e poor help us."

This resolution was carried with shouts and the throwing up of hats. The
band began playing, and the procession headed by Captain O'Connor and his
assistants moved forward.

A third of the sober-minded of the employees soon dropped out of the
procession, while three thousand or more, many of them foreigners, were
only too glad to escape the everyday serfdom of a steel plant. All were
armed with clubs and stones. When O'Connor from the hill-top looked back
upon the mob that filled the street down into the valley and far up the
opposite hill, his courage for a moment failed him.

"What shall I do with this vast army?" he said to himself. Just then
the employees made a rush for the company's furnaces by the riverside,
filling the yards and approaches, shouting "Bank the fires! Down with
capital!"

The big engines were stopped and the furnaces were left to cool.
Frightened faces of women and children filled the door-ways and windows
of the many little brown houses on the hillside. Success emboldened the
strikers whose numbers were now greatly augmented. Again the band played
and the strike managers shouted, "Forward!"

The route taken was along an aristocratic avenue where the wealthy
resided. Windows and doors were suddenly closed, and the terrified
occupants forgot their riches, their diamonds, and their fine dress,
and thought only of safety. Vulcans of the steel works, each armed with
a club, occupied the avenue for two miles. Evidences of hunger and
vengeance were in their faces and sadly worn garments were on their
backs.

Prominent citizens now hurried to the mayor's office, where the chief
executive was found in conference with some of the labor leaders. The
mayor was told that unless he acted promptly in restoring peace and
protecting property, a citizens' committee of safety would be organized,
that he would be placed under arrest, and the mob driven back. At once
the mayor sent one hundred policemen in patrol wagons in pursuit of the
rioters. The latter had already battered down the great doors of the
screw-works, and hundreds of employees, men, women, and children, were
driven out of the factory. The president of the company was beaten into
insensibility. Adjacent nail works were ordered to close and all
employees were driven into the streets. Finally, near night, the strikers
were subdued by platoons of police and forced to return to their homes.

The mayor issued his riot act, which w