The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Transgressors, by Francis A. Adams

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Transgressors Story of a Great Sin

Author: Francis A. Adams

Release Date: January 7, 2005 [EBook #14633]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRANSGRESSORS ***

Produced by Robert Shimmin, Jennifer Collins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE TRANSGRESSORS.

STORY OF A GREAT SIN.

A Political Novel of the Twentieth
Century.

By FRANCIS A. ADAMS,
Author of "WHO RULES AMERICA?"

Philadelphia:
Independence Publishing Company.

CONTENTS

BOOK I.

HAIL TO THE SHERIFF OF LUZERNE. PAGE.

CHAPTER I. Clouds Gather at Wilkes-Barre 1 " II. Harvey Trueman, Attorney 16 " III. Conflicting Opinions 23 " IV. A Quiet Afternoon at Woodward 32 " V. An Unquiet Day at Hazleton 48 " VI. A Stand For Conscience Sake 63

BOOK II.

THE SYNDICATE INCORPORATES. PAGE.

CHAPTER VII. An Anti-Trust Conference 74 " VIII. A Startling Proposal 81 " IX. Arraignment of The Transgressors 89 " X. The Secret Session 110 " XI. Martha's Premonition 124 " XII. Taking the Secret Oath 135 " XIII. The List of Transgressors 150

BOOK III.

THE SYNDICATE DECLARES A DIVIDEND. PAGE.

CHAPTER XIV. Birth of a New Party 163 " XV. Choosing a Leader 169 " XVI. Two Points of View 183 " XVII. Opening the Campaign 189 " XVIII. On to New York 197 " XIX. Departure of the Committee 206 " XX. In the Enemy's Stronghold 212 " XXI. The Committee Reports Progress 224 " XXII. Millionaires Sowing the Wind 230 " XXIII. A Day Ahead of Schedule 241

BOOK IV.

IN FREEDOM'S NAME. PAGE.

CHAPTER XXIV. The Syndicate in Liquidation 256 " XXV. Big News in the Javelin Office 263 " XXVI. On to Wilkes-Barre 276 " XXVII. Sister Martha Averts a Calamity 284 " XXVIII. At the Dead Coal King's Mansion 298 " XXIX. Peace Hath Her Victories 309 " XXX. A Double Funeral 324 " XXXI. The New Era 333

BOOK I.

Hail to the Sheriff of Luzerne!

THE TRANSGRESSORS.

CHAPTER I.

CLOUDS GATHER AT WILKES-BARRE.

There are few valleys to compare with that of the Susquehanna. In point of picturesque scenery and modern alteration attained by the unceasing labor of man, the antithesis between the natural and the artificial is pronounced in many respects; especially at that place in the river where it runs through the steep banks on which is situated the thriving city of Wilkes-Barre. Here may be seen the majestic hills standing as sentinels over the marts of men that crowd the river edge. The verdure of these hills during the greater part of the year is the one sight that gladdens the eyes of the miners whose lives, for the most part, are spent in the coal pits.

The picture would be perfect were it not for the presence of the Coal-Breakers. These sombre, grizzly structures stand in a long line on the west bank of the river, and appear to the eye of one who knows their purpose, as the gibbets that dotted the shores of England and France must have loomed up before the mariners of the Channel during the Seventeenth Century, and when the supply of pirates exceeded the number of gibbets, large as this number was in both lands.

The breaker is a truly modern invention, which, had it existed in the days of the Spanish inquisition, would have placed in the hands of the malevolent fanatics an instrument of exquisite torture. It is constructed to effect a double purpose, the achievement of the maximum of production and the expenditure of the minimum of human effort. It is the acme of inventive genius. To work the breakers, a man need have no more intelligence than the tow-mule that plods a beaten path; and such a man is the ideal laborer from the standpoint of the owners of the breakers.

But such men are not indigenous to America; they must be imported, and that, too, from the most benighted lands of Europe.

What an incubator of warped humanity the breaker has become! It saps even the attenuated manhood of the aliens it attracts, and when they are rendered useless for its ends, emits them to be a scourge on the earth.

But the breakers are the monument of the civilization of the Nineteenth
Century, which esteems commercial as superior to mental advancement.

As the drama to be unfolded will be enacted largely in this spot, which nature fashioned on its fairest pattern, and which man has seared with his cruel tool, a description of the town of Wilkes-Barre and its environs is essential. The town is the creation of the Mines. Coal abounds in the valley of the Susquehanna, and from the first impetus given the coal industry by the establishment of railroads, the mines at this place have been worked without intermission. The population of the town has been increasing steadily for the past thirty years, until to-day it reaches the proportions of a populous city. There is little variety in the citizens; but the contrast they present makes up for this deficiency. Broadly speaking there are but two classes, the magnates and their mercenaries. The former live in the mansions on the esplanade and constitute the governing minority. The coal miners and the workers on the breakers, who eke out their lives in slavery, and who sleep in quarters that make the huts of the peasants of Europe seem actually inviting, constitute the vast majority.

The most prosperous business of the town outside of the Coal industry, which is, of course, monopolized by the magnates, is the Undertaking business. There are almost as many establishments for the burial of man as there are saloons to cater to his cheer. In contradistinction to the custom in this country, the business has been taken up by others than the worthy order of sextons. That this condition should be, is accounted for by the fact that there is a paucity of churches in the town, and that the sextons were unable to accomplish the work that devolved upon their craft. Death is not attributable, in the main, to natural causes in Wilkes-Barre; it is brought about by the engines of destruction which the magnates are pleased to term, Modern Machinery.

Association makes the mind incapable of appreciating nice distinctions in regard to