ge daily wage of his
class. The syndicate wished to establish 'equality' of wages, or, in
other words, to put idle or inferior workmen on the same level with
industrious and superior workmen.

To this end, the leaders resorted to the methods usual in all such
cases, of intimidation and actual violence. Workmen at Anzin who had
taken 'marchandages' were attacked and beaten, some of them so severely
as to disable them for weeks.

At the parliamentary inquiry which followed the strike of 1884, such
letters as the following, sent to workmen at Anzin, a year before, in
1883, were produced and read in evidence:--

'CACHAPREZ

'Citizen,--In the name of the syndical chamber of the miners of
Anzin, thou art forewarned that, if thou dost not cease thy
_marchandage_, as we have informed Lagneaux, thou wilt pass, in the
sight of thy brethren coal-miners, for a traitor and a coward, as
well as thy seven comrades, who are worth no more than thyself.

'If thou dost not what we exact of thee, be not surprised to find
thyself stretched out a bit, and to be laid up for three weeks, as
well as the good-for-nothings who are working with thee.

'Receive our great contempt.

'A group of workmen who will caress thee
one of these days if thou dost not give
up thy marchandage.'

Letters like these, which would not discredit the rural terrorists of
Kerry and Clare, were followed, not only by attacks on the obnoxious
workmen, but by the destruction of their flowers and vegetables in the
gardens which, as I have stated, they are enabled by the company to
cultivate. As a workman may go to his work as soon as he likes in the
morning (the gates are closed just before six o'clock), they have their
afternoons to themselves, and those of them who have gardens I found
working there with great evident satisfaction at most of the points
which I visited.

With the outbreak of the 'strike' in 1884, matters grew worse. Dynamite
was then called into play. Fusees were exploded under the windows and in
the doorways of workmen who refused to be coerced into leaving their
work. As nearly nine-tenths of the workmen had gone, or been driven,
into the strike, the cabarets in which the region abounds were filled
with crowds of idle men. Radical speakers and managers hurried down to
Anzin from Paris, to harangue the multitude and stir the people up to
mischief, and the