dashes off an affidavit containing the
facts he has discovered, and a formal motion to dismiss. The Judge hears
the motion, which is opposed to in a half-hearted way by the lawyer on
the other side. The suit is dismissed.
When she is finally made to understand what has happened, the widow
burst into tears. The boy, at sight of his mother's distress, sets up a
wailing that echoes through the whole Court House. In the hallway, the
bunch of miners from Shaft Fifteen gather about the weeping woman as she
comes out. One more instance of the heartlessness of the law which is
made by the men elected by the Coal Barons, is brought home to them.
To these ignorant men, to whom the first principle of self-preservation
is that limit of erudition set by the coal barons themselves, whose
first and last lessons in life are to read correctly the checks of the
time-keeper and the figures on the "company store" checks which they
receive in payment for their work, what difference does it make that the
dead miner was a Magyar--not a full fledged American?
He lost his life down in a coal mine where he went to dig coal that some
American, way off beyond the hills, might toast his toes on a winter's
evening. His life's work was to help keep the American public warm. In
return, all he asked was very poor food, a straw bed in a hovel, and a
crust for his wife should he be killed in the undertaking.
There is much grumbling already on account of the company stores. The
walking delegate of the miners' union has ordered a strike in Carbon
County, adjoining, unless the Paradise Company shall reduce the price of
blasting powder sold to the miners, fifteen cents a pound.
The miners leave the Court House grumbling. Soothing the Magyar's widow
in their rough way, they form a grim procession and trudge back over the
dusty road to the breaker and the row of hovels on either side of it.
CHAPTER III.
CONFLICTING OPINIONS.
An hour afterward Trueman is seated in his office, in the Commerce
building, on the public square of Wilkes-Barre, in the middle of which
is situated the Court House. On the same floor with his office are the
general offices of the Paradise Coal Company.
Besides giving him distinction as a "corporation lawyer," which has its
effect in drawing outside clients, this proximity to the general offices
of the Coal Barons' syndicate relieves the young lawyer from the payment
of rent. For the convenience of having a shrew
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