y support for any measures which
the great magnate might wish to enforce. He then approached the
officers of the state guard, and secured them to a man. Times were
hard, and they welcomed his favor. He finally posted armed guards in
all his buildings at Avon, and bade them remember that property rights
were of divine institution. Then he sat down and dictated the general
policy to be followed by the Amalgamated Spinners' Association
throughout the country in support of his own selfish ends.

His activity in these preparations, as in everything, was tremendous.
His agents swarmed over the state like ants. The Catholic Archbishop
was instructed that he must remove Father Danny from Avon, as his
influence was pernicious. But the objection was made that the priest
was engaged only in humanitarian labors. It availed not; Ames desired
the man's removal. And removed he was. The widow Marcus likewise had
been doing much talking. Ames's lawyer, Collins, had her haled into
court and thoroughly reprimanded. And then, that matters might be
precipitated, and Congress duly impressed with the necessity of
altering the cotton schedule in favor of the Spinners' Association,
Ames ordered his agents to raise the rents of his miserable Avon
tenements. There were few, he knew, who dared even attempt to meet the
raise; and those who could not, he ordered set into the streets.

It was a wild winter's day that the magnate chose for the enforcement
of this cruel order. A driving blizzard had raged throughout the
night, and the snow had banked up in drifts in places many feet deep.
The temperature was freezing, and the strong east wind cut like a
knife. It was Ames's desire to teach these scum a needed lesson, and
he had chosen to enlist the elements to aid him in the righteous
task.

For a week, ever since the strike was declared, Carmen had lived among
these hectored people. Daily her reports of the unbearable situation
had gone to Hitt. And through them the editor had daily striven to
awaken a nation's conscience. Ames read the articles, and through the
columns of the Budget sought to modify them to the extent of shifting
the responsibility to the shoulders of the mill hands themselves, and
to a dilatory Congress that was criminally negligent in so framing a
cotton tariff as to make such industrial suffering possible. Nor did
he omit to foully vilify the Express and calumniate its personnel.

Amid curses, screams, and despairing wails, th