languidly.

But Schmidt added a correction to the general concession.

"As long as you run it in our way, and don't cut wages."

"I'm sorry, men," Hamilton retorted, without any avoidance of the issue;
"but that cut must go."

The members of the committee looked from one to another, and shook their
heads dolefully. They knew too well the hardships that would be wrought
among their fellows by a ten per cent. cut the length of the scale. It
was McMahon who spoke first, with his usual air of good-nature in the
sarcasm, but a note of grimness underlying the surface pleasantry.

"Well, now, you see," he said in his rich brogue, addressing Ferguson
and Schmidt, "the boss has to save a mite to pay for the new bath-tubs
and that natty bit of a gymnasium and the library they've been putting
in lately."

"_Ach, Himmel!_" Schmidt snorted, disgustedly. "We will have manicures
soon already!" He stared at his pudgy fingers with the work-begrimed
nails, and grinned sardonically.

Hamilton flushed under the taunts.

"I have nothing to do with those improvements," he declared, in
self-justification. "They are all being put in by Mrs. Hamilton at her
own expense. She is doing it to make you men and women there more
contented with your lot--to make you happy."

"To make us happy!" Schmidt grunted. "Bathtubs!"

McMahon's sense of humor led him to indulge in another flight of
pleasantry, which shadowed forth the grim reality of these lives.

"Sure, but the gymnasium is great," he said, blandly. His tone was so
deceptive that Hamilton smiled in appreciation of the compliment to his
wife's undertaking, and even Mr. Delancy relaxed the harsh set of his
features. "The longer you work in it," the Irishman continued
innocently, "outside of hours of course, the stronger you get, and the
more you can do in hours for the boss.... Sure, it's great!"

Hamilton hastily changed the subject. He explained that, the cut would
not be applied to the wages of the women in the packing-department,
where a hundred were employed. He declared frankly that their pay was
insufficient to stand such a reduction.

"And do you think we make enough to stand it?" Ferguson exclaimed,
indignantly.

"Somebody has to stand it," was Hamilton's moody retort. "You have
threatened to strike, if I make this cut. Well, I am forced to threaten
you in turn. If you won't accept the cut, I shall strike--I must
strike!"

Schmidt, from his position before the fireplace