The Coal War Read Online Free PDF Page B

gardener?”
    â€œIs it necessary to think about that aspect of it?”
    â€œIt certainly is, Hal. Anyone but you would know it. And the opportunities of parlor-maids are restricted.”
    â€œYou ought to meet her, Adelaide! Then you’d understand better. She has a mind, and she’s going to use it.”
    â€œTo what end?”
    â€œTo lead her people.”
    â€œA girl labor leader?”
    â€œWhy not? The miners can’t win without the help of their women, and there have to be some with ideas and understanding.”
    â€œBut I can’t help her in that way, Hal.”
    â€œIn the first place, she will help you. She’ll teach you something about working-girls—just as she taught me when she took hold of that crowd at North Valley with a speech. If you liked her, and took a real interest in her, there’s so much you could show her—human things, social things. The care of her person, for instance.”
    â€œ Oh! ” said the other—and there came a trace of dismay into her voice. “ Such things!”
    â€œYes, such things! Think about a girl’s life, in a three-room cabin that you can’t keep the rain out of, nor the storms in winter! There’s only the kitchen stove, so in cold weather if she wants to take a bath she has to wait till her father and brother have gone to bed, and then take it in a wash-basin on a draughty floor.”
    â€œSo she doesn’t take a bath often enough, you mean?”
    â€œOf course she doesn’t! I didn’t myself, when I was there. The girl has never been able to afford a decent dress in her whole life-time; she can’t even afford a clean one, because she has to do other people’s dirty work.”
    â€œDear me!” exclaimed the woman. “I hadn’t realized how bad it is.”
    â€œNo,” Hal answered. “That’s the hell of it! Nobody ever realizes how bad it is.”
    Before such actualities the idea of a “romance” faded suddenly in Adelaide Wyatt’s mind. Of course it had been impossible for a youth like Hal to love such a girl! Impossible, even if he had not been one of the Reverend Wilmerding’s Protestant-Episcopal saints. “Will she take such instruction from me?”
    â€œYou’re a woman,” said Hal. “You’ll know how to give her hints. And if you show her that you really respect her, you can tell her anything. She has read some, she has her mind made up to learn. You’ll see a miracle in a year.”
    The other pondered for a moment. “Will you come to see her, Hal?”
    â€œOf course.” Then he laughed. “You are wondering about the etiquette? How you’ll make out with a revolutionary parlor-maid!”
    â€œI’m thinking about my other servants, Hal—and my neighbor’s servants. If you are going to set out to make war on the exploiters of this state, you must realize that a slander bureau will be set after you, and after everyone who gives you aid. If I’m going to the trouble of pretending to find work for Mary Burke in my home, I’ve got to have the say as to how it’s done.”
    â€œI’ll do anything you ask,” said Hal, soberly. “You are the only person I know who might help me.”
    â€œWell,” said the other, “you can always come to see me, and I can call Mary into the room. If you’re not going to make love to her, I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm for me to be with you.”
    â€œDelighted!” said Hal.
    He could not help laughing. But Adelaide persisted. “I think you ought not to be seen on the streets with her while she’s in my employ.”
    â€œIt’s a bargain,” said he. “If you think it’s necessary, we’ll have a stenographer take down our conversations, and offer the enemy a transcript of them.”
    â€œNo need to do that,” was Adelaide’s reply. “If the