ten o'clock
If I were able it would give me pleasure first to ask you all to partake of a good meal , for more satisfactory business is usually accomplished after people are well fed . You ask my advice . Here , gentlemen of the committee , is Colonel Harris , your employer , let him speak to you . '' Memories of a wife and three babies at home , dependent for bread upon his own earnings at the forge , flashing upon the mind of Colonel Harris , sweetened his spirit and softened his voice , so that he spoke briefly and kindly to the committee , repeating , however , what his manager had told the committee at ten o'clock , viz. , `` that the present bad condition of the steel market would not permit the company to grant the advance of wages they asked . '' The committee , aware of the large profits of former years , sullenly retired , and after the company 's decision had been communicated to the anxious thousands below , the employees of the Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. slowly returned to their homes . The mayor ordered his chief of police to dispatch immediately in patrol wagons fifty men to the steel works , to guard the property and keep the peace . After the committee retired , the mayor said , `` Well , Colonel Harris , what will be the outcome ? ''