it was 
 handy to have a little good liquor in the house. If 
 one was taking cold it was an excellent thing to apply 
 on the outside. Then there were his friends. There 
 were few men with so many good friends as Casey, 
 and a mean man he would be not to give a good friend 
 a bit of a glass when he stopped in to see you, espe 
 cially if he was on his way home from the mines wet 
 
 245
 
 246 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 and hungry like. The location of Casey s place was 
 such that it was especially convenient for a great many 
 of Casey s friends to drop in on their way home from 
 work. 
 
 Casey s home was an old box-car which had been 
 pitched off its trucks over an embankment near the 
 Hatton Coal Company s washery. It had had its 
 back broken by the fall, so that the railroad company 
 did not think it worth raising. So there it lay at the 
 bottom of the bank of culm, with burdocks growing 
 all about it, till Casey took possession of it. Soon 
 after Casey moved in there was a deep, well-beaten 
 path worn across the dump to Casey s old car. 
 
 Casey had cut a door and window in the car and 
 had fastened to it a cook shanty, till it was with 
 reasonable pride that he referred to " my place." Pos 
 sibly it was this pride of ownership that made Casey 
 resent so strenuously the assertion that he kept a sa 
 loon, although it is barely possible that the question 
 of paying the license fee had something to do with it. 
 
 The mere matter of keeping a saloon would not 
 have produced any sensation in the community. In 
 Higgins s Patch, just around the culm dump, almost 
 every other house flung out a great sign proclaiming 
 to passers-by that within there was beer, as well as 
 other refreshment. 
 
 But Casey s neighbours, or at least the women kind, 
 who would have accepted a licensed saloon as a matter 
 of course, rather resented the fact that he kept a speak 
 easy, " an him an able-bodied man wid all his ar-rums 
 and legs an a good job in the Hatton mine besides."
 
 CASEY S SPEAK-EASY 247 
 
 To be sure he was discharged from the mine by Mor 
 ris the inside foreman for drunkenness soon after he 
 began to keep a saloon. Now if he had only been a 
 widow no one would have objected. But it was plain 
 to be seen that he was no widow. Or if he had been 
 a cripple, or if he had had miners asthma, it would 
 have been a pre-eminently proper proceeding. In such 
 a case he would have winked at his neighbours when 
 he declared that he sold no liquor and everything 
 would have gone off pleasantly. 
 
 Things might have gone on smoothly anyhow and 
 no questions would have been asked, if that trouble 
 some Rector Warne had not stirred up Mr. Hatton. 
 The Old Mogul had set the Law and Order Society in 
 motion, which sent its detective in Casey s direction 
 to bring him to justice. Strangely enough all this 
 machinery did not break down at any point and Casey 
 was arrested. Why should new men and rich men 
 and lawful and orderly citizens and hireling detectives 
 interfere with the personal rights and liberties of peo 
 ple who mind their own business and sell a little drink 
 in a quiet way? 
 
 It seemed like mixing religion and business for a 
 clergyman to move in the matter, but Rector Warne 
 was showing a very business-like sort of religion in 
 Coalton in those days. 
 
 " I ain t got no objections to religion, parson," 
 Owens, the licensed saloon keeper said. " I know 
 that there is such a thing as religion. I had the feelin s 
 once meself, all right enough. It was when Moody 
 an Sankey was in Wales. I was a good livin man
 
 248 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 for a while afterwards. That was before I was hurt 
 an lost me hand. After that I had to do somethin 
 light and so I took to hotel keepin . I ain t forgot to 
 this day the feelin s." The saloon-keeper s eyes grew 
 almost tender for a moment as the rector urged the 
 claims of a better life. 
 
 " I tried it once till I lost me hand." Owens face 
 hardened again as though he had pulled a mask over 
 the softened lines that had shown for a moment. " I ve 
 lost me hand now an I have to live. But I had the 
 feelin s." 
 
 " No you don t have to live," said the rector sternly. 
 " You have to do the will of God. You have to do the 
 thing that you know is right. He ll see that you get 
 a living. If He doesn t want you to live He ll let you 
 die. But you can die grandly ! " 
 
 " But I tell you I had the feelin s." 
 
 " You may have had feelings, but you never had 
 faith or you would not have gone to saloon-keeping." 
 
 Owens parried. " What I object to is the hypocrites 
 that you put up with that ain t been converted. You 
 ought to be more careful who you let into the church; 
 an you ought to put some out that s got in." 
 
 " I suppose you mean some poor fellow whose name 
 is on the church roll, who gets drunk. I want to 
 ask whether a man who falls now and then is more to 
 blame or the man who, even though he has lost a 
 hand, sells him the liquor in order that he may make 
 his living more easily? I d rather starve " 
 
 " Hold on, parson ! I ve always said that a man s 
 a fool who drinks whiskey an I say it still. There s
 
 CASEY S SPEAK-EASY 249 
 
 Breece. Breece has heard me tell him so a hundred 
 times. But it ain t Breece that I m callin a hypocrite. 
 It s Bruce Hardin. There s a man that ought to be 
 turned out of any decent society. Now about my busi 
 ness, I ve just this much to say : we can t all be preach 
 ers. Some can preach an some of us has to be in my 
 business. There d be nobody to pay the preachers if we 
 was all preachers. But I ve me feelin s just the same." 
 
 It was not very long after this that Helen broached 
 the subject of Casey s illicit saloon. 
 
 " This saloon of Casey s, Henry ; oughtn t that to 
 be closed up ? " 
 
 " Of course it ought! Of course it ought! " But 
 Henry was evidently distraught. 
 
 " Would there be any trouble about getting wit 
 nesses? It surely is a bad place." 
 
 " I know it is. Owens says it is a very bad place 
 and all the other saloon-keepers say the same thing. 
 I tell you, Helen, you never saw so sharp a line drawn 
 between pots and kettles. I almost fancy Owens and 
 his crowd are temperance reformers and fanatics until 
 I remember their business." 
 
 " But, Henry, now about Casey. Why don t you 
 try to shut up his place at least ? " 
 
 " Well, Helen, I imagine I m weak about Casey. 
 But somehow my heart goes out towards him, good- 
 for-nothing old fraud that he is. I have hoped to 
 reach him, and I feared if I took drastic measures I 
 should never get an entrance to his heart. Have you 
 ever noticed his hands? His fingers are marked and 
 scarred on the ends. Years ago he led a rescuing
 
 250 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 party to some men who had been imprisoned by a 
 fall of roof. They did not dare to carry lamps, for 
 the place was full of gas. So Casey and the rest 
 crawled for nearly a mile in the dark over fallen rock 
 and blocked-up gangways, guiding themselves only by 
 feeling their way. When they came out, their hands 
 were cut and bleeding. You know the edges of the 
 fractured coal are almost as sharp as broken glass. It 
 was a most noble effort at rescue, although too late in 
 reaching the entombed men to save any but that worth 
 less Yawcup, Katya s husband." 
 
 " I wish you hadn t told me this. I want to feel 
 indignant at Casey. I wish when people were bad 
 they would just be bad clear through, without having 
 any noble streaks in them. Then one wouldn t get 
 mixed up in judgments." 
 
 " That s the glory of the place ! You will find a 
 man utterly common-place or even bad, and then you ll 
 get a gleam of something so noble and heroic in his 
 character that you feel like baring your head." 
 
 But when the rector discovered that Casey was en 
 ticing into his den the boys from the breaker and sell 
 ing drink to them, and that in spite of warnings and 
 appeals to his better nature Casey continued to do 
 this, he gave the word and the agent of the Law and 
 Order League made the arrest. 
 
 Casey had been under arrest more than once before 
 for illegal liquor selling, but this was the first time 
 he had been brought before the court. In the first 
 instance when Casey had been arrested by the agent 
 of the League, he had gone to the office of Mr. Hatton,
 
 CASEY S SPEAK-EASY 251 
 
 the president, and besought sympathy because of the 
 sickness of his wife, promising in the name of all 
 the saints that he would never be guilty of violating 
 the law again. 
 
 Believing that the ends of civic righteousness would 
 be secured if the illegal saloon were closed, the Old 
 Mogul had promised that he would not prosecute, pro 
 vided that Casey would go to work and never engage 
 in the business again. 
 
 It was not long, however, until Casey was re 
 ported to be selling drink again, and one night a most 
 shameful row occurred in the car, during which the 
 stove was upset, the furniture broken and several 
 men badly injured, including Casey himself. Again 
 Casey was arrested, this time by one of the men who 
 was injured on the night of the fight, and again 
 he sought Mr. Hatton s help to prevent him from being 
 brought before the grand jury. 
 
 Casey declared by all that was holy that he was 
 the victim of spite. That he had been set upon and 
 beaten by persons to whom he had refused to sell 
 liquor, and that the quarrel and the prosecution had so 
 wrought upon his wife s health that she lay in the little 
 box car at the very point of death. 
 
 While Casey reiterated this story and while Mr. 
 Hatton vainly tried to get rid of him, the detective 
 of the Law and Order League sent in a note from 
 the outer office which read : 
 
 " Offer to investigate the condition of the health of Casey s 
 wife. If he agrees to the proposal, go with him to the den and 
 meet me there."
 
 252 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 In a few minutes Mr. Hatton, willingly, and Casey, 
 unwillingly, were on their way to see the woman 
 supposed to be dying. When they arrived at the box 
 car saloon, Casey hastened to the back, where he had 
 built a little lean-to kitchen out of dynamite boxes, 
 barrel staves and such bits of timber as he could 
 pick up about the mines. He told Mr. Hatton that 
 the front door was locked, although it seemed as if 
 it was ajar and the sound of voices came from within. 
 When Casey reached the back door, there stood the 
 detective on one side of the bar holding a glass of 
 liquor in his hands, while Casey s wife stood on the 
 other side making change for the very liquor which 
 she had just sold. 
 
 " I m glad to find your wife so much better of her 
 illness, Casey," the agent said, smiling. 
 
 " Sure it s nowan but the owld divvil himself w u d 
 timpt a poor woman to do sich dirty work!" was 
 all that Casey could say.
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN
 
 The time is out of joint; cursed spite 
 That ever I was born to set it right! " 
 
 HAMLET.
 
 XVII 
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 
 
 WHEN Casey came to be tried the jury con 
 sisted of eleven men and Mr. Burt Hatton. 
 It was Hatton s first jury duty. There 
 is some doubt whether he was wanted on the jury at 
 all, for, earlier in the week, he had been challenged 
 regularly in every case on which he was called, from 
 the murder trial downward, probably because he was 
 a member of the Reform League. But when the case 
 of the Commonwealth versus Peter Casey was called, 
 there were two other cases on trial and one jury out. 
 The panel of jurors being thus exhausted, it was im 
 possible to conduct the business of the court unless 
 the jury was accepted as a whole. 
 
 The criminal court docket of the county of Anthra 
 cite was clogged with cases. So great was the amount 
 of business that beside the two regular judges an 
 additional judge had been called in from a neigh 
 bouring county. It was before him that the case of 
 the Commonwealth versus Casey was to be tried. 
 
 The case went on merrily from the first. Several 
 witnesses, some willing, others unwilling, swore to 
 the fact that they had purchased liquor from Casey. 
 All that Casey s lawyer could do to discredit this 
 testimony was to prove by cross-examination that the 
 
 255
 
 256 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 prosecution had been brought through spite. When 
 it came time for the defence, Casey s attorney dwelt 
 eloquently upon the spiteful motive. Since Casey had 
 no other witnesses, his lawyer, driven by the neces 
 sities of the case, put the defendant himself upon the 
 stand. Casey told with great gusto of the fight which 
 had preceded his arrest. Of course he made sweeping 
 denial of the charge of selling liquor. 
 
 When Casey had finished his story, the prosecuting 
 attorney began his cross-examination with the ques 
 tion, " You say that this injury to your wife oc 
 curred on the night of the fight in your saloon " 
 
 " I don t kape no saloon." 
 
 " Well, your place down there in the box car. 
 Don t you know that she was hurt at the funeral 
 before you came home?" 
 
 " Well, she was at the funeral wid me." 
 
 " Wasn t she hurt by being in a fight in which you 
 and the people of the house " 
 
 " No sir, I wasn t fightin wid her at all, at all." 
 
 " Wasn t she thrown dow r n stairs in a fight in which 
 you and she were on one side and some of the people 
 of the house " 
 
 " No sir, we niver was on wan side at all. We 
 sthood our ground right in the middle of the sthairs 
 an defied thim, man or woman, annywun iv thim or 
 the whole iv thim." 
 
 " So there was a fight and you got the worst of 
 it?" 
 
 " Niver a bit ! I brok the face an blacked the two 
 eyes iv him! But fwile I was givin me attintion to
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 257 
 
 him below an* fvvile me owld woman was thryin* to 
 help me, by flingin toobs an thing s at him from the 
 stoop, wan iv the ladies come out behind an t rew 
 her down the stair. Thin we tuk the hint an wint 
 home." 
 
 " Well, when they drove you off you went to your 
 own place in the car ? " 
 
 " We wint, but it was kind iv shlow like. Sure 
 we c u dn t walk very fast." 
 
 " You couldn t walk very straight, you mean. Then 
 when you reached the car, you found that your friends 
 who had put you out at the funeral had reached the 
 place before you, and they were drinking your liquor? " 
 
 "I was off attindin a funeral," Casey explained; 
 " an so was me owld woman. I lift young Mick 
 Phelan in charge iv me place, if annywan should want 
 to buy a bit candy or lamp wick. I don t know 
 fware they got the drink from, but whin me an me 
 owld woman come home, there was four or five iv 
 thim in me little place, an all iv thim was that full 
 they didn t know they was in a dacent man s house. 
 I jist put thim all out together an thin they cum back 
 on me. Tfiere was too manny iv thim fer me to attind 
 to thim all, an they got the bist iv me, an bate me 
 an the owld woman till they kilt the both iv us. An* 
 the woman s near dead yit, so she is." Casey s anger 
 was rising as he told the story of his wrongs. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Casey, don t yon know that you are in 
 the habit of keeping jugs of liquor in that car for the 
 accommodation of anybody who has the money to 
 pay for a drink? "
 
 258 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " It s a dashed lie! " shouted Casey, now thoroughly 
 angry. A sharp reprimand from the judge completed 
 his discomfiture; for, having answered the judge in 
 the same angry manner he had shown toward the at 
 torney, he realised his mistake; and before his own 
 lawyer could warn him Casey was whining out a 
 deprecating apology, which ended in a virtual plea of 
 guilty. His attorney tried by one or two adroit ques 
 tions to cover up the damaging admission. The 
 prosecuting attorney contemptuously refused to ask 
 any further questions, merely repeating Casey s ad 
 mission to the jury. 
 
 " We rest," he said, turning to the court. 
 
 " That s our case, your honour," said Casey s at 
 torney gloomily. 
 
 The judge turned to the jury, and in a few business 
 like sentences directed their attention to the facts of 
 the case as shown by Casey s own story, calling special 
 attention to the admission he had just made on the 
 witness-stand. The judge waited a moment, as if to 
 take the verdict from the jury without their leaving 
 the box. Hatton leaned over to whisper to Mark 
 Owens, of the Coalton borough council, proposing 
 such a verdict. But ten of the men had already risen. 
 Owens shook his head. 
 
 " Aw ! The rest of the boys wants a smoke," he 
 whispered to Hatton. 
 
 Casey leaned his elbows on the table and lowered 
 his face into his hands, while the " jury of his peers " 
 stolidly and majestically filed past him in the wake 
 of the officer of the court.
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 259 
 
 Owens and Hatton were the last to enter the jury- 
 room. To the surprise of the latter, a perfect Babel 
 of indignation arose against the district attorney, the 
 spiteful prosecutor, the judge, and even against 
 Casey s attorney for allowing him to be trapped into 
 a confession. They were evidently sympathising with 
 " Poor Casey." 
 
 " An what c u d the poor man do but keep a place, 
 with his wife a hirplin cripple ? " asked Phelan, a 
 burly miner who was visibly under the influence of 
 liquor. 
 
 " He s got to live, even if he don t have no rint to 
 pay." 
 
 " There s worse men than Casey that holds licenses 
 from this court," one of the men asserted, beginning 
 a long story about a case that had been ignored by the 
 same grand jury which had found a true bill against 
 Casey. 
 
 Owens cut him short. " I nominate Mr. Hatton 
 as foreman." 
 
 There were one or two voices to protest that Owens 
 himself should act in that capacity, but he modestly 
 ignored them, and declared that Hatton had been 
 unanimously elected. 
 
 Hatton had heard how the jury commissioner of 
 the county of Anthracite had abused his privileges as 
 an officer by placing in the jury-wheel the names of 
 his political admirers, men notoriously incompetent 
 for such service. Most of these men seemed to be 
 from the commissioner s district. Hatton was secretly 
 flattered, therefore, to be chosen foreman. He took
 
 26o THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 his seat at the oak table with a graceful speech of 
 acknowledgment, ending with the words, " We are 
 all no doubt heartily sorry for this poor fellow who 
 has confessed his guilt; but I believe we are all very 
 glad that his guilt is so clearly established that we are 
 in no danger of doing any injustice by bringing in a 
 verdict of guilty." 
 
 To this speech there was no response except an 
 ominous grumble on the part of the juror who had 
 been drinking, whom Owens was endeavouring to 
 silence. 
 
 Hatton took the pen and prepared to record the 
 verdict. " I am ready to entertain a motion to bring 
 in a verdict of guilty, gentlemen." 
 
 "Who ll give me the loan of a match?" Phelan 
 asked. Pipes were produced, and the men began to 
 discuss the murder case, on which the jury had been 
 out for two days. 
 
 Hatton shifted uneasily in his chair, waiting for a 
 break in the noisy conversation. " We ought to at 
 tend to this case first, gentlemen," he broke out at 
 length. 
 
 " Yes; let s take a vote and see how we stand," as 
 sented Owens. 
 
 Hatton began at once to go down the roll. The 
 first man whose name he called answered, " Not 
 guilty." 
 
 Owens and two others announced themselves as not 
 yet ready to vote. But besides these, to his amaze 
 ment, Hatton found that he and one other were the
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 261 
 
 only jurors who had voted for conviction. That 
 other man was Phelan, the drunken miner. 
 
 Hatton faced the men with fierce determination. 
 This was the famous jury system! He was outraged, 
 disgusted. Then he reflected that these men were 
 ignorant. No doubt they were prejudiced. There 
 must be some who were honest among them. He 
 would instruct them, would win them to his side. 
 
 " I should think, Mr. Owens, that you d want this 
 man to be punished," Hatton said. 
 
 " He don t hurt my business," Owens replied. " I m 
 only here to see justice done." 
 
 Then Hatton made an address, calm and dispassion 
 ate, calling on Phelan, when he closed, to support him. 
 Phelan was lighting a fresh pipe, and all he would 
 say was : " If Casey p-p! didn t want to get pinched 
 p-p! why did he get into sich a fool fight p-p! 
 An if he didn t want to get sint up p-p! what did 
 he confess for? Poo!" 
 
 There was more talk about the murder trial. Then 
 some stories about trials under a former judge. The 
 men sprawled over the chairs or looked out the win 
 dows. It was growing dark. Hatton was becoming 
 uneasy. Even Phelan might desert to the other side; 
 it was so hard to resist the preponderance of opinion. 
 Phelan had been the last man to cast his vote and 
 Hatton was by no means certain that he had voted 
 according to his convictions. 
 
 Another ballot was taken, the result being exactly 
 as at first. It was entirely dark outside now, and the
 
 262 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 men who had voted for acquittal seemed to be grow 
 ing more interested in the case in hand. They were 
 talking in little groups with those who had not yet 
 voted either way. Hatton imitated their methods. He 
 left his chair, buttonholing men who would listen to 
 him, and urging his views vehemently. 
 
 Then a tipstaff opened the door to say : " Boys, 
 ain t you ready with that verdict yet? Court will 
 adjourn in ten minutes. Hurry up, now : we want 
 to get home." 
 
 Hatton took advantage of the lull which this mes 
 sage produced to call the roll again. He was delighted 
 to find that the vote now stood five to seven for con 
 viction. Again he made an address, recalling the 
 crisp, business-like sentences of the judge. He tried 
 to get Owens to speak, since he had now voted for 
 conviction, but he declined on the ground that he got 
 speech-making enough at the council meetings. At 
 his recommendation another ballot was taken, which 
 showed another gain of two for conviction. 
 
 Owens now proposed that the case be decided by a 
 majority vote. Hatton hesitated between the desire 
 to be able to arrive at a verdict speedily and the wish 
 to be fair to the minority, who were vehemently de 
 claring for acquittal. 
 
 " If there is no objection if no one opposes this 
 plan " he stammered eagerly. 
 
 " O, it s all right," said Owens cheerfully. " The 
 majority rules. If I don t enjoy takin my medicine 
 when I m on the losin side, why, I give it to the other 
 fellow the next time."
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 263 
 
 There was no dissenting voice, and the final vote 
 was taken. 
 
 " Not guilty," came the answers until five votes 
 were recorded. Hatton drew a breath of relief that the 
 opposition was all in. 
 
 " James Phelan ? " he called. 
 
 " Not guilty." The shock staggered the foreman. 
 
 " A tie," he thought in dismay. 
 
 " Mark Owens ? " he went on. 
 
 " Not guilty." 
 
 He saw it all now. He had been duped. No need 
 to call the other names. Yet he went on mechanically 
 until all the eleven men had recorded their votes for 
 acquittal. Here were these honest men, the peers of 
 Casey, indeed! He had thought them ready to be in 
 structed in the law and the evidence, needing only to 
 be led, sworn to " well and truly try and true deliver 
 ance make." 
 
 No wonder he was angry and said things that he 
 might better have kept to himself. He flung down the 
 pen and went to the window. 
 
 The streets were crowded with people hurrying 
 home from the stores and from business. He could 
 stay. He could starve them out. At least, he would 
 not give his consent to such a monstrous wrong as 
 these men proposed to do. 
 
 But that was not so easy. The men all avoided 
 him as if he were a moral outcast. He was breaking 
 his agreement and doing them all an injury. 
 
 The night was one long horror. Phelan, stupefied 
 by the liquor he had drunk, lay down on the floor and
 
 264 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 slept. The air grew thicker with the smoke. Some 
 body produced a pack of cards, and the men who did 
 not play sat about the table and commented on the 
 game. Nothing was said about the case. Toward 
 morning Hatton fell into a doze. It must have been 
 during that time that they elected Owens foreman in 
 his place; for when Hatton awoke he found that the 
 copy of the indictment and the jury-list were missing 
 from the window-ledge where he had flung them. 
 Phelan still snored. 
 
 Hatton was still obstinate, although hungry and 
 miserable. He would go into the court and tell the 
 judge the whole story. Then he remembered with 
 shame that he had been the foreman and had agreed 
 to the majority rule. 
 
 It was while Bruce Hatton was in this mood of self- 
 abasement that Owens ventured to remind him that, 
 if the jury disagreed, Casey would go free. But, if 
 Hatton would agree not to dissent from the finding 
 of the majority, they would consent to put the costs 
 on the prisoner. Worn out and utterly wretched, 
 Hatton consented just before the hour for court to 
 convene. 
 
 At a quarter past nine they stood, an unkempt line, 
 facing the judge. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon 
 your verdict? " 
 
 Mark Owens, smiling and alert, nodded in reply. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, hear your verdict in the 
 case of the Commonwealth against Peter Casey as the 
 court hath recorded it." The level voice of the clerk
 
 ELEVEN CONTRARY MEN 265 
 
 grew suddenly harsh as he glanced at the paper and 
 handed it to the judge. : You say you find the de 
 fendant, Peter Casey, not guilty, and the prisoner 
 to pay the costs. And so say you all ? " 
 
 " What! " exclaimed the judge, " not guilty? Why 
 he confessed ! " 
 
 The jury turned to leave the rail; Hatton drew a 
 breath of relief; then they were halted by the severe 
 voice of the judge. 
 
 " Wait a minute. Gentlemen of the jury, you are 
 discharged by the order of the court from further 
 attendance upon this court. You will receive your 
 pay from the county treasurer; but in this case you 
 have not earned it. You have shamefully violated 
 your oaths. I have made an order that your names 
 should be taken from the jury- wheel and that you 
 should be disqualified forever from serving as jurors 
 in this court. My only regret is that I do not see 
 my way clear, under the laws of the Commonwealth, 
 to order you into the custody of the sheriff for pun 
 ishment. You are dismissed." 
 
 Ten minutes later Peter Casey, having been ex 
 onerated from paying the costs, upon his swearing 
 that he had no means, walked down the court-house 
 steps a free man, just behind Mr. Burton Hatton, 
 member of the Law and Order League. 
 
 It is no wonder that the Old Mogul grew dis 
 couraged with the attempt to make people better by 
 process of law or that he afterwards refused to sup 
 port the organization.
 
 MARY LIZ 
 IN THE OLD MOGUL S DEN
 
 "From the black doorways and zvindows of the 
 rookeries on every side came gusts vf fetid air. The 
 streets and alleys reeked with the effluvia vf a slave-ship 
 betiveen decks. Pale babes within gasped out their 
 lives wnid the sultry stenches." BELLAMY.
 
 XVIII 
 
 MARY LIZ IN THE OLD MOGUL S DEN 
 
 IT all happened through the fault of the clerks in 
 the railroad office; Mary Liz was sure of that. 
 If they had not teased her, she never would have 
 seen Mr. Hatton, the President of the Anthrax Valley 
 Railroad, and of course she never would have insulted 
 him. But now she was disgraced, and was being 
 sent in charge of the messenger from the office to Mr. 
 Warne. 
 
 The messenger had done his best to impress 
 upon her that she ought to be thankful she was not on 
 her way to the station house. She did not believe a 
 word he said to her, so far as that was concerned, 
 but she felt she would have much preferred being 
 sent to jail to being sent to the rector s. She did 
 not know what happened to people who were sent to 
 ministers, while she knew a great deal about the ways 
 of policemen. She would have darted away from the 
 messenger, if he had been older; but as he was little 
 more than a boy, she knew he would catch her and 
 she wanted no more tales to be told to Mr. Warne. 
 
 For some minutes after the messenger handed her 
 over to Rector Warne, she cried so when he tried 
 to talk to her that the minister had not the slightest 
 
 269
 
 270 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 notion what had happened. So when he had dis 
 missed the messenger and had comforted her, he asked 
 her to begin again at the very beginning and tell him 
 everything. 
 
 " You see, it was about Mr. Breece," began Mary 
 Liz. " The doctor says he ll die, if he don t get out 
 to the country." 
 
 " Yes, I know all about Mr. Breece," said the 
 rector, bowing his head on his hand and groaning 
 inwardly. He had exhausted both the resources and 
 the patience of every charitable supporter of the mis 
 sion in behalf of other cases like that of Breece. It 
 is no wonder that he groaned. 
 
 The summer had been a most trying season. Day 
 after day the sun blazed from a cloudless sky upon the 
 bare mountain sides. Long- years ago these moun 
 tains had been covered with trees. They had then 
 been famous for their beauty. But the trees had been 
 sacrificed to make props for the roof in the coal mines 
 and the mountains were shorn of every sign of green. 
 There was nothing to rest the eye. 
 
 The sides of the mountains were so steep that when 
 the forests were cut down the scanty soil soon washed 
 away, leaving nothing but utter barrenness. If it had 
 not been for the intolerable heat, one might have 
 thought it was winter, so absolutely had every vestige 
 of green disappeared from the landscape. Gray shale 
 and black culm towered above the narrow valley on 
 every hand. Even the waters of the creek were black 
 with the waste from the coal washeries. The only 
 relief from the sombre blackness of the place, was
 
 MARY LIZ in the OLD MOGUL S DEN 271 
 
 where the sulphur water from the mines had coloured 
 the stones of the creek-bed and the garbage from the 
 city above, a rusty red. 
 
 At one point a bend in the creek had enclosed a 
 swampy tract of land, where a few birches had for 
 a time managed to maintain a precarious existence. 
 These had furnished a yellowish-green spot of colour. 
 But the coal company, being in need of ground for a 
 new culm dump for the new breaker, had built a 
 barrier about the swamp to keep the desolating flood 
 of grimy mud from totally obstructing the bed of the 
 creek, and now the birches were dead, strangled to 
 death by six feet of black slime. Their gaunt, weather- 
 beaten branches were lifted like the arms of a drown 
 ing man in a vain struggle for life. 
 
 The town crowded in between the steep mountain 
 side and the creek. In many places the houses were 
 built along a single street. Where the creek ran nearer 
 to the base of the mountain, the houses were built on 
 one side of the street only. The railroad occupied the 
 other side, tunnelling here and there to avoid the 
 sharp turns made by the creek. There was almost one 
 continuous town from the city of Carbonville on the 
 mountain top clear down to where the creek fell into 
 the river and the coal measures disappeared. 
 
 In this narrow valley, with its great masses of rock 
 and culm on every side, the heat was almost unbear 
 able. As if it were not enough that the sun blazed 
 in the sky above, a fire burned also beneath the sur 
 face of the earth. Not that it really heated the air to 
 any great degree, except in the neighbourhood of the
 
 272 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 fan house, where the smoke and gases were pumped 
 out of the mine. But somehow it made the place seem 
 hotter when one thought that there was a raging vol 
 cano of flame eating its way through the vein of coal 
 only sixty feet below the cinder sidewalks. 
 
 It would only be a few days until the water from 
 the creek would be piped to the scene of the con 
 flagration and then it would soon be quenched. Mean 
 while, from the bore-hole which had been driven from 
 the surface through the intervening rock to let out 
 the air so that the water could be forced in, a six 
 inch stream of flaming gas roared forth day and night. 
 This blazing torch flamed and swayed without resting, 
 sometimes thrusting its tongue full twenty feet into the 
 air. 
 
 Although the mountains were on every hand, the 
 conditions of life were very much the same as in the 
 slum districts of the great cities. The people gasped 
 for breath, the children sickened and the feeblest suc 
 cumbed. 
 
 The rector had sorrowed over the many fresh 
 screw holes in the doors that summer. There were 
 few houses in that part of Coalton where he went 
 most frequently which were not thus marked. This 
 was especially true of the company houses, where 
 the poorer people lived. These screw holes are left 
 in the door when the undertaker removes the eyelet 
 which holds the white ribbon from the day of death 
 until after the funeral. 
 
 Rector Warne did not regret the loss of his wealth, 
 which had been swept away after he entered the
 
 MARY LIZ in the OLD MOGUL S DEN 273 
 
 ministry, except when he saw such sights as these 
 and found himself unable to help all the sufferers. 
 
 He sat so long thinking about these things, that 
 Mary Liz thought he had forgotten about her. She 
 was beginning to plan to slip out of his study, when 
 he looked up again and said, " What had Mr. Breece 
 to do with your trouble and Mr. Hatton s sending 
 you to me? " 
 
 " I went out collectin for Mr. Breece so s he could 
 go to the country. I was doin beautiful while I stuck 
 to the Patch. I wisht I d never gone to the old rail 
 road office in Carbonville ! " she said, beginning to cry 
 again. " We had it all fixed so nice: Mrs. Dolan was 
 goin to take me in with her an mother was goin 
 to take the two youngest of the Breece boys. Of 
 course Janet would have to go with her father to 
 take care of him." 
 
 Mr. Warne explained gently to Mary Liz that it 
 would take a great deal more money to send even 
 Mr. Breece and Janet to the country than the amount 
 she showed him tied in the corner of her handker 
 chief. " But tell me what you did at the office," he 
 said, "and why you were sent to me?" 
 
 " It was after their dinner time, I guess, when I 
 got there ; for the men was havin a daisy time. Thev 
 were just mean to me, that s what they were ! It was 
 my fault, I suppose, but they ragged me an I 
 sassed em back. They wouldn t give me a cent, 
 only one man who give me that quarter that was 
 the most I got. All the rest said they was goin to 
 Bar Arbor or Tucksido or somewhere on their vaca-
 
 274 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 tions. They ast me how it come I wasn t spenditr the 
 summer with the Vanderbilts an why Beerpont Mor 
 gan wasn t entertainin the Breece family, an when 
 I wouldn t answer em they called me the Duchest of 
 Reagan s Patch." Mary Liz stopped and wrapped her 
 hands nervously in her faded skirt. 
 
 " That made me mad, an I told em I was no 
 Butcher than they was. While I was sassin em 
 they all went to work pretty quick. A little, low, fat 
 man had come in, but I didn t see him at first. When 
 they wouldn t answer me no more I turned to leave 
 and run plump into the old fat man. Barrett, says 
 he as sharp as a knife, What s all this noise mean ? 
 I just come in, sir/ says the man. But it wasn t so, 
 for he was one of the worst of all to tease me. I ll 
 tell you what, says I, an then I told him what I 
 was collectin for an that they hadn t but one of em 
 give anything." 
 
 " Who was the man that came in ? " asked the 
 minister. 
 
 " Why, old Hatton." 
 
 " You poor child, you don t mean to say that you 
 asked Mr. Hatton to contribute for Mr. Breece! " ex 
 claimed the rector, remembering vividly a certain 
 experience of his own with that gentleman, at the end 
 of which he found himself in the corridor of the 
 great office building, feeling that somehow he had 
 been guilty of a disgraceful act in asking assistance 
 for the sick man. 
 
 "Yes, I did; but I didn t know that it was Mr. 
 Hatton when I ast him."
 
 MARY LIZ in the OLD MOGUL S DEN 275 
 
 " Can you remember every word you said and all 
 that he said?" 
 
 " I told him that Mr. Breece had been the driver 
 for some rich man for a long" while an now he was 
 sick an that the man was so mean that he wouldn t 
 help him a bit." 
 
 " Didn t you know that Mr. Breece was Mr. Hat- 
 ton s driver until he was taken sick?" 
 
 "No; did Mr. Breece drive for old Hatton? I 
 thought old Hatton acted pretty mad! He squirmed 
 round in his chair an said, Who sent me there? An 
 I said nobody. An he said wasn t I lyin , an looked 
 at me real sharp an I said, no, I was straight. An 
 I told him I made the plan all up meself. Then he 
 said, S posin the man had had good wages all these 
 years an hadn t saved anything, was the railroad 
 company a charity organisation? An I said I didn t 
 know what the railroad company was, but the man 
 had buried his wife, an his daughter had to keep 
 house for him, an he was sick now for fourteen 
 months, an the family earnin next to nothin an they 
 couldn t help theirselves. An he said it was all rot 
 an foolishness. Why didn t the man bring up his 
 sons to some useful trade, stid o settin em up to 
 be clerks or lawyers or somethin ? They didn t need 
 so much education to run cars. An I said that Mr. 
 Breece s oldest boy was killed runnin cars in the 
 mines an they all had a horror o the mines. An he 
 said they was above their business, somebody had to 
 be killed takin out coal. He didn t seem to say it 
 to me, but he said over again that all this chanty
 
 276 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 business was rot an that it took away people s self- 
 respect an made em paupers an that they couldn t 
 tell the value of a dollar until they earned it. That s 
 the way he always done." 
 
 " Yes, I know what he said," the rector said sadly 
 again. " What then, did he thump on his desk or 
 ring a bell ? " 
 
 " Yes, he thumped on his desk an ast me what I 
 was waitin for? I told him how we was goin to fix 
 it to take care o the children so Janet an her father 
 could go to the country, an wouldn t he please help? 
 An he said he d told me no wunst; why didn t the 
 churches tend to such things? An I told him about 
 the deaconess an the sick fund an the day nursery 
 an how Dr. Creigan went to see the sick people that 
 was too poor to pay, an all the rest that you did for 
 the people here at the church. I stood up for you, 
 Mr. Warne, I did, an told him I knowed if you 
 had the money yourself you d send Mr. Breece. But 
 I said you couldn t, cause people said the Old Mogul 
 had stole all your money. Did he, Mr. Warne? He 
 didn t steal it all, did he? Cause I know you paid for 
 Mrs. Hetherington yourself. I know you did, Mr. 
 Warne, for she said she d just bet you did." 
 
 As the rector made no reply, she went on. " Then 
 he said, Why didn t I ast somebody else? An I 
 said there wasn t any use to ast the Old Mogul. An 
 he said, did I know who he was? An I said no. An* 
 he kind o smiled as if he was proud to hear me siy 
 that it wasn t no use to ast the Old Mogul, an said
 
 MARY LIZ in the OLD MOGUL S DEN 277 
 
 Why wasn t it no use ? An I said everybody said 
 he d never give money to anybody. An he said didn t 
 everybody say the Old Mogul was too sharp to be 
 taken in ? An I said, Hully gee ! No. They said 
 he was too stingy ! An I thought some o the men 
 in the outside office would fall off their chairs; but 
 nobody looked round." 
 
 " What did he say to that? " asked the rector smil 
 ing. 
 
 " He looked awful black an growled out, They 
 do? Say I m an old skinflint, I reckon. Who said 
 that? An I was awful scairt, for then I knowed 
 that he was the Old Mogul. An I says kind of slow, 
 Why, everybody says so. I wasn t going to tell no 
 lie. He kind o sunk down in his chair for a minute 
 an then he grabbed up his pen an scratched away in 
 a little book as if he was goin to carve the paper up. 
 Then he called out Barrett, look in the d rectory an 
 find where Rector Warne lives an take this child to 
 him. An he tore off the letter as if he was tearin a 
 piece o cloth an give it to me an says : Take that 
 to Mr. Warne, an if what you say is true, all right; 
 but if you ve been collectin money under false 
 pertenses, I ll have you sent to the House of Correc 
 tion ! As she finished her story, Mary Liz pro 
 duced a paper, much soiled and crumpled with con 
 tact with her tear-soaked handkerchief. 
 
 " Here s the letter. I could have throwed it away 
 cm the car or pertended I lost it. That boy that 
 brought me here was no good. He would have been
 
 278 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 dead easy. But you ve told us to play fair; an I ve 
 told the dead square truth. It s no difference what 
 he wrote down there, I ve told you every word." 
 
 " I believe you, Mary," said the rector taking- the 
 paper. In a moment he glanced up in amazement. 
 
 "Don t you know what a check is?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, I ve checked packages lots of times when I 
 was a cash at the Bee-hive in Carbonville. But 
 that ain t a check. A check s round." 
 
 " Mary, Mr. Hatton has put into my hands as trus 
 tee enough money to send the whole Brcece family to 
 the country for the whole summer and more besides." 
 
 Mary Liz wriggled herself clear out of her chair 
 in pure delight. " Say! " she cried, " the Old Mogul 
 can jaw me every day for a month if he wants to 
 when he does things like that!"
 
 THE OLD 
 MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND
 
 If thou art worn and hard beset 
 
 With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, 
 
 // thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 
 
 Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, 
 
 Go to the woods and hills! No tears 
 
 Dim the sweet look that nature wears." 
 
 LONGFELLOW.
 
 XIX 
 
 THE OLD MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND 
 
 WITHIN a week after the visit of Mary Liz 
 to the Old Mogul s office, the Breece family 
 were camped in the orchard of the old 
 Creigan farmhouse on the east slope of the Pocono 
 mountain. Here there was room to breathe and here 
 there was sweet earth and cool grass to lie on. 
 
 The farm lay on the edge of the great Glacial basin, 
 once an enormous lake but now dry for the most 
 part, except here and there where there is a rhododen 
 dron swamp. This is almost the last bit of wilderness 
 east of the Alleghany mountains. Here the white arc 
 tic hares have lingered, which the farmers boys call 
 " big dough-foot rabbits." It is even whispered that 
 there has been a beaver dam built in the wildest part 
 of this region within recent years. 
 
 The Creigan farm had long been abandoned, except 
 that the grass was cut from the fields and stored in 
 the old barn. Behind the stone wall of the orchard 
 on the adjoining farm lay a field of buckwheat, as 
 fragrant as a tropical flower garden, which was mu 
 sical all day long with the hum of bees. 
 
 The whole landscape was immersed in green. There 
 was not a hint of the hard, black lines of the Anthrax 
 Valley upon these highlands. Even the tree trunks 
 
 281
 
 282 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 and the fences were softened by soothing mosses, and 
 the north side of the weather-beaten barn and of the 
 stone fence flaked with lichens so delicate that they 
 seemed to have drifted out of the sky. 
 
 Two weeks after the Breece family had gone to this 
 quiet spot, it was Miss Ann Creigan s turn to draw 
 her breath with a quick gasp of wonder over a letter 
 which she received containing a roll of crisp bills, just 
 as Janet Breece had gasped with delight over the same 
 sort of letter which had come to her. The rector s 
 wife had written it also in such a way that Miss Ann 
 might not be humiliated by receiving what she would 
 have called charity. This was the letter: 
 
 " MY DEAR Miss ANN, 
 
 Will you not allow me to reach out into our friend 
 ship to offer you the enclosed? It is not my own 
 money that I am sending to you. It has been hal 
 lowed already by being given to the King, and I am 
 only passing it on to you. I know you need rest 
 from the hard work which you have done so bravely 
 for all these years. I should think it would be unbear 
 able to sew furs this hot weather. My heart has 
 gone out to you, during these long months since your 
 mother was taken away. I know you must have been 
 very, very lonely. Now just drop everything and go 
 to your old home in the country for as long a time 
 as you can. I am not going to sign my name to this ; 
 only let me say that I am one who loves you and one 
 
 who is, like yourself, A ~ 
 
 A DAUGHTER OF THE KING. 
 
 " It s more than you deserve, Ann Creigan," she 
 said to herself as she wiped her eyes. Miss Ann had 
 lived so much alone that she often held animated con-
 
 OLD MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND 283 
 
 versations with herself when there was any difficult 
 problem to be settled. 
 
 " Here only last week you were grumbling because 
 you had to work such long hours, when you knew it 
 was a blessing that the daylight lasts so long now that 
 you needn t buy any oil. And now you are a regular 
 aristocrat, going off for a long vacation. Fifty 
 dollars ! It s more than you deserve. But, Ann Crei- 
 gan," and she shook herself sharply erect as she spoke, 
 " I declare I m ashamed of you ! You wouldn t think 
 of going off to enjoy that money all alone, now would 
 you? Go straight to Mary Lizzie Gooch and divide 
 up with her. She needs it, if anybody does. Poor, 
 little, white-faced thing ! " 
 
 Half an hour later, Mary Liz sat blissfully smooth 
 ing out the crisp bills which lay in her lap, after Miss 
 Ann had gone home. " Ketch me goin to the coun 
 try ! Why I d die of lonesomeness. I m goin to get 
 a lovely new dress, I am ! One like they have in the 
 show window at the Bee-hive. I m goin to Moun 
 tain Lake. I ll ketch on to a different excursion every 
 day. I ll go to the merry-go-round every night an 
 I ll ride all the time. I won t get off, except to change 
 from one kind of animals to another. An I ll go to 
 the dime museum an the bicycle railroad an the roller 
 toboggan slide an the crystal maze. I ll have ice 
 cream for breakfast an for every other meal, an all 
 the gum I want, an I won t go home from the shows 
 till the very last light s turned off. I wisht I was a 
 boy, cause there s some shows that it ain t just so nice 
 an proper for a girl to take in."
 
 284 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 A week later Mary Liz came into Mr. Warne s li 
 brary, wearing the same faded dress she had worn on 
 the day of her visit to the Old Mogul. 
 
 " Why, Mary, I thought you had gone to the coun 
 try? " he exclaimed. 
 
 " I did go to Mountain Lake with the Third Ward 
 Tigers on Monday," she said. 
 
 " I think I could find you a pleasanter company for 
 a pic-nic than that," Mr. Warne began. 
 
 " Oh, the crowd was all right. We had a pretty 
 good time. One of the men swum out in the Lake 
 till they thought he d drownded. An there was some 
 men on the train that s goin to vote for some other 
 man, an they most had a fight. Owens s Independent 
 Club is goin up to-morrow." 
 
 It was evident that Mary Liz was not seeking ad 
 vice on the question of excursions. 
 
 " Say, Mr. Warne," she broke out, " can t there 
 be somethin done for that baby of Mrs. Jindy s? " 
 
 " Why, I thought it was well again. Hasn t Dr. 
 Creigan been attending it?" 
 
 " It \vas better till the hot weather come back last 
 week an now it s worse than ever. I just believe it ll 
 die like all the rest. It cries most all the time. Mon 
 day the last thing I heard when I went down the street, 
 was its poor, little, weak cry. I couldn t get it out 
 of me ears. I heard it all the time the orchestry was 
 playin , an at the Lake I could hear it like it was out 
 in the waves. It s cryin now. I know it is. I can t 
 have no vacation if that baby s goin to die! See? 
 But it ain t got to die! God mustn t let it die! " she
 
 OLD MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND 285 
 
 added fiercely, "Not I can help it! I ve brought 
 you the money Miss Ann Creigan give me, what s 
 left. I wish I hadn t spent any of it. They took the 
 dress back, cause I used to work in the Bee-hive. 
 The gum s all been chewed; that can t be returned. 
 But here s twenty-two dollars and thirteen cents. 
 Won t that do some good ? " 
 
 " Mary, you dear girl, it will do some good! I m 
 sure we ll get more money, if you can give like this! 
 But you ve been planning to do so many things with 
 this money; can you give them up?" 
 
 " I reckon I can give up better n the baby can? See? 
 Besides, I ve got to get that cryin out of me ears, or 
 I ll be prostrated nervious ! " 
 
 When once the collection of a fund for a fresh air 
 outing was under way, the rector and Dr. Creigan 
 soon established a colony of sick babies and children 
 with their mothers at the old Creigan farm house. 
 Cheap cots and mattresses filled with sweet oat straw 
 made a place for them to sleep. The healing quiet 
 and pure air as much as the nourishing food put new- 
 life into the puny babies and the weary mothers. 
 
 Here they could sleep inside the house at night. 
 
 The fact that there were a number of sick children 
 to look after in the old farm house where he was born, 
 brought Dr. Creigan up the mountain three days in 
 the week. The old doctor found almost as much 
 pleasure in these visits as though his professional 
 services were not required, and in fact after the babies 
 had been for a few days on the mountain his medicines 
 were no longer needed.
 
 286 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The good old man had been working away, mostly 
 among the poor foreigners in Coalton, for more than 
 a score of years with hardly a day s vacation. He 
 used to say that when none of his patients were in 
 a really dangerous condition, so that he might have 
 taken a little holiday, a certain eccentric patient of his, 
 one of his few wealthy patrons, always chose that time 
 to die, and always failed to do so. 
 
 One afternoon about midsummer, when Dr. Creigan 
 and Rector Warne were visiting the sanitarium, as 
 they had come to call the little colony of sick and con 
 valescent children at the farm house on Pocono 
 Mountain, Mr. Hatton s private car ran on the switch 
 to wait for the passing of a coal train. The rector 
 persuaded him to come up to the porch where it was 
 cooler, and to see the crowd of convalescent children. 
 He took but languid interest, until Mr. Warne asked 
 him whether he had ever made a better investment. 
 
 "Why, what have I to do with this?" he asked 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Not everything, but the principal subscription is 
 yours." 
 
 " How s that ? I thought I gave that money to the 
 girl for my man Breece?" 
 
 " So you did ; and the doctor and I gave him one 
 hundred and fifty dollars of it at once to come up 
 here and camp out. He sent back fifty dollars be 
 cause they didn t need so much. We gave that amount 
 to a woman who was working herself to death, on 
 condition that she should come here to the house
 
 OLD MOGUL S FRESH AIR FUND 287 
 
 where she was born for a rest. She divided her gift 
 with the same little girl who came to see you. The 
 girl gave back to us practically all her share to get 
 the first of these six babies out of the heat of the 
 valley. We took some other money that was given 
 us afterwards to buy milk, ice and other supplies. We 
 are paying the Breece family, who rented the farm, 
 and Miss Ann Creigan for the work they do in caring 
 for these children, out of the other hundred you gave 
 for Breece. If we can raise the funds, we hope to keep 
 the house open until fall." 
 
 You don t mean that you have supported a family, 
 given a poor woman a vacation and brought all that 
 mob of young ones out here on that two hundred and 
 fifty dollars?" 
 
 That and a very little more." 
 
 " Mr. Warne, you ought to have been a railroad 
 man. It s a pity I didn t know you before you got 
 to preaching. If I had got hold of you, I could have 
 trained you so there wouldn t have been a sharper 
 superintendent in the state." 
 
 " The doctor had as much to do with it as I had, 
 and the girl had more to do with getting it started 
 than either of us." 
 
 " By the way, where is that little hustler of a girl? 
 Isn t she going to have any of the fun? I call that 
 shabby! Bring her up here and make some sort of 
 place for her. I don t know but what I ll have to 
 make a railroad man of her. But anyhow, we ll 
 establish a vacation fund and you may call it for the
 
 288 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Old Mogul, if you like. Draw on me for the funds. 
 No, I m not the one to thank. Only keep the farm 
 house filled with babies until frost and have that girl 
 up here to help take care of them. There, I think I 
 hear that coal train whistling."
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY
 
 " Duty makes us do things well; love makes us do 
 them beautifully." BROOKS. 
 
 " Matters not in deserts old, 
 
 What was born and waxed and yearned, 
 Year to year its meaning told, 
 I am come, its deeps are learned." 
 
 INGELOW.
 
 XX 
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 
 
 IT was a purely domestic picture in the rectory. 
 Rector Warne was just completing the plans for 
 the new building of the Mudtown Mission. 
 From time to time he glanced up from the blue prints 
 to look approvingly at Mrs. Warne, who sat sewing, 
 not fancy work nor ecclesiastical embroidery, but 
 darning stockings for active little Warne feet. 
 
 Presently they began talking of Burt Hatton, and 
 Mrs. Warne said with the most asperity of which she 
 was capable, " I do wish you wouldn t have anything 
 to do with him. I can t understand how you can 
 tolerate such a man ! If he came to our church 
 and was behaving as a Christian should, it might be 
 your duty to be friendly. But he s just like his father, 
 a hard, selfish man. You know how old Mr. Hatton 
 made his money. Just think of the men whom he 
 ruined in order to build up his own fortune! He has 
 been a perfect outlaw in the business world all through 
 his career. Don t you remember what he said when 
 our Guild went to him for a contribution for the 
 family of that man who was killed in the Hatton 
 mine? He didn t even ask the solicitor to sit down 
 and when she told her errand he growled out : It 
 takes men to run our business as well as money. We 
 
 291
 
 292 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 have to throw away some money in order to make 
 more money and we have to kill some men. You 
 can t expect us to take care of all the people connected 
 with those who have happened to work for us at one 
 time or other so we won t take care of any. Treat 
 em all alike. That s business. That s the only way. 
 
 She shivered as she said this and the rector was 
 glad that the telephone bell called him out of the room 
 for a few minutes. 
 
 It was a curious friendship which had sprung up 
 between Rector Warne and Burt Hatton. Young 
 Hatton was not a member of the rector s congrega 
 tion. Indeed he had never been a church-going man 
 in Coalton or anywhere else. The friendship did not 
 exist because of his liberality, for the rector had 
 never received anything from him either for the 
 church or for benevolent objects. Old Mr. Hatton 
 attended to that, at those rare intervals when any 
 thing was to be given by the Hattons. In fact it 
 was more because Burt Hatton needed a friend than 
 for anything else that the rector had sought his 
 friendship. He seemed such a lonely man, yet capable 
 of much that was good. Because of his isolation, the 
 rector sought him. Since he had become the super 
 intendent of his father s railroad and spent his days 
 driving business from the headquarters overlooking 
 the new yards at Coalton, Burt Hatton seemed utterly 
 devoted to business to the exclusion of all social re 
 laxation. 
 
 Mrs. Warne was not pleased over this friendship. 
 Kate Hatton was her dear friend and she was so loyal
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 293 
 
 to Mrs. Hatton that she could not bear that the rector 
 should become intimate with Kate s husband. 
 
 When Warne came back from the telephone his 
 wife began again : " Burt Hatton is just like his father. 
 He s no longer a spendthrift; he s a screw. Nobody 
 dares to hope for mercy, who falls into his clutches." 
 
 " Helen, you are hard on him." 
 
 " Possibly. His wife s my friend. No man has a 
 right to be so comfortable whose wife s face is as 
 pitifully sad as that of Kate Hatton." 
 
 " But it isn t in character for you to be so prej 
 udiced." 
 
 " No? I m so glad. You ll find me ever so much 
 more charming to live with, if I m not too monotonous 
 in character." 
 
 " I don t believe you d be so hard on him, if he 
 was one of the men who work in the mines." 
 
 " You re right. I wouldn t. I find that to me coal 
 dirt on the face covers a multitude of sins. It is just 
 that he knew better and had a chance and did wrong. 
 So I m hard on him where I d be charitable to one of 
 our poor foreigners." 
 
 Then the bell rang, and as Mrs. Warne left the 
 study by one door Mr. Burt Hatton entered it by 
 another. He was evidently labouring under some 
 strong excitement, and made most blundering answers 
 to the rector s welcome. 
 
 In a few moments he made a plunge : " Mr. Warne, 
 will you help me if I need you? " 
 
 Would he help? The rector s ears were ever open 
 to a cry like that.
 
 294 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " I was sure you would," Hatton went on. " If 
 I hadn t felt that, I wouldn t have come. God knows 
 where I would have gone. It would be no use to go 
 to the men at the clubs. They wouldn t understand. 
 What I want to do is to talk with some man who has 
 a home of his own and a wife and child of his own 
 and a man who loves above all things else to be with 
 them. Did you ever lose a child ? " 
 
 The rector answered, " No, but I think I under 
 stand." 
 
 Mr. Hatton bent his head down on his hand and 
 rested his elbow on the desk for a moment and then 
 went on. You can imagine how it would be to lose 
 one. I never spoke of this to a living soul before. 
 I suppose you know all about me; what a failure I ve 
 been?" 
 
 " The world counts you successful." 
 
 " Possibly I am by Bradstreet s standard. But Mr. 
 Warne, I have known all along that in your eyes I ve 
 failed. And lately I ve been a failure by my own 
 standards, and they re none too high." 
 
 " Your accounts are not settled yet, so it isn t too 
 late still to straighten them up." 
 
 " I m not in the habit of talking about my own 
 affairs, but I m going to to-night. If you are to help 
 me, you ought to know all about them. You know 
 my wife, from whom I am separated. I wonder if 
 you know how perfectly intolerable it has been some 
 times to live in the same vicinity with her, under 
 these conditions? " 
 
 " I have imagined it,"
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 295 
 
 " There was no help for it. It wasn t of my choos 
 ing. Coalton had always been her home and my busi 
 ness interests have been here though I lived in Car- 
 bonville. You probably know the beginning of our 
 troubles, so I ll be brief. We were each barely nine 
 teen when we were married. It was a runaway match. 
 She was as good a woman as ever lived. Well, we 
 were very young. I certainly had enough faults; per 
 haps she wasn t always very wise. But the blame 
 was all mine. I suppose we got tired of each other. 
 We were only hot-headed boy and girl. My mother 
 was dead, but my father might have patched it up if 
 he hadn t been so busy making money. Her father 
 tried to, but I wouldn t listen. At any rate, in less 
 than two years, we parted. I tried Stockholm for a 
 summer with the American consul, who was a college 
 friend of mine. It was no use. I was lonely for my 
 wife, but I wouldn t make the first advance. Then I 
 came back here and tried the clubs, but they were no 
 better. Nothing pleased me long. 
 
 " Then I came into the office here. Nobody knew 
 why I did it, but the truth is, I wanted money. Not 
 for myself. My wife and child were in need through 
 the business failure of her father. I couldn t bear that 
 she should want funds. She doesn t know that the 
 money comes from me. I manage that through her 
 attorney. I give her all the money he can persuade 
 her to use. She thinks it s some claim of her father s 
 estate that was saved. 
 
 " A little more than a year ago the baby girl died 
 .. Excuse me. I never got over that. You
 
 296 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 never saw her, or you wouldn t think me partial when 
 I call her an angel." 
 
 It was a raw spot he was laying bare, but he set his 
 teeth hard and with a gesture silenced the sympathy 
 springing to the rector s lips. 
 
 " Thank you ! You re very kind. She had the 
 most beautiful fair hair I ever saw. Like her mother s. 
 And such eyes, so large and wistful and trusting. I 
 never had her in my arms; her mother and I parted 
 before she was born. But I often used to see her 
 with the nurse on the street. 
 
 " I happened to be in Duluth when she died. Ma 
 lignant scarlet fever. There was an epidemic among 
 our people s children up at the mines and it was sup 
 posed the child caught it through the laundress, or 
 something of that kind. My wife asked Doctor Crei- 
 gan to telegraph me and he told me all the particulars 
 after I came home. They had buried her before I 
 could reach home. 
 
 " I think possibly the breach would have been healed 
 beside our child s grave, if it had not been for my 
 wife s brother, Bruce Hardin. He s a scoundrel, and 
 he knew that I knew it and hated me accordingly. 
 As luck happened, it was just at this crisis when I 
 had him first hauled up for cheating the company with 
 one hand and the men with the other. Then he man 
 aged to poison Kate s mind against me, so that she 
 was not ready to receive my overtures toward recon 
 ciliation and I how could I have been such a fool 
 grew angry again and the breach was made wider.
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 297 
 
 No, you needn t tell me a thing about the wrong of 
 it; I know it all now." 
 
 " How did you come to change your views? " 
 
 " Well, several things sort of piled up. First there 
 was a longing for my wife, that all my bitter thoughts 
 could not smother. You with your wife and child and 
 happy home can have no idea of the great loneliness 
 and longing which have come over me sometimes." 
 
 An odd little smile hovered around the rector s 
 mouth. " Possibly I know. The rectory has not al 
 ways had a mistress." 
 
 " Then over a week ago I was down in the mine. 
 While I was waiting for the cage, a man by the name 
 of Hudderfield, old Sunderland Red, they call him, 
 was talking to some of the men, a kind of sermon on 
 the duty of forgiveness. You can t get rid of him. 
 You have to listen to him. He s really a wonderful 
 sort of man. I was annoyed at first, but before he 
 finished, I saw some things that have come between 
 Kate and me a little plainer than I ever did before. 
 Just on the heels of this a queer thing occurred. Kale 
 has opened a day nursery at the upper end of town 
 here with the money I send her, as a sort of memorial 
 to our child. Some time ago I happened to see the 
 nursery and I liked it so well that I started another 
 at the Hatton mine as my memorial. I ve been out 
 there since then to look the thing up. You know how 
 many people are hurt or killed about the mines, and 
 they always leave a lot of children. I was up there 
 again the other day and attended a meeting for the
 
 298 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 mothers. About time to close, a forlorn, faded woman 
 came in, dressed in mourning and leading a little 
 child. If it had been my own child, it couldn t have 
 been more like her. Not the face only, but the eyes, 
 hair, gait and everything. The father had been 
 killed three years ago in our mines, and she wanted to 
 know whether the girl could be taken care of while she 
 went out to wash. If there wasn t another child in 
 the institution it should be kept going. She brought 
 with her a note from my wife, asking the teacher to 
 bring the case to my attention. This broke me all up. 
 I ve simply got to make it up with Kate. I can t stand 
 it any longer." 
 
 " Have you done anything to bring about a recon 
 ciliation? " 
 
 " Well, I wrote to her and told her the way I felt, 
 begging her to see me. That was yesterday, but I 
 haven t heard from her." 
 
 "Do you know whether she received the letter?" 
 
 " I sent it with Mick Phelan." 
 
 " Would he be sure to deliver it? " 
 
 " I told him I d break every bone in his body if he 
 failed to give it into her own hands." 
 
 " A gentle kind of way to send a message of peace, 
 wasn t it?" 
 
 " You ve got to lay Mick out, but I gave him a 
 dollar, so I think he s all right." 
 
 " You ll surely hear by to-morrow." 
 
 " I m afraid I won t, unless you can intercede for 
 me. It s that brother of hers again. In the perversity
 
 THE BONDS OF MATRIMONY 299 
 
 of fate, just when I try to be reconciled to my wife 
 the second time, I have to be having trouble with 
 Bruce again, and this is worse than the other, for to 
 day, by order of the directors of the coal company, I 
 had him arrested for embezzlement. If they don t let 
 him off, he s bound to go to the penitentiary. Now 
 how can I expect Kate to forgive that?" 
 
 " Possibly she knows her brother by this time better 
 than you do. Women s eyes are keen." 
 
 " But their hearts are soft. I can t hope any longer 
 that she ll forgive me." 
 
 Just then a messenger boy rang the rectory bell, 
 inquiring for Mr. Hatton. Hatton seized the note 
 and turned away his face while he read. When Mr. 
 Warne came back from the door after dismissing the 
 messenger, he found Hatton s face glorified. 
 
 " It s all right," he said in an excited tone. " I 
 have an invitation to take dinner with my wife to 
 night. I feel as though I had made up a lovers 
 quarrel." 
 
 His face grew tender in a moment and he said with 
 some embarrassment, " You you wouldn t mind say 
 ing a prayer for us, would you?"
 
 THE PROBATION 
 OF REV. ARCHIBALD HUDDERFIELD
 
 Kind hearts are more than coronets 
 And simple faith than Norman blood." 
 
 TENNYSON.
 
 XXI 
 
 THE PROBATION OF REV. ARCHIBALD HUDDER- 
 
 FIELD 
 
 AFTER the night when Sunderland Red entered 
 the Salvation Army barracks, he was a 
 changed man. Capt. Smiler had sung halle 
 lujahs and rejoiced over him. 
 
 You ve followed the devil long enough, Hudder- 
 field, now follow the Lord ! " was his parting admoni 
 tion. So Sunderland Red proceeded to do the one 
 with the same vigour with which he had done the 
 other. 
 
 Having once started along the lines of the Salvation 
 Army service, just as the barracks were being closed, 
 it is to be feared that Sunderland Red was not a very 
 neat fit in Rector Warne s church. But as there was 
 no other Protestant church in Coalton he united with 
 the Episcopalians as a matter of course. Though his 
 heart yearned a little for the Salvation Army with 
 its shouts and hallelujahs, he managed to get a great 
 deal of comfort out of most frequent and fervent 
 amens throughout the service. When he came to un 
 derstand the litany, no one in the congregation pro 
 claimed himself a " miserable sinner " with more sin 
 cerity than he. 
 
 Possibly he would not have found complete spiritual 
 303
 
 304 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 satisfaction in all this, however fervently expressed, 
 if it had not been that his religion was an intensely 
 practical matter and in no sense bounded by church 
 law or ritual. Without knowing that any authority 
 was required, he took naturally to preaching. The 
 rector, who had keen eyes for those who could help 
 to fight the good fight, soon saw that Sunderland Red 
 was doing a remarkable work. 
 
 When Rector Warne spoke about Hudderfield s 
 work to the rector of the Carbonville church, the latter 
 said: 
 
 " Why doesn t he join one of the celibate orders ? 
 He s a bachelor, I believe." The rector of Carbon 
 ville was not only very high church, but entirely lack 
 ing in a sense of humour as well. 
 
 A picture of the rubicund face of Hudderfield pro 
 jecting from a cowl or shaded by a shovel hat was 
 almost too much for the gravity of Rector Warne. He 
 managed to control himself, however, saying only, 
 " I don t think he would consent to that." 
 
 " Then why don t you make a lay reader of him ? " 
 
 " How can I ? Why he can t even steer a straight 
 course through the Prayer Book. Half the time he 
 gets lost in the morning service. Pie is never present 
 at the evening service, for he has a service of his 
 own in which I feel sure the Prayer Book never finds 
 a place." 
 
 " I am pained to hear you speak so. It ought never 
 to be allowed." 
 
 " You wouldn t think so, if you could hear the 
 man."
 
 PROBATION OF HUDDERFIELD 305 
 
 It was when the bishop called a council of the 
 churches of the diocese to consider the pressing ques 
 tion concerning the religious needs of the foreigners 
 who were pouring into the state, that the probation of 
 Sunderland Red occurred. 
 
 Possibly the strangers who were gathered in the 
 church in Carbonville might have stared a little if they 
 had been told that there was anything remarkable 
 about Sunderland Red, especially if he had been 
 pointed out to them while on his way home from his 
 work with his face black with coal dirt. 
 
 Even after the grime had been washed off, his 
 countenance was not attractive to a stranger. Each 
 scar on his face was the record of an accident, some 
 times marking a trip to the hospital in the ambulance. 
 There was a long, jagged blue-black line on the left 
 side of his face where the coal dust had tattooed him 
 for life. That told of his most serious accident. At 
 the same time that this happened, his leg was so badly 
 crushed that it was shortened in the setting. This 
 catfsed him to walk with the jerk of a mechanical 
 toy. One finger also had been lost. All these injuries 
 were the result of a fall of rock from the roof of 
 the chamber where he worked in the mines. Across 
 the forehead and on both ears the skin was smooth 
 and shiny, which would always remind him of the 
 days of agony spent in that ward of the hospital which 
 is specially heated for patients suffering from burns. 
 
 These were not all of his " mercy marks," as he 
 called the scars and nicks he had received about the 
 mines. He could tell yon of each one of them, not
 
 3 o6 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 for the hardness of his life, but for the constant mercy 
 that had overshadowed him and enabled him to come 
 so near to death so many times and yet be spared. 
 
 The Rev. Archibald Hudderfield was a genius, and 
 the crowds about the mines had found it out. No 
 body knew exactly when he came by the title of " Rev 
 erend," conferred on him by the newspaper, but there 
 was no doubt in the minds of his congregation that he 
 deserved it. A man who preaches well for the pure 
 love of the work is not likely to be criticised by such 
 an audience for his ignorance of Hebrew. 
 
 His audiences were various and so were his pul 
 pits. Sometimes he had but two or three hearers who 
 were gathered in a chamber of the mines, eating from 
 their dinner pails, their mine lamps flaring in their 
 hats, the solemn stillness broken every now and then 
 by the shouts of a driver boy or the stumbling of a 
 mule dragging a car along some nearby gangway. 
 
 Often the congregation was composed of those who 
 were waiting at the foot of the shaft for a cage full 
 of men to gather that they might be taken to the sur 
 face. Many a man had let his turn on the cage pass 
 that he might hear a little longer about the love of 
 God, for that was the theme which the love of men 
 in the heart of Archibald Hudderfield made him 
 preach so persistently to his fellow workmen. 
 
 How he would have scorned the bishop s appre 
 ciation of the unique element in the situation of this 
 grimy worker, giving his message a thousand feet 
 under ground ! To him the message was the impor- 
 tant thing, whether given in the mine, or as he often
 
 PROBATION OF HUDDERFIELD 307 
 
 delivered it, on Sunday afternoons standing on the 
 steps to the breaker, with the great black building 
 towering gloomily behind him, his audience perched 
 on mine cars or seated around the foot of the great 
 culm dump which towered more forbiddingly even than 
 the breaker. 
 
 But these were not his only audiences. There was 
 his regular nightly service in the Mission at Mudtown. 
 This room was the old Salvation Army barracks and 
 the work was presumably under the direction of the 
 rector s church, but Sunderland Red did all the preach 
 ing, paying the rent for the building from his own 
 wages. 
 
 Two prominent members of the mission were 
 Lemuel and Theodosia Hetherington, otherwise 
 Limpy and Teed. They represented if not the wealth 
 at least the piety of the congregation, and certainly 
 the devotion of the people to their pastor. Teed was 
 housekeeper, while Limpy was a bread-winner and 
 toiled as driver boy in the mine. 
 
 On the day of the probation of the Rev. Archibald 
 Hudderfield, Limpy and Teed were overwhelmed with 
 sorrow. The Mudtown Mission was going to lose its 
 pastor, and they were simply heartbroken. Mr. Hud 
 derfield was to be taken out of the mines and trans 
 ferred to some large business called a Parish House, 
 so they understood, where he would have plenty of 
 money and hosts of friends and helpers. There could 
 be no mistake about it; Teed had heard the strange 
 man in black clothes explain the whole plan. Mr, 
 Hudderfield was to speak in Grace Church that very
 
 3 o8 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 night, so the folks could hear him and judge whether 
 he would do for the place they wanted him to take. 
 
 While Limpy ate his dinner, Teed told the story : 
 
 " He come into the Mission Room this mornin 
 and ast me where was Mr. Hudderfield " 
 
 "A-r-r-r-h! What d u tell him f r?" interrupted 
 Limpy, savagely. " I d a told him he was out o 
 town. It wouldn t been no lie, neither; f r you know 
 the Hatton shaft is outside the town limits." 
 
 Teed was far too sad to quarrel with Limpy, or even 
 to reproach him for this proposed evasion of the truth. 
 So she only said, slowly : 
 
 " Pretty soon there was another dude in a gray busi 
 ness suit come in jest a purpose to meet the black 
 one, an he told the gray one all about it, an says thai 
 they couldn t do better n get Hudderfield as superin- 
 tender of the Parish House, because he was such a 
 hustler. And they said what a good thing it would 
 be for him, an* what big crowds he d have; an I was 
 so proud of him. But oh, Limpy, what ll become o 
 us?" 
 
 Teed could say no more, but bending over her 
 brother s chair, she hid her face on the brown patch 
 on Limpy s shoulder, where the strap which carried 
 his tin tea-bottle had worn a hole through his faded 
 blue coat. 
 
 "Don t cry, Teed," he said, gently. "We got 
 along all right wunst before, an we c n do it again." 
 
 :< You know it ain t that." she sobbed. " You re 
 away so much, Limpy, that you don t know how much 
 he clone f r us."
 
 PROBATION OF HUDDERFIELD 309 
 
 Teed, I wisht we could go with Archie," Limpy 
 said. 
 
 " Well, you know we can t. An you ve got to stop 
 callin him Archie an begin to call him Mr. Hudder- 
 field, now that he s struck such luck." 
 
 "But, Teed, why couldn t we go with him?" per 
 sisted the boy. " You know he ll ast us to go." 
 
 ; Yes, I know he ll ast us, an more n that, I know 
 he ll want us to go . But you know we can t, with us 
 like we are the masses is what the gray one called 
 the people in the Mission." 
 
 "I d like to thump his mug!" interrupted Limpy, 
 wrathfully. 
 
 " That wouldn t help. It s the truth. We are all 
 right here. But we ain t onto the talk o the up-an- 
 up s, an we couldn t ketch their style. It s no use to 
 try. We ain t blooded. We jest got to stay here. 
 We d only hinder Mr. Hudderfield if we was to go. 
 He s got the stuff in him the Lord put it into him 
 an he s got to go." 
 
 " That s right ! " said Limpy, catching some of 
 Teed s fervour. Then he added in his heartiest prayer- 
 meeting manner : " Let s give him a great send-off, in 
 the name o the Lord ! But say, Teed, do you suppose 
 he really wants to leave the Mission? " 
 
 That night the solemn assistant to the rector of 
 Grace Church droned painfully through the service 
 at the Mudtown Mission Rooms, while the Rev. 
 Archibald Hudderfield passed through his probation 
 before the council. Limpy listened conscientiously to 
 the assistant s sermon as long as he could stand it -
 
 3 io THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 long enough to see Teed, worn out with the excitement 
 and sorrow of the day, sink down into peaceful slum.- 
 ber. Then Limpy slipped quietly out, " hopped " a 
 coal train, rode to Carbonville, and then hurried to the 
 beautiful Grace Church on the avenue. The delegates 
 to the council from all over the diocese crowded the 
 great building to the doors. There were several 
 speakers on the general topic of city missions, and Mr. 
 Huddcrfield was to be the last. The only seat which 
 Limpy could get was behind a great stone pillar; but 
 when Mr. Hudderfield s turn came to speak, he rose 
 and leaned against it. 
 
 Limpy s heart swelled with pride as he listened to 
 the really eloquent beginning of Hudderfield s speech. 
 Then it came over him in a moment that this might be 
 the very last time he should ever hear the missionary 
 speak. Of course Mr. Hudderfield would go away 
 to take charge of his new business, and he and Teed 
 had decided that he would probably have to start at 
 once. The boy s eyes filled with tears at the thought, 
 and to keep them back he set his jaws and drew his 
 breath hard. Then a strange thing happened to Mr. 
 Hudderfield, and after it was over Limpy hurried 
 home to tell Teed. 
 
 As Hudderfield himself went home after the meet 
 ing he met the assistant and told him this experience : 
 
 " I began my speech easily enough. I wasn t scared. 
 I even made a little joke about the way the bishop in 
 troduced me as reverend. I began to feel at home 
 with the audience right from the first. I knew there 
 were some millionaires in the house, and I wanted to
 
 PROBATION OF HUDDERFIELD 311 
 
 stand well with them. I was ambitious to make a 
 great speech, and God had to humble me. I thought 
 I was doing first rate, when all of a sudden I caught 
 sight of little Limpy Hetherington in the back of the 
 church. How he got in I don t know, for he doesn t 
 take to churches very much; but there he was, patches 
 and all. I saw every gaping buttonhole in his jacket. 
 I saw him only, as though there hadn t been another 
 soul in the house. His face was drawn. He seemed 
 to me as though he was losing faith in God because 
 he had lost faith in me. He knew I was trying for 
 all I was worth to get away from the dear old Murl- 
 town Mission. He saw through my meanness in 
 thinking that I had outgrown that poor little hall. He 
 knew I was making a strike in that speech for a bigger 
 place, and it was breaking his heart to think that I 
 wanted to leave them. I tried to look away and forget 
 all about the mission; instead, I forgot what I wanted 
 to say. I tried to find my place in the notes I had 
 made, but 1 might as well have looked at white paper. 
 The words had no meaning to me. My mind was a 
 total blank. I couldn t have told where I was nor who 
 I was. The sun went out of the sky. The horizon 
 fell in on me. How long it lasted I have no means 
 of knowing. It seemed ages. It must have been a 
 good while for when I struggled back to conscious 
 ness the bishop was at my elbow trying to persuade me 
 to go into the vestry room, and somebody was bring 
 ing me a glass of water. But I didn t have time to 
 notice these things, for the first distinct impression 
 that made itself felt on my mind was a clear call as
 
 3 i2 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 if some one had told me to plead for the Mudtown 
 Mission. So I got rid of the bishop somehow, and, 
 stepping to the edge of the platform, I began a new 
 speech one I had never thought of before." 
 
 In the meantime, Limpy was pouring into Teed s 
 wondering ears the same strange tale. 
 
 " I thought he was goin to faint," he said. " An 
 his speech was done f r, sure. But pretty soon he 
 chased em all away from him an come to the edge 
 of the stage all right enough an jest ripped the roof 
 off the house. The poor has the gospel preached 
 amongst em an The Lord God has ernointed me 
 to declaim the good tidings, he says. An then he 
 told em the things he d seen in the Mudtown Mission 
 an what he d like to do when he gets into this new 
 job he s goin to take, I suppose. Oh, Teed, I m 
 ashamed I didn t wake you up an take you along. 
 You never heard the like. You d a thought these 
 people where he s goin was his blood brothers. He 
 had the house laughin an cryin an cheerin the hull 
 thing at wunst. But he went right on with the rat 
 killin never stopped. An before he was rightly done, 
 the high muck who bossed the crowd started to say 
 somethin about this entoosium takin some practical 
 form, an then some cully they called judge got up 
 an said he d go a thousand on this work, an another 
 fellow in a gray business suit it must a been the 
 same one that was down here he covered his thou 
 sand right quick, an in a little while there was quite 
 a pile o money bet on it. 
 
 "All this time you could tell that Mr. Hudder-
 
 PROBATION OF HUDDERFIELD 313 
 
 field kept feelin worse an worse, though he tried to 
 laugh it off. I know now, Teed, he don t want to 
 leave the mission here; you couldn t help but see how 
 bad he felt about it from his face. I wisht you d been 
 there, so s you could see f r yourself. But he kept 
 pretty good holt on himself till they ast him to pray, 
 an then he lost control o his machinery altogether. 
 An when a good many o them had cried while he 
 was tryin to pray, the bishop I think they called 
 the high muck bishop he said they d sing the Sock- 
 doliger, an I come away. I couldn t stand it no 
 longer. But I don t feel as bad as I did, Teed, 
 because I know he don t want to leave us. They re 
 forcin him into it, somehow." 
 
 The children were still comforting each other, when 
 Mr. Hudderfield came in. He looked wan and tired, 
 but not at all downcast, as Teed had expected from 
 Limpy s description. 
 
 " I ve saved your supper for you, Mr. Hudderfield," 
 Teed began, steadily. " I cooked the things you like." 
 Then she ran to him crying: "Oh, Archie! Limpy 
 told me all about it. It s grand, an I m so glad an 
 happy that you re goin ! that is, I m glad for your 
 sake now, an I ll be happy to-morrow because I love 
 you so ! " 
 
 Then, probably to show how very glad she was, she 
 began sobbing most pitifully at the thought of facing 
 life without the missionary. 
 
 "Why, Teed! Didn t Limpy tell you? I m not 
 going. Instead, on the first of January I m to leave 
 the mines and spend all my time working for the Mis-
 
 3H THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 sion. The folks at the meeting to-night promised to 
 give me money enough that I won t have to go 
 into the mines to pay the expenses of the Mission. 
 We re to have everything we ever wanted or dreamed 
 about. A miners exchange, where the men can get 
 their money changed away from the saloons, a gym 
 nasium, school rooms everything, Teed! There was 
 enough money for everything I ve wanted and all 
 for this dear old Mudtown Mission. But I ve learned 
 to-night the poorness and meanness and weakness and 
 (selfishness, and a great many other ugly things, of 
 my own heart. If my dear child friends, Limpy and 
 Teed, could know it all, I m not sure they would be 
 glad to have me stay. Would you?" 
 
 The two faces, full of unfailing trust and love, 
 looked up into his, while Teed stroked his hand and 
 Limpy said, with an approving nod of his head : 
 
 "Betcherlife!"
 
 THE STRIKE 
 OF THE MALGAMATED TERRORS
 
 " Used to think that luck was luck and nuthin else but 
 
 luck 
 It made no difference hoiv or ivhen or where or wliy it 
 
 struck; 
 But several years ago I clianged my mind an now 
 
 proclaim 
 That luck s a kind of science same as any oilier 
 
 game." 
 
 EUGENE FIELD.
 
 XXII 
 
 THE STRIKE OF THE MALGAMATED TERRORS 
 
 PIPPINELLA JINDY was in the last agony. 
 Not the agony of death, for the contortions 
 she made in trying to walk through the snow 
 without lifting her foot showed that she was pos 
 sessed of abundant vitality. She was in the agony 
 of losing the button. 
 
 Now the loss of a single shoe-button is not or 
 dinarily an affair of serious moment if there are 
 other buttons. But if the button about to be lost is 
 the last fastening left, its loss rises from the agony 
 of a crisis to the dignity of a calamity. But every 
 crisis is brief, and before she had taken another step 
 the calamity occurred. 
 
 Then there were further complications : The loss of 
 the shoe revealed the absence of a stocking and there 
 was Pippinella s pudgy, olive-brown foot and round 
 leg sunk into the snow, half way to the bare knee. 
 
 But youth is very hopeful, especially before the 
 age of twelve years. So Pippinella tucked beneath 
 her arm the disabled shoe, which had evidently be 
 longed to some grand dame when it had had all its 
 buttons, and pushed hopefully forward toward the 
 deeper snow of the gutter. 
 
 Pippinella s hopes were all centered in an apple bar- 
 Si?
 
 318 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 rel. Mrs. Phelan had just purchased thirty cents 
 worth of apples and all the children of the Phelan 
 brood and their cousins the Flynns, and in fact all the 
 children of the neighbourhood of the same blood, had 
 been furnished with a sample of the fruit. 
 
 Pippinella knew that she had nothing to expect from 
 the Phelan apples, but it might be that the farmer 
 would give her one specked apple if she should ask 
 him. Perhaps he might have done so, if young Mick 
 Phelan had not thrown a snowball at Pippinella which 
 frightened the farmer s horses. In the diversion, Pip- 
 pinella s hopes perished. The snow seemed suddenly 
 colder to the bare foot; sunny Italy far away. 
 
 " Git out, yez thavin dago," growled Mick Phelan, 
 in lordly imitation of his father s tone. " Is it apples 
 yer thryin to steal ? Yer father s a scab. What busi 
 ness have yez here annyhow ? Yer father s nothin but 
 a dirty scab, takin the bread out of dacent people s 
 mouths. If it wasn t for him and thim that s like 
 him, we could win the strike." 
 
 Pippinella grasped the pointed toe of the shoe she 
 had shed and backed her way into the street. She 
 was far too wise in the ways of the world of Reagan s 
 Patch to turn her face from a foe. Furthermore, she 
 knew that the shoe, with its soggy heel, made a formid 
 able weapon. She had need to know how to defend 
 herself, for the men of the Mudlnck mine were oti 
 strike and her father and the rest of the Italians would 
 not join the strike. That gave frequent opportunity 
 for war between the \vnmen and even the children in 
 the Patch.
 
 STRIKE o/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 319 
 
 No doubt she would have used her weapon and a 
 onesided race war would have been waged, if another 
 diversion had not occurred. Mrs. Burt Hatton s vic 
 toria, which had been waiting for a freight train to 
 pass, now dashed up the main street of Reagan s 
 Patch. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton recognised Pippinella as the large- 
 eyed child who had come morning after morning dur 
 ing the summer to play on the carriage block in front 
 of the Hatton homestead. From some Italian ances 
 tor the child had inherited a passionate love for beauty, 
 which impelled her irresistibly towards the Hatton 
 home. 
 
 In all the dreary length of Reagan s Patch there 
 was not a single grass-grown yard. The few weeds 
 that struggled in the corners of the ruined picket 
 fences were cropped by goats, while the mountains in 
 the rear were bare of trees and scarred by land slide;;. 
 
 All about the Hatton home the ground was terraced 
 and covered with the greenest grass. In the centre a 
 fountain played. What was almost as delightful to 
 the children as the fountain was the automatic sprink 
 ler. Many an hour the children of the Patch who 
 were less esthetic in their taste than Pippinella, had 
 spent holding on to the sanded pickets of the Hatton 
 fence to let the water from the sprinkler splash over 
 their bare ankles. 
 
 None of the other children enjoyed the lawn more 
 than Pippinella and her younger brother. They would 
 sometimes spend the whole morning on the step, Pip 
 pinella with all the graces of a grand dame in her
 
 320 THOSE BLACK D T AMOND MEN 
 
 carriage and Domenico, who was less imaginative, sit 
 ting straight and stiff, by her direction as a well- 
 trained coachman should. Here they would play also 
 at keeping house, dragging to the step various tin cans 
 and other household utensils that had been cast off 
 in Reagan s Patch. If Mrs. Hatton s coachman hap 
 pened to find them when he had the hose out, there was 
 apt to be a sudden end to their play before the real 
 mistress and her friends appeared to take their drive. 
 Sometimes he flung the tin cans after the children. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton had recognised Pippinella in the snow 
 and had felt her bitter disappointment over her fail 
 ure to get even a specked apple from the farmer, 
 through Mick Phelan s interference. 
 
 Her first impulse had been to interview the farmer 
 and supply Pippinella with apples. But the coal train 
 that was holding her carriage in Reagan s Patch 
 proved to be a long one and before it passed she saw 
 the threatened conflict. Her heart hardened and she 
 ordered the driver to hurry through the Patch. 
 
 Neither Mick Phelan nor Pippinella had seen the 
 carriage. Mick and his forces seemed just about to 
 charge. Pippinella, having no reinforcements, backed 
 swiftly across the street into the very track of the ap 
 proaching carriage. The horses swerved sharply and 
 stopped, but it seemed that the child must surely be 
 stricken down. The driver in an undertone made some 
 remarks to Pippinella relative to the whole Italian 
 race, advising her that they had no business to be in 
 America. 
 
 When the lady uncovered her eyes, Pippinella was
 
 STRIKE <?/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 321 
 
 running to the shelter of a tenement further up the 
 street, while a squalid Italian woman was giving her 
 voluble directions, alternating with dire threats hurled 
 at Mick Phelan s crew. Pippinella, whimpering, 
 dodged a heavy-handed maternal caress, the buttonless 
 shoe clattered down on the door sill and the door closed 
 on her hopes and fears. 
 
 Mrs. Hatton told the whole story to her husband 
 at dinner that evening, shuddering a little when she 
 came to speak of the child s narrow escape. 
 
 " See here, Kate," he said, when she had finished, 
 " There s no use of your worrying over the condition 
 of these people, either physical or moral. They re 
 foreigners, and that s all you can make of them just 
 now. After a while, perhaps, they ll become civilised. 
 Now they re outlanders and I wish they weren t here. 
 But they work pretty cheaply and they work when 
 other men strike. If they get hurt, in spite of all we 
 can do to take care of them, that s their lookout. But 
 they don t mind cold and curses as we would. And 
 even if they did, there s nothing you can do to better 
 their condition. If you give them things, you ll make 
 paupers of them. If they have to earn their way, it 
 goes slower and they won t have patent-leather shoes 
 and banana ice cream for a while; but they ll appre 
 ciate these things more when they do get them." 
 
 " I know what you say is true, Burt; but wouldn t 
 it be possible for me to go among them and teach 
 them help them somehow," she added rather 
 vaguely. 
 
 " Yes and bring home the diphtheria, or the itch, or
 
 322 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 something. Now just don t worry over something 
 that you can t help. I ll have to tell the man not 
 to drive through the Patch again." 
 
 " Poor girl ! " he said to himself after she had left 
 the room. " Since our baby died she can t see any 
 child without wanting to right all its wrongs. I won 
 der why our baby must die, while the Italian babies 
 live?" 
 
 That night Mrs. Hatton could not sleep. She was 
 haunted not only by a nightmare of rubber-tired 
 wheels crunching down a childish figure Hying 
 through the snow, but by the still more grim uncer 
 tainty concerning what happened behind the tenement 
 door, which had closed as her carriage whirled past. 
 Had she heard cries of fear, or pain? Toward mid 
 night she reached a conclusion and then she fell asleep. 
 
 From this doze she was wakened with the feeling 
 that the sun was shining into her face. She started 
 up wildly to find the room flooded with a dull red 
 light flashing into her heavy eyes. The breaker was 
 on fire! Fascinated by the sight, she sprang from her 
 bed and pressed her face to the window. Her husband 
 had already rushed out to do what he could to save the 
 Company s property. 
 
 High above the shadow of the mountain-tops the 
 flames leaped. The upward current of air, rushing 
 through the chutes and staircases for two hundred 
 feet, carried the flames far above the head-house on 
 the top of the breaker. The smoke rolled forth in 
 clouds, spreading out above like an open fan and 
 lighted from below to a bloody red. The upper por-
 
 STRIKE <?/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 323 
 
 tion of the huge building had not yet caught fire, but 
 while she looked, almost in a moment, she saw the 
 fire leap from story to story, the thick coal dust on 
 the boards burning like gunpowder, while the flames 
 ate their way into the solid timbers and enveloped the 
 whole building in a moment. Explosions from within 
 soon burst the burning boards from the sides of the 
 giant shell, scattering long pieces of flaming timber 
 high into the air to tumble hissing into the snow. The 
 outer casing being gone, the heavy framework criss 
 crossed against the sky, a lurid skeleton, fiercely held 
 its own. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the burning of the coal 
 breaker brought better times to the men on strike. 
 The company made immediate plans for rebuilding, 
 and this gave work to many of the men. Those who 
 would never have dared to enter the mine during the 
 strike under pain of being called " scab " workers, 
 found employment as helpers to the carpenters and 
 masons. Still there was much suffering during the 
 winter, especially among the unskilled Italian labourers 
 and those who had worked for the company during 
 the strike. These " scab " labourers were driven out 
 by the men who had obtained work in rebuilding the 
 breaker, either openly or by a series of petty persecu 
 tions which made life unbearable. 
 
 Among the families of these victims of the strike 
 Mrs. Hatton went, almost as busy in her way as her 
 husband with his breaker building. There were medi 
 cines to be bought; food furnished to the delicate and 
 the sick, and clothing to be provided for the children.
 
 3 2 4 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 All the plans which she had cherished for a settle 
 ment house had to be laid aside until the more press 
 ing needs of the sick and the hungry were supplied. 
 
 The Jindy home was among the last discovered 
 to be in need. One day in February Mrs. Hatton 
 called. Except for the remains of what had once been 
 an enormous loaf of bread and a dish containing- a 
 mixture of tomatoes, peppers and beans, the house 
 was bare of food. Pippinella s father sat in the inner 
 room. Through Pippinella as interpreter Mrs. Hat- 
 ton learned that he was " sick in the back " from an 
 injury received in the mines several months before, so 
 that he could not do hard work. 
 
 Mrs. Jindy poured out a volume of Italian, which 
 Pippinella tersely translated into an appeal for work. 
 
 " She say, When the breaker start run, she send 
 my li l brother. Breaker boss he no let-a him work. 
 He too young-a. You give him li l piece pape? 
 
 It seemed useless for Mrs. Hatton to protest that 
 until eight-year-old Domenico should reach the law 
 ful age, no recommendation of hers could secure the 
 coveted seat on the benches of the coal breaker. Even 
 when she left, the father repeated the request for the 
 " Li l piece pape." 
 
 It was toward the last of March, a year after the 
 fire, that the new breaker was finished and ready for 
 work. The strike had slowly worn out the endurance 
 of the men during the long winter, and now that work 
 was offered again, most of the men were ready to take 
 their old places. But if the men had been starved into 
 submission the boys had not, and they were only wait-
 
 STRIKE o/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 325 
 
 ing for an opportunity to show their power. The op 
 portunity came during the first day s work in the new 
 breaker. It was Jim Owens who called Mick Phelan s 
 attention to it as soon as work was over for the day. 
 
 " Say, Mick, have y seen the new slate picker? " 
 
 " Aw, there s no new boy come to the works. Don t 
 I stand where I c n see the office? There s been no 
 body there to-day but a dago woman and a gur-rl." 
 
 " Sure, that s jist what I m tellin y . She got the 
 job near me that young Spike Dolan used to hold." 
 
 " What s his name?" 
 
 " Haven t I told y ! It ain t a he, it s a she." 
 
 "It s wha-a-t?" Mick Phelan s jaw fell in sheer 
 amazement. Mick was the bully of the breaker, but 
 the new girl could have vanquished him, if she had 
 been present to take advantage of his collapsed condi 
 tion. "A gur-rl, is it? A gur-rl and a dago at 
 that ! The howly saints ! Aw, it s a lie y re tellin me, 
 Jim Owens." 
 
 " It s no lie. Bat McCarty told me he was forninst 
 the office door when the woman and the gur-rl come 
 in. She s to take Dolan s job in the mornin . I ve 
 heard me father say that there was places in the old 
 country where the gur-rls worked around the mines 
 the same as the boys " 
 
 " Let sich foreigners as thim wor-rk as they likes 
 in their own country and let them stay there. But if 
 they comes to Ameriky, they must do as we does. It 
 ain t dacent to be sendin a gur-rl into the breaker, an 
 I won t have it. We ll hold a meetin after supper, 
 Sound a call as y go down the lane."
 
 326 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Mick Phelan s word was law, for was he not the 
 king of the slate pickers and chief of the Malgamated 
 Terrors? But like some other leaders he chose to seem 
 to defer to the will of his gang of Terrors from the 
 Mudluck breaker. Monte di Luce, Mrs. Hatton had 
 named the breaker, but the boys had soon shortened 
 the name into Mudluck. That portion of the village 
 which clustered in the shadow of the towering piles 
 of coal-waste was not inappropriately called Mud- 
 town. Nobody could find fault with that. 
 
 Taken one by one and away from the Mudluck 
 breaker the Terrors were not half so bad as they 
 wished to appear. But when they had congregated, 
 unwashed, in the lee of the culm dump, each urchin 
 with a reputation for noise and mischief to sustain, 
 it was apt to go rather hard with any unsuspecting 
 stranger who might chance to pass. 
 
 The Amalgamated Terrors owed their organization 
 to a former strike which had involved all the rail 
 roads of the region. While their fathers were organ 
 ising a strike in sympathy with the railroad men, the 
 boys, being thrown out of work, organized out of 
 sympathy too. Their first effort in the line of sym 
 pathy was to stone the trains manned by non-union 
 men who had been taken on to fill the places of the 
 union strikers. 
 
 When the police tried to arrest them, the boys 
 disappeared from the bank of one cut only to as 
 semble again a few minutes later in another place. 
 When a few were caught, the officers could not prove 
 that they had had anything worse than snowballs in
 
 STRIKE <?/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 327 
 
 their hands. But if they had examined the grimy 
 snowballs, they might have discovered a jagged lump 
 of slate imbedded in every ball. 
 
 After the strike was over the club was continued 
 for its social features. These attractions consisted in 
 various feats of skill or strength, as well as the break 
 ing in of new hands at smoking or chewing. The 
 meeting place of the club was a sort of amphitheatre, 
 formed by the junction of three culm heaps, two of 
 which were nearly parallel, while the third lay at right 
 angles across the ends of the other two. This valley 
 was entirely secluded and could not be entered con 
 veniently except from the place where the two nearly 
 parallel heaps joined. Down this steep path the boys 
 had placed a board. When a new boy began to work 
 in the breaker, the plank was used to initiate him into 
 membership in the Amalgamated Terrors. It might 
 be mentioned that the plank had become quite smooth. 
 
 The natural advantages of such a meeting place 
 were still further increased by the fact that the shanty 
 in which the night watchman had had his winter 
 quarters, which had stood at the top of one of the 
 heaps of coal dirt, happened to fall into the amphi 
 theatre. 
 
 Perhaps Jim Owens could have told how the 
 accident occurred. At any rate the building was not 
 valuable enough to make it worth while for the com 
 pany to incur the expense of hoisting it into place 
 again, and so the boys used it for a club house. Some 
 of them could get on the inside when the whole cl .tb 
 attended a meeting, and the rest swarmed over the
 
 328 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 roof and about the door. The walls inside were cov 
 ered with garish play bills. The property of the club 
 consisted of a heavy box with a lock, in which to keep 
 Indian clubs, boxing gloves, and all that sort of neces 
 sary furniture. 
 
 The club confined its attention to such diver 
 sions as these. Once it had attempted a debate: 
 " Resolved that the Pannymow is a betther canawl than 
 the Nigger-ague; " but the debate had ended in a 
 fight between the members which threatened to dis 
 rupt the organization. So all such dangerous features 
 were tabooed. 
 
 Mick and Jim were the two oldest boys in the 
 breaker and they were both officers in the Amalga 
 mated Terrors. In response to the whistled call for 
 the meeting, the members of the association were 
 straying back toward their club house. Most of them 
 had washed before eating their suppers, but even those 
 whose countenances had lost the inky coat of grime 
 from the rest of the face still bore black rings around 
 the eyes, which many washings would not remove. 
 
 The atmosphere of the coal breaker is particularly 
 unhealthy. The faces of many of the boys show 
 gaunt and hollow cheeks, even under the mask of dust. 
 The lungs become so clogged with the sharp , glass- 
 like fragments of coal dust that the particular form 
 of consumption known as miner s asthma or anthra- 
 chosis often claims its victims before they have reached 
 manhood. 
 
 The moral atmosphere is not less dangerous than 
 the physical, Breaker bosses are often notoriously
 
 1HE OFFICERS OF THE MALGAMATED TERRORS
 
 STRIKE <?/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 329 
 
 brutal. The strongest will, backed by the strongest 
 arm, rules. The place reeks with profanity as well 
 as with dust. Innocence perishes. For what reason 
 then are these growing boys subjected to so much 
 hardship and so great moral risk? For sixty cents a 
 day. In the coal regions men are plenty and cheap ; 
 the supply, both foreign and domestic, but especially 
 foreign, far exceeds the demand. But boys are at a 
 premium. 
 
 Of course it isn t just right, as the boy s mother 
 would admit to herself, and of course the law forbids 
 his working in the breaker before he is twelve; but 
 when his father is brought home dead, (or, at least, 
 part of him is) ; and when the other children are 
 nothing but girls; and when his mother s speak-easy, 
 (and who could find fault with a poor widdy woman 
 with a lot of girls selling a drop or two?) but when 
 the speak-easy is not a profitable enterprise, from hav 
 ing to do a credit business, or from too great friendli 
 ness on the part of the neighbours, or from too much 
 home consumption; and when the boy doesn t want to 
 go to school, and does want to go to work in the 
 breaker, (the darling boy!) and when his mother 
 goes to the breaker boss and swears that he is over 
 twelve but small for his age, why, what is to be done ? 
 Breaker bosses are not employed as detectives, and 
 boys are not horses whose age can be told by their 
 teeth. So into the breaker he goes. 
 
 Or perhaps his father, weakened by the same kind 
 of burdens borne in his youth, may now be prema 
 turely disabled; then the boy must become the frail
 
 330 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 support of the family. He may be so small that his 
 dinner pail drags on the snow as he trudges to his 
 work. Or it may be that the father is put on " half 
 shift," because he works for himself, while the buy 
 must work over time, because he works for the com 
 pany. More likely still, the father spends so much of 
 his earnings at the saloon that the boy must support 
 his mother and the younger children. In any such 
 case, into the breaker he must go. 
 
 Of course the work in the breaker precludes all 
 opportunity for attending school. While provision 
 is made by law for night schools, and while such 
 schools are established in some communities, it is 
 seldom that much real good is accomplished by them. 
 As a final consequence, the children of the foreigners 
 who have overrun the valleys in the mining regions 
 are to a startling degree ignorant of even the rudi 
 ments of learning. While their fathers are usually 
 able to read their native language, the sons of these 
 strangers are often utterly illiterate. 
 
 Mick and Jim took their way to the top of the culm 
 heap which lay next the village of Mudtown and 
 paused a moment, before descending to the meeting 
 place of the Terrors, to give the final signal by which 
 a meeting of the club was called, three short blasts fol 
 lowed by one long one blown upon Mick s grimy 
 fingers. 
 
 Most of the members of the Malgamated Terrors 
 had come up by this time. Many smoked and all of 
 them swaggered, each one copying some trick of man 
 ner or speech admired in his father or some stage
 
 STRIKE o/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 331 
 
 hero. Mick Phelan was beginning to take more in 
 terest in pugilists than in mere actors. Mick had be 
 gun to outgrow the small suburban ambition of being 
 " the toughest kid in Reagan s Patch," and was be 
 ginning to send out challenges for pugilistic encounters 
 with the " breaker bullies " or the " feather-weight " 
 champions of other communities. 
 
 As for the sending of these documents, that was 
 really managed by the faithful satellite Jim Owens, 
 who signed as well as wrote them. Mick could not 
 have signed his name to anything, for he did not know 
 how to write, his entire education consisting of the 
 first three lessons in the primer, which had been 
 thumped into him by various teachers during the in 
 tervals of playing hookey which had occupied the two 
 years when the state had his name upon its school- 
 roll. 
 
 Among the last to arrive was an under-sized, un 
 washed imp known as Bat McCarty, the clown of the 
 breaker and hence a privileged person. Looking about 
 the ring of assembled Terrors, he asked in a high- 
 pitched voice, " Who ll lind me a match? " 
 
 Several were proffered. Accepting the first one 
 offered, the gamin prepared to strike it on his trou 
 sers leg. Then suddenly arresting his hand, he made 
 a motion towards his mouth as if he had forgotten 
 his pipe, tapping his pockets one after another in 
 succession. 
 
 " Sure, now, if I on y jist had the loan of a pipe 
 an tobacky, Mick Phelan, I d be bavin a shmoke!" 
 
 A shout of laughter greeted Bat s sally, and Mick,
 
 332 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 with the instinct of a budding political boss, pro 
 duced both pipe and tobacco. 
 
 Jim Owens stated the question before the meeting: 
 " What are the Terrors a-goin 1 to do about the dago 
 gur-rl?" Mick Phelan, as befitted his dignity, said 
 nothing. But with the foresight of a true politician he 
 had prompted several of his henchmen to express his 
 opinion. This soon set the passions of the Terrors 
 ablaze. 
 
 The meeting was a stormy one and the angry Ter 
 rors clamoured for an opportunity to show their 
 strength. Here at last was something of importance 
 which called for united action on the part of the so 
 ciety. At the end of an excited outburst, Mick kicked 
 against the door to enforce silence and then an 
 nounced the deliberate action of the club, delivered in 
 his best high-tragedy voice : " This is more n the Mal- 
 gamated Terrors is a-goin to stand. Brother Ter 
 rors, I order a str-r-rike ! " 
 
 Mick did not rise the next morning when his 
 mother called him. When his father was on strike he 
 was accustomed to lie abed late. It was not until his 
 mother appeared by his bedside that he rose. Even 
 then he did not tell her why he slept so late. When he 
 had reinforced his courage by his breakfast he ven 
 tured to tell her that the breaker boys had agreed to 
 go on strike. For a moment she stood with her arm 
 upraised holding the knife with which she had been 
 cutting bread for the children. Then dropping the 
 knife she towered over Mick threateningly. 
 
 "So you will go on strike?" she said, reaching
 
 STRIKE tf/ MALGAMATED TERRORS 333 
 
 down for his coat collar. " So you will go on strike, 
 will you? " 
 
 Hold on! Mother! Howly snakes Don t! 
 Wait a minute ! Do you mind, we ve got to strike. 
 We can t have a gur-rl dago pickin slate " 
 
 Mrs. Phelan had wound her fingers into Mick s 
 collar in order to steady her son while she punctuated 
 his protests. The last vigourous spank, a well-directed 
 and uplifting stroke, fairly landed him in the yard. 
 
 " Now gwan out o this. To wor-rk wid y . It s 
 strikes enough we ve had in this house," she added 
 grimly as she resumed the task of cutting bread for 
 the frightened younger Phelans, while Mick took 
 his disconsolate way to the breaker, being devoutly 
 thankful that his father s work made it necessary for 
 him to leave the house earlier than the breaker boys. 
 His father s temper was not so quickly quenched as his 
 mother s.
 
 A SCAB SLATE PICKER
 
 " // the world tolerates misery of any kind, it is to 
 turn it to account for its own purposes, to make some 
 use of it, saddle and bridle it, put a bit in its mouth, 
 ride it about and get some fun out of it." BALZAC.
 
 XXIII 
 
 A SCAB SLATE PICKER 
 
 IT was highly unfortunate for the ambitions of 
 little Pippinella Jindy, who aspired to become a 
 slate picker, that such an experience as that of 
 Mick Phelan, when he announced to his mother that 
 the Malgamated Terrors had gone on strike, had also 
 befallen nearly every other member of the organisa 
 tion. The backbone of the strike had been effectually 
 broken by the blows of the respective mothers of the 
 Terrors, but the boys had been stung by the process 
 into a kind of unreasoning resentment against poor 
 little Italian Pippinella, as though she were directly 
 responsible for their sufferings. 
 
 By some sort of intuition Pippinella seemed to un 
 derstand this. For this reason she kept away from the 
 breaker, although the family sadly needed her wages. 
 
 Nobody but one who has seen it, can imagine what 
 hardship falls upon a mining village when the sign 
 
 NO WORK 
 
 is posted at the colliery office. In a community 
 where there are various industries a man who is out 
 
 337
 
 338 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 of work of one sort may seek employment of another 
 kind. But in many of the coal mining towns there is 
 no other sort of employment. The stores close. The 
 schools dwindle. The company houses empty. Pit 
 there are always some who cannot move away. These 
 linger on in want and discouragement. In many cases 
 the men go off in search of work, leaving their 
 families behind. Upon these helpless ones, the women 
 and children, the severest hardship falls. 
 
 During the hard times at the Mudluck breaker those 
 who lived in the company s houses soon moved away, 
 while their less fortunate neighbours, who had begun 
 to buy property during the good times and had not 
 yet paid for their homes, were in the worst plight. 
 It was then that the community learned of the action 
 of Mr. Hudderfield. 
 
 Mark Owens reported it in his saloon. " Old Sun- 
 derland Red has done a nice thing, now I tell you! 
 Mortgaged his house to raise the money to give $50 
 apiece to all the families in his church where the man s 
 away from home to seek work. Yes, sir, mortgaged 
 his new house that was supposed to be built for some 
 young woman. Must be goin to get married. What 
 else did he build a house for? Now he s give the 
 money to the women and children, without any se 
 curity or certainty that it ll ever be paid back. 
 
 " I ain t no religious shark," he went on, " but if old 
 Sunderland Red ain t showed that he s got a genuwine 
 brand for his religion then there ain t none in the 
 cask." 
 
 If the miners had suffered during the strike, the
 
 THE SCAB SLATE PICKER 339 
 
 unskilled Italian and Slavic labourers, whose wages 
 even in good times seldom rise to a point where they 
 can save anything, suffered still more keenly. When 
 the men in the union had given up and gone back to 
 work again, these foreigners who had helped to break 
 the strike came in for such a share of hatred and 
 persecution that they could hardly find work of any 
 sort. There was some slight excuse, therefore, for 
 their sending their sons to work in the breaker even 
 when they had not reached the legal age, since their 
 families were almost starving. 
 
 So it came about that beside the Malgamated Ter 
 rors there were in the breaker a number of Italian 
 boys, bullet-headed, stocky little fellows, mostly un 
 der age, who had been set to work by their parents to 
 help support their families in their dire need. These 
 boys fell under ban with Pippinella and life became 
 miserable for them. 
 
 When the mirth of the community over the strike 
 of the Malgamated Terrors had somewhat subsided, 
 Pippinella prepared herself to go back into the breaker 
 again. The members of the organization had been on 
 the watch for her daily, and every morning the two 
 factions lined up on opposite sides of the valley be 
 tween the culm dumps, the Terrors for offensive war 
 fare and the Italian boys for mutual protection. 
 
 On the morning when Pippinella returned to work, 
 Mick Phelan and his crowd appeared on the culm 
 clump which overlooked the staircase leading to the 
 new breaker, threatening the Italian boys with vio 
 lence if they attempted to man the screens. The
 
 340 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 crowd of younger boys, being without a leader, stood 
 huddled sullenly together out of range of the party 
 on the dump, uncertain whether to fight or run. 
 
 As the whistle blew there came up a strange figure 
 wearing a man s coat, with the sleeves cut off at the 
 elbows, and with old blue overalls covering the legs. 
 The shoes were pointed at the toes and had evidently 
 once belonged to a lady. The hair was cropped short, 
 revealing a bullet-shaped head and a fighting jaw. 
 
 " Hi ! Here comes the king of the dagoes ! " shrieked 
 Mick. 
 
 When the ragamuffin attempted to mount the stairs 
 he was greeted with a fusilade of stones, flung against 
 the side of the breaker so as to make a terrifying noise. 
 
 In spite of this, the boy seemed about to pass up 
 into the breaker. The crowd huddled below wavered 
 for a moment and would have followed. But at that 
 instant Mick Phelan raised his voice to its most ma 
 lignant note, crying, " Scabs ! Scabs ! Kill the 
 scabs ! " 
 
 The ragamuffin on the steps came back, waving his 
 arms. " Scab ! " he shrieked. " He call-a you scab ! " 
 Then in Italian he screamed some challenge which 
 stiffened up the wavering line and sent it charging 
 up the steep side of the culm bank. The leader did 
 not wait to see whether the crowd followed, but with 
 splendid courage raced towards the top some two 
 paces ahead of the others. 
 
 It was but a brief battle. Mick was an ancient, 
 enemy and straight for him the column rushed. But 
 before they came into personal conflict a heavy lump
 
 THE SCAB SLATE PICKER 341 
 
 of slate shattered the leader s ankle and he went over 
 the edge of the bank in a lump. A hoarse shout from 
 the breaker boss who had come out to see what was 
 the cause of the tumult scattered the combatants and 
 in a few minutes the boys were in their places while 
 the limp figure of the leader was carried into the office. 
 
 Half an hour later as Dr. Creigan was examining 
 the unconscious child he looked up quickly into the 
 faces of the men gathered outside the door. " Why 
 this child is a girl ! " he cried. " Who sends a girl to 
 the breaker? " 
 
 Presently Pippinella opened her eyes and shivered. 
 She looked wonderingly into the faces of the men for 
 an instant. Then she tried to rise. " I must get-a to 
 the breaker," she said. 
 
 " My child, how does it come that you work in the 
 breaker?" asked the doctor. 
 
 " I no mak-a blame," she said sullenly. " Mick 
 Phelan, he mak-a fight." 
 
 " Why do you work in the breaker? Girls oughtn t 
 to work in the breaker ? " 
 
 " My mudder she say we must-a have job. We hun 
 gry. I mak-a work only li l time. My brother Do- 
 menico he com-a work soon. He too li l mak-a fight. 
 I com-a first day, mak-a fight with Mick Phelan. Do- 
 menico, he com-a next day. No fight; strike all gone; 
 all nice." 
 
 " Well, you won t make much more fight for a 
 while." 
 
 " Will Domenico los-a job, if I no work-a to-day? " 
 she asked anxiously, half-rising only to sink back
 
 342 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 again in pain. " You tak-a me in breaker; I sit on-a 
 bench, pick-a slate all day." 
 
 Just then Pippinella s mother came in. Nobody 
 knows how the news of such trouble travels, but it had 
 reached Reagan s Patch almost as soon as the tele 
 phone message had reached Mr. Hatton. 
 
 " We ll send her to the hospital in my carriage," 
 Hatton said. 
 
 But Mrs. Jindy did not agree to this. She gathered 
 Pippinella into her arms as if she had been a babv, 
 and in spite of the injured foot, would have carried 
 her off to her home. When at length she was per 
 suaded that there would be no effort to take them both 
 away to the hospital, she allowed herself and the child 
 to be led by Mr. Hatton to the carriage, still holding 
 Pippinella in her arms and crooning soft Italian en 
 dearments over her. 
 
 When they reached the wretched little tenement, 
 Pippinella, who had not cried out while the doctor set 
 the bones of the foot, burst into loud wails at the 
 sight of the pointed-toed shoe slit from top to sole by 
 the doctor s lancet. 
 
 " Never mind," Mr. Hatton said, " I ll send you a 
 pair of shoes with all the buttons on them, which 
 won t need to be tied on with rags." 
 
 " Will breaker boss keep-a job for me till I get-a 
 well?" 
 
 No, Pippinella, we can t have girls working in 
 the breaker; but I have been talking to your father 
 and I ll give him a job as watchman of the breaker, 
 where he can make a great deal more than you could
 
 THE SCAB SLATE PICKER 343 
 
 picking slate. You must hurry up and get well and 
 you and Domenico must go to school. I think Mrs. 
 Hatton has some sort of plan for what she calls a 
 settlement house, where there will be all sorts of 
 games and pictures and fun for you and the rest of 
 the children of the Patch." 
 
 To which Pippinella only replied : " Mick Phelan, 
 he no let-a me play games in the Patch. But Mrs. 
 Hatton mak-a all right." Then looking at her foot, 
 as if it were through it that the good times were to 
 come, she added, " Won t Mick Phelan be mad-a 
 cause I no break-a his foot ? "
 
 IN THE SINKAGES
 
 "I m will in a man should go tollable strong 
 Agin wrong in the abstract, for thai kind of wrong 
 Is allers unpop lar an never gets pitied, 
 Because it s a crime no one ever committed; 
 But he mustn t be hard on partickler sins 
 Cos then he ll be kickin the people s own shins." 
 
 LOWELL.
 
 XXIV 
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 
 
 WHEN Whiz Nichol borrowed money from 
 Bishop Vaux he did not say that it would 
 be spent in providing himself with the 
 means necessary to commit burglary upon the home 
 of Rector Warne. In fact at that time he had not de 
 termined to commit burglary. If he had declared such 
 a determination the bishop might not have advanced 
 him the money. 
 
 Mr. Nichol was driven to burglary by the force of 
 circumstances. He had long ago exhausted the chari 
 table impulses of Rector Warne and the good people of 
 Coalton, so that he was obliged to range further and 
 further from home in his efforts to< secure money. 
 This brought him at length to the home of Bishop 
 Vaux in Carbonville. 
 
 In the meantime he found himself increasingly 
 thirsty and decreasingly anxious or able to work. He 
 reported to the bishop that he had been promised a 
 job at the Hatton colliery, but was without funds to 
 supply himself with tools. When he mentioned Coal- 
 ton, the tender heart of the bishop immediately melted 
 and he gave the money quite cheerfully to Nichol, ac 
 cepting his statement that he was a member of the 
 
 347
 
 348 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 church and that he would hunt up the bishop s son-in- 
 law as soon as he should reach Coalton. 
 
 Most of the money was spent for drink and when 
 Nichol did visit the rectory it was after midnight and 
 through the laundry door. 
 
 It was a most inopportune time for a burglary, 
 right in the midst of Holy Week. None but an ill- 
 conditioned burglar would have chosen such a time 
 to rob the rectory. But that was just the sort of man 
 Whiz Nichol was, always supremely selfish. It was 
 because he knew that Rector Warne would be tired 
 out, and therefore not easily wakened, that he chose 
 such a time. Furthermore, it was his first burglary 
 and he was naturally a little nervous about it. But the 
 principal reason why he chose such a victim at such 
 a time, was because of his own dire need for money. 
 The time was inconvenient for the rector, to be sure, 
 but then there is always more than one person s con 
 venience to be consulted, even in a burglary. That 
 much must be said in favour of Whiz Nichol. 
 
 The entrance had been more easily managed than 
 Mr. Nichol had dared to hope. It had really proved 
 to be a very simple matter. Two hours and twenty 
 minutes after the gas in the rector s bed-room had 
 gone out, the burglar had walked up to the door; 
 that is, he had skulked stealthily from the screen of 
 evergreens in the rear of the house to the shadow by 
 the door of the laundry shed. Then he opened the 
 door, starting the bolt noiselessly with the short bar 
 of iron he carried. He shrank back into the shadow 
 again, shivering with nervous dread, after the door
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 349 
 
 was opened, looking about carefully outside, as well 
 as listening intently for full five minutes to make sure 
 that there was no stir within. While he was listening, 
 he heard the whistle of the one o clock express. 
 
 " The sign says Stop, Look and Listen ! and I ve 
 done all t ree." He could afford to joke over his easy 
 entrance. When the express should rumble over the 
 causeway crossing the creek, he meant to take ad 
 vantage of the noise and break open the door between 
 the laundry and the kitchen. But here the inner and 
 stronger door had been left unlocked, and he joy 
 ously found himself in possession of the lower floor. 
 His plan had been to satisfy his hunger, for he had 
 fasted all that day more rigorously than the rector 
 himself, although not for the glory of God. But 
 when he stood, listening again, by the cellar door, 
 his appetite failed him. 
 
 " I c n eat after I git me hands on de bood," he 
 whispered to himself nervously. 
 
 It was no wonder that Whiz Nichol should be start 
 ing a career of burglary, or that he should be a coward. 
 Basely born, worse reared, untaught, ill-fed, there 
 seemed no hope for him in the world of honest men 
 and no place for him but the prison. 
 
 For the present, the prison seemed far away, his 
 plunder conveniently near; for there at the head of 
 the stairs was the rector s room and there, hanging 
 on a clothes-tree, was the suit of clothes which 
 he had taken off. The burglar quickly possessed 
 himself of the watch. Warne was one of those 
 leisure-loving people who wind their watches in the
 
 350 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 morning- and so had had no need to remove his time 
 piece from his clothing at night. Besides the watch 
 the burglar found the rector s purse. It was heavier 
 than usual, for the manager of the guild fair, which 
 was held just before the beginning of Lent, had made 
 her return of moneys only a few hours before. 
 
 The rector seldom had so much money on hand. 
 
 Thus far the burglar had worked by the light of 
 the street lamps outside; but now when it was neces 
 sary to make further search through drawers and 
 closets for other valuables, he began lighting safety 
 matches. These matches would not be so likely to 
 waken the sleeper, either by their crackling on ignition 
 or by the smell of sulphur. 
 
 Now just at this point was where Whiz Nichol 
 made his first mistake. He should have been more 
 modest in his desires, especially since it was his first 
 burglary. "When a beginner is fortunate enough to fill 
 his pockets with hundred-dollar watches and well- 
 filled pocketbooks in his first venture at burglary, he 
 should not be too greedy. But if he is going to try 
 for a full haul, he should be supplied with proper ap 
 pliances. If Mr. Whiz Nichol had only provided him 
 self with a bag containing pockets in the lining, there 
 would have been no trouble. But some things must 
 be learned by experience, and he was only an amateur 
 as yet. As it was, when he started up from the closet 
 where he had found the communion plate, the silver 
 rattled in his bag, and the rector instantly sat bolt 
 upright in bed. 
 
 "What do you want?" he demanded, blinking at
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 351 
 
 the light of the match which the burglar held in his 
 unsteady hand. 
 
 Whiz Nichol reached his other hand into his hip 
 pocket and drew out a shiny, ridiculous 22-calibre re 
 volver, which he quickly cocked and pointed at the 
 rector s breast, just as he had seen the villain do in 
 the theatre. 
 
 " Keep mum," he entreated in a voice which was 
 meant to be stern. Then in the villain s voice, as he 
 had carefully prepared beforehand : " Don t take an 
 other step, or you die right there ! " 
 
 This speech shows the difficulty of planning a bur 
 glary beforehand. Whiz Nichol was entirely pre 
 pared with a speech which should discourage pursuit, 
 but he had not counted on parleying with a solicitous 
 husband and father blinking benignly without his 
 spectacles in a vain endeavour to make out what was 
 wrong with his household. 
 
 "What is it you have there? Did you want me 
 to get something, my dear?" said the rector, sup 
 posing the burglar to be his wife and beginning to 
 move about under the bedclothes as if to rise. 
 
 Warne had forgotten in his half-dazed condition 
 that his wife and children were absent, on a visit to the 
 bishop, until after Easter. 
 
 There was clearly no time for further oratory of 
 the melodrama type on the part of the burglar. " Git 
 nawthin ," he growled in a most unfeminine voice. 
 " I ain t yer dear. You crawl right down under them 
 covers and don t you peep, or you ll git a free ticket 
 to heaven on the smokeless powder route. See! "
 
 352 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 It was no lack of personal bravery on the part of 
 the rector \vhich made him act as he did. Courage 
 before breakfast is undoubtedly rare, but wisdom at 
 two o clock in the morning is still more so, especially 
 in the case of a man who has worked and prayed and 
 fasted through the forty days of Lent, until it is im 
 possible for him to wake himself thoroughly even 
 when he realizes that there is a burglar in his room. 
 
 Warne sank obediently down into the bed again and 
 the burglar hastened to the staircase. The clergy 
 man felt no particular resentment against the bur 
 glar when he saw him stuff the chain of his valuable 
 watch into his pocket. But the pocketbook contained 
 money which did not belong to the rector. Was it 
 right to allow the thief to abstract that? 
 
 While he was debating the matter, he noticed that 
 the bag which the burglar carried held the communion 
 plate. The thought of thieves gathering round a melt 
 ing pot in which these hallowed vessels were sinking 
 among the flames, stirred him to the keenest resent 
 ment. This was succeeded by a flash-light mental 
 photograph of abandoned creatures indulging in some 
 orgy of drunkenness from these vessels, which roused 
 him to the pitch of righteous frenzy in which he could 
 have slain the violators with the same unction as the 
 prophet showed when the priests of Baal fell into his 
 hands. 
 
 So, before the burglar could reach the door, the rec 
 tor s sleepy, foolish brain sent him springing from his 
 bed and precipitated him upon the retreating form of 
 Whiz Nichol. It was but a brief struggle. The
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 353 
 
 burglar struck out savagely with his bag of plunder, 
 half-stunning the rector. Mr. Warne held on, how 
 ever, until the burglar stumbled in the dark over the 
 edge of the stairway. Together they rolled to the 
 bottom, but when he regained consciousness the bur 
 glar had escaped. The silver had lodged on the 
 staircase and was left behind, bent, and dented some 
 what; but the watch and the money were gone. 
 
 On the second Monday after Easter, when the rec 
 tor paid his weekly visit to the city hospital, he found 
 that all the inmates who had accepted his ministrations 
 up to that time had been discharged. When he in 
 quired whether there were no new cases, Dr. Creigan 
 said: "Why yes; there is one case you might see. 
 Came in last night. Acute alcoholism. Threatened 
 with delirium tremens. Only a boy, too. An under 
 fed creature. A physical degenerate. A moral wreck, 
 too, I fear." 
 
 The doctor knew that he could say nothing that 
 would interest the rector more than this. Like the 
 physician himself, whose professional pride was 
 touched by the most desperate cases, Mr. Warne seemed 
 to rouse himself for the most strenuous effort where 
 the moral need was the greatest. 
 
 When the rector found himself in the room alone 
 with the new patient, he stood for a moment gazing 
 intently into his face, bewildered by the sense of 
 having seen the man before. Then with a sudden 
 enlightenment he seated himself by the narrow iron 
 cot and read the passage he had chosen from the 
 Book. Prayer followed and then the rector pleaded
 
 354 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 most earnestly with his hearer for a life of purity and 
 purpose. But in spite of his earnest words and his 
 intention to point the wretched being before him to a 
 better life, the visitor was conscious all the while of an 
 unreality about his words. To himself he kept saying, 
 " Why not call in the police and let the law take its 
 course with this vicious creature? Would it be right 
 to let him go free to prey again upon society? " 
 
 Warne remembered how savagely the burglar struck 
 at him with the heavy bag of plunder as they 
 struggled towards the stairs and how ruthlessly he 
 had beaten him into insensibility. In spite of his 
 efforts to hold his mind to the words of the prayer- 
 book, the rector found that his thoughts wandered 
 and that his words were perfunctory. Rising abruptly, 
 he left the room, after stating that he would return 
 in a few days. 
 
 He did not go home after leaving the hospital. 
 He wanted time to think. His thinking took longer 
 than he had expected and it was some time after 
 he had left the bedside of the burglar before he 
 started back towards his home again. To reach the 
 rectory from the mountain side where he had been 
 walking, it was necessary for him to cross a desolate 
 strip of ground which had been undermined, \vhere 
 the surface had been ruined by sinkages. It was al 
 most dark when he came to this doleful spot and he 
 found it necessary to pick his way very carefully to 
 avoid falling into one of the numerous fissures through 
 the midst of which the path led. Part of the tract 
 had been covered with trees when the pillars of coal
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 355 
 
 were taken away from beneath and these had fallen 
 into confusion through the sinking of the earth from 
 beneath their roots. In the lowest part of the valley 
 there were pools of water. 
 
 While he was in the very midst of this dangerous 
 territory, the rector was startled to see the skulking 
 figure of a man move from behind one of the fallen 
 tree trunks and start to run in the direction of a 
 black pool of water. He moved forward until he 
 was opposite this dark lake and then stopped to see 
 what the figure would do. As he looked, he recog 
 nised in the moving figure the tottering form of Whiz 
 Nichol. Without a moment s hesitation Warne ran 
 towards him and would have seized him by the 
 hand to lead him back to the hospital, but the bur 
 glar flung himself toward one of the crevasses with 
 which the surface yawned and would have been smoth 
 ered in the earth, had the rector not caught him. 
 
 " Let me go," he panted. " I ll bury myself in one 
 of these sink holes and you ll never hear of me again. 
 Why should you take me to the pen? Let me go! 
 Let me go! " His voice rose into a feeble shriek as 
 he uttered the last words. 
 
 The rector held firmly to the struggling youth. 
 " No, I won t let you go. You might hide your body 
 in the earth; but the time will come when your soul 
 will call in vain for the rocks to cover you from the 
 sight of Almighty God." 
 
 It was so nearly dark now that they could not see 
 clearly their surroundings. Thus it happened as they 
 were crossing the ridge where Whiz Nichol saw a
 
 356 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 wider crevass, that he sprang towards it, taking his 
 pursuer unawares. Again Mr. Warne felt himself 
 dragged into danger as he had been on the night of 
 the burglary. But this time there was a richer prize 
 at stake. 
 
 With all his might he struggled to save a soul from 
 death. But the treacherous sand gave way and in 
 another moment they were sliding downward, chok 
 ing with dust, in the midst of an avalanche of gravel. 
 This time it was the rector s turn to land on top and 
 when he dragged himself from the body of the bur 
 glar, he found that the latter did not rise. Groping 
 about in the darkness, he discovered that Nichol was 
 bleeding from a scratch in the neck. This he staunched 
 as quickly as possible with his handkerchief and with 
 strips torn from the lining of his coat. 
 
 In feeling around to find a way out, the rector 
 discovered that there was great danger of bringing 
 down loose earth enough to smother them, while the 
 insecure footing beneath slipped and trembled so vio 
 lently that he feared lest they should sink still further 
 into the mine beneath. He therefore called at the 
 top of his voice, hoping that some one in the settle 
 ment on the hill beyond might hear. His shouts 
 roused the burglar, who presently sat up and groped 
 about feebly. 
 
 The two men sat facing each other in the darkness. 
 When the burglar recovered sufficiently to realise 
 what had happened, he began to reproach his captor 
 for hounding him and for preventing him from self- 
 destruction. Once more Warne struggled to find
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 357 
 
 a way of access to the burglar s better nature. His 
 words were no longer those of the professional priest, 
 but the cry of a soul that has found its way out of 
 darkness, to its companion who still struggles among 
 the lost. 
 
 "Aw, you can t fool me!" the burglar muttered 
 presently. " I know well enough you re just holding 
 on to me till you can find a cop to pinch me." 
 
 " Nichol," said the rector earnestly, " This after 
 noon I would have turned you over to the police. In 
 fact I started away from the hospital intending to do 
 that very thing." 
 
 " I knew it," the burglar cried. " I could see it in 
 yer face. That s why I sneaked off from the hospital. 
 Now why don t you let me go? " 
 
 " I have let you go. I forgive you now. I believe 
 the law of Christ requires me to love you enough to 
 help you to be a better man. You needn t be afraid 
 I ll turn you over to the police." 
 
 "How do I know that you mean what you say?" 
 
 " Here s one way you can tell whether I am in 
 earnest or not. There are some twenty feet of crum 
 bling earth over our heads; when you dragged me down 
 here it loosened the edges of this cave-in; if a heavy 
 coal train passes down the road it may jar that earth 
 down and smother us both. My business is to tell 
 you what to do to prepare to meet God, if that mass 
 of earth should fall." 
 
 The burglar listened quietly while the rector 
 pleaded as he had never done before, now with God 
 for help and mercy, now with the burglar himself.
 
 358 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 " I d like to believe you," he said at last, " But look 
 the way you treated me that night I was in yer house ! 
 You weren t lovin me much just then. I was afraid 
 of you and when I started to run you held on to me 
 with a grip that was as hard as hell. I thought first 
 you had some knife or somethin and I struck at you. 
 You knowed I was armed, why didn t you keep away ? 
 I wasn t hurtin you none. What did you use me that 
 way fer? Why I thought you d tear the heart out o 
 me with yer hands. Talk about lovin yer neighbour 
 as yerself ! What did yer treat me that way fer, say? " 
 
 The rector drew his breath rather hard for a mo 
 ment but said nothing. 
 
 " What do you know about livin rough ? You 
 was never hungry in yer life, when you couldn t get 
 all you wanted to eat. Yes, I know you ll say I could 
 work; but you wouldn t give me work yerself." 
 
 " You never asked for it." 
 
 " Didn t I ? How about the young feller that come 
 to yer door only the Tuesday before I broke before 
 I got into yer house? Do you remember what word 
 you sent down to the door from yer office? " 
 
 " I sent no message down. I was busy with the 
 treasurer of the guild fair and the maid told you to 
 come back at another time. 
 
 Yes, an when I come back in the afternoon, the 
 snow was all cleaned off yer front walk an I could go 
 hungry or beg. Then there s that guild fair: The 
 money was collected for the poor of the town wasn t 
 it? Wasn t I poor? I saved you the trouble of 
 handlin it. When I got that money I meant to buy
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 359 
 
 meself a decent suit of clothes, an to pay me board, 
 an to go to church, an to find a job, an live a decent 
 life." 
 
 " Nichol," said the rector slowly, " you ve said 
 some things to-night that I believe. If I have ever 
 been hard on you unintentionally, I am sorry. But 
 when you talk like this about getting a job and going 
 to church, you know you are lying. You meant to do 
 just what you did to go and get drunk." 
 
 At this moment a clod of earth fell from the bank 
 behind them and the rector discovered that the bur 
 glar had been diligently burrowing with his feet while 
 he engaged him with talk. 
 
 " You scoundrel ! " the rector cried pinioning the 
 man with his arms while he dragged his feet into a 
 harmless position in front and sat upon them. " You 
 selfish beast, to endanger both our lives in order to 
 sacrifice your own ! Have you no gratitude? Is there 
 nothing good to which I can appeal?" Then while 
 he held him down Warne uttered the threatenings 
 of the law instead of the promises of the gospel, until, 
 realizing that the man s delirium was to blame for 
 his homicidal mania, he came back to the words of 
 love with which he had at first sought entrance into 
 his soul. But he held the burglar safely away from 
 the bank. 
 
 " O, Mr. Warne," wailed the abject creature, shiv 
 ering, " what you said was true. I took the money 
 because I wanted to get drink. I wish I had a "drink 
 now. I feel so bad. I ve got to have a drink. They 
 wouldn t give me none at the hospital. I don t mind
 
 360 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 bein hungry; I can stand that. But I can t stand this 
 thirst. I ve got to have a drink, I say. I ain t afraid 
 of hell. I ve got hell inside o me right now." 
 
 " It seems to me I smell blood and it makes me 
 sick," he went on. " And there s somethin the matter 
 with my neck. I believe I m going to die. I don t 
 want the mountains to lay on me in hell. Take me 
 out o this place." 
 
 The men who worked on the night shift, Hudder- 
 field, Morris and young Phelan, who crossed the sink- 
 age together at nine o clock on their way to the mines, 
 found them, being guided to the spot by their voices. 
 Nichol had utterly collapsed and was muttering inco 
 herently. The rector had wrapped him in his over 
 coat and was holding him in his arms like a baby, 
 praying over him when he thought him to be rational 
 and praying for him when the burglar s mind wan 
 dered. 
 
 Some time afterwards the rector wrote to Bishop 
 Vaux: 
 
 " I seem to be getting hold of the men in a way 
 that makes me profoundly grateful to God. I shall 
 be particularly glad to have you meet two of them 
 when you come up to confirm the class. The first is 
 the man who broke my collar bone soon after I came 
 here. I have never spoken of it here nor explained 
 the newspaper report that ascribed this broken bone 
 to a fall. The fall was obtained in keeping a helpless 
 woman from abuse at the hands of her drunken hus 
 band. It was a disagreeable experience. When he 
 came from jail I followed him up, and, through our
 
 IN THE SINKAGES 361 
 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew, have kept hold of him 
 ever since. Strangely enough, he never showed the 
 slightest vindictiveness, even at first. For three years 
 he has been a member of the Brotherhood, and has 
 proved himself in many ways thoroughly in earnest. 
 
 " The other man I want you to meet is the fellow 
 to whom you lent money that he might come up here 
 to try to rob the rectory. I don t believe you d know 
 him now. He s the engineer at the hospital plant and 
 he comes regularly to church every other Sunday, 
 after working all day and all night on Saturday. 
 
 * You may remember that before I came here I was 
 in a somewhat unsettled state concerning the Atone 
 ment. I have found Smeaton very satisfactory on this 
 subject, and I see no reason now against adopting his 
 views entirely. I like his liberality exceedingly. But 
 we will talk of these matters further when you come. 
 The truth is, I have so much to occupy my thoughts 
 about other matters that I have long since ceased to 
 bother my brains with doubts." 
 
 Concerning Nichol one of the vestrymen remarked 
 at this time : " I have noticed that Mr. Nichol always 
 puts a five dollar bill on the plate; that s a rather large 
 sum for a man who gets no more wages than I sup 
 pose he is paid. Do you know anything about him, 
 Mr. Warne?" 
 
 " That s the way he commenced to give when he 
 began to come to church. He started in to pay what 
 he regarded a debt of honour which he said he owed 
 to the Lord. But that has been discharged some time 
 ago. I am glad if he still keeps up giving as he did
 
 362 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 at first. I wish there were more like him in many 
 ways." 
 
 " But, Mr. Warne, don t you know any more about 
 it than that?" the vestryman persisted. 
 
 The rector took out his watch. " I know that 
 what I have told you is true," he said. Perhaps he 
 did not look at the watch face at all, but only at a 
 dented spot in the case.
 
 THE SULPHURING 
 OF SUNDERLAND RED
 
 "Serene and mild the untried light 
 
 May have its dawning; 
 As meet in summer s northern night 
 
 The evening gray and morning white, 
 The sunset hues of time blend with the soul s new 
 morning." 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 " Sleep, soldiers, sleep in honoured rest 
 
 Your truth and valour wearing; 
 The bravest are the tender cst 
 The loving are the daring." 
 
 TAYLOR.
 
 XXV 
 
 THE SULPHURING OF SUNDERLAND RED 
 
 THE day was one blaze of glory on the grounds 
 of the Carbonville Country Club. A sky of 
 speckless blue bent over the links. The air 
 was balm. The summer yellow birds rippled overhead 
 on the crest of waves of light. 
 
 The grounds of the Country Club comprised a sort 
 of rolling table-land on the top of the first range of 
 mountains, near the boulevard leading to Sky Summit. 
 It was a matter of common knowledge how much the 
 grounds had cost the Country Club, but only the 
 trustees knew how much per blade it cost to keep the 
 grass so green. 
 
 But the members of the Club thought it was worth 
 all it cost, for when they were here upon their own 
 grounds, they were above all the clamour and dust of 
 the world of coal workers in the Anthrax Valley. 
 
 The outlook from the club house was marred by 
 but one reminder of the busy world below, a small 
 frame building from which a jet of steam issued. It 
 was the boiler house where a new bore-hole was being 
 driven. It was disfiguring of course and annoying to 
 think that the company must invade the landscape 
 with their machinery, but in the land where coal is 
 king one could not expect to escape from the sight 
 
 365
 
 366 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 of toil and struggle altogether. Some of the visitors 
 to the club even thought that the derrick which tow 
 ered above the boiler house added to the scene. 
 
 It was club clay and the grounds about the hand 
 some club house were filled with smart equipages. 
 The coal barons were out in force. Several auto 
 mobiles were gliding about the red shale roads and 
 one tally-ho coach had driven up. The links were 
 gay with men in scarlet coats and girls in green and 
 gold. Strains of music came from the club house. 
 A gay ripple of laughter and badinage quickened the 
 bracing air. 
 
 A thousand feet under ground, directly under the 
 golf links, gaunt, wearied men, with faces blackened 
 with coal dust and smoke, were rushing down a gang 
 way in the red-ash vein of the Hatton Mine soon to 
 come back gasping and faint. They were fighting a 
 fire in the mine. 
 
 The fire had commenced a week before. Limpy 
 Hetherington had been sent with a message to the 
 superintendent in an adjoining gangway. As he passed 
 through a heading, the lamp in his cap set fire to a 
 blower of gas in the roof. It was a very simple thing. 
 Limpy had seen these jets of gas set on fire purposely 
 many a time to startle visitors, and then quickly beaten 
 out again. So he was not at all concerned. 
 
 He took the lamp in his hand and struck at the 
 flaming gas with his cap to quench it, but it blazed 
 more fiercely. Then he took off his coat to beat it out. 
 To his horror he saw that the flame had caught a 
 piece of dry timber.
 
 SULPHURING 0/SUNDERLAND RED 367 
 
 Now he realized the danger, and dipping his coat in 
 the stream of water running down the gangway he 
 struck madly at the flame. But the fire, fanned by the 
 strong current of air in the heading, grew hotter, 
 and soon the entire piece of timber was burning 
 fiercely, while the flames leaped to some adjoining 
 brattice work. 
 
 When he saw the hopelessness of his fight against 
 the fire, he turned and ran down the gangway at full 
 speed, warning man after man of the danger. The 
 men poured out of the chambers and gangways, out 
 past the fire to the foot of the shaft. Meanwhile the 
 air rushing through the burning heading had filled 
 the gangway with stifling smoke and gas. Limpy 
 struggling back towards the fire had to bend low to 
 breathe. 
 
 Just before he reached the fire he remembered that 
 in a new gangway to the left a Pole had gone to work 
 alone that very morning. He had heard Mr. Hudder- 
 field talking about it, so he knew exactly where it 
 was. This man had not been warned. Even if he 
 had heard the shouts, he knew no English and so 
 could not understand the danger. 
 
 Without a moment s hesitation Limpy turned back, 
 stumbling and falling now and then, but finally reach 
 ing the gangway where the Pole was at work. 
 
 When Limpy seized his arm and frantically panto- 
 mined " explosion " there was no need for English 
 speech to make the Pole understand the danger of the 
 situation. He dropped his pick and ran with the boy 
 for his life.
 
 3 68 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 The air in the gangway seemed to be on fire; the 
 heading roared like a furnace. The struggle was not 
 a long one. They drew their jackets over their heads 
 and clung to the rails for guidance; but the scorching 
 heat penetrated their clothes and made progress im 
 possible. Their clothes were on fire, their lungs stifled 
 with the gas. Then the explosion came. A mass of 
 rock fell that was all. It might have been so much 
 harder! There was no long, weary waiting, with 
 hopes of rescue and growing misery. It was all over 
 so quickly! Limpy s had been a good brave heart. 
 And as for the Pole, who knew? 
 
 All this had happened a week before. The fire 
 went on in the meantime eating into the coal, burn 
 ing more fiercely. The Company fought it desper 
 ately. All their efforts to smother it out had proved 
 a failure. So all the miners were called out of the 
 shaft, until the Company could fight the fire success 
 fully. If the fight should fail, the waters of the 
 Anthrax creek would have to be diverted from their 
 bed and poured into the shaft as a last resort. If 
 that should be necessary, the men might starve for 
 months and the Company would lose heavily besides, 
 until the water could be pumped out again and the 
 necessary repairs made to the damaged machinery. 
 So they were fighting the fire face to face. 
 
 It was a slow operation. Only a small gang of 
 men could work to advantage and there were often 
 times when the few men who were in the fight must 
 stand idly at a distance, because the great heat cracked
 
 SULPHURING <?/SUNDERLAND RED 369 
 
 and scaled down the rock roof, so that to approach 
 the fire at short range would mean certain death. 
 
 One of the methods of fighting fire is very simple. 
 Tracks are always ready laid in every gangway of the 
 mines. On these tracks sheet-iron cars are run as 
 close as possible to the burning mass of coal. Then 
 the red hot coals are shovelled into the car and 
 dragged away and extinguished. The men work from 
 four to six hours at a shift and receive double or 
 treble pay. If it can find them, the Company prefers 
 to employ only unmarried men, so that there may be 
 no widows or orphans to be provided for when the 
 men are killed. 
 
 The most daring of the fire fighters was Sunder- 
 land Red. He worked madly on his shift hoping, yet 
 without hope, that beyond the fire somewhere Limpy 
 Hetherington might still be alive and might yet be 
 reached. 
 
 He had worked in the mines for so long that he had 
 become entirely calloused to the dangers of fire fight 
 ing. To prevent the nerves of some of the younger 
 men from being shaken, the ambulance which was kept 
 constantly on hand to carry the injured to the hospital 
 or the dead to their homes, was driven behind the 
 boiler house, by the direction of Mr. Hatton, so that 
 the men should not see it when they came up or went 
 down the shaft. But Sunderland Red cared not for 
 the sight of the ambulance, and as for the stretchers 
 and blankets that were kept in the mine for the use 
 of the injured, he would rather have slept on them
 
 370 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 than in his own bed, because by that means he would 
 be able to renew the struggle to reach Limpy Hether- 
 ington the more quickly when the condition of the 
 fire allowed them to take up the work of rescue. 
 
 It was after the fight had gone on for a week that 
 Sunderland Red was strangled by sulphur gas and then 
 frightfully burned by an explosion. The accident hap 
 pened shortly after midnight. It was not until day 
 light that he arrived at the hospital in Carbonville. 
 
 Almost any other man would have died before the 
 rescuing party reached him; but Sunderland Red was 
 far too sturdy to give up the ghost tamely and die like 
 a rat in a hole. He would fight for his life. The vet 
 eran coal miner is a fighter whether he fights fire or 
 sulphur gas or the devil; and Sunderland Red had 
 fought all three. 
 
 He did not need to be told how serious his case 
 was. As soon as Dr. Creigan and the young assistants 
 in the hospital were through with him, he sent the 
 young men who worked on the same shift with him 
 as messengers, one to bring Rector Warne and an 
 other to summon a notary. 
 
 The notary was the first to arrive. While the nurse 
 was arranging matters to leave the room, the notary 
 removed one after another his coat, vest, collar and 
 tie. The hospitals in the coal regions are provided 
 with rooms which are specially prepared for patients 
 suffering from burns. The temperature is kept at a 
 stifling degree of heat in order to keep the patient 
 from dying from the shock which cooler air would 
 cause.
 
 SULPHURING o/SUNDERLAND RED 371 
 
 i 
 
 " It s not much I ve got to say, but I want you to 
 make it all fair and square." The voice sounded thick 
 and muffled through the stiff linen mask which 
 enveloped his face. A hole was cut in the centre 
 through which he breathed, and two other openings 
 were made behind which his eyes burned with a fever 
 ish light. Oil was dripping from the mask. 
 
 " In my trunk is a package of six notes for fifty 
 dollars apiece. I want those burned. The Lord don t 
 need me any longer in the Mudtown Mission, since 
 He s got the Grace Church interested in it. I doubt 
 not, I m done for and I want to fix it that the bit of 
 money I ve got three hundred and sixty-five dollars 
 in the savings bank in Carbonville is to be given to 
 Teed Hetherington. Pocr little Teed! How ll she 
 ever get along, if Limpy don t get out? But she s the 
 Lord s child and He ll look out for her. Now write 
 that the three hundred and sixty-five dollars is to go to 
 Rector Warne to be used for Teed Hetherington." 
 
 He was so exhausted before it was all done, that 
 the notary did not think it safe to try to get his 
 signature, seeing what it would cost him to use his 
 clumsy, bandaged hands. But he roused himself 
 again when he learned that Mrs. Warne had arrived. 
 She had laid aside her wraps and was ready to enter 
 the forcing house temperature of the ward. Her dark 
 blue gown set off her stately beauty to perfection. Sun- 
 derland Red followed her with his eyes from the 
 moment she came into the room until she passed 
 around his bed and sat down by the head of the cot, 
 unconscious of the fact that he had not uttered a word
 
 372 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 in reply to her greeting nor acknowledged the gift of 
 flowers she brought. 
 
 She did not offer to take the bandaged hand he held 
 out to her at length, but only touched the pillow with 
 a gesture of pity. 
 
 " Oh ! we re so proud of you ! " she cried. " The 
 young man told us how you had brought him out, when 
 he was overcome, at the risk of your own life, and 
 how you took the place of danger yourself because 
 he wasn t a Christian! Mr. Hudderfield, it was fine! 
 It was the act of a hero ! " Although her voice was 
 tense with excitement it was also tender with sympathy, 
 like the caressing tone of a mother with an injured 
 child. 
 
 " I had to do it. It was only what I ought to do. 
 It s part of the trade of mining for some to be hurt. 
 I m glad it wasn t Tom, for he s been wild like. I ve 
 been the same myself. But thank God, that s over! 
 I hope it s over for him too. I shouldn t have let 
 them send for you to come to such a place as this, Mrs. 
 Warne. It isn t fitting for you. It was Mr. Warne I 
 sent for." 
 
 Yes, I know. But Mr. Warne is away. I should 
 have come anyhow, when you were in such agony. 
 You mustn t think of me. It is hard for me to see 
 you suffer so, but what must it be for you to bear? If 
 I could only do something to help you ! " 
 
 " Could you sing? Sing my sister s piece. You ve 
 heard me tell about it and the way the Lord found me. 
 Whiter than Snow. that s it." 
 
 So Helen steadied herself and sang. She thought
 
 SULPHURING 0/SUNDERLAND RED 373 
 
 lie was sleeping when she had finished, and would have 
 left the room. But one of the nurses whose hand was 
 against the artery in the neck whispered, " You d better 
 stay. I don t think you ll want him to go out alone." 
 
 But he was not sleeping. Just gathering up the 
 powers of his soul in the silence to welcome that stately 
 guest, whose message he had so often escaped amid 
 the dangers of the mines. 
 
 " I know it won t be long," he said, catching the 
 meaning of the nurse s whisper without hearing the 
 words. " It s all right ! I m ready at any time now. 
 If you could stay, Mrs. Warne, I wish you would 
 sing some more to me." 
 
 Then followed some messages, briefly and tenderly 
 spoken to various friends. " Now sing the rector s 
 piece to me," he said. 
 
 So Helen sang again : 
 
 " O Love That will not let me go, 
 
 I rest my weary soul in Thee ; 
 I give Thee back the life I owe 
 That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
 May richer, fuller be. 
 
 O Light that followest all my way, 
 
 I yield my flickering torch to Thee: 
 My heart restores its borrowed ray 
 That in Thy sunshine s blaze its day 
 May brighter, fairer be. 
 
 Joy that seekcst me through pain, 
 
 I cannot close my heart to Thee ; 
 
 1 trace the rainbow through the rain 
 And feel the promise is not vain 
 
 That morn shall tearless be.
 
 374 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Christ that liftest up my head, 
 
 I dare not ask to fly from Thee-; 
 
 1 lay in dust life s glory dead 
 
 And from the ground there blossoms red 
 Life that shall endless be." 
 
 The eyes behind the mask flamed for a moment and 
 the clumsy hands were lifted together as if in prayer. 
 Then they sank helplessly to the white coverlet.
 
 A PLUNGE 
 INTO CHURCH UNITY
 
 " The clashing of creeds and the strife 
 Of many beliefs that in vain 
 Perplex men s heart and brain, 
 Arc naught but the rustle of leaves 
 When the breath of God upheaves 
 The boughs of the tree of life." 
 
 ANON.
 
 XXVI 
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 
 
 THE turning point in the religious history of 
 Coalton came on the night when Rector 
 Warne made his famous leap. Up to this 
 time he had been able to reach certain men and 
 women by ones and twos, such widely different per 
 sons as Breece and McCarty and the Hattons and 
 Mrs. Gooch and Morris and Davis and even Whiz 
 Nichol. Then there had been such helpers as Dr. Crei- 
 gan, and Kate Hatton and dear old Sunderland Red. 
 But after this leap in the direction of church unity he 
 began to take hold upon the mass of the people as he 
 never had before. Indeed it was the beginning of an 
 awakening in the church of Coalton for which he had 
 longed and prayed. 
 
 Until just before the rector s leap there had been 
 no denominational rivalry in the town. Many of 
 the people belonged by birth to some other church, but 
 they had all been contented to worship with the rec 
 tor s flock when they went to church at all. 
 
 But now the town was to be invaded by a new de 
 nomination. Brother Smiler, the famous evangelist 
 was about to pitch his tent for a month s revival serv 
 ices in Coalton with the avowed determination of or 
 ganizing a new church. It will be remembered that 
 
 377
 
 378 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Brother Smiler had been in Coalton once before as a 
 captain in the Salvation Army. Soon after leaving 
 the Army he had emerged as a full-fledged evangelist, 
 having lost nothing of his warrior s zeal with the 
 sword. 
 
 Brother Smiler s methods are well known. Even to 
 this day, in his public addresses he spares neither 
 church nor individual; but at that time, at the begin 
 ning of his career, his attacks upon what he considered 
 wrong within the church were little short of terrific. 
 His first manifesto in Coalton was a challenge to all 
 earnest souls to leave a church which he said was 
 hopelessly sodden with worldliness and formality. 
 
 It took but little time for the evangelist to pitch his 
 tent, placard the town, and gather singers for his open 
 air services. The quiet of the community was broken 
 by the prospect of a religious war. Somehow it was 
 felt that the hot summer air was charged with ecclesi 
 astical electricity. 
 
 It had been an unusually dry season. The gardens 
 shrivelled. Even the leaves of the few trees left on 
 the mountain sides grew rusty brown. By the end 
 of July the drouth grew so severe that the waters of 
 the creek had almost disappeared and the supply of 
 water in the reservoir had become so low that extra 
 precautions were taken to prevent an outbreak of fire. 
 So the rector had announced at the morning service 
 that on the following Sunday he would offer the prayer 
 for rain prescribed by the church. 
 
 When the Sunday came the rector prayed most fer 
 vently :
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 379 
 
 " O God, heavenly Father, who by thy son Jesus 
 Christ, hast promised to all who seek thy kingdom and 
 the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their 
 bodily sustenance, send us, we beseech thee, in this 
 our necessity, such moderate rain and showers that we 
 may receive the fruits of the earth, to our comfort and 
 to thy honour, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 Although the day had been as hot and dusty as ever, 
 yet on Sunday night a gentle shower laid the dust and 
 washed the grime from the leaves and grass. 
 
 While the people were talking about the shower on 
 Monday, Brother Smiler declared publicly that he too 
 would pray for rain that very night in the tent. This 
 rivalry between the church and the tent furnished the 
 choicest delectation for the ungodly in Mark Owens 
 saloon. On the Saturday night before the prayer for 
 rain in the church, Owens had harangued the crowd 
 in his saloon, offering to bet even money that there 
 would be no rain; and now on Monday he spent his 
 energies trying to obtain takers at five to three that 
 Smiler s prayers would bring a greater downpour than 
 the rector s fervent appeal. 
 
 " You fellows is no good ! " he said when the crowd 
 seemed disinclined to take up his offer. " Where s your 
 public spirit? Don t you know how bad this town 
 needs rain? These here rival rain makers ought to 
 be encouraged. I ll put up half as much again and 
 divide it between em, if I win, if you say so. I hear 
 the rector only prayed for moderate showers, but what 
 we want is a reg lar soakin rain. Long as the rector 
 was tryin to play a lone hand I didn t take no stock in
 
 380 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 his success. Now he s bound to win. What we want 
 is church union in this thing. Now that he and Smilcr 
 are both on the same side, we re bound to have rain. 
 And when it comes right down to street sprinklin , I ll 
 bet any man that Smiler will just make it everlastingly 
 pour." 
 
 The result of all this talk Owens had not foreseen ; 
 when night came there was hardly a man in the town 
 who was not at the tent. The saloon keq^er might as 
 well have closed up his shop. 
 
 True to his promise, as soon as the preliminary song 
 service was over, Brother Smilcr, began to pray for 
 rain. There was none of the stately diction of the 
 liturgy about his prayer. The need of water in the 
 homes of his audience, for filling the streams, for the 
 fire department all the various public and private 
 needs of the people were set forth. The prayer stopped 
 abruptly and the audience were requested to sing 
 " There Shall be Showers of Blessing." 
 
 So the audience sang, 
 
 " There shall be showers of blessing : 
 
 Send them upon us, O Lord ; 
 Grant to us now a refreshing, 
 
 Come, and now honour Thy Word." 
 
 While they sang there was a patter of rain drops on 
 the canvas roof. Now Coalton was a famous " show 
 town " and the audience were more accustomed to 
 spectacular effects in the theatre than to the worship 
 of God. Instantly all over the tent there was a spon 
 taneous clapping of hands and Mick Phelan let loose 
 a shrill whistle.
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 381 
 
 Rector Warne had gone down to the tent without 
 knowing that there was to be any rivalry to his prayer 
 of the day before. He stood outside the can 
 vas, far enough away to be out of sight but not out of 
 hearing-. Smiler s prayer had been most painful to his 
 ears. Its easy familiarity seemed to him almost 
 blasphemous. When the rain began to fall and the 
 people applauded, the rector turned away with a feel 
 ing that was almost disgust. As he turned to go home, 
 Brother Smiler, with a wave of his hand, quieted the 
 hand-clapping and then led the people in singing the 
 Doxology. Then the rector saw that a great storm 
 was upon them. 
 
 Coalton, lying in its narrow gorge between steep 
 ridges running north and south, can hardly see storms 
 from the west until they are ready to break upon the 
 town. So great had been the interest in the meeting 
 that none of the people had noted the approach of the 
 shower. After the storm broke, none could leave the 
 place. The tent stood at such a distance from any 
 buildings that there was no other place of shelter to 
 which the people could flee. They therefore crowded 
 close together beneath the frail canvas below the speak 
 er s platform. 
 
 The evangelist seemed to think that the storm was 
 his great opportunity. Each gust of wind seemed to 
 bring an increment of power to his voice; with each 
 crash of thunder his earnestness of manner grew more 
 intense. He appealed to the consciences of his hearers 
 with the directness of an accusing spirit at the bar of 
 judgment. Groans and cries rose from every side.
 
 382 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 Presently the noise grew so great that even the power 
 ful voice of Brother Smiler could not be heard. 
 
 Encouraged by Brother Smiler, the organ was kept 
 playing and the people were urged to sing well known 
 hymns as loudly as possible. But the singing was only 
 partially successful. At short intervals, every voice 
 would be drowned by the crashing of thunder. Be 
 sides, the music was interrupted continually by the 
 creaking of the tent poles, the charing of guy ropes, 
 and the flapping of the wet canvas. 
 
 Brother Smiler was ubiquitous. Now he was upon 
 the platform, giving out a new tune in stentorian tones 
 or calling on some one to pray. In the midst of the 
 singing he would personally inspect and adjust the 
 cordage of the tent. During the prayer he would leave 
 the platform to pass through the audience to lift back 
 with his own hands some woman who was creating a 
 small panic by her attempts to induce her husband to 
 take her home, or to encourage some trembling sinner 
 to make his peace with God. Every few minutes, with 
 a voice that rose high above the Babel of sounds, 
 Brother Smiler would shout out some words of ex 
 hortation ending with the texts which he had brought 
 together from the foundation of his sermon : " Come 
 out from among them and be ye separate. How shall 
 ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation? " 
 
 Into this clash of sounds and kaleidescope of lights 
 and figures, Rector Warne stepped when the storm 
 was at its worst. Brother Smiler had stopped trying 
 to preach and was at that moment bending over a 
 young man whose bloated face, sickly white with fear,
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 383 
 
 held itself firm in tense lines of resistance against the 
 efforts of the evangelist to move his conscience. 
 
 " Let me alone," he growled; " You can t scare me 
 out of hell nor into it ! " 
 
 The rector stared with amazement at the face of the 
 young man, who sat, unconscious of his approach as if 
 neither seeing nor hearing what went on about him. 
 
 " I ought to know your face," said the evangelist, 
 coming close to the striking figure of the newcomer. 
 
 " My name is Warne. I am the rector " 
 
 " When did you come? " he asked, noticing that the 
 water dripped from the clergyman s mackintosh. 
 
 " Just now." 
 
 " What for? Don t you know the danger? If this 
 tent should blow down these poles these electric 
 lights." The evangelist had sunk his voice into a 
 whisper. " It s an awful responsibility to have these 
 people here. But I don t dare to show it, or we ll have 
 a panic. I wouldn t keep them a moment, if there was 
 any help for it." 
 
 " I knew the danger," said Mr. Warne quietly. 
 
 " And yet you came? " Brother Smiler s face lighted 
 tip and he seized the rector s hand. " God bless you, 
 brother. Go up to the platform and say something that 
 will keep the people quiet, while I look after the ropes 
 on the windward side. We can t stand much more of 
 this." 
 
 Each man looked into the face of the other and each 
 saw that the other was not afraid. 
 
 The rector walked rapidly to the front, threw off 
 his storm coat and stepped to the edge of the platform.
 
 384 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 His voice was not loud, like that of Brother Smiler, 
 but it was wonderfully clear and sweet. Pausing a 
 moment for the echo of a thunder peal to die away, he 
 began in the most simple and tender manner to speak 
 of the love of God. After the terrors of the earlier 
 exhortations and the hazard of the storm the message 
 came with healing power. Men forgot the peril of the 
 place in the pathos of the appeal. The crowd became 
 more orderly. Women ceased to roll their eyes in fear 
 from the roof to the tent pole sockets or to catch their 
 breath when the thunder crashed, and began to wipe 
 away the tears which the divine message aroused. 
 
 In spite of the storm, the tent grew quiet. 
 
 The rector saw none of this. He was himself un 
 conscious of the effect which his words were producing. 
 To him the audience had faded into one mass, except 
 for the passion-blurred face of the young man, which 
 still held the defiant lines that Brother Smiler s words 
 had printed there. 
 
 Just above the rude reading desk of the platform, a 
 large electric light swung, supported from the end of 
 a projecting arm which \vas nailed to the top of a post. 
 The storm had not abated. A section of the tent roof, 
 heavy with water, sagged down immediately over this 
 light. A gust of wind, heavier than any that had 
 preceded it, caused the hanging canvas to lift for a 
 moment, like a filled balloon, only to fall with a thud 
 upon the arm that held the light. 
 
 The rector in the midst of a most impassioned plea, 
 a ddressed rather to God than to the handsome, blurred 
 face, had raised his eyes to Heaven. Standing thus,
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 385 
 
 he saw the post shiver under the blow and then the 
 arm, loosened by the shock, sink outward and away 
 from the bellying canvas toward the crowded benches 
 immediately in front of the platform. From his point 
 of view, it seemed that the lamp must fall upon the 
 very face that he had been addressing. 
 
 Those who could see the rector s face, saw the 
 rapt, wistful expression change into one of alarm. 
 Then they saw him seize the rubber coat which he 
 had laid aside and spring forward into the very faces 
 of the people to catch the falling lamp. 
 
 It was the kind of springing catch that he had learned 
 on the football field. There was a woman s shriek and 
 then a moment of awe-stilled silence as the rector 
 floundered and fell among the benches but holding 
 aloft the dangerous globe. The light was smothered 
 in the mackintosh, but the current still hissed and 
 sputtered inside. 
 
 In a moment two figures pressed forward into the 
 space which cleared as if by magic about the spot 
 where Mr. Warne had fallen. The first was that of 
 the young man in whose behalf the rector had just 
 been pleading. In a few moments he had switched the 
 current and carried the darkened, harmless lamp to the 
 platform. Before he could return to the rector, 
 Brother Smiler had flung himself upon him, and as 
 soon as he had assured himself that the rector was 
 unhurt, the evangelist, with his arms about Warne s 
 neck and crying like a child, began thanking God in 
 coherently for the dear brother who had delivered 
 some from danger and death at so great risk to him-
 
 386 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 self, yet whose own life had been so wonderfully 
 spared. 
 
 There was no more attempt to control the meeting, 
 although Brother Smiler kept saying- over and over 
 again that it was the best of all the meetings held. Men 
 whom the rector had felt he could not touch pressed 
 forward to clasp his hand and speak broken words of 
 love and purpose. 
 
 Yet one for whom he watched had not come. But 
 when the storm was over, as the evangelist and the 
 rector left the tent together, there stood the young 
 man to whom Brother Smiler had talked and for 
 whom Warne had prayed. There was a new look 
 on his face as he greeted them. 
 
 " I m done with it, Mr. Warne. By God s help, 
 I m going to lead a better life from this hour." 
 
 " Praise the Lord ! " shouted Brother Smiler. 
 " Praise the Lord for saving grace! " 
 
 Speechless, Warne grasped the prison-hardened hand 
 of the young man and struggled to say what was in his 
 heart. " Brother Smiler," he managed to say at last, 
 " this man is my friend, Mr. Bruce Hardin." 
 
 Brother Smiler took in the situation after a moment 
 and then made an excuse to go back to confer with his 
 organist, carrying off with him some of the loiterers 
 and leaving the rector and Hardin alone. 
 
 On the next night and the next Warne was 
 present at the tent meetings, sitting beside Hardin. 
 Afterward, when the rain for which both he and 
 Brother Smiler had prayed set in for a week, the meet 
 ings in the tent were abandoned and the evangelist
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 387 
 
 held forth in the parish house. No doubt it was 
 against all precedent. Several of the more strict 
 churchmen of the rector s flock showed their disap 
 proval very plainly by absenting themselves from the 
 meetings. But the unchurched of the community 
 whom the rector had hitherto vainly tried to reach, 
 crowded the building to the doors in spite of the pour 
 ing rain. 
 
 To the credit of Brother Smiler let it be said that 
 he moderated his speech somewhat. His " bellowing 
 yawp," as one of the wardens had called it, that he 
 thought necessary to use in the tent, sank within 
 reasonable bounds when he found himself in the parish 
 house. His intolerance for the opinions of those who 
 did not agree with him in all things also moderated 
 to a large degree. When they came to look one an 
 other in the face in the rector s study and to discuss 
 the spiritual needs of the outcasts and the unchurched 
 of Coalton, each man found in the other so much genu 
 ine earnestness that the points on which they differed, 
 both in regard to doctrines and forms, soon were for 
 gotten. 
 
 If the weather on the first Sunday after the two men 
 had come into personal touch had not been just as it 
 was, perhaps the newly formed alliance might have 
 suffered. But Providence directed that the rain should 
 pour in a perfect deluge in the morning, so that the 
 rector could hold his own service at eleven o clock, 
 while the tent at half past ten had been impossible. So 
 Smiler and his admirers had come to the church. In 
 the afternoon the clouds that had lowered for so long
 
 388 THOSE BLACK DIAMOND MEN 
 
 suddenly lifted. The sun shone warm and bright and 
 in the evening the great tent was filled as never before 
 to hear Brother Smiler and the rector. 
 
 " What did I tell you ! " shouted Owens, who had 
 attended service for the first time. " The resen airs 
 all filled up; the gardens soaked; streams bank-full and 
 bustin ! All because them two gocpel-sharks has got 
 together. Come in and have a drink on it. No? Well, 
 just as you like, but it won t cost you a cent. I don t 
 have no drink for sale on Sundays." 
 
 In the end Brother Smiler s invasion had proved 
 the greatest blessing to the church of Coalton. There 
 was no more talk of building a new church. When the 
 evangelist left to fill another engagement, the converts 
 of the tent meetings came by scores to the church to 
 be confirmed, more men than the rector had ever 
 dared to dream would come. 
 
 It was this fact which more than all else humbled 
 him. He had come into Coalton determined to lead 
 men to Christ, and then had staggered at the sight 
 of such depths of human misery and wickedness as 
 seemed to him to be beyond the power of God to 
 change. He had fought the doubts of which he was 
 conscious and laid the fears which he knew and felt, 
 yet it seemed to him he had been guilty of a practical 
 unbelief in the love of God to reach even unto the 
 uttermost. This practical unbelief now seemed to him 
 to be far worse than any of the scholastic difficulties 
 with which he had struggled. 
 
 Yet in spite of all these hindrances the work had 
 prospered. The renewed church showed a most vigour-
 
 A PLUNGE INTO CHURCH UNITY 389 
 
 ous life. The people were loyal and hopeful, ready 
 for the great work which yet remained to be done. 
 It seemed so great a miracle that Warne could only 
 feel that he had had but little to do in bringing it 
 about. 
 
 In the face of this miracle anything seemed possible. 
 A vision of a renewed society swept through his mind. 
 He saw the church touch the lives of the people of the 
 community at every point. He saw a valley without 
 strikes. He saw the labour of the miners so safe 
 guarded that danger was minimized. He saw the peo 
 ple so prosperous that the little children were no longer 
 driven to work before they were taught to read and 
 while their bodies were so immature that they fell early 
 victims to their unhealthy surroundings. He saw a 
 new Coalton wherein dwelt righteousness. 
 
 Then a more sober vision succeeded, in which men 
 still toiled and struggled in darkness, but with faces 
 toward the morning. There was still the conflict, but 
 it was not hopeless. The picture he saw was still the 
 Anthrax Valley he knew and the Coalton he had 
 learned to love, but the men were no longer all ar 
 rayed on the side of the powers of darkness. And he 
 thanked God and took courage.
 
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