BY L. A. TEREBEL.
What the Lincoln Cadets called their "armory" was a large low hall in the basement of the Brick Church. Here they drilled three times a week during the winter and spring; and here they kept their brightly polished guns in racks ranged along the wall; and here their drums and bugles were stacked in a pyramid in one corner; and old Tom, the janitor, was their "armorer." On the walls, in polished oak frames, hung photographs of groups of officers that had commanded the cadets in years past, and one picture of the entire battalion of sixty boys drawn up in parade formation in the park; and over the door, in a gold frame, was a fine steel engraving of Abraham Lincoln that had been presented to the corps by Mr. Dunworthy, the president of the Board of Trustees of the Brick Church, and the chief patron of the cadets. Opposite the door, at the other end of the room, was a closet with glass doors, in which the battalion's colors and the stars and stripes and the markers' flags were kept securely locked at all times when not in use.
The first sergeants had not yet called upon their men to fall in, and the cadets were standing about the hall in groups, pulling on their white gloves and arranging their belts, for they intended to make a brave show that night because Mr. Dunworthy was coming in later to review the battalion. It was early, however, and Mr. Dunworthy need not be expected until after the meeting of the Trustees, which was being held in the vestry-room upstairs.
"Perhaps he won't come, anyway," said Captain Tom Taylor, who commanded Company A.
"Why not?" asked Adjutant Dale, as he struggled with his gold aigulets.
"His men have been on strike for pretty near a week now, and Mr. Dunworthy has been obliged to stay at the mills until all hours," continued Taylor.
"And I saw in the papers to-day the men were beginning to get ugly," put in a diminutive Lieutenant in short trousers. "The police had to be called to clear the yard in front of the mills."
"I wish those Poles would stay in Poland," remarked the Adjutant; but just then there was a blast from the bugle, and a great stamping of feet and scattering of groups put an end to further discussion of the strike at Roland and Dunworthy's mills.
For those who are not so well informed as the cadets, however, it may be well to state that the trouble at the iron-mills was wholly restricted to the Polish element among the workmen. Most of these fellows were hard characters, employed at the furnaces and in the puddling shops. In all, they numbered about one hundred and fifty. Few of them could speak English, all were ignorant, and a majority had seen the inside of the town jail. But as they were the only class of men that the mill-owners could obtain to do that class of work, they had to be employed. The difficulty which had resulted in the present strike was of long standing. The men had made certain demands, and these demands, after a brief delay, had been granted. And the Poles, thinking then that any request of theirs should be acceded to, immediately asked for further benefits, and when these were refused they left their work. Some of the worst threw stones, and one of the stones hit the superintendent. Three men were arrested and locked up in the jail. This seemed to make the Poles very angry, and they became so demonstrative that, as the Lieutenant had said, the police had to be called in to drive them out of the yard in front of Mr. Dunworthy's office.
All these occurrences made it necessary for Mr. Dunworthy to remain late at the mills, and consequently he was forced to send a note to the church saying that he would be unable to be present at the trustees' meeting that evening. Old Tom, the janitor, was sent down stairs to inform the cadets. Old Tom had served in the cavalry during the war, and he wore a decoration on his breast for gallantry at Vicksburg. So when he entered the drill-room he stood very erect, and marched up to Major Jack Downing, a tall, good-looking young man, and saluted in proper military style, then waited for permission to speak. When he announced that Mr. Dunworthy was not coming, there was an audible hum of disappointment in the ranks.