When van Rensselaer ceased pacing the room, he went to the table and
wrote an order closing the mills. Then he sent two telegrams, one to the
governor and one to the sheriff, telling them that violence was
threatened, calling upon them to enforce the law, and declaring that all
damages would fall upon the county. After that he rang for his manager.
"Mr. Grinder," he said, "I have closed the mills, and I intend to leave
them in your charge. You will get three hundred private detectives, or
three thousand, as may be necessary, to protect the property; and you
will set to work to gather new hands, and in one week the mills will be
running again. Let there be no shilly-shallying about it; I mean to put
an end to this nonsense once and for all time: the mills are to be run,
and run at once, if it takes all the troops in the state to do it. And
that is all,--only that the members of the union are under no
circumstances to be taken back except as individuals. I bid you good
afternoon."
So he put on his coat and left the building to enter his carriage. A
fine rain was falling, and he buttoned his coat tightly and sat gazing
fixedly ahead while he was whirled down the street. Suddenly, however,
the carriage stopped, and he came out of his revery and saw that the way
was obstructed by a crowd.
They were opposite a dilapidated house, whose pitiful furniture had all
been deposited upon the sidewalk; two half-starved, shivering children
clung to an old bed that men were dragging out of the door, and a woman
was crouching by the doorway, with a baby in her arms, crying
hysterically above the hoarse murmurs.
Then suddenly the bystanders saw who was in the carriage. A yell went
up: "It's van Rensselaer! van Rensselaer!" Like a wave the mob surged
about him. Hoots and hisses filled the air. The men shook their fists,
the women shrilled abuse, and some one flung a stone. The president
leaned forward to the coachman. "Drive on!" he shouted. "Drive on!"
The man hesitated, gazing at the crowd in front and back at his master.
"Drive on!" yelled the latter, again.
And so the coachman lashed the horses, and forward they bounded like
mad. Several of the crowd were knocked down; the rest scattered in
terror; and away down the street sped the carriage, amid a rain of
missiles and a din of curses.