“Now, Mr. Kelly, you know I read that over twice and discussed it with you!”

“Order, order, Captain!  Mr. Kelly is entitled to give his explanation.  I sign many a paper that I do not read—­documents our lawyers and partners present to me to sign.  Mr. Kelly states that he signed this document under such circumstances and his statement must be received.  But, Mr. Kelly, I have always found that the best way is to carry out the provisions of the agreement one signs carelessly and resolve to be more careful next time.  Would it not be better for you to continue four months longer under this agreement, and then, when you sign the next one, see that you understand it?”

There was no answer to this, and I arose and said: 

“Gentlemen of the Blast-Furnace Committee, you have threatened our firm that you will break your agreement and that you will leave these blast furnaces (which means disaster) unless you get a favorable answer to your threat by four o’clock to-day.  It is not yet three, but your answer is ready.  You may leave the blast furnaces.  The grass will grow around them before we yield to your threat.  The worst day that labor has ever seen in this world is that day in which it dishonors itself by breaking its agreement.  You have your answer.”

The committee filed out slowly and there was silence among the partners.  A stranger who was coming in on business met the committee in the passage and he reported: 

“As I came in, a man wearing spectacles pushed up alongside of an Irishman he called Kelly, and he said:  ’You fellows might just as well understand it now as later.  There’s to be no d——­d monkeying round these works.’”

That meant business.  Later we heard from one of our clerks what took place at the furnaces.  Kelly and his committee marched down to them.  Of course, the men were waiting and watching for the committee and a crowd had gathered.  When the furnaces were reached, Kelly called out to them: 

“Get to work, you spalpeens, what are you doing here?  Begorra, the little boss just hit from the shoulder.  He won’t fight, but he says he has sat down, and begorra, we all know he’ll be a skeleton afore he rises.  Get to work, ye spalpeens.”

The Irish and Scotch-Irish are queer, but the easiest and best fellows to get on with, if you only know how.  That man Kelly was my stanch friend and admirer ever afterward, and he was before that one of our most violent men.  My experience is that you can always rely upon the great body of working-men to do what is right, provided they have not taken up a position and promised their leaders to stand by them.  But their loyalty to their leaders even when mistaken, is something to make us proud of them.  Anything can be done with men who have this feeling of loyalty within them.  They only need to be treated fairly.