he metropolis at the opera.

It is Gorman Purdy. Trueman's fondest hope--next to the one that at some
distant day, say ten or fifteen years in the future, he may sit in the
United States Senate--is that this man's daughter, Ethel Purdy, renowned
in more than one city for her beauty, may become his wife. Indeed, the
hope of the Senate and of Ethel go hand in hand. With either, he would
not know what to do without the other, and without the one he would not
want the other.

"Trueman, we are going to have trouble with the men." Purdy draws a
chair up to Trueman's desk.

"I've just been talking over the telephone to the mine boss at Harleigh.
The men there and at Hazleton hold a meeting to-night to decide whether
or not they will strike in sympathy with the Carbon County miners,
because of the shut-down.

"Now, we've got to strike the first blow! The men over at Pittsfield and
at the Woodward mines will join the strikers if the Harleigh and
Hazleton men go out. We must get an injunction to prevent the committee
from the affected mines from visiting the other men. If they come it is
for the sole purpose of inducing the men to strike. Isn't that
sufficient grounds for an injunction?"

"You can get your injunction, Mr. Purdy," Trueman replies, "but what
effect will it have if you haven't a regiment to back it up?"

"We have the regiment! The Coal and Iron Police have been drilling in
the Hazleton armory. We can put three hundred men in the field from the
offices of the several works, armed with riot guns."

"You may rely on me to get the injunction, Mr. Purdy," the younger man
says, after a moment's pause, "but I would not advise calling out the
Coal and Iron Police until some act of violence is committed by the
miners themselves. It may lead to bloodshed, may it not?"

"Lead to bloodshed? Why not? For what have we been training the Coal and
Iron Police? The miners of the Pennsylvania coal region need a wholesome
lesson. They have no respect for property rights. Let them be incited to
a strike by the walking delegates and their battle cry is 'Burn!
Destroy!'

"We want no repetition of the Homestead and Latimer riots. They were too
costly to the employers! Coal breakers and company stores are no
playthings for the whimsical notions of so-called labor leaders who do
not know the conditions prevailing in this region. They are too
expensive to be made the food of the strikers' torch.

"Stop the strikers before they hav