To which the good woman quickly replied: “Send for them both to come at once and make their home with us—at least for the present. You will soon go to Springfield, and will be gone all winter attending the Legislature. You expect to hire someone to attend the stock and the farm while you are away, and you always hire in the summer. Perhaps they might like farm work, and suit you better than anyone you can hire, and so stay permanently. “The Lord has taken all our dear children away,” she continued; “and if Glen is the boy his father has always ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “‘Fellow reformers, would you be free? Would you see the regimen of corporate power and class despotism at an end? Would you see the shackles stricken forever from the limbs of humanity, and behold emancipation—the rebirth? Do you believe that this can come through the ballot? No! You do not. “‘Have not the reformers spent their lives, their fortunes, and their energies in the cause of political reform? Have they not seen the cunning and unscrupulous always victorious, emerging from every campaign master of the spoils? Have you any hopes that this will be changed in the future? The past is one long protest against the ballot as an instrument of reformation.’ “Scarcely a day passes that I do not receive one or more appeals to join one or the other of the revolutionary orders being formed in this country, and offers of money and arms are frequently received if I will give my efforts to the cause of revolution. Thus far I have persistently declined to give aid or encouragement to such movements. But if, through the writings of such men as Private Dalzell, revolution comes, in spite of all efforts to prevent it, I will not be found among the cowards, nor on the side of the plutocratic classes. * * * “J. R. SOVEREIGN.” “Let me see your scrap-book, please,” said Glen. It was handed to him, and he settled down to read, while the others conversed. “That letter appeared some time ago,” said Benjamin, “and I’ll warrant it has been read by every member of a labor union. I tell you something is going to happen. Where, or when, or what it is going to be I don’t know, but I do know the power of the labor unions, and doubt not they will play an important part in the struggle. I haven’t a particle of doubt but those societies which Mr. Sovereign mentions are being formed. It is this great chasm between the rich and the poor that is causing the trouble. The laboring people are piling up wealth, and it is all being appropriated by the rich, and the poor find it harder each day to make a living. This is especially true in the factories of the East, where labor-saving machines are displacing thousands of laborers.” “Don’t you think,” said Mr. Smith, “that their further introduction should be prohibited?”