The rumble in the valley again. Could I hear the shake of the charging-machine at this distance? The Bessemer glow had changed. The nail mill roar seemed to increase.
I went down the hill. When I reached Mrs. Farrell's and climbed into my back room, I set the alarm for 4.00 o'clock, putting the clock a foot and a half from the bed. It has a knob on top, and you can stop it by knocking down the knob with the palm of your hand. I went to sleep, to dream about the men who built the Pyramids.
IX "NO CAN LIVE"
I went into the employment office one day, to fix up the papers of my transfer to the blast-furnace, and got into a talk with Burke, the employment manager, about personnel work.
"What do you think of the game?" I asked.
"It's great," he returned; "it's working with human material—that's what it is; there's nothing like it. But," he added, "if you have any ideas about unions keep them in the back of your head—that is, if you want a job in steel. They won't stand for that sort of thing."
He looked down on his desk, where there was a news-clipping of the demands of the American Federation of Labor's Strike Committee—the twelve demands. He pointed to it.
"We give them practically all of these here in Bouton," he said, "all but two or three."