ood had broken its pledge
and cut off the pay of the strikers.[2] In this battle the switchmen
were the bravest of the brave.

[2] _At the annual convention held at Atlanta, in the autumn of that
year (1888) the engineers dropped the sympathy-striking switchmen from
the pay roll, at the same time increasing the pay of striking engineers
from $40.00 to $50.00 a month._

At the end of the first month of the strike the lines were pretty well
drawn. There was no neutral ground for employees. A man was either with
the company or with the strikers.

CHAPTER SECOND

"Good morning, John," said the general manager coming softly through the
little gate that fenced off a small reservation in the outer office, and
beyond which the secretary and his assistants worked: "How goes the
battle?"

"Well, on the whole," said the chief clerk, gathering up a batch of
telegrams that made up the official report from the various division
superintendents; "it was a rough night. Three yard engines disabled in
the Chicago yards, freight train burned at Burlington, head-end
collision on the B. & M. Division, two engineers and one fireman killed,
ware-house burned at Peoria, two bridges blown up in Iowa, two trains
ditched near Denver, three--"

"Well! well!" broke in the general manager, "that will do." The clerk
stopped short, the office boy passed out through the open door and a
great swell of silence surged into the room.

After taking a few turns up and down the office, the manager stopped at
the secretary's desk and added: "We must win this strike. The directors
meet to-day and those English share-holders are getting nervous. They
can't understand that this fight is necessary--that we are fighting for
peace hereafter; weeding out a pestilence that threatens, not only the
future of railway corporations, but the sacred rights of American
citizens--the right to engage in whatever business or calling one cares
to follow, and to employ whom he will at whatever wages the employer and
employed may agree upon. Let these strikers win and we shall have a
strike as often as the moon changes. When I endeavor to reach an
agreement with them, they take it that the company is weakening, and the
leaders will listen to nothing. I shudder to think what is in store for
them and what they must suffer before they can understand."

With that the general manager passed into the private office and the
chief clerk, who had been at his post all night,