In a prosperous Lake Erie city, the wealthy ex-officer Arthur Farnham finds himself courted by Maud Matchin, a carpenter’s ambitious daughter fresh from high school, and opposed by Offitt, a professional reformer who organises a secret union of ‘Bread-winners’. When a great strike breaks out, Farnham leads a body of veterans to defend property against the mob.
Published anonymously by Lincoln’s former secretary, it is a key document of Gilded Age hostility to organised labour. Download the free EPUB.