THE KILLSBURY WOMEN ARREST THEMSELVES.
On the fifteenth of July Schwarmer came as he was expected to do; for
besides being a blunt man, he was known to be one who rarely broke his
promise. He arrived on the morning train and in the afternoon while he was
sitting in his beautiful office with the Golden Rule President on one side
of him and Lawyer Rattlinger on the other, the door opened suddenly and
disclosed a very pretty sight--namely a procession of ladies tastefully
hatted and gowned. The ribbons which were fastened daintily on their
shoulders fluttered like wings in the strong breeze caused by the opening
of the door.
He had been informed that a delegation of ladies would do themselves the
honor of calling upon him to ask a favor, the nature of which was not
apparent, so he arose to his feet at once, with his broad smile and blunt
speech.
"Bless you ladies! Really ladies! This is a great and unexpected surprise.
A truly great and truly happy one. Bless you all. How lovely you look.
You do me proud, most assuredly you do. Ask me any faver you choose. I
almost know what it will be before you open your pretty lips--pardon or
excuses for your husbands or sons for the destruction of my property.
Ladies are always doing something of that kind, God bless them! I feel
like accepting even before you ask me to, most assuredly I do. I know it
wasn't your fault. I know ladies don't approve of such violent doings or
go into them, unless dragged in by their husbands or sweethearts. I
understand that. I shouldn't be my mother's son if I didn't, ladies. You
may make your requests without fear or trembling. I am blunt in my speech
but I trust my treatment of ladies is exactly the reverse."
The lawyer winked at the President as much as to say that exactly the
reverse of blunt would be sharp; but his wife was among the crowd and as
she was a lady who laughed easily he felt obliged to keep his countenance
of the usual length.
"The ladies, God bless them," Schwarmer continued in his closing
peroration. "They are all angels--all except those that are very strongly
tempted to be the reverse."
The President's wife laughed this time in spite of her husband's long
drawn face. Several others caught the infection. No knowing where it would
have ended had not Mr. Schwarmer sat down suddenly. They knew that their
time had come and the thought sobered them.
Mrs. Muelenberg was the first to speak. She said:
"We know you are very kind, Mr. Schwarmer, and we have come to make our
confessions and ask you for substantial proofs of your kindness. We all
had a hand in the destruction of your property--a free hand, and we are
going to tell you why and pay the damages. We are averse to the
technicalities, expense and delay of the law, so after we have made our
plea--that is, all the plea we _can_ make, we trust that you will make out
your bill. We have brought our purses and wish to settle the damages on
the spot."
"Damages against the ladies!" gasped Schwarmer, looking with dismay at the
purses conspicuously displayed. "My intention is to settle this little
matter with the men who had a hand in it. I don't want any pay for my
property, dear ladies. Rest assured I am not that sort of a man. All that
I shall insist upon is to have the law respected--the rights of property
regarded."
"And all that we shall insist on, if it goes to the courts, is that the
rights of mothers be respected and the lives of their children properly
regarded," said Mrs. Rattlinger. "I am not a lawyer but I am a lawyer's
wife and I think I know about where we should stand in such a case."
"Of course you do," replied Schwarmer, "and being a wife and mother, very
naturally you would, as one and all thus situated. I shall see to it that
no harm comes to you, rest assured I shall. I have an almost unbounded
respect for mothers and a great tenderness for children and would be more
than willing to do all I could to prevent them from injury on our natal
day, without interfering with its proper enjoyment, most assuredly I
would. I am very fond of them all. I lament with our _lamentable_
President that there are not more mothers and more children. There can't
be too many of them to suit me. It takes a great many to keep up the
supply, as they are more prone to accidents than grown people, especially
on and around our glorious Fourth--for the reason that their little hands
and pockets which patriotism requires us to fill with firecrackers, are so
much nearer their little eyes than ours are. Most assuredly they are. For
these and other reasons of a similar nature, there can't be too many
children born into the world. They make it lively. Truly, ladies, I am a
very blunt man and I must say that I think mothers should have many more
children than they do have. Yes, a great many more and be happy to do so.
Very happy indeed, ladies. There is no sight on earth so perfectly lovely
in my estimation as that of a mother surrounded with her children.
Completely surrounded I should say--north and south, east and
west--surrounded as with a halo, so to speak."
Schwarmer's pronunciation of _halo_ sounded so much like _hello_ that
Sybil Bolt, whose little boy had lost a finger three years before, in
consequence of his Independence Day gift, whispered to the woman who stood
next to her:
"Yes a fine hello--young ones with their fingers blown off, eyes blown
out, and faces scarred."
She whispered loud enough to be heard across the room and Schwarmer may or
may not have heard her. He continued:
"Don't be alarmed, my dear ladies. I wouldn't have the heart to hurt a
hair of your heads, nor a hair that belonged to your children. Be assured
I shall lay up nothing against you, and I'm not going to be hard with your
husbands and lovers either, rest assured I am not. Go in peace."
He waved his hand as though waving them out; but they did not "follow the
wave."
Mrs. Normander came to the front and gave the list of accidents as Ralph
had done at the mass meeting. She also repeated the statement that the
list was out of all proportion to that of other towns throughout the
state. Then she turned upon him squarely.
This being the case the question was, why it was so? "You know how that
question was settled at the meeting, Mr. Schwarmer, and the result."
"Yes, I know," said Schwarmer, "that my property was meddled with and I
know that accidents occur or are liable to occur all over the country on
the Fourth, and we don't know where they will occur, nor how many will
occur at a given point, most assuredly we don't, and we don't know just
how many occur in our own town. They are not always reported, or made much
of. There will be accidents on that day as a matter of course, truly there
always have been and must be--it's an accidental world--full of accident
policies--eh, ladies? The Fourth of July wouldn't be the Fourth without
accidents, surely it wouldn't, would it ladies?"
"Yes it would," said Mrs. Normander. "We have had one this year--a lovely
Fourth. We all enjoyed it--especially the children. They said they had
never had such a splendid Independence Day. They had no fireworks and not
a single one was hurt. We heard there was quite a serious accident at your
place where you had an elaborate pyrotechnic display."
"O! a small one, ladies, a very small one--truly very small--not worth
mentioning, ladies."
"Not for you," cried out a voice angrily; "but for the poor mother who
lost her child!"
She broke off sobbing. She was the widow whose little boy had died of
_tetanus_ a few years before. The ladies all knew it and were visibly
affected.
"Beg your pardon, dear woman," said Schwarmer fussing with his pocket
handkerchief. "Beg your pardon, one and all, dear ladies, I meant no
harm--no insult to your sex--most assuredly not. I'm all sympathy for any
one in a delicate condition and exceedingly sorry for any loss they may
sustain and would not do or say anything willingly to aggravate the one or
the other. I trust you know I would not. You know also that accidents of
that kind _do_ happen very frequently, and without any fright from
pyrotechnics. The only damage that can be truly chargeable to the rocket,
was very slight indeed, very--only a matter of a few bundles of straw and
an old tumble down shed. It made quite a blaze of course, you know it
would ladies, and the excitement may have been the one straw too much for
the mother delicately situated but there is no real proof of it--that is,
no absolute proof you understand ladies. I mean to say that something else
might have happened that would have led to the same disaster--something
quite trifling, such as a husband coming in late and slamming the door. To
speak bluntly we have all heard of such things bringing on premature
difficulties. Truly we have, have we not, my dear ladies?"
"I see, I see, silence gives consent," continued Mr. Schwarmer quite
jauntily, "and I know you have forgiven me any little hand I may have had
in the matter--which was very slight indeed, I assure you. The
pyrotechnics referred to were under the auspices of a much greater than
I--that is pyrotechnically considered. No less a person than the young son
of a billionaire friend of mine who has a great taste for pyrotechnics.
The piece which caused the premature loss referred to was designed by
him. It was very original and powerful--most assuredly it was--almost too
powerful for inland display. It would have been truly gorgeous out at sea
or off Coney Island or Manhattan Beach. He's a great genius, the young
fellow is, and an aspiring one and needs a great deal of room to display
his talents, as all geniuses of any size, invariably do. When he was
abroad he was royally entertained by the greatest of living Pyrotechnists,
King Pang, whose father was knighted by the queen for doing something
splendid. I have forgotten just what it was. By the way, he made a very
good pun out of the little accident he had here, after he got back to the
city. He said that his 'Pet Rocket rocked the cradle prematurely'--or
attempted to rock it, or something of the kind. I can't quite remember
which; but really it was very good and characteristic also. He always
spoke of his creations as though they were live creatures and really they
are very lively--very lively indeed, I assure you, ladies."
"They are fiends in disguise," exclaimed Ruth rising suddenly and lifting
the rim of her hat so he might recognize her without difficulty. She had
managed to hide herself from his observation, she hardly knew why. She had
a mixed sort of a feeling that she would like to see him let himself
entirely out and that he would be more likely to do so if he did not know
she were there. She meant to have her say. She had come prepared for it;
but she would not say a word until her whole soul was in it and she could
hold back no longer. She had brought the spent rocket that had come so
near killing or injuring Ralph's mother. She held it up so everybody could
see it plainly.
"Yes," she went on with righteous indignation. "They are fiends in
disguise. Here is one of them, with its pretty red, white and blue
wrapping torn off. Look at it one and all. It's only a rough stick and a
lump of lead. It looks dull and harmless now but backed by powder and
dynamite it can do terrible execution. Look at it Mr. Schwarmer. It was
sent over from the hill on last Fourth and came within a hair breadth of
hitting a lady's shoulder! If it had, it would have laid her arm open to
the bone, for it dashed down the whole length of it and buried itself in
the ground. What kind of a pun would your City Pyro King have made of
that? What does he care for the homes made desolate, the youths that are
slain and mutilated, this son of a millionaire, so that he adds more
millions to his possessions? What does he care for such misery as I have
suffered? Every year for seven years I had to be taken from my home and
sent to Canada in order to escape our Independence day horror. Every year
since the terrible accident to my little brother. You all know about that.
I was only eleven years old then. I did not fully understand what the
English officers meant when they said 'Very sensitive to foreign foes
Americans are, and yet they arm the home foes and ignorant boys with
enough powder and dynamite to kill and wound thousands every year.' 'A
very free country that whose people have to fly to Europe or to us for
safety.' But it dawned on me little by little, year after year. Last year
I saw it all. This year I am here, determined to leave no stone unturned
to do away with the cruel, barberous idiotic celebration of our national
day.
"Think of it, Mr. Schwarmer! How would you feel to have your little
innocent brother, or child, frightfully scarred, burned or torn to pieces
by fireworks that some careless person had put into his hands? Take it to
your heart and conscience. Remember, we do not assume that you are a bad
man because you distribute fireworks among the children of this town. We
know you don't think when you give a lot of boys a lot of toy pistols that
they are going to kill or injure each other with them. You are just like a
great many others. You have been brought up to think it right for boys to
celebrate our Independence Day and you don't stop to think of the new
elements of danger which have been, and are constantly being introduced.
The firecracker and the torpedo were always dangerous nuisances and should
have been done away with long ago for something harmless and more
sensible. Instead of that they have been developed into giants and are now
manufactured in enormous quantities--enough to burn up the whole world;
and they do burn up millions of dollars worth of property each year.
"Think of it! It's not only the loss of life that is to be considered but
it's the waste of money. It's a pity to see it recklessly burned up when
we are needing so many things. We need a public library. All we have now
are a few old ragged books. We need a public park, where the children can
go to fly their kites, look at the gold fishes, listen to the music, smell
of the flowers, laugh, play and sing, and be out of the dust and danger of
the crowded thoroughfare. We need good roads and bridges. There isn't a
thoroughly good road in town except the speedway, which the corporation
helped you build over beyond the hill. The sewers and water works are
incomplete. You have about all there are at your place and the
towns-people have paid the corporation taxes, although they have been
doubled since your coming, without grumbling. Think of all these things,
Mr. Schwarmer. Investigate this whole matter for yourself and see if you
can't do something better for us than you have been doing. You have
refused to take pay from us for the destruction of your property. We thank
you but we do not wish you to think that we did not give our whole
strength and influence to the work. What I did was to put it into the head
of my husband (that now is) to help me do something at once, to prevent
the horrible burnt sacrifice that would surely take place if your
fireworks were distributed here as usual. I could not rest after hearing
the English boast as I did last year that a shrewd English Pyro-king had
sold millions of dollars worth of fireworks to the American people to burn
up on their '_awful_ Independence Day' as they called it, and that the
demand was so great that he had to send a supply from the London
manufactory. You see how it is, Mr. Schwarmer. I have heard and thought
about these things through days and nights of suffering and exile on
English soil. And now I have to confess that I am the instigator-in-chief
of the destruction of your property. You will be kind enough to reckon
with _me_ if you do with anybody. We bid you good day and a God speed in
the right direction."
The ladies withdrew without being waved out.