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With a good deal of an air she walked up to the paying teller's win

"I wouldn't shave myself today," dow in the bank and informed the

said she, quietly.

"Want to insinuate that I've been drinking, eh?" he stormed.

"Not at all. But that isn't a cup of lather you brought in from the kitchen just now. That's a russe." The Melting Pot.

charlotte

The editor of a paper in western Indiana declares it to be a fact that a "cub" reporter on an Evansville sheet, in describing the murder of a man in an adjacent town, wired his paper as follows:

"Murderer evidently in quest of money. Luckily Jones had deposited all his funds in the bank the day before, so that he lost nothing but his life."-Amalgamated Journal.

A minister in a small western town surprised his audience one Sunday by reading the following notice from the pulpit :

person in charge that she was de-
sirous of opening an account. She
was directed to
a. window further
down the line, where such matters
were attended to. There she told
again what she wanted.

"What is the sum you wish to deposit?" inquired the clerk.

"Oh, I don't mean that kind of an "I mean an account," she replied. account like I have at the big stores down town."-N. Y. Evening Post.

The youthful writer strolled in casually.

"I have just finished my new story," he remarked. So we queried: "What is it called?"

"At the Throat of the World!" he replied. Haggard with horror, we leaped to our feet. "At the Throat of the World!" we gasped. “What is it? A tale of bloody murder?"

"Not at all," explained the youthful writer. "it's merely the autobiography of a barber."-Erie R. R. Employes' Magazine.

"The regular session of the Donkey Club will be held as usual after service. Members will line up just outside the door, make remarks and stare at the ladies who pass, as is their custom." The club didn't meet that Sunday. Irishman, secured his first foreman-The Spokesman.

During a revival service at a colored Baptist church enthusiasm and spiritual fervor were at high tide.

"Eberybody dat wants to go to Hebben stan' up!" shouted the exhorter.

With one accord every negro in the church except one leaped to his feet. The preacher singled out the recalcitrant one for spiritual admonition.

"Looka heah," he began, "does Ah undastan' dat yo' wants to go to Hell?"

"No, sah," explained the backslider; "but Ah done been baptized in de Mefodis' church."

"Lan' sakes, man," corrected the

Mike Hennesey, a hefty young

ship after serving for some years as one of the "gang". In the morning he began his duties by calling the gang to order. "Yez all have to worruk for me!" he shouted. "Worruk, I say! And I want every man of yez to understand at wance that I kin lick any man in the gang!" All swallowed the insult except one giant-built warrior, who stepped forward and said:

"But you can't lick me, Hennesey!" "Oh, I can't, can't I?" yelled Mike. "No, you can't," came back the determined answer.

"Well, thin, go to the office and draw your money. I'll hov no man in me gang I can't lick."-The Glassworker.

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So deplorable are the sanitary conditions found in the ten sweat shops in Philadelphia by the representatives of the State Department of Labor that permits are said to have been suspended until healthful conditions should be established. No work will be permitted in any of these places until the law is complied with. The reports of the department indicate that not more than 25 per cent are up to the standard required by the laws of the state. A vigorous campaign is now being carried on to correct the evils which have existed for years past.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen is reported to have so increased the salaries of its general officers that from Jan. 1, 1914, its President will be paid $8,000 per year, Assistant President $5,000, the six Vice Presidents $4,000 each, General Secretary and Treasurer, $6,000, Editor and Manager of the Firemen's Magazine $4,000, General Counsel $5,000, and General Medical Examiner $4,000. The organization is said to pay, in addition to the foregoing salaries, all of the traveling expenses of its officers.

Beginning this fall, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are to co-operate in maintaining a School for Public Health Officers. The facilities of both institutions are to be available to students and the Certificate of Public Health (C. P. H.) is to be signed by both President Lowell and President Maclaurin. The object of this school is to prepare young men for public health work, especially to fit them to occupy administrative and executive positions such as health officers or members of boards of health, as well as secretaries, agents and inspectors of health organizations.

The new child-labor law in Massachusetts appears to be creating no end of trouble. Every child is obliged to attend the public schools until he or she is 16 years of age. Under the old law it was 14. In the large mill towns there is a wave of protest against the

statute, which has been effective since September 1. Many children between the ages of 14 and 16 years have been forced to relinquish work since the law became operative, and this, it is claimed, has proven a hardship to the parents and caused more or less vexation to the manufacturers in almost every city and town in the state.

Textile cities, such as Lowell, Lawrence, New Bedford and Fall River are especially bitter against the law and are already clamoring for its repeal. The very people whom it is intended to aid-poor families—are at the forefront in the fight to have it wiped off the statute books. On the last day of the last session of the Legislature Speaker Grafton D. Cushing, who fathered the "child labor" law, named a recess committee to investigate how the act affects families whose children are forced to give up their work. It has been known as the child labor committee, and is empowered to make suggestions for changes and improvements in the law and also correct defects.

No Wonder

“Oh, John,” cried the farmer's wife, "I'm afraid I've taken that dreadful new disease."

"What makes you think so?" he asked, alarmed, gathering the frail little woman into his arms and stroking the thinning hair as she sobbed out the story of her fears upon his broad shoulder.

"Well," she explained, "after I have gotten up, dressed myself and the children, cooked breakfast, washed the dishes, prepared the children for school, strained the new milk and set it away to cool, churned and worked the butter, swept and dusted, done the ironing, given baby his bath, cooked dinner and washed the dishes, sewed all

afternoon, cooked supper and washed the dishes, undressed the children and put them to bed, and sat down for the evening I am too tired to do any darning! I never used to feel so!" Puck.

Court Decisions

In this department of THE AMERICAN EMPLOYER will be found decisions of courts in the United States and the Dominion of Canada on issues of law of interest to employers of labor.

STRIKERS WORSTED Indiana Court Issues Injunction and

Awards Damages

In the recent case of the Keyless Lock Company vs. Shaughnessy and others, in the Circuit Court of Marion County, Indiana, Judge Thornton said:

"This is one of those unfortunate troubles arising between capital on the one hand and labor on the other; and necessarily there are conflicting views concerning the rights of the capitalist and the rights of the laborer. Such a situation is to be deplored; for capital is of little value without the laborer, and the laborer, as society is now organized, is helpless without the use of capital to furnish him employ

ment.

"The charge is that the defendants drove away the plaintiffs' workmen from its foundry by threats, violence and intimidation, using violence as well as the method of picketing for that purpose; and by the same methods deterred other workingmen from entering into their service as foundrymen and coremakers, whereby the efficiency of their plant was lessened and the cost of production increased.

"As in all cases of this character, there is much conflicting evidence. Some of this conflict is produced by an honest difference in point of view, in opportunities to observe, in differences of the powers of the witness to note the facts and tell them, in the unconscious bias of the witnesses, and some of it is a deliberate determination to color the testimony as much as possible in favor of the side the particular witness is in sympathy with and desirous to favor.

"On the part of the unions in this trouble the effort was to unionize the business of the plaintiffs, whose foundry had been conducted as an open shop. One of the methods resorted to was picketing. The resort to picketing is a dangerous method, because the seal of the pickets and those associated with them is very apt to lead to violence and methods not tolerated by the law.

"The employes were under no contracts for their services with their employers; and so no question is involved concerning the defendants inducing these employes to break their contracts for services. These employes had a right to quit their employment with the plaintiffs at any moment they saw fit to do so, without excuse, and without rendering themselves liable to their employers for a breach of contract. In this regard they were absolutely free and untrammeled save by their consciences. They might quit singly or by combination, without notice or excuse, even though they may have known their action would inflict great damages upon their employers. They also had a right to strike to secure better conditions from their employers.

“Under the law the defendants had the right, in order to unionize the plaintiffs' foundry, to use persuasion and argument with the plaintiffs' workingmen, and to extend to them such favors and accommodations as they had within their control. The law does not deprive endeavor and energy of their just reward, when exercised for a legitimate purpose and in a legitimate manner. In a contest between employes and employers, on the one hand to secure better wages and con

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