As for Sharp, he threatened various things, but his own attorney told him to “pocket his wrath and say nothing,” as he could not maintain an action against the _Star_. Terry was happy, as the sales of the _Star_, in Papyrus, had been lifted between two and three hundred, and the increase promised to prove permanent. CHAPTER V. “How are you and the lad, this morning, Mrs. Wycliff?” asked that good neighbor, Mrs. Clyde. “Getting along nicely, thank you, and very glad to see you,” replied Mrs. Wycliff. “But how does it happen that you are not working to-day?” “The strike. Haven’t you heard of the rag-cutters’ strike? Three hundred rag-cutters walked out of the Baldwin Mills an hour ago.” “I didn’t know that the Baldwins ever had a strike in their mills.” “They don’t often have one, and when they do, the world at large does not know about it, they have such a strong grip on the newspapers about here. My son, Tom, works on the Springdale _Democrat_, and he has told me a lot about these things. Springdale is about fifty miles from here, and the _Democrat_ pretends to be an independent newspaper, and yet it never prints any news from Papyrus which can possibly hurt Congressman Baldwin. Some years ago, Tom began work as correspondent here for the _Democrat_, and there was a big strike here, in the Liberty Mill, which belongs to the Baldwin Paper Company. Tom didn’t know any better then, and he sent them a long article about the strike. Not a word of it was printed, and the editor wrote Tom that they never printed any news of that kind about the Baldwins. Then the other Springdale paper, the _Universe_, is owned by Congressman Baldwin; so, of course, that does not print a word regarding troubles in the Baldwin Mills.” “But what was the cause of the strike to-day?” inquired Mrs. Wycliff. “There were a good many things that had something to do with it,” replied the neighbor, “but fines were the worst.” “Fines! Do you have to pay fines?” asked Mrs. Wycliff. “Yes, in this way. Perhaps you do not understand how fast we have to work to earn what we get. We earn about one dollar per day, and to do this we must cut in the neighborhood of one hundred and twenty-five pounds of rags. Now, in cutting these rags, if we overlook a button, or a bit of rubber, we are fined a pound of rags.” “That is, if you put in a piece of cloth having a button on it, no matter how small, you must cut an extra pound of rags, to punish you for overlooking that button. Am I right?” “Yes, you have it exactly right, and it’s just the same if I put in a piece of cloth which has a bit of rubber in it. And here, see here is a bit of cloth that came back to me this morning,--just this little bit of a letter, sewed into the cloth.” And she showed Mrs. Wycliff a bit of white cloth, on which was a small initial, such as is used in marking garments.