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Chapter V
LETTER TO HIS WIFE
INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES THAT BESET THE PATH OF A REFORMER –EDITOR WINEHEART, OF THE COAL CENTER "MESSENGER," ADVISES THE WORKINGMEN TO RECEIVE AGITATOR PARSONS IN A HOSTILE MANNER, BUT AFTERWARD CHANGES HIS OPINION- EFFECT OF THE MASS-MEETING ON THE AUDIENCE –NO LEADERS- THE PROPAGANDA SUFFERS FROM WANT OF MEANS.
My Dear Wife:
My trip would fill a volume with the realistic side of life under wage-slavery and an occasional gleam of grim humor. Everywhere I have met with the most gratifying success –under the circumstances. The lack of means of property advertise, and the haste resulting from the same cause, has alone prevented complete and lasting results. Under such circumstances one cannot do what they would, but only what they can. As I said, my trip is overflowing with interest, especially to one like you, whose whole being is wrapped up in the progress of the social revolution. I will give you a sample incident, reserving others, owing to their length, until I return home. It was at Coal Center, some fifty miles from Pittsburgh, on the Monongahela river. There was no one with whom I could communicate except the editor of the weekly paper published there. I was twenty miles from Monongahela, and at the instance of Comrade Robert F. Hill sent a note announcing a mass-meeting to be held on the following day. Well, on that day I reached the place about 2 o'clock p.m. and found myself a total stranger in a country town, which is a quaint, singular-looking place, located in the narrow valley along the banks of the Monongahela and overshadowed by the towering hills of this
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