In the afternoon the Hebrew owner of the shirtwaist factory came in to strike headquarters and, walking through the room took off his hat and sat down by Sam’s desk.
“What do you want here?” he asked. “The newspaper boys told me of what you had planned to do. What’s your game?”
“I want to whip you,” Sam answered quietly, “to whip you good. You might as well get into line. You are going to lose this strike.”
“I’m only one,” said the Hebrew. “There is an association of us manufacturers of shirtwaists. We are all in this. We all have a strike on our hands. What will you gain if you do beat me here? I’m only a little fellow after all.”
Sam laughed and picking up his pen began writing.
“You are unlucky,” he said. “I just happened to take hold here. When I have you beaten I will go on and beat the others. There is more money back of me than back of you all, and I am going to beat every one of you.”
The next morning a crowd stood before the stairway leading to the factory when the strikebreaking girls came to work. The letters and the newspaper interview had been effective and more than half the strikebreakers did not appear. The others hurried along the street and turned in at the stairway without looking at the crowd. The girl, told off by Sam, stood on the sidewalk passing out pamphlets to the strikebreakers. The pamphlets were headed, “The Story of Ten Girls,” and told briefly and pointedly the stories of ten striking girls and what the loss of the strike meant to them and to their families.
After a while there drove up two carriages and a large automobile, and out of the automobile climbed a well-dressed woman who took a bundle of the pamphlets from the girl picket and began passing them about among the people. Two policemen who stood in front of the crowd took off their helmets and accompanied her. The crowd cheered. Frank came hurrying across the street to where Sam stood in front of the barber shop and slapped him on the back.
“You’re a wonder,” he said.
Sam hurried back to the room and prepared the second letter for the mailing list. Two more stenographers had come to work. He had to send out for more machines. A reporter for the town’s evening paper ran up the stairway.