The Autobiography of Mother Jones | Page 7

sheriff and the corporation
hirelings heard of our plans and were on hand. The day came and the
women came with the mops and brooms and pails of water.
I decided not to go up to the Drip Mouth myself, for I knew they would
arrest me and that might rout the army. I selected as leader an Irish
woman who had a most picturesque appearance. She had slept late and
her husband had told her to hurry up and get into the army. She had
grabbed a red petticoat and slipped it over a thick cotton night gown.
She wore a black stocking and a white one. She had tied a little red
fringed shawl over her wild red hair. Her face was red and her eyes
were mad. I looked at her and felt that she could raise a rumpus.
I said, "You lead the army up to the Drip Mouth. Take that tin dishpan
you have with you and your hammer, and when the scabs and the mules
come up, begin to hammer and howl. Then all of you hammer and howl
and be ready to chase the scabs with your mops and brooms. Don't be
afraid of anyone."
Up the mountain side, yelling and hollering, she led the women, and
when the mules came up with the scabs and the coal, she began beating
on the dishpan and hollering and all the army joined in with her. The

sheriff tapped her on the shoulder.
"My dear lady," said he, "remember the mules. Don't frighten them."
She took the old tin pan and she hit him with it and she hollered, "To
hell with you and the mules!"
He fell over and dropped into the creek. Then the mules began to rebel
against scabbing. They bucked and kicked the scab drivers and started
off for the barn. The scabs started running down hill, followed by the
army of women with their mops and pails and brooms.
A poll parrot in a near by shack screamed at the superintendent, "Got
hell, did you! Got hell!"
There was a great big doctor in the crowd, a company lap dog. He had a
little satchel in his hand and he said to me, impudent like, "Mrs. Jones,
I have a warrant for you."
"All right," said I. "Keep it in your pill bag until I come for it. I am
going to hold a meeting now."
From that day on the women kept continual watch of the mines to see
that the company did not bring in scabs. Every day women with
brooms or mops in one hand and babies in the other arm wrapped in
little blankets, went to the mines and watched that no one went in. And
all night long they kept watch. They were heroic women. In the long
years to come the nation will pay them high tribute for they were
fighting for the advancement of a great country.
I held meetings throughout the surrounding country. The company was
spending money among the farmers, urging them not to do anything for
the miners. I went out with an old wagon and a union mule that had
gone on strike, and a miner's little boy for a driver. I held meetings
among the farmers and won them to the side of the strikers.
Sometimes it was twelve or one o'clock in the morning when I would
get home, the little boy asleep on my arm and I driving the mule.

Sometimes it was several degrees below zero. The winds whistled
down the mountains and drove the snow and sleet in our faces. My
hands and feet were often numb. We were all living on dry bread and
black coffee. I slept in a room that never had a fire in it, and I often
woke up in the morning to find snow covering the outside covers of the
bed.
There was a place near Arnot called Sweedy Town, and the company's
agents went there to get the Swedes to break the strike. I was holding a
meeting among the farmers when I heard of the company S efforts. I
got the young farmers to get on their horses and go over to Sweedy
Town and see that no Swede left town.
They took clotheslines for lassos and any Swede seen moving in the
direction of Arnot was brought back quick enough.
After months of terrible hardships the strike was about won. The mines
were not working. The spirit of the men was splendid. President Wilson
had come home from the western part of the state. I was staying at his
home. The family had gone to bed. We sat up late talking over matters
when there came a knock at the door. A very cautious knock.
"Come in,"