In the beginning of February the strike began to fade out. Employers right and left were making compromises with the girls, and here and there girls were deserting the union and going back. The office at West Tenth Street became less crowded, fewer girls came, fewer committees met. There was one night when the work was all done at eleven o'clock, and this marked the reappearance of normal conditions.
It was a day or two later that a vital experience came to Joe. Snow was falling outside, and it was near twilight, and in the quiet Joe was busy at his desk. Then a man came in, well, but carelessly dressed, his face pinched and haggard, his eyes bloodshot, his hair in stray tufts over his wrinkled forehead.
"I want to see you a minute, Mr. Blaine."
"Sit down," said Joe, and the man took the seat beside him.
"I'm Mr. Lissner--Albert Lissner--I was the owner of the Lissner Shirtwaist Company."
"Lissner? Oh yes, over on Eighth Street."
"Mr. Blaine, I had eighty girls working for me.... I always did all I could for them ... but there was fierce competition, and I was just skimping along, and I had to pay small wages;... but I was good to those girls.... They didn't want to strike ... the others made them...."
"Yes, I know ... many of the shops were good...."
"Well," said Lissner, with a shaking, bitter smile, "you and your strike have ruined me.... I'm a ruined man.... My family and I have lost everything.... And, it's killed my wife."
His face became terrible--very white, and the eyes staring--he went on in a hollow, low voice:
There was a silence; then Lissner spoke queerly:
"I happen to know about you, Mr. Blaine.... You were the head of that printing-place that burnt down...."
Joe felt a shock go through him, as if he had seen a ghost....
"Well, maybe you did all you could for your men;... maybe you were a good employer.... Yet see what came of it...." Suddenly Lissner's voice rose passionately: "And yet you had the nerve to come around and get after us fellows, who were just as good as you. There are bad employers, and bad employees, too--bad people of every kind--but maybe most people are good. You couldn't help what happened to you; neither can we help it if the struggle is too fierce--we're victims, too. It's conditions, it's life. We can't change the world in a day. And yet you--after your fire--come here and ruin us."