CHAPTER XV.
THE KILLSBURY WOMEN ARREST THEMSELVES.
On the fifteenth of July Schwarmer came as he was expected to do; for besides being a blunt man, he was known to be one who rarely broke his promise. He arrived on the morning train and in the afternoon while he was sitting in his beautiful office with the Golden Rule President on one side of him and Lawyer Rattlinger on the other, the door opened suddenly and disclosed a very pretty sight—namely a procession of ladies tastefully hatted and gowned. The ribbons which were fastened daintily on their shoulders fluttered like wings in the strong breeze caused by the opening of the door.
He had been informed that a delegation of ladies would do themselves the honor of calling upon him to ask a favor, the nature of which was not apparent, so he arose to his feet at once, with his broad smile and blunt speech.
“Bless you ladies! Really ladies! This is a great and unexpected surprise. A truly great and truly happy one. Bless you all. How lovely you look. You do me proud, most assuredly you do. Ask me any faver you choose. I almost know what it will be before you open your pretty lips—pardon or excuses for your husbands or sons for the destruction of my property. Ladies are always doing something of that kind, God bless them! I feel like accepting even before you ask me to, most assuredly I do. I know it wasn’t your fault. I know ladies don’t approve of such violent doings or go into them, unless dragged in by their husbands or sweethearts. I understand that. I shouldn’t be my mother’s son if I didn’t, ladies. You may make your requests without fear or trembling. I am blunt in my speech but I trust my treatment of ladies is exactly the reverse.”
The lawyer winked at the President as much as to say that exactly the reverse of blunt would be sharp; but his wife was among the crowd and as she was a lady who laughed easily he felt obliged to keep his countenance of the usual length.
“The ladies, God bless them,” Schwarmer continued in his closing peroration. “They are all angels—all except those that are very strongly tempted to be the reverse.”
The President’s wife laughed this time in spite of her husband’s long drawn face. Several others caught the infection. No knowing where it would have ended had not Mr. Schwarmer sat down suddenly. They knew that their time had come and the thought sobered them.
Mrs. Muelenberg was the first to speak. She said:
“We know you are very kind, Mr. Schwarmer, and we have come to make our confessions and ask you for substantial proofs of your kindness. We all had a hand in the destruction of your property—a free hand, and we are going to tell you why and pay the damages. We are averse to the technicalities, expense and delay of the law, so after we have made our plea—that is, all the plea we can make, we trust that you will make out your bill. We have brought our purses and wish to settle the damages on the spot.”