Riverfall

Front matter

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Contents

CHAPTER

XVIII. ....

XXIII. ....

II

Small children played in the istreets, while their mothers conversed in a high key from house to house. Dealers in foodstuffs varied the monotony with cries of articles for sale. The rattle of wheels and the coming and going at the sound of the mill whistle were the chief events of the day.

u The doctor says it won’t do for me to risk another winter here/’ said John Westland, after a short spell of coughing. “ I’ve fixed on next week as the time for starting, Monday, if possible. Nathan, that new valet I engaged in New York, will attend to me and see that I get everything I need for my comfort in Florida. Edna ” (he hesitated at the name) “ will — stay here. She understands and is quite content. As to the business, I must leave that pretty much in your hands. You can communicate with me daily, and of course use the telegraph, if necessary. There’ll be nothing you can’t handle — unless the operatives make trouble.”

Philip smiled confidently. “ I think I can handle that, too, if it comes,” he said, showing his white and even teeth. “ I’ll risk their getting very far from my control.”

The younger man was about twenty-eight, tall, athletic, dark and well poised. He had not been intended for a manufacturer by his father, who engaged in other business during a life that ended abruptly several years previous to the opening of this story. He had, in fact, settled down to nothing regular until the summer just ended, when his uncle sent for him to take some of the burden from his failing shoulders. After leaving the university Philip had traveled considerably, and when he found himself at his father’s death in possession of a comfortable income he saw no need of entering the rush and tumble of business life.

The call to Riverfall, however, partook of the nature of a sacred duty. His only surviving uncle needed his services, and they were placed at once at his disposal. Philip set about acquiring knowledge of matters connected with the mills with the cheerful earnestness of a healthy and energetic young man, whose pent-up force found occupation of any kind delightful. He was fond of his uncle, and glad to do all he could to aid him. Soon he found, to his surprise, that work was in itself a pleasure, compared to which idleness was a decided bore. He could not acquire in a few months the immense technical knowledge that had come in many years to his uncle, but the management of men seemed his natural forte.

Above all, he had a supreme confidence in himself, and in his ability to overcome obstacles. While he deeply regretted the state of health that made it necessary for John Westland to avoid the rigors of a northern winter, he welcomed the responsibilities he would be called to assume.

“ I don’t believe there’ll be another strike,” said the elder man, after a long look of gratification into his companion’s face ; “ though nothing but a miracle can prevent our making a cut of ten per cent, in wages. The stoppage of business ten years ago must have taught our workmen that we always win in the end, and that living on half rations for six months is not as nice as some of their hotheads tried to make it out, It’s always two or three that cause the trouble — the bulk of the people are managed easily. Get hold of the leaders and scare 'em off — or buy ’em up if that seems the easiest way — and you’ll have no strike. As for the mass it never does to let them think their talk amounts to anything. My great mistake when they last struck was in dickering and palavering with them at all. If I’m here the next time they start a row I’ll settle it in short order. At the meeting of directors to-morrow I’ll have authority given you to take the strongest steps in case they’re required. I don’t believe you’ll need more than snap the whip if they act fractious.”

President Westland spoke and thought of the people in his mills as he spoke and thought of the horses who drew his carriage. He would not have been wantonly cruel to either of them. He believed himself a kind and considerate employer, and would have resented an imputation that he could do anything unbecoming a gentleman and a Christian. He was a fine looking old man, with snow-white hair speaking benevolence in every fibre, and a carefully trimmed beard that gave a venerable cast to his face. Coming to Riverfall in his long past youth he had founded here the manufactures which he believed should have been rewarded by a monument, or at the very least a tablet, procured at the expense and by the initiative of the employes, who had shown, instead, the basest ingratitude for his labors.

Did he not give them work — steady employment at regular wages ? Almost every mouth in the community owed its sustenance to him. And yet he felt, with a bitter pain at the heart — that the only emblems of

*4 mourning when he died would be paid for out of the treasury of the company.

If his horses were balky he would lay his whip on them ; they knew no other form of reason. If his operatives struck he would drive them into submission to what was for their good, until they learned that hunger and cold were the rewards of idleness. Animals — and children — and mill workers, he thought required superior intelligence to decide what was best for them.

“ It would be a fine thing if we could break up their union,” suggested Philip, thoughtfully, as they came to a bend in the path, from which they could see the mills more plainly.

“ The union does little harm if you pay no attention to it,” was the sharp reply. “ It serves to amuse them and gives a chance for the hotheads to air their troubles. Just now, too, they’ve got a woman running things, and it will be easy to manage her. But I — I think I’d best go into the house. Even this sunshiny atmosphere is too cold for me.”

Philip offered his uncle an arm, which that gentleman condescended to take. It was clear that his physical strength was at a very low ebb.

“ Is this woman really at the head of the operatives ? ” questioned Philip, as they walked slowly along.

“ I don’t know. There’s a spinner named Hugh — I forget his other name — who runs things about as he pleases, I guess, though Ellen holds the nominal position of chief. The whole idea is ridiculous, but as long as a snake only shakes his rattles we don’t need to bother. If he ever forgets himself enough to strike we’ve got to put our heel on his head and teach him a lesson. Half way measures are lost on these ignorant people. The severest means are really the kindest, for they are only well-meaning dunces, led astray by agitators.”

At the veranda, which Mr. Westland, Sr., ascended with difficulty, leaning heavily on his companion’s shoulder, he paused and looked over the valley.

“ When I first came here,” he said, huskily, “ there wasn’t a building of any kind in all the space your eyes cover; just a little stream meandering through the farms. I had $5,000 — not a penny more — to set up the first loom. I got my power by the rudest dam you can conceive of, and with three Englishmen I began to teach the farmers’ girls how to spin and weave. It was five years before I could feel the earth solid under my feet. When the Civil War broke out I had my plant made over to a corporation, the nucleus of the one here to-day. The difficulty of getting cotton nearly swamped us then, and we didn’t dare ask too many questions about how what we could buy came through the lines. In 1864 our third mill was finished, and we ran night and day. That was the time money was made, cloth retailing at forty and fifty cents a yard ! Then Yankee help began to get scarce — farmers’ girls wouldn’t go into the mills any more — and we took in Irish, that were coming in droves from the other side. And after that,” the speaker paused for breath, “ it was the Canadians, half of whom couldn’t speak a word of English when they arrived, that we had to rely on. How there are, as you know, some Poles, Swedes and Armenians; and they all get twice the pay they could earn in their own i6 countries, with steady work from one year’s end to another. Who gave it to them ? I did ! Do they show the least gratitude ? Not one ! ”

Mr. Westland sank into a chair on the veranda and thanked Philip mutely as the latter spread over his knees a heavy lap robe. The note of discouragement at the ungratefulness of the mill people furrowed his brow deeply and met a responsive chord in the breast of the listener. There was a moment of silence and then the long noon whistle was sounded. As the two men gazed toward the mills the doors of one after the other were thrown open, and men and women, boys and girls, came out in swarms. The younger people were running, some pushing each other and “ skylarking.” The faint noise of shouting was wafted through the air. Then the older people appeared, walking at a quick gait, but more soberly, and the crowds spread in the direction of the boarding houses.

(C Happy, careless scamps ! ” muttered the manufacturer — “ I could envy them. No worry, no need to think of the future — work always provided, pay as regular as the sun — with an average state of health I would give half I own to possess. And not one stops to think of what they owe me — not one reflects on the \ years I have given to turn this unproductive spot into bread and meat for their benefit ! ”

Philip felt the force of this statement as he heard the tired voice and noted the weary eyes. At that moment he could have taken a whip to the ungrateful sharers in this philanthropist’s bounty.

“ You have done so many things for them,” he mur-

7 7 mured. “ You have contributed, I hear, to all the churches; and I know you were the largest subscriber to the Young Men’s Christian Association. My dear uncle, there is but one consolation in a case like yours — the work you have done is recorded to your credit in heaven ! ”

He lifted his hat reverently as he spoke, but Mr. Westland tapped his foot impatiently on the floor of the veranda.

“ Heaven ! ” he retorted, with a sudden rage. “ What has Heaven done for me? It has sent me broken health when I should be in the prime of life; it has denied me a son and inflicted blindness on my only daughter. I know,” he added, quickly, as he saw the shocked look of his auditor, “ that I ought not to say this, but my nerves are unstrung. I try to be patient — I try to believe that God is just. Don’t discuss the matter, please. It is time I took my medicine and got ready for lunch.”

“ Tenderly as a woman” — that is the usual expression to describe the way Philip assisted his uncle to his feet and escorted him within doors. Tenderly as a man who feels that one he loves is rapidly nearing the end of his earthly days, and has a right to complain of thanklessness sharper than a serpent’s tooth — is a clearer way of expressing the idea.

“ Riverfall is my pride — its industries are my monument,” faltered the manufacturer as they entered the mansion. “ I shall rely on you to keep it what I have made it, when God calls his unworthy servant hence.”

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“ A spinner named Hugh ! ” The name interested the new manager of the Great Central Corporation; and soon, when the rumors of dissatisfaction began to grow loud enough to he heard outside the lodge rooms, it struck him that it would he a stroke of diplomacy to make Hugh’s acquaintance. He wanted to study this lieutenant of the woman who was said to control “ his ” operatives.

When Philip obtained a formal introduction from one of the men in the counting room, Hugh took the outstretched hand with a firm grasp, and his clear blue eyes looked unflinchingly into the young gentleman’s. The spinner was a trifle under the medium height, of sturdy build and engaging countenance. He wore a short blond beard and moustache and had a forehead noticeably high. Any one who had once met his frank but determined glance would have picked him out as worth a second look.

Although young Westland had imbibed many ideas common to employers of labor in relation to their “ help,” he was not by nature an “ aristocrat.” He had been educated, to be sure, in the common notion that class distinctions are a necessary part of the arrangement of human society, but he had a generous desire that those about him should be as comfortable as the nature of things permitted.

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He had, for instance, thought a good deal during the past summer of the houses in which his employes resided, wishing to make them better fitted for selfrespecting human beings. A vacant piece of ground here and there in the village could be laid out as a garden, too, and a night-school established for the workmen who needed its advantages.

But a hint of these ideas to his uncle had met with decided opposition. The instant these people got it into their heads they were to be “ pampered,” said Mr. Westland, Sr., there would be no getting along with them. Socialists and anarchists were putting them up to enough queer thoughts, without those whose duty it was to govern adding fuel to the flame. There were already the public schools, supported almost wholly by the Corporation, as the largest taxpayer in town. As to gardens with flowers in them, he asked if it was likely that a village which could hardly show a dozen plants in all its windows would care to have “ posey beds ” maintained for its delectation. The boys would rob every one as soon as the first blossoms appeared, and trample the plants in the mud before a month was over.

There seemed a fault in this reasoning somewhere, but Philip did not think it becoming to argue the point with a man who had known these people for forty years and who should be aware of what was best for them. Perhaps he stored away in the interior of his brain a resolve to make a trial of the matter on a small scale at a later date, when he had fuller control ; for the present it was quite enough to meet the problem of keeping the established rate of dividend ready for distribution among the stockholders.

The latter object — which as every one knows is the primary one in operating a cotton mill — had already given him some uneasiness,- for, owing to the impending Presidential election, prices of finished goods had fallen and the demand had grown smaller. In the warehouses of the company hundreds of bales were stored which must be sold, if at all, at considerably less profit than usual. Owing to a shortage in the crop, cotton had also risen at the same time that the product of the mills had taken a slump.

The reserve in the corporation treasury was less than at any time during the past decade. At the two last meetings the directors had seriously considered reducing wages, but had hesitated, partly from disinclination to cause distress, and partly because such action might result (nobody could tell) in a strike which would disarrange business. They knew, of course, that such a strike could have but one result — a victory, sooner or later, for the mill-owners — but in the meantime, if it lasted long enough, the corporation was pretty sure to be a loser as well as the wage-earners. Hew as he was to the business, Westland felt that he ought to get at all points of view in this matter — ye s, even at that held by these Prench-Canadians, Swedes and Armenians, who might make it uncomfortable for him as well as themselves if they followed bad advice.

Everybody talked to him of Ellen. “ A dangerous woman/’ all said. She had gained such an ascendancy over the mill people that they would do practically what she directed. And Hugh Mayfield, this ordinary spinner, working a dozen hours a day at his usual task, had found time to act as her assistant in handing these ignorant people into a “Union” that claimed rights coordinate with, if not superior to, the owners of this immense plant. Philip decided without much reflection that this was the place for him to begin. The man must be the true source of power, and the woman merely a figurehead; it did not take much discernment to figure that out. To go to the root of the matter he must get acquainted with Hugh.

The few moments that the manager and the mill-hand had together at their first meeting served, at least, to put them on good terms. Westland liked the broad forehead and clear eyes of the young fellow, and Hugh thought he saw something more than the ordinary taskmaster in the smiling countenance that beamed upon him. He had seen Philip at a distance several times, and had heard favorable reports of him from the village gossips. They had noticed the tender way in which he cared for his blind cousin Edna, when they were out walking or riding, as well as his assiduous attentions to the poor old man for whom, in his decrepitude, even those who had felt his iron rule found their hearts going out in pity. Hugh believed he could read character, and was as glad to know Philip as Philip was to know him. Besides, he had talked the matter over with Ellen, who advised him to get as intimate as possible with the man on whom all their interests were to depend.

A few days, therefore, after John Westland’s departure for the South, Philip and Hugh were strolling together along a road a mile or so from the village, at the close of a pleasant afternoon. It is needless to say it was Sunday, for the workingman had no other time for such recreation. In accordance with Philip’s plan, the conversation dwelt almost wholly on matters connected with the business in which each was in his own way vitally interested. Slowly the talk came around to the matter of the Union, and the name of “ Ellen ” was uttered by Mayfield.

“ Isn’t it something unusual,” remarked Philip — “ putting a lady at the head of a union in which fully half the members are ”

“ Gentlemen ? ” interposed Hugh, with a smile. “ I don’t know how that would be ; Ellen is not a lady.”

“Hot— a— lady!”

“ She would be the last to claim such a title,” said the young mill-hand. “ She is a working girl — a working woman, if you like that better, though she is only twenty. If you ever meet Ellen and wish to annoy her you may apply to her the term ‘ lady.’ ”

Philip took out a silk handkerchief and wiped his forehead.

“ You startled me,” he explained, as he noticed his companion’s look. “ And why do you — why does every one — allude to this strange woman simply as ‘ Ellen ’ ? I have never heard any other name given her.”

In the deep blue eyes of the mill-hand there was a pained expression that might have dignified the orbs of one much higher in the estimation of the world.

“ She has no other name,” he said, gently. “ She could take that of her mother, if she would, but she prefers otherwise. We respect her wishes in this matter, as in all others.

“ Then, she does not know her origin ? ”

“ Yes, she does. Her mother, Margaret Perry, was an English weaver, who lived here for some years. Her father was the son of a very wealthy family, and is now a member of the Hew York Senate.”

The calm manner in which these words were uttered, tha absence of concealment of their full meaning, astonished the listener greatly. He stood stockstill in the road .

“ Yes,” repeated Hugh, soberly. “ Ellen is what the law calls illegitimate.”

“ What the law calls ! ” repeated Philip. “ What else can it be called ? ”

“ Love-born.”

“ I fear the Senator deserves no such compliment,” retorted Westland. “ He must be a cold-hearted villain to leave his child to be brought up in poverty.”

“ My reference was not to him, but to the mother,” was the quick reply. “ Margaret Perry came to America hardly more than a child herself, poor and friendless. Ellen’s father was a young college student, whose family had large interests in these mills, and here he met her. A sweet, shy, pretty girl she was, people say who remember her, ignorant of the world as an angel. He trapped her into what she supposed was a marriage — she too flattered and pleased to doubt his word — the same old story that has happened so often. She loved him to the last, would never hear a word against him, and died with his name on her lips.”

Westland shuddered.

“ He knew of what had happened — and never even sent her money ! ”

Hugh’s face hardened. “ I thought you would ask that,” he said. “ He sent money and it was returned to him. The neighbors helped his victim through, she was gone in a few years after the baby came. Since then Ellen’s father has never appeared in Kiverfall; I do not think it would be quite healthy for him,” added the speaker grimly.

The walk was resumed under the nearly bare arms of the maples that lined the roadway. The sun was declining and the autumn winds were playing with the dead leaves.

“ Ellen could have taken his name, though,” said Westland, after some moments of silence. “ I have known such cases.”

“ She would not honor him so highly.”

“ You speak warmly. One would think she were a relation of your own.”

“ She is ! ” Hugh stopped short in the road. “ She is my sister.”

“ I am sorry ! ” cried Philip, putting his hand on his companion’s shoulder. “ I did not understand — I do not understand now. Your sister? ”

“ Yes — and yours ! ”

A ray of light began to penetrate the puzzled brain.

“ Ah, in the broad sense — a daughter of our mother Eve! You can’t imagine how you startled me.” He tried to shake of! the depression. “ Well, if accounts are true she is a credit to her lineage. I have heard much of her — would it be too great a favor to present me?”

Hugh glanced with momentary suspicion at the other’s face. Every lineament showed that its owner belonged to what is known as the “ upper class.” He noted, also, the elegant clothing, the newest style of every article of dress. Then he thought of Ellen and the contrast her poor garments would present to such a picture.

“ Why do you wish to know her ? ” he asked, the smile gone from his face. “ You would call her haughty — probably think her impolite, if she consented to talk with you. She has little love for people in your station. Do you know what she considers a ‘ gentleman of wealth ’ ? Merely one who has plundered others more ignorant or weaker.”

Breaking off a twig from a willow, Westland chewed the end meditatively for a minute. What he had heard was certainly novel. A woman earning five or six dollars a week applying such terms, even in thought, to one who owned the very roof over her head — what nonsense ! Still it was well to know if these insane ideas were really held by one who had such influence with his employes. He was more than ever anxious to meet her.

“ Waiving for the moment the point that I am not a ‘ gentleman of wealth ’ but a hardworking man of business, Hugh, I don’t see as Ellen’s opinion differs very much from those you were giving me an hour ago as your own. If it be true that I am an agent of organized thievery I ought to bear hearing it even from feminine lips.”

“ You would find it quite different, though, from my colloquial manner. When Ellen sees how strongly you take the opposite side she may say unpalatable things.”

W estland was glad of a chance to laugh. His natural spirits came to the surface.

“ Perhaps I should not take the opposite side,” he replied, brightly. “ One of the few things I have learned since I dropped on to this planet is to be careful how I dispute a woman. If Ellen should ‘ accuse me of such things it were better my mother had not borne me/ as Hamlet remarks, I would listen meekly. If she stirred me beyond endurance I would only ‘ roar as gently as any sucking dove.’ ”

Hugh shook his head decidedly.

“ You have no idea of the things she would say ”

“ For instance?”

“ Oh, I can’t pretend to imagine in advance a conversation between two such people as Ellen and you. Both are well equipped for an argument, but I assure you she wouldn’t come off second best. You would be wiser than to try it.”

“ But, with your assistance, I shall,” answered Westland, decidedly.

“ Let me warn you, then, not to adopt a frivolous vein. Hor must you assume a patronizing air, if you wish the conversation prolonged more than a minute.”

Strange words these, from a “ mill-hand ” to the! manager of the Great Central Corporation ! Democratic as he tried to be in his manner, Westland’s face flushed.

“ Have no fear,” he responded, drawing himself up

2 7 an inch. “ I shall act as if this la — this woman — was in every sense my equal.”

Hugh’s thoughtful countenance was a study.

“ She considers herself vastly your superior/’ he replied calmly.

Westland wiped his lips with the handkerchief he had retained in his fingers.

“ Indeed ! ” was all he could find to say.

“ Yes. I might as well prepare you a little, if you insist on talking with Ellen. When she meets people in her own class she is gentleness itself. When she meets one of yours it takes little to bring out her disdain. I have seen Mr. Baker paying her off on a Saturday night when she would have made an excellent model for a statue of Contempt.”

Westland put the handkerchief into his pocket, remarking laconically —

“ But she took the money.”

“ Yes, she took the small part of what she had created that he was willing to give her; and as she swept it into her purse he could read in her face, as in illumined print, ‘ They have kept the lion’s share — and this man is a jackal that lives off their plunder.’ ”

Westland stopped again in the road. He had never heard such talk as this.

“ Mr. Baker must he a most affable man to endure that,” said he. “ Were he a mere heartless ‘ tool of capital ’ he would have her discharged immediately.”

It was just as well to carry the war into Africa, he thought. He meant to keep his good nature, but there were limits. As he finished he saw the brows of his companion contract again, and from the blue eyes flashed a new gleam.

“ Discharge her ! Discharge Ellen ! How long do you think her people would endure that ? Until she was reinstated, not a spindle of these mills would revolve. Mr. Baker has arbitrary powers. He can do many things, but he knows better than to force that issue.”

With a great effort Philip Westland controlled himself. What he heard made it seem as if the world had suddenly turned upside down.

“ Are you sure you do not overstate the case ? ” he asked icily.

“ Absolutely. The people of Riverfall have suffered great hardships before now, sometimes without a fight and sometimes with one. The greed of capital may grind them lower yet for all I know — though ” (he hesitated) “ I doubt it. But, put them face to face with the simple question of whether they will stand by Ellen, and not one would budge. Mr. Baker is a bold man, but he neverTl do that.”