in may of that year there was a brief strike up near trapham notch , and although the strike was broken in short order , both by scabs and by `` town constables '' ( and that was rather peculiar , you understand , since there were nearly thirty `` town constables '' swinging axe-handles and creasing skulls , but before that day in may , there had n't been so much as a single constable in trapham notch-which had a population of 79 in the census of 1900-so far as anyone knew ) , heroux and his organizing friends considered it a great victory for their cause .