. Strikers, communists, tramps and detectives . asignal from his hand the train moved on ; and while therabble about were loudly cheering the young scamp, he re-turned to the dispatchers office with the air of an emperor. But this w^as the signal for the tyros overthrow. Theolder, more conservative, and careful strikers saw thatAmmon was leading them into danger, and that days wasthe last of his power. lie was summarily removed by tliecommittee the same evening; and at once became a fugi-tive loafer, his ordinary character, passing his time withwomen of ill-repute, in avoiding officers of the
. Strikers, communists, tramps and detectives . asignal from his hand the train moved on ; and while therabble about were loudly cheering the young scamp, he re-turned to the dispatchers office with the air of an emperor. But this w^as the signal for the tyros overthrow. Theolder, more conservative, and careful strikers saw thatAmmon was leading them into danger, and that days wasthe last of his power. lie was summarily removed by tliecommittee the same evening; and at once became a fugi-tive loafer, his ordinary character, passing his time withwomen of ill-repute, in avoiding officers of the law which hehad broken, and in giving vent to insurrectionary screedsin the inflammatory sheet befoi-e referred to. A week subsequently he was arrested and imprisoned indefault of heavy bail. This event was Ammons ciowningp-lorv, and brouo-ht him out of io^noble Ietireinent into thefull blaze of renewed newspaper renown. It made himmore than ever a martyr. In the eyes of certain of his oldrailroad comrades he had no\v proven himself noble—dy. 298 THE STRIKE AT ALLEGHENY CITY. getting into jail! He was being terribly persecuted. Thesympathy of a class who are nothing if not both mawkishand obstinate went out to the ^* brilliant young striker, ashe was often termed, and many of the Pittsburg andAUeglieny City people who had heard of his pranks fromyouth began to express an interest in him, and for a timehe was again quite the rage. As stated, it was within my province to keep close com-pany to this man, and without giving the particulars of thesame, I can state that while in jail, in Pittsburg, liis vanity,want of principle, and vile life came most strongly to thesurface. He took upon himself the title and honors of thehero of the hour ; like a prince in ill fortune received thosewho called upon him with the calm and almost dementedassumption of a Don Quixote ; wrote for his newspaperoigan vile diatribes against the officers of the PennsylvaniaCentral and Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectrailroadstrikeus1877
