AT SHAFT 11
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T do wish things would settle down some wayor other,” mused Mrs. Andrews. “I don’t seewhy it is men can’t behave themselves an’ go’long about their business, lettin’ well enoughalone. It’s all on account o’ that pesky walkin’delegate too. I wisht he’d ’a’ kept walkin’. Ifall the rest o’ the men had had the common-sense that Jason has, he would n’t never’a’ tookno effect on them. But most of ’em must setwith their mouths open like a lot o’ ninniestakin’ in everything that come their way, andnow here ’s all this trouble on our hands.” There were indeed troublous times at the littlemining settlement. “The men who made up thecommunity were all employees, in one capacityor another, of the great Crofton West VirginiaMining Co. They had been working on, con-tented and happy, at fair wages and on goodterms with their employers, until the adventamong them of one who called himself, alter-nately, a benefactor of humanity and a labouragitator. He proceeded to show the men howthey were oppressed, how they were withheldfrom due compensation for their labours, whilethe employers rolled in the wealth which theworkers’ hands had produced. With great adroit- 207
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