Complete Plays of John Galsworthy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,284 pages of information about Complete Plays of John Galsworthy.

Complete Plays of John Galsworthy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,284 pages of information about Complete Plays of John Galsworthy.

Jago. [A dark, sallow, Spanish-looking man with a short, thin beard.] Mister, want to ask you!  Can they get blacklegs?

Bulgin. [Menacing.] Let ’em try.

     [There are savage murmurs from the crowd.]

Brown. [A round-faced man.] Where could they get ’em then?

Evans. [A small, restless, harassed man, with a fighting face.] There’s always blacklegs; it’s the nature of ’em.  There’s always men that’ll save their own skins.

     [Another savage murmur.  There is a movement, and old Thomas,
     joining the crowd, takes his stand in front.]

Harness. [Holding up his hand.] They can’t get them.  But that won’t help you.  Now men, be reasonable.  Your demands would have brought on us the burden of a dozen strikes at a time when we were not prepared for them.  The Unions live by justice, not to one, but all.  Any fair man will tell you—­you were ill-advised!  I don’t say you go too far for that which you’re entitled to, but you’re going too far for the moment; you’ve dug a pit for yourselves.  Are you to stay there, or are you to climb out?  Come!

Lewis. [A clean-cut Welshman with a dark moustache.] You’ve hit it, Mister!  Which is it to be?

     [Another movement in the crowd, and Rous, coming quickly, takes
     his stand next Thomas.]

Harness.  Cut your demands to the right pattern, and we ’ll see you through; refuse, and don’t expect me to waste my time coming down here again.  I ’m not the sort that speaks at random, as you ought to know by this time.  If you’re the sound men I take you for—­no matter who advises you against it—­[he fixes his eyes on Roberts] you ’ll make up your minds to come in, and trust to us to get your terms.  Which is it to be?  Hands together, and victory—­or—­the starvation you’ve got now?

     [A prolonged murmur from the crowd.]

Jago. [Sullenly.] Talk about what you know.

Harness. [Lifting his voice above the murmur.] Know? [With cold passion.] All that you’ve been through, my friend, I ’ve been through—­I was through it when I was no bigger than [pointing to a youth] that shaver there; the Unions then were n’t what they are now.  What’s made them strong?  It’s hands together that ’s made them strong.  I ’ve been through it all, I tell you, the brand’s on my soul yet.  I know what you ’ve suffered—­there’s nothing you can tell me that I don’t know; but the whole is greater than the part, and you are only the part.  Stand by us, and we will stand by you.

     [Quartering them with his eyes, he waits.  The murmuring swells;
     the men form little groups.  Green, Bulgin, and Lewis talk
     together.]

Lewis.  Speaks very sensible, the Union chap.

Green. [Quietly.] Ah! if I ’d a been listened to, you’d ’ave ’eard sense these two months past.

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Complete Plays of John Galsworthy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.