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Mills alone give him twenty thousand dollars a year for? Because heā€™s worth twenty thousand dollars a year to them, thatā€™s what for. Iā€™m not worth that much. If I was, I wouldnā€™t be on the outside, starving and taking cases like Jacksonā€™s. What do you think Iā€™d have got if Iā€™d won Jacksonā€™s case?ā€

ā€œYouā€™d have robbed him, most probably,ā€ I answered.

ā€œOf course I would,ā€ he cried angrily. ā€œIā€™ve got to live, havenā€™t I?ā€28

ā€œHe has a wife and children,ā€ I chided.

ā€œSo have I a wife and children,ā€ he retorted. ā€œAnd thereā€™s not a soul in this world except myself that cares whether they starve or not.ā€

His face suddenly softened, and he opened his watch and showed me a small photograph of a woman and two little girls pasted inside the case.

ā€œThere they are. Look at them. Weā€™ve had a hard time, a hard time. I had hoped to send them away to the country if Iā€™d won Jacksonā€™s case. Theyā€™re not healthy here, but I canā€™t afford to send them away.ā€

When I started to leave, he dropped back into his whine.

ā€œI hadnā€™t the ghost of a chance. Colonel Ingram and Judge Caldwell are pretty friendly. Iā€™m not saying that if Iā€™d got the right kind of testimony out of their witnesses on cross-examination, that friendship would have decided the case. And yet I must say that Judge Caldwell did a whole lot to prevent my getting that very testimony. Why, Judge Caldwell and Colonel Ingram belong to the same lodge and the same club. They live in the same neighborhoodā ā€”one I canā€™t afford. And their wives are always in and out of each otherā€™s houses. Theyā€™re always having whist parties and such things back and forth.ā€

ā€œAnd yet you think Jackson had the right of it?ā€ I asked, pausing for the moment on the threshold.

ā€œI donā€™t think; I know it,ā€ was his answer. ā€œAnd at first I thought he had some show, too. But I didnā€™t tell my wife. I didnā€™t want to disappoint her. She had her heart set on a trip to the country hard enough as it was.ā€

ā€œWhy did you not call attention to the fact that Jackson was trying to save the machinery from being injured?ā€ I asked Peter Donnelly, one of the foremen who had testified at the trial.

He pondered a long time before replying. Then he cast an anxious look about him and said:

ā€œBecause Iā€™ve a good wife anā€™ three of the sweetest children ye ever laid eyes on, thatā€™s why.ā€

ā€œI do not understand,ā€ I said.

ā€œIn other words, because it wouldnā€™t a-ben healthy,ā€ he answered.

ā€œYou meanā ā€”ā€ I began.

But he interrupted passionately.

ā€œI mean what I said. Itā€™s long years Iā€™ve worked in the mills. I began as a little lad on the spindles. I worked up ever since. Itā€™s by hard work I got to my present exalted position. Iā€™m a foreman, if you please. Anā€™ I doubt me if thereā€™s a man in the mills thatā€™d put out a hand to drag me from drowninā€™. I used to belong to the union. But Iā€™ve stayed by the company through two strikes. They called me ā€˜scab.ā€™ Thereā€™s not a man among ā€™em today to take a drink with me if I asked him. Dā€™ye see the scars on me head where I was struck with flying bricks? There ainā€™t a child at the spindles but what would curse me name. Me only friend is the company. Itā€™s not me duty, but me bread anā€™ butter anā€™ the life of me children to stand by the mills. Thatā€™s why.ā€

ā€œWas Jackson to blame?ā€ I asked.

ā€œHe should a-got the damages. He was a good worker anā€™ never made trouble.ā€

ā€œThen you were not at liberty to tell the whole truth, as you had sworn to do?ā€

He shook his head.

ā€œThe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?ā€ I said solemnly.

Again his face became impassioned, and he lifted it, not to me, but to heaven.

ā€œIā€™d let me soul anā€™ body burn in everlastinā€™ hell for them children of mine,ā€ was his answer.

Henry Dallas, the superintendent, was a vulpine-faced creature who regarded me insolently and refused to talk. Not a word could I get from him concerning the trial and his testimony. But with the other foreman I had better luck. James Smith was a hard-faced man, and my heart sank as I encountered him. He, too, gave me the impression that he was not a free agent, as we talked I began to see that he was mentally superior to the average of his kind. He agreed with Peter Donnelly that Jackson should have got damages, and he went farther and called the action heartless and cold-blooded that had turned the worker adrift after he had been made helpless by the accident. Also, he explained that there were many accidents in the mills, and that the companyā€™s policy was to fight to the bitter end all consequent damage suits.

ā€œIt means hundreds of thousands a year to the stockholders,ā€ he said; and as he spoke I remembered the last dividend that had been paid my father, and the pretty gown for me and the books for him that had been bought out of that dividend. I remembered Ernestā€™s charge that my gown was stained with blood, and my flesh began to crawl underneath my garments.

ā€œWhen you testified at the trial, you didnā€™t point out that Jackson received his accident through trying to save the machinery from damage?ā€ I said.

ā€œNo, I did not,ā€ was the answer, and his mouth set bitterly. ā€œI testified to the effect that Jackson injured himself by neglect and carelessness, and that the company was not in any way to blame or liable.ā€

ā€œWas it carelessness?ā€ I asked.

ā€œCall it that, or anything you want to call it. The fact is, a man gets tired after heā€™s been working for hours.ā€

I was becoming interested in the man. He certainly was of a superior kind.

ā€œYou are better educated than most workingmen,ā€ I said.

ā€œI went through high school,ā€ he

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