When I Was a Child: An Autobiographical Novel

Chapter X

The summer of  began with lock-outs and rain and much talk about the Czar, and ended with the big strike. The Czar of all Russia, “the world’s greatest tyrant,” came to Stockholm to visit Sweden’s King. A sossy—Hjalmar Vang—was to shoot the Czar, but couldn’t get close enough; instead he shot a Swede, General Bäckman, and then himself. Many sossies were thrown into prison. The lock-out was society’s latest deviltry. The word itself was given the widest interpretations; the workers would be locked out of the factories, said the simple folk, the idiots. To be locked out was the same as to be fired, driven away from the job even if one wished to work. It was robbing the worker of his self-respect, making him feel useless and superfluous, said Elmer Sandin. Mr. Lundevall, the owner of Ljungdala, tried the new method: one evening in July he ordered the furnace fires extinguished, and no one knew when they would be lit again. Now Joel-Nightstoker could take a rest from his eternity walk—his fires were killed because of the lock-out. But other happenings were brewing. Not many days passed before the workers hit back: General strike! General strike! was the  chapter x =' 10chap10_Layout 1 11/22/2013 12:32 Page 131  When I Was a Child call echoing through the country, on everyone’s lips, heard everywhere . They must fight, the deciding battle had begun at last, the Great Fight was on. And it was then that the great calm descended. When the big battle began, it grew quiet and peaceful. Now all furnaces shut down, all factories closed their doors, all sawmills came to a stop, all machinery wheels slowed to a standstill. No glass boxes were packed, no glass wagons rolled, the roads lay silent. Now it was apparent how much commotion and din work had caused, now, when the calm descended, when the battle began. The glass workers were idle, picking berries in the wastelands, fishing in the lakes, walking unhurriedly in clusters. In the evenings they gathered at the railroad station, talked of the Great Fight, looked at the trains, which rolled as before on the shiny rails—the only noise to disturb the calm. The railroads were not involved, and this was bitterly disappointing. Valter no longer went to the factory. He participated in the fight by resting from his job, a wonderful fight he hoped long to enjoy. He did not feel that he was missing anything, he felt that he had been liberated from something.This was the best summer so far in his life. But Mother was short of money when she wanted to go to the store, and Father could no longer have the nourishing food he was supposed to have. Now Valter had plenty of time to hate the“enemy.”Mr.Lundevall was his nearest enemy. Lundevall had never done him any wrong, had never said an unkind word to him, but to Valter all employers were personified in Mr. Lundevall. His big belly represented all employers’ bellies; it grew in size until it became one immense capitalist pouch, containing all that the upper-class had stolen. If Valter doffed his cap to that “thief belly,” he doffed it to the 10chap10_Layout 1 11/22/2013 12:32 Page 132 c ha p t e r x  whole upper-class, to the enemy. Therefore, he walked the road proudly and did not greet Mr. Lundevall. For the battle was on, the Big Fight. This summer was fought the Battle of Calm and Stillness. And they walked silent and quiet, those who knew what it cost. =' During those misty, rainy summer days Soldier-Sträng sat inside at his net frame. Meshes were tied and grew into whole nets, and the soldier’s cat lay on the floor and watched as if expecting the nets to catch fish for him here on dry land, inside the cottage. On the bureau stood the pictures of the America-relatives; there stood Albin, Ivar, Dagmar, and Fredrik, looking down on their blind father in the rocking-chair. Nothing had as yet been written to them about the film over his eyes. Sträng had been to the doctor once more, but the doctor had said that the film was not yet ripe. It would be a...