"But I did not know how many workers in my shop had taken that oath at
that meeting. I could not tell how many would go on strike in our factory
the next day," said Natalya, afterward. "When we came back the next
morning to the factory, though, no one went to the dressing-room. We all
sat at the machines with our hats and coats beside us, ready to leave.
The foreman had no work for us when we got there. But, just as always, he
did not tell when there would be any, or if there would be any at all
that day. And there was whispering and talking softly all around the room
among the machines: 'Shall we wait like this?' 'There is a general
strike,' 'Who will get up first?' 'It would be better to be the last to
get up, and then the company might remember it of you afterward, and do
well for you,' But I told them," observed Natalya, with a little shrug,
"'What difference does it make which one is first and which one is last?'
Well, so we stayed whispering, and no one knowing what the other would
do, not making up our minds, for two hours. Then I started to get up."
Her lips trembled. "And at just the same minute all--we all got up
together, in one second. No one after the other; no one before. And when
I saw it--that time--oh, it excites me so yet, I can hardly talk about
it. So we all stood up, and all walked out together. And already out on
the sidewalk in front the policemen stood with the clubs. One of them
said, 'If you don't behave, you'll get this on your head.' And he shook
his club at me.

"We hardly knew where to go--what to do next. But one of the American
girls, who knew how to telephone, called up the Woman's Trade-Union
League, and they told us all to come to a big hall a few blocks away.
After we were there, we wrote out on paper what terms we wanted: not any
night work, except as it would be arranged for in some special need for
it for the trade; and shorter hours; and to have wages arranged by a