Turn as they would, the leaders of the coal miners in Colorado met shameful defeat. Trained and veteran leaders of the United Mine Workers, who had achieved notable victories for President Mitchell in Eastern States, met their Waterloo in the Colorado strike. That wolf in sheep's clothing in their midst, that man who was a coal miner by trade and a Pinkerton operative by profession, circumvented all their plans, defeated all their hopes, and helped rivet the shackles of a miserable servitude more closely than ever before on the emaciated limbs of those men who trusted implicitly in his loyalty and honor, and called him "BROTHER."
After playing with the bewildered strikers for two or three months, much the same as a cat does with a mouse, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company decided to end the already broken strike, by letting loose the military on the unfortunate miners.
We hate to refer again to Governor Peabody. The very mention of his name has a sickening effect. But again refer to him we must, and will.
Somehow the coal miners had got the foolish idea that Governor Peabody was very friendly to them, and would do all in his power to advance their cause with the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Never was a
i66 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
more grotesquely pitiable mistake made. . . . Justice and compassion from this tool of capital ?
His Excellency never hesitated to tell a falsehood. The reader has noticed that. But we cannot give this one-time governor the credit for being even an expert liar. Governor Peabody was an amateur at the calling, and a bungler. The following incident demonstrates the truth of the statement, and also proves how friendly the governor was to the coal miners.