The post office block was begun on the day appointed, with a force of men, all of whom were members of the trade organizations, and the work progressed steadily for a week. At the Saturday-night meetings of the several trade organizations, the members congratulated themselves that “old French” had concluded not to carry out his programme, and in several lodges it was proposed to signalize the magnificent victory of labor over capital by demanding a general advance of twenty per cent in the wages of all mechanics; but some of the wiser heads discouraged the movement as premature, and one pessimistic house carpenter observed, amid expressions of dissent from his colleagues, that if all the mechanics followed the example of the hod carriers, it would “bust wide open every builder and contractor in Frisco, or else put a stop to all building.”
On the next Monday morning there appeared on the scene ten men clad in blouses and overalls. Three of them worked at mixing mortar, three of them carried hods, three of them commenced laying brick, while the tenth man directed the labors of the other nine. Each had buckled about his waist in plain sight a cartridge belt from which hung a dragoon revolver.
As soon as their presence and labors became known, word was sent to labor headquarters, and Delegate Brown was deputed to interview the strangers and ascertain the situation.
Pap Brown was a journeyman stone cutter on the other side of the sixties, who did not often work at his trade. The salary he received from the trade unions was sufficient for his support, and he fully earned his salary. He was shrewd, suave, and persistent, and his fatherly way with “the boys,” and deferential manner to employers, often secured to the former favorable adjustments of contests that would have been denied to the “silver-tongued” Raffertys and Blathers.
Pap Brown approached one of the men who was engaged in mixing mortar, and inquired whom he was working for. The man addressed made no reply, but signaled the foreman, who came forward and curtly answered:—
“We are all working for Mr. Lorin French.”
“What wages do you get?” asked Brown.
“Well,” replied the foreman after a pause, “strictly speaking, I don’t know as that concerns you, but I have no objection to telling you. The mortar-mixers and hod-carriers get $3.00 a day, the bricklayers $4.00, and I get $5.00.”
“Them’s union wages,” said Brown, approvingly. “You are strangers in Frisco, I jedge?”
“We arrived last Friday night from Milwaukee,” replied the foreman.