CHEVROLET 
with a thick, biting smoko. Slowly wo the white man, and we do not fear him. 
thawed out the ink and the rollers, but Tear his clothes off!” 
Sol never on me near us. Then the colonel I fully expected to have this command 
and I looked at each other and knew that carried out. but Sol called from the inside 
we were up against a labor strike. 1 did and the dog slunk back under the house, 
not find the Southern people inclined to where he lay snarling as I opened- the 
drive or force the negroes to labor. They door and looked in. There was only one 
seemed more to regard the black people room. They evidently did their cooking 
as children, to be humored and treated over the open fire. A broken table, two 
with patience so long as they were not or three old chairs, a trunk and a bed. 
disrespectful. Colonel O’Brien was in- At the upper end of this bed was a long 
dined to smoke his pipe and play the row of block faces—coal black they were, 
part of philosopher. I, being young and with gleaming teeth- For Sol and his 
less well informed, felt like rushing into entire family, his wife and six children, 
the place whew angels and experienced had all climbed into bed as the most sen- 
persons hesitate. So I went after Sol, sible piece on such a day. 
* * * * ♦ "Come on, Sol.” I called; "we’re wait- 
Very few who read this have ever seen ing for you!” 
a "cabin” such as "sheltered” the ordi- “Well, boss, I’se been studyin’ ’bout 
nary colored family 40 years ago. The that. Dis bed is the only safe place for 
house where Sol lived was built of logs. Christian people dis day.” 
A good share of the "chinking” between "But Sol, what, about our subscribers? 
these logs bad fallen out. Several of the Suppose they miss their paper?" 
boards which formed the floor were broken ‘‘I reckon they ain’t no kin of mine, 
and warped. The door hung so that there boss. I ain’t obligated to them.” 
was half an inch of open space between "ButSuppose you lose your job?” 
its lower end and the sill. The house "I ain’t worryin’ ’bout dat. I’se de 
itself stood about two feet off the ground only man in dis town what can run dat 
on posts. This space was open and press. I ain’t, heard it runnin'. is I? 
showed a collection of rubbish of all sorts. When I do;% I’ll study ’bout dat." 
The wind swept through the cracks arid It was like many other “strikes”—not 
under the house. Surely here was a fresh- so much for wages as for “improved con- 
air family, if there ever was one. As I ditions," and there was no way of fixing 
reached the yard a tierce brown dog ran the press building so if. would match that 
out from under the house and stood in my bed for comfort. But that last remark 
way. lie had the hind legs of a hound, of Sol’s gave me my cue as a strike- 
the thick shoulders of a bulldog, the head breaker. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
"Someone tells vie that you once broke 
up a labor strike. // that is so, I wish 
I you would tell how it was done.” 
I gel that question from a manufac¬ 
turer who calls himself a farmer because 
he owns a piece of land on which he pro¬ 
duces such, an'expense that he eair avoid 
paving a good share of his income tax. 
I do not like to pose as a strike-breaker. 
We have had several small strikes on this 
farm. but. I have usually managed to 
strike them out before they made any 
home run. On a farm where mother and 
the girls and the hired help organized t<> 
demand fair conditions for work and com¬ 
fort. I think they could win, now that 
women are voters. The .strike that I had 
a baud in was not on a farm, hut in a 
small town in Mississippi many years 
ago. When I finished college work, I 
went Smith to work on a small agricul¬ 
tural paper. It. was a rather foolhardy 
thing for a poverty-stricken young fellow 
to do. You might call it "The Romance 
of a Poor Young Man.” Ntew England 
and the Puritans were not very popular 
in the South at that time: it was only a 
few years after the "carpet-bag” govern¬ 
ment. It seems to me now very much 
like a joke for a young Yankee, who had 
never seen cotton growing, and never 
handled negro labor, to go into the heart 
of the South and tell those ruined plant¬ 
ers bow to run their farms. 
At any rate. I went, and had many and 
strange adventures. Our newspaper of¬ 
fice was a small, one-story brick building. 
Behind it was another small building, also 
of brick. It was just large enough to 
hold a band-power press, with barely 
room to squeeze yourself around it. It 
was part of my jdt> to feed the white pa¬ 
per into this press while Sol turned the 
crank and and kept, the machine in mo¬ 
tion. Sol was a gigantic colored man. 
several degrees blacker than the ace of 
spades. I have seen men of all colors and 
shades, from white to shoe blacking, but I 
never saw a more powerful human being 
than Sol. lie must have been at least 
six feet five inches tall, with a chest like 
a barrel, and long arms, like the piston 
rods on a steam engine. He was not. fat— 
just about 230 pounds of solid bone and 
lean meat. Once two good-sized colored 
men were fighting on the street. This 
fight, was not according to the rules of the 
prize ring. These fighters backed off and 
butted into each other like a couple of 
rams, with a crash like an automobile 
accident. Sol came along while they were 
fighting, and promptly collared both of 
them. One be tossed over the fence and 
the other went into the gutter, where he 
la- with the breath knocked out of him. 
Then Sol, without a word, went slouch¬ 
ing on his way. It may be that I am 
talking as l did about that "70 foot tree,” 
but I would be inclined to back that black 
man against any two horsepower engine 
I have ever seen. I used to stand on the 
box feeding in those papers and watch 
Sol as he Lurried that press. Stripped to 
the waist, in hot weather, his black skin 
glistening with perspiration and great 
bulging muscles rolling like waves over 
bis back and arms, be seemed something 
more than a man. lie would glance up 
at me as I stood admiring him. and grin 
until the entire lower part of his faefe 
seemed tilled with beautiful while teeth. 
I was young then, and thought it an 
abominable freak of nature that this 
man’s skull, above bis eyes, has been 
completely ossified before it fully filled 
out and made room for the front part of 
the brain. For if the head of this giaut 
had been developed as symmetrically as 
his body bad been, he might have turned 
the thought of the world, instead of mere¬ 
ly turning the press. I used to wonder 
how that magnificent frame and those 
lteinitiful teeth could ever be produced 
from the food which SoL consumed. For 
he seemed to eat nothing but fat meat, 
corn bread, a few cow peas, and such 
candy or ginger cakes as he could buy 
with his saving'-. Sol knew less about 
science than 1 did of ancient Saxon, but 
he had the idea. When I asked him how 
lie came to be so big, lie grinned and an¬ 
swered : 
"1 reckon it must be de water, b<>ss. 
Dat white stuff is terrible strong, an’ I 
alius was a terrible water drinker.” 
He was right. It was the lime water, 
for be lived on a limestone ridge. Champ 
Clark boasts that the biggest and best 
men in both armies of our Civil War came 
from the limestone countv which starts in 
Kentucky and runs sou.n. 
The low pric^ of the new Superior Chevrolet gives you the 
opportunity for the most satisfactory and enduring invest¬ 
ment in transporation that you can make. This car has the 
rugged qualities you need in the country, combined with 
unusual operating economy. It is a satisfactory investment 
because the purchase price includes complete modern equip¬ 
ment—“nothing to buy but the license.” 
Twenty to thirty miles to the gallon of gasoline 
f.o.6, 
‘Flint 
Ask your Chevrolet dealer to explain the new features of the Superior 
Chevrolet—or write Dept. 140 for catalog and other information. 
CHEVROLET MOTOR COMPANY 
Division of General Motors Corporation 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 
More than 4,000 Chevrolet Dealers, Retail Stores and Service Stations in the United States and Canada 
