to their own houses.

Things had gone on in this way for six weeks. The men grew more and
more restless and more dissipated. Again the walking delegate came to
encourage them to hold out. Mounted on an empty coal car, he made an
inflammatory speech to the men, advising them not only to hold out
against the owner, but also to prevent the employment of any other help.
If this should not prove sufficient, he advised them to wreck the mining
property and to fire the mine,--anything to bring the owner to terms.

Jack and Jarvis went for a long walk one day, and their route took them
near Gordonville. Seeing the men collected in such numbers around a coal
car, they approached, and heard the last half of this inflammatory
speech. As the walking delegate finished, Jack jumped up on the car, and
said:--

"McGinnis has had his say; now, men, let me have mine. There are always
two sides to a question. You have heard one, let me give you the other.
I am a delegate, self-appointed, from the amalgamated Order of Thinkers,
and I want you to listen to our view of this strike,--and of all
strikes. I want you also to think a little as well as to listen.

"You have been led into this position by a man whose sole business is to
foment discords between working-men and their employers. The moment
these discords cease, that moment this man loses his job and must work
or starve like the rest of you. He is, therefore, an interested party,
and he is more than likely to be biassed by what seems to be his
interest. He has made no argument; he has simply asserted things which
are not true, and played upon your sympathies, emotions, and passions,
by the use of the stale war-cries--'oppression,' 'down-trodden
working-man,' 'bloated bond-holders,' and, most foolish of all, 'the
conflict between Capital and Labor.' You have not thought this matter
out for yourselves at all. That is why I ask you to join hands for a
little while with the Order of Thinkers and see if there is not some
good way out of this dilemma. McGinnis said that the Company has no
right to charge you for keeping your tools sharp. In one sense this is
true. You have a perfect right to work with dull tools, if you wish to;
you have the right to sharpen your own tools; and you also have the
right to hire any one else to do it for you. You work 'by the ton,' you
own your pickaxes and shovels from handle to blade, and you have the
right to do with them as you please.

"There are thr