Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 32
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 32 of 56
CHAPTER 32
Most people probably wouldn’t blame the other factory owners for not believing Blanck and Harris. After all, what would you think if somebody told you the Bees did what they had?
And so what did the other owners do? Naturally, they paid no heed to how Triangle Shirtwaist had given in to their workers’ demands. That is to say, they did not follow suit by making life better for their own workers. They figured Blanck and Harris had either gone soft in the head or were lying to them for some reason.
But then, they, too, shop by shop, factory by factory, were visited by the Beesnees (Buzz, Buzzy, Buzzly, and Buzzard) and the rest of the hive. They, too, were ultimately convinced of the wisdom, or at least the inevitability, of giving in to the demands as stated by members of the ILGWU and as clearly spelled out (literally) by the Bees.
Some of them were more recalcitrant, though. They withstood the warnings and threats of the Bees in a more stalwart, steadfast, stubborn — and stupid — fashion than the Triangle Shirtwaist owners had.
For that reason, bigger guns, so to speak, had to be used to convince them to change their ways.
First, the Pigeons who lived between the owners’ houses and places of business swooped into action. The Bees would form a ‘bulls-eye’ on top of the owners’ heads, providing the Pigeons with a target. As the projectiles were about to land, the Bees buzzed off, only to return after the victim’s pate had been cleansed and wiped clean. After being dive-bombed by these “sharpshooter” Pigeons, some of the “fat cats” (no offense is meant to literal felines) would shake their fists or canes at the cackling, chortling, celebrating birds and call them hard names. The red-faced men were surprised when their antagonists, on flying away, returned the compliments in a dialect known as “Pigeon English” — which is not exactly the Queen’s English, but was nevertheless understandable by the recipients of the Pigeon’s semi-fluid droppings.
For those owners who also stubbornly endured these onslaughts without giving in, Rats and Cockroaches were recruited to help. All Rats from the subway stations closest to the factory in question were organized, as well as all Cockroaches from the nearest abandoned and squalid buildings. These, en masse, took up shop in the offices of the owners.
Nobody, not even a stubborn, stuffed-shirt, stogie-puffing robber baron, can withstand Bees as hairdressers, Pigeons as shampooers, and Rats and Cockroaches as chair- and deskmates. Each owner, sooner or later (usually sooner) gave in to the demands of the Eco Defenders and their deputies.
What did these animal helpers get out of coming to the aid of the abused humans? As for the Pigeons, Rats, and Cockroaches, they simply had fun harassing the silk-stocking set. But as regards the Bees, they were of a higher order and mindset. Since they like humans, they were gladly willing to assist the majority who were being taken advantage of by the minority — who did not even work in any truly meaningful and honorable way.
Once that problem had been solved, and not only the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, but all the sweatshops in first New York — and then the rest of the country, and finally the world — had been modernized and made over into decent places to work, the Bees returned to Central Park to give a report of their activity to Albert and me and the rest of the animals.
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