dire need of coal, which made any interruption of work at
the mines a calamity. The second was the fact that food riots were
occurring in many parts and it was deemed wise to placate the people.

But the triumph of the workers was not complete. The very next day we
noticed signs plastered up in conspicuous places with the familiar word
"Verboten" in bold type at the top. One of our fellows who could read
German edged up close enough to see one of the placards.

"There won't be any more strikes," he informed us. "The authorities have
made it illegal for more than four civilians to stand together at any
time or talk together. Any infringement of the rule will be jail for
them. That means no more meetings."

There was much muttering in the mine that day, but it was done in groups
of four or less. I learned afterward, when I became sufficiently
familiar with the language and with the miners themselves to talk with
them, that they bitterly resented this order.

[Sidenote: Strike leaders disappear from the mine.]

I found that the active leaders in the strike shortly afterward
disappeared from the mine. Those who could possibly be passed for
military service were drafted into the army. This was intended as an
intimation to the rest that they must "be good" in future. The fear of
being drafted for the army hung over them all like a thunder cloud. They
knew what it meant and they feared it above everything.

When I first arrived at the mine there were quite a few able-bodied men
and boys around sixteen and seventeen years of age at work there.
Gradually they were weeded out for the army. When I left none were there
but the oldest men and those who could not possibly qualify for any
branch of the service.

[Sidenote: Talks with the German miner.]

In the latter stages of my experience at the mine I was able to talk
more or less freely with my fellow workers. A few of the Germans had
picked up a little English. There was one fellow who had a son in the
United States and who knew about as much English as I knew German, and
we were able to converse. If I did not know the "Deutsch" for what I
wanted to say, he generally could understand it in English. He was
continually making terrific indictments of the German Government, yet he
hated England to such a degree that he would splutter and get purple in
the face whenever he mentioned the word. However, he could find it in
his heart to be decent to isolated specimens of Englishm