On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.
After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.
The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.
After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.
"When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."
Mother Jones
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Bit idea: go to an open mic night and only tell one joke. Start really quiet and ifnpossible with the mic off. Make sure its a bad joke that no one will laugh at. When the mic is one, say "I guess no one heard that, so I'll start over" say the joke again but kinda mumble. "Sorry, that sounded loud in the monitors, maybe you didn't hear it." Repeat the same.joke louder and clearer. Keep making excuses and telling the same joke louder and slower until people eventually laugh and then immediately say it probably wasn't that good of a joke and they didn't miss much by not hearing it and leave.
I think I would die about 15 seconds of this from either side
Manipulating shame and sympathetic embarrassment is a key element of standup!
I feel like Andy Kaufman would've tried this.
Hell yeah. Delivery is at least as important as the content.
I think that's the risk there is people laughing too early
I feel like comedy needs more poetry like this