A Trooper's Narrative of Service in the Anthracite Coal Strike, 1902
First Edition. Contains two inserted leaves of plates (halftones). A strike-breaker's perspective on the landmark 1902 Anthracite strike in the western Pennsylvania coal fields. The strike was eventually suppressed through intervention by federal troops, but not before labor had won significant concessions from previously intractable mine owners. The author of the current work takes, for the most part, a charitable view towards the striking miners, noting that they are “... devout as a class, faithful in their trusts, profusely generous to their neighbors, and humane to those in distress;” but also notes that “... they regard violence to a ‘scab’ as a conscientious duty. They would kill him as a rat is killed, welcoming the spectacle with the same joyous rage that fills the throng at a bull fight, and afterwards commend the act as something that needed neither excuse nor palliation…”
Stewart Culin (1858-1929).
A Trooper's Narrative of Service in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902.
Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs, 1903.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/1205946
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.
If you're interested in learning more about the historical events that inspired this novel, please refer to the links below:
"The Coal Strike of 1902: Turning Point in U.S. Policy" by Johnathan Grossman, Monthly Labor Review, Department of Justice, June 1974.
"THE ANTHRACITE SUSPENSION." in The New York Times, 24 June 1902.
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