Salome Shepard, reformer

by Helen M. Winslow

“I’m so glad,” returned Salome.

“There is hearty rejoicing throughout the corporation,” said Villard. “I was coming through there to-night and met a couple of little boys with bundles of groceries in their arms. The smallest looked up and smiled. ‘We’re going to have a good supper of meat and potato to-night,’ he said. ‘The mills are going to open and pa’s got work.’ I asked him how long since he had had meat, and he said not since Christmas; and even then he only had a turkey’s wing that somebody gave him.”

“Poor boy! Tell me about your conference with the Labor Union.”

“It passed off smoothly,” Villard went on. “Burnham told him we came from you, and were prepared to make terms with them. We only saw the committee you know, and they are to lay our terms before the Union to-night; but there is no doubt that they will accept. They are really very sensible and shrewd, those fellows on the committee, eh, Burnham?”

“Remarkably,” replied the first superintendent. “I didn’t know we had such intelligent men.”

“But it is our business to know it,” Villard returned, and Salome nodded her head. “We laid our plans before them, and told them that we would concede all their wishes, except about the machinery of course. And one of their own number spoke up promptly and said it was hot-headed bigotry on their part that had made them stick for the removal of the frames. And that most of them, even the Lancaster spinners, had come to see that every improvement to the mills meant an improvement of their condition. Then the secretary wanted to know if they were to be allowed to exist as a Union. Burnham told them that you were taking a great interest in the management of the mills; and that we all believe that no harm can come of their organizing themselves into an association, provided they were willing to be reasonable, and to confer with us before taking extreme measures again. He begged them to believe that you are their friend, and want them all to have a fair chance. And he ended by assuring them that we, as superintendents, fully concurred with you; and that he hoped they would be willing to start on a new basis, and to consider our interests as they expect and desire us to remember theirs. Burnham did himself proud, Miss Shepard, and I could see they were a good deal affected by his conduct.”

“I am covered with blushes,” declared Burnham. “Spare my modesty.”

“Blushing must be a novel sensation to you,” retorted Villard. “The leaders shook hands with us when we came away and thanked us for what we had said, assuring us that they would be ready to enter the mills again at once. And a different spirit is evident to-night, all through the corporation.”

“Don’t be too sanguine,” interrupted Burnham. “We’re not through the woods yet. And there are several ends to be achieved before the millennium dawns.”

“I should like,” said Salome, “if it will not bore you too much, to outline the general plan I have formed for raising the condition of things at the mills.”