The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 9, 1926, Page 11

ax Geltman meaning. Ho flung his cap into q corner of h epd sat down at the table. The meal was lly in silence. Margaret did not care to 1ld see how he was suffering, The meal er, Tom etratched himself full length upon the g et the ceiling. He was wondering what were doing. Margaret. busied herself about » It was about nine o’clock. when Margaret if he wouldn't go to bed. “No,” he answered, p ‘here! tonight.” ..And -he turned his face to + Margaret slowly..went.to the bedroom. a ee | the seventh weck of thé strike; The scabs escorted to and from, work by armed deputies, ers could be seen marching in twos down the inging. They had. been. admonished to do no uted among the striking miners... Relief mised. If they. would only hold out. If a*mine be disabled. Scabs: were not so easy to be The mine company knew tho that if the ‘mine strikete back to work. ‘The’ inthe was well enty armed deputies stood it to hin @ damaging was attempted. The smiling We @ a contrast to the sour looking scabs that Om Moth ‘they: aiD.Jooked: upon.as if on @ The pickets:twould-shont-ai:the-scabs at times, pOtt and‘sinile.”. “Be a man and help a man.” Drawing by Vose. ' re was almost complete eoeties when "Tom en- r left the mine. walked or rather slunk home between his two slike a ‘prisoner, He had become haggard and ly irritable: Eve at Tommy junior who had iree weeks back, he looked at, as if, with a feel- .“for you I'm a renegade among men. For you,” id think, as he lifted him up from his crib and d him tightly, “have I become a skunk, a scab, , good-for-nothing.” And he would squeeze the so hard that it would cry out. He wondered if ly loved it.« Margaret would run in when she ittle Tommy crying and grab. it trom Tom’s “Why you act as if you really meant to hurt \s you hold it and look at it,” she one day re- ind Tom's jaws clicked, And his eyes took way look, Yes, Tom was nervous, He was / the old Tom, who'd take Marge out walking. ied it one Sunday, but the looks of disdain on _ vighbors’ taces made Tom promise that they'd > out sy moro during the day while the strike i s ° ° pompany had gotten out an injunction, The le town: of Baimsville was boiling, The crisis ome toa head soon everyone felt, Meetings ing broken up.. The strike leaders were’ told ) town or they’d “get it.” The company sent yand ¢o each striker individually telling them hey came back now, alone, they could work At wages. What with no picketing and no meetings mitted, the strike leaders found themselves at ite’ end, The strike was slipping. If they tty shut the nrine for a while; so as to got all strike-breakers.. The Daily’ Worker was being . kept running by the few men they had they'd men out. If only something wolild happen? The few men employed in the mine were seeing to it that the tnine was ‘merely kept'in condition” “It only these would comé out. If only something happened to sit. Thus Weré the strikers discussing ‘among themselves. It was on a Friday. ‘The company had announced that with Monday, the mine wotld be working with most of the men back. And those who weren't back by Monday would lose their jobs, It was a snap- py December day. The men were moving about brisk- ly .mear the mine. The gruff “beat tt" now and then would make the men move away & little. It was just a bit past two o’clock. The @eputies were leaning against the mine entrance laughing evidently ai some “good joke” the eld watchman had just told them. The strikers were impatiently moving up and down the street. Suddenly a man half drenched dashed out of the mine hole and gulped, “Water main burst!” and fell down exhausted. ‘The deputies rushed mto the mine entrance and ag fast returned. The strikers in the distance noticed something was wrong. They al ran over to the mine. Some of them entered. Those that entered soon returned and with half horror, half giee, announced that the mine Was full of water. Men began to dash here and there. There were fourteen men who went down the mine in the morning. A hurry eall for the company doctor and nurses was issued. Somehow the whole town seemed to know within an hour than an accident had occurred at the mine. Men and women and children rushed to the scene. Mar- garet was one of them. She forged her way to the front and wanted to know what had happened, Some one told her the mine was flooded. “Tom, Tom is down there,” she gasped and elbowed her way nearer the front. is saved.” “Enough damage done to make us all come back at our terms,” another said. The crowd did not know how to behave. It was just what the strikers had wished for. They began to wonder how it hap- pened. The inflowing water was stopped. There were still thirteen to be taken out. A group of strikers rushed into the mine, among them Bill. They had to get the men out. The inflow of water had caused gas to enter the mine. It was stifling. Emergency gas masks were given the men for rescue work. Two men were dragged out. dead. Bill and his two men had about reached the center of the mina when one of the men tripped over somebody. They knelt down and saw it was Tom. He was lying almost prone on his back. In bis right hand he clutched a heavy miner’s pick. Bill was wondering at the peculiar way, Tom, an ex- perienced miner, had met his death. He stood up and as-he did so he banged his head on a water-main. Looking at it he saw how the pipe at that particular Place was almost completely hammered thru. He glanced down at Tom, A thought flashed thru his mind, and kneeling down he lifted Tom’s head from the ground. Thru the glass eyes of the gas masks each man looked at each other knowingly. Each man gave an individual caress to Tom's body; and lifting him gently, they earried him from the mine. Self-Evident By HENRY GEORGE WEISS. Bell-bottomed, ivory-domed, Arrow-collared, soxed and tied, Seé them go, the Main Street Sheiks. Says a one hundred « per cent prospect for the Ku Klux Klan. If you.don’t like It here, go back where you came from; Says a raucous-voiced follower of Million Jennings Bryan, You aint in Russia now! aw Wj Someone whispered hoarsely,- “The strike’ <3 PE aye RE IRI Ae ch Rh Borla rads aR ste h b Pk Rab lbs Da Rad ah Bnet lke Two Poems By OSCAR RYAN SHELL SHOCK He’ stumbled through the streets night after night. He used to stop at every haberdashery; to stare at the shaded lamps in furniture stores, to smell the odors emanating from delicatessens and ice-cream partora. He was a lone star tinadble to sustain the weight of his own shadow. He lay on benches in the parks, watching the wnsteady reflecton of trees and sky in the pond, listening to the gurgle of the fountain. His eyes would open wide 1 when the trees were stirred ' by @ breath of cool wind. He ‘was @ cat scampering over roofs, frightened by the scratching of his naile on the thin gravel. He was awed by the song of a bird at night; but never sang. He listened to bright conversation of young people passing by; but never spoke. He craved the smooth clothes of the refined; and wore rags. He had been a romantic youth tho had lost his soul in war ; he had once been @ man and was now only the shadow which he had lost. He stumbled through alleys and the wharves, 3 oS couldn’t even think to drown himeelf, .: od & e slept in lanes beneath broken wagons in the mud; and the moon would pass over his face, sallow, thin, sanctifying by its wanness the sorrow which he could no longer feel. He was a piano of which only the keys were left, with the tone haunting somewhere in the distance. He stumbled night after night through the streets. And when he had gone - one could hear the shuffling echoes crying after him. AUTUMN EVENING ‘The crude streets yield their bustle, and sickly lamps flicker at the corners that they light. Children clutch at the last soft shaft of day, reluctant to desert the gutter for the shacks in which their parents live, And down the street, coffined by gaunt factories, dull. streams gronotonously pass; —on either side of them @ butcher shop, a grocery, ‘candy stores, - eauding the sleepy lure of sloth and undressed windows, There is notreven the sweet melancholy of falling leaves, for this is a factory street, and the one skinny tree is long barren from the smoke. You can see young people entering rooming-houses, gripping the greasy wrapper of @ bow-lunch, and stumbling at the doorway as they devour the lines of @ newspaper. al as JSTOGet #& ; ry yes] ”