PHIL KELSEY’S FIREWORKS.

HE people of Cottonville were in
a state of profound disturbance.
Men wore sullen faces and held long dis-
cussions on the street corners and in the
grocery store. Women went from house
to house and gossiped as they never did
before. Children sat on the river bank
and held grave confabs that lasted for
hours. Everyone looked: serious and
troubled.
There had been a general strike among
the “hands” at the Kelsey Cotton Mills,
and, as the proprietor had not yielded to
the demand made for higher wages, every-
body was out of work. No wages at all

came into the homes of Cottonville, and
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