Well
did that mob know that if those rifles ever spoke there would be a
number of vacant chairs at the various family boards that night. The
wire was soon cut, the main office gave me department headquarters and
in thirty minutes' time that mob was scattering like so much chaff
before the wind, and with a ringing cheer, two companies of the --th
Infantry came down among them like a thunderbolt. We were saved and took
Redway back to camp with us. That evening the major came over to see
him. Poor chap! he couldn't speak but he motioned for a pencil and
paper and this is what he wrote:--
"Don't worry, major, I'm all right. My speaking machine seems to have
had a head end collision with a cyclone, but if you want me to pull any
more trains out my right arm is still in pretty good shape." Bob hung to
us all through the trying weeks that followed and in the end some of us
succeeded in getting him a good position in one of the departments in
Washington.
Far up in the Northwest things were in a very bad shape. Everything was
tied up tight; mail trains could not run because there were no men to
run them; "Debsism" had a firm grasp; and even though many of the
trainmen were willing to run, intimidation by the strikers caused them
to go slow.
Pages:
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475