No troops or extra police were
needed. The strikers used the time to attend university extension
lectures, visit museums and learn something useful. The people,
including many of the employers, contributed liberally to keep
them from starving. It was a war of principles, and it was fought
out on that line, though in the end each gave in to something. Yes,
it is good, sometimes, to take time to think, even if you cannot
wait for the tide to float you off a sandbank. Though what else
they could have done, I cannot imagine.
That night there was a great to-do in the old town. The target
company had its annual shoot, and the target company included all
of the solid citizens of the town. The "king," who had made the
best score, was escorted with a band to the hotel on the square
opposite the Dom, and made a speech from a window, adorned with
the green sash of his office, and flanked by ten tallow dips by
way of illumination. And the people cheered. Yes! it was petty
and provincial and all that. But it was pleasant and neighborly,
and oh! how good for a tired man.
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