Hunter, the son of Abraham Hunter the Bidwell jeweler, declared that he was
going to get up with the times, and when he went into a factory, would go
into the office, not into the shop. He went to Buffalo, New York, to attend
a business college.

The air of Bidwell began to stir with talk of new times. The evil things
said of the new life coming were soon forgotten. The youth and optimistic
spirit of the country led it to take hold of the hand of the giant,
industrialism, and lead him laughing into the land. The cry, "get on in
the world," that ran all over America at that period and that still echoes
in the pages of American newspapers and magazines, rang in the streets of
Bidwell.

In the harness shop belonging to Joseph Wainsworth it one day struck a
new note. The harness maker was a tradesman of the old school and was
vastly independent. He had learned his trade after five years' service as
apprentice, and had spent an additional five years in going from place to
place as a journeyman workman, and felt that he knew his business. Also he
owned his shop and his home and had twelve hundred dollars in the bank. At
noon one day when he was alone in the shop, Tom Butterworth came in and
told him he had ordered four sets of farm work harness from a factory in
Philadelphia. "I came in to ask if you'll repair them if they get out of
order," he said.

Joe Wainsworth began to fumble with the tools on his bench. Then he turned
to look the farmer in the eye and to do what he later spoke of to his
cronies as "laying down the law." "When the cheap things begin to go to
pieces take them somewhere else to have them repaired," he said sharply. He
grew furiously angry. "Take the damn things to Philadelphia where you got
'em," he shouted at the back of the farmer who had turned to go out of the