CHAPTER XIII

TRIAL OF ANARCHY AND RESULTS

George Ingram had scarcely disappeared in the darkness, when Colonel Harris fully comprehending the terrible situation at his works telephoned the exchange to summon at once to his mills every physician and ambulance in the city.

The Colonel then ordered his carriage, and taking Gertrude, rapidly drove to the scene of the disaster.  Great crowds had gathered, but the policemen, and the Harrisville Troop, already had established lines about the burning steel mills, beyond which the people were not permitted to pass.  The police and fire departments were doing all in their power to save life and property.

Colonel Harris drove directly towards his office at the mills, but this he could not reach as policemen guarded every approach.  The two story brick office had been completely wrecked by a huge piece of one of the fly-wheels, that had fallen through the roof.

The night watchman whose duty it was to enter the office hourly was killed, and his bleeding body was now being moved to a temporary morgue, which had been established in an adjoining old town-hall.  Already over fifty mangled forms had been brought in and laid in rows on the floor, and more dead workmen were arriving every moment.

The mayor and Colonel Harris were everywhere directing what to do.  Scores of the wounded were hurried in ambulances to a large Catholic Church, an improvised hospital.  Here were sent physicians, volunteer nurses, beds, and blankets.  Fortunately the seats in the church, being movable, were quickly carried into the streets, and on beds and blankets the suffering men were placed, and an examination of each wounded person was being made.  Names and addresses were taken by the reporters, and ambulances began to remove the severely injured to the city hospitals.

Colonel Harris left Gertrude to minister to the wounded in the church, and sought out Wilson his manager, and George Ingram.  Everybody worked till daylight.  Many wounded and dead men, and women and children were brought up to the morgue and hospitals from the wrecked tenements that stood near the exploded mills.  Several bodies of the dead workmen, and the wounded who could not escape from the burning works were consumed.  When the sun rose on that dreadful scene, thousands of workmen and their families and tens of thousands of sympathizers witnessed in silence the awful work of anarchists.  At daylight Colonel Harris rode with George and Gertrude home to breakfast.

In the evening press a call for a public meeting at 8 o’clock next morning of the prominent citizens resulted in the forming of an emergency committee of one hundred earnest men and women to furnish aid to the afflicted and needy work-people.  The most influential people of Harrisville were enrolled on this committee, which to be more thoroughly effective was subdivided.  Every house occupied by the mill-people was visited, and every injured person was cared for.