has been posted that no more credit shall be extended after next
Saturday. This means that, for the men who are laid off, there is
nothing left but starvation."

Trueman is troubled at this statement. He has always been an opponent of
the "Company Store" system; now he sees that it is likely to be the
potent factor in exciting the miners to revolt.

"All I can promise you, is that I shall work in your interests and get
as speedy a reply as possible," he repeats. "By the by," he adds, "will
you come with me to my office now, I want you to go over some of the
details of the 'Homestead Strike' with me. I want to see what lessons I
can gather from it which will help me to advise Purdy in the present
trouble. You were in the Homestead strike, were you not?"

By a nod of his head, Metz answers in the affirmative.

They are seated in the office of the young attorney for the next hour,
during which period they review the events of the great iron strike of
'92; the reasons that led to it, and the similarity of the conditions
that exist in Wilkes-Barre.

Having given Trueman the details of the Homestead affair, Metz explains
the existing grievances of the miners of Wilkes-Barre as follows:

"The question raised by the miners is not one for advanced wages; it is
not one of reduced hours; it is not a demand for proper protection for
themselves in the mines. These things they have asked for time and
again--little enough for men who wear out their lives in the darkness
and damp of the mines. But these things they have never been able to