Almost every man and woman in the tenement¹ district knew Oscar Schwartz, and had felt the power of his obstinate² hand during the long strike of two years before, when, the union having declared war, Schwartz had closed the brewery³ for several months rather than submit to its dictation. The news, therefore, that the union had called a meeting and appointed a committee to wait on Mr. Schwartz, to protest against his giving work to a non-union woman filled them with alarm. The women remembered the privations and suffering of that winter, and the three dollars a week doled⁴ out to them by the Central Branch, while their husbands, who had been earning two and three dollars a day, were drinking at O'Leary's bar, playing cards, or listening to the encouraging talk of the delegates who came from New York to keep up their spirits. The brewery employed a larger number of men than any other concern in Rockville, so trouble with its employees meant serious trouble for half the village if Schwartz defied the union and selected a non-union woman to do the work.