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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13181-0.txt b/13181-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..974af00 --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8633 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13181 *** + +[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + +BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER + +[Illustration: The Boy With the U.S. Census] + +With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from +Bureaus of the United States Government + + +November, 1911 + + + + +To My Son Roger's Friend + +HAMILTON DAY + + + + +PREFACE + +Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border +warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain +fastnesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being +written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to +the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their factory prisons a +hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade +sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad. + +In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau +leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens +trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's +greatest right--the Right To Know--and on his findings all battle-lines +depend. "When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and +Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is +the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle +the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and +alien-tongue communities. To show how this great Census work is done, +to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to +heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kinship +between all peoples of the earth who have become "Americans" is the aim +and purpose of + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + +CHAPTER II +RESCUING A LOST RACE + +CHAPTER III +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + +CHAPTER IV +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + +CHAPTER V +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + +CHAPTER VI +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + +CHAPTER VII +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + +CHAPTER VIII +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + +CHAPTER IX +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + +CHAPTER X +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Statue of Liberty (_Frontispiece_) +Taking the Census in Old Kentucky +Kentucky Mountaineer Family +Moonshining +Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully +Bill Wilsh in the School +Alligator-Catching +The Census Building +Making Gun-sights True +"A Bull's-eye Every Time!" +Young Boys from the Pit +"I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years" +Eight Years Old and "Tired of Working" +The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in +Immigration Station, Ellis Island +Where the Workers Come from +On a Peanut Farm +In an All-Negro Town +"'Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel'" +How Most of the Negroes Live +Facsimile of Punched Census Card +Tabulating Machine +Pin-box and Mercury Cups +Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team +The Census in the Aleutian Islands +"Can We Make Camp?" +To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer +Gathering Cocoanuts +Taking the Census in a City +Festa in the Italian Quarter +The Fighting Men of the Tongs +Arrested as the Firing Stops +Work for Americans + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + + +CHAPTER I + +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + + +"Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, "since I'm going to be a +census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district." + +The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way +through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top +of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly. + +"What for?" he queried. + +"I think I could do it better than almost anybody else in this section," +was the ready, if not modest, reply. + +"Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other assented and took up the paper +again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the mountains +but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even +though his host was better informed than most of the people in the +region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him +"Uncle" because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regiment +that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men +ever since had been friends. + +"I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such +doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; "that +census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me." + +"But it seems to me that it's the right kind of 'inquisitive.'" + +"I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of +inquisitiveness," the mountaineer said, with a smile, "but if you say +so, I s'pose it's all right." + +"But don't you think the questions are easy enough?" asked the boy. + +"They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty +unpleasant to answer." + +"But if they are necessary?" + +"Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the mount'ns that yo' c'n never make +see how knowin' their private affairs does the gov'nment any good." + +"But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?" + +"Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all +right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as +c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be +heated up clar through." + +"But why?" queried the lad again. "The questions are plain enough, and +there was practically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine +thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, +too!" + +"Important!" protested the old man. "Did yo' ever see any one that ever +sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures?" + +"Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. "But it isn't done for the +sake of getting interesting reading matter; it's because those figures +really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of +that the census isn't at the back of." + +"I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I +notice," the mountaineer remarked. + +"No," answered Hamilton promptly, "but the number of members a State +sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the +census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his +seat is based on their information." + +"I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too." + +"Of course," the boy answered. + +"But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information +about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff." + +"Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is +important enough, Uncle Eli? And then the railroads, too,--they depend +on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as +freight." + +"You seem to know a lot about it," the mountaineer said, looking +thoughtfully at the boy. + +"I ought to," Hamilton said, "because I'm going to be an assistant +special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away. I applied last +October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this +visit." + +"What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination?" he was +asked. + +"I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, "figures have always been +easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered +accountant business I learned a lot from him." + +"Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it +naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed?" + +"I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, "but I'm pretty +sure." + +"Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the +business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it." + +"But I'm hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle +Eli," the boy explained "either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of +Statistics or some work like that. And anyway, if it's the government's +business, I'm an American and it's my business." + +"Yo' have the right spirit, boy," the old man said, "an' I like to see +it, but you're huntin' trouble sure's you're born. S'posin' yo' asked +the questions of some ol' sorehead that wouldn' answer?" + +"He'd have to answer," replied Hamilton stoutly, "there's a law to make +him." + +"I don't believe that law's used much," hazarded the old man. + +"It isn't," Hamilton found himself forced to admit. "I believe there +were not very many arrests all over the country last census. But the +law's there, just the same." + +"It wouldn' be a law on the Ridge," the mountaineer said, "an' I don' +believe it would do yo' any good anywhar else. On the mount'ns, I know, +courtesy is a whole lot bigger word than constitution. Up hyeh, we +follow the law when we're made to, follow an idee backed up by a +rifle-barrel because we have to, but there's not many men hyeh that won' +do anythin' yo' ask if yo' jes' ask the right way." + +"But there are always some that give trouble," Hamilton protested, +trying to defend his position. + +The old Kentuckian slowly shook his head from side to side. + +"If yo' don' win out by courtesy," he said, "it's jes' because yo' +haven' been courteous enough, because yo' haven' taken yo' man jes' +right. Thar isn't any such thing as bein' too gracious. An' anyway, a +census-taker with any other idee up hyeh would be runnin' chances right +along." + +"You mean they would shoot him up?" asked Hamilton. + +"I think if he threatened some folks up hyeh an' in the gullies thar +might be trouble." + +"But the fact that he represented the government would insure him from +harm, I should think." + +"I don't think much of that insurance idee," the old man said. "I can't +remember that it helped the revenue men sech a great deal. The only +insurance I ever had was a quick ear, an' even now, I c'n hear a twig +snap near a quarter of a mile away. An' that used to be good insurance +in the ol' days when, if yo' weren't gunnin' for somebody, thar was +somebody gunnin' fo' you." + +"But there's no one 'gunning' for you now, is there, Uncle Eli?" asked +the boy amusedly. + +"I haven't b'n lookin' out especially," the Kentuckian responded, with +an answering slow smile, "an' I reckon sometimes that I might jes' as +well leave the ol' rifle in the house when I go out." + +"But you never do," put in Hamilton quickly. + +"I reckon that's jes' a feelin'," rejoined the mountaineer, "jes' one o' +these habits that yo' hate to give up. I'd sort o' be lost without it +now, after all these years. Thar's no one to worry about, anyway, +savin' Jake Howkle, an' I don' believe he's hankerin' for +blood-lettin'." + +"Jake? Oh, never," Hamilton replied with assurance; "why, he's only +about my age." + +"That's only partly why," the old man said, "not only because he's your +age, but because he's b'n at school. Shootin' an' schoolin' don' seem to +hit it off. I reckon thar would have b'n a sight less trouble in the +mount'ns if thar had b'n mo' schools." + +"There are plenty of schools in the mountains now, aren't there?" asked +Hamilton. "It must be very different here, Uncle Eli, from what it was +when you were a boy." + +"Thar has been quite a change, an' the change is comin' faster now. But +thar's still a lot o' folk who a'nt altered a bit sence the war. You +city people call us slow-movin' up hyeh, an' as long as thar's any o' +the ol' spirit abroad thar's a chance o' trouble. If yo' really are +goin' in for this census-takin', I'd keep clar o' the mount'ns." + +"You really would?" queried the boy thoughtfully. + +"An' what's more," continued his Uncle, "I would jes' as soon that yo' +didn' have anythin' to do with it near hyeh. I don' want to see any +little differences between families, such as census-takin' is likely +to provoke." + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (_Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O._)] + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" cried Hamilton in amazement, "you talk as though the +days of the feuds were not over." + +"Are yo' sure they're all over?" the Kentuckian said. + +"I had supposed so," the boy replied. "I thought the Kentucky 'killings' +had stopped ten or fifteen years ago." + +"It's a little queer yo' sh'd bring that up today," the old man said, +"for I was jes' readin' in the paper some figures on that very thing. +Yo' like figures, this will jes' suit you. Where was it now?" he +continued, rustling the paper; then, a moment later, "Oh, yes, I have +it." + +"'During the terms of the last three Kentucky governors,'" he read, +"'over thirteen hundred criminals have been pardoned, five hundred of +them being for murder or manslaughter.' It says fu'ther on," the old man +added, "that pardonin' is jes' as frequent now as it ever was. I don' +believe it is, myself, but if thar is such a lot o' pardonin' goin' on +for shootin', thar must have been a powerful lot o' shootin'." + +"But that's for all the State," objected the boy, "not for the +mountains only. That must be for crimes in the cities and all sorts of +things. You can't make the feuds responsible for those." + +"Not altogether," the mountaineer agreed, "the real ol'-time feud is +peterin' out, an' it's mainly due to the schoolin'. The young folks +ain't ready fo' revenge now, an' that sort o' swings the women around. +An' up hyeh in the mount'ns, same as everywhar else, I reckon, the idees +o' the women make a pile o' difference." + +"But I should have thought the women would always have been against the +feuds," said Hamilton. + +"Yo'd think so, but they weren't. They helped to keep up the grudges a +whole lot." + +"Aunt Ab hasn't changed much," volunteered the lad. + +"She hasn't for a fact. Ab is powerful sot. She holds the grudge against +the Howkles in the ol' style. But the feelin' is dyin' out fast, an' +soon it'll be like history,--only jes' read of in books." + +"What I never could see," remarked Hamilton, "was what started it all. +It isn't as if the people in the mountains had come from some part of +the world where vendettas and that sort of thing had been going on for +generations. There must have been some kind of reason for it in this +section of the country. Feuds don't spring up just for nothing." + +"Thar was a while once we had a powerful clever talker up hyeh," the +Kentuckian answered, "actin' as schoolmaster for a few weeks. I reckon +he'd offered to substitute jes' to get a chance to see for himself what +life in the mount'ns was like. He was writin' a book about it. We got +right frien'ly, an' he knew he was always welcome hyeh, an' one day I +asked him jes' that question. It was shortly befo' he lef' an' I wanted +to know what he thought about us all up hyeh." + +The mountaineer leaned back in his chair and chuckled with evident +enjoyment of the recollection. + +"I jes' put the question to him," he said, "in the mildes' way, an' he +started right in to talk. Thar was no stoppin' him, an' I couldn' +remember one-half o' what he said. But I reckon he had it about right." + +"How did he explain the feuds, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, with a short laugh, "he begun by sayin' +we were savages." + +"Savages?" + +"Not jes' with war-paint an' tomahawk, yo' understan'," continued the +old man, enjoying the boy's astonishment, "but uncivilized an' wild. +Thar an't any finer stock in the world, he said, than the mount'neers o' +the Ridge, clar down to Tennessee, an' he said, too, that they were o' +the good old English breed, not foreigners like are comin' in now." + +"That's right enough," Hamilton agreed, "and, what's more, they were +gentlemen of good birth, most of them; there was not much of the peasant +in the early colonists." + +"So this author chap said. But he explained that was the very reason +they got so wild." + +"I don't see that," objected Hamilton, "and I certainly don't see where +the 'savage' idea comes in." + +"Wa'al, he said that when you slid down from a high place it was harder +to climb back than if the fall had b'n small. An' that's why it's so +hard for those who have gone down,--they can see the depth o' the fall." + +Hamilton, who was of an argumentative turn of mind, would have protested +at this, but the old mountaineer proceeded. + +"When the pioneers settled in the mount'ns they kind o' stuck. Those +that went on, down into the Blue Grass region, went boomin' right ahead, +but those that stayed in the mount'ns had no chance." + +"I don't see why not?" objected the boy. + +"They were jes' cut off from everywhar. We are to-day, for that matter. +When a place gets settled, an' starts to try an' raise somethin' to +sell, the product has got to be taken to market. But thar was no +railroad up in the mount'ns. Children were easy to raise, an' a +population grew up in a hurry, but the land was too poor for good +farmin', the roads were too bad for takin' corn to market, an' thar was +no way o' gettin' to a town." + +"You are pretty well cut off," said Hamilton. + +"We were more so then," the mountaineer said. "An' so, while all the +country 'round was advancin' up in the mount'ns, fifty years ago, we +were livin' jes' like pioneers. An' some, not bein' able to keep up the +strain, fell back." + +"So it really isn't the fault of the mountaineers at all," cried the +boy, "but because they were sort of marooned." + +"It was unfortunate," replied the old man, "but it really was our own +fault. If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have +developed it; if not, we should have left." + +"I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton. + +"Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a +most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every +man is his own master. But, thar bein' no available market if they did +work hard, what was the use o' workin'? Some o' them, 'specially down in +the gullies, got lazy an' shif'less. But they hung on all the harder to +the idees o' the old times,--honor an' hospitality." + +"I've always understood," said Hamilton, "that there was more +hospitality to be found up here in the mountains than in almost any +place on the globe." + +"As yo' said," the old man continued, "we're jes' like a crew o' +shipwrecked sailors marooned on an island without a boat, without any +means o' gettin' away. If some o' the families high up in the gullies +are ignorant, it's because they've had no schoolin', not because they +haven' got the makin's o' good citizens; if they're a bit careless about +religion, it's because they've had no churchin', an' if they don' pay +much heed to law, it's because the law has never done much for them. +The ocean o' progress," went on the mountaineer, with a flourish, "has +rolled all 'roun' the mount'ns, but of all the fleets o' commerce in all +these years, thar has not been one to send out a boat to help the +marooned mount'neer." + +"Didn't they ever try to get help?" queried the boy. + +"We're not askin' help," the Kentuckian said, "thar's no whinin' on the +mount'ns. I jes' tell yo' that when the time comes for the mount'neers +o' Kentucky an' Virginia an' Tennessee an' Carolina to get a fair +chance, they'll show yo' as fine a race o' men an' women as the Stars +an' Stripes flies over." + +"They are mighty fine right now, I think," the boy said. + +"They have their good points," the Kentuckian agreed; "thar's nothin' +sneakin' in the men up hyeh, an' thar an't any lengths to which a man +won't go, to do what he thinks is the squar thing. You've heard about +the Beaupoints?" + +"No," the boy answered, "what was that?" + +"It was jes' an incident in one o' these feuds that you were talkin' of, +an' I'm goin' to tell yo' about it, to show yo' what a mount'neer's +idee o' honor is like. Thar was a family livin' on the other side o' the +Ridge, not a great ways from hyeh, by the name o' Calvern, an' in some +way or other--I never heard the rights of it--they took to shootin' up +the Beaupoints every chance that come along. One day Dandie Beaupoint +found a little girl that had hurt herself, an' he picked her up in his +arms an' was carryin' her home when one o' the Calvern boys shot him in +his tracks. One o' the Beaupoint brothers was away at the time, but the +others felt that the Calverns hadn't b'n playin' fair, an' they reckoned +to lay them all out. They did, too, all but one, an', although they had +a chance to nail him, they let him alone." + +"Why was he let off?" queried Hamilton. + +"I reckon it was because he had a young wife an' a little child," the +old man answered. "Now Jim Beaupoint, the one that had been away, he +come home after a while, an' hadn't happened to hear about the wipin' +out o' the Calverns. On his way home, he had to pass the Calvern place, +an' so he made a wide cast aroun' the hill to keep out o' sight, when +suddenly, up a gully, he saw this Hez Calvern standin' there with his +rifle on his arm, an', quick as he could move, Jim grabbed his gun an' +fired. It was a long shot an' a sure one." + +"Was it--" the boy began, but the old man waved the interruption aside +and proceeded. + +"Reloadin' his rifle, Jim Beaupoint rode slowly to whar Hez Calvern was +lyin', when suddenly, from a clump o' bushes close by, there come a +rifle shot, an' the rider got the bullet in his chest. Befo' fallin' +from the saddle, however, the young fellow fired at the bushes from +which smoke was driftin', an' a shrill scream told him that the +sharpshooter was a woman." + +"Some one who had been with Hez Calvern?" asked Hamilton. + +"His wife. Well, although Jim was mortally hurt an' sufferin'--as the +tracks showed afterwards--he tried to drag himself to the bushes in +order to help the woman who had shot him an' who he had shot unknowin'; +but he was too badly hurt, an' he died twenty yards from the place whar +he fell." + +"Was the woman dead, too?" asked Hamilton. + +"No, but terrible badly hurt. What I was wantin' to tell yo', though, +was the result of all this. Wa'al, the Beaupoints took the woman to +their home an' nursed her night an' day for five long years. She was +helpless, only for her tongue, an' she lashed an' abused them till the +day she died, an' never once, in all those years, did any one o' the +Beaupoints reproach her in return." + +"And the youngster?" + +"They took the boy, too, an' reared him the bes' they knew how, jes' the +same as one o' their own. One o' the Beaupoint boys went an' lived on +the Calvern place, an' worked it,--worked it fair an' squar', an' put +aside every cent that come out o' the farm. For thirteen years the +Beaupoints looked after the farm an' reared the boy. On the day he was +fourteen year old, Jed Beaupoint--that was the father--called the lad, +told him the whole story, give him a new rifle an' a powder horn, an' +handed over the little bag o' coin that represented thirteen years o' +work on the Calvern holdin'." + +"There certainly couldn't be anything squarer than that!" exclaimed +Hamilton. "And he gave the boy the farm, too?" + +"Every inch of it. Jed Beaupoint was a squar' man, cl'ar through. An' he +said to the boy--he tol' me the story himself--'Johnny Calvern, thar's +yo' farm an' yo' rifle. Now, if yo're willin', I'll see that thar's no +trouble until yo're twenty-one, an' then yo' c'n go huntin' revenge if +yo've a mind to, or, if you're willin', we'll call the trouble off now, +an' thar won't be any need o' rakin' it up again.'" + +"He made it up on the spot, of course?" questioned Hamilton. + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"He did not," he replied. "The boy thought a minute or two an' then said +he'd wait until he was grown up, an' let him know then." + +"Although he had been brought up by the Beaupoints!" exclaimed the boy +in surprise. "But surely it never came up again." + +"Well, not exac'ly. When Johnny Calvern was about nineteen he got +married, an' a few days befo' the time when he would be twenty-one, he +rode up to the Beaupoint place, an' tol' the ol' man that he was willin' +to let the feud rest another ten years, because of his wife an' little +baby, but that he would be ready to resume shootin' at that time." + +"But he had no real grudge against the Beaupoints had he, Uncle Eli? +They had always been kind to him, you said." + +"Not a bit o' grudge," the mountaineer answered, "they were good +friends. An' I reckon it wasn't Johnny that wanted the trouble to begin +again, but thar's always a lot o' hotheads pryin' into other folks' +business. However, ol' Jed Beaupoint didn't mind; he agreed to another +ten years' truce, an' all went on peacefully as befo'. Durin' those ten +years, however, Johnny's wife died, an' he got married again, this time +to the sister o' a wanderin' preacher, a girl who had once lived in +cities, an' she soon showed him that the ol' feud business must be +forgotten. But it is a mite unusual, even hyeh, to farm a man's land an' +bring up his child fo' thirteen years, an' then give him everythin' yo' +can with the privilege o' shootin' yo' at sight for all the favors +done." + +"It doesn't sound a bit like the usual feud story," said Hamilton, "one +always thinks of those as being cold-blooded and cruel." + +"Thar an't a mite o' intentional cruelty in them; it's jes' that life is +held cheap. Most o' them begun over some small thing like an election." + +"There were quite a number of them, Uncle Eli, weren't there?" + +"One ran into the other so easily that one feud would often look like +half a dozen, an' trouble would be goin' on in various places. But +there were really seven of them, all big ones." + +[Illustration: KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (_Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions._)] + +"What were they, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, thar was the McCoy-Hatfield feud in Pike County, that started +over the ownership o' two plain razorback hogs, but afterwards got very +bitter, owin' to the friendship o' one o' the McCoy girls with the son +o' Bad Anse Hatfield. Then thar was the Howard-Turner feud in Harlan +County. An' then--" + +"What started the Howard-Turner feud?" interrupted the boy. + +"That was over a game o' cards. One o' the Howards had been winnin', an' +Jim Turner, with a pistol, forced him to give back the money he had won. +That affair raged a long time. The Logan-Tolliver feud in Rowan County +was over an election fo' sheriff. The Logans elected their candidate, +an' so the Tollivers killed one o' the Logans at the polls and wounded +three others." + +"That's expressing dissatisfaction with an election with some spirit," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Then thar was the French-Eversole feud in Perry County," continued the +Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town +called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In +time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange +fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the +shootin',--indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were +most bitter." + +"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the +principals didn't?" + +"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran +the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time." + +"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the +same as the Howard-Turner fighting?" + +"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family," +the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre' +feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water +rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it +couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o' +blood." + +"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that +way," the boy said. + +"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill +feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over +some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly +remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some such +goin's on." + +"But they are all over now, aren't they?" + +"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is +sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all +four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to +the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her +how good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said--thar +was a lot of us thar at the time--'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell +them who shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots +him.' I'm reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but +I really think that is the last o' them." + +"What started that?" + +"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But you +don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually jes' +firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date back to +enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'." + +"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the +mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North--I know you were with Lee, +of course, but I thought that was exceptional." + +"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate +soldier indignantly. + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of +them went into the Union army." + +"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were +fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question +didn' matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union +army was made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' +bigger men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong +then,--I do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for +what they thought was right." + +"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can +understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian." + +"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and +South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read, +decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve +that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the +No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause, +I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man +solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on +both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive +anywhere." + +"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted Hamilton, +fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences, when he +wanted to hear about feuds. + +"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the +little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it. +Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some +words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any grudge, +an' I never supposed Isaac was. However, in a skirmish near Cumberland +Gap, I saw that he was jes' achin' to get me, an' the way he tried was +jes' about the meanes' thing I ever heard o' any one doin' on the +Ridge." + +"How was it, do tell me?" pleaded Hamilton, his eyes shining with +interest. + +"Howkle was with Wolford's cavalry, an' I was under 'Fightin'' +Zollicoffer, as they called him," the old man began. "Thar had been a +little skirmish,--one o' these that never get into the dispatches that +don' do any good, but after which thar's always good men lef' lyin' on +the ground. We had driven 'em back a bit, an' I was comin' in when I saw +a lad--he didn't look more'n about fifteen--lyin' in a heap an' +groanin'. Knowin' a drink would do him more good than an'thin' else, I +reached for my canteen, an' stooped down. Jes' about then, a horseman +dashed out o' the scrub an', almos' befo' I could think o' what was +comin', he struck at me with his sabre." + +"When you were giving drink to a wounded soldier!" cried Hamilton +indignantly. "What a cowardly trick!" + +"It was ol' Isaac Howkle," nodded his uncle, "an' I s'pose he reckoned +this was a chance to get even on the ol' grudge. But I rolled over on +the grass jes' out o' reach o' his stroke, an' he missed. I grabbed my +rifle an' blazed at him as soon as I could get on my feet, but he had +reached the shelter of the trees again an' I missed him." + +"That's about the meanest thing I ever heard," said the boy. + +"So I thought," the Kentuckian answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to +think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his +lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' +to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't +blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of +his own sufferin's." + +"That was grit," said Hamilton approvingly. "Did he die, Uncle Eli?" + +"Not a bit of it. We got him back into our lines an' he was exchanged, I +believe. Anyway, I know he was livin' after the war, fo' I saw his name +once on a list o' veterans. But most o' the boys were like that--mostly +young, too--an' men o' the stripe of Isaac Howkle were very few." + +"But you got him in the end, didn't you?" + +The old mountaineer looked intently at the boy's excited face. + +"I didn't," he said, "an' I don' rightly know that it's good for yo' to +be hearin' all these things. Yo' might hold it against Jake Howkle." + +"That I wouldn't," protested Hamilton. "Jake isn't to blame for his +father's meanness." + +"That's the right way to talk," the old soldier agreed. "Wa'al, if yo' +feel that way about it, I reckon thar's no harm in my tellin' yo' the +rest of it, now that I've got started. When the war was all over an' I +got back hyeh, I remembered what had happened, an' I sent word to Isaac +Howkle that I didn' trust him, an' after what he had done I was +reckonin' that he was waitin' his chance to get me, an' that he'd better +keep his own side o' the mountain." + +"But, Uncle Eli," said the boy, "that didn't make a feud surely; that +was only a warning." + +"I wasn't reckonin' to start a feud at all," said the old man +thoughtfully, "an' it really never was one. It was jes' a personal +difference between Isaac Howkle an' me. Thar was lots o' times that I +could have picked off either o' his two brothers, but I was jes' +guardin' myself against Isaac." + +"But you said he got there first!" said the boy. "Did he shoot some one +in your family?" + +"Wa'al, yes, he did," the mountaineer admitted "Yo' never knew the one. +He was my brother-in-law,--Ab's younges' sister's first husband. He had +been married jes' two months, an' was only a hundred yards from this +house when Isaac shot him." + +"How did you know for sure that it was Howkle who had done the +shooting?" asked Hamilton. + +"We didn't know for sure, at first. A week or two after, a boy from the +Wilshes' place come up with a message sayin' that Isaac Howkle had tol' +him to say that he'd get the ol' man nex' time." + +"I shouldn't have thought a boy would have had the nerve to bring such a +message," said Hamilton thoughtfully. "Wouldn't bringing word like that +look like taking sides, and wouldn't it bring his own family into the +trouble!" + +The old man shook his head in instant denial. + +"Po' white trash from the gullies," he said, "no, they don't count one +way or the other." + +"What happened after you got that message?" asked the boy. + +"Nothin' much, for a while, though I was snoopin' aroun' the mount'ns +consid'rable. I met the brothers sev'ral times, an' I know they could +have had me. But I had nothin' against them, nor they me, an' so it was +jes' left to Isaac an' me. Once I found him over near our pasture, but +he saw me an' got into cover. At last I found him in the open near our +house again, an' in easy range." + +"Did you fire right away?" asked Hamilton excitedly. + +"I didn't shoot. I got a lead on him, sure, but I jes' couldn't shoot +without warnin' him. It seemed kind o' mean to shoot him unawares, an' +as I didn't want to take an unfair advantage, I shouted to him. It was +pretty far off to be heard, but I could see that he recognized me. I was +only waitin' long enough to let him get his gun to his shoulder when +some one fired jes' behin' me. Howkle's bullet went through my arm, but +he dropped in his tracks. He thought I had shot him but my gun was never +fired off." + +"Who was it that fired, Uncle Eli!" + +"The brother o' the young fellow he had shot befo'." + +"Was he dead?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, a little grimly, "I didn' go down to see +an' wait aroun' 'till all his friends gathered. But I reckon he was dead +when they found him later." + +"And the brothers?" + +"They never came into the story at all. I'm jes' mentionin' this to yo' +to show yo' that thar's reason in my advisin' yo' to keep clar o' this +district. If you're reckonin' on doin' census work, yo' go somewhar that +you're not known to any one. Thar's trouble enough even for a stranger +in the mount'ns, an' a stranger would find it easier than any one else." + +"Why is that, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"In the first place, yo' can't show discourtesy to a stranger, an' yo' +know that if he doesn' do things jes' the way yo' like to have 'em done, +it's because he doesn' know, an' so he's not to blame. I like your +spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' +if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but +leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a +stranger." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RESCUING A LOST RACE + + +That same evening, as it chanced, one of the younger Wilsh boys came up +to the house on an errand from a neighbor, and Hamilton, remembering +that the messenger's father had been a go-between in the feud story he +had been hearing, noted the lad with interest. Indeed, his appearance +was striking enough in itself, with his drooping form, his extreme +paleness, and his look of exhaustion. + +"How far is it from the Burtons, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton. + +"Eight miles," was the reply. + +Hamilton stared at the mountain boy. Judging from his looks he was not +strong enough to walk a hundred yards, yet he had just come eight miles, +and evidently was intending to walk back home that evening. Then +Hamilton remembered that this lad was one of the "poor whites" of whom +he had read so much, and he strolled toward the messenger who was +sitting listlessly on one of the steps. + +"Howdy!" said the newcomer in a tired voice. + +Hamilton answered his greeting, and, after a few disjointed sentences, +said: + +"You look tired. It must be a long walk from the Burtons." + +"Jes' tol'able," the boy answered. "I'm not so tired. You f'm the city?" +he queried a few minutes later, evidently noting the difference between +Hamilton's appearance and that of the boys in the neighborhood. + +"Yes, New York," answered Hamilton. + +But the stranger did not show any further curiosity and Hamilton was +puzzled to account for his general listlessness. He thought perhaps it +might be that the boy was unusually dull and so he asked: + +"Are you still going to school?" + +A negative shake of the head was the only reply. + +"Why not? Isn't there a school near where you live?" + +"Close handy, 'bout five miles," was the reply. + +"Then why don't you go there?" questioned Hamilton further. + +"Teacheh's gone." + +"Funny time for holidays," the city boy remarked. + +"Not gone fo' holidays." + +"Oh, I see," said Hamilton, "you mean he's gone for good. But aren't you +going to have another one?" + +"Dunno if he's gone for good," the mountain boy answered. + +Hamilton stared in bewilderment. + +"Cunjer got him," the other continued. + +But this did not explain things any better. + +"Cunjer?" repeated Hamilton. "You mean magic?" + +The mountain boy nodded. + +"Yes, cunjer," he affirmed. + +"You're fooling, aren't you?" said Hamilton questioningly, "you can't +mean it. I never heard of 'cunjer' as a real thing. There's lots about +it in books, of course, but those are fairy tales and things of that +sort." + +"An' yo' never saw a cunjer?" + +"Of course not." + +"Reckon they don' know as much in cities as they think they do," the +youngster retorted. + +"Just what do you mean by 'cunjer'?" asked Hamilton, knowing that it +would be useless to argue the conditions of a modern city with a boy who +had never seen one. + +"Bein' able to put a cunjer on, so's the one yo' cunjer has got to do +anythin' yo' want." + +"Sort of hypnotism business," commented the older boy. + +"Dunno' what yo' call it in the city. Up hyeh in the mount'ns we call it +cunjer, an' thar's some slick ones hyeh, too." + +"But how did the teacher get mixed up in it?" queried Hamilton. "It +doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to find a schoolmaster +doing." + +"He wasn't doin' it, it was again' him," the mountain boy explained. +"The folks hyeh suspicioned as he was tippin' o' the revenoo men." + +"Who did? Moonshiners?" + +"Easy on that word, Hamilton," suddenly broke in the old Kentuckian, who +had overheard part of the conversation, "thar's plenty up hyeh that don' +like it." + +"All right, Uncle Eli, I'll remember," the boy answered; then, turning +to his companion, he continued "You were saying that some of the people +in the mountains thought the schoolmaster was giving information to the +revenue men." + +"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' +believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us." + +"Did the revenue officers come up here!" + +The mountain lad nodded his head. + +"Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know +ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved +on the teacheh. It never was, but thar was a plenty o' people who +believed the story. I didn't, but then the teacheh was allers good to +me." + +"But what did the revenue men have to do with the 'cunjering'?" asked +Hamilton, desiring to keep his informant to the point. + +"They didn't, it was the men on the Ridge." + +"Do you know how it happened?" + +"I know all about it," the lad answered, with a slightly less listless +air, "for I was in school that mornin'. For a week or more we boys had +seen ol' Blacky Baldwin sort o' snoopin' aroun' near the school, but as +we allers crossed our fingers an' said nothin' so long as he was in +hearin', we weren't afraid." + +"What did you do that for?" + +The younger boy looked at the city-bred lad with an evident pity for his +ignorance. + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail. (_Brown +Bros._)] + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; the fire +is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs on a +tree. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"So's he couldn't cunjer us, O' course," he said. "Don' yo' even know +that? Ol' Blacky Baldwin is a first-class cunjer, an' any one o' them +can cunjer you with the words he hears yo' sayin'." + +"But if this 'cunjer-fellow' was hanging around the school," suggested +Hamilton, "why didn't you tell the master?" + +"An' get Blacky down on us? You-all can bet we kep' quiet an' didn' even +talk about Blacky to each other. Wa'al, that went on for a week or two. +Then, one mornin', while we was all in school, a big storm come up, +thunder an' lightnin' an' all. Suddenly, jes' after a clap o' thunder +that sounded almos' as if it had hit the schoolhouse Ol' Blacky Baldwin +walked through the door an' up to the teacheh's table. He was carryin a +twisted thing in his hand, like a ram's horn, an' I knew it was his +cunjerin' horn, although I hadn't even seen it befo'." + +"What did the master say when he came in?" + +"Nary a word. It was awful dark an' the thunder was rumbling aroun' +among the hills. I took one look at Ol' Blacky Baldwin's face, an' then +hid my eyes. I reckon the others did the same." + +"Why?" + +"His face was all shiny with a queer green light, sendin' up smoke, +like ol' dead wood does sometimes after a rain." + +"Phosphorus evidently," muttered Hamilton to himself, but he did not +want to interrupt the lad now that he had started, and therefore did not +discuss the point. + +"He walked right up to the teacheh's table," continued the younger boy, +"an' he pointed the horn at him, accordin' to one o' the boys who says +he was peepin' through his fingers. I wasn't lookin', I wasn't takin' +any chances. And then we all heard him say to the teacheh: + +"'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a +fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places +where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', +an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you.'" + +"And that was all?" + +"That was all," the mountain boy replied. "After a bit, I looked up and +Ol' Blacky Baldwin was gone; the teacheh looked peaked an' seemed kind +o' skeered, but he didn't say anythin'." + +"Well, it was a little scary," said Hamilton. "I don't wonder it shook +him up." + +"That was only the beginnin'," the storyteller went on. "About half an +hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor +an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' +pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the +chair to reach one down. We was all watchin' him, when suddintly he give +a groan an' his eyes rolled back so's we couldn't see nothin' but the +whites; his face got all pale, an' his lips sort o' blue; he reeled an' +was jes' goin' to fall when he sort o' made a grab at the shelf an' hung +on as though he was fallin' off a cliff. + +"Two of the bigger boys, thinkin' he had a stroke or somethin', went up +an' spoke, but he didn't answer, jes' hung on to that shelf. Standin' on +the chair as he was, of course the boys couldn' make him let go, an' +they couldn' make him hear or understan' a mite. So they pulled up a +bench and one of 'em climbed up an' forced his hand open. Jes' like a +flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled." + +"Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried. + +"One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, +an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as +his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' +lay back in his chair. He sat there for a bit an' then he leaned +forward, put his hands on the desk, an' stared right in front of him, +jes' as if we wa'n't there at all. + +"'I thought I was fallin',' he said gruffly. + +"We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes' sit there, lookin' +straight in front of him, an' repeatin' ev'ry minute or two: 'I thought +I was fallin'! I thought I was fallin'!'" + +Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as +though he were living through the scene again. + +"I don't wonder you got scared," he said. "Did he come to?" + +"Not right then," the boy answered. "We waited a while an' then some of +the fellers got up an' went out sof'ly. I went, too, an' the teacheh +never even seemed to see us go." + +"Didn't you think he had gone crazy?" + +"We all knew it was cunjerin'," the lad rejoined "an' when we got +outside the door thar was Ol' Blacky Baldwin waitin', lookin' jes' the +same as usual. As I come by, he said, jes' as smooth, 'School's out +early to-day, boys.' But I don't think any of us answered him. I know I +didn't. I jes' took and run as hard as I knew how. An' when I got to the +top o' the hill an' looked back, an' saw Blacky goin' into the +schoolhouse again, I couldn' get home fast enough." + +"Was that what broke up the school?" + +"Not right away," the other replied. "Thar was some that never come nigh +the place agin, but befo' two weeks most of us was back. Teacheh allers +seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' +on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for +fear o' fallin'." + +"How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton. + +"'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the +time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers +done." + +"Why not?" + +"Wa'al, he'd wake up in the night screamin', 'I'm fallin', I'm fallin',' +and no one wanted to have a ha'nted teacher in the house. An' Blacky +Baldwin, he jes' hung aroun' the school, and we-all would see him every +day, mutterin' an' laughin' to himself. Then, suddintly, Teacheh +disappeared, an' though we hunted fo' him everywhar, he wasn' found. +We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I've thought sence that +p'r'aps he jes' went away, goin' back to the city, and leavin' no tracks +so's to make Ol' Blacky Baldwin believe he'd be'n killed." + +"That sounds likely enough," Hamilton said. "But even if he did get +away, I don't believe that he'd want to come back." + +"I reckon not," the mountain boy agreed. "Anyway, the school's shut up +now." + +"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton. + +"They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I +reckon they're not wanted." + +The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was +squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The +old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it +roughly. Bill Wilsh listened in a dreamy way, and Hamilton wondered at +his seeming carelessness. The old man read it twice, then, rising to his +feet, the boy repeated it word for word and without so much as a nod to +Hamilton, slouched off in a long, lazy stride that looked like loafing, +but which, as Hamilton afterwards found out, covered the ground rapidly. + +"Do you suppose he'll remember all that, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton in +surprise. + +"He? Oh, yes," the mountaineer replied, "word for word, syllable for +syllable--that is, fo' to-day." + +"He must have a good memory," the boy exclaimed "I'm sure I couldn't." + +"But he'll forget every word by to-morrow," the other continued, "almost +forget that he was hyeh to-day at all. That's why they're so hard to +teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him +tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh." + +"Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering.' Is there much of that sort +of idea in the mountains?" + +"None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man. "Some o' the +po' whites down in the gullies talk about it, but thar's mo' difference +between the folks in the gullies an' on the Ridge th'n there is between +the mount'ns an' the Blue Grass. They are different, an' they look +different, too." + +"Bill Wilsh certainly does," agreed Hamilton, "but I thought at first it +was because he was tired out with a long walk after a day's work." + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"They're all that way," he said. "They jes' look all beaten out as if +they hadn't any life left in them at all. I reckon the most o' them have +hookworm, too, an' they just look fit to drop." + +"Hookworm, Uncle Eli? What is that?" asked the boy. + +"It's a queer kind o' disease," the old man answered, "that comes from +goin' barefoot. There's a kind o' grub in the soil, and it works its way +in. It's only jes' recently that it's be'n found out that the po' whites +are peaked and backward because they're sick, and now they know a cure +fo' it, why hookworm is being driven right out o' the South." + +"Was there so much of it?" + +"Puttin' an end to it will make useful American citizens out o' +thousands o' poor critters that never knew what ailed them." + +"But where did the 'poor whites' come from, Uncle Eli? What made them +that way?" + +"Whar they come from I jes' don' rightly know. I reckon I saw more o' +them when I was down in Georgia, but the Florida 'crackers' are still +worse off. Thar's not so many in the mount'ns an' those that are here +live 'way up in the gullies. The sure 'nough po' whites, or 'Crackers' +as they call them, belong to the pine belt, between the mount'ns an' the +swamps o' the coast." + +"Why are they called 'Crackers'?" + +"I don' know, unless because they live on cracked corn and razor-back +hog. It an't so easy to say how they begun. Thar's a lot o' French +names, an' thar's a tradition that two shiploads o' Huguenots were +wrecked off Georgia in the early days an' foun' their way inland, +settlin' down without anythin' to start with, an' not knowin' for a +generation or two whar any settlements could be foun'. An' thar's a lot +o' folks that have just drifted down, down,--livin' jes' like the +'Crackers' an' often taken to be the same. An' the slavery system made +it worse because thar was no middle white class--either rich or po', +thar was nothin' between,--that is, down in that part o' the country. +But yo' mus' remember that thar has been a great change in the last +twenty years, an' that the children o' 'Cracker' families are doin' jes' +as well as anybody in the South." + +"How is that, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, in the days befo' the war, the po' whites were jes' trash. The +planters wouldn' have 'em, because the slaves did all the work; they +wouldn' work themselves, an' they didn' own slaves. So they were worse +off than the negroes an' even the black race looked down on 'em. But the +war waked them up." + +"They all fought for the South, didn't they?" + +"Mos'ly all. They were food fo' powder, but I always reckoned they +hindered more'n they helped. For the 'Cracker,' however, the war meant +everythin'. It placed him side by side with the Southern gentleman, it +strengthened the color line, an' jes' enough o' them made good to show +the others thar was a chance fo' them, too." + +"Then they started in to improve right after the war, did they?" + +The Kentuckian shook his head negatively. + +"No," he said, "at first they were far worse off than befo' because the +Freedman's Bureau an' the carpet-baggers made trouble right an' lef'. +The No'th had a fine chance, but the carpet-baggers were jes' blind to +everythin' excep' the negro, an' the po' white was jes' as shabbily +treated by the No'th as he had be'n by the South. Now that everybody is +seein' that yo' can't make a negro jes' the same as a white man by +givin' him a vote, thar's a chance fo' the po' white. I reckon the +'Cracker' as a 'Cracker' is goin' to be extinct pretty soon, an' the +South is goin' to be proud o' the stock it once despised. Atlanta is the +fastes' growin' city in the South, an' Atlanta is jes' full o' men whose +folks weren't much more'n 'Crackers.' The po' white, in a few years, is +goin' to be only a memory like the backwoodsman o' the time o' Dan'l +Boone." + +"That promises well for the South," said Hamilton. + +"The boom o' the South is jes' beginnin'," the old man said, "an' if +you're goin' to do census work this next year, yo' jes' watch the +figures an' see whar the old South comes in. It's a pity you're goin' +back to Wash'n'ton to-morrow, as I think yo' ought to see more o' this +country befo' yo' go." + +"I'd like to, ever so much, Uncle Eli," the boy answered, as he got up +from the step and started for the big loft where he slept with the +mountaineer's two sons, "but, even if I don't get a chance, I've learned +a lot from you about the folk on the mountains and about the South +generally." + +The mountaineer nodded a good-night as the boy disappeared. + +"Now thar," he said to his wife, who had been knitting stockings during +the latter part of the conversation, and occasionally interjecting a +word, "thar is a boy that is really achin' to know things. I wish Rube +and Eph were more like him." + +"Nothin' but hounds an' vittles worries them," the woman replied +sharply, "but they an't none like city boys, an' I'd ruther have 'em the +way they air than to come pesterin' with questions like Hamilton does +you. I don't set any sort o' stock in it, an' I don't encourage him in +sech nonsense." + +The big Kentuckian smiled, and filled his corn-cob leisurely as he +turned the talk to other things. + +Early the next morning, Hamilton and the oldest of the two boys started +on their fourteen-mile ride to the station, where the lad was to take an +afternoon train for Washington. They had gone about three miles, when +they came upon Bill Wilsh sitting on the stump of a tree by the +roadside. + +"I reckoned you-all would come along this way," he said, "an' I've be'n +thinkin' more'n more 'bout Teacheh havin' likely gone to the city, an' +not bein' dead after all. Yo' goin' to the city now?" + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co._)] + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co._)] + +"I'm going to Washington, Bill," Hamilton answered. + +"Is that the city?" + +"It's one of them." + +"Do yo' s'pose that'd be the city Teacheh went to?" + +"I couldn't say, Bill," the lad replied, "there's no way of knowing, but +it's likely enough." + +"I was thinkin'--" the mountain boy began then he broke off suddenly. +"I'm mighty partial to whittlin'," he continued irrelevantly. + +"The best ever," interjected Hamilton's companion. "Yo' ought to have +shown him some of your work, Bill." + +"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his +listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I +whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he +an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the +city?" + +Hamilton looked down at the lad, and wanted to cheer him up, but he +could not see what would be likely to bring the schoolmaster back, and +so he answered: + +"I'm afraid not, Bill. But he might, you know." + +"I reckon not. But I'd like him to know he a'nt fo'gotten in the +mount'ns. I want yo' to tell him that thar a'nt be'n a week sence he +went away that I an't be'n down to the school an' swep' the floor an' +seen that his books was in the place he liked to have 'em be. I wouldn' +want him to come back from his wanderin', if he still is wanderin', an' +think he was fo'gotten. It an't much, I know, to sweep a floor," he +added, looking up to Hamilton, "but yo' tell him an' he'll understan'. +It's about all that I kin do. He'll understan' if yo' tell him." + +Neither of the other boys spoke, and after a moment the mountain lad +went on: + +"An' when yo' see him, give him this, an' tell him it comes from Bill, +his 'tryin' scholar.' He used to call me that because, although I wasn't +learnin' much, I was always tryin'. An' yo' can tell him I'm tryin' +still." + +Reaching his hand into the bosom of his ragged shirt the boy pulled out +a slab of wood four inches square. It was carved as a bas-relief, +showing the schoolhouse in the foreground in high relief, with the +wooded hills beyond. + +"That's great!" exclaimed Hamilton. "I don't believe I ever saw better +carving than that anywhere." + +A momentary gleam of pleasure flashed into the boy's dull eyes, but he +went on again in the same lifeless voice. + +"Thar's the schoolhouse jes' as it was when he was here last, but it's +never looked the same to me sence. I want yo' to give this to him an' +show him, if yo' will, that I whittled it with the door open, jes' to +show him we're lookin' for him back." + +"But supposing I shouldn't meet him in the city?" queried Hamilton +gently. "Washington is a large place and there are many other cities." + +"I reckon you-all have mo' chance o' findin' him thar than I have hyeh. +I reckon he an't goin' to come back hyeh, an' then he'd never know that +we an't fo'gotten him, an' he'd think we was ungrateful. But yo'll try +an' find him?" + +Hamilton was conscious of a lump in his throat at the simple +faithfulness of the mountain boy, and he said gently: + +"Very well, Bill, if you feel that way about it, of course I'll try. +But you haven't told me his name as yet." + +"I was thinkin' o' that," the boy answered. Then he took from his pocket +a home-made gum-wood case, and opening it, took out a small piece of +paper and handed it to Hamilton. + +"Be keerful of it," he said, "that paper tears mighty easy." + +Hamilton smoothed the paper out on the palm of his hand, and looked at +it carefully. It was a "copy," merely of pothooks, done in lead pencil, +the strokes wavering and of differing slopes, and the whole so smudged +as scarcely to be recognizable But, down in the corner, written in ink, +in a firm, bold hand, were the words, "Very Good, Gregory Sinclair." + +Hamilton copied the name into his notebook and, refolding the paper as +carefully as possible in the same folds, he handed it to the barefooted +boy standing on the road beside his horse's head. + +"Did you-all read it?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Hamilton. + +"Did you-all see that he said 'Very Good'?" + +"'Very Good' was what was written," agreed Hamilton, thinking of the +wavering and smudged pothooks. + +"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' +as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one +to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. +But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't +fo'gotten." + +Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost +to sight. The two lads started on their way, but they had not ridden a +hundred yards when they heard a hail; looking back, they saw the +mountain boy standing on a point of the ridge; and echoing down to them +came the lonely cry: + +"Fin' him, an' tell him he an't fo'gotten." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + + +Settling himself comfortably in the train for his long journey to the +capital, one of the first things that Hamilton did was to take from his +pocket the little carving that had been given him by the mountain lad +and put it away carefully in his grip. Examining it closely as he did +so, the boy was astonished to note the fineness of the work, and he +realized that it must have taken Bill Wilsh all the spare moments of a +long winter to finish it. The work was all the more surprising, Hamilton +thought, since it had been done just with a single tool, a common +pocketknife, and was yet as fine and delicate as though carved with a +set of costly tools. He made up his mind to buy a set and send them to +Bill Wilsh with the first pay that he got from his Census Bureau work. + +Seated across the aisle from him was another lad about his own age, with +whom Hamilton rather wanted to make acquaintance, but the opportunity +did not arrive until the first meal, when, by chance, they found +themselves on opposite sides of one of the small tables in the dining +car. The usual courtesies of the table led to conversation, in the +course of which Hamilton's companion dropped the word "census" in a +manner which showed his familiarity with the progress of the work of +preparation. + +"Are you interested in the census?" asked Hamilton promptly. + +"Rather," the other replied. "I'm going to work in the Bureau. As a +matter of fact, I'm just going to Washington to get my appointment now." + +"You are!" exclaimed Hamilton. "Why, that's exactly what I'm doing. It's +queer we should meet this way." + +"Are you going as an assistant special agent, too?" his new friend +asked. + +"I'm going to start in that way," the boy replied + +"How do you mean 'start'?" the other queried. "I understand that work on +the manufactures will last three or four months, and by that time all +the other census-taking will be over." + +"I'm going to try to get some of the population work as well," Hamilton +explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, +and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators +from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them +without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine." + +The other boy shook his head. + +"I don't think I'd want it," he said, "at least not in a city, and I'm +going to do the manufacturing work, of course, in a city." + +"Where are you going to be?" asked Hamilton. + +"I took the exam in 'Frisco," the older boy replied; "that's my home +town, and I expect to work out there." + +"That's quite a walk from here!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"I had to come to Washington," the boy answered "and so my people wanted +me to go and see my sister down in Florida. She married a fellow who's +busy reclaiming some swamp land down there, and he promised me a try at +alligator hunting." + +"That sounds prime," suggested Hamilton, "and I should think that in +that reclamation work there would be lots of chance for it. It would +be worth watching, too, just to see how they got at that work. I should +think they would find themselves up against a pretty stiff job, +engineering down in those swamps. And then there must be barrels of +snakes, too?" + +[Illustration: ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (_Courtesy of Outing Magazine._)] + +"Water moccasins and copper-heads mostly," said his friend cheerfully, +"but you soon get so used to them that you don't mind them. It's very +seldom that you ever hear of any one being bitten by a snake. They all +seem more anxious to get out of your way than you out of theirs." + +"And you're anxious enough, too!" remarked Hamilton. + +"That's pretty good security, don't you think?" queried the older boy +with a laugh. "When both sides want to get away, there's not much chance +of a meeting." + +"But how about the alligators?" + +"That was real good sport," the other rejoined. "But I kept down to the +smaller chaps most of the time. I don't suppose there's really very much +danger, even in the big fellows, as long as you know just how to handle +them." + +"I don't think I'm particularly keen about handling them," answered +Hamilton. "I shouldn't think the big ones would want more than about one +bite to put you out of business." + +"That's all right," the older boy admitted, "but what's the use of +giving one that chance? Anyway, so I learned down there, it's not so +much the bite that the hunters are afraid of as the stroke of the tail. +It doesn't take such a big alligator to break your leg like a pipestem +with a sweep of that long, scaly tail of his." + +"But how do they catch them?" + +"With a noose, when they're sunning themselves. An alligator lies on a +bank, half in and half out of the water, most of the time, with his eyes +shut. Sometimes he really is asleep, and sometimes he isn't. That's +where the fun comes in. Of course, if you can get the boat right up to +where he is, close enough to slip the noose over his jaws, you've got +him all right. There's a knob on the snout that keeps the noose from +slipping off, and he sort of strangles when you tow him through the +water. But if you can't get there with the boat you have to go it on +foot." + +"You mean you have to get out of the boat and walk right up to his +jaws?" + +"Yes, just that." + +"It doesn't sound particularly good to me," Hamilton remarked. + +"It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the other replied. "As long as +you don't make too much noise, and keep out of reach of his tail, you're +all right. If you slip up, you want to jump out of the way about as +lively as you know how. But he'll never come after you, or mighty +seldom. If you get a slip-knot over his snout, and can throw a +half-hitch over his tail, why, the biggest of them is easy enough to +handle." + +"But what are they caught for?" + +"There's quite a steady sale. The big fellows are sometimes sold alive +to parks and aquariums and circuses, but most of them are killed and the +whole skins dressed and used for hanging on the walls of dens, like +trophies. The real market is for the skins of the little fellows, which +are made up into all sorts of alligator leather bags. Most of that stuff +is imitation, but still quite a lot of it is real. It's plenty of fun +catching the little 'gators, because even the smallest of them can give +you quite a nip and a reptile three feet long is a handful. I did well +enough out of it, because in addition to the sport I had, my +brother-in-law let me have the skins of all those I caught myself. Some +people, too, want to have baby ones as pets, but I don't think I'd want +to have them around, myself, after they grew to any size," he added, as +the boys rose and went back to the Pullman. + +By the time the train had reached Washington the two had become +thoroughly friendly, and Hamilton liked his new acquaintance so much +that he would gladly have seen more of him than merely as a traveling +companion. But as the other lad was going out to San Francisco, there +was no likelihood of their being thrown together at all. Indeed, on his +arrival, Hamilton found that he had been assigned to an Eastern city, so +he had to bid his new-made friend "Good-by." + +The exterior of the Census Bureau building was a disappointment to +Hamilton, by reason of its unimposing appearance. Indeed, it was +altogether too small for the purposes of the census, and during the rush +of the decennial work, there were departments of the census scattered +through various other buildings, adding no little inconvenience to the +work. Accustomed to the New York structures, towering tens of stories +into the air, the two-story red brick building of the census looked +small to Hamilton, though comfortable and pleasant to work in. It was +deceiving in its size, however, for the floor space was big and not +much broken, and there seemed to be plenty of room. But it was not until +the boy returned after his population work some months later, that he +saw this building as the center of unparalleled activity. + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (_Walden +Fawcett._)] + +"I understand," said the chief of the manufacturing division to him, +"that you are desirous of coming to the Census Bureau as one of the +permanent force, not just for the decennial period only?" + +"Yes, Mr. Clan," was the boy's reply, "that is, if the Bureau is +willing." + +"That will depend entirely on the work you do. I didn't see your papers +personally, but I understand you received a high rating, and that you +have had a good deal to do with figures.--That is, for a youngster," he +added, noting the youthfulness of the lad standing before him. + +"Yes, sir, I have," answered Hamilton. + +"What made you think of taking this work up?" was the next question. + +"Because I like it, sir." + +The divisional chief leaned back in his chair, put his fingers together +in characteristic attitude, and smiled. + +"Eh," he said, "you are sure you will like the work?" + +"Quite, sir," said Hamilton in his decided way. "I looked it all over, +and I know." + +"You will be less sure of the future when you are older," the Scotchman +said, "but if you 'know,' there's nothing more to be said. I'm going to +put you under the care of Mr. Burns, and he will instruct you further in +the work." + +"But, Mr. Clan--" began the boy. + +"Well?" + +"Where am I going, sir?" + +"New Haven, Connecticut--a good town, and one that will give you plenty +of work. You'd better start for there to-night. I hope you will like it +as much as you expect." + +"Thank you, sir," Hamilton replied, seeing that his superior deemed the +interview at an end. "I'll do the very best I can." + +On arriving in New Haven the following day, Hamilton made his way to the +local Census Office opened by his new leader. He found Mr. Burns to be a +typical statistician, to whom figures had a meaning beyond themselves, +but to whom little was of value unless it could be expressed in figures. +Hamilton introduced himself briefly. + +"You're Noble," the other said abruptly. "When will you be ready to +begin?" + +"Any time," answered Hamilton. "Right after lunch, sir, if you want me +to make a start." + +"There's a portfolio," the census agent answered, "take it along and you +can begin just as soon as you're ready." + +"What instructions have you to give me, sir?" asked Hamilton. + +"I save eleven and a half per cent of the time given to instructions by +writing them. You'll find a copy in there," he said, pointing to the +portfolio. + +"Very well, sir," the boy replied, "I'll go ahead, and if I find +anything I don't understand, shall I come and ask you?" + +"Telephone!" the census agent said. "Quicker to 'phone even if only in +the next room. Average conversation, six minutes; average telephone +conversation, two minutes; average value of my time for six minutes, +eighteen cents; average cost of 'phone for two minutes, one cent; direct +saving to me seventeen cents, not counting time of your traveling to +come and talk. No! Telephone!" + +"All right, sir," Hamilton answered, "I'll 'phone," and realizing that +his new chief had the question of the valuation of time down to a fine +point, he hurried away. + +On reaching the hotel he examined his portfolio with a great deal of +curiosity. The schedules were familiar, for one of the features of the +examination he had taken had been the filling out of such a census +schedule from financial statements of a group of factories. The written +instructions, however, were thoroughly characteristic of the man, and +percentage figures were scattered around like punctuation marks. But the +explanations were clear as crystal, none the less, and gave no +opportunity even for telephoning. + +An old New England center, and a college town, New Haven proved a most +interesting field in which to work. By far the larger number of people +with whom the boy came in contact were of old American stock and gave +him every assistance possible. + +"The census-taker?" one old man said, when Hamilton called. "Come right +in the office and sit down. Now tell me what I can do for you," and when +the boy mentioned the principal items of the schedule, the manufacturer +spent a good hour working over the books with his office force to get +out the figures desired. When Hamilton thanked him, he replied: + +"I'm an American, Mr. Noble, and one of the stones they moved from the +old churchyard of the Old Center Church and that bore the date 1681 was +the tombstone of my direct ancestor. I think you'll find most of the New +England stock proud of the United States and only too glad to do +anything they can to help the government in its census or anything else +for the good of the country." + +"I'm sure of it," the boy said heartily, "but there's mighty few of that +old type left. There's not ten per cent of the people in the country now +that are real bred-in-the-bone Americans." + +"It is a pity," the old man said, shaking his head, "and the worst of it +is that even that ten per cent lives principally in the country. It's +the cities that influence the progress of the nation. We talk about +making these foreigners over into our idea of what Americans should be, +and we forget that all the time they are influencing us to become the +kind of Americans they think we ought to be." + +"I guess that's true," the boy said, "because in New York, where my +folks live, the old New Yorkers seem entirely strange and out-of-place +in the dash and glitter." + +"Of course," the New Englander replied. "The real Americans are plain, +solid people; it's the Jewish strain in New York that has brought about +the display of wealth, and to the large number of Southern Europeans are +due the colors, the lights, the music, the public dining, and all the +rest of it. It may be the American of to-day, but it isn't what +Americanism meant a few years ago." + +"A good deal of New York life does seem foreign in a kind of way," said +Hamilton, "and I'm glad," he added, as he closed his portfolio, "that +the Census Bureau put me at work in one of the old-fashioned towns +first." + +As the boy went on in his work he came to find how thoroughly the spirit +of Yale was felt in the town. Almost all the leading business men were +Yale graduates, and instead of displaying the "town and gown" hostility +of some university places, New Haven was inordinately proud of its +college. Of course, even in such a town, there was quite a proportion of +foreign-born manufacturers but the boy found that the Jewish +establishments were even easier to tabulate than those owned by +Americans, the Hebrew understanding of the details of business being so +thorough. + +"That's not so very detailed!" one of these remarked to Hamilton when +the boy had come to the end of his list of questions. + +"It's a relief to hear somebody say that," answered the young +census-taker with a laugh, "because I hear a dozen times a day the +complaint that no one could be expected to know as much about a business +as these schedules require." + +It was not to be expected that the work would proceed without an +occasional hitch, and Hamilton had one such with a firm of Italian +marble-cutters in which the bookkeeping had been of so curious a +character that it was next to impossible to get out the kind of figures +the government wanted. Another was in a small Chinese place, where they +made little trinkets to sell to tourists in the "Chinatown" districts of +the larger cities, representing them to be imported articles of value. +Another was with a small place run by two brothers, Persians, making +fringes and tassels for fraternal order badges and matters of that kind. +It was interesting to the lad, for he had the chance to see the works in +a number of cases, and he learned a lot about the way many queer things +were made. + +But Hamilton's hopes were set on visiting one especial manufacturing +plant in New Haven, and he had determined to ask that he be allowed to +go over it before he left the town. This was the great sporting gun +works. Hamilton was passionately fond of sport, and had owned a +Winchester ever since he was twelve years old. Indeed, he had read up on +guns a good deal, and it was one of his hobbies. + +His delight was great, therefore, when at the end of a long day, after +he had turned in his schedule to his chief, the latter said: + +"Noble, your work is good. Johnson is faster. Up to last night he had +turned in one, decimal five-two per cent more establishments than you, +but your proportion of capital invested is larger, showing that the +works you went to took more time. Your schedules are better. This takes +a little over one-fifth more of my own time than I had figured at first. +I was going to do the Winchester works myself. I think you can do it. +You had better go ahead. It's complicated, but they'll help you all they +can. There's not much time left." + +"Very well, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton decisively with the +characteristic raising and lowering of his eyebrows, "I'll get all there +is, all right." + +The next morning, about ten o'clock, Hamilton presented himself at the +general offices of the company on the outskirts of the town, about a +mile from the college. He asked to see the business manager, and was +granted an interview. + +"Mr. Arverne," said the boy, "I called with regard to securing the +figures for the census of nineteen hundred and ten." + +"But you are not the special agent surely?" said the manager, looking at +him sharply. + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "Mr. Burns is the special agent, and I am +one of his assistants." + +"I should have thought Mr. Burns would have come himself," the man said; +"you are young for this work, aren't you?" + +Hamilton flushed at this reference to his boyish appearance, but he +answered steadily: "Yes, sir, I believe I am younger than most of the +assistant special agents, but I have had a good deal to do with +figures." + +"Burns is a good man," the manager continued. "If the government has +men of that stamp all over the country, the statistics will be +invaluable. You know Mr. Burns?" he added suddenly. + +"Only just since this work began, Mr. Arverne," the boy replied. + +"Queer chap. I don't believe he eats a bit of food or drinks a glass of +water without mentally figuring the nutritious percentage in the food, +and the effect of his drink upon the water supply of the world." + +Hamilton laughed. + +"He is a little that way, sir," he said. + +"A little!" the manager exclaimed. "But to return to the point. You +didn't tell me why Mr. Burns didn't come himself." + +"He said that the office work was piling up, sir," answered the boy, +"and--if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Arverne--he spoke of it as an +opportunity for me, since it was the largest plant in the city and my +schedules had been the most complete of those turned in to him." + +The manager eyed the boy keenly. + +"Mr. Burns doesn't make many mistakes," he said, after a moment, "and if +he has confidence in you, he knows what he is talking about. This is a +country of young men anyway, and it seems to be getting younger all the +time. Where is the schedule?" + +Hamilton handed him the paper and sat back, waiting. Several minutes +passed, while the manager went over the questions item by item. + +"Yes," he said at last, "I think our books can answer every question +there without difficulty. We keep very complete books. I am not so sure, +Mr. Noble," he continued, "that I can give you those figures immediately +in just exactly that form." + +"In what points do your books differ?" asked Hamilton quietly. + +"Not in any essentials, but in a few minor points," the manager replied. +"For example, you want to know here the exact number of employees on our +pay roll on December 15th. Now I could have the pay roll department--we +keep it as an entirely separate department here--turn up instantly the +payments for the week in which that date occurs, but in order to +separate that one day from the week, reference will have to be made to +the Employment Bureau to find out what workers left, and how many were +added, and the day of the week on which each of these left or began +work in that week, and to add or to deduct such sums from the weekly +pay roll." + +"That difficulty has come up several times," said Hamilton, "because not +many people pay their employees by the day. But in nine cases out of +ten, an average for that week is usually struck, figuring in some cases +by the days and in others by the hours. I suppose you noticed that the +schedule itself states that what is sought is 'a normal day'?" + +"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it +is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even +that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions." + +"No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch +usually comes just at the point you're looking at now--the cost of +materials." + +"That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great +deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with +all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion." + +"What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. +"That seems rather a curious phrase." + +"Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of +guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen +working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to +enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, +right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a +great deal of designing." + +"Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton. + +"We call them so," was the reply. + +"I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, +feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings +of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these +works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also +machinery and tools." + +"But those are for our own use!" objected the manager. + +"Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them +yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the +schedule it would make the figures all wrong." + +"How would it?" + +"Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and +you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without +getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the +machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost +price or at whatever figure you name." + +"I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems +a very roundabout way of getting at it." + +"I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery +you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you +make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried +to the capital account." + +"Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and +in that light these departments might be called productive, although not +directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out +pretty well for a youngster," he added. + +"I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing +nothing else for the past two weeks." + +"Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can +tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?" + +"No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous +expense." + +"Very well," the official said, "if you come back at four o'clock this +afternoon I will have the schedule ready for you." Then, seeing that the +boy hesitated, he said, "Did you want it before then?" + +"Oh, no, Mr. Arverne, thank you," the boy answered "that wasn't what I +had in mind at all. I was wondering whether, if I came back at three +o'clock, I would be allowed to see something of the works. In quite a +number of places I have been shown through the plant, sometimes because +I had to get figures from managers of different departments, sometimes +because I had a few minutes to spare while a clerk was filling up the +schedule. But I've always been so interested in guns, and especially in +Winchesters, that I really should like to find out how they're made." + +The business manager shook his head dubiously. + +"We very rarely show any one over the plant," he said, "because there +is very little to be gained by it. And in any case, there are some +portions of the works where visitors are never allowed, such as +ammunition rooms where there are quantities of powder about, and similar +places." + +"I'd like to be able to say that there was a desire on the part of the +Census Bureau for a report," said Hamilton, "but honestly I haven't the +right to say so. I'm only asking as a favor. At the same time I have +seen special reports on selected industries issued by the Bureau, and +possibly my information might chance to be of value to the special agent +who was getting it up." + +"Come back at two o'clock, then," said the manager. "One of the members +of the Board, Mr. Nebett, is here to-day, and if he has no objection +I'll try to find some one to show you round." + +Promptly at the appointed hour, Hamilton handed his card to the doorman, +who showed him into a waiting-room. In a few minutes the door opened, +and a keen-looking, well-set-up man appeared who came forward and held +out his hand. + +"I've been hearing about you from Mr. Arverne," he said, "and he tells +me that you want to look over the works." + +"Mr. Nebett?" queried the boy, and in response to an affirmative nod, +he continued, "Yes, sir, I'm very anxious to see part of it at any rate. +I can see that it's a huge place, but gun-making must be so interesting +that I'd like to see how it's done." + +"I think Mr. Arverne said something to me about your writing up a +special report, a summary or something of that kind." + +"That was just a suggestion, Mr. Nebett," the boy replied. "I told Mr. +Arverne that the Census Bureau did issue special bulletins on selected +industries, and that perhaps I might have an opportunity to make use of +some information. But that's a personal idea of mine only, because most +of those bulletins are written by experts in the Bureau." + +"Well," was the reply, "I don't see that it can do us any harm, anyway, +and if you are so interested you can come along with me. I like to go +through the works every once in so often, and perhaps I can tell you +more about these things than any other man in the place, because I get a +chance to see it as a whole." + +"If you would," began the boy. + +"Come along, then," said the official, without further parley, and he +led the way out of the general offices and across the street to the +first of a huge group of buildings. Walking through the yard the two +came presently to a long structure running alongside the railroad +sidings. "This," Hamilton was informed, "is just the storeroom for raw +material as it comes off the cars." + +He turned half round as though to leave the building, but Hamilton +stopped him with a question. + +"Steel, principally?" he asked. + +"Steel." + +"What kind of steel?" persisted Hamilton. + +"Oh, different kinds." + +"Why different kinds?" continued the boy, working his eyebrows, as was +his habit when in earnest. "For different kinds of guns?" + +"Yes," answered the older man, evidently deciding that he would have to +go into the matter thoroughly with Hamilton, and passing on into the +storehouse. "We get mostly three kinds of steel, nickel steel, carbon +steel, and soft steel, with a small proportion of other forms. We do +that for the very reason you mentioned, that they are used for different +kinds of work. Nickel steel we do not use for the cheaper grades of +guns, because it is so much harder, and costs so much more to work. +Indeed, very few gun-makers use nickel steel for barrels at all, but we +do on all our high-grade work." + +"I notice," Hamilton said, "that all the steel here is stored in bars +and rods. Do you buy it that way, or have you a rolling mill in +connection with the plant?" + +"Buy it," the other said immediately. "You can't run a rolling mill at a +profit except on a large scale, and, anyway, this is too far from the +source of supply. We get our copper in ingots, but not our steel." + +"I notice," the boy continued, fingering a long ticket attached to a +bundle of steel rods by a wire, "that you say here, 'Do not disturb +until report from laboratory is received.'" + +"Certainly," said the other, "every order as it comes in is tested. We +have two laboratories, a physical and a chemical, and not a scrap of +material is used until it is found to be fully up to the specifications. +There's no guesswork there, but the most rigid scientific tests. That +keeps any poor material from slipping through. + +"Now," he continued, "I'll show you what happens to those bars." + +He led the way to a small building where the bars were cut into certain +recognized lengths for the men at the drop forges to handle. + +"This forging shop," the manufacturer said, entering it as he spoke, "is +where most of the metal parts of the gun are first roughly shaped, and +this man is working on part of a cartridge ejector. Watch him now," he +went on, following the action of the workman; "he takes a piece of steel +out of the furnace behind him, lays it on the die, touches a lever, and +the big drop-hammer comes down,--once, twice. He turns it over, brings +the drop-hammer down again, once, twice, and the piece is shaped. It has +rough edges all round, of course, and so he takes it, while it is still +glowing red, to a more exact die, and brings the drop-hammer down once, +and turns it over, then brings down the hammer again once. Now the shape +is almost perfect but for that fringe of metal all round. He picks it +up, puts it on that die on this next machine close by his hand, touches +a lever, and a knife, exactly the shape of the die comes down, crunch! +shaving off the iron clean all round, and there is your forging done, +and all with the one heating. Of course it isn't finished off, but you +can see for yourself that the rough work is done, and all in the space +of a few moments." + +Hamilton found it hard to tear himself away, for while the principle was +the same, all the different forges were turning out different parts, and +it was a fascination to the boy to see those glowing lumps of steel come +out of the furnace and with the few strokes of the drop-hammer, fall a +few seconds later, the shaped part of a rifle. Some of the machines were +making receivers for the stock, the largest piece of metal, and other +small parts like the trigger or the hammer, while still others were +preparing the barrels of the gun for drilling. + +"It is not likely to occur to you," said his guide, "that it would not +do to let all those various parts cool off by chance. For example, in +winter they would cool more rapidly than in summer, and those near the +door more quickly than those in the inner part of the forging house. +That would make them of varying hardness. So, in order to make sure that +they shall be the same, all those pieces you have seen being made are +annealed." + +"How is the annealing done?" asked Hamilton. + +"That is simple enough," was the reply. "All that has to be done is to +heat them again all to the same degree of heat, then let the oven cool +at a certain rate. Here are the annealing ovens." + +"This is certainly a hot place," said the boy, as he stepped into the +next building. "Whew! I wonder any one stays in here." + +"No one does," his conductor answered. "We have this arranged so that +all the furnaces are filled in the morning, when they are cold, and +there are pyrometers to tell when the right heat is reached. All the +ovens, you see, are managed by these switches near the door. Look +here--" + +He slipped one of the switches into place, and the pyrometer needle +swung around and pointed to the degree of heat in the oven which it was +supposed to register. + +"What are those little clocks for?" + +"One for each oven," Mr. Nebett answered; "the keeper of the furnaces +sets them when an oven is up to the required heat. Then, you see, it is +easy to tell when they have been cooling long enough." + +"I should think," said Hamilton, "that making the barrel was the most +important part of a gun, because, after all, that is the only part a +bullet touches, and it must have to be exact. I've often thought of +that, how the tiniest difference at the mouth of the barrel would at a +thousand yards range cause it to be away off the mark." + +"It does have to be exact," his guide answered, "but that is a matter of +care rather than of difficulty. In this next building we bore the +rifle-barrels, just a simple boring process, as you see, but there are +all sorts of precautions taken to insure absolute steadiness. As soon as +a barrel is taken from the boring machine it is put through a test, to +determine whether it is correct in size to the one-half of +one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. If it is not as exact as that, it +is set aside. That is only the first of a long series of tests, too. You +would be surprised at the number of barrels that are rejected from the +time of the first selection until the gun is completed. Here, for +example, is perhaps the most sensational one." + +He led the boy to a small building, standing by itself in the middle of +the yard, heavily built, and looking almost like a log cabin of the old +type, made of great timbers. It was just a bit of a place, divided into +two parts by a heavy timber wall. + +"What in the wide world is this for?" asked the boy. + +"I'll show you in a minute, I think we're just in time," the official +said, as he led the way in. Hamilton followed him into the inner +chamber. A long row of gun barrels was the first thing the boy noticed, +the barrels all lying in slots. A gray-haired man was filling a heavy +charge of powder behind each one. The guns were pointing into a bank of +sand. + +"If you notice," said his guide, "you'll see that a little device, like +the old percussion cap is right by each of those charges of powder. Are +you all ready, Jim?" he queried, as the old man straightened up. + +"Yes, Mr. Nebett," was the reply. + +"All right," the other said, "we'll go into the room." He pointed out to +Hamilton, as they passed from one part of this little building to the +other, that each of these percussion caps was attached to a wire which +ran through the wall to the little room into which they were going. + +"Look out, Mr. Nebett," said the old man, after he had closed and +fastened the heavy door, "and you, young sir, don't be frightened," and +he pulled the wire hanging overhead. + +There was a terrific explosion and a roar, and though Hamilton had been +half expecting it, he jumped. Then he laughed. + +"I guess I did jump, after all," he said. "What was that for?" + +"To test the strength of the barrels," said his friend, as the old +workman slid back the heavy door. "There, you see," he added, "one of +them did burst." He pointed to one of the gun barrels rent at the side. +"Once in a while," he continued, "they just go up in pieces, and if you +look at the walls and the ceiling you'll see any number of bits of metal +driven in deeply." + +"But he seemed to be putting in an awfully heavy charge," said the boy. + +"We do that in order to be sure that we shall not expend a great deal of +labor on a barrel which in the end would fail to pass inspection, and +also to safeguard against accident," the other explained. "We do use a +very heavy charge because our guns sell all over the world, and in some +countries--England, for instance--the test is extremely severe. It's a +costly process, as it spoils a lot of barrels, but it is better to lose +material than to put out a piece of work which might not be +trustworthy." + +Hamilton looked around the proof-room carefully. Certainly it seemed to +have gone through the wars. From the thick wood huge gashes had been +rent, and the entire interior was jagged and splintered. + +"How much of a charge do you put to each barrel?" he asked; and when the +formula was given him for each of the different styles of rifle, the boy +whistled in amazement. + +"I should think that any barrels that stood that test could stand +anything afterwards," he said admiringly. + +"Well, they do," the other said. "It's very seldom that you hear of a +first-class gun exploding. I don't recall a case of one of ours for +years and years. And even if by some chance flaw they did, the good +ones, being nickel steel, would just make a hole in the barrel,--not fly +to pieces. But, as a matter of fact, any barrel that has been through +that 'proof-room' will have been subjected to the greatest strain it +will ever have to undergo, for there is no cartridge made that would +have one-half the power in proportion to the size of the barrel." + +From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of +the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and +finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed. Thus, for +example, in a receiver for a gun stock, one machine worked a bevel edge +on it, another bored it to the size of the gun barrel, accurate to the +thousandth part of an inch, another pierced the tiny screw holes, and +yet other machines made even the minute screw, done, as was explained to +Hamilton, so that the threads in each should fit with absolute +exactness. + +"But do you really mean to say," queried Hamilton in surprise, "that +every one of these fifty or more parts of each gun is inspected and +tested?" + +The official led him to a number of long rows of tables. + +"Here," he said, "are girls doing nothing else all day long. Here is a +testing die for a part of the ejector of one of our 1911 models. You see +that there are two spaces for all of them. It must fit into this one, it +must not fit into that, which is a thousandth of an inch smaller. If too +big, you see it won't fit into either, if too small, it would fit into +the one where it ought not. Every tiny piece is gauged on all its sides +and in every hole and at all points with this double gauge system." + +"That doesn't leave much for guesswork," said Hamilton. "But there is +something that's been puzzling me." + +"What is that?" asked his guide. + +"I've always heard a lot about gun-metal," Hamilton answered, "and yet +all the way through, these parts have been nothing but steel. And all +the guns I ever saw had that bluish look, as gun-metal has. For example, +my watch is what they call gun-metal," and he took it from his pocket +and showed the back of it. + +"Gun-metal," said the other, "is an alloy of copper and tin and once was +used almost exclusively for cannon and big guns generally. But you're +right about all guns having a bluish tinge. That is all steel, but it is +treated by a process called coloring or bluing. I'll show you--both the +old way and the new." + +Going down the stairs and crossing the yard, he took Hamilton into a +small building where there were a couple of open charcoal furnaces, in +which the charcoal was intensely hot, but not hot enough to catch fire. +The pieces of finished steel were buried in this charcoal, and every +few minutes the men in charge would draw them out, wipe them over with a +bunch of oiled waste, and thrust them back into the fire. It was about +the dirtiest, blackest, grimiest work the boy had ever seen. + +"That is the old way," Hamilton was told, "and although it is handwork +instead of machine work it is not a bit better in its results than the +new way. The modern system, besides, is much simpler and cleaner." + +In the next building was a row of charcoal ovens, revolving in such a +way that the parts to be blued were alternately covered and released +from the superheated charcoal, the effect of the greasing also being +done at every automatic revolution Each furnace door bore an asbestos +clock. + +"What are those clocks for?" asked Hamilton. "The same as those others, +I suppose, so that the man in charge can put in a number of certain +parts of a gun and leave them in for a regular length of time at a +certain heat, and pull them out all done?" + +"Just that," was the reply. "The only gain in the old style is that each +part being handled separately, if there is ever so little difference in +the metal, the bluer can give it a shorter or a longer time, whereas +the machine treats all alike." + +"Then when the gun is assembled, all the work is done?" queried +Hamilton, who was becoming a little tired from his long tramp through +the works and among the furnace-heated shops. + +"No," said the other. "That wouldn't do at all. A gun has not only got +to shoot, but it has got to shoot straight." + +"But how in the world," said Hamilton, "can you tell whether a gun will +shoot straight or not?" + +"One of the most important ways," said his informant, "is to let an +expert look through the barrel. One of our best men, for example, has +done nothing else all his life; his father before him was a +barrel-sighter and his son has just entered the works. He does it this +way--here, you try," and he handed a barrel to Hamilton. "Rest the +barrel in this crotch," he continued, "and look at the window. You see +there is a piece of ground glass with a thin black line running across +it. Point the barrel so that it is aimed just below that line, and if +you get it right, you will see a reflection of that line running +lengthways up the barrel." + +[Illustration: MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +Hamilton put the barrel up and looked and looked, but for a minute or +two he could not get the direction, then he caught the line. But the +reflection in the barrel was confusing, and it seemed to him that he saw +several lines. + +"It's awfully hard just to get that straight," the boy said, "and it's +dazzling, too." + +"That man you saw there," answered his guide, as they moved away, "can +tell almost to the width of a thread of a spider's web if a barrel is +straight. Here, too, is another barrel test going on. You see this man +is pushing a soft lead slug which fits the barrel snugly through the +barrel by means of a brass rod. It takes a certain amount of pressure to +push the lead slug through the barrel. Such slight variations in +diameter of the bore as one-tenth of a thousandth can be readily +detected, for if the barrel is smaller at any point than where it +entered, the slug will stick, and if it is the least bit larger at any +point, the slug will slide through too easily. Men accustomed to this +class of work can readily detect an increase or decrease in diameter of +one ten-thousandth part of an inch." + +"You certainly have it down fine, Mr. Nebett," Hamilton commented. + +"We try to," responded his guide. "Then when the barrel experts have +had their turn, the gun is assembled and goes to the action men." + +"Who are they?" asked the boy. + +"They test the trigger pull, the cartridge ejection, the fall of the +hammer, the filling of the magazine, and all such points. They have two +sets of dummies, such as were used for testing the parts. One must fit, +the other not, and so any fault in the mechanism is detected. The same +with ejection,--we must be sure that a cartridge will not stick. Then +after that--" + +"Still more tests!" + +"Didn't I tell you that we had to be sure that a gun could be made not +only to shoot but to shoot straight? Our crack shots get the guns next." + +"What do they do?" asked the boy, "fire at targets?" + +"Yes. But first a man, incased in an armored barricade, shoots a few +extra heavy cartridges in each rifle, in order to make sure that no +weakness has been caused by the various processes through which all the +parts have passed. Then he turns it over to the crack shots. They fire +half a dozen shots at a target, then look at the target through a +telescope. Those men know that they can hit the bull's eye every time, +so that if the shots are wide of the mark, either there is a defect in +the gun or the sights are not true. In nine cases out of ten it is the +fault of the sights, and they file them true." + +"Then really every gun has been fired before being sold?" + +"We turn out about sixteen hundred guns a day, and each one has been +fired several times." + +"Shotguns, too?" + +"The same standard of accuracy is needed in those. It is just as +important that a shotgun should throw a certain percentage of its shot +within a certain radius as it is that a rifle bullet should go straight. +Down in this little room," he continued, "a man stands all day shooting +down this gallery, forty yards range, and each target is brought back +and measured. In a circle with a fifteen-inch radius a boy counts the +numbers of holes made in the paper by the tiny shot. There should be +300. If there are 290 the gun is passed, but if less it is rejected. +Sometimes you get very queer shot patterns without knowing why." + +"Do all shotguns throw as evenly as that?" + +"All good ones should. It is astonishing to see how regularly the +'scatter' of a barrel will work out. Every barrel, of course, is stamped +with the number of shots it has put into the fifteen-inch circle." + +"And you make cartridges, too, don't you?" Hamilton asked. + +"That's one of the largest branches of our business," his guide replied, +"but there's not very much in that to show you, except of course the +making of the metal caps, and this is simply the punching of circular +pieces of copper or brass, turning up the edges, or 'cupping' them, as +it is called, drawing them to length, inserting the primer pocket and +heading--the filling is done in a building perpetually closed to +visitors. We think too much of our visitors," he added with a smile, "to +risk blowing them up. I don't suppose really, that there would be any +danger,--we have not had an accident for years,--but it's a business in +which accident is only prevented by extreme care, and we believe in +being thorough." + +Chatting pleasantly, Mr. Nebett showed Hamilton through the various +general offices, the payroll department, and the draughting and +designing room, and finally returned to the business manager's office, +where they found the schedule awaiting him, filled out in almost every +detail. A few spaces had been left blank until the boy's return, some +trifling explanation being readily answered by him. + +[Illustration: "A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +"I must thank you ever so much," said the boy, turning to the director +of the company who had taken so much trouble in showing him around, "it +has been one of the most interesting afternoons I have had in all my +life. I feel quite as though I had been witnessing the equipping of the +world's armies on the eve of a great war." + +"That would be all right," said the business manager, "if we were making +military rifles, but ninety-five per cent of our work is for sporting +purposes." + +"But how about your cartridges?" + +"There, perhaps," Mr. Nebett said, "The Hague tribunal would look +askance at us." + +Hamilton had his portfolio under his arm, but at the door he turned. + +"How many cartridges do you put out?" he asked. + +"Six million a day," was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + + +So long as Hamilton's work dealt with the larger manufactories of the +district he encountered comparatively little trouble, as he knew enough +of the desires of the Census Bureau to be able to help those business +men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so +forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made +several very pleasant acquaintanceships during the weeks in New Haven, +and it was not until he was "checking up," going to all the small places +that had not been listed, that he really found himself in difficulties. +He anticipated trouble with the dressmakers, and consequently his +delight was great when he learned that this had been omitted from the +census since 1904 because it is a "neighborhood industry." But the +milliners proved just as bad. + +In the first place, Hamilton could not work up any enthusiasm over a +millinery establishment, and although he had definite instructions that +each one was to be considered as a factory and entered upon the +schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a +little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the +first weeks of the work, visiting the places in the early morning and in +the evening when the offices of the larger factories were closed. His +worst clash occurred at almost the very last one to which he went. + +It was a little after five o'clock, just as it was beginning to get +dark, that Hamilton, having ascertained from the Business Telephone +Directory the address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work +for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really +handsome house, and rang the bell. He did so reluctantly, for there was +no plate on the door, and he did not wish to annoy strangers. But the +address seemed straight enough. + +The door was opened by a becapped maid, and Hamilton was shown into a +handsomely furnished drawing room. On a table in the corner, the boy +caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was +on the right track. After a few moments' delay, a richly dressed little +Frenchwoman bustled in. She seemed surprised to see the boy, and halted +on the threshold. Hamilton rose. + +"I understand, Madame," he said, "that you are an 'exclusive' milliner?" + +The woman looked bewildered. + +"You make hats?" Hamilton continued, perceiving at a glance that the +woman was foreign-born. + +"Is it a hatter zat you want?" she asked. + +"No, no," the boy replied, "I just want to know if you are a milliner?" + +The Frenchwoman, not at all enlightened by this explanation, answered: + +"I do not make ze hats; I design zem, and ze ozzers make zem." + +"Oh, I thought you were the proprietor," said Hamilton; "then you don't +own this place!" + +"I am ze proprietor, but I do not own ze house," she said; "I pay ze +rent. But why you ask? I pay my rent!" + +"Oh, of course," answered Hamilton, "but that has nothing to do with it. +I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census, and +wanted to make sure that this was the place I was looking for." + +"What is zat--ze census?" + +"That is the way the government finds out about all the people in the +country," explained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what +they work at and how many people they employ, the wages they pay or are +paid, and all sorts of things." + +The Frenchwoman's eyes had been getting bigger and rounder at every +sentence, and when Hamilton had finished, she said with an air of +regretful surprise: + +"An' they tol' me zere was no police spy in America!" + +"There isn't, so far as I know," the boy answered. + +"But you--" + +"I'm not a police spy," the boy said, a little nettled at being +misunderstood. + +"No? Zen zat is all ze more strange. In my country zose are ze questions +ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge?" +she queried, pointing to the little census shield on Hamilton's coat. + +"That has nothing to do with the police," the boy insisted, "that's a +census badge. Madame," he added, "do I look like a policeman?" + +The Frenchwoman, remembering the military appearance of the gendarmes +of her native land and the burly make-up of the American policeman, +shook her head. + +"Perhaps you are disguise'?" she said, with a smile. + +"No, I'm not disguised," Hamilton responded, "and the badge is just to +show that I have the right to ask you these questions." + +"I do not know anyzing at all about it," the milliner objected, "but if +you say you have ze right!" she shrugged her shoulders and sat down. + +Hamilton promptly picked up his portfolio, opened it on his knee, and +began to put some of the queries required. He got along well enough +while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so +forth were in hand, but the question about the number of hours worked +during the year made the woman most indignant. + +"What is ze good of a question like zat?" she asked. "What does it +matter if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand +occasion, ze wedding, ze garden party? When zey work more, zey get more +pay!" + +"Of course," said Hamilton diplomatically, "with such a number of +society people as you deal with that must happen very often." + +It was a successful move. The Frenchwoman beamed on him. + +"In ze season, yes, perhaps twenty or thirty evenings, but even zen ze +girl go home by twelve o'clock." + +Hamilton smiled to himself as he did a little figuring and filled up the +schedule to show the prevailing practice followed in the establishment +during the year. He was a little dubious about asking the questions +concerning the wages paid, but he found no trouble. + +"In your kind of work," he said, "I suppose the girls get good wages." + +"Ze very best," the woman answered, and Hamilton found that this was +true. Indeed, so anxious was she to impress on him how much better were +the wages paid by her than those in other establishments that the boy +secured a large amount of unexpected valuable information. But he came +to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For +the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but +the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner really could not +give, for, as she pointed out, most of the few especial customers she +had, brought the materials to her to be made up, and she had no means +of knowing what had been paid for them. Nor would she even try to make +an estimate. + +"But I must know," said Hamilton, in despair. "See for yourself,--here +it says that every factory must state the total cost of all material +used during the year and the value of the products." + +"Factory!" the milliner jumped to her feet. "What you say--a factory! +Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze designers of ze great +Maison Chic in Paris! Zis is insult!" + +For a moment Hamilton was amazed at the tempest he had so suddenly +evoked; then he tried to pacify the woman. + +"That's just a general word," he said, "and it is used for every place +where things are made." + +"No, no, no," she cried, "I know bezzer zan zat. A factory has chimney, +high, high, and smoke, an' nasty smells, an' machines. I have seen zem!" + +"That's one kind of factory," answered the boy, "but it is only one +kind. But if you like we won't use the word at all." + +This time, however, Hamilton's persuasions were of no avail. The +milliner had taken offense at the word "factory," and not another word +could the boy get out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become +absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, +evidently a customer. The proprietress immediately greeted her in +voluble French, recounting as nearly as Hamilton could judge from her +gestures her sorrows and trials at the boy's hands. + +As soon as there was a lull, Hamilton said to the newcomer: + +"I beg your pardon, but since you seem to know French, would you mind +explaining to Madame what the census is? She seems to think I am a +police spy, or something." + +"Oh, the census!" the girl exclaimed. "I could not make out what it was +all about. I thought it must be some question of taxes." + +"No," Hamilton explained, "it is the Census of Manufactures, and +millinery places have to be counted. I got along all right, and have +finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. +If you would just ask her the cost of the materials in the hats she made +last year, I'll be through and then I won't be delaying you." + +But not even the girl's fluent French could bring any light on this +subject, and laughingly she had to admit to the boy that her success +had been no greater than his own. + +"I'll tell you," said Hamilton; "I've got an idea how we could get at +it." + +"How?" asked the girl interestedly, for having taken a part in it, she +was American enough to be unwilling to give up; "what have you to +suggest--what is your plan?" + +"You are one of Madame's customers?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, whatever kind of books are kept here, there must be +some sort of ledger, so that your bills can go to you every month." + +The girl made a little grimace. + +"The bills certainly come," she assured him. + +"Well, then," said Hamilton triumphantly, "if we can find out from +Madame what proportion of all her trade your account is, and if you can +make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you, we +shall come pretty close to being able to make an estimate on the cost of +goods of all her customers." + +"That's an excellent scheme," the girl said. "I don't know that I can +give very exact figures, but you want just a rough idea?" + +"I'd like it exact, of course," the boy answered, "but since that +doesn't seem easy to get, the next best thing is a close estimate." + +With this device in mind, very few minutes elapsed before the required +information was secured, a rough guess made at the result, and the +schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said +laughingly: "I think I should at least receive 'honorable mention' in +the dispatches as a census-taker, the same as soldiers do in war." + +"Very well," said Hamilton, smiling in return, "I'll bear it in mind," +and thanking her heartily, he went on his way, greatly relieved that the +difficulty was over. + +In a piece of extra territory that Mr. Burns had assigned to the boy, +there were several factories in which there had been some difficulty in +securing properly filled schedules, partly because much of the work was +done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with +some of these factories--they were principally glass works--on the night +side first. He frequently found it necessary to work thus in the +evenings, especially after this added work, which was given him because +the district proved too large for the agent having it in charge. + +Little by little he worked these down until but one remained, owned by +Germans, where the boy experienced great difficulty in securing any sort +of attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and +Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for +that factory filled. This was the easier, as the night superintendent in +question had recently been promoted to that position from head +bookkeeper. + +One night, waiting for the superintendent to work out these figures, he +sauntered through the works. A phrase from Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man +in the Making" kept ringing through his head. It ran as follows--"It is +in the glass-factory perhaps, that the child is pushed most hopelessly +under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this +especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing +to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, +two or three of the men had come to know him by sight, and they nodded +now as he passed through. Noticing a boy that looked even younger than +himself,--for unconsciously his eye was seeking that of which he was +thinking,--he turned to one of the men who had nodded to him, and said +casually, and with an air of surprise: + +"Why, that chap there doesn't look any older than me!" + +"I don't suppose he is so very old," the man replied, "sixteen, maybe." + +"Seems a shame to have to start in so young," Hamilton went on, with an +assumed air of carelessness, "and I suppose he's been here some years." + +"Probably about four or five," was the reply. + +"You know," continued Hamilton, in a conversational tone, "I should +think it would be hard for a boy to start in working like that, and at +night especially." + +The man paused in his work an instant, and looked at the lad, passing +his hand over his forehead as he did so. + +"I was just ten years old when I began," he said. "I'm only thirty now. +I look fifty, don't I?" + +"You certainly look over thirty," Hamilton admitted. + +"Oh, I look fifty all right, I know that, and I'm as nearly played out +as a man of fifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. +Every year that a boy is put to hard physical work before he is sixteen +is equal to five years taken off his life." + +"I wonder that any employer does it, and that any State permits it," +said Hamilton. + +"There's not as much of it in Connecticut as in other States, although +the figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk +as though you had been having a session with 'the crusader,'" the +workman continued. + +"Who's the crusader?" asked Hamilton. + +"Haven't you seen him, then? With your ideas, you ought to get along +well together. And," he added, more seriously, "'the crusader' will be +heard of yet." + +"Why?" + +"He's a boy who started at work in this place when he was only seven +years old," the workman answered. "He's been here eight years now, and +he's an odd genius. He taught himself to read and write, but he doesn't +read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he +knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of children +working. All the labor union people and the socialists know 'the +crusader,' young as he is, and they send him, free, nearly every book +and paper that's published." + +[Illustration: YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway co._)] + +"But why do you call him 'the crusader'?" asked Hamilton. + +"Because he has some crusade idea on the brain,--thinks he can start a +revolution or something that will put a stop to child labor, and he +talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as he calls it. +But everybody likes him just the same, and he's a good worker--when he's +not talking." + +"Which is he?" asked Hamilton. "I'd like to talk to him, if I might." + +"No reason why you shouldn't," the other answered "he's kept busy of +course, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' +is given special favors, anyway. That's the boy, 'carrying in' over +there." + +Hamilton looked with interest at the boy thus pointed out. He would have +been noticeable, even without the knowledge of his peculiar position, +but with it, his difference from his fellows became most marked. +Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this +might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his pocket, he +started to eat it, and sauntered leisurely over to where the boy was +working. He watched him for a minute or two; then, when the boy looked +up, he said casually: + +"Have an apple?" + +Almost wolfishly the work-boy took the fruit from Hamilton and commenced +to devour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a +luxury as an apple seldom fell to his lot. A few sentences passed, and +then Hamilton asked: + +"How long have you been in the factory here?" + +"Eight years," 'the crusader' replied. + +"You must have been just a youngster when you first came, then?" + +"Seven years old," was the answer, "and small at that!" + +"It's a shame to let little children work like that, I think," said +Hamilton, wondering whether this would have the effect of rousing the +other, "it must do them harm." + +But even though expecting some fiery retort, Hamilton was unprepared for +the transformation in the lad. A moment before he had been a stooped +childish figure with an old and weary face, carrying trays of hot glass +from furnace to bench and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. +The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and +passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of +his surroundings, despite the rags in which he was clothed, under the +dull glow of the furnaces and the flickering violet play of a distant +arc light he seemed the bearer of some high message as his boyish +treble, rich in the tones of a familiar despair, rang through the +factory. + +"The land is filled with the voice o' cryin'," he began, "an' no one +seems to hear. Tens o' thousands o' children cry themselves to sleep +every night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. +Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so +much that hope is gone, an' tired enough to die! There are twenty-five +thousand children less than ten years old in the fact'ries of America." + +"Perhaps the people who could help don't know about it," suggested +Hamilton. + +"They know," the other continued, "but they don't care. They stop their +ears to the cryin' o' the children an' talk about America as the land of +opportunity. It _is_ the land of opportunity--opportunity for the +children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wretched +an' to be glad to die. There's no country in the world where children +are tortured as they are in the fact'ries of the United States." + +"Oh, surely it can't be as bad as that," protested Hamilton. + +The objection only increased the "crusader's" vehemence. + +"There don't any children have to work anywhere as they do here," he +fairly shouted, "here where they rob the cradle for workers, where the +little voices become sad and bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, +where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where +its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Their tiny bones +unset, they make them stand in one position all day long until you hear +the children moanin' hour after hour, moanin' and no one hears, or +hearin', cares. + +"They send missionaries to China," cried the lad further, "but there's +no child labor there; they try to reform the 'unspeakable Turk' but +there's no atrocity upon the children there; they call the heathen lost, +though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' +lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our +fact'ries here, an' even an Indian chief that they were showin' the +sights of our great cities to, when asked what had surprised him most, +answered, 'Little--children--workin'.'" + +"You mean it is peculiar to America? That there is really more of it +here than in Europe?" asked Hamilton incredulously. + +"More? There's none there like there is here. An' it's gettin' worse all +the time, worse this year than last year, worse last year than ten years +ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. +It is a thing of yesterday, a sudden toadstool in the infernal garden.' +It is all our own," he laughed harshly, "let us be proud of it." + +"How many children did you say?" asked Hamilton tersely, staggered and +shocked by this statement of the facts of the case. + +"Enough to sink the land in shame," the speaker declared. "There were a +trifle over a hundred thousand children between the ages of six and +fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures +showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n eight hours a day, that +a large percentage were workin' twelve to sixteen hours, an' twenty-two +thousand of 'em are at night work." + +As he said the last words, the "crusader" hurried away in response to a +call from one of the men. He resumed his carrying in of the red-hot +bottles from the benches where the men had been molding them, to the +annealing oven, and for a time Hamilton watched him. The work was a +fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to +the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to +take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundred feet, and +watching another boy, who was working regularly, not intermittently as +was the city lad's new acquaintance, he found that seventy-two trips an +hour were made, making the distance covered in eight hours nearly +twenty-two miles. + +The red-hot bottles were carried in asbestos shovels, and these had to +be kept fairly straight, imposing a terrific strain upon the back. In +addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time +they came back, passing from the heat of the melting oven, in front of a +draughty open door, to the heat of the annealing oven. + +In order to keep up with the work, the boys had to run, for it could not +be done at a walk, and thus were alternately greatly overheated and +chilled with icy draughts. + +Seeing that the "crusader" would be busy for a while, but wanting to +take the matter up with him further, Hamilton strolled over to where the +glass-blowers were working. This particular factory was turning out +cheap glass bottles, and there was little of the fascination that exists +in factories where high-grade glass is made into many curious shapes and +blown with great skill into marvelous thinness. In the middle of the +room was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not +quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before +each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the +blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, +drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the +consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the +end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and +rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then +they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing the +soft glass to its proper form. The now cooling glass was broken from the +end of the blowpipe with a sharp, snapping sound, and the blowpipe was +plunged in the furnace again for another bottle. The whole had taken +but a few seconds. + +"Why do they have so many boys around these places?" queried Hamilton of +the workman he had been watching. + +"Have to, they say," the glass-blower replied, "cheap bottles mean cheap +labor. No one ever expects to pay anything for a bottle--that is thrown +in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his +little profit somewhere an' in a cheap bottle he makes it by employin' +young boys cheap an' workin' 'em till they drop." + +"Is it done this way everywhere?" + +The workman shook his head. + +"No need to do it even here," he said. "It takes money, though, to put +in an endless belt to carry the bottles to the annealin' oven. The big +fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in +small towns where everythin' is done on a cheap scale, an' a boy's labor +is about the cheapes' thing in the United States--unless it's a girl's." + +Seeing that the glass-blower was being delayed in his task, Hamilton +sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" worked. +The latter broke out again as soon as he saw the boy coming. + +"I've been talkin' to you about children workin'," he said, "but you +haven't thought of babies bein' made to work?" + +"Babies!" + +"Of four an' five years old." + +"But they couldn't do any real work!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"Do you know what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he +was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid +three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for +wrappers, and a little worker of four is good help in stripping.'" + +"In a cigar factory?" + +"Of course,--an' the children find it so hard to keep up that they are +taught to chew snuff--as a stimulant--before they are six year old. Jane +Addams, writin' o' the torture chambers they call cotton mills in parts +o' the South, said she saw on the night shift, with her teeth all +blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' +five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' +answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout +the hot summer excep' two, when 'her legs and back wouldn't let her get +up.' An' what do you suppose the fact'ry owner did--send a physician? +No, he docked her the two days' wages for the time she'd been away ill, +an' another day's fine as a punishment." + +"That's brutal!" cried Hamilton. "Didn't the parents protest?" + +"The parents? That's where the mill-owners have their strongest help. +They threaten to discharge the parents if the children don't work an' +work hard, and they force the father or mother into whippin' the child +to compel it to stay at the loom. The whole country went to war once +over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,--or at +least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,--but you can enslave +white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without +air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, you can force 'em to +be whipped, you can snatch 'em from their cradles in their homes, you +can snap your fingers at the schools, an' you can fill churchyards with +a worse Massacre o' the Innocents than history ever tells about, an' the +men and women of America don't care." + +[Illustration: "I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway Co._)] + +"Oh, yes, they do," again protested Hamilton. "It must be that they +don't know." + +"How can they help but know? There are a few that have heard what Spargo +calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very few, an' +the misery an' shame goes on, gettin' worse with ev'ry year." + +"What's going to be done?" + +"The children will have to rescue the children," the boy cried. "If +men's hearts are cold and women's hearts are asleep, at least the boys +can hear. There's no power like a boy's, an' a boy will do anythin' +that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' +to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to +every mill an' fact'ry in the United States where a child is workin', +and make the owner sign a paper pledgin' himself not to employ a child +again. Give me an army of American boys an' I'll sweep the country like +a flight o' locusts." + +"But who would join?" + +"Every boy worth his salt. S'pose I came to you an' said 'In that mill +at the end o' your street, little children are bein' slaved and driven +to death because no one has the nerve to say what they think. We'll +rescue those children. Join us, we're five hundred strong!' Would you go +along?" + +"Guess I'd have to join," the boy agreed, "but you'd get into all sorts +of trouble." + +"Can I get into a worse trouble than any o' those babies have?" the +other asked indignantly. "What right have I to go on, even as I do, +knowin' how they are sufferin'. I don't care about trouble, I've had +nothin' else all my life. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could +get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like +other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't +see that carryin' bottles is goin' to help the world much, but if I can +carry hope an' health to some little boy or girl, I'm goin' to do it. +How, I don't know. But I ain't goin' to die without bein' able to +remember some poor child that's better off because lived." + +"What can I do to help?" asked Hamilton eagerly and aggressively, as +though he expected instant marching orders to some distant factory. + +"You can do somethin',--every boy can do somethin'. If nothin' else, you +can help to wake a sleepin' an' selfish nation. If the cryin' o' the +children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' +somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every day, as I do, o' +that 'spectral army of pygmy people sucked in from the hills to dance +beside the crazing wheel' and not do somethin'?" + +"But--" + +"Could I hear trampin' round me day an' night, the laggin' step of a +'gaunt goblin army that outwatches the sun by day an' the stars by +night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, +an' then I must go,--that there's a stain o' shame 'pon the honor of +America that'll never be wiped away until child labor is put down!" + +Thoughtful and subdued in spirit, Hamilton strolled back to the night +superintendent's office, where he found the figures done at last and the +completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted the offer of a +cup of coffee, from some which had just been sent in, and sat down +beside the desk. + +"I've been talking with the 'crusader,'" he remarked. + +The night superintendent looked up interestedly. + +"What do you think of him?" he asked, a little sharply, Hamilton +thought. + +"I think there's no question about his being sincere," the boy answered, +"but I can hardly believe that the figures he gives and the facts he +talks about are true." + +"They're true enough, I'm sorry to say," said the older man, sighing, +"but the 'crusader' usually isn't fair to the South. He blames the South +for the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large +proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are +owned by New England capitalists. I'm a New Englander by birth myself, +'naughty-two' at Yale, but I'm able to see the mistakes of the North +just the same." + +"I've always been taught that the North was more or less mixed up in +it," answered Hamilton. "It was shown to me a long time ago that the +slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were +no Southern vessels in the slave trade, they were all New England +skippers and New England bottoms. The shame of the slave traffic belongs +originally to the North." + +"And now a large share of the child labor, too," the other agreed. "But +you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the South +that made such conditions possible. I guess the blame is about even." + +"But is nothing being done on this child-labor business?" asked +Hamilton. "I tried to find that out from the 'crusader' but he didn't +answer." + +"Yes," said the superintendent heartily, "a great deal is being done. +The Bureau of the Census has been of immense service, and other bureaus +of the Department of Commerce and Labor are working on it, largely +through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have +been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being +checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall be real, not +nominal. Don't let the 'crusader' persuade you that everybody is asleep +and that nothing is being done; the government is doing a good deal, +although the country as a whole is unaware of it." + +"Yet it is increasing?" + +"In spite of all that is done to prevent it, it is increasing," the +other said quietly, "that is the sad part. If it could be thought of as +a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month +hundreds of children die from enforced labor and that greater numbers +fill their places, is a sad reflection on the industrial life of +to-day." + +"Well, as the South progresses, that will probably take care of itself, +won't it?" queried the boy. + +The superintendent looked at him curiously. + +"I think you told me last evening that you were a New York boy," he +said. + +"Yes, Mr. Wharton," answered Hamilton. + +"I suppose you consider New York a fairly progressive city?" + +"Greatest on earth!" affirmed the boy in true Gotham style. + +"Yet that same progressive city," the older man declared, "is the +headquarters of several forms of industry in which large percentages of +the workers are children under fourteen years of age." + +"What kinds of business can those be?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Making ostrich plumes and artificial flowers. It's not factory labor, +of course, but that doesn't alter the point that at least half the +output of artificial flowers is made by the cramped fingers of children, +generally after school and far into the night. They are not officially +reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The +disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of +them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach +them in two sections is a great help to the sweat-shop managers. But +every city has its own share of this child labor in the homes, although +in some of the smaller places, civic associations and municipalities +have taken the matter in hand with considerable success. Even that is +but a drop in the ocean." + +"Your 'crusader' will have to lead his crusade then, it seems," the boy +suggested. + +"Poor lad!" sighed the superintendent. + +"Why?" asked Hamilton. + +"He will never lead that crusade," the older man replied pensively. + +"Why not?" + +The man tapped his chest significantly. + +"He is incurably ill," he said, "partly glass-blowers' disease from +breathing the particles of glass dust. Men don't mind it so much, but it +is fatal to children when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the +'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he +gives a lot of trouble in the works with his revolutionary theories. I +haven't the heart to send him away; he couldn't get other work, and +being all alone in the world, he might starve." + +"You mean--" + +"That he will not live six months. That army of boys of which he speaks +so often will never go on the march, the banners he has designed for it +will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and +the drums will sound the final 'taps' for him before they roll for the +advance. And in that sleep, the cries of the children shall all be happy +ones." + +[Illustration: EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + + +The "crusader's" talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton's mind +working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy +tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent +in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children. He +chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the +Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more +detailed. Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been +overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he +would do all he could toward correcting this abuse. + +But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, +although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the +time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a +word about his being considered in line for the population work. It was +therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him +suddenly one morning: + +"So you're going over to the population side, I hear?" + +"Am I? I didn't know," Hamilton replied. "I had wanted to go, but not +hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved." + +"The Director told me this morning that you were going to be +transferred." + +"The Director himself?" + +"Yes. I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of +the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your +name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per +cent better than those of any one else in that section. So he said, +'That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble +on the population work. I'll see that arrangements for that transfer are +made,' and he scribbled something on a pad." + +"That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton, "to mention me +to the Director in that way." + +The statistician looked at him curiously. + +"I wasn't dealing in kindness," he said dryly, "I was dealing in +percentages. If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have +to thank, not me. I merely stated the figures, and they read in your +favor." + +The boy laughed outright. + +"I believe, Mr. Burns," he said, "that you would more easily forgive a +man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list +of figures." + +"Certainly I would," the statistician replied. "I could hit back in the +first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led +astray!" + +"Well," the boy answered, "I'm glad at any rate that my figures tallied +up all right." + +"I don't want to seem inquisitive," said the older man, "but when did +you get in the population examination?" + +"There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the +exam," said Hamilton, "because of the fact that I was doing census work +of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel +that everything had been done in the usual manner. I took the exam at +New Haven, one afternoon." + +"But are you going to do the population work there?" + +"No, Mr. Burns," the boy explained. "The Director wrote to me that I +would be allowed to send in a formal application in the regular way +through the supervisor of the enumeration district to which I had asked +to be assigned. The supervisor of that district had said beforehand that +he would be willing to appoint me, as the section was so sparse that +enough qualified enumerators were hard to get." + +"Well, where are you going, then?" + +"I don't know, for sure yet, of course," the boy explained, "whether +everything will go through as planned, but if so, I shall be going to +Kentucky." + +"In the mountains where you had been visiting?" + +"Oh, no," the boy answered, "in another part of the State +entirely,--down toward the black belt of Kentucky." + +"Kentucky isn't a black belt State," his friend objected. + +"No, Mr. Burns, but there are parts where the negroes are tolerably +thickly settled. The supervisor is a friend of my older brother, and he +says that is an interesting part of the country." + +"But can a Board of Examiners in one district look over the papers for +the supervisor of another district?" + +"No, sir," explained the boy, "but they can allow the examination to be +taken before them and have the papers sent to the supervisor of the +other district. It was a little irregular, I suppose, but the Director +knew all about it and it was for the good of the census, he thought, as +he had been told there were not enough enumerators in the district to +which I hoped to go." + +"Well," the statistician replied, "if you're headed for Kentucky I +should think you'd like to see your folks before going." + +"I had planned to go up on Saturday afternoon," Hamilton said. "I can +get to New York by evening and spend Saturday night and all day Sunday +there, catching the midnight train back. It brings me in early enough +for office hours." + +"And this is Friday," said the other thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what +to do. I can arrange for you to be off Saturday morning; it is only a +half day, and you can catch the first train out after business hours +to-day." + +"That would be bully!" + +"I estimate," the statistician said, rapidly dotting down some figures +on a pad, "that the fractions of overtime you have worked recently, +cumulatively considered, enable me to do that fairly, so that you've +earned it." + +"That's fine," said Hamilton, "for the family is going to Europe for the +summer, and I shouldn't see any of them at all unless I ran up to New +York now." + +The older man nodded his confirmation of the suggested arrangement, and +returned to his figures. During the noon hour Hamilton hurriedly packed +a grip, and was back at the office without a minute lost, for he found a +train leaving at a most advantageous hour, and by calling a taxi he was +just able to catch it. + +At breakfast the following morning, the conversation turned upon +immigration, and Hamilton read in a newspaper the statement that two +large liners were in New York harbor and would dock that morning, that +each carried a record passenger list of immigrants, and that Ellis +Island was making preparations for a busy day. + +"I've never seen Ellis Island," the boy announced "Father, do you know +if visitors are allowed over there?" + +"I'm fairly sure of it," his father replied, "but in any case there +ought to be no trouble for you, since the Bureau of the Census is a +part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, just as is the Bureau of +Immigration." + +"I think I'd like to go." + +"I think you ought to go," his father said. "Taking up the population +business, you ought to try to get hold of all the information you can, +ahead of time. I have been there several times, on business, and it is a +most interesting place." + +Accordingly, the eleven o'clock boat from the Barge Office, New York,--a +pier near Castle Garden, the historic immigration station,--carried +Hamilton to the famous Ellis Island. Preferring his request, the lad +speedily found himself in the presence of the Commissioner. He stated +his wants briefly. + +"Mr. Commissioner," he said, "I'm an assistant agent of the Census +Bureau in Washington, and I'm just going to my station as an enumerator +for the population. I have two days in New York and I'd like to learn +how things are done on the Island here. May I have a pass?" + +The Commissioner answered briefly. + +"Read this," he said, taking a sheaf of manuscript out of the drawer of +his desk, "and here's a short review for the use of visitors, and I'll +send you in to the Chief Clerk to get a pass, and if there's anything +more you want, let me know." He touched a bell. "Show this gentleman to +Mr. Tuckman, and let him be given a special pass," he said,--and +Hamilton was ushered out promptly, thinking as he went that this was +evidently one place where time was not wasted. + +The Chief Clerk was equally ready to assist the lad, and armed with his +special pass he started round the building, finding himself practically +free of the island. Hamilton possessed the capacity of making friends +readily, and with his alert manner and direct appeal, he usually secured +attention. Walking sharply through the place he soon found himself down +in what was called the Information Division. For the moment one of the +clerks was not busy, and Hamilton, stepping up to him, began to ply him +with questions. A tall young fellow, who was standing nearby, listened +for a few moments, then turned to Hamilton. + +"See here," he said, "you can't learn much about Ellis Island just by +asking questions, you've got to go around and see for yourself." + +"That's just what I propose doing," Hamilton answered, "but I thought it +wouldn't be such a bad plan to get an idea of things first, and then I +should understand what I saw. There's not much use in watching things +unless you understand just what's going on. I have some knowledge of it, +of course, because the Commissioner gave me some reading matter to look +over, and I've got a special pass, so that I want to make the best use +of it." + +"Suppose you come along with me, then," said his new acquaintance, who +was none other than the Chief of the Information Division, "and I'll +show you round myself as far as I can spare the time. It so happens that +there are a lot of scattering things I want to look after through the +building to-day, and if you don't mind my leaving you alone, once in a +while, I'll take you through systematically. Where do you want to +begin?" + +"Right at the very start," rejoined Hamilton "I always think the +beginning is the most important part, and I'd hate to lose any of it." + +"All right," said his conductor good-humoredly; "if you want it all, you +shall have it. I notice, too," he said, as they walked along the hall +and out of the door to the well-kept lawns that stretch between the main +building and the sea wall, "that you're in good time, for there's a +barge just pulling in." + +"The barge is from one of the liners that came in this morning, I +suppose?" queried the lad. + +"Yes, one of the Hamburg boats," his guide replied. + +"Are those barges run by the immigration authorities?" + +"No," was the answer, "those are owned or managed by the steamboat +companies. They bring all the steerage passengers who can't show that +they are citizens, and all the cabin passengers who are being detained." + +"Cabin passengers," echoed Hamilton in surprise; "I didn't think any +cabin passengers came to Ellis Island. All second cabin, I suppose?" + +"Not a bit of it," answered the immigration official; "there's quite a +sprinkling of first-class passengers as well. Why, during a period of +three months recently, nearly three thousand cabin passengers were +detained on the island here, and I suppose twenty per cent of them had +come over in the first-class saloon." + +"But why should any first-class passengers be stopped and shipped to +Ellis Island?" queried the boy. "I don't understand. I thought Ellis +Island was to keep out people who were paupers, or diseased, or were +undesirable citizens!" + +[Illustration: THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"That's just exactly what it is for," the other replied, "but the United +States government doesn't think that having money enough to pay for a +first-class passage makes every man a desirable citizen! A first-class +berth is no insurance against an incurable disease, for example, and +there's nothing to prevent a criminal from coming over in the first +cabin." He laughed. "Most of them do, I think," he said. + +"It really never appealed to me just that way," the boy remarked; "I +supposed always that first-class passengers went right through if they +passed quarantine." + +"That would mix things up," the older man said. "Why, in that case we +should have all the mentally deficient, all the paupers, and all the +freaks landing here in shoals. Any group of friends, or any government, +for that matter, would find it cheap and easy to dump all the public +charges of Europe on our shores for the price of a first-class ticket. +Oh, no, that would never do. Once in a while, you hear passengers on the +big liners complaining of the inquiries made before they land, but it's +got to be done. You can see for yourself what would happen if we +didn't." + +"But if they bring plenty of money, they would not become public +charges." + +"No, and we can't exclude them on that ground. But money, for example, +has nothing to do with crime or anarchism or things of that sort. I tell +you, there's a big slice of our work done before ever a vessel reaches +her dock at a New York pier. Of course, problems do come up nearly every +day, such as circus freaks, for instance." + +"You mean the living skeleton, the tattooed lady, the fat baby, the +giant, and so forth?" asked Hamilton. + +"Exactly. Are those people to be considered desirable citizens, or not? +There is no question as to their inability to make a living by any +customary kind of work, but on the other hand it is very difficult to +prove that they could not get good money at a sideshow. If, however, +they are able to show that they have been engaged in Europe by an +American circus manager, they can come under the alien contract labor +law." + +"Then this string of people," said Hamilton, pointing to those who had +just been unloaded from the barge, "may be from all classes of the +ship." + +"They might be," his guide replied, "but the chances are that they are +all steerage. Cabin passengers that are detained usually come on the +last boat, with the inspector. We have quarters here with a little more +privacy for them, and they are kept together. But now watch this line. +Suppose we go this way," and stepping over a low iron railing, the +official, followed by Hamilton, walked briskly up beside the line. A few +yards from the door of the building, this line of people passed into a +long barred lane. At the entrance of this stood an inspector who checked +off the large ticket each immigrant had pinned on him to show his +identity, in order to prevent confusion further on. Passing before the +inspector at brief but regularly measured intervals, the immigrants +walked one by one up this barred lane to where it made a right angle. + +"There's the first inspecting doctor," said Hamilton's conductor, +pointing to a man standing just at the angle and watching carefully each +immigrant as he walked up. After a moment Hamilton turned to his +companion in surprise: + +"But he isn't doing anything!" he said. + +"Doctor," said the chief of the division, with a laugh, "I am afraid we +shall have to investigate this matter. Here is a lad who says that +you're doing nothing. He's watched you for a couple of minutes and you +haven't made a move." + +Hamilton began to protest, but the big doctor only laughed in reply, +without taking his eyes, however, from the procession of figures which +one by one walked up to him and made the turn round the angle. + +"If he'll wait a minute or two more," he said, "perhaps I'll have a +chance to do something, and save my reputation." + +There was a pause; then the doctor continued: + +"I think there's something doing now; watch this man coming up." + +"He seems to limp just the merest trifle, that's all I can see," the boy +replied. + +"Bone disease of some kind, or maybe joint," the doctor said, +"tuberculous hip, like as not," and as the man passed by he leaned +forward and chalked a big "B" on the shoulder of his coat. "'B' for +Bones," the doctor explained to Hamilton. + +"What will happen to him?" asked the boy of the immigration official. + +"Because of that mark?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"It simply means that he will be held for 'special inquiry.' He may be +all right, but before he is passed, he will have to be examined +physically--a thorough physical examination, I mean. Now here, you see, +is another doctor." + +Eight or ten yards further on stood another man, all in white as the +first had been, who took up the inspection where the judge of bone +malformations had left off. A sunken chest, he explained to Hamilton, a +hectic flush, a pinched nostril, an evident difficulty in breathing, a +certain carriage of the head, a blueness of the lips, certain types of +pallor, all these and a number of little points which experience had +shown to be symptoms of organic disease his trained eye could detect at +a glance, and he, too, every few minutes, stooped forward and chalked +upon the coat of the man or the blouse of the woman, as the case might +be, a letter which told of a suspected disease. + +"I suppose I ought not to say anything," said Hamilton, "but that looks +a little 'hit-or-miss' to me. It's hard on an immigrant to be detained +on the basis of a medical examination that barely takes ten seconds." + +"If that were all," said the official, smiling, "it surely would be a +hardship. But you don't quite get the point. All these passengers really +are detained, and this arrangement is only a way to render the detention +shorter by letting those go through unchecked who do not need further +examination. This is not to delay the suspects, but to cause less +trouble to the others. Here, however is where most of them get stopped." + +He pointed to another doctor, standing close to the last, who examined +the eyes quickly and deftly (principally for a chronic and contagious +disease called "trachoma"), scrupulously cleansing fingers and +instrument between each immigrant. + +Passing the eye doctors the immigrants came to an inspector who stood at +a place where a large grating was built midway in the passage, dividing +it into two parts. All those who had been marked by any of the doctors, +and, in the cases of families, all those in the party of any one so +marked, passed up the right hand passage which led to the Special +Inquiry; the others were guided to the left hand side of the grating, +which led directly into the main primary inspection room. + +"Do you suppose they understand anything of the meaning of that +division," asked Hamilton, "why some go on this side and some on the +other!" + +"They don't at all," was the reply. "You will notice that there are no +signs up, and that no attempt is made--at this point--to talk to the +immigrant or to try to make him understand anything. Then, too, since +all the members of a family or party are kept together, there is no +reason why they should make a disturbance. They simply go where they are +sent. If we separated the families, sending some on one side and some on +the other, then there would be trouble!" + +"That's true," said Hamilton, "in many cases they couldn't read the +signs, and they don't know at all what the doctors' marks mean." + +"Exactly, and once past the inspector, there is no getting out or coming +back, for the two passages lead directly into two series of rooms from +which there is no outlet except in a given direction." + +"But the others who are all right,--where do they go?" asked the boy. + +"They're not safe yet," his conductor answered "They have only passed a +preliminary looking over. All that this first group of doctors does, +remember, is to detect the questionable or to pass the obviously +unquestionable--whichever way you like to put it, and thus avoid delay +in the primary inspection room." + +"Which group are we going to see first?" + +"Those who have been passed," was the reply, "because most of them will +go right out, and you can follow that more easily." + +Going up the stairs, Hamilton found himself in an immense room all +divided up into little lanes by bars and gratings. Each of these lanes +bore a large number suspended over its entrance, corresponding to the +number of one of the manifest sheets of the vessel, and likewise to the +number pinned on the clothing of every immigrant while he was still on +the vessel, when his name was tallied with the manifest sheet. + +"I see the reason of those numbers they have pinned on them now," said +Hamilton, "it's all the same principle, to avoid talk and questioning." + +"Certainly," his friend said, "and if you look a little closely, you +will see that in addition to the big number on the card that is pinned +on, there is also a smaller number." + +"I had noticed that," Hamilton answered, "and I was going to ask you +what it was for." + +"That is the number of the name on the manifest sheet," the other +replied. "Thus, for example if Giordano Bruno is the tenth name on the +seventh manifest sheet, this man at the top of the stairs will guide him +into aisle number seven. Then, when his turn comes and he has moved up +to the desk at the end of the line, the inspector doesn't have to waste +time questioning him, and finding the place on the manifest sheet. He +looks at the number, runs his finger down to the tenth name, and has him +at once." + +"It's a great system," said Hamilton admiringly. + +"Why you're right at the start of it," said the official with a laugh; +"wait till you get further on, if you want to find system." + +"Here I see, too, the questioning begins," remarked Hamilton. + +"Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and +they are assisted by interpreters when necessary. They hold a +responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land. You +see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest +sheet. If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands +and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds +to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has +already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a +blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the +railroad waiting rooms." + +"But if he hasn't?" + +"Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry +rooms where you saw the others going. He is given a different colored +ticket, in accordance with the expected objection. You see, the +inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case. He just +affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear. Just as before, +the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and +easily as possible. Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could +land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the +primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting +rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes. That's not much of +a hardship!" + +"It certainly isn't," Hamilton agreed. "And I notice that most of them +seem entitled to land." + +"That varies a great deal," his guide said. "I think it averages about +ninety per cent. In a few ships, especially those handling little of +the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as +five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern +and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of +the entire passenger list." + +"All right," said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, "I guess I have that +straight. But I notice there is a third stream of people. One, you say, +is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but +how about the third?" + +"That's the 'temporary detention' group. I'll take you there in a +minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted. Here is +the railroad waiting room." + +A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad +ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or +steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada. A +money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be +turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, +even down to the fractions of a cent. + +"Why are they pinning on more tickets?" asked Hamilton. "I thought when +they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it." + +"That also is to make it easier for them," the other said. "Most of +these people are poor, and we try to make traveling as cheap for them as +possible. Nearly all the railroads run one train each day that carries +special cars for the immigrant service. They give, accordingly, a +cheaper rate to the government. Supposing, for example, that the regular +number of the Lehigh Valley train was always numbered '9,' then every +man who purchased a ticket for a point on the Lehigh Valley would be +given the ticket '9.' Then, when the boat that was taking the passengers +for Lehigh Valley points left Ellis Island, all the 9's would be +gathered together and no one would be left behind." + +"Nothing seems to have been forgotten," said Hamilton, "even food, for I +see there's a big counter over there." + +"That's quite a thing, too," the other said. "A man can get two days' +food, six meals, for a dollar, or a little over sixteen cents a meal." + +"And what in the wide world can he buy for that price?" exclaimed the +boy. + +"Here's a sample of the contents of one box," the other said; "read it, +it tells you what there is. 'Four loaves of bread, two pounds of cooked +beans, twelve ounces of sausage, one can of beef, one can of sardines, +six ham sandwiches, three pies, and four oranges.' I'm sure you wouldn't +starve on that." + +"No," said Hamilton, "I think I could get along if I ate it all. But why +is it that most of the immigrants here are men? Have the women been lost +in the shuffle?" + +The immigration official laughed. + +"They're not lost," he said, "most of the women pass through the +'temporary detention' rooms. We're going to visit there now. Of course +there are some women who will be able to take the train directly, but we +try to see that they go with some one, or that their being met is +assured. The tickets pinned on them are not given until an inspector has +seen their railroad tickets, and they do not land in New York streets at +all. A boat takes each group to the railroad pier, and they are escorted +to the train by an inspector, who places them in charge of the conductor +who is responsible for their arrival at their destination. Nearly all go +West or South and start from the Jersey side. It is an entirely +different matter with women and children who want to land in New York +City. In every case they are detained until called for by some relative. +And that relative has to prove to us that he really is the relative in +question." + +"How do they meet?" + +"I'll show you right now. In this room," he continued, entering another +large waiting room, "are all the people 'temporarily detained.' Most of +them will he released shortly. If you listen you can hear just how it is +done, because that clerk who has just come in has a list." + +As he spoke a young fellow stepped forward and read a list of nine +names. Seven of the nine were in the room and came to the front, the +clerk ticking off their names on the sheet. + +"Can we go on?" asked Hamilton. "I would like to see just how this +works!" + +"All right," responded his guide, smiling at the boy's eagerness, "go +ahead." + +As they reached the next room, Hamilton saw the clerk ushering the seven +immigrants behind a grating. Outside the grate was a narrow open space +and then a desk. On the farther side of the desk the friends of the +seven in question were waiting. There was one lad, just about his own +age, among the friends, and Hamilton waited curiously to see whom he was +to meet. Among the immigrants was a sweet-faced old Frenchwoman, and +Hamilton hoped that she might be the lad's relative. As it chanced, this +boy was the first to come up. + +[Illustration: IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island._)] + +"For whom are you calling?" he was asked. + +The young lad answered clearly and promptly, and the clerk nodded +approvingly as the questions proceeded. + +"You say you have an older brother," the clerk said, "and the two of you +are able to keep your grandmother?" + +"Yes, indeed, sir," was the reply. + +"You are young to have come. Why didn't your brother come instead?" + +"He has been a waiter in a French hotel," answered the boy, "and has not +learned much English He asked me to come." + +A few short, sharp queries established the relationship without question +and the boy was released from the desk. The door in the grating was +opened, and to Hamilton's delight it was the old Frenchwoman who came +out. After a most affectionate greeting, they went off together, the boy +coming back to thank the clerk profusely, with true French courtesy. + +"I suppose all that is necessary," said Hamilton "but I'll admit I don't +see why. No one would be likely to call for some one else's +grandmother!" + +"We want to be sure that women who land here are really with their own +people," said the official, evading a more direct statement, "and +sometimes if the chief of the 'temporary detention' work is not +satisfied, the immigrant is sent back to 'special inquiry.'" + +"How long are they detained?" + +"Nearly all go out the same day. A few, however, have to telegraph for +their friends to meet them, and we look after that on their behalf. They +are never temporarily detained over five days, except in the case where +a child has been held in quarantine and some member of the family has to +remain until the patient is released in order to take charge of him. +That covers, you see, all those who come here except the 'special +inquiry' cases." + +"May I see those?" asked Hamilton. + +"That's not so easy," his friend replied, "and you wouldn't get much out +of it. They are handled, one by one, in Courts of Special Inquiry, each +court consisting of three inspectors, an interpreter, and a +stenographer, while doctors are always on call. Special Inquiry, +remember, does not mean that there is any reason for excluding the +immigrant, merely that his inclusion is not self-evident. In most cases, +answers to a few questions settle all difficulties, and the decisions to +exclude are rare. In doubtful cases, a Court of Special Inquiry takes +great pains to investigate the whole condition closely. When a decision +to exclude is reached, the immigrant is given an opportunity to 'appeal' +to the Commissioner, and these appeals vary from fifteen to seventy a +day. Further appeals may be taken in rare cases." + +"And when all appeals are lost?" + +"Then the immigrant must be deported at the expense of the steamship +company that brought him." + +"What are the usual grounds for deportation?" asked Hamilton. + +"Principally persons of unsound mind, insane, diseased, paupers likely +to become a public charge, criminals, anarchists, contract laborers, and +those who by physical defect are unable to make a living." + +"It seems to me that you go to a great deal of trouble here," Hamilton +said, "and it must be a big expense keeping and looking after such a mob +of people." + +"We don't pay for their keep," the official answered; "we make the +steamship companies do that. They are expected to bring desirable, not +undesirable immigrants here, and if they bring people whom we cannot +accept, they must take the consequences and bear the expense of +deporting them. Our deporting division looks after that, and it is one +of the hardest parts of our work. We've a pathetic case there now." + +"You mean that Bridget Mahoney case," said an inspector, who had just +stepped up. "I beg your pardon for interrupting, but I was just going to +ask you to come and see about that case. There are some new +developments." + +"I'll go right in," said Hamilton's guide interestedly. "I think you +might come along, too," he added, turning to the boy. + +"Who is Bridget Mahoney?" Hamilton asked. "That's a good old Irish +name." + +"And she's a good old Irish soul," the other answered. "She landed here +about three weeks ago, fully expecting her son to meet her, but during +the five days when she was in temporary detention he failed to show up." + +"But why didn't you telegraph to the son?" asked Hamilton, who was +beginning to feel as though he knew all the ropes. + +"We couldn't find his right address." + +"Was he a traveling man?" + +"It wasn't that. The woman said she knew he lived in a town called +Johnson, or Johnston, or something like that, but she didn't know in +what State. Now there are nearly forty post-offices with that name in +America, and we sent telegrams or letters to every one of these. But we +never received a definite reply." + +"Well, if she's all right, as you say she is," said Hamilton, "why can't +she land and wait until her son is reached?" + +"Bridget's over seventy," the chief replied, "and not very strong; she'd +be a public charge, sure." + +"And yet she's all right?" + +"Oh, perfectly," he said as soon as they reached the building. + +"We got this telegram yesterday and I took it to your office this +morning," the newcomer answered, "to talk it over with you, but you +weren't there." + +The chief of the Information Division glanced at the telegram and then +turned it over to Hamilton. + +"Read that," he said. "That's the way it came, without signature or +anything." + +Hamilton read it eagerly, and as soon as he had finished, "that's from +Bridget Mahoney's son," he announced, with as absolute assurance as +though it had been signed. + +The deportation official looked up in surprise, but Hamilton's guide +made a hasty explanatory introduction. + +"We should like to be as sure as you are," said the deportation chief, +"although I think we all rather hope it is from him. But you see it +isn't dated Johnstown or anything like that, and it isn't signed. Just +simply the words: + +"'Don't--deport--my--old--mother.'" + +"If you notice," he continued, "it comes from away out West, and it +might apply to any one of thousands of cases. 'My Old Mother' might have +been deported weeks ago." + +"But this is yesterday's wire," Hamilton's friend interjected, "you said +there were new developments in the case." + +"There are," Farrell replied, drawing another telegram out of his +pocket. "This one came this morning, and it's just about as intelligent +as the one you have. Notice, though, that it's dated from Chicago early +yesterday evening." + +"What does it say?" burst out Hamilton, too eager to wait until it was +read. + +"It's very short," was the answer, "it just reads: + +"'--Hold--Mother--'" + +"Unsigned?" + +"Unsigned, just as before." + +"It must be from the same person," Hamilton suggested. + +"I think there's little doubt of that," the deportation chief agreed. + +"Whoever sent it must be traveling fast," the boy remarked, "that last +one was from Montana." + +"I've been doing my best to persuade myself that I have the right to +keep Bridget longer. Twice I've begged an extra stay from the +Commissioner, and he's been willing to consent, but he thinks she's got +to go back now. There's really no valid reason that I can give against +it." + +As they walked toward the desk in the deporting division, one of the +clerks called the chief. He came back a moment or two later with a +telegram in his hand. + +"A third one," he said, "it must have come while I was out at lunch. The +same person wrote all three, for this is almost the same as the first; +it reads: + +"'--Don't--deport--my--old--Mother--I--have--plenty--to--support--her--'" + +"Where's it dated from?" asked the boy. + +"I hadn't noticed," the deportation chief replied. "Oh, yes, why it's +from Albany!" + +"That's pretty near here!" Hamilton said excitedly. "Oh, Mr. Farrell, +what time was that sent?" + +"Quarter to twelve." + +"Whoever sent it ought to be here by now! Mr. Farrell, I'm just as sure +as can be that is from Bridget Mahoney's son." + +"If it is, he may reach here in time," the other answered, "but it will +mean a great deal of trouble, because the boat sails early in the +morning long before the office here is open, and the deported aliens go +on board to-night. Indeed they are going now---if they haven't gone." + +"And Bridget with them?" + +"Yes, I'm sorry to say Bridget is with them." He strolled to the +window. "No," he continued, "they haven't gone yet, but they will in a +few minutes." + +"Could I see her before she goes?" + +"What for?" + +"Just to cheer her up a bit," pleaded the boy. + +The two men looked at each other, and Hamilton's new acquaintance +nodded. + +"You won't say anything about these telegrams," the chief warned him. + +"No--very well," said Hamilton, "but it seems a shame that she doesn't +know." + +The three passed through the door to the yard beside the lawns, and +there Hamilton encountered one of the most desolate groups he had ever +seen, sitting and standing in all attitudes of dejection. Among them was +a little old lady with snow-white hair, walking with a stick, but +clear-eyed and brisk-looking. + +"You're Mrs. Mahoney?" the boy asked. + +"I'm Bridget Mahoney, young masther," the old Irishwoman answered, "at +your service, sorr." + +"I hear you haven't found your son yet," Hamilton said; "did you write +to him before you left the old country?" + +"I did, dear, but I intoirely disremember what I did wid the letther. I +know I intinded to give it to Mickey O'Murry, but I'll niver tell ye +whether I did give it to him, an' if I did, there's no knowin' av he +posted it. 'Tis a difficult thing to remember, this letther-postin' and +maybe he forgot." + +"But what did you write on the envelope? Can't you remember what you +wrote?" + +"'Tis I that am the poor hand for writin', young masther, but there was +no schoolin' when I was a gurrl such as there is now. Jim, that's me +son, he makes shift to read me writin', but he always sinds me a written +envelope to put me answer in so that the postman can read it. An' so I +niver learnt the address. I thought, av course, he'd be here. But he +isn't, dear, an' so I must thravel all the weary way home again." + +"But you don't sail till morning," said Hamilton, as cheerfully as he +could, "and maybe he'll come by then. I have a feeling, Mrs. Mahoney, +that he's just surely going to come." + +"I'm not thinkin' it," the old woman said bravely, "but I take it +kindly, young masther, that ye should thry an' make the goin' easy. But +it isn't easy, 'tis a hard returnin'. An' me so proud that me son should +send for his ould mother. 'Tis a great country this America, but it's +too big. I'd niver 'ave lost me Jim in the ould country. I see they're +callin' us, an' I wish ye an ould woman's blessin', young masther, for +your cheerin' me at the last." + +With a certain dignity, the old woman turned away and shook hands with +all the officials, with whom she had become a favorite during the three +weeks of her stay. Hamilton just ached to be able to do something, to +tell the Commissioner of the later telegrams, to appeal to the +department, to make some wild effort, but the actuality of the group for +deportation slowly making their way to the barge showed him the folly of +any such ideas. He roused himself, just as the friendly official who had +been his guide turned round with outstretched hand. + +"I think you have seen it all now," he said, "and as the boat from New +York is just pulling in, you'll have plenty of time to board her." + +Hamilton thanked his conductor warmly, and with a final look at the +group about to be deported, the last few stragglers of whom were making +their way toward the barge, he started along the wharf in the direction +of the New York boat. He was on the opposite side of the ship and had to +walk round, but, as his friend had said, there was plenty of time. He +had a good view of the boat as she landed. + +The minute the bow touched the quay, before the mooring chains were on, +a middle-aged man who had been standing in the front of the boat, leaped +the light chain that runs waist high across the bow, and started on a +dead run up the bridge to the shore. One of the inspectors tried to stop +him, but he cried, as he went past: + +"I'm going to the Commissioner's office. Don't stop me. I'm in a hurry." + +Hamilton could just hear him, and it struck the boy as unnecessary for +the man to say he was in a hurry, for he showed it clearly enough. But +just before the runner reached him a sudden thought flashed into the +boy's mind. + +"Are you Jim Mahoney?" he called, just as the man swept by. + +"Yes," answered the other, scarcely slackening speed and passing him. + +Hamilton wheeled on the instant, and caught up to him in a few steps, +for the other man was older, not in training, and getting out of breath. + +"You'll do it, don't worry," the boy said, as he overtook him, running +along beside him. "I was talking to your mother a few minutes ago and +she was all right. But she was just starting for the steamer then. +There's not a second to lose." + +"What shall I do?" puffed the other. + +"Go in there, by that door marked 'Information.' Tell them who you are +and they'll fix things up in a hurry. Then go up and see the +Commissioner. I'll go on and tell them at the boat." + +Then, seeing that the man hesitated, he shouted: + +"Go in there," and nudged him in the direction of the door. + +As the man turned, Hamilton settled himself down to run. In a second he +was at the landing. The tender had just cast off her ropes and was +moving out. + +"Bridget," he cried, and his voice rang high and clear above the +dripping of the water from the cable, the creaking of the wheel as it +swung round, and the churning of the screw. "Bridget, Bridget Mahoney, +Jim's here!" + +The captain came to the window of the pilot house and called back: + +"What's that?" + +"Bridget!" he shouted again. "Bridget Mahoney's Jim's here!" + +There was a pause, the captain not seeming to understand the situation, +but a cheer went up from the deportation officials on board and from +some of the tender's crew who knew; and the cry ran along the decks: + +"Bridget, Bridget Mahoney! Jim's here!" + +[Illustration: WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + + +Leaving New York the next day after his visit to the Immigration Station +on Ellis Island, Hamilton stayed only a few hours in Washington to +receive final instructions before proceeding to the southwestern part of +Kentucky where his work as a population census-taker was to begin. + +At the appointed place he found the supervisor awaiting him. + +"I suppose you know," remarked his brother's friend, shaking hands, +"that I've given you a fairly well scattered district to cover. You said +you wanted to get a chance to see Kentucky as it really is, and this, +together with your mountain experience, ought to give you variety +enough." + +"They told me in Washington that it was largely a negro district?" the +boy said questioningly. + +"It is about as much of a black district as any in Kentucky," was the +reply, "but it isn't solid black by any means. Therein lies its +interest. The negroes are of all varieties, from old-time slaves who +have never left the plantation on which they were piccaninnies during +the war, to progressive negroes owning fair-sized tracts of land, most +of them still living in the one-room shacks that you see all over the +country, but a few having bought what used to be the 'big house' in +antebellum days." + +"That's just exactly what I was after," Hamilton said with delight. "How +do I cover it, sir? In the saddle?" + +"You can drive, if you want to," the supervisor replied, "and if it +wasn't for the agricultural schedules, I think it would be easier to do +the work from a buggy. But with the field work to consider, and in a +district as scattered as yours is, the saddle might work out better." + +"I had been thinking of that," Hamilton said, "if a farmer was on the +other side of a plowed patch, I'd have no way of getting to him in a +buggy except by tying the horse and walking, while in the saddle I could +easily take short cuts. And I imagine, in a countryside such as you say +this is, I'll probably need to see every one on the place in order to +get anything like accurate figures." + +"It's not at all unlikely," the supervisor rejoined. "Well, I thought +you would be needing a horse, and I've been looking round for one for +some time. I think I have the very one you will want. I told the owner +to hold back sale until you had a chance to look at her." + +"Then the quicker I see the owner, the better?" suggested the boy. + +"I think I had better go with you," the supervisor said, "and then they +won't try any over-clever work. Horse-dealing isn't always the most +guileless business, you know." + +"So I've understood," Hamilton said, "and I really don't know enough to +judge the fine points of a horse." + +"I was born and bred in the Blue Grass," his friend remarked, "and so +I've been around horses pretty much all my days. The census work is +quite a change from that." + +"I hope you didn't have any bother over my coming in this somewhat +irregular way?" asked Hamilton, remembering what Mr. Burns had said to +him in Washington. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"Nothing serious," he said, "but there were several people who tried to +cut you out,--one of them especially. There were three applicants for +this district, and the one who was most resentful about an outsider +coming in wouldn't have been appointed under any circumstances. Indeed, +the best of the three undertook to describe the other two. His letter +was a wonder," he added, picking up one of the files; "I think I saved +it.--Yes, here it is. Read it, while I get ready to go out with you," +and he handed the letter to Hamilton. + +The letter was as follows in every detail: + + "MR. ---- + + "Dr. Sir I made out the Blank for a Job taking Census was a going + to make it & when I Got to the Postoffice there was such an a ray + of aplicants I concluded not to do so + + "in the first Place there is two of these aplicants are Habichual + Drunkards one Professor A---- the other Mr. P---- A---- was born in + Canaday & has NO Interest here Except to be Suported by his wife & + the Publick & has had his Last School to Teach in this Town. he is + so Imoral People will not Tollerate him any Longer the Wrighter has + seen him on a Saturday SO Drunk he would Fall against People he met + if that is the Kind of Man you are looking For I don't want a Job I + can get along without + + "I will send in my application Just the Same + + "Mr. P---- is Not fare behind and is Dealer in Coal & Feed & his + Father has to take Cair of the Business for him. + + "Dont concider him for a moment Mr + + "as to my self this is the Firste time I ever aske for Publick + Buisness & I am an Indipendent Belever of mans Privlages & always + lived in this County + + "you have this Information Without feer of any of above statements + Being Denide + + "I remain Resptfully + + "------" + +Hamilton laughed as he returned the letter to the supervisor, who had +just come back with his hat and gloves as the boy finished reading the +epistle. + +"I don't think I need have been afraid of any of those three as rivals," +he said, "that is, if our friend is right. His information, however, may +not be any more correct than his spelling." + +"It's exaggerated, of course," the supervisor answered, "that's easy to +see, but setting aside the question of jealousy there's a good deal of +truth in what he says. Selecting and teaching enumerators was no light +job, let me tell you. You take seventy-five to a hundred absolutely +green hands, who have never done anything like it before, and it is a +hard proposition to make them understand. When you have to try and teach +them in a few weeks just how to do what is really difficult to do well, +you have a heavy task on your hands." + +"You didn't appoint any colored enumerators, I suppose?" Hamilton +questioned. + +"No," the supervisor answered decidedly. "My judgment was against it to +start with and I couldn't see that any of my districts warranted it. It +may be different in counties where the proportion of colored population +runs as high as eighty and ninety per cent, but there are none like that +in Kentucky." + +"Just in Georgia and Mississippi?" + +"Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas have a few scattering 'black' +counties too," the supervisor answered, "for I wrote to several places +about this very colored enumerator question. I found the supervisors +over those districts about evenly divided for and against. I have been +able to get suitable men all through, I think, though I might have had +difficulty in securing a good appointee for your district." + +"It's pretty wild out there evidently," Hamilton said anticipatorily. + +"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, +you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess +neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of +the world at all." + +Hamilton whistled softly. + +"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as +that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, +because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places +where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern." + +"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he +turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more +beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the +building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking. + +"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's +a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked +on another twenty dollars." + +"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin. + +"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any +objections." + +"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you +said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor. + +"Yes, that stands," his friend replied. + +"All right, then," said Hamilton, "I'll take her." + +The supervisor pulled out his pocketbook. + +"I had an idea," he said, "that you were just boy enough to want the +mare when you saw her and to want her right away. I made out a check for +the amount, and you can make one out to me when you get ready," and he +handed the slip to the boy. + +Hamilton started to thank him, but the supervisor cut him short. + +"If you'll come to the office this afternoon," he said, "the clerk will +give you the schedules and papers all ready made out for your district. +Here's a typewritten copy of the lectures I've been giving to the +enumerators, and while I don't suppose you really need to, you had +better read it over and return it to me when you're through with it. Now +I'm going to leave you here with this gentleman," he added, nodding to +the owner of the horse, "and you can arrange with him about getting a +saddle and so forth for the mare. Drop in at the office in the morning +as you start out and I'll make sure that nothing has been forgotten. See +you later," and with a nod to Hamilton, he stepped out of the stable. + +To the boy the afternoon fairly seemed to fly, there were so many things +to do; and it was not until just before closing hours that he reached +the office and secured his portfolio. He had a brief chat with the +clerk, and went back to his hotel to study carefully the map of his +district and the route suggested, and to make sure that he thoroughly +understood the population and agricultural schedules he would have to +use. They were different in form, of course, from the manufacturing +schedules which the boy knew by heart, but the essential principles were +the same, and Hamilton found that in half an hour's time he saw plain +sailing. + +"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half +aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard +for any one not at all used to it." + +By supper time--they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little +hotel--Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, +and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day +before him. + +The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the +journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a +moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his +good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being +well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal +had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted +him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the +first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner +started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty +houses. + +The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be +comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample +of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a +typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door +to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home +was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton +felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked. + +"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the +census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill +in." + +"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered +the young negro woman, who appeared at the door. + +"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?" + +"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm +no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh +jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah +jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things." + +"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are +about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family." + +"Yes, sah, yes, sah. Ah tol' mah husban' so when we were talkin' about +that yar farm business. The paper in the town gave a list o' questions, +an' Ah thought Ah would get mah Steve to help me get ready so's Ah sh'd +be able to answer yo' rightly when yo' come aroun', but he jes' said he +was too tiehed to do anythin', an' dat ar census list is the +confusin'est thing Ah eveh saw. Ah thought Ah ought to do somethin', an' +so Ah jes' took a big sheet o' wrappin' paper an' started to write the +answers to the quest'ns on that, thinkin' some o' the neighbors' +children would copy it on the sheet fo' me. But, I tell yo', sah, that +befo' I was half way through tellin' what the newspaper said we had to +tell, I was so mixed up that I was writin' mahself down as mah own +daughter and provin' that the baby was twice divo'ced." + +"Then you really haven't got anything ready at all," said Hamilton. + +"Nothin', sah." + +"Then I'll just have to ask you the questions, and put the answers down +myself," the boy said cheerfully. "We might as well start right now." + +"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' +pens an' ink." + +"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier +writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon +as he was seated, "has this house a number?" + +"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street." + +"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said +Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the +family. I think you said something about your husband?" + +"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years." + +"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?" + +"Lawson, sah." + +"He's colored, I suppose." + +"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected." + +"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, +Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, +and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column. + +"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes' +twenty-one when Ah married him." + +"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen +Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to +show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a +girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young." + +"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday." + +"And your name is--?" + +"Lily, sah." + +"Any other name?" + +"Mariamne, sah." + +For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife," +"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first +marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock. + +"You have children?" + +"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever, +sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!" + +"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful +things to help them now, you know. And he can learn a lot by reading." + +"Yas, sah, it's hard enough. But we're glad he ain't blind." + +"And what is his name?" + +"Edward Habberton, sah, an' he's jes' fo' years old, near five." + +Hamilton entered the name of the little deaf and dumb boy, whom he +could see sitting in an inner room, and noted down in the schedule his +age, his color, and the nature of his affliction. + +"Now, Lily," he continued, "were you both born in Kentucky?" + +"No, sah," she replied, "none of us, savin' little Eddie. I'm f'om +Delaware, an' mah Steve, he's f'om Maryland, where my mother come f'om." + +"Wait a bit," said Hamilton, holding up his hand to stop her, "let me +get this straight. Stephen Lawson is from Maryland, you said, you're +from Delaware, and the boy was born in this State. Is that right?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"And you said your mother came from Maryland but I suppose since you're +from Delaware your father was from Delaware also." + +"Yes, sah," the woman answered, "he done live in Wilmin'ton all his +life." + +So Hamilton put down the birthplaces of the wife's parents and in the +same fashion those of the husband, while the filling in of the columns +for the parents of the child was simply a matter of copying. + +"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went +on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and +he entered this also on the language column. + +"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query. + +"He's a gardener, sah." + +"Odd jobs?" + +"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here." + +"On regular wages, then?" + +"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week." + +"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only +to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on +his own account.--But you must find it hard to get along on nine a +week." + +"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained. + +"You do? How?" + +"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like +that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as +twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week." + +"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the +woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified +by the letters "O.A." in the wage column. + +"You both read and write--or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't +write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you." + +"Ah can read pretty well," the woman replied, "but Ah never had enough +schoolin' to write much; mah mother was ill all the time, an' Ah had to +stay home. But Steve, he writes beautiful, an' he makes out all mah +bills an' things like that." + +"I think there's only one question more," the boy said, delighted to +find that after all, even in the house of a negro laundress who did not +know how to write, the information could be so easily secured. After +jotting down a "Yes" and a "No" respectively for Husband and Wife in the +columns for literacy, he continued, "And that question is, whether this +house is owned by you or whether you rent it." + +"We're only rentin' it, sah. Steve wants to buy it an' put a mo'gage on, +but Ah don't know anythin' about mo'gages an' Ah won't buy until Ah can +pay the whole price right down. Don' yo' think Ah'm right?" + +"Well, Lily," answered the lad, as he folded up his portfolio and +prepared to go to the next house, "it would hardly do for one of Uncle +Sam's census men to come between a husband and a wife on the question +of their buying of their own home, would it?" + +"Ah reckon not, sah. Is that all, sah?" + +"Yes, Lily, that's all, and I'm very much obliged." + +"It wasn't so awful bad," said the woman, with a sigh of relief. + +"It's easy enough to answer census questions when you want to make it +easy and tell a straight story," Hamilton replied, "but you see what +trouble it would be for me with some one who wasn't willing to talk, and +how hard it would be for any one to make up a story as he went along, +and find it tally at every point in all the later questions." + +"Well, sah," she called, in reply, as the lad passed out, "Ah jes' hope +yo' don' fin' a single one like that in this hyar whole village." + +"I hope not, Lily. Good-morning," he rejoined and turned toward the next +house. + +The enumeration of the rest of the village went on rapidly. By working +quickly Hamilton was able to complete the numbering of the village by +nightfall, and he so stated on his daily report card, which he mailed to +the supervisor that evening. + +The following morning he started off on his little mare, and struck +something new and puzzling at every holding he touched. The agricultural +schedule fairly made his head swim. It had certain difficulties which +the manufacturing schedule did not have, because, although the latter +contained more detailed information and required a more accurate +statement, still all manufacturers kept books. For the details needed in +the agricultural statistics no books had been kept; the negro farmer +seldom or never knew how many chickens he had, and the wild guesses that +would be made as to value of animals and land nearly turned the boy's +hair gray. Some of the white farmers were every bit as careless, one man +valuing his horses at $200 apiece and the next at $50; one man +estimating his land at $150 an acre and the next at $10. + +A typical case was that of Patrick Meacham. Hamilton secured the facts +for his population schedule with comparatively little trouble from the +Meacham household, although he had to listen to a great deal of +unnecessary family history. There was no great difficulty, moreover, in +finding out that the farm consisted of 80 acres owned and 10 rented, but +a snag of the first magnitude was encountered on the question as to how +much of it was improved. + +"Sure, 'tis all improved," the farmer said; "it was in horrible shape +whin I bought it." + +"I don't mean improved that way," Hamilton objected, "what I want to +know is how much of it is good for pasture, is prepared for crops, and +so forth." + +"Sure, it's all good for somethin'," the Irishman answered; "what for +should I buy it if it wasn't good for anythin"?" + +"Have you a wood-lot?" asked Hamilton, deciding to try and get at the +question in another way. + +"I have a wood-lot. But I built a good strong fence around it, since I +came here,--ye don't mean to tell me that doesn't improve it? If ye +lived here, ye'd know better." + +"That's all right, Mr. Meacham, it makes it better all right, but it +isn't counted in as 'improved land.' I'll put it down specially though. +There's ten acres of it, you said." + +"And there's ten acres of swamp land that ye couldn't improve unless ye +built it on piles," the farmer said. + +"I'll have to refer that to the Reclamation Service, I guess," the boy +answered, "anyhow for the time we'll just call it 'unimproved' and let +it go at that." + +The next few questions passed off without a hitch, but an inquiry +concerning the number of animals born on the place during the year was +like opening the flood-gates of a dam. If Meacham had been as good a +farmer as a yarn-spinner there would have been no question as to his +success, for he had some story to tell about every yearling on the +place, and they were inimitably told. It was with great reluctance that +Hamilton found himself obliged to head off the man's eloquence and make +him stick to hard facts. An inquiry as to the number of eggs sold was +somewhat of a puzzle, but the farmer's wife knew the amount of the +"trade" she had received at the grocery store in the nearest town in +return for eggs, and at an average sale price of nine cents a dozen, +this was easily computed. She was also the authority on the amount of +butter made and sold, and on the garden truck. + +The business man of the house was a twelve-year-old boy. Not far away, a +neighbor had forty acres in clover and some fruit trees, and knowing the +value of bees for pollinating the fruit, he was glad to have this boy +keep six hives near the orchard and field. A good share of the honey had +gone to the neighbor, and the family themselves had used all they +wanted, but still the boy's profit for what he had sold amounted to +sixty dollars. He was keen to have Hamilton enter him on the schedule as +an independent apiarist on his own account, but Hamilton pointed out to +him that a $250 farm was the smallest one allowed to be listed. + +This low limit was almost reached the next day when Hamilton found +himself on a peanut farm for the first time. He had always known that +peanuts, unlike all other "nuts," grew underground but he had made the +common mistake of supposing them to grow on the roots of the peanut +plant like the tubers of a potato, instead of really being a true nut, +developing from a flower the elongation of the lower portion of which +reaches to the ground. The farm was run by an orphaned colored girl +nineteen years old and her four younger brothers. + +[Illustration: ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.] + +"Jes' as soon as the young-uns gits big enough," she said to Hamilton, +when discussing the statistics of her little holding, "we're goin' to +buy a big patch o' peanut land. Ah'd like to grow peanuts every year, +but these hyar gov'nment papers say yo' shouldn't. They say once in +every fo' years is enough fo' peanuts, but Ah'm goin' to try it every +other year." + +"Aren't they a very troublesome crop?" + +"'Bout the same as potatoes, Ah reckon. But they pay a good price fo' +picked peanuts, an' Ah can get these boys hyar to do the pickin'. In one +o' the papers Ah saw up to Colonel 'Gerius' place the other day, one the +gov'nment puts out, thar's a list showin' this country has to send to +foreign countries fo' twelve million bushels o' peanuts every year. Ah'm +goin' to try raisin' a real big crop, and Dicky hyar," she added, +pointing to the oldest boy, "thinks jes' as I do about it." + +Hamilton was distinctly impressed with the evidence that this young +negro girl and her younger brothers not only knew enough about the +peanut business to be able to make it pay, but that they were reading +the government bulletins. + +"I didn't know," he said hastily, "that you people--" and he stopped +suddenly, realizing the ungracious ending to his sentence. + +"You mean us colored folks,--you didn't think we troubled 'bout such +things? Yas, sah, we don' have all the advantages o' white folks but +we're improvin' right along. Colonel 'Gerius jes' does all he can, an' +he gets us gov'nment seeds an' papers, an' advises every one fo' miles +aroun'. Yas, sah, we're gettin' on. If yo' have to go to Bullertown, +sah, yo'll fin' as nice a li'l place as thar is f'om one end o' the +United States cla'r to the other, an' thar's not one white person in +it." + +"Bullertown?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I'm glad to hear it, for +that's the next place on my map." + +"We're all proud of it hyar, sah, an' it 'pears to me, Bullertown owes +jes' everythin' to the folks at the Big House and to Mistah Ephraim +Jones. Yo'll see Mistah Jones, sah, an' I'd take it kindly if yo'll +remember me to him." + +"All right, Delia, I will," said Hamilton. "Let's see, I did get all the +figures, didn't I?" + +"Yo' said yo' had them all, sah," was the reply. + +"Good enough. Well, I guess I'll go along. I'll not forget your message. +Good-by--" and the boy set his horse on a canter down the narrow road. +Throughout the rest of the day the census-gathering was of similar +character, and it was drawing toward dark when the boy saw before him a +well-ordered array of houses which he felt sure must be Bullertown. +Asking his way to the hotel from the first darky that he met, he was +answered most courteously. + +"Thar's no hotel hyar, sah," the negro said, "but Mr. Ephraim Jones +entertains the visitin' strangehs, sah, an' if yo' go right on to that +big yaller house an' ask fo' Mr. Jones, sah, Ah jes' knows yo'll be +right welcome." + +Hamilton felt diffident about quartering himself upon a perfect stranger +in this way, but it seemed to be the custom of the place, and since +there was no hotel, there seemed nothing else to do, and he rode on to +the gate. Tethering his mare to a tie-post in front of the house he +started up the walk, carrying his portfolio, so that in the event of any +mistake he might be able to make it appear that he had merely come to +take the census. But before he reached the door it was opened by a +wrinkled and old, but dignified darky. + +"Walk in, sah, walk right in," he said. "Ah'll sen' one o' the boys to +look after yo' horse. Tom!" he called, "yo' take the gen'leman's horse +to the stable, rub him down with a wisp, an' give him some hay. In half +an hour water him, an' give him a feed o' oats." + +"I'm obliged to you," said Hamilton, "for taking all this trouble, but +perhaps I had better explain who I am." + +"That's jes' as yo' like, sah." + +"Well," said Hamilton, "I'm the census-taker for this district, and I +was looking for a hotel where I could stay the night and begin work in +the morning. A man I met on the street told me that this town had no +hotel and suggested that if I came to you, I might be advised where to +go." + +"We have no hotel in Bullertown, sah," the old negro preacher answered, +"but the gen'lemen that come hyar do me the honor us'ally, sah, of bein' +my guests. Ah have a guest-room, sah, jes' 'sclusively fo' gen'lemen who +are not people of color." + +Hamilton found himself flushing at the consciousness that this very +thought had been in his mind, and in order to cover any possible signs +that might have appeared in his expression, he answered hastily: + +"Oh, that's all right,--it wouldn't have mattered." + +The old preacher looked at him quietly and a little reproachfully and +said: + +"If you don' jes' mean things like that, young sah, don' say them. We +know. We find, sah, that it is mos' desirable for every one concerned. +If yo' like, sah, an' if yo're ready, Ah'll show yo' to yo'r room." + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +Hamilton could not help contrasting this reception with that which he +would have received in any town not entirely a negro community, and he +expressed this feeling to his host as they went up the stairs. + +"It is entirely different hyar, sah," the latter said, "yo' see we are +isolated, an' a guest is rare. Then this community is a syndicate an' is +not run like a town. Thar's no quest'n hyar, sah, about colored and +white people bein' the same,--we know they're different. An' we believe, +sah, that it is in preservin' the color line, not in tryin' to hide it, +that the future good of our race lies. An' so thar's not a foot o' land +in Bullertown owned by any other than people o' color, an' not a white +person lives hyar." + +"You own all the land, then?" + +"The syndicate does, yes, sah." + +"Then you must have some wealthy men among you?" + +"No, sah, not one. The town was begun, sah, by the kindness of Colonel +Egerius." + +"Colonel--he was, that is, he is--" began Hamilton, stammering. + +"He is not a negro, sah," the old man answered finishing the boy's +embarrassed sentence for him with entire self-possession. "Colonel +Egerius, sah, was a plantation owner, befo' the war. Ah was one o' his +slaves, an' mos' o' the people in Bullertown are the children o' those +born in the plantation quarters." + +"And he started the town?" + +"Yas, sah, in a way. He fought with Lee, sah, an' my brother was his +body-servant all through the war. When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came +back to the old plantation. Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was +quite a few left still. He called us to the big house an' tol' us to +stay by the ol' place an' he would pay us wages. Some--Ah was not one o' +them, though Ah see now they were right,--said the quarters were not fit +to live in." + +"But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master? How could +that be if the quarters were so bad?" + +"No, sah," he said, "Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was +fair an' ready to help a willin' worker. But his slaves was his slaves +an' they had no rights. Thar wasn't any whippin' or any o' that sort o' +thing, but it was work all day, f'om befo' daylight till afteh dark, an' +we lived jes' anyhow." + +"How came he to start the town, then?" queried Hamilton. "Your +description of him doesn't sound as though he were a man who would do +much for you." + +"It was jes' because o' that, Ah think, that he did, sah. He was just, +sah. He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves. +Now that the negro was not a slave any mo', thar was no reason to make +him live like one. He used to say the South was now pledged to help the +nation instead o' the Confederacy, an' while he did not agree, he would +live up to that pledge." + +"That seems as fair as anything could be." + +"Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it. Thar was no +money in the place, the slaves hadn' had wages, an' yo' can't build +houses without money, an' money was scarce afteh the war." + +"How in the wide world did you manage it?" asked Hamilton. + +"As Ah was sayin', sah, it was Colonel Egerius' doin'. He got a surveyor +from the town an' hunted over the plantation to fin' the best site fo' +a village,--the surveyor's name was Buller." + +"That's where the town got its name, then?" + +"Yas, sah, Ah jes' wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn't +hear of it. Then all o' the ol' slaves that wanted to stay by the place +got together, an' the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o' syndicate. +Then he sol' us the land jes' as low as it could be made, payment to be +in labor on the plantation, so in a few years' work every man who wanted +to stay reg'lar on the job got title to his lan' an' his house, an' took +wages afteh that." + +"That was a wise move," said the boy after a moment's thought. "He sold +his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, +established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the +same time fixed it all right for you." + +"Yas, sah," the old negro answered, "an' now every man in the town +either owns his house or is buyin' one f'om the syndicate, an' we have +bought up all the surveyed property f'om the Colonel. Now, sah," +continued the preacher, "if yo' will excuse me, Ah will see that yo'r +supper is got ready. Hyar, sah," he added, opening the door into a +small room, "is yo'r sittin' room, an' yo'r supper will be served hyar." + +As much surprised as gratified at the excellent arrangements for his +comfort, Hamilton refreshed himself after his dusty ride, and was as +hungry as a wolf when supper arrived. A little darky girl, black as the +ace of spades, waited at table, and in conversation Hamilton learned +that she was the adopted daughter of the eldest son of the negro +preacher, the son being a professor in one of the negro colleges. After +supper Hamilton asked to see his host in order that he might secure the +details of the family for the census, and thus make use of a disengaged +evening. + +"So your son is Professor of English at the University," said Hamilton, +as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio. "Do, +you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he +ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?" + +"Thar should be one good university," said the old preacher, "with very +difficult admission examinations. It would be a good thing fo' colored +lawyers an' doctors, an' if the standard were high--higher even than in +white colleges--these men would get standin' fo' themselves an' give +standin' to the colored race. But, even then, I'd have them keep away +f'om the other lawyers an' doctors." + +"You're strong on that color line, Ephraim," the boy remarked. "Surely +you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?" + +"As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do," was the unexpected answer, "an' +thar's no place fo' the negro in the city. He can't beat the white man, +an' thar's no chance o' his securin' a monopoly o' any trade. Thar's +nothin' fo' him in the city savin' jes' labor an' bein' a servant, a +porter, or somethin' o' that kind." + +"You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities," the boy +remarked, "they're mostly elevator runners and in positions of that +kind." + +"It is in the No'th that trouble lies," the old man said, "the South has +settled hers." + +"How do you make that out?" cried the boy. "You say the South has +settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, +down here and in the Gulf States." + +The old negro preacher shook his head. + +"Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than +two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was +grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of +America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the +land lease it on a share basis known as the métayer system, but more'n +more o' them are owners every year." + +"I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all," said +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to +the New England States is owned by the colored race," was the reply, +"makin' in the United States a negro country larger than plenty o' +kingdoms." + +"And is that land worth much?" + +"Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' +it's worth a lot mo' now." + +"But," said Hamilton, "the negro doesn't seem able to make use of it. +Even if he does own the land and is making money, he still goes on +living in a shiftless way. One would hardly believe the kind of shacks +I've seen in the last couple of days." + +"Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah," the old negro answered, "Ah +reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in +one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, +women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along." + +"They ought," said the boy, "if they're working on cotton, because, I've +been told, that is always a cash crop. But why does every one leave the +cotton crop to the negro. It isn't a hard crop to raise, is it?" + +"Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah," the preacher +answered. "It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in +summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' +until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have +much cool weather down hyar." + +"You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?" asked the boy, who had +never seen a cotton plantation and wanted to know something about it. + +"Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' +hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh +night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant +doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it +that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go +pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on +yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' +labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' +headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe +it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a +mulatto th'n a full-blood negro." + +[Illustration: "'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"You would make all the negroes cotton planters?" + +"Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah," the +old man answered, "an' the trade schools would provide fo' all the +workers in towns in the cotton district, an' in solid negro towns thar'd +be room fo' all the colored doctors an' lawyers an' preachers." + +"I see your idea," said Hamilton. "You would just make the cotton +section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?" + +"No, sah," the other answered decidedly. "It's jes' those No'thern +niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up +No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored +people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk +about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good +many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. +But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let +yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'." + +"I wonder," said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his +host, "if that isn't a whole lot more likely to be true than the +alarmist stories you read in magazines." + +The following morning, after Hamilton had almost finished covering one +side of the street in collecting the census statistics, he heard the +trot of horses' hoofs, and looking up, saw a tall, stern-visaged +soldierly-looking gentleman, with iron-gray hair, riding a powerful +iron-gray horse. Beside him rode a young fellow, evidently his son. Both +reined up when they saw Hamilton. Seeing that he was expected to +introduce himself, he stepped forward. + +"My name is Hamilton Noble," he said; "I'm the census enumerator for +this district. I presume you are Colonel Egerius?" + +"Yes, Mr. Noble," the old Confederate leader replied. "Ephraim sent me +word that you were here, and I received a letter a week ago from the +supervisor, whom I have known for some time, telling me that you were a +friend of his. I wanted to bid you welcome, sir, and to express the hope +that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at dinner with us +to-night." + +Hamilton bowed. + +"I shall enjoy coming, Colonel Egerius," he said. "At what hour?" + +"Six-thirty," the Colonel replied, "we keep early hours in the country. +By the way," he added, "have you heard anything of this peonage business +here this morning?" + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "I started out with my schedules bright and +early." + +"I purpose to hold an inquiry after lunch," the planter continued. "You +are lunching at Ephraim's of course?" + +"Yes, Colonel Egerius," the boy answered. + +"Very well," was the reply, "we will lunch together if you have no +objection. Since I heard of your expected arrival I have been looking +forward to your visit. Now that you are here, sir, we must make the most +of you. Allow me to present my son Percy." + +Hamilton made a suitable reply, and consulting his watch found that it +was almost lunch time. + +"I will join you in half an hour, Colonel Egerius," he said, "and shall +look forward to the evening with great pleasure." + +"You play a good knife and fork, I trust," said the old gentleman, +smiling, as he gathered up the reins. + +"Almost good enough to do justice even to Southern hospitality," +answered Hamilton with a smile. The old soldier nodded approvingly. +"Remember now," he said, as he rode away, "we'll hold you to your word." + +At lunch Hamilton took occasion to remark on the well-being of +Bullertown. + +"I was surprised," he said, "to find a village so well managed and +looked after, and all by negroes." + +"There's nothing surprising in that," the Colonel answered. "How could +they do anything different? I have shown them every step they were to +take; all that they had to do was to continue." + +"You mean they couldn't have done it by themselves?" + +"The negro never has done anything by himself," the old Confederate +replied. "He has lived as far back as time goes in one of the most +fertile and well-watered countries of the world,--Africa--and he never +had enough initiative to rise out of tribal conditions." + +"But he seems to be doing all right now," suggested Hamilton. "I hear +the negro is getting to own quite a share of the cotton crop." + +"He has not done so well as appearances would show," the soldier +replied; "he has learned a few--only a few--of the tricks of modern +civilization, and those only outwardly. The few cases of leadership such +as that of Booker T. Washington, for instance, are due to the white +strain, not the negro." + +"I thought Booker T. Washington was a pure negro!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"He is not," was the emphatic reply. "In his own writings he states that +his father was a white man. His mother was a negress. He gets his brains +from his father and his color from his mother." + +"Do you think that the negroes will ever marry enough with the white to +become all white?" + +"Not now," the Southerner answered. "It is a crime in many States and +punishable with imprisonment." + +"Then what's going to be done?" + +"I'm unreconstructed yet," the old Colonel said grimly. "I think still +the negroes were better off as slaves. They're always going to be +slaves, anyway, whether in name or not. And as for their relation to +the cotton crop. You say they are succeeding in it. Perhaps. But did +they learn the uses of cotton, did they develop machinery to clean and +spin it, or devices for weaving? Was it negroes who worked out the best +means of cultivating the cotton or experimented on the nature of the +most fertile soils? Not a bit of it. They simply grow cotton the way the +white folks showed them." + +"But they seem to be getting a big share of it!" + +"I see you've been talking to Ephraim. What good would it do the negroes +if they owned every foot of the cotton land? They would still have to +depend on the man that buys the crop, and the cotton exchange wouldn't +be run for the benefit of the negro. In slavery days, too, there was +some one to take an interest in the negro and help him. Now he's got to +do it for himself, and he can't do anything but go on in the same old +groove." + +"You think it was better in the old days?" + +"In some ways for the negro, yes. But it was harder for the people of +the South. There was always trouble of some kind in the slave quarters. +Before the war you had to support all the old, the sick, the children, +and the poor workers. Under present conditions you hire just whom you +want. The cost is about even, and the responsibility is less. Now," he +added, lunch being over, "if you've finished we'll go and see what this +peonage business is. Ephraim," he called, "is that man here?" + +"Yas, sah," answered the old negro. "He's hyar." + +"Bring him in, then." + +In a minute or two the old darky returned, bringing with him a gaunt, +emaciated negro, who cringed as he entered the room. He was followed by +a brisk, young mulatto. + +"If yo' please, Massa," said the old preacher, dropping unconsciously +into the familiar form of address, "this is Peter, young Peter's +father." + +"I've seen him before," the Colonel said abruptly "Peter, were you on +this plantation?" + +"Yas, Massa." + +"What's the matter with him, Ephraim?" queried the old soldier. "He +looks to me as though he hadn't had enough to eat." + +"It isn't only that, Massa," said the negro, "he's been whipped 'most to +death." + +"Whipped!" cried Hamilton, startled. Then, remembering suddenly that +the matter was not his concern, he flushed and turned to the Colonel. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "I forgot." + +The old soldier, who had been a stern disciplinarian in his time, had +drawn himself up indignantly at the boy's interruption, but his +immediate apology caused the old gentleman to see that it was just a +flash of boyish indignation, so he merely turned and said: + +"Let him tell his story." + +"Ah was born hyar durin' the war," the negro began. "Ah c'n jes' +remember Missis, an' Ah've often heard mah mother cry when we was livin' +in Atlanta an' trouble come, 'If only Ah could go to Missis.'" + +"Get to your story, boy," said the Colonel, "I haven't time to waste." + +"Ah was brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, an' times was always hard. Six +years ago Ah hired out to a lumber man in Florida. Thar were sixty of us +hired together. The pay was good. The day we come, we were put into a +group o' huts with a stockade 'roun', an' men with rifles guarded us +night an' day. Ah reckon thirty men was shot tryin' to escape durin' the +years I was thar." + +"Thirty?" + +"Yas, sah, leastways I know of five, an' heard o' the rest." + +"Talk about what you know, not what you've heard," admonished the old +soldier. "Go on." + +"It was killin' work. We had to be in the woods by daylight an' stay +thar until it was too dark to see. Thar was trouble enough at first but +the worst come later. About three years ago a lot mo' huts was put up +an' the stockade was made bigger. We thought things would be easier as +the new men would get all the knockin' about. Nex' week the new crowd +came,--they were convic's hired for the job." + +"Excuse my interrupting, Colonel Egerius," asked the lad, "but can that +be true? Does any State hire out its convicts to forced labor?" + +"Some do," was the reply, "and Florida is one of them. Go on, boy." + +"Floggin's started in when the convicts come, an' thar was no difference +made between us an' them. We were supposed to be paid, but our pay was +always in tickets to the comp'ny store, an' they charged double prices +for everythin'. They never gave us a cent o' money. A lot of us got +together an' decided to escape, but when it come to doin' it, only +three would go. One got away entirely, one was shot, an' Ah was caught. +They took me to the stockade an' whipped me 'mos' to death, three days +runnin'. The third day Ah was so near dead that they didn't tie me up, +an' when, hours later, Ah did stagger to mah feet, they jes' pointed to +the fields whar the hands was workin'. Ah heard one o' the guards say, +'He won't go far,' an' Ah hid in the woods, Ah don' know how long, jes' +livin' on berries, an' at las' Ah got away. Ah knew Ah would be safe in +Kentucky." + +The Colonel looked at the man closely. + +"I believe you've been a bad nigger," he said, "and I wouldn't believe +any more of your story than I had to. But it's easy enough to see that +you have been abused, and that you need help right now. I'll give you a +chance. Peter, your father is staying with you?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"Ephraim," the Colonel said, turning to the old preacher, "put this man +on the payroll as a field hand, beginning from to-morrow, but don't send +him to the field for a couple of weeks. Behave yourself," he added, +turning to the peonage victim, "and you'll be all right here." + +The negro thanked him profusely, and went out, his wretched frame +showing up miserably in the strong sunlight as he passed by the window +of the dining room. + +"But that's worse than any slavery I ever heard of," burst out Hamilton +indignantly. + +"Peonage?" answered the old veteran. "Oh, yes, much worse." + +"And it still goes on?" + +"There were several hundred stockades in operation last year," was the +reply, "and that's a fair sample of their work." + +[Illustration: HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + + +Although he realized that his lines had fallen in pleasant places for +the enumeration work, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction +that Hamilton entered up what was marked on the map as the last house, +and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and +was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire +district in the appointed time. In order to make his record as good as +possible the lad thought he would get an early start and be in the +supervisor's office before noon, thus emphasizing his punctuality. +Accordingly it was but a little after seven o'clock when he was in the +saddle and on the road. + +Knowing from experience that the highway made quite a circuit to reach a +little group of three houses, which he had already enumerated, Hamilton +struck out across country, using a little footpath through some woods. +At that early hour of the morning he was not expecting to meet any one, +and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later +he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one +with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as +though ready to show aggressiveness to any intruder, the other two on +the ground, one sitting, and one lying half asleep on some boughs +carelessly thrown down. As Hamilton was still in his enumeration +district and felt that here were some people who might not have been +registered, he pulled up. + +"'Morning, boys!" he said ingratiatingly. + +"Howdy!" the impromptu cook replied, and waited for the boy to go on. + +"I'm the census-taker for this district," the boy continued, "and I knew +this was a short cut across the fields; but I didn't know I should find +you here." + +"Inform the gentleman, Bill," spoke the traveler who was lying down, +"that we were equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting +but that we would have been better prepared to meet him had he sent a +courier to announce his coming." + +"You heard him," the first speaker supplemented jerking his thumb over +his shoulder. + +"I heard him all right," answered Hamilton, dropping immediately into +the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he had +left his town residence for this convenient and airy country house." + +"As I live, an intelligent reply!" was the response in tones of +surprise, and the speaker sat up on his rough couch. + +To Hamilton the situation was a little difficult. There would be no +trouble in merely exchanging a few greetings and then passing along on +his journey, but the boy was above all things conscientious, and he +could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books +of the census, and that now, on the very last day of census-taking, they +were in his district. And he knew well enough, that if he broached the +question it would not be favorably received. However he thought he saw a +way out. + +"If you have a pannikin of tea to spare," he said, "I'd enjoy it." + +"If you like to put up with what we've got, join us an' welcome," the +tall tramp said. + +"All right," Hamilton answered, "I will." + +"Permit me to do the honours!" said the second tramp. "This is 'Hatchet' +Ben Barclay, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith--not +because of his humor but because of his powers of persuasion, and I am +Harry Downe, very much at your service." + +"Better known as the 'Windy Duke,'" interjected the tea-maker, who had +by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was busy +frying slices of ham on a piece of stick over the hot wood coals. + +"I'm Hamilton Noble," the boy answered in return, "and I've just got +through taking the census for this district. I've got all the names in +here," he added, tapping his portfolio, "and now I'm going to the +supervisor's office to turn in my reports." + +"I am afraid your census will be incomplete," said 'Windy,' "for, so far +as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be lacking the names +and distinction of this gallant little company." + +"Haven't you been listed?" asked Hamilton, glad that the subject should +have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating +himself on the success of his device to secure the friendship of the +crowd. + +"Nary a list," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "the rustlers of the Ringling Circus +told us that they had been enumerated four times, once for every week +they played, an' that not a blessed one of the census men would believe +they had been taken before; but they cut us out entire." + +"Well, I guess I had better take you right now," said Hamilton. "I've +room on the census sheet for a few more names." + +"You can count me out," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not lookin' for that +kind of fame." + +"Don't you think it's fair to the country to let it know who you are?" + +"What's the census to me?" the other said defiantly. "I calc'late a +country that doesn't give a fellow a livin' doesn't care much about his +name." + +"But you're getting a living, just the same," answered Hamilton, "and +you're an American, anyhow, aren't you?" + +"New York State," the tramp replied. + +"And you?" asked Hamilton, turning to the orator of the party. + +"I'm an Oxford man," answered the 'Windy Duke,' "classical tripos--if +you know what that means." + +"I do," answered Hamilton, "but why--" and he stopped. + +"You were going to ask me why I prefer to wander afield rather than be +'cribbed and confined' within narrow walls. I am but one of many, an +educated man without any knowledge of how to use his learning. Do you +care for Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I +can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to +none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I +am--in my humble way--quite an authority. But these magnificent +talents," he added with a self-depreciatory smile, "do not enable me to +run a business as successfully as a Greek fruit peddler or a Russian Jew +vender of old clothes." + +"You could teach," suggested Hamilton. + +"Only my friends," replied the scholar. "To teach requires pedagogy and +numerous devices for improving the youthful mind. I do not greatly +admire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore +it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim +originality in this rôle; there have been 'scholar gypsies' before this. +The phrase sounds better than 'educated hobo,' but the meaning is the +same." + +"And you?" queried Hamilton of the third speaker. + +"Plain American," the other said simply, "born and raised in Ohio. Not a +Yankee, not a Westerner, not a Southerner,--nothin', jest plain +Middle-West American." + +"Well," suggested Hamilton, "I think you chaps ought to let me put you +down in the schedule here. We need white men in this country badly +enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest +showing we can. Two Americans and an Englishman will help the average +just that much. Part of the 'white man's burden,'" he added with a +laugh. + +"If you put it that way," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I calc'late after all I'm +elected for one. Anything I can do to put down, even on paper, these +foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, +I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob from the south o' Europe bein' +dumped down here by the hundred thousand every year, an' you can take +that straight from me." + +"It's a little curious," said Hamilton, noting down the facts as they +came up in conversation, not wanting to work directly upon the schedule +for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be Americans and one an +Englishman. Somehow, one always thinks of an American as making good, +not tramping it." + +"Nearly all hoboes are Americans," 'Hatchet Ben' explained, "there's a +few English, and a few Swedes. Lots of races in this country you never +meet on the road." + +"Trampdom," said 'Windy,' "is a most exclusive circle. For example, you +never saw a Jew hobo, did you?" + +"No," Hamilton said. "Never." + +"And you're never likely to," 'Hatchet Ben' interjected, "there's no +money in it, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. +There are a few French Canadians, but no real Frenchmen on the road, and +the Dagoes never take to it." + +"I wonder why?" Hamilton queried. + +"I purpose writing a monograph upon the subject of the nationality of +the Hobo Empire," the 'Windy Duke' broke in, "and therein I shall +enlarge upon my theory that the life of a tramp requires more +independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that +usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who +will not drop to the level of the horde below them and who consequently +take to the life of the road in protest against the usage of an +ill-arranged social state. That, for example, is the condition of my two +friends here." + +"Would you mind my asking what made you take to the road?" said +Hamilton, turning to the first speaker. + +"Not at all," 'Hatchet Ben' replied. "It's a very usual story. I'm a +steel worker by trade, an' when I was workin' I was reckoned among the +best in the plant." + +"What did you quit it for?" asked Hamilton. + +"Slovaks," the man answered. "Every year or two the Pittsburg operators +would get together an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start +comin' to the West. They seemed to know where to come, an' started work +the mornin' after they got there, without even seein' the boss." + +"But that could hardly be, I should think," said Hamilton; "that would +be importing contract labor and they would be stopped at Ellis Island." + +"Not much fear of that," the steel worker answered "the operators keep +men in Europe just trainin' the foreigners what to say. These men come +over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary, +the amount of money to enable them to land, buy their railroad tickets +at this end, an' all the rest of it." + +"Dangerous business if they got caught at it!" + +"They're paid to take chances," the other replied. "Then, when these +foreigners come, they know nothin' about the scale of wages in America +only that the pay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their +own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter +what wages they receive they can put money aside every week. The boss +doesn't see any use in payin' them at a high rate, when they work just +as well for small, an' down goes the wages." + +"But they get a poorer grade of labor that way," objected Hamilton, "I +shouldn't think that would pay." + +"They make up for it by increasin' the power of machinery, by givin' a +man less and less to learn and more and more of some simple thing to +do." + +"In a way that ought to be good, too," the boy persisted, "for the more +a machine does, the bigger wages the man who runs it gets." + +"I'm not a machinist," the tramp replied, "an' even if I were I should +be in competition with the Swedes all along the line. Bein' just a +steel worker, I stood for one reduction in wages because they promised +to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a +gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every +chance I got to talk 'union' to these men, showin' them how they could +just as easily get more pay than they were bein' given. That didn't suit +the company at all, so I was fired, an' they put me on the black list." + +"And you couldn't get any more work there at all?" + +"Not there, or at any place in the district. Or, for that matter, in any +place in the United States unless I gave a false name. Steel workin' is +my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the +United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the +country won't let me earn my livin' by working for it, it'll have to +give me a livin' without. But I'd go to work to-morrow, if I had the +chance." + +"Not me," began 'Jolly Joe,' as soon as the tall tramp had finished, +"I'd sooner be a hobo th'n anythin' else I know. In the first place, I'm +not like 'Hatchet Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I +have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this +business. If you think it isn't a trick to rustle grub for three hungry +men, just you try it. An' while I've been on the road for nearly six +years, I've never had a dog set on me yet." + +"How do you mean?" asked the boy. + +"There's always grub on a farm if you know the right way to go about +getting it," was the reply "and there's very few places I ever go away +from without some bread or a hunk of ham or a pie. Lots of chickens get +lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to +nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the +farmers never could find. If you watch the bees closely, there's nearly +always some swarm that's got away an' made a nest in a dead tree. The +trouble is that most people are too busy to lie still all day an' watch, +an' those that aren't busy don't know." + +"But you don't rustle tea that way," said Hamilton, touching the tin +pannikin with his knuckle. + +"'Windy' looks after that." + +"I am not without some small means," explained the 'Windy Duke,' "but my +income would not permit my living in any sufficiently attractive city +in a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, +however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to +my sister, and still retain sufficient to share up with my +fellow-adventurers when times are hard or 'Jolly's' persuasive tongue is +not quite up to the mark." + +"But you didn't tell me," said Hamilton, turning to 'Jolly Joe,' "why +you started going on the road. You said you didn't like work, but where +had you tried it?" + +"I'll make the story short," was the reply. "I'm a railroad section +hand, an' was lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I +had a pile of friends among the men just above me, and I believe I would +have worked up pretty rapidly." + +"You would be president of the road by now, 'Jolly,'" put in the 'Duke.' + +"I'd be goin' up, anyhow," the other replied. "But one day an order came +along from headquarters changin' the make-up of the gangs, an' next week +I found myself the only American on an Italian gang, under an Italian +foreman. All of us were shifted around the same way. The foreman knew a +little English--not much--an' he tried to give me orders in mixed +English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to +do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me +with every bad name he'd heard since he landed, why, I gave him a +hammerin'. So, just as 'Hatchet Ben' here was driven out by Slovaks, it +was a gang of Italians that gave me my throw-down. I tell you America's +all right for everybody but the American He doesn't stand a show." + +"That sounds hard for the American working-man," the boy said, "but +there must be a lot of them working somewhere, they're not all tramping +it." + +"The back-country farmer is an American nearly every time," 'Hatchet +Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get so far away from the cities and +towns. I don't know why." + +"I think I know the reason of that," volunteered Hamilton. "I heard some +census men talking about it, and one of them had spent a long time in +Italy. He said that while it was true plenty of the peasants worked in +the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the +fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,--our average-sized +farm here would make five or six of them,--and so the village idea +can't be made to work in this country, and the Italians won't stand for +being separated from the nearest neighbor by a mile or two." + +"I can quite understand that," the Englishman said thoughtfully; "it +would be far less pleasant living in this care-free fashion of ours if +one were doing it alone." + +"It may be rather pleasant," Hamilton admitted slipping back into his +pocket the necessary details for the schedule which he had secured from +the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I think a day or +two of it would be enough for me, and I certainly wouldn't like your end +of it, 'Jolly'!" + +"Well," the other replied, as Hamilton strolled over to his mare and +lightly swung himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' +yesterday you would have gone without breakfast this mornin' or at +least, without this kind of breakfast." + +"And mighty good it was," the boy replied, "I don't know when I've +enjoyed a meal so much. I'm ever so much obliged, boys. Good-by." + +The incident gave Hamilton plenty to think about on the rest of the ride +to town, and he found himself genuinely sorry not to have a chance to +see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that +under proper conditions they would be just as fine citizens of the +country as any one could be, and the phrase "Nearly all hoboes are +Americans" kept running in his head. + +He reached the supervisor's office just as a young fellow, but little +older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamilton's +portfolio and said, a little mischievously, the boy thought: + +"How many, if I may ask?" + +"Twenty-two hundred and six," answered Hamilton, rightly supposing the +question to refer to the number of people he had enumerated. + +The other threw up his hands. + +"I pass," he said, "you beat me by nearly a hundred," and he laughed and +went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervisor's office. +The boy exchanged greetings with his friend, who said: + +"I heard you talking with that young chap who just left, when you were +coming into the office. Do you know him at all?" + +"Not in the least," replied Hamilton, and he quoted the brief +conversation. + +"There's quite a story about that case," the supervisor said, settling +himself back in his chair, "and though I'm as busy as an angry hornet +I'll stop just long enough to tell you. When I was picking the +enumerators for the Gullyville district--that's away at the other end of +the section from where you were--I found an unusual number of +applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who stood head +and shoulders above the rest. One was the principal of a village school, +and another was the chap you saw. His name is Wurtzi, and he gave his +occupation as a student and his age as nineteen." + +"I didn't think he looked even as old as that," commented Hamilton. + +"Yes, he's nineteen. As I was saying, the choice seemed to lie between +these two. Wurtzi's paper was a few points better than the other, indeed +I think it was one of the best tests turned in to me from any center. On +the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large +colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts +of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew everybody. That +was why, when I sent the papers to Washington, I recommended him for +appointment instead of the boy, of whom I knew nothing except that his +examination paper was slightly the better of the two." + +"Yet the boy got the job!" + +"He did," the supervisor answered. "The government rejected my +recommendation, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi +should be appointed on his showing rather than the other unless I knew +something against him." + +"I suppose that was fairer," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "but I thought +that matters of that kind were left to the discretion of the +supervisor." + +"Generally they were, but still there were reversals in a good many +cases," was the reply. "But from everything that I've heard, suggestions +from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exactly +the right thing. They certainly were in this case. I sent the lad his +commission at once, of course." + +"What did the master have to say?" asked Hamilton. + +"I'm coming to that," the supervisor replied. "Two or three days later +he came into my office. + +"'I understand Wurtzi has secured the enumerator's job?' he said. + +"'Yes,' I answered, 'it was a pretty close thing between you so I sent +the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the +other was more satisfactory.' The schoolmaster laughed and sat down. + +"'I don't know whether I ought to be angry or pleased,' he said; 'it all +depends on how you look at it whether it can be considered as a +compliment or an affront.' + +"I just stared at him. + +"'I don't follow you in the least,' I said. He laughed. + +"'Of course you didn't know that Wurtzi was one of the boys in my +school,' he replied, 'and more than that, he is the poorest boy in the +school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way +in which he could secure his father's permission to allow him to come to +school was that he should turn over to him the trifling sum we pay for +janitor work.'" + +"Pretty good stuff in the boy to want to learn under those conditions," +commented Hamilton. + +"He wanted to educate himself, and his mother was very ambitious. She is +Polish, evidently of the better class--and, as you know, the Poles are +one of the most intellectual races of the world--and the boy gets his +brains from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy +could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he +had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two +years he had been walking barefoot three miles to school, getting there +by daybreak, making the fire, sweeping the floor, cleaning the windows, +and then settling down to prepare his morning lessons before the opening +of school. + +"I told Sinclair," the supervisor continued, "that I thought he ought to +be ten times prouder of the success of his pupil than of the merits of +an examination paper, because it took a higher degree of ability to +teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy +must have been wonderfully well taught to achieve so much. He agreed +with me, of course, but I could see that it irked him a little just the +same. He volunteered, however, to assist his pupil as much as he could." + +"That was very decent of him, I think," Hamilton said, "lots of men +would have borne a grudge. But did you say his name was Sinclair?" + +"Yes," the supervisor answered, "Gregory Sinclair. Why?" + +"And you said he had been in the mountains?" + +"Quite a good deal." + +"Then that must be Bill Wilsh's teacher," exclaimed Hamilton, and he +told the supervisor the story of the "cunjer," the whittled schoolhouse +and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, +"and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder if you +would give it to him for me. Don't forget to tell him that the door was +made to appear open, to show him that he was expected back." + +"Of course, I shall be glad to give it to him," the supervisor answered, +"and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, though +probably only in the holidays and for a visit. Where is this carving?" + +"At the hotel, sir," the boy answered, "I'll bring it over this +afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the chance of seeing him myself, he +must be a fine chap." + +"He is," the supervisor agreed, "and he showed the stuff he was made of +in connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he +really put in a lot of time helping Wurtzi in order that he might make +good." + +"You said the boy was Polish?" + +"Polish, of the stock that's making another country out of the deserted +districts of New England. Land that has been abandoned by the Americans +the Poles are making productive. That's where the real wealth of the +future is coming in--from the people who will work the ground without +exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this +country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its +fertility will take years and years to return. These European peasants, +however, are so used to making much of a small plot that they are +redeeming the ground. You know, I'm one of those that believe in all the +immigration possible, and I've never forgotten one of Broughton +Brandenburg's sayings about it." + +"What was that?" asked the boy. + +"That 'it is always the most ignorant immigrant that makes the best +citizen.'" + +"I certainly don't see that," Hamilton replied. + +"He absorbs Americanism more quickly," the other explained. "For +example, there's no class hatred idea to be fought down, no anarchistic +tendencies, no desire to turn liberty into license. The ignorant +immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there +is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. There's not +one in ten thousand of that kind that does not prosper from the day he +lands. But you'll hear all sorts of ideas and suggestions in Washington. +When do you go?" + +"I'm leaving to-night, sir," the boy answered. "I thought it might +please the Bureau if I were there a day ahead of time." + +"They'll be willing enough," the supervisor answered "I imagine every +added helper is of value now, with all these schedules piling in. I'll +drop a note to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your +schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover +your district in the time. I wish you all sorts of luck, and write to me +once in a while from Washington so that I can hear what you're doing and +how you're getting along." + +Hamilton thanked the supervisor heartily, and after a word or two of +farewell returned to the house of a friend where he was to dine before +starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching +there he went directly to the Census Bureau, sent in his card, and the +Director's secretary, a keen young fellow, came out to see him. + +"I think I've heard Mr. Burns speak about you, Mr. Noble," he said, +looking at the card he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy +right now, but he said when you came you were to go down to Mr. Cullern; +I'd take you there myself but I'm needed here." + +"Well, there's really no necessity, Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell +me where it is and I'll find my way." + +But the other beckoned to an attendant. + +"Show this gentleman to Mr. Cullern," he said. Then, turning with a +smile to the boy, he said, "You'll be all right, I guess." + +Hamilton thanked him, and the secretary hurried back through the +swinging half length door to the inner office. Following the messenger, +Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines +clicking on every side of him. The chief of the floor looked at the +card, turned it over, read what had been penciled on the back, and said +promptly: + +"I think I'll start you on one of the punching machines." + +"Very well, sir," the boy answered, "I want to learn everything I can." + +"I have a vacant machine," the other continued, "one of the men is away +on sick leave. If you want to begin right away you can start this +afternoon. Here," he said, picking up a pamphlet from a pile which lay +on a table near by, "is a list of instructions." + +"I'm quite ready to start now," Hamilton declared. + +"Your machine is over here, then," his new superior said, leading the +way to a far corner of the room. "You had better try to find out as much +as you can from the instructions, and one of the foremen will be 'round +to tell you more about the working of it a little later." + +"All right, sir," the boy replied, sitting down at the machine, "I think +I can get on to it without much trouble." + +The keyboard was entirely strange to Hamilton. It looked not unlike that +of a big typewriter, or resembled even more closely a linotype keyboard, +only it was divided off into sections each one of which was brightly +colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The +instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the +boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book that +he did not notice the coming of the sub-section foreman, who looked down +at the boy for a moment or two with an amused smile. Presently he +coughed, and Hamilton looked up suddenly to see him standing there. + +"I beg your pardon," asked the boy, "were you speaking?" + +"No," said the newcomer, "but I was going to before long. You seem to be +just eating up that book." + +"Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long," said +Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought +the more I knew about it before you came, the better it would be all +'round." + +"Do you know anything about census work?" was the next question. + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I was an assistant special agent on the +manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day +before yesterday." + +"I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work," the +foreman answered, "coming in to-day, just when that end of the work +closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I +wonder why they sent you to this department; I should have supposed that +you would be editing schedules." + +"I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently," the boy +explained, "and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various +parts of the work by doing them myself. Judging from this book, it +doesn't seem hard." + +"Let me hear what you know about it." + +Hamilton closed the book. + +"I think I have it fairly straight," he said. "These first four columns +on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that +right?" + +"Yes," the older man replied, "that is looked after in another way. The +district and State and all that sort of thing go in that section, and +that is arranged by what we call a gang-punch." + +"I don't know how that works," the boy said, "this list of instructions +to the punching clerk doesn't say anything about it." + +"It doesn't need to," his informant answered, "for the simple reason +that the punching clerk has nothing to do with it. But I'll tell you if +you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration districts +in the United States, and all we have to do is to set the gang-punch to +the number of the district." + +"But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything +like it," the boy cried, "all told there are only forty-eight places in +those four columns." + +"That works by the permutation of numbers," was the reply. "You can +arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures +in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty +ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; +ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them +around--and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. +The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get +by reference to the schedule." + +"That's enough!" cried Hamilton. "I can see now. It would take a sheet +of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures." + +"If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that +forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write +them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz +the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of +easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be +arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter +like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the +gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the +schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it." + +"I see," said Hamilton, "and I suppose a number is put on the card which +corresponds with every district number on the schedule. Then I come in +on all the rest of the card." + +"Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk." + +"But this machine doesn't seem to punch," the boy objected; "I put in a +canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, +nothing happened, the key just stayed down." + +"It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready," the other +explained. "You depress into position the various keys you want until +all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance +over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed +keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you +can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card +being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card +corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this +makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule." + +"But how is the punching done, then?" queried Hamilton. + +"You press the bar," the foreman explained, "and that throws in the +motor attached to the punching mechanism, which brings the entire die +and card up against the end of the punches which have been depressed by +the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate +the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatically into +either the 'male' or the 'female' compartments of the machine, the +location of the hole tilting the slide that determines on which side the +punched card shall fall." + +"So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same +operation as the punching of the card," the boy remarked; "I see now. +That's a first-class idea." + +"It saves a great deal of work," the older man said. "Then, too, with +the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is +in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in +rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring +the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has +to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a +line because of an error of eyesight." + +"I can understand that now," the boy answered "Now let me see whether I +really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third +column--though it is really the fifth--I punch either 'Hd' for the Head +of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' +for Other?" + +"That's right." + +"Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's +easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' +for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for +Japanese, and 'In' for Indian." + +"Go ahead," the foreman said, "you're not likely to go wrong as yet." + +"The age seems clear, too," said Hamilton, "you punch the five-year +period nearest to the age and then add on. For instance, the way it +looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the +'15' and then the '1' in that little cornerwise bit at the bottom of the +next section. But I don't see what the '5' is for." + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.] + +"That's for babies in the sixth division of the first year, or from nine +to eleven months old; the first division means under one month, and the +rest either one, two, or three months apiece." + +"I see it all now," exclaimed the boy, "you have to punch two holes for +age for every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' +as well as the '10,' I suppose, to make sure he isn't older and the +extra years forgotten." + +"That's the reason exactly." + +"The meaning of the section next to the age is easy, too," Hamilton +continued. "'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for +Divorced, 'Un' for unknown, any one could guess. But this 'Mother +Tongue' business has me going." + +"I thought it would," was the reply. "But it's not so hard if you +remember a few things, particularly that the language of a country is +not always spoken by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the +mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do +not speak Welsh. Thus an English-speaking Welshman's card would be +punched 'OL,' meaning Other Language, or the language next in +importance to the mother language of the country." + +"On that basis," said Hamilton, "if the second most important language +of Denmark is German a card that was punched 'Den' for the country would +have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had +spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spoken Danish, +which is the native tongue of the country. But I should think there +would be some cases that would not come under that rule." + +"There are--a few," the foreman replied, "but the way in which those are +to be punched will be noted on the schedule by the schedule editors." + +"Some schedules need a good deal of editing, I suppose," exclaimed +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"You may be sure of that," the other answered. "If you think for a +moment how impossible it would be to have all the supervisors and +enumerators work exactly in the same style, you can see how necessary it +must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all +uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mistakes that the +editors remedy before the card is punched ready for tabulation. But go +on with your explanation, so that I can see if you really do understand +it." + +"The parent columns run the same way, of course," Hamilton continued, +"'U.S.' meaning any one born in the United States, and 'Un.' cases in +which the parentage is unknown. Then 'NP' means native-born parents, and +'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' +stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' +unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean that the foreign-born can +speak English, 'Ot' that he can only speak some tongue other than +English. The year of immigration, of course, is obvious. But this +occupation, I can't make head or tail of!" + +"That you have to learn," the instructor said. "There is a printed list +here for reference that contains the principal kinds of employment in +the United States and classifies them. In a very little while you will +find that you can remember the numbers which signify the more common of +these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation +returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched +later by a special force of clerks. Holes punched for those out of work +and the number of weeks unemployed are all easy. At the top of the last +column, too, 'Emp' means Employer, 'W' Wage Earner, while 'OA' means +working on his or her own account, and 'Un' is for Unemployed." + +"All right, sir," Hamilton replied, "I think I can do it now. I should +find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things just +exactly as they are here on population schedules for the last month." + +"It makes an astonishing difference," the experienced man agreed, "you +know the why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this +old test schedule and I will give you fifty blank cards, and we will see +how they come out." + +Through the rest of the afternoon, Hamilton worked steadily over this +set of cards, not only doing the work, but getting the principles of the +whole thing thoroughly in his mind, and, as he had said to the +sub-section chief, knowing just the manner in which the schedules had +been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, +therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at +his machine a real schedule, not the test that he had been working on +the afternoon before; the exact number of cards required for his +schedule all ready in the hopper of the machine, and it was pointed out +to him that error was not permissible and that he must account for every +card. + +"Why is that?" asked Hamilton, "what difference would a card or two +make?" + +"It isn't the cards, it's the numbering," the other explained. "Don't +you remember that each card was numbered, and so, if one card is wrong +it would throw all the succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a +chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have +touched the lever and the card is punched it slides into its own +compartment. You have all the chance you want to look over your +arrangement of depressed keys before the card is punched, but none +after." + +Before a week had passed by, Hamilton was so thoroughly at home with the +machine that the work seemed to him to become more or less mechanical, +and his interest in it began to wane. As--under government +regulations--he left work early, he sauntered over several times to the +verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine +used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it +seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, and he was +curious to know the principle on which it worked. Generally every one +quit at half-past four o'clock, just as he did, but sometimes a man +would work a few minutes longer to finish a batch of cards, and the boy +would go to watch him. + +When he was over there one day, after hours, Hamilton saw Mr. Cullern on +the floor. + +"Still looking for information?" questioned the older man, with a smile. + +"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I've been watching this machine and I've +spoken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but +they none of them seem to know. They knew how to run it, and that was +about all." + +"The principle is simple enough," the chief replied, "but it would be a +bit hard to understand the combination unless you had the clew. Then it +is all as clear as day, although the machine itself is a little +complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on +this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noticed that these +holes correspond with the points on the card, and that the way in which +the card is fed into the machine insures that the holes shall coincide +exactly." + +"That I saw," Hamilton answered, "and I could see, of course, that +this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and that upon +it a good deal of the exactness of the work depended." + +[Illustration: TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It does," the other replied. "Now if you look into those holes in the +plate you can see a little cup of bright metal under each hole. What do +you suppose that is?" + +"I'm not sure, of course," the boy responded, "but it looks very much +like quicksilver." + +"That's exactly what it is, quicksilver, or mercury. Now mercury, you +ought to know, can transmit an electric current, so that if an +electrically charged pin comes down into the cup of mercury, the cup +itself being attached to an electric current, a circuit is formed." + +"Now I'm beginning to see," the boy said, "but what is the idea of the +cup of mercury; could not the pin just as well touch on a metal plate?" + +"It could, of course, but a piece of dust between would prevent contact, +the pins would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, +by the pin just dropping into the mercury there is no friction and no +fear of a missed contact." + +"The pins are in that square box at the end of the long arm which comes +down every time a card is put on the plate, aren't they, Mr. Cullern?" +asked Hamilton. + +"Yes, and if there is no card there and the pins in the square box are +started down, they are automatically stopped before they reach the +mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card were +there without any holes punched, none of the pins would reach the +mercury and no contact would be made." + +"But with a punched census card," interrupted the boy, eager to show +that he understood, "the pins go through the holes in the cards and do +not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of +holes in the card is registered. But still, there's so much difference +in the cards that I don't see how this machine can verify them, can tell +which are right and which wrong!" + +"There is variety enough," answered the chief, "for of the hundred +million cards punched, no two are exactly the same, they could not be." + +"Couldn't it happen perhaps that two people of the same age should do +the same work, be both married and so forth?" asked the boy +interestedly. + +"They would have to live in the same district, they would have to be +employed the same way, they would have both to be married and have the +same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then--the +cards would be different for they would represent different numbers on +the schedule on which their names were registered. No, there are not two +cards in the entire series punched alike." + +"Then I don't see how in the wide world this machine can tell which +cards are right among millions so entirely different from each other." + +"They don't verify by finding the cards that are right," was the answer, +"but by picking out the cards that are wrong." + +"What's the difference?" + +"There is a wide difference. You can see that it would be easy enough to +arrange that machine so that if a wrong combination of contacts were +made the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but +you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires +are satisfied, as it were, and the bell rings; for an error, one wire, +cut in on by a wrong wire, breaks the contact, and the bell does not +ring." + +"But what do you mean by a wrong grouping?" asked the boy. + +"You ought to be able to guess that," the chief said reproachfully. +"For instance if a card is punched 'Wf' for Wife and also is punched +'Male' that card is sure to be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is +punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a +three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are twenty-three +different possibilities of error which are checked by this verification +machine, and for any one of these twenty-three reasons a card is thrown +out." + +"For example if 'Na' for naturalized is punched on the same card as 'N' +for native-born, and things of that sort, I suppose?" the boy +questioned. + +"And many others of similar character," the older man agreed. + +"But how about insufficiently punched cards?" queried Hamilton. "I can +see that it would be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad +inconsistencies, but supposing a figure were only left out, there would +be no contact made to show the error." + +"Except in the age column," was the reply, "there is supposed to be a +punch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a +contact from every card registers its disapproval by throwing out that +card." + +"And what happens to the rejected cards?" asked Hamilton, with interest. + +"A checker-up compares them with the original schedules, and if +incorrectly punched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, +punches the missing place. But the number of cards found wrong does not +reach a high percentage." + +"You know I've been thinking," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "that while I +suppose it is all right getting all those holes punched in a card, and +so forth, I should think it would be fearfully hard to handle the card +afterwards. All these little holes look so much alike." + +"To the eye, perhaps," the chief said, "but you must remember that these +cards are never sorted by eyesight. And you must remember that the +sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the +verifying and the tabulating is handled in a purely mechanical fashion. +You remember that each card was punched with a gang-punch?" + +"Of course," the boy said, "that was to specify the district." + +"We keep all those together from the time they are punched till after +we are through with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain +enumeration district, and of every section in that district, are kept +together in a separate box." + +"My word," Hamilton exclaimed, "what a storage you must have!" + +"You ought to go down and see it some time," the other said. "It's big +enough, with every State and every county and every district in the +country having its own place, and every little village in that district +right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, +and district. I'm telling you this just to show you that we don't have +to sort the cards for location at all, and that in itself saves us a lot +of labor and time." + +"And they were sorted into sexes on the punching machine, I remember," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Yes, and that prevents another handling of every card, you see," the +chief went on, "so that without any further special division, every card +is divided by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when +it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating +machine--which is just the same as the verification, only instead of the +electrical connections being made through relays only, they are +sometimes made direct to counters." + +"Just how, Mr. Cullern?" the boy asked. + +"Well," the other continued, "when the pin, passing through the hole in +the card, drops into the little cup of mercury it closes a current +passing through an electro-magnet controlling a counter or a dial +corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and +for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The +tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and printing +system, somewhat along the stock ticker plan, connected with each dial. +When desired, touching an electric button will cause every dial to print +automatically the number recorded on a ribbon of paper." + +"That is before sorting?" + +"Or after. Cards may be tabulated along a lot of different lines. And +the sorting device depends again upon another machine, operated by the +same principle." + +The chief led the boy to another portion of the floor. + +"This sorter," he said, "can be set for thirteen different compartments. +In determining the country of birth, for example, at any given point on +the card, an electrically charged brush finds the hole punched and +directs the card in between two of those finely divided wire levels, +where a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point +where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest +compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile +of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the +operator clearing away the pile from each division as it becomes full. +As you can see, that feed knife moves so rapidly and the endless band +fingers carry the cards out of the way in such a hurry that they move +along in a steady stream. We have only twenty of these machines and they +handle all the cards." + +"It's hard to believe," said Hamilton wonderingly, "that these machines +don't think." + +"We're just building one in here," the supervisor replied, leading the +way into a little partitioned-off section of the room, "that has an +uncanny ingenuity. This machine feeds itself with cards, verifies and +tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the +adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the work +of the next census amazingly, just as the machines you saw have made the +old hand punching machines of former times seem very cumbersome. But +this one," he added, "is a gem." + +[Illustration: PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (_Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It's a little like magic, it seems to me," said Hamilton, "to think of +every person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot +of little holes in it, and practically the whole history on it. It +certainly is queer." + +"There is something mysterious in it," the chief answered with a laugh. +"One feels as though all the secrets of the United States were boxed up +and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the +Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web of +organization, whose skill and knowledge have unlocked commercial +secrets, and whose perception has always seen the essential fact." + +"It's great work to have a share in," the boy declared enthusiastically. + +"To make us all feel that," his superior replied "is the chiefest spell +of the Director of the Census." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + + +"This is surely one blazing day," said Hamilton one day early in June, +as after the noon hour, he settled back at his work on the punching +machine. + +"We'll cool you off all right," responded the foreman, who was coming up +at the moment and heard the boy's remark, "for I understand they're +looking for editors on the Alaskan schedules. A big batch of them has +just arrived and I happen to know that your name has been recommended. +Mr. Cullern asked me to send you to him just as soon as you came in." + +"I should like that above all things," Hamilton replied, "partly because +I've always been interested in Alaska, and also because this work has +got a little monotonous. I hadn't thought of the Alaskan census," he +continued, "and that's strange too; I should think census-taking up in +that country must have been full of excitement and adventure." + +"Probably it was," responded his friend, "but you won't find any +thrilling yarns on the schedules; they'll be just like any other +schedules, I should imagine, only that the occupations will be of a +different variety. But you had better go along and see the chief." + +Hamilton went gladly, thinking that no matter how formal the schedules +might be that dealt with Alaska they could not help but show to some +extent the character of the conditions in which they had been secured +and the difficulties attaching to work in that isolated land. + +"How would you like to try your hand at the editing of the Alaska +schedules, Noble?" asked the chief of the division when the boy appeared +before him a few moments later. + +"Very much indeed, Mr. Cullern," Hamilton replied. + +"I understand that you have shown a great deal of interest in your work +while you have been here," the chief said, "and when I was asked +yesterday if I had any one to recommend I thought of you at once. Having +had experience in the manufactures end, as well as in the population, +ought to help you a good deal in the work. You were a special agent in +the manufactures, were you not?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "but I don't think any of the places to +which I went resembled in any way the conditions in Alaska." + +"Probably not," the chief said dryly, "New England isn't usually +considered in that light. But the underlying principles are the same, of +course, all the way through. Well, if you want to try it, here is your +chance." + +"Very well, sir," Hamilton answered promptly. "I shall be glad to take +it up." + +The boy waited a moment, but as there seemed nothing more to be said, he +walked back to his machine, to straighten up before leaving. + +"As soon as you're through with that schedule," the foreman in charge of +the sub-section told him, "let me know, and then you can go to Mr. +Barnes, who is in charge of the Alaskan schedules." + +"I've nearly finished," answered the boy, "I'll be done in a quarter of +an hour anyway." + +Accordingly, a little later, Hamilton found his way to another part of +the building, where he met his new superior, a small, alert, nervous, +quick-spoken man, who, as Hamilton afterwards found out, had the +capacity of working at lightning speed, and then stopping and wanting to +talk at intervals. He said very little when Hamilton first came to him, +merely handing him a number of schedules to edit. + +Hamilton watched him furtively several times and noted the amazing +rapidity of his work. Secretly he knew he could not attain that speed, +but he thought he had better make as good a showing as he could, and so +he, too, buckled to the job for all he was worth. When the boy had done +two or three schedules, each containing fifty names, Mr. Barnes reached +out for those that had been edited and went through them closely. He +made one or two corrections. + +"That's not half bad, Noble," he said suddenly, "but I can see from one +or two little things you let go by that you are not entirely familiar +with that country. I'll tell you more about it later, but in the +meantime you had better look over some of the reports the supervisors +have sent in; they give you an insight into what those enumerators out +there had to go through in order to secure anything like complete +schedules. Here in one from the Fourth District, for example, there is a +graphic description of the work which I think you ought to enjoy. It's +good writing, too." + +"My enumeration work was in Kentucky," said Hamilton, "so I haven't much +line on the conditions in the North. But I've always enjoyed books and +stories about Alaska, and I'd like to read the report." + +"It will give you the atmosphere," said Barnes, "listen to this +paragraph, for example: 'The work was performed during the severest +winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers there. There +did not appear to be a man who did not have a pride in his work, an +anxiety to create a record for traveling time, a desire to enumerate all +the people in the district assigned to him, and to have to his credit +less loss of time because of weather than any of the other agents.'" + +"I guess," said Hamilton, "that supervisor had those enumerators just +breaking their necks to beat out the other agents, and he worked on +their pride to get up their speed." + +"'That the service lost none of its men from freezing to death, and that +every man returned safely, is a matter for congratulation and of good +fortune, from the fact that there were in this part of Alaska more +deaths from the weather this winter than all preceding years in total; +cases in which those who met such deaths did not begin to go through the +sacrifice and privation that these agents of the service did.'" + +"Makes you proud to have been an enumerator, doesn't it?" asked the boy. +"But it always seems difficult to realize hardship unless you have been +there." + +"I spent a winter in Alaska," said Barnes emphatically, "and I can feel +the thrill of it in every line. He knows what he's writing of, too, this +man. Hear how he describes it: 'All the men in the service,'" he +continued, "'covered hundreds of miles over the ice and snow, in weather +ranging from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the average temperature +probably being about 40 below. Because of the absolute lack of beaten +trails--' I wonder," he broke off, "if any one who hasn't been there can +grasp what it means!" + +Hamilton waited. + +"No beaten trail," Barnes said reminiscently, "means where stunted +willows emphasize by their starved and shivering appearance the nearness +of the timber; where the snow-drifts, each with its little feather of +drifting snow sheering from its crest, are heaped high; where the snow +underfoot is unbroken; where under snow-filled skies a wind studded +with needle-sharp ice crystals blows a perfect gale; where the lonely +and frozen desolation is peopled only by the haunting shape of fear that +next morning a wan and feeble sun may find you staggering still blindly +on, hopelessly lost, or fallen beside a drift where the winter's snows +must melt before your fate is known." + +He stopped abruptly and went on with his schedule. Hamilton worked on in +silence. Presently, as though there had been no pause, Barnes resumed +his quotation from the supervisor's report: + +"'Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails, and the fact that the +snow lies so loosely on the ground like so much salt, no matter what its +depth may be, it was necessary through all their work to snow-shoe ahead +of the dog-teams. When one considers their isolation,--often traveling +for days without other shelter than a tent and fur robes--it can be +understood what sacrifices some of these men made to visit far-away +prospectors' cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part +of the country ever considers that there is any hardship, unless there +is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, +though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.'" + +He tossed over the report to Hamilton. + +"Look it over," he said. "I tell you there's some stirring stuff in +that, and just the bald reports of the enumerators' trips leave the +stories of explorers in the shade." + +The boy took up the report as he was bidden, and read it with avidity. +Presently, upon a boyish exclamation, the other spoke: + +"What's that one you've struck?" + +"It's the enumerator from the district of Chandler," answered Hamilton. + +"Go ahead and read it aloud," Barnes said, "I can go on with these +schedules just as well while you do." + +"'At no time after he left Fairbanks,'" read the boy, "'did the +thermometer get above 30 degrees below zero. His long journey away from +a base of supplies made it impossible for him to carry a sufficient +supply of grub, and he was obliged to live off the country, killing +moose, mountain sheep, and other fresh meat. He froze portions of his +face several times, and on one occasion dropped into six feet of open +water, nearly losing his life in consequence.'" + +"That would be fearful," said Barnes, "unless he could pitch camp right +there, put up a tent, build a fire, and change into dry clothing." + +"There seems to have been mighty little wood for that up there," +Hamilton remarked, "because, speaking of this same enumerator, the +supervisor says, further on, 'In crossing the Arctic Range and in +returning he traveled above timber line eighteen hours in both +directions, which, in a country where fire is a necessity, can be +understood is a very considerable sacrifice. He traveled in many places +where a white man had never been before, and as there are no beaten +trails or government roads in the district anywhere, he was obliged, +everywhere, to snow-shoe ahead of his team to beat down a trail.'" + +"Did you ever snow-shoe?" asked Barnes abruptly. + +"Once," answered Hamilton, "when I went to Canada to visit some cousins; +they had a snow-shoe tramp and insisted on my coming along. But I was +stiff for a week." + +"Well," said the editor, "when you try to break trail and have to keep +ahead of a dog-team coming along at a fair clip, it's just about the +hardest kind of work there is." + +"They all seem to have had their own troubles," said Hamilton, who had +been glancing down the pages of the report: "here's the next chap, who +got caught in a blizzard while accompanying the mail carrier, and if it +hadn't been for the fact that the people of the nearest settlement knew +that the mail carrier was expected on that day and sent out a rescue +party to search for him, neither of the two men would ever have been +found, and the census would have lost a man." + +"That was up in the Tanana region, wasn't it?" queried Barnes, but +without looking up from his work. + +"Yes," answered the boy, "and from all accounts that must be a wild part +of the country. Speaking of that same enumerator, the supervisor says: +'That this agent survived the work during the stormy period and came +back alive was the wonder of the older inhabitants of the country. No +less than four times this man was found by other travelers in an +exhausted condition, not far from complete collapse, and assisted to a +stopping place. He lost three dogs, and suffered terribly himself from +frost-bite. In the same district, during the same time, eight persons +were frozen to death, six men and two women.' There's quite a story +here, too, telling how he himself rescued a couple of trappers in the +last stages of hunger, exposure, and exhaustion." + +"It's fearful to think of," the other commented; "just imagine those +agonizing journeys in the teeth of an Arctic wind, traveling over +hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness to get less than one-tenth as +many people as a city enumerator would find in one block!" + +"But why do it in winter?" asked Hamilton. "It's hot up there in summer, +I've heard, and driving in the warm weather is pleasant enough; there's +no hardship in that!" + +"You can't drive where there are no roads, and you can't ride where +there are no horses. Then the time available is short." + +"Why is it so short?" + +"You haven't a railroad going to every point in Alaska," Barnes pointed +out, "there's usually a trip of several hundred miles before you get to +the place from which to start. And when are you going to make that +journey?" + +"In the spring," Hamilton said, "as soon as it gets mild." + +"I reckon you don't know much about Alaska," the older man remarked. +"When the snow thaws, the creeks overflow, and the rivers become raging +torrents. You can't ride, and if you walk, how are you going to cross a +swollen river, filled with pieces of ice the size of this room? Those +Alaska rivers are huge bodies of water, many of them, and there are no +bridges." + +"How about boats?" + +"You mean traveling on those ice-filled rivers? It couldn't be done." + +"But as soon as the ice goes out?" + +"That's pretty well into June, to start with, and then you would have to +pole up against the current all the way, and the currents of most of the +rivers are very swift. Did you ever pole a boat up against a swift +mountain river?--I thought not. Suppose, by very hard work, you could +make two or three miles an hour up stream,--at that rate how long would +it take you to go up to the highest settlement? And then you would have +to go all the way down again and ascend the next stream; and even then +more than half the settlements would be on streams and creeks you could +not get to with boats because of falls, of rapids, of long portages, and +things of that kind." + +"I guess they couldn't use a boat," said Hamilton, "but still I don't +see why they couldn't ride!" + +"Ride what? Dogs? Or reindeer? I suppose you mean to take a horse up +there?" + +"That's what I was thinking of," Hamilton admitted. + +"How would you get him up there? Take him in a dog-sled the preceding +winter? You know a horse couldn't travel on the snow like a dog-team. +And if you did get him up to the starting point during the winter, on +what would you feed him? Dried salmon? That's all there is, and while it +makes good enough dog-feed, a horse isn't built that way. There's no +hay-cutting section up there, and your horse would starve to death +before you had a chance to ride him. And even supposing that you could +keep him alive,--I don't believe you could ride him over the tundra +swamps; there is no horse made that could keep his footing on those +marshy tussocks." + +"I see you're right," said Hamilton, "I hadn't thought of all that." + +The older man continued: "There are horses in the towns of southern +Alaska, because, you know, there is one narrow strip that runs a long +way south, and there the weather is not severe. But the north is +another matter entirely. The pay that you would have to offer in order +to lure the men away from the gold-diggings would be enormous. No, it +had to be a winter job, and in the Geography section--where I was last +year--it took us all our time to estimate satisfactory enumeration +districts for Alaska." + +[Illustration: OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"The Geography section?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I hadn't heard +of that. What is that part of the census work for?" + +"To map out the enumeration districts," his superior explained. "That is +a most important part of the work. You remember that the enumeration +district was supposed to provide exactly a month's work for each man?" + +"Yes," Hamilton answered, "I know I had to hustle in order to get mine +done in the month." + +"Supposing," said the other, "that all the people that were on your +schedule had lived in villages close together, would it have taken you +as long to do?" + +"Of course not," Hamilton replied, "I could have done it in half the +time. What delayed things was riding from farm to farm, and they were +scattered all over the countryside." + +"Exactly," Barnes continued, "but I suppose you never stopped to think +that the number of people in each district and the nature of the ground +to be covered both had to be considered. Then allowance had to be made +for the enumeration of those not readily accessible, and for such +natural obstacles as unbridged rivers; all these had to be mapped out +and gone over by the Census Bureau before the sections were assigned." + +"No," the boy replied, "I never really stopped to think who it was that +made up all those districts. And, now you come to speak of it, I don't +see how it could have been done without being on the ground." + +"Yet it is evident," the other said, "that it must have been done. It +wouldn't be fair to tell a man to finish a district that represented +seven or eight weeks' work, nor to promise a month's work to a man and +then give him a district that had only two or three weeks' employment. +You couldn't alter the districts afterwards, either, as everything had +to be prepared in Washington for enumeration and tabulation by the +original districts as mapped out." + +"You mean," said Hamilton, "that every square mile of territory in the +United States, the number of people on it, the kind of land it was, the +roads and trails, the distance from the nearest town, the rivers, and +the location of bridges across them, and all that sort of thing had to +be worked out in advance?" + +"Every acre," was the reply, "and the worst of it was that there was +very little to go by. The lists for the last Decennial Census were only +of use in the Eastern districts, for in the West large towns had grown +up that were mere villages then. Whole sections of territory which were +uninhabited ten years ago are thick with farms today and the 'Great +American Desert' of a few years ago is becoming, under irrigation, the +'Great American Garden.'" + +"The Survey maps helped, I should think," said Hamilton. "I have a +friend, Roger Doughty, on the Geological Survey, and he told me all +about the making of the Topographic maps." + +"They helped, of course, but even with those it was hard to work out +some of the queerly shaped districts. The supervisors helped us greatly +after the larger districts had been planned, but the Geography division +had to keep in touch with every detail until the entire country was +divided into proportionately equal sections. + +"And you had to do that for Alaska, as well!" + +"As far as we could. Of course it was difficult to determine routes of +travel there, and to a large extent that had to be left to the +supervisors, but they merely revised our original districting. It took a +lot of figuring in Alaska because of the tremendous travel difficulties +there and the thousands of miles of territory still unsurveyed." + +"I had never realized the need of all that preparatory work," the boy +admitted. + +"There's a great deal of the work that has to be done in the years +before the census and in the years after," he was informed, "and the +Bureau is kept just as busy as it can be, all the while. The Decennial +Census, although it is the biggest part of the census work, is only one +of its many branches, and then there are always other matters being +looked after, like the Quinquennial Census of Manufactures, and such +numberings as those of the Religious Bodies and the Marriage and Divorce +Statistics of a few years ago." + +"I understood the Bureau had regular work all the year round?" Hamilton +said. + +"Indeed it has. All the births and deaths that are registered are +tabulated here, and a number of tables of vital statistics are worked +out which are of immense value to doctors not only in the United States +but all over the world. Then, as I think you know, we have for years +made a special study of cotton crop conditions, and there is a bulletin +published at stated intervals showing the state of the cotton industry +in the United States. Then there is all the statistical work on cities +of over 30,000 inhabitants, and there is scarcely a question which has +reference to the population or the manufacturing interests of the +country that is not referred sooner or later to the Bureau of the +Census." + +"You work with the Forest Service, too, I believe," said Hamilton. +"Wilbur Loyle, a forest ranger whom I knew very well, showed me some +figures that the Bureau had prepared." + +"Only in the collection and publication of statistics of forest +products," said Barnes, rising and changing his office coat,--for the +conversation had run on long after office hours,--"owing to their +co-operation the task is not cumbersome; questions of information or +special statistics asked for by Congress or by the executive departments +take up a great deal of time when added to an already extensive routine +work." + +Editing the schedules of the population of Alaska, just as Hamilton had +expected, proved to be of the most intense interest, since, despite the +closest desire on the part of the enumerators to confine themselves +strictly to official facts, the wildness of the frontier life would +creep in. An example of this was the listing of an Eskimo girl on the +schedule as having "Sun" and "Sea" for her parents with an explanatory +note to the effect that she had been found as a tiny girl upon a heap of +sea moss on the beach. Another was when an enumerator wrote on his +schedule under 'language spoken,' "Some pesky lingo; I know most of +their talk, but this was too much for me and the hut was too strong to +stay in long." + +Such comments made it easy to create a picture of the semi-savagery of +the fur-clad fishers on the shores of the Arctic Sea. + +Another schedule, one which interested the boy greatly, was that in +which the age of an Indian was described as "200 snows." To try to get +this worked out to the probably true age of 80 or 90 years evidently had +been quite a task. The enumerator wrote: + +"This Indian ain't 200 years old. He says he's 200 snows, but I can't +quite figure it out. He says he was 20 snows when he got first woman, +kept her 4 snows, then she go away! He complained that 'he had no +women 4 suns and catch no women 4 snows.' He 'got more woman, keep her 5 +snows, then she eat cold (frozen to death). Got no woman 20 snows, she +good woman.' He could not give any clue about his children only that +'his chickens 30 to 45 snows!' They reckon here only from what they can +remember, so this buck is probably counting from about ten years old. +That would make him thirty when he first got a wife, thirty-four when +she died, thirty-eight when he got his next wife, and forty-three when +she died. Counting his oldest child at 45 this would make him about +seventy-five. Where the '200 snows' comes in, I don't see." + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +A great treat to the boy came, however, when one of the enumerators from +the Second District of Alaska, who had been summoned East in the spring +on business concerning some property with which he was associated, and +had come as soon as the break-up permitted travel, dropped into the +Census Bureau. He made himself known to the Director, and the latter, +always ready to show attention and being really proud of the Census +Bureau staff, arranged to have him shown around the building. The +Alaskan was a small fellow, hard as nails, given to stretches of +silence, but with a ready, infectious laugh and the ability to tell a +good yarn after he got started. Presently, just before quitting time, he +reached the desk where Barnes and Hamilton were editing schedules. + +"This ought to interest you," said the Bureau official who was showing +him around, "these men are just going over the Alaskan schedules before +sending them to the machines to be punched and tabulated." + +Looking interested, the man bent forward and, with a muttered word of +apology, picked up the schedule on which Hamilton was working at the +time. "This must be one o' mine!" he said, with an air of surprise. + +"But that is marked, 'Copy'!" said Hamilton "I was just wondering where +the original was." + +"I'm willin' to gamble quite a stack, son," was the surprising reply, +"that you'd have been wonderin' a whole lot more if the original had +come down to you." + +"Why, how's that?" + +"Well, I reckon I c'n handle dogs better'n I can a pen," he said, "an' +when you come to try an' write one o' these schedules on scraps o' dried +skin you c'n count it sure's shootin' there's some decipherin' got to +be done." + +Barnes looked at the official who was showing the Alaskan 'round the +building, and knowing him very well, he said to the visitor, "Spin us +the yarn; I've been up there and I'd like to hear it myself, and I know +the lad is just wild to hear it." + +"I want to be a part of that audience, too," said the official, with a +smile. + +"I don't want to hold up the job!" the visitor suggested hesitatingly. + +"Go ahead," his conductor answered. "Here we are all waiting, and it's +nearly half-past four anyway." + +"Well, then, it was up in the Noatak Pass--" he was beginning, when +Hamilton stopped him. + +"I don't want to interrupt, right at the start," he said, "but where is +that pass?" + +"I should have told you," said the miner goodhumoredly, "it's the pass +between the Endicott an' the Baird ranges, at the extreme northern end +of the Rockies. I hated to go through it, an' I wouldn't have, most +times, not unless there was a mighty big pull to get me over there, but +I had promised to count every one in my district, an' so, of course, +there was nothin' else to do but go, even though I knew there was no one +on the other side but a bunch of Eskimos. Well, we were halfway up the +pass when the Indian guide stopped the dogs an' listened. It was just +about noon an' the travelin' was good, so that, wantin' to make time, I +got good an' mad at the stop. Knowin' my Indian, I kep' quiet just the +same, always bein' willin' to bet on an Indian bein' right on the trail. +First off, I could notice nothin', then, when I threw back my parka hood +I could hear a boomin' in the air as though some one was beatin' a gong, +miles and miles away. It was so steady a sound that after you had once +heard it for a while you wouldn't notice it, an' you would have to +listen again real hard to see if it was still goin' on." + +"Like distant thunder?" queried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit. It was high, like a gong, an' it wasn't any too good to +hear. The dogs knew it, too, for though we had been stopped nearly five +minutes none of them had started to fight." + +"Do dogs fight every time they stop?" + +"Just about. They try to, anyway. In the traces, of course, they can't +do much but snap an' snarl, but that they're always doin'. This time, +however, all save one or two of them stood upright sniffin' uneasily. + +"'Wind?' I asked the Indian. + +"'Heap wind!' he answered. 'Go back?' + +"Now you may lay ten to one that when an Indian is the first to suggest +goin' back, trouble with a big 'T' is right handy. I reckon that was the +first time I ever did hear an Indian propose goin' back. 'Why go back, +Billy?' I asked. + +"'Heap wind,' he repeated, 'old trail easy.' He pointed ahead, 'No +trail!'" + +"He meant, I suppose," Hamilton interjected, "that if you doubled on +your tracks the trail would have been broken before, and it would be +easy going." + +"That's the bull's-eye, and if a storm did come up we'd have a trail to +follow and not get lost." + +"Did you go back?" + +"I did not. I figured that while we were about a day's journey to a +settlement either way, we were perhaps an hour nearer where we were +goin' than where we had come from, an' that perhaps the storm would hold +off long enough for us to make it. Those storms last for days, +sometimes, an' we'd have the trip to make anyway, even if we did go +back. Besides, I didn't want to lose the time. 'No, Billy,' I called to +the Siwash, 'go on!' + +"I was sorry the minute I said it, because I knew the Siwash thought me +wrong, although, bein' an Indian, of course he never showed a sign. He +started up the dogs without a word. I knew he thought it reckless and +dangerous, but tortures wouldn't have made him say so. In half an hour's +time, I began to be sure he was right." + +"Did the storm strike as soon as that?" asked the boy. + +"No. If it had, I think I should have gone back. But at the end of that +half-hour, we topped a rise that gave a view of the country ahead an' +showed it to be broken an' bad travelin'. I shouldn't have liked the +look of it at any time, but with a storm brewin' an' the Indian wantin' +to go back, it sure did look ugly. But the faint roarin' of the distant +storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the +wind no higher,--an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' +plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast +lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like +a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was +behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An +hour went by, an' I was just beginnin' to think that we would be able to +cover the greater part of the distance, when a huge white shape rose +from the snow near by, passed in front of the sledge, and disappeared. +I've been scared once in my life. This was that once." + +"What was it?" asked Hamilton breathlessly. + +"I watched," the Alaskan continued, "an' presently about a hundred yards +away, an' a little to the right of the sled, the snow began to move. I +couldn't feel a breath of wind. But the snow seemed to writhe an' stir +as though some monster from the Arctic night was wakin' from his winter +sleep, an' a wisp of snow hurled upwards; then, with a heave the snow +crust broke an' fell apart an' a column of snow shot up like a geyser +swirlin' into a pillar a hundred feet high. + +"A moment it stood; then swayed over an' begun to move slowly at first, +but gatherin' speed every second, noiselessly, save for a sound like the +indrawin' of a breath and a faint crackin' as the hard snow crust +shivered into atoms where it struck. Aimlessly, yet seemin' to have a +hidden purpose as though wreathin' the figures of some Boreal dance, it +come near us and fell back; moved away an' threatened again; then swept +upon us till its icy breathin' gripped our throats, an' our hearts stood +still. + +"An' in the silence, one dog whined. + +"Behind the sled there stirred the snow anew, an' in a moment or two +another column threw itself at the sky, and behind us an' around, other +of these columns rose an' moved like spectral dancers under the +slate-green clouds of the snow-filled sky. No wind, no sound but the +lone leader of the team howlin' in utter fear." + +"A dancing blizzard!" said Barnes, in an awed tone, under his breath. + +"If there had been anythin' to do, it would have been easier," the +Alaskan continued, "but to move was not more dangerous than to stay +still. In answer to a sign, the Indian started up the dogs again, an' we +went on, though the road ahead looked like the ice-forest of a +disordered dream. Presently, without a moment's warnin' one of the huge +snow pillars came rushin' straight at us, an' I braced myself by the +sledge to hold to it if I could, but it swerved before it reached us an' +ran along beside the trail. About fifty feet ahead it swerved again and +cut across the trail, an' the extreme edge caught the Indian, picked +him up in the air, an' threw him at least thirty feet." + +"Was he hurt?" cried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit, for there was nothin' to fall on but snow. He picked himself +up, looked carefully at his snow-shoes to see that they had not been +damaged, an' resumed his place at the head of the dogs. What would have +become of him if he had been plucked into the middle of the whirlwind is +hard to say. I wouldn't have counted on seein' him again anyway." + +"But you never really got caught by any?" + +"Wouldn't be here talkin', if I had," was the reply. "But when we come +to the track of that whirlwind column, it was a puzzle how to get +across. The column, goin' like a railroad train, had cut a gully in the +hard snow full ten feet deep,--the sides as clean cut as though done +with a knife, or rather with a scoop, because the edge was slightly +scolloped all the way along." + +"How did you get across?" + +"Axes," was the brief reply. "We cut through the snow crust and beat +down a steep path on both sides of the gully an' made the dogs take it. +Dog harness is strong, but I was afraid of the strain on it that time." + +"How long did the blizzard last?" + +"You mean the whirlwinds?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered. + +"Not very long,--quarter of an hour, perhaps. Then I felt a slight +breeze, an' at the same moment the columns, bendin' their heads like +grass before the wind, swept to the right of us, an' were out of sight +in a moment. The Indian yelled and pointed to the left, throwin' himself +on the ground as he did so." + +"What was it?" cried Hamilton. + +"It looked like a solid wall of snow, an' before I realized it was +comin', the storm struck, hurled me to the ground, an' rolled me over +an' over in the snow. I wasn't hurt, of course, but it took me so long +to get my breath that I thought it was never goin' to come, an' that I +should suffocate. But after that first burst, the blizzard settled down +to the regular variety, an' we all felt more at home. But even at that, +it was the worst one I ever saw in the North, an' I've been there nine +winters." + +"What did you do? Go back?" + +"No use tryin' to go back," the traveler said, "because those whirlwinds +had cut gullies across the snow in every direction so that our old trail +was no use to us. We went ahead a bit, as far as we could, but soon +realized that there was nothin' to do but camp right where we were an' +wait for the blizzard to blow over. Usually two days is enough for the +average storm to let up a little, but it was not until the third day +that there was any chance of startin', an' even then it was almost as +bad as could be for travel. But I had to make a start then." + +"Why?" asked Hamilton, who always wanted to know the details of +everything. + +"Because we were runnin' short of dog-feed, an' you can't let your dogs +die of hunger, for then you can't get anywhere. But the blizzard had +drifted everything an' was still driftin', so that the snow was hard in +some places and soft in others; the travelin' was almost impossible, an' +you couldn't see twenty yards ahead. Then while the blizzard had filled +the gullies made by the whirlwinds, the snow in them was not packed down +as hard as the rest of the surface, an' dogs an' sled an' Indian an' +myself would all go flounderin' into the drift, an' it would be a tough +pull to get the sled out again.--That was a hard trip. + +"The worst of it came when, without a bit of warnin', without our even +knowin' where we were, the hard crust of the snow gave way beneath us, +an' the sled, the dogs, and myself fell headlong down a slope an' into a +stream of runnin' water, the sled upside down, of course." + +"How about the Indian?" asked the boy. + +"He saved himself from goin' into the water, an' it was a good thing +that he did, for he was able to help in pullin' us out. But, from one +point of view, the accident was a help, for it told the Indian just +where we were. There was only one stream of that size in that +neighborhood, an' until we found it, we were hopelessly lost. But from +that time we knew that the settlement we were headin' for was straight +up the stream, an' all we had to do was to follow it. But it was a race +for life, in order to get to camp before frozen clothin' and various +frostbites crippled me entirely." + +"But how about the dogs?" queried Hamilton. "I should think it would be +worse for them than for you." + +The Alaskan shook his head. + +"A 'husky' can stand just about anythin' in the way of cold," he said, +"an' my leaders 'Tussle' and 'Bully' were a couple of wonders. Only one +of the dogs gave out. Well, we made the camp finally, pretty well done +up all round. The worst of it was, that when we come to unpack the +sled--we did it with an ax because everythin' was frozen solid--the +census pouch was missin'. Luckily there was no past work in it,--only +blank schedules, information papers, an' things of that sort. So I made +up the schedules on odd bits of paper and skins, as I told you, an' the +supervisor copied them on the schedule to send in, an' that schedule you +have in your hand is the copy of those very pieces of skin." + +[Illustration: CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.] + +Hamilton glanced at the paper with redoubled interest. + +"I suppose it was no use trying to get the pouch back," he said. + +"I didn't think it would be," the Alaskan replied "but I tried to reach +the place where the sled had been overturned, an' each time the weather +drove me back. On the third day I got a chance to go with some Eskimos +with reindeer to a little settlement about twenty miles off, an' so I +went along and got the names there, comin' back on a reindeer sled. +That's the only time I ever felt like Santa Claus. I'm sure I don't look +it." + +[Illustration: TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +Hamilton looked at his spare figure and laughed. + +"No," he said, "I don't think an artist would be likely to pick you for +the part. How did you like the reindeer, though? I've always wondered +that they didn't use them more in Alaska. The government keeps a herd, +doesn't it?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "but that is more for fresh meat than for travel. +A good reindeer is a cracker-jack of an animal when he wants to be, but +when he takes a streak to quit, it doesn't matter where it is or what +you do to him, he won't go another step. A balky mule is an angel of +meekness beside a reindeer. You can always make a mule see what you want +him to do--although the odds are that he won't do it even then--but when +a reindeer gets stubborn,--why, he just can't be made to understand +anythin'!" + +"Yet I've read that they use them a good deal in Lapland!" said the boy +in surprise. + +"They have domesticated them more thoroughly, I guess," the Northerner +replied. "In time they may be worked up here in the same way, and when +you consider how short a time the government has had to do what is +already accomplished, it seems to me the result is wonderful. Of course, +so far as traffic is concerned there are dogs enough, and they do the +work in mighty good shape." + +"How did you work back from the settlement which you had got to with +such difficulty?" the boy asked. + +"I came back another way, in order to take in a little group of houses +on a small pay-creek," was the reply. "But it was comin' back from that +trip, on the Koatak River, that I had quite a time, although I was not +the sufferer. We had been havin' a hard spell of weather, but there come +a week when conditions on the trail were much better an' we were reelin' +off the miles in great shape. I hadn't a place on my map for about sixty +miles, when in the distance I saw a little hut, just in the fringe of +some stunted cottonwoods and some scraggy willows, for we were not far +from the timber limit. + +"'Billy,' I called to the Indian, 'ever see that hut before?' + +"The Indian shook his head, but knowin' that I wanted to see an' count +everybody in the district, he turned off the trail--he said it was a +trail but I couldn't see it--an' led the way to the hut. I went in an' +found a man lying on a couple of planks, just about dead. He was one of +the survivors of the wrecked steamer _Filarleon_, and had frozen all +the fingers of both hands. Two or three were turnin' gangrenous; an' one +of these had got so bad that with his other crippled hand, he had sawed +off the decomposin' member with his pocket-knife. One foot also was +frozen an' had turned black, but that afterwards recovered." + +"What did you do for him?" asked the boy. + +"Put him on the sled, of course," the Alaskan answered, "an' took him to +the nearest settlement. I afterwards heard that a doctor happened in to +camp soon after I left, an' got at his hurts right away, an' that he was +put back into fair condition all but the one finger.--That's no +tenderfoot's country up there." + +"I wonder you stuck it out," said Hamilton. "But then," he added a +moment later, "I can see how a fellow would hate to quit." + +"It was tough," reluctantly admitted the narrator, "an' I'll tell you +what I did. I'm not much of a hand with the pen, but right in the middle +of the work I found a man who was goin' down the river, an' I sat down +and wrote a long letter to the supervisor. It was about as plaintive a +thing as I ever read. I had no reason to expect an answer, but by chance +another party was comin' up that way, an' some weeks later I received a +reply. What do you suppose he said!" + +"I haven't the least idea," answered the boy. + +"His answer read just this way: + +"'I chose you because you were experienced in the treeless coast. Go to +it. We are expecting you to make good.'" + +"And," Hamilton said, his eyes shining, "I'll bet you did!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + + +The sidelights that Hamilton had received on the Alaskan enumeration had +given him a greater zest for census work than ever, and he devoted not a +little of his spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. +Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when +he reached home, he worked out the route of the enumerator whose +schedules he had edited during that day's work. He had secured the big +geological reconnaissance map of Alaska for the purpose. Consequently, +it was with a sense of regret that he faced the day when the last of the +Alaskan schedules had been edited. + +"What next, I wonder, Mr. Barnes?" said Hamilton, laying down his pen +and glancing round to his companion. "How about Porto Rico? They had a +census this spring, too, didn't they?" + +"I imagine the Porto Rico work is about done," his friend replied, "at +least I know that most of it came in some weeks ago. How are you on +Spanish?" + +"I can read it all right," Hamilton answered, "although I don't write +particularly well. But are the schedules all in Spanish?" + +"Yes, indeed," said the other. + +"I don't think simple Spanish would bother me at all," Hamilton replied. +"I knew a chap who was going to the Philippines and he wanted some one +to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to +keep him company, I hammered at it too. But, after a bit, he joined a +class, so I dropped out, although I did study once in a while so as not +to forget it altogether." + +"Why don't you suggest that you know Spanish," remarked Barnes, "and +perhaps you'll get the chance." + +Accordingly, when a little later, the final copy on the Alaskan +schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto Rican work, +and ventured his slight familiarity with Spanish. + +"We have several translators," replied the chief, "but still, I suppose +Mr. Alavero can make you useful. I'll let you know later on." + +In a few moments he returned and beckoned to the boy, who followed him, +with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of the Alaskan +schedules with whom he had enjoyed working greatly. + +"Mr. Alavero," the official said, introducing Hamilton, "this is Noble. +I don't know what his Spanish is like, but I think he may be of some use +to you in getting out the manufactures statistics, as he did some work +along that line early in the year and has been with the census ever +since." + +The editor smiled affably at the boy and shook hands with heartiness. + +"The schedule work is all done," he said, "but it will take some time +preparing the report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because +there is so much American capital invested in Porto Rico that a detailed +analysis will be of value." + +"It is real editorial work, then!" Hamilton said, with a note of +pleasure in his voice. + +"I think," said the chief dryly, "that Mr. Alavero will do the editorial +work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you are to assist him in +preparing tables and matters of that kind." + +But no sooner had the Bureau official gone than the Porto Rican came +forward. + +"If you like," he said, "we'll try to arrange some part of the work that +you can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will +be 'real' editorial work, and you'll be able to see your own writing in +print." + +Hamilton thanked him fervently, and from that day on would have done +anything for his new superior. + +"This is a considerable change, Mr. Alavero," said Hamilton the +following morning, when he found himself at a table littered with maps +and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with +reports and circulars containing pictures of the sub-tropical landscapes +and towns of Porto Rico. "I have been doing nothing but Alaska for a +month past." + +"Too cold!" the Porto Rican cried, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I was +in Washington this last winter and I thought I should die of freezing." + +"You are from Porto Rico yourself, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I was never away from the island at all," was the reply, "never even on +a steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to +show the people in your Congress that the coffee growers of Porto Rico +need help." + +"Why?" + +"Porto Rican coffee is the finest in the world," the editor answered +with a graphic gesture, "and when Porto Rico was Spanish we could sell +in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United +States includes us, and our coffee is taxed so that we cannot sell it. +And the American market is satisfied with Brazilian coffee, which is of +a cheaper grade." + +"Is coffee the principal crop down there?" queried the boy. "I notice +that nearly half these papers and books deal with coffee plantations." + +"It is still, but not as it once was," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar +and tobacco are the other big crops." + +"Coffee is easy to grow, isn't it?" asked the boy. "It doesn't want all +the attention that cotton does?" + +"After a grove is well-established, no, though we prune a great deal; +but sugar, yes. That's not such an obstacle though. There is plenty of +labor on the island." + +"Isn't the bulk of the island colored?" + +"No, no, no," answered the Porto Rican, shaking his finger in emphatic +denial, "more than three-fifths are pure white, a much smaller +proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The +negroes were slaves, but Spain freed them in 1873. There was no war." He +smiled. "We are a most peaceful people." + +[Illustration: GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(_Courtesy of the Department of War._)] + +"Not like our other accession from Spain," Hamilton commented. "I mean +the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it +seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them." + +"Wild? You do not know the half!" said the excitable little editor, who, +despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his +explanations was busily working with diagrams the while. "You know there +was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?" + +"I didn't until this morning," the boy answered "but as I see that most +of these tables are compared with that year it is evident that there +must have been." + +"There was a census," the editor went on, after a pause during which he +had been working over a column of figures, "and my uncle was a +supervisor. Mr. Gatten--you know him?" + +"Only by name," Hamilton replied. + +"He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in +the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, +because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? +You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, +because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the +census began." + +"Did any one get killed by hostile natives?" asked Hamilton, scenting a +story. + +"Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But"--and he waggled a +finger warningly--"there were plenty of places where the census was only +estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even +with the soldiers taking the census and going with other census men, it +was very risky among the uncivilized tribes." + +"They are really wild?" said Hamilton. + +"I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those +jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies." + +"Pygmies!" exclaimed Hamilton in surprise. "I didn't know that the Stars +and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in +Africa!" + +"The Negritos are pygmies," answered the editor, "seldom over four feet +ten inches for the man and the woman two or three inches shorter; they +use their toes like fingers, they wear only a loin-cloth, their hair is +fuzzy like a black bush, and they seldom use fire, even for cooking." + +"How do they live?" asked Hamilton. "We have got used to thinking of the +Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem +outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?" + +"Nothing!" was the answer. "A few have rough huts, but most of them +wander in the forests." + +"But where do they sleep?" + +"On the ground." + +"I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts," the boy remarked. + +"There are very few in the Philippines," was the reply. + +"How about snakes, then?" queried the lad. + +"They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely +ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping +man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as +possible." + +"Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and +swallow a man." + +"He could, but he doesn't," the Porto Rican pointed out; "rabbits are +more his size, or a young fawn. The Negritos are safe enough, as far as +that goes." + +"What do they live on?" + +"Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all +they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as +straight as you could shoot a bullet." + +"We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers," suggested +Hamilton with a grin. "But it really must have been an awful job +enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!--No thank you, +I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?" + +"No," was the reply, "the Negrito is dying out, just as the aboriginal +tribes all over the world are doing. There are only about twenty-three +thousand of the Pygmies left now." + +"But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?" queried the +boy. + +"Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types +of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The +aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as +any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, +and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of +the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are +Malays." + +"Even the head-hunters?" + +"Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,--apparently of two +periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long +time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts +themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so +forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and +some,--like the Ilongots--to this day carry out the savage custom that +'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his +bride with a human head.'" + +"That is certainly savage," Hamilton agreed; "one never thinks that sort +of thing can be going on still, and certainly not under the American +flag!" + +"It is, though," the Porto Rican replied. "The third group," he +continued, "the Moros and so forth, are all Mohammedans, and they seem +to have come to the islands after the semi-civilization of the Malay +archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty +and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to +the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the Moros drove the +Igorots. They are largely pure Malay, warlike and cruel, but shrewd and +capable of culture. They assume an over-lordship over all other tribes +and their Dattos can generally enforce it." + +"It seems strange," the boy said, "to think of going among those savages +and asking them the same questions that United States citizens were +asked, writing the answers on the same kind of schedules, and counting +these ferocious head-hunters on a tabulating machine." + +"Of course," the editor reminded him, "the Philippine census last time +was taken by the War Department, although the Bureau is even now +considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it +have to take the next Philippine census, as it probably will. But while +it was primitive, the work wasn't so very different. They were able to +use advance schedules, for example." + +The boy stared, and his informant laughed outright. + +"They were a little different," he explained, "and it was during the +enumeration of the Igorots and similar tribes. It was soon found that +they could count up to ten but no further. A certain number of them +could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was +sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these +sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he had. +In some of the villages so my uncle told me, the supervisor had a +branding iron made with which he had branded on the tally sticks the +figure of a pig, or a house, or a chicken or whatever it might be." + +"That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the +way of census-taking," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country +negro farmers were barbaric--especially when I came across some +voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant." + +"There's just as much savagery--of a kind--right in the heart of +civilization," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are +little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to +remember it." + +"Why should I remember it especially?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that +he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports +of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you +along, if the Director was willing." + +"You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?" + +"Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work." + +"That would be just splendid," said Hamilton, his eyes shining, "but how +about the Porto Rican report, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I think I can manage it," the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a +smile, "and the chapter that you were working on is nearly done, isn't +it?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I can finish it in a couple of days." + +"That will be in plenty of time," the editor assured him. "I don't think +Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week." + +Before many days had passed Hamilton found the correctness of the Porto +Rican's information, for as he was busily engaged in compiling a big +tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of +the provinces of the island, his friend the special agent of +manufactures, under whom he had been at New Haven, strolled into the +office. + +"Why, Mr. Burns," the boy said delightedly, jumping up and shaking +hands, "I haven't seen you for ever so long." + +"I haven't been in Washington more than twenty-two per cent of the +time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the eleven-fifty next +Tuesday evening. Do you want to come along?" + +"But--" + +"The Director said, if you wanted to come, I could take you." + +"Where are we going, Mr. Burns?" + +"New York." + +"What for?" + +"Seems to me, Alavero," said the Inspector, turning to the Porto Rican, +"that you've been teaching this lad to ask questions. Out of the four +remarks he has made since I came in, two have been questions. Fifty per +cent is a high average. Well, I'll tell you," he added, turning to the +boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied +with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand +inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, +decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of these the +Bureau investigates. Perhaps ten or a dozen in the entire country get a +recount. The Bureau doesn't officially recognize some of them but sends +an inspector to look over the ground, and see if everything was done +right. That's what we're going to do in New York." + +"All right," said Hamilton briefly. + +"You'll be on that train?" + +"Yes, Mr. Burns," the boy answered. "Eleven-fifty P.M., Tuesday." + +The opportunity was one which Hamilton had been coveting, for he felt +that if he only had a chance to get at the city methods he would have +covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial +Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, still +the novelty appealed to him greatly, and in spite of his former chief's +mathematical conversation, Hamilton was genuinely fond of him. + +"I've been wondering, Mr. Burns," the boy said, as they stood in the +great concourse of the Union Station at Washington, "whether there would +not be a very large number of protests about census figures,--people +always seem to have such an exaggerated idea of the size of their own +towns." + +"There is to some extent," Burns replied. "I think something like a +hundred places filed protests in this last census." + +"Then I read something, too, about census frauds," Hamilton said, "soon +after the taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some +enumerators--who were paid per capita--had bolstered up the figures in +order to get more out of it." + +"There was a little of that," the Inspector said, "but by far the +greatest amount of fraud was due to the desire on the part of the +inhabitants of a town or city to make the place appear larger and more +important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, +why, they padded 32,527 names there, and even when the Census had made a +recount they tried to repeat the same performance, complaining of the +results and demanding a second recount." + +"Was this granted?" + +"It was," the Inspector replied, "largely in order that the Census +Bureau itself might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its +methods. The second recount was performed by expert statisticians and +with extreme care." + +"And how did it come out?" the boy asked. + +"It substantiated the first recount in every way. It was, indeed, a +wonderful object lesson in showing how small is the margin of error in +the United States Census." + +"But was there really much fraud among the enumerators and supervisors, +Mr. Burns?" + +"With perhaps one exception, no criticism could be made of the +supervisors, but you can't have 70,000 enumerators, chosen for temporary +work, and expect perfection! There was quite a little over-counting, +caused by entering hotel transients as having permanent residences, by +numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant +difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; +where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have been due to +the unauthorized activity of committees of boards of trade or other +commercial organizations, giving lists of names all ready to be copied +on the enumerator's schedule, which the latter did not take the time and +trouble to verify." + +"Then do you think the net result of the census is to make it seem that +there are more people in the country than really are here?" + +"No," the Inspector replied confidently, "the total figures are an +understatement, probably of about one per cent, maybe a little less, but +certainly not much more." + +"I think that's mighty close," Hamilton said. "But do towns never wish +to have small numbers announced?" + +"There was only one case, so far as I know," the other replied, "in +which a Business Men's Association wrote and demanded a recount on the +ground that the figures were too big. The reason was a dispute about +raising city salaries when a certain population mark was reached. + +"And now, Noble," he continued, moving on toward the train platform, "we +want to look into the question of statistics in New York carefully. +Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, and I +know the Director is satisfied, but one or two little matters have come +up, which want looking into." + +Being on a midnight train, Hamilton had no chance for further talk with +the Inspector; but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing +through the great tunnels under the Hudson River, he found himself next +morning among the skyscrapers of New York again. + +"I suppose every one feels the same way about his own town," Hamilton +said, "but it always seems to me that you feel the bigness of things +more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of +time to do everything you want, but New York is just made up of hustle. +You've got to know what you want in this city and you've got to do it in +a hurry, before some one else gets there first." + +"New York certainly is hurried and restless; I can't say I like the +noise and the skyscrapers," replied Burns. + +"But it's great the way those buildings tower up," the boy exclaimed +enthusiastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller +cities look as though they were made for dwarfs, after living in the New +York streets." + +"Yet there are taller buildings, in other places, even in Europe," the +statistician remarked. + +"Spires!" answered the boy, "propped up by buttresses and flying +buttresses and all the rest of it so as to keep them from falling. Look +at those," he added, pointing at the skyscrapers before him, "they're +not afraid to stand by themselves; they mean something, they have a use, +while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of +no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what +people say about those crazy old tumble-down buildings of the Middle +Ages, they may be beautiful and all that, but they're useless nowadays. +The New York skyscraper is the greatest example of architecture in the +world because it best does what it was built to do." + +"You are enthusiastic, Noble," said his friend. + +"I'm a New Yorker all the way through," the lad continued, "and I want +to feel that I'm right in the whirl of things, where there is so much to +do that you can't crowd it into a day, where the fun is at the same +speed as the work. No backwaters for me, I want to be right out in the +center. I don't say that I'm going to win, but I want to be a game sport +and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or +swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, +and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,--right here +in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there +is to it is capital plus brains, and New York is the furnace that melts +them down into that quickness and grip on things we call the American +spirit. Millions from every race of the world come here, and the Statue +of Liberty is the first symbol, and the skyscrapers of lower New York +the first reality they see of the Land of Promise." + +"How about the inside of these great shells of structure?" + +"No such office buildings in the world," the boy answered +enthusiastically. "The salt winds from over three thousand miles of +ocean blow around them; in their steel walls there are lots of windows; +lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the +second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard +that the marble mosaic entrances of the larger of them put the Italian +palaces to shame. I don't know Europe, but I do know New York, and I +believe, Mr. Burns, if you knew it as I do, you'd be as proud of it +too." + +The Inspector looked at the boy quietly. + +"You're wrong," he said soberly, "in thinking that I don't know New +York. To-morrow morning you do a little work in a section of the city in +which you have probably never been, and I think we'll hear less tall +talk. If you could count the tens of thousands of families who live in +rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many +thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till +far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis district nurses +what conditions they find, you might then do a little thinking on your +own account. It's only right you should be proud of New York, but you'd +better see both sides before you are sure of yourself. Now, I suppose +you're going home?" + +"Yes, sir," said Hamilton, a little taken aback by his friend's rebuke. + +"Call at my hotel early to-morrow morning and I'll start you on a +'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharply, the +Inspector swung himself aboard a passing cross-town car. + +Nine o'clock the next morning found Hamilton in one of the worst +districts he had ever seen. Thronged as it was, the boy was sufficiently +conscious of his difference from the people he met to feel +uncomfortable. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out +during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him +verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly +incorrect. This was to be done in a dozen or so districts, and if the +information was found to be adequate, showing that the enumerators' +work had been faithfully done, there would be no need for further +inspection. + +The home manufacture of ostrich feathers first gave Hamilton a clear +insight into poverty. Four or five rooms each occupied by a family of +several persons he entered in one tenement, and in each he found three +or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high +speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted conditions carefully, +and was amazed to find that each of the little strands was wired--he had +always supposed that plumes grew upon the ostrich the way that they are +sold. + +In one such family dejection seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. The +window looked out on a court,--a court that was never cleaned and where +all manner of rubbish was thrown. Although it was morning and a +brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to +work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been +washed for months and diminished still further the little light there +was; a mattress in the opposite corner from a shaky cooking gas-burner +showed that this room was the entire home. + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.] + +"Where is your husband?" asked the boy, noting on the schedule a man's +name as head of the family. + +"In hospital--perhaps dead. See!" + +The woman pointed to a telegram which had fallen to the floor. Hamilton +picked it up. It read: + +"John Sobieski worse. Come at once," and was signed with the name of one +of the large hospitals. + +"Did you go?" asked the boy. + +The woman shook her head. + +"Two hours lost, if I go. No good. Two hours' work means twenty-four +cents. What's the use?" + +"What's the matter with him?" + +"Consumption. I die soon, next year, perhaps. All the children sick." + +The boy looked around at 'all the children.' There were five of them in +that room, and all--even the youngest, a baby four years old--were +knotting the feathers on the plume. The baby could hardly do it, but he +was learning. + +"Many hands make light work," said Hamilton as cheerfully as he could. +"With so many little workers you ought to get along finely." + +"Yes," the woman answered listlessly, "we get along. Some days we make +as much as a dollar!" + +"Each of you?" + +"Do we look so rich? One dollar for everybody. But that is only +sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a little more than five +dollar the week, by working all the time." + +The boy hastily asked the remaining questions on the schedule, found +everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giving a +little help out of his own pocket, he left for the next place. + +On the floor below was a family working on fur, every one of them with +hacking coughs caused by tiny particles of fur in the lungs. + +"We work or we starve," was again the unanswerable explanation. + +In the house next door, embroidering rich cloaks, Hamilton found a +family of which several of the members had a bad infectious skin +disease. Chancing to meet a health inspector soon afterwards he told him +about this family and gave him their address. + +"I can stop it, as far as this family is concerned," the health officer +said, "and I suppose I ought to. But you know what it means, I +suppose?" + +"What?" asked the boy. + +"It means, if I take their work away, they will starve to death in a +couple of weeks." + +"And if you don't?" + +"If I don't, they'll go on spreading disease. Oh, I'll have to put a +stop to it, of course, but tell me what is going to happen to the +family." + +"They ought to go to a hospital," Hamilton said. + +The health officer shook his head. + +"They are not hospital cases," he said. "None of them need more medical +attention than they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which +they applied would treat them in an Out-Patient department. They would +have to take in more work, or die." + +"But where would they get the work?" + +"Any of these sweatshop jobbers will give it to them. It makes no +difference to the middlemen where the work is done or out of what dens +it comes, as long as it is done cheap." + +"And is all clothing open to the same risk?" asked the boy. + +The health inspector shook his head. + +"Cheap clothing is not," he said, "because even the cheapest kind of +labor is more expensive than machinery, and machine-made clothes are +clean. But costly dresses which need hand embroidery are sent to +sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep +thousands of women and children working day and night the year round. +The more elaborate the gown, the longer is it likely to have been in a +tenement that the future wearer would not even allow her dog to enter." + +From house to house Hamilton went, finding misery at every step, with +the single consolation that the schedule showed in almost every case +that the son or the daughter who was working had moved out of the slums, +or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. +Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seemed to have been +dowered with promise, and as Burns had suggested, the sole comfort and +hope for the future lay in the fact that the New York slum is a +one-generation slum. + +It was growing toward noon when Hamilton finished the short list that +the Inspector had given him in that poorest section, and he was glad +when he was able to leave the pressure of the poverty behind him. His +next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew +that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was +enough of the community spirit among the Italians to prevent such +conditions as he had witnessed and enough frugality among them to enable +them to make the best of all they had. + +Feeling that it was time for lunch, the boy hunted around a while for +some restaurant that looked as though it would serve a meal that would +not be too distasteful. After a little search he found a small place +that seemed to be just the thing. The sign board was in Italian and the +list of dishes pasted on the windows was in Italian, but Hamilton's +Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. +At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the +entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind +him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the paper on +which he had been writing, and jumped to his feet so quickly that the +chair on which he had been sitting overturned, and he stumbled as he +stepped back a pace or two. He glared threateningly at the boy, who +apologized for startling him. But it was evident that the man did not +understand a word of English. + +Hearing the clatter the proprietor came out from an inner room, and +seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passionate torrent of +speech, all utterly unintelligible to Hamilton. + +"I hava told heem," he explained to the boy, "that I not wanta heem in +this-a place at all." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said Hamilton, "I don't like his looks. +Can I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had +just taken from his pocket, for the boy when alone always read at his +meals. + +"Certainly, sair," and the proprietor rattled off a string of dishes +from which the boy made a copious selection, for he was hungry. + +But he noticed that the man who had been sitting at the table had not +left the place but was furtively watching, a few steps away. He was an +ugly-looking customer, and Hamilton, full of grit as he was, felt +uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed +the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a +heavy shadow as though there were a drawing on the other side. His pulse +beat a little faster as an idea came into his mind, but he showed no +sign until the proprietor returned to set the table. + +"I think," he said, watching the stranger carefully as he spoke, "that +gentleman left a paper behind him. Ask him." + +The proprietor, looking much puzzled, put a question in Italian, to +which was evidently returned a sharp denial. + +Still watching him, Hamilton slowly reached out his hand for the paper +which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the book, and turning it +over laid it flat upon the white cloth. + +It was the Black Hand. + +[Illustration: FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (_Brown +Bros._)] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +There was a moment's utter silence. The bright little restaurant had +suddenly become charged with mystery, the slinking stranger seemed to +have become in a moment allied to secret powers of evil, and the whole +atmosphere seemed baneful in the sinister significance of that drawing +on the table. A glance at the restaurant-keeper dispelled all question +of complicity. His jaw had fallen, his face was ashen, his lips bluish. + +The other saw his advantage in the terror the mere display had excited, +and stepping forward, he reached out his hand to pick up the paper, +saying in English: + +"Mine!" + +Before the Italian had time to grasp the sketch, Hamilton quietly took +it and folded it in half. + +"I wouldn't be so ready to claim it, if I were you," he said, knowing +that the other might not understand the words but could tell the tone. + +"What are you going to do?" queried the restaurant-keeper in a hoarse +whisper. "They will kill-a me!" + +Hamilton thought hard for a moment or two. In the first place the matter +had nothing to do with the Census Bureau, and the boy felt that while he +was on duty in that work and wearing the census badge he was not a +private citizen. Again, it was not a crime to draw a hand on a piece of +paper, and the space obviously left for the blackmail message had not +been filled in, and thirdly he could not swear that he saw him draw the +hand; he only saw the paper in the man's possession. + +"Tell him," he said to the restaurant-keeper, "that I shall say nothing +about it, that I am not a policeman, nor a spy; tell him that so far as +I am concerned I do not know that he had anything to do with it, and +return him the paper." + +And bending forward, he reached out the paper to the Italian, who first +snatched it eagerly, and then, having secured it, made a ceremonious +bow. The proprietor of the restaurant translated the boy's words, and +with a brief reply, which Hamilton rightly construed to be thanks, the +stranger left the store. No sooner was he gone than the restaurateur, +with a word of apology, sank into the nearest chair, fairly exhausted +with fright. + +"I tell you, sair," he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "I +had-a nothing at all to do with that-a man." + +"It's pretty hard to know about these things," said Hamilton, who was +somewhat unnerved himself, "but I don't believe you had. Anyway, there's +no harm done. I've always heard about the Black Hand society, but I +didn't expect to run across it first thing, that way." + +"There is no Black-a Hand society," the Italian said, "at least I do not +think there is." + +"How do you mean there's no Black Hand?" asked Hamilton a little +indignantly, "haven't I just seen it?" + +The Italian shook his head. + +"What were you so scared about, then?" queried the boy impatiently. + +"Mafia," said the other, his lips just shaping the syllables. + +"You mean that the Mafia use the Black Hand?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"And that it is the sign of the Mafia?" + +"No," said the restaurant proprietor. "It is this-a way. When the Mafia +was all-a broken up in-a the Sicily, the chiefs come to America. But the +people are so far away it is difficult-a to speak-a to them all. One day +one of the Mafia leaders write a letter threatening to kill. His--what +you call it--nickname was 'Il Mano Nera'--" + +"That means 'The Black Hand,' doesn't it?" queried the boy. + +The Italian nodded. + +"He sign at the bottom with a Black Hand because the man-a to whom he +write, once was member of the Mafia. The police see the letter, a +newspaper print-a big long story about Italian society which have the +Black-a Hand for its sign, and saying that much recent murders was done. +Everybody become-a frightened, and the Mafia and the Camorra right away +both begin-a to use Black Hand. So you see when I say there is no +Black-a Hand society, no chief, no place-a to meet, no meetings, no +plan-a to share money, no oath, it is quite true, but if I say there is +a society which used the Black-a Hand that is true, too. But all I +want-a to do is to be let alone. Now, I will get you your dinner, sair." + +Hamilton felt distinctly uncomfortable in being left alone, not feeling +at all sure that the man who had been there before would not suddenly +dash in upon him unawares and stab him in the back with a stiletto to +make sure of his not talking, nor that the restaurant-keeper might not +put some poison in his coffee. Take it all in all, it was the most +nerve-racking meal he had ever eaten. + +Chatting with the Inspector that evening over his Black Hand experiences +he found that his chief took a very serious view of the question. + +"If we were receiving immigrants from the north of Italy," he said, "it +would be an entirely different matter, but all the Italians who are +coming in now are from the 'toe' and the 'heel' of Italy, and from +Sicily. You see, the north of Italy are really Celts, like the French +and Irish, being descended from the Lombards, but the Sicilians and +Calabrians are a mixture of the old pirates, the Moors, and the +degenerated Latin races that were left when the Roman Empire fell to +pieces. The endeavor to break up the Mafia sent all the leaders of that +nefarious Sicilian society here, and now the attack upon the Neapolitan +Camorra lands another criminal group. Italy has sent us a larger +proportion of criminals than any other country, and under our present +laws, if they have been three years here, they cannot be deported. The +Vincenzo Abadasso case was a good example of the folly of that rule." + +"Who was he?" asked Hamilton. + +"He was an Italian immigrant who had been arrested twenty-seven times +and convicted twenty-five and who came over here a couple of years ago. +Within a few months of his arrival he was arrested here and sentenced to +three years' imprisonment And now, although he is a professed criminal, +they won't be able to deport him, because when his prison term is up, he +will have been in the United States three years." + +"I suppose there are a lot of Italians coming over now?" said Hamilton +questioningly. + +"A little over three weeks ago," was the reply, "as I heard from a +friend in the Immigration Bureau, there was a funeral in a small village +near Naples and not enough able-bodied civilians could be found in the +place to carry the casket. All of them were in America. There are scores +of towns in southern Italy where all the work--of every kind--is done +now by the women, because the men have emigrated." + +"What do you think about this Black Hand business?" + +"I think your friend the restaurant-keeper was nearly right, only that +it is being used by all sorts of crooks as well, who have no connection +with either the Mafia or the Camorra. Mark you, I think those two secret +societies are apt to be much misrepresented, just as the Jesuits were +during the Middle Ages and the Freemasons were at other periods. The +Camorra was once simply the Tammany Hall of Naples. But when, as +happened last year, there were six hundred and fourteen Black Hand +outrages in two States in four months it is idle to say that it does not +exist in America. The Camorrist trials over the Cuocolo murders at +Viterbo, perhaps the most sensational in the world since the Dreyfus +case, have shown its power to be more dangerous than any one could for a +moment have imagined. And the danger lies here--there are more +Camorrists in New York than in Naples!" + +For a moment the boy looked at the Inspector, astounded. + +"You mean--" he began, and stopped. + +"I mean that the worst elements of the two worst societies in Europe are +concentrating in New York, and that unless rigorous measures are taken +to keep them down, America will harbor graver dangers than any it has +yet known. Russian nihilism, Polish anarchism, German socialism may join +hands with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra to institute a +criminal organization such as the world has never seen before. There are +enough ignorant immigrants to yield to a wave of fear, and the Black +Hand thrives and grows on terror. But, wisely held in check until they +learn, these very Sicilians and Neapolitans bring much that is of value +to the making of an American people." + +"Oh, there couldn't be any real danger!" Hamilton exclaimed. "The spirit +of American institutions would prevent such a happening; that could only +be in some old-world city like Naples. The Camorra comes down from the +Middle Ages, anyway." + +The Inspector shook his head. + +"I hope so," he said, "and I only trust you may be right," and he turned +the subject to the actual work in hand. + +It so chanced that the very next day Hamilton had an opportunity of +seeing, in a mild way, how truly the Inspector had spoken with regard to +the alienizing of the crowds in the streets of New York. He had been +working steadily several hours, and early in the afternoon he noticed a +great deal of shouting in the streets. Being curious, and noticing that +numbers of women were hurrying past, gesticulating violently, Hamilton +followed, until almost before he was aware, the crowd grew so dense as +to engulf him, and he was carried along, whether he would or no, up the +street. Some of the women were crying, some shrieking, and all wore a +furtive, strained expression as though in great distress. + +Although there was a great deal of shouting, not a word was in a +language familiar to Hamilton, and although he questioned every one +around him he could find no one that understood his questions. All that +he could gather was from some one in the front of the crowd who kept on +crying out in English at irregular intervals: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Even if the boy had desired to break through the crowd to return to his +work he could not have done so, and he really did not wish to,--he was +too much interested in following the purposes of the throng. Finally the +people stopped, but the boy was so far back that he could see nothing of +what was going on at the head of the crowd. Being determined, however, +Hamilton elbowed his way by main force and reached the woman who was +still crying: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Hamilton spoke to her, but the woman paid no heed. Finally, seeing that +she would not listen, he shouted at her as harshly as he could. Then she +turned and tried to answer his questions. + +"What's all the row about?" he asked. + +"They rob us. Steal our children. Make them walk far away, never see our +children any more. Oh, my Mario, oh, my Petronilla. Oh, our children, we +want our children!" + +Further information the boy could not get. He worked his way clear to +the front of the mob and saw the police gathering on all sides. Breaking +through the front rank he stepped up to the nearest policeman, who +merely shifted his grip on his night stick. + +"That's quite a mob," he said in a conversational tone. + +"It is that, sorr," said the policeman, recognizing immediately that the +boy was not one of the rioters. + +"I'm a census officer," the boy continued, "and I was doing some +inspection work for the census when I got caught in the crowd. What's +the matter with them?" + +"'Tis a bunch of dummies they are," was the reply; "'tis thinkin' they +are that the schools are goin' to steal their children. As if any one +would be wantin' their brats. The most of us has enough of our own to +keep." + +"But why should the school want to steal their children? Do you mean +that they don't want them to go to school?" + +"'Tis not that, sorr," the Irishman answered, "but 'tis due to some +'fire drill' business. The little ones are taught in the school that +when a bell rings--'tis the fire bell I'm m'anin'--they sh'd all march +out dacintly and in order. 'Tis a good idea, that same, an' I'm favorin' +it. But it's hard to make the children see it, so that they have to +drill them often." + +"That all seems right enough," Hamilton answered. + +"Ye would think so, sorr," continued the policeman "But most of these +mothers come from countries on the other side where they make them +soldiers whether they want to be or not, an' this drillin' business +scares the old folks 'most to death." + +"But if it continues and nothing happens, I don't see why they should go +on being scared. You would think the children had grown used to it." + +"The children! They're not makin' any trouble, it's all the parents." + +"Then what started it?" + +"There was some street corner lecturer here the day before yisterday, +tryin' to teach the people that children were the cause of poverty an' +that the only way to prevent poverty was to get rid of the children, +either by havin' fewer or by shippin' off the existin' surplus." + +"It's silly for them to heed a man like that!" + +"It's worse than silly, sorr," the policeman said. "But even then I +don't believe there would have been trouble. But yisterday, some rich +lady, plannin' to give the children a picnic this afternoon and a treat, +told them they were all goin' out to the country and that they must tell +their mothers they wouldn't be home until late." + +"What about that?" asked the boy. "I should think they would be glad +that the children should have some pleasure. From all I've seen recently +of the way people live in this neighborhood, I don't believe the +children have any too much good times." + +"An' so they should be glad, sorr, but they won't see it that way. They +know the children have been drilled for weeks an' weeks; they know a man +on the street corner said the children ought to be shipped away; an' the +next day they are told that the children are goin' to be taken into the +country, an' they don't believe the children'll ever come back." + +"Surely they can't be as silly as all that! And what do you suppose they +want to do?" + +"They don't know what they want," the policeman answered, "but it's a +bad business when a crowd gathers. Look there now!" + +Hamilton looked where the man was pointing. On the outskirts of the +crowd the boy noted a number of half-grown toughs, hoodlums, and +trouble-makers generally. The cries were increasing, and the boy could +see that these men were doing all they could to stir up the rest of the +crowd. + +"Where they come from, I don't know," the police officer said, "but any +time that there's a little trouble, they'll make it as big as they can." + +"But the whole thing's so absurd," the boy said. "What do they think +they're going to do,--raid the school?" He laughed. + +The policeman turned on him quickly. + +"'Tis absurd, as ye say, sorr," he said rebukingly "but there's many a +good man been hurt with less cause than this. That crowd's growin' by +thousands. Do you slip away, sorr, I'm afraid there's goin' to be +trouble." + +"Not much," Hamilton answered, "now I'm in this far, I'm going to stay +and see the fun out." + +"Well then, sorr," advised the policeman, "ye'd better slip through the +school gates. Show your census badge, and the other men at the gate will +let ye through." + +Thanking him, Hamilton walked across the narrow stretch of road between +the foremost ranks of the crowd and the little group of policemen +gathered in front of the school entrance. As he did so, a bottle came +whizzing at his head with deadly aim. Fortunately he had been keeping +his head partly turned curiously toward the crowd, and he saw the +missile in time to dodge. It missed him and went hurtling on, just +passing between two policemen and smashing on the iron bars of the +railing. + +"You nearly got hit that time," said one of the policemen, as Hamilton +showed his badge and was let through. "How did you get in with them?" + +"Just doing my work," the boy answered, "and got carried right along. I +was curious at first,--then when I wanted to get out I found I couldn't. +I think," he added, a little nervously, for the flying jagged bottle had +startled him not a little, "that's the first time I've been in front of +a mob." + +"I wish it was the last I'm likely to be," was the reply, "especially a +crowd of women like that. Men you know what to do with." + +"What do you suppose they'll do?" asked the boy. "Try to rush the +school?" + +"They did once not far from here," the policeman answered, "it was a +school on the East Side, where nearly all the children were Jewish, and +in order to make it easier for the poorer children the school +authorities had opened a sort of restaurant where the kids could get +lunch for three cents. The story got abroad that the children were +getting ham and pork, and the whole section rose in arms. We tried to +disperse them and couldn't. There was no way of reasoning with them, +there was nothing they could do, but they just hung around." + +"What for?" + +"Waiting a chance to burn the school down, every one seemed to think. +They did make one rush toward the end of the afternoon, and several +people were wounded. One of our men was badly stabbed, but he got over +it. Watch now," he added, in a sharp voice. "There's something doing!" + +The crowd hushed a moment, and a man's voice could be heard, but whether +pacifying the women or inflaming them, Hamilton could not make out. The +next moment answered him. Without any apparent preparation, the whole +face of the crowd suddenly seemed to burst, the end closed in, and in a +second one of the wildest hordes Hamilton had ever seen was at the +school gates. There was a brief struggle and nightsticks were drawn. The +crowd rolled back, then surged on, more angrily than before. But the +bluecoats stood firm, and when the crowd rolled back the second time a +number showed broken heads. + +"Son," called the police lieutenant, "you scamper along, and tell the +principal to hurry up with letting out the school. I sent him one +message now this means business." + +Hamilton turned and ran for all he was worth toward the building, but +just as he reached there, he saw the children marching in regular order +out of the rear door, and he came back immediately to report. As he did +so he found that the crowd was getting ready to make a third attempt to +attack the police, when, turning the corner, sauntering down the narrow +lane between the crowd and the police, came an Italian boy, about +fourteen years old, with half a dozen other ragged boys at his heels. On +seeing him, the lieutenant turned to Hamilton. + +"That's Caesar," he said, with a sigh of relief. "I've known him for the +past year or two, and he'll settle all this trouble." + +The boy looked at the police lieutenant with surprise. The police force +had had trouble enough, and what could a boy do? He voiced his query. + +"His father's a 'Man of Silence,'" was the reply, "and Caesar himself +knows all there is to know. You'll see." + +Arriving at the center of the crowd, just by the school gate, the boy +turned, and speaking to the nearest officer, said, in English, without a +trace of foreign accent, shrugging his shoulders: + +"Some of them won't ever learn!" + +For a moment he scanned the mob, called the names of two or three men on +the outskirts, and Hamilton could see them wince as this +fourteen-year-old lad named them; then he commenced a speech, which +seemed,--so far as Hamilton could tell--to be ridiculing them for their +fears. + +The crowd relaxed, and for a moment Hamilton thought the whole trouble +was over; but suddenly a man sprang to the front of the rioters, and +gesticulating wildly, answered the boy in what seemed to be a +threatening tone. The young Italian lad heard him through patiently, +then almost without raising his voice, uttered one crisp sentence. The +man turned white to the lips and slunk away. + +"Ask him," said Hamilton to a policeman, "what he said?" + +"I only asked him," the Italian said, "if he wanted me to find out his +name--so that you would know it if you wanted to arrest him of course," +he added, as an afterthought. + +The policeman looked at him and pulled the boy's ear, in fun. + +"Av I knew as much about some things as you do," he said, "they'd make +me chief. Maybe, though," he added, "I wouldn't hold it long. But what +about this, Caesar, is it all over?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"See," he said, "they all go!" + +It was as the boy said; Hamilton could see that little by little the +crowd was dispersing and that the members of the boyish gang were going +all through the groups, evidently explaining that the trouble was all +over. + +"Ye see what we're up against," the policeman said to Hamilton. "Here's +a slip of a lad that c'n just make a crowd do what he says because his +father is a leader in the Mafia. There's never any one gives credit +enough to the force for keepin peace, between all these foreigners and +the Chinks; this ain't an American city, it's a racial nightmare." + +"Do the Chinese give much trouble, then?" + +"Not such a great deal usually, but they do once in a while. There's +bloody murder in Chinatown going on now, or going to begin mighty soon. +Three were killed yesterday and the word was given out at Headquarters +this morning that the Tongs were out." + +[Illustration: THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.] + +"Have we Tongs in New York?" asked Hamilton. "I've heard all about the +troubles in the West. Before the fire in San Francisco, I know, there +were fifteen organized Tongs of Highbinders, each with its paid band of +'Hatchet Men' for no other purpose than to rule Chinatown. The man who +got up the report for the government told me that 'Frisco Chinatown was +far more under Tong rule and had far more crimes in proportion than any +city in China." + +"There are six strong Tongs in New York that I know about," the +policeman answered, "and I guess there are a lot more. But I reckon it's +the same in 'Frisco as it is here, they keep their killings to +themselves, and they don't let any white men get mixed up in it at all. +That's why you never can tell anything about it. But right now Chinatown +is pretty dangerous, and all the sight-seeing business there has been +shut off. No one is going into Mott and Pell Streets now." + +"Pell Street!" exclaimed the boy. "Is that in Chinatown?" + +"Right in the heart of it," was the reply. "Why?" + +"Because I'm headed there now," Hamilton answered, taking from his +pocket the schedule he had been given by Burns to check up, and showing +it to the officer. + +"That's Chinatown all right," the policeman said, "just look at the +names!" + +"I hadn't looked at it closely," the boy remarked, "why, yes, so it is. +Well, Tong or no Tong, I suppose I've got to chance it, if those are +orders." + +The policeman shook his head. + +"Looks to me as though you'd have to wait a while. Take some other +district first and come back next week." + +"Can't," the boy answered. "The Census Inspector and I have to go to +'Frisco to straighten out a Chinese tangle over the census there. The +Chinese refused point-blank to have anything to do with the census, and +there was a heap of trouble." + +"What was it?" asked the policeman, walking along beside Hamilton in the +direction of Chinatown, his beat extending to the limits of that +section. + +"When the rule for the census was issued, so they told me in +Washington," Hamilton answered, "in order to make sure that the Chinese +would not place any obstacles in the way, not only was a copy of the +President's proclamation in Chinese pasted all over the walls of the +city, but, in addition a decree was made by the Chinese consul-general +that it was the wish of the Chinese government that the population in +the city be properly numbered." + +"That was a good idea," said the policeman approvingly. + +"It would have been," said Hamilton, "if the Chinese had paid any +attention to it. Instead of that, some of the Tongs got together and had +a brief threat printed and pasted across the face of the President's +proclamation, as well as that of the consul, that no Chinaman was to +give any information to a census officer, unless he wanted to come under +the displeasure of the Tongs." + +"The nerve of them!" + +"At this," continued the boy, "the consul put out a second order, +sharper than the first, not only commanding obedience, but pointing out +that refusal would lay the person refusing open to fine or imprisonment. +Over these second orders again was pasted the former threat of the +Tongs. A few days later the enumerators, each accompanied by a +policeman, went through Chinatown. The Chinese wouldn't understand any +language, not even their own. They didn't refuse to give information, +they simply answered, 'No understand' when any question was asked." + + TRANSLATION OF THE PROCLAMATION + + Whereas, the Director of the Census Bureau of the Department of + Commerce and Labor of the United States, in a letter to His + Excellency Chang, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, requests that, since it + has been the custom of the United States to take a census of the + population once in every ten years, many of which have been taken + and are on record, and since the present year is the time for + taking another such census, which is to include the people of every + nationality residing within the territory of the United States, and + as the Chinese residents of this country, through possible + ignorance of the English language, may mistake the object of the + enumerators to be that of ascertaining what the people possess and + its value, in order to impose taxes, or that of investigating the + certificates of registration, etc., a proclamation be issued fully + explaining the matter to the Chinese people; + + And whereas, instructions have been received from His Excellency to + the effect that, the taking of a census being merely to ascertain + the population of the country, and having no connection in any way + with the imposing of taxes or the examination of certificates by + the customs authorities of the Treasury Department, and for fear + that our countrymen may not understand the purpose and make trouble + through a mistaken notion of the whole proceeding, the + Consul-General at San Francisco and the Consul at New York shall + publish and make known to all Chinese residing in every part of the + United States that it is the custom of the United States to take a + census at stated intervals, that this proceeding has no connection + with the laying of taxes or the examination of certificates of + residence, that our countrymen have no cause for suspicion or + alarm, but, as soon as the enumerators present themselves, they + should answer the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law: + + Now, therefore, we, Li Yung Yew, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's + Consul-General at the port of San Francisco, and Yang Yu Ying, His + Imperial Chinese Majesty's Consul at the port of New York, in + pursuance of instructions as aforesaid, do hereby publish and make + known that inasmuch as it is the custom of the United States to + take a census of the population thereof once in every ten years, + and as this proceeding has no connection whatever with the laying + of taxes or the examination of certificates of residence, and as + all persons irrespective of nationality are to be enumerated under + the provisions of the law, our countrymen should not be alarmed or + cherish any suspicion, but, as soon as the proper officers of the + Census Bureau present themselves with this Consular proclamation, + should answer all the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law. + + A list of the questions to be answered is hereby appended for the + information of all concerned: + + Population schedule (32 questions). + + Agriculture schedule (59 questions). + + Dated Hsuan Tung, second year, First moon (February, 1910), and + sealed with our respective seals of office. + + + THIRTEENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES + + CHINESE CONSULAR PROCLAMATION + + [Illustration: Chinese text] + + (SEE TRANSLATION ABOVE) + +"What was finally done?" the policeman queried. + +"The Consul-General had to ask the Five Companies to back up the census +order, and they did. The fifth layer of paper was put on the billboards, +and the Five Companies, without beating around the bush, just ordered +the Chinese to do as they were told." + +"I've always heard that the Five Companies were stronger on the Pacific +coast than they are here. I wonder why?" + +"I asked that very question," Hamilton said, "and the man who told me +all about this explained that it was because they controlled the Chinese +slave traffic to America." + +"'Tis like enough," the policeman agreed, "and of course the most of +that would be on the other slope. But there's enough of it here, just +the same, and half the trouble between the Tongs is because of it." + +"That was what started the trouble in Oakland between the Hop Sings +and the Bing Gongs," Hamilton said, "and there were eight men killed in +that. It began over the possession of a slave girl who had been given as +security for debt. But they never caught any one for that." + +[Illustration: ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.] + +"You can't ever catch a Chinaman," the policeman said. "I've arrested a +dozen myself--but it never did any good. Look at Boston--it was open +talk that there were two regular executioners under Tong law, but the +Chinks got out of it by tellin' the judge that there never had been any +executions and that it was merely an ancient title!" + +"There have been cases in New York, too," the boy said, "that they +haven't found out yet!" + +"It doesn't matter what the case is--you can never prove it on them. +Look at that young girl, a missionary, who was killed! And that's only +one of dozens. And they can shoot, and shoot straight, too!" he added. +"Look at the shooting galleries," the two were walking down the Bowery, +"they've been kept going for years by the practice of the Tong marksmen. +You'd never think it, but some of those Highbinders could make our crack +shots do their best to keep an even score. Well," he broke off, "here +we are at Mott Street. Bob," he called to the policeman across the +street, "here's a young fellow wants to go into Chinatown." + +"Sorry, sir," said the other, a great big burly fellow, coming forward +to meet them, "but orders are strict. No one going in at all, unless on +business." + +"It is on business, officer," said Hamilton. "I'm a census agent and the +Inspector told me to check up some names on this schedule." + +The policeman took it and looked it over. + +"I think those are all right, sir," he said, "I know most of 'em by +name. But that's one of those underground places and we don't any of us +go down there any more than we have to. Of course when we have to +go--why, that's another matter. I think, sir, you can take it those +names are about all right." + +"I don't feel that I could make a report like that," Hamilton answered. +"I was sent to check it up personally, and don't you think I'd better do +it? There's a chap there," he added, pointing to a young fellow standing +a few yards up the street, "he doesn't look Chinese." + +"He's a reporter, sir," the policeman said, "an' he's like us,--it's +part of his business to take chances." + +"Mine, too," said Hamilton; "only he represents a newspaper and I'm here +for the government." + +The policeman scratched his chin in perplexity. + +"Do you wait here," he said, "and I'll call up the station." + +He came back in a minute or two. + +"The lieutenant says it'll be all right," he said. "I told him that I +hadn't seen any sign of trouble--not that that means anything," he +added, "but if you wait a minute the other man will be up this way; he's +patrollin' the streets and you can go along with him." + +"How many of you are there here?" asked the boy. + +"Generally half a dozen in these two or three streets," the policeman +answered, "but I guess right now there's twice that number." + +Just as he had expected, another policeman appeared shortly, and +Hamilton was passed on to him. His conductor was taciturn, and the boy +was glad when the reporter joined them. In reply to a question, Hamilton +told his purpose, and the reporter, scenting a story, volunteered to +accompany them. The boy was willing enough, especially as he found the +reporter had the Chinese district as his regular assignment and was well +known in Chinatown. + +The address given, as the first policeman had said, was merely that +painted over a stairway. + +"I guess we go down here," Hamilton said. + +The policeman answered not a word, he simply pushed past the boy and +went down first; Hamilton followed, and the reporter came next. At the +bottom of the stair the policeman rapped on a door with his nightstick, +a good loud rap. It was opened, and he strode in, followed by the two +boys. A few questions from Hamilton verified one or two items of +information, but details about the rest of the house were not +forthcoming. In answer to questions the Chinaman simply pointed to the +ground. + +"Next floor down, I reckon," the reporter said. + +"But we're in the cellar now," objected Hamilton + +The reporter laughed. + +"We build above ground, the Chinese below," he said. "Lots of these +houses have five stories underground, and nearly all have either two or +three. A Chinaman doesn't care about fresh air at all, and he won't +waste money in fuel when he can keep warm in an underground burrow. Come +on, I guess we'll go down some more." + +The policeman still leading the way, three of them went down a rickety +stair, not much better than a ladder, and found themselves in a sort of +storehouse. + +"They don't keep things to eat here!" exclaimed Hamilton, scarcely able +to breathe the foul air and the exhalations from decaying food-stuffs. + +"Sure," the reporter answered. "Cheerful, isn't it?" + +Hamilton gave a little shiver of repugnance, but taking out his +schedule, asked the underground store-keeper all the personal questions +on it. Then, realizing that he would be able to know about his +customers, the lad quickly made enough inquiries to assure him that +there was no fault to find with the work, and started for the upper air. +Just as they passed out of the stairway, the policeman, who was the +last, still being on the steps, Hamilton heard a shot, and a bullet came +whizzing by his head. It was answered by a fusillade of shots. + +The boy's first instinct was to duck back under the cover of the +staircase from which he had just come out, but the policeman, as he +left it, roughly gave him a push, as much as to say, "Keep out of +there," and started on a dead run for the group where the firing was +going on. + +"That's the Hip Sings," the reporter said, pulling Hamilton into the +shadow of a doorway, "the Ong Leongs have been waiting for them, ever +since that affair in the theater." + +"What was that?" asked Hamilton, although more interested in the +immediate excitement than the story. + +"Time of the Chinese New Year," the reporter answered in short, crisp +sentences. "There was a gala performance in the theater with suppers and +banquets before and after. Everybody brought fire-crackers to the +theater, and at a certain time all the fire-crackers were set off. When +the noise stopped eighteen men were found shot dead, all members of the +Ong Leong Tong. The Hip Sing men were blamed for it, but none ever +caught." + +"What's up now?" cried Hamilton, in alarm. + +As he spoke two men dashed out of a building near by, and fired at the +group beyond. The others turned and made a rush. The two newcomers cut +across the street, thus for a moment diverting the line of fire which +had been perilously close to where the two boys were standing. + +"This is too hot for me," said the reporter, "we'd better get out of +here as fast as we know how. We'll go to the end of this street and turn +to the right. Are you ready? Come along." + +Out from the doorway like a couple of frightened hares the two lads +bolted, pursued by a few shots which, they flew so far over their heads, +Hamilton surmised were intended as a warning to keep out of the way +rather than as attempts to shoot them. In the few seconds that had +elapsed it seemed that the streets had become full of running policemen, +and Hamilton looked back. + +As he did so, he saw one of the men in the nearest group stagger +sideways and stand for an instant alone in the center of the street. +There was the sharp bark of a sawed-off revolver, and the wounded man +just reached the shelter of a doorway as the bullet sang over the spot +on which he had stood a second before. + +The sight unnerved Hamilton. He clutched the reporter's arm. + +"Chinese, Camorrists, sweatshop workers, and negroes!" he cried, a +hysterical note in his voice. "Are there no Americans in an American +city?" + +The reporter grasped his shoulder and pointed to where, a block or two +away, the towering framework of a Titanic building pierced the sunlit +air, far above the sordid savagery of the human rat-holes near by. +Guiding monster beams into place, sure-set upon the frailest foothold, +forms of men, made tiny by the distance, were silhouetted against the +sky. + +"The post of honor is the post of danger," he said; "it is in work like +that, where skill is linked to daring, where brain is joined to nerve, +that the Yankee stands. If you want to see the American in America, +don't look down, look up!" + +[Illustration: WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (_Copyright by Brown +Bros._)] + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy With the U.S. Census +by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13181 *** diff --git a/13181-h/13181-h.htm b/13181-h/13181-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c6d246 --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-h/13181-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8840 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= + "text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Boy With the U.S. Census, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 4%; + margin-right: 4%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + .caption {margin-left:30%; margin-right:30%; text-align: center; font-size: smaller;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13181 ***</div> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-1-t.jpg' width='562' height='350' alt='THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)</p></div> + +<br /> + +<a name='THE_BOY_WITH_THE_US_CENSUS'></a><h1>THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS</h1> + +<h2>BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER</h2> + +<br /> + +<center> +<img src='images/cover.jpg' width='500' height='642' alt='The Boy With the U.S. Census' title=''> +</center> + +<br /> + +<center>With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from +Bureaus of the United States Government</center> +<br /> + +<h4>November, 1911</h4> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='To_My_Son_Rogers_Friend'></a><h3>To My Son Roger's Friend</h3> + +<h3>HAMILTON DAY</h3> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> + +<a name='PREFACE'></a><h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border +warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain +fastnesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being +written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to +the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their factory prisons a +hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade +sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad.</p> + +<p>In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau +leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens +trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's +greatest right—the Right To Know—and on his findings all battle-lines +depend. "When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and +Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is +the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle +the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and +alien-tongue communities. To show how this great Census work is done, +to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to +heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kinship +between all peoples of the earth who have become "Americans" is the aim +and purpose of</p> + +<p>THE AUTHOR.</p> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> +<a name='CONTENTS'></a><h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + <h4><a href='#PREFACE'>PREFACE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I—A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II—RESCUING A LOST RACE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III—A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV—THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V—"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!"</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI—THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII—HOBOES ON THE TRAMP</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII—THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX—CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X—RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL</a></h4> + +<br /> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<center><a href="images/image-1-t.jpg">The Statue of Liberty (<i>Frontispiece</i>)</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-2-t.jpg">Taking the Census in Old Kentucky</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-36-t.jpg">Kentucky Mountaineer Family</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-3-t.jpg">Moonshining</a> <a href="images/image-4-t.jpg">[2]</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-5-t.jpg">Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-6-t.jpg">Bill Wilsh in the School</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-7-t.jpg">Alligator-Catching</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-8-t.jpg">The Census Building</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-9-t.jpg">Making Gun-sights True</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-10-t.jpg">"A Bull's-eye Every Time!"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-11-t.jpg">Young Boys from the Pit</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-12-t.jpg">"I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-13-t.jpg">Eight Years Old and "Tired of Working"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-14-t.jpg">The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-15-t.jpg">Immigration Station, Ellis Island</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-16-t.jpg">Where the Workers Come from</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-17-t.jpg">On a Peanut Farm</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-18-t.jpg">In an All-Negro Town</a> <a href="images/image-19-t.jpg">[2]</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-20-t.jpg">"'Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel'"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-21-t.jpg">How Most of the Negroes Live</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-22-t.jpg">Facsimile of Punched Census Card</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-23-t.jpg">Tabulating Machine</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-24-t.jpg">Pin-box and Mercury Cups</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-25-t.jpg">Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-26-t.jpg">The Census in the Aleutian Islands</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-27-t.jpg">"Can We Make Camp?"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-28-t.jpg">To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-29-t.jpg">Gathering Cocoanuts</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-30-t.jpg">Taking the Census in a City</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-31-t.jpg">Festa in the Italian Quarter</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-32-t.jpg">The Fighting Men of the Tongs</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-33-t.jpg">Arrested as the Firing Stops</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-34-t.jpg">Work for Americans</a> <a href="images/image-30-t.jpg">[2]</a></center> +<br /> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> + +<a name='THE_BOY_WITH_THE_US_CENSUS'></a><h2>THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS</h2> +<br /> + +<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>"Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, "since I'm going to be a +census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district."</p> + +<p>The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way +through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top +of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"What for?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"I think I could do it better than almost anybody else in this section," +was the ready, if not modest, reply.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other assented and took up the paper +again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the mountains +but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even +though his host was better informed than most of the people in the +region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him +"Uncle" because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regiment +that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men +ever since had been friends.</p> + +<p>"I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such +doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; "that +census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me."</p> + +<p>"But it seems to me that it's the right kind of 'inquisitive.'"</p> + +<p>"I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of +inquisitiveness," the mountaineer said, with a smile, "but if you say +so, I s'pose it's all right."</p> + +<p>"But don't you think the questions are easy enough?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty +unpleasant to answer."</p> + +<p>"But if they are necessary?"</p> + +<p>"Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the mount'ns that yo' c'n never make +see how knowin' their private affairs does the gov'nment any good."</p> + +<p>"But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all +right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as +c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be +heated up clar through."</p> + +<p>"But why?" queried the lad again. "The questions are plain enough, and +there was practically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine +thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, +too!"</p> + +<p>"Important!" protested the old man. "Did yo' ever see any one that ever +sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures?"</p> + +<p>"Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. "But it isn't done for the +sake of getting interesting reading matter; it's because those figures +really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of +that the census isn't at the back of."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I +notice," the mountaineer remarked.</p> + +<p>"No," answered Hamilton promptly, "but the number of members a State +sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the +census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his +seat is based on their information."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information +about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is +important enough, Uncle Eli? And then the railroads, too,—they depend +on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as +freight."</p> + +<p>"You seem to know a lot about it," the mountaineer said, looking +thoughtfully at the boy.</p> + +<p>"I ought to," Hamilton said, "because I'm going to be an assistant +special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away. I applied last +October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this +visit."</p> + +<p>"What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination?" he was +asked.</p> + +<p>"I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, "figures have always been +easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered +accountant business I learned a lot from him."</p> + +<p>"Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it +naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, "but I'm pretty +sure."</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the +business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it."</p> + +<p>"But I'm hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle +Eli," the boy explained "either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of +Statistics or some work like that. And anyway, if it's the government's +business, I'm an American and it's my business."</p> + +<p>"Yo' have the right spirit, boy," the old man said, "an' I like to see +it, but you're huntin' trouble sure's you're born. S'posin' yo' asked +the questions of some ol' sorehead that wouldn' answer?"</p> + +<p>"He'd have to answer," replied Hamilton stoutly, "there's a law to make +him."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that law's used much," hazarded the old man.</p> + +<p>"It isn't," Hamilton found himself forced to admit. "I believe there +were not very many arrests all over the country last census. But the +law's there, just the same."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn' be a law on the Ridge," the mountaineer said, "an' I don' +believe it would do yo' any good anywhar else. On the mount'ns, I know, +courtesy is a whole lot bigger word than constitution. Up hyeh, we +follow the law when we're made to, follow an idee backed up by a +rifle-barrel because we have to, but there's not many men hyeh that won' +do anythin' yo' ask if yo' jes' ask the right way."</p> + +<p>"But there are always some that give trouble," Hamilton protested, +trying to defend his position.</p> + +<p>The old Kentuckian slowly shook his head from side to side.</p> + +<p>"If yo' don' win out by courtesy," he said, "it's jes' because yo' +haven' been courteous enough, because yo' haven' taken yo' man jes' +right. Thar isn't any such thing as bein' too gracious. An' anyway, a +census-taker with any other idee up hyeh would be runnin' chances right +along."</p> + +<p>"You mean they would shoot him up?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I think if he threatened some folks up hyeh an' in the gullies thar +might be trouble."</p> + +<p>"But the fact that he represented the government would insure him from +harm, I should think."</p> + +<p>"I don't think much of that insurance idee," the old man said. "I can't +remember that it helped the revenue men sech a great deal. The only +insurance I ever had was a quick ear, an' even now, I c'n hear a twig +snap near a quarter of a mile away. An' that used to be good insurance +in the ol' days when, if yo' weren't gunnin' for somebody, thar was +somebody gunnin' fo' you."</p> + +<p>"But there's no one 'gunning' for you now, is there, Uncle Eli?" asked +the boy amusedly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't b'n lookin' out especially," the Kentuckian responded, with +an answering slow smile, "an' I reckon sometimes that I might jes' as +well leave the ol' rifle in the house when I go out."</p> + +<p>"But you never do," put in Hamilton quickly.</p> + +<p>"I reckon that's jes' a feelin'," rejoined the mountaineer, "jes' one o' +these habits that yo' hate to give up. I'd sort o' be lost without it +now, after all these years. Thar's no one to worry about, anyway, +savin' Jake Howkle, an' I don' believe he's hankerin' for +blood-lettin'."</p> + +<p>"Jake? Oh, never," Hamilton replied with assurance; "why, he's only +about my age."</p> + +<p>"That's only partly why," the old man said, "not only because he's your +age, but because he's b'n at school. Shootin' an' schoolin' don' seem to +hit it off. I reckon thar would have b'n a sight less trouble in the +mount'ns if thar had b'n mo' schools."</p> + +<p>"There are plenty of schools in the mountains now, aren't there?" asked +Hamilton. "It must be very different here, Uncle Eli, from what it was +when you were a boy."</p> + +<p>"Thar has been quite a change, an' the change is comin' faster now. But +thar's still a lot o' folk who a'nt altered a bit sence the war. You +city people call us slow-movin' up hyeh, an' as long as thar's any o' +the ol' spirit abroad thar's a chance o' trouble. If yo' really are +goin' in for this census-takin', I'd keep clar o' the mount'ns."</p> + +<p>"You really would?" queried the boy thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"An' what's more," continued his Uncle, "I would jes' as soon that yo' +didn' have anythin' to do with it near hyeh. I don' want to see any +little differences between families, such as census-takin' is likely +to provoke."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-2-t.jpg' width='554' height='352' alt="TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O.)</p></div> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Eli!" cried Hamilton in amazement, "you talk as though the +days of the feuds were not over."</p> + +<p>"Are yo' sure they're all over?" the Kentuckian said.</p> + +<p>"I had supposed so," the boy replied. "I thought the Kentucky 'killings' +had stopped ten or fifteen years ago."</p> + +<p>"It's a little queer yo' sh'd bring that up today," the old man said, +"for I was jes' readin' in the paper some figures on that very thing. +Yo' like figures, this will jes' suit you. Where was it now?" he +continued, rustling the paper; then, a moment later, "Oh, yes, I have +it."</p> + +<p>"'During the terms of the last three Kentucky governors,'" he read, +"'over thirteen hundred criminals have been pardoned, five hundred of +them being for murder or manslaughter.' It says fu'ther on," the old man +added, "that pardonin' is jes' as frequent now as it ever was. I don' +believe it is, myself, but if thar is such a lot o' pardonin' goin' on +for shootin', thar must have been a powerful lot o' shootin'."</p> + +<p>"But that's for all the State," objected the boy, "not for the +mountains only. That must be for crimes in the cities and all sorts of +things. You can't make the feuds responsible for those."</p> + +<p>"Not altogether," the mountaineer agreed, "the real ol'-time feud is +peterin' out, an' it's mainly due to the schoolin'. The young folks +ain't ready fo' revenge now, an' that sort o' swings the women around. +An' up hyeh in the mount'ns, same as everywhar else, I reckon, the idees +o' the women make a pile o' difference."</p> + +<p>"But I should have thought the women would always have been against the +feuds," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yo'd think so, but they weren't. They helped to keep up the grudges a +whole lot."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ab hasn't changed much," volunteered the lad.</p> + +<p>"She hasn't for a fact. Ab is powerful sot. She holds the grudge against +the Howkles in the ol' style. But the feelin' is dyin' out fast, an' +soon it'll be like history,—only jes' read of in books."</p> + +<p>"What I never could see," remarked Hamilton, "was what started it all. +It isn't as if the people in the mountains had come from some part of +the world where vendettas and that sort of thing had been going on for +generations. There must have been some kind of reason for it in this +section of the country. Feuds don't spring up just for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Thar was a while once we had a powerful clever talker up hyeh," the +Kentuckian answered, "actin' as schoolmaster for a few weeks. I reckon +he'd offered to substitute jes' to get a chance to see for himself what +life in the mount'ns was like. He was writin' a book about it. We got +right frien'ly, an' he knew he was always welcome hyeh, an' one day I +asked him jes' that question. It was shortly befo' he lef' an' I wanted +to know what he thought about us all up hyeh."</p> + +<p>The mountaineer leaned back in his chair and chuckled with evident +enjoyment of the recollection.</p> + +<p>"I jes' put the question to him," he said, "in the mildes' way, an' he +started right in to talk. Thar was no stoppin' him, an' I couldn' +remember one-half o' what he said. But I reckon he had it about right."</p> + +<p>"How did he explain the feuds, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, with a short laugh, "he begun by sayin' +we were savages."</p> + +<p>"Savages?"</p> + +<p>"Not jes' with war-paint an' tomahawk, yo' understan'," continued the +old man, enjoying the boy's astonishment, "but uncivilized an' wild. +Thar an't any finer stock in the world, he said, than the mount'neers o' +the Ridge, clar down to Tennessee, an' he said, too, that they were o' +the good old English breed, not foreigners like are comin' in now."</p> + +<p>"That's right enough," Hamilton agreed, "and, what's more, they were +gentlemen of good birth, most of them; there was not much of the peasant +in the early colonists."</p> + +<p>"So this author chap said. But he explained that was the very reason +they got so wild."</p> + +<p>"I don't see that," objected Hamilton, "and I certainly don't see where +the 'savage' idea comes in."</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, he said that when you slid down from a high place it was harder +to climb back than if the fall had b'n small. An' that's why it's so +hard for those who have gone down,—they can see the depth o' the fall."</p> + +<p>Hamilton, who was of an argumentative turn of mind, would have protested +at this, but the old mountaineer proceeded.</p> + +<p>"When the pioneers settled in the mount'ns they kind o' stuck. Those +that went on, down into the Blue Grass region, went boomin' right ahead, +but those that stayed in the mount'ns had no chance."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why not?" objected the boy.</p> + +<p>"They were jes' cut off from everywhar. We are to-day, for that matter. +When a place gets settled, an' starts to try an' raise somethin' to +sell, the product has got to be taken to market. But thar was no +railroad up in the mount'ns. Children were easy to raise, an' a +population grew up in a hurry, but the land was too poor for good +farmin', the roads were too bad for takin' corn to market, an' thar was +no way o' gettin' to a town."</p> + +<p>"You are pretty well cut off," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We were more so then," the mountaineer said. "An' so, while all the +country 'round was advancin' up in the mount'ns, fifty years ago, we +were livin' jes' like pioneers. An' some, not bein' able to keep up the +strain, fell back."</p> + +<p>"So it really isn't the fault of the mountaineers at all," cried the +boy, "but because they were sort of marooned."</p> + +<p>"It was unfortunate," replied the old man, "but it really was our own +fault. If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have +developed it; if not, we should have left."</p> + +<p>"I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a +most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every +man is his own master. But, thar bein' no available market if they did +work hard, what was the use o' workin'? Some o' them, 'specially down in +the gullies, got lazy an' shif'less. But they hung on all the harder to +the idees o' the old times,—honor an' hospitality."</p> + +<p>"I've always understood," said Hamilton, "that there was more +hospitality to be found up here in the mountains than in almost any +place on the globe."</p> + +<p>"As yo' said," the old man continued, "we're jes' like a crew o' +shipwrecked sailors marooned on an island without a boat, without any +means o' gettin' away. If some o' the families high up in the gullies +are ignorant, it's because they've had no schoolin', not because they +haven' got the makin's o' good citizens; if they're a bit careless about +religion, it's because they've had no churchin', an' if they don' pay +much heed to law, it's because the law has never done much for them. +The ocean o' progress," went on the mountaineer, with a flourish, "has +rolled all 'roun' the mount'ns, but of all the fleets o' commerce in all +these years, thar has not been one to send out a boat to help the +marooned mount'neer."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they ever try to get help?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>"We're not askin' help," the Kentuckian said, "thar's no whinin' on the +mount'ns. I jes' tell yo' that when the time comes for the mount'neers +o' Kentucky an' Virginia an' Tennessee an' Carolina to get a fair +chance, they'll show yo' as fine a race o' men an' women as the Stars +an' Stripes flies over."</p> + +<p>"They are mighty fine right now, I think," the boy said.</p> + +<p>"They have their good points," the Kentuckian agreed; "thar's nothin' +sneakin' in the men up hyeh, an' thar an't any lengths to which a man +won't go, to do what he thinks is the squar thing. You've heard about +the Beaupoints?"</p> + +<p>"No," the boy answered, "what was that?"</p> + +<p>"It was jes' an incident in one o' these feuds that you were talkin' of, +an' I'm goin' to tell yo' about it, to show yo' what a mount'neer's +idee o' honor is like. Thar was a family livin' on the other side o' the +Ridge, not a great ways from hyeh, by the name o' Calvern, an' in some +way or other—I never heard the rights of it—they took to shootin' up +the Beaupoints every chance that come along. One day Dandie Beaupoint +found a little girl that had hurt herself, an' he picked her up in his +arms an' was carryin' her home when one o' the Calvern boys shot him in +his tracks. One o' the Beaupoint brothers was away at the time, but the +others felt that the Calverns hadn't b'n playin' fair, an' they reckoned +to lay them all out. They did, too, all but one, an', although they had +a chance to nail him, they let him alone."</p> + +<p>"Why was he let off?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I reckon it was because he had a young wife an' a little child," the +old man answered. "Now Jim Beaupoint, the one that had been away, he +come home after a while, an' hadn't happened to hear about the wipin' +out o' the Calverns. On his way home, he had to pass the Calvern place, +an' so he made a wide cast aroun' the hill to keep out o' sight, when +suddenly, up a gully, he saw this Hez Calvern standin' there with his +rifle on his arm, an', quick as he could move, Jim grabbed his gun an' +fired. It was a long shot an' a sure one."</p> + +<p>"Was it—" the boy began, but the old man waved the interruption aside +and proceeded.</p> + +<p>"Reloadin' his rifle, Jim Beaupoint rode slowly to whar Hez Calvern was +lyin', when suddenly, from a clump o' bushes close by, there come a +rifle shot, an' the rider got the bullet in his chest. Befo' fallin' +from the saddle, however, the young fellow fired at the bushes from +which smoke was driftin', an' a shrill scream told him that the +sharpshooter was a woman."</p> + +<p>"Some one who had been with Hez Calvern?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"His wife. Well, although Jim was mortally hurt an' sufferin'—as the +tracks showed afterwards—he tried to drag himself to the bushes in +order to help the woman who had shot him an' who he had shot unknowin'; +but he was too badly hurt, an' he died twenty yards from the place whar +he fell."</p> + +<p>"Was the woman dead, too?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"No, but terrible badly hurt. What I was wantin' to tell yo', though, +was the result of all this. Wa'al, the Beaupoints took the woman to +their home an' nursed her night an' day for five long years. She was +helpless, only for her tongue, an' she lashed an' abused them till the +day she died, an' never once, in all those years, did any one o' the +Beaupoints reproach her in return."</p> + +<p>"And the youngster?"</p> + +<p>"They took the boy, too, an' reared him the bes' they knew how, jes' the +same as one o' their own. One o' the Beaupoint boys went an' lived on +the Calvern place, an' worked it,—worked it fair an' squar', an' put +aside every cent that come out o' the farm. For thirteen years the +Beaupoints looked after the farm an' reared the boy. On the day he was +fourteen year old, Jed Beaupoint—that was the father—called the lad, +told him the whole story, give him a new rifle an' a powder horn, an' +handed over the little bag o' coin that represented thirteen years o' +work on the Calvern holdin'."</p> + +<p>"There certainly couldn't be anything squarer than that!" exclaimed +Hamilton. "And he gave the boy the farm, too?"</p> + +<p>"Every inch of it. Jed Beaupoint was a squar' man, cl'ar through. An' he +said to the boy—he tol' me the story himself—'Johnny Calvern, thar's +yo' farm an' yo' rifle. Now, if yo're willin', I'll see that thar's no +trouble until yo're twenty-one, an' then yo' c'n go huntin' revenge if +yo've a mind to, or, if you're willin', we'll call the trouble off now, +an' thar won't be any need o' rakin' it up again.'"</p> + +<p>"He made it up on the spot, of course?" questioned Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"He did not," he replied. "The boy thought a minute or two an' then said +he'd wait until he was grown up, an' let him know then."</p> + +<p>"Although he had been brought up by the Beaupoints!" exclaimed the boy +in surprise. "But surely it never came up again."</p> + +<p>"Well, not exac'ly. When Johnny Calvern was about nineteen he got +married, an' a few days befo' the time when he would be twenty-one, he +rode up to the Beaupoint place, an' tol' the ol' man that he was willin' +to let the feud rest another ten years, because of his wife an' little +baby, but that he would be ready to resume shootin' at that time."</p> + +<p>"But he had no real grudge against the Beaupoints had he, Uncle Eli? +They had always been kind to him, you said."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit o' grudge," the mountaineer answered, "they were good +friends. An' I reckon it wasn't Johnny that wanted the trouble to begin +again, but thar's always a lot o' hotheads pryin' into other folks' +business. However, ol' Jed Beaupoint didn't mind; he agreed to another +ten years' truce, an' all went on peacefully as befo'. Durin' those ten +years, however, Johnny's wife died, an' he got married again, this time +to the sister o' a wanderin' preacher, a girl who had once lived in +cities, an' she soon showed him that the ol' feud business must be +forgotten. But it is a mite unusual, even hyeh, to farm a man's land an' +bring up his child fo' thirteen years, an' then give him everythin' yo' +can with the privilege o' shootin' yo' at sight for all the favors +done."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't sound a bit like the usual feud story," said Hamilton, "one +always thinks of those as being cold-blooded and cruel."</p> + +<p>"Thar an't a mite o' intentional cruelty in them; it's jes' that life is +held cheap. Most o' them begun over some small thing like an election."</p> + +<p>"There were quite a number of them, Uncle Eli, weren't there?"</p> + +<p>"One ran into the other so easily that one feud would often look like +half a dozen, an' trouble would be goin' on in various places. But +there were really seven of them, all big ones."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-36-t.jpg' height='60%' alt='KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions.)</p></div> + +<p>"What were they, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, thar was the McCoy-Hatfield feud in Pike County, that started +over the ownership o' two plain razorback hogs, but afterwards got very +bitter, owin' to the friendship o' one o' the McCoy girls with the son +o' Bad Anse Hatfield. Then thar was the Howard-Turner feud in Harlan +County. An' then—"</p> + +<p>"What started the Howard-Turner feud?" interrupted the boy.</p> + +<p>"That was over a game o' cards. One o' the Howards had been winnin', an' +Jim Turner, with a pistol, forced him to give back the money he had won. +That affair raged a long time. The Logan-Tolliver feud in Rowan County +was over an election fo' sheriff. The Logans elected their candidate, +an' so the Tollivers killed one o' the Logans at the polls and wounded +three others."</p> + +<p>"That's expressing dissatisfaction with an election with some spirit," +Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"Then thar was the French-Eversole feud in Perry County," continued the +Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town +called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In +time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange +fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the +shootin',—indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were +most bitter."</p> + +<p>"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the +principals didn't?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran +the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time."</p> + +<p>"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the +same as the Howard-Turner fighting?"</p> + +<p>"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family," +the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre' +feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water +rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it +couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o' +blood."</p> + +<p>"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that +way," the boy said.</p> + +<p>"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill +feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over +some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly +remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some such +goin's on."</p> + +<p>"But they are all over now, aren't they?"</p> + +<p>"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is +sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all +four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to +the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her +how good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said—thar +was a lot of us thar at the time—'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell +them who shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots +him.' I'm reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but +I really think that is the last o' them."</p> + +<p>"What started that?"</p> + +<p>"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But you +don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually jes' +firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date back to +enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'."</p> + +<p>"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the +mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North—I know you were with Lee, +of course, but I thought that was exceptional."</p> + +<p>"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate +soldier indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of +them went into the Union army."</p> + +<p>"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were +fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question +didn' matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union +army was made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' +bigger men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong +then,—I do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for +what they thought was right."</p> + +<p>"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can +understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian."</p> + +<p>"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and +South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read, +decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve +that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the +No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause, +I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man +solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on +both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive +anywhere."</p> + +<p>"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted Hamilton, +fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences, when he +wanted to hear about feuds.</p> + +<p>"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the +little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it. +Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some +words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any grudge, +an' I never supposed Isaac was. However, in a skirmish near Cumberland +Gap, I saw that he was jes' achin' to get me, an' the way he tried was +jes' about the meanes' thing I ever heard o' any one doin' on the +Ridge."</p> + +<p>"How was it, do tell me?" pleaded Hamilton, his eyes shining with +interest.</p> + +<p>"Howkle was with Wolford's cavalry, an' I was under 'Fightin'' +Zollicoffer, as they called him," the old man began. "Thar had been a +little skirmish,—one o' these that never get into the dispatches that +don' do any good, but after which thar's always good men lef' lyin' on +the ground. We had driven 'em back a bit, an' I was comin' in when I saw +a lad—he didn't look more'n about fifteen—lyin' in a heap an' +groanin'. Knowin' a drink would do him more good than an'thin' else, I +reached for my canteen, an' stooped down. Jes' about then, a horseman +dashed out o' the scrub an', almos' befo' I could think o' what was +comin', he struck at me with his sabre."</p> + +<p>"When you were giving drink to a wounded soldier!" cried Hamilton +indignantly. "What a cowardly trick!"</p> + +<p>"It was ol' Isaac Howkle," nodded his uncle, "an' I s'pose he reckoned +this was a chance to get even on the ol' grudge. But I rolled over on +the grass jes' out o' reach o' his stroke, an' he missed. I grabbed my +rifle an' blazed at him as soon as I could get on my feet, but he had +reached the shelter of the trees again an' I missed him."</p> + +<p>"That's about the meanest thing I ever heard," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"So I thought," the Kentuckian answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to +think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his +lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' +to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't +blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of +his own sufferin's."</p> + +<p>"That was grit," said Hamilton approvingly. "Did he die, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it. We got him back into our lines an' he was exchanged, I +believe. Anyway, I know he was livin' after the war, fo' I saw his name +once on a list o' veterans. But most o' the boys were like that—mostly +young, too—an' men o' the stripe of Isaac Howkle were very few."</p> + +<p>"But you got him in the end, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>The old mountaineer looked intently at the boy's excited face.</p> + +<p>"I didn't," he said, "an' I don' rightly know that it's good for yo' to +be hearin' all these things. Yo' might hold it against Jake Howkle."</p> + +<p>"That I wouldn't," protested Hamilton. "Jake isn't to blame for his +father's meanness."</p> + +<p>"That's the right way to talk," the old soldier agreed. "Wa'al, if yo' +feel that way about it, I reckon thar's no harm in my tellin' yo' the +rest of it, now that I've got started. When the war was all over an' I +got back hyeh, I remembered what had happened, an' I sent word to Isaac +Howkle that I didn' trust him, an' after what he had done I was +reckonin' that he was waitin' his chance to get me, an' that he'd better +keep his own side o' the mountain."</p> + +<p>"But, Uncle Eli," said the boy, "that didn't make a feud surely; that +was only a warning."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't reckonin' to start a feud at all," said the old man +thoughtfully, "an' it really never was one. It was jes' a personal +difference between Isaac Howkle an' me. Thar was lots o' times that I +could have picked off either o' his two brothers, but I was jes' +guardin' myself against Isaac."</p> + +<p>"But you said he got there first!" said the boy. "Did he shoot some one +in your family?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, yes, he did," the mountaineer admitted "Yo' never knew the one. +He was my brother-in-law,—Ab's younges' sister's first husband. He had +been married jes' two months, an' was only a hundred yards from this +house when Isaac shot him."</p> + +<p>"How did you know for sure that it was Howkle who had done the +shooting?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We didn't know for sure, at first. A week or two after, a boy from the +Wilshes' place come up with a message sayin' that Isaac Howkle had tol' +him to say that he'd get the ol' man nex' time."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have thought a boy would have had the nerve to bring such a +message," said Hamilton thoughtfully. "Wouldn't bringing word like that +look like taking sides, and wouldn't it bring his own family into the +trouble!"</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head in instant denial.</p> + +<p>"Po' white trash from the gullies," he said, "no, they don't count one +way or the other."</p> + +<p>"What happened after you got that message?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Nothin' much, for a while, though I was snoopin' aroun' the mount'ns +consid'rable. I met the brothers sev'ral times, an' I know they could +have had me. But I had nothin' against them, nor they me, an' so it was +jes' left to Isaac an' me. Once I found him over near our pasture, but +he saw me an' got into cover. At last I found him in the open near our +house again, an' in easy range."</p> + +<p>"Did you fire right away?" asked Hamilton excitedly.</p> + +<p>"I didn't shoot. I got a lead on him, sure, but I jes' couldn't shoot +without warnin' him. It seemed kind o' mean to shoot him unawares, an' +as I didn't want to take an unfair advantage, I shouted to him. It was +pretty far off to be heard, but I could see that he recognized me. I was +only waitin' long enough to let him get his gun to his shoulder when +some one fired jes' behin' me. Howkle's bullet went through my arm, but +he dropped in his tracks. He thought I had shot him but my gun was never +fired off."</p> + +<p>"Who was it that fired, Uncle Eli!"</p> + +<p>"The brother o' the young fellow he had shot befo'."</p> + +<p>"Was he dead?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, a little grimly, "I didn' go down to see +an' wait aroun' 'till all his friends gathered. But I reckon he was dead +when they found him later."</p> + +<p>"And the brothers?"</p> + +<p>"They never came into the story at all. I'm jes' mentionin' this to yo' +to show yo' that thar's reason in my advisin' yo' to keep clar o' this +district. If you're reckonin' on doin' census work, yo' go somewhar that +you're not known to any one. Thar's trouble enough even for a stranger +in the mount'ns, an' a stranger would find it easier than any one else."</p> + +<p>"Why is that, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, yo' can't show discourtesy to a stranger, an' yo' +know that if he doesn' do things jes' the way yo' like to have 'em done, +it's because he doesn' know, an' so he's not to blame. I like your +spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' +if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but +leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a +stranger."</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>RESCUING A LOST RACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>That same evening, as it chanced, one of the younger Wilsh boys came up +to the house on an errand from a neighbor, and Hamilton, remembering +that the messenger's father had been a go-between in the feud story he +had been hearing, noted the lad with interest. Indeed, his appearance +was striking enough in itself, with his drooping form, his extreme +paleness, and his look of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>"How far is it from the Burtons, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Eight miles," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Hamilton stared at the mountain boy. Judging from his looks he was not +strong enough to walk a hundred yards, yet he had just come eight miles, +and evidently was intending to walk back home that evening. Then +Hamilton remembered that this lad was one of the "poor whites" of whom +he had read so much, and he strolled toward the messenger who was +sitting listlessly on one of the steps.</p> + +<p>"Howdy!" said the newcomer in a tired voice.</p> + +<p>Hamilton answered his greeting, and, after a few disjointed sentences, +said:</p> + +<p>"You look tired. It must be a long walk from the Burtons."</p> + +<p>"Jes' tol'able," the boy answered. "I'm not so tired. You f'm the city?" +he queried a few minutes later, evidently noting the difference between +Hamilton's appearance and that of the boys in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>"Yes, New York," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>But the stranger did not show any further curiosity and Hamilton was +puzzled to account for his general listlessness. He thought perhaps it +might be that the boy was unusually dull and so he asked:</p> + +<p>"Are you still going to school?"</p> + +<p>A negative shake of the head was the only reply.</p> + +<p>"Why not? Isn't there a school near where you live?"</p> + +<p>"Close handy, 'bout five miles," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you go there?" questioned Hamilton further.</p> + +<p>"Teacheh's gone."</p> + +<p>"Funny time for holidays," the city boy remarked.</p> + +<p>"Not gone fo' holidays."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said Hamilton, "you mean he's gone for good. But aren't you +going to have another one?"</p> + +<p>"Dunno if he's gone for good," the mountain boy answered.</p> + +<p>Hamilton stared in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"Cunjer got him," the other continued.</p> + +<p>But this did not explain things any better.</p> + +<p>"Cunjer?" repeated Hamilton. "You mean magic?"</p> + +<p>The mountain boy nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, cunjer," he affirmed.</p> + +<p>"You're fooling, aren't you?" said Hamilton questioningly, "you can't +mean it. I never heard of 'cunjer' as a real thing. There's lots about +it in books, of course, but those are fairy tales and things of that +sort."</p> + +<p>"An' yo' never saw a cunjer?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"Reckon they don' know as much in cities as they think they do," the +youngster retorted.</p> + +<p>"Just what do you mean by 'cunjer'?" asked Hamilton, knowing that it +would be useless to argue the conditions of a modern city with a boy who +had never seen one.</p> + +<p>"Bein' able to put a cunjer on, so's the one yo' cunjer has got to do +anythin' yo' want."</p> + +<p>"Sort of hypnotism business," commented the older boy.</p> + +<p>"Dunno' what yo' call it in the city. Up hyeh in the mount'ns we call it +cunjer, an' thar's some slick ones hyeh, too."</p> + +<p>"But how did the teacher get mixed up in it?" queried Hamilton. "It +doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to find a schoolmaster +doing."</p> + +<p>"He wasn't doin' it, it was again' him," the mountain boy explained. +"The folks hyeh suspicioned as he was tippin' o' the revenoo men."</p> + +<p>"Who did? Moonshiners?"</p> + +<p>"Easy on that word, Hamilton," suddenly broke in the old Kentuckian, who +had overheard part of the conversation, "thar's plenty up hyeh that don' +like it."</p> + +<p>"All right, Uncle Eli, I'll remember," the boy answered; then, turning +to his companion, he continued "You were saying that some of the people +in the mountains thought the schoolmaster was giving information to the +revenue men."</p> + +<p>"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' +believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us."</p> + +<p>"Did the revenue officers come up here!"</p> + +<p>The mountain lad nodded his head.</p> + +<p>"Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know +ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved +on the teacheh. It never was, but thar was a plenty o' people who +believed the story. I didn't, but then the teacheh was allers good to +me."</p> + +<p>"But what did the revenue men have to do with the 'cunjering'?" asked +Hamilton, desiring to keep his informant to the point.</p> + +<p>"They didn't, it was the men on the Ridge."</p> + +<p>"Do you know how it happened?"</p> + +<p>"I know all about it," the lad answered, with a slightly less listless +air, "for I was in school that mornin'. For a week or more we boys had +seen ol' Blacky Baldwin sort o' snoopin' aroun' near the school, but as +we allers crossed our fingers an' said nothin' so long as he was in +hearin', we weren't afraid."</p> + +<p>"What did you do that for?"</p> + +<p>The younger boy looked at the city-bred lad with an evident pity for his +ignorance.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-3-t.jpg' width='50%' alt='MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail. (Brown +Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-4-t.jpg' width='50%' alt="MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; the fire +is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs on a +tree. (Brown Bros.)" title=''> +</center> + +<div class='caption'><p>MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; +in the lower picture the fire is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs +on a tree. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"So's he couldn't cunjer us, O' course," he said. "Don' yo' even know +that? Ol' Blacky Baldwin is a first-class cunjer, an' any one o' them +can cunjer you with the words he hears yo' sayin'."</p> + +<p>"But if this 'cunjer-fellow' was hanging around the school," suggested +Hamilton, "why didn't you tell the master?"</p> + +<p>"An' get Blacky down on us? You-all can bet we kep' quiet an' didn' even +talk about Blacky to each other. Wa'al, that went on for a week or two. +Then, one mornin', while we was all in school, a big storm come up, +thunder an' lightnin' an' all. Suddenly, jes' after a clap o' thunder +that sounded almos' as if it had hit the schoolhouse Ol' Blacky Baldwin +walked through the door an' up to the teacheh's table. He was carryin a +twisted thing in his hand, like a ram's horn, an' I knew it was his +cunjerin' horn, although I hadn't even seen it befo'."</p> + +<p>"What did the master say when he came in?"</p> + +<p>"Nary a word. It was awful dark an' the thunder was rumbling aroun' +among the hills. I took one look at Ol' Blacky Baldwin's face, an' then +hid my eyes. I reckon the others did the same."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"His face was all shiny with a queer green light, sendin' up smoke, +like ol' dead wood does sometimes after a rain."</p> + +<p>"Phosphorus evidently," muttered Hamilton to himself, but he did not +want to interrupt the lad now that he had started, and therefore did not +discuss the point.</p> + +<p>"He walked right up to the teacheh's table," continued the younger boy, +"an' he pointed the horn at him, accordin' to one o' the boys who says +he was peepin' through his fingers. I wasn't lookin', I wasn't takin' +any chances. And then we all heard him say to the teacheh:</p> + +<p>"'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a +fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places +where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', +an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you.'"</p> + +<p>"And that was all?"</p> + +<p>"That was all," the mountain boy replied. "After a bit, I looked up and +Ol' Blacky Baldwin was gone; the teacheh looked peaked an' seemed kind +o' skeered, but he didn't say anythin'."</p> + +<p>"Well, it was a little scary," said Hamilton. "I don't wonder it shook +him up."</p> + +<p>"That was only the beginnin'," the storyteller went on. "About half an +hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor +an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' +pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the +chair to reach one down. We was all watchin' him, when suddintly he give +a groan an' his eyes rolled back so's we couldn't see nothin' but the +whites; his face got all pale, an' his lips sort o' blue; he reeled an' +was jes' goin' to fall when he sort o' made a grab at the shelf an' hung +on as though he was fallin' off a cliff.</p> + +<p>"Two of the bigger boys, thinkin' he had a stroke or somethin', went up +an' spoke, but he didn't answer, jes' hung on to that shelf. Standin' on +the chair as he was, of course the boys couldn' make him let go, an' +they couldn' make him hear or understan' a mite. So they pulled up a +bench and one of 'em climbed up an' forced his hand open. Jes' like a +flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled."</p> + +<p>"Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried.</p> + +<p>"One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, +an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as +his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' +lay back in his chair. He sat there for a bit an' then he leaned +forward, put his hands on the desk, an' stared right in front of him, +jes' as if we wa'n't there at all.</p> + +<p>"'I thought I was fallin',' he said gruffly.</p> + +<p>"We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes' sit there, lookin' +straight in front of him, an' repeatin' ev'ry minute or two: 'I thought +I was fallin'! I thought I was fallin'!'"</p> + +<p>Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as +though he were living through the scene again.</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder you got scared," he said. "Did he come to?"</p> + +<p>"Not right then," the boy answered. "We waited a while an' then some of +the fellers got up an' went out sof'ly. I went, too, an' the teacheh +never even seemed to see us go."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you think he had gone crazy?"</p> + +<p>"We all knew it was cunjerin'," the lad rejoined "an' when we got +outside the door thar was Ol' Blacky Baldwin waitin', lookin' jes' the +same as usual. As I come by, he said, jes' as smooth, 'School's out +early to-day, boys.' But I don't think any of us answered him. I know I +didn't. I jes' took and run as hard as I knew how. An' when I got to the +top o' the hill an' looked back, an' saw Blacky goin' into the +schoolhouse again, I couldn' get home fast enough."</p> + +<p>"Was that what broke up the school?"</p> + +<p>"Not right away," the other replied. "Thar was some that never come nigh +the place agin, but befo' two weeks most of us was back. Teacheh allers +seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' +on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for +fear o' fallin'."</p> + +<p>"How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the +time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers +done."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, he'd wake up in the night screamin', 'I'm fallin', I'm fallin',' +and no one wanted to have a ha'nted teacher in the house. An' Blacky +Baldwin, he jes' hung aroun' the school, and we-all would see him every +day, mutterin' an' laughin' to himself. Then, suddintly, Teacheh +disappeared, an' though we hunted fo' him everywhar, he wasn' found. +We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I've thought sence that +p'r'aps he jes' went away, goin' back to the city, and leavin' no tracks +so's to make Ol' Blacky Baldwin believe he'd be'n killed."</p> + +<p>"That sounds likely enough," Hamilton said. "But even if he did get +away, I don't believe that he'd want to come back."</p> + +<p>"I reckon not," the mountain boy agreed. "Anyway, the school's shut up +now."</p> + +<p>"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I +reckon they're not wanted."</p> + +<p>The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was +squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The +old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it +roughly. Bill Wilsh listened in a dreamy way, and Hamilton wondered at +his seeming carelessness. The old man read it twice, then, rising to his +feet, the boy repeated it word for word and without so much as a nod to +Hamilton, slouched off in a long, lazy stride that looked like loafing, +but which, as Hamilton afterwards found out, covered the ground rapidly.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose he'll remember all that, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"He? Oh, yes," the mountaineer replied, "word for word, syllable for +syllable—that is, fo' to-day."</p> + +<p>"He must have a good memory," the boy exclaimed "I'm sure I couldn't."</p> + +<p>"But he'll forget every word by to-morrow," the other continued, "almost +forget that he was hyeh to-day at all. That's why they're so hard to +teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him +tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering.' Is there much of that sort +of idea in the mountains?"</p> + +<p>"None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man. "Some o' the +po' whites down in the gullies talk about it, but thar's mo' difference +between the folks in the gullies an' on the Ridge th'n there is between +the mount'ns an' the Blue Grass. They are different, an' they look +different, too."</p> + +<p>"Bill Wilsh certainly does," agreed Hamilton, "but I thought at first it +was because he was tired out with a long walk after a day's work."</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"They're all that way," he said. "They jes' look all beaten out as if +they hadn't any life left in them at all. I reckon the most o' them have +hookworm, too, an' they just look fit to drop."</p> + +<p>"Hookworm, Uncle Eli? What is that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"It's a queer kind o' disease," the old man answered, "that comes from +goin' barefoot. There's a kind o' grub in the soil, and it works its way +in. It's only jes' recently that it's be'n found out that the po' whites +are peaked and backward because they're sick, and now they know a cure +fo' it, why hookworm is being driven right out o' the South."</p> + +<p>"Was there so much of it?"</p> + +<p>"Puttin' an end to it will make useful American citizens out o' +thousands o' poor critters that never knew what ailed them."</p> + +<p>"But where did the 'poor whites' come from, Uncle Eli? What made them +that way?"</p> + +<p>"Whar they come from I jes' don' rightly know. I reckon I saw more o' +them when I was down in Georgia, but the Florida 'crackers' are still +worse off. Thar's not so many in the mount'ns an' those that are here +live 'way up in the gullies. The sure 'nough po' whites, or 'Crackers' +as they call them, belong to the pine belt, between the mount'ns an' the +swamps o' the coast."</p> + +<p>"Why are they called 'Crackers'?"</p> + +<p>"I don' know, unless because they live on cracked corn and razor-back +hog. It an't so easy to say how they begun. Thar's a lot o' French +names, an' thar's a tradition that two shiploads o' Huguenots were +wrecked off Georgia in the early days an' foun' their way inland, +settlin' down without anythin' to start with, an' not knowin' for a +generation or two whar any settlements could be foun'. An' thar's a lot +o' folks that have just drifted down, down,—livin' jes' like the +'Crackers' an' often taken to be the same. An' the slavery system made +it worse because thar was no middle white class—either rich or po', +thar was nothin' between,—that is, down in that part o' the country. +But yo' mus' remember that thar has been a great change in the last +twenty years, an' that the children o' 'Cracker' families are doin' jes' +as well as anybody in the South."</p> + +<p>"How is that, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, in the days befo' the war, the po' whites were jes' trash. The +planters wouldn' have 'em, because the slaves did all the work; they +wouldn' work themselves, an' they didn' own slaves. So they were worse +off than the negroes an' even the black race looked down on 'em. But the +war waked them up."</p> + +<p>"They all fought for the South, didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"Mos'ly all. They were food fo' powder, but I always reckoned they +hindered more'n they helped. For the 'Cracker,' however, the war meant +everythin'. It placed him side by side with the Southern gentleman, it +strengthened the color line, an' jes' enough o' them made good to show +the others thar was a chance fo' them, too."</p> + +<p>"Then they started in to improve right after the war, did they?"</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head negatively.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "at first they were far worse off than befo' because the +Freedman's Bureau an' the carpet-baggers made trouble right an' lef'. +The No'th had a fine chance, but the carpet-baggers were jes' blind to +everythin' excep' the negro, an' the po' white was jes' as shabbily +treated by the No'th as he had be'n by the South. Now that everybody is +seein' that yo' can't make a negro jes' the same as a white man by +givin' him a vote, thar's a chance fo' the po' white. I reckon the +'Cracker' as a 'Cracker' is goin' to be extinct pretty soon, an' the +South is goin' to be proud o' the stock it once despised. Atlanta is the +fastes' growin' city in the South, an' Atlanta is jes' full o' men whose +folks weren't much more'n 'Crackers.' The po' white, in a few years, is +goin' to be only a memory like the backwoodsman o' the time o' Dan'l +Boone."</p> + +<p>"That promises well for the South," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"The boom o' the South is jes' beginnin'," the old man said, "an' if +you're goin' to do census work this next year, yo' jes' watch the +figures an' see whar the old South comes in. It's a pity you're goin' +back to Wash'n'ton to-morrow, as I think yo' ought to see more o' this +country befo' yo' go."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to, ever so much, Uncle Eli," the boy answered, as he got up +from the step and started for the big loft where he slept with the +mountaineer's two sons, "but, even if I don't get a chance, I've learned +a lot from you about the folk on the mountains and about the South +generally."</p> + +<p>The mountaineer nodded a good-night as the boy disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Now thar," he said to his wife, who had been knitting stockings during +the latter part of the conversation, and occasionally interjecting a +word, "thar is a boy that is really achin' to know things. I wish Rube +and Eph were more like him."</p> + +<p>"Nothin' but hounds an' vittles worries them," the woman replied +sharply, "but they an't none like city boys, an' I'd ruther have 'em the +way they air than to come pesterin' with questions like Hamilton does +you. I don't set any sort o' stock in it, an' I don't encourage him in +sech nonsense."</p> + +<p>The big Kentuckian smiled, and filled his corn-cob leisurely as he +turned the talk to other things.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning, Hamilton and the oldest of the two boys started +on their fourteen-mile ride to the station, where the lad was to take an +afternoon train for Washington. They had gone about three miles, when +they came upon Bill Wilsh sitting on the stump of a tree by the +roadside.</p> + +<p>"I reckoned you-all would come along this way," he said, "an' I've be'n +thinkin' more'n more 'bout Teacheh havin' likely gone to the city, an' +not bein' dead after all. Yo' goin' to the city now?"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-5-t.jpg' width='50%' alt="BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co.)</p></div> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-6-t.jpg' width='40%' alt='BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"I'm going to Washington, Bill," Hamilton answered.</p> + +<p>"Is that the city?"</p> + +<p>"It's one of them."</p> + +<p>"Do yo' s'pose that'd be the city Teacheh went to?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't say, Bill," the lad replied, "there's no way of knowing, but +it's likely enough."</p> + +<p>"I was thinkin'—" the mountain boy began then he broke off suddenly. +"I'm mighty partial to whittlin'," he continued irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>"The best ever," interjected Hamilton's companion. "Yo' ought to have +shown him some of your work, Bill."</p> + +<p>"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his +listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I +whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he +an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the +city?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked down at the lad, and wanted to cheer him up, but he +could not see what would be likely to bring the schoolmaster back, and +so he answered:</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not, Bill. But he might, you know."</p> + +<p>"I reckon not. But I'd like him to know he a'nt fo'gotten in the +mount'ns. I want yo' to tell him that thar a'nt be'n a week sence he +went away that I an't be'n down to the school an' swep' the floor an' +seen that his books was in the place he liked to have 'em be. I wouldn' +want him to come back from his wanderin', if he still is wanderin', an' +think he was fo'gotten. It an't much, I know, to sweep a floor," he +added, looking up to Hamilton, "but yo' tell him an' he'll understan'. +It's about all that I kin do. He'll understan' if yo' tell him."</p> + +<p>Neither of the other boys spoke, and after a moment the mountain lad +went on:</p> + +<p>"An' when yo' see him, give him this, an' tell him it comes from Bill, +his 'tryin' scholar.' He used to call me that because, although I wasn't +learnin' much, I was always tryin'. An' yo' can tell him I'm tryin' +still."</p> + +<p>Reaching his hand into the bosom of his ragged shirt the boy pulled out +a slab of wood four inches square. It was carved as a bas-relief, +showing the schoolhouse in the foreground in high relief, with the +wooded hills beyond.</p> + +<p>"That's great!" exclaimed Hamilton. "I don't believe I ever saw better +carving than that anywhere."</p> + +<p>A momentary gleam of pleasure flashed into the boy's dull eyes, but he +went on again in the same lifeless voice.</p> + +<p>"Thar's the schoolhouse jes' as it was when he was here last, but it's +never looked the same to me sence. I want yo' to give this to him an' +show him, if yo' will, that I whittled it with the door open, jes' to +show him we're lookin' for him back."</p> + +<p>"But supposing I shouldn't meet him in the city?" queried Hamilton +gently. "Washington is a large place and there are many other cities."</p> + +<p>"I reckon you-all have mo' chance o' findin' him thar than I have hyeh. +I reckon he an't goin' to come back hyeh, an' then he'd never know that +we an't fo'gotten him, an' he'd think we was ungrateful. But yo'll try +an' find him?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton was conscious of a lump in his throat at the simple +faithfulness of the mountain boy, and he said gently:</p> + +<p>"Very well, Bill, if you feel that way about it, of course I'll try. +But you haven't told me his name as yet."</p> + +<p>"I was thinkin' o' that," the boy answered. Then he took from his pocket +a home-made gum-wood case, and opening it, took out a small piece of +paper and handed it to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Be keerful of it," he said, "that paper tears mighty easy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton smoothed the paper out on the palm of his hand, and looked at +it carefully. It was a "copy," merely of pothooks, done in lead pencil, +the strokes wavering and of differing slopes, and the whole so smudged +as scarcely to be recognizable But, down in the corner, written in ink, +in a firm, bold hand, were the words, "Very Good, Gregory Sinclair."</p> + +<p>Hamilton copied the name into his notebook and, refolding the paper as +carefully as possible in the same folds, he handed it to the barefooted +boy standing on the road beside his horse's head.</p> + +<p>"Did you-all read it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Did you-all see that he said 'Very Good'?"</p> + +<p>"'Very Good' was what was written," agreed Hamilton, thinking of the +wavering and smudged pothooks.</p> + +<p>"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' +as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one +to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. +But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't +fo'gotten."</p> + +<p>Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost +to sight. The two lads started on their way, but they had not ridden a +hundred yards when they heard a hail; looking back, they saw the +mountain boy standing on a point of the ridge; and echoing down to them +came the lonely cry:</p> + +<p>"Fin' him, an' tell him he an't fo'gotten."</p> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Settling himself comfortably in the train for his long journey to the +capital, one of the first things that Hamilton did was to take from his +pocket the little carving that had been given him by the mountain lad +and put it away carefully in his grip. Examining it closely as he did +so, the boy was astonished to note the fineness of the work, and he +realized that it must have taken Bill Wilsh all the spare moments of a +long winter to finish it. The work was all the more surprising, Hamilton +thought, since it had been done just with a single tool, a common +pocketknife, and was yet as fine and delicate as though carved with a +set of costly tools. He made up his mind to buy a set and send them to +Bill Wilsh with the first pay that he got from his Census Bureau work.</p> + +<p>Seated across the aisle from him was another lad about his own age, with +whom Hamilton rather wanted to make acquaintance, but the opportunity +did not arrive until the first meal, when, by chance, they found +themselves on opposite sides of one of the small tables in the dining +car. The usual courtesies of the table led to conversation, in the +course of which Hamilton's companion dropped the word "census" in a +manner which showed his familiarity with the progress of the work of +preparation.</p> + +<p>"Are you interested in the census?" asked Hamilton promptly.</p> + +<p>"Rather," the other replied. "I'm going to work in the Bureau. As a +matter of fact, I'm just going to Washington to get my appointment now."</p> + +<p>"You are!" exclaimed Hamilton. "Why, that's exactly what I'm doing. It's +queer we should meet this way."</p> + +<p>"Are you going as an assistant special agent, too?" his new friend +asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to start in that way," the boy replied</p> + +<p>"How do you mean 'start'?" the other queried. "I understand that work on +the manufactures will last three or four months, and by that time all +the other census-taking will be over."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to try to get some of the population work as well," Hamilton +explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, +and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators +from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them +without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine."</p> + +<p>The other boy shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'd want it," he said, "at least not in a city, and I'm +going to do the manufacturing work, of course, in a city."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going to be?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I took the exam in 'Frisco," the older boy replied; "that's my home +town, and I expect to work out there."</p> + +<p>"That's quite a walk from here!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I had to come to Washington," the boy answered "and so my people wanted +me to go and see my sister down in Florida. She married a fellow who's +busy reclaiming some swamp land down there, and he promised me a try at +alligator hunting."</p> + +<p>"That sounds prime," suggested Hamilton, "and I should think that in +that reclamation work there would be lots of chance for it. It would +be worth watching, too, just to see how they got at that work. I should +think they would find themselves up against a pretty stiff job, +engineering down in those swamps. And then there must be barrels of +snakes, too?"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-7-t.jpg' width='411' height='600' alt='ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (Courtesy of Outing Magazine.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (Courtesy of Outing Magazine.)</p></div> + +<p>"Water moccasins and copper-heads mostly," said his friend cheerfully, +"but you soon get so used to them that you don't mind them. It's very +seldom that you ever hear of any one being bitten by a snake. They all +seem more anxious to get out of your way than you out of theirs."</p> + +<p>"And you're anxious enough, too!" remarked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's pretty good security, don't you think?" queried the older boy +with a laugh. "When both sides want to get away, there's not much chance +of a meeting."</p> + +<p>"But how about the alligators?"</p> + +<p>"That was real good sport," the other rejoined. "But I kept down to the +smaller chaps most of the time. I don't suppose there's really very much +danger, even in the big fellows, as long as you know just how to handle +them."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'm particularly keen about handling them," answered +Hamilton. "I shouldn't think the big ones would want more than about one +bite to put you out of business."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," the older boy admitted, "but what's the use of +giving one that chance? Anyway, so I learned down there, it's not so +much the bite that the hunters are afraid of as the stroke of the tail. +It doesn't take such a big alligator to break your leg like a pipestem +with a sweep of that long, scaly tail of his."</p> + +<p>"But how do they catch them?"</p> + +<p>"With a noose, when they're sunning themselves. An alligator lies on a +bank, half in and half out of the water, most of the time, with his eyes +shut. Sometimes he really is asleep, and sometimes he isn't. That's +where the fun comes in. Of course, if you can get the boat right up to +where he is, close enough to slip the noose over his jaws, you've got +him all right. There's a knob on the snout that keeps the noose from +slipping off, and he sort of strangles when you tow him through the +water. But if you can't get there with the boat you have to go it on +foot."</p> + +<p>"You mean you have to get out of the boat and walk right up to his +jaws?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, just that."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't sound particularly good to me," Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the other replied. "As long as +you don't make too much noise, and keep out of reach of his tail, you're +all right. If you slip up, you want to jump out of the way about as +lively as you know how. But he'll never come after you, or mighty +seldom. If you get a slip-knot over his snout, and can throw a +half-hitch over his tail, why, the biggest of them is easy enough to +handle."</p> + +<p>"But what are they caught for?"</p> + +<p>"There's quite a steady sale. The big fellows are sometimes sold alive +to parks and aquariums and circuses, but most of them are killed and the +whole skins dressed and used for hanging on the walls of dens, like +trophies. The real market is for the skins of the little fellows, which +are made up into all sorts of alligator leather bags. Most of that stuff +is imitation, but still quite a lot of it is real. It's plenty of fun +catching the little 'gators, because even the smallest of them can give +you quite a nip and a reptile three feet long is a handful. I did well +enough out of it, because in addition to the sport I had, my +brother-in-law let me have the skins of all those I caught myself. Some +people, too, want to have baby ones as pets, but I don't think I'd want +to have them around, myself, after they grew to any size," he added, as +the boys rose and went back to the Pullman.</p> + +<p>By the time the train had reached Washington the two had become +thoroughly friendly, and Hamilton liked his new acquaintance so much +that he would gladly have seen more of him than merely as a traveling +companion. But as the other lad was going out to San Francisco, there +was no likelihood of their being thrown together at all. Indeed, on his +arrival, Hamilton found that he had been assigned to an Eastern city, so +he had to bid his new-made friend "Good-by."</p> + +<p>The exterior of the Census Bureau building was a disappointment to +Hamilton, by reason of its unimposing appearance. Indeed, it was +altogether too small for the purposes of the census, and during the rush +of the decennial work, there were departments of the census scattered +through various other buildings, adding no little inconvenience to the +work. Accustomed to the New York structures, towering tens of stories +into the air, the two-story red brick building of the census looked +small to Hamilton, though comfortable and pleasant to work in. It was +deceiving in its size, however, for the floor space was big and not +much broken, and there seemed to be plenty of room. But it was not until +the boy returned after his population work some months later, that he +saw this building as the center of unparalleled activity.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-8-t.jpg' width='700' height='446' alt='THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (Walden +Fawcett.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (Walden +Fawcett.)</p></div> + +<p>"I understand," said the chief of the manufacturing division to him, +"that you are desirous of coming to the Census Bureau as one of the +permanent force, not just for the decennial period only?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Clan," was the boy's reply, "that is, if the Bureau is +willing."</p> + +<p>"That will depend entirely on the work you do. I didn't see your papers +personally, but I understand you received a high rating, and that you +have had a good deal to do with figures.—That is, for a youngster," he +added, noting the youthfulness of the lad standing before him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I have," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"What made you think of taking this work up?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"Because I like it, sir."</p> + +<p>The divisional chief leaned back in his chair, put his fingers together +in characteristic attitude, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Eh," he said, "you are sure you will like the work?"</p> + +<p>"Quite, sir," said Hamilton in his decided way. "I looked it all over, +and I know."</p> + +<p>"You will be less sure of the future when you are older," the Scotchman +said, "but if you 'know,' there's nothing more to be said. I'm going to +put you under the care of Mr. Burns, and he will instruct you further in +the work."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Clan—" began the boy.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Where am I going, sir?"</p> + +<p>"New Haven, Connecticut—a good town, and one that will give you plenty +of work. You'd better start for there to-night. I hope you will like it +as much as you expect."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," Hamilton replied, seeing that his superior deemed the +interview at an end. "I'll do the very best I can."</p> + +<p>On arriving in New Haven the following day, Hamilton made his way to the +local Census Office opened by his new leader. He found Mr. Burns to be a +typical statistician, to whom figures had a meaning beyond themselves, +but to whom little was of value unless it could be expressed in figures. +Hamilton introduced himself briefly.</p> + +<p>"You're Noble," the other said abruptly. "When will you be ready to +begin?"</p> + +<p>"Any time," answered Hamilton. "Right after lunch, sir, if you want me +to make a start."</p> + +<p>"There's a portfolio," the census agent answered, "take it along and you +can begin just as soon as you're ready."</p> + +<p>"What instructions have you to give me, sir?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I save eleven and a half per cent of the time given to instructions by +writing them. You'll find a copy in there," he said, pointing to the +portfolio.</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," the boy replied, "I'll go ahead, and if I find +anything I don't understand, shall I come and ask you?"</p> + +<p>"Telephone!" the census agent said. "Quicker to 'phone even if only in +the next room. Average conversation, six minutes; average telephone +conversation, two minutes; average value of my time for six minutes, +eighteen cents; average cost of 'phone for two minutes, one cent; direct +saving to me seventeen cents, not counting time of your traveling to +come and talk. No! Telephone!"</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," Hamilton answered, "I'll 'phone," and realizing that +his new chief had the question of the valuation of time down to a fine +point, he hurried away.</p> + +<p>On reaching the hotel he examined his portfolio with a great deal of +curiosity. The schedules were familiar, for one of the features of the +examination he had taken had been the filling out of such a census +schedule from financial statements of a group of factories. The written +instructions, however, were thoroughly characteristic of the man, and +percentage figures were scattered around like punctuation marks. But the +explanations were clear as crystal, none the less, and gave no +opportunity even for telephoning.</p> + +<p>An old New England center, and a college town, New Haven proved a most +interesting field in which to work. By far the larger number of people +with whom the boy came in contact were of old American stock and gave +him every assistance possible.</p> + +<p>"The census-taker?" one old man said, when Hamilton called. "Come right +in the office and sit down. Now tell me what I can do for you," and when +the boy mentioned the principal items of the schedule, the manufacturer +spent a good hour working over the books with his office force to get +out the figures desired. When Hamilton thanked him, he replied:</p> + +<p>"I'm an American, Mr. Noble, and one of the stones they moved from the +old churchyard of the Old Center Church and that bore the date 1681 was +the tombstone of my direct ancestor. I think you'll find most of the New +England stock proud of the United States and only too glad to do +anything they can to help the government in its census or anything else +for the good of the country."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of it," the boy said heartily, "but there's mighty few of that +old type left. There's not ten per cent of the people in the country now +that are real bred-in-the-bone Americans."</p> + +<p>"It is a pity," the old man said, shaking his head, "and the worst of it +is that even that ten per cent lives principally in the country. It's +the cities that influence the progress of the nation. We talk about +making these foreigners over into our idea of what Americans should be, +and we forget that all the time they are influencing us to become the +kind of Americans they think we ought to be."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's true," the boy said, "because in New York, where my +folks live, the old New Yorkers seem entirely strange and out-of-place +in the dash and glitter."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the New Englander replied. "The real Americans are plain, +solid people; it's the Jewish strain in New York that has brought about +the display of wealth, and to the large number of Southern Europeans are +due the colors, the lights, the music, the public dining, and all the +rest of it. It may be the American of to-day, but it isn't what +Americanism meant a few years ago."</p> + +<p>"A good deal of New York life does seem foreign in a kind of way," said +Hamilton, "and I'm glad," he added, as he closed his portfolio, "that +the Census Bureau put me at work in one of the old-fashioned towns +first."</p> + +<p>As the boy went on in his work he came to find how thoroughly the spirit +of Yale was felt in the town. Almost all the leading business men were +Yale graduates, and instead of displaying the "town and gown" hostility +of some university places, New Haven was inordinately proud of its +college. Of course, even in such a town, there was quite a proportion of +foreign-born manufacturers but the boy found that the Jewish +establishments were even easier to tabulate than those owned by +Americans, the Hebrew understanding of the details of business being so +thorough.</p> + +<p>"That's not so very detailed!" one of these remarked to Hamilton when +the boy had come to the end of his list of questions.</p> + +<p>"It's a relief to hear somebody say that," answered the young +census-taker with a laugh, "because I hear a dozen times a day the +complaint that no one could be expected to know as much about a business +as these schedules require."</p> + +<p>It was not to be expected that the work would proceed without an +occasional hitch, and Hamilton had one such with a firm of Italian +marble-cutters in which the bookkeeping had been of so curious a +character that it was next to impossible to get out the kind of figures +the government wanted. Another was in a small Chinese place, where they +made little trinkets to sell to tourists in the "Chinatown" districts of +the larger cities, representing them to be imported articles of value. +Another was with a small place run by two brothers, Persians, making +fringes and tassels for fraternal order badges and matters of that kind. +It was interesting to the lad, for he had the chance to see the works in +a number of cases, and he learned a lot about the way many queer things +were made.</p> + +<p>But Hamilton's hopes were set on visiting one especial manufacturing +plant in New Haven, and he had determined to ask that he be allowed to +go over it before he left the town. This was the great sporting gun +works. Hamilton was passionately fond of sport, and had owned a +Winchester ever since he was twelve years old. Indeed, he had read up on +guns a good deal, and it was one of his hobbies.</p> + +<p>His delight was great, therefore, when at the end of a long day, after +he had turned in his schedule to his chief, the latter said:</p> + +<p>"Noble, your work is good. Johnson is faster. Up to last night he had +turned in one, decimal five-two per cent more establishments than you, +but your proportion of capital invested is larger, showing that the +works you went to took more time. Your schedules are better. This takes +a little over one-fifth more of my own time than I had figured at first. +I was going to do the Winchester works myself. I think you can do it. +You had better go ahead. It's complicated, but they'll help you all they +can. There's not much time left."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton decisively with the +characteristic raising and lowering of his eyebrows, "I'll get all there +is, all right."</p> + +<p>The next morning, about ten o'clock, Hamilton presented himself at the +general offices of the company on the outskirts of the town, about a +mile from the college. He asked to see the business manager, and was +granted an interview.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Arverne," said the boy, "I called with regard to securing the +figures for the census of nineteen hundred and ten."</p> + +<p>"But you are not the special agent surely?" said the manager, looking at +him sharply.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," the boy answered, "Mr. Burns is the special agent, and I am +one of his assistants."</p> + +<p>"I should have thought Mr. Burns would have come himself," the man said; +"you are young for this work, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton flushed at this reference to his boyish appearance, but he +answered steadily: "Yes, sir, I believe I am younger than most of the +assistant special agents, but I have had a good deal to do with +figures."</p> + +<p>"Burns is a good man," the manager continued. "If the government has +men of that stamp all over the country, the statistics will be +invaluable. You know Mr. Burns?" he added suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Only just since this work began, Mr. Arverne," the boy replied.</p> + +<p>"Queer chap. I don't believe he eats a bit of food or drinks a glass of +water without mentally figuring the nutritious percentage in the food, +and the effect of his drink upon the water supply of the world."</p> + +<p>Hamilton laughed.</p> + +<p>"He is a little that way, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>"A little!" the manager exclaimed. "But to return to the point. You +didn't tell me why Mr. Burns didn't come himself."</p> + +<p>"He said that the office work was piling up, sir," answered the boy, +"and—if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Arverne—he spoke of it as an +opportunity for me, since it was the largest plant in the city and my +schedules had been the most complete of those turned in to him."</p> + +<p>The manager eyed the boy keenly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns doesn't make many mistakes," he said, after a moment, "and if +he has confidence in you, he knows what he is talking about. This is a +country of young men anyway, and it seems to be getting younger all the +time. Where is the schedule?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton handed him the paper and sat back, waiting. Several minutes +passed, while the manager went over the questions item by item.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said at last, "I think our books can answer every question +there without difficulty. We keep very complete books. I am not so sure, +Mr. Noble," he continued, "that I can give you those figures immediately +in just exactly that form."</p> + +<p>"In what points do your books differ?" asked Hamilton quietly.</p> + +<p>"Not in any essentials, but in a few minor points," the manager replied. +"For example, you want to know here the exact number of employees on our +pay roll on December 15th. Now I could have the pay roll department—we +keep it as an entirely separate department here—turn up instantly the +payments for the week in which that date occurs, but in order to +separate that one day from the week, reference will have to be made to +the Employment Bureau to find out what workers left, and how many were +added, and the day of the week on which each of these left or began +work in that week, and to add or to deduct such sums from the weekly +pay roll."</p> + +<p>"That difficulty has come up several times," said Hamilton, "because not +many people pay their employees by the day. But in nine cases out of +ten, an average for that week is usually struck, figuring in some cases +by the days and in others by the hours. I suppose you noticed that the +schedule itself states that what is sought is 'a normal day'?"</p> + +<p>"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it +is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even +that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions."</p> + +<p>"No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch +usually comes just at the point you're looking at now—the cost of +materials."</p> + +<p>"That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great +deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with +all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. +"That seems rather a curious phrase."</p> + +<p>"Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of +guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen +working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to +enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, +right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a +great deal of designing."</p> + +<p>"Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We call them so," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, +feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings +of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these +works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also +machinery and tools."</p> + +<p>"But those are for our own use!" objected the manager.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them +yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the +schedule it would make the figures all wrong."</p> + +<p>"How would it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and +you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without +getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the +machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost +price or at whatever figure you name."</p> + +<p>"I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems +a very roundabout way of getting at it."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery +you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you +make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried +to the capital account."</p> + +<p>"Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and +in that light these departments might be called productive, although not +directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out +pretty well for a youngster," he added.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing +nothing else for the past two weeks."</p> + +<p>"Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can +tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous +expense."</p> + +<p>"Very well," the official said, "if you come back at four o'clock this +afternoon I will have the schedule ready for you." Then, seeing that the +boy hesitated, he said, "Did you want it before then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Mr. Arverne, thank you," the boy answered "that wasn't what I +had in mind at all. I was wondering whether, if I came back at three +o'clock, I would be allowed to see something of the works. In quite a +number of places I have been shown through the plant, sometimes because +I had to get figures from managers of different departments, sometimes +because I had a few minutes to spare while a clerk was filling up the +schedule. But I've always been so interested in guns, and especially in +Winchesters, that I really should like to find out how they're made."</p> + +<p>The business manager shook his head dubiously.</p> + +<p>"We very rarely show any one over the plant," he said, "because there +is very little to be gained by it. And in any case, there are some +portions of the works where visitors are never allowed, such as +ammunition rooms where there are quantities of powder about, and similar +places."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to be able to say that there was a desire on the part of the +Census Bureau for a report," said Hamilton, "but honestly I haven't the +right to say so. I'm only asking as a favor. At the same time I have +seen special reports on selected industries issued by the Bureau, and +possibly my information might chance to be of value to the special agent +who was getting it up."</p> + +<p>"Come back at two o'clock, then," said the manager. "One of the members +of the Board, Mr. Nebett, is here to-day, and if he has no objection +I'll try to find some one to show you round."</p> + +<p>Promptly at the appointed hour, Hamilton handed his card to the doorman, +who showed him into a waiting-room. In a few minutes the door opened, +and a keen-looking, well-set-up man appeared who came forward and held +out his hand.</p> + +<p>"I've been hearing about you from Mr. Arverne," he said, "and he tells +me that you want to look over the works."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Nebett?" queried the boy, and in response to an affirmative nod, +he continued, "Yes, sir, I'm very anxious to see part of it at any rate. +I can see that it's a huge place, but gun-making must be so interesting +that I'd like to see how it's done."</p> + +<p>"I think Mr. Arverne said something to me about your writing up a +special report, a summary or something of that kind."</p> + +<p>"That was just a suggestion, Mr. Nebett," the boy replied. "I told Mr. +Arverne that the Census Bureau did issue special bulletins on selected +industries, and that perhaps I might have an opportunity to make use of +some information. But that's a personal idea of mine only, because most +of those bulletins are written by experts in the Bureau."</p> + +<p>"Well," was the reply, "I don't see that it can do us any harm, anyway, +and if you are so interested you can come along with me. I like to go +through the works every once in so often, and perhaps I can tell you +more about these things than any other man in the place, because I get a +chance to see it as a whole."</p> + +<p>"If you would," began the boy.</p> + +<p>"Come along, then," said the official, without further parley, and he +led the way out of the general offices and across the street to the +first of a huge group of buildings. Walking through the yard the two +came presently to a long structure running alongside the railroad +sidings. "This," Hamilton was informed, "is just the storeroom for raw +material as it comes off the cars."</p> + +<p>He turned half round as though to leave the building, but Hamilton +stopped him with a question.</p> + +<p>"Steel, principally?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Steel."</p> + +<p>"What kind of steel?" persisted Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Oh, different kinds."</p> + +<p>"Why different kinds?" continued the boy, working his eyebrows, as was +his habit when in earnest. "For different kinds of guns?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the older man, evidently deciding that he would have to +go into the matter thoroughly with Hamilton, and passing on into the +storehouse. "We get mostly three kinds of steel, nickel steel, carbon +steel, and soft steel, with a small proportion of other forms. We do +that for the very reason you mentioned, that they are used for different +kinds of work. Nickel steel we do not use for the cheaper grades of +guns, because it is so much harder, and costs so much more to work. +Indeed, very few gun-makers use nickel steel for barrels at all, but we +do on all our high-grade work."</p> + +<p>"I notice," Hamilton said, "that all the steel here is stored in bars +and rods. Do you buy it that way, or have you a rolling mill in +connection with the plant?"</p> + +<p>"Buy it," the other said immediately. "You can't run a rolling mill at a +profit except on a large scale, and, anyway, this is too far from the +source of supply. We get our copper in ingots, but not our steel."</p> + +<p>"I notice," the boy continued, fingering a long ticket attached to a +bundle of steel rods by a wire, "that you say here, 'Do not disturb +until report from laboratory is received.'"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the other, "every order as it comes in is tested. We +have two laboratories, a physical and a chemical, and not a scrap of +material is used until it is found to be fully up to the specifications. +There's no guesswork there, but the most rigid scientific tests. That +keeps any poor material from slipping through.</p> + +<p>"Now," he continued, "I'll show you what happens to those bars."</p> + +<p>He led the way to a small building where the bars were cut into certain +recognized lengths for the men at the drop forges to handle.</p> + +<p>"This forging shop," the manufacturer said, entering it as he spoke, "is +where most of the metal parts of the gun are first roughly shaped, and +this man is working on part of a cartridge ejector. Watch him now," he +went on, following the action of the workman; "he takes a piece of steel +out of the furnace behind him, lays it on the die, touches a lever, and +the big drop-hammer comes down,—once, twice. He turns it over, brings +the drop-hammer down again, once, twice, and the piece is shaped. It has +rough edges all round, of course, and so he takes it, while it is still +glowing red, to a more exact die, and brings the drop-hammer down once, +and turns it over, then brings down the hammer again once. Now the shape +is almost perfect but for that fringe of metal all round. He picks it +up, puts it on that die on this next machine close by his hand, touches +a lever, and a knife, exactly the shape of the die comes down, crunch! +shaving off the iron clean all round, and there is your forging done, +and all with the one heating. Of course it isn't finished off, but you +can see for yourself that the rough work is done, and all in the space +of a few moments."</p> + +<p>Hamilton found it hard to tear himself away, for while the principle was +the same, all the different forges were turning out different parts, and +it was a fascination to the boy to see those glowing lumps of steel come +out of the furnace and with the few strokes of the drop-hammer, fall a +few seconds later, the shaped part of a rifle. Some of the machines were +making receivers for the stock, the largest piece of metal, and other +small parts like the trigger or the hammer, while still others were +preparing the barrels of the gun for drilling.</p> + +<p>"It is not likely to occur to you," said his guide, "that it would not +do to let all those various parts cool off by chance. For example, in +winter they would cool more rapidly than in summer, and those near the +door more quickly than those in the inner part of the forging house. +That would make them of varying hardness. So, in order to make sure that +they shall be the same, all those pieces you have seen being made are +annealed."</p> + +<p>"How is the annealing done?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That is simple enough," was the reply. "All that has to be done is to +heat them again all to the same degree of heat, then let the oven cool +at a certain rate. Here are the annealing ovens."</p> + +<p>"This is certainly a hot place," said the boy, as he stepped into the +next building. "Whew! I wonder any one stays in here."</p> + +<p>"No one does," his conductor answered. "We have this arranged so that +all the furnaces are filled in the morning, when they are cold, and +there are pyrometers to tell when the right heat is reached. All the +ovens, you see, are managed by these switches near the door. Look +here—"</p> + +<p>He slipped one of the switches into place, and the pyrometer needle +swung around and pointed to the degree of heat in the oven which it was +supposed to register.</p> + +<p>"What are those little clocks for?"</p> + +<p>"One for each oven," Mr. Nebett answered; "the keeper of the furnaces +sets them when an oven is up to the required heat. Then, you see, it is +easy to tell when they have been cooling long enough."</p> + +<p>"I should think," said Hamilton, "that making the barrel was the most +important part of a gun, because, after all, that is the only part a +bullet touches, and it must have to be exact. I've often thought of +that, how the tiniest difference at the mouth of the barrel would at a +thousand yards range cause it to be away off the mark."</p> + +<p>"It does have to be exact," his guide answered, "but that is a matter of +care rather than of difficulty. In this next building we bore the +rifle-barrels, just a simple boring process, as you see, but there are +all sorts of precautions taken to insure absolute steadiness. As soon as +a barrel is taken from the boring machine it is put through a test, to +determine whether it is correct in size to the one-half of +one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. If it is not as exact as that, it +is set aside. That is only the first of a long series of tests, too. You +would be surprised at the number of barrels that are rejected from the +time of the first selection until the gun is completed. Here, for +example, is perhaps the most sensational one."</p> + +<p>He led the boy to a small building, standing by itself in the middle of +the yard, heavily built, and looking almost like a log cabin of the old +type, made of great timbers. It was just a bit of a place, divided into +two parts by a heavy timber wall.</p> + +<p>"What in the wide world is this for?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"I'll show you in a minute, I think we're just in time," the official +said, as he led the way in. Hamilton followed him into the inner +chamber. A long row of gun barrels was the first thing the boy noticed, +the barrels all lying in slots. A gray-haired man was filling a heavy +charge of powder behind each one. The guns were pointing into a bank of +sand.</p> + +<p>"If you notice," said his guide, "you'll see that a little device, like +the old percussion cap is right by each of those charges of powder. Are +you all ready, Jim?" he queried, as the old man straightened up.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Nebett," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"All right," the other said, "we'll go into the room." He pointed out to +Hamilton, as they passed from one part of this little building to the +other, that each of these percussion caps was attached to a wire which +ran through the wall to the little room into which they were going.</p> + +<p>"Look out, Mr. Nebett," said the old man, after he had closed and +fastened the heavy door, "and you, young sir, don't be frightened," and +he pulled the wire hanging overhead.</p> + +<p>There was a terrific explosion and a roar, and though Hamilton had been +half expecting it, he jumped. Then he laughed.</p> + +<p>"I guess I did jump, after all," he said. "What was that for?"</p> + +<p>"To test the strength of the barrels," said his friend, as the old +workman slid back the heavy door. "There, you see," he added, "one of +them did burst." He pointed to one of the gun barrels rent at the side. +"Once in a while," he continued, "they just go up in pieces, and if you +look at the walls and the ceiling you'll see any number of bits of metal +driven in deeply."</p> + +<p>"But he seemed to be putting in an awfully heavy charge," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"We do that in order to be sure that we shall not expend a great deal of +labor on a barrel which in the end would fail to pass inspection, and +also to safeguard against accident," the other explained. "We do use a +very heavy charge because our guns sell all over the world, and in some +countries—England, for instance—the test is extremely severe. It's a +costly process, as it spoils a lot of barrels, but it is better to lose +material than to put out a piece of work which might not be +trustworthy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked around the proof-room carefully. Certainly it seemed to +have gone through the wars. From the thick wood huge gashes had been +rent, and the entire interior was jagged and splintered.</p> + +<p>"How much of a charge do you put to each barrel?" he asked; and when the +formula was given him for each of the different styles of rifle, the boy +whistled in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I should think that any barrels that stood that test could stand +anything afterwards," he said admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Well, they do," the other said. "It's very seldom that you hear of a +first-class gun exploding. I don't recall a case of one of ours for +years and years. And even if by some chance flaw they did, the good +ones, being nickel steel, would just make a hole in the barrel,—not fly +to pieces. But, as a matter of fact, any barrel that has been through +that 'proof-room' will have been subjected to the greatest strain it +will ever have to undergo, for there is no cartridge made that would +have one-half the power in proportion to the size of the barrel."</p> + +<p>From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of +the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and +finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed. Thus, for +example, in a receiver for a gun stock, one machine worked a bevel edge +on it, another bored it to the size of the gun barrel, accurate to the +thousandth part of an inch, another pierced the tiny screw holes, and +yet other machines made even the minute screw, done, as was explained to +Hamilton, so that the threads in each should fit with absolute +exactness.</p> + +<p>"But do you really mean to say," queried Hamilton in surprise, "that +every one of these fifty or more parts of each gun is inspected and +tested?"</p> + +<p>The official led him to a number of long rows of tables.</p> + +<p>"Here," he said, "are girls doing nothing else all day long. Here is a +testing die for a part of the ejector of one of our 1911 models. You see +that there are two spaces for all of them. It must fit into this one, it +must not fit into that, which is a thousandth of an inch smaller. If too +big, you see it won't fit into either, if too small, it would fit into +the one where it ought not. Every tiny piece is gauged on all its sides +and in every hole and at all points with this double gauge system."</p> + +<p>"That doesn't leave much for guesswork," said Hamilton. "But there is +something that's been puzzling me."</p> + +<p>"What is that?" asked his guide.</p> + +<p>"I've always heard a lot about gun-metal," Hamilton answered, "and yet +all the way through, these parts have been nothing but steel. And all +the guns I ever saw had that bluish look, as gun-metal has. For example, +my watch is what they call gun-metal," and he took it from his pocket +and showed the back of it.</p> + +<p>"Gun-metal," said the other, "is an alloy of copper and tin and once was +used almost exclusively for cannon and big guns generally. But you're +right about all guns having a bluish tinge. That is all steel, but it is +treated by a process called coloring or bluing. I'll show you—both the +old way and the new."</p> + +<p>Going down the stairs and crossing the yard, he took Hamilton into a +small building where there were a couple of open charcoal furnaces, in +which the charcoal was intensely hot, but not hot enough to catch fire. +The pieces of finished steel were buried in this charcoal, and every +few minutes the men in charge would draw them out, wipe them over with a +bunch of oiled waste, and thrust them back into the fire. It was about +the dirtiest, blackest, grimiest work the boy had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"That is the old way," Hamilton was told, "and although it is handwork +instead of machine work it is not a bit better in its results than the +new way. The modern system, besides, is much simpler and cleaner."</p> + +<p>In the next building was a row of charcoal ovens, revolving in such a +way that the parts to be blued were alternately covered and released +from the superheated charcoal, the effect of the greasing also being +done at every automatic revolution Each furnace door bore an asbestos +clock.</p> + +<p>"What are those clocks for?" asked Hamilton. "The same as those others, +I suppose, so that the man in charge can put in a number of certain +parts of a gun and leave them in for a regular length of time at a +certain heat, and pull them out all done?"</p> + +<p>"Just that," was the reply. "The only gain in the old style is that each +part being handled separately, if there is ever so little difference in +the metal, the bluer can give it a shorter or a longer time, whereas +the machine treats all alike."</p> + +<p>"Then when the gun is assembled, all the work is done?" queried +Hamilton, who was becoming a little tired from his long tramp through +the works and among the furnace-heated shops.</p> + +<p>"No," said the other. "That wouldn't do at all. A gun has not only got +to shoot, but it has got to shoot straight."</p> + +<p>"But how in the world," said Hamilton, "can you tell whether a gun will +shoot straight or not?"</p> + +<p>"One of the most important ways," said his informant, "is to let an +expert look through the barrel. One of our best men, for example, has +done nothing else all his life; his father before him was a +barrel-sighter and his son has just entered the works. He does it this +way—here, you try," and he handed a barrel to Hamilton. "Rest the +barrel in this crotch," he continued, "and look at the window. You see +there is a piece of ground glass with a thin black line running across +it. Point the barrel so that it is aimed just below that line, and if +you get it right, you will see a reflection of that line running +lengthways up the barrel."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-9-t.jpg' width='680' height='532' alt='MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton put the barrel up and looked and looked, but for a minute or +two he could not get the direction, then he caught the line. But the +reflection in the barrel was confusing, and it seemed to him that he saw +several lines.</p> + +<p>"It's awfully hard just to get that straight," the boy said, "and it's +dazzling, too."</p> + +<p>"That man you saw there," answered his guide, as they moved away, "can +tell almost to the width of a thread of a spider's web if a barrel is +straight. Here, too, is another barrel test going on. You see this man +is pushing a soft lead slug which fits the barrel snugly through the +barrel by means of a brass rod. It takes a certain amount of pressure to +push the lead slug through the barrel. Such slight variations in +diameter of the bore as one-tenth of a thousandth can be readily +detected, for if the barrel is smaller at any point than where it +entered, the slug will stick, and if it is the least bit larger at any +point, the slug will slide through too easily. Men accustomed to this +class of work can readily detect an increase or decrease in diameter of +one ten-thousandth part of an inch."</p> + +<p>"You certainly have it down fine, Mr. Nebett," Hamilton commented.</p> + +<p>"We try to," responded his guide. "Then when the barrel experts have +had their turn, the gun is assembled and goes to the action men."</p> + +<p>"Who are they?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They test the trigger pull, the cartridge ejection, the fall of the +hammer, the filling of the magazine, and all such points. They have two +sets of dummies, such as were used for testing the parts. One must fit, +the other not, and so any fault in the mechanism is detected. The same +with ejection,—we must be sure that a cartridge will not stick. Then +after that—"</p> + +<p>"Still more tests!"</p> + +<p>"Didn't I tell you that we had to be sure that a gun could be made not +only to shoot but to shoot straight? Our crack shots get the guns next."</p> + +<p>"What do they do?" asked the boy, "fire at targets?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But first a man, incased in an armored barricade, shoots a few +extra heavy cartridges in each rifle, in order to make sure that no +weakness has been caused by the various processes through which all the +parts have passed. Then he turns it over to the crack shots. They fire +half a dozen shots at a target, then look at the target through a +telescope. Those men know that they can hit the bull's eye every time, +so that if the shots are wide of the mark, either there is a defect in +the gun or the sights are not true. In nine cases out of ten it is the +fault of the sights, and they file them true."</p> + +<p>"Then really every gun has been fired before being sold?"</p> + +<p>"We turn out about sixteen hundred guns a day, and each one has been +fired several times."</p> + +<p>"Shotguns, too?"</p> + +<p>"The same standard of accuracy is needed in those. It is just as +important that a shotgun should throw a certain percentage of its shot +within a certain radius as it is that a rifle bullet should go straight. +Down in this little room," he continued, "a man stands all day shooting +down this gallery, forty yards range, and each target is brought back +and measured. In a circle with a fifteen-inch radius a boy counts the +numbers of holes made in the paper by the tiny shot. There should be +300. If there are 290 the gun is passed, but if less it is rejected. +Sometimes you get very queer shot patterns without knowing why."</p> + +<p>"Do all shotguns throw as evenly as that?"</p> + +<p>"All good ones should. It is astonishing to see how regularly the +'scatter' of a barrel will work out. Every barrel, of course, is stamped +with the number of shots it has put into the fifteen-inch circle."</p> + +<p>"And you make cartridges, too, don't you?" Hamilton asked.</p> + +<p>"That's one of the largest branches of our business," his guide replied, +"but there's not very much in that to show you, except of course the +making of the metal caps, and this is simply the punching of circular +pieces of copper or brass, turning up the edges, or 'cupping' them, as +it is called, drawing them to length, inserting the primer pocket and +heading—the filling is done in a building perpetually closed to +visitors. We think too much of our visitors," he added with a smile, "to +risk blowing them up. I don't suppose really, that there would be any +danger,—we have not had an accident for years,—but it's a business in +which accident is only prevented by extreme care, and we believe in +being thorough."</p> + +<p>Chatting pleasantly, Mr. Nebett showed Hamilton through the various +general offices, the payroll department, and the draughting and +designing room, and finally returned to the business manager's office, +where they found the schedule awaiting him, filled out in almost every +detail. A few spaces had been left blank until the boy's return, some +trifling explanation being readily answered by him.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-10-t.jpg' width='754' height='550' alt=""A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"I must thank you ever so much," said the boy, turning to the director +of the company who had taken so much trouble in showing him around, "it +has been one of the most interesting afternoons I have had in all my +life. I feel quite as though I had been witnessing the equipping of the +world's armies on the eve of a great war."</p> + +<p>"That would be all right," said the business manager, "if we were making +military rifles, but ninety-five per cent of our work is for sporting +purposes."</p> + +<p>"But how about your cartridges?"</p> + +<p>"There, perhaps," Mr. Nebett said, "The Hague tribunal would look +askance at us."</p> + +<p>Hamilton had his portfolio under his arm, but at the door he turned.</p> + +<p>"How many cartridges do you put out?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Six million a day," was the reply.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>So long as Hamilton's work dealt with the larger manufactories of the +district he encountered comparatively little trouble, as he knew enough +of the desires of the Census Bureau to be able to help those business +men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so +forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made +several very pleasant acquaintanceships during the weeks in New Haven, +and it was not until he was "checking up," going to all the small places +that had not been listed, that he really found himself in difficulties. +He anticipated trouble with the dressmakers, and consequently his +delight was great when he learned that this had been omitted from the +census since 1904 because it is a "neighborhood industry." But the +milliners proved just as bad.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Hamilton could not work up any enthusiasm over a +millinery establishment, and although he had definite instructions that +each one was to be considered as a factory and entered upon the +schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a +little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the +first weeks of the work, visiting the places in the early morning and in +the evening when the offices of the larger factories were closed. His +worst clash occurred at almost the very last one to which he went.</p> + +<p>It was a little after five o'clock, just as it was beginning to get +dark, that Hamilton, having ascertained from the Business Telephone +Directory the address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work +for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really +handsome house, and rang the bell. He did so reluctantly, for there was +no plate on the door, and he did not wish to annoy strangers. But the +address seemed straight enough.</p> + +<p>The door was opened by a becapped maid, and Hamilton was shown into a +handsomely furnished drawing room. On a table in the corner, the boy +caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was +on the right track. After a few moments' delay, a richly dressed little +Frenchwoman bustled in. She seemed surprised to see the boy, and halted +on the threshold. Hamilton rose.</p> + +<p>"I understand, Madame," he said, "that you are an 'exclusive' milliner?"</p> + +<p>The woman looked bewildered.</p> + +<p>"You make hats?" Hamilton continued, perceiving at a glance that the +woman was foreign-born.</p> + +<p>"Is it a hatter zat you want?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No, no," the boy replied, "I just want to know if you are a milliner?"</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman, not at all enlightened by this explanation, answered:</p> + +<p>"I do not make ze hats; I design zem, and ze ozzers make zem."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I thought you were the proprietor," said Hamilton; "then you don't +own this place!"</p> + +<p>"I am ze proprietor, but I do not own ze house," she said; "I pay ze +rent. But why you ask? I pay my rent!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course," answered Hamilton, "but that has nothing to do with it. +I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census, and +wanted to make sure that this was the place I was looking for."</p> + +<p>"What is zat—ze census?"</p> + +<p>"That is the way the government finds out about all the people in the +country," explained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what +they work at and how many people they employ, the wages they pay or are +paid, and all sorts of things."</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman's eyes had been getting bigger and rounder at every +sentence, and when Hamilton had finished, she said with an air of +regretful surprise:</p> + +<p>"An' they tol' me zere was no police spy in America!"</p> + +<p>"There isn't, so far as I know," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"But you—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not a police spy," the boy said, a little nettled at being +misunderstood.</p> + +<p>"No? Zen zat is all ze more strange. In my country zose are ze questions +ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge?" +she queried, pointing to the little census shield on Hamilton's coat.</p> + +<p>"That has nothing to do with the police," the boy insisted, "that's a +census badge. Madame," he added, "do I look like a policeman?"</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman, remembering the military appearance of the gendarmes +of her native land and the burly make-up of the American policeman, +shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are disguise'?" she said, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not disguised," Hamilton responded, "and the badge is just to +show that I have the right to ask you these questions."</p> + +<p>"I do not know anyzing at all about it," the milliner objected, "but if +you say you have ze right!" she shrugged her shoulders and sat down.</p> + +<p>Hamilton promptly picked up his portfolio, opened it on his knee, and +began to put some of the queries required. He got along well enough +while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so +forth were in hand, but the question about the number of hours worked +during the year made the woman most indignant.</p> + +<p>"What is ze good of a question like zat?" she asked. "What does it +matter if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand +occasion, ze wedding, ze garden party? When zey work more, zey get more +pay!"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Hamilton diplomatically, "with such a number of +society people as you deal with that must happen very often."</p> + +<p>It was a successful move. The Frenchwoman beamed on him.</p> + +<p>"In ze season, yes, perhaps twenty or thirty evenings, but even zen ze +girl go home by twelve o'clock."</p> + +<p>Hamilton smiled to himself as he did a little figuring and filled up the +schedule to show the prevailing practice followed in the establishment +during the year. He was a little dubious about asking the questions +concerning the wages paid, but he found no trouble.</p> + +<p>"In your kind of work," he said, "I suppose the girls get good wages."</p> + +<p>"Ze very best," the woman answered, and Hamilton found that this was +true. Indeed, so anxious was she to impress on him how much better were +the wages paid by her than those in other establishments that the boy +secured a large amount of unexpected valuable information. But he came +to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For +the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but +the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner really could not +give, for, as she pointed out, most of the few especial customers she +had, brought the materials to her to be made up, and she had no means +of knowing what had been paid for them. Nor would she even try to make +an estimate.</p> + +<p>"But I must know," said Hamilton, in despair. "See for yourself,—here +it says that every factory must state the total cost of all material +used during the year and the value of the products."</p> + +<p>"Factory!" the milliner jumped to her feet. "What you say—a factory! +Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze designers of ze great +Maison Chic in Paris! Zis is insult!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Hamilton was amazed at the tempest he had so suddenly +evoked; then he tried to pacify the woman.</p> + +<p>"That's just a general word," he said, "and it is used for every place +where things are made."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no," she cried, "I know bezzer zan zat. A factory has chimney, +high, high, and smoke, an' nasty smells, an' machines. I have seen zem!"</p> + +<p>"That's one kind of factory," answered the boy, "but it is only one +kind. But if you like we won't use the word at all."</p> + +<p>This time, however, Hamilton's persuasions were of no avail. The +milliner had taken offense at the word "factory," and not another word +could the boy get out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become +absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, +evidently a customer. The proprietress immediately greeted her in +voluble French, recounting as nearly as Hamilton could judge from her +gestures her sorrows and trials at the boy's hands.</p> + +<p>As soon as there was a lull, Hamilton said to the newcomer:</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, but since you seem to know French, would you mind +explaining to Madame what the census is? She seems to think I am a +police spy, or something."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the census!" the girl exclaimed. "I could not make out what it was +all about. I thought it must be some question of taxes."</p> + +<p>"No," Hamilton explained, "it is the Census of Manufactures, and +millinery places have to be counted. I got along all right, and have +finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. +If you would just ask her the cost of the materials in the hats she made +last year, I'll be through and then I won't be delaying you."</p> + +<p>But not even the girl's fluent French could bring any light on this +subject, and laughingly she had to admit to the boy that her success +had been no greater than his own.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," said Hamilton; "I've got an idea how we could get at +it."</p> + +<p>"How?" asked the girl interestedly, for having taken a part in it, she +was American enough to be unwilling to give up; "what have you to +suggest—what is your plan?"</p> + +<p>"You are one of Madame's customers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And, of course, whatever kind of books are kept here, there must be +some sort of ledger, so that your bills can go to you every month."</p> + +<p>The girl made a little grimace.</p> + +<p>"The bills certainly come," she assured him.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Hamilton triumphantly, "if we can find out from +Madame what proportion of all her trade your account is, and if you can +make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you, we +shall come pretty close to being able to make an estimate on the cost of +goods of all her customers."</p> + +<p>"That's an excellent scheme," the girl said. "I don't know that I can +give very exact figures, but you want just a rough idea?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like it exact, of course," the boy answered, "but since that +doesn't seem easy to get, the next best thing is a close estimate."</p> + +<p>With this device in mind, very few minutes elapsed before the required +information was secured, a rough guess made at the result, and the +schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said +laughingly: "I think I should at least receive 'honorable mention' in +the dispatches as a census-taker, the same as soldiers do in war."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Hamilton, smiling in return, "I'll bear it in mind," +and thanking her heartily, he went on his way, greatly relieved that the +difficulty was over.</p> + +<p>In a piece of extra territory that Mr. Burns had assigned to the boy, +there were several factories in which there had been some difficulty in +securing properly filled schedules, partly because much of the work was +done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with +some of these factories—they were principally glass works—on the night +side first. He frequently found it necessary to work thus in the +evenings, especially after this added work, which was given him because +the district proved too large for the agent having it in charge.</p> + +<p>Little by little he worked these down until but one remained, owned by +Germans, where the boy experienced great difficulty in securing any sort +of attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and +Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for +that factory filled. This was the easier, as the night superintendent in +question had recently been promoted to that position from head +bookkeeper.</p> + +<p>One night, waiting for the superintendent to work out these figures, he +sauntered through the works. A phrase from Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man +in the Making" kept ringing through his head. It ran as follows—"It is +in the glass-factory perhaps, that the child is pushed most hopelessly +under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this +especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing +to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, +two or three of the men had come to know him by sight, and they nodded +now as he passed through. Noticing a boy that looked even younger than +himself,—for unconsciously his eye was seeking that of which he was +thinking,—he turned to one of the men who had nodded to him, and said +casually, and with an air of surprise:</p> + +<p>"Why, that chap there doesn't look any older than me!"</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose he is so very old," the man replied, "sixteen, maybe."</p> + +<p>"Seems a shame to have to start in so young," Hamilton went on, with an +assumed air of carelessness, "and I suppose he's been here some years."</p> + +<p>"Probably about four or five," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"You know," continued Hamilton, in a conversational tone, "I should +think it would be hard for a boy to start in working like that, and at +night especially."</p> + +<p>The man paused in his work an instant, and looked at the lad, passing +his hand over his forehead as he did so.</p> + +<p>"I was just ten years old when I began," he said. "I'm only thirty now. +I look fifty, don't I?"</p> + +<p>"You certainly look over thirty," Hamilton admitted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I look fifty all right, I know that, and I'm as nearly played out +as a man of fifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. +Every year that a boy is put to hard physical work before he is sixteen +is equal to five years taken off his life."</p> + +<p>"I wonder that any employer does it, and that any State permits it," +said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"There's not as much of it in Connecticut as in other States, although +the figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk +as though you had been having a session with 'the crusader,'" the +workman continued.</p> + +<p>"Who's the crusader?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you seen him, then? With your ideas, you ought to get along +well together. And," he added, more seriously, "'the crusader' will be +heard of yet."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"He's a boy who started at work in this place when he was only seven +years old," the workman answered. "He's been here eight years now, and +he's an odd genius. He taught himself to read and write, but he doesn't +read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he +knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of children +working. All the labor union people and the socialists know 'the +crusader,' young as he is, and they send him, free, nearly every book +and paper that's published."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-11-t.jpg' height='60%' alt='YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway co.)</p></div> + +<p>"But why do you call him 'the crusader'?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Because he has some crusade idea on the brain,—thinks he can start a +revolution or something that will put a stop to child labor, and he +talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as he calls it. +But everybody likes him just the same, and he's a good worker—when he's +not talking."</p> + +<p>"Which is he?" asked Hamilton. "I'd like to talk to him, if I might."</p> + +<p>"No reason why you shouldn't," the other answered "he's kept busy of +course, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' +is given special favors, anyway. That's the boy, 'carrying in' over +there."</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked with interest at the boy thus pointed out. He would have +been noticeable, even without the knowledge of his peculiar position, +but with it, his difference from his fellows became most marked. +Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this +might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his pocket, he +started to eat it, and sauntered leisurely over to where the boy was +working. He watched him for a minute or two; then, when the boy looked +up, he said casually:</p> + +<p>"Have an apple?"</p> + +<p>Almost wolfishly the work-boy took the fruit from Hamilton and commenced +to devour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a +luxury as an apple seldom fell to his lot. A few sentences passed, and +then Hamilton asked:</p> + +<p>"How long have you been in the factory here?"</p> + +<p>"Eight years," 'the crusader' replied.</p> + +<p>"You must have been just a youngster when you first came, then?"</p> + +<p>"Seven years old," was the answer, "and small at that!"</p> + +<p>"It's a shame to let little children work like that, I think," said +Hamilton, wondering whether this would have the effect of rousing the +other, "it must do them harm."</p> + +<p>But even though expecting some fiery retort, Hamilton was unprepared for +the transformation in the lad. A moment before he had been a stooped +childish figure with an old and weary face, carrying trays of hot glass +from furnace to bench and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. +The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and +passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of +his surroundings, despite the rags in which he was clothed, under the +dull glow of the furnaces and the flickering violet play of a distant +arc light he seemed the bearer of some high message as his boyish +treble, rich in the tones of a familiar despair, rang through the +factory.</p> + +<p>"The land is filled with the voice o' cryin'," he began, "an' no one +seems to hear. Tens o' thousands o' children cry themselves to sleep +every night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. +Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so +much that hope is gone, an' tired enough to die! There are twenty-five +thousand children less than ten years old in the fact'ries of America."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the people who could help don't know about it," suggested +Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"They know," the other continued, "but they don't care. They stop their +ears to the cryin' o' the children an' talk about America as the land of +opportunity. It <i>is</i> the land of opportunity—opportunity for the +children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wretched +an' to be glad to die. There's no country in the world where children +are tortured as they are in the fact'ries of the United States."</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely it can't be as bad as that," protested Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The objection only increased the "crusader's" vehemence.</p> + +<p>"There don't any children have to work anywhere as they do here," he +fairly shouted, "here where they rob the cradle for workers, where the +little voices become sad and bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, +where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where +its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Their tiny bones +unset, they make them stand in one position all day long until you hear +the children moanin' hour after hour, moanin' and no one hears, or +hearin', cares.</p> + +<p>"They send missionaries to China," cried the lad further, "but there's +no child labor there; they try to reform the 'unspeakable Turk' but +there's no atrocity upon the children there; they call the heathen lost, +though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' +lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our +fact'ries here, an' even an Indian chief that they were showin' the +sights of our great cities to, when asked what had surprised him most, +answered, 'Little—children—workin'.'"</p> + +<p>"You mean it is peculiar to America? That there is really more of it +here than in Europe?" asked Hamilton incredulously.</p> + +<p>"More? There's none there like there is here. An' it's gettin' worse all +the time, worse this year than last year, worse last year than ten years +ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. +It is a thing of yesterday, a sudden toadstool in the infernal garden.' +It is all our own," he laughed harshly, "let us be proud of it."</p> + +<p>"How many children did you say?" asked Hamilton tersely, staggered and +shocked by this statement of the facts of the case.</p> + +<p>"Enough to sink the land in shame," the speaker declared. "There were a +trifle over a hundred thousand children between the ages of six and +fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures +showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n eight hours a day, that +a large percentage were workin' twelve to sixteen hours, an' twenty-two +thousand of 'em are at night work."</p> + +<p>As he said the last words, the "crusader" hurried away in response to a +call from one of the men. He resumed his carrying in of the red-hot +bottles from the benches where the men had been molding them, to the +annealing oven, and for a time Hamilton watched him. The work was a +fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to +the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to +take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundred feet, and +watching another boy, who was working regularly, not intermittently as +was the city lad's new acquaintance, he found that seventy-two trips an +hour were made, making the distance covered in eight hours nearly +twenty-two miles.</p> + +<p>The red-hot bottles were carried in asbestos shovels, and these had to +be kept fairly straight, imposing a terrific strain upon the back. In +addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time +they came back, passing from the heat of the melting oven, in front of a +draughty open door, to the heat of the annealing oven.</p> + +<p>In order to keep up with the work, the boys had to run, for it could not +be done at a walk, and thus were alternately greatly overheated and +chilled with icy draughts.</p> + +<p>Seeing that the "crusader" would be busy for a while, but wanting to +take the matter up with him further, Hamilton strolled over to where the +glass-blowers were working. This particular factory was turning out +cheap glass bottles, and there was little of the fascination that exists +in factories where high-grade glass is made into many curious shapes and +blown with great skill into marvelous thinness. In the middle of the +room was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not +quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before +each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the +blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, +drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the +consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the +end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and +rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then +they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing the +soft glass to its proper form. The now cooling glass was broken from the +end of the blowpipe with a sharp, snapping sound, and the blowpipe was +plunged in the furnace again for another bottle. The whole had taken +but a few seconds.</p> + +<p>"Why do they have so many boys around these places?" queried Hamilton of +the workman he had been watching.</p> + +<p>"Have to, they say," the glass-blower replied, "cheap bottles mean cheap +labor. No one ever expects to pay anything for a bottle—that is thrown +in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his +little profit somewhere an' in a cheap bottle he makes it by employin' +young boys cheap an' workin' 'em till they drop."</p> + +<p>"Is it done this way everywhere?"</p> + +<p>The workman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No need to do it even here," he said. "It takes money, though, to put +in an endless belt to carry the bottles to the annealin' oven. The big +fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in +small towns where everythin' is done on a cheap scale, an' a boy's labor +is about the cheapes' thing in the United States—unless it's a girl's."</p> + +<p>Seeing that the glass-blower was being delayed in his task, Hamilton +sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" worked. +The latter broke out again as soon as he saw the boy coming.</p> + +<p>"I've been talkin' to you about children workin'," he said, "but you +haven't thought of babies bein' made to work?"</p> + +<p>"Babies!"</p> + +<p>"Of four an' five years old."</p> + +<p>"But they couldn't do any real work!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he +was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid +three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for +wrappers, and a little worker of four is good help in stripping.'"</p> + +<p>"In a cigar factory?"</p> + +<p>"Of course,—an' the children find it so hard to keep up that they are +taught to chew snuff—as a stimulant—before they are six year old. Jane +Addams, writin' o' the torture chambers they call cotton mills in parts +o' the South, said she saw on the night shift, with her teeth all +blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' +five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' +answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout +the hot summer excep' two, when 'her legs and back wouldn't let her get +up.' An' what do you suppose the fact'ry owner did—send a physician? +No, he docked her the two days' wages for the time she'd been away ill, +an' another day's fine as a punishment."</p> + +<p>"That's brutal!" cried Hamilton. "Didn't the parents protest?"</p> + +<p>"The parents? That's where the mill-owners have their strongest help. +They threaten to discharge the parents if the children don't work an' +work hard, and they force the father or mother into whippin' the child +to compel it to stay at the loom. The whole country went to war once +over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,—or at +least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,—but you can enslave +white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without +air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, you can force 'em to +be whipped, you can snatch 'em from their cradles in their homes, you +can snap your fingers at the schools, an' you can fill churchyards with +a worse Massacre o' the Innocents than history ever tells about, an' the +men and women of America don't care."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-12-t.jpg' width='600' height='380' alt=""I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"Oh, yes, they do," again protested Hamilton. "It must be that they +don't know."</p> + +<p>"How can they help but know? There are a few that have heard what Spargo +calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very few, an' +the misery an' shame goes on, gettin' worse with ev'ry year."</p> + +<p>"What's going to be done?"</p> + +<p>"The children will have to rescue the children," the boy cried. "If +men's hearts are cold and women's hearts are asleep, at least the boys +can hear. There's no power like a boy's, an' a boy will do anythin' +that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' +to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to +every mill an' fact'ry in the United States where a child is workin', +and make the owner sign a paper pledgin' himself not to employ a child +again. Give me an army of American boys an' I'll sweep the country like +a flight o' locusts."</p> + +<p>"But who would join?"</p> + +<p>"Every boy worth his salt. S'pose I came to you an' said 'In that mill +at the end o' your street, little children are bein' slaved and driven +to death because no one has the nerve to say what they think. We'll +rescue those children. Join us, we're five hundred strong!' Would you go +along?"</p> + +<p>"Guess I'd have to join," the boy agreed, "but you'd get into all sorts +of trouble."</p> + +<p>"Can I get into a worse trouble than any o' those babies have?" the +other asked indignantly. "What right have I to go on, even as I do, +knowin' how they are sufferin'. I don't care about trouble, I've had +nothin' else all my life. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could +get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like +other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't +see that carryin' bottles is goin' to help the world much, but if I can +carry hope an' health to some little boy or girl, I'm goin' to do it. +How, I don't know. But I ain't goin' to die without bein' able to +remember some poor child that's better off because lived."</p> + +<p>"What can I do to help?" asked Hamilton eagerly and aggressively, as +though he expected instant marching orders to some distant factory.</p> + +<p>"You can do somethin',—every boy can do somethin'. If nothin' else, you +can help to wake a sleepin' an' selfish nation. If the cryin' o' the +children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' +somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every day, as I do, o' +that 'spectral army of pygmy people sucked in from the hills to dance +beside the crazing wheel' and not do somethin'?"</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"Could I hear trampin' round me day an' night, the laggin' step of a +'gaunt goblin army that outwatches the sun by day an' the stars by +night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, +an' then I must go,—that there's a stain o' shame 'pon the honor of +America that'll never be wiped away until child labor is put down!"</p> + +<p>Thoughtful and subdued in spirit, Hamilton strolled back to the night +superintendent's office, where he found the figures done at last and the +completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted the offer of a +cup of coffee, from some which had just been sent in, and sat down +beside the desk.</p> + +<p>"I've been talking with the 'crusader,'" he remarked.</p> + +<p>The night superintendent looked up interestedly.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of him?" he asked, a little sharply, Hamilton +thought.</p> + +<p>"I think there's no question about his being sincere," the boy answered, +"but I can hardly believe that the figures he gives and the facts he +talks about are true."</p> + +<p>"They're true enough, I'm sorry to say," said the older man, sighing, +"but the 'crusader' usually isn't fair to the South. He blames the South +for the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large +proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are +owned by New England capitalists. I'm a New Englander by birth myself, +'naughty-two' at Yale, but I'm able to see the mistakes of the North +just the same."</p> + +<p>"I've always been taught that the North was more or less mixed up in +it," answered Hamilton. "It was shown to me a long time ago that the +slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were +no Southern vessels in the slave trade, they were all New England +skippers and New England bottoms. The shame of the slave traffic belongs +originally to the North."</p> + +<p>"And now a large share of the child labor, too," the other agreed. "But +you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the South +that made such conditions possible. I guess the blame is about even."</p> + +<p>"But is nothing being done on this child-labor business?" asked +Hamilton. "I tried to find that out from the 'crusader' but he didn't +answer."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the superintendent heartily, "a great deal is being done. +The Bureau of the Census has been of immense service, and other bureaus +of the Department of Commerce and Labor are working on it, largely +through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have +been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being +checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall be real, not +nominal. Don't let the 'crusader' persuade you that everybody is asleep +and that nothing is being done; the government is doing a good deal, +although the country as a whole is unaware of it."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is increasing?"</p> + +<p>"In spite of all that is done to prevent it, it is increasing," the +other said quietly, "that is the sad part. If it could be thought of as +a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month +hundreds of children die from enforced labor and that greater numbers +fill their places, is a sad reflection on the industrial life of +to-day."</p> + +<p>"Well, as the South progresses, that will probably take care of itself, +won't it?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>The superintendent looked at him curiously.</p> + +<p>"I think you told me last evening that you were a New York boy," he +said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Wharton," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you consider New York a fairly progressive city?"</p> + +<p>"Greatest on earth!" affirmed the boy in true Gotham style.</p> + +<p>"Yet that same progressive city," the older man declared, "is the +headquarters of several forms of industry in which large percentages of +the workers are children under fourteen years of age."</p> + +<p>"What kinds of business can those be?" asked Hamilton in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Making ostrich plumes and artificial flowers. It's not factory labor, +of course, but that doesn't alter the point that at least half the +output of artificial flowers is made by the cramped fingers of children, +generally after school and far into the night. They are not officially +reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The +disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of +them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach +them in two sections is a great help to the sweat-shop managers. But +every city has its own share of this child labor in the homes, although +in some of the smaller places, civic associations and municipalities +have taken the matter in hand with considerable success. Even that is +but a drop in the ocean."</p> + +<p>"Your 'crusader' will have to lead his crusade then, it seems," the boy +suggested.</p> + +<p>"Poor lad!" sighed the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He will never lead that crusade," the older man replied pensively.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>The man tapped his chest significantly.</p> + +<p>"He is incurably ill," he said, "partly glass-blowers' disease from +breathing the particles of glass dust. Men don't mind it so much, but it +is fatal to children when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the +'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he +gives a lot of trouble in the works with his revolutionary theories. I +haven't the heart to send him away; he couldn't get other work, and +being all alone in the world, he might starve."</p> + +<p>"You mean—"</p> + +<p>"That he will not live six months. That army of boys of which he speaks +so often will never go on the march, the banners he has designed for it +will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and +the drums will sound the final 'taps' for him before they roll for the +advance. And in that sleep, the cries of the children shall all be happy +ones."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-13-t.jpg' width='616' height='400' alt='EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!"</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The "crusader's" talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton's mind +working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy +tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent +in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children. He +chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the +Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more +detailed. Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been +overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he +would do all he could toward correcting this abuse.</p> + +<p>But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, +although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the +time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a +word about his being considered in line for the population work. It was +therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him +suddenly one morning:</p> + +<p>"So you're going over to the population side, I hear?"</p> + +<p>"Am I? I didn't know," Hamilton replied. "I had wanted to go, but not +hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved."</p> + +<p>"The Director told me this morning that you were going to be +transferred."</p> + +<p>"The Director himself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of +the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your +name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per +cent better than those of any one else in that section. So he said, +'That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble +on the population work. I'll see that arrangements for that transfer are +made,' and he scribbled something on a pad."</p> + +<p>"That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton, "to mention me +to the Director in that way."</p> + +<p>The statistician looked at him curiously.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't dealing in kindness," he said dryly, "I was dealing in +percentages. If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have +to thank, not me. I merely stated the figures, and they read in your +favor."</p> + +<p>The boy laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"I believe, Mr. Burns," he said, "that you would more easily forgive a +man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list +of figures."</p> + +<p>"Certainly I would," the statistician replied. "I could hit back in the +first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led +astray!"</p> + +<p>"Well," the boy answered, "I'm glad at any rate that my figures tallied +up all right."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to seem inquisitive," said the older man, "but when did +you get in the population examination?"</p> + +<p>"There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the +exam," said Hamilton, "because of the fact that I was doing census work +of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel +that everything had been done in the usual manner. I took the exam at +New Haven, one afternoon."</p> + +<p>"But are you going to do the population work there?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Burns," the boy explained. "The Director wrote to me that I +would be allowed to send in a formal application in the regular way +through the supervisor of the enumeration district to which I had asked +to be assigned. The supervisor of that district had said beforehand that +he would be willing to appoint me, as the section was so sparse that +enough qualified enumerators were hard to get."</p> + +<p>"Well, where are you going, then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, for sure yet, of course," the boy explained, "whether +everything will go through as planned, but if so, I shall be going to +Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"In the mountains where you had been visiting?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," the boy answered, "in another part of the State +entirely,—down toward the black belt of Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"Kentucky isn't a black belt State," his friend objected.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Burns, but there are parts where the negroes are tolerably +thickly settled. The supervisor is a friend of my older brother, and he +says that is an interesting part of the country."</p> + +<p>"But can a Board of Examiners in one district look over the papers for +the supervisor of another district?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," explained the boy, "but they can allow the examination to be +taken before them and have the papers sent to the supervisor of the +other district. It was a little irregular, I suppose, but the Director +knew all about it and it was for the good of the census, he thought, as +he had been told there were not enough enumerators in the district to +which I hoped to go."</p> + +<p>"Well," the statistician replied, "if you're headed for Kentucky I +should think you'd like to see your folks before going."</p> + +<p>"I had planned to go up on Saturday afternoon," Hamilton said. "I can +get to New York by evening and spend Saturday night and all day Sunday +there, catching the midnight train back. It brings me in early enough +for office hours."</p> + +<p>"And this is Friday," said the other thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what +to do. I can arrange for you to be off Saturday morning; it is only a +half day, and you can catch the first train out after business hours +to-day."</p> + +<p>"That would be bully!"</p> + +<p>"I estimate," the statistician said, rapidly dotting down some figures +on a pad, "that the fractions of overtime you have worked recently, +cumulatively considered, enable me to do that fairly, so that you've +earned it."</p> + +<p>"That's fine," said Hamilton, "for the family is going to Europe for the +summer, and I shouldn't see any of them at all unless I ran up to New +York now."</p> + +<p>The older man nodded his confirmation of the suggested arrangement, and +returned to his figures. During the noon hour Hamilton hurriedly packed +a grip, and was back at the office without a minute lost, for he found a +train leaving at a most advantageous hour, and by calling a taxi he was +just able to catch it.</p> + +<p>At breakfast the following morning, the conversation turned upon +immigration, and Hamilton read in a newspaper the statement that two +large liners were in New York harbor and would dock that morning, that +each carried a record passenger list of immigrants, and that Ellis +Island was making preparations for a busy day.</p> + +<p>"I've never seen Ellis Island," the boy announced "Father, do you know +if visitors are allowed over there?"</p> + +<p>"I'm fairly sure of it," his father replied, "but in any case there +ought to be no trouble for you, since the Bureau of the Census is a +part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, just as is the Bureau of +Immigration."</p> + +<p>"I think I'd like to go."</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to go," his father said. "Taking up the population +business, you ought to try to get hold of all the information you can, +ahead of time. I have been there several times, on business, and it is a +most interesting place."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the eleven o'clock boat from the Barge Office, New York,—a +pier near Castle Garden, the historic immigration station,—carried +Hamilton to the famous Ellis Island. Preferring his request, the lad +speedily found himself in the presence of the Commissioner. He stated +his wants briefly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Commissioner," he said, "I'm an assistant agent of the Census +Bureau in Washington, and I'm just going to my station as an enumerator +for the population. I have two days in New York and I'd like to learn +how things are done on the Island here. May I have a pass?"</p> + +<p>The Commissioner answered briefly.</p> + +<p>"Read this," he said, taking a sheaf of manuscript out of the drawer of +his desk, "and here's a short review for the use of visitors, and I'll +send you in to the Chief Clerk to get a pass, and if there's anything +more you want, let me know." He touched a bell. "Show this gentleman to +Mr. Tuckman, and let him be given a special pass," he said,—and +Hamilton was ushered out promptly, thinking as he went that this was +evidently one place where time was not wasted.</p> + +<p>The Chief Clerk was equally ready to assist the lad, and armed with his +special pass he started round the building, finding himself practically +free of the island. Hamilton possessed the capacity of making friends +readily, and with his alert manner and direct appeal, he usually secured +attention. Walking sharply through the place he soon found himself down +in what was called the Information Division. For the moment one of the +clerks was not busy, and Hamilton, stepping up to him, began to ply him +with questions. A tall young fellow, who was standing nearby, listened +for a few moments, then turned to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"See here," he said, "you can't learn much about Ellis Island just by +asking questions, you've got to go around and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I propose doing," Hamilton answered, "but I thought it +wouldn't be such a bad plan to get an idea of things first, and then I +should understand what I saw. There's not much use in watching things +unless you understand just what's going on. I have some knowledge of it, +of course, because the Commissioner gave me some reading matter to look +over, and I've got a special pass, so that I want to make the best use +of it."</p> + +<p>"Suppose you come along with me, then," said his new acquaintance, who +was none other than the Chief of the Information Division, "and I'll +show you round myself as far as I can spare the time. It so happens that +there are a lot of scattering things I want to look after through the +building to-day, and if you don't mind my leaving you alone, once in a +while, I'll take you through systematically. Where do you want to +begin?"</p> + +<p>"Right at the very start," rejoined Hamilton "I always think the +beginning is the most important part, and I'd hate to lose any of it."</p> + +<p>"All right," said his conductor good-humoredly; "if you want it all, you +shall have it. I notice, too," he said, as they walked along the hall +and out of the door to the well-kept lawns that stretch between the main +building and the sea wall, "that you're in good time, for there's a +barge just pulling in."</p> + +<p>"The barge is from one of the liners that came in this morning, I +suppose?" queried the lad.</p> + +<p>"Yes, one of the Hamburg boats," his guide replied.</p> + +<p>"Are those barges run by the immigration authorities?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the answer, "those are owned or managed by the steamboat +companies. They bring all the steerage passengers who can't show that +they are citizens, and all the cabin passengers who are being detained."</p> + +<p>"Cabin passengers," echoed Hamilton in surprise; "I didn't think any +cabin passengers came to Ellis Island. All second cabin, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," answered the immigration official; "there's quite a +sprinkling of first-class passengers as well. Why, during a period of +three months recently, nearly three thousand cabin passengers were +detained on the island here, and I suppose twenty per cent of them had +come over in the first-class saloon."</p> + +<p>"But why should any first-class passengers be stopped and shipped to +Ellis Island?" queried the boy. "I don't understand. I thought Ellis +Island was to keep out people who were paupers, or diseased, or were +undesirable citizens!"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-14-t.jpg' width='629' height='400' alt='THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"That's just exactly what it is for," the other replied, "but the United +States government doesn't think that having money enough to pay for a +first-class passage makes every man a desirable citizen! A first-class +berth is no insurance against an incurable disease, for example, and +there's nothing to prevent a criminal from coming over in the first +cabin." He laughed. "Most of them do, I think," he said.</p> + +<p>"It really never appealed to me just that way," the boy remarked; "I +supposed always that first-class passengers went right through if they +passed quarantine."</p> + +<p>"That would mix things up," the older man said. "Why, in that case we +should have all the mentally deficient, all the paupers, and all the +freaks landing here in shoals. Any group of friends, or any government, +for that matter, would find it cheap and easy to dump all the public +charges of Europe on our shores for the price of a first-class ticket. +Oh, no, that would never do. Once in a while, you hear passengers on the +big liners complaining of the inquiries made before they land, but it's +got to be done. You can see for yourself what would happen if we +didn't."</p> + +<p>"But if they bring plenty of money, they would not become public +charges."</p> + +<p>"No, and we can't exclude them on that ground. But money, for example, +has nothing to do with crime or anarchism or things of that sort. I tell +you, there's a big slice of our work done before ever a vessel reaches +her dock at a New York pier. Of course, problems do come up nearly every +day, such as circus freaks, for instance."</p> + +<p>"You mean the living skeleton, the tattooed lady, the fat baby, the +giant, and so forth?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Are those people to be considered desirable citizens, or not? +There is no question as to their inability to make a living by any +customary kind of work, but on the other hand it is very difficult to +prove that they could not get good money at a sideshow. If, however, +they are able to show that they have been engaged in Europe by an +American circus manager, they can come under the alien contract labor +law."</p> + +<p>"Then this string of people," said Hamilton, pointing to those who had +just been unloaded from the barge, "may be from all classes of the +ship."</p> + +<p>"They might be," his guide replied, "but the chances are that they are +all steerage. Cabin passengers that are detained usually come on the +last boat, with the inspector. We have quarters here with a little more +privacy for them, and they are kept together. But now watch this line. +Suppose we go this way," and stepping over a low iron railing, the +official, followed by Hamilton, walked briskly up beside the line. A few +yards from the door of the building, this line of people passed into a +long barred lane. At the entrance of this stood an inspector who checked +off the large ticket each immigrant had pinned on him to show his +identity, in order to prevent confusion further on. Passing before the +inspector at brief but regularly measured intervals, the immigrants +walked one by one up this barred lane to where it made a right angle.</p> + +<p>"There's the first inspecting doctor," said Hamilton's conductor, +pointing to a man standing just at the angle and watching carefully each +immigrant as he walked up. After a moment Hamilton turned to his +companion in surprise:</p> + +<p>"But he isn't doing anything!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," said the chief of the division, with a laugh, "I am afraid we +shall have to investigate this matter. Here is a lad who says that +you're doing nothing. He's watched you for a couple of minutes and you +haven't made a move."</p> + +<p>Hamilton began to protest, but the big doctor only laughed in reply, +without taking his eyes, however, from the procession of figures which +one by one walked up to him and made the turn round the angle.</p> + +<p>"If he'll wait a minute or two more," he said, "perhaps I'll have a +chance to do something, and save my reputation."</p> + +<p>There was a pause; then the doctor continued:</p> + +<p>"I think there's something doing now; watch this man coming up."</p> + +<p>"He seems to limp just the merest trifle, that's all I can see," the boy +replied.</p> + +<p>"Bone disease of some kind, or maybe joint," the doctor said, +"tuberculous hip, like as not," and as the man passed by he leaned +forward and chalked a big "B" on the shoulder of his coat. "'B' for +Bones," the doctor explained to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"What will happen to him?" asked the boy of the immigration official.</p> + +<p>"Because of that mark?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"It simply means that he will be held for 'special inquiry.' He may be +all right, but before he is passed, he will have to be examined +physically—a thorough physical examination, I mean. Now here, you see, +is another doctor."</p> + +<p>Eight or ten yards further on stood another man, all in white as the +first had been, who took up the inspection where the judge of bone +malformations had left off. A sunken chest, he explained to Hamilton, a +hectic flush, a pinched nostril, an evident difficulty in breathing, a +certain carriage of the head, a blueness of the lips, certain types of +pallor, all these and a number of little points which experience had +shown to be symptoms of organic disease his trained eye could detect at +a glance, and he, too, every few minutes, stooped forward and chalked +upon the coat of the man or the blouse of the woman, as the case might +be, a letter which told of a suspected disease.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought not to say anything," said Hamilton, "but that looks +a little 'hit-or-miss' to me. It's hard on an immigrant to be detained +on the basis of a medical examination that barely takes ten seconds."</p> + +<p>"If that were all," said the official, smiling, "it surely would be a +hardship. But you don't quite get the point. All these passengers really +are detained, and this arrangement is only a way to render the detention +shorter by letting those go through unchecked who do not need further +examination. This is not to delay the suspects, but to cause less +trouble to the others. Here, however is where most of them get stopped."</p> + +<p>He pointed to another doctor, standing close to the last, who examined +the eyes quickly and deftly (principally for a chronic and contagious +disease called "trachoma"), scrupulously cleansing fingers and +instrument between each immigrant.</p> + +<p>Passing the eye doctors the immigrants came to an inspector who stood at +a place where a large grating was built midway in the passage, dividing +it into two parts. All those who had been marked by any of the doctors, +and, in the cases of families, all those in the party of any one so +marked, passed up the right hand passage which led to the Special +Inquiry; the others were guided to the left hand side of the grating, +which led directly into the main primary inspection room.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose they understand anything of the meaning of that +division," asked Hamilton, "why some go on this side and some on the +other!"</p> + +<p>"They don't at all," was the reply. "You will notice that there are no +signs up, and that no attempt is made—at this point—to talk to the +immigrant or to try to make him understand anything. Then, too, since +all the members of a family or party are kept together, there is no +reason why they should make a disturbance. They simply go where they are +sent. If we separated the families, sending some on one side and some on +the other, then there would be trouble!"</p> + +<p>"That's true," said Hamilton, "in many cases they couldn't read the +signs, and they don't know at all what the doctors' marks mean."</p> + +<p>"Exactly, and once past the inspector, there is no getting out or coming +back, for the two passages lead directly into two series of rooms from +which there is no outlet except in a given direction."</p> + +<p>"But the others who are all right,—where do they go?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They're not safe yet," his conductor answered "They have only passed a +preliminary looking over. All that this first group of doctors does, +remember, is to detect the questionable or to pass the obviously +unquestionable—whichever way you like to put it, and thus avoid delay +in the primary inspection room."</p> + +<p>"Which group are we going to see first?"</p> + +<p>"Those who have been passed," was the reply, "because most of them will +go right out, and you can follow that more easily."</p> + +<p>Going up the stairs, Hamilton found himself in an immense room all +divided up into little lanes by bars and gratings. Each of these lanes +bore a large number suspended over its entrance, corresponding to the +number of one of the manifest sheets of the vessel, and likewise to the +number pinned on the clothing of every immigrant while he was still on +the vessel, when his name was tallied with the manifest sheet.</p> + +<p>"I see the reason of those numbers they have pinned on them now," said +Hamilton, "it's all the same principle, to avoid talk and questioning."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," his friend said, "and if you look a little closely, you +will see that in addition to the big number on the card that is pinned +on, there is also a smaller number."</p> + +<p>"I had noticed that," Hamilton answered, "and I was going to ask you +what it was for."</p> + +<p>"That is the number of the name on the manifest sheet," the other +replied. "Thus, for example if Giordano Bruno is the tenth name on the +seventh manifest sheet, this man at the top of the stairs will guide him +into aisle number seven. Then, when his turn comes and he has moved up +to the desk at the end of the line, the inspector doesn't have to waste +time questioning him, and finding the place on the manifest sheet. He +looks at the number, runs his finger down to the tenth name, and has him +at once."</p> + +<p>"It's a great system," said Hamilton admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Why you're right at the start of it," said the official with a laugh; +"wait till you get further on, if you want to find system."</p> + +<p>"Here I see, too, the questioning begins," remarked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and +they are assisted by interpreters when necessary. They hold a +responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land. You +see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest +sheet. If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands +and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds +to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has +already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a +blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the +railroad waiting rooms."</p> + +<p>"But if he hasn't?"</p> + +<p>"Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry +rooms where you saw the others going. He is given a different colored +ticket, in accordance with the expected objection. You see, the +inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case. He just +affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear. Just as before, +the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and +easily as possible. Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could +land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the +primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting +rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes. That's not much of +a hardship!"</p> + +<p>"It certainly isn't," Hamilton agreed. "And I notice that most of them +seem entitled to land."</p> + +<p>"That varies a great deal," his guide said. "I think it averages about +ninety per cent. In a few ships, especially those handling little of +the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as +five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern +and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of +the entire passenger list."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, "I guess I have that +straight. But I notice there is a third stream of people. One, you say, +is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but +how about the third?"</p> + +<p>"That's the 'temporary detention' group. I'll take you there in a +minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted. Here is +the railroad waiting room."</p> + +<p>A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad +ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or +steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada. A +money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be +turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, +even down to the fractions of a cent.</p> + +<p>"Why are they pinning on more tickets?" asked Hamilton. "I thought when +they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it."</p> + +<p>"That also is to make it easier for them," the other said. "Most of +these people are poor, and we try to make traveling as cheap for them as +possible. Nearly all the railroads run one train each day that carries +special cars for the immigrant service. They give, accordingly, a +cheaper rate to the government. Supposing, for example, that the regular +number of the Lehigh Valley train was always numbered '9,' then every +man who purchased a ticket for a point on the Lehigh Valley would be +given the ticket '9.' Then, when the boat that was taking the passengers +for Lehigh Valley points left Ellis Island, all the 9's would be +gathered together and no one would be left behind."</p> + +<p>"Nothing seems to have been forgotten," said Hamilton, "even food, for I +see there's a big counter over there."</p> + +<p>"That's quite a thing, too," the other said. "A man can get two days' +food, six meals, for a dollar, or a little over sixteen cents a meal."</p> + +<p>"And what in the wide world can he buy for that price?" exclaimed the +boy.</p> + +<p>"Here's a sample of the contents of one box," the other said; "read it, +it tells you what there is. 'Four loaves of bread, two pounds of cooked +beans, twelve ounces of sausage, one can of beef, one can of sardines, +six ham sandwiches, three pies, and four oranges.' I'm sure you wouldn't +starve on that."</p> + +<p>"No," said Hamilton, "I think I could get along if I ate it all. But why +is it that most of the immigrants here are men? Have the women been lost +in the shuffle?"</p> + +<p>The immigration official laughed.</p> + +<p>"They're not lost," he said, "most of the women pass through the +'temporary detention' rooms. We're going to visit there now. Of course +there are some women who will be able to take the train directly, but we +try to see that they go with some one, or that their being met is +assured. The tickets pinned on them are not given until an inspector has +seen their railroad tickets, and they do not land in New York streets at +all. A boat takes each group to the railroad pier, and they are escorted +to the train by an inspector, who places them in charge of the conductor +who is responsible for their arrival at their destination. Nearly all go +West or South and start from the Jersey side. It is an entirely +different matter with women and children who want to land in New York +City. In every case they are detained until called for by some relative. +And that relative has to prove to us that he really is the relative in +question."</p> + +<p>"How do they meet?"</p> + +<p>"I'll show you right now. In this room," he continued, entering another +large waiting room, "are all the people 'temporarily detained.' Most of +them will he released shortly. If you listen you can hear just how it is +done, because that clerk who has just come in has a list."</p> + +<p>As he spoke a young fellow stepped forward and read a list of nine +names. Seven of the nine were in the room and came to the front, the +clerk ticking off their names on the sheet.</p> + +<p>"Can we go on?" asked Hamilton. "I would like to see just how this +works!"</p> + +<p>"All right," responded his guide, smiling at the boy's eagerness, "go +ahead."</p> + +<p>As they reached the next room, Hamilton saw the clerk ushering the seven +immigrants behind a grating. Outside the grate was a narrow open space +and then a desk. On the farther side of the desk the friends of the +seven in question were waiting. There was one lad, just about his own +age, among the friends, and Hamilton waited curiously to see whom he was +to meet. Among the immigrants was a sweet-faced old Frenchwoman, and +Hamilton hoped that she might be the lad's relative. As it chanced, this +boy was the first to come up.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-15-t.jpg' width='643' height='400' alt='IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island.)</p></div> + +<p>"For whom are you calling?" he was asked.</p> + +<p>The young lad answered clearly and promptly, and the clerk nodded +approvingly as the questions proceeded.</p> + +<p>"You say you have an older brother," the clerk said, "and the two of you +are able to keep your grandmother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, sir," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"You are young to have come. Why didn't your brother come instead?"</p> + +<p>"He has been a waiter in a French hotel," answered the boy, "and has not +learned much English He asked me to come."</p> + +<p>A few short, sharp queries established the relationship without question +and the boy was released from the desk. The door in the grating was +opened, and to Hamilton's delight it was the old Frenchwoman who came +out. After a most affectionate greeting, they went off together, the boy +coming back to thank the clerk profusely, with true French courtesy.</p> + +<p>"I suppose all that is necessary," said Hamilton "but I'll admit I don't +see why. No one would be likely to call for some one else's +grandmother!"</p> + +<p>"We want to be sure that women who land here are really with their own +people," said the official, evading a more direct statement, "and +sometimes if the chief of the 'temporary detention' work is not +satisfied, the immigrant is sent back to 'special inquiry.'"</p> + +<p>"How long are they detained?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly all go out the same day. A few, however, have to telegraph for +their friends to meet them, and we look after that on their behalf. They +are never temporarily detained over five days, except in the case where +a child has been held in quarantine and some member of the family has to +remain until the patient is released in order to take charge of him. +That covers, you see, all those who come here except the 'special +inquiry' cases."</p> + +<p>"May I see those?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's not so easy," his friend replied, "and you wouldn't get much out +of it. They are handled, one by one, in Courts of Special Inquiry, each +court consisting of three inspectors, an interpreter, and a +stenographer, while doctors are always on call. Special Inquiry, +remember, does not mean that there is any reason for excluding the +immigrant, merely that his inclusion is not self-evident. In most cases, +answers to a few questions settle all difficulties, and the decisions to +exclude are rare. In doubtful cases, a Court of Special Inquiry takes +great pains to investigate the whole condition closely. When a decision +to exclude is reached, the immigrant is given an opportunity to 'appeal' +to the Commissioner, and these appeals vary from fifteen to seventy a +day. Further appeals may be taken in rare cases."</p> + +<p>"And when all appeals are lost?"</p> + +<p>"Then the immigrant must be deported at the expense of the steamship +company that brought him."</p> + +<p>"What are the usual grounds for deportation?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Principally persons of unsound mind, insane, diseased, paupers likely +to become a public charge, criminals, anarchists, contract laborers, and +those who by physical defect are unable to make a living."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me that you go to a great deal of trouble here," Hamilton +said, "and it must be a big expense keeping and looking after such a mob +of people."</p> + +<p>"We don't pay for their keep," the official answered; "we make the +steamship companies do that. They are expected to bring desirable, not +undesirable immigrants here, and if they bring people whom we cannot +accept, they must take the consequences and bear the expense of +deporting them. Our deporting division looks after that, and it is one +of the hardest parts of our work. We've a pathetic case there now."</p> + +<p>"You mean that Bridget Mahoney case," said an inspector, who had just +stepped up. "I beg your pardon for interrupting, but I was just going to +ask you to come and see about that case. There are some new +developments."</p> + +<p>"I'll go right in," said Hamilton's guide interestedly. "I think you +might come along, too," he added, turning to the boy.</p> + +<p>"Who is Bridget Mahoney?" Hamilton asked. "That's a good old Irish +name."</p> + +<p>"And she's a good old Irish soul," the other answered. "She landed here +about three weeks ago, fully expecting her son to meet her, but during +the five days when she was in temporary detention he failed to show up."</p> + +<p>"But why didn't you telegraph to the son?" asked Hamilton, who was +beginning to feel as though he knew all the ropes.</p> + +<p>"We couldn't find his right address."</p> + +<p>"Was he a traveling man?"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't that. The woman said she knew he lived in a town called +Johnson, or Johnston, or something like that, but she didn't know in +what State. Now there are nearly forty post-offices with that name in +America, and we sent telegrams or letters to every one of these. But we +never received a definite reply."</p> + +<p>"Well, if she's all right, as you say she is," said Hamilton, "why can't +she land and wait until her son is reached?"</p> + +<p>"Bridget's over seventy," the chief replied, "and not very strong; she'd +be a public charge, sure."</p> + +<p>"And yet she's all right?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, perfectly," he said as soon as they reached the building.</p> + +<p>"We got this telegram yesterday and I took it to your office this +morning," the newcomer answered, "to talk it over with you, but you +weren't there."</p> + +<p>The chief of the Information Division glanced at the telegram and then +turned it over to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Read that," he said. "That's the way it came, without signature or +anything."</p> + +<p>Hamilton read it eagerly, and as soon as he had finished, "that's from +Bridget Mahoney's son," he announced, with as absolute assurance as +though it had been signed.</p> + +<p>The deportation official looked up in surprise, but Hamilton's guide +made a hasty explanatory introduction.</p> + +<p>"We should like to be as sure as you are," said the deportation chief, +"although I think we all rather hope it is from him. But you see it +isn't dated Johnstown or anything like that, and it isn't signed. Just +simply the words:</p> + +<p>"'Don't—deport—my—old—mother.'"</p> + +<p>"If you notice," he continued, "it comes from away out West, and it +might apply to any one of thousands of cases. 'My Old Mother' might have +been deported weeks ago."</p> + +<p>"But this is yesterday's wire," Hamilton's friend interjected, "you said +there were new developments in the case."</p> + +<p>"There are," Farrell replied, drawing another telegram out of his +pocket. "This one came this morning, and it's just about as intelligent +as the one you have. Notice, though, that it's dated from Chicago early +yesterday evening."</p> + +<p>"What does it say?" burst out Hamilton, too eager to wait until it was +read.</p> + +<p>"It's very short," was the answer, "it just reads:</p> + +<p>"'—Hold—Mother—'"</p> + +<p>"Unsigned?"</p> + +<p>"Unsigned, just as before."</p> + +<p>"It must be from the same person," Hamilton suggested.</p> + +<p>"I think there's little doubt of that," the deportation chief agreed.</p> + +<p>"Whoever sent it must be traveling fast," the boy remarked, "that last +one was from Montana."</p> + +<p>"I've been doing my best to persuade myself that I have the right to +keep Bridget longer. Twice I've begged an extra stay from the +Commissioner, and he's been willing to consent, but he thinks she's got +to go back now. There's really no valid reason that I can give against +it."</p> + +<p>As they walked toward the desk in the deporting division, one of the +clerks called the chief. He came back a moment or two later with a +telegram in his hand.</p> + +<p>"A third one," he said, "it must have come while I was out at lunch. The +same person wrote all three, for this is almost the same as the first; +it reads:</p> + +<p>"'—Don't—deport—my—old—Mother—I—have—plenty—to—support—her—'"</p> + +<p>"Where's it dated from?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't noticed," the deportation chief replied. "Oh, yes, why it's +from Albany!"</p> + +<p>"That's pretty near here!" Hamilton said excitedly. "Oh, Mr. Farrell, +what time was that sent?"</p> + +<p>"Quarter to twelve."</p> + +<p>"Whoever sent it ought to be here by now! Mr. Farrell, I'm just as sure +as can be that is from Bridget Mahoney's son."</p> + +<p>"If it is, he may reach here in time," the other answered, "but it will +mean a great deal of trouble, because the boat sails early in the +morning long before the office here is open, and the deported aliens go +on board to-night. Indeed they are going now—-if they haven't gone."</p> + +<p>"And Bridget with them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sorry to say Bridget is with them." He strolled to the +window. "No," he continued, "they haven't gone yet, but they will in a +few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Could I see her before she goes?"</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Just to cheer her up a bit," pleaded the boy.</p> + +<p>The two men looked at each other, and Hamilton's new acquaintance +nodded.</p> + +<p>"You won't say anything about these telegrams," the chief warned him.</p> + +<p>"No—very well," said Hamilton, "but it seems a shame that she doesn't +know."</p> + +<p>The three passed through the door to the yard beside the lawns, and +there Hamilton encountered one of the most desolate groups he had ever +seen, sitting and standing in all attitudes of dejection. Among them was +a little old lady with snow-white hair, walking with a stick, but +clear-eyed and brisk-looking.</p> + +<p>"You're Mrs. Mahoney?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm Bridget Mahoney, young masther," the old Irishwoman answered, "at +your service, sorr."</p> + +<p>"I hear you haven't found your son yet," Hamilton said; "did you write +to him before you left the old country?"</p> + +<p>"I did, dear, but I intoirely disremember what I did wid the letther. I +know I intinded to give it to Mickey O'Murry, but I'll niver tell ye +whether I did give it to him, an' if I did, there's no knowin' av he +posted it. 'Tis a difficult thing to remember, this letther-postin' and +maybe he forgot."</p> + +<p>"But what did you write on the envelope? Can't you remember what you +wrote?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis I that am the poor hand for writin', young masther, but there was +no schoolin' when I was a gurrl such as there is now. Jim, that's me +son, he makes shift to read me writin', but he always sinds me a written +envelope to put me answer in so that the postman can read it. An' so I +niver learnt the address. I thought, av course, he'd be here. But he +isn't, dear, an' so I must thravel all the weary way home again."</p> + +<p>"But you don't sail till morning," said Hamilton, as cheerfully as he +could, "and maybe he'll come by then. I have a feeling, Mrs. Mahoney, +that he's just surely going to come."</p> + +<p>"I'm not thinkin' it," the old woman said bravely, "but I take it +kindly, young masther, that ye should thry an' make the goin' easy. But +it isn't easy, 'tis a hard returnin'. An' me so proud that me son should +send for his ould mother. 'Tis a great country this America, but it's +too big. I'd niver 'ave lost me Jim in the ould country. I see they're +callin' us, an' I wish ye an ould woman's blessin', young masther, for +your cheerin' me at the last."</p> + +<p>With a certain dignity, the old woman turned away and shook hands with +all the officials, with whom she had become a favorite during the three +weeks of her stay. Hamilton just ached to be able to do something, to +tell the Commissioner of the later telegrams, to appeal to the +department, to make some wild effort, but the actuality of the group for +deportation slowly making their way to the barge showed him the folly of +any such ideas. He roused himself, just as the friendly official who had +been his guide turned round with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you have seen it all now," he said, "and as the boat from New +York is just pulling in, you'll have plenty of time to board her."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked his conductor warmly, and with a final look at the +group about to be deported, the last few stragglers of whom were making +their way toward the barge, he started along the wharf in the direction +of the New York boat. He was on the opposite side of the ship and had to +walk round, but, as his friend had said, there was plenty of time. He +had a good view of the boat as she landed.</p> + +<p>The minute the bow touched the quay, before the mooring chains were on, +a middle-aged man who had been standing in the front of the boat, leaped +the light chain that runs waist high across the bow, and started on a +dead run up the bridge to the shore. One of the inspectors tried to stop +him, but he cried, as he went past:</p> + +<p>"I'm going to the Commissioner's office. Don't stop me. I'm in a hurry."</p> + +<p>Hamilton could just hear him, and it struck the boy as unnecessary for +the man to say he was in a hurry, for he showed it clearly enough. But +just before the runner reached him a sudden thought flashed into the +boy's mind.</p> + +<p>"Are you Jim Mahoney?" he called, just as the man swept by.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the other, scarcely slackening speed and passing him.</p> + +<p>Hamilton wheeled on the instant, and caught up to him in a few steps, +for the other man was older, not in training, and getting out of breath.</p> + +<p>"You'll do it, don't worry," the boy said, as he overtook him, running +along beside him. "I was talking to your mother a few minutes ago and +she was all right. But she was just starting for the steamer then. +There's not a second to lose."</p> + +<p>"What shall I do?" puffed the other.</p> + +<p>"Go in there, by that door marked 'Information.' Tell them who you are +and they'll fix things up in a hurry. Then go up and see the +Commissioner. I'll go on and tell them at the boat."</p> + +<p>Then, seeing that the man hesitated, he shouted:</p> + +<p>"Go in there," and nudged him in the direction of the door.</p> + +<p>As the man turned, Hamilton settled himself down to run. In a second he +was at the landing. The tender had just cast off her ropes and was +moving out.</p> + +<p>"Bridget," he cried, and his voice rang high and clear above the +dripping of the water from the cable, the creaking of the wheel as it +swung round, and the churning of the screw. "Bridget, Bridget Mahoney, +Jim's here!"</p> + +<p>The captain came to the window of the pilot house and called back:</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Bridget!" he shouted again. "Bridget Mahoney's Jim's here!"</p> + +<p>There was a pause, the captain not seeming to understand the situation, +but a cheer went up from the deportation officials on board and from +some of the tender's crew who knew; and the cry ran along the decks:</p> + +<p>"Bridget, Bridget Mahoney! Jim's here!"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-16-t.jpg' width='615' height='400' alt='WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Leaving New York the next day after his visit to the Immigration Station +on Ellis Island, Hamilton stayed only a few hours in Washington to +receive final instructions before proceeding to the southwestern part of +Kentucky where his work as a population census-taker was to begin.</p> + +<p>At the appointed place he found the supervisor awaiting him.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know," remarked his brother's friend, shaking hands, +"that I've given you a fairly well scattered district to cover. You said +you wanted to get a chance to see Kentucky as it really is, and this, +together with your mountain experience, ought to give you variety +enough."</p> + +<p>"They told me in Washington that it was largely a negro district?" the +boy said questioningly.</p> + +<p>"It is about as much of a black district as any in Kentucky," was the +reply, "but it isn't solid black by any means. Therein lies its +interest. The negroes are of all varieties, from old-time slaves who +have never left the plantation on which they were piccaninnies during +the war, to progressive negroes owning fair-sized tracts of land, most +of them still living in the one-room shacks that you see all over the +country, but a few having bought what used to be the 'big house' in +antebellum days."</p> + +<p>"That's just exactly what I was after," Hamilton said with delight. "How +do I cover it, sir? In the saddle?"</p> + +<p>"You can drive, if you want to," the supervisor replied, "and if it +wasn't for the agricultural schedules, I think it would be easier to do +the work from a buggy. But with the field work to consider, and in a +district as scattered as yours is, the saddle might work out better."</p> + +<p>"I had been thinking of that," Hamilton said, "if a farmer was on the +other side of a plowed patch, I'd have no way of getting to him in a +buggy except by tying the horse and walking, while in the saddle I could +easily take short cuts. And I imagine, in a countryside such as you say +this is, I'll probably need to see every one on the place in order to +get anything like accurate figures."</p> + +<p>"It's not at all unlikely," the supervisor rejoined. "Well, I thought +you would be needing a horse, and I've been looking round for one for +some time. I think I have the very one you will want. I told the owner +to hold back sale until you had a chance to look at her."</p> + +<p>"Then the quicker I see the owner, the better?" suggested the boy.</p> + +<p>"I think I had better go with you," the supervisor said, "and then they +won't try any over-clever work. Horse-dealing isn't always the most +guileless business, you know."</p> + +<p>"So I've understood," Hamilton said, "and I really don't know enough to +judge the fine points of a horse."</p> + +<p>"I was born and bred in the Blue Grass," his friend remarked, "and so +I've been around horses pretty much all my days. The census work is +quite a change from that."</p> + +<p>"I hope you didn't have any bother over my coming in this somewhat +irregular way?" asked Hamilton, remembering what Mr. Burns had said to +him in Washington.</p> + +<p>The supervisor laughed.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious," he said, "but there were several people who tried to +cut you out,—one of them especially. There were three applicants for +this district, and the one who was most resentful about an outsider +coming in wouldn't have been appointed under any circumstances. Indeed, +the best of the three undertook to describe the other two. His letter +was a wonder," he added, picking up one of the files; "I think I saved +it.—Yes, here it is. Read it, while I get ready to go out with you," +and he handed the letter to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The letter was as follows in every detail:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"MR. —— + +<p> "Dr. Sir I made out the Blank for a Job taking Census was a going + to make it & when I Got to the Postoffice there was such an a ray + of aplicants I concluded not to do so</p> + +<p> "in the first Place there is two of these aplicants are Habichual + Drunkards one Professor A—— the other Mr. P—— A—— was born in + Canaday & has NO Interest here Except to be Suported by his wife & + the Publick & has had his Last School to Teach in this Town. he is + so Imoral People will not Tollerate him any Longer the Wrighter has + seen him on a Saturday SO Drunk he would Fall against People he met + if that is the Kind of Man you are looking For I don't want a Job I + can get along without</p> + +<p> "I will send in my application Just the Same</p> + +<p> "Mr. P—— is Not fare behind and is Dealer in Coal & Feed & his + Father has to take Cair of the Business for him.</p> + +<p> "Dont concider him for a moment Mr</p> + +<p> "as to my self this is the Firste time I ever aske for Publick + Buisness & I am an Indipendent Belever of mans Privlages & always + lived in this County</p> + +<p> "you have this Information Without feer of any of above statements + Being Denide</p> + +<p> "I remain Resptfully</p> + +<p> "———"</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton laughed as he returned the letter to the supervisor, who had +just come back with his hat and gloves as the boy finished reading the +epistle.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I need have been afraid of any of those three as rivals," +he said, "that is, if our friend is right. His information, however, may +not be any more correct than his spelling."</p> + +<p>"It's exaggerated, of course," the supervisor answered, "that's easy to +see, but setting aside the question of jealousy there's a good deal of +truth in what he says. Selecting and teaching enumerators was no light +job, let me tell you. You take seventy-five to a hundred absolutely +green hands, who have never done anything like it before, and it is a +hard proposition to make them understand. When you have to try and teach +them in a few weeks just how to do what is really difficult to do well, +you have a heavy task on your hands."</p> + +<p>"You didn't appoint any colored enumerators, I suppose?" Hamilton +questioned.</p> + +<p>"No," the supervisor answered decidedly. "My judgment was against it to +start with and I couldn't see that any of my districts warranted it. It +may be different in counties where the proportion of colored population +runs as high as eighty and ninety per cent, but there are none like that +in Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"Just in Georgia and Mississippi?"</p> + +<p>"Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas have a few scattering 'black' +counties too," the supervisor answered, "for I wrote to several places +about this very colored enumerator question. I found the supervisors +over those districts about evenly divided for and against. I have been +able to get suitable men all through, I think, though I might have had +difficulty in securing a good appointee for your district."</p> + +<p>"It's pretty wild out there evidently," Hamilton said anticipatorily.</p> + +<p>"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, +you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess +neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of +the world at all."</p> + +<p>Hamilton whistled softly.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as +that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, +because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places +where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern."</p> + +<p>"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he +turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more +beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the +building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking.</p> + +<p>"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy.</p> + +<p>The supervisor laughed.</p> + +<p>"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's +a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked +on another twenty dollars."</p> + +<p>"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin.</p> + +<p>"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any +objections."</p> + +<p>"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you +said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that stands," his friend replied.</p> + +<p>"All right, then," said Hamilton, "I'll take her."</p> + +<p>The supervisor pulled out his pocketbook.</p> + +<p>"I had an idea," he said, "that you were just boy enough to want the +mare when you saw her and to want her right away. I made out a check for +the amount, and you can make one out to me when you get ready," and he +handed the slip to the boy.</p> + +<p>Hamilton started to thank him, but the supervisor cut him short.</p> + +<p>"If you'll come to the office this afternoon," he said, "the clerk will +give you the schedules and papers all ready made out for your district. +Here's a typewritten copy of the lectures I've been giving to the +enumerators, and while I don't suppose you really need to, you had +better read it over and return it to me when you're through with it. Now +I'm going to leave you here with this gentleman," he added, nodding to +the owner of the horse, "and you can arrange with him about getting a +saddle and so forth for the mare. Drop in at the office in the morning +as you start out and I'll make sure that nothing has been forgotten. See +you later," and with a nod to Hamilton, he stepped out of the stable.</p> + +<p>To the boy the afternoon fairly seemed to fly, there were so many things +to do; and it was not until just before closing hours that he reached +the office and secured his portfolio. He had a brief chat with the +clerk, and went back to his hotel to study carefully the map of his +district and the route suggested, and to make sure that he thoroughly +understood the population and agricultural schedules he would have to +use. They were different in form, of course, from the manufacturing +schedules which the boy knew by heart, but the essential principles were +the same, and Hamilton found that in half an hour's time he saw plain +sailing.</p> + +<p>"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half +aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard +for any one not at all used to it."</p> + +<p>By supper time—they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little +hotel—Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, +and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day +before him.</p> + +<p>The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the +journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a +moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his +good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being +well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal +had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted +him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the +first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner +started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty +houses.</p> + +<p>The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be +comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample +of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a +typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door +to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home +was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton +felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the +census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill +in."</p> + +<p>"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered +the young negro woman, who appeared at the door.</p> + +<p>"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?"</p> + +<p>"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm +no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh +jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah +jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things."</p> + +<p>"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are +about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah, yes, sah. Ah tol' mah husban' so when we were talkin' about +that yar farm business. The paper in the town gave a list o' questions, +an' Ah thought Ah would get mah Steve to help me get ready so's Ah sh'd +be able to answer yo' rightly when yo' come aroun', but he jes' said he +was too tiehed to do anythin', an' dat ar census list is the +confusin'est thing Ah eveh saw. Ah thought Ah ought to do somethin', an' +so Ah jes' took a big sheet o' wrappin' paper an' started to write the +answers to the quest'ns on that, thinkin' some o' the neighbors' +children would copy it on the sheet fo' me. But, I tell yo', sah, that +befo' I was half way through tellin' what the newspaper said we had to +tell, I was so mixed up that I was writin' mahself down as mah own +daughter and provin' that the baby was twice divo'ced."</p> + +<p>"Then you really haven't got anything ready at all," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Nothin', sah."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll just have to ask you the questions, and put the answers down +myself," the boy said cheerfully. "We might as well start right now."</p> + +<p>"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' +pens an' ink."</p> + +<p>"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier +writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon +as he was seated, "has this house a number?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street."</p> + +<p>"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said +Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the +family. I think you said something about your husband?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years."</p> + +<p>"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?"</p> + +<p>"Lawson, sah."</p> + +<p>"He's colored, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected."</p> + +<p>"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, +Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, +and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column.</p> + +<p>"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes' +twenty-one when Ah married him."</p> + +<p>"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen +Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to +show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a +girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young."</p> + +<p>"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday."</p> + +<p>"And your name is—?"</p> + +<p>"Lily, sah."</p> + +<p>"Any other name?"</p> + +<p>"Mariamne, sah."</p> + +<p>For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife," +"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first +marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock.</p> + +<p>"You have children?"</p> + +<p>"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever, +sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!"</p> + +<p>"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful +things to help them now, you know. And he can learn a lot by reading."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, it's hard enough. But we're glad he ain't blind."</p> + +<p>"And what is his name?"</p> + +<p>"Edward Habberton, sah, an' he's jes' fo' years old, near five."</p> + +<p>Hamilton entered the name of the little deaf and dumb boy, whom he +could see sitting in an inner room, and noted down in the schedule his +age, his color, and the nature of his affliction.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lily," he continued, "were you both born in Kentucky?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," she replied, "none of us, savin' little Eddie. I'm f'om +Delaware, an' mah Steve, he's f'om Maryland, where my mother come f'om."</p> + +<p>"Wait a bit," said Hamilton, holding up his hand to stop her, "let me +get this straight. Stephen Lawson is from Maryland, you said, you're +from Delaware, and the boy was born in this State. Is that right?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah."</p> + +<p>"And you said your mother came from Maryland but I suppose since you're +from Delaware your father was from Delaware also."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah," the woman answered, "he done live in Wilmin'ton all his +life."</p> + +<p>So Hamilton put down the birthplaces of the wife's parents and in the +same fashion those of the husband, while the filling in of the columns +for the parents of the child was simply a matter of copying.</p> + +<p>"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went +on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and +he entered this also on the language column.</p> + +<p>"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query.</p> + +<p>"He's a gardener, sah."</p> + +<p>"Odd jobs?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here."</p> + +<p>"On regular wages, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week."</p> + +<p>"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only +to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on +his own account.—But you must find it hard to get along on nine a +week."</p> + +<p>"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained.</p> + +<p>"You do? How?"</p> + +<p>"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like +that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as +twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week."</p> + +<p>"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the +woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified +by the letters "O.A." in the wage column.</p> + +<p>"You both read and write—or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't +write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you."</p> + +<p>"Ah can read pretty well," the woman replied, "but Ah never had enough +schoolin' to write much; mah mother was ill all the time, an' Ah had to +stay home. But Steve, he writes beautiful, an' he makes out all mah +bills an' things like that."</p> + +<p>"I think there's only one question more," the boy said, delighted to +find that after all, even in the house of a negro laundress who did not +know how to write, the information could be so easily secured. After +jotting down a "Yes" and a "No" respectively for Husband and Wife in the +columns for literacy, he continued, "And that question is, whether this +house is owned by you or whether you rent it."</p> + +<p>"We're only rentin' it, sah. Steve wants to buy it an' put a mo'gage on, +but Ah don't know anythin' about mo'gages an' Ah won't buy until Ah can +pay the whole price right down. Don' yo' think Ah'm right?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Lily," answered the lad, as he folded up his portfolio and +prepared to go to the next house, "it would hardly do for one of Uncle +Sam's census men to come between a husband and a wife on the question +of their buying of their own home, would it?"</p> + +<p>"Ah reckon not, sah. Is that all, sah?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lily, that's all, and I'm very much obliged."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so awful bad," said the woman, with a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"It's easy enough to answer census questions when you want to make it +easy and tell a straight story," Hamilton replied, "but you see what +trouble it would be for me with some one who wasn't willing to talk, and +how hard it would be for any one to make up a story as he went along, +and find it tally at every point in all the later questions."</p> + +<p>"Well, sah," she called, in reply, as the lad passed out, "Ah jes' hope +yo' don' fin' a single one like that in this hyar whole village."</p> + +<p>"I hope not, Lily. Good-morning," he rejoined and turned toward the next +house.</p> + +<p>The enumeration of the rest of the village went on rapidly. By working +quickly Hamilton was able to complete the numbering of the village by +nightfall, and he so stated on his daily report card, which he mailed to +the supervisor that evening.</p> + +<p>The following morning he started off on his little mare, and struck +something new and puzzling at every holding he touched. The agricultural +schedule fairly made his head swim. It had certain difficulties which +the manufacturing schedule did not have, because, although the latter +contained more detailed information and required a more accurate +statement, still all manufacturers kept books. For the details needed in +the agricultural statistics no books had been kept; the negro farmer +seldom or never knew how many chickens he had, and the wild guesses that +would be made as to value of animals and land nearly turned the boy's +hair gray. Some of the white farmers were every bit as careless, one man +valuing his horses at $200 apiece and the next at $50; one man +estimating his land at $150 an acre and the next at $10.</p> + +<p>A typical case was that of Patrick Meacham. Hamilton secured the facts +for his population schedule with comparatively little trouble from the +Meacham household, although he had to listen to a great deal of +unnecessary family history. There was no great difficulty, moreover, in +finding out that the farm consisted of 80 acres owned and 10 rented, but +a snag of the first magnitude was encountered on the question as to how +much of it was improved.</p> + +<p>"Sure, 'tis all improved," the farmer said; "it was in horrible shape +whin I bought it."</p> + +<p>"I don't mean improved that way," Hamilton objected, "what I want to +know is how much of it is good for pasture, is prepared for crops, and +so forth."</p> + +<p>"Sure, it's all good for somethin'," the Irishman answered; "what for +should I buy it if it wasn't good for anythin"?"</p> + +<p>"Have you a wood-lot?" asked Hamilton, deciding to try and get at the +question in another way.</p> + +<p>"I have a wood-lot. But I built a good strong fence around it, since I +came here,—ye don't mean to tell me that doesn't improve it? If ye +lived here, ye'd know better."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Mr. Meacham, it makes it better all right, but it +isn't counted in as 'improved land.' I'll put it down specially though. +There's ten acres of it, you said."</p> + +<p>"And there's ten acres of swamp land that ye couldn't improve unless ye +built it on piles," the farmer said.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to refer that to the Reclamation Service, I guess," the boy +answered, "anyhow for the time we'll just call it 'unimproved' and let +it go at that."</p> + +<p>The next few questions passed off without a hitch, but an inquiry +concerning the number of animals born on the place during the year was +like opening the flood-gates of a dam. If Meacham had been as good a +farmer as a yarn-spinner there would have been no question as to his +success, for he had some story to tell about every yearling on the +place, and they were inimitably told. It was with great reluctance that +Hamilton found himself obliged to head off the man's eloquence and make +him stick to hard facts. An inquiry as to the number of eggs sold was +somewhat of a puzzle, but the farmer's wife knew the amount of the +"trade" she had received at the grocery store in the nearest town in +return for eggs, and at an average sale price of nine cents a dozen, +this was easily computed. She was also the authority on the amount of +butter made and sold, and on the garden truck.</p> + +<p>The business man of the house was a twelve-year-old boy. Not far away, a +neighbor had forty acres in clover and some fruit trees, and knowing the +value of bees for pollinating the fruit, he was glad to have this boy +keep six hives near the orchard and field. A good share of the honey had +gone to the neighbor, and the family themselves had used all they +wanted, but still the boy's profit for what he had sold amounted to +sixty dollars. He was keen to have Hamilton enter him on the schedule as +an independent apiarist on his own account, but Hamilton pointed out to +him that a $250 farm was the smallest one allowed to be listed.</p> + +<p>This low limit was almost reached the next day when Hamilton found +himself on a peanut farm for the first time. He had always known that +peanuts, unlike all other "nuts," grew underground but he had made the +common mistake of supposing them to grow on the roots of the peanut +plant like the tubers of a potato, instead of really being a true nut, +developing from a flower the elongation of the lower portion of which +reaches to the ground. The farm was run by an orphaned colored girl +nineteen years old and her four younger brothers.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-17-t.jpg' width='412' height='600' alt='ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.</p></div> + +<p>"Jes' as soon as the young-uns gits big enough," she said to Hamilton, +when discussing the statistics of her little holding, "we're goin' to +buy a big patch o' peanut land. Ah'd like to grow peanuts every year, +but these hyar gov'nment papers say yo' shouldn't. They say once in +every fo' years is enough fo' peanuts, but Ah'm goin' to try it every +other year."</p> + +<p>"Aren't they a very troublesome crop?"</p> + +<p>"'Bout the same as potatoes, Ah reckon. But they pay a good price fo' +picked peanuts, an' Ah can get these boys hyar to do the pickin'. In one +o' the papers Ah saw up to Colonel 'Gerius' place the other day, one the +gov'nment puts out, thar's a list showin' this country has to send to +foreign countries fo' twelve million bushels o' peanuts every year. Ah'm +goin' to try raisin' a real big crop, and Dicky hyar," she added, +pointing to the oldest boy, "thinks jes' as I do about it."</p> + +<p>Hamilton was distinctly impressed with the evidence that this young +negro girl and her younger brothers not only knew enough about the +peanut business to be able to make it pay, but that they were reading +the government bulletins.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," he said hastily, "that you people—" and he stopped +suddenly, realizing the ungracious ending to his sentence.</p> + +<p>"You mean us colored folks,—you didn't think we troubled 'bout such +things? Yas, sah, we don' have all the advantages o' white folks but +we're improvin' right along. Colonel 'Gerius jes' does all he can, an' +he gets us gov'nment seeds an' papers, an' advises every one fo' miles +aroun'. Yas, sah, we're gettin' on. If yo' have to go to Bullertown, +sah, yo'll fin' as nice a li'l place as thar is f'om one end o' the +United States cla'r to the other, an' thar's not one white person in +it."</p> + +<p>"Bullertown?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I'm glad to hear it, for +that's the next place on my map."</p> + +<p>"We're all proud of it hyar, sah, an' it 'pears to me, Bullertown owes +jes' everythin' to the folks at the Big House and to Mistah Ephraim +Jones. Yo'll see Mistah Jones, sah, an' I'd take it kindly if yo'll +remember me to him."</p> + +<p>"All right, Delia, I will," said Hamilton. "Let's see, I did get all the +figures, didn't I?"</p> + +<p>"Yo' said yo' had them all, sah," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Good enough. Well, I guess I'll go along. I'll not forget your message. +Good-by—" and the boy set his horse on a canter down the narrow road. +Throughout the rest of the day the census-gathering was of similar +character, and it was drawing toward dark when the boy saw before him a +well-ordered array of houses which he felt sure must be Bullertown. +Asking his way to the hotel from the first darky that he met, he was +answered most courteously.</p> + +<p>"Thar's no hotel hyar, sah," the negro said, "but Mr. Ephraim Jones +entertains the visitin' strangehs, sah, an' if yo' go right on to that +big yaller house an' ask fo' Mr. Jones, sah, Ah jes' knows yo'll be +right welcome."</p> + +<p>Hamilton felt diffident about quartering himself upon a perfect stranger +in this way, but it seemed to be the custom of the place, and since +there was no hotel, there seemed nothing else to do, and he rode on to +the gate. Tethering his mare to a tie-post in front of the house he +started up the walk, carrying his portfolio, so that in the event of any +mistake he might be able to make it appear that he had merely come to +take the census. But before he reached the door it was opened by a +wrinkled and old, but dignified darky.</p> + +<p>"Walk in, sah, walk right in," he said. "Ah'll sen' one o' the boys to +look after yo' horse. Tom!" he called, "yo' take the gen'leman's horse +to the stable, rub him down with a wisp, an' give him some hay. In half +an hour water him, an' give him a feed o' oats."</p> + +<p>"I'm obliged to you," said Hamilton, "for taking all this trouble, but +perhaps I had better explain who I am."</p> + +<p>"That's jes' as yo' like, sah."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Hamilton, "I'm the census-taker for this district, and I +was looking for a hotel where I could stay the night and begin work in +the morning. A man I met on the street told me that this town had no +hotel and suggested that if I came to you, I might be advised where to +go."</p> + +<p>"We have no hotel in Bullertown, sah," the old negro preacher answered, +"but the gen'lemen that come hyar do me the honor us'ally, sah, of bein' +my guests. Ah have a guest-room, sah, jes' 'sclusively fo' gen'lemen who +are not people of color."</p> + +<p>Hamilton found himself flushing at the consciousness that this very +thought had been in his mind, and in order to cover any possible signs +that might have appeared in his expression, he answered hastily:</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right,—it wouldn't have mattered."</p> + +<p>The old preacher looked at him quietly and a little reproachfully and +said:</p> + +<p>"If you don' jes' mean things like that, young sah, don' say them. We +know. We find, sah, that it is mos' desirable for every one concerned. +If yo' like, sah, an' if yo're ready, Ah'll show yo' to yo'r room."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-18-t.jpg' width='600' height='447' alt='IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-19-t.jpg' width='600' height='392' alt='IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton could not help contrasting this reception with that which he +would have received in any town not entirely a negro community, and he +expressed this feeling to his host as they went up the stairs.</p> + +<p>"It is entirely different hyar, sah," the latter said, "yo' see we are +isolated, an' a guest is rare. Then this community is a syndicate an' is +not run like a town. Thar's no quest'n hyar, sah, about colored and +white people bein' the same,—we know they're different. An' we believe, +sah, that it is in preservin' the color line, not in tryin' to hide it, +that the future good of our race lies. An' so thar's not a foot o' land +in Bullertown owned by any other than people o' color, an' not a white +person lives hyar."</p> + +<p>"You own all the land, then?"</p> + +<p>"The syndicate does, yes, sah."</p> + +<p>"Then you must have some wealthy men among you?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah, not one. The town was begun, sah, by the kindness of Colonel +Egerius."</p> + +<p>"Colonel—he was, that is, he is—" began Hamilton, stammering.</p> + +<p>"He is not a negro, sah," the old man answered finishing the boy's +embarrassed sentence for him with entire self-possession. "Colonel +Egerius, sah, was a plantation owner, befo' the war. Ah was one o' his +slaves, an' mos' o' the people in Bullertown are the children o' those +born in the plantation quarters."</p> + +<p>"And he started the town?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, in a way. He fought with Lee, sah, an' my brother was his +body-servant all through the war. When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came +back to the old plantation. Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was +quite a few left still. He called us to the big house an' tol' us to +stay by the ol' place an' he would pay us wages. Some—Ah was not one o' +them, though Ah see now they were right,—said the quarters were not fit +to live in."</p> + +<p>"But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master? How could +that be if the quarters were so bad?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," he said, "Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was +fair an' ready to help a willin' worker. But his slaves was his slaves +an' they had no rights. Thar wasn't any whippin' or any o' that sort o' +thing, but it was work all day, f'om befo' daylight till afteh dark, an' +we lived jes' anyhow."</p> + +<p>"How came he to start the town, then?" queried Hamilton. "Your +description of him doesn't sound as though he were a man who would do +much for you."</p> + +<p>"It was jes' because o' that, Ah think, that he did, sah. He was just, +sah. He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves. +Now that the negro was not a slave any mo', thar was no reason to make +him live like one. He used to say the South was now pledged to help the +nation instead o' the Confederacy, an' while he did not agree, he would +live up to that pledge."</p> + +<p>"That seems as fair as anything could be."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it. Thar was no +money in the place, the slaves hadn' had wages, an' yo' can't build +houses without money, an' money was scarce afteh the war."</p> + +<p>"How in the wide world did you manage it?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"As Ah was sayin', sah, it was Colonel Egerius' doin'. He got a surveyor +from the town an' hunted over the plantation to fin' the best site fo' +a village,—the surveyor's name was Buller."</p> + +<p>"That's where the town got its name, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, Ah jes' wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn't +hear of it. Then all o' the ol' slaves that wanted to stay by the place +got together, an' the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o' syndicate. +Then he sol' us the land jes' as low as it could be made, payment to be +in labor on the plantation, so in a few years' work every man who wanted +to stay reg'lar on the job got title to his lan' an' his house, an' took +wages afteh that."</p> + +<p>"That was a wise move," said the boy after a moment's thought. "He sold +his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, +established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the +same time fixed it all right for you."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," the old negro answered, "an' now every man in the town +either owns his house or is buyin' one f'om the syndicate, an' we have +bought up all the surveyed property f'om the Colonel. Now, sah," +continued the preacher, "if yo' will excuse me, Ah will see that yo'r +supper is got ready. Hyar, sah," he added, opening the door into a +small room, "is yo'r sittin' room, an' yo'r supper will be served hyar."</p> + +<p>As much surprised as gratified at the excellent arrangements for his +comfort, Hamilton refreshed himself after his dusty ride, and was as +hungry as a wolf when supper arrived. A little darky girl, black as the +ace of spades, waited at table, and in conversation Hamilton learned +that she was the adopted daughter of the eldest son of the negro +preacher, the son being a professor in one of the negro colleges. After +supper Hamilton asked to see his host in order that he might secure the +details of the family for the census, and thus make use of a disengaged +evening.</p> + +<p>"So your son is Professor of English at the University," said Hamilton, +as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio. "Do, +you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he +ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?"</p> + +<p>"Thar should be one good university," said the old preacher, "with very +difficult admission examinations. It would be a good thing fo' colored +lawyers an' doctors, an' if the standard were high—higher even than in +white colleges—these men would get standin' fo' themselves an' give +standin' to the colored race. But, even then, I'd have them keep away +f'om the other lawyers an' doctors."</p> + +<p>"You're strong on that color line, Ephraim," the boy remarked. "Surely +you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>"As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do," was the unexpected answer, "an' +thar's no place fo' the negro in the city. He can't beat the white man, +an' thar's no chance o' his securin' a monopoly o' any trade. Thar's +nothin' fo' him in the city savin' jes' labor an' bein' a servant, a +porter, or somethin' o' that kind."</p> + +<p>"You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities," the boy +remarked, "they're mostly elevator runners and in positions of that +kind."</p> + +<p>"It is in the No'th that trouble lies," the old man said, "the South has +settled hers."</p> + +<p>"How do you make that out?" cried the boy. "You say the South has +settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, +down here and in the Gulf States."</p> + +<p>The old negro preacher shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than +two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was +grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of +America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the +land lease it on a share basis known as the métayer system, but more'n +more o' them are owners every year."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all," said +Hamilton thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to +the New England States is owned by the colored race," was the reply, +"makin' in the United States a negro country larger than plenty o' +kingdoms."</p> + +<p>"And is that land worth much?"</p> + +<p>"Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' +it's worth a lot mo' now."</p> + +<p>"But," said Hamilton, "the negro doesn't seem able to make use of it. +Even if he does own the land and is making money, he still goes on +living in a shiftless way. One would hardly believe the kind of shacks +I've seen in the last couple of days."</p> + +<p>"Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah," the old negro answered, "Ah +reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in +one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, +women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along."</p> + +<p>"They ought," said the boy, "if they're working on cotton, because, I've +been told, that is always a cash crop. But why does every one leave the +cotton crop to the negro. It isn't a hard crop to raise, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah," the preacher +answered. "It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in +summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' +until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have +much cool weather down hyar."</p> + +<p>"You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?" asked the boy, who had +never seen a cotton plantation and wanted to know something about it.</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' +hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh +night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant +doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it +that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go +pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on +yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' +labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' +headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe +it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a +mulatto th'n a full-blood negro."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-20-t.jpg' width='673' height='400' alt=""'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (Brown Bros.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"You would make all the negroes cotton planters?"</p> + +<p>"Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah," the +old man answered, "an' the trade schools would provide fo' all the +workers in towns in the cotton district, an' in solid negro towns thar'd +be room fo' all the colored doctors an' lawyers an' preachers."</p> + +<p>"I see your idea," said Hamilton. "You would just make the cotton +section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," the other answered decidedly. "It's jes' those No'thern +niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up +No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored +people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk +about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good +many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. +But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let +yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his +host, "if that isn't a whole lot more likely to be true than the +alarmist stories you read in magazines."</p> + +<p>The following morning, after Hamilton had almost finished covering one +side of the street in collecting the census statistics, he heard the +trot of horses' hoofs, and looking up, saw a tall, stern-visaged +soldierly-looking gentleman, with iron-gray hair, riding a powerful +iron-gray horse. Beside him rode a young fellow, evidently his son. Both +reined up when they saw Hamilton. Seeing that he was expected to +introduce himself, he stepped forward.</p> + +<p>"My name is Hamilton Noble," he said; "I'm the census enumerator for +this district. I presume you are Colonel Egerius?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Noble," the old Confederate leader replied. "Ephraim sent me +word that you were here, and I received a letter a week ago from the +supervisor, whom I have known for some time, telling me that you were a +friend of his. I wanted to bid you welcome, sir, and to express the hope +that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at dinner with us +to-night."</p> + +<p>Hamilton bowed.</p> + +<p>"I shall enjoy coming, Colonel Egerius," he said. "At what hour?"</p> + +<p>"Six-thirty," the Colonel replied, "we keep early hours in the country. +By the way," he added, "have you heard anything of this peonage business +here this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," the boy answered, "I started out with my schedules bright and +early."</p> + +<p>"I purpose to hold an inquiry after lunch," the planter continued. "You +are lunching at Ephraim's of course?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Colonel Egerius," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"Very well," was the reply, "we will lunch together if you have no +objection. Since I heard of your expected arrival I have been looking +forward to your visit. Now that you are here, sir, we must make the most +of you. Allow me to present my son Percy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton made a suitable reply, and consulting his watch found that it +was almost lunch time.</p> + +<p>"I will join you in half an hour, Colonel Egerius," he said, "and shall +look forward to the evening with great pleasure."</p> + +<p>"You play a good knife and fork, I trust," said the old gentleman, +smiling, as he gathered up the reins.</p> + +<p>"Almost good enough to do justice even to Southern hospitality," +answered Hamilton with a smile. The old soldier nodded approvingly. +"Remember now," he said, as he rode away, "we'll hold you to your word."</p> + +<p>At lunch Hamilton took occasion to remark on the well-being of +Bullertown.</p> + +<p>"I was surprised," he said, "to find a village so well managed and +looked after, and all by negroes."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing surprising in that," the Colonel answered. "How could +they do anything different? I have shown them every step they were to +take; all that they had to do was to continue."</p> + +<p>"You mean they couldn't have done it by themselves?"</p> + +<p>"The negro never has done anything by himself," the old Confederate +replied. "He has lived as far back as time goes in one of the most +fertile and well-watered countries of the world,—Africa—and he never +had enough initiative to rise out of tribal conditions."</p> + +<p>"But he seems to be doing all right now," suggested Hamilton. "I hear +the negro is getting to own quite a share of the cotton crop."</p> + +<p>"He has not done so well as appearances would show," the soldier +replied; "he has learned a few—only a few—of the tricks of modern +civilization, and those only outwardly. The few cases of leadership such +as that of Booker T. Washington, for instance, are due to the white +strain, not the negro."</p> + +<p>"I thought Booker T. Washington was a pure negro!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He is not," was the emphatic reply. "In his own writings he states that +his father was a white man. His mother was a negress. He gets his brains +from his father and his color from his mother."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the negroes will ever marry enough with the white to +become all white?"</p> + +<p>"Not now," the Southerner answered. "It is a crime in many States and +punishable with imprisonment."</p> + +<p>"Then what's going to be done?"</p> + +<p>"I'm unreconstructed yet," the old Colonel said grimly. "I think still +the negroes were better off as slaves. They're always going to be +slaves, anyway, whether in name or not. And as for their relation to +the cotton crop. You say they are succeeding in it. Perhaps. But did +they learn the uses of cotton, did they develop machinery to clean and +spin it, or devices for weaving? Was it negroes who worked out the best +means of cultivating the cotton or experimented on the nature of the +most fertile soils? Not a bit of it. They simply grow cotton the way the +white folks showed them."</p> + +<p>"But they seem to be getting a big share of it!"</p> + +<p>"I see you've been talking to Ephraim. What good would it do the negroes +if they owned every foot of the cotton land? They would still have to +depend on the man that buys the crop, and the cotton exchange wouldn't +be run for the benefit of the negro. In slavery days, too, there was +some one to take an interest in the negro and help him. Now he's got to +do it for himself, and he can't do anything but go on in the same old +groove."</p> + +<p>"You think it was better in the old days?"</p> + +<p>"In some ways for the negro, yes. But it was harder for the people of +the South. There was always trouble of some kind in the slave quarters. +Before the war you had to support all the old, the sick, the children, +and the poor workers. Under present conditions you hire just whom you +want. The cost is about even, and the responsibility is less. Now," he +added, lunch being over, "if you've finished we'll go and see what this +peonage business is. Ephraim," he called, "is that man here?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," answered the old negro. "He's hyar."</p> + +<p>"Bring him in, then."</p> + +<p>In a minute or two the old darky returned, bringing with him a gaunt, +emaciated negro, who cringed as he entered the room. He was followed by +a brisk, young mulatto.</p> + +<p>"If yo' please, Massa," said the old preacher, dropping unconsciously +into the familiar form of address, "this is Peter, young Peter's +father."</p> + +<p>"I've seen him before," the Colonel said abruptly "Peter, were you on +this plantation?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, Massa."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with him, Ephraim?" queried the old soldier. "He +looks to me as though he hadn't had enough to eat."</p> + +<p>"It isn't only that, Massa," said the negro, "he's been whipped 'most to +death."</p> + +<p>"Whipped!" cried Hamilton, startled. Then, remembering suddenly that +the matter was not his concern, he flushed and turned to the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "I forgot."</p> + +<p>The old soldier, who had been a stern disciplinarian in his time, had +drawn himself up indignantly at the boy's interruption, but his +immediate apology caused the old gentleman to see that it was just a +flash of boyish indignation, so he merely turned and said:</p> + +<p>"Let him tell his story."</p> + +<p>"Ah was born hyar durin' the war," the negro began. "Ah c'n jes' +remember Missis, an' Ah've often heard mah mother cry when we was livin' +in Atlanta an' trouble come, 'If only Ah could go to Missis.'"</p> + +<p>"Get to your story, boy," said the Colonel, "I haven't time to waste."</p> + +<p>"Ah was brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, an' times was always hard. Six +years ago Ah hired out to a lumber man in Florida. Thar were sixty of us +hired together. The pay was good. The day we come, we were put into a +group o' huts with a stockade 'roun', an' men with rifles guarded us +night an' day. Ah reckon thirty men was shot tryin' to escape durin' the +years I was thar."</p> + +<p>"Thirty?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, leastways I know of five, an' heard o' the rest."</p> + +<p>"Talk about what you know, not what you've heard," admonished the old +soldier. "Go on."</p> + +<p>"It was killin' work. We had to be in the woods by daylight an' stay +thar until it was too dark to see. Thar was trouble enough at first but +the worst come later. About three years ago a lot mo' huts was put up +an' the stockade was made bigger. We thought things would be easier as +the new men would get all the knockin' about. Nex' week the new crowd +came,—they were convic's hired for the job."</p> + +<p>"Excuse my interrupting, Colonel Egerius," asked the lad, "but can that +be true? Does any State hire out its convicts to forced labor?"</p> + +<p>"Some do," was the reply, "and Florida is one of them. Go on, boy."</p> + +<p>"Floggin's started in when the convicts come, an' thar was no difference +made between us an' them. We were supposed to be paid, but our pay was +always in tickets to the comp'ny store, an' they charged double prices +for everythin'. They never gave us a cent o' money. A lot of us got +together an' decided to escape, but when it come to doin' it, only +three would go. One got away entirely, one was shot, an' Ah was caught. +They took me to the stockade an' whipped me 'mos' to death, three days +runnin'. The third day Ah was so near dead that they didn't tie me up, +an' when, hours later, Ah did stagger to mah feet, they jes' pointed to +the fields whar the hands was workin'. Ah heard one o' the guards say, +'He won't go far,' an' Ah hid in the woods, Ah don' know how long, jes' +livin' on berries, an' at las' Ah got away. Ah knew Ah would be safe in +Kentucky."</p> + +<p>The Colonel looked at the man closely.</p> + +<p>"I believe you've been a bad nigger," he said, "and I wouldn't believe +any more of your story than I had to. But it's easy enough to see that +you have been abused, and that you need help right now. I'll give you a +chance. Peter, your father is staying with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah."</p> + +<p>"Ephraim," the Colonel said, turning to the old preacher, "put this man +on the payroll as a field hand, beginning from to-morrow, but don't send +him to the field for a couple of weeks. Behave yourself," he added, +turning to the peonage victim, "and you'll be all right here."</p> + +<p>The negro thanked him profusely, and went out, his wretched frame +showing up miserably in the strong sunlight as he passed by the window +of the dining room.</p> + +<p>"But that's worse than any slavery I ever heard of," burst out Hamilton +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Peonage?" answered the old veteran. "Oh, yes, much worse."</p> + +<p>"And it still goes on?"</p> + +<p>"There were several hundred stockades in operation last year," was the +reply, "and that's a fair sample of their work."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-21-t.jpg' width='600' height='395' alt='HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>HOBOES ON THE TRAMP</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Although he realized that his lines had fallen in pleasant places for +the enumeration work, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction +that Hamilton entered up what was marked on the map as the last house, +and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and +was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire +district in the appointed time. In order to make his record as good as +possible the lad thought he would get an early start and be in the +supervisor's office before noon, thus emphasizing his punctuality. +Accordingly it was but a little after seven o'clock when he was in the +saddle and on the road.</p> + +<p>Knowing from experience that the highway made quite a circuit to reach a +little group of three houses, which he had already enumerated, Hamilton +struck out across country, using a little footpath through some woods. +At that early hour of the morning he was not expecting to meet any one, +and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later +he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one +with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as +though ready to show aggressiveness to any intruder, the other two on +the ground, one sitting, and one lying half asleep on some boughs +carelessly thrown down. As Hamilton was still in his enumeration +district and felt that here were some people who might not have been +registered, he pulled up.</p> + +<p>"'Morning, boys!" he said ingratiatingly.</p> + +<p>"Howdy!" the impromptu cook replied, and waited for the boy to go on.</p> + +<p>"I'm the census-taker for this district," the boy continued, "and I knew +this was a short cut across the fields; but I didn't know I should find +you here."</p> + +<p>"Inform the gentleman, Bill," spoke the traveler who was lying down, +"that we were equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting +but that we would have been better prepared to meet him had he sent a +courier to announce his coming."</p> + +<p>"You heard him," the first speaker supplemented jerking his thumb over +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I heard him all right," answered Hamilton, dropping immediately into +the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he had +left his town residence for this convenient and airy country house."</p> + +<p>"As I live, an intelligent reply!" was the response in tones of +surprise, and the speaker sat up on his rough couch.</p> + +<p>To Hamilton the situation was a little difficult. There would be no +trouble in merely exchanging a few greetings and then passing along on +his journey, but the boy was above all things conscientious, and he +could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books +of the census, and that now, on the very last day of census-taking, they +were in his district. And he knew well enough, that if he broached the +question it would not be favorably received. However he thought he saw a +way out.</p> + +<p>"If you have a pannikin of tea to spare," he said, "I'd enjoy it."</p> + +<p>"If you like to put up with what we've got, join us an' welcome," the +tall tramp said.</p> + +<p>"All right," Hamilton answered, "I will."</p> + +<p>"Permit me to do the honours!" said the second tramp. "This is 'Hatchet' +Ben Barclay, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith—not +because of his humor but because of his powers of persuasion, and I am +Harry Downe, very much at your service."</p> + +<p>"Better known as the 'Windy Duke,'" interjected the tea-maker, who had +by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was busy +frying slices of ham on a piece of stick over the hot wood coals.</p> + +<p>"I'm Hamilton Noble," the boy answered in return, "and I've just got +through taking the census for this district. I've got all the names in +here," he added, tapping his portfolio, "and now I'm going to the +supervisor's office to turn in my reports."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid your census will be incomplete," said 'Windy,' "for, so far +as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be lacking the names +and distinction of this gallant little company."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you been listed?" asked Hamilton, glad that the subject should +have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating +himself on the success of his device to secure the friendship of the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"Nary a list," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "the rustlers of the Ringling Circus +told us that they had been enumerated four times, once for every week +they played, an' that not a blessed one of the census men would believe +they had been taken before; but they cut us out entire."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I had better take you right now," said Hamilton. "I've +room on the census sheet for a few more names."</p> + +<p>"You can count me out," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not lookin' for that +kind of fame."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's fair to the country to let it know who you are?"</p> + +<p>"What's the census to me?" the other said defiantly. "I calc'late a +country that doesn't give a fellow a livin' doesn't care much about his +name."</p> + +<p>"But you're getting a living, just the same," answered Hamilton, "and +you're an American, anyhow, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"New York State," the tramp replied.</p> + +<p>"And you?" asked Hamilton, turning to the orator of the party.</p> + +<p>"I'm an Oxford man," answered the 'Windy Duke,' "classical tripos—if +you know what that means."</p> + +<p>"I do," answered Hamilton, "but why—" and he stopped.</p> + +<p>"You were going to ask me why I prefer to wander afield rather than be +'cribbed and confined' within narrow walls. I am but one of many, an +educated man without any knowledge of how to use his learning. Do you +care for Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I +can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to +none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I +am—in my humble way—quite an authority. But these magnificent +talents," he added with a self-depreciatory smile, "do not enable me to +run a business as successfully as a Greek fruit peddler or a Russian Jew +vender of old clothes."</p> + +<p>"You could teach," suggested Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Only my friends," replied the scholar. "To teach requires pedagogy and +numerous devices for improving the youthful mind. I do not greatly +admire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore +it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim +originality in this rôle; there have been 'scholar gypsies' before this. +The phrase sounds better than 'educated hobo,' but the meaning is the +same."</p> + +<p>"And you?" queried Hamilton of the third speaker.</p> + +<p>"Plain American," the other said simply, "born and raised in Ohio. Not a +Yankee, not a Westerner, not a Southerner,—nothin', jest plain +Middle-West American."</p> + +<p>"Well," suggested Hamilton, "I think you chaps ought to let me put you +down in the schedule here. We need white men in this country badly +enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest +showing we can. Two Americans and an Englishman will help the average +just that much. Part of the 'white man's burden,'" he added with a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"If you put it that way," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I calc'late after all I'm +elected for one. Anything I can do to put down, even on paper, these +foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, +I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob from the south o' Europe bein' +dumped down here by the hundred thousand every year, an' you can take +that straight from me."</p> + +<p>"It's a little curious," said Hamilton, noting down the facts as they +came up in conversation, not wanting to work directly upon the schedule +for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be Americans and one an +Englishman. Somehow, one always thinks of an American as making good, +not tramping it."</p> + +<p>"Nearly all hoboes are Americans," 'Hatchet Ben' explained, "there's a +few English, and a few Swedes. Lots of races in this country you never +meet on the road."</p> + +<p>"Trampdom," said 'Windy,' "is a most exclusive circle. For example, you +never saw a Jew hobo, did you?"</p> + +<p>"No," Hamilton said. "Never."</p> + +<p>"And you're never likely to," 'Hatchet Ben' interjected, "there's no +money in it, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. +There are a few French Canadians, but no real Frenchmen on the road, and +the Dagoes never take to it."</p> + +<p>"I wonder why?" Hamilton queried.</p> + +<p>"I purpose writing a monograph upon the subject of the nationality of +the Hobo Empire," the 'Windy Duke' broke in, "and therein I shall +enlarge upon my theory that the life of a tramp requires more +independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that +usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who +will not drop to the level of the horde below them and who consequently +take to the life of the road in protest against the usage of an +ill-arranged social state. That, for example, is the condition of my two +friends here."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind my asking what made you take to the road?" said +Hamilton, turning to the first speaker.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," 'Hatchet Ben' replied. "It's a very usual story. I'm a +steel worker by trade, an' when I was workin' I was reckoned among the +best in the plant."</p> + +<p>"What did you quit it for?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Slovaks," the man answered. "Every year or two the Pittsburg operators +would get together an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start +comin' to the West. They seemed to know where to come, an' started work +the mornin' after they got there, without even seein' the boss."</p> + +<p>"But that could hardly be, I should think," said Hamilton; "that would +be importing contract labor and they would be stopped at Ellis Island."</p> + +<p>"Not much fear of that," the steel worker answered "the operators keep +men in Europe just trainin' the foreigners what to say. These men come +over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary, +the amount of money to enable them to land, buy their railroad tickets +at this end, an' all the rest of it."</p> + +<p>"Dangerous business if they got caught at it!"</p> + +<p>"They're paid to take chances," the other replied. "Then, when these +foreigners come, they know nothin' about the scale of wages in America +only that the pay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their +own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter +what wages they receive they can put money aside every week. The boss +doesn't see any use in payin' them at a high rate, when they work just +as well for small, an' down goes the wages."</p> + +<p>"But they get a poorer grade of labor that way," objected Hamilton, "I +shouldn't think that would pay."</p> + +<p>"They make up for it by increasin' the power of machinery, by givin' a +man less and less to learn and more and more of some simple thing to +do."</p> + +<p>"In a way that ought to be good, too," the boy persisted, "for the more +a machine does, the bigger wages the man who runs it gets."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a machinist," the tramp replied, "an' even if I were I should +be in competition with the Swedes all along the line. Bein' just a +steel worker, I stood for one reduction in wages because they promised +to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a +gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every +chance I got to talk 'union' to these men, showin' them how they could +just as easily get more pay than they were bein' given. That didn't suit +the company at all, so I was fired, an' they put me on the black list."</p> + +<p>"And you couldn't get any more work there at all?"</p> + +<p>"Not there, or at any place in the district. Or, for that matter, in any +place in the United States unless I gave a false name. Steel workin' is +my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the +United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the +country won't let me earn my livin' by working for it, it'll have to +give me a livin' without. But I'd go to work to-morrow, if I had the +chance."</p> + +<p>"Not me," began 'Jolly Joe,' as soon as the tall tramp had finished, +"I'd sooner be a hobo th'n anythin' else I know. In the first place, I'm +not like 'Hatchet Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I +have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this +business. If you think it isn't a trick to rustle grub for three hungry +men, just you try it. An' while I've been on the road for nearly six +years, I've never had a dog set on me yet."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"There's always grub on a farm if you know the right way to go about +getting it," was the reply "and there's very few places I ever go away +from without some bread or a hunk of ham or a pie. Lots of chickens get +lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to +nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the +farmers never could find. If you watch the bees closely, there's nearly +always some swarm that's got away an' made a nest in a dead tree. The +trouble is that most people are too busy to lie still all day an' watch, +an' those that aren't busy don't know."</p> + +<p>"But you don't rustle tea that way," said Hamilton, touching the tin +pannikin with his knuckle.</p> + +<p>"'Windy' looks after that."</p> + +<p>"I am not without some small means," explained the 'Windy Duke,' "but my +income would not permit my living in any sufficiently attractive city +in a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, +however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to +my sister, and still retain sufficient to share up with my +fellow-adventurers when times are hard or 'Jolly's' persuasive tongue is +not quite up to the mark."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't tell me," said Hamilton, turning to 'Jolly Joe,' "why +you started going on the road. You said you didn't like work, but where +had you tried it?"</p> + +<p>"I'll make the story short," was the reply. "I'm a railroad section +hand, an' was lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I +had a pile of friends among the men just above me, and I believe I would +have worked up pretty rapidly."</p> + +<p>"You would be president of the road by now, 'Jolly,'" put in the 'Duke.'</p> + +<p>"I'd be goin' up, anyhow," the other replied. "But one day an order came +along from headquarters changin' the make-up of the gangs, an' next week +I found myself the only American on an Italian gang, under an Italian +foreman. All of us were shifted around the same way. The foreman knew a +little English—not much—an' he tried to give me orders in mixed +English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to +do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me +with every bad name he'd heard since he landed, why, I gave him a +hammerin'. So, just as 'Hatchet Ben' here was driven out by Slovaks, it +was a gang of Italians that gave me my throw-down. I tell you America's +all right for everybody but the American He doesn't stand a show."</p> + +<p>"That sounds hard for the American working-man," the boy said, "but +there must be a lot of them working somewhere, they're not all tramping +it."</p> + +<p>"The back-country farmer is an American nearly every time," 'Hatchet +Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get so far away from the cities and +towns. I don't know why."</p> + +<p>"I think I know the reason of that," volunteered Hamilton. "I heard some +census men talking about it, and one of them had spent a long time in +Italy. He said that while it was true plenty of the peasants worked in +the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the +fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,—our average-sized +farm here would make five or six of them,—and so the village idea +can't be made to work in this country, and the Italians won't stand for +being separated from the nearest neighbor by a mile or two."</p> + +<p>"I can quite understand that," the Englishman said thoughtfully; "it +would be far less pleasant living in this care-free fashion of ours if +one were doing it alone."</p> + +<p>"It may be rather pleasant," Hamilton admitted slipping back into his +pocket the necessary details for the schedule which he had secured from +the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I think a day or +two of it would be enough for me, and I certainly wouldn't like your end +of it, 'Jolly'!"</p> + +<p>"Well," the other replied, as Hamilton strolled over to his mare and +lightly swung himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' +yesterday you would have gone without breakfast this mornin' or at +least, without this kind of breakfast."</p> + +<p>"And mighty good it was," the boy replied, "I don't know when I've +enjoyed a meal so much. I'm ever so much obliged, boys. Good-by."</p> + +<p>The incident gave Hamilton plenty to think about on the rest of the ride +to town, and he found himself genuinely sorry not to have a chance to +see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that +under proper conditions they would be just as fine citizens of the +country as any one could be, and the phrase "Nearly all hoboes are +Americans" kept running in his head.</p> + +<p>He reached the supervisor's office just as a young fellow, but little +older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamilton's +portfolio and said, a little mischievously, the boy thought:</p> + +<p>"How many, if I may ask?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-two hundred and six," answered Hamilton, rightly supposing the +question to refer to the number of people he had enumerated.</p> + +<p>The other threw up his hands.</p> + +<p>"I pass," he said, "you beat me by nearly a hundred," and he laughed and +went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervisor's office. +The boy exchanged greetings with his friend, who said:</p> + +<p>"I heard you talking with that young chap who just left, when you were +coming into the office. Do you know him at all?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," replied Hamilton, and he quoted the brief +conversation.</p> + +<p>"There's quite a story about that case," the supervisor said, settling +himself back in his chair, "and though I'm as busy as an angry hornet +I'll stop just long enough to tell you. When I was picking the +enumerators for the Gullyville district—that's away at the other end of +the section from where you were—I found an unusual number of +applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who stood head +and shoulders above the rest. One was the principal of a village school, +and another was the chap you saw. His name is Wurtzi, and he gave his +occupation as a student and his age as nineteen."</p> + +<p>"I didn't think he looked even as old as that," commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's nineteen. As I was saying, the choice seemed to lie between +these two. Wurtzi's paper was a few points better than the other, indeed +I think it was one of the best tests turned in to me from any center. On +the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large +colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts +of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew everybody. That +was why, when I sent the papers to Washington, I recommended him for +appointment instead of the boy, of whom I knew nothing except that his +examination paper was slightly the better of the two."</p> + +<p>"Yet the boy got the job!"</p> + +<p>"He did," the supervisor answered. "The government rejected my +recommendation, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi +should be appointed on his showing rather than the other unless I knew +something against him."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that was fairer," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "but I thought +that matters of that kind were left to the discretion of the +supervisor."</p> + +<p>"Generally they were, but still there were reversals in a good many +cases," was the reply. "But from everything that I've heard, suggestions +from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exactly +the right thing. They certainly were in this case. I sent the lad his +commission at once, of course."</p> + +<p>"What did the master have to say?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to that," the supervisor replied. "Two or three days later +he came into my office.</p> + +<p>"'I understand Wurtzi has secured the enumerator's job?' he said.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' I answered, 'it was a pretty close thing between you so I sent +the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the +other was more satisfactory.' The schoolmaster laughed and sat down.</p> + +<p>"'I don't know whether I ought to be angry or pleased,' he said; 'it all +depends on how you look at it whether it can be considered as a +compliment or an affront.'</p> + +<p>"I just stared at him.</p> + +<p>"'I don't follow you in the least,' I said. He laughed.</p> + +<p>"'Of course you didn't know that Wurtzi was one of the boys in my +school,' he replied, 'and more than that, he is the poorest boy in the +school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way +in which he could secure his father's permission to allow him to come to +school was that he should turn over to him the trifling sum we pay for +janitor work.'"</p> + +<p>"Pretty good stuff in the boy to want to learn under those conditions," +commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He wanted to educate himself, and his mother was very ambitious. She is +Polish, evidently of the better class—and, as you know, the Poles are +one of the most intellectual races of the world—and the boy gets his +brains from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy +could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he +had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two +years he had been walking barefoot three miles to school, getting there +by daybreak, making the fire, sweeping the floor, cleaning the windows, +and then settling down to prepare his morning lessons before the opening +of school.</p> + +<p>"I told Sinclair," the supervisor continued, "that I thought he ought to +be ten times prouder of the success of his pupil than of the merits of +an examination paper, because it took a higher degree of ability to +teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy +must have been wonderfully well taught to achieve so much. He agreed +with me, of course, but I could see that it irked him a little just the +same. He volunteered, however, to assist his pupil as much as he could."</p> + +<p>"That was very decent of him, I think," Hamilton said, "lots of men +would have borne a grudge. But did you say his name was Sinclair?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the supervisor answered, "Gregory Sinclair. Why?"</p> + +<p>"And you said he had been in the mountains?"</p> + +<p>"Quite a good deal."</p> + +<p>"Then that must be Bill Wilsh's teacher," exclaimed Hamilton, and he +told the supervisor the story of the "cunjer," the whittled schoolhouse +and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, +"and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder if you +would give it to him for me. Don't forget to tell him that the door was +made to appear open, to show him that he was expected back."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I shall be glad to give it to him," the supervisor answered, +"and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, though +probably only in the holidays and for a visit. Where is this carving?"</p> + +<p>"At the hotel, sir," the boy answered, "I'll bring it over this +afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the chance of seeing him myself, he +must be a fine chap."</p> + +<p>"He is," the supervisor agreed, "and he showed the stuff he was made of +in connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he +really put in a lot of time helping Wurtzi in order that he might make +good."</p> + +<p>"You said the boy was Polish?"</p> + +<p>"Polish, of the stock that's making another country out of the deserted +districts of New England. Land that has been abandoned by the Americans +the Poles are making productive. That's where the real wealth of the +future is coming in—from the people who will work the ground without +exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this +country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its +fertility will take years and years to return. These European peasants, +however, are so used to making much of a small plot that they are +redeeming the ground. You know, I'm one of those that believe in all the +immigration possible, and I've never forgotten one of Broughton +Brandenburg's sayings about it."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"That 'it is always the most ignorant immigrant that makes the best +citizen.'"</p> + +<p>"I certainly don't see that," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"He absorbs Americanism more quickly," the other explained. "For +example, there's no class hatred idea to be fought down, no anarchistic +tendencies, no desire to turn liberty into license. The ignorant +immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there +is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. There's not +one in ten thousand of that kind that does not prosper from the day he +lands. But you'll hear all sorts of ideas and suggestions in Washington. +When do you go?"</p> + +<p>"I'm leaving to-night, sir," the boy answered. "I thought it might +please the Bureau if I were there a day ahead of time."</p> + +<p>"They'll be willing enough," the supervisor answered "I imagine every +added helper is of value now, with all these schedules piling in. I'll +drop a note to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your +schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover +your district in the time. I wish you all sorts of luck, and write to me +once in a while from Washington so that I can hear what you're doing and +how you're getting along."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked the supervisor heartily, and after a word or two of +farewell returned to the house of a friend where he was to dine before +starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching +there he went directly to the Census Bureau, sent in his card, and the +Director's secretary, a keen young fellow, came out to see him.</p> + +<p>"I think I've heard Mr. Burns speak about you, Mr. Noble," he said, +looking at the card he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy +right now, but he said when you came you were to go down to Mr. Cullern; +I'd take you there myself but I'm needed here."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's really no necessity, Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell +me where it is and I'll find my way."</p> + +<p>But the other beckoned to an attendant.</p> + +<p>"Show this gentleman to Mr. Cullern," he said. Then, turning with a +smile to the boy, he said, "You'll be all right, I guess."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked him, and the secretary hurried back through the +swinging half length door to the inner office. Following the messenger, +Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines +clicking on every side of him. The chief of the floor looked at the +card, turned it over, read what had been penciled on the back, and said +promptly:</p> + +<p>"I think I'll start you on one of the punching machines."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," the boy answered, "I want to learn everything I can."</p> + +<p>"I have a vacant machine," the other continued, "one of the men is away +on sick leave. If you want to begin right away you can start this +afternoon. Here," he said, picking up a pamphlet from a pile which lay +on a table near by, "is a list of instructions."</p> + +<p>"I'm quite ready to start now," Hamilton declared.</p> + +<p>"Your machine is over here, then," his new superior said, leading the +way to a far corner of the room. "You had better try to find out as much +as you can from the instructions, and one of the foremen will be 'round +to tell you more about the working of it a little later."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," the boy replied, sitting down at the machine, "I think +I can get on to it without much trouble."</p> + +<p>The keyboard was entirely strange to Hamilton. It looked not unlike that +of a big typewriter, or resembled even more closely a linotype keyboard, +only it was divided off into sections each one of which was brightly +colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The +instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the +boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book that +he did not notice the coming of the sub-section foreman, who looked down +at the boy for a moment or two with an amused smile. Presently he +coughed, and Hamilton looked up suddenly to see him standing there.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," asked the boy, "were you speaking?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the newcomer, "but I was going to before long. You seem to be +just eating up that book."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long," said +Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought +the more I knew about it before you came, the better it would be all +'round."</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything about census work?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I was an assistant special agent on the +manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day +before yesterday."</p> + +<p>"I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work," the +foreman answered, "coming in to-day, just when that end of the work +closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I +wonder why they sent you to this department; I should have supposed that +you would be editing schedules."</p> + +<p>"I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently," the boy +explained, "and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various +parts of the work by doing them myself. Judging from this book, it +doesn't seem hard."</p> + +<p>"Let me hear what you know about it."</p> + +<p>Hamilton closed the book.</p> + +<p>"I think I have it fairly straight," he said. "These first four columns +on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that +right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the older man replied, "that is looked after in another way. The +district and State and all that sort of thing go in that section, and +that is arranged by what we call a gang-punch."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how that works," the boy said, "this list of instructions +to the punching clerk doesn't say anything about it."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't need to," his informant answered, "for the simple reason +that the punching clerk has nothing to do with it. But I'll tell you if +you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration districts +in the United States, and all we have to do is to set the gang-punch to +the number of the district."</p> + +<p>"But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything +like it," the boy cried, "all told there are only forty-eight places in +those four columns."</p> + +<p>"That works by the permutation of numbers," was the reply. "You can +arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures +in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty +ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; +ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them +around—and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. +The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get +by reference to the schedule."</p> + +<p>"That's enough!" cried Hamilton. "I can see now. It would take a sheet +of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures."</p> + +<p>"If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that +forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write +them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz +the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of +easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be +arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter +like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the +gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the +schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Hamilton, "and I suppose a number is put on the card which +corresponds with every district number on the schedule. Then I come in +on all the rest of the card."</p> + +<p>"Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk."</p> + +<p>"But this machine doesn't seem to punch," the boy objected; "I put in a +canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, +nothing happened, the key just stayed down."</p> + +<p>"It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready," the other +explained. "You depress into position the various keys you want until +all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance +over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed +keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you +can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card +being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card +corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this +makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule."</p> + +<p>"But how is the punching done, then?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"You press the bar," the foreman explained, "and that throws in the +motor attached to the punching mechanism, which brings the entire die +and card up against the end of the punches which have been depressed by +the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate +the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatically into +either the 'male' or the 'female' compartments of the machine, the +location of the hole tilting the slide that determines on which side the +punched card shall fall."</p> + +<p>"So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same +operation as the punching of the card," the boy remarked; "I see now. +That's a first-class idea."</p> + +<p>"It saves a great deal of work," the older man said. "Then, too, with +the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is +in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in +rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring +the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has +to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a +line because of an error of eyesight."</p> + +<p>"I can understand that now," the boy answered "Now let me see whether I +really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third +column—though it is really the fifth—I punch either 'Hd' for the Head +of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' +for Other?"</p> + +<p>"That's right."</p> + +<p>"Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's +easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' +for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for +Japanese, and 'In' for Indian."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," the foreman said, "you're not likely to go wrong as yet."</p> + +<p>"The age seems clear, too," said Hamilton, "you punch the five-year +period nearest to the age and then add on. For instance, the way it +looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the +'15' and then the '1' in that little cornerwise bit at the bottom of the +next section. But I don't see what the '5' is for."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-22-t.jpg' width='70%' alt='FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.</p></div> + +<p>"That's for babies in the sixth division of the first year, or from nine +to eleven months old; the first division means under one month, and the +rest either one, two, or three months apiece."</p> + +<p>"I see it all now," exclaimed the boy, "you have to punch two holes for +age for every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' +as well as the '10,' I suppose, to make sure he isn't older and the +extra years forgotten."</p> + +<p>"That's the reason exactly."</p> + +<p>"The meaning of the section next to the age is easy, too," Hamilton +continued. "'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for +Divorced, 'Un' for unknown, any one could guess. But this 'Mother +Tongue' business has me going."</p> + +<p>"I thought it would," was the reply. "But it's not so hard if you +remember a few things, particularly that the language of a country is +not always spoken by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the +mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do +not speak Welsh. Thus an English-speaking Welshman's card would be +punched 'OL,' meaning Other Language, or the language next in +importance to the mother language of the country."</p> + +<p>"On that basis," said Hamilton, "if the second most important language +of Denmark is German a card that was punched 'Den' for the country would +have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had +spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spoken Danish, +which is the native tongue of the country. But I should think there +would be some cases that would not come under that rule."</p> + +<p>"There are—a few," the foreman replied, "but the way in which those are +to be punched will be noted on the schedule by the schedule editors."</p> + +<p>"Some schedules need a good deal of editing, I suppose," exclaimed +Hamilton thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"You may be sure of that," the other answered. "If you think for a +moment how impossible it would be to have all the supervisors and +enumerators work exactly in the same style, you can see how necessary it +must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all +uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mistakes that the +editors remedy before the card is punched ready for tabulation. But go +on with your explanation, so that I can see if you really do understand +it."</p> + +<p>"The parent columns run the same way, of course," Hamilton continued, +"'U.S.' meaning any one born in the United States, and 'Un.' cases in +which the parentage is unknown. Then 'NP' means native-born parents, and +'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' +stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' +unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean that the foreign-born can +speak English, 'Ot' that he can only speak some tongue other than +English. The year of immigration, of course, is obvious. But this +occupation, I can't make head or tail of!"</p> + +<p>"That you have to learn," the instructor said. "There is a printed list +here for reference that contains the principal kinds of employment in +the United States and classifies them. In a very little while you will +find that you can remember the numbers which signify the more common of +these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation +returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched +later by a special force of clerks. Holes punched for those out of work +and the number of weeks unemployed are all easy. At the top of the last +column, too, 'Emp' means Employer, 'W' Wage Earner, while 'OA' means +working on his or her own account, and 'Un' is for Unemployed."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," Hamilton replied, "I think I can do it now. I should +find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things just +exactly as they are here on population schedules for the last month."</p> + +<p>"It makes an astonishing difference," the experienced man agreed, "you +know the why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this +old test schedule and I will give you fifty blank cards, and we will see +how they come out."</p> + +<p>Through the rest of the afternoon, Hamilton worked steadily over this +set of cards, not only doing the work, but getting the principles of the +whole thing thoroughly in his mind, and, as he had said to the +sub-section chief, knowing just the manner in which the schedules had +been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, +therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at +his machine a real schedule, not the test that he had been working on +the afternoon before; the exact number of cards required for his +schedule all ready in the hopper of the machine, and it was pointed out +to him that error was not permissible and that he must account for every +card.</p> + +<p>"Why is that?" asked Hamilton, "what difference would a card or two +make?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't the cards, it's the numbering," the other explained. "Don't +you remember that each card was numbered, and so, if one card is wrong +it would throw all the succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a +chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have +touched the lever and the card is punched it slides into its own +compartment. You have all the chance you want to look over your +arrangement of depressed keys before the card is punched, but none +after."</p> + +<p>Before a week had passed by, Hamilton was so thoroughly at home with the +machine that the work seemed to him to become more or less mechanical, +and his interest in it began to wane. As—under government +regulations—he left work early, he sauntered over several times to the +verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine +used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it +seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, and he was +curious to know the principle on which it worked. Generally every one +quit at half-past four o'clock, just as he did, but sometimes a man +would work a few minutes longer to finish a batch of cards, and the boy +would go to watch him.</p> + +<p>When he was over there one day, after hours, Hamilton saw Mr. Cullern on +the floor.</p> + +<p>"Still looking for information?" questioned the older man, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I've been watching this machine and I've +spoken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but +they none of them seem to know. They knew how to run it, and that was +about all."</p> + +<p>"The principle is simple enough," the chief replied, "but it would be a +bit hard to understand the combination unless you had the clew. Then it +is all as clear as day, although the machine itself is a little +complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on +this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noticed that these +holes correspond with the points on the card, and that the way in which +the card is fed into the machine insures that the holes shall coincide +exactly."</p> + +<p>"That I saw," Hamilton answered, "and I could see, of course, that +this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and that upon +it a good deal of the exactness of the work depended."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-23-t.jpg' width='418' height='600' alt='TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"It does," the other replied. "Now if you look into those holes in the +plate you can see a little cup of bright metal under each hole. What do +you suppose that is?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure, of course," the boy responded, "but it looks very much +like quicksilver."</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what it is, quicksilver, or mercury. Now mercury, you +ought to know, can transmit an electric current, so that if an +electrically charged pin comes down into the cup of mercury, the cup +itself being attached to an electric current, a circuit is formed."</p> + +<p>"Now I'm beginning to see," the boy said, "but what is the idea of the +cup of mercury; could not the pin just as well touch on a metal plate?"</p> + +<p>"It could, of course, but a piece of dust between would prevent contact, +the pins would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, +by the pin just dropping into the mercury there is no friction and no +fear of a missed contact."</p> + +<p>"The pins are in that square box at the end of the long arm which comes +down every time a card is put on the plate, aren't they, Mr. Cullern?" +asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and if there is no card there and the pins in the square box are +started down, they are automatically stopped before they reach the +mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card were +there without any holes punched, none of the pins would reach the +mercury and no contact would be made."</p> + +<p>"But with a punched census card," interrupted the boy, eager to show +that he understood, "the pins go through the holes in the cards and do +not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of +holes in the card is registered. But still, there's so much difference +in the cards that I don't see how this machine can verify them, can tell +which are right and which wrong!"</p> + +<p>"There is variety enough," answered the chief, "for of the hundred +million cards punched, no two are exactly the same, they could not be."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't it happen perhaps that two people of the same age should do +the same work, be both married and so forth?" asked the boy +interestedly.</p> + +<p>"They would have to live in the same district, they would have to be +employed the same way, they would have both to be married and have the +same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then—the +cards would be different for they would represent different numbers on +the schedule on which their names were registered. No, there are not two +cards in the entire series punched alike."</p> + +<p>"Then I don't see how in the wide world this machine can tell which +cards are right among millions so entirely different from each other."</p> + +<p>"They don't verify by finding the cards that are right," was the answer, +"but by picking out the cards that are wrong."</p> + +<p>"What's the difference?"</p> + +<p>"There is a wide difference. You can see that it would be easy enough to +arrange that machine so that if a wrong combination of contacts were +made the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but +you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires +are satisfied, as it were, and the bell rings; for an error, one wire, +cut in on by a wrong wire, breaks the contact, and the bell does not +ring."</p> + +<p>"But what do you mean by a wrong grouping?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"You ought to be able to guess that," the chief said reproachfully. +"For instance if a card is punched 'Wf' for Wife and also is punched +'Male' that card is sure to be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is +punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a +three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are twenty-three +different possibilities of error which are checked by this verification +machine, and for any one of these twenty-three reasons a card is thrown +out."</p> + +<p>"For example if 'Na' for naturalized is punched on the same card as 'N' +for native-born, and things of that sort, I suppose?" the boy +questioned.</p> + +<p>"And many others of similar character," the older man agreed.</p> + +<p>"But how about insufficiently punched cards?" queried Hamilton. "I can +see that it would be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad +inconsistencies, but supposing a figure were only left out, there would +be no contact made to show the error."</p> + +<p>"Except in the age column," was the reply, "there is supposed to be a +punch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a +contact from every card registers its disapproval by throwing out that +card."</p> + +<p>"And what happens to the rejected cards?" asked Hamilton, with interest.</p> + +<p>"A checker-up compares them with the original schedules, and if +incorrectly punched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, +punches the missing place. But the number of cards found wrong does not +reach a high percentage."</p> + +<p>"You know I've been thinking," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "that while I +suppose it is all right getting all those holes punched in a card, and +so forth, I should think it would be fearfully hard to handle the card +afterwards. All these little holes look so much alike."</p> + +<p>"To the eye, perhaps," the chief said, "but you must remember that these +cards are never sorted by eyesight. And you must remember that the +sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the +verifying and the tabulating is handled in a purely mechanical fashion. +You remember that each card was punched with a gang-punch?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," the boy said, "that was to specify the district."</p> + +<p>"We keep all those together from the time they are punched till after +we are through with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain +enumeration district, and of every section in that district, are kept +together in a separate box."</p> + +<p>"My word," Hamilton exclaimed, "what a storage you must have!"</p> + +<p>"You ought to go down and see it some time," the other said. "It's big +enough, with every State and every county and every district in the +country having its own place, and every little village in that district +right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, +and district. I'm telling you this just to show you that we don't have +to sort the cards for location at all, and that in itself saves us a lot +of labor and time."</p> + +<p>"And they were sorted into sexes on the punching machine, I remember," +Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and that prevents another handling of every card, you see," the +chief went on, "so that without any further special division, every card +is divided by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when +it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating +machine—which is just the same as the verification, only instead of the +electrical connections being made through relays only, they are +sometimes made direct to counters."</p> + +<p>"Just how, Mr. Cullern?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"Well," the other continued, "when the pin, passing through the hole in +the card, drops into the little cup of mercury it closes a current +passing through an electro-magnet controlling a counter or a dial +corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and +for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The +tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and printing +system, somewhat along the stock ticker plan, connected with each dial. +When desired, touching an electric button will cause every dial to print +automatically the number recorded on a ribbon of paper."</p> + +<p>"That is before sorting?"</p> + +<p>"Or after. Cards may be tabulated along a lot of different lines. And +the sorting device depends again upon another machine, operated by the +same principle."</p> + +<p>The chief led the boy to another portion of the floor.</p> + +<p>"This sorter," he said, "can be set for thirteen different compartments. +In determining the country of birth, for example, at any given point on +the card, an electrically charged brush finds the hole punched and +directs the card in between two of those finely divided wire levels, +where a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point +where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest +compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile +of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the +operator clearing away the pile from each division as it becomes full. +As you can see, that feed knife moves so rapidly and the endless band +fingers carry the cards out of the way in such a hurry that they move +along in a steady stream. We have only twenty of these machines and they +handle all the cards."</p> + +<p>"It's hard to believe," said Hamilton wonderingly, "that these machines +don't think."</p> + +<p>"We're just building one in here," the supervisor replied, leading the +way into a little partitioned-off section of the room, "that has an +uncanny ingenuity. This machine feeds itself with cards, verifies and +tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the +adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the work +of the next census amazingly, just as the machines you saw have made the +old hand punching machines of former times seem very cumbersome. But +this one," he added, "is a gem."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-24-t.jpg' width='643' height='400' alt='PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"It's a little like magic, it seems to me," said Hamilton, "to think of +every person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot +of little holes in it, and practically the whole history on it. It +certainly is queer."</p> + +<p>"There is something mysterious in it," the chief answered with a laugh. +"One feels as though all the secrets of the United States were boxed up +and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the +Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web of +organization, whose skill and knowledge have unlocked commercial +secrets, and whose perception has always seen the essential fact."</p> + +<p>"It's great work to have a share in," the boy declared enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"To make us all feel that," his superior replied "is the chiefest spell +of the Director of the Census."</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH</h3> +<br /> + +<p>"This is surely one blazing day," said Hamilton one day early in June, +as after the noon hour, he settled back at his work on the punching +machine.</p> + +<p>"We'll cool you off all right," responded the foreman, who was coming up +at the moment and heard the boy's remark, "for I understand they're +looking for editors on the Alaskan schedules. A big batch of them has +just arrived and I happen to know that your name has been recommended. +Mr. Cullern asked me to send you to him just as soon as you came in."</p> + +<p>"I should like that above all things," Hamilton replied, "partly because +I've always been interested in Alaska, and also because this work has +got a little monotonous. I hadn't thought of the Alaskan census," he +continued, "and that's strange too; I should think census-taking up in +that country must have been full of excitement and adventure."</p> + +<p>"Probably it was," responded his friend, "but you won't find any +thrilling yarns on the schedules; they'll be just like any other +schedules, I should imagine, only that the occupations will be of a +different variety. But you had better go along and see the chief."</p> + +<p>Hamilton went gladly, thinking that no matter how formal the schedules +might be that dealt with Alaska they could not help but show to some +extent the character of the conditions in which they had been secured +and the difficulties attaching to work in that isolated land.</p> + +<p>"How would you like to try your hand at the editing of the Alaska +schedules, Noble?" asked the chief of the division when the boy appeared +before him a few moments later.</p> + +<p>"Very much indeed, Mr. Cullern," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"I understand that you have shown a great deal of interest in your work +while you have been here," the chief said, "and when I was asked +yesterday if I had any one to recommend I thought of you at once. Having +had experience in the manufactures end, as well as in the population, +ought to help you a good deal in the work. You were a special agent in +the manufactures, were you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "but I don't think any of the places to +which I went resembled in any way the conditions in Alaska."</p> + +<p>"Probably not," the chief said dryly, "New England isn't usually +considered in that light. But the underlying principles are the same, of +course, all the way through. Well, if you want to try it, here is your +chance."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," Hamilton answered promptly. "I shall be glad to take +it up."</p> + +<p>The boy waited a moment, but as there seemed nothing more to be said, he +walked back to his machine, to straighten up before leaving.</p> + +<p>"As soon as you're through with that schedule," the foreman in charge of +the sub-section told him, "let me know, and then you can go to Mr. +Barnes, who is in charge of the Alaskan schedules."</p> + +<p>"I've nearly finished," answered the boy, "I'll be done in a quarter of +an hour anyway."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, a little later, Hamilton found his way to another part of +the building, where he met his new superior, a small, alert, nervous, +quick-spoken man, who, as Hamilton afterwards found out, had the +capacity of working at lightning speed, and then stopping and wanting to +talk at intervals. He said very little when Hamilton first came to him, +merely handing him a number of schedules to edit.</p> + +<p>Hamilton watched him furtively several times and noted the amazing +rapidity of his work. Secretly he knew he could not attain that speed, +but he thought he had better make as good a showing as he could, and so +he, too, buckled to the job for all he was worth. When the boy had done +two or three schedules, each containing fifty names, Mr. Barnes reached +out for those that had been edited and went through them closely. He +made one or two corrections.</p> + +<p>"That's not half bad, Noble," he said suddenly, "but I can see from one +or two little things you let go by that you are not entirely familiar +with that country. I'll tell you more about it later, but in the +meantime you had better look over some of the reports the supervisors +have sent in; they give you an insight into what those enumerators out +there had to go through in order to secure anything like complete +schedules. Here in one from the Fourth District, for example, there is a +graphic description of the work which I think you ought to enjoy. It's +good writing, too."</p> + +<p>"My enumeration work was in Kentucky," said Hamilton, "so I haven't much +line on the conditions in the North. But I've always enjoyed books and +stories about Alaska, and I'd like to read the report."</p> + +<p>"It will give you the atmosphere," said Barnes, "listen to this +paragraph, for example: 'The work was performed during the severest +winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers there. There +did not appear to be a man who did not have a pride in his work, an +anxiety to create a record for traveling time, a desire to enumerate all +the people in the district assigned to him, and to have to his credit +less loss of time because of weather than any of the other agents.'"</p> + +<p>"I guess," said Hamilton, "that supervisor had those enumerators just +breaking their necks to beat out the other agents, and he worked on +their pride to get up their speed."</p> + +<p>"'That the service lost none of its men from freezing to death, and that +every man returned safely, is a matter for congratulation and of good +fortune, from the fact that there were in this part of Alaska more +deaths from the weather this winter than all preceding years in total; +cases in which those who met such deaths did not begin to go through the +sacrifice and privation that these agents of the service did.'"</p> + +<p>"Makes you proud to have been an enumerator, doesn't it?" asked the boy. +"But it always seems difficult to realize hardship unless you have been +there."</p> + +<p>"I spent a winter in Alaska," said Barnes emphatically, "and I can feel +the thrill of it in every line. He knows what he's writing of, too, this +man. Hear how he describes it: 'All the men in the service,'" he +continued, "'covered hundreds of miles over the ice and snow, in weather +ranging from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the average temperature +probably being about 40 below. Because of the absolute lack of beaten +trails—' I wonder," he broke off, "if any one who hasn't been there can +grasp what it means!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton waited.</p> + +<p>"No beaten trail," Barnes said reminiscently, "means where stunted +willows emphasize by their starved and shivering appearance the nearness +of the timber; where the snow-drifts, each with its little feather of +drifting snow sheering from its crest, are heaped high; where the snow +underfoot is unbroken; where under snow-filled skies a wind studded +with needle-sharp ice crystals blows a perfect gale; where the lonely +and frozen desolation is peopled only by the haunting shape of fear that +next morning a wan and feeble sun may find you staggering still blindly +on, hopelessly lost, or fallen beside a drift where the winter's snows +must melt before your fate is known."</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly and went on with his schedule. Hamilton worked on in +silence. Presently, as though there had been no pause, Barnes resumed +his quotation from the supervisor's report:</p> + +<p>"'Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails, and the fact that the +snow lies so loosely on the ground like so much salt, no matter what its +depth may be, it was necessary through all their work to snow-shoe ahead +of the dog-teams. When one considers their isolation,—often traveling +for days without other shelter than a tent and fur robes—it can be +understood what sacrifices some of these men made to visit far-away +prospectors' cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part +of the country ever considers that there is any hardship, unless there +is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, +though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.'"</p> + +<p>He tossed over the report to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Look it over," he said. "I tell you there's some stirring stuff in +that, and just the bald reports of the enumerators' trips leave the +stories of explorers in the shade."</p> + +<p>The boy took up the report as he was bidden, and read it with avidity. +Presently, upon a boyish exclamation, the other spoke:</p> + +<p>"What's that one you've struck?"</p> + +<p>"It's the enumerator from the district of Chandler," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead and read it aloud," Barnes said, "I can go on with these +schedules just as well while you do."</p> + +<p>"'At no time after he left Fairbanks,'" read the boy, "'did the +thermometer get above 30 degrees below zero. His long journey away from +a base of supplies made it impossible for him to carry a sufficient +supply of grub, and he was obliged to live off the country, killing +moose, mountain sheep, and other fresh meat. He froze portions of his +face several times, and on one occasion dropped into six feet of open +water, nearly losing his life in consequence.'"</p> + +<p>"That would be fearful," said Barnes, "unless he could pitch camp right +there, put up a tent, build a fire, and change into dry clothing."</p> + +<p>"There seems to have been mighty little wood for that up there," +Hamilton remarked, "because, speaking of this same enumerator, the +supervisor says, further on, 'In crossing the Arctic Range and in +returning he traveled above timber line eighteen hours in both +directions, which, in a country where fire is a necessity, can be +understood is a very considerable sacrifice. He traveled in many places +where a white man had never been before, and as there are no beaten +trails or government roads in the district anywhere, he was obliged, +everywhere, to snow-shoe ahead of his team to beat down a trail.'"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever snow-shoe?" asked Barnes abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Once," answered Hamilton, "when I went to Canada to visit some cousins; +they had a snow-shoe tramp and insisted on my coming along. But I was +stiff for a week."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the editor, "when you try to break trail and have to keep +ahead of a dog-team coming along at a fair clip, it's just about the +hardest kind of work there is."</p> + +<p>"They all seem to have had their own troubles," said Hamilton, who had +been glancing down the pages of the report: "here's the next chap, who +got caught in a blizzard while accompanying the mail carrier, and if it +hadn't been for the fact that the people of the nearest settlement knew +that the mail carrier was expected on that day and sent out a rescue +party to search for him, neither of the two men would ever have been +found, and the census would have lost a man."</p> + +<p>"That was up in the Tanana region, wasn't it?" queried Barnes, but +without looking up from his work.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the boy, "and from all accounts that must be a wild part +of the country. Speaking of that same enumerator, the supervisor says: +'That this agent survived the work during the stormy period and came +back alive was the wonder of the older inhabitants of the country. No +less than four times this man was found by other travelers in an +exhausted condition, not far from complete collapse, and assisted to a +stopping place. He lost three dogs, and suffered terribly himself from +frost-bite. In the same district, during the same time, eight persons +were frozen to death, six men and two women.' There's quite a story +here, too, telling how he himself rescued a couple of trappers in the +last stages of hunger, exposure, and exhaustion."</p> + +<p>"It's fearful to think of," the other commented; "just imagine those +agonizing journeys in the teeth of an Arctic wind, traveling over +hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness to get less than one-tenth as +many people as a city enumerator would find in one block!"</p> + +<p>"But why do it in winter?" asked Hamilton. "It's hot up there in summer, +I've heard, and driving in the warm weather is pleasant enough; there's +no hardship in that!"</p> + +<p>"You can't drive where there are no roads, and you can't ride where +there are no horses. Then the time available is short."</p> + +<p>"Why is it so short?"</p> + +<p>"You haven't a railroad going to every point in Alaska," Barnes pointed +out, "there's usually a trip of several hundred miles before you get to +the place from which to start. And when are you going to make that +journey?"</p> + +<p>"In the spring," Hamilton said, "as soon as it gets mild."</p> + +<p>"I reckon you don't know much about Alaska," the older man remarked. +"When the snow thaws, the creeks overflow, and the rivers become raging +torrents. You can't ride, and if you walk, how are you going to cross a +swollen river, filled with pieces of ice the size of this room? Those +Alaska rivers are huge bodies of water, many of them, and there are no +bridges."</p> + +<p>"How about boats?"</p> + +<p>"You mean traveling on those ice-filled rivers? It couldn't be done."</p> + +<p>"But as soon as the ice goes out?"</p> + +<p>"That's pretty well into June, to start with, and then you would have to +pole up against the current all the way, and the currents of most of the +rivers are very swift. Did you ever pole a boat up against a swift +mountain river?—I thought not. Suppose, by very hard work, you could +make two or three miles an hour up stream,—at that rate how long would +it take you to go up to the highest settlement? And then you would have +to go all the way down again and ascend the next stream; and even then +more than half the settlements would be on streams and creeks you could +not get to with boats because of falls, of rapids, of long portages, and +things of that kind."</p> + +<p>"I guess they couldn't use a boat," said Hamilton, "but still I don't +see why they couldn't ride!"</p> + +<p>"Ride what? Dogs? Or reindeer? I suppose you mean to take a horse up +there?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I was thinking of," Hamilton admitted.</p> + +<p>"How would you get him up there? Take him in a dog-sled the preceding +winter? You know a horse couldn't travel on the snow like a dog-team. +And if you did get him up to the starting point during the winter, on +what would you feed him? Dried salmon? That's all there is, and while it +makes good enough dog-feed, a horse isn't built that way. There's no +hay-cutting section up there, and your horse would starve to death +before you had a chance to ride him. And even supposing that you could +keep him alive,—I don't believe you could ride him over the tundra +swamps; there is no horse made that could keep his footing on those +marshy tussocks."</p> + +<p>"I see you're right," said Hamilton, "I hadn't thought of all that."</p> + +<p>The older man continued: "There are horses in the towns of southern +Alaska, because, you know, there is one narrow strip that runs a long +way south, and there the weather is not severe. But the north is +another matter entirely. The pay that you would have to offer in order +to lure the men away from the gold-diggings would be enormous. No, it +had to be a winter job, and in the Geography section—where I was last +year—it took us all our time to estimate satisfactory enumeration +districts for Alaska."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-25-t.jpg' width='600' height='438' alt='OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"The Geography section?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I hadn't heard +of that. What is that part of the census work for?"</p> + +<p>"To map out the enumeration districts," his superior explained. "That is +a most important part of the work. You remember that the enumeration +district was supposed to provide exactly a month's work for each man?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Hamilton answered, "I know I had to hustle in order to get mine +done in the month."</p> + +<p>"Supposing," said the other, "that all the people that were on your +schedule had lived in villages close together, would it have taken you +as long to do?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," Hamilton replied, "I could have done it in half the +time. What delayed things was riding from farm to farm, and they were +scattered all over the countryside."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," Barnes continued, "but I suppose you never stopped to think +that the number of people in each district and the nature of the ground +to be covered both had to be considered. Then allowance had to be made +for the enumeration of those not readily accessible, and for such +natural obstacles as unbridged rivers; all these had to be mapped out +and gone over by the Census Bureau before the sections were assigned."</p> + +<p>"No," the boy replied, "I never really stopped to think who it was that +made up all those districts. And, now you come to speak of it, I don't +see how it could have been done without being on the ground."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is evident," the other said, "that it must have been done. It +wouldn't be fair to tell a man to finish a district that represented +seven or eight weeks' work, nor to promise a month's work to a man and +then give him a district that had only two or three weeks' employment. +You couldn't alter the districts afterwards, either, as everything had +to be prepared in Washington for enumeration and tabulation by the +original districts as mapped out."</p> + +<p>"You mean," said Hamilton, "that every square mile of territory in the +United States, the number of people on it, the kind of land it was, the +roads and trails, the distance from the nearest town, the rivers, and +the location of bridges across them, and all that sort of thing had to +be worked out in advance?"</p> + +<p>"Every acre," was the reply, "and the worst of it was that there was +very little to go by. The lists for the last Decennial Census were only +of use in the Eastern districts, for in the West large towns had grown +up that were mere villages then. Whole sections of territory which were +uninhabited ten years ago are thick with farms today and the 'Great +American Desert' of a few years ago is becoming, under irrigation, the +'Great American Garden.'"</p> + +<p>"The Survey maps helped, I should think," said Hamilton. "I have a +friend, Roger Doughty, on the Geological Survey, and he told me all +about the making of the Topographic maps."</p> + +<p>"They helped, of course, but even with those it was hard to work out +some of the queerly shaped districts. The supervisors helped us greatly +after the larger districts had been planned, but the Geography division +had to keep in touch with every detail until the entire country was +divided into proportionately equal sections.</p> + +<p>"And you had to do that for Alaska, as well!"</p> + +<p>"As far as we could. Of course it was difficult to determine routes of +travel there, and to a large extent that had to be left to the +supervisors, but they merely revised our original districting. It took a +lot of figuring in Alaska because of the tremendous travel difficulties +there and the thousands of miles of territory still unsurveyed."</p> + +<p>"I had never realized the need of all that preparatory work," the boy +admitted.</p> + +<p>"There's a great deal of the work that has to be done in the years +before the census and in the years after," he was informed, "and the +Bureau is kept just as busy as it can be, all the while. The Decennial +Census, although it is the biggest part of the census work, is only one +of its many branches, and then there are always other matters being +looked after, like the Quinquennial Census of Manufactures, and such +numberings as those of the Religious Bodies and the Marriage and Divorce +Statistics of a few years ago."</p> + +<p>"I understood the Bureau had regular work all the year round?" Hamilton +said.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it has. All the births and deaths that are registered are +tabulated here, and a number of tables of vital statistics are worked +out which are of immense value to doctors not only in the United States +but all over the world. Then, as I think you know, we have for years +made a special study of cotton crop conditions, and there is a bulletin +published at stated intervals showing the state of the cotton industry +in the United States. Then there is all the statistical work on cities +of over 30,000 inhabitants, and there is scarcely a question which has +reference to the population or the manufacturing interests of the +country that is not referred sooner or later to the Bureau of the +Census."</p> + +<p>"You work with the Forest Service, too, I believe," said Hamilton. +"Wilbur Loyle, a forest ranger whom I knew very well, showed me some +figures that the Bureau had prepared."</p> + +<p>"Only in the collection and publication of statistics of forest +products," said Barnes, rising and changing his office coat,—for the +conversation had run on long after office hours,—"owing to their +co-operation the task is not cumbersome; questions of information or +special statistics asked for by Congress or by the executive departments +take up a great deal of time when added to an already extensive routine +work."</p> + +<p>Editing the schedules of the population of Alaska, just as Hamilton had +expected, proved to be of the most intense interest, since, despite the +closest desire on the part of the enumerators to confine themselves +strictly to official facts, the wildness of the frontier life would +creep in. An example of this was the listing of an Eskimo girl on the +schedule as having "Sun" and "Sea" for her parents with an explanatory +note to the effect that she had been found as a tiny girl upon a heap of +sea moss on the beach. Another was when an enumerator wrote on his +schedule under 'language spoken,' "Some pesky lingo; I know most of +their talk, but this was too much for me and the hut was too strong to +stay in long."</p> + +<p>Such comments made it easy to create a picture of the semi-savagery of +the fur-clad fishers on the shores of the Arctic Sea.</p> + +<p>Another schedule, one which interested the boy greatly, was that in +which the age of an Indian was described as "200 snows." To try to get +this worked out to the probably true age of 80 or 90 years evidently had +been quite a task. The enumerator wrote:</p> + +<p>"This Indian ain't 200 years old. He says he's 200 snows, but I can't +quite figure it out. He says he was 20 snows when he got first woman, +kept her 4 snows, then she go away! He complained that 'he had no +women 4 suns and catch no women 4 snows.' He 'got more woman, keep her 5 +snows, then she eat cold (frozen to death). Got no woman 20 snows, she +good woman.' He could not give any clue about his children only that +'his chickens 30 to 45 snows!' They reckon here only from what they can +remember, so this buck is probably counting from about ten years old. +That would make him thirty when he first got a wife, thirty-four when +she died, thirty-eight when he got his next wife, and forty-three when +she died. Counting his oldest child at 45 this would make him about +seventy-five. Where the '200 snows' comes in, I don't see."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-26-t.jpg' width='624' height='400' alt='THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>A great treat to the boy came, however, when one of the enumerators from +the Second District of Alaska, who had been summoned East in the spring +on business concerning some property with which he was associated, and +had come as soon as the break-up permitted travel, dropped into the +Census Bureau. He made himself known to the Director, and the latter, +always ready to show attention and being really proud of the Census +Bureau staff, arranged to have him shown around the building. The +Alaskan was a small fellow, hard as nails, given to stretches of +silence, but with a ready, infectious laugh and the ability to tell a +good yarn after he got started. Presently, just before quitting time, he +reached the desk where Barnes and Hamilton were editing schedules.</p> + +<p>"This ought to interest you," said the Bureau official who was showing +him around, "these men are just going over the Alaskan schedules before +sending them to the machines to be punched and tabulated."</p> + +<p>Looking interested, the man bent forward and, with a muttered word of +apology, picked up the schedule on which Hamilton was working at the +time. "This must be one o' mine!" he said, with an air of surprise.</p> + +<p>"But that is marked, 'Copy'!" said Hamilton "I was just wondering where +the original was."</p> + +<p>"I'm willin' to gamble quite a stack, son," was the surprising reply, +"that you'd have been wonderin' a whole lot more if the original had +come down to you."</p> + +<p>"Why, how's that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I reckon I c'n handle dogs better'n I can a pen," he said, "an' +when you come to try an' write one o' these schedules on scraps o' dried +skin you c'n count it sure's shootin' there's some decipherin' got to +be done."</p> + +<p>Barnes looked at the official who was showing the Alaskan 'round the +building, and knowing him very well, he said to the visitor, "Spin us +the yarn; I've been up there and I'd like to hear it myself, and I know +the lad is just wild to hear it."</p> + +<p>"I want to be a part of that audience, too," said the official, with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to hold up the job!" the visitor suggested hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," his conductor answered. "Here we are all waiting, and it's +nearly half-past four anyway."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, it was up in the Noatak Pass—" he was beginning, when +Hamilton stopped him.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to interrupt, right at the start," he said, "but where is +that pass?"</p> + +<p>"I should have told you," said the miner goodhumoredly, "it's the pass +between the Endicott an' the Baird ranges, at the extreme northern end +of the Rockies. I hated to go through it, an' I wouldn't have, most +times, not unless there was a mighty big pull to get me over there, but +I had promised to count every one in my district, an' so, of course, +there was nothin' else to do but go, even though I knew there was no one +on the other side but a bunch of Eskimos. Well, we were halfway up the +pass when the Indian guide stopped the dogs an' listened. It was just +about noon an' the travelin' was good, so that, wantin' to make time, I +got good an' mad at the stop. Knowin' my Indian, I kep' quiet just the +same, always bein' willin' to bet on an Indian bein' right on the trail. +First off, I could notice nothin', then, when I threw back my parka hood +I could hear a boomin' in the air as though some one was beatin' a gong, +miles and miles away. It was so steady a sound that after you had once +heard it for a while you wouldn't notice it, an' you would have to +listen again real hard to see if it was still goin' on."</p> + +<p>"Like distant thunder?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. It was high, like a gong, an' it wasn't any too good to +hear. The dogs knew it, too, for though we had been stopped nearly five +minutes none of them had started to fight."</p> + +<p>"Do dogs fight every time they stop?"</p> + +<p>"Just about. They try to, anyway. In the traces, of course, they can't +do much but snap an' snarl, but that they're always doin'. This time, +however, all save one or two of them stood upright sniffin' uneasily.</p> + +<p>"'Wind?' I asked the Indian.</p> + +<p>"'Heap wind!' he answered. 'Go back?'</p> + +<p>"Now you may lay ten to one that when an Indian is the first to suggest +goin' back, trouble with a big 'T' is right handy. I reckon that was the +first time I ever did hear an Indian propose goin' back. 'Why go back, +Billy?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Heap wind,' he repeated, 'old trail easy.' He pointed ahead, 'No +trail!'"</p> + +<p>"He meant, I suppose," Hamilton interjected, "that if you doubled on +your tracks the trail would have been broken before, and it would be +easy going."</p> + +<p>"That's the bull's-eye, and if a storm did come up we'd have a trail to +follow and not get lost."</p> + +<p>"Did you go back?"</p> + +<p>"I did not. I figured that while we were about a day's journey to a +settlement either way, we were perhaps an hour nearer where we were +goin' than where we had come from, an' that perhaps the storm would hold +off long enough for us to make it. Those storms last for days, +sometimes, an' we'd have the trip to make anyway, even if we did go +back. Besides, I didn't want to lose the time. 'No, Billy,' I called to +the Siwash, 'go on!'</p> + +<p>"I was sorry the minute I said it, because I knew the Siwash thought me +wrong, although, bein' an Indian, of course he never showed a sign. He +started up the dogs without a word. I knew he thought it reckless and +dangerous, but tortures wouldn't have made him say so. In half an hour's +time, I began to be sure he was right."</p> + +<p>"Did the storm strike as soon as that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"No. If it had, I think I should have gone back. But at the end of that +half-hour, we topped a rise that gave a view of the country ahead an' +showed it to be broken an' bad travelin'. I shouldn't have liked the +look of it at any time, but with a storm brewin' an' the Indian wantin' +to go back, it sure did look ugly. But the faint roarin' of the distant +storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the +wind no higher,—an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' +plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast +lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like +a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was +behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An +hour went by, an' I was just beginnin' to think that we would be able to +cover the greater part of the distance, when a huge white shape rose +from the snow near by, passed in front of the sledge, and disappeared. +I've been scared once in my life. This was that once."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" asked Hamilton breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"I watched," the Alaskan continued, "an' presently about a hundred yards +away, an' a little to the right of the sled, the snow began to move. I +couldn't feel a breath of wind. But the snow seemed to writhe an' stir +as though some monster from the Arctic night was wakin' from his winter +sleep, an' a wisp of snow hurled upwards; then, with a heave the snow +crust broke an' fell apart an' a column of snow shot up like a geyser +swirlin' into a pillar a hundred feet high.</p> + +<p>"A moment it stood; then swayed over an' begun to move slowly at first, +but gatherin' speed every second, noiselessly, save for a sound like the +indrawin' of a breath and a faint crackin' as the hard snow crust +shivered into atoms where it struck. Aimlessly, yet seemin' to have a +hidden purpose as though wreathin' the figures of some Boreal dance, it +come near us and fell back; moved away an' threatened again; then swept +upon us till its icy breathin' gripped our throats, an' our hearts stood +still.</p> + +<p>"An' in the silence, one dog whined.</p> + +<p>"Behind the sled there stirred the snow anew, an' in a moment or two +another column threw itself at the sky, and behind us an' around, other +of these columns rose an' moved like spectral dancers under the +slate-green clouds of the snow-filled sky. No wind, no sound but the +lone leader of the team howlin' in utter fear."</p> + +<p>"A dancing blizzard!" said Barnes, in an awed tone, under his breath.</p> + +<p>"If there had been anythin' to do, it would have been easier," the +Alaskan continued, "but to move was not more dangerous than to stay +still. In answer to a sign, the Indian started up the dogs again, an' we +went on, though the road ahead looked like the ice-forest of a +disordered dream. Presently, without a moment's warnin' one of the huge +snow pillars came rushin' straight at us, an' I braced myself by the +sledge to hold to it if I could, but it swerved before it reached us an' +ran along beside the trail. About fifty feet ahead it swerved again and +cut across the trail, an' the extreme edge caught the Indian, picked +him up in the air, an' threw him at least thirty feet."</p> + +<p>"Was he hurt?" cried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit, for there was nothin' to fall on but snow. He picked himself +up, looked carefully at his snow-shoes to see that they had not been +damaged, an' resumed his place at the head of the dogs. What would have +become of him if he had been plucked into the middle of the whirlwind is +hard to say. I wouldn't have counted on seein' him again anyway."</p> + +<p>"But you never really got caught by any?"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't be here talkin', if I had," was the reply. "But when we come +to the track of that whirlwind column, it was a puzzle how to get +across. The column, goin' like a railroad train, had cut a gully in the +hard snow full ten feet deep,—the sides as clean cut as though done +with a knife, or rather with a scoop, because the edge was slightly +scolloped all the way along."</p> + +<p>"How did you get across?"</p> + +<p>"Axes," was the brief reply. "We cut through the snow crust and beat +down a steep path on both sides of the gully an' made the dogs take it. +Dog harness is strong, but I was afraid of the strain on it that time."</p> + +<p>"How long did the blizzard last?"</p> + +<p>"You mean the whirlwinds?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"Not very long,—quarter of an hour, perhaps. Then I felt a slight +breeze, an' at the same moment the columns, bendin' their heads like +grass before the wind, swept to the right of us, an' were out of sight +in a moment. The Indian yelled and pointed to the left, throwin' himself +on the ground as he did so."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" cried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"It looked like a solid wall of snow, an' before I realized it was +comin', the storm struck, hurled me to the ground, an' rolled me over +an' over in the snow. I wasn't hurt, of course, but it took me so long +to get my breath that I thought it was never goin' to come, an' that I +should suffocate. But after that first burst, the blizzard settled down +to the regular variety, an' we all felt more at home. But even at that, +it was the worst one I ever saw in the North, an' I've been there nine +winters."</p> + +<p>"What did you do? Go back?"</p> + +<p>"No use tryin' to go back," the traveler said, "because those whirlwinds +had cut gullies across the snow in every direction so that our old trail +was no use to us. We went ahead a bit, as far as we could, but soon +realized that there was nothin' to do but camp right where we were an' +wait for the blizzard to blow over. Usually two days is enough for the +average storm to let up a little, but it was not until the third day +that there was any chance of startin', an' even then it was almost as +bad as could be for travel. But I had to make a start then."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Hamilton, who always wanted to know the details of +everything.</p> + +<p>"Because we were runnin' short of dog-feed, an' you can't let your dogs +die of hunger, for then you can't get anywhere. But the blizzard had +drifted everything an' was still driftin', so that the snow was hard in +some places and soft in others; the travelin' was almost impossible, an' +you couldn't see twenty yards ahead. Then while the blizzard had filled +the gullies made by the whirlwinds, the snow in them was not packed down +as hard as the rest of the surface, an' dogs an' sled an' Indian an' +myself would all go flounderin' into the drift, an' it would be a tough +pull to get the sled out again.—That was a hard trip.</p> + +<p>"The worst of it came when, without a bit of warnin', without our even +knowin' where we were, the hard crust of the snow gave way beneath us, +an' the sled, the dogs, and myself fell headlong down a slope an' into a +stream of runnin' water, the sled upside down, of course."</p> + +<p>"How about the Indian?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"He saved himself from goin' into the water, an' it was a good thing +that he did, for he was able to help in pullin' us out. But, from one +point of view, the accident was a help, for it told the Indian just +where we were. There was only one stream of that size in that +neighborhood, an' until we found it, we were hopelessly lost. But from +that time we knew that the settlement we were headin' for was straight +up the stream, an' all we had to do was to follow it. But it was a race +for life, in order to get to camp before frozen clothin' and various +frostbites crippled me entirely."</p> + +<p>"But how about the dogs?" queried Hamilton. "I should think it would be +worse for them than for you."</p> + +<p>The Alaskan shook his head.</p> + +<p>"A 'husky' can stand just about anythin' in the way of cold," he said, +"an' my leaders 'Tussle' and 'Bully' were a couple of wonders. Only one +of the dogs gave out. Well, we made the camp finally, pretty well done +up all round. The worst of it was, that when we come to unpack the +sled—we did it with an ax because everythin' was frozen solid—the +census pouch was missin'. Luckily there was no past work in it,—only +blank schedules, information papers, an' things of that sort. So I made +up the schedules on odd bits of paper and skins, as I told you, an' the +supervisor copied them on the schedule to send in, an' that schedule you +have in your hand is the copy of those very pieces of skin."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-27-t.jpg' width='900' height='543' alt='CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton glanced at the paper with redoubled interest.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was no use trying to get the pouch back," he said.</p> + +<p>"I didn't think it would be," the Alaskan replied "but I tried to reach +the place where the sled had been overturned, an' each time the weather +drove me back. On the third day I got a chance to go with some Eskimos +with reindeer to a little settlement about twenty miles off, an' so I +went along and got the names there, comin' back on a reindeer sled. +That's the only time I ever felt like Santa Claus. I'm sure I don't look +it."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-28-t.jpg' width='800' height='504' alt='TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton looked at his spare figure and laughed.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "I don't think an artist would be likely to pick you for +the part. How did you like the reindeer, though? I've always wondered +that they didn't use them more in Alaska. The government keeps a herd, +doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," was the reply, "but that is more for fresh meat than for travel. +A good reindeer is a cracker-jack of an animal when he wants to be, but +when he takes a streak to quit, it doesn't matter where it is or what +you do to him, he won't go another step. A balky mule is an angel of +meekness beside a reindeer. You can always make a mule see what you want +him to do—although the odds are that he won't do it even then—but when +a reindeer gets stubborn,—why, he just can't be made to understand +anythin'!"</p> + +<p>"Yet I've read that they use them a good deal in Lapland!" said the boy +in surprise.</p> + +<p>"They have domesticated them more thoroughly, I guess," the Northerner +replied. "In time they may be worked up here in the same way, and when +you consider how short a time the government has had to do what is +already accomplished, it seems to me the result is wonderful. Of course, +so far as traffic is concerned there are dogs enough, and they do the +work in mighty good shape."</p> + +<p>"How did you work back from the settlement which you had got to with +such difficulty?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"I came back another way, in order to take in a little group of houses +on a small pay-creek," was the reply. "But it was comin' back from that +trip, on the Koatak River, that I had quite a time, although I was not +the sufferer. We had been havin' a hard spell of weather, but there come +a week when conditions on the trail were much better an' we were reelin' +off the miles in great shape. I hadn't a place on my map for about sixty +miles, when in the distance I saw a little hut, just in the fringe of +some stunted cottonwoods and some scraggy willows, for we were not far +from the timber limit.</p> + +<p>"'Billy,' I called to the Indian, 'ever see that hut before?'</p> + +<p>"The Indian shook his head, but knowin' that I wanted to see an' count +everybody in the district, he turned off the trail—he said it was a +trail but I couldn't see it—an' led the way to the hut. I went in an' +found a man lying on a couple of planks, just about dead. He was one of +the survivors of the wrecked steamer <i>Filarleon</i>, and had frozen all +the fingers of both hands. Two or three were turnin' gangrenous; an' one +of these had got so bad that with his other crippled hand, he had sawed +off the decomposin' member with his pocket-knife. One foot also was +frozen an' had turned black, but that afterwards recovered."</p> + +<p>"What did you do for him?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Put him on the sled, of course," the Alaskan answered, "an' took him to +the nearest settlement. I afterwards heard that a doctor happened in to +camp soon after I left, an' got at his hurts right away, an' that he was +put back into fair condition all but the one finger.—That's no +tenderfoot's country up there."</p> + +<p>"I wonder you stuck it out," said Hamilton. "But then," he added a +moment later, "I can see how a fellow would hate to quit."</p> + +<p>"It was tough," reluctantly admitted the narrator, "an' I'll tell you +what I did. I'm not much of a hand with the pen, but right in the middle +of the work I found a man who was goin' down the river, an' I sat down +and wrote a long letter to the supervisor. It was about as plaintive a +thing as I ever read. I had no reason to expect an answer, but by chance +another party was comin' up that way, an' some weeks later I received a +reply. What do you suppose he said!"</p> + +<p>"I haven't the least idea," answered the boy.</p> + +<p>"His answer read just this way:</p> + +<p>"'I chose you because you were experienced in the treeless coast. Go to +it. We are expecting you to make good.'"</p> + +<p>"And," Hamilton said, his eyes shining, "I'll bet you did!"</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The sidelights that Hamilton had received on the Alaskan enumeration had +given him a greater zest for census work than ever, and he devoted not a +little of his spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. +Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when +he reached home, he worked out the route of the enumerator whose +schedules he had edited during that day's work. He had secured the big +geological reconnaissance map of Alaska for the purpose. Consequently, +it was with a sense of regret that he faced the day when the last of the +Alaskan schedules had been edited.</p> + +<p>"What next, I wonder, Mr. Barnes?" said Hamilton, laying down his pen +and glancing round to his companion. "How about Porto Rico? They had a +census this spring, too, didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"I imagine the Porto Rico work is about done," his friend replied, "at +least I know that most of it came in some weeks ago. How are you on +Spanish?"</p> + +<p>"I can read it all right," Hamilton answered, "although I don't write +particularly well. But are the schedules all in Spanish?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said the other.</p> + +<p>"I don't think simple Spanish would bother me at all," Hamilton replied. +"I knew a chap who was going to the Philippines and he wanted some one +to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to +keep him company, I hammered at it too. But, after a bit, he joined a +class, so I dropped out, although I did study once in a while so as not +to forget it altogether."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you suggest that you know Spanish," remarked Barnes, "and +perhaps you'll get the chance."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when a little later, the final copy on the Alaskan +schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto Rican work, +and ventured his slight familiarity with Spanish.</p> + +<p>"We have several translators," replied the chief, "but still, I suppose +Mr. Alavero can make you useful. I'll let you know later on."</p> + +<p>In a few moments he returned and beckoned to the boy, who followed him, +with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of the Alaskan +schedules with whom he had enjoyed working greatly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Alavero," the official said, introducing Hamilton, "this is Noble. +I don't know what his Spanish is like, but I think he may be of some use +to you in getting out the manufactures statistics, as he did some work +along that line early in the year and has been with the census ever +since."</p> + +<p>The editor smiled affably at the boy and shook hands with heartiness.</p> + +<p>"The schedule work is all done," he said, "but it will take some time +preparing the report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because +there is so much American capital invested in Porto Rico that a detailed +analysis will be of value."</p> + +<p>"It is real editorial work, then!" Hamilton said, with a note of +pleasure in his voice.</p> + +<p>"I think," said the chief dryly, "that Mr. Alavero will do the editorial +work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you are to assist him in +preparing tables and matters of that kind."</p> + +<p>But no sooner had the Bureau official gone than the Porto Rican came +forward.</p> + +<p>"If you like," he said, "we'll try to arrange some part of the work that +you can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will +be 'real' editorial work, and you'll be able to see your own writing in +print."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked him fervently, and from that day on would have done +anything for his new superior.</p> + +<p>"This is a considerable change, Mr. Alavero," said Hamilton the +following morning, when he found himself at a table littered with maps +and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with +reports and circulars containing pictures of the sub-tropical landscapes +and towns of Porto Rico. "I have been doing nothing but Alaska for a +month past."</p> + +<p>"Too cold!" the Porto Rican cried, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I was +in Washington this last winter and I thought I should die of freezing."</p> + +<p>"You are from Porto Rico yourself, Mr. Alavero?"</p> + +<p>"I was never away from the island at all," was the reply, "never even on +a steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to +show the people in your Congress that the coffee growers of Porto Rico +need help."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Porto Rican coffee is the finest in the world," the editor answered +with a graphic gesture, "and when Porto Rico was Spanish we could sell +in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United +States includes us, and our coffee is taxed so that we cannot sell it. +And the American market is satisfied with Brazilian coffee, which is of +a cheaper grade."</p> + +<p>"Is coffee the principal crop down there?" queried the boy. "I notice +that nearly half these papers and books deal with coffee plantations."</p> + +<p>"It is still, but not as it once was," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar +and tobacco are the other big crops."</p> + +<p>"Coffee is easy to grow, isn't it?" asked the boy. "It doesn't want all +the attention that cotton does?"</p> + +<p>"After a grove is well-established, no, though we prune a great deal; +but sugar, yes. That's not such an obstacle though. There is plenty of +labor on the island."</p> + +<p>"Isn't the bulk of the island colored?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, no," answered the Porto Rican, shaking his finger in emphatic +denial, "more than three-fifths are pure white, a much smaller +proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The +negroes were slaves, but Spain freed them in 1873. There was no war." He +smiled. "We are a most peaceful people."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-29-t.jpg' width='400' height='612' alt='GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(Courtesy of the Department of War.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(Courtesy of the Department of War.)</p></div> + +<p>"Not like our other accession from Spain," Hamilton commented. "I mean +the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it +seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them."</p> + +<p>"Wild? You do not know the half!" said the excitable little editor, who, +despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his +explanations was busily working with diagrams the while. "You know there +was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't until this morning," the boy answered "but as I see that most +of these tables are compared with that year it is evident that there +must have been."</p> + +<p>"There was a census," the editor went on, after a pause during which he +had been working over a column of figures, "and my uncle was a +supervisor. Mr. Gatten—you know him?"</p> + +<p>"Only by name," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in +the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, +because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? +You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, +because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the +census began."</p> + +<p>"Did any one get killed by hostile natives?" asked Hamilton, scenting a +story.</p> + +<p>"Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But"—and he waggled a +finger warningly—"there were plenty of places where the census was only +estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even +with the soldiers taking the census and going with other census men, it +was very risky among the uncivilized tribes."</p> + +<p>"They are really wild?" said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those +jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies."</p> + +<p>"Pygmies!" exclaimed Hamilton in surprise. "I didn't know that the Stars +and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in +Africa!"</p> + +<p>"The Negritos are pygmies," answered the editor, "seldom over four feet +ten inches for the man and the woman two or three inches shorter; they +use their toes like fingers, they wear only a loin-cloth, their hair is +fuzzy like a black bush, and they seldom use fire, even for cooking."</p> + +<p>"How do they live?" asked Hamilton. "We have got used to thinking of the +Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem +outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" was the answer. "A few have rough huts, but most of them +wander in the forests."</p> + +<p>"But where do they sleep?"</p> + +<p>"On the ground."</p> + +<p>"I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts," the boy remarked.</p> + +<p>"There are very few in the Philippines," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"How about snakes, then?" queried the lad.</p> + +<p>"They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely +ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping +man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as +possible."</p> + +<p>"Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and +swallow a man."</p> + +<p>"He could, but he doesn't," the Porto Rican pointed out; "rabbits are +more his size, or a young fawn. The Negritos are safe enough, as far as +that goes."</p> + +<p>"What do they live on?"</p> + +<p>"Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all +they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as +straight as you could shoot a bullet."</p> + +<p>"We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers," suggested +Hamilton with a grin. "But it really must have been an awful job +enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!—No thank you, +I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the reply, "the Negrito is dying out, just as the aboriginal +tribes all over the world are doing. There are only about twenty-three +thousand of the Pygmies left now."</p> + +<p>"But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?" queried the +boy.</p> + +<p>"Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types +of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The +aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as +any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, +and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of +the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are +Malays."</p> + +<p>"Even the head-hunters?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,—apparently of two +periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long +time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts +themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so +forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and +some,—like the Ilongots—to this day carry out the savage custom that +'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his +bride with a human head.'"</p> + +<p>"That is certainly savage," Hamilton agreed; "one never thinks that sort +of thing can be going on still, and certainly not under the American +flag!"</p> + +<p>"It is, though," the Porto Rican replied. "The third group," he +continued, "the Moros and so forth, are all Mohammedans, and they seem +to have come to the islands after the semi-civilization of the Malay +archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty +and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to +the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the Moros drove the +Igorots. They are largely pure Malay, warlike and cruel, but shrewd and +capable of culture. They assume an over-lordship over all other tribes +and their Dattos can generally enforce it."</p> + +<p>"It seems strange," the boy said, "to think of going among those savages +and asking them the same questions that United States citizens were +asked, writing the answers on the same kind of schedules, and counting +these ferocious head-hunters on a tabulating machine."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the editor reminded him, "the Philippine census last time +was taken by the War Department, although the Bureau is even now +considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it +have to take the next Philippine census, as it probably will. But while +it was primitive, the work wasn't so very different. They were able to +use advance schedules, for example."</p> + +<p>The boy stared, and his informant laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"They were a little different," he explained, "and it was during the +enumeration of the Igorots and similar tribes. It was soon found that +they could count up to ten but no further. A certain number of them +could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was +sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these +sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he had. +In some of the villages so my uncle told me, the supervisor had a +branding iron made with which he had branded on the tally sticks the +figure of a pig, or a house, or a chicken or whatever it might be."</p> + +<p>"That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the +way of census-taking," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country +negro farmers were barbaric—especially when I came across some +voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant."</p> + +<p>"There's just as much savagery—of a kind—right in the heart of +civilization," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are +little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to +remember it."</p> + +<p>"Why should I remember it especially?" asked Hamilton in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that +he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports +of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you +along, if the Director was willing."</p> + +<p>"You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work."</p> + +<p>"That would be just splendid," said Hamilton, his eyes shining, "but how +about the Porto Rican report, Mr. Alavero?"</p> + +<p>"I think I can manage it," the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a +smile, "and the chapter that you were working on is nearly done, isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I can finish it in a couple of days."</p> + +<p>"That will be in plenty of time," the editor assured him. "I don't think +Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week."</p> + +<p>Before many days had passed Hamilton found the correctness of the Porto +Rican's information, for as he was busily engaged in compiling a big +tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of +the provinces of the island, his friend the special agent of +manufactures, under whom he had been at New Haven, strolled into the +office.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Burns," the boy said delightedly, jumping up and shaking +hands, "I haven't seen you for ever so long."</p> + +<p>"I haven't been in Washington more than twenty-two per cent of the +time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the eleven-fifty next +Tuesday evening. Do you want to come along?"</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"The Director said, if you wanted to come, I could take you."</p> + +<p>"Where are we going, Mr. Burns?"</p> + +<p>"New York."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Seems to me, Alavero," said the Inspector, turning to the Porto Rican, +"that you've been teaching this lad to ask questions. Out of the four +remarks he has made since I came in, two have been questions. Fifty per +cent is a high average. Well, I'll tell you," he added, turning to the +boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied +with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand +inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, +decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of these the +Bureau investigates. Perhaps ten or a dozen in the entire country get a +recount. The Bureau doesn't officially recognize some of them but sends +an inspector to look over the ground, and see if everything was done +right. That's what we're going to do in New York."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hamilton briefly.</p> + +<p>"You'll be on that train?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Burns," the boy answered. "Eleven-fifty P.M., Tuesday."</p> + +<p>The opportunity was one which Hamilton had been coveting, for he felt +that if he only had a chance to get at the city methods he would have +covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial +Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, still +the novelty appealed to him greatly, and in spite of his former chief's +mathematical conversation, Hamilton was genuinely fond of him.</p> + +<p>"I've been wondering, Mr. Burns," the boy said, as they stood in the +great concourse of the Union Station at Washington, "whether there would +not be a very large number of protests about census figures,—people +always seem to have such an exaggerated idea of the size of their own +towns."</p> + +<p>"There is to some extent," Burns replied. "I think something like a +hundred places filed protests in this last census."</p> + +<p>"Then I read something, too, about census frauds," Hamilton said, "soon +after the taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some +enumerators—who were paid per capita—had bolstered up the figures in +order to get more out of it."</p> + +<p>"There was a little of that," the Inspector said, "but by far the +greatest amount of fraud was due to the desire on the part of the +inhabitants of a town or city to make the place appear larger and more +important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, +why, they padded 32,527 names there, and even when the Census had made a +recount they tried to repeat the same performance, complaining of the +results and demanding a second recount."</p> + +<p>"Was this granted?"</p> + +<p>"It was," the Inspector replied, "largely in order that the Census +Bureau itself might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its +methods. The second recount was performed by expert statisticians and +with extreme care."</p> + +<p>"And how did it come out?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"It substantiated the first recount in every way. It was, indeed, a +wonderful object lesson in showing how small is the margin of error in +the United States Census."</p> + +<p>"But was there really much fraud among the enumerators and supervisors, +Mr. Burns?"</p> + +<p>"With perhaps one exception, no criticism could be made of the +supervisors, but you can't have 70,000 enumerators, chosen for temporary +work, and expect perfection! There was quite a little over-counting, +caused by entering hotel transients as having permanent residences, by +numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant +difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; +where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have been due to +the unauthorized activity of committees of boards of trade or other +commercial organizations, giving lists of names all ready to be copied +on the enumerator's schedule, which the latter did not take the time and +trouble to verify."</p> + +<p>"Then do you think the net result of the census is to make it seem that +there are more people in the country than really are here?"</p> + +<p>"No," the Inspector replied confidently, "the total figures are an +understatement, probably of about one per cent, maybe a little less, but +certainly not much more."</p> + +<p>"I think that's mighty close," Hamilton said. "But do towns never wish +to have small numbers announced?"</p> + +<p>"There was only one case, so far as I know," the other replied, "in +which a Business Men's Association wrote and demanded a recount on the +ground that the figures were too big. The reason was a dispute about +raising city salaries when a certain population mark was reached.</p> + +<p>"And now, Noble," he continued, moving on toward the train platform, "we +want to look into the question of statistics in New York carefully. +Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, and I +know the Director is satisfied, but one or two little matters have come +up, which want looking into."</p> + +<p>Being on a midnight train, Hamilton had no chance for further talk with +the Inspector; but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing +through the great tunnels under the Hudson River, he found himself next +morning among the skyscrapers of New York again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose every one feels the same way about his own town," Hamilton +said, "but it always seems to me that you feel the bigness of things +more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of +time to do everything you want, but New York is just made up of hustle. +You've got to know what you want in this city and you've got to do it in +a hurry, before some one else gets there first."</p> + +<p>"New York certainly is hurried and restless; I can't say I like the +noise and the skyscrapers," replied Burns.</p> + +<p>"But it's great the way those buildings tower up," the boy exclaimed +enthusiastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller +cities look as though they were made for dwarfs, after living in the New +York streets."</p> + +<p>"Yet there are taller buildings, in other places, even in Europe," the +statistician remarked.</p> + +<p>"Spires!" answered the boy, "propped up by buttresses and flying +buttresses and all the rest of it so as to keep them from falling. Look +at those," he added, pointing at the skyscrapers before him, "they're +not afraid to stand by themselves; they mean something, they have a use, +while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of +no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what +people say about those crazy old tumble-down buildings of the Middle +Ages, they may be beautiful and all that, but they're useless nowadays. +The New York skyscraper is the greatest example of architecture in the +world because it best does what it was built to do."</p> + +<p>"You are enthusiastic, Noble," said his friend.</p> + +<p>"I'm a New Yorker all the way through," the lad continued, "and I want +to feel that I'm right in the whirl of things, where there is so much to +do that you can't crowd it into a day, where the fun is at the same +speed as the work. No backwaters for me, I want to be right out in the +center. I don't say that I'm going to win, but I want to be a game sport +and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or +swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, +and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,—right here +in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there +is to it is capital plus brains, and New York is the furnace that melts +them down into that quickness and grip on things we call the American +spirit. Millions from every race of the world come here, and the Statue +of Liberty is the first symbol, and the skyscrapers of lower New York +the first reality they see of the Land of Promise."</p> + +<p>"How about the inside of these great shells of structure?"</p> + +<p>"No such office buildings in the world," the boy answered +enthusiastically. "The salt winds from over three thousand miles of +ocean blow around them; in their steel walls there are lots of windows; +lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the +second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard +that the marble mosaic entrances of the larger of them put the Italian +palaces to shame. I don't know Europe, but I do know New York, and I +believe, Mr. Burns, if you knew it as I do, you'd be as proud of it +too."</p> + +<p>The Inspector looked at the boy quietly.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong," he said soberly, "in thinking that I don't know New +York. To-morrow morning you do a little work in a section of the city in +which you have probably never been, and I think we'll hear less tall +talk. If you could count the tens of thousands of families who live in +rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many +thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till +far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis district nurses +what conditions they find, you might then do a little thinking on your +own account. It's only right you should be proud of New York, but you'd +better see both sides before you are sure of yourself. Now, I suppose +you're going home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Hamilton, a little taken aback by his friend's rebuke.</p> + +<p>"Call at my hotel early to-morrow morning and I'll start you on a +'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharply, the +Inspector swung himself aboard a passing cross-town car.</p> + +<p>Nine o'clock the next morning found Hamilton in one of the worst +districts he had ever seen. Thronged as it was, the boy was sufficiently +conscious of his difference from the people he met to feel +uncomfortable. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out +during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him +verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly +incorrect. This was to be done in a dozen or so districts, and if the +information was found to be adequate, showing that the enumerators' +work had been faithfully done, there would be no need for further +inspection.</p> + +<p>The home manufacture of ostrich feathers first gave Hamilton a clear +insight into poverty. Four or five rooms each occupied by a family of +several persons he entered in one tenement, and in each he found three +or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high +speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted conditions carefully, +and was amazed to find that each of the little strands was wired—he had +always supposed that plumes grew upon the ostrich the way that they are +sold.</p> + +<p>In one such family dejection seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. The +window looked out on a court,—a court that was never cleaned and where +all manner of rubbish was thrown. Although it was morning and a +brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to +work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been +washed for months and diminished still further the little light there +was; a mattress in the opposite corner from a shaky cooking gas-burner +showed that this room was the entire home.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-30-t.jpg' width='600' height='412' alt='TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.</p></div> + +<p>"Where is your husband?" asked the boy, noting on the schedule a man's +name as head of the family.</p> + +<p>"In hospital—perhaps dead. See!"</p> + +<p>The woman pointed to a telegram which had fallen to the floor. Hamilton +picked it up. It read:</p> + +<p>"John Sobieski worse. Come at once," and was signed with the name of one +of the large hospitals.</p> + +<p>"Did you go?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>The woman shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Two hours lost, if I go. No good. Two hours' work means twenty-four +cents. What's the use?"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>"Consumption. I die soon, next year, perhaps. All the children sick."</p> + +<p>The boy looked around at 'all the children.' There were five of them in +that room, and all—even the youngest, a baby four years old—were +knotting the feathers on the plume. The baby could hardly do it, but he +was learning.</p> + +<p>"Many hands make light work," said Hamilton as cheerfully as he could. +"With so many little workers you ought to get along finely."</p> + +<p>"Yes," the woman answered listlessly, "we get along. Some days we make +as much as a dollar!"</p> + +<p>"Each of you?"</p> + +<p>"Do we look so rich? One dollar for everybody. But that is only +sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a little more than five +dollar the week, by working all the time."</p> + +<p>The boy hastily asked the remaining questions on the schedule, found +everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giving a +little help out of his own pocket, he left for the next place.</p> + +<p>On the floor below was a family working on fur, every one of them with +hacking coughs caused by tiny particles of fur in the lungs.</p> + +<p>"We work or we starve," was again the unanswerable explanation.</p> + +<p>In the house next door, embroidering rich cloaks, Hamilton found a +family of which several of the members had a bad infectious skin +disease. Chancing to meet a health inspector soon afterwards he told him +about this family and gave him their address.</p> + +<p>"I can stop it, as far as this family is concerned," the health officer +said, "and I suppose I ought to. But you know what it means, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"It means, if I take their work away, they will starve to death in a +couple of weeks."</p> + +<p>"And if you don't?"</p> + +<p>"If I don't, they'll go on spreading disease. Oh, I'll have to put a +stop to it, of course, but tell me what is going to happen to the +family."</p> + +<p>"They ought to go to a hospital," Hamilton said.</p> + +<p>The health officer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"They are not hospital cases," he said. "None of them need more medical +attention than they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which +they applied would treat them in an Out-Patient department. They would +have to take in more work, or die."</p> + +<p>"But where would they get the work?"</p> + +<p>"Any of these sweatshop jobbers will give it to them. It makes no +difference to the middlemen where the work is done or out of what dens +it comes, as long as it is done cheap."</p> + +<p>"And is all clothing open to the same risk?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>The health inspector shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Cheap clothing is not," he said, "because even the cheapest kind of +labor is more expensive than machinery, and machine-made clothes are +clean. But costly dresses which need hand embroidery are sent to +sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep +thousands of women and children working day and night the year round. +The more elaborate the gown, the longer is it likely to have been in a +tenement that the future wearer would not even allow her dog to enter."</p> + +<p>From house to house Hamilton went, finding misery at every step, with +the single consolation that the schedule showed in almost every case +that the son or the daughter who was working had moved out of the slums, +or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. +Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seemed to have been +dowered with promise, and as Burns had suggested, the sole comfort and +hope for the future lay in the fact that the New York slum is a +one-generation slum.</p> + +<p>It was growing toward noon when Hamilton finished the short list that +the Inspector had given him in that poorest section, and he was glad +when he was able to leave the pressure of the poverty behind him. His +next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew +that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was +enough of the community spirit among the Italians to prevent such +conditions as he had witnessed and enough frugality among them to enable +them to make the best of all they had.</p> + +<p>Feeling that it was time for lunch, the boy hunted around a while for +some restaurant that looked as though it would serve a meal that would +not be too distasteful. After a little search he found a small place +that seemed to be just the thing. The sign board was in Italian and the +list of dishes pasted on the windows was in Italian, but Hamilton's +Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. +At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the +entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind +him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the paper on +which he had been writing, and jumped to his feet so quickly that the +chair on which he had been sitting overturned, and he stumbled as he +stepped back a pace or two. He glared threateningly at the boy, who +apologized for startling him. But it was evident that the man did not +understand a word of English.</p> + +<p>Hearing the clatter the proprietor came out from an inner room, and +seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passionate torrent of +speech, all utterly unintelligible to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I hava told heem," he explained to the boy, "that I not wanta heem in +this-a place at all."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think you would," said Hamilton, "I don't like his looks. +Can I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had +just taken from his pocket, for the boy when alone always read at his +meals.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sair," and the proprietor rattled off a string of dishes +from which the boy made a copious selection, for he was hungry.</p> + +<p>But he noticed that the man who had been sitting at the table had not +left the place but was furtively watching, a few steps away. He was an +ugly-looking customer, and Hamilton, full of grit as he was, felt +uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed +the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a +heavy shadow as though there were a drawing on the other side. His pulse +beat a little faster as an idea came into his mind, but he showed no +sign until the proprietor returned to set the table.</p> + +<p>"I think," he said, watching the stranger carefully as he spoke, "that +gentleman left a paper behind him. Ask him."</p> + +<p>The proprietor, looking much puzzled, put a question in Italian, to +which was evidently returned a sharp denial.</p> + +<p>Still watching him, Hamilton slowly reached out his hand for the paper +which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the book, and turning it +over laid it flat upon the white cloth.</p> + +<p>It was the Black Hand.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-31-t.jpg' width='461' height='600' alt='FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (Brown +Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (Brown +Bros.)</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_X'></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL</h3> +<br /> + +<p>There was a moment's utter silence. The bright little restaurant had +suddenly become charged with mystery, the slinking stranger seemed to +have become in a moment allied to secret powers of evil, and the whole +atmosphere seemed baneful in the sinister significance of that drawing +on the table. A glance at the restaurant-keeper dispelled all question +of complicity. His jaw had fallen, his face was ashen, his lips bluish.</p> + +<p>The other saw his advantage in the terror the mere display had excited, +and stepping forward, he reached out his hand to pick up the paper, +saying in English:</p> + +<p>"Mine!"</p> + +<p>Before the Italian had time to grasp the sketch, Hamilton quietly took +it and folded it in half.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't be so ready to claim it, if I were you," he said, knowing +that the other might not understand the words but could tell the tone.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" queried the restaurant-keeper in a hoarse +whisper. "They will kill-a me!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton thought hard for a moment or two. In the first place the matter +had nothing to do with the Census Bureau, and the boy felt that while he +was on duty in that work and wearing the census badge he was not a +private citizen. Again, it was not a crime to draw a hand on a piece of +paper, and the space obviously left for the blackmail message had not +been filled in, and thirdly he could not swear that he saw him draw the +hand; he only saw the paper in the man's possession.</p> + +<p>"Tell him," he said to the restaurant-keeper, "that I shall say nothing +about it, that I am not a policeman, nor a spy; tell him that so far as +I am concerned I do not know that he had anything to do with it, and +return him the paper."</p> + +<p>And bending forward, he reached out the paper to the Italian, who first +snatched it eagerly, and then, having secured it, made a ceremonious +bow. The proprietor of the restaurant translated the boy's words, and +with a brief reply, which Hamilton rightly construed to be thanks, the +stranger left the store. No sooner was he gone than the restaurateur, +with a word of apology, sank into the nearest chair, fairly exhausted +with fright.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, sair," he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "I +had-a nothing at all to do with that-a man."</p> + +<p>"It's pretty hard to know about these things," said Hamilton, who was +somewhat unnerved himself, "but I don't believe you had. Anyway, there's +no harm done. I've always heard about the Black Hand society, but I +didn't expect to run across it first thing, that way."</p> + +<p>"There is no Black-a Hand society," the Italian said, "at least I do not +think there is."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean there's no Black Hand?" asked Hamilton a little +indignantly, "haven't I just seen it?"</p> + +<p>The Italian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"What were you so scared about, then?" queried the boy impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Mafia," said the other, his lips just shaping the syllables.</p> + +<p>"You mean that the Mafia use the Black Hand?"</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"And that it is the sign of the Mafia?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the restaurant proprietor. "It is this-a way. When the Mafia +was all-a broken up in-a the Sicily, the chiefs come to America. But the +people are so far away it is difficult-a to speak-a to them all. One day +one of the Mafia leaders write a letter threatening to kill. His—what +you call it—nickname was 'Il Mano Nera'—"</p> + +<p>"That means 'The Black Hand,' doesn't it?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"He sign at the bottom with a Black Hand because the man-a to whom he +write, once was member of the Mafia. The police see the letter, a +newspaper print-a big long story about Italian society which have the +Black-a Hand for its sign, and saying that much recent murders was done. +Everybody become-a frightened, and the Mafia and the Camorra right away +both begin-a to use Black Hand. So you see when I say there is no +Black-a Hand society, no chief, no place-a to meet, no meetings, no +plan-a to share money, no oath, it is quite true, but if I say there is +a society which used the Black-a Hand that is true, too. But all I +want-a to do is to be let alone. Now, I will get you your dinner, sair."</p> + +<p>Hamilton felt distinctly uncomfortable in being left alone, not feeling +at all sure that the man who had been there before would not suddenly +dash in upon him unawares and stab him in the back with a stiletto to +make sure of his not talking, nor that the restaurant-keeper might not +put some poison in his coffee. Take it all in all, it was the most +nerve-racking meal he had ever eaten.</p> + +<p>Chatting with the Inspector that evening over his Black Hand experiences +he found that his chief took a very serious view of the question.</p> + +<p>"If we were receiving immigrants from the north of Italy," he said, "it +would be an entirely different matter, but all the Italians who are +coming in now are from the 'toe' and the 'heel' of Italy, and from +Sicily. You see, the north of Italy are really Celts, like the French +and Irish, being descended from the Lombards, but the Sicilians and +Calabrians are a mixture of the old pirates, the Moors, and the +degenerated Latin races that were left when the Roman Empire fell to +pieces. The endeavor to break up the Mafia sent all the leaders of that +nefarious Sicilian society here, and now the attack upon the Neapolitan +Camorra lands another criminal group. Italy has sent us a larger +proportion of criminals than any other country, and under our present +laws, if they have been three years here, they cannot be deported. The +Vincenzo Abadasso case was a good example of the folly of that rule."</p> + +<p>"Who was he?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He was an Italian immigrant who had been arrested twenty-seven times +and convicted twenty-five and who came over here a couple of years ago. +Within a few months of his arrival he was arrested here and sentenced to +three years' imprisonment And now, although he is a professed criminal, +they won't be able to deport him, because when his prison term is up, he +will have been in the United States three years."</p> + +<p>"I suppose there are a lot of Italians coming over now?" said Hamilton +questioningly.</p> + +<p>"A little over three weeks ago," was the reply, "as I heard from a +friend in the Immigration Bureau, there was a funeral in a small village +near Naples and not enough able-bodied civilians could be found in the +place to carry the casket. All of them were in America. There are scores +of towns in southern Italy where all the work—of every kind—is done +now by the women, because the men have emigrated."</p> + +<p>"What do you think about this Black Hand business?"</p> + +<p>"I think your friend the restaurant-keeper was nearly right, only that +it is being used by all sorts of crooks as well, who have no connection +with either the Mafia or the Camorra. Mark you, I think those two secret +societies are apt to be much misrepresented, just as the Jesuits were +during the Middle Ages and the Freemasons were at other periods. The +Camorra was once simply the Tammany Hall of Naples. But when, as +happened last year, there were six hundred and fourteen Black Hand +outrages in two States in four months it is idle to say that it does not +exist in America. The Camorrist trials over the Cuocolo murders at +Viterbo, perhaps the most sensational in the world since the Dreyfus +case, have shown its power to be more dangerous than any one could for a +moment have imagined. And the danger lies here—there are more +Camorrists in New York than in Naples!"</p> + +<p>For a moment the boy looked at the Inspector, astounded.</p> + +<p>"You mean—" he began, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"I mean that the worst elements of the two worst societies in Europe are +concentrating in New York, and that unless rigorous measures are taken +to keep them down, America will harbor graver dangers than any it has +yet known. Russian nihilism, Polish anarchism, German socialism may join +hands with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra to institute a +criminal organization such as the world has never seen before. There are +enough ignorant immigrants to yield to a wave of fear, and the Black +Hand thrives and grows on terror. But, wisely held in check until they +learn, these very Sicilians and Neapolitans bring much that is of value +to the making of an American people."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there couldn't be any real danger!" Hamilton exclaimed. "The spirit +of American institutions would prevent such a happening; that could only +be in some old-world city like Naples. The Camorra comes down from the +Middle Ages, anyway."</p> + +<p>The Inspector shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," he said, "and I only trust you may be right," and he turned +the subject to the actual work in hand.</p> + +<p>It so chanced that the very next day Hamilton had an opportunity of +seeing, in a mild way, how truly the Inspector had spoken with regard to +the alienizing of the crowds in the streets of New York. He had been +working steadily several hours, and early in the afternoon he noticed a +great deal of shouting in the streets. Being curious, and noticing that +numbers of women were hurrying past, gesticulating violently, Hamilton +followed, until almost before he was aware, the crowd grew so dense as +to engulf him, and he was carried along, whether he would or no, up the +street. Some of the women were crying, some shrieking, and all wore a +furtive, strained expression as though in great distress.</p> + +<p>Although there was a great deal of shouting, not a word was in a +language familiar to Hamilton, and although he questioned every one +around him he could find no one that understood his questions. All that +he could gather was from some one in the front of the crowd who kept on +crying out in English at irregular intervals:</p> + +<p>"Our children, we want our children!"</p> + +<p>Even if the boy had desired to break through the crowd to return to his +work he could not have done so, and he really did not wish to,—he was +too much interested in following the purposes of the throng. Finally the +people stopped, but the boy was so far back that he could see nothing of +what was going on at the head of the crowd. Being determined, however, +Hamilton elbowed his way by main force and reached the woman who was +still crying:</p> + +<p>"Our children, we want our children!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton spoke to her, but the woman paid no heed. Finally, seeing that +she would not listen, he shouted at her as harshly as he could. Then she +turned and tried to answer his questions.</p> + +<p>"What's all the row about?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"They rob us. Steal our children. Make them walk far away, never see our +children any more. Oh, my Mario, oh, my Petronilla. Oh, our children, we +want our children!"</p> + +<p>Further information the boy could not get. He worked his way clear to +the front of the mob and saw the police gathering on all sides. Breaking +through the front rank he stepped up to the nearest policeman, who +merely shifted his grip on his night stick.</p> + +<p>"That's quite a mob," he said in a conversational tone.</p> + +<p>"It is that, sorr," said the policeman, recognizing immediately that the +boy was not one of the rioters.</p> + +<p>"I'm a census officer," the boy continued, "and I was doing some +inspection work for the census when I got caught in the crowd. What's +the matter with them?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis a bunch of dummies they are," was the reply; "'tis thinkin' they +are that the schools are goin' to steal their children. As if any one +would be wantin' their brats. The most of us has enough of our own to +keep."</p> + +<p>"But why should the school want to steal their children? Do you mean +that they don't want them to go to school?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis not that, sorr," the Irishman answered, "but 'tis due to some +'fire drill' business. The little ones are taught in the school that +when a bell rings—'tis the fire bell I'm m'anin'—they sh'd all march +out dacintly and in order. 'Tis a good idea, that same, an' I'm favorin' +it. But it's hard to make the children see it, so that they have to +drill them often."</p> + +<p>"That all seems right enough," Hamilton answered.</p> + +<p>"Ye would think so, sorr," continued the policeman "But most of these +mothers come from countries on the other side where they make them +soldiers whether they want to be or not, an' this drillin' business +scares the old folks 'most to death."</p> + +<p>"But if it continues and nothing happens, I don't see why they should go +on being scared. You would think the children had grown used to it."</p> + +<p>"The children! They're not makin' any trouble, it's all the parents."</p> + +<p>"Then what started it?"</p> + +<p>"There was some street corner lecturer here the day before yisterday, +tryin' to teach the people that children were the cause of poverty an' +that the only way to prevent poverty was to get rid of the children, +either by havin' fewer or by shippin' off the existin' surplus."</p> + +<p>"It's silly for them to heed a man like that!"</p> + +<p>"It's worse than silly, sorr," the policeman said. "But even then I +don't believe there would have been trouble. But yisterday, some rich +lady, plannin' to give the children a picnic this afternoon and a treat, +told them they were all goin' out to the country and that they must tell +their mothers they wouldn't be home until late."</p> + +<p>"What about that?" asked the boy. "I should think they would be glad +that the children should have some pleasure. From all I've seen recently +of the way people live in this neighborhood, I don't believe the +children have any too much good times."</p> + +<p>"An' so they should be glad, sorr, but they won't see it that way. They +know the children have been drilled for weeks an' weeks; they know a man +on the street corner said the children ought to be shipped away; an' the +next day they are told that the children are goin' to be taken into the +country, an' they don't believe the children'll ever come back."</p> + +<p>"Surely they can't be as silly as all that! And what do you suppose they +want to do?"</p> + +<p>"They don't know what they want," the policeman answered, "but it's a +bad business when a crowd gathers. Look there now!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked where the man was pointing. On the outskirts of the +crowd the boy noted a number of half-grown toughs, hoodlums, and +trouble-makers generally. The cries were increasing, and the boy could +see that these men were doing all they could to stir up the rest of the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"Where they come from, I don't know," the police officer said, "but any +time that there's a little trouble, they'll make it as big as they can."</p> + +<p>"But the whole thing's so absurd," the boy said. "What do they think +they're going to do,—raid the school?" He laughed.</p> + +<p>The policeman turned on him quickly.</p> + +<p>"'Tis absurd, as ye say, sorr," he said rebukingly "but there's many a +good man been hurt with less cause than this. That crowd's growin' by +thousands. Do you slip away, sorr, I'm afraid there's goin' to be +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Not much," Hamilton answered, "now I'm in this far, I'm going to stay +and see the fun out."</p> + +<p>"Well then, sorr," advised the policeman, "ye'd better slip through the +school gates. Show your census badge, and the other men at the gate will +let ye through."</p> + +<p>Thanking him, Hamilton walked across the narrow stretch of road between +the foremost ranks of the crowd and the little group of policemen +gathered in front of the school entrance. As he did so, a bottle came +whizzing at his head with deadly aim. Fortunately he had been keeping +his head partly turned curiously toward the crowd, and he saw the +missile in time to dodge. It missed him and went hurtling on, just +passing between two policemen and smashing on the iron bars of the +railing.</p> + +<p>"You nearly got hit that time," said one of the policemen, as Hamilton +showed his badge and was let through. "How did you get in with them?"</p> + +<p>"Just doing my work," the boy answered, "and got carried right along. I +was curious at first,—then when I wanted to get out I found I couldn't. +I think," he added, a little nervously, for the flying jagged bottle had +startled him not a little, "that's the first time I've been in front of +a mob."</p> + +<p>"I wish it was the last I'm likely to be," was the reply, "especially a +crowd of women like that. Men you know what to do with."</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose they'll do?" asked the boy. "Try to rush the +school?"</p> + +<p>"They did once not far from here," the policeman answered, "it was a +school on the East Side, where nearly all the children were Jewish, and +in order to make it easier for the poorer children the school +authorities had opened a sort of restaurant where the kids could get +lunch for three cents. The story got abroad that the children were +getting ham and pork, and the whole section rose in arms. We tried to +disperse them and couldn't. There was no way of reasoning with them, +there was nothing they could do, but they just hung around."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Waiting a chance to burn the school down, every one seemed to think. +They did make one rush toward the end of the afternoon, and several +people were wounded. One of our men was badly stabbed, but he got over +it. Watch now," he added, in a sharp voice. "There's something doing!"</p> + +<p>The crowd hushed a moment, and a man's voice could be heard, but whether +pacifying the women or inflaming them, Hamilton could not make out. The +next moment answered him. Without any apparent preparation, the whole +face of the crowd suddenly seemed to burst, the end closed in, and in a +second one of the wildest hordes Hamilton had ever seen was at the +school gates. There was a brief struggle and nightsticks were drawn. The +crowd rolled back, then surged on, more angrily than before. But the +bluecoats stood firm, and when the crowd rolled back the second time a +number showed broken heads.</p> + +<p>"Son," called the police lieutenant, "you scamper along, and tell the +principal to hurry up with letting out the school. I sent him one +message now this means business."</p> + +<p>Hamilton turned and ran for all he was worth toward the building, but +just as he reached there, he saw the children marching in regular order +out of the rear door, and he came back immediately to report. As he did +so he found that the crowd was getting ready to make a third attempt to +attack the police, when, turning the corner, sauntering down the narrow +lane between the crowd and the police, came an Italian boy, about +fourteen years old, with half a dozen other ragged boys at his heels. On +seeing him, the lieutenant turned to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's Caesar," he said, with a sigh of relief. "I've known him for the +past year or two, and he'll settle all this trouble."</p> + +<p>The boy looked at the police lieutenant with surprise. The police force +had had trouble enough, and what could a boy do? He voiced his query.</p> + +<p>"His father's a 'Man of Silence,'" was the reply, "and Caesar himself +knows all there is to know. You'll see."</p> + +<p>Arriving at the center of the crowd, just by the school gate, the boy +turned, and speaking to the nearest officer, said, in English, without a +trace of foreign accent, shrugging his shoulders:</p> + +<p>"Some of them won't ever learn!"</p> + +<p>For a moment he scanned the mob, called the names of two or three men on +the outskirts, and Hamilton could see them wince as this +fourteen-year-old lad named them; then he commenced a speech, which +seemed,—so far as Hamilton could tell—to be ridiculing them for their +fears.</p> + +<p>The crowd relaxed, and for a moment Hamilton thought the whole trouble +was over; but suddenly a man sprang to the front of the rioters, and +gesticulating wildly, answered the boy in what seemed to be a +threatening tone. The young Italian lad heard him through patiently, +then almost without raising his voice, uttered one crisp sentence. The +man turned white to the lips and slunk away.</p> + +<p>"Ask him," said Hamilton to a policeman, "what he said?"</p> + +<p>"I only asked him," the Italian said, "if he wanted me to find out his +name—so that you would know it if you wanted to arrest him of course," +he added, as an afterthought.</p> + +<p>The policeman looked at him and pulled the boy's ear, in fun.</p> + +<p>"Av I knew as much about some things as you do," he said, "they'd make +me chief. Maybe, though," he added, "I wouldn't hold it long. But what +about this, Caesar, is it all over?"</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"See," he said, "they all go!"</p> + +<p>It was as the boy said; Hamilton could see that little by little the +crowd was dispersing and that the members of the boyish gang were going +all through the groups, evidently explaining that the trouble was all +over.</p> + +<p>"Ye see what we're up against," the policeman said to Hamilton. "Here's +a slip of a lad that c'n just make a crowd do what he says because his +father is a leader in the Mafia. There's never any one gives credit +enough to the force for keepin peace, between all these foreigners and +the Chinks; this ain't an American city, it's a racial nightmare."</p> + +<p>"Do the Chinese give much trouble, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not such a great deal usually, but they do once in a while. There's +bloody murder in Chinatown going on now, or going to begin mighty soon. +Three were killed yesterday and the word was given out at Headquarters +this morning that the Tongs were out."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-32-t.jpg' width='600' height='396' alt='THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.</p></div> + +<p>"Have we Tongs in New York?" asked Hamilton. "I've heard all about the +troubles in the West. Before the fire in San Francisco, I know, there +were fifteen organized Tongs of Highbinders, each with its paid band of +'Hatchet Men' for no other purpose than to rule Chinatown. The man who +got up the report for the government told me that 'Frisco Chinatown was +far more under Tong rule and had far more crimes in proportion than any +city in China."</p> + +<p>"There are six strong Tongs in New York that I know about," the +policeman answered, "and I guess there are a lot more. But I reckon it's +the same in 'Frisco as it is here, they keep their killings to +themselves, and they don't let any white men get mixed up in it at all. +That's why you never can tell anything about it. But right now Chinatown +is pretty dangerous, and all the sight-seeing business there has been +shut off. No one is going into Mott and Pell Streets now."</p> + +<p>"Pell Street!" exclaimed the boy. "Is that in Chinatown?"</p> + +<p>"Right in the heart of it," was the reply. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I'm headed there now," Hamilton answered, taking from his +pocket the schedule he had been given by Burns to check up, and showing +it to the officer.</p> + +<p>"That's Chinatown all right," the policeman said, "just look at the +names!"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't looked at it closely," the boy remarked, "why, yes, so it is. +Well, Tong or no Tong, I suppose I've got to chance it, if those are +orders."</p> + +<p>The policeman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Looks to me as though you'd have to wait a while. Take some other +district first and come back next week."</p> + +<p>"Can't," the boy answered. "The Census Inspector and I have to go to +'Frisco to straighten out a Chinese tangle over the census there. The +Chinese refused point-blank to have anything to do with the census, and +there was a heap of trouble."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" asked the policeman, walking along beside Hamilton in the +direction of Chinatown, his beat extending to the limits of that +section.</p> + +<p>"When the rule for the census was issued, so they told me in +Washington," Hamilton answered, "in order to make sure that the Chinese +would not place any obstacles in the way, not only was a copy of the +President's proclamation in Chinese pasted all over the walls of the +city, but, in addition a decree was made by the Chinese consul-general +that it was the wish of the Chinese government that the population in +the city be properly numbered."</p> + +<p>"That was a good idea," said the policeman approvingly.</p> + +<p>"It would have been," said Hamilton, "if the Chinese had paid any +attention to it. Instead of that, some of the Tongs got together and had +a brief threat printed and pasted across the face of the President's +proclamation, as well as that of the consul, that no Chinaman was to +give any information to a census officer, unless he wanted to come under +the displeasure of the Tongs."</p> + +<p>"The nerve of them!"</p> + +<p>"At this," continued the boy, "the consul put out a second order, +sharper than the first, not only commanding obedience, but pointing out +that refusal would lay the person refusing open to fine or imprisonment. +Over these second orders again was pasted the former threat of the +Tongs. A few days later the enumerators, each accompanied by a +policeman, went through Chinatown. The Chinese wouldn't understand any +language, not even their own. They didn't refuse to give information, +they simply answered, 'No understand' when any question was asked."</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>TRANSLATION OF THE PROCLAMATION + +<p> Whereas, the Director of the Census Bureau of the Department of + Commerce and Labor of the United States, in a letter to His + Excellency Chang, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, requests that, since it + has been the custom of the United States to take a census of the + population once in every ten years, many of which have been taken + and are on record, and since the present year is the time for + taking another such census, which is to include the people of every + nationality residing within the territory of the United States, and + as the Chinese residents of this country, through possible + ignorance of the English language, may mistake the object of the + enumerators to be that of ascertaining what the people possess and + its value, in order to impose taxes, or that of investigating the + certificates of registration, etc., a proclamation be issued fully + explaining the matter to the Chinese people;</p> + +<p> And whereas, instructions have been received from His Excellency to + the effect that, the taking of a census being merely to ascertain + the population of the country, and having no connection in any way + with the imposing of taxes or the examination of certificates by + the customs authorities of the Treasury Department, and for fear + that our countrymen may not understand the purpose and make trouble + through a mistaken notion of the whole proceeding, the + Consul-General at San Francisco and the Consul at New York shall + publish and make known to all Chinese residing in every part of the + United States that it is the custom of the United States to take a + census at stated intervals, that this proceeding has no connection + with the laying of taxes or the examination of certificates of + residence, that our countrymen have no cause for suspicion or + alarm, but, as soon as the enumerators present themselves, they + should answer the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law:</p> + +<p> Now, therefore, we, Li Yung Yew, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's + Consul-General at the port of San Francisco, and Yang Yu Ying, His + Imperial Chinese Majesty's Consul at the port of New York, in + pursuance of instructions as aforesaid, do hereby publish and make + known that inasmuch as it is the custom of the United States to + take a census of the population thereof once in every ten years, + and as this proceeding has no connection whatever with the laying + of taxes or the examination of certificates of residence, and as + all persons irrespective of nationality are to be enumerated under + the provisions of the law, our countrymen should not be alarmed or + cherish any suspicion, but, as soon as the proper officers of the + Census Bureau present themselves with this Consular proclamation, + should answer all the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law.</p> + +<p> A list of the questions to be answered is hereby appended for the + information of all concerned:</p> + +<p> Population schedule (32 questions).</p> + +<p> Agriculture schedule (59 questions).</p> + +<p> Dated Hsuan Tung, second year, First moon (February, 1910), and + sealed with our respective seals of office.</p></div> + +<center>THIRTEENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES</center> +<br /> +<center>CHINESE CONSULAR PROCLAMATION</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/chinese.png' height='60%' alt='Chinese text' title=''> +</center><br /> +<br /> +<center>(SEE TRANSLATION ABOVE)</center> + +<p>"What was finally done?" the policeman queried.</p> + +<p>"The Consul-General had to ask the Five Companies to back up the census +order, and they did. The fifth layer of paper was put on the billboards, +and the Five Companies, without beating around the bush, just ordered +the Chinese to do as they were told."</p> + +<p>"I've always heard that the Five Companies were stronger on the Pacific +coast than they are here. I wonder why?"</p> + +<p>"I asked that very question," Hamilton said, "and the man who told me +all about this explained that it was because they controlled the Chinese +slave traffic to America."</p> + +<p>"'Tis like enough," the policeman agreed, "and of course the most of +that would be on the other slope. But there's enough of it here, just +the same, and half the trouble between the Tongs is because of it."</p> + +<p>"That was what started the trouble in Oakland between the Hop Sings +and the Bing Gongs," Hamilton said, "and there were eight men killed in +that. It began over the possession of a slave girl who had been given as +security for debt. But they never caught any one for that."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-33-t.jpg' width='630' height='400' alt='ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.</p></div> + +<p>"You can't ever catch a Chinaman," the policeman said. "I've arrested a +dozen myself—but it never did any good. Look at Boston—it was open +talk that there were two regular executioners under Tong law, but the +Chinks got out of it by tellin' the judge that there never had been any +executions and that it was merely an ancient title!"</p> + +<p>"There have been cases in New York, too," the boy said, "that they +haven't found out yet!"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter what the case is—you can never prove it on them. +Look at that young girl, a missionary, who was killed! And that's only +one of dozens. And they can shoot, and shoot straight, too!" he added. +"Look at the shooting galleries," the two were walking down the Bowery, +"they've been kept going for years by the practice of the Tong marksmen. +You'd never think it, but some of those Highbinders could make our crack +shots do their best to keep an even score. Well," he broke off, "here +we are at Mott Street. Bob," he called to the policeman across the +street, "here's a young fellow wants to go into Chinatown."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, sir," said the other, a great big burly fellow, coming forward +to meet them, "but orders are strict. No one going in at all, unless on +business."</p> + +<p>"It is on business, officer," said Hamilton. "I'm a census agent and the +Inspector told me to check up some names on this schedule."</p> + +<p>The policeman took it and looked it over.</p> + +<p>"I think those are all right, sir," he said, "I know most of 'em by +name. But that's one of those underground places and we don't any of us +go down there any more than we have to. Of course when we have to +go—why, that's another matter. I think, sir, you can take it those +names are about all right."</p> + +<p>"I don't feel that I could make a report like that," Hamilton answered. +"I was sent to check it up personally, and don't you think I'd better do +it? There's a chap there," he added, pointing to a young fellow standing +a few yards up the street, "he doesn't look Chinese."</p> + +<p>"He's a reporter, sir," the policeman said, "an' he's like us,—it's +part of his business to take chances."</p> + +<p>"Mine, too," said Hamilton; "only he represents a newspaper and I'm here +for the government."</p> + +<p>The policeman scratched his chin in perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Do you wait here," he said, "and I'll call up the station."</p> + +<p>He came back in a minute or two.</p> + +<p>"The lieutenant says it'll be all right," he said. "I told him that I +hadn't seen any sign of trouble—not that that means anything," he +added, "but if you wait a minute the other man will be up this way; he's +patrollin' the streets and you can go along with him."</p> + +<p>"How many of you are there here?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Generally half a dozen in these two or three streets," the policeman +answered, "but I guess right now there's twice that number."</p> + +<p>Just as he had expected, another policeman appeared shortly, and +Hamilton was passed on to him. His conductor was taciturn, and the boy +was glad when the reporter joined them. In reply to a question, Hamilton +told his purpose, and the reporter, scenting a story, volunteered to +accompany them. The boy was willing enough, especially as he found the +reporter had the Chinese district as his regular assignment and was well +known in Chinatown.</p> + +<p>The address given, as the first policeman had said, was merely that +painted over a stairway.</p> + +<p>"I guess we go down here," Hamilton said.</p> + +<p>The policeman answered not a word, he simply pushed past the boy and +went down first; Hamilton followed, and the reporter came next. At the +bottom of the stair the policeman rapped on a door with his nightstick, +a good loud rap. It was opened, and he strode in, followed by the two +boys. A few questions from Hamilton verified one or two items of +information, but details about the rest of the house were not +forthcoming. In answer to questions the Chinaman simply pointed to the +ground.</p> + +<p>"Next floor down, I reckon," the reporter said.</p> + +<p>"But we're in the cellar now," objected Hamilton</p> + +<p>The reporter laughed.</p> + +<p>"We build above ground, the Chinese below," he said. "Lots of these +houses have five stories underground, and nearly all have either two or +three. A Chinaman doesn't care about fresh air at all, and he won't +waste money in fuel when he can keep warm in an underground burrow. Come +on, I guess we'll go down some more."</p> + +<p>The policeman still leading the way, three of them went down a rickety +stair, not much better than a ladder, and found themselves in a sort of +storehouse.</p> + +<p>"They don't keep things to eat here!" exclaimed Hamilton, scarcely able +to breathe the foul air and the exhalations from decaying food-stuffs.</p> + +<p>"Sure," the reporter answered. "Cheerful, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton gave a little shiver of repugnance, but taking out his +schedule, asked the underground store-keeper all the personal questions +on it. Then, realizing that he would be able to know about his +customers, the lad quickly made enough inquiries to assure him that +there was no fault to find with the work, and started for the upper air. +Just as they passed out of the stairway, the policeman, who was the +last, still being on the steps, Hamilton heard a shot, and a bullet came +whizzing by his head. It was answered by a fusillade of shots.</p> + +<p>The boy's first instinct was to duck back under the cover of the +staircase from which he had just come out, but the policeman, as he +left it, roughly gave him a push, as much as to say, "Keep out of +there," and started on a dead run for the group where the firing was +going on.</p> + +<p>"That's the Hip Sings," the reporter said, pulling Hamilton into the +shadow of a doorway, "the Ong Leongs have been waiting for them, ever +since that affair in the theater."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked Hamilton, although more interested in the +immediate excitement than the story.</p> + +<p>"Time of the Chinese New Year," the reporter answered in short, crisp +sentences. "There was a gala performance in the theater with suppers and +banquets before and after. Everybody brought fire-crackers to the +theater, and at a certain time all the fire-crackers were set off. When +the noise stopped eighteen men were found shot dead, all members of the +Ong Leong Tong. The Hip Sing men were blamed for it, but none ever +caught."</p> + +<p>"What's up now?" cried Hamilton, in alarm.</p> + +<p>As he spoke two men dashed out of a building near by, and fired at the +group beyond. The others turned and made a rush. The two newcomers cut +across the street, thus for a moment diverting the line of fire which +had been perilously close to where the two boys were standing.</p> + +<p>"This is too hot for me," said the reporter, "we'd better get out of +here as fast as we know how. We'll go to the end of this street and turn +to the right. Are you ready? Come along."</p> + +<p>Out from the doorway like a couple of frightened hares the two lads +bolted, pursued by a few shots which, they flew so far over their heads, +Hamilton surmised were intended as a warning to keep out of the way +rather than as attempts to shoot them. In the few seconds that had +elapsed it seemed that the streets had become full of running policemen, +and Hamilton looked back.</p> + +<p>As he did so, he saw one of the men in the nearest group stagger +sideways and stand for an instant alone in the center of the street. +There was the sharp bark of a sawed-off revolver, and the wounded man +just reached the shelter of a doorway as the bullet sang over the spot +on which he had stood a second before.</p> + +<p>The sight unnerved Hamilton. He clutched the reporter's arm.</p> + +<p>"Chinese, Camorrists, sweatshop workers, and negroes!" he cried, a +hysterical note in his voice. "Are there no Americans in an American +city?"</p> + +<p>The reporter grasped his shoulder and pointed to where, a block or two +away, the towering framework of a Titanic building pierced the sunlit +air, far above the sordid savagery of the human rat-holes near by. +Guiding monster beams into place, sure-set upon the frailest foothold, +forms of men, made tiny by the distance, were silhouetted against the +sky.</p> + +<p>"The post of honor is the post of danger," he said; "it is in work like +that, where skill is linked to daring, where brain is joined to nerve, +that the Yankee stands. If you want to see the American in America, +don't look down, look up!"</p> +<br /> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-34-t.jpg' width='600' height='438' alt='WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-35-t.jpg' width='600' height='425' alt='WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<h4>THE END</h4> +<br /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13181 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/13181-h/images/chinese.png b/13181-h/images/chinese.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecf4485 --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-h/images/chinese.png diff --git a/13181-h/images/cover.jpg b/13181-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8854840 --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/13181-h/images/image-1-t.jpg b/13181-h/images/image-1-t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6c24aa --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-h/images/image-1-t.jpg diff --git a/13181-h/images/image-10-t.jpg b/13181-h/images/image-10-t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45772e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13181-h/images/image-10-t.jpg diff --git a/13181-h/images/image-11-t.jpg b/13181-h/images/image-11-t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83cbbcb 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8467610 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13181 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13181) diff --git a/old/13181-8.txt b/old/13181-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b27f4a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13181-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9016 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Boy With the U.S. Census, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boy With the U.S. Census + +Author: Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +Release Date: August 15, 2004 [EBook #13181] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + + +[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + +BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER + +[Illustration: The Boy With the U.S. Census] + +With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from +Bureaus of the United States Government + + +November, 1911 + + + + +To My Son Roger's Friend + +HAMILTON DAY + + + + +PREFACE + +Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border +warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain +fastnesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being +written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to +the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their factory prisons a +hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade +sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad. + +In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau +leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens +trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's +greatest right--the Right To Know--and on his findings all battle-lines +depend. "When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and +Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is +the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle +the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and +alien-tongue communities. To show how this great Census work is done, +to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to +heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kinship +between all peoples of the earth who have become "Americans" is the aim +and purpose of + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + +CHAPTER II +RESCUING A LOST RACE + +CHAPTER III +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + +CHAPTER IV +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + +CHAPTER V +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + +CHAPTER VI +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + +CHAPTER VII +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + +CHAPTER VIII +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + +CHAPTER IX +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + +CHAPTER X +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Statue of Liberty (_Frontispiece_) +Taking the Census in Old Kentucky +Kentucky Mountaineer Family +Moonshining +Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully +Bill Wilsh in the School +Alligator-Catching +The Census Building +Making Gun-sights True +"A Bull's-eye Every Time!" +Young Boys from the Pit +"I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years" +Eight Years Old and "Tired of Working" +The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in +Immigration Station, Ellis Island +Where the Workers Come from +On a Peanut Farm +In an All-Negro Town +"'Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel'" +How Most of the Negroes Live +Facsimile of Punched Census Card +Tabulating Machine +Pin-box and Mercury Cups +Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team +The Census in the Aleutian Islands +"Can We Make Camp?" +To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer +Gathering Cocoanuts +Taking the Census in a City +Festa in the Italian Quarter +The Fighting Men of the Tongs +Arrested as the Firing Stops +Work for Americans + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + + +CHAPTER I + +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + + +"Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, "since I'm going to be a +census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district." + +The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way +through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top +of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly. + +"What for?" he queried. + +"I think I could do it better than almost anybody else in this section," +was the ready, if not modest, reply. + +"Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other assented and took up the paper +again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the mountains +but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even +though his host was better informed than most of the people in the +region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him +"Uncle" because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regiment +that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men +ever since had been friends. + +"I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such +doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; "that +census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me." + +"But it seems to me that it's the right kind of 'inquisitive.'" + +"I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of +inquisitiveness," the mountaineer said, with a smile, "but if you say +so, I s'pose it's all right." + +"But don't you think the questions are easy enough?" asked the boy. + +"They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty +unpleasant to answer." + +"But if they are necessary?" + +"Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the mount'ns that yo' c'n never make +see how knowin' their private affairs does the gov'nment any good." + +"But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?" + +"Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all +right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as +c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be +heated up clar through." + +"But why?" queried the lad again. "The questions are plain enough, and +there was practically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine +thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, +too!" + +"Important!" protested the old man. "Did yo' ever see any one that ever +sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures?" + +"Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. "But it isn't done for the +sake of getting interesting reading matter; it's because those figures +really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of +that the census isn't at the back of." + +"I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I +notice," the mountaineer remarked. + +"No," answered Hamilton promptly, "but the number of members a State +sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the +census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his +seat is based on their information." + +"I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too." + +"Of course," the boy answered. + +"But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information +about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff." + +"Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is +important enough, Uncle Eli? And then the railroads, too,--they depend +on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as +freight." + +"You seem to know a lot about it," the mountaineer said, looking +thoughtfully at the boy. + +"I ought to," Hamilton said, "because I'm going to be an assistant +special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away. I applied last +October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this +visit." + +"What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination?" he was +asked. + +"I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, "figures have always been +easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered +accountant business I learned a lot from him." + +"Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it +naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed?" + +"I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, "but I'm pretty +sure." + +"Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the +business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it." + +"But I'm hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle +Eli," the boy explained "either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of +Statistics or some work like that. And anyway, if it's the government's +business, I'm an American and it's my business." + +"Yo' have the right spirit, boy," the old man said, "an' I like to see +it, but you're huntin' trouble sure's you're born. S'posin' yo' asked +the questions of some ol' sorehead that wouldn' answer?" + +"He'd have to answer," replied Hamilton stoutly, "there's a law to make +him." + +"I don't believe that law's used much," hazarded the old man. + +"It isn't," Hamilton found himself forced to admit. "I believe there +were not very many arrests all over the country last census. But the +law's there, just the same." + +"It wouldn' be a law on the Ridge," the mountaineer said, "an' I don' +believe it would do yo' any good anywhar else. On the mount'ns, I know, +courtesy is a whole lot bigger word than constitution. Up hyeh, we +follow the law when we're made to, follow an idee backed up by a +rifle-barrel because we have to, but there's not many men hyeh that won' +do anythin' yo' ask if yo' jes' ask the right way." + +"But there are always some that give trouble," Hamilton protested, +trying to defend his position. + +The old Kentuckian slowly shook his head from side to side. + +"If yo' don' win out by courtesy," he said, "it's jes' because yo' +haven' been courteous enough, because yo' haven' taken yo' man jes' +right. Thar isn't any such thing as bein' too gracious. An' anyway, a +census-taker with any other idee up hyeh would be runnin' chances right +along." + +"You mean they would shoot him up?" asked Hamilton. + +"I think if he threatened some folks up hyeh an' in the gullies thar +might be trouble." + +"But the fact that he represented the government would insure him from +harm, I should think." + +"I don't think much of that insurance idee," the old man said. "I can't +remember that it helped the revenue men sech a great deal. The only +insurance I ever had was a quick ear, an' even now, I c'n hear a twig +snap near a quarter of a mile away. An' that used to be good insurance +in the ol' days when, if yo' weren't gunnin' for somebody, thar was +somebody gunnin' fo' you." + +"But there's no one 'gunning' for you now, is there, Uncle Eli?" asked +the boy amusedly. + +"I haven't b'n lookin' out especially," the Kentuckian responded, with +an answering slow smile, "an' I reckon sometimes that I might jes' as +well leave the ol' rifle in the house when I go out." + +"But you never do," put in Hamilton quickly. + +"I reckon that's jes' a feelin'," rejoined the mountaineer, "jes' one o' +these habits that yo' hate to give up. I'd sort o' be lost without it +now, after all these years. Thar's no one to worry about, anyway, +savin' Jake Howkle, an' I don' believe he's hankerin' for +blood-lettin'." + +"Jake? Oh, never," Hamilton replied with assurance; "why, he's only +about my age." + +"That's only partly why," the old man said, "not only because he's your +age, but because he's b'n at school. Shootin' an' schoolin' don' seem to +hit it off. I reckon thar would have b'n a sight less trouble in the +mount'ns if thar had b'n mo' schools." + +"There are plenty of schools in the mountains now, aren't there?" asked +Hamilton. "It must be very different here, Uncle Eli, from what it was +when you were a boy." + +"Thar has been quite a change, an' the change is comin' faster now. But +thar's still a lot o' folk who a'nt altered a bit sence the war. You +city people call us slow-movin' up hyeh, an' as long as thar's any o' +the ol' spirit abroad thar's a chance o' trouble. If yo' really are +goin' in for this census-takin', I'd keep clar o' the mount'ns." + +"You really would?" queried the boy thoughtfully. + +"An' what's more," continued his Uncle, "I would jes' as soon that yo' +didn' have anythin' to do with it near hyeh. I don' want to see any +little differences between families, such as census-takin' is likely +to provoke." + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (_Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O._)] + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" cried Hamilton in amazement, "you talk as though the +days of the feuds were not over." + +"Are yo' sure they're all over?" the Kentuckian said. + +"I had supposed so," the boy replied. "I thought the Kentucky 'killings' +had stopped ten or fifteen years ago." + +"It's a little queer yo' sh'd bring that up today," the old man said, +"for I was jes' readin' in the paper some figures on that very thing. +Yo' like figures, this will jes' suit you. Where was it now?" he +continued, rustling the paper; then, a moment later, "Oh, yes, I have +it." + +"'During the terms of the last three Kentucky governors,'" he read, +"'over thirteen hundred criminals have been pardoned, five hundred of +them being for murder or manslaughter.' It says fu'ther on," the old man +added, "that pardonin' is jes' as frequent now as it ever was. I don' +believe it is, myself, but if thar is such a lot o' pardonin' goin' on +for shootin', thar must have been a powerful lot o' shootin'." + +"But that's for all the State," objected the boy, "not for the +mountains only. That must be for crimes in the cities and all sorts of +things. You can't make the feuds responsible for those." + +"Not altogether," the mountaineer agreed, "the real ol'-time feud is +peterin' out, an' it's mainly due to the schoolin'. The young folks +ain't ready fo' revenge now, an' that sort o' swings the women around. +An' up hyeh in the mount'ns, same as everywhar else, I reckon, the idees +o' the women make a pile o' difference." + +"But I should have thought the women would always have been against the +feuds," said Hamilton. + +"Yo'd think so, but they weren't. They helped to keep up the grudges a +whole lot." + +"Aunt Ab hasn't changed much," volunteered the lad. + +"She hasn't for a fact. Ab is powerful sot. She holds the grudge against +the Howkles in the ol' style. But the feelin' is dyin' out fast, an' +soon it'll be like history,--only jes' read of in books." + +"What I never could see," remarked Hamilton, "was what started it all. +It isn't as if the people in the mountains had come from some part of +the world where vendettas and that sort of thing had been going on for +generations. There must have been some kind of reason for it in this +section of the country. Feuds don't spring up just for nothing." + +"Thar was a while once we had a powerful clever talker up hyeh," the +Kentuckian answered, "actin' as schoolmaster for a few weeks. I reckon +he'd offered to substitute jes' to get a chance to see for himself what +life in the mount'ns was like. He was writin' a book about it. We got +right frien'ly, an' he knew he was always welcome hyeh, an' one day I +asked him jes' that question. It was shortly befo' he lef' an' I wanted +to know what he thought about us all up hyeh." + +The mountaineer leaned back in his chair and chuckled with evident +enjoyment of the recollection. + +"I jes' put the question to him," he said, "in the mildes' way, an' he +started right in to talk. Thar was no stoppin' him, an' I couldn' +remember one-half o' what he said. But I reckon he had it about right." + +"How did he explain the feuds, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, with a short laugh, "he begun by sayin' +we were savages." + +"Savages?" + +"Not jes' with war-paint an' tomahawk, yo' understan'," continued the +old man, enjoying the boy's astonishment, "but uncivilized an' wild. +Thar an't any finer stock in the world, he said, than the mount'neers o' +the Ridge, clar down to Tennessee, an' he said, too, that they were o' +the good old English breed, not foreigners like are comin' in now." + +"That's right enough," Hamilton agreed, "and, what's more, they were +gentlemen of good birth, most of them; there was not much of the peasant +in the early colonists." + +"So this author chap said. But he explained that was the very reason +they got so wild." + +"I don't see that," objected Hamilton, "and I certainly don't see where +the 'savage' idea comes in." + +"Wa'al, he said that when you slid down from a high place it was harder +to climb back than if the fall had b'n small. An' that's why it's so +hard for those who have gone down,--they can see the depth o' the fall." + +Hamilton, who was of an argumentative turn of mind, would have protested +at this, but the old mountaineer proceeded. + +"When the pioneers settled in the mount'ns they kind o' stuck. Those +that went on, down into the Blue Grass region, went boomin' right ahead, +but those that stayed in the mount'ns had no chance." + +"I don't see why not?" objected the boy. + +"They were jes' cut off from everywhar. We are to-day, for that matter. +When a place gets settled, an' starts to try an' raise somethin' to +sell, the product has got to be taken to market. But thar was no +railroad up in the mount'ns. Children were easy to raise, an' a +population grew up in a hurry, but the land was too poor for good +farmin', the roads were too bad for takin' corn to market, an' thar was +no way o' gettin' to a town." + +"You are pretty well cut off," said Hamilton. + +"We were more so then," the mountaineer said. "An' so, while all the +country 'round was advancin' up in the mount'ns, fifty years ago, we +were livin' jes' like pioneers. An' some, not bein' able to keep up the +strain, fell back." + +"So it really isn't the fault of the mountaineers at all," cried the +boy, "but because they were sort of marooned." + +"It was unfortunate," replied the old man, "but it really was our own +fault. If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have +developed it; if not, we should have left." + +"I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton. + +"Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a +most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every +man is his own master. But, thar bein' no available market if they did +work hard, what was the use o' workin'? Some o' them, 'specially down in +the gullies, got lazy an' shif'less. But they hung on all the harder to +the idees o' the old times,--honor an' hospitality." + +"I've always understood," said Hamilton, "that there was more +hospitality to be found up here in the mountains than in almost any +place on the globe." + +"As yo' said," the old man continued, "we're jes' like a crew o' +shipwrecked sailors marooned on an island without a boat, without any +means o' gettin' away. If some o' the families high up in the gullies +are ignorant, it's because they've had no schoolin', not because they +haven' got the makin's o' good citizens; if they're a bit careless about +religion, it's because they've had no churchin', an' if they don' pay +much heed to law, it's because the law has never done much for them. +The ocean o' progress," went on the mountaineer, with a flourish, "has +rolled all 'roun' the mount'ns, but of all the fleets o' commerce in all +these years, thar has not been one to send out a boat to help the +marooned mount'neer." + +"Didn't they ever try to get help?" queried the boy. + +"We're not askin' help," the Kentuckian said, "thar's no whinin' on the +mount'ns. I jes' tell yo' that when the time comes for the mount'neers +o' Kentucky an' Virginia an' Tennessee an' Carolina to get a fair +chance, they'll show yo' as fine a race o' men an' women as the Stars +an' Stripes flies over." + +"They are mighty fine right now, I think," the boy said. + +"They have their good points," the Kentuckian agreed; "thar's nothin' +sneakin' in the men up hyeh, an' thar an't any lengths to which a man +won't go, to do what he thinks is the squar thing. You've heard about +the Beaupoints?" + +"No," the boy answered, "what was that?" + +"It was jes' an incident in one o' these feuds that you were talkin' of, +an' I'm goin' to tell yo' about it, to show yo' what a mount'neer's +idee o' honor is like. Thar was a family livin' on the other side o' the +Ridge, not a great ways from hyeh, by the name o' Calvern, an' in some +way or other--I never heard the rights of it--they took to shootin' up +the Beaupoints every chance that come along. One day Dandie Beaupoint +found a little girl that had hurt herself, an' he picked her up in his +arms an' was carryin' her home when one o' the Calvern boys shot him in +his tracks. One o' the Beaupoint brothers was away at the time, but the +others felt that the Calverns hadn't b'n playin' fair, an' they reckoned +to lay them all out. They did, too, all but one, an', although they had +a chance to nail him, they let him alone." + +"Why was he let off?" queried Hamilton. + +"I reckon it was because he had a young wife an' a little child," the +old man answered. "Now Jim Beaupoint, the one that had been away, he +come home after a while, an' hadn't happened to hear about the wipin' +out o' the Calverns. On his way home, he had to pass the Calvern place, +an' so he made a wide cast aroun' the hill to keep out o' sight, when +suddenly, up a gully, he saw this Hez Calvern standin' there with his +rifle on his arm, an', quick as he could move, Jim grabbed his gun an' +fired. It was a long shot an' a sure one." + +"Was it--" the boy began, but the old man waved the interruption aside +and proceeded. + +"Reloadin' his rifle, Jim Beaupoint rode slowly to whar Hez Calvern was +lyin', when suddenly, from a clump o' bushes close by, there come a +rifle shot, an' the rider got the bullet in his chest. Befo' fallin' +from the saddle, however, the young fellow fired at the bushes from +which smoke was driftin', an' a shrill scream told him that the +sharpshooter was a woman." + +"Some one who had been with Hez Calvern?" asked Hamilton. + +"His wife. Well, although Jim was mortally hurt an' sufferin'--as the +tracks showed afterwards--he tried to drag himself to the bushes in +order to help the woman who had shot him an' who he had shot unknowin'; +but he was too badly hurt, an' he died twenty yards from the place whar +he fell." + +"Was the woman dead, too?" asked Hamilton. + +"No, but terrible badly hurt. What I was wantin' to tell yo', though, +was the result of all this. Wa'al, the Beaupoints took the woman to +their home an' nursed her night an' day for five long years. She was +helpless, only for her tongue, an' she lashed an' abused them till the +day she died, an' never once, in all those years, did any one o' the +Beaupoints reproach her in return." + +"And the youngster?" + +"They took the boy, too, an' reared him the bes' they knew how, jes' the +same as one o' their own. One o' the Beaupoint boys went an' lived on +the Calvern place, an' worked it,--worked it fair an' squar', an' put +aside every cent that come out o' the farm. For thirteen years the +Beaupoints looked after the farm an' reared the boy. On the day he was +fourteen year old, Jed Beaupoint--that was the father--called the lad, +told him the whole story, give him a new rifle an' a powder horn, an' +handed over the little bag o' coin that represented thirteen years o' +work on the Calvern holdin'." + +"There certainly couldn't be anything squarer than that!" exclaimed +Hamilton. "And he gave the boy the farm, too?" + +"Every inch of it. Jed Beaupoint was a squar' man, cl'ar through. An' he +said to the boy--he tol' me the story himself--'Johnny Calvern, thar's +yo' farm an' yo' rifle. Now, if yo're willin', I'll see that thar's no +trouble until yo're twenty-one, an' then yo' c'n go huntin' revenge if +yo've a mind to, or, if you're willin', we'll call the trouble off now, +an' thar won't be any need o' rakin' it up again.'" + +"He made it up on the spot, of course?" questioned Hamilton. + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"He did not," he replied. "The boy thought a minute or two an' then said +he'd wait until he was grown up, an' let him know then." + +"Although he had been brought up by the Beaupoints!" exclaimed the boy +in surprise. "But surely it never came up again." + +"Well, not exac'ly. When Johnny Calvern was about nineteen he got +married, an' a few days befo' the time when he would be twenty-one, he +rode up to the Beaupoint place, an' tol' the ol' man that he was willin' +to let the feud rest another ten years, because of his wife an' little +baby, but that he would be ready to resume shootin' at that time." + +"But he had no real grudge against the Beaupoints had he, Uncle Eli? +They had always been kind to him, you said." + +"Not a bit o' grudge," the mountaineer answered, "they were good +friends. An' I reckon it wasn't Johnny that wanted the trouble to begin +again, but thar's always a lot o' hotheads pryin' into other folks' +business. However, ol' Jed Beaupoint didn't mind; he agreed to another +ten years' truce, an' all went on peacefully as befo'. Durin' those ten +years, however, Johnny's wife died, an' he got married again, this time +to the sister o' a wanderin' preacher, a girl who had once lived in +cities, an' she soon showed him that the ol' feud business must be +forgotten. But it is a mite unusual, even hyeh, to farm a man's land an' +bring up his child fo' thirteen years, an' then give him everythin' yo' +can with the privilege o' shootin' yo' at sight for all the favors +done." + +"It doesn't sound a bit like the usual feud story," said Hamilton, "one +always thinks of those as being cold-blooded and cruel." + +"Thar an't a mite o' intentional cruelty in them; it's jes' that life is +held cheap. Most o' them begun over some small thing like an election." + +"There were quite a number of them, Uncle Eli, weren't there?" + +"One ran into the other so easily that one feud would often look like +half a dozen, an' trouble would be goin' on in various places. But +there were really seven of them, all big ones." + +[Illustration: KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (_Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions._)] + +"What were they, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, thar was the McCoy-Hatfield feud in Pike County, that started +over the ownership o' two plain razorback hogs, but afterwards got very +bitter, owin' to the friendship o' one o' the McCoy girls with the son +o' Bad Anse Hatfield. Then thar was the Howard-Turner feud in Harlan +County. An' then--" + +"What started the Howard-Turner feud?" interrupted the boy. + +"That was over a game o' cards. One o' the Howards had been winnin', an' +Jim Turner, with a pistol, forced him to give back the money he had won. +That affair raged a long time. The Logan-Tolliver feud in Rowan County +was over an election fo' sheriff. The Logans elected their candidate, +an' so the Tollivers killed one o' the Logans at the polls and wounded +three others." + +"That's expressing dissatisfaction with an election with some spirit," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Then thar was the French-Eversole feud in Perry County," continued the +Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town +called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In +time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange +fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the +shootin',--indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were +most bitter." + +"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the +principals didn't?" + +"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran +the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time." + +"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the +same as the Howard-Turner fighting?" + +"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family," +the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre' +feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water +rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it +couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o' +blood." + +"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that +way," the boy said. + +"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill +feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over +some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly +remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some such +goin's on." + +"But they are all over now, aren't they?" + +"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is +sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all +four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to +the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her +how good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said--thar +was a lot of us thar at the time--'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell +them who shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots +him.' I'm reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but +I really think that is the last o' them." + +"What started that?" + +"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But you +don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually jes' +firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date back to +enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'." + +"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the +mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North--I know you were with Lee, +of course, but I thought that was exceptional." + +"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate +soldier indignantly. + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of +them went into the Union army." + +"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were +fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question +didn' matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union +army was made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' +bigger men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong +then,--I do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for +what they thought was right." + +"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can +understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian." + +"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and +South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read, +decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve +that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the +No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause, +I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man +solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on +both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive +anywhere." + +"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted Hamilton, +fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences, when he +wanted to hear about feuds. + +"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the +little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it. +Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some +words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any grudge, +an' I never supposed Isaac was. However, in a skirmish near Cumberland +Gap, I saw that he was jes' achin' to get me, an' the way he tried was +jes' about the meanes' thing I ever heard o' any one doin' on the +Ridge." + +"How was it, do tell me?" pleaded Hamilton, his eyes shining with +interest. + +"Howkle was with Wolford's cavalry, an' I was under 'Fightin'' +Zollicoffer, as they called him," the old man began. "Thar had been a +little skirmish,--one o' these that never get into the dispatches that +don' do any good, but after which thar's always good men lef' lyin' on +the ground. We had driven 'em back a bit, an' I was comin' in when I saw +a lad--he didn't look more'n about fifteen--lyin' in a heap an' +groanin'. Knowin' a drink would do him more good than an'thin' else, I +reached for my canteen, an' stooped down. Jes' about then, a horseman +dashed out o' the scrub an', almos' befo' I could think o' what was +comin', he struck at me with his sabre." + +"When you were giving drink to a wounded soldier!" cried Hamilton +indignantly. "What a cowardly trick!" + +"It was ol' Isaac Howkle," nodded his uncle, "an' I s'pose he reckoned +this was a chance to get even on the ol' grudge. But I rolled over on +the grass jes' out o' reach o' his stroke, an' he missed. I grabbed my +rifle an' blazed at him as soon as I could get on my feet, but he had +reached the shelter of the trees again an' I missed him." + +"That's about the meanest thing I ever heard," said the boy. + +"So I thought," the Kentuckian answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to +think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his +lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' +to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't +blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of +his own sufferin's." + +"That was grit," said Hamilton approvingly. "Did he die, Uncle Eli?" + +"Not a bit of it. We got him back into our lines an' he was exchanged, I +believe. Anyway, I know he was livin' after the war, fo' I saw his name +once on a list o' veterans. But most o' the boys were like that--mostly +young, too--an' men o' the stripe of Isaac Howkle were very few." + +"But you got him in the end, didn't you?" + +The old mountaineer looked intently at the boy's excited face. + +"I didn't," he said, "an' I don' rightly know that it's good for yo' to +be hearin' all these things. Yo' might hold it against Jake Howkle." + +"That I wouldn't," protested Hamilton. "Jake isn't to blame for his +father's meanness." + +"That's the right way to talk," the old soldier agreed. "Wa'al, if yo' +feel that way about it, I reckon thar's no harm in my tellin' yo' the +rest of it, now that I've got started. When the war was all over an' I +got back hyeh, I remembered what had happened, an' I sent word to Isaac +Howkle that I didn' trust him, an' after what he had done I was +reckonin' that he was waitin' his chance to get me, an' that he'd better +keep his own side o' the mountain." + +"But, Uncle Eli," said the boy, "that didn't make a feud surely; that +was only a warning." + +"I wasn't reckonin' to start a feud at all," said the old man +thoughtfully, "an' it really never was one. It was jes' a personal +difference between Isaac Howkle an' me. Thar was lots o' times that I +could have picked off either o' his two brothers, but I was jes' +guardin' myself against Isaac." + +"But you said he got there first!" said the boy. "Did he shoot some one +in your family?" + +"Wa'al, yes, he did," the mountaineer admitted "Yo' never knew the one. +He was my brother-in-law,--Ab's younges' sister's first husband. He had +been married jes' two months, an' was only a hundred yards from this +house when Isaac shot him." + +"How did you know for sure that it was Howkle who had done the +shooting?" asked Hamilton. + +"We didn't know for sure, at first. A week or two after, a boy from the +Wilshes' place come up with a message sayin' that Isaac Howkle had tol' +him to say that he'd get the ol' man nex' time." + +"I shouldn't have thought a boy would have had the nerve to bring such a +message," said Hamilton thoughtfully. "Wouldn't bringing word like that +look like taking sides, and wouldn't it bring his own family into the +trouble!" + +The old man shook his head in instant denial. + +"Po' white trash from the gullies," he said, "no, they don't count one +way or the other." + +"What happened after you got that message?" asked the boy. + +"Nothin' much, for a while, though I was snoopin' aroun' the mount'ns +consid'rable. I met the brothers sev'ral times, an' I know they could +have had me. But I had nothin' against them, nor they me, an' so it was +jes' left to Isaac an' me. Once I found him over near our pasture, but +he saw me an' got into cover. At last I found him in the open near our +house again, an' in easy range." + +"Did you fire right away?" asked Hamilton excitedly. + +"I didn't shoot. I got a lead on him, sure, but I jes' couldn't shoot +without warnin' him. It seemed kind o' mean to shoot him unawares, an' +as I didn't want to take an unfair advantage, I shouted to him. It was +pretty far off to be heard, but I could see that he recognized me. I was +only waitin' long enough to let him get his gun to his shoulder when +some one fired jes' behin' me. Howkle's bullet went through my arm, but +he dropped in his tracks. He thought I had shot him but my gun was never +fired off." + +"Who was it that fired, Uncle Eli!" + +"The brother o' the young fellow he had shot befo'." + +"Was he dead?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, a little grimly, "I didn' go down to see +an' wait aroun' 'till all his friends gathered. But I reckon he was dead +when they found him later." + +"And the brothers?" + +"They never came into the story at all. I'm jes' mentionin' this to yo' +to show yo' that thar's reason in my advisin' yo' to keep clar o' this +district. If you're reckonin' on doin' census work, yo' go somewhar that +you're not known to any one. Thar's trouble enough even for a stranger +in the mount'ns, an' a stranger would find it easier than any one else." + +"Why is that, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"In the first place, yo' can't show discourtesy to a stranger, an' yo' +know that if he doesn' do things jes' the way yo' like to have 'em done, +it's because he doesn' know, an' so he's not to blame. I like your +spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' +if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but +leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a +stranger." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RESCUING A LOST RACE + + +That same evening, as it chanced, one of the younger Wilsh boys came up +to the house on an errand from a neighbor, and Hamilton, remembering +that the messenger's father had been a go-between in the feud story he +had been hearing, noted the lad with interest. Indeed, his appearance +was striking enough in itself, with his drooping form, his extreme +paleness, and his look of exhaustion. + +"How far is it from the Burtons, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton. + +"Eight miles," was the reply. + +Hamilton stared at the mountain boy. Judging from his looks he was not +strong enough to walk a hundred yards, yet he had just come eight miles, +and evidently was intending to walk back home that evening. Then +Hamilton remembered that this lad was one of the "poor whites" of whom +he had read so much, and he strolled toward the messenger who was +sitting listlessly on one of the steps. + +"Howdy!" said the newcomer in a tired voice. + +Hamilton answered his greeting, and, after a few disjointed sentences, +said: + +"You look tired. It must be a long walk from the Burtons." + +"Jes' tol'able," the boy answered. "I'm not so tired. You f'm the city?" +he queried a few minutes later, evidently noting the difference between +Hamilton's appearance and that of the boys in the neighborhood. + +"Yes, New York," answered Hamilton. + +But the stranger did not show any further curiosity and Hamilton was +puzzled to account for his general listlessness. He thought perhaps it +might be that the boy was unusually dull and so he asked: + +"Are you still going to school?" + +A negative shake of the head was the only reply. + +"Why not? Isn't there a school near where you live?" + +"Close handy, 'bout five miles," was the reply. + +"Then why don't you go there?" questioned Hamilton further. + +"Teacheh's gone." + +"Funny time for holidays," the city boy remarked. + +"Not gone fo' holidays." + +"Oh, I see," said Hamilton, "you mean he's gone for good. But aren't you +going to have another one?" + +"Dunno if he's gone for good," the mountain boy answered. + +Hamilton stared in bewilderment. + +"Cunjer got him," the other continued. + +But this did not explain things any better. + +"Cunjer?" repeated Hamilton. "You mean magic?" + +The mountain boy nodded. + +"Yes, cunjer," he affirmed. + +"You're fooling, aren't you?" said Hamilton questioningly, "you can't +mean it. I never heard of 'cunjer' as a real thing. There's lots about +it in books, of course, but those are fairy tales and things of that +sort." + +"An' yo' never saw a cunjer?" + +"Of course not." + +"Reckon they don' know as much in cities as they think they do," the +youngster retorted. + +"Just what do you mean by 'cunjer'?" asked Hamilton, knowing that it +would be useless to argue the conditions of a modern city with a boy who +had never seen one. + +"Bein' able to put a cunjer on, so's the one yo' cunjer has got to do +anythin' yo' want." + +"Sort of hypnotism business," commented the older boy. + +"Dunno' what yo' call it in the city. Up hyeh in the mount'ns we call it +cunjer, an' thar's some slick ones hyeh, too." + +"But how did the teacher get mixed up in it?" queried Hamilton. "It +doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to find a schoolmaster +doing." + +"He wasn't doin' it, it was again' him," the mountain boy explained. +"The folks hyeh suspicioned as he was tippin' o' the revenoo men." + +"Who did? Moonshiners?" + +"Easy on that word, Hamilton," suddenly broke in the old Kentuckian, who +had overheard part of the conversation, "thar's plenty up hyeh that don' +like it." + +"All right, Uncle Eli, I'll remember," the boy answered; then, turning +to his companion, he continued "You were saying that some of the people +in the mountains thought the schoolmaster was giving information to the +revenue men." + +"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' +believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us." + +"Did the revenue officers come up here!" + +The mountain lad nodded his head. + +"Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know +ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved +on the teacheh. It never was, but thar was a plenty o' people who +believed the story. I didn't, but then the teacheh was allers good to +me." + +"But what did the revenue men have to do with the 'cunjering'?" asked +Hamilton, desiring to keep his informant to the point. + +"They didn't, it was the men on the Ridge." + +"Do you know how it happened?" + +"I know all about it," the lad answered, with a slightly less listless +air, "for I was in school that mornin'. For a week or more we boys had +seen ol' Blacky Baldwin sort o' snoopin' aroun' near the school, but as +we allers crossed our fingers an' said nothin' so long as he was in +hearin', we weren't afraid." + +"What did you do that for?" + +The younger boy looked at the city-bred lad with an evident pity for his +ignorance. + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail. (_Brown +Bros._)] + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; the fire +is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs on a +tree. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"So's he couldn't cunjer us, O' course," he said. "Don' yo' even know +that? Ol' Blacky Baldwin is a first-class cunjer, an' any one o' them +can cunjer you with the words he hears yo' sayin'." + +"But if this 'cunjer-fellow' was hanging around the school," suggested +Hamilton, "why didn't you tell the master?" + +"An' get Blacky down on us? You-all can bet we kep' quiet an' didn' even +talk about Blacky to each other. Wa'al, that went on for a week or two. +Then, one mornin', while we was all in school, a big storm come up, +thunder an' lightnin' an' all. Suddenly, jes' after a clap o' thunder +that sounded almos' as if it had hit the schoolhouse Ol' Blacky Baldwin +walked through the door an' up to the teacheh's table. He was carryin a +twisted thing in his hand, like a ram's horn, an' I knew it was his +cunjerin' horn, although I hadn't even seen it befo'." + +"What did the master say when he came in?" + +"Nary a word. It was awful dark an' the thunder was rumbling aroun' +among the hills. I took one look at Ol' Blacky Baldwin's face, an' then +hid my eyes. I reckon the others did the same." + +"Why?" + +"His face was all shiny with a queer green light, sendin' up smoke, +like ol' dead wood does sometimes after a rain." + +"Phosphorus evidently," muttered Hamilton to himself, but he did not +want to interrupt the lad now that he had started, and therefore did not +discuss the point. + +"He walked right up to the teacheh's table," continued the younger boy, +"an' he pointed the horn at him, accordin' to one o' the boys who says +he was peepin' through his fingers. I wasn't lookin', I wasn't takin' +any chances. And then we all heard him say to the teacheh: + +"'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a +fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places +where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', +an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you.'" + +"And that was all?" + +"That was all," the mountain boy replied. "After a bit, I looked up and +Ol' Blacky Baldwin was gone; the teacheh looked peaked an' seemed kind +o' skeered, but he didn't say anythin'." + +"Well, it was a little scary," said Hamilton. "I don't wonder it shook +him up." + +"That was only the beginnin'," the storyteller went on. "About half an +hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor +an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' +pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the +chair to reach one down. We was all watchin' him, when suddintly he give +a groan an' his eyes rolled back so's we couldn't see nothin' but the +whites; his face got all pale, an' his lips sort o' blue; he reeled an' +was jes' goin' to fall when he sort o' made a grab at the shelf an' hung +on as though he was fallin' off a cliff. + +"Two of the bigger boys, thinkin' he had a stroke or somethin', went up +an' spoke, but he didn't answer, jes' hung on to that shelf. Standin' on +the chair as he was, of course the boys couldn' make him let go, an' +they couldn' make him hear or understan' a mite. So they pulled up a +bench and one of 'em climbed up an' forced his hand open. Jes' like a +flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled." + +"Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried. + +"One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, +an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as +his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' +lay back in his chair. He sat there for a bit an' then he leaned +forward, put his hands on the desk, an' stared right in front of him, +jes' as if we wa'n't there at all. + +"'I thought I was fallin',' he said gruffly. + +"We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes' sit there, lookin' +straight in front of him, an' repeatin' ev'ry minute or two: 'I thought +I was fallin'! I thought I was fallin'!'" + +Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as +though he were living through the scene again. + +"I don't wonder you got scared," he said. "Did he come to?" + +"Not right then," the boy answered. "We waited a while an' then some of +the fellers got up an' went out sof'ly. I went, too, an' the teacheh +never even seemed to see us go." + +"Didn't you think he had gone crazy?" + +"We all knew it was cunjerin'," the lad rejoined "an' when we got +outside the door thar was Ol' Blacky Baldwin waitin', lookin' jes' the +same as usual. As I come by, he said, jes' as smooth, 'School's out +early to-day, boys.' But I don't think any of us answered him. I know I +didn't. I jes' took and run as hard as I knew how. An' when I got to the +top o' the hill an' looked back, an' saw Blacky goin' into the +schoolhouse again, I couldn' get home fast enough." + +"Was that what broke up the school?" + +"Not right away," the other replied. "Thar was some that never come nigh +the place agin, but befo' two weeks most of us was back. Teacheh allers +seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' +on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for +fear o' fallin'." + +"How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton. + +"'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the +time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers +done." + +"Why not?" + +"Wa'al, he'd wake up in the night screamin', 'I'm fallin', I'm fallin',' +and no one wanted to have a ha'nted teacher in the house. An' Blacky +Baldwin, he jes' hung aroun' the school, and we-all would see him every +day, mutterin' an' laughin' to himself. Then, suddintly, Teacheh +disappeared, an' though we hunted fo' him everywhar, he wasn' found. +We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I've thought sence that +p'r'aps he jes' went away, goin' back to the city, and leavin' no tracks +so's to make Ol' Blacky Baldwin believe he'd be'n killed." + +"That sounds likely enough," Hamilton said. "But even if he did get +away, I don't believe that he'd want to come back." + +"I reckon not," the mountain boy agreed. "Anyway, the school's shut up +now." + +"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton. + +"They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I +reckon they're not wanted." + +The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was +squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The +old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it +roughly. Bill Wilsh listened in a dreamy way, and Hamilton wondered at +his seeming carelessness. The old man read it twice, then, rising to his +feet, the boy repeated it word for word and without so much as a nod to +Hamilton, slouched off in a long, lazy stride that looked like loafing, +but which, as Hamilton afterwards found out, covered the ground rapidly. + +"Do you suppose he'll remember all that, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton in +surprise. + +"He? Oh, yes," the mountaineer replied, "word for word, syllable for +syllable--that is, fo' to-day." + +"He must have a good memory," the boy exclaimed "I'm sure I couldn't." + +"But he'll forget every word by to-morrow," the other continued, "almost +forget that he was hyeh to-day at all. That's why they're so hard to +teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him +tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh." + +"Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering.' Is there much of that sort +of idea in the mountains?" + +"None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man. "Some o' the +po' whites down in the gullies talk about it, but thar's mo' difference +between the folks in the gullies an' on the Ridge th'n there is between +the mount'ns an' the Blue Grass. They are different, an' they look +different, too." + +"Bill Wilsh certainly does," agreed Hamilton, "but I thought at first it +was because he was tired out with a long walk after a day's work." + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"They're all that way," he said. "They jes' look all beaten out as if +they hadn't any life left in them at all. I reckon the most o' them have +hookworm, too, an' they just look fit to drop." + +"Hookworm, Uncle Eli? What is that?" asked the boy. + +"It's a queer kind o' disease," the old man answered, "that comes from +goin' barefoot. There's a kind o' grub in the soil, and it works its way +in. It's only jes' recently that it's be'n found out that the po' whites +are peaked and backward because they're sick, and now they know a cure +fo' it, why hookworm is being driven right out o' the South." + +"Was there so much of it?" + +"Puttin' an end to it will make useful American citizens out o' +thousands o' poor critters that never knew what ailed them." + +"But where did the 'poor whites' come from, Uncle Eli? What made them +that way?" + +"Whar they come from I jes' don' rightly know. I reckon I saw more o' +them when I was down in Georgia, but the Florida 'crackers' are still +worse off. Thar's not so many in the mount'ns an' those that are here +live 'way up in the gullies. The sure 'nough po' whites, or 'Crackers' +as they call them, belong to the pine belt, between the mount'ns an' the +swamps o' the coast." + +"Why are they called 'Crackers'?" + +"I don' know, unless because they live on cracked corn and razor-back +hog. It an't so easy to say how they begun. Thar's a lot o' French +names, an' thar's a tradition that two shiploads o' Huguenots were +wrecked off Georgia in the early days an' foun' their way inland, +settlin' down without anythin' to start with, an' not knowin' for a +generation or two whar any settlements could be foun'. An' thar's a lot +o' folks that have just drifted down, down,--livin' jes' like the +'Crackers' an' often taken to be the same. An' the slavery system made +it worse because thar was no middle white class--either rich or po', +thar was nothin' between,--that is, down in that part o' the country. +But yo' mus' remember that thar has been a great change in the last +twenty years, an' that the children o' 'Cracker' families are doin' jes' +as well as anybody in the South." + +"How is that, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, in the days befo' the war, the po' whites were jes' trash. The +planters wouldn' have 'em, because the slaves did all the work; they +wouldn' work themselves, an' they didn' own slaves. So they were worse +off than the negroes an' even the black race looked down on 'em. But the +war waked them up." + +"They all fought for the South, didn't they?" + +"Mos'ly all. They were food fo' powder, but I always reckoned they +hindered more'n they helped. For the 'Cracker,' however, the war meant +everythin'. It placed him side by side with the Southern gentleman, it +strengthened the color line, an' jes' enough o' them made good to show +the others thar was a chance fo' them, too." + +"Then they started in to improve right after the war, did they?" + +The Kentuckian shook his head negatively. + +"No," he said, "at first they were far worse off than befo' because the +Freedman's Bureau an' the carpet-baggers made trouble right an' lef'. +The No'th had a fine chance, but the carpet-baggers were jes' blind to +everythin' excep' the negro, an' the po' white was jes' as shabbily +treated by the No'th as he had be'n by the South. Now that everybody is +seein' that yo' can't make a negro jes' the same as a white man by +givin' him a vote, thar's a chance fo' the po' white. I reckon the +'Cracker' as a 'Cracker' is goin' to be extinct pretty soon, an' the +South is goin' to be proud o' the stock it once despised. Atlanta is the +fastes' growin' city in the South, an' Atlanta is jes' full o' men whose +folks weren't much more'n 'Crackers.' The po' white, in a few years, is +goin' to be only a memory like the backwoodsman o' the time o' Dan'l +Boone." + +"That promises well for the South," said Hamilton. + +"The boom o' the South is jes' beginnin'," the old man said, "an' if +you're goin' to do census work this next year, yo' jes' watch the +figures an' see whar the old South comes in. It's a pity you're goin' +back to Wash'n'ton to-morrow, as I think yo' ought to see more o' this +country befo' yo' go." + +"I'd like to, ever so much, Uncle Eli," the boy answered, as he got up +from the step and started for the big loft where he slept with the +mountaineer's two sons, "but, even if I don't get a chance, I've learned +a lot from you about the folk on the mountains and about the South +generally." + +The mountaineer nodded a good-night as the boy disappeared. + +"Now thar," he said to his wife, who had been knitting stockings during +the latter part of the conversation, and occasionally interjecting a +word, "thar is a boy that is really achin' to know things. I wish Rube +and Eph were more like him." + +"Nothin' but hounds an' vittles worries them," the woman replied +sharply, "but they an't none like city boys, an' I'd ruther have 'em the +way they air than to come pesterin' with questions like Hamilton does +you. I don't set any sort o' stock in it, an' I don't encourage him in +sech nonsense." + +The big Kentuckian smiled, and filled his corn-cob leisurely as he +turned the talk to other things. + +Early the next morning, Hamilton and the oldest of the two boys started +on their fourteen-mile ride to the station, where the lad was to take an +afternoon train for Washington. They had gone about three miles, when +they came upon Bill Wilsh sitting on the stump of a tree by the +roadside. + +"I reckoned you-all would come along this way," he said, "an' I've be'n +thinkin' more'n more 'bout Teacheh havin' likely gone to the city, an' +not bein' dead after all. Yo' goin' to the city now?" + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co._)] + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co._)] + +"I'm going to Washington, Bill," Hamilton answered. + +"Is that the city?" + +"It's one of them." + +"Do yo' s'pose that'd be the city Teacheh went to?" + +"I couldn't say, Bill," the lad replied, "there's no way of knowing, but +it's likely enough." + +"I was thinkin'--" the mountain boy began then he broke off suddenly. +"I'm mighty partial to whittlin'," he continued irrelevantly. + +"The best ever," interjected Hamilton's companion. "Yo' ought to have +shown him some of your work, Bill." + +"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his +listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I +whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he +an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the +city?" + +Hamilton looked down at the lad, and wanted to cheer him up, but he +could not see what would be likely to bring the schoolmaster back, and +so he answered: + +"I'm afraid not, Bill. But he might, you know." + +"I reckon not. But I'd like him to know he a'nt fo'gotten in the +mount'ns. I want yo' to tell him that thar a'nt be'n a week sence he +went away that I an't be'n down to the school an' swep' the floor an' +seen that his books was in the place he liked to have 'em be. I wouldn' +want him to come back from his wanderin', if he still is wanderin', an' +think he was fo'gotten. It an't much, I know, to sweep a floor," he +added, looking up to Hamilton, "but yo' tell him an' he'll understan'. +It's about all that I kin do. He'll understan' if yo' tell him." + +Neither of the other boys spoke, and after a moment the mountain lad +went on: + +"An' when yo' see him, give him this, an' tell him it comes from Bill, +his 'tryin' scholar.' He used to call me that because, although I wasn't +learnin' much, I was always tryin'. An' yo' can tell him I'm tryin' +still." + +Reaching his hand into the bosom of his ragged shirt the boy pulled out +a slab of wood four inches square. It was carved as a bas-relief, +showing the schoolhouse in the foreground in high relief, with the +wooded hills beyond. + +"That's great!" exclaimed Hamilton. "I don't believe I ever saw better +carving than that anywhere." + +A momentary gleam of pleasure flashed into the boy's dull eyes, but he +went on again in the same lifeless voice. + +"Thar's the schoolhouse jes' as it was when he was here last, but it's +never looked the same to me sence. I want yo' to give this to him an' +show him, if yo' will, that I whittled it with the door open, jes' to +show him we're lookin' for him back." + +"But supposing I shouldn't meet him in the city?" queried Hamilton +gently. "Washington is a large place and there are many other cities." + +"I reckon you-all have mo' chance o' findin' him thar than I have hyeh. +I reckon he an't goin' to come back hyeh, an' then he'd never know that +we an't fo'gotten him, an' he'd think we was ungrateful. But yo'll try +an' find him?" + +Hamilton was conscious of a lump in his throat at the simple +faithfulness of the mountain boy, and he said gently: + +"Very well, Bill, if you feel that way about it, of course I'll try. +But you haven't told me his name as yet." + +"I was thinkin' o' that," the boy answered. Then he took from his pocket +a home-made gum-wood case, and opening it, took out a small piece of +paper and handed it to Hamilton. + +"Be keerful of it," he said, "that paper tears mighty easy." + +Hamilton smoothed the paper out on the palm of his hand, and looked at +it carefully. It was a "copy," merely of pothooks, done in lead pencil, +the strokes wavering and of differing slopes, and the whole so smudged +as scarcely to be recognizable But, down in the corner, written in ink, +in a firm, bold hand, were the words, "Very Good, Gregory Sinclair." + +Hamilton copied the name into his notebook and, refolding the paper as +carefully as possible in the same folds, he handed it to the barefooted +boy standing on the road beside his horse's head. + +"Did you-all read it?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Hamilton. + +"Did you-all see that he said 'Very Good'?" + +"'Very Good' was what was written," agreed Hamilton, thinking of the +wavering and smudged pothooks. + +"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' +as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one +to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. +But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't +fo'gotten." + +Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost +to sight. The two lads started on their way, but they had not ridden a +hundred yards when they heard a hail; looking back, they saw the +mountain boy standing on a point of the ridge; and echoing down to them +came the lonely cry: + +"Fin' him, an' tell him he an't fo'gotten." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + + +Settling himself comfortably in the train for his long journey to the +capital, one of the first things that Hamilton did was to take from his +pocket the little carving that had been given him by the mountain lad +and put it away carefully in his grip. Examining it closely as he did +so, the boy was astonished to note the fineness of the work, and he +realized that it must have taken Bill Wilsh all the spare moments of a +long winter to finish it. The work was all the more surprising, Hamilton +thought, since it had been done just with a single tool, a common +pocketknife, and was yet as fine and delicate as though carved with a +set of costly tools. He made up his mind to buy a set and send them to +Bill Wilsh with the first pay that he got from his Census Bureau work. + +Seated across the aisle from him was another lad about his own age, with +whom Hamilton rather wanted to make acquaintance, but the opportunity +did not arrive until the first meal, when, by chance, they found +themselves on opposite sides of one of the small tables in the dining +car. The usual courtesies of the table led to conversation, in the +course of which Hamilton's companion dropped the word "census" in a +manner which showed his familiarity with the progress of the work of +preparation. + +"Are you interested in the census?" asked Hamilton promptly. + +"Rather," the other replied. "I'm going to work in the Bureau. As a +matter of fact, I'm just going to Washington to get my appointment now." + +"You are!" exclaimed Hamilton. "Why, that's exactly what I'm doing. It's +queer we should meet this way." + +"Are you going as an assistant special agent, too?" his new friend +asked. + +"I'm going to start in that way," the boy replied + +"How do you mean 'start'?" the other queried. "I understand that work on +the manufactures will last three or four months, and by that time all +the other census-taking will be over." + +"I'm going to try to get some of the population work as well," Hamilton +explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, +and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators +from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them +without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine." + +The other boy shook his head. + +"I don't think I'd want it," he said, "at least not in a city, and I'm +going to do the manufacturing work, of course, in a city." + +"Where are you going to be?" asked Hamilton. + +"I took the exam in 'Frisco," the older boy replied; "that's my home +town, and I expect to work out there." + +"That's quite a walk from here!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"I had to come to Washington," the boy answered "and so my people wanted +me to go and see my sister down in Florida. She married a fellow who's +busy reclaiming some swamp land down there, and he promised me a try at +alligator hunting." + +"That sounds prime," suggested Hamilton, "and I should think that in +that reclamation work there would be lots of chance for it. It would +be worth watching, too, just to see how they got at that work. I should +think they would find themselves up against a pretty stiff job, +engineering down in those swamps. And then there must be barrels of +snakes, too?" + +[Illustration: ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (_Courtesy of Outing Magazine._)] + +"Water moccasins and copper-heads mostly," said his friend cheerfully, +"but you soon get so used to them that you don't mind them. It's very +seldom that you ever hear of any one being bitten by a snake. They all +seem more anxious to get out of your way than you out of theirs." + +"And you're anxious enough, too!" remarked Hamilton. + +"That's pretty good security, don't you think?" queried the older boy +with a laugh. "When both sides want to get away, there's not much chance +of a meeting." + +"But how about the alligators?" + +"That was real good sport," the other rejoined. "But I kept down to the +smaller chaps most of the time. I don't suppose there's really very much +danger, even in the big fellows, as long as you know just how to handle +them." + +"I don't think I'm particularly keen about handling them," answered +Hamilton. "I shouldn't think the big ones would want more than about one +bite to put you out of business." + +"That's all right," the older boy admitted, "but what's the use of +giving one that chance? Anyway, so I learned down there, it's not so +much the bite that the hunters are afraid of as the stroke of the tail. +It doesn't take such a big alligator to break your leg like a pipestem +with a sweep of that long, scaly tail of his." + +"But how do they catch them?" + +"With a noose, when they're sunning themselves. An alligator lies on a +bank, half in and half out of the water, most of the time, with his eyes +shut. Sometimes he really is asleep, and sometimes he isn't. That's +where the fun comes in. Of course, if you can get the boat right up to +where he is, close enough to slip the noose over his jaws, you've got +him all right. There's a knob on the snout that keeps the noose from +slipping off, and he sort of strangles when you tow him through the +water. But if you can't get there with the boat you have to go it on +foot." + +"You mean you have to get out of the boat and walk right up to his +jaws?" + +"Yes, just that." + +"It doesn't sound particularly good to me," Hamilton remarked. + +"It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the other replied. "As long as +you don't make too much noise, and keep out of reach of his tail, you're +all right. If you slip up, you want to jump out of the way about as +lively as you know how. But he'll never come after you, or mighty +seldom. If you get a slip-knot over his snout, and can throw a +half-hitch over his tail, why, the biggest of them is easy enough to +handle." + +"But what are they caught for?" + +"There's quite a steady sale. The big fellows are sometimes sold alive +to parks and aquariums and circuses, but most of them are killed and the +whole skins dressed and used for hanging on the walls of dens, like +trophies. The real market is for the skins of the little fellows, which +are made up into all sorts of alligator leather bags. Most of that stuff +is imitation, but still quite a lot of it is real. It's plenty of fun +catching the little 'gators, because even the smallest of them can give +you quite a nip and a reptile three feet long is a handful. I did well +enough out of it, because in addition to the sport I had, my +brother-in-law let me have the skins of all those I caught myself. Some +people, too, want to have baby ones as pets, but I don't think I'd want +to have them around, myself, after they grew to any size," he added, as +the boys rose and went back to the Pullman. + +By the time the train had reached Washington the two had become +thoroughly friendly, and Hamilton liked his new acquaintance so much +that he would gladly have seen more of him than merely as a traveling +companion. But as the other lad was going out to San Francisco, there +was no likelihood of their being thrown together at all. Indeed, on his +arrival, Hamilton found that he had been assigned to an Eastern city, so +he had to bid his new-made friend "Good-by." + +The exterior of the Census Bureau building was a disappointment to +Hamilton, by reason of its unimposing appearance. Indeed, it was +altogether too small for the purposes of the census, and during the rush +of the decennial work, there were departments of the census scattered +through various other buildings, adding no little inconvenience to the +work. Accustomed to the New York structures, towering tens of stories +into the air, the two-story red brick building of the census looked +small to Hamilton, though comfortable and pleasant to work in. It was +deceiving in its size, however, for the floor space was big and not +much broken, and there seemed to be plenty of room. But it was not until +the boy returned after his population work some months later, that he +saw this building as the center of unparalleled activity. + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (_Walden +Fawcett._)] + +"I understand," said the chief of the manufacturing division to him, +"that you are desirous of coming to the Census Bureau as one of the +permanent force, not just for the decennial period only?" + +"Yes, Mr. Clan," was the boy's reply, "that is, if the Bureau is +willing." + +"That will depend entirely on the work you do. I didn't see your papers +personally, but I understand you received a high rating, and that you +have had a good deal to do with figures.--That is, for a youngster," he +added, noting the youthfulness of the lad standing before him. + +"Yes, sir, I have," answered Hamilton. + +"What made you think of taking this work up?" was the next question. + +"Because I like it, sir." + +The divisional chief leaned back in his chair, put his fingers together +in characteristic attitude, and smiled. + +"Eh," he said, "you are sure you will like the work?" + +"Quite, sir," said Hamilton in his decided way. "I looked it all over, +and I know." + +"You will be less sure of the future when you are older," the Scotchman +said, "but if you 'know,' there's nothing more to be said. I'm going to +put you under the care of Mr. Burns, and he will instruct you further in +the work." + +"But, Mr. Clan--" began the boy. + +"Well?" + +"Where am I going, sir?" + +"New Haven, Connecticut--a good town, and one that will give you plenty +of work. You'd better start for there to-night. I hope you will like it +as much as you expect." + +"Thank you, sir," Hamilton replied, seeing that his superior deemed the +interview at an end. "I'll do the very best I can." + +On arriving in New Haven the following day, Hamilton made his way to the +local Census Office opened by his new leader. He found Mr. Burns to be a +typical statistician, to whom figures had a meaning beyond themselves, +but to whom little was of value unless it could be expressed in figures. +Hamilton introduced himself briefly. + +"You're Noble," the other said abruptly. "When will you be ready to +begin?" + +"Any time," answered Hamilton. "Right after lunch, sir, if you want me +to make a start." + +"There's a portfolio," the census agent answered, "take it along and you +can begin just as soon as you're ready." + +"What instructions have you to give me, sir?" asked Hamilton. + +"I save eleven and a half per cent of the time given to instructions by +writing them. You'll find a copy in there," he said, pointing to the +portfolio. + +"Very well, sir," the boy replied, "I'll go ahead, and if I find +anything I don't understand, shall I come and ask you?" + +"Telephone!" the census agent said. "Quicker to 'phone even if only in +the next room. Average conversation, six minutes; average telephone +conversation, two minutes; average value of my time for six minutes, +eighteen cents; average cost of 'phone for two minutes, one cent; direct +saving to me seventeen cents, not counting time of your traveling to +come and talk. No! Telephone!" + +"All right, sir," Hamilton answered, "I'll 'phone," and realizing that +his new chief had the question of the valuation of time down to a fine +point, he hurried away. + +On reaching the hotel he examined his portfolio with a great deal of +curiosity. The schedules were familiar, for one of the features of the +examination he had taken had been the filling out of such a census +schedule from financial statements of a group of factories. The written +instructions, however, were thoroughly characteristic of the man, and +percentage figures were scattered around like punctuation marks. But the +explanations were clear as crystal, none the less, and gave no +opportunity even for telephoning. + +An old New England center, and a college town, New Haven proved a most +interesting field in which to work. By far the larger number of people +with whom the boy came in contact were of old American stock and gave +him every assistance possible. + +"The census-taker?" one old man said, when Hamilton called. "Come right +in the office and sit down. Now tell me what I can do for you," and when +the boy mentioned the principal items of the schedule, the manufacturer +spent a good hour working over the books with his office force to get +out the figures desired. When Hamilton thanked him, he replied: + +"I'm an American, Mr. Noble, and one of the stones they moved from the +old churchyard of the Old Center Church and that bore the date 1681 was +the tombstone of my direct ancestor. I think you'll find most of the New +England stock proud of the United States and only too glad to do +anything they can to help the government in its census or anything else +for the good of the country." + +"I'm sure of it," the boy said heartily, "but there's mighty few of that +old type left. There's not ten per cent of the people in the country now +that are real bred-in-the-bone Americans." + +"It is a pity," the old man said, shaking his head, "and the worst of it +is that even that ten per cent lives principally in the country. It's +the cities that influence the progress of the nation. We talk about +making these foreigners over into our idea of what Americans should be, +and we forget that all the time they are influencing us to become the +kind of Americans they think we ought to be." + +"I guess that's true," the boy said, "because in New York, where my +folks live, the old New Yorkers seem entirely strange and out-of-place +in the dash and glitter." + +"Of course," the New Englander replied. "The real Americans are plain, +solid people; it's the Jewish strain in New York that has brought about +the display of wealth, and to the large number of Southern Europeans are +due the colors, the lights, the music, the public dining, and all the +rest of it. It may be the American of to-day, but it isn't what +Americanism meant a few years ago." + +"A good deal of New York life does seem foreign in a kind of way," said +Hamilton, "and I'm glad," he added, as he closed his portfolio, "that +the Census Bureau put me at work in one of the old-fashioned towns +first." + +As the boy went on in his work he came to find how thoroughly the spirit +of Yale was felt in the town. Almost all the leading business men were +Yale graduates, and instead of displaying the "town and gown" hostility +of some university places, New Haven was inordinately proud of its +college. Of course, even in such a town, there was quite a proportion of +foreign-born manufacturers but the boy found that the Jewish +establishments were even easier to tabulate than those owned by +Americans, the Hebrew understanding of the details of business being so +thorough. + +"That's not so very detailed!" one of these remarked to Hamilton when +the boy had come to the end of his list of questions. + +"It's a relief to hear somebody say that," answered the young +census-taker with a laugh, "because I hear a dozen times a day the +complaint that no one could be expected to know as much about a business +as these schedules require." + +It was not to be expected that the work would proceed without an +occasional hitch, and Hamilton had one such with a firm of Italian +marble-cutters in which the bookkeeping had been of so curious a +character that it was next to impossible to get out the kind of figures +the government wanted. Another was in a small Chinese place, where they +made little trinkets to sell to tourists in the "Chinatown" districts of +the larger cities, representing them to be imported articles of value. +Another was with a small place run by two brothers, Persians, making +fringes and tassels for fraternal order badges and matters of that kind. +It was interesting to the lad, for he had the chance to see the works in +a number of cases, and he learned a lot about the way many queer things +were made. + +But Hamilton's hopes were set on visiting one especial manufacturing +plant in New Haven, and he had determined to ask that he be allowed to +go over it before he left the town. This was the great sporting gun +works. Hamilton was passionately fond of sport, and had owned a +Winchester ever since he was twelve years old. Indeed, he had read up on +guns a good deal, and it was one of his hobbies. + +His delight was great, therefore, when at the end of a long day, after +he had turned in his schedule to his chief, the latter said: + +"Noble, your work is good. Johnson is faster. Up to last night he had +turned in one, decimal five-two per cent more establishments than you, +but your proportion of capital invested is larger, showing that the +works you went to took more time. Your schedules are better. This takes +a little over one-fifth more of my own time than I had figured at first. +I was going to do the Winchester works myself. I think you can do it. +You had better go ahead. It's complicated, but they'll help you all they +can. There's not much time left." + +"Very well, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton decisively with the +characteristic raising and lowering of his eyebrows, "I'll get all there +is, all right." + +The next morning, about ten o'clock, Hamilton presented himself at the +general offices of the company on the outskirts of the town, about a +mile from the college. He asked to see the business manager, and was +granted an interview. + +"Mr. Arverne," said the boy, "I called with regard to securing the +figures for the census of nineteen hundred and ten." + +"But you are not the special agent surely?" said the manager, looking at +him sharply. + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "Mr. Burns is the special agent, and I am +one of his assistants." + +"I should have thought Mr. Burns would have come himself," the man said; +"you are young for this work, aren't you?" + +Hamilton flushed at this reference to his boyish appearance, but he +answered steadily: "Yes, sir, I believe I am younger than most of the +assistant special agents, but I have had a good deal to do with +figures." + +"Burns is a good man," the manager continued. "If the government has +men of that stamp all over the country, the statistics will be +invaluable. You know Mr. Burns?" he added suddenly. + +"Only just since this work began, Mr. Arverne," the boy replied. + +"Queer chap. I don't believe he eats a bit of food or drinks a glass of +water without mentally figuring the nutritious percentage in the food, +and the effect of his drink upon the water supply of the world." + +Hamilton laughed. + +"He is a little that way, sir," he said. + +"A little!" the manager exclaimed. "But to return to the point. You +didn't tell me why Mr. Burns didn't come himself." + +"He said that the office work was piling up, sir," answered the boy, +"and--if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Arverne--he spoke of it as an +opportunity for me, since it was the largest plant in the city and my +schedules had been the most complete of those turned in to him." + +The manager eyed the boy keenly. + +"Mr. Burns doesn't make many mistakes," he said, after a moment, "and if +he has confidence in you, he knows what he is talking about. This is a +country of young men anyway, and it seems to be getting younger all the +time. Where is the schedule?" + +Hamilton handed him the paper and sat back, waiting. Several minutes +passed, while the manager went over the questions item by item. + +"Yes," he said at last, "I think our books can answer every question +there without difficulty. We keep very complete books. I am not so sure, +Mr. Noble," he continued, "that I can give you those figures immediately +in just exactly that form." + +"In what points do your books differ?" asked Hamilton quietly. + +"Not in any essentials, but in a few minor points," the manager replied. +"For example, you want to know here the exact number of employees on our +pay roll on December 15th. Now I could have the pay roll department--we +keep it as an entirely separate department here--turn up instantly the +payments for the week in which that date occurs, but in order to +separate that one day from the week, reference will have to be made to +the Employment Bureau to find out what workers left, and how many were +added, and the day of the week on which each of these left or began +work in that week, and to add or to deduct such sums from the weekly +pay roll." + +"That difficulty has come up several times," said Hamilton, "because not +many people pay their employees by the day. But in nine cases out of +ten, an average for that week is usually struck, figuring in some cases +by the days and in others by the hours. I suppose you noticed that the +schedule itself states that what is sought is 'a normal day'?" + +"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it +is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even +that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions." + +"No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch +usually comes just at the point you're looking at now--the cost of +materials." + +"That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great +deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with +all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion." + +"What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. +"That seems rather a curious phrase." + +"Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of +guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen +working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to +enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, +right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a +great deal of designing." + +"Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton. + +"We call them so," was the reply. + +"I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, +feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings +of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these +works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also +machinery and tools." + +"But those are for our own use!" objected the manager. + +"Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them +yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the +schedule it would make the figures all wrong." + +"How would it?" + +"Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and +you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without +getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the +machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost +price or at whatever figure you name." + +"I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems +a very roundabout way of getting at it." + +"I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery +you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you +make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried +to the capital account." + +"Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and +in that light these departments might be called productive, although not +directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out +pretty well for a youngster," he added. + +"I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing +nothing else for the past two weeks." + +"Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can +tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?" + +"No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous +expense." + +"Very well," the official said, "if you come back at four o'clock this +afternoon I will have the schedule ready for you." Then, seeing that the +boy hesitated, he said, "Did you want it before then?" + +"Oh, no, Mr. Arverne, thank you," the boy answered "that wasn't what I +had in mind at all. I was wondering whether, if I came back at three +o'clock, I would be allowed to see something of the works. In quite a +number of places I have been shown through the plant, sometimes because +I had to get figures from managers of different departments, sometimes +because I had a few minutes to spare while a clerk was filling up the +schedule. But I've always been so interested in guns, and especially in +Winchesters, that I really should like to find out how they're made." + +The business manager shook his head dubiously. + +"We very rarely show any one over the plant," he said, "because there +is very little to be gained by it. And in any case, there are some +portions of the works where visitors are never allowed, such as +ammunition rooms where there are quantities of powder about, and similar +places." + +"I'd like to be able to say that there was a desire on the part of the +Census Bureau for a report," said Hamilton, "but honestly I haven't the +right to say so. I'm only asking as a favor. At the same time I have +seen special reports on selected industries issued by the Bureau, and +possibly my information might chance to be of value to the special agent +who was getting it up." + +"Come back at two o'clock, then," said the manager. "One of the members +of the Board, Mr. Nebett, is here to-day, and if he has no objection +I'll try to find some one to show you round." + +Promptly at the appointed hour, Hamilton handed his card to the doorman, +who showed him into a waiting-room. In a few minutes the door opened, +and a keen-looking, well-set-up man appeared who came forward and held +out his hand. + +"I've been hearing about you from Mr. Arverne," he said, "and he tells +me that you want to look over the works." + +"Mr. Nebett?" queried the boy, and in response to an affirmative nod, +he continued, "Yes, sir, I'm very anxious to see part of it at any rate. +I can see that it's a huge place, but gun-making must be so interesting +that I'd like to see how it's done." + +"I think Mr. Arverne said something to me about your writing up a +special report, a summary or something of that kind." + +"That was just a suggestion, Mr. Nebett," the boy replied. "I told Mr. +Arverne that the Census Bureau did issue special bulletins on selected +industries, and that perhaps I might have an opportunity to make use of +some information. But that's a personal idea of mine only, because most +of those bulletins are written by experts in the Bureau." + +"Well," was the reply, "I don't see that it can do us any harm, anyway, +and if you are so interested you can come along with me. I like to go +through the works every once in so often, and perhaps I can tell you +more about these things than any other man in the place, because I get a +chance to see it as a whole." + +"If you would," began the boy. + +"Come along, then," said the official, without further parley, and he +led the way out of the general offices and across the street to the +first of a huge group of buildings. Walking through the yard the two +came presently to a long structure running alongside the railroad +sidings. "This," Hamilton was informed, "is just the storeroom for raw +material as it comes off the cars." + +He turned half round as though to leave the building, but Hamilton +stopped him with a question. + +"Steel, principally?" he asked. + +"Steel." + +"What kind of steel?" persisted Hamilton. + +"Oh, different kinds." + +"Why different kinds?" continued the boy, working his eyebrows, as was +his habit when in earnest. "For different kinds of guns?" + +"Yes," answered the older man, evidently deciding that he would have to +go into the matter thoroughly with Hamilton, and passing on into the +storehouse. "We get mostly three kinds of steel, nickel steel, carbon +steel, and soft steel, with a small proportion of other forms. We do +that for the very reason you mentioned, that they are used for different +kinds of work. Nickel steel we do not use for the cheaper grades of +guns, because it is so much harder, and costs so much more to work. +Indeed, very few gun-makers use nickel steel for barrels at all, but we +do on all our high-grade work." + +"I notice," Hamilton said, "that all the steel here is stored in bars +and rods. Do you buy it that way, or have you a rolling mill in +connection with the plant?" + +"Buy it," the other said immediately. "You can't run a rolling mill at a +profit except on a large scale, and, anyway, this is too far from the +source of supply. We get our copper in ingots, but not our steel." + +"I notice," the boy continued, fingering a long ticket attached to a +bundle of steel rods by a wire, "that you say here, 'Do not disturb +until report from laboratory is received.'" + +"Certainly," said the other, "every order as it comes in is tested. We +have two laboratories, a physical and a chemical, and not a scrap of +material is used until it is found to be fully up to the specifications. +There's no guesswork there, but the most rigid scientific tests. That +keeps any poor material from slipping through. + +"Now," he continued, "I'll show you what happens to those bars." + +He led the way to a small building where the bars were cut into certain +recognized lengths for the men at the drop forges to handle. + +"This forging shop," the manufacturer said, entering it as he spoke, "is +where most of the metal parts of the gun are first roughly shaped, and +this man is working on part of a cartridge ejector. Watch him now," he +went on, following the action of the workman; "he takes a piece of steel +out of the furnace behind him, lays it on the die, touches a lever, and +the big drop-hammer comes down,--once, twice. He turns it over, brings +the drop-hammer down again, once, twice, and the piece is shaped. It has +rough edges all round, of course, and so he takes it, while it is still +glowing red, to a more exact die, and brings the drop-hammer down once, +and turns it over, then brings down the hammer again once. Now the shape +is almost perfect but for that fringe of metal all round. He picks it +up, puts it on that die on this next machine close by his hand, touches +a lever, and a knife, exactly the shape of the die comes down, crunch! +shaving off the iron clean all round, and there is your forging done, +and all with the one heating. Of course it isn't finished off, but you +can see for yourself that the rough work is done, and all in the space +of a few moments." + +Hamilton found it hard to tear himself away, for while the principle was +the same, all the different forges were turning out different parts, and +it was a fascination to the boy to see those glowing lumps of steel come +out of the furnace and with the few strokes of the drop-hammer, fall a +few seconds later, the shaped part of a rifle. Some of the machines were +making receivers for the stock, the largest piece of metal, and other +small parts like the trigger or the hammer, while still others were +preparing the barrels of the gun for drilling. + +"It is not likely to occur to you," said his guide, "that it would not +do to let all those various parts cool off by chance. For example, in +winter they would cool more rapidly than in summer, and those near the +door more quickly than those in the inner part of the forging house. +That would make them of varying hardness. So, in order to make sure that +they shall be the same, all those pieces you have seen being made are +annealed." + +"How is the annealing done?" asked Hamilton. + +"That is simple enough," was the reply. "All that has to be done is to +heat them again all to the same degree of heat, then let the oven cool +at a certain rate. Here are the annealing ovens." + +"This is certainly a hot place," said the boy, as he stepped into the +next building. "Whew! I wonder any one stays in here." + +"No one does," his conductor answered. "We have this arranged so that +all the furnaces are filled in the morning, when they are cold, and +there are pyrometers to tell when the right heat is reached. All the +ovens, you see, are managed by these switches near the door. Look +here--" + +He slipped one of the switches into place, and the pyrometer needle +swung around and pointed to the degree of heat in the oven which it was +supposed to register. + +"What are those little clocks for?" + +"One for each oven," Mr. Nebett answered; "the keeper of the furnaces +sets them when an oven is up to the required heat. Then, you see, it is +easy to tell when they have been cooling long enough." + +"I should think," said Hamilton, "that making the barrel was the most +important part of a gun, because, after all, that is the only part a +bullet touches, and it must have to be exact. I've often thought of +that, how the tiniest difference at the mouth of the barrel would at a +thousand yards range cause it to be away off the mark." + +"It does have to be exact," his guide answered, "but that is a matter of +care rather than of difficulty. In this next building we bore the +rifle-barrels, just a simple boring process, as you see, but there are +all sorts of precautions taken to insure absolute steadiness. As soon as +a barrel is taken from the boring machine it is put through a test, to +determine whether it is correct in size to the one-half of +one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. If it is not as exact as that, it +is set aside. That is only the first of a long series of tests, too. You +would be surprised at the number of barrels that are rejected from the +time of the first selection until the gun is completed. Here, for +example, is perhaps the most sensational one." + +He led the boy to a small building, standing by itself in the middle of +the yard, heavily built, and looking almost like a log cabin of the old +type, made of great timbers. It was just a bit of a place, divided into +two parts by a heavy timber wall. + +"What in the wide world is this for?" asked the boy. + +"I'll show you in a minute, I think we're just in time," the official +said, as he led the way in. Hamilton followed him into the inner +chamber. A long row of gun barrels was the first thing the boy noticed, +the barrels all lying in slots. A gray-haired man was filling a heavy +charge of powder behind each one. The guns were pointing into a bank of +sand. + +"If you notice," said his guide, "you'll see that a little device, like +the old percussion cap is right by each of those charges of powder. Are +you all ready, Jim?" he queried, as the old man straightened up. + +"Yes, Mr. Nebett," was the reply. + +"All right," the other said, "we'll go into the room." He pointed out to +Hamilton, as they passed from one part of this little building to the +other, that each of these percussion caps was attached to a wire which +ran through the wall to the little room into which they were going. + +"Look out, Mr. Nebett," said the old man, after he had closed and +fastened the heavy door, "and you, young sir, don't be frightened," and +he pulled the wire hanging overhead. + +There was a terrific explosion and a roar, and though Hamilton had been +half expecting it, he jumped. Then he laughed. + +"I guess I did jump, after all," he said. "What was that for?" + +"To test the strength of the barrels," said his friend, as the old +workman slid back the heavy door. "There, you see," he added, "one of +them did burst." He pointed to one of the gun barrels rent at the side. +"Once in a while," he continued, "they just go up in pieces, and if you +look at the walls and the ceiling you'll see any number of bits of metal +driven in deeply." + +"But he seemed to be putting in an awfully heavy charge," said the boy. + +"We do that in order to be sure that we shall not expend a great deal of +labor on a barrel which in the end would fail to pass inspection, and +also to safeguard against accident," the other explained. "We do use a +very heavy charge because our guns sell all over the world, and in some +countries--England, for instance--the test is extremely severe. It's a +costly process, as it spoils a lot of barrels, but it is better to lose +material than to put out a piece of work which might not be +trustworthy." + +Hamilton looked around the proof-room carefully. Certainly it seemed to +have gone through the wars. From the thick wood huge gashes had been +rent, and the entire interior was jagged and splintered. + +"How much of a charge do you put to each barrel?" he asked; and when the +formula was given him for each of the different styles of rifle, the boy +whistled in amazement. + +"I should think that any barrels that stood that test could stand +anything afterwards," he said admiringly. + +"Well, they do," the other said. "It's very seldom that you hear of a +first-class gun exploding. I don't recall a case of one of ours for +years and years. And even if by some chance flaw they did, the good +ones, being nickel steel, would just make a hole in the barrel,--not fly +to pieces. But, as a matter of fact, any barrel that has been through +that 'proof-room' will have been subjected to the greatest strain it +will ever have to undergo, for there is no cartridge made that would +have one-half the power in proportion to the size of the barrel." + +From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of +the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and +finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed. Thus, for +example, in a receiver for a gun stock, one machine worked a bevel edge +on it, another bored it to the size of the gun barrel, accurate to the +thousandth part of an inch, another pierced the tiny screw holes, and +yet other machines made even the minute screw, done, as was explained to +Hamilton, so that the threads in each should fit with absolute +exactness. + +"But do you really mean to say," queried Hamilton in surprise, "that +every one of these fifty or more parts of each gun is inspected and +tested?" + +The official led him to a number of long rows of tables. + +"Here," he said, "are girls doing nothing else all day long. Here is a +testing die for a part of the ejector of one of our 1911 models. You see +that there are two spaces for all of them. It must fit into this one, it +must not fit into that, which is a thousandth of an inch smaller. If too +big, you see it won't fit into either, if too small, it would fit into +the one where it ought not. Every tiny piece is gauged on all its sides +and in every hole and at all points with this double gauge system." + +"That doesn't leave much for guesswork," said Hamilton. "But there is +something that's been puzzling me." + +"What is that?" asked his guide. + +"I've always heard a lot about gun-metal," Hamilton answered, "and yet +all the way through, these parts have been nothing but steel. And all +the guns I ever saw had that bluish look, as gun-metal has. For example, +my watch is what they call gun-metal," and he took it from his pocket +and showed the back of it. + +"Gun-metal," said the other, "is an alloy of copper and tin and once was +used almost exclusively for cannon and big guns generally. But you're +right about all guns having a bluish tinge. That is all steel, but it is +treated by a process called coloring or bluing. I'll show you--both the +old way and the new." + +Going down the stairs and crossing the yard, he took Hamilton into a +small building where there were a couple of open charcoal furnaces, in +which the charcoal was intensely hot, but not hot enough to catch fire. +The pieces of finished steel were buried in this charcoal, and every +few minutes the men in charge would draw them out, wipe them over with a +bunch of oiled waste, and thrust them back into the fire. It was about +the dirtiest, blackest, grimiest work the boy had ever seen. + +"That is the old way," Hamilton was told, "and although it is handwork +instead of machine work it is not a bit better in its results than the +new way. The modern system, besides, is much simpler and cleaner." + +In the next building was a row of charcoal ovens, revolving in such a +way that the parts to be blued were alternately covered and released +from the superheated charcoal, the effect of the greasing also being +done at every automatic revolution Each furnace door bore an asbestos +clock. + +"What are those clocks for?" asked Hamilton. "The same as those others, +I suppose, so that the man in charge can put in a number of certain +parts of a gun and leave them in for a regular length of time at a +certain heat, and pull them out all done?" + +"Just that," was the reply. "The only gain in the old style is that each +part being handled separately, if there is ever so little difference in +the metal, the bluer can give it a shorter or a longer time, whereas +the machine treats all alike." + +"Then when the gun is assembled, all the work is done?" queried +Hamilton, who was becoming a little tired from his long tramp through +the works and among the furnace-heated shops. + +"No," said the other. "That wouldn't do at all. A gun has not only got +to shoot, but it has got to shoot straight." + +"But how in the world," said Hamilton, "can you tell whether a gun will +shoot straight or not?" + +"One of the most important ways," said his informant, "is to let an +expert look through the barrel. One of our best men, for example, has +done nothing else all his life; his father before him was a +barrel-sighter and his son has just entered the works. He does it this +way--here, you try," and he handed a barrel to Hamilton. "Rest the +barrel in this crotch," he continued, "and look at the window. You see +there is a piece of ground glass with a thin black line running across +it. Point the barrel so that it is aimed just below that line, and if +you get it right, you will see a reflection of that line running +lengthways up the barrel." + +[Illustration: MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +Hamilton put the barrel up and looked and looked, but for a minute or +two he could not get the direction, then he caught the line. But the +reflection in the barrel was confusing, and it seemed to him that he saw +several lines. + +"It's awfully hard just to get that straight," the boy said, "and it's +dazzling, too." + +"That man you saw there," answered his guide, as they moved away, "can +tell almost to the width of a thread of a spider's web if a barrel is +straight. Here, too, is another barrel test going on. You see this man +is pushing a soft lead slug which fits the barrel snugly through the +barrel by means of a brass rod. It takes a certain amount of pressure to +push the lead slug through the barrel. Such slight variations in +diameter of the bore as one-tenth of a thousandth can be readily +detected, for if the barrel is smaller at any point than where it +entered, the slug will stick, and if it is the least bit larger at any +point, the slug will slide through too easily. Men accustomed to this +class of work can readily detect an increase or decrease in diameter of +one ten-thousandth part of an inch." + +"You certainly have it down fine, Mr. Nebett," Hamilton commented. + +"We try to," responded his guide. "Then when the barrel experts have +had their turn, the gun is assembled and goes to the action men." + +"Who are they?" asked the boy. + +"They test the trigger pull, the cartridge ejection, the fall of the +hammer, the filling of the magazine, and all such points. They have two +sets of dummies, such as were used for testing the parts. One must fit, +the other not, and so any fault in the mechanism is detected. The same +with ejection,--we must be sure that a cartridge will not stick. Then +after that--" + +"Still more tests!" + +"Didn't I tell you that we had to be sure that a gun could be made not +only to shoot but to shoot straight? Our crack shots get the guns next." + +"What do they do?" asked the boy, "fire at targets?" + +"Yes. But first a man, incased in an armored barricade, shoots a few +extra heavy cartridges in each rifle, in order to make sure that no +weakness has been caused by the various processes through which all the +parts have passed. Then he turns it over to the crack shots. They fire +half a dozen shots at a target, then look at the target through a +telescope. Those men know that they can hit the bull's eye every time, +so that if the shots are wide of the mark, either there is a defect in +the gun or the sights are not true. In nine cases out of ten it is the +fault of the sights, and they file them true." + +"Then really every gun has been fired before being sold?" + +"We turn out about sixteen hundred guns a day, and each one has been +fired several times." + +"Shotguns, too?" + +"The same standard of accuracy is needed in those. It is just as +important that a shotgun should throw a certain percentage of its shot +within a certain radius as it is that a rifle bullet should go straight. +Down in this little room," he continued, "a man stands all day shooting +down this gallery, forty yards range, and each target is brought back +and measured. In a circle with a fifteen-inch radius a boy counts the +numbers of holes made in the paper by the tiny shot. There should be +300. If there are 290 the gun is passed, but if less it is rejected. +Sometimes you get very queer shot patterns without knowing why." + +"Do all shotguns throw as evenly as that?" + +"All good ones should. It is astonishing to see how regularly the +'scatter' of a barrel will work out. Every barrel, of course, is stamped +with the number of shots it has put into the fifteen-inch circle." + +"And you make cartridges, too, don't you?" Hamilton asked. + +"That's one of the largest branches of our business," his guide replied, +"but there's not very much in that to show you, except of course the +making of the metal caps, and this is simply the punching of circular +pieces of copper or brass, turning up the edges, or 'cupping' them, as +it is called, drawing them to length, inserting the primer pocket and +heading--the filling is done in a building perpetually closed to +visitors. We think too much of our visitors," he added with a smile, "to +risk blowing them up. I don't suppose really, that there would be any +danger,--we have not had an accident for years,--but it's a business in +which accident is only prevented by extreme care, and we believe in +being thorough." + +Chatting pleasantly, Mr. Nebett showed Hamilton through the various +general offices, the payroll department, and the draughting and +designing room, and finally returned to the business manager's office, +where they found the schedule awaiting him, filled out in almost every +detail. A few spaces had been left blank until the boy's return, some +trifling explanation being readily answered by him. + +[Illustration: "A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +"I must thank you ever so much," said the boy, turning to the director +of the company who had taken so much trouble in showing him around, "it +has been one of the most interesting afternoons I have had in all my +life. I feel quite as though I had been witnessing the equipping of the +world's armies on the eve of a great war." + +"That would be all right," said the business manager, "if we were making +military rifles, but ninety-five per cent of our work is for sporting +purposes." + +"But how about your cartridges?" + +"There, perhaps," Mr. Nebett said, "The Hague tribunal would look +askance at us." + +Hamilton had his portfolio under his arm, but at the door he turned. + +"How many cartridges do you put out?" he asked. + +"Six million a day," was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + + +So long as Hamilton's work dealt with the larger manufactories of the +district he encountered comparatively little trouble, as he knew enough +of the desires of the Census Bureau to be able to help those business +men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so +forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made +several very pleasant acquaintanceships during the weeks in New Haven, +and it was not until he was "checking up," going to all the small places +that had not been listed, that he really found himself in difficulties. +He anticipated trouble with the dressmakers, and consequently his +delight was great when he learned that this had been omitted from the +census since 1904 because it is a "neighborhood industry." But the +milliners proved just as bad. + +In the first place, Hamilton could not work up any enthusiasm over a +millinery establishment, and although he had definite instructions that +each one was to be considered as a factory and entered upon the +schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a +little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the +first weeks of the work, visiting the places in the early morning and in +the evening when the offices of the larger factories were closed. His +worst clash occurred at almost the very last one to which he went. + +It was a little after five o'clock, just as it was beginning to get +dark, that Hamilton, having ascertained from the Business Telephone +Directory the address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work +for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really +handsome house, and rang the bell. He did so reluctantly, for there was +no plate on the door, and he did not wish to annoy strangers. But the +address seemed straight enough. + +The door was opened by a becapped maid, and Hamilton was shown into a +handsomely furnished drawing room. On a table in the corner, the boy +caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was +on the right track. After a few moments' delay, a richly dressed little +Frenchwoman bustled in. She seemed surprised to see the boy, and halted +on the threshold. Hamilton rose. + +"I understand, Madame," he said, "that you are an 'exclusive' milliner?" + +The woman looked bewildered. + +"You make hats?" Hamilton continued, perceiving at a glance that the +woman was foreign-born. + +"Is it a hatter zat you want?" she asked. + +"No, no," the boy replied, "I just want to know if you are a milliner?" + +The Frenchwoman, not at all enlightened by this explanation, answered: + +"I do not make ze hats; I design zem, and ze ozzers make zem." + +"Oh, I thought you were the proprietor," said Hamilton; "then you don't +own this place!" + +"I am ze proprietor, but I do not own ze house," she said; "I pay ze +rent. But why you ask? I pay my rent!" + +"Oh, of course," answered Hamilton, "but that has nothing to do with it. +I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census, and +wanted to make sure that this was the place I was looking for." + +"What is zat--ze census?" + +"That is the way the government finds out about all the people in the +country," explained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what +they work at and how many people they employ, the wages they pay or are +paid, and all sorts of things." + +The Frenchwoman's eyes had been getting bigger and rounder at every +sentence, and when Hamilton had finished, she said with an air of +regretful surprise: + +"An' they tol' me zere was no police spy in America!" + +"There isn't, so far as I know," the boy answered. + +"But you--" + +"I'm not a police spy," the boy said, a little nettled at being +misunderstood. + +"No? Zen zat is all ze more strange. In my country zose are ze questions +ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge?" +she queried, pointing to the little census shield on Hamilton's coat. + +"That has nothing to do with the police," the boy insisted, "that's a +census badge. Madame," he added, "do I look like a policeman?" + +The Frenchwoman, remembering the military appearance of the gendarmes +of her native land and the burly make-up of the American policeman, +shook her head. + +"Perhaps you are disguise'?" she said, with a smile. + +"No, I'm not disguised," Hamilton responded, "and the badge is just to +show that I have the right to ask you these questions." + +"I do not know anyzing at all about it," the milliner objected, "but if +you say you have ze right!" she shrugged her shoulders and sat down. + +Hamilton promptly picked up his portfolio, opened it on his knee, and +began to put some of the queries required. He got along well enough +while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so +forth were in hand, but the question about the number of hours worked +during the year made the woman most indignant. + +"What is ze good of a question like zat?" she asked. "What does it +matter if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand +occasion, ze wedding, ze garden party? When zey work more, zey get more +pay!" + +"Of course," said Hamilton diplomatically, "with such a number of +society people as you deal with that must happen very often." + +It was a successful move. The Frenchwoman beamed on him. + +"In ze season, yes, perhaps twenty or thirty evenings, but even zen ze +girl go home by twelve o'clock." + +Hamilton smiled to himself as he did a little figuring and filled up the +schedule to show the prevailing practice followed in the establishment +during the year. He was a little dubious about asking the questions +concerning the wages paid, but he found no trouble. + +"In your kind of work," he said, "I suppose the girls get good wages." + +"Ze very best," the woman answered, and Hamilton found that this was +true. Indeed, so anxious was she to impress on him how much better were +the wages paid by her than those in other establishments that the boy +secured a large amount of unexpected valuable information. But he came +to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For +the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but +the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner really could not +give, for, as she pointed out, most of the few especial customers she +had, brought the materials to her to be made up, and she had no means +of knowing what had been paid for them. Nor would she even try to make +an estimate. + +"But I must know," said Hamilton, in despair. "See for yourself,--here +it says that every factory must state the total cost of all material +used during the year and the value of the products." + +"Factory!" the milliner jumped to her feet. "What you say--a factory! +Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze designers of ze great +Maison Chic in Paris! Zis is insult!" + +For a moment Hamilton was amazed at the tempest he had so suddenly +evoked; then he tried to pacify the woman. + +"That's just a general word," he said, "and it is used for every place +where things are made." + +"No, no, no," she cried, "I know bezzer zan zat. A factory has chimney, +high, high, and smoke, an' nasty smells, an' machines. I have seen zem!" + +"That's one kind of factory," answered the boy, "but it is only one +kind. But if you like we won't use the word at all." + +This time, however, Hamilton's persuasions were of no avail. The +milliner had taken offense at the word "factory," and not another word +could the boy get out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become +absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, +evidently a customer. The proprietress immediately greeted her in +voluble French, recounting as nearly as Hamilton could judge from her +gestures her sorrows and trials at the boy's hands. + +As soon as there was a lull, Hamilton said to the newcomer: + +"I beg your pardon, but since you seem to know French, would you mind +explaining to Madame what the census is? She seems to think I am a +police spy, or something." + +"Oh, the census!" the girl exclaimed. "I could not make out what it was +all about. I thought it must be some question of taxes." + +"No," Hamilton explained, "it is the Census of Manufactures, and +millinery places have to be counted. I got along all right, and have +finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. +If you would just ask her the cost of the materials in the hats she made +last year, I'll be through and then I won't be delaying you." + +But not even the girl's fluent French could bring any light on this +subject, and laughingly she had to admit to the boy that her success +had been no greater than his own. + +"I'll tell you," said Hamilton; "I've got an idea how we could get at +it." + +"How?" asked the girl interestedly, for having taken a part in it, she +was American enough to be unwilling to give up; "what have you to +suggest--what is your plan?" + +"You are one of Madame's customers?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, whatever kind of books are kept here, there must be +some sort of ledger, so that your bills can go to you every month." + +The girl made a little grimace. + +"The bills certainly come," she assured him. + +"Well, then," said Hamilton triumphantly, "if we can find out from +Madame what proportion of all her trade your account is, and if you can +make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you, we +shall come pretty close to being able to make an estimate on the cost of +goods of all her customers." + +"That's an excellent scheme," the girl said. "I don't know that I can +give very exact figures, but you want just a rough idea?" + +"I'd like it exact, of course," the boy answered, "but since that +doesn't seem easy to get, the next best thing is a close estimate." + +With this device in mind, very few minutes elapsed before the required +information was secured, a rough guess made at the result, and the +schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said +laughingly: "I think I should at least receive 'honorable mention' in +the dispatches as a census-taker, the same as soldiers do in war." + +"Very well," said Hamilton, smiling in return, "I'll bear it in mind," +and thanking her heartily, he went on his way, greatly relieved that the +difficulty was over. + +In a piece of extra territory that Mr. Burns had assigned to the boy, +there were several factories in which there had been some difficulty in +securing properly filled schedules, partly because much of the work was +done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with +some of these factories--they were principally glass works--on the night +side first. He frequently found it necessary to work thus in the +evenings, especially after this added work, which was given him because +the district proved too large for the agent having it in charge. + +Little by little he worked these down until but one remained, owned by +Germans, where the boy experienced great difficulty in securing any sort +of attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and +Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for +that factory filled. This was the easier, as the night superintendent in +question had recently been promoted to that position from head +bookkeeper. + +One night, waiting for the superintendent to work out these figures, he +sauntered through the works. A phrase from Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man +in the Making" kept ringing through his head. It ran as follows--"It is +in the glass-factory perhaps, that the child is pushed most hopelessly +under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this +especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing +to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, +two or three of the men had come to know him by sight, and they nodded +now as he passed through. Noticing a boy that looked even younger than +himself,--for unconsciously his eye was seeking that of which he was +thinking,--he turned to one of the men who had nodded to him, and said +casually, and with an air of surprise: + +"Why, that chap there doesn't look any older than me!" + +"I don't suppose he is so very old," the man replied, "sixteen, maybe." + +"Seems a shame to have to start in so young," Hamilton went on, with an +assumed air of carelessness, "and I suppose he's been here some years." + +"Probably about four or five," was the reply. + +"You know," continued Hamilton, in a conversational tone, "I should +think it would be hard for a boy to start in working like that, and at +night especially." + +The man paused in his work an instant, and looked at the lad, passing +his hand over his forehead as he did so. + +"I was just ten years old when I began," he said. "I'm only thirty now. +I look fifty, don't I?" + +"You certainly look over thirty," Hamilton admitted. + +"Oh, I look fifty all right, I know that, and I'm as nearly played out +as a man of fifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. +Every year that a boy is put to hard physical work before he is sixteen +is equal to five years taken off his life." + +"I wonder that any employer does it, and that any State permits it," +said Hamilton. + +"There's not as much of it in Connecticut as in other States, although +the figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk +as though you had been having a session with 'the crusader,'" the +workman continued. + +"Who's the crusader?" asked Hamilton. + +"Haven't you seen him, then? With your ideas, you ought to get along +well together. And," he added, more seriously, "'the crusader' will be +heard of yet." + +"Why?" + +"He's a boy who started at work in this place when he was only seven +years old," the workman answered. "He's been here eight years now, and +he's an odd genius. He taught himself to read and write, but he doesn't +read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he +knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of children +working. All the labor union people and the socialists know 'the +crusader,' young as he is, and they send him, free, nearly every book +and paper that's published." + +[Illustration: YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway co._)] + +"But why do you call him 'the crusader'?" asked Hamilton. + +"Because he has some crusade idea on the brain,--thinks he can start a +revolution or something that will put a stop to child labor, and he +talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as he calls it. +But everybody likes him just the same, and he's a good worker--when he's +not talking." + +"Which is he?" asked Hamilton. "I'd like to talk to him, if I might." + +"No reason why you shouldn't," the other answered "he's kept busy of +course, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' +is given special favors, anyway. That's the boy, 'carrying in' over +there." + +Hamilton looked with interest at the boy thus pointed out. He would have +been noticeable, even without the knowledge of his peculiar position, +but with it, his difference from his fellows became most marked. +Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this +might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his pocket, he +started to eat it, and sauntered leisurely over to where the boy was +working. He watched him for a minute or two; then, when the boy looked +up, he said casually: + +"Have an apple?" + +Almost wolfishly the work-boy took the fruit from Hamilton and commenced +to devour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a +luxury as an apple seldom fell to his lot. A few sentences passed, and +then Hamilton asked: + +"How long have you been in the factory here?" + +"Eight years," 'the crusader' replied. + +"You must have been just a youngster when you first came, then?" + +"Seven years old," was the answer, "and small at that!" + +"It's a shame to let little children work like that, I think," said +Hamilton, wondering whether this would have the effect of rousing the +other, "it must do them harm." + +But even though expecting some fiery retort, Hamilton was unprepared for +the transformation in the lad. A moment before he had been a stooped +childish figure with an old and weary face, carrying trays of hot glass +from furnace to bench and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. +The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and +passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of +his surroundings, despite the rags in which he was clothed, under the +dull glow of the furnaces and the flickering violet play of a distant +arc light he seemed the bearer of some high message as his boyish +treble, rich in the tones of a familiar despair, rang through the +factory. + +"The land is filled with the voice o' cryin'," he began, "an' no one +seems to hear. Tens o' thousands o' children cry themselves to sleep +every night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. +Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so +much that hope is gone, an' tired enough to die! There are twenty-five +thousand children less than ten years old in the fact'ries of America." + +"Perhaps the people who could help don't know about it," suggested +Hamilton. + +"They know," the other continued, "but they don't care. They stop their +ears to the cryin' o' the children an' talk about America as the land of +opportunity. It _is_ the land of opportunity--opportunity for the +children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wretched +an' to be glad to die. There's no country in the world where children +are tortured as they are in the fact'ries of the United States." + +"Oh, surely it can't be as bad as that," protested Hamilton. + +The objection only increased the "crusader's" vehemence. + +"There don't any children have to work anywhere as they do here," he +fairly shouted, "here where they rob the cradle for workers, where the +little voices become sad and bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, +where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where +its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Their tiny bones +unset, they make them stand in one position all day long until you hear +the children moanin' hour after hour, moanin' and no one hears, or +hearin', cares. + +"They send missionaries to China," cried the lad further, "but there's +no child labor there; they try to reform the 'unspeakable Turk' but +there's no atrocity upon the children there; they call the heathen lost, +though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' +lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our +fact'ries here, an' even an Indian chief that they were showin' the +sights of our great cities to, when asked what had surprised him most, +answered, 'Little--children--workin'.'" + +"You mean it is peculiar to America? That there is really more of it +here than in Europe?" asked Hamilton incredulously. + +"More? There's none there like there is here. An' it's gettin' worse all +the time, worse this year than last year, worse last year than ten years +ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. +It is a thing of yesterday, a sudden toadstool in the infernal garden.' +It is all our own," he laughed harshly, "let us be proud of it." + +"How many children did you say?" asked Hamilton tersely, staggered and +shocked by this statement of the facts of the case. + +"Enough to sink the land in shame," the speaker declared. "There were a +trifle over a hundred thousand children between the ages of six and +fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures +showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n eight hours a day, that +a large percentage were workin' twelve to sixteen hours, an' twenty-two +thousand of 'em are at night work." + +As he said the last words, the "crusader" hurried away in response to a +call from one of the men. He resumed his carrying in of the red-hot +bottles from the benches where the men had been molding them, to the +annealing oven, and for a time Hamilton watched him. The work was a +fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to +the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to +take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundred feet, and +watching another boy, who was working regularly, not intermittently as +was the city lad's new acquaintance, he found that seventy-two trips an +hour were made, making the distance covered in eight hours nearly +twenty-two miles. + +The red-hot bottles were carried in asbestos shovels, and these had to +be kept fairly straight, imposing a terrific strain upon the back. In +addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time +they came back, passing from the heat of the melting oven, in front of a +draughty open door, to the heat of the annealing oven. + +In order to keep up with the work, the boys had to run, for it could not +be done at a walk, and thus were alternately greatly overheated and +chilled with icy draughts. + +Seeing that the "crusader" would be busy for a while, but wanting to +take the matter up with him further, Hamilton strolled over to where the +glass-blowers were working. This particular factory was turning out +cheap glass bottles, and there was little of the fascination that exists +in factories where high-grade glass is made into many curious shapes and +blown with great skill into marvelous thinness. In the middle of the +room was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not +quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before +each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the +blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, +drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the +consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the +end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and +rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then +they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing the +soft glass to its proper form. The now cooling glass was broken from the +end of the blowpipe with a sharp, snapping sound, and the blowpipe was +plunged in the furnace again for another bottle. The whole had taken +but a few seconds. + +"Why do they have so many boys around these places?" queried Hamilton of +the workman he had been watching. + +"Have to, they say," the glass-blower replied, "cheap bottles mean cheap +labor. No one ever expects to pay anything for a bottle--that is thrown +in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his +little profit somewhere an' in a cheap bottle he makes it by employin' +young boys cheap an' workin' 'em till they drop." + +"Is it done this way everywhere?" + +The workman shook his head. + +"No need to do it even here," he said. "It takes money, though, to put +in an endless belt to carry the bottles to the annealin' oven. The big +fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in +small towns where everythin' is done on a cheap scale, an' a boy's labor +is about the cheapes' thing in the United States--unless it's a girl's." + +Seeing that the glass-blower was being delayed in his task, Hamilton +sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" worked. +The latter broke out again as soon as he saw the boy coming. + +"I've been talkin' to you about children workin'," he said, "but you +haven't thought of babies bein' made to work?" + +"Babies!" + +"Of four an' five years old." + +"But they couldn't do any real work!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"Do you know what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he +was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid +three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for +wrappers, and a little worker of four is good help in stripping.'" + +"In a cigar factory?" + +"Of course,--an' the children find it so hard to keep up that they are +taught to chew snuff--as a stimulant--before they are six year old. Jane +Addams, writin' o' the torture chambers they call cotton mills in parts +o' the South, said she saw on the night shift, with her teeth all +blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' +five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' +answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout +the hot summer excep' two, when 'her legs and back wouldn't let her get +up.' An' what do you suppose the fact'ry owner did--send a physician? +No, he docked her the two days' wages for the time she'd been away ill, +an' another day's fine as a punishment." + +"That's brutal!" cried Hamilton. "Didn't the parents protest?" + +"The parents? That's where the mill-owners have their strongest help. +They threaten to discharge the parents if the children don't work an' +work hard, and they force the father or mother into whippin' the child +to compel it to stay at the loom. The whole country went to war once +over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,--or at +least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,--but you can enslave +white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without +air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, you can force 'em to +be whipped, you can snatch 'em from their cradles in their homes, you +can snap your fingers at the schools, an' you can fill churchyards with +a worse Massacre o' the Innocents than history ever tells about, an' the +men and women of America don't care." + +[Illustration: "I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway Co._)] + +"Oh, yes, they do," again protested Hamilton. "It must be that they +don't know." + +"How can they help but know? There are a few that have heard what Spargo +calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very few, an' +the misery an' shame goes on, gettin' worse with ev'ry year." + +"What's going to be done?" + +"The children will have to rescue the children," the boy cried. "If +men's hearts are cold and women's hearts are asleep, at least the boys +can hear. There's no power like a boy's, an' a boy will do anythin' +that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' +to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to +every mill an' fact'ry in the United States where a child is workin', +and make the owner sign a paper pledgin' himself not to employ a child +again. Give me an army of American boys an' I'll sweep the country like +a flight o' locusts." + +"But who would join?" + +"Every boy worth his salt. S'pose I came to you an' said 'In that mill +at the end o' your street, little children are bein' slaved and driven +to death because no one has the nerve to say what they think. We'll +rescue those children. Join us, we're five hundred strong!' Would you go +along?" + +"Guess I'd have to join," the boy agreed, "but you'd get into all sorts +of trouble." + +"Can I get into a worse trouble than any o' those babies have?" the +other asked indignantly. "What right have I to go on, even as I do, +knowin' how they are sufferin'. I don't care about trouble, I've had +nothin' else all my life. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could +get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like +other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't +see that carryin' bottles is goin' to help the world much, but if I can +carry hope an' health to some little boy or girl, I'm goin' to do it. +How, I don't know. But I ain't goin' to die without bein' able to +remember some poor child that's better off because lived." + +"What can I do to help?" asked Hamilton eagerly and aggressively, as +though he expected instant marching orders to some distant factory. + +"You can do somethin',--every boy can do somethin'. If nothin' else, you +can help to wake a sleepin' an' selfish nation. If the cryin' o' the +children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' +somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every day, as I do, o' +that 'spectral army of pygmy people sucked in from the hills to dance +beside the crazing wheel' and not do somethin'?" + +"But--" + +"Could I hear trampin' round me day an' night, the laggin' step of a +'gaunt goblin army that outwatches the sun by day an' the stars by +night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, +an' then I must go,--that there's a stain o' shame 'pon the honor of +America that'll never be wiped away until child labor is put down!" + +Thoughtful and subdued in spirit, Hamilton strolled back to the night +superintendent's office, where he found the figures done at last and the +completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted the offer of a +cup of coffee, from some which had just been sent in, and sat down +beside the desk. + +"I've been talking with the 'crusader,'" he remarked. + +The night superintendent looked up interestedly. + +"What do you think of him?" he asked, a little sharply, Hamilton +thought. + +"I think there's no question about his being sincere," the boy answered, +"but I can hardly believe that the figures he gives and the facts he +talks about are true." + +"They're true enough, I'm sorry to say," said the older man, sighing, +"but the 'crusader' usually isn't fair to the South. He blames the South +for the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large +proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are +owned by New England capitalists. I'm a New Englander by birth myself, +'naughty-two' at Yale, but I'm able to see the mistakes of the North +just the same." + +"I've always been taught that the North was more or less mixed up in +it," answered Hamilton. "It was shown to me a long time ago that the +slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were +no Southern vessels in the slave trade, they were all New England +skippers and New England bottoms. The shame of the slave traffic belongs +originally to the North." + +"And now a large share of the child labor, too," the other agreed. "But +you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the South +that made such conditions possible. I guess the blame is about even." + +"But is nothing being done on this child-labor business?" asked +Hamilton. "I tried to find that out from the 'crusader' but he didn't +answer." + +"Yes," said the superintendent heartily, "a great deal is being done. +The Bureau of the Census has been of immense service, and other bureaus +of the Department of Commerce and Labor are working on it, largely +through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have +been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being +checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall be real, not +nominal. Don't let the 'crusader' persuade you that everybody is asleep +and that nothing is being done; the government is doing a good deal, +although the country as a whole is unaware of it." + +"Yet it is increasing?" + +"In spite of all that is done to prevent it, it is increasing," the +other said quietly, "that is the sad part. If it could be thought of as +a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month +hundreds of children die from enforced labor and that greater numbers +fill their places, is a sad reflection on the industrial life of +to-day." + +"Well, as the South progresses, that will probably take care of itself, +won't it?" queried the boy. + +The superintendent looked at him curiously. + +"I think you told me last evening that you were a New York boy," he +said. + +"Yes, Mr. Wharton," answered Hamilton. + +"I suppose you consider New York a fairly progressive city?" + +"Greatest on earth!" affirmed the boy in true Gotham style. + +"Yet that same progressive city," the older man declared, "is the +headquarters of several forms of industry in which large percentages of +the workers are children under fourteen years of age." + +"What kinds of business can those be?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Making ostrich plumes and artificial flowers. It's not factory labor, +of course, but that doesn't alter the point that at least half the +output of artificial flowers is made by the cramped fingers of children, +generally after school and far into the night. They are not officially +reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The +disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of +them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach +them in two sections is a great help to the sweat-shop managers. But +every city has its own share of this child labor in the homes, although +in some of the smaller places, civic associations and municipalities +have taken the matter in hand with considerable success. Even that is +but a drop in the ocean." + +"Your 'crusader' will have to lead his crusade then, it seems," the boy +suggested. + +"Poor lad!" sighed the superintendent. + +"Why?" asked Hamilton. + +"He will never lead that crusade," the older man replied pensively. + +"Why not?" + +The man tapped his chest significantly. + +"He is incurably ill," he said, "partly glass-blowers' disease from +breathing the particles of glass dust. Men don't mind it so much, but it +is fatal to children when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the +'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he +gives a lot of trouble in the works with his revolutionary theories. I +haven't the heart to send him away; he couldn't get other work, and +being all alone in the world, he might starve." + +"You mean--" + +"That he will not live six months. That army of boys of which he speaks +so often will never go on the march, the banners he has designed for it +will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and +the drums will sound the final 'taps' for him before they roll for the +advance. And in that sleep, the cries of the children shall all be happy +ones." + +[Illustration: EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + + +The "crusader's" talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton's mind +working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy +tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent +in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children. He +chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the +Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more +detailed. Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been +overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he +would do all he could toward correcting this abuse. + +But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, +although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the +time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a +word about his being considered in line for the population work. It was +therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him +suddenly one morning: + +"So you're going over to the population side, I hear?" + +"Am I? I didn't know," Hamilton replied. "I had wanted to go, but not +hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved." + +"The Director told me this morning that you were going to be +transferred." + +"The Director himself?" + +"Yes. I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of +the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your +name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per +cent better than those of any one else in that section. So he said, +'That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble +on the population work. I'll see that arrangements for that transfer are +made,' and he scribbled something on a pad." + +"That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton, "to mention me +to the Director in that way." + +The statistician looked at him curiously. + +"I wasn't dealing in kindness," he said dryly, "I was dealing in +percentages. If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have +to thank, not me. I merely stated the figures, and they read in your +favor." + +The boy laughed outright. + +"I believe, Mr. Burns," he said, "that you would more easily forgive a +man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list +of figures." + +"Certainly I would," the statistician replied. "I could hit back in the +first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led +astray!" + +"Well," the boy answered, "I'm glad at any rate that my figures tallied +up all right." + +"I don't want to seem inquisitive," said the older man, "but when did +you get in the population examination?" + +"There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the +exam," said Hamilton, "because of the fact that I was doing census work +of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel +that everything had been done in the usual manner. I took the exam at +New Haven, one afternoon." + +"But are you going to do the population work there?" + +"No, Mr. Burns," the boy explained. "The Director wrote to me that I +would be allowed to send in a formal application in the regular way +through the supervisor of the enumeration district to which I had asked +to be assigned. The supervisor of that district had said beforehand that +he would be willing to appoint me, as the section was so sparse that +enough qualified enumerators were hard to get." + +"Well, where are you going, then?" + +"I don't know, for sure yet, of course," the boy explained, "whether +everything will go through as planned, but if so, I shall be going to +Kentucky." + +"In the mountains where you had been visiting?" + +"Oh, no," the boy answered, "in another part of the State +entirely,--down toward the black belt of Kentucky." + +"Kentucky isn't a black belt State," his friend objected. + +"No, Mr. Burns, but there are parts where the negroes are tolerably +thickly settled. The supervisor is a friend of my older brother, and he +says that is an interesting part of the country." + +"But can a Board of Examiners in one district look over the papers for +the supervisor of another district?" + +"No, sir," explained the boy, "but they can allow the examination to be +taken before them and have the papers sent to the supervisor of the +other district. It was a little irregular, I suppose, but the Director +knew all about it and it was for the good of the census, he thought, as +he had been told there were not enough enumerators in the district to +which I hoped to go." + +"Well," the statistician replied, "if you're headed for Kentucky I +should think you'd like to see your folks before going." + +"I had planned to go up on Saturday afternoon," Hamilton said. "I can +get to New York by evening and spend Saturday night and all day Sunday +there, catching the midnight train back. It brings me in early enough +for office hours." + +"And this is Friday," said the other thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what +to do. I can arrange for you to be off Saturday morning; it is only a +half day, and you can catch the first train out after business hours +to-day." + +"That would be bully!" + +"I estimate," the statistician said, rapidly dotting down some figures +on a pad, "that the fractions of overtime you have worked recently, +cumulatively considered, enable me to do that fairly, so that you've +earned it." + +"That's fine," said Hamilton, "for the family is going to Europe for the +summer, and I shouldn't see any of them at all unless I ran up to New +York now." + +The older man nodded his confirmation of the suggested arrangement, and +returned to his figures. During the noon hour Hamilton hurriedly packed +a grip, and was back at the office without a minute lost, for he found a +train leaving at a most advantageous hour, and by calling a taxi he was +just able to catch it. + +At breakfast the following morning, the conversation turned upon +immigration, and Hamilton read in a newspaper the statement that two +large liners were in New York harbor and would dock that morning, that +each carried a record passenger list of immigrants, and that Ellis +Island was making preparations for a busy day. + +"I've never seen Ellis Island," the boy announced "Father, do you know +if visitors are allowed over there?" + +"I'm fairly sure of it," his father replied, "but in any case there +ought to be no trouble for you, since the Bureau of the Census is a +part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, just as is the Bureau of +Immigration." + +"I think I'd like to go." + +"I think you ought to go," his father said. "Taking up the population +business, you ought to try to get hold of all the information you can, +ahead of time. I have been there several times, on business, and it is a +most interesting place." + +Accordingly, the eleven o'clock boat from the Barge Office, New York,--a +pier near Castle Garden, the historic immigration station,--carried +Hamilton to the famous Ellis Island. Preferring his request, the lad +speedily found himself in the presence of the Commissioner. He stated +his wants briefly. + +"Mr. Commissioner," he said, "I'm an assistant agent of the Census +Bureau in Washington, and I'm just going to my station as an enumerator +for the population. I have two days in New York and I'd like to learn +how things are done on the Island here. May I have a pass?" + +The Commissioner answered briefly. + +"Read this," he said, taking a sheaf of manuscript out of the drawer of +his desk, "and here's a short review for the use of visitors, and I'll +send you in to the Chief Clerk to get a pass, and if there's anything +more you want, let me know." He touched a bell. "Show this gentleman to +Mr. Tuckman, and let him be given a special pass," he said,--and +Hamilton was ushered out promptly, thinking as he went that this was +evidently one place where time was not wasted. + +The Chief Clerk was equally ready to assist the lad, and armed with his +special pass he started round the building, finding himself practically +free of the island. Hamilton possessed the capacity of making friends +readily, and with his alert manner and direct appeal, he usually secured +attention. Walking sharply through the place he soon found himself down +in what was called the Information Division. For the moment one of the +clerks was not busy, and Hamilton, stepping up to him, began to ply him +with questions. A tall young fellow, who was standing nearby, listened +for a few moments, then turned to Hamilton. + +"See here," he said, "you can't learn much about Ellis Island just by +asking questions, you've got to go around and see for yourself." + +"That's just what I propose doing," Hamilton answered, "but I thought it +wouldn't be such a bad plan to get an idea of things first, and then I +should understand what I saw. There's not much use in watching things +unless you understand just what's going on. I have some knowledge of it, +of course, because the Commissioner gave me some reading matter to look +over, and I've got a special pass, so that I want to make the best use +of it." + +"Suppose you come along with me, then," said his new acquaintance, who +was none other than the Chief of the Information Division, "and I'll +show you round myself as far as I can spare the time. It so happens that +there are a lot of scattering things I want to look after through the +building to-day, and if you don't mind my leaving you alone, once in a +while, I'll take you through systematically. Where do you want to +begin?" + +"Right at the very start," rejoined Hamilton "I always think the +beginning is the most important part, and I'd hate to lose any of it." + +"All right," said his conductor good-humoredly; "if you want it all, you +shall have it. I notice, too," he said, as they walked along the hall +and out of the door to the well-kept lawns that stretch between the main +building and the sea wall, "that you're in good time, for there's a +barge just pulling in." + +"The barge is from one of the liners that came in this morning, I +suppose?" queried the lad. + +"Yes, one of the Hamburg boats," his guide replied. + +"Are those barges run by the immigration authorities?" + +"No," was the answer, "those are owned or managed by the steamboat +companies. They bring all the steerage passengers who can't show that +they are citizens, and all the cabin passengers who are being detained." + +"Cabin passengers," echoed Hamilton in surprise; "I didn't think any +cabin passengers came to Ellis Island. All second cabin, I suppose?" + +"Not a bit of it," answered the immigration official; "there's quite a +sprinkling of first-class passengers as well. Why, during a period of +three months recently, nearly three thousand cabin passengers were +detained on the island here, and I suppose twenty per cent of them had +come over in the first-class saloon." + +"But why should any first-class passengers be stopped and shipped to +Ellis Island?" queried the boy. "I don't understand. I thought Ellis +Island was to keep out people who were paupers, or diseased, or were +undesirable citizens!" + +[Illustration: THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"That's just exactly what it is for," the other replied, "but the United +States government doesn't think that having money enough to pay for a +first-class passage makes every man a desirable citizen! A first-class +berth is no insurance against an incurable disease, for example, and +there's nothing to prevent a criminal from coming over in the first +cabin." He laughed. "Most of them do, I think," he said. + +"It really never appealed to me just that way," the boy remarked; "I +supposed always that first-class passengers went right through if they +passed quarantine." + +"That would mix things up," the older man said. "Why, in that case we +should have all the mentally deficient, all the paupers, and all the +freaks landing here in shoals. Any group of friends, or any government, +for that matter, would find it cheap and easy to dump all the public +charges of Europe on our shores for the price of a first-class ticket. +Oh, no, that would never do. Once in a while, you hear passengers on the +big liners complaining of the inquiries made before they land, but it's +got to be done. You can see for yourself what would happen if we +didn't." + +"But if they bring plenty of money, they would not become public +charges." + +"No, and we can't exclude them on that ground. But money, for example, +has nothing to do with crime or anarchism or things of that sort. I tell +you, there's a big slice of our work done before ever a vessel reaches +her dock at a New York pier. Of course, problems do come up nearly every +day, such as circus freaks, for instance." + +"You mean the living skeleton, the tattooed lady, the fat baby, the +giant, and so forth?" asked Hamilton. + +"Exactly. Are those people to be considered desirable citizens, or not? +There is no question as to their inability to make a living by any +customary kind of work, but on the other hand it is very difficult to +prove that they could not get good money at a sideshow. If, however, +they are able to show that they have been engaged in Europe by an +American circus manager, they can come under the alien contract labor +law." + +"Then this string of people," said Hamilton, pointing to those who had +just been unloaded from the barge, "may be from all classes of the +ship." + +"They might be," his guide replied, "but the chances are that they are +all steerage. Cabin passengers that are detained usually come on the +last boat, with the inspector. We have quarters here with a little more +privacy for them, and they are kept together. But now watch this line. +Suppose we go this way," and stepping over a low iron railing, the +official, followed by Hamilton, walked briskly up beside the line. A few +yards from the door of the building, this line of people passed into a +long barred lane. At the entrance of this stood an inspector who checked +off the large ticket each immigrant had pinned on him to show his +identity, in order to prevent confusion further on. Passing before the +inspector at brief but regularly measured intervals, the immigrants +walked one by one up this barred lane to where it made a right angle. + +"There's the first inspecting doctor," said Hamilton's conductor, +pointing to a man standing just at the angle and watching carefully each +immigrant as he walked up. After a moment Hamilton turned to his +companion in surprise: + +"But he isn't doing anything!" he said. + +"Doctor," said the chief of the division, with a laugh, "I am afraid we +shall have to investigate this matter. Here is a lad who says that +you're doing nothing. He's watched you for a couple of minutes and you +haven't made a move." + +Hamilton began to protest, but the big doctor only laughed in reply, +without taking his eyes, however, from the procession of figures which +one by one walked up to him and made the turn round the angle. + +"If he'll wait a minute or two more," he said, "perhaps I'll have a +chance to do something, and save my reputation." + +There was a pause; then the doctor continued: + +"I think there's something doing now; watch this man coming up." + +"He seems to limp just the merest trifle, that's all I can see," the boy +replied. + +"Bone disease of some kind, or maybe joint," the doctor said, +"tuberculous hip, like as not," and as the man passed by he leaned +forward and chalked a big "B" on the shoulder of his coat. "'B' for +Bones," the doctor explained to Hamilton. + +"What will happen to him?" asked the boy of the immigration official. + +"Because of that mark?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"It simply means that he will be held for 'special inquiry.' He may be +all right, but before he is passed, he will have to be examined +physically--a thorough physical examination, I mean. Now here, you see, +is another doctor." + +Eight or ten yards further on stood another man, all in white as the +first had been, who took up the inspection where the judge of bone +malformations had left off. A sunken chest, he explained to Hamilton, a +hectic flush, a pinched nostril, an evident difficulty in breathing, a +certain carriage of the head, a blueness of the lips, certain types of +pallor, all these and a number of little points which experience had +shown to be symptoms of organic disease his trained eye could detect at +a glance, and he, too, every few minutes, stooped forward and chalked +upon the coat of the man or the blouse of the woman, as the case might +be, a letter which told of a suspected disease. + +"I suppose I ought not to say anything," said Hamilton, "but that looks +a little 'hit-or-miss' to me. It's hard on an immigrant to be detained +on the basis of a medical examination that barely takes ten seconds." + +"If that were all," said the official, smiling, "it surely would be a +hardship. But you don't quite get the point. All these passengers really +are detained, and this arrangement is only a way to render the detention +shorter by letting those go through unchecked who do not need further +examination. This is not to delay the suspects, but to cause less +trouble to the others. Here, however is where most of them get stopped." + +He pointed to another doctor, standing close to the last, who examined +the eyes quickly and deftly (principally for a chronic and contagious +disease called "trachoma"), scrupulously cleansing fingers and +instrument between each immigrant. + +Passing the eye doctors the immigrants came to an inspector who stood at +a place where a large grating was built midway in the passage, dividing +it into two parts. All those who had been marked by any of the doctors, +and, in the cases of families, all those in the party of any one so +marked, passed up the right hand passage which led to the Special +Inquiry; the others were guided to the left hand side of the grating, +which led directly into the main primary inspection room. + +"Do you suppose they understand anything of the meaning of that +division," asked Hamilton, "why some go on this side and some on the +other!" + +"They don't at all," was the reply. "You will notice that there are no +signs up, and that no attempt is made--at this point--to talk to the +immigrant or to try to make him understand anything. Then, too, since +all the members of a family or party are kept together, there is no +reason why they should make a disturbance. They simply go where they are +sent. If we separated the families, sending some on one side and some on +the other, then there would be trouble!" + +"That's true," said Hamilton, "in many cases they couldn't read the +signs, and they don't know at all what the doctors' marks mean." + +"Exactly, and once past the inspector, there is no getting out or coming +back, for the two passages lead directly into two series of rooms from +which there is no outlet except in a given direction." + +"But the others who are all right,--where do they go?" asked the boy. + +"They're not safe yet," his conductor answered "They have only passed a +preliminary looking over. All that this first group of doctors does, +remember, is to detect the questionable or to pass the obviously +unquestionable--whichever way you like to put it, and thus avoid delay +in the primary inspection room." + +"Which group are we going to see first?" + +"Those who have been passed," was the reply, "because most of them will +go right out, and you can follow that more easily." + +Going up the stairs, Hamilton found himself in an immense room all +divided up into little lanes by bars and gratings. Each of these lanes +bore a large number suspended over its entrance, corresponding to the +number of one of the manifest sheets of the vessel, and likewise to the +number pinned on the clothing of every immigrant while he was still on +the vessel, when his name was tallied with the manifest sheet. + +"I see the reason of those numbers they have pinned on them now," said +Hamilton, "it's all the same principle, to avoid talk and questioning." + +"Certainly," his friend said, "and if you look a little closely, you +will see that in addition to the big number on the card that is pinned +on, there is also a smaller number." + +"I had noticed that," Hamilton answered, "and I was going to ask you +what it was for." + +"That is the number of the name on the manifest sheet," the other +replied. "Thus, for example if Giordano Bruno is the tenth name on the +seventh manifest sheet, this man at the top of the stairs will guide him +into aisle number seven. Then, when his turn comes and he has moved up +to the desk at the end of the line, the inspector doesn't have to waste +time questioning him, and finding the place on the manifest sheet. He +looks at the number, runs his finger down to the tenth name, and has him +at once." + +"It's a great system," said Hamilton admiringly. + +"Why you're right at the start of it," said the official with a laugh; +"wait till you get further on, if you want to find system." + +"Here I see, too, the questioning begins," remarked Hamilton. + +"Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and +they are assisted by interpreters when necessary. They hold a +responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land. You +see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest +sheet. If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands +and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds +to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has +already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a +blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the +railroad waiting rooms." + +"But if he hasn't?" + +"Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry +rooms where you saw the others going. He is given a different colored +ticket, in accordance with the expected objection. You see, the +inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case. He just +affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear. Just as before, +the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and +easily as possible. Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could +land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the +primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting +rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes. That's not much of +a hardship!" + +"It certainly isn't," Hamilton agreed. "And I notice that most of them +seem entitled to land." + +"That varies a great deal," his guide said. "I think it averages about +ninety per cent. In a few ships, especially those handling little of +the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as +five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern +and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of +the entire passenger list." + +"All right," said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, "I guess I have that +straight. But I notice there is a third stream of people. One, you say, +is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but +how about the third?" + +"That's the 'temporary detention' group. I'll take you there in a +minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted. Here is +the railroad waiting room." + +A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad +ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or +steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada. A +money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be +turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, +even down to the fractions of a cent. + +"Why are they pinning on more tickets?" asked Hamilton. "I thought when +they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it." + +"That also is to make it easier for them," the other said. "Most of +these people are poor, and we try to make traveling as cheap for them as +possible. Nearly all the railroads run one train each day that carries +special cars for the immigrant service. They give, accordingly, a +cheaper rate to the government. Supposing, for example, that the regular +number of the Lehigh Valley train was always numbered '9,' then every +man who purchased a ticket for a point on the Lehigh Valley would be +given the ticket '9.' Then, when the boat that was taking the passengers +for Lehigh Valley points left Ellis Island, all the 9's would be +gathered together and no one would be left behind." + +"Nothing seems to have been forgotten," said Hamilton, "even food, for I +see there's a big counter over there." + +"That's quite a thing, too," the other said. "A man can get two days' +food, six meals, for a dollar, or a little over sixteen cents a meal." + +"And what in the wide world can he buy for that price?" exclaimed the +boy. + +"Here's a sample of the contents of one box," the other said; "read it, +it tells you what there is. 'Four loaves of bread, two pounds of cooked +beans, twelve ounces of sausage, one can of beef, one can of sardines, +six ham sandwiches, three pies, and four oranges.' I'm sure you wouldn't +starve on that." + +"No," said Hamilton, "I think I could get along if I ate it all. But why +is it that most of the immigrants here are men? Have the women been lost +in the shuffle?" + +The immigration official laughed. + +"They're not lost," he said, "most of the women pass through the +'temporary detention' rooms. We're going to visit there now. Of course +there are some women who will be able to take the train directly, but we +try to see that they go with some one, or that their being met is +assured. The tickets pinned on them are not given until an inspector has +seen their railroad tickets, and they do not land in New York streets at +all. A boat takes each group to the railroad pier, and they are escorted +to the train by an inspector, who places them in charge of the conductor +who is responsible for their arrival at their destination. Nearly all go +West or South and start from the Jersey side. It is an entirely +different matter with women and children who want to land in New York +City. In every case they are detained until called for by some relative. +And that relative has to prove to us that he really is the relative in +question." + +"How do they meet?" + +"I'll show you right now. In this room," he continued, entering another +large waiting room, "are all the people 'temporarily detained.' Most of +them will he released shortly. If you listen you can hear just how it is +done, because that clerk who has just come in has a list." + +As he spoke a young fellow stepped forward and read a list of nine +names. Seven of the nine were in the room and came to the front, the +clerk ticking off their names on the sheet. + +"Can we go on?" asked Hamilton. "I would like to see just how this +works!" + +"All right," responded his guide, smiling at the boy's eagerness, "go +ahead." + +As they reached the next room, Hamilton saw the clerk ushering the seven +immigrants behind a grating. Outside the grate was a narrow open space +and then a desk. On the farther side of the desk the friends of the +seven in question were waiting. There was one lad, just about his own +age, among the friends, and Hamilton waited curiously to see whom he was +to meet. Among the immigrants was a sweet-faced old Frenchwoman, and +Hamilton hoped that she might be the lad's relative. As it chanced, this +boy was the first to come up. + +[Illustration: IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island._)] + +"For whom are you calling?" he was asked. + +The young lad answered clearly and promptly, and the clerk nodded +approvingly as the questions proceeded. + +"You say you have an older brother," the clerk said, "and the two of you +are able to keep your grandmother?" + +"Yes, indeed, sir," was the reply. + +"You are young to have come. Why didn't your brother come instead?" + +"He has been a waiter in a French hotel," answered the boy, "and has not +learned much English He asked me to come." + +A few short, sharp queries established the relationship without question +and the boy was released from the desk. The door in the grating was +opened, and to Hamilton's delight it was the old Frenchwoman who came +out. After a most affectionate greeting, they went off together, the boy +coming back to thank the clerk profusely, with true French courtesy. + +"I suppose all that is necessary," said Hamilton "but I'll admit I don't +see why. No one would be likely to call for some one else's +grandmother!" + +"We want to be sure that women who land here are really with their own +people," said the official, evading a more direct statement, "and +sometimes if the chief of the 'temporary detention' work is not +satisfied, the immigrant is sent back to 'special inquiry.'" + +"How long are they detained?" + +"Nearly all go out the same day. A few, however, have to telegraph for +their friends to meet them, and we look after that on their behalf. They +are never temporarily detained over five days, except in the case where +a child has been held in quarantine and some member of the family has to +remain until the patient is released in order to take charge of him. +That covers, you see, all those who come here except the 'special +inquiry' cases." + +"May I see those?" asked Hamilton. + +"That's not so easy," his friend replied, "and you wouldn't get much out +of it. They are handled, one by one, in Courts of Special Inquiry, each +court consisting of three inspectors, an interpreter, and a +stenographer, while doctors are always on call. Special Inquiry, +remember, does not mean that there is any reason for excluding the +immigrant, merely that his inclusion is not self-evident. In most cases, +answers to a few questions settle all difficulties, and the decisions to +exclude are rare. In doubtful cases, a Court of Special Inquiry takes +great pains to investigate the whole condition closely. When a decision +to exclude is reached, the immigrant is given an opportunity to 'appeal' +to the Commissioner, and these appeals vary from fifteen to seventy a +day. Further appeals may be taken in rare cases." + +"And when all appeals are lost?" + +"Then the immigrant must be deported at the expense of the steamship +company that brought him." + +"What are the usual grounds for deportation?" asked Hamilton. + +"Principally persons of unsound mind, insane, diseased, paupers likely +to become a public charge, criminals, anarchists, contract laborers, and +those who by physical defect are unable to make a living." + +"It seems to me that you go to a great deal of trouble here," Hamilton +said, "and it must be a big expense keeping and looking after such a mob +of people." + +"We don't pay for their keep," the official answered; "we make the +steamship companies do that. They are expected to bring desirable, not +undesirable immigrants here, and if they bring people whom we cannot +accept, they must take the consequences and bear the expense of +deporting them. Our deporting division looks after that, and it is one +of the hardest parts of our work. We've a pathetic case there now." + +"You mean that Bridget Mahoney case," said an inspector, who had just +stepped up. "I beg your pardon for interrupting, but I was just going to +ask you to come and see about that case. There are some new +developments." + +"I'll go right in," said Hamilton's guide interestedly. "I think you +might come along, too," he added, turning to the boy. + +"Who is Bridget Mahoney?" Hamilton asked. "That's a good old Irish +name." + +"And she's a good old Irish soul," the other answered. "She landed here +about three weeks ago, fully expecting her son to meet her, but during +the five days when she was in temporary detention he failed to show up." + +"But why didn't you telegraph to the son?" asked Hamilton, who was +beginning to feel as though he knew all the ropes. + +"We couldn't find his right address." + +"Was he a traveling man?" + +"It wasn't that. The woman said she knew he lived in a town called +Johnson, or Johnston, or something like that, but she didn't know in +what State. Now there are nearly forty post-offices with that name in +America, and we sent telegrams or letters to every one of these. But we +never received a definite reply." + +"Well, if she's all right, as you say she is," said Hamilton, "why can't +she land and wait until her son is reached?" + +"Bridget's over seventy," the chief replied, "and not very strong; she'd +be a public charge, sure." + +"And yet she's all right?" + +"Oh, perfectly," he said as soon as they reached the building. + +"We got this telegram yesterday and I took it to your office this +morning," the newcomer answered, "to talk it over with you, but you +weren't there." + +The chief of the Information Division glanced at the telegram and then +turned it over to Hamilton. + +"Read that," he said. "That's the way it came, without signature or +anything." + +Hamilton read it eagerly, and as soon as he had finished, "that's from +Bridget Mahoney's son," he announced, with as absolute assurance as +though it had been signed. + +The deportation official looked up in surprise, but Hamilton's guide +made a hasty explanatory introduction. + +"We should like to be as sure as you are," said the deportation chief, +"although I think we all rather hope it is from him. But you see it +isn't dated Johnstown or anything like that, and it isn't signed. Just +simply the words: + +"'Don't--deport--my--old--mother.'" + +"If you notice," he continued, "it comes from away out West, and it +might apply to any one of thousands of cases. 'My Old Mother' might have +been deported weeks ago." + +"But this is yesterday's wire," Hamilton's friend interjected, "you said +there were new developments in the case." + +"There are," Farrell replied, drawing another telegram out of his +pocket. "This one came this morning, and it's just about as intelligent +as the one you have. Notice, though, that it's dated from Chicago early +yesterday evening." + +"What does it say?" burst out Hamilton, too eager to wait until it was +read. + +"It's very short," was the answer, "it just reads: + +"'--Hold--Mother--'" + +"Unsigned?" + +"Unsigned, just as before." + +"It must be from the same person," Hamilton suggested. + +"I think there's little doubt of that," the deportation chief agreed. + +"Whoever sent it must be traveling fast," the boy remarked, "that last +one was from Montana." + +"I've been doing my best to persuade myself that I have the right to +keep Bridget longer. Twice I've begged an extra stay from the +Commissioner, and he's been willing to consent, but he thinks she's got +to go back now. There's really no valid reason that I can give against +it." + +As they walked toward the desk in the deporting division, one of the +clerks called the chief. He came back a moment or two later with a +telegram in his hand. + +"A third one," he said, "it must have come while I was out at lunch. The +same person wrote all three, for this is almost the same as the first; +it reads: + +"'--Don't--deport--my--old--Mother--I--have--plenty--to--support--her--'" + +"Where's it dated from?" asked the boy. + +"I hadn't noticed," the deportation chief replied. "Oh, yes, why it's +from Albany!" + +"That's pretty near here!" Hamilton said excitedly. "Oh, Mr. Farrell, +what time was that sent?" + +"Quarter to twelve." + +"Whoever sent it ought to be here by now! Mr. Farrell, I'm just as sure +as can be that is from Bridget Mahoney's son." + +"If it is, he may reach here in time," the other answered, "but it will +mean a great deal of trouble, because the boat sails early in the +morning long before the office here is open, and the deported aliens go +on board to-night. Indeed they are going now---if they haven't gone." + +"And Bridget with them?" + +"Yes, I'm sorry to say Bridget is with them." He strolled to the +window. "No," he continued, "they haven't gone yet, but they will in a +few minutes." + +"Could I see her before she goes?" + +"What for?" + +"Just to cheer her up a bit," pleaded the boy. + +The two men looked at each other, and Hamilton's new acquaintance +nodded. + +"You won't say anything about these telegrams," the chief warned him. + +"No--very well," said Hamilton, "but it seems a shame that she doesn't +know." + +The three passed through the door to the yard beside the lawns, and +there Hamilton encountered one of the most desolate groups he had ever +seen, sitting and standing in all attitudes of dejection. Among them was +a little old lady with snow-white hair, walking with a stick, but +clear-eyed and brisk-looking. + +"You're Mrs. Mahoney?" the boy asked. + +"I'm Bridget Mahoney, young masther," the old Irishwoman answered, "at +your service, sorr." + +"I hear you haven't found your son yet," Hamilton said; "did you write +to him before you left the old country?" + +"I did, dear, but I intoirely disremember what I did wid the letther. I +know I intinded to give it to Mickey O'Murry, but I'll niver tell ye +whether I did give it to him, an' if I did, there's no knowin' av he +posted it. 'Tis a difficult thing to remember, this letther-postin' and +maybe he forgot." + +"But what did you write on the envelope? Can't you remember what you +wrote?" + +"'Tis I that am the poor hand for writin', young masther, but there was +no schoolin' when I was a gurrl such as there is now. Jim, that's me +son, he makes shift to read me writin', but he always sinds me a written +envelope to put me answer in so that the postman can read it. An' so I +niver learnt the address. I thought, av course, he'd be here. But he +isn't, dear, an' so I must thravel all the weary way home again." + +"But you don't sail till morning," said Hamilton, as cheerfully as he +could, "and maybe he'll come by then. I have a feeling, Mrs. Mahoney, +that he's just surely going to come." + +"I'm not thinkin' it," the old woman said bravely, "but I take it +kindly, young masther, that ye should thry an' make the goin' easy. But +it isn't easy, 'tis a hard returnin'. An' me so proud that me son should +send for his ould mother. 'Tis a great country this America, but it's +too big. I'd niver 'ave lost me Jim in the ould country. I see they're +callin' us, an' I wish ye an ould woman's blessin', young masther, for +your cheerin' me at the last." + +With a certain dignity, the old woman turned away and shook hands with +all the officials, with whom she had become a favorite during the three +weeks of her stay. Hamilton just ached to be able to do something, to +tell the Commissioner of the later telegrams, to appeal to the +department, to make some wild effort, but the actuality of the group for +deportation slowly making their way to the barge showed him the folly of +any such ideas. He roused himself, just as the friendly official who had +been his guide turned round with outstretched hand. + +"I think you have seen it all now," he said, "and as the boat from New +York is just pulling in, you'll have plenty of time to board her." + +Hamilton thanked his conductor warmly, and with a final look at the +group about to be deported, the last few stragglers of whom were making +their way toward the barge, he started along the wharf in the direction +of the New York boat. He was on the opposite side of the ship and had to +walk round, but, as his friend had said, there was plenty of time. He +had a good view of the boat as she landed. + +The minute the bow touched the quay, before the mooring chains were on, +a middle-aged man who had been standing in the front of the boat, leaped +the light chain that runs waist high across the bow, and started on a +dead run up the bridge to the shore. One of the inspectors tried to stop +him, but he cried, as he went past: + +"I'm going to the Commissioner's office. Don't stop me. I'm in a hurry." + +Hamilton could just hear him, and it struck the boy as unnecessary for +the man to say he was in a hurry, for he showed it clearly enough. But +just before the runner reached him a sudden thought flashed into the +boy's mind. + +"Are you Jim Mahoney?" he called, just as the man swept by. + +"Yes," answered the other, scarcely slackening speed and passing him. + +Hamilton wheeled on the instant, and caught up to him in a few steps, +for the other man was older, not in training, and getting out of breath. + +"You'll do it, don't worry," the boy said, as he overtook him, running +along beside him. "I was talking to your mother a few minutes ago and +she was all right. But she was just starting for the steamer then. +There's not a second to lose." + +"What shall I do?" puffed the other. + +"Go in there, by that door marked 'Information.' Tell them who you are +and they'll fix things up in a hurry. Then go up and see the +Commissioner. I'll go on and tell them at the boat." + +Then, seeing that the man hesitated, he shouted: + +"Go in there," and nudged him in the direction of the door. + +As the man turned, Hamilton settled himself down to run. In a second he +was at the landing. The tender had just cast off her ropes and was +moving out. + +"Bridget," he cried, and his voice rang high and clear above the +dripping of the water from the cable, the creaking of the wheel as it +swung round, and the churning of the screw. "Bridget, Bridget Mahoney, +Jim's here!" + +The captain came to the window of the pilot house and called back: + +"What's that?" + +"Bridget!" he shouted again. "Bridget Mahoney's Jim's here!" + +There was a pause, the captain not seeming to understand the situation, +but a cheer went up from the deportation officials on board and from +some of the tender's crew who knew; and the cry ran along the decks: + +"Bridget, Bridget Mahoney! Jim's here!" + +[Illustration: WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + + +Leaving New York the next day after his visit to the Immigration Station +on Ellis Island, Hamilton stayed only a few hours in Washington to +receive final instructions before proceeding to the southwestern part of +Kentucky where his work as a population census-taker was to begin. + +At the appointed place he found the supervisor awaiting him. + +"I suppose you know," remarked his brother's friend, shaking hands, +"that I've given you a fairly well scattered district to cover. You said +you wanted to get a chance to see Kentucky as it really is, and this, +together with your mountain experience, ought to give you variety +enough." + +"They told me in Washington that it was largely a negro district?" the +boy said questioningly. + +"It is about as much of a black district as any in Kentucky," was the +reply, "but it isn't solid black by any means. Therein lies its +interest. The negroes are of all varieties, from old-time slaves who +have never left the plantation on which they were piccaninnies during +the war, to progressive negroes owning fair-sized tracts of land, most +of them still living in the one-room shacks that you see all over the +country, but a few having bought what used to be the 'big house' in +antebellum days." + +"That's just exactly what I was after," Hamilton said with delight. "How +do I cover it, sir? In the saddle?" + +"You can drive, if you want to," the supervisor replied, "and if it +wasn't for the agricultural schedules, I think it would be easier to do +the work from a buggy. But with the field work to consider, and in a +district as scattered as yours is, the saddle might work out better." + +"I had been thinking of that," Hamilton said, "if a farmer was on the +other side of a plowed patch, I'd have no way of getting to him in a +buggy except by tying the horse and walking, while in the saddle I could +easily take short cuts. And I imagine, in a countryside such as you say +this is, I'll probably need to see every one on the place in order to +get anything like accurate figures." + +"It's not at all unlikely," the supervisor rejoined. "Well, I thought +you would be needing a horse, and I've been looking round for one for +some time. I think I have the very one you will want. I told the owner +to hold back sale until you had a chance to look at her." + +"Then the quicker I see the owner, the better?" suggested the boy. + +"I think I had better go with you," the supervisor said, "and then they +won't try any over-clever work. Horse-dealing isn't always the most +guileless business, you know." + +"So I've understood," Hamilton said, "and I really don't know enough to +judge the fine points of a horse." + +"I was born and bred in the Blue Grass," his friend remarked, "and so +I've been around horses pretty much all my days. The census work is +quite a change from that." + +"I hope you didn't have any bother over my coming in this somewhat +irregular way?" asked Hamilton, remembering what Mr. Burns had said to +him in Washington. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"Nothing serious," he said, "but there were several people who tried to +cut you out,--one of them especially. There were three applicants for +this district, and the one who was most resentful about an outsider +coming in wouldn't have been appointed under any circumstances. Indeed, +the best of the three undertook to describe the other two. His letter +was a wonder," he added, picking up one of the files; "I think I saved +it.--Yes, here it is. Read it, while I get ready to go out with you," +and he handed the letter to Hamilton. + +The letter was as follows in every detail: + + "MR. ---- + + "Dr. Sir I made out the Blank for a Job taking Census was a going + to make it & when I Got to the Postoffice there was such an a ray + of aplicants I concluded not to do so + + "in the first Place there is two of these aplicants are Habichual + Drunkards one Professor A---- the other Mr. P---- A---- was born in + Canaday & has NO Interest here Except to be Suported by his wife & + the Publick & has had his Last School to Teach in this Town. he is + so Imoral People will not Tollerate him any Longer the Wrighter has + seen him on a Saturday SO Drunk he would Fall against People he met + if that is the Kind of Man you are looking For I don't want a Job I + can get along without + + "I will send in my application Just the Same + + "Mr. P---- is Not fare behind and is Dealer in Coal & Feed & his + Father has to take Cair of the Business for him. + + "Dont concider him for a moment Mr + + "as to my self this is the Firste time I ever aske for Publick + Buisness & I am an Indipendent Belever of mans Privlages & always + lived in this County + + "you have this Information Without feer of any of above statements + Being Denide + + "I remain Resptfully + + "------" + +Hamilton laughed as he returned the letter to the supervisor, who had +just come back with his hat and gloves as the boy finished reading the +epistle. + +"I don't think I need have been afraid of any of those three as rivals," +he said, "that is, if our friend is right. His information, however, may +not be any more correct than his spelling." + +"It's exaggerated, of course," the supervisor answered, "that's easy to +see, but setting aside the question of jealousy there's a good deal of +truth in what he says. Selecting and teaching enumerators was no light +job, let me tell you. You take seventy-five to a hundred absolutely +green hands, who have never done anything like it before, and it is a +hard proposition to make them understand. When you have to try and teach +them in a few weeks just how to do what is really difficult to do well, +you have a heavy task on your hands." + +"You didn't appoint any colored enumerators, I suppose?" Hamilton +questioned. + +"No," the supervisor answered decidedly. "My judgment was against it to +start with and I couldn't see that any of my districts warranted it. It +may be different in counties where the proportion of colored population +runs as high as eighty and ninety per cent, but there are none like that +in Kentucky." + +"Just in Georgia and Mississippi?" + +"Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas have a few scattering 'black' +counties too," the supervisor answered, "for I wrote to several places +about this very colored enumerator question. I found the supervisors +over those districts about evenly divided for and against. I have been +able to get suitable men all through, I think, though I might have had +difficulty in securing a good appointee for your district." + +"It's pretty wild out there evidently," Hamilton said anticipatorily. + +"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, +you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess +neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of +the world at all." + +Hamilton whistled softly. + +"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as +that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, +because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places +where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern." + +"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he +turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more +beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the +building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking. + +"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's +a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked +on another twenty dollars." + +"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin. + +"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any +objections." + +"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you +said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor. + +"Yes, that stands," his friend replied. + +"All right, then," said Hamilton, "I'll take her." + +The supervisor pulled out his pocketbook. + +"I had an idea," he said, "that you were just boy enough to want the +mare when you saw her and to want her right away. I made out a check for +the amount, and you can make one out to me when you get ready," and he +handed the slip to the boy. + +Hamilton started to thank him, but the supervisor cut him short. + +"If you'll come to the office this afternoon," he said, "the clerk will +give you the schedules and papers all ready made out for your district. +Here's a typewritten copy of the lectures I've been giving to the +enumerators, and while I don't suppose you really need to, you had +better read it over and return it to me when you're through with it. Now +I'm going to leave you here with this gentleman," he added, nodding to +the owner of the horse, "and you can arrange with him about getting a +saddle and so forth for the mare. Drop in at the office in the morning +as you start out and I'll make sure that nothing has been forgotten. See +you later," and with a nod to Hamilton, he stepped out of the stable. + +To the boy the afternoon fairly seemed to fly, there were so many things +to do; and it was not until just before closing hours that he reached +the office and secured his portfolio. He had a brief chat with the +clerk, and went back to his hotel to study carefully the map of his +district and the route suggested, and to make sure that he thoroughly +understood the population and agricultural schedules he would have to +use. They were different in form, of course, from the manufacturing +schedules which the boy knew by heart, but the essential principles were +the same, and Hamilton found that in half an hour's time he saw plain +sailing. + +"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half +aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard +for any one not at all used to it." + +By supper time--they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little +hotel--Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, +and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day +before him. + +The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the +journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a +moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his +good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being +well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal +had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted +him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the +first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner +started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty +houses. + +The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be +comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample +of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a +typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door +to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home +was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton +felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked. + +"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the +census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill +in." + +"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered +the young negro woman, who appeared at the door. + +"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?" + +"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm +no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh +jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah +jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things." + +"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are +about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family." + +"Yes, sah, yes, sah. Ah tol' mah husban' so when we were talkin' about +that yar farm business. The paper in the town gave a list o' questions, +an' Ah thought Ah would get mah Steve to help me get ready so's Ah sh'd +be able to answer yo' rightly when yo' come aroun', but he jes' said he +was too tiehed to do anythin', an' dat ar census list is the +confusin'est thing Ah eveh saw. Ah thought Ah ought to do somethin', an' +so Ah jes' took a big sheet o' wrappin' paper an' started to write the +answers to the quest'ns on that, thinkin' some o' the neighbors' +children would copy it on the sheet fo' me. But, I tell yo', sah, that +befo' I was half way through tellin' what the newspaper said we had to +tell, I was so mixed up that I was writin' mahself down as mah own +daughter and provin' that the baby was twice divo'ced." + +"Then you really haven't got anything ready at all," said Hamilton. + +"Nothin', sah." + +"Then I'll just have to ask you the questions, and put the answers down +myself," the boy said cheerfully. "We might as well start right now." + +"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' +pens an' ink." + +"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier +writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon +as he was seated, "has this house a number?" + +"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street." + +"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said +Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the +family. I think you said something about your husband?" + +"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years." + +"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?" + +"Lawson, sah." + +"He's colored, I suppose." + +"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected." + +"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, +Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, +and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column. + +"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes' +twenty-one when Ah married him." + +"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen +Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to +show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a +girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young." + +"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday." + +"And your name is--?" + +"Lily, sah." + +"Any other name?" + +"Mariamne, sah." + +For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife," +"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first +marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock. + +"You have children?" + +"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever, +sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!" + +"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful +things to help them now, you know. And he can learn a lot by reading." + +"Yas, sah, it's hard enough. But we're glad he ain't blind." + +"And what is his name?" + +"Edward Habberton, sah, an' he's jes' fo' years old, near five." + +Hamilton entered the name of the little deaf and dumb boy, whom he +could see sitting in an inner room, and noted down in the schedule his +age, his color, and the nature of his affliction. + +"Now, Lily," he continued, "were you both born in Kentucky?" + +"No, sah," she replied, "none of us, savin' little Eddie. I'm f'om +Delaware, an' mah Steve, he's f'om Maryland, where my mother come f'om." + +"Wait a bit," said Hamilton, holding up his hand to stop her, "let me +get this straight. Stephen Lawson is from Maryland, you said, you're +from Delaware, and the boy was born in this State. Is that right?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"And you said your mother came from Maryland but I suppose since you're +from Delaware your father was from Delaware also." + +"Yes, sah," the woman answered, "he done live in Wilmin'ton all his +life." + +So Hamilton put down the birthplaces of the wife's parents and in the +same fashion those of the husband, while the filling in of the columns +for the parents of the child was simply a matter of copying. + +"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went +on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and +he entered this also on the language column. + +"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query. + +"He's a gardener, sah." + +"Odd jobs?" + +"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here." + +"On regular wages, then?" + +"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week." + +"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only +to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on +his own account.--But you must find it hard to get along on nine a +week." + +"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained. + +"You do? How?" + +"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like +that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as +twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week." + +"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the +woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified +by the letters "O.A." in the wage column. + +"You both read and write--or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't +write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you." + +"Ah can read pretty well," the woman replied, "but Ah never had enough +schoolin' to write much; mah mother was ill all the time, an' Ah had to +stay home. But Steve, he writes beautiful, an' he makes out all mah +bills an' things like that." + +"I think there's only one question more," the boy said, delighted to +find that after all, even in the house of a negro laundress who did not +know how to write, the information could be so easily secured. After +jotting down a "Yes" and a "No" respectively for Husband and Wife in the +columns for literacy, he continued, "And that question is, whether this +house is owned by you or whether you rent it." + +"We're only rentin' it, sah. Steve wants to buy it an' put a mo'gage on, +but Ah don't know anythin' about mo'gages an' Ah won't buy until Ah can +pay the whole price right down. Don' yo' think Ah'm right?" + +"Well, Lily," answered the lad, as he folded up his portfolio and +prepared to go to the next house, "it would hardly do for one of Uncle +Sam's census men to come between a husband and a wife on the question +of their buying of their own home, would it?" + +"Ah reckon not, sah. Is that all, sah?" + +"Yes, Lily, that's all, and I'm very much obliged." + +"It wasn't so awful bad," said the woman, with a sigh of relief. + +"It's easy enough to answer census questions when you want to make it +easy and tell a straight story," Hamilton replied, "but you see what +trouble it would be for me with some one who wasn't willing to talk, and +how hard it would be for any one to make up a story as he went along, +and find it tally at every point in all the later questions." + +"Well, sah," she called, in reply, as the lad passed out, "Ah jes' hope +yo' don' fin' a single one like that in this hyar whole village." + +"I hope not, Lily. Good-morning," he rejoined and turned toward the next +house. + +The enumeration of the rest of the village went on rapidly. By working +quickly Hamilton was able to complete the numbering of the village by +nightfall, and he so stated on his daily report card, which he mailed to +the supervisor that evening. + +The following morning he started off on his little mare, and struck +something new and puzzling at every holding he touched. The agricultural +schedule fairly made his head swim. It had certain difficulties which +the manufacturing schedule did not have, because, although the latter +contained more detailed information and required a more accurate +statement, still all manufacturers kept books. For the details needed in +the agricultural statistics no books had been kept; the negro farmer +seldom or never knew how many chickens he had, and the wild guesses that +would be made as to value of animals and land nearly turned the boy's +hair gray. Some of the white farmers were every bit as careless, one man +valuing his horses at $200 apiece and the next at $50; one man +estimating his land at $150 an acre and the next at $10. + +A typical case was that of Patrick Meacham. Hamilton secured the facts +for his population schedule with comparatively little trouble from the +Meacham household, although he had to listen to a great deal of +unnecessary family history. There was no great difficulty, moreover, in +finding out that the farm consisted of 80 acres owned and 10 rented, but +a snag of the first magnitude was encountered on the question as to how +much of it was improved. + +"Sure, 'tis all improved," the farmer said; "it was in horrible shape +whin I bought it." + +"I don't mean improved that way," Hamilton objected, "what I want to +know is how much of it is good for pasture, is prepared for crops, and +so forth." + +"Sure, it's all good for somethin'," the Irishman answered; "what for +should I buy it if it wasn't good for anythin"?" + +"Have you a wood-lot?" asked Hamilton, deciding to try and get at the +question in another way. + +"I have a wood-lot. But I built a good strong fence around it, since I +came here,--ye don't mean to tell me that doesn't improve it? If ye +lived here, ye'd know better." + +"That's all right, Mr. Meacham, it makes it better all right, but it +isn't counted in as 'improved land.' I'll put it down specially though. +There's ten acres of it, you said." + +"And there's ten acres of swamp land that ye couldn't improve unless ye +built it on piles," the farmer said. + +"I'll have to refer that to the Reclamation Service, I guess," the boy +answered, "anyhow for the time we'll just call it 'unimproved' and let +it go at that." + +The next few questions passed off without a hitch, but an inquiry +concerning the number of animals born on the place during the year was +like opening the flood-gates of a dam. If Meacham had been as good a +farmer as a yarn-spinner there would have been no question as to his +success, for he had some story to tell about every yearling on the +place, and they were inimitably told. It was with great reluctance that +Hamilton found himself obliged to head off the man's eloquence and make +him stick to hard facts. An inquiry as to the number of eggs sold was +somewhat of a puzzle, but the farmer's wife knew the amount of the +"trade" she had received at the grocery store in the nearest town in +return for eggs, and at an average sale price of nine cents a dozen, +this was easily computed. She was also the authority on the amount of +butter made and sold, and on the garden truck. + +The business man of the house was a twelve-year-old boy. Not far away, a +neighbor had forty acres in clover and some fruit trees, and knowing the +value of bees for pollinating the fruit, he was glad to have this boy +keep six hives near the orchard and field. A good share of the honey had +gone to the neighbor, and the family themselves had used all they +wanted, but still the boy's profit for what he had sold amounted to +sixty dollars. He was keen to have Hamilton enter him on the schedule as +an independent apiarist on his own account, but Hamilton pointed out to +him that a $250 farm was the smallest one allowed to be listed. + +This low limit was almost reached the next day when Hamilton found +himself on a peanut farm for the first time. He had always known that +peanuts, unlike all other "nuts," grew underground but he had made the +common mistake of supposing them to grow on the roots of the peanut +plant like the tubers of a potato, instead of really being a true nut, +developing from a flower the elongation of the lower portion of which +reaches to the ground. The farm was run by an orphaned colored girl +nineteen years old and her four younger brothers. + +[Illustration: ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.] + +"Jes' as soon as the young-uns gits big enough," she said to Hamilton, +when discussing the statistics of her little holding, "we're goin' to +buy a big patch o' peanut land. Ah'd like to grow peanuts every year, +but these hyar gov'nment papers say yo' shouldn't. They say once in +every fo' years is enough fo' peanuts, but Ah'm goin' to try it every +other year." + +"Aren't they a very troublesome crop?" + +"'Bout the same as potatoes, Ah reckon. But they pay a good price fo' +picked peanuts, an' Ah can get these boys hyar to do the pickin'. In one +o' the papers Ah saw up to Colonel 'Gerius' place the other day, one the +gov'nment puts out, thar's a list showin' this country has to send to +foreign countries fo' twelve million bushels o' peanuts every year. Ah'm +goin' to try raisin' a real big crop, and Dicky hyar," she added, +pointing to the oldest boy, "thinks jes' as I do about it." + +Hamilton was distinctly impressed with the evidence that this young +negro girl and her younger brothers not only knew enough about the +peanut business to be able to make it pay, but that they were reading +the government bulletins. + +"I didn't know," he said hastily, "that you people--" and he stopped +suddenly, realizing the ungracious ending to his sentence. + +"You mean us colored folks,--you didn't think we troubled 'bout such +things? Yas, sah, we don' have all the advantages o' white folks but +we're improvin' right along. Colonel 'Gerius jes' does all he can, an' +he gets us gov'nment seeds an' papers, an' advises every one fo' miles +aroun'. Yas, sah, we're gettin' on. If yo' have to go to Bullertown, +sah, yo'll fin' as nice a li'l place as thar is f'om one end o' the +United States cla'r to the other, an' thar's not one white person in +it." + +"Bullertown?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I'm glad to hear it, for +that's the next place on my map." + +"We're all proud of it hyar, sah, an' it 'pears to me, Bullertown owes +jes' everythin' to the folks at the Big House and to Mistah Ephraim +Jones. Yo'll see Mistah Jones, sah, an' I'd take it kindly if yo'll +remember me to him." + +"All right, Delia, I will," said Hamilton. "Let's see, I did get all the +figures, didn't I?" + +"Yo' said yo' had them all, sah," was the reply. + +"Good enough. Well, I guess I'll go along. I'll not forget your message. +Good-by--" and the boy set his horse on a canter down the narrow road. +Throughout the rest of the day the census-gathering was of similar +character, and it was drawing toward dark when the boy saw before him a +well-ordered array of houses which he felt sure must be Bullertown. +Asking his way to the hotel from the first darky that he met, he was +answered most courteously. + +"Thar's no hotel hyar, sah," the negro said, "but Mr. Ephraim Jones +entertains the visitin' strangehs, sah, an' if yo' go right on to that +big yaller house an' ask fo' Mr. Jones, sah, Ah jes' knows yo'll be +right welcome." + +Hamilton felt diffident about quartering himself upon a perfect stranger +in this way, but it seemed to be the custom of the place, and since +there was no hotel, there seemed nothing else to do, and he rode on to +the gate. Tethering his mare to a tie-post in front of the house he +started up the walk, carrying his portfolio, so that in the event of any +mistake he might be able to make it appear that he had merely come to +take the census. But before he reached the door it was opened by a +wrinkled and old, but dignified darky. + +"Walk in, sah, walk right in," he said. "Ah'll sen' one o' the boys to +look after yo' horse. Tom!" he called, "yo' take the gen'leman's horse +to the stable, rub him down with a wisp, an' give him some hay. In half +an hour water him, an' give him a feed o' oats." + +"I'm obliged to you," said Hamilton, "for taking all this trouble, but +perhaps I had better explain who I am." + +"That's jes' as yo' like, sah." + +"Well," said Hamilton, "I'm the census-taker for this district, and I +was looking for a hotel where I could stay the night and begin work in +the morning. A man I met on the street told me that this town had no +hotel and suggested that if I came to you, I might be advised where to +go." + +"We have no hotel in Bullertown, sah," the old negro preacher answered, +"but the gen'lemen that come hyar do me the honor us'ally, sah, of bein' +my guests. Ah have a guest-room, sah, jes' 'sclusively fo' gen'lemen who +are not people of color." + +Hamilton found himself flushing at the consciousness that this very +thought had been in his mind, and in order to cover any possible signs +that might have appeared in his expression, he answered hastily: + +"Oh, that's all right,--it wouldn't have mattered." + +The old preacher looked at him quietly and a little reproachfully and +said: + +"If you don' jes' mean things like that, young sah, don' say them. We +know. We find, sah, that it is mos' desirable for every one concerned. +If yo' like, sah, an' if yo're ready, Ah'll show yo' to yo'r room." + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +Hamilton could not help contrasting this reception with that which he +would have received in any town not entirely a negro community, and he +expressed this feeling to his host as they went up the stairs. + +"It is entirely different hyar, sah," the latter said, "yo' see we are +isolated, an' a guest is rare. Then this community is a syndicate an' is +not run like a town. Thar's no quest'n hyar, sah, about colored and +white people bein' the same,--we know they're different. An' we believe, +sah, that it is in preservin' the color line, not in tryin' to hide it, +that the future good of our race lies. An' so thar's not a foot o' land +in Bullertown owned by any other than people o' color, an' not a white +person lives hyar." + +"You own all the land, then?" + +"The syndicate does, yes, sah." + +"Then you must have some wealthy men among you?" + +"No, sah, not one. The town was begun, sah, by the kindness of Colonel +Egerius." + +"Colonel--he was, that is, he is--" began Hamilton, stammering. + +"He is not a negro, sah," the old man answered finishing the boy's +embarrassed sentence for him with entire self-possession. "Colonel +Egerius, sah, was a plantation owner, befo' the war. Ah was one o' his +slaves, an' mos' o' the people in Bullertown are the children o' those +born in the plantation quarters." + +"And he started the town?" + +"Yas, sah, in a way. He fought with Lee, sah, an' my brother was his +body-servant all through the war. When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came +back to the old plantation. Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was +quite a few left still. He called us to the big house an' tol' us to +stay by the ol' place an' he would pay us wages. Some--Ah was not one o' +them, though Ah see now they were right,--said the quarters were not fit +to live in." + +"But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master? How could +that be if the quarters were so bad?" + +"No, sah," he said, "Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was +fair an' ready to help a willin' worker. But his slaves was his slaves +an' they had no rights. Thar wasn't any whippin' or any o' that sort o' +thing, but it was work all day, f'om befo' daylight till afteh dark, an' +we lived jes' anyhow." + +"How came he to start the town, then?" queried Hamilton. "Your +description of him doesn't sound as though he were a man who would do +much for you." + +"It was jes' because o' that, Ah think, that he did, sah. He was just, +sah. He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves. +Now that the negro was not a slave any mo', thar was no reason to make +him live like one. He used to say the South was now pledged to help the +nation instead o' the Confederacy, an' while he did not agree, he would +live up to that pledge." + +"That seems as fair as anything could be." + +"Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it. Thar was no +money in the place, the slaves hadn' had wages, an' yo' can't build +houses without money, an' money was scarce afteh the war." + +"How in the wide world did you manage it?" asked Hamilton. + +"As Ah was sayin', sah, it was Colonel Egerius' doin'. He got a surveyor +from the town an' hunted over the plantation to fin' the best site fo' +a village,--the surveyor's name was Buller." + +"That's where the town got its name, then?" + +"Yas, sah, Ah jes' wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn't +hear of it. Then all o' the ol' slaves that wanted to stay by the place +got together, an' the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o' syndicate. +Then he sol' us the land jes' as low as it could be made, payment to be +in labor on the plantation, so in a few years' work every man who wanted +to stay reg'lar on the job got title to his lan' an' his house, an' took +wages afteh that." + +"That was a wise move," said the boy after a moment's thought. "He sold +his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, +established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the +same time fixed it all right for you." + +"Yas, sah," the old negro answered, "an' now every man in the town +either owns his house or is buyin' one f'om the syndicate, an' we have +bought up all the surveyed property f'om the Colonel. Now, sah," +continued the preacher, "if yo' will excuse me, Ah will see that yo'r +supper is got ready. Hyar, sah," he added, opening the door into a +small room, "is yo'r sittin' room, an' yo'r supper will be served hyar." + +As much surprised as gratified at the excellent arrangements for his +comfort, Hamilton refreshed himself after his dusty ride, and was as +hungry as a wolf when supper arrived. A little darky girl, black as the +ace of spades, waited at table, and in conversation Hamilton learned +that she was the adopted daughter of the eldest son of the negro +preacher, the son being a professor in one of the negro colleges. After +supper Hamilton asked to see his host in order that he might secure the +details of the family for the census, and thus make use of a disengaged +evening. + +"So your son is Professor of English at the University," said Hamilton, +as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio. "Do, +you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he +ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?" + +"Thar should be one good university," said the old preacher, "with very +difficult admission examinations. It would be a good thing fo' colored +lawyers an' doctors, an' if the standard were high--higher even than in +white colleges--these men would get standin' fo' themselves an' give +standin' to the colored race. But, even then, I'd have them keep away +f'om the other lawyers an' doctors." + +"You're strong on that color line, Ephraim," the boy remarked. "Surely +you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?" + +"As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do," was the unexpected answer, "an' +thar's no place fo' the negro in the city. He can't beat the white man, +an' thar's no chance o' his securin' a monopoly o' any trade. Thar's +nothin' fo' him in the city savin' jes' labor an' bein' a servant, a +porter, or somethin' o' that kind." + +"You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities," the boy +remarked, "they're mostly elevator runners and in positions of that +kind." + +"It is in the No'th that trouble lies," the old man said, "the South has +settled hers." + +"How do you make that out?" cried the boy. "You say the South has +settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, +down here and in the Gulf States." + +The old negro preacher shook his head. + +"Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than +two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was +grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of +America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the +land lease it on a share basis known as the métayer system, but more'n +more o' them are owners every year." + +"I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all," said +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to +the New England States is owned by the colored race," was the reply, +"makin' in the United States a negro country larger than plenty o' +kingdoms." + +"And is that land worth much?" + +"Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' +it's worth a lot mo' now." + +"But," said Hamilton, "the negro doesn't seem able to make use of it. +Even if he does own the land and is making money, he still goes on +living in a shiftless way. One would hardly believe the kind of shacks +I've seen in the last couple of days." + +"Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah," the old negro answered, "Ah +reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in +one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, +women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along." + +"They ought," said the boy, "if they're working on cotton, because, I've +been told, that is always a cash crop. But why does every one leave the +cotton crop to the negro. It isn't a hard crop to raise, is it?" + +"Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah," the preacher +answered. "It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in +summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' +until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have +much cool weather down hyar." + +"You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?" asked the boy, who had +never seen a cotton plantation and wanted to know something about it. + +"Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' +hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh +night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant +doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it +that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go +pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on +yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' +labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' +headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe +it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a +mulatto th'n a full-blood negro." + +[Illustration: "'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"You would make all the negroes cotton planters?" + +"Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah," the +old man answered, "an' the trade schools would provide fo' all the +workers in towns in the cotton district, an' in solid negro towns thar'd +be room fo' all the colored doctors an' lawyers an' preachers." + +"I see your idea," said Hamilton. "You would just make the cotton +section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?" + +"No, sah," the other answered decidedly. "It's jes' those No'thern +niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up +No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored +people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk +about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good +many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. +But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let +yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'." + +"I wonder," said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his +host, "if that isn't a whole lot more likely to be true than the +alarmist stories you read in magazines." + +The following morning, after Hamilton had almost finished covering one +side of the street in collecting the census statistics, he heard the +trot of horses' hoofs, and looking up, saw a tall, stern-visaged +soldierly-looking gentleman, with iron-gray hair, riding a powerful +iron-gray horse. Beside him rode a young fellow, evidently his son. Both +reined up when they saw Hamilton. Seeing that he was expected to +introduce himself, he stepped forward. + +"My name is Hamilton Noble," he said; "I'm the census enumerator for +this district. I presume you are Colonel Egerius?" + +"Yes, Mr. Noble," the old Confederate leader replied. "Ephraim sent me +word that you were here, and I received a letter a week ago from the +supervisor, whom I have known for some time, telling me that you were a +friend of his. I wanted to bid you welcome, sir, and to express the hope +that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at dinner with us +to-night." + +Hamilton bowed. + +"I shall enjoy coming, Colonel Egerius," he said. "At what hour?" + +"Six-thirty," the Colonel replied, "we keep early hours in the country. +By the way," he added, "have you heard anything of this peonage business +here this morning?" + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "I started out with my schedules bright and +early." + +"I purpose to hold an inquiry after lunch," the planter continued. "You +are lunching at Ephraim's of course?" + +"Yes, Colonel Egerius," the boy answered. + +"Very well," was the reply, "we will lunch together if you have no +objection. Since I heard of your expected arrival I have been looking +forward to your visit. Now that you are here, sir, we must make the most +of you. Allow me to present my son Percy." + +Hamilton made a suitable reply, and consulting his watch found that it +was almost lunch time. + +"I will join you in half an hour, Colonel Egerius," he said, "and shall +look forward to the evening with great pleasure." + +"You play a good knife and fork, I trust," said the old gentleman, +smiling, as he gathered up the reins. + +"Almost good enough to do justice even to Southern hospitality," +answered Hamilton with a smile. The old soldier nodded approvingly. +"Remember now," he said, as he rode away, "we'll hold you to your word." + +At lunch Hamilton took occasion to remark on the well-being of +Bullertown. + +"I was surprised," he said, "to find a village so well managed and +looked after, and all by negroes." + +"There's nothing surprising in that," the Colonel answered. "How could +they do anything different? I have shown them every step they were to +take; all that they had to do was to continue." + +"You mean they couldn't have done it by themselves?" + +"The negro never has done anything by himself," the old Confederate +replied. "He has lived as far back as time goes in one of the most +fertile and well-watered countries of the world,--Africa--and he never +had enough initiative to rise out of tribal conditions." + +"But he seems to be doing all right now," suggested Hamilton. "I hear +the negro is getting to own quite a share of the cotton crop." + +"He has not done so well as appearances would show," the soldier +replied; "he has learned a few--only a few--of the tricks of modern +civilization, and those only outwardly. The few cases of leadership such +as that of Booker T. Washington, for instance, are due to the white +strain, not the negro." + +"I thought Booker T. Washington was a pure negro!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"He is not," was the emphatic reply. "In his own writings he states that +his father was a white man. His mother was a negress. He gets his brains +from his father and his color from his mother." + +"Do you think that the negroes will ever marry enough with the white to +become all white?" + +"Not now," the Southerner answered. "It is a crime in many States and +punishable with imprisonment." + +"Then what's going to be done?" + +"I'm unreconstructed yet," the old Colonel said grimly. "I think still +the negroes were better off as slaves. They're always going to be +slaves, anyway, whether in name or not. And as for their relation to +the cotton crop. You say they are succeeding in it. Perhaps. But did +they learn the uses of cotton, did they develop machinery to clean and +spin it, or devices for weaving? Was it negroes who worked out the best +means of cultivating the cotton or experimented on the nature of the +most fertile soils? Not a bit of it. They simply grow cotton the way the +white folks showed them." + +"But they seem to be getting a big share of it!" + +"I see you've been talking to Ephraim. What good would it do the negroes +if they owned every foot of the cotton land? They would still have to +depend on the man that buys the crop, and the cotton exchange wouldn't +be run for the benefit of the negro. In slavery days, too, there was +some one to take an interest in the negro and help him. Now he's got to +do it for himself, and he can't do anything but go on in the same old +groove." + +"You think it was better in the old days?" + +"In some ways for the negro, yes. But it was harder for the people of +the South. There was always trouble of some kind in the slave quarters. +Before the war you had to support all the old, the sick, the children, +and the poor workers. Under present conditions you hire just whom you +want. The cost is about even, and the responsibility is less. Now," he +added, lunch being over, "if you've finished we'll go and see what this +peonage business is. Ephraim," he called, "is that man here?" + +"Yas, sah," answered the old negro. "He's hyar." + +"Bring him in, then." + +In a minute or two the old darky returned, bringing with him a gaunt, +emaciated negro, who cringed as he entered the room. He was followed by +a brisk, young mulatto. + +"If yo' please, Massa," said the old preacher, dropping unconsciously +into the familiar form of address, "this is Peter, young Peter's +father." + +"I've seen him before," the Colonel said abruptly "Peter, were you on +this plantation?" + +"Yas, Massa." + +"What's the matter with him, Ephraim?" queried the old soldier. "He +looks to me as though he hadn't had enough to eat." + +"It isn't only that, Massa," said the negro, "he's been whipped 'most to +death." + +"Whipped!" cried Hamilton, startled. Then, remembering suddenly that +the matter was not his concern, he flushed and turned to the Colonel. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "I forgot." + +The old soldier, who had been a stern disciplinarian in his time, had +drawn himself up indignantly at the boy's interruption, but his +immediate apology caused the old gentleman to see that it was just a +flash of boyish indignation, so he merely turned and said: + +"Let him tell his story." + +"Ah was born hyar durin' the war," the negro began. "Ah c'n jes' +remember Missis, an' Ah've often heard mah mother cry when we was livin' +in Atlanta an' trouble come, 'If only Ah could go to Missis.'" + +"Get to your story, boy," said the Colonel, "I haven't time to waste." + +"Ah was brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, an' times was always hard. Six +years ago Ah hired out to a lumber man in Florida. Thar were sixty of us +hired together. The pay was good. The day we come, we were put into a +group o' huts with a stockade 'roun', an' men with rifles guarded us +night an' day. Ah reckon thirty men was shot tryin' to escape durin' the +years I was thar." + +"Thirty?" + +"Yas, sah, leastways I know of five, an' heard o' the rest." + +"Talk about what you know, not what you've heard," admonished the old +soldier. "Go on." + +"It was killin' work. We had to be in the woods by daylight an' stay +thar until it was too dark to see. Thar was trouble enough at first but +the worst come later. About three years ago a lot mo' huts was put up +an' the stockade was made bigger. We thought things would be easier as +the new men would get all the knockin' about. Nex' week the new crowd +came,--they were convic's hired for the job." + +"Excuse my interrupting, Colonel Egerius," asked the lad, "but can that +be true? Does any State hire out its convicts to forced labor?" + +"Some do," was the reply, "and Florida is one of them. Go on, boy." + +"Floggin's started in when the convicts come, an' thar was no difference +made between us an' them. We were supposed to be paid, but our pay was +always in tickets to the comp'ny store, an' they charged double prices +for everythin'. They never gave us a cent o' money. A lot of us got +together an' decided to escape, but when it come to doin' it, only +three would go. One got away entirely, one was shot, an' Ah was caught. +They took me to the stockade an' whipped me 'mos' to death, three days +runnin'. The third day Ah was so near dead that they didn't tie me up, +an' when, hours later, Ah did stagger to mah feet, they jes' pointed to +the fields whar the hands was workin'. Ah heard one o' the guards say, +'He won't go far,' an' Ah hid in the woods, Ah don' know how long, jes' +livin' on berries, an' at las' Ah got away. Ah knew Ah would be safe in +Kentucky." + +The Colonel looked at the man closely. + +"I believe you've been a bad nigger," he said, "and I wouldn't believe +any more of your story than I had to. But it's easy enough to see that +you have been abused, and that you need help right now. I'll give you a +chance. Peter, your father is staying with you?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"Ephraim," the Colonel said, turning to the old preacher, "put this man +on the payroll as a field hand, beginning from to-morrow, but don't send +him to the field for a couple of weeks. Behave yourself," he added, +turning to the peonage victim, "and you'll be all right here." + +The negro thanked him profusely, and went out, his wretched frame +showing up miserably in the strong sunlight as he passed by the window +of the dining room. + +"But that's worse than any slavery I ever heard of," burst out Hamilton +indignantly. + +"Peonage?" answered the old veteran. "Oh, yes, much worse." + +"And it still goes on?" + +"There were several hundred stockades in operation last year," was the +reply, "and that's a fair sample of their work." + +[Illustration: HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + + +Although he realized that his lines had fallen in pleasant places for +the enumeration work, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction +that Hamilton entered up what was marked on the map as the last house, +and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and +was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire +district in the appointed time. In order to make his record as good as +possible the lad thought he would get an early start and be in the +supervisor's office before noon, thus emphasizing his punctuality. +Accordingly it was but a little after seven o'clock when he was in the +saddle and on the road. + +Knowing from experience that the highway made quite a circuit to reach a +little group of three houses, which he had already enumerated, Hamilton +struck out across country, using a little footpath through some woods. +At that early hour of the morning he was not expecting to meet any one, +and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later +he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one +with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as +though ready to show aggressiveness to any intruder, the other two on +the ground, one sitting, and one lying half asleep on some boughs +carelessly thrown down. As Hamilton was still in his enumeration +district and felt that here were some people who might not have been +registered, he pulled up. + +"'Morning, boys!" he said ingratiatingly. + +"Howdy!" the impromptu cook replied, and waited for the boy to go on. + +"I'm the census-taker for this district," the boy continued, "and I knew +this was a short cut across the fields; but I didn't know I should find +you here." + +"Inform the gentleman, Bill," spoke the traveler who was lying down, +"that we were equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting +but that we would have been better prepared to meet him had he sent a +courier to announce his coming." + +"You heard him," the first speaker supplemented jerking his thumb over +his shoulder. + +"I heard him all right," answered Hamilton, dropping immediately into +the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he had +left his town residence for this convenient and airy country house." + +"As I live, an intelligent reply!" was the response in tones of +surprise, and the speaker sat up on his rough couch. + +To Hamilton the situation was a little difficult. There would be no +trouble in merely exchanging a few greetings and then passing along on +his journey, but the boy was above all things conscientious, and he +could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books +of the census, and that now, on the very last day of census-taking, they +were in his district. And he knew well enough, that if he broached the +question it would not be favorably received. However he thought he saw a +way out. + +"If you have a pannikin of tea to spare," he said, "I'd enjoy it." + +"If you like to put up with what we've got, join us an' welcome," the +tall tramp said. + +"All right," Hamilton answered, "I will." + +"Permit me to do the honours!" said the second tramp. "This is 'Hatchet' +Ben Barclay, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith--not +because of his humor but because of his powers of persuasion, and I am +Harry Downe, very much at your service." + +"Better known as the 'Windy Duke,'" interjected the tea-maker, who had +by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was busy +frying slices of ham on a piece of stick over the hot wood coals. + +"I'm Hamilton Noble," the boy answered in return, "and I've just got +through taking the census for this district. I've got all the names in +here," he added, tapping his portfolio, "and now I'm going to the +supervisor's office to turn in my reports." + +"I am afraid your census will be incomplete," said 'Windy,' "for, so far +as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be lacking the names +and distinction of this gallant little company." + +"Haven't you been listed?" asked Hamilton, glad that the subject should +have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating +himself on the success of his device to secure the friendship of the +crowd. + +"Nary a list," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "the rustlers of the Ringling Circus +told us that they had been enumerated four times, once for every week +they played, an' that not a blessed one of the census men would believe +they had been taken before; but they cut us out entire." + +"Well, I guess I had better take you right now," said Hamilton. "I've +room on the census sheet for a few more names." + +"You can count me out," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not lookin' for that +kind of fame." + +"Don't you think it's fair to the country to let it know who you are?" + +"What's the census to me?" the other said defiantly. "I calc'late a +country that doesn't give a fellow a livin' doesn't care much about his +name." + +"But you're getting a living, just the same," answered Hamilton, "and +you're an American, anyhow, aren't you?" + +"New York State," the tramp replied. + +"And you?" asked Hamilton, turning to the orator of the party. + +"I'm an Oxford man," answered the 'Windy Duke,' "classical tripos--if +you know what that means." + +"I do," answered Hamilton, "but why--" and he stopped. + +"You were going to ask me why I prefer to wander afield rather than be +'cribbed and confined' within narrow walls. I am but one of many, an +educated man without any knowledge of how to use his learning. Do you +care for Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I +can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to +none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I +am--in my humble way--quite an authority. But these magnificent +talents," he added with a self-depreciatory smile, "do not enable me to +run a business as successfully as a Greek fruit peddler or a Russian Jew +vender of old clothes." + +"You could teach," suggested Hamilton. + +"Only my friends," replied the scholar. "To teach requires pedagogy and +numerous devices for improving the youthful mind. I do not greatly +admire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore +it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim +originality in this rôle; there have been 'scholar gypsies' before this. +The phrase sounds better than 'educated hobo,' but the meaning is the +same." + +"And you?" queried Hamilton of the third speaker. + +"Plain American," the other said simply, "born and raised in Ohio. Not a +Yankee, not a Westerner, not a Southerner,--nothin', jest plain +Middle-West American." + +"Well," suggested Hamilton, "I think you chaps ought to let me put you +down in the schedule here. We need white men in this country badly +enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest +showing we can. Two Americans and an Englishman will help the average +just that much. Part of the 'white man's burden,'" he added with a +laugh. + +"If you put it that way," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I calc'late after all I'm +elected for one. Anything I can do to put down, even on paper, these +foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, +I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob from the south o' Europe bein' +dumped down here by the hundred thousand every year, an' you can take +that straight from me." + +"It's a little curious," said Hamilton, noting down the facts as they +came up in conversation, not wanting to work directly upon the schedule +for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be Americans and one an +Englishman. Somehow, one always thinks of an American as making good, +not tramping it." + +"Nearly all hoboes are Americans," 'Hatchet Ben' explained, "there's a +few English, and a few Swedes. Lots of races in this country you never +meet on the road." + +"Trampdom," said 'Windy,' "is a most exclusive circle. For example, you +never saw a Jew hobo, did you?" + +"No," Hamilton said. "Never." + +"And you're never likely to," 'Hatchet Ben' interjected, "there's no +money in it, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. +There are a few French Canadians, but no real Frenchmen on the road, and +the Dagoes never take to it." + +"I wonder why?" Hamilton queried. + +"I purpose writing a monograph upon the subject of the nationality of +the Hobo Empire," the 'Windy Duke' broke in, "and therein I shall +enlarge upon my theory that the life of a tramp requires more +independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that +usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who +will not drop to the level of the horde below them and who consequently +take to the life of the road in protest against the usage of an +ill-arranged social state. That, for example, is the condition of my two +friends here." + +"Would you mind my asking what made you take to the road?" said +Hamilton, turning to the first speaker. + +"Not at all," 'Hatchet Ben' replied. "It's a very usual story. I'm a +steel worker by trade, an' when I was workin' I was reckoned among the +best in the plant." + +"What did you quit it for?" asked Hamilton. + +"Slovaks," the man answered. "Every year or two the Pittsburg operators +would get together an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start +comin' to the West. They seemed to know where to come, an' started work +the mornin' after they got there, without even seein' the boss." + +"But that could hardly be, I should think," said Hamilton; "that would +be importing contract labor and they would be stopped at Ellis Island." + +"Not much fear of that," the steel worker answered "the operators keep +men in Europe just trainin' the foreigners what to say. These men come +over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary, +the amount of money to enable them to land, buy their railroad tickets +at this end, an' all the rest of it." + +"Dangerous business if they got caught at it!" + +"They're paid to take chances," the other replied. "Then, when these +foreigners come, they know nothin' about the scale of wages in America +only that the pay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their +own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter +what wages they receive they can put money aside every week. The boss +doesn't see any use in payin' them at a high rate, when they work just +as well for small, an' down goes the wages." + +"But they get a poorer grade of labor that way," objected Hamilton, "I +shouldn't think that would pay." + +"They make up for it by increasin' the power of machinery, by givin' a +man less and less to learn and more and more of some simple thing to +do." + +"In a way that ought to be good, too," the boy persisted, "for the more +a machine does, the bigger wages the man who runs it gets." + +"I'm not a machinist," the tramp replied, "an' even if I were I should +be in competition with the Swedes all along the line. Bein' just a +steel worker, I stood for one reduction in wages because they promised +to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a +gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every +chance I got to talk 'union' to these men, showin' them how they could +just as easily get more pay than they were bein' given. That didn't suit +the company at all, so I was fired, an' they put me on the black list." + +"And you couldn't get any more work there at all?" + +"Not there, or at any place in the district. Or, for that matter, in any +place in the United States unless I gave a false name. Steel workin' is +my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the +United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the +country won't let me earn my livin' by working for it, it'll have to +give me a livin' without. But I'd go to work to-morrow, if I had the +chance." + +"Not me," began 'Jolly Joe,' as soon as the tall tramp had finished, +"I'd sooner be a hobo th'n anythin' else I know. In the first place, I'm +not like 'Hatchet Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I +have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this +business. If you think it isn't a trick to rustle grub for three hungry +men, just you try it. An' while I've been on the road for nearly six +years, I've never had a dog set on me yet." + +"How do you mean?" asked the boy. + +"There's always grub on a farm if you know the right way to go about +getting it," was the reply "and there's very few places I ever go away +from without some bread or a hunk of ham or a pie. Lots of chickens get +lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to +nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the +farmers never could find. If you watch the bees closely, there's nearly +always some swarm that's got away an' made a nest in a dead tree. The +trouble is that most people are too busy to lie still all day an' watch, +an' those that aren't busy don't know." + +"But you don't rustle tea that way," said Hamilton, touching the tin +pannikin with his knuckle. + +"'Windy' looks after that." + +"I am not without some small means," explained the 'Windy Duke,' "but my +income would not permit my living in any sufficiently attractive city +in a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, +however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to +my sister, and still retain sufficient to share up with my +fellow-adventurers when times are hard or 'Jolly's' persuasive tongue is +not quite up to the mark." + +"But you didn't tell me," said Hamilton, turning to 'Jolly Joe,' "why +you started going on the road. You said you didn't like work, but where +had you tried it?" + +"I'll make the story short," was the reply. "I'm a railroad section +hand, an' was lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I +had a pile of friends among the men just above me, and I believe I would +have worked up pretty rapidly." + +"You would be president of the road by now, 'Jolly,'" put in the 'Duke.' + +"I'd be goin' up, anyhow," the other replied. "But one day an order came +along from headquarters changin' the make-up of the gangs, an' next week +I found myself the only American on an Italian gang, under an Italian +foreman. All of us were shifted around the same way. The foreman knew a +little English--not much--an' he tried to give me orders in mixed +English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to +do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me +with every bad name he'd heard since he landed, why, I gave him a +hammerin'. So, just as 'Hatchet Ben' here was driven out by Slovaks, it +was a gang of Italians that gave me my throw-down. I tell you America's +all right for everybody but the American He doesn't stand a show." + +"That sounds hard for the American working-man," the boy said, "but +there must be a lot of them working somewhere, they're not all tramping +it." + +"The back-country farmer is an American nearly every time," 'Hatchet +Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get so far away from the cities and +towns. I don't know why." + +"I think I know the reason of that," volunteered Hamilton. "I heard some +census men talking about it, and one of them had spent a long time in +Italy. He said that while it was true plenty of the peasants worked in +the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the +fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,--our average-sized +farm here would make five or six of them,--and so the village idea +can't be made to work in this country, and the Italians won't stand for +being separated from the nearest neighbor by a mile or two." + +"I can quite understand that," the Englishman said thoughtfully; "it +would be far less pleasant living in this care-free fashion of ours if +one were doing it alone." + +"It may be rather pleasant," Hamilton admitted slipping back into his +pocket the necessary details for the schedule which he had secured from +the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I think a day or +two of it would be enough for me, and I certainly wouldn't like your end +of it, 'Jolly'!" + +"Well," the other replied, as Hamilton strolled over to his mare and +lightly swung himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' +yesterday you would have gone without breakfast this mornin' or at +least, without this kind of breakfast." + +"And mighty good it was," the boy replied, "I don't know when I've +enjoyed a meal so much. I'm ever so much obliged, boys. Good-by." + +The incident gave Hamilton plenty to think about on the rest of the ride +to town, and he found himself genuinely sorry not to have a chance to +see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that +under proper conditions they would be just as fine citizens of the +country as any one could be, and the phrase "Nearly all hoboes are +Americans" kept running in his head. + +He reached the supervisor's office just as a young fellow, but little +older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamilton's +portfolio and said, a little mischievously, the boy thought: + +"How many, if I may ask?" + +"Twenty-two hundred and six," answered Hamilton, rightly supposing the +question to refer to the number of people he had enumerated. + +The other threw up his hands. + +"I pass," he said, "you beat me by nearly a hundred," and he laughed and +went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervisor's office. +The boy exchanged greetings with his friend, who said: + +"I heard you talking with that young chap who just left, when you were +coming into the office. Do you know him at all?" + +"Not in the least," replied Hamilton, and he quoted the brief +conversation. + +"There's quite a story about that case," the supervisor said, settling +himself back in his chair, "and though I'm as busy as an angry hornet +I'll stop just long enough to tell you. When I was picking the +enumerators for the Gullyville district--that's away at the other end of +the section from where you were--I found an unusual number of +applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who stood head +and shoulders above the rest. One was the principal of a village school, +and another was the chap you saw. His name is Wurtzi, and he gave his +occupation as a student and his age as nineteen." + +"I didn't think he looked even as old as that," commented Hamilton. + +"Yes, he's nineteen. As I was saying, the choice seemed to lie between +these two. Wurtzi's paper was a few points better than the other, indeed +I think it was one of the best tests turned in to me from any center. On +the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large +colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts +of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew everybody. That +was why, when I sent the papers to Washington, I recommended him for +appointment instead of the boy, of whom I knew nothing except that his +examination paper was slightly the better of the two." + +"Yet the boy got the job!" + +"He did," the supervisor answered. "The government rejected my +recommendation, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi +should be appointed on his showing rather than the other unless I knew +something against him." + +"I suppose that was fairer," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "but I thought +that matters of that kind were left to the discretion of the +supervisor." + +"Generally they were, but still there were reversals in a good many +cases," was the reply. "But from everything that I've heard, suggestions +from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exactly +the right thing. They certainly were in this case. I sent the lad his +commission at once, of course." + +"What did the master have to say?" asked Hamilton. + +"I'm coming to that," the supervisor replied. "Two or three days later +he came into my office. + +"'I understand Wurtzi has secured the enumerator's job?' he said. + +"'Yes,' I answered, 'it was a pretty close thing between you so I sent +the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the +other was more satisfactory.' The schoolmaster laughed and sat down. + +"'I don't know whether I ought to be angry or pleased,' he said; 'it all +depends on how you look at it whether it can be considered as a +compliment or an affront.' + +"I just stared at him. + +"'I don't follow you in the least,' I said. He laughed. + +"'Of course you didn't know that Wurtzi was one of the boys in my +school,' he replied, 'and more than that, he is the poorest boy in the +school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way +in which he could secure his father's permission to allow him to come to +school was that he should turn over to him the trifling sum we pay for +janitor work.'" + +"Pretty good stuff in the boy to want to learn under those conditions," +commented Hamilton. + +"He wanted to educate himself, and his mother was very ambitious. She is +Polish, evidently of the better class--and, as you know, the Poles are +one of the most intellectual races of the world--and the boy gets his +brains from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy +could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he +had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two +years he had been walking barefoot three miles to school, getting there +by daybreak, making the fire, sweeping the floor, cleaning the windows, +and then settling down to prepare his morning lessons before the opening +of school. + +"I told Sinclair," the supervisor continued, "that I thought he ought to +be ten times prouder of the success of his pupil than of the merits of +an examination paper, because it took a higher degree of ability to +teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy +must have been wonderfully well taught to achieve so much. He agreed +with me, of course, but I could see that it irked him a little just the +same. He volunteered, however, to assist his pupil as much as he could." + +"That was very decent of him, I think," Hamilton said, "lots of men +would have borne a grudge. But did you say his name was Sinclair?" + +"Yes," the supervisor answered, "Gregory Sinclair. Why?" + +"And you said he had been in the mountains?" + +"Quite a good deal." + +"Then that must be Bill Wilsh's teacher," exclaimed Hamilton, and he +told the supervisor the story of the "cunjer," the whittled schoolhouse +and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, +"and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder if you +would give it to him for me. Don't forget to tell him that the door was +made to appear open, to show him that he was expected back." + +"Of course, I shall be glad to give it to him," the supervisor answered, +"and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, though +probably only in the holidays and for a visit. Where is this carving?" + +"At the hotel, sir," the boy answered, "I'll bring it over this +afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the chance of seeing him myself, he +must be a fine chap." + +"He is," the supervisor agreed, "and he showed the stuff he was made of +in connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he +really put in a lot of time helping Wurtzi in order that he might make +good." + +"You said the boy was Polish?" + +"Polish, of the stock that's making another country out of the deserted +districts of New England. Land that has been abandoned by the Americans +the Poles are making productive. That's where the real wealth of the +future is coming in--from the people who will work the ground without +exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this +country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its +fertility will take years and years to return. These European peasants, +however, are so used to making much of a small plot that they are +redeeming the ground. You know, I'm one of those that believe in all the +immigration possible, and I've never forgotten one of Broughton +Brandenburg's sayings about it." + +"What was that?" asked the boy. + +"That 'it is always the most ignorant immigrant that makes the best +citizen.'" + +"I certainly don't see that," Hamilton replied. + +"He absorbs Americanism more quickly," the other explained. "For +example, there's no class hatred idea to be fought down, no anarchistic +tendencies, no desire to turn liberty into license. The ignorant +immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there +is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. There's not +one in ten thousand of that kind that does not prosper from the day he +lands. But you'll hear all sorts of ideas and suggestions in Washington. +When do you go?" + +"I'm leaving to-night, sir," the boy answered. "I thought it might +please the Bureau if I were there a day ahead of time." + +"They'll be willing enough," the supervisor answered "I imagine every +added helper is of value now, with all these schedules piling in. I'll +drop a note to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your +schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover +your district in the time. I wish you all sorts of luck, and write to me +once in a while from Washington so that I can hear what you're doing and +how you're getting along." + +Hamilton thanked the supervisor heartily, and after a word or two of +farewell returned to the house of a friend where he was to dine before +starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching +there he went directly to the Census Bureau, sent in his card, and the +Director's secretary, a keen young fellow, came out to see him. + +"I think I've heard Mr. Burns speak about you, Mr. Noble," he said, +looking at the card he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy +right now, but he said when you came you were to go down to Mr. Cullern; +I'd take you there myself but I'm needed here." + +"Well, there's really no necessity, Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell +me where it is and I'll find my way." + +But the other beckoned to an attendant. + +"Show this gentleman to Mr. Cullern," he said. Then, turning with a +smile to the boy, he said, "You'll be all right, I guess." + +Hamilton thanked him, and the secretary hurried back through the +swinging half length door to the inner office. Following the messenger, +Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines +clicking on every side of him. The chief of the floor looked at the +card, turned it over, read what had been penciled on the back, and said +promptly: + +"I think I'll start you on one of the punching machines." + +"Very well, sir," the boy answered, "I want to learn everything I can." + +"I have a vacant machine," the other continued, "one of the men is away +on sick leave. If you want to begin right away you can start this +afternoon. Here," he said, picking up a pamphlet from a pile which lay +on a table near by, "is a list of instructions." + +"I'm quite ready to start now," Hamilton declared. + +"Your machine is over here, then," his new superior said, leading the +way to a far corner of the room. "You had better try to find out as much +as you can from the instructions, and one of the foremen will be 'round +to tell you more about the working of it a little later." + +"All right, sir," the boy replied, sitting down at the machine, "I think +I can get on to it without much trouble." + +The keyboard was entirely strange to Hamilton. It looked not unlike that +of a big typewriter, or resembled even more closely a linotype keyboard, +only it was divided off into sections each one of which was brightly +colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The +instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the +boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book that +he did not notice the coming of the sub-section foreman, who looked down +at the boy for a moment or two with an amused smile. Presently he +coughed, and Hamilton looked up suddenly to see him standing there. + +"I beg your pardon," asked the boy, "were you speaking?" + +"No," said the newcomer, "but I was going to before long. You seem to be +just eating up that book." + +"Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long," said +Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought +the more I knew about it before you came, the better it would be all +'round." + +"Do you know anything about census work?" was the next question. + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I was an assistant special agent on the +manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day +before yesterday." + +"I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work," the +foreman answered, "coming in to-day, just when that end of the work +closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I +wonder why they sent you to this department; I should have supposed that +you would be editing schedules." + +"I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently," the boy +explained, "and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various +parts of the work by doing them myself. Judging from this book, it +doesn't seem hard." + +"Let me hear what you know about it." + +Hamilton closed the book. + +"I think I have it fairly straight," he said. "These first four columns +on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that +right?" + +"Yes," the older man replied, "that is looked after in another way. The +district and State and all that sort of thing go in that section, and +that is arranged by what we call a gang-punch." + +"I don't know how that works," the boy said, "this list of instructions +to the punching clerk doesn't say anything about it." + +"It doesn't need to," his informant answered, "for the simple reason +that the punching clerk has nothing to do with it. But I'll tell you if +you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration districts +in the United States, and all we have to do is to set the gang-punch to +the number of the district." + +"But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything +like it," the boy cried, "all told there are only forty-eight places in +those four columns." + +"That works by the permutation of numbers," was the reply. "You can +arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures +in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty +ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; +ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them +around--and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. +The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get +by reference to the schedule." + +"That's enough!" cried Hamilton. "I can see now. It would take a sheet +of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures." + +"If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that +forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write +them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz +the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of +easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be +arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter +like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the +gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the +schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it." + +"I see," said Hamilton, "and I suppose a number is put on the card which +corresponds with every district number on the schedule. Then I come in +on all the rest of the card." + +"Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk." + +"But this machine doesn't seem to punch," the boy objected; "I put in a +canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, +nothing happened, the key just stayed down." + +"It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready," the other +explained. "You depress into position the various keys you want until +all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance +over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed +keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you +can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card +being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card +corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this +makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule." + +"But how is the punching done, then?" queried Hamilton. + +"You press the bar," the foreman explained, "and that throws in the +motor attached to the punching mechanism, which brings the entire die +and card up against the end of the punches which have been depressed by +the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate +the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatically into +either the 'male' or the 'female' compartments of the machine, the +location of the hole tilting the slide that determines on which side the +punched card shall fall." + +"So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same +operation as the punching of the card," the boy remarked; "I see now. +That's a first-class idea." + +"It saves a great deal of work," the older man said. "Then, too, with +the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is +in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in +rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring +the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has +to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a +line because of an error of eyesight." + +"I can understand that now," the boy answered "Now let me see whether I +really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third +column--though it is really the fifth--I punch either 'Hd' for the Head +of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' +for Other?" + +"That's right." + +"Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's +easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' +for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for +Japanese, and 'In' for Indian." + +"Go ahead," the foreman said, "you're not likely to go wrong as yet." + +"The age seems clear, too," said Hamilton, "you punch the five-year +period nearest to the age and then add on. For instance, the way it +looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the +'15' and then the '1' in that little cornerwise bit at the bottom of the +next section. But I don't see what the '5' is for." + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.] + +"That's for babies in the sixth division of the first year, or from nine +to eleven months old; the first division means under one month, and the +rest either one, two, or three months apiece." + +"I see it all now," exclaimed the boy, "you have to punch two holes for +age for every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' +as well as the '10,' I suppose, to make sure he isn't older and the +extra years forgotten." + +"That's the reason exactly." + +"The meaning of the section next to the age is easy, too," Hamilton +continued. "'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for +Divorced, 'Un' for unknown, any one could guess. But this 'Mother +Tongue' business has me going." + +"I thought it would," was the reply. "But it's not so hard if you +remember a few things, particularly that the language of a country is +not always spoken by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the +mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do +not speak Welsh. Thus an English-speaking Welshman's card would be +punched 'OL,' meaning Other Language, or the language next in +importance to the mother language of the country." + +"On that basis," said Hamilton, "if the second most important language +of Denmark is German a card that was punched 'Den' for the country would +have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had +spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spoken Danish, +which is the native tongue of the country. But I should think there +would be some cases that would not come under that rule." + +"There are--a few," the foreman replied, "but the way in which those are +to be punched will be noted on the schedule by the schedule editors." + +"Some schedules need a good deal of editing, I suppose," exclaimed +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"You may be sure of that," the other answered. "If you think for a +moment how impossible it would be to have all the supervisors and +enumerators work exactly in the same style, you can see how necessary it +must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all +uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mistakes that the +editors remedy before the card is punched ready for tabulation. But go +on with your explanation, so that I can see if you really do understand +it." + +"The parent columns run the same way, of course," Hamilton continued, +"'U.S.' meaning any one born in the United States, and 'Un.' cases in +which the parentage is unknown. Then 'NP' means native-born parents, and +'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' +stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' +unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean that the foreign-born can +speak English, 'Ot' that he can only speak some tongue other than +English. The year of immigration, of course, is obvious. But this +occupation, I can't make head or tail of!" + +"That you have to learn," the instructor said. "There is a printed list +here for reference that contains the principal kinds of employment in +the United States and classifies them. In a very little while you will +find that you can remember the numbers which signify the more common of +these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation +returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched +later by a special force of clerks. Holes punched for those out of work +and the number of weeks unemployed are all easy. At the top of the last +column, too, 'Emp' means Employer, 'W' Wage Earner, while 'OA' means +working on his or her own account, and 'Un' is for Unemployed." + +"All right, sir," Hamilton replied, "I think I can do it now. I should +find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things just +exactly as they are here on population schedules for the last month." + +"It makes an astonishing difference," the experienced man agreed, "you +know the why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this +old test schedule and I will give you fifty blank cards, and we will see +how they come out." + +Through the rest of the afternoon, Hamilton worked steadily over this +set of cards, not only doing the work, but getting the principles of the +whole thing thoroughly in his mind, and, as he had said to the +sub-section chief, knowing just the manner in which the schedules had +been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, +therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at +his machine a real schedule, not the test that he had been working on +the afternoon before; the exact number of cards required for his +schedule all ready in the hopper of the machine, and it was pointed out +to him that error was not permissible and that he must account for every +card. + +"Why is that?" asked Hamilton, "what difference would a card or two +make?" + +"It isn't the cards, it's the numbering," the other explained. "Don't +you remember that each card was numbered, and so, if one card is wrong +it would throw all the succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a +chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have +touched the lever and the card is punched it slides into its own +compartment. You have all the chance you want to look over your +arrangement of depressed keys before the card is punched, but none +after." + +Before a week had passed by, Hamilton was so thoroughly at home with the +machine that the work seemed to him to become more or less mechanical, +and his interest in it began to wane. As--under government +regulations--he left work early, he sauntered over several times to the +verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine +used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it +seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, and he was +curious to know the principle on which it worked. Generally every one +quit at half-past four o'clock, just as he did, but sometimes a man +would work a few minutes longer to finish a batch of cards, and the boy +would go to watch him. + +When he was over there one day, after hours, Hamilton saw Mr. Cullern on +the floor. + +"Still looking for information?" questioned the older man, with a smile. + +"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I've been watching this machine and I've +spoken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but +they none of them seem to know. They knew how to run it, and that was +about all." + +"The principle is simple enough," the chief replied, "but it would be a +bit hard to understand the combination unless you had the clew. Then it +is all as clear as day, although the machine itself is a little +complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on +this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noticed that these +holes correspond with the points on the card, and that the way in which +the card is fed into the machine insures that the holes shall coincide +exactly." + +"That I saw," Hamilton answered, "and I could see, of course, that +this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and that upon +it a good deal of the exactness of the work depended." + +[Illustration: TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It does," the other replied. "Now if you look into those holes in the +plate you can see a little cup of bright metal under each hole. What do +you suppose that is?" + +"I'm not sure, of course," the boy responded, "but it looks very much +like quicksilver." + +"That's exactly what it is, quicksilver, or mercury. Now mercury, you +ought to know, can transmit an electric current, so that if an +electrically charged pin comes down into the cup of mercury, the cup +itself being attached to an electric current, a circuit is formed." + +"Now I'm beginning to see," the boy said, "but what is the idea of the +cup of mercury; could not the pin just as well touch on a metal plate?" + +"It could, of course, but a piece of dust between would prevent contact, +the pins would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, +by the pin just dropping into the mercury there is no friction and no +fear of a missed contact." + +"The pins are in that square box at the end of the long arm which comes +down every time a card is put on the plate, aren't they, Mr. Cullern?" +asked Hamilton. + +"Yes, and if there is no card there and the pins in the square box are +started down, they are automatically stopped before they reach the +mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card were +there without any holes punched, none of the pins would reach the +mercury and no contact would be made." + +"But with a punched census card," interrupted the boy, eager to show +that he understood, "the pins go through the holes in the cards and do +not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of +holes in the card is registered. But still, there's so much difference +in the cards that I don't see how this machine can verify them, can tell +which are right and which wrong!" + +"There is variety enough," answered the chief, "for of the hundred +million cards punched, no two are exactly the same, they could not be." + +"Couldn't it happen perhaps that two people of the same age should do +the same work, be both married and so forth?" asked the boy +interestedly. + +"They would have to live in the same district, they would have to be +employed the same way, they would have both to be married and have the +same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then--the +cards would be different for they would represent different numbers on +the schedule on which their names were registered. No, there are not two +cards in the entire series punched alike." + +"Then I don't see how in the wide world this machine can tell which +cards are right among millions so entirely different from each other." + +"They don't verify by finding the cards that are right," was the answer, +"but by picking out the cards that are wrong." + +"What's the difference?" + +"There is a wide difference. You can see that it would be easy enough to +arrange that machine so that if a wrong combination of contacts were +made the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but +you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires +are satisfied, as it were, and the bell rings; for an error, one wire, +cut in on by a wrong wire, breaks the contact, and the bell does not +ring." + +"But what do you mean by a wrong grouping?" asked the boy. + +"You ought to be able to guess that," the chief said reproachfully. +"For instance if a card is punched 'Wf' for Wife and also is punched +'Male' that card is sure to be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is +punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a +three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are twenty-three +different possibilities of error which are checked by this verification +machine, and for any one of these twenty-three reasons a card is thrown +out." + +"For example if 'Na' for naturalized is punched on the same card as 'N' +for native-born, and things of that sort, I suppose?" the boy +questioned. + +"And many others of similar character," the older man agreed. + +"But how about insufficiently punched cards?" queried Hamilton. "I can +see that it would be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad +inconsistencies, but supposing a figure were only left out, there would +be no contact made to show the error." + +"Except in the age column," was the reply, "there is supposed to be a +punch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a +contact from every card registers its disapproval by throwing out that +card." + +"And what happens to the rejected cards?" asked Hamilton, with interest. + +"A checker-up compares them with the original schedules, and if +incorrectly punched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, +punches the missing place. But the number of cards found wrong does not +reach a high percentage." + +"You know I've been thinking," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "that while I +suppose it is all right getting all those holes punched in a card, and +so forth, I should think it would be fearfully hard to handle the card +afterwards. All these little holes look so much alike." + +"To the eye, perhaps," the chief said, "but you must remember that these +cards are never sorted by eyesight. And you must remember that the +sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the +verifying and the tabulating is handled in a purely mechanical fashion. +You remember that each card was punched with a gang-punch?" + +"Of course," the boy said, "that was to specify the district." + +"We keep all those together from the time they are punched till after +we are through with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain +enumeration district, and of every section in that district, are kept +together in a separate box." + +"My word," Hamilton exclaimed, "what a storage you must have!" + +"You ought to go down and see it some time," the other said. "It's big +enough, with every State and every county and every district in the +country having its own place, and every little village in that district +right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, +and district. I'm telling you this just to show you that we don't have +to sort the cards for location at all, and that in itself saves us a lot +of labor and time." + +"And they were sorted into sexes on the punching machine, I remember," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Yes, and that prevents another handling of every card, you see," the +chief went on, "so that without any further special division, every card +is divided by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when +it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating +machine--which is just the same as the verification, only instead of the +electrical connections being made through relays only, they are +sometimes made direct to counters." + +"Just how, Mr. Cullern?" the boy asked. + +"Well," the other continued, "when the pin, passing through the hole in +the card, drops into the little cup of mercury it closes a current +passing through an electro-magnet controlling a counter or a dial +corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and +for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The +tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and printing +system, somewhat along the stock ticker plan, connected with each dial. +When desired, touching an electric button will cause every dial to print +automatically the number recorded on a ribbon of paper." + +"That is before sorting?" + +"Or after. Cards may be tabulated along a lot of different lines. And +the sorting device depends again upon another machine, operated by the +same principle." + +The chief led the boy to another portion of the floor. + +"This sorter," he said, "can be set for thirteen different compartments. +In determining the country of birth, for example, at any given point on +the card, an electrically charged brush finds the hole punched and +directs the card in between two of those finely divided wire levels, +where a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point +where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest +compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile +of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the +operator clearing away the pile from each division as it becomes full. +As you can see, that feed knife moves so rapidly and the endless band +fingers carry the cards out of the way in such a hurry that they move +along in a steady stream. We have only twenty of these machines and they +handle all the cards." + +"It's hard to believe," said Hamilton wonderingly, "that these machines +don't think." + +"We're just building one in here," the supervisor replied, leading the +way into a little partitioned-off section of the room, "that has an +uncanny ingenuity. This machine feeds itself with cards, verifies and +tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the +adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the work +of the next census amazingly, just as the machines you saw have made the +old hand punching machines of former times seem very cumbersome. But +this one," he added, "is a gem." + +[Illustration: PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (_Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It's a little like magic, it seems to me," said Hamilton, "to think of +every person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot +of little holes in it, and practically the whole history on it. It +certainly is queer." + +"There is something mysterious in it," the chief answered with a laugh. +"One feels as though all the secrets of the United States were boxed up +and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the +Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web of +organization, whose skill and knowledge have unlocked commercial +secrets, and whose perception has always seen the essential fact." + +"It's great work to have a share in," the boy declared enthusiastically. + +"To make us all feel that," his superior replied "is the chiefest spell +of the Director of the Census." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + + +"This is surely one blazing day," said Hamilton one day early in June, +as after the noon hour, he settled back at his work on the punching +machine. + +"We'll cool you off all right," responded the foreman, who was coming up +at the moment and heard the boy's remark, "for I understand they're +looking for editors on the Alaskan schedules. A big batch of them has +just arrived and I happen to know that your name has been recommended. +Mr. Cullern asked me to send you to him just as soon as you came in." + +"I should like that above all things," Hamilton replied, "partly because +I've always been interested in Alaska, and also because this work has +got a little monotonous. I hadn't thought of the Alaskan census," he +continued, "and that's strange too; I should think census-taking up in +that country must have been full of excitement and adventure." + +"Probably it was," responded his friend, "but you won't find any +thrilling yarns on the schedules; they'll be just like any other +schedules, I should imagine, only that the occupations will be of a +different variety. But you had better go along and see the chief." + +Hamilton went gladly, thinking that no matter how formal the schedules +might be that dealt with Alaska they could not help but show to some +extent the character of the conditions in which they had been secured +and the difficulties attaching to work in that isolated land. + +"How would you like to try your hand at the editing of the Alaska +schedules, Noble?" asked the chief of the division when the boy appeared +before him a few moments later. + +"Very much indeed, Mr. Cullern," Hamilton replied. + +"I understand that you have shown a great deal of interest in your work +while you have been here," the chief said, "and when I was asked +yesterday if I had any one to recommend I thought of you at once. Having +had experience in the manufactures end, as well as in the population, +ought to help you a good deal in the work. You were a special agent in +the manufactures, were you not?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "but I don't think any of the places to +which I went resembled in any way the conditions in Alaska." + +"Probably not," the chief said dryly, "New England isn't usually +considered in that light. But the underlying principles are the same, of +course, all the way through. Well, if you want to try it, here is your +chance." + +"Very well, sir," Hamilton answered promptly. "I shall be glad to take +it up." + +The boy waited a moment, but as there seemed nothing more to be said, he +walked back to his machine, to straighten up before leaving. + +"As soon as you're through with that schedule," the foreman in charge of +the sub-section told him, "let me know, and then you can go to Mr. +Barnes, who is in charge of the Alaskan schedules." + +"I've nearly finished," answered the boy, "I'll be done in a quarter of +an hour anyway." + +Accordingly, a little later, Hamilton found his way to another part of +the building, where he met his new superior, a small, alert, nervous, +quick-spoken man, who, as Hamilton afterwards found out, had the +capacity of working at lightning speed, and then stopping and wanting to +talk at intervals. He said very little when Hamilton first came to him, +merely handing him a number of schedules to edit. + +Hamilton watched him furtively several times and noted the amazing +rapidity of his work. Secretly he knew he could not attain that speed, +but he thought he had better make as good a showing as he could, and so +he, too, buckled to the job for all he was worth. When the boy had done +two or three schedules, each containing fifty names, Mr. Barnes reached +out for those that had been edited and went through them closely. He +made one or two corrections. + +"That's not half bad, Noble," he said suddenly, "but I can see from one +or two little things you let go by that you are not entirely familiar +with that country. I'll tell you more about it later, but in the +meantime you had better look over some of the reports the supervisors +have sent in; they give you an insight into what those enumerators out +there had to go through in order to secure anything like complete +schedules. Here in one from the Fourth District, for example, there is a +graphic description of the work which I think you ought to enjoy. It's +good writing, too." + +"My enumeration work was in Kentucky," said Hamilton, "so I haven't much +line on the conditions in the North. But I've always enjoyed books and +stories about Alaska, and I'd like to read the report." + +"It will give you the atmosphere," said Barnes, "listen to this +paragraph, for example: 'The work was performed during the severest +winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers there. There +did not appear to be a man who did not have a pride in his work, an +anxiety to create a record for traveling time, a desire to enumerate all +the people in the district assigned to him, and to have to his credit +less loss of time because of weather than any of the other agents.'" + +"I guess," said Hamilton, "that supervisor had those enumerators just +breaking their necks to beat out the other agents, and he worked on +their pride to get up their speed." + +"'That the service lost none of its men from freezing to death, and that +every man returned safely, is a matter for congratulation and of good +fortune, from the fact that there were in this part of Alaska more +deaths from the weather this winter than all preceding years in total; +cases in which those who met such deaths did not begin to go through the +sacrifice and privation that these agents of the service did.'" + +"Makes you proud to have been an enumerator, doesn't it?" asked the boy. +"But it always seems difficult to realize hardship unless you have been +there." + +"I spent a winter in Alaska," said Barnes emphatically, "and I can feel +the thrill of it in every line. He knows what he's writing of, too, this +man. Hear how he describes it: 'All the men in the service,'" he +continued, "'covered hundreds of miles over the ice and snow, in weather +ranging from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the average temperature +probably being about 40 below. Because of the absolute lack of beaten +trails--' I wonder," he broke off, "if any one who hasn't been there can +grasp what it means!" + +Hamilton waited. + +"No beaten trail," Barnes said reminiscently, "means where stunted +willows emphasize by their starved and shivering appearance the nearness +of the timber; where the snow-drifts, each with its little feather of +drifting snow sheering from its crest, are heaped high; where the snow +underfoot is unbroken; where under snow-filled skies a wind studded +with needle-sharp ice crystals blows a perfect gale; where the lonely +and frozen desolation is peopled only by the haunting shape of fear that +next morning a wan and feeble sun may find you staggering still blindly +on, hopelessly lost, or fallen beside a drift where the winter's snows +must melt before your fate is known." + +He stopped abruptly and went on with his schedule. Hamilton worked on in +silence. Presently, as though there had been no pause, Barnes resumed +his quotation from the supervisor's report: + +"'Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails, and the fact that the +snow lies so loosely on the ground like so much salt, no matter what its +depth may be, it was necessary through all their work to snow-shoe ahead +of the dog-teams. When one considers their isolation,--often traveling +for days without other shelter than a tent and fur robes--it can be +understood what sacrifices some of these men made to visit far-away +prospectors' cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part +of the country ever considers that there is any hardship, unless there +is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, +though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.'" + +He tossed over the report to Hamilton. + +"Look it over," he said. "I tell you there's some stirring stuff in +that, and just the bald reports of the enumerators' trips leave the +stories of explorers in the shade." + +The boy took up the report as he was bidden, and read it with avidity. +Presently, upon a boyish exclamation, the other spoke: + +"What's that one you've struck?" + +"It's the enumerator from the district of Chandler," answered Hamilton. + +"Go ahead and read it aloud," Barnes said, "I can go on with these +schedules just as well while you do." + +"'At no time after he left Fairbanks,'" read the boy, "'did the +thermometer get above 30 degrees below zero. His long journey away from +a base of supplies made it impossible for him to carry a sufficient +supply of grub, and he was obliged to live off the country, killing +moose, mountain sheep, and other fresh meat. He froze portions of his +face several times, and on one occasion dropped into six feet of open +water, nearly losing his life in consequence.'" + +"That would be fearful," said Barnes, "unless he could pitch camp right +there, put up a tent, build a fire, and change into dry clothing." + +"There seems to have been mighty little wood for that up there," +Hamilton remarked, "because, speaking of this same enumerator, the +supervisor says, further on, 'In crossing the Arctic Range and in +returning he traveled above timber line eighteen hours in both +directions, which, in a country where fire is a necessity, can be +understood is a very considerable sacrifice. He traveled in many places +where a white man had never been before, and as there are no beaten +trails or government roads in the district anywhere, he was obliged, +everywhere, to snow-shoe ahead of his team to beat down a trail.'" + +"Did you ever snow-shoe?" asked Barnes abruptly. + +"Once," answered Hamilton, "when I went to Canada to visit some cousins; +they had a snow-shoe tramp and insisted on my coming along. But I was +stiff for a week." + +"Well," said the editor, "when you try to break trail and have to keep +ahead of a dog-team coming along at a fair clip, it's just about the +hardest kind of work there is." + +"They all seem to have had their own troubles," said Hamilton, who had +been glancing down the pages of the report: "here's the next chap, who +got caught in a blizzard while accompanying the mail carrier, and if it +hadn't been for the fact that the people of the nearest settlement knew +that the mail carrier was expected on that day and sent out a rescue +party to search for him, neither of the two men would ever have been +found, and the census would have lost a man." + +"That was up in the Tanana region, wasn't it?" queried Barnes, but +without looking up from his work. + +"Yes," answered the boy, "and from all accounts that must be a wild part +of the country. Speaking of that same enumerator, the supervisor says: +'That this agent survived the work during the stormy period and came +back alive was the wonder of the older inhabitants of the country. No +less than four times this man was found by other travelers in an +exhausted condition, not far from complete collapse, and assisted to a +stopping place. He lost three dogs, and suffered terribly himself from +frost-bite. In the same district, during the same time, eight persons +were frozen to death, six men and two women.' There's quite a story +here, too, telling how he himself rescued a couple of trappers in the +last stages of hunger, exposure, and exhaustion." + +"It's fearful to think of," the other commented; "just imagine those +agonizing journeys in the teeth of an Arctic wind, traveling over +hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness to get less than one-tenth as +many people as a city enumerator would find in one block!" + +"But why do it in winter?" asked Hamilton. "It's hot up there in summer, +I've heard, and driving in the warm weather is pleasant enough; there's +no hardship in that!" + +"You can't drive where there are no roads, and you can't ride where +there are no horses. Then the time available is short." + +"Why is it so short?" + +"You haven't a railroad going to every point in Alaska," Barnes pointed +out, "there's usually a trip of several hundred miles before you get to +the place from which to start. And when are you going to make that +journey?" + +"In the spring," Hamilton said, "as soon as it gets mild." + +"I reckon you don't know much about Alaska," the older man remarked. +"When the snow thaws, the creeks overflow, and the rivers become raging +torrents. You can't ride, and if you walk, how are you going to cross a +swollen river, filled with pieces of ice the size of this room? Those +Alaska rivers are huge bodies of water, many of them, and there are no +bridges." + +"How about boats?" + +"You mean traveling on those ice-filled rivers? It couldn't be done." + +"But as soon as the ice goes out?" + +"That's pretty well into June, to start with, and then you would have to +pole up against the current all the way, and the currents of most of the +rivers are very swift. Did you ever pole a boat up against a swift +mountain river?--I thought not. Suppose, by very hard work, you could +make two or three miles an hour up stream,--at that rate how long would +it take you to go up to the highest settlement? And then you would have +to go all the way down again and ascend the next stream; and even then +more than half the settlements would be on streams and creeks you could +not get to with boats because of falls, of rapids, of long portages, and +things of that kind." + +"I guess they couldn't use a boat," said Hamilton, "but still I don't +see why they couldn't ride!" + +"Ride what? Dogs? Or reindeer? I suppose you mean to take a horse up +there?" + +"That's what I was thinking of," Hamilton admitted. + +"How would you get him up there? Take him in a dog-sled the preceding +winter? You know a horse couldn't travel on the snow like a dog-team. +And if you did get him up to the starting point during the winter, on +what would you feed him? Dried salmon? That's all there is, and while it +makes good enough dog-feed, a horse isn't built that way. There's no +hay-cutting section up there, and your horse would starve to death +before you had a chance to ride him. And even supposing that you could +keep him alive,--I don't believe you could ride him over the tundra +swamps; there is no horse made that could keep his footing on those +marshy tussocks." + +"I see you're right," said Hamilton, "I hadn't thought of all that." + +The older man continued: "There are horses in the towns of southern +Alaska, because, you know, there is one narrow strip that runs a long +way south, and there the weather is not severe. But the north is +another matter entirely. The pay that you would have to offer in order +to lure the men away from the gold-diggings would be enormous. No, it +had to be a winter job, and in the Geography section--where I was last +year--it took us all our time to estimate satisfactory enumeration +districts for Alaska." + +[Illustration: OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"The Geography section?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I hadn't heard +of that. What is that part of the census work for?" + +"To map out the enumeration districts," his superior explained. "That is +a most important part of the work. You remember that the enumeration +district was supposed to provide exactly a month's work for each man?" + +"Yes," Hamilton answered, "I know I had to hustle in order to get mine +done in the month." + +"Supposing," said the other, "that all the people that were on your +schedule had lived in villages close together, would it have taken you +as long to do?" + +"Of course not," Hamilton replied, "I could have done it in half the +time. What delayed things was riding from farm to farm, and they were +scattered all over the countryside." + +"Exactly," Barnes continued, "but I suppose you never stopped to think +that the number of people in each district and the nature of the ground +to be covered both had to be considered. Then allowance had to be made +for the enumeration of those not readily accessible, and for such +natural obstacles as unbridged rivers; all these had to be mapped out +and gone over by the Census Bureau before the sections were assigned." + +"No," the boy replied, "I never really stopped to think who it was that +made up all those districts. And, now you come to speak of it, I don't +see how it could have been done without being on the ground." + +"Yet it is evident," the other said, "that it must have been done. It +wouldn't be fair to tell a man to finish a district that represented +seven or eight weeks' work, nor to promise a month's work to a man and +then give him a district that had only two or three weeks' employment. +You couldn't alter the districts afterwards, either, as everything had +to be prepared in Washington for enumeration and tabulation by the +original districts as mapped out." + +"You mean," said Hamilton, "that every square mile of territory in the +United States, the number of people on it, the kind of land it was, the +roads and trails, the distance from the nearest town, the rivers, and +the location of bridges across them, and all that sort of thing had to +be worked out in advance?" + +"Every acre," was the reply, "and the worst of it was that there was +very little to go by. The lists for the last Decennial Census were only +of use in the Eastern districts, for in the West large towns had grown +up that were mere villages then. Whole sections of territory which were +uninhabited ten years ago are thick with farms today and the 'Great +American Desert' of a few years ago is becoming, under irrigation, the +'Great American Garden.'" + +"The Survey maps helped, I should think," said Hamilton. "I have a +friend, Roger Doughty, on the Geological Survey, and he told me all +about the making of the Topographic maps." + +"They helped, of course, but even with those it was hard to work out +some of the queerly shaped districts. The supervisors helped us greatly +after the larger districts had been planned, but the Geography division +had to keep in touch with every detail until the entire country was +divided into proportionately equal sections. + +"And you had to do that for Alaska, as well!" + +"As far as we could. Of course it was difficult to determine routes of +travel there, and to a large extent that had to be left to the +supervisors, but they merely revised our original districting. It took a +lot of figuring in Alaska because of the tremendous travel difficulties +there and the thousands of miles of territory still unsurveyed." + +"I had never realized the need of all that preparatory work," the boy +admitted. + +"There's a great deal of the work that has to be done in the years +before the census and in the years after," he was informed, "and the +Bureau is kept just as busy as it can be, all the while. The Decennial +Census, although it is the biggest part of the census work, is only one +of its many branches, and then there are always other matters being +looked after, like the Quinquennial Census of Manufactures, and such +numberings as those of the Religious Bodies and the Marriage and Divorce +Statistics of a few years ago." + +"I understood the Bureau had regular work all the year round?" Hamilton +said. + +"Indeed it has. All the births and deaths that are registered are +tabulated here, and a number of tables of vital statistics are worked +out which are of immense value to doctors not only in the United States +but all over the world. Then, as I think you know, we have for years +made a special study of cotton crop conditions, and there is a bulletin +published at stated intervals showing the state of the cotton industry +in the United States. Then there is all the statistical work on cities +of over 30,000 inhabitants, and there is scarcely a question which has +reference to the population or the manufacturing interests of the +country that is not referred sooner or later to the Bureau of the +Census." + +"You work with the Forest Service, too, I believe," said Hamilton. +"Wilbur Loyle, a forest ranger whom I knew very well, showed me some +figures that the Bureau had prepared." + +"Only in the collection and publication of statistics of forest +products," said Barnes, rising and changing his office coat,--for the +conversation had run on long after office hours,--"owing to their +co-operation the task is not cumbersome; questions of information or +special statistics asked for by Congress or by the executive departments +take up a great deal of time when added to an already extensive routine +work." + +Editing the schedules of the population of Alaska, just as Hamilton had +expected, proved to be of the most intense interest, since, despite the +closest desire on the part of the enumerators to confine themselves +strictly to official facts, the wildness of the frontier life would +creep in. An example of this was the listing of an Eskimo girl on the +schedule as having "Sun" and "Sea" for her parents with an explanatory +note to the effect that she had been found as a tiny girl upon a heap of +sea moss on the beach. Another was when an enumerator wrote on his +schedule under 'language spoken,' "Some pesky lingo; I know most of +their talk, but this was too much for me and the hut was too strong to +stay in long." + +Such comments made it easy to create a picture of the semi-savagery of +the fur-clad fishers on the shores of the Arctic Sea. + +Another schedule, one which interested the boy greatly, was that in +which the age of an Indian was described as "200 snows." To try to get +this worked out to the probably true age of 80 or 90 years evidently had +been quite a task. The enumerator wrote: + +"This Indian ain't 200 years old. He says he's 200 snows, but I can't +quite figure it out. He says he was 20 snows when he got first woman, +kept her 4 snows, then she go away! He complained that 'he had no +women 4 suns and catch no women 4 snows.' He 'got more woman, keep her 5 +snows, then she eat cold (frozen to death). Got no woman 20 snows, she +good woman.' He could not give any clue about his children only that +'his chickens 30 to 45 snows!' They reckon here only from what they can +remember, so this buck is probably counting from about ten years old. +That would make him thirty when he first got a wife, thirty-four when +she died, thirty-eight when he got his next wife, and forty-three when +she died. Counting his oldest child at 45 this would make him about +seventy-five. Where the '200 snows' comes in, I don't see." + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +A great treat to the boy came, however, when one of the enumerators from +the Second District of Alaska, who had been summoned East in the spring +on business concerning some property with which he was associated, and +had come as soon as the break-up permitted travel, dropped into the +Census Bureau. He made himself known to the Director, and the latter, +always ready to show attention and being really proud of the Census +Bureau staff, arranged to have him shown around the building. The +Alaskan was a small fellow, hard as nails, given to stretches of +silence, but with a ready, infectious laugh and the ability to tell a +good yarn after he got started. Presently, just before quitting time, he +reached the desk where Barnes and Hamilton were editing schedules. + +"This ought to interest you," said the Bureau official who was showing +him around, "these men are just going over the Alaskan schedules before +sending them to the machines to be punched and tabulated." + +Looking interested, the man bent forward and, with a muttered word of +apology, picked up the schedule on which Hamilton was working at the +time. "This must be one o' mine!" he said, with an air of surprise. + +"But that is marked, 'Copy'!" said Hamilton "I was just wondering where +the original was." + +"I'm willin' to gamble quite a stack, son," was the surprising reply, +"that you'd have been wonderin' a whole lot more if the original had +come down to you." + +"Why, how's that?" + +"Well, I reckon I c'n handle dogs better'n I can a pen," he said, "an' +when you come to try an' write one o' these schedules on scraps o' dried +skin you c'n count it sure's shootin' there's some decipherin' got to +be done." + +Barnes looked at the official who was showing the Alaskan 'round the +building, and knowing him very well, he said to the visitor, "Spin us +the yarn; I've been up there and I'd like to hear it myself, and I know +the lad is just wild to hear it." + +"I want to be a part of that audience, too," said the official, with a +smile. + +"I don't want to hold up the job!" the visitor suggested hesitatingly. + +"Go ahead," his conductor answered. "Here we are all waiting, and it's +nearly half-past four anyway." + +"Well, then, it was up in the Noatak Pass--" he was beginning, when +Hamilton stopped him. + +"I don't want to interrupt, right at the start," he said, "but where is +that pass?" + +"I should have told you," said the miner goodhumoredly, "it's the pass +between the Endicott an' the Baird ranges, at the extreme northern end +of the Rockies. I hated to go through it, an' I wouldn't have, most +times, not unless there was a mighty big pull to get me over there, but +I had promised to count every one in my district, an' so, of course, +there was nothin' else to do but go, even though I knew there was no one +on the other side but a bunch of Eskimos. Well, we were halfway up the +pass when the Indian guide stopped the dogs an' listened. It was just +about noon an' the travelin' was good, so that, wantin' to make time, I +got good an' mad at the stop. Knowin' my Indian, I kep' quiet just the +same, always bein' willin' to bet on an Indian bein' right on the trail. +First off, I could notice nothin', then, when I threw back my parka hood +I could hear a boomin' in the air as though some one was beatin' a gong, +miles and miles away. It was so steady a sound that after you had once +heard it for a while you wouldn't notice it, an' you would have to +listen again real hard to see if it was still goin' on." + +"Like distant thunder?" queried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit. It was high, like a gong, an' it wasn't any too good to +hear. The dogs knew it, too, for though we had been stopped nearly five +minutes none of them had started to fight." + +"Do dogs fight every time they stop?" + +"Just about. They try to, anyway. In the traces, of course, they can't +do much but snap an' snarl, but that they're always doin'. This time, +however, all save one or two of them stood upright sniffin' uneasily. + +"'Wind?' I asked the Indian. + +"'Heap wind!' he answered. 'Go back?' + +"Now you may lay ten to one that when an Indian is the first to suggest +goin' back, trouble with a big 'T' is right handy. I reckon that was the +first time I ever did hear an Indian propose goin' back. 'Why go back, +Billy?' I asked. + +"'Heap wind,' he repeated, 'old trail easy.' He pointed ahead, 'No +trail!'" + +"He meant, I suppose," Hamilton interjected, "that if you doubled on +your tracks the trail would have been broken before, and it would be +easy going." + +"That's the bull's-eye, and if a storm did come up we'd have a trail to +follow and not get lost." + +"Did you go back?" + +"I did not. I figured that while we were about a day's journey to a +settlement either way, we were perhaps an hour nearer where we were +goin' than where we had come from, an' that perhaps the storm would hold +off long enough for us to make it. Those storms last for days, +sometimes, an' we'd have the trip to make anyway, even if we did go +back. Besides, I didn't want to lose the time. 'No, Billy,' I called to +the Siwash, 'go on!' + +"I was sorry the minute I said it, because I knew the Siwash thought me +wrong, although, bein' an Indian, of course he never showed a sign. He +started up the dogs without a word. I knew he thought it reckless and +dangerous, but tortures wouldn't have made him say so. In half an hour's +time, I began to be sure he was right." + +"Did the storm strike as soon as that?" asked the boy. + +"No. If it had, I think I should have gone back. But at the end of that +half-hour, we topped a rise that gave a view of the country ahead an' +showed it to be broken an' bad travelin'. I shouldn't have liked the +look of it at any time, but with a storm brewin' an' the Indian wantin' +to go back, it sure did look ugly. But the faint roarin' of the distant +storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the +wind no higher,--an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' +plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast +lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like +a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was +behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An +hour went by, an' I was just beginnin' to think that we would be able to +cover the greater part of the distance, when a huge white shape rose +from the snow near by, passed in front of the sledge, and disappeared. +I've been scared once in my life. This was that once." + +"What was it?" asked Hamilton breathlessly. + +"I watched," the Alaskan continued, "an' presently about a hundred yards +away, an' a little to the right of the sled, the snow began to move. I +couldn't feel a breath of wind. But the snow seemed to writhe an' stir +as though some monster from the Arctic night was wakin' from his winter +sleep, an' a wisp of snow hurled upwards; then, with a heave the snow +crust broke an' fell apart an' a column of snow shot up like a geyser +swirlin' into a pillar a hundred feet high. + +"A moment it stood; then swayed over an' begun to move slowly at first, +but gatherin' speed every second, noiselessly, save for a sound like the +indrawin' of a breath and a faint crackin' as the hard snow crust +shivered into atoms where it struck. Aimlessly, yet seemin' to have a +hidden purpose as though wreathin' the figures of some Boreal dance, it +come near us and fell back; moved away an' threatened again; then swept +upon us till its icy breathin' gripped our throats, an' our hearts stood +still. + +"An' in the silence, one dog whined. + +"Behind the sled there stirred the snow anew, an' in a moment or two +another column threw itself at the sky, and behind us an' around, other +of these columns rose an' moved like spectral dancers under the +slate-green clouds of the snow-filled sky. No wind, no sound but the +lone leader of the team howlin' in utter fear." + +"A dancing blizzard!" said Barnes, in an awed tone, under his breath. + +"If there had been anythin' to do, it would have been easier," the +Alaskan continued, "but to move was not more dangerous than to stay +still. In answer to a sign, the Indian started up the dogs again, an' we +went on, though the road ahead looked like the ice-forest of a +disordered dream. Presently, without a moment's warnin' one of the huge +snow pillars came rushin' straight at us, an' I braced myself by the +sledge to hold to it if I could, but it swerved before it reached us an' +ran along beside the trail. About fifty feet ahead it swerved again and +cut across the trail, an' the extreme edge caught the Indian, picked +him up in the air, an' threw him at least thirty feet." + +"Was he hurt?" cried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit, for there was nothin' to fall on but snow. He picked himself +up, looked carefully at his snow-shoes to see that they had not been +damaged, an' resumed his place at the head of the dogs. What would have +become of him if he had been plucked into the middle of the whirlwind is +hard to say. I wouldn't have counted on seein' him again anyway." + +"But you never really got caught by any?" + +"Wouldn't be here talkin', if I had," was the reply. "But when we come +to the track of that whirlwind column, it was a puzzle how to get +across. The column, goin' like a railroad train, had cut a gully in the +hard snow full ten feet deep,--the sides as clean cut as though done +with a knife, or rather with a scoop, because the edge was slightly +scolloped all the way along." + +"How did you get across?" + +"Axes," was the brief reply. "We cut through the snow crust and beat +down a steep path on both sides of the gully an' made the dogs take it. +Dog harness is strong, but I was afraid of the strain on it that time." + +"How long did the blizzard last?" + +"You mean the whirlwinds?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered. + +"Not very long,--quarter of an hour, perhaps. Then I felt a slight +breeze, an' at the same moment the columns, bendin' their heads like +grass before the wind, swept to the right of us, an' were out of sight +in a moment. The Indian yelled and pointed to the left, throwin' himself +on the ground as he did so." + +"What was it?" cried Hamilton. + +"It looked like a solid wall of snow, an' before I realized it was +comin', the storm struck, hurled me to the ground, an' rolled me over +an' over in the snow. I wasn't hurt, of course, but it took me so long +to get my breath that I thought it was never goin' to come, an' that I +should suffocate. But after that first burst, the blizzard settled down +to the regular variety, an' we all felt more at home. But even at that, +it was the worst one I ever saw in the North, an' I've been there nine +winters." + +"What did you do? Go back?" + +"No use tryin' to go back," the traveler said, "because those whirlwinds +had cut gullies across the snow in every direction so that our old trail +was no use to us. We went ahead a bit, as far as we could, but soon +realized that there was nothin' to do but camp right where we were an' +wait for the blizzard to blow over. Usually two days is enough for the +average storm to let up a little, but it was not until the third day +that there was any chance of startin', an' even then it was almost as +bad as could be for travel. But I had to make a start then." + +"Why?" asked Hamilton, who always wanted to know the details of +everything. + +"Because we were runnin' short of dog-feed, an' you can't let your dogs +die of hunger, for then you can't get anywhere. But the blizzard had +drifted everything an' was still driftin', so that the snow was hard in +some places and soft in others; the travelin' was almost impossible, an' +you couldn't see twenty yards ahead. Then while the blizzard had filled +the gullies made by the whirlwinds, the snow in them was not packed down +as hard as the rest of the surface, an' dogs an' sled an' Indian an' +myself would all go flounderin' into the drift, an' it would be a tough +pull to get the sled out again.--That was a hard trip. + +"The worst of it came when, without a bit of warnin', without our even +knowin' where we were, the hard crust of the snow gave way beneath us, +an' the sled, the dogs, and myself fell headlong down a slope an' into a +stream of runnin' water, the sled upside down, of course." + +"How about the Indian?" asked the boy. + +"He saved himself from goin' into the water, an' it was a good thing +that he did, for he was able to help in pullin' us out. But, from one +point of view, the accident was a help, for it told the Indian just +where we were. There was only one stream of that size in that +neighborhood, an' until we found it, we were hopelessly lost. But from +that time we knew that the settlement we were headin' for was straight +up the stream, an' all we had to do was to follow it. But it was a race +for life, in order to get to camp before frozen clothin' and various +frostbites crippled me entirely." + +"But how about the dogs?" queried Hamilton. "I should think it would be +worse for them than for you." + +The Alaskan shook his head. + +"A 'husky' can stand just about anythin' in the way of cold," he said, +"an' my leaders 'Tussle' and 'Bully' were a couple of wonders. Only one +of the dogs gave out. Well, we made the camp finally, pretty well done +up all round. The worst of it was, that when we come to unpack the +sled--we did it with an ax because everythin' was frozen solid--the +census pouch was missin'. Luckily there was no past work in it,--only +blank schedules, information papers, an' things of that sort. So I made +up the schedules on odd bits of paper and skins, as I told you, an' the +supervisor copied them on the schedule to send in, an' that schedule you +have in your hand is the copy of those very pieces of skin." + +[Illustration: CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.] + +Hamilton glanced at the paper with redoubled interest. + +"I suppose it was no use trying to get the pouch back," he said. + +"I didn't think it would be," the Alaskan replied "but I tried to reach +the place where the sled had been overturned, an' each time the weather +drove me back. On the third day I got a chance to go with some Eskimos +with reindeer to a little settlement about twenty miles off, an' so I +went along and got the names there, comin' back on a reindeer sled. +That's the only time I ever felt like Santa Claus. I'm sure I don't look +it." + +[Illustration: TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +Hamilton looked at his spare figure and laughed. + +"No," he said, "I don't think an artist would be likely to pick you for +the part. How did you like the reindeer, though? I've always wondered +that they didn't use them more in Alaska. The government keeps a herd, +doesn't it?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "but that is more for fresh meat than for travel. +A good reindeer is a cracker-jack of an animal when he wants to be, but +when he takes a streak to quit, it doesn't matter where it is or what +you do to him, he won't go another step. A balky mule is an angel of +meekness beside a reindeer. You can always make a mule see what you want +him to do--although the odds are that he won't do it even then--but when +a reindeer gets stubborn,--why, he just can't be made to understand +anythin'!" + +"Yet I've read that they use them a good deal in Lapland!" said the boy +in surprise. + +"They have domesticated them more thoroughly, I guess," the Northerner +replied. "In time they may be worked up here in the same way, and when +you consider how short a time the government has had to do what is +already accomplished, it seems to me the result is wonderful. Of course, +so far as traffic is concerned there are dogs enough, and they do the +work in mighty good shape." + +"How did you work back from the settlement which you had got to with +such difficulty?" the boy asked. + +"I came back another way, in order to take in a little group of houses +on a small pay-creek," was the reply. "But it was comin' back from that +trip, on the Koatak River, that I had quite a time, although I was not +the sufferer. We had been havin' a hard spell of weather, but there come +a week when conditions on the trail were much better an' we were reelin' +off the miles in great shape. I hadn't a place on my map for about sixty +miles, when in the distance I saw a little hut, just in the fringe of +some stunted cottonwoods and some scraggy willows, for we were not far +from the timber limit. + +"'Billy,' I called to the Indian, 'ever see that hut before?' + +"The Indian shook his head, but knowin' that I wanted to see an' count +everybody in the district, he turned off the trail--he said it was a +trail but I couldn't see it--an' led the way to the hut. I went in an' +found a man lying on a couple of planks, just about dead. He was one of +the survivors of the wrecked steamer _Filarleon_, and had frozen all +the fingers of both hands. Two or three were turnin' gangrenous; an' one +of these had got so bad that with his other crippled hand, he had sawed +off the decomposin' member with his pocket-knife. One foot also was +frozen an' had turned black, but that afterwards recovered." + +"What did you do for him?" asked the boy. + +"Put him on the sled, of course," the Alaskan answered, "an' took him to +the nearest settlement. I afterwards heard that a doctor happened in to +camp soon after I left, an' got at his hurts right away, an' that he was +put back into fair condition all but the one finger.--That's no +tenderfoot's country up there." + +"I wonder you stuck it out," said Hamilton. "But then," he added a +moment later, "I can see how a fellow would hate to quit." + +"It was tough," reluctantly admitted the narrator, "an' I'll tell you +what I did. I'm not much of a hand with the pen, but right in the middle +of the work I found a man who was goin' down the river, an' I sat down +and wrote a long letter to the supervisor. It was about as plaintive a +thing as I ever read. I had no reason to expect an answer, but by chance +another party was comin' up that way, an' some weeks later I received a +reply. What do you suppose he said!" + +"I haven't the least idea," answered the boy. + +"His answer read just this way: + +"'I chose you because you were experienced in the treeless coast. Go to +it. We are expecting you to make good.'" + +"And," Hamilton said, his eyes shining, "I'll bet you did!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + + +The sidelights that Hamilton had received on the Alaskan enumeration had +given him a greater zest for census work than ever, and he devoted not a +little of his spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. +Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when +he reached home, he worked out the route of the enumerator whose +schedules he had edited during that day's work. He had secured the big +geological reconnaissance map of Alaska for the purpose. Consequently, +it was with a sense of regret that he faced the day when the last of the +Alaskan schedules had been edited. + +"What next, I wonder, Mr. Barnes?" said Hamilton, laying down his pen +and glancing round to his companion. "How about Porto Rico? They had a +census this spring, too, didn't they?" + +"I imagine the Porto Rico work is about done," his friend replied, "at +least I know that most of it came in some weeks ago. How are you on +Spanish?" + +"I can read it all right," Hamilton answered, "although I don't write +particularly well. But are the schedules all in Spanish?" + +"Yes, indeed," said the other. + +"I don't think simple Spanish would bother me at all," Hamilton replied. +"I knew a chap who was going to the Philippines and he wanted some one +to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to +keep him company, I hammered at it too. But, after a bit, he joined a +class, so I dropped out, although I did study once in a while so as not +to forget it altogether." + +"Why don't you suggest that you know Spanish," remarked Barnes, "and +perhaps you'll get the chance." + +Accordingly, when a little later, the final copy on the Alaskan +schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto Rican work, +and ventured his slight familiarity with Spanish. + +"We have several translators," replied the chief, "but still, I suppose +Mr. Alavero can make you useful. I'll let you know later on." + +In a few moments he returned and beckoned to the boy, who followed him, +with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of the Alaskan +schedules with whom he had enjoyed working greatly. + +"Mr. Alavero," the official said, introducing Hamilton, "this is Noble. +I don't know what his Spanish is like, but I think he may be of some use +to you in getting out the manufactures statistics, as he did some work +along that line early in the year and has been with the census ever +since." + +The editor smiled affably at the boy and shook hands with heartiness. + +"The schedule work is all done," he said, "but it will take some time +preparing the report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because +there is so much American capital invested in Porto Rico that a detailed +analysis will be of value." + +"It is real editorial work, then!" Hamilton said, with a note of +pleasure in his voice. + +"I think," said the chief dryly, "that Mr. Alavero will do the editorial +work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you are to assist him in +preparing tables and matters of that kind." + +But no sooner had the Bureau official gone than the Porto Rican came +forward. + +"If you like," he said, "we'll try to arrange some part of the work that +you can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will +be 'real' editorial work, and you'll be able to see your own writing in +print." + +Hamilton thanked him fervently, and from that day on would have done +anything for his new superior. + +"This is a considerable change, Mr. Alavero," said Hamilton the +following morning, when he found himself at a table littered with maps +and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with +reports and circulars containing pictures of the sub-tropical landscapes +and towns of Porto Rico. "I have been doing nothing but Alaska for a +month past." + +"Too cold!" the Porto Rican cried, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I was +in Washington this last winter and I thought I should die of freezing." + +"You are from Porto Rico yourself, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I was never away from the island at all," was the reply, "never even on +a steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to +show the people in your Congress that the coffee growers of Porto Rico +need help." + +"Why?" + +"Porto Rican coffee is the finest in the world," the editor answered +with a graphic gesture, "and when Porto Rico was Spanish we could sell +in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United +States includes us, and our coffee is taxed so that we cannot sell it. +And the American market is satisfied with Brazilian coffee, which is of +a cheaper grade." + +"Is coffee the principal crop down there?" queried the boy. "I notice +that nearly half these papers and books deal with coffee plantations." + +"It is still, but not as it once was," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar +and tobacco are the other big crops." + +"Coffee is easy to grow, isn't it?" asked the boy. "It doesn't want all +the attention that cotton does?" + +"After a grove is well-established, no, though we prune a great deal; +but sugar, yes. That's not such an obstacle though. There is plenty of +labor on the island." + +"Isn't the bulk of the island colored?" + +"No, no, no," answered the Porto Rican, shaking his finger in emphatic +denial, "more than three-fifths are pure white, a much smaller +proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The +negroes were slaves, but Spain freed them in 1873. There was no war." He +smiled. "We are a most peaceful people." + +[Illustration: GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(_Courtesy of the Department of War._)] + +"Not like our other accession from Spain," Hamilton commented. "I mean +the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it +seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them." + +"Wild? You do not know the half!" said the excitable little editor, who, +despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his +explanations was busily working with diagrams the while. "You know there +was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?" + +"I didn't until this morning," the boy answered "but as I see that most +of these tables are compared with that year it is evident that there +must have been." + +"There was a census," the editor went on, after a pause during which he +had been working over a column of figures, "and my uncle was a +supervisor. Mr. Gatten--you know him?" + +"Only by name," Hamilton replied. + +"He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in +the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, +because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? +You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, +because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the +census began." + +"Did any one get killed by hostile natives?" asked Hamilton, scenting a +story. + +"Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But"--and he waggled a +finger warningly--"there were plenty of places where the census was only +estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even +with the soldiers taking the census and going with other census men, it +was very risky among the uncivilized tribes." + +"They are really wild?" said Hamilton. + +"I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those +jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies." + +"Pygmies!" exclaimed Hamilton in surprise. "I didn't know that the Stars +and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in +Africa!" + +"The Negritos are pygmies," answered the editor, "seldom over four feet +ten inches for the man and the woman two or three inches shorter; they +use their toes like fingers, they wear only a loin-cloth, their hair is +fuzzy like a black bush, and they seldom use fire, even for cooking." + +"How do they live?" asked Hamilton. "We have got used to thinking of the +Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem +outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?" + +"Nothing!" was the answer. "A few have rough huts, but most of them +wander in the forests." + +"But where do they sleep?" + +"On the ground." + +"I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts," the boy remarked. + +"There are very few in the Philippines," was the reply. + +"How about snakes, then?" queried the lad. + +"They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely +ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping +man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as +possible." + +"Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and +swallow a man." + +"He could, but he doesn't," the Porto Rican pointed out; "rabbits are +more his size, or a young fawn. The Negritos are safe enough, as far as +that goes." + +"What do they live on?" + +"Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all +they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as +straight as you could shoot a bullet." + +"We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers," suggested +Hamilton with a grin. "But it really must have been an awful job +enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!--No thank you, +I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?" + +"No," was the reply, "the Negrito is dying out, just as the aboriginal +tribes all over the world are doing. There are only about twenty-three +thousand of the Pygmies left now." + +"But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?" queried the +boy. + +"Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types +of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The +aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as +any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, +and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of +the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are +Malays." + +"Even the head-hunters?" + +"Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,--apparently of two +periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long +time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts +themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so +forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and +some,--like the Ilongots--to this day carry out the savage custom that +'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his +bride with a human head.'" + +"That is certainly savage," Hamilton agreed; "one never thinks that sort +of thing can be going on still, and certainly not under the American +flag!" + +"It is, though," the Porto Rican replied. "The third group," he +continued, "the Moros and so forth, are all Mohammedans, and they seem +to have come to the islands after the semi-civilization of the Malay +archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty +and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to +the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the Moros drove the +Igorots. They are largely pure Malay, warlike and cruel, but shrewd and +capable of culture. They assume an over-lordship over all other tribes +and their Dattos can generally enforce it." + +"It seems strange," the boy said, "to think of going among those savages +and asking them the same questions that United States citizens were +asked, writing the answers on the same kind of schedules, and counting +these ferocious head-hunters on a tabulating machine." + +"Of course," the editor reminded him, "the Philippine census last time +was taken by the War Department, although the Bureau is even now +considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it +have to take the next Philippine census, as it probably will. But while +it was primitive, the work wasn't so very different. They were able to +use advance schedules, for example." + +The boy stared, and his informant laughed outright. + +"They were a little different," he explained, "and it was during the +enumeration of the Igorots and similar tribes. It was soon found that +they could count up to ten but no further. A certain number of them +could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was +sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these +sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he had. +In some of the villages so my uncle told me, the supervisor had a +branding iron made with which he had branded on the tally sticks the +figure of a pig, or a house, or a chicken or whatever it might be." + +"That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the +way of census-taking," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country +negro farmers were barbaric--especially when I came across some +voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant." + +"There's just as much savagery--of a kind--right in the heart of +civilization," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are +little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to +remember it." + +"Why should I remember it especially?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that +he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports +of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you +along, if the Director was willing." + +"You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?" + +"Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work." + +"That would be just splendid," said Hamilton, his eyes shining, "but how +about the Porto Rican report, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I think I can manage it," the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a +smile, "and the chapter that you were working on is nearly done, isn't +it?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I can finish it in a couple of days." + +"That will be in plenty of time," the editor assured him. "I don't think +Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week." + +Before many days had passed Hamilton found the correctness of the Porto +Rican's information, for as he was busily engaged in compiling a big +tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of +the provinces of the island, his friend the special agent of +manufactures, under whom he had been at New Haven, strolled into the +office. + +"Why, Mr. Burns," the boy said delightedly, jumping up and shaking +hands, "I haven't seen you for ever so long." + +"I haven't been in Washington more than twenty-two per cent of the +time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the eleven-fifty next +Tuesday evening. Do you want to come along?" + +"But--" + +"The Director said, if you wanted to come, I could take you." + +"Where are we going, Mr. Burns?" + +"New York." + +"What for?" + +"Seems to me, Alavero," said the Inspector, turning to the Porto Rican, +"that you've been teaching this lad to ask questions. Out of the four +remarks he has made since I came in, two have been questions. Fifty per +cent is a high average. Well, I'll tell you," he added, turning to the +boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied +with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand +inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, +decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of these the +Bureau investigates. Perhaps ten or a dozen in the entire country get a +recount. The Bureau doesn't officially recognize some of them but sends +an inspector to look over the ground, and see if everything was done +right. That's what we're going to do in New York." + +"All right," said Hamilton briefly. + +"You'll be on that train?" + +"Yes, Mr. Burns," the boy answered. "Eleven-fifty P.M., Tuesday." + +The opportunity was one which Hamilton had been coveting, for he felt +that if he only had a chance to get at the city methods he would have +covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial +Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, still +the novelty appealed to him greatly, and in spite of his former chief's +mathematical conversation, Hamilton was genuinely fond of him. + +"I've been wondering, Mr. Burns," the boy said, as they stood in the +great concourse of the Union Station at Washington, "whether there would +not be a very large number of protests about census figures,--people +always seem to have such an exaggerated idea of the size of their own +towns." + +"There is to some extent," Burns replied. "I think something like a +hundred places filed protests in this last census." + +"Then I read something, too, about census frauds," Hamilton said, "soon +after the taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some +enumerators--who were paid per capita--had bolstered up the figures in +order to get more out of it." + +"There was a little of that," the Inspector said, "but by far the +greatest amount of fraud was due to the desire on the part of the +inhabitants of a town or city to make the place appear larger and more +important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, +why, they padded 32,527 names there, and even when the Census had made a +recount they tried to repeat the same performance, complaining of the +results and demanding a second recount." + +"Was this granted?" + +"It was," the Inspector replied, "largely in order that the Census +Bureau itself might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its +methods. The second recount was performed by expert statisticians and +with extreme care." + +"And how did it come out?" the boy asked. + +"It substantiated the first recount in every way. It was, indeed, a +wonderful object lesson in showing how small is the margin of error in +the United States Census." + +"But was there really much fraud among the enumerators and supervisors, +Mr. Burns?" + +"With perhaps one exception, no criticism could be made of the +supervisors, but you can't have 70,000 enumerators, chosen for temporary +work, and expect perfection! There was quite a little over-counting, +caused by entering hotel transients as having permanent residences, by +numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant +difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; +where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have been due to +the unauthorized activity of committees of boards of trade or other +commercial organizations, giving lists of names all ready to be copied +on the enumerator's schedule, which the latter did not take the time and +trouble to verify." + +"Then do you think the net result of the census is to make it seem that +there are more people in the country than really are here?" + +"No," the Inspector replied confidently, "the total figures are an +understatement, probably of about one per cent, maybe a little less, but +certainly not much more." + +"I think that's mighty close," Hamilton said. "But do towns never wish +to have small numbers announced?" + +"There was only one case, so far as I know," the other replied, "in +which a Business Men's Association wrote and demanded a recount on the +ground that the figures were too big. The reason was a dispute about +raising city salaries when a certain population mark was reached. + +"And now, Noble," he continued, moving on toward the train platform, "we +want to look into the question of statistics in New York carefully. +Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, and I +know the Director is satisfied, but one or two little matters have come +up, which want looking into." + +Being on a midnight train, Hamilton had no chance for further talk with +the Inspector; but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing +through the great tunnels under the Hudson River, he found himself next +morning among the skyscrapers of New York again. + +"I suppose every one feels the same way about his own town," Hamilton +said, "but it always seems to me that you feel the bigness of things +more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of +time to do everything you want, but New York is just made up of hustle. +You've got to know what you want in this city and you've got to do it in +a hurry, before some one else gets there first." + +"New York certainly is hurried and restless; I can't say I like the +noise and the skyscrapers," replied Burns. + +"But it's great the way those buildings tower up," the boy exclaimed +enthusiastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller +cities look as though they were made for dwarfs, after living in the New +York streets." + +"Yet there are taller buildings, in other places, even in Europe," the +statistician remarked. + +"Spires!" answered the boy, "propped up by buttresses and flying +buttresses and all the rest of it so as to keep them from falling. Look +at those," he added, pointing at the skyscrapers before him, "they're +not afraid to stand by themselves; they mean something, they have a use, +while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of +no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what +people say about those crazy old tumble-down buildings of the Middle +Ages, they may be beautiful and all that, but they're useless nowadays. +The New York skyscraper is the greatest example of architecture in the +world because it best does what it was built to do." + +"You are enthusiastic, Noble," said his friend. + +"I'm a New Yorker all the way through," the lad continued, "and I want +to feel that I'm right in the whirl of things, where there is so much to +do that you can't crowd it into a day, where the fun is at the same +speed as the work. No backwaters for me, I want to be right out in the +center. I don't say that I'm going to win, but I want to be a game sport +and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or +swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, +and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,--right here +in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there +is to it is capital plus brains, and New York is the furnace that melts +them down into that quickness and grip on things we call the American +spirit. Millions from every race of the world come here, and the Statue +of Liberty is the first symbol, and the skyscrapers of lower New York +the first reality they see of the Land of Promise." + +"How about the inside of these great shells of structure?" + +"No such office buildings in the world," the boy answered +enthusiastically. "The salt winds from over three thousand miles of +ocean blow around them; in their steel walls there are lots of windows; +lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the +second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard +that the marble mosaic entrances of the larger of them put the Italian +palaces to shame. I don't know Europe, but I do know New York, and I +believe, Mr. Burns, if you knew it as I do, you'd be as proud of it +too." + +The Inspector looked at the boy quietly. + +"You're wrong," he said soberly, "in thinking that I don't know New +York. To-morrow morning you do a little work in a section of the city in +which you have probably never been, and I think we'll hear less tall +talk. If you could count the tens of thousands of families who live in +rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many +thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till +far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis district nurses +what conditions they find, you might then do a little thinking on your +own account. It's only right you should be proud of New York, but you'd +better see both sides before you are sure of yourself. Now, I suppose +you're going home?" + +"Yes, sir," said Hamilton, a little taken aback by his friend's rebuke. + +"Call at my hotel early to-morrow morning and I'll start you on a +'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharply, the +Inspector swung himself aboard a passing cross-town car. + +Nine o'clock the next morning found Hamilton in one of the worst +districts he had ever seen. Thronged as it was, the boy was sufficiently +conscious of his difference from the people he met to feel +uncomfortable. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out +during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him +verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly +incorrect. This was to be done in a dozen or so districts, and if the +information was found to be adequate, showing that the enumerators' +work had been faithfully done, there would be no need for further +inspection. + +The home manufacture of ostrich feathers first gave Hamilton a clear +insight into poverty. Four or five rooms each occupied by a family of +several persons he entered in one tenement, and in each he found three +or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high +speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted conditions carefully, +and was amazed to find that each of the little strands was wired--he had +always supposed that plumes grew upon the ostrich the way that they are +sold. + +In one such family dejection seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. The +window looked out on a court,--a court that was never cleaned and where +all manner of rubbish was thrown. Although it was morning and a +brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to +work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been +washed for months and diminished still further the little light there +was; a mattress in the opposite corner from a shaky cooking gas-burner +showed that this room was the entire home. + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.] + +"Where is your husband?" asked the boy, noting on the schedule a man's +name as head of the family. + +"In hospital--perhaps dead. See!" + +The woman pointed to a telegram which had fallen to the floor. Hamilton +picked it up. It read: + +"John Sobieski worse. Come at once," and was signed with the name of one +of the large hospitals. + +"Did you go?" asked the boy. + +The woman shook her head. + +"Two hours lost, if I go. No good. Two hours' work means twenty-four +cents. What's the use?" + +"What's the matter with him?" + +"Consumption. I die soon, next year, perhaps. All the children sick." + +The boy looked around at 'all the children.' There were five of them in +that room, and all--even the youngest, a baby four years old--were +knotting the feathers on the plume. The baby could hardly do it, but he +was learning. + +"Many hands make light work," said Hamilton as cheerfully as he could. +"With so many little workers you ought to get along finely." + +"Yes," the woman answered listlessly, "we get along. Some days we make +as much as a dollar!" + +"Each of you?" + +"Do we look so rich? One dollar for everybody. But that is only +sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a little more than five +dollar the week, by working all the time." + +The boy hastily asked the remaining questions on the schedule, found +everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giving a +little help out of his own pocket, he left for the next place. + +On the floor below was a family working on fur, every one of them with +hacking coughs caused by tiny particles of fur in the lungs. + +"We work or we starve," was again the unanswerable explanation. + +In the house next door, embroidering rich cloaks, Hamilton found a +family of which several of the members had a bad infectious skin +disease. Chancing to meet a health inspector soon afterwards he told him +about this family and gave him their address. + +"I can stop it, as far as this family is concerned," the health officer +said, "and I suppose I ought to. But you know what it means, I +suppose?" + +"What?" asked the boy. + +"It means, if I take their work away, they will starve to death in a +couple of weeks." + +"And if you don't?" + +"If I don't, they'll go on spreading disease. Oh, I'll have to put a +stop to it, of course, but tell me what is going to happen to the +family." + +"They ought to go to a hospital," Hamilton said. + +The health officer shook his head. + +"They are not hospital cases," he said. "None of them need more medical +attention than they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which +they applied would treat them in an Out-Patient department. They would +have to take in more work, or die." + +"But where would they get the work?" + +"Any of these sweatshop jobbers will give it to them. It makes no +difference to the middlemen where the work is done or out of what dens +it comes, as long as it is done cheap." + +"And is all clothing open to the same risk?" asked the boy. + +The health inspector shook his head. + +"Cheap clothing is not," he said, "because even the cheapest kind of +labor is more expensive than machinery, and machine-made clothes are +clean. But costly dresses which need hand embroidery are sent to +sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep +thousands of women and children working day and night the year round. +The more elaborate the gown, the longer is it likely to have been in a +tenement that the future wearer would not even allow her dog to enter." + +From house to house Hamilton went, finding misery at every step, with +the single consolation that the schedule showed in almost every case +that the son or the daughter who was working had moved out of the slums, +or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. +Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seemed to have been +dowered with promise, and as Burns had suggested, the sole comfort and +hope for the future lay in the fact that the New York slum is a +one-generation slum. + +It was growing toward noon when Hamilton finished the short list that +the Inspector had given him in that poorest section, and he was glad +when he was able to leave the pressure of the poverty behind him. His +next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew +that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was +enough of the community spirit among the Italians to prevent such +conditions as he had witnessed and enough frugality among them to enable +them to make the best of all they had. + +Feeling that it was time for lunch, the boy hunted around a while for +some restaurant that looked as though it would serve a meal that would +not be too distasteful. After a little search he found a small place +that seemed to be just the thing. The sign board was in Italian and the +list of dishes pasted on the windows was in Italian, but Hamilton's +Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. +At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the +entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind +him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the paper on +which he had been writing, and jumped to his feet so quickly that the +chair on which he had been sitting overturned, and he stumbled as he +stepped back a pace or two. He glared threateningly at the boy, who +apologized for startling him. But it was evident that the man did not +understand a word of English. + +Hearing the clatter the proprietor came out from an inner room, and +seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passionate torrent of +speech, all utterly unintelligible to Hamilton. + +"I hava told heem," he explained to the boy, "that I not wanta heem in +this-a place at all." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said Hamilton, "I don't like his looks. +Can I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had +just taken from his pocket, for the boy when alone always read at his +meals. + +"Certainly, sair," and the proprietor rattled off a string of dishes +from which the boy made a copious selection, for he was hungry. + +But he noticed that the man who had been sitting at the table had not +left the place but was furtively watching, a few steps away. He was an +ugly-looking customer, and Hamilton, full of grit as he was, felt +uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed +the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a +heavy shadow as though there were a drawing on the other side. His pulse +beat a little faster as an idea came into his mind, but he showed no +sign until the proprietor returned to set the table. + +"I think," he said, watching the stranger carefully as he spoke, "that +gentleman left a paper behind him. Ask him." + +The proprietor, looking much puzzled, put a question in Italian, to +which was evidently returned a sharp denial. + +Still watching him, Hamilton slowly reached out his hand for the paper +which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the book, and turning it +over laid it flat upon the white cloth. + +It was the Black Hand. + +[Illustration: FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (_Brown +Bros._)] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +There was a moment's utter silence. The bright little restaurant had +suddenly become charged with mystery, the slinking stranger seemed to +have become in a moment allied to secret powers of evil, and the whole +atmosphere seemed baneful in the sinister significance of that drawing +on the table. A glance at the restaurant-keeper dispelled all question +of complicity. His jaw had fallen, his face was ashen, his lips bluish. + +The other saw his advantage in the terror the mere display had excited, +and stepping forward, he reached out his hand to pick up the paper, +saying in English: + +"Mine!" + +Before the Italian had time to grasp the sketch, Hamilton quietly took +it and folded it in half. + +"I wouldn't be so ready to claim it, if I were you," he said, knowing +that the other might not understand the words but could tell the tone. + +"What are you going to do?" queried the restaurant-keeper in a hoarse +whisper. "They will kill-a me!" + +Hamilton thought hard for a moment or two. In the first place the matter +had nothing to do with the Census Bureau, and the boy felt that while he +was on duty in that work and wearing the census badge he was not a +private citizen. Again, it was not a crime to draw a hand on a piece of +paper, and the space obviously left for the blackmail message had not +been filled in, and thirdly he could not swear that he saw him draw the +hand; he only saw the paper in the man's possession. + +"Tell him," he said to the restaurant-keeper, "that I shall say nothing +about it, that I am not a policeman, nor a spy; tell him that so far as +I am concerned I do not know that he had anything to do with it, and +return him the paper." + +And bending forward, he reached out the paper to the Italian, who first +snatched it eagerly, and then, having secured it, made a ceremonious +bow. The proprietor of the restaurant translated the boy's words, and +with a brief reply, which Hamilton rightly construed to be thanks, the +stranger left the store. No sooner was he gone than the restaurateur, +with a word of apology, sank into the nearest chair, fairly exhausted +with fright. + +"I tell you, sair," he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "I +had-a nothing at all to do with that-a man." + +"It's pretty hard to know about these things," said Hamilton, who was +somewhat unnerved himself, "but I don't believe you had. Anyway, there's +no harm done. I've always heard about the Black Hand society, but I +didn't expect to run across it first thing, that way." + +"There is no Black-a Hand society," the Italian said, "at least I do not +think there is." + +"How do you mean there's no Black Hand?" asked Hamilton a little +indignantly, "haven't I just seen it?" + +The Italian shook his head. + +"What were you so scared about, then?" queried the boy impatiently. + +"Mafia," said the other, his lips just shaping the syllables. + +"You mean that the Mafia use the Black Hand?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"And that it is the sign of the Mafia?" + +"No," said the restaurant proprietor. "It is this-a way. When the Mafia +was all-a broken up in-a the Sicily, the chiefs come to America. But the +people are so far away it is difficult-a to speak-a to them all. One day +one of the Mafia leaders write a letter threatening to kill. His--what +you call it--nickname was 'Il Mano Nera'--" + +"That means 'The Black Hand,' doesn't it?" queried the boy. + +The Italian nodded. + +"He sign at the bottom with a Black Hand because the man-a to whom he +write, once was member of the Mafia. The police see the letter, a +newspaper print-a big long story about Italian society which have the +Black-a Hand for its sign, and saying that much recent murders was done. +Everybody become-a frightened, and the Mafia and the Camorra right away +both begin-a to use Black Hand. So you see when I say there is no +Black-a Hand society, no chief, no place-a to meet, no meetings, no +plan-a to share money, no oath, it is quite true, but if I say there is +a society which used the Black-a Hand that is true, too. But all I +want-a to do is to be let alone. Now, I will get you your dinner, sair." + +Hamilton felt distinctly uncomfortable in being left alone, not feeling +at all sure that the man who had been there before would not suddenly +dash in upon him unawares and stab him in the back with a stiletto to +make sure of his not talking, nor that the restaurant-keeper might not +put some poison in his coffee. Take it all in all, it was the most +nerve-racking meal he had ever eaten. + +Chatting with the Inspector that evening over his Black Hand experiences +he found that his chief took a very serious view of the question. + +"If we were receiving immigrants from the north of Italy," he said, "it +would be an entirely different matter, but all the Italians who are +coming in now are from the 'toe' and the 'heel' of Italy, and from +Sicily. You see, the north of Italy are really Celts, like the French +and Irish, being descended from the Lombards, but the Sicilians and +Calabrians are a mixture of the old pirates, the Moors, and the +degenerated Latin races that were left when the Roman Empire fell to +pieces. The endeavor to break up the Mafia sent all the leaders of that +nefarious Sicilian society here, and now the attack upon the Neapolitan +Camorra lands another criminal group. Italy has sent us a larger +proportion of criminals than any other country, and under our present +laws, if they have been three years here, they cannot be deported. The +Vincenzo Abadasso case was a good example of the folly of that rule." + +"Who was he?" asked Hamilton. + +"He was an Italian immigrant who had been arrested twenty-seven times +and convicted twenty-five and who came over here a couple of years ago. +Within a few months of his arrival he was arrested here and sentenced to +three years' imprisonment And now, although he is a professed criminal, +they won't be able to deport him, because when his prison term is up, he +will have been in the United States three years." + +"I suppose there are a lot of Italians coming over now?" said Hamilton +questioningly. + +"A little over three weeks ago," was the reply, "as I heard from a +friend in the Immigration Bureau, there was a funeral in a small village +near Naples and not enough able-bodied civilians could be found in the +place to carry the casket. All of them were in America. There are scores +of towns in southern Italy where all the work--of every kind--is done +now by the women, because the men have emigrated." + +"What do you think about this Black Hand business?" + +"I think your friend the restaurant-keeper was nearly right, only that +it is being used by all sorts of crooks as well, who have no connection +with either the Mafia or the Camorra. Mark you, I think those two secret +societies are apt to be much misrepresented, just as the Jesuits were +during the Middle Ages and the Freemasons were at other periods. The +Camorra was once simply the Tammany Hall of Naples. But when, as +happened last year, there were six hundred and fourteen Black Hand +outrages in two States in four months it is idle to say that it does not +exist in America. The Camorrist trials over the Cuocolo murders at +Viterbo, perhaps the most sensational in the world since the Dreyfus +case, have shown its power to be more dangerous than any one could for a +moment have imagined. And the danger lies here--there are more +Camorrists in New York than in Naples!" + +For a moment the boy looked at the Inspector, astounded. + +"You mean--" he began, and stopped. + +"I mean that the worst elements of the two worst societies in Europe are +concentrating in New York, and that unless rigorous measures are taken +to keep them down, America will harbor graver dangers than any it has +yet known. Russian nihilism, Polish anarchism, German socialism may join +hands with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra to institute a +criminal organization such as the world has never seen before. There are +enough ignorant immigrants to yield to a wave of fear, and the Black +Hand thrives and grows on terror. But, wisely held in check until they +learn, these very Sicilians and Neapolitans bring much that is of value +to the making of an American people." + +"Oh, there couldn't be any real danger!" Hamilton exclaimed. "The spirit +of American institutions would prevent such a happening; that could only +be in some old-world city like Naples. The Camorra comes down from the +Middle Ages, anyway." + +The Inspector shook his head. + +"I hope so," he said, "and I only trust you may be right," and he turned +the subject to the actual work in hand. + +It so chanced that the very next day Hamilton had an opportunity of +seeing, in a mild way, how truly the Inspector had spoken with regard to +the alienizing of the crowds in the streets of New York. He had been +working steadily several hours, and early in the afternoon he noticed a +great deal of shouting in the streets. Being curious, and noticing that +numbers of women were hurrying past, gesticulating violently, Hamilton +followed, until almost before he was aware, the crowd grew so dense as +to engulf him, and he was carried along, whether he would or no, up the +street. Some of the women were crying, some shrieking, and all wore a +furtive, strained expression as though in great distress. + +Although there was a great deal of shouting, not a word was in a +language familiar to Hamilton, and although he questioned every one +around him he could find no one that understood his questions. All that +he could gather was from some one in the front of the crowd who kept on +crying out in English at irregular intervals: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Even if the boy had desired to break through the crowd to return to his +work he could not have done so, and he really did not wish to,--he was +too much interested in following the purposes of the throng. Finally the +people stopped, but the boy was so far back that he could see nothing of +what was going on at the head of the crowd. Being determined, however, +Hamilton elbowed his way by main force and reached the woman who was +still crying: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Hamilton spoke to her, but the woman paid no heed. Finally, seeing that +she would not listen, he shouted at her as harshly as he could. Then she +turned and tried to answer his questions. + +"What's all the row about?" he asked. + +"They rob us. Steal our children. Make them walk far away, never see our +children any more. Oh, my Mario, oh, my Petronilla. Oh, our children, we +want our children!" + +Further information the boy could not get. He worked his way clear to +the front of the mob and saw the police gathering on all sides. Breaking +through the front rank he stepped up to the nearest policeman, who +merely shifted his grip on his night stick. + +"That's quite a mob," he said in a conversational tone. + +"It is that, sorr," said the policeman, recognizing immediately that the +boy was not one of the rioters. + +"I'm a census officer," the boy continued, "and I was doing some +inspection work for the census when I got caught in the crowd. What's +the matter with them?" + +"'Tis a bunch of dummies they are," was the reply; "'tis thinkin' they +are that the schools are goin' to steal their children. As if any one +would be wantin' their brats. The most of us has enough of our own to +keep." + +"But why should the school want to steal their children? Do you mean +that they don't want them to go to school?" + +"'Tis not that, sorr," the Irishman answered, "but 'tis due to some +'fire drill' business. The little ones are taught in the school that +when a bell rings--'tis the fire bell I'm m'anin'--they sh'd all march +out dacintly and in order. 'Tis a good idea, that same, an' I'm favorin' +it. But it's hard to make the children see it, so that they have to +drill them often." + +"That all seems right enough," Hamilton answered. + +"Ye would think so, sorr," continued the policeman "But most of these +mothers come from countries on the other side where they make them +soldiers whether they want to be or not, an' this drillin' business +scares the old folks 'most to death." + +"But if it continues and nothing happens, I don't see why they should go +on being scared. You would think the children had grown used to it." + +"The children! They're not makin' any trouble, it's all the parents." + +"Then what started it?" + +"There was some street corner lecturer here the day before yisterday, +tryin' to teach the people that children were the cause of poverty an' +that the only way to prevent poverty was to get rid of the children, +either by havin' fewer or by shippin' off the existin' surplus." + +"It's silly for them to heed a man like that!" + +"It's worse than silly, sorr," the policeman said. "But even then I +don't believe there would have been trouble. But yisterday, some rich +lady, plannin' to give the children a picnic this afternoon and a treat, +told them they were all goin' out to the country and that they must tell +their mothers they wouldn't be home until late." + +"What about that?" asked the boy. "I should think they would be glad +that the children should have some pleasure. From all I've seen recently +of the way people live in this neighborhood, I don't believe the +children have any too much good times." + +"An' so they should be glad, sorr, but they won't see it that way. They +know the children have been drilled for weeks an' weeks; they know a man +on the street corner said the children ought to be shipped away; an' the +next day they are told that the children are goin' to be taken into the +country, an' they don't believe the children'll ever come back." + +"Surely they can't be as silly as all that! And what do you suppose they +want to do?" + +"They don't know what they want," the policeman answered, "but it's a +bad business when a crowd gathers. Look there now!" + +Hamilton looked where the man was pointing. On the outskirts of the +crowd the boy noted a number of half-grown toughs, hoodlums, and +trouble-makers generally. The cries were increasing, and the boy could +see that these men were doing all they could to stir up the rest of the +crowd. + +"Where they come from, I don't know," the police officer said, "but any +time that there's a little trouble, they'll make it as big as they can." + +"But the whole thing's so absurd," the boy said. "What do they think +they're going to do,--raid the school?" He laughed. + +The policeman turned on him quickly. + +"'Tis absurd, as ye say, sorr," he said rebukingly "but there's many a +good man been hurt with less cause than this. That crowd's growin' by +thousands. Do you slip away, sorr, I'm afraid there's goin' to be +trouble." + +"Not much," Hamilton answered, "now I'm in this far, I'm going to stay +and see the fun out." + +"Well then, sorr," advised the policeman, "ye'd better slip through the +school gates. Show your census badge, and the other men at the gate will +let ye through." + +Thanking him, Hamilton walked across the narrow stretch of road between +the foremost ranks of the crowd and the little group of policemen +gathered in front of the school entrance. As he did so, a bottle came +whizzing at his head with deadly aim. Fortunately he had been keeping +his head partly turned curiously toward the crowd, and he saw the +missile in time to dodge. It missed him and went hurtling on, just +passing between two policemen and smashing on the iron bars of the +railing. + +"You nearly got hit that time," said one of the policemen, as Hamilton +showed his badge and was let through. "How did you get in with them?" + +"Just doing my work," the boy answered, "and got carried right along. I +was curious at first,--then when I wanted to get out I found I couldn't. +I think," he added, a little nervously, for the flying jagged bottle had +startled him not a little, "that's the first time I've been in front of +a mob." + +"I wish it was the last I'm likely to be," was the reply, "especially a +crowd of women like that. Men you know what to do with." + +"What do you suppose they'll do?" asked the boy. "Try to rush the +school?" + +"They did once not far from here," the policeman answered, "it was a +school on the East Side, where nearly all the children were Jewish, and +in order to make it easier for the poorer children the school +authorities had opened a sort of restaurant where the kids could get +lunch for three cents. The story got abroad that the children were +getting ham and pork, and the whole section rose in arms. We tried to +disperse them and couldn't. There was no way of reasoning with them, +there was nothing they could do, but they just hung around." + +"What for?" + +"Waiting a chance to burn the school down, every one seemed to think. +They did make one rush toward the end of the afternoon, and several +people were wounded. One of our men was badly stabbed, but he got over +it. Watch now," he added, in a sharp voice. "There's something doing!" + +The crowd hushed a moment, and a man's voice could be heard, but whether +pacifying the women or inflaming them, Hamilton could not make out. The +next moment answered him. Without any apparent preparation, the whole +face of the crowd suddenly seemed to burst, the end closed in, and in a +second one of the wildest hordes Hamilton had ever seen was at the +school gates. There was a brief struggle and nightsticks were drawn. The +crowd rolled back, then surged on, more angrily than before. But the +bluecoats stood firm, and when the crowd rolled back the second time a +number showed broken heads. + +"Son," called the police lieutenant, "you scamper along, and tell the +principal to hurry up with letting out the school. I sent him one +message now this means business." + +Hamilton turned and ran for all he was worth toward the building, but +just as he reached there, he saw the children marching in regular order +out of the rear door, and he came back immediately to report. As he did +so he found that the crowd was getting ready to make a third attempt to +attack the police, when, turning the corner, sauntering down the narrow +lane between the crowd and the police, came an Italian boy, about +fourteen years old, with half a dozen other ragged boys at his heels. On +seeing him, the lieutenant turned to Hamilton. + +"That's Caesar," he said, with a sigh of relief. "I've known him for the +past year or two, and he'll settle all this trouble." + +The boy looked at the police lieutenant with surprise. The police force +had had trouble enough, and what could a boy do? He voiced his query. + +"His father's a 'Man of Silence,'" was the reply, "and Caesar himself +knows all there is to know. You'll see." + +Arriving at the center of the crowd, just by the school gate, the boy +turned, and speaking to the nearest officer, said, in English, without a +trace of foreign accent, shrugging his shoulders: + +"Some of them won't ever learn!" + +For a moment he scanned the mob, called the names of two or three men on +the outskirts, and Hamilton could see them wince as this +fourteen-year-old lad named them; then he commenced a speech, which +seemed,--so far as Hamilton could tell--to be ridiculing them for their +fears. + +The crowd relaxed, and for a moment Hamilton thought the whole trouble +was over; but suddenly a man sprang to the front of the rioters, and +gesticulating wildly, answered the boy in what seemed to be a +threatening tone. The young Italian lad heard him through patiently, +then almost without raising his voice, uttered one crisp sentence. The +man turned white to the lips and slunk away. + +"Ask him," said Hamilton to a policeman, "what he said?" + +"I only asked him," the Italian said, "if he wanted me to find out his +name--so that you would know it if you wanted to arrest him of course," +he added, as an afterthought. + +The policeman looked at him and pulled the boy's ear, in fun. + +"Av I knew as much about some things as you do," he said, "they'd make +me chief. Maybe, though," he added, "I wouldn't hold it long. But what +about this, Caesar, is it all over?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"See," he said, "they all go!" + +It was as the boy said; Hamilton could see that little by little the +crowd was dispersing and that the members of the boyish gang were going +all through the groups, evidently explaining that the trouble was all +over. + +"Ye see what we're up against," the policeman said to Hamilton. "Here's +a slip of a lad that c'n just make a crowd do what he says because his +father is a leader in the Mafia. There's never any one gives credit +enough to the force for keepin peace, between all these foreigners and +the Chinks; this ain't an American city, it's a racial nightmare." + +"Do the Chinese give much trouble, then?" + +"Not such a great deal usually, but they do once in a while. There's +bloody murder in Chinatown going on now, or going to begin mighty soon. +Three were killed yesterday and the word was given out at Headquarters +this morning that the Tongs were out." + +[Illustration: THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.] + +"Have we Tongs in New York?" asked Hamilton. "I've heard all about the +troubles in the West. Before the fire in San Francisco, I know, there +were fifteen organized Tongs of Highbinders, each with its paid band of +'Hatchet Men' for no other purpose than to rule Chinatown. The man who +got up the report for the government told me that 'Frisco Chinatown was +far more under Tong rule and had far more crimes in proportion than any +city in China." + +"There are six strong Tongs in New York that I know about," the +policeman answered, "and I guess there are a lot more. But I reckon it's +the same in 'Frisco as it is here, they keep their killings to +themselves, and they don't let any white men get mixed up in it at all. +That's why you never can tell anything about it. But right now Chinatown +is pretty dangerous, and all the sight-seeing business there has been +shut off. No one is going into Mott and Pell Streets now." + +"Pell Street!" exclaimed the boy. "Is that in Chinatown?" + +"Right in the heart of it," was the reply. "Why?" + +"Because I'm headed there now," Hamilton answered, taking from his +pocket the schedule he had been given by Burns to check up, and showing +it to the officer. + +"That's Chinatown all right," the policeman said, "just look at the +names!" + +"I hadn't looked at it closely," the boy remarked, "why, yes, so it is. +Well, Tong or no Tong, I suppose I've got to chance it, if those are +orders." + +The policeman shook his head. + +"Looks to me as though you'd have to wait a while. Take some other +district first and come back next week." + +"Can't," the boy answered. "The Census Inspector and I have to go to +'Frisco to straighten out a Chinese tangle over the census there. The +Chinese refused point-blank to have anything to do with the census, and +there was a heap of trouble." + +"What was it?" asked the policeman, walking along beside Hamilton in the +direction of Chinatown, his beat extending to the limits of that +section. + +"When the rule for the census was issued, so they told me in +Washington," Hamilton answered, "in order to make sure that the Chinese +would not place any obstacles in the way, not only was a copy of the +President's proclamation in Chinese pasted all over the walls of the +city, but, in addition a decree was made by the Chinese consul-general +that it was the wish of the Chinese government that the population in +the city be properly numbered." + +"That was a good idea," said the policeman approvingly. + +"It would have been," said Hamilton, "if the Chinese had paid any +attention to it. Instead of that, some of the Tongs got together and had +a brief threat printed and pasted across the face of the President's +proclamation, as well as that of the consul, that no Chinaman was to +give any information to a census officer, unless he wanted to come under +the displeasure of the Tongs." + +"The nerve of them!" + +"At this," continued the boy, "the consul put out a second order, +sharper than the first, not only commanding obedience, but pointing out +that refusal would lay the person refusing open to fine or imprisonment. +Over these second orders again was pasted the former threat of the +Tongs. A few days later the enumerators, each accompanied by a +policeman, went through Chinatown. The Chinese wouldn't understand any +language, not even their own. They didn't refuse to give information, +they simply answered, 'No understand' when any question was asked." + + TRANSLATION OF THE PROCLAMATION + + Whereas, the Director of the Census Bureau of the Department of + Commerce and Labor of the United States, in a letter to His + Excellency Chang, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, requests that, since it + has been the custom of the United States to take a census of the + population once in every ten years, many of which have been taken + and are on record, and since the present year is the time for + taking another such census, which is to include the people of every + nationality residing within the territory of the United States, and + as the Chinese residents of this country, through possible + ignorance of the English language, may mistake the object of the + enumerators to be that of ascertaining what the people possess and + its value, in order to impose taxes, or that of investigating the + certificates of registration, etc., a proclamation be issued fully + explaining the matter to the Chinese people; + + And whereas, instructions have been received from His Excellency to + the effect that, the taking of a census being merely to ascertain + the population of the country, and having no connection in any way + with the imposing of taxes or the examination of certificates by + the customs authorities of the Treasury Department, and for fear + that our countrymen may not understand the purpose and make trouble + through a mistaken notion of the whole proceeding, the + Consul-General at San Francisco and the Consul at New York shall + publish and make known to all Chinese residing in every part of the + United States that it is the custom of the United States to take a + census at stated intervals, that this proceeding has no connection + with the laying of taxes or the examination of certificates of + residence, that our countrymen have no cause for suspicion or + alarm, but, as soon as the enumerators present themselves, they + should answer the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law: + + Now, therefore, we, Li Yung Yew, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's + Consul-General at the port of San Francisco, and Yang Yu Ying, His + Imperial Chinese Majesty's Consul at the port of New York, in + pursuance of instructions as aforesaid, do hereby publish and make + known that inasmuch as it is the custom of the United States to + take a census of the population thereof once in every ten years, + and as this proceeding has no connection whatever with the laying + of taxes or the examination of certificates of residence, and as + all persons irrespective of nationality are to be enumerated under + the provisions of the law, our countrymen should not be alarmed or + cherish any suspicion, but, as soon as the proper officers of the + Census Bureau present themselves with this Consular proclamation, + should answer all the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law. + + A list of the questions to be answered is hereby appended for the + information of all concerned: + + Population schedule (32 questions). + + Agriculture schedule (59 questions). + + Dated Hsuan Tung, second year, First moon (February, 1910), and + sealed with our respective seals of office. + + + THIRTEENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES + + CHINESE CONSULAR PROCLAMATION + + [Illustration: Chinese text] + + (SEE TRANSLATION ABOVE) + +"What was finally done?" the policeman queried. + +"The Consul-General had to ask the Five Companies to back up the census +order, and they did. The fifth layer of paper was put on the billboards, +and the Five Companies, without beating around the bush, just ordered +the Chinese to do as they were told." + +"I've always heard that the Five Companies were stronger on the Pacific +coast than they are here. I wonder why?" + +"I asked that very question," Hamilton said, "and the man who told me +all about this explained that it was because they controlled the Chinese +slave traffic to America." + +"'Tis like enough," the policeman agreed, "and of course the most of +that would be on the other slope. But there's enough of it here, just +the same, and half the trouble between the Tongs is because of it." + +"That was what started the trouble in Oakland between the Hop Sings +and the Bing Gongs," Hamilton said, "and there were eight men killed in +that. It began over the possession of a slave girl who had been given as +security for debt. But they never caught any one for that." + +[Illustration: ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.] + +"You can't ever catch a Chinaman," the policeman said. "I've arrested a +dozen myself--but it never did any good. Look at Boston--it was open +talk that there were two regular executioners under Tong law, but the +Chinks got out of it by tellin' the judge that there never had been any +executions and that it was merely an ancient title!" + +"There have been cases in New York, too," the boy said, "that they +haven't found out yet!" + +"It doesn't matter what the case is--you can never prove it on them. +Look at that young girl, a missionary, who was killed! And that's only +one of dozens. And they can shoot, and shoot straight, too!" he added. +"Look at the shooting galleries," the two were walking down the Bowery, +"they've been kept going for years by the practice of the Tong marksmen. +You'd never think it, but some of those Highbinders could make our crack +shots do their best to keep an even score. Well," he broke off, "here +we are at Mott Street. Bob," he called to the policeman across the +street, "here's a young fellow wants to go into Chinatown." + +"Sorry, sir," said the other, a great big burly fellow, coming forward +to meet them, "but orders are strict. No one going in at all, unless on +business." + +"It is on business, officer," said Hamilton. "I'm a census agent and the +Inspector told me to check up some names on this schedule." + +The policeman took it and looked it over. + +"I think those are all right, sir," he said, "I know most of 'em by +name. But that's one of those underground places and we don't any of us +go down there any more than we have to. Of course when we have to +go--why, that's another matter. I think, sir, you can take it those +names are about all right." + +"I don't feel that I could make a report like that," Hamilton answered. +"I was sent to check it up personally, and don't you think I'd better do +it? There's a chap there," he added, pointing to a young fellow standing +a few yards up the street, "he doesn't look Chinese." + +"He's a reporter, sir," the policeman said, "an' he's like us,--it's +part of his business to take chances." + +"Mine, too," said Hamilton; "only he represents a newspaper and I'm here +for the government." + +The policeman scratched his chin in perplexity. + +"Do you wait here," he said, "and I'll call up the station." + +He came back in a minute or two. + +"The lieutenant says it'll be all right," he said. "I told him that I +hadn't seen any sign of trouble--not that that means anything," he +added, "but if you wait a minute the other man will be up this way; he's +patrollin' the streets and you can go along with him." + +"How many of you are there here?" asked the boy. + +"Generally half a dozen in these two or three streets," the policeman +answered, "but I guess right now there's twice that number." + +Just as he had expected, another policeman appeared shortly, and +Hamilton was passed on to him. His conductor was taciturn, and the boy +was glad when the reporter joined them. In reply to a question, Hamilton +told his purpose, and the reporter, scenting a story, volunteered to +accompany them. The boy was willing enough, especially as he found the +reporter had the Chinese district as his regular assignment and was well +known in Chinatown. + +The address given, as the first policeman had said, was merely that +painted over a stairway. + +"I guess we go down here," Hamilton said. + +The policeman answered not a word, he simply pushed past the boy and +went down first; Hamilton followed, and the reporter came next. At the +bottom of the stair the policeman rapped on a door with his nightstick, +a good loud rap. It was opened, and he strode in, followed by the two +boys. A few questions from Hamilton verified one or two items of +information, but details about the rest of the house were not +forthcoming. In answer to questions the Chinaman simply pointed to the +ground. + +"Next floor down, I reckon," the reporter said. + +"But we're in the cellar now," objected Hamilton + +The reporter laughed. + +"We build above ground, the Chinese below," he said. "Lots of these +houses have five stories underground, and nearly all have either two or +three. A Chinaman doesn't care about fresh air at all, and he won't +waste money in fuel when he can keep warm in an underground burrow. Come +on, I guess we'll go down some more." + +The policeman still leading the way, three of them went down a rickety +stair, not much better than a ladder, and found themselves in a sort of +storehouse. + +"They don't keep things to eat here!" exclaimed Hamilton, scarcely able +to breathe the foul air and the exhalations from decaying food-stuffs. + +"Sure," the reporter answered. "Cheerful, isn't it?" + +Hamilton gave a little shiver of repugnance, but taking out his +schedule, asked the underground store-keeper all the personal questions +on it. Then, realizing that he would be able to know about his +customers, the lad quickly made enough inquiries to assure him that +there was no fault to find with the work, and started for the upper air. +Just as they passed out of the stairway, the policeman, who was the +last, still being on the steps, Hamilton heard a shot, and a bullet came +whizzing by his head. It was answered by a fusillade of shots. + +The boy's first instinct was to duck back under the cover of the +staircase from which he had just come out, but the policeman, as he +left it, roughly gave him a push, as much as to say, "Keep out of +there," and started on a dead run for the group where the firing was +going on. + +"That's the Hip Sings," the reporter said, pulling Hamilton into the +shadow of a doorway, "the Ong Leongs have been waiting for them, ever +since that affair in the theater." + +"What was that?" asked Hamilton, although more interested in the +immediate excitement than the story. + +"Time of the Chinese New Year," the reporter answered in short, crisp +sentences. "There was a gala performance in the theater with suppers and +banquets before and after. Everybody brought fire-crackers to the +theater, and at a certain time all the fire-crackers were set off. When +the noise stopped eighteen men were found shot dead, all members of the +Ong Leong Tong. The Hip Sing men were blamed for it, but none ever +caught." + +"What's up now?" cried Hamilton, in alarm. + +As he spoke two men dashed out of a building near by, and fired at the +group beyond. The others turned and made a rush. The two newcomers cut +across the street, thus for a moment diverting the line of fire which +had been perilously close to where the two boys were standing. + +"This is too hot for me," said the reporter, "we'd better get out of +here as fast as we know how. We'll go to the end of this street and turn +to the right. Are you ready? Come along." + +Out from the doorway like a couple of frightened hares the two lads +bolted, pursued by a few shots which, they flew so far over their heads, +Hamilton surmised were intended as a warning to keep out of the way +rather than as attempts to shoot them. In the few seconds that had +elapsed it seemed that the streets had become full of running policemen, +and Hamilton looked back. + +As he did so, he saw one of the men in the nearest group stagger +sideways and stand for an instant alone in the center of the street. +There was the sharp bark of a sawed-off revolver, and the wounded man +just reached the shelter of a doorway as the bullet sang over the spot +on which he had stood a second before. + +The sight unnerved Hamilton. He clutched the reporter's arm. + +"Chinese, Camorrists, sweatshop workers, and negroes!" he cried, a +hysterical note in his voice. "Are there no Americans in an American +city?" + +The reporter grasped his shoulder and pointed to where, a block or two +away, the towering framework of a Titanic building pierced the sunlit +air, far above the sordid savagery of the human rat-holes near by. +Guiding monster beams into place, sure-set upon the frailest foothold, +forms of men, made tiny by the distance, were silhouetted against the +sky. + +"The post of honor is the post of danger," he said; "it is in work like +that, where skill is linked to daring, where brain is joined to nerve, +that the Yankee stands. If you want to see the American in America, +don't look down, look up!" + +[Illustration: WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (_Copyright by Brown +Bros._)] + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy With the U.S. Census +by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + +***** This file should be named 13181-8.txt or 13181-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/8/13181/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boy With the U.S. Census + +Author: Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +Release Date: August 15, 2004 [EBook #13181] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<center> +<img src='images/image-1-t.jpg' width='562' height='350' alt='THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)</p></div> + +<br /> + +<a name='THE_BOY_WITH_THE_US_CENSUS'></a><h1>THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS</h1> + +<h2>BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER</h2> + +<br /> + +<center> +<img src='images/cover.jpg' width='500' height='642' alt='The Boy With the U.S. Census' title=''> +</center> + +<br /> + +<center>With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from +Bureaus of the United States Government</center> +<br /> + +<h4>November, 1911</h4> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='To_My_Son_Rogers_Friend'></a><h3>To My Son Roger's Friend</h3> + +<h3>HAMILTON DAY</h3> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> + +<a name='PREFACE'></a><h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border +warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain +fastnesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being +written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to +the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their factory prisons a +hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade +sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad.</p> + +<p>In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau +leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens +trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's +greatest right—the Right To Know—and on his findings all battle-lines +depend. "When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and +Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is +the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle +the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and +alien-tongue communities. To show how this great Census work is done, +to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to +heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kinship +between all peoples of the earth who have become "Americans" is the aim +and purpose of</p> + +<p>THE AUTHOR.</p> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> +<a name='CONTENTS'></a><h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + <h4><a href='#PREFACE'>PREFACE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I—A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II—RESCUING A LOST RACE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III—A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV—THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V—"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!"</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI—THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII—HOBOES ON THE TRAMP</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII—THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX—CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X—RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL</a></h4> + +<br /> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<center><a href="images/image-1-t.jpg">The Statue of Liberty (<i>Frontispiece</i>)</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-2-t.jpg">Taking the Census in Old Kentucky</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-36-t.jpg">Kentucky Mountaineer Family</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-3-t.jpg">Moonshining</a> <a href="images/image-4-t.jpg">[2]</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-5-t.jpg">Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-6-t.jpg">Bill Wilsh in the School</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-7-t.jpg">Alligator-Catching</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-8-t.jpg">The Census Building</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-9-t.jpg">Making Gun-sights True</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-10-t.jpg">"A Bull's-eye Every Time!"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-11-t.jpg">Young Boys from the Pit</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-12-t.jpg">"I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-13-t.jpg">Eight Years Old and "Tired of Working"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-14-t.jpg">The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-15-t.jpg">Immigration Station, Ellis Island</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-16-t.jpg">Where the Workers Come from</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-17-t.jpg">On a Peanut Farm</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-18-t.jpg">In an All-Negro Town</a> <a href="images/image-19-t.jpg">[2]</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-20-t.jpg">"'Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel'"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-21-t.jpg">How Most of the Negroes Live</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-22-t.jpg">Facsimile of Punched Census Card</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-23-t.jpg">Tabulating Machine</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-24-t.jpg">Pin-box and Mercury Cups</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-25-t.jpg">Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-26-t.jpg">The Census in the Aleutian Islands</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-27-t.jpg">"Can We Make Camp?"</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-28-t.jpg">To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-29-t.jpg">Gathering Cocoanuts</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-30-t.jpg">Taking the Census in a City</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-31-t.jpg">Festa in the Italian Quarter</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-32-t.jpg">The Fighting Men of the Tongs</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-33-t.jpg">Arrested as the Firing Stops</a><br /> +<a href="images/image-34-t.jpg">Work for Americans</a> <a href="images/image-30-t.jpg">[2]</a></center> +<br /> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> + +<a name='THE_BOY_WITH_THE_US_CENSUS'></a><h2>THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS</h2> +<br /> + +<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>"Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, "since I'm going to be a +census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district."</p> + +<p>The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way +through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top +of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"What for?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"I think I could do it better than almost anybody else in this section," +was the ready, if not modest, reply.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other assented and took up the paper +again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the mountains +but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even +though his host was better informed than most of the people in the +region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him +"Uncle" because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regiment +that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men +ever since had been friends.</p> + +<p>"I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such +doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; "that +census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me."</p> + +<p>"But it seems to me that it's the right kind of 'inquisitive.'"</p> + +<p>"I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of +inquisitiveness," the mountaineer said, with a smile, "but if you say +so, I s'pose it's all right."</p> + +<p>"But don't you think the questions are easy enough?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty +unpleasant to answer."</p> + +<p>"But if they are necessary?"</p> + +<p>"Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the mount'ns that yo' c'n never make +see how knowin' their private affairs does the gov'nment any good."</p> + +<p>"But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all +right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as +c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be +heated up clar through."</p> + +<p>"But why?" queried the lad again. "The questions are plain enough, and +there was practically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine +thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, +too!"</p> + +<p>"Important!" protested the old man. "Did yo' ever see any one that ever +sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures?"</p> + +<p>"Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. "But it isn't done for the +sake of getting interesting reading matter; it's because those figures +really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of +that the census isn't at the back of."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I +notice," the mountaineer remarked.</p> + +<p>"No," answered Hamilton promptly, "but the number of members a State +sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the +census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his +seat is based on their information."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information +about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is +important enough, Uncle Eli? And then the railroads, too,—they depend +on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as +freight."</p> + +<p>"You seem to know a lot about it," the mountaineer said, looking +thoughtfully at the boy.</p> + +<p>"I ought to," Hamilton said, "because I'm going to be an assistant +special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away. I applied last +October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this +visit."</p> + +<p>"What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination?" he was +asked.</p> + +<p>"I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, "figures have always been +easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered +accountant business I learned a lot from him."</p> + +<p>"Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it +naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, "but I'm pretty +sure."</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the +business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it."</p> + +<p>"But I'm hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle +Eli," the boy explained "either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of +Statistics or some work like that. And anyway, if it's the government's +business, I'm an American and it's my business."</p> + +<p>"Yo' have the right spirit, boy," the old man said, "an' I like to see +it, but you're huntin' trouble sure's you're born. S'posin' yo' asked +the questions of some ol' sorehead that wouldn' answer?"</p> + +<p>"He'd have to answer," replied Hamilton stoutly, "there's a law to make +him."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that law's used much," hazarded the old man.</p> + +<p>"It isn't," Hamilton found himself forced to admit. "I believe there +were not very many arrests all over the country last census. But the +law's there, just the same."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn' be a law on the Ridge," the mountaineer said, "an' I don' +believe it would do yo' any good anywhar else. On the mount'ns, I know, +courtesy is a whole lot bigger word than constitution. Up hyeh, we +follow the law when we're made to, follow an idee backed up by a +rifle-barrel because we have to, but there's not many men hyeh that won' +do anythin' yo' ask if yo' jes' ask the right way."</p> + +<p>"But there are always some that give trouble," Hamilton protested, +trying to defend his position.</p> + +<p>The old Kentuckian slowly shook his head from side to side.</p> + +<p>"If yo' don' win out by courtesy," he said, "it's jes' because yo' +haven' been courteous enough, because yo' haven' taken yo' man jes' +right. Thar isn't any such thing as bein' too gracious. An' anyway, a +census-taker with any other idee up hyeh would be runnin' chances right +along."</p> + +<p>"You mean they would shoot him up?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I think if he threatened some folks up hyeh an' in the gullies thar +might be trouble."</p> + +<p>"But the fact that he represented the government would insure him from +harm, I should think."</p> + +<p>"I don't think much of that insurance idee," the old man said. "I can't +remember that it helped the revenue men sech a great deal. The only +insurance I ever had was a quick ear, an' even now, I c'n hear a twig +snap near a quarter of a mile away. An' that used to be good insurance +in the ol' days when, if yo' weren't gunnin' for somebody, thar was +somebody gunnin' fo' you."</p> + +<p>"But there's no one 'gunning' for you now, is there, Uncle Eli?" asked +the boy amusedly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't b'n lookin' out especially," the Kentuckian responded, with +an answering slow smile, "an' I reckon sometimes that I might jes' as +well leave the ol' rifle in the house when I go out."</p> + +<p>"But you never do," put in Hamilton quickly.</p> + +<p>"I reckon that's jes' a feelin'," rejoined the mountaineer, "jes' one o' +these habits that yo' hate to give up. I'd sort o' be lost without it +now, after all these years. Thar's no one to worry about, anyway, +savin' Jake Howkle, an' I don' believe he's hankerin' for +blood-lettin'."</p> + +<p>"Jake? Oh, never," Hamilton replied with assurance; "why, he's only +about my age."</p> + +<p>"That's only partly why," the old man said, "not only because he's your +age, but because he's b'n at school. Shootin' an' schoolin' don' seem to +hit it off. I reckon thar would have b'n a sight less trouble in the +mount'ns if thar had b'n mo' schools."</p> + +<p>"There are plenty of schools in the mountains now, aren't there?" asked +Hamilton. "It must be very different here, Uncle Eli, from what it was +when you were a boy."</p> + +<p>"Thar has been quite a change, an' the change is comin' faster now. But +thar's still a lot o' folk who a'nt altered a bit sence the war. You +city people call us slow-movin' up hyeh, an' as long as thar's any o' +the ol' spirit abroad thar's a chance o' trouble. If yo' really are +goin' in for this census-takin', I'd keep clar o' the mount'ns."</p> + +<p>"You really would?" queried the boy thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"An' what's more," continued his Uncle, "I would jes' as soon that yo' +didn' have anythin' to do with it near hyeh. I don' want to see any +little differences between families, such as census-takin' is likely +to provoke."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-2-t.jpg' width='554' height='352' alt="TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O.)</p></div> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Eli!" cried Hamilton in amazement, "you talk as though the +days of the feuds were not over."</p> + +<p>"Are yo' sure they're all over?" the Kentuckian said.</p> + +<p>"I had supposed so," the boy replied. "I thought the Kentucky 'killings' +had stopped ten or fifteen years ago."</p> + +<p>"It's a little queer yo' sh'd bring that up today," the old man said, +"for I was jes' readin' in the paper some figures on that very thing. +Yo' like figures, this will jes' suit you. Where was it now?" he +continued, rustling the paper; then, a moment later, "Oh, yes, I have +it."</p> + +<p>"'During the terms of the last three Kentucky governors,'" he read, +"'over thirteen hundred criminals have been pardoned, five hundred of +them being for murder or manslaughter.' It says fu'ther on," the old man +added, "that pardonin' is jes' as frequent now as it ever was. I don' +believe it is, myself, but if thar is such a lot o' pardonin' goin' on +for shootin', thar must have been a powerful lot o' shootin'."</p> + +<p>"But that's for all the State," objected the boy, "not for the +mountains only. That must be for crimes in the cities and all sorts of +things. You can't make the feuds responsible for those."</p> + +<p>"Not altogether," the mountaineer agreed, "the real ol'-time feud is +peterin' out, an' it's mainly due to the schoolin'. The young folks +ain't ready fo' revenge now, an' that sort o' swings the women around. +An' up hyeh in the mount'ns, same as everywhar else, I reckon, the idees +o' the women make a pile o' difference."</p> + +<p>"But I should have thought the women would always have been against the +feuds," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yo'd think so, but they weren't. They helped to keep up the grudges a +whole lot."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ab hasn't changed much," volunteered the lad.</p> + +<p>"She hasn't for a fact. Ab is powerful sot. She holds the grudge against +the Howkles in the ol' style. But the feelin' is dyin' out fast, an' +soon it'll be like history,—only jes' read of in books."</p> + +<p>"What I never could see," remarked Hamilton, "was what started it all. +It isn't as if the people in the mountains had come from some part of +the world where vendettas and that sort of thing had been going on for +generations. There must have been some kind of reason for it in this +section of the country. Feuds don't spring up just for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Thar was a while once we had a powerful clever talker up hyeh," the +Kentuckian answered, "actin' as schoolmaster for a few weeks. I reckon +he'd offered to substitute jes' to get a chance to see for himself what +life in the mount'ns was like. He was writin' a book about it. We got +right frien'ly, an' he knew he was always welcome hyeh, an' one day I +asked him jes' that question. It was shortly befo' he lef' an' I wanted +to know what he thought about us all up hyeh."</p> + +<p>The mountaineer leaned back in his chair and chuckled with evident +enjoyment of the recollection.</p> + +<p>"I jes' put the question to him," he said, "in the mildes' way, an' he +started right in to talk. Thar was no stoppin' him, an' I couldn' +remember one-half o' what he said. But I reckon he had it about right."</p> + +<p>"How did he explain the feuds, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, with a short laugh, "he begun by sayin' +we were savages."</p> + +<p>"Savages?"</p> + +<p>"Not jes' with war-paint an' tomahawk, yo' understan'," continued the +old man, enjoying the boy's astonishment, "but uncivilized an' wild. +Thar an't any finer stock in the world, he said, than the mount'neers o' +the Ridge, clar down to Tennessee, an' he said, too, that they were o' +the good old English breed, not foreigners like are comin' in now."</p> + +<p>"That's right enough," Hamilton agreed, "and, what's more, they were +gentlemen of good birth, most of them; there was not much of the peasant +in the early colonists."</p> + +<p>"So this author chap said. But he explained that was the very reason +they got so wild."</p> + +<p>"I don't see that," objected Hamilton, "and I certainly don't see where +the 'savage' idea comes in."</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, he said that when you slid down from a high place it was harder +to climb back than if the fall had b'n small. An' that's why it's so +hard for those who have gone down,—they can see the depth o' the fall."</p> + +<p>Hamilton, who was of an argumentative turn of mind, would have protested +at this, but the old mountaineer proceeded.</p> + +<p>"When the pioneers settled in the mount'ns they kind o' stuck. Those +that went on, down into the Blue Grass region, went boomin' right ahead, +but those that stayed in the mount'ns had no chance."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why not?" objected the boy.</p> + +<p>"They were jes' cut off from everywhar. We are to-day, for that matter. +When a place gets settled, an' starts to try an' raise somethin' to +sell, the product has got to be taken to market. But thar was no +railroad up in the mount'ns. Children were easy to raise, an' a +population grew up in a hurry, but the land was too poor for good +farmin', the roads were too bad for takin' corn to market, an' thar was +no way o' gettin' to a town."</p> + +<p>"You are pretty well cut off," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We were more so then," the mountaineer said. "An' so, while all the +country 'round was advancin' up in the mount'ns, fifty years ago, we +were livin' jes' like pioneers. An' some, not bein' able to keep up the +strain, fell back."</p> + +<p>"So it really isn't the fault of the mountaineers at all," cried the +boy, "but because they were sort of marooned."</p> + +<p>"It was unfortunate," replied the old man, "but it really was our own +fault. If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have +developed it; if not, we should have left."</p> + +<p>"I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a +most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every +man is his own master. But, thar bein' no available market if they did +work hard, what was the use o' workin'? Some o' them, 'specially down in +the gullies, got lazy an' shif'less. But they hung on all the harder to +the idees o' the old times,—honor an' hospitality."</p> + +<p>"I've always understood," said Hamilton, "that there was more +hospitality to be found up here in the mountains than in almost any +place on the globe."</p> + +<p>"As yo' said," the old man continued, "we're jes' like a crew o' +shipwrecked sailors marooned on an island without a boat, without any +means o' gettin' away. If some o' the families high up in the gullies +are ignorant, it's because they've had no schoolin', not because they +haven' got the makin's o' good citizens; if they're a bit careless about +religion, it's because they've had no churchin', an' if they don' pay +much heed to law, it's because the law has never done much for them. +The ocean o' progress," went on the mountaineer, with a flourish, "has +rolled all 'roun' the mount'ns, but of all the fleets o' commerce in all +these years, thar has not been one to send out a boat to help the +marooned mount'neer."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they ever try to get help?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>"We're not askin' help," the Kentuckian said, "thar's no whinin' on the +mount'ns. I jes' tell yo' that when the time comes for the mount'neers +o' Kentucky an' Virginia an' Tennessee an' Carolina to get a fair +chance, they'll show yo' as fine a race o' men an' women as the Stars +an' Stripes flies over."</p> + +<p>"They are mighty fine right now, I think," the boy said.</p> + +<p>"They have their good points," the Kentuckian agreed; "thar's nothin' +sneakin' in the men up hyeh, an' thar an't any lengths to which a man +won't go, to do what he thinks is the squar thing. You've heard about +the Beaupoints?"</p> + +<p>"No," the boy answered, "what was that?"</p> + +<p>"It was jes' an incident in one o' these feuds that you were talkin' of, +an' I'm goin' to tell yo' about it, to show yo' what a mount'neer's +idee o' honor is like. Thar was a family livin' on the other side o' the +Ridge, not a great ways from hyeh, by the name o' Calvern, an' in some +way or other—I never heard the rights of it—they took to shootin' up +the Beaupoints every chance that come along. One day Dandie Beaupoint +found a little girl that had hurt herself, an' he picked her up in his +arms an' was carryin' her home when one o' the Calvern boys shot him in +his tracks. One o' the Beaupoint brothers was away at the time, but the +others felt that the Calverns hadn't b'n playin' fair, an' they reckoned +to lay them all out. They did, too, all but one, an', although they had +a chance to nail him, they let him alone."</p> + +<p>"Why was he let off?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I reckon it was because he had a young wife an' a little child," the +old man answered. "Now Jim Beaupoint, the one that had been away, he +come home after a while, an' hadn't happened to hear about the wipin' +out o' the Calverns. On his way home, he had to pass the Calvern place, +an' so he made a wide cast aroun' the hill to keep out o' sight, when +suddenly, up a gully, he saw this Hez Calvern standin' there with his +rifle on his arm, an', quick as he could move, Jim grabbed his gun an' +fired. It was a long shot an' a sure one."</p> + +<p>"Was it—" the boy began, but the old man waved the interruption aside +and proceeded.</p> + +<p>"Reloadin' his rifle, Jim Beaupoint rode slowly to whar Hez Calvern was +lyin', when suddenly, from a clump o' bushes close by, there come a +rifle shot, an' the rider got the bullet in his chest. Befo' fallin' +from the saddle, however, the young fellow fired at the bushes from +which smoke was driftin', an' a shrill scream told him that the +sharpshooter was a woman."</p> + +<p>"Some one who had been with Hez Calvern?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"His wife. Well, although Jim was mortally hurt an' sufferin'—as the +tracks showed afterwards—he tried to drag himself to the bushes in +order to help the woman who had shot him an' who he had shot unknowin'; +but he was too badly hurt, an' he died twenty yards from the place whar +he fell."</p> + +<p>"Was the woman dead, too?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"No, but terrible badly hurt. What I was wantin' to tell yo', though, +was the result of all this. Wa'al, the Beaupoints took the woman to +their home an' nursed her night an' day for five long years. She was +helpless, only for her tongue, an' she lashed an' abused them till the +day she died, an' never once, in all those years, did any one o' the +Beaupoints reproach her in return."</p> + +<p>"And the youngster?"</p> + +<p>"They took the boy, too, an' reared him the bes' they knew how, jes' the +same as one o' their own. One o' the Beaupoint boys went an' lived on +the Calvern place, an' worked it,—worked it fair an' squar', an' put +aside every cent that come out o' the farm. For thirteen years the +Beaupoints looked after the farm an' reared the boy. On the day he was +fourteen year old, Jed Beaupoint—that was the father—called the lad, +told him the whole story, give him a new rifle an' a powder horn, an' +handed over the little bag o' coin that represented thirteen years o' +work on the Calvern holdin'."</p> + +<p>"There certainly couldn't be anything squarer than that!" exclaimed +Hamilton. "And he gave the boy the farm, too?"</p> + +<p>"Every inch of it. Jed Beaupoint was a squar' man, cl'ar through. An' he +said to the boy—he tol' me the story himself—'Johnny Calvern, thar's +yo' farm an' yo' rifle. Now, if yo're willin', I'll see that thar's no +trouble until yo're twenty-one, an' then yo' c'n go huntin' revenge if +yo've a mind to, or, if you're willin', we'll call the trouble off now, +an' thar won't be any need o' rakin' it up again.'"</p> + +<p>"He made it up on the spot, of course?" questioned Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"He did not," he replied. "The boy thought a minute or two an' then said +he'd wait until he was grown up, an' let him know then."</p> + +<p>"Although he had been brought up by the Beaupoints!" exclaimed the boy +in surprise. "But surely it never came up again."</p> + +<p>"Well, not exac'ly. When Johnny Calvern was about nineteen he got +married, an' a few days befo' the time when he would be twenty-one, he +rode up to the Beaupoint place, an' tol' the ol' man that he was willin' +to let the feud rest another ten years, because of his wife an' little +baby, but that he would be ready to resume shootin' at that time."</p> + +<p>"But he had no real grudge against the Beaupoints had he, Uncle Eli? +They had always been kind to him, you said."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit o' grudge," the mountaineer answered, "they were good +friends. An' I reckon it wasn't Johnny that wanted the trouble to begin +again, but thar's always a lot o' hotheads pryin' into other folks' +business. However, ol' Jed Beaupoint didn't mind; he agreed to another +ten years' truce, an' all went on peacefully as befo'. Durin' those ten +years, however, Johnny's wife died, an' he got married again, this time +to the sister o' a wanderin' preacher, a girl who had once lived in +cities, an' she soon showed him that the ol' feud business must be +forgotten. But it is a mite unusual, even hyeh, to farm a man's land an' +bring up his child fo' thirteen years, an' then give him everythin' yo' +can with the privilege o' shootin' yo' at sight for all the favors +done."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't sound a bit like the usual feud story," said Hamilton, "one +always thinks of those as being cold-blooded and cruel."</p> + +<p>"Thar an't a mite o' intentional cruelty in them; it's jes' that life is +held cheap. Most o' them begun over some small thing like an election."</p> + +<p>"There were quite a number of them, Uncle Eli, weren't there?"</p> + +<p>"One ran into the other so easily that one feud would often look like +half a dozen, an' trouble would be goin' on in various places. But +there were really seven of them, all big ones."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-36-t.jpg' height='60%' alt='KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions.)</p></div> + +<p>"What were they, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, thar was the McCoy-Hatfield feud in Pike County, that started +over the ownership o' two plain razorback hogs, but afterwards got very +bitter, owin' to the friendship o' one o' the McCoy girls with the son +o' Bad Anse Hatfield. Then thar was the Howard-Turner feud in Harlan +County. An' then—"</p> + +<p>"What started the Howard-Turner feud?" interrupted the boy.</p> + +<p>"That was over a game o' cards. One o' the Howards had been winnin', an' +Jim Turner, with a pistol, forced him to give back the money he had won. +That affair raged a long time. The Logan-Tolliver feud in Rowan County +was over an election fo' sheriff. The Logans elected their candidate, +an' so the Tollivers killed one o' the Logans at the polls and wounded +three others."</p> + +<p>"That's expressing dissatisfaction with an election with some spirit," +Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"Then thar was the French-Eversole feud in Perry County," continued the +Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town +called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In +time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange +fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the +shootin',—indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were +most bitter."</p> + +<p>"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the +principals didn't?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran +the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time."</p> + +<p>"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the +same as the Howard-Turner fighting?"</p> + +<p>"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family," +the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre' +feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water +rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it +couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o' +blood."</p> + +<p>"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that +way," the boy said.</p> + +<p>"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill +feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over +some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly +remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some such +goin's on."</p> + +<p>"But they are all over now, aren't they?"</p> + +<p>"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is +sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all +four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to +the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her +how good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said—thar +was a lot of us thar at the time—'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell +them who shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots +him.' I'm reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but +I really think that is the last o' them."</p> + +<p>"What started that?"</p> + +<p>"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But you +don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually jes' +firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date back to +enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'."</p> + +<p>"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the +mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North—I know you were with Lee, +of course, but I thought that was exceptional."</p> + +<p>"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate +soldier indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of +them went into the Union army."</p> + +<p>"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were +fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question +didn' matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union +army was made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' +bigger men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong +then,—I do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for +what they thought was right."</p> + +<p>"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can +understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian."</p> + +<p>"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and +South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read, +decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve +that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the +No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause, +I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man +solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on +both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive +anywhere."</p> + +<p>"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted Hamilton, +fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences, when he +wanted to hear about feuds.</p> + +<p>"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the +little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it. +Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some +words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any grudge, +an' I never supposed Isaac was. However, in a skirmish near Cumberland +Gap, I saw that he was jes' achin' to get me, an' the way he tried was +jes' about the meanes' thing I ever heard o' any one doin' on the +Ridge."</p> + +<p>"How was it, do tell me?" pleaded Hamilton, his eyes shining with +interest.</p> + +<p>"Howkle was with Wolford's cavalry, an' I was under 'Fightin'' +Zollicoffer, as they called him," the old man began. "Thar had been a +little skirmish,—one o' these that never get into the dispatches that +don' do any good, but after which thar's always good men lef' lyin' on +the ground. We had driven 'em back a bit, an' I was comin' in when I saw +a lad—he didn't look more'n about fifteen—lyin' in a heap an' +groanin'. Knowin' a drink would do him more good than an'thin' else, I +reached for my canteen, an' stooped down. Jes' about then, a horseman +dashed out o' the scrub an', almos' befo' I could think o' what was +comin', he struck at me with his sabre."</p> + +<p>"When you were giving drink to a wounded soldier!" cried Hamilton +indignantly. "What a cowardly trick!"</p> + +<p>"It was ol' Isaac Howkle," nodded his uncle, "an' I s'pose he reckoned +this was a chance to get even on the ol' grudge. But I rolled over on +the grass jes' out o' reach o' his stroke, an' he missed. I grabbed my +rifle an' blazed at him as soon as I could get on my feet, but he had +reached the shelter of the trees again an' I missed him."</p> + +<p>"That's about the meanest thing I ever heard," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"So I thought," the Kentuckian answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to +think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his +lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' +to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't +blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of +his own sufferin's."</p> + +<p>"That was grit," said Hamilton approvingly. "Did he die, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it. We got him back into our lines an' he was exchanged, I +believe. Anyway, I know he was livin' after the war, fo' I saw his name +once on a list o' veterans. But most o' the boys were like that—mostly +young, too—an' men o' the stripe of Isaac Howkle were very few."</p> + +<p>"But you got him in the end, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>The old mountaineer looked intently at the boy's excited face.</p> + +<p>"I didn't," he said, "an' I don' rightly know that it's good for yo' to +be hearin' all these things. Yo' might hold it against Jake Howkle."</p> + +<p>"That I wouldn't," protested Hamilton. "Jake isn't to blame for his +father's meanness."</p> + +<p>"That's the right way to talk," the old soldier agreed. "Wa'al, if yo' +feel that way about it, I reckon thar's no harm in my tellin' yo' the +rest of it, now that I've got started. When the war was all over an' I +got back hyeh, I remembered what had happened, an' I sent word to Isaac +Howkle that I didn' trust him, an' after what he had done I was +reckonin' that he was waitin' his chance to get me, an' that he'd better +keep his own side o' the mountain."</p> + +<p>"But, Uncle Eli," said the boy, "that didn't make a feud surely; that +was only a warning."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't reckonin' to start a feud at all," said the old man +thoughtfully, "an' it really never was one. It was jes' a personal +difference between Isaac Howkle an' me. Thar was lots o' times that I +could have picked off either o' his two brothers, but I was jes' +guardin' myself against Isaac."</p> + +<p>"But you said he got there first!" said the boy. "Did he shoot some one +in your family?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, yes, he did," the mountaineer admitted "Yo' never knew the one. +He was my brother-in-law,—Ab's younges' sister's first husband. He had +been married jes' two months, an' was only a hundred yards from this +house when Isaac shot him."</p> + +<p>"How did you know for sure that it was Howkle who had done the +shooting?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We didn't know for sure, at first. A week or two after, a boy from the +Wilshes' place come up with a message sayin' that Isaac Howkle had tol' +him to say that he'd get the ol' man nex' time."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have thought a boy would have had the nerve to bring such a +message," said Hamilton thoughtfully. "Wouldn't bringing word like that +look like taking sides, and wouldn't it bring his own family into the +trouble!"</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head in instant denial.</p> + +<p>"Po' white trash from the gullies," he said, "no, they don't count one +way or the other."</p> + +<p>"What happened after you got that message?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Nothin' much, for a while, though I was snoopin' aroun' the mount'ns +consid'rable. I met the brothers sev'ral times, an' I know they could +have had me. But I had nothin' against them, nor they me, an' so it was +jes' left to Isaac an' me. Once I found him over near our pasture, but +he saw me an' got into cover. At last I found him in the open near our +house again, an' in easy range."</p> + +<p>"Did you fire right away?" asked Hamilton excitedly.</p> + +<p>"I didn't shoot. I got a lead on him, sure, but I jes' couldn't shoot +without warnin' him. It seemed kind o' mean to shoot him unawares, an' +as I didn't want to take an unfair advantage, I shouted to him. It was +pretty far off to be heard, but I could see that he recognized me. I was +only waitin' long enough to let him get his gun to his shoulder when +some one fired jes' behin' me. Howkle's bullet went through my arm, but +he dropped in his tracks. He thought I had shot him but my gun was never +fired off."</p> + +<p>"Who was it that fired, Uncle Eli!"</p> + +<p>"The brother o' the young fellow he had shot befo'."</p> + +<p>"Was he dead?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, a little grimly, "I didn' go down to see +an' wait aroun' 'till all his friends gathered. But I reckon he was dead +when they found him later."</p> + +<p>"And the brothers?"</p> + +<p>"They never came into the story at all. I'm jes' mentionin' this to yo' +to show yo' that thar's reason in my advisin' yo' to keep clar o' this +district. If you're reckonin' on doin' census work, yo' go somewhar that +you're not known to any one. Thar's trouble enough even for a stranger +in the mount'ns, an' a stranger would find it easier than any one else."</p> + +<p>"Why is that, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, yo' can't show discourtesy to a stranger, an' yo' +know that if he doesn' do things jes' the way yo' like to have 'em done, +it's because he doesn' know, an' so he's not to blame. I like your +spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' +if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but +leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a +stranger."</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>RESCUING A LOST RACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>That same evening, as it chanced, one of the younger Wilsh boys came up +to the house on an errand from a neighbor, and Hamilton, remembering +that the messenger's father had been a go-between in the feud story he +had been hearing, noted the lad with interest. Indeed, his appearance +was striking enough in itself, with his drooping form, his extreme +paleness, and his look of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>"How far is it from the Burtons, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Eight miles," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Hamilton stared at the mountain boy. Judging from his looks he was not +strong enough to walk a hundred yards, yet he had just come eight miles, +and evidently was intending to walk back home that evening. Then +Hamilton remembered that this lad was one of the "poor whites" of whom +he had read so much, and he strolled toward the messenger who was +sitting listlessly on one of the steps.</p> + +<p>"Howdy!" said the newcomer in a tired voice.</p> + +<p>Hamilton answered his greeting, and, after a few disjointed sentences, +said:</p> + +<p>"You look tired. It must be a long walk from the Burtons."</p> + +<p>"Jes' tol'able," the boy answered. "I'm not so tired. You f'm the city?" +he queried a few minutes later, evidently noting the difference between +Hamilton's appearance and that of the boys in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>"Yes, New York," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>But the stranger did not show any further curiosity and Hamilton was +puzzled to account for his general listlessness. He thought perhaps it +might be that the boy was unusually dull and so he asked:</p> + +<p>"Are you still going to school?"</p> + +<p>A negative shake of the head was the only reply.</p> + +<p>"Why not? Isn't there a school near where you live?"</p> + +<p>"Close handy, 'bout five miles," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you go there?" questioned Hamilton further.</p> + +<p>"Teacheh's gone."</p> + +<p>"Funny time for holidays," the city boy remarked.</p> + +<p>"Not gone fo' holidays."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said Hamilton, "you mean he's gone for good. But aren't you +going to have another one?"</p> + +<p>"Dunno if he's gone for good," the mountain boy answered.</p> + +<p>Hamilton stared in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"Cunjer got him," the other continued.</p> + +<p>But this did not explain things any better.</p> + +<p>"Cunjer?" repeated Hamilton. "You mean magic?"</p> + +<p>The mountain boy nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, cunjer," he affirmed.</p> + +<p>"You're fooling, aren't you?" said Hamilton questioningly, "you can't +mean it. I never heard of 'cunjer' as a real thing. There's lots about +it in books, of course, but those are fairy tales and things of that +sort."</p> + +<p>"An' yo' never saw a cunjer?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"Reckon they don' know as much in cities as they think they do," the +youngster retorted.</p> + +<p>"Just what do you mean by 'cunjer'?" asked Hamilton, knowing that it +would be useless to argue the conditions of a modern city with a boy who +had never seen one.</p> + +<p>"Bein' able to put a cunjer on, so's the one yo' cunjer has got to do +anythin' yo' want."</p> + +<p>"Sort of hypnotism business," commented the older boy.</p> + +<p>"Dunno' what yo' call it in the city. Up hyeh in the mount'ns we call it +cunjer, an' thar's some slick ones hyeh, too."</p> + +<p>"But how did the teacher get mixed up in it?" queried Hamilton. "It +doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to find a schoolmaster +doing."</p> + +<p>"He wasn't doin' it, it was again' him," the mountain boy explained. +"The folks hyeh suspicioned as he was tippin' o' the revenoo men."</p> + +<p>"Who did? Moonshiners?"</p> + +<p>"Easy on that word, Hamilton," suddenly broke in the old Kentuckian, who +had overheard part of the conversation, "thar's plenty up hyeh that don' +like it."</p> + +<p>"All right, Uncle Eli, I'll remember," the boy answered; then, turning +to his companion, he continued "You were saying that some of the people +in the mountains thought the schoolmaster was giving information to the +revenue men."</p> + +<p>"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' +believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us."</p> + +<p>"Did the revenue officers come up here!"</p> + +<p>The mountain lad nodded his head.</p> + +<p>"Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know +ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved +on the teacheh. It never was, but thar was a plenty o' people who +believed the story. I didn't, but then the teacheh was allers good to +me."</p> + +<p>"But what did the revenue men have to do with the 'cunjering'?" asked +Hamilton, desiring to keep his informant to the point.</p> + +<p>"They didn't, it was the men on the Ridge."</p> + +<p>"Do you know how it happened?"</p> + +<p>"I know all about it," the lad answered, with a slightly less listless +air, "for I was in school that mornin'. For a week or more we boys had +seen ol' Blacky Baldwin sort o' snoopin' aroun' near the school, but as +we allers crossed our fingers an' said nothin' so long as he was in +hearin', we weren't afraid."</p> + +<p>"What did you do that for?"</p> + +<p>The younger boy looked at the city-bred lad with an evident pity for his +ignorance.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-3-t.jpg' width='50%' alt='MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail. (Brown +Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-4-t.jpg' width='50%' alt="MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; the fire +is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs on a +tree. (Brown Bros.)" title=''> +</center> + +<div class='caption'><p>MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; +in the lower picture the fire is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs +on a tree. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"So's he couldn't cunjer us, O' course," he said. "Don' yo' even know +that? Ol' Blacky Baldwin is a first-class cunjer, an' any one o' them +can cunjer you with the words he hears yo' sayin'."</p> + +<p>"But if this 'cunjer-fellow' was hanging around the school," suggested +Hamilton, "why didn't you tell the master?"</p> + +<p>"An' get Blacky down on us? You-all can bet we kep' quiet an' didn' even +talk about Blacky to each other. Wa'al, that went on for a week or two. +Then, one mornin', while we was all in school, a big storm come up, +thunder an' lightnin' an' all. Suddenly, jes' after a clap o' thunder +that sounded almos' as if it had hit the schoolhouse Ol' Blacky Baldwin +walked through the door an' up to the teacheh's table. He was carryin a +twisted thing in his hand, like a ram's horn, an' I knew it was his +cunjerin' horn, although I hadn't even seen it befo'."</p> + +<p>"What did the master say when he came in?"</p> + +<p>"Nary a word. It was awful dark an' the thunder was rumbling aroun' +among the hills. I took one look at Ol' Blacky Baldwin's face, an' then +hid my eyes. I reckon the others did the same."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"His face was all shiny with a queer green light, sendin' up smoke, +like ol' dead wood does sometimes after a rain."</p> + +<p>"Phosphorus evidently," muttered Hamilton to himself, but he did not +want to interrupt the lad now that he had started, and therefore did not +discuss the point.</p> + +<p>"He walked right up to the teacheh's table," continued the younger boy, +"an' he pointed the horn at him, accordin' to one o' the boys who says +he was peepin' through his fingers. I wasn't lookin', I wasn't takin' +any chances. And then we all heard him say to the teacheh:</p> + +<p>"'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a +fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places +where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', +an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you.'"</p> + +<p>"And that was all?"</p> + +<p>"That was all," the mountain boy replied. "After a bit, I looked up and +Ol' Blacky Baldwin was gone; the teacheh looked peaked an' seemed kind +o' skeered, but he didn't say anythin'."</p> + +<p>"Well, it was a little scary," said Hamilton. "I don't wonder it shook +him up."</p> + +<p>"That was only the beginnin'," the storyteller went on. "About half an +hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor +an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' +pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the +chair to reach one down. We was all watchin' him, when suddintly he give +a groan an' his eyes rolled back so's we couldn't see nothin' but the +whites; his face got all pale, an' his lips sort o' blue; he reeled an' +was jes' goin' to fall when he sort o' made a grab at the shelf an' hung +on as though he was fallin' off a cliff.</p> + +<p>"Two of the bigger boys, thinkin' he had a stroke or somethin', went up +an' spoke, but he didn't answer, jes' hung on to that shelf. Standin' on +the chair as he was, of course the boys couldn' make him let go, an' +they couldn' make him hear or understan' a mite. So they pulled up a +bench and one of 'em climbed up an' forced his hand open. Jes' like a +flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled."</p> + +<p>"Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried.</p> + +<p>"One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, +an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as +his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' +lay back in his chair. He sat there for a bit an' then he leaned +forward, put his hands on the desk, an' stared right in front of him, +jes' as if we wa'n't there at all.</p> + +<p>"'I thought I was fallin',' he said gruffly.</p> + +<p>"We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes' sit there, lookin' +straight in front of him, an' repeatin' ev'ry minute or two: 'I thought +I was fallin'! I thought I was fallin'!'"</p> + +<p>Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as +though he were living through the scene again.</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder you got scared," he said. "Did he come to?"</p> + +<p>"Not right then," the boy answered. "We waited a while an' then some of +the fellers got up an' went out sof'ly. I went, too, an' the teacheh +never even seemed to see us go."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you think he had gone crazy?"</p> + +<p>"We all knew it was cunjerin'," the lad rejoined "an' when we got +outside the door thar was Ol' Blacky Baldwin waitin', lookin' jes' the +same as usual. As I come by, he said, jes' as smooth, 'School's out +early to-day, boys.' But I don't think any of us answered him. I know I +didn't. I jes' took and run as hard as I knew how. An' when I got to the +top o' the hill an' looked back, an' saw Blacky goin' into the +schoolhouse again, I couldn' get home fast enough."</p> + +<p>"Was that what broke up the school?"</p> + +<p>"Not right away," the other replied. "Thar was some that never come nigh +the place agin, but befo' two weeks most of us was back. Teacheh allers +seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' +on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for +fear o' fallin'."</p> + +<p>"How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the +time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers +done."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, he'd wake up in the night screamin', 'I'm fallin', I'm fallin',' +and no one wanted to have a ha'nted teacher in the house. An' Blacky +Baldwin, he jes' hung aroun' the school, and we-all would see him every +day, mutterin' an' laughin' to himself. Then, suddintly, Teacheh +disappeared, an' though we hunted fo' him everywhar, he wasn' found. +We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I've thought sence that +p'r'aps he jes' went away, goin' back to the city, and leavin' no tracks +so's to make Ol' Blacky Baldwin believe he'd be'n killed."</p> + +<p>"That sounds likely enough," Hamilton said. "But even if he did get +away, I don't believe that he'd want to come back."</p> + +<p>"I reckon not," the mountain boy agreed. "Anyway, the school's shut up +now."</p> + +<p>"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I +reckon they're not wanted."</p> + +<p>The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was +squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The +old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it +roughly. Bill Wilsh listened in a dreamy way, and Hamilton wondered at +his seeming carelessness. The old man read it twice, then, rising to his +feet, the boy repeated it word for word and without so much as a nod to +Hamilton, slouched off in a long, lazy stride that looked like loafing, +but which, as Hamilton afterwards found out, covered the ground rapidly.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose he'll remember all that, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"He? Oh, yes," the mountaineer replied, "word for word, syllable for +syllable—that is, fo' to-day."</p> + +<p>"He must have a good memory," the boy exclaimed "I'm sure I couldn't."</p> + +<p>"But he'll forget every word by to-morrow," the other continued, "almost +forget that he was hyeh to-day at all. That's why they're so hard to +teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him +tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering.' Is there much of that sort +of idea in the mountains?"</p> + +<p>"None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man. "Some o' the +po' whites down in the gullies talk about it, but thar's mo' difference +between the folks in the gullies an' on the Ridge th'n there is between +the mount'ns an' the Blue Grass. They are different, an' they look +different, too."</p> + +<p>"Bill Wilsh certainly does," agreed Hamilton, "but I thought at first it +was because he was tired out with a long walk after a day's work."</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"They're all that way," he said. "They jes' look all beaten out as if +they hadn't any life left in them at all. I reckon the most o' them have +hookworm, too, an' they just look fit to drop."</p> + +<p>"Hookworm, Uncle Eli? What is that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"It's a queer kind o' disease," the old man answered, "that comes from +goin' barefoot. There's a kind o' grub in the soil, and it works its way +in. It's only jes' recently that it's be'n found out that the po' whites +are peaked and backward because they're sick, and now they know a cure +fo' it, why hookworm is being driven right out o' the South."</p> + +<p>"Was there so much of it?"</p> + +<p>"Puttin' an end to it will make useful American citizens out o' +thousands o' poor critters that never knew what ailed them."</p> + +<p>"But where did the 'poor whites' come from, Uncle Eli? What made them +that way?"</p> + +<p>"Whar they come from I jes' don' rightly know. I reckon I saw more o' +them when I was down in Georgia, but the Florida 'crackers' are still +worse off. Thar's not so many in the mount'ns an' those that are here +live 'way up in the gullies. The sure 'nough po' whites, or 'Crackers' +as they call them, belong to the pine belt, between the mount'ns an' the +swamps o' the coast."</p> + +<p>"Why are they called 'Crackers'?"</p> + +<p>"I don' know, unless because they live on cracked corn and razor-back +hog. It an't so easy to say how they begun. Thar's a lot o' French +names, an' thar's a tradition that two shiploads o' Huguenots were +wrecked off Georgia in the early days an' foun' their way inland, +settlin' down without anythin' to start with, an' not knowin' for a +generation or two whar any settlements could be foun'. An' thar's a lot +o' folks that have just drifted down, down,—livin' jes' like the +'Crackers' an' often taken to be the same. An' the slavery system made +it worse because thar was no middle white class—either rich or po', +thar was nothin' between,—that is, down in that part o' the country. +But yo' mus' remember that thar has been a great change in the last +twenty years, an' that the children o' 'Cracker' families are doin' jes' +as well as anybody in the South."</p> + +<p>"How is that, Uncle Eli?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, in the days befo' the war, the po' whites were jes' trash. The +planters wouldn' have 'em, because the slaves did all the work; they +wouldn' work themselves, an' they didn' own slaves. So they were worse +off than the negroes an' even the black race looked down on 'em. But the +war waked them up."</p> + +<p>"They all fought for the South, didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"Mos'ly all. They were food fo' powder, but I always reckoned they +hindered more'n they helped. For the 'Cracker,' however, the war meant +everythin'. It placed him side by side with the Southern gentleman, it +strengthened the color line, an' jes' enough o' them made good to show +the others thar was a chance fo' them, too."</p> + +<p>"Then they started in to improve right after the war, did they?"</p> + +<p>The Kentuckian shook his head negatively.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "at first they were far worse off than befo' because the +Freedman's Bureau an' the carpet-baggers made trouble right an' lef'. +The No'th had a fine chance, but the carpet-baggers were jes' blind to +everythin' excep' the negro, an' the po' white was jes' as shabbily +treated by the No'th as he had be'n by the South. Now that everybody is +seein' that yo' can't make a negro jes' the same as a white man by +givin' him a vote, thar's a chance fo' the po' white. I reckon the +'Cracker' as a 'Cracker' is goin' to be extinct pretty soon, an' the +South is goin' to be proud o' the stock it once despised. Atlanta is the +fastes' growin' city in the South, an' Atlanta is jes' full o' men whose +folks weren't much more'n 'Crackers.' The po' white, in a few years, is +goin' to be only a memory like the backwoodsman o' the time o' Dan'l +Boone."</p> + +<p>"That promises well for the South," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"The boom o' the South is jes' beginnin'," the old man said, "an' if +you're goin' to do census work this next year, yo' jes' watch the +figures an' see whar the old South comes in. It's a pity you're goin' +back to Wash'n'ton to-morrow, as I think yo' ought to see more o' this +country befo' yo' go."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to, ever so much, Uncle Eli," the boy answered, as he got up +from the step and started for the big loft where he slept with the +mountaineer's two sons, "but, even if I don't get a chance, I've learned +a lot from you about the folk on the mountains and about the South +generally."</p> + +<p>The mountaineer nodded a good-night as the boy disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Now thar," he said to his wife, who had been knitting stockings during +the latter part of the conversation, and occasionally interjecting a +word, "thar is a boy that is really achin' to know things. I wish Rube +and Eph were more like him."</p> + +<p>"Nothin' but hounds an' vittles worries them," the woman replied +sharply, "but they an't none like city boys, an' I'd ruther have 'em the +way they air than to come pesterin' with questions like Hamilton does +you. I don't set any sort o' stock in it, an' I don't encourage him in +sech nonsense."</p> + +<p>The big Kentuckian smiled, and filled his corn-cob leisurely as he +turned the talk to other things.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning, Hamilton and the oldest of the two boys started +on their fourteen-mile ride to the station, where the lad was to take an +afternoon train for Washington. They had gone about three miles, when +they came upon Bill Wilsh sitting on the stump of a tree by the +roadside.</p> + +<p>"I reckoned you-all would come along this way," he said, "an' I've be'n +thinkin' more'n more 'bout Teacheh havin' likely gone to the city, an' +not bein' dead after all. Yo' goin' to the city now?"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-5-t.jpg' width='50%' alt="BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co.)</p></div> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-6-t.jpg' width='40%' alt='BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"I'm going to Washington, Bill," Hamilton answered.</p> + +<p>"Is that the city?"</p> + +<p>"It's one of them."</p> + +<p>"Do yo' s'pose that'd be the city Teacheh went to?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't say, Bill," the lad replied, "there's no way of knowing, but +it's likely enough."</p> + +<p>"I was thinkin'—" the mountain boy began then he broke off suddenly. +"I'm mighty partial to whittlin'," he continued irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>"The best ever," interjected Hamilton's companion. "Yo' ought to have +shown him some of your work, Bill."</p> + +<p>"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his +listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I +whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he +an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the +city?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked down at the lad, and wanted to cheer him up, but he +could not see what would be likely to bring the schoolmaster back, and +so he answered:</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not, Bill. But he might, you know."</p> + +<p>"I reckon not. But I'd like him to know he a'nt fo'gotten in the +mount'ns. I want yo' to tell him that thar a'nt be'n a week sence he +went away that I an't be'n down to the school an' swep' the floor an' +seen that his books was in the place he liked to have 'em be. I wouldn' +want him to come back from his wanderin', if he still is wanderin', an' +think he was fo'gotten. It an't much, I know, to sweep a floor," he +added, looking up to Hamilton, "but yo' tell him an' he'll understan'. +It's about all that I kin do. He'll understan' if yo' tell him."</p> + +<p>Neither of the other boys spoke, and after a moment the mountain lad +went on:</p> + +<p>"An' when yo' see him, give him this, an' tell him it comes from Bill, +his 'tryin' scholar.' He used to call me that because, although I wasn't +learnin' much, I was always tryin'. An' yo' can tell him I'm tryin' +still."</p> + +<p>Reaching his hand into the bosom of his ragged shirt the boy pulled out +a slab of wood four inches square. It was carved as a bas-relief, +showing the schoolhouse in the foreground in high relief, with the +wooded hills beyond.</p> + +<p>"That's great!" exclaimed Hamilton. "I don't believe I ever saw better +carving than that anywhere."</p> + +<p>A momentary gleam of pleasure flashed into the boy's dull eyes, but he +went on again in the same lifeless voice.</p> + +<p>"Thar's the schoolhouse jes' as it was when he was here last, but it's +never looked the same to me sence. I want yo' to give this to him an' +show him, if yo' will, that I whittled it with the door open, jes' to +show him we're lookin' for him back."</p> + +<p>"But supposing I shouldn't meet him in the city?" queried Hamilton +gently. "Washington is a large place and there are many other cities."</p> + +<p>"I reckon you-all have mo' chance o' findin' him thar than I have hyeh. +I reckon he an't goin' to come back hyeh, an' then he'd never know that +we an't fo'gotten him, an' he'd think we was ungrateful. But yo'll try +an' find him?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton was conscious of a lump in his throat at the simple +faithfulness of the mountain boy, and he said gently:</p> + +<p>"Very well, Bill, if you feel that way about it, of course I'll try. +But you haven't told me his name as yet."</p> + +<p>"I was thinkin' o' that," the boy answered. Then he took from his pocket +a home-made gum-wood case, and opening it, took out a small piece of +paper and handed it to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Be keerful of it," he said, "that paper tears mighty easy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton smoothed the paper out on the palm of his hand, and looked at +it carefully. It was a "copy," merely of pothooks, done in lead pencil, +the strokes wavering and of differing slopes, and the whole so smudged +as scarcely to be recognizable But, down in the corner, written in ink, +in a firm, bold hand, were the words, "Very Good, Gregory Sinclair."</p> + +<p>Hamilton copied the name into his notebook and, refolding the paper as +carefully as possible in the same folds, he handed it to the barefooted +boy standing on the road beside his horse's head.</p> + +<p>"Did you-all read it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Did you-all see that he said 'Very Good'?"</p> + +<p>"'Very Good' was what was written," agreed Hamilton, thinking of the +wavering and smudged pothooks.</p> + +<p>"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' +as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one +to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. +But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't +fo'gotten."</p> + +<p>Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost +to sight. The two lads started on their way, but they had not ridden a +hundred yards when they heard a hail; looking back, they saw the +mountain boy standing on a point of the ridge; and echoing down to them +came the lonely cry:</p> + +<p>"Fin' him, an' tell him he an't fo'gotten."</p> + +<br /> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Settling himself comfortably in the train for his long journey to the +capital, one of the first things that Hamilton did was to take from his +pocket the little carving that had been given him by the mountain lad +and put it away carefully in his grip. Examining it closely as he did +so, the boy was astonished to note the fineness of the work, and he +realized that it must have taken Bill Wilsh all the spare moments of a +long winter to finish it. The work was all the more surprising, Hamilton +thought, since it had been done just with a single tool, a common +pocketknife, and was yet as fine and delicate as though carved with a +set of costly tools. He made up his mind to buy a set and send them to +Bill Wilsh with the first pay that he got from his Census Bureau work.</p> + +<p>Seated across the aisle from him was another lad about his own age, with +whom Hamilton rather wanted to make acquaintance, but the opportunity +did not arrive until the first meal, when, by chance, they found +themselves on opposite sides of one of the small tables in the dining +car. The usual courtesies of the table led to conversation, in the +course of which Hamilton's companion dropped the word "census" in a +manner which showed his familiarity with the progress of the work of +preparation.</p> + +<p>"Are you interested in the census?" asked Hamilton promptly.</p> + +<p>"Rather," the other replied. "I'm going to work in the Bureau. As a +matter of fact, I'm just going to Washington to get my appointment now."</p> + +<p>"You are!" exclaimed Hamilton. "Why, that's exactly what I'm doing. It's +queer we should meet this way."</p> + +<p>"Are you going as an assistant special agent, too?" his new friend +asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to start in that way," the boy replied</p> + +<p>"How do you mean 'start'?" the other queried. "I understand that work on +the manufactures will last three or four months, and by that time all +the other census-taking will be over."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to try to get some of the population work as well," Hamilton +explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, +and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators +from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them +without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine."</p> + +<p>The other boy shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'd want it," he said, "at least not in a city, and I'm +going to do the manufacturing work, of course, in a city."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going to be?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I took the exam in 'Frisco," the older boy replied; "that's my home +town, and I expect to work out there."</p> + +<p>"That's quite a walk from here!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I had to come to Washington," the boy answered "and so my people wanted +me to go and see my sister down in Florida. She married a fellow who's +busy reclaiming some swamp land down there, and he promised me a try at +alligator hunting."</p> + +<p>"That sounds prime," suggested Hamilton, "and I should think that in +that reclamation work there would be lots of chance for it. It would +be worth watching, too, just to see how they got at that work. I should +think they would find themselves up against a pretty stiff job, +engineering down in those swamps. And then there must be barrels of +snakes, too?"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-7-t.jpg' width='411' height='600' alt='ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (Courtesy of Outing Magazine.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (Courtesy of Outing Magazine.)</p></div> + +<p>"Water moccasins and copper-heads mostly," said his friend cheerfully, +"but you soon get so used to them that you don't mind them. It's very +seldom that you ever hear of any one being bitten by a snake. They all +seem more anxious to get out of your way than you out of theirs."</p> + +<p>"And you're anxious enough, too!" remarked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's pretty good security, don't you think?" queried the older boy +with a laugh. "When both sides want to get away, there's not much chance +of a meeting."</p> + +<p>"But how about the alligators?"</p> + +<p>"That was real good sport," the other rejoined. "But I kept down to the +smaller chaps most of the time. I don't suppose there's really very much +danger, even in the big fellows, as long as you know just how to handle +them."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'm particularly keen about handling them," answered +Hamilton. "I shouldn't think the big ones would want more than about one +bite to put you out of business."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," the older boy admitted, "but what's the use of +giving one that chance? Anyway, so I learned down there, it's not so +much the bite that the hunters are afraid of as the stroke of the tail. +It doesn't take such a big alligator to break your leg like a pipestem +with a sweep of that long, scaly tail of his."</p> + +<p>"But how do they catch them?"</p> + +<p>"With a noose, when they're sunning themselves. An alligator lies on a +bank, half in and half out of the water, most of the time, with his eyes +shut. Sometimes he really is asleep, and sometimes he isn't. That's +where the fun comes in. Of course, if you can get the boat right up to +where he is, close enough to slip the noose over his jaws, you've got +him all right. There's a knob on the snout that keeps the noose from +slipping off, and he sort of strangles when you tow him through the +water. But if you can't get there with the boat you have to go it on +foot."</p> + +<p>"You mean you have to get out of the boat and walk right up to his +jaws?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, just that."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't sound particularly good to me," Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the other replied. "As long as +you don't make too much noise, and keep out of reach of his tail, you're +all right. If you slip up, you want to jump out of the way about as +lively as you know how. But he'll never come after you, or mighty +seldom. If you get a slip-knot over his snout, and can throw a +half-hitch over his tail, why, the biggest of them is easy enough to +handle."</p> + +<p>"But what are they caught for?"</p> + +<p>"There's quite a steady sale. The big fellows are sometimes sold alive +to parks and aquariums and circuses, but most of them are killed and the +whole skins dressed and used for hanging on the walls of dens, like +trophies. The real market is for the skins of the little fellows, which +are made up into all sorts of alligator leather bags. Most of that stuff +is imitation, but still quite a lot of it is real. It's plenty of fun +catching the little 'gators, because even the smallest of them can give +you quite a nip and a reptile three feet long is a handful. I did well +enough out of it, because in addition to the sport I had, my +brother-in-law let me have the skins of all those I caught myself. Some +people, too, want to have baby ones as pets, but I don't think I'd want +to have them around, myself, after they grew to any size," he added, as +the boys rose and went back to the Pullman.</p> + +<p>By the time the train had reached Washington the two had become +thoroughly friendly, and Hamilton liked his new acquaintance so much +that he would gladly have seen more of him than merely as a traveling +companion. But as the other lad was going out to San Francisco, there +was no likelihood of their being thrown together at all. Indeed, on his +arrival, Hamilton found that he had been assigned to an Eastern city, so +he had to bid his new-made friend "Good-by."</p> + +<p>The exterior of the Census Bureau building was a disappointment to +Hamilton, by reason of its unimposing appearance. Indeed, it was +altogether too small for the purposes of the census, and during the rush +of the decennial work, there were departments of the census scattered +through various other buildings, adding no little inconvenience to the +work. Accustomed to the New York structures, towering tens of stories +into the air, the two-story red brick building of the census looked +small to Hamilton, though comfortable and pleasant to work in. It was +deceiving in its size, however, for the floor space was big and not +much broken, and there seemed to be plenty of room. But it was not until +the boy returned after his population work some months later, that he +saw this building as the center of unparalleled activity.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-8-t.jpg' width='700' height='446' alt='THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (Walden +Fawcett.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (Walden +Fawcett.)</p></div> + +<p>"I understand," said the chief of the manufacturing division to him, +"that you are desirous of coming to the Census Bureau as one of the +permanent force, not just for the decennial period only?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Clan," was the boy's reply, "that is, if the Bureau is +willing."</p> + +<p>"That will depend entirely on the work you do. I didn't see your papers +personally, but I understand you received a high rating, and that you +have had a good deal to do with figures.—That is, for a youngster," he +added, noting the youthfulness of the lad standing before him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I have," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"What made you think of taking this work up?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"Because I like it, sir."</p> + +<p>The divisional chief leaned back in his chair, put his fingers together +in characteristic attitude, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Eh," he said, "you are sure you will like the work?"</p> + +<p>"Quite, sir," said Hamilton in his decided way. "I looked it all over, +and I know."</p> + +<p>"You will be less sure of the future when you are older," the Scotchman +said, "but if you 'know,' there's nothing more to be said. I'm going to +put you under the care of Mr. Burns, and he will instruct you further in +the work."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Clan—" began the boy.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Where am I going, sir?"</p> + +<p>"New Haven, Connecticut—a good town, and one that will give you plenty +of work. You'd better start for there to-night. I hope you will like it +as much as you expect."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," Hamilton replied, seeing that his superior deemed the +interview at an end. "I'll do the very best I can."</p> + +<p>On arriving in New Haven the following day, Hamilton made his way to the +local Census Office opened by his new leader. He found Mr. Burns to be a +typical statistician, to whom figures had a meaning beyond themselves, +but to whom little was of value unless it could be expressed in figures. +Hamilton introduced himself briefly.</p> + +<p>"You're Noble," the other said abruptly. "When will you be ready to +begin?"</p> + +<p>"Any time," answered Hamilton. "Right after lunch, sir, if you want me +to make a start."</p> + +<p>"There's a portfolio," the census agent answered, "take it along and you +can begin just as soon as you're ready."</p> + +<p>"What instructions have you to give me, sir?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I save eleven and a half per cent of the time given to instructions by +writing them. You'll find a copy in there," he said, pointing to the +portfolio.</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," the boy replied, "I'll go ahead, and if I find +anything I don't understand, shall I come and ask you?"</p> + +<p>"Telephone!" the census agent said. "Quicker to 'phone even if only in +the next room. Average conversation, six minutes; average telephone +conversation, two minutes; average value of my time for six minutes, +eighteen cents; average cost of 'phone for two minutes, one cent; direct +saving to me seventeen cents, not counting time of your traveling to +come and talk. No! Telephone!"</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," Hamilton answered, "I'll 'phone," and realizing that +his new chief had the question of the valuation of time down to a fine +point, he hurried away.</p> + +<p>On reaching the hotel he examined his portfolio with a great deal of +curiosity. The schedules were familiar, for one of the features of the +examination he had taken had been the filling out of such a census +schedule from financial statements of a group of factories. The written +instructions, however, were thoroughly characteristic of the man, and +percentage figures were scattered around like punctuation marks. But the +explanations were clear as crystal, none the less, and gave no +opportunity even for telephoning.</p> + +<p>An old New England center, and a college town, New Haven proved a most +interesting field in which to work. By far the larger number of people +with whom the boy came in contact were of old American stock and gave +him every assistance possible.</p> + +<p>"The census-taker?" one old man said, when Hamilton called. "Come right +in the office and sit down. Now tell me what I can do for you," and when +the boy mentioned the principal items of the schedule, the manufacturer +spent a good hour working over the books with his office force to get +out the figures desired. When Hamilton thanked him, he replied:</p> + +<p>"I'm an American, Mr. Noble, and one of the stones they moved from the +old churchyard of the Old Center Church and that bore the date 1681 was +the tombstone of my direct ancestor. I think you'll find most of the New +England stock proud of the United States and only too glad to do +anything they can to help the government in its census or anything else +for the good of the country."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of it," the boy said heartily, "but there's mighty few of that +old type left. There's not ten per cent of the people in the country now +that are real bred-in-the-bone Americans."</p> + +<p>"It is a pity," the old man said, shaking his head, "and the worst of it +is that even that ten per cent lives principally in the country. It's +the cities that influence the progress of the nation. We talk about +making these foreigners over into our idea of what Americans should be, +and we forget that all the time they are influencing us to become the +kind of Americans they think we ought to be."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's true," the boy said, "because in New York, where my +folks live, the old New Yorkers seem entirely strange and out-of-place +in the dash and glitter."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the New Englander replied. "The real Americans are plain, +solid people; it's the Jewish strain in New York that has brought about +the display of wealth, and to the large number of Southern Europeans are +due the colors, the lights, the music, the public dining, and all the +rest of it. It may be the American of to-day, but it isn't what +Americanism meant a few years ago."</p> + +<p>"A good deal of New York life does seem foreign in a kind of way," said +Hamilton, "and I'm glad," he added, as he closed his portfolio, "that +the Census Bureau put me at work in one of the old-fashioned towns +first."</p> + +<p>As the boy went on in his work he came to find how thoroughly the spirit +of Yale was felt in the town. Almost all the leading business men were +Yale graduates, and instead of displaying the "town and gown" hostility +of some university places, New Haven was inordinately proud of its +college. Of course, even in such a town, there was quite a proportion of +foreign-born manufacturers but the boy found that the Jewish +establishments were even easier to tabulate than those owned by +Americans, the Hebrew understanding of the details of business being so +thorough.</p> + +<p>"That's not so very detailed!" one of these remarked to Hamilton when +the boy had come to the end of his list of questions.</p> + +<p>"It's a relief to hear somebody say that," answered the young +census-taker with a laugh, "because I hear a dozen times a day the +complaint that no one could be expected to know as much about a business +as these schedules require."</p> + +<p>It was not to be expected that the work would proceed without an +occasional hitch, and Hamilton had one such with a firm of Italian +marble-cutters in which the bookkeeping had been of so curious a +character that it was next to impossible to get out the kind of figures +the government wanted. Another was in a small Chinese place, where they +made little trinkets to sell to tourists in the "Chinatown" districts of +the larger cities, representing them to be imported articles of value. +Another was with a small place run by two brothers, Persians, making +fringes and tassels for fraternal order badges and matters of that kind. +It was interesting to the lad, for he had the chance to see the works in +a number of cases, and he learned a lot about the way many queer things +were made.</p> + +<p>But Hamilton's hopes were set on visiting one especial manufacturing +plant in New Haven, and he had determined to ask that he be allowed to +go over it before he left the town. This was the great sporting gun +works. Hamilton was passionately fond of sport, and had owned a +Winchester ever since he was twelve years old. Indeed, he had read up on +guns a good deal, and it was one of his hobbies.</p> + +<p>His delight was great, therefore, when at the end of a long day, after +he had turned in his schedule to his chief, the latter said:</p> + +<p>"Noble, your work is good. Johnson is faster. Up to last night he had +turned in one, decimal five-two per cent more establishments than you, +but your proportion of capital invested is larger, showing that the +works you went to took more time. Your schedules are better. This takes +a little over one-fifth more of my own time than I had figured at first. +I was going to do the Winchester works myself. I think you can do it. +You had better go ahead. It's complicated, but they'll help you all they +can. There's not much time left."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton decisively with the +characteristic raising and lowering of his eyebrows, "I'll get all there +is, all right."</p> + +<p>The next morning, about ten o'clock, Hamilton presented himself at the +general offices of the company on the outskirts of the town, about a +mile from the college. He asked to see the business manager, and was +granted an interview.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Arverne," said the boy, "I called with regard to securing the +figures for the census of nineteen hundred and ten."</p> + +<p>"But you are not the special agent surely?" said the manager, looking at +him sharply.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," the boy answered, "Mr. Burns is the special agent, and I am +one of his assistants."</p> + +<p>"I should have thought Mr. Burns would have come himself," the man said; +"you are young for this work, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton flushed at this reference to his boyish appearance, but he +answered steadily: "Yes, sir, I believe I am younger than most of the +assistant special agents, but I have had a good deal to do with +figures."</p> + +<p>"Burns is a good man," the manager continued. "If the government has +men of that stamp all over the country, the statistics will be +invaluable. You know Mr. Burns?" he added suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Only just since this work began, Mr. Arverne," the boy replied.</p> + +<p>"Queer chap. I don't believe he eats a bit of food or drinks a glass of +water without mentally figuring the nutritious percentage in the food, +and the effect of his drink upon the water supply of the world."</p> + +<p>Hamilton laughed.</p> + +<p>"He is a little that way, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>"A little!" the manager exclaimed. "But to return to the point. You +didn't tell me why Mr. Burns didn't come himself."</p> + +<p>"He said that the office work was piling up, sir," answered the boy, +"and—if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Arverne—he spoke of it as an +opportunity for me, since it was the largest plant in the city and my +schedules had been the most complete of those turned in to him."</p> + +<p>The manager eyed the boy keenly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns doesn't make many mistakes," he said, after a moment, "and if +he has confidence in you, he knows what he is talking about. This is a +country of young men anyway, and it seems to be getting younger all the +time. Where is the schedule?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton handed him the paper and sat back, waiting. Several minutes +passed, while the manager went over the questions item by item.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said at last, "I think our books can answer every question +there without difficulty. We keep very complete books. I am not so sure, +Mr. Noble," he continued, "that I can give you those figures immediately +in just exactly that form."</p> + +<p>"In what points do your books differ?" asked Hamilton quietly.</p> + +<p>"Not in any essentials, but in a few minor points," the manager replied. +"For example, you want to know here the exact number of employees on our +pay roll on December 15th. Now I could have the pay roll department—we +keep it as an entirely separate department here—turn up instantly the +payments for the week in which that date occurs, but in order to +separate that one day from the week, reference will have to be made to +the Employment Bureau to find out what workers left, and how many were +added, and the day of the week on which each of these left or began +work in that week, and to add or to deduct such sums from the weekly +pay roll."</p> + +<p>"That difficulty has come up several times," said Hamilton, "because not +many people pay their employees by the day. But in nine cases out of +ten, an average for that week is usually struck, figuring in some cases +by the days and in others by the hours. I suppose you noticed that the +schedule itself states that what is sought is 'a normal day'?"</p> + +<p>"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it +is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even +that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions."</p> + +<p>"No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch +usually comes just at the point you're looking at now—the cost of +materials."</p> + +<p>"That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great +deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with +all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. +"That seems rather a curious phrase."</p> + +<p>"Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of +guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen +working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to +enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, +right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a +great deal of designing."</p> + +<p>"Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"We call them so," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, +feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings +of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these +works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also +machinery and tools."</p> + +<p>"But those are for our own use!" objected the manager.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them +yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the +schedule it would make the figures all wrong."</p> + +<p>"How would it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and +you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without +getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the +machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost +price or at whatever figure you name."</p> + +<p>"I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems +a very roundabout way of getting at it."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery +you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you +make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried +to the capital account."</p> + +<p>"Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and +in that light these departments might be called productive, although not +directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out +pretty well for a youngster," he added.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing +nothing else for the past two weeks."</p> + +<p>"Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can +tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous +expense."</p> + +<p>"Very well," the official said, "if you come back at four o'clock this +afternoon I will have the schedule ready for you." Then, seeing that the +boy hesitated, he said, "Did you want it before then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Mr. Arverne, thank you," the boy answered "that wasn't what I +had in mind at all. I was wondering whether, if I came back at three +o'clock, I would be allowed to see something of the works. In quite a +number of places I have been shown through the plant, sometimes because +I had to get figures from managers of different departments, sometimes +because I had a few minutes to spare while a clerk was filling up the +schedule. But I've always been so interested in guns, and especially in +Winchesters, that I really should like to find out how they're made."</p> + +<p>The business manager shook his head dubiously.</p> + +<p>"We very rarely show any one over the plant," he said, "because there +is very little to be gained by it. And in any case, there are some +portions of the works where visitors are never allowed, such as +ammunition rooms where there are quantities of powder about, and similar +places."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to be able to say that there was a desire on the part of the +Census Bureau for a report," said Hamilton, "but honestly I haven't the +right to say so. I'm only asking as a favor. At the same time I have +seen special reports on selected industries issued by the Bureau, and +possibly my information might chance to be of value to the special agent +who was getting it up."</p> + +<p>"Come back at two o'clock, then," said the manager. "One of the members +of the Board, Mr. Nebett, is here to-day, and if he has no objection +I'll try to find some one to show you round."</p> + +<p>Promptly at the appointed hour, Hamilton handed his card to the doorman, +who showed him into a waiting-room. In a few minutes the door opened, +and a keen-looking, well-set-up man appeared who came forward and held +out his hand.</p> + +<p>"I've been hearing about you from Mr. Arverne," he said, "and he tells +me that you want to look over the works."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Nebett?" queried the boy, and in response to an affirmative nod, +he continued, "Yes, sir, I'm very anxious to see part of it at any rate. +I can see that it's a huge place, but gun-making must be so interesting +that I'd like to see how it's done."</p> + +<p>"I think Mr. Arverne said something to me about your writing up a +special report, a summary or something of that kind."</p> + +<p>"That was just a suggestion, Mr. Nebett," the boy replied. "I told Mr. +Arverne that the Census Bureau did issue special bulletins on selected +industries, and that perhaps I might have an opportunity to make use of +some information. But that's a personal idea of mine only, because most +of those bulletins are written by experts in the Bureau."</p> + +<p>"Well," was the reply, "I don't see that it can do us any harm, anyway, +and if you are so interested you can come along with me. I like to go +through the works every once in so often, and perhaps I can tell you +more about these things than any other man in the place, because I get a +chance to see it as a whole."</p> + +<p>"If you would," began the boy.</p> + +<p>"Come along, then," said the official, without further parley, and he +led the way out of the general offices and across the street to the +first of a huge group of buildings. Walking through the yard the two +came presently to a long structure running alongside the railroad +sidings. "This," Hamilton was informed, "is just the storeroom for raw +material as it comes off the cars."</p> + +<p>He turned half round as though to leave the building, but Hamilton +stopped him with a question.</p> + +<p>"Steel, principally?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Steel."</p> + +<p>"What kind of steel?" persisted Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Oh, different kinds."</p> + +<p>"Why different kinds?" continued the boy, working his eyebrows, as was +his habit when in earnest. "For different kinds of guns?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the older man, evidently deciding that he would have to +go into the matter thoroughly with Hamilton, and passing on into the +storehouse. "We get mostly three kinds of steel, nickel steel, carbon +steel, and soft steel, with a small proportion of other forms. We do +that for the very reason you mentioned, that they are used for different +kinds of work. Nickel steel we do not use for the cheaper grades of +guns, because it is so much harder, and costs so much more to work. +Indeed, very few gun-makers use nickel steel for barrels at all, but we +do on all our high-grade work."</p> + +<p>"I notice," Hamilton said, "that all the steel here is stored in bars +and rods. Do you buy it that way, or have you a rolling mill in +connection with the plant?"</p> + +<p>"Buy it," the other said immediately. "You can't run a rolling mill at a +profit except on a large scale, and, anyway, this is too far from the +source of supply. We get our copper in ingots, but not our steel."</p> + +<p>"I notice," the boy continued, fingering a long ticket attached to a +bundle of steel rods by a wire, "that you say here, 'Do not disturb +until report from laboratory is received.'"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the other, "every order as it comes in is tested. We +have two laboratories, a physical and a chemical, and not a scrap of +material is used until it is found to be fully up to the specifications. +There's no guesswork there, but the most rigid scientific tests. That +keeps any poor material from slipping through.</p> + +<p>"Now," he continued, "I'll show you what happens to those bars."</p> + +<p>He led the way to a small building where the bars were cut into certain +recognized lengths for the men at the drop forges to handle.</p> + +<p>"This forging shop," the manufacturer said, entering it as he spoke, "is +where most of the metal parts of the gun are first roughly shaped, and +this man is working on part of a cartridge ejector. Watch him now," he +went on, following the action of the workman; "he takes a piece of steel +out of the furnace behind him, lays it on the die, touches a lever, and +the big drop-hammer comes down,—once, twice. He turns it over, brings +the drop-hammer down again, once, twice, and the piece is shaped. It has +rough edges all round, of course, and so he takes it, while it is still +glowing red, to a more exact die, and brings the drop-hammer down once, +and turns it over, then brings down the hammer again once. Now the shape +is almost perfect but for that fringe of metal all round. He picks it +up, puts it on that die on this next machine close by his hand, touches +a lever, and a knife, exactly the shape of the die comes down, crunch! +shaving off the iron clean all round, and there is your forging done, +and all with the one heating. Of course it isn't finished off, but you +can see for yourself that the rough work is done, and all in the space +of a few moments."</p> + +<p>Hamilton found it hard to tear himself away, for while the principle was +the same, all the different forges were turning out different parts, and +it was a fascination to the boy to see those glowing lumps of steel come +out of the furnace and with the few strokes of the drop-hammer, fall a +few seconds later, the shaped part of a rifle. Some of the machines were +making receivers for the stock, the largest piece of metal, and other +small parts like the trigger or the hammer, while still others were +preparing the barrels of the gun for drilling.</p> + +<p>"It is not likely to occur to you," said his guide, "that it would not +do to let all those various parts cool off by chance. For example, in +winter they would cool more rapidly than in summer, and those near the +door more quickly than those in the inner part of the forging house. +That would make them of varying hardness. So, in order to make sure that +they shall be the same, all those pieces you have seen being made are +annealed."</p> + +<p>"How is the annealing done?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That is simple enough," was the reply. "All that has to be done is to +heat them again all to the same degree of heat, then let the oven cool +at a certain rate. Here are the annealing ovens."</p> + +<p>"This is certainly a hot place," said the boy, as he stepped into the +next building. "Whew! I wonder any one stays in here."</p> + +<p>"No one does," his conductor answered. "We have this arranged so that +all the furnaces are filled in the morning, when they are cold, and +there are pyrometers to tell when the right heat is reached. All the +ovens, you see, are managed by these switches near the door. Look +here—"</p> + +<p>He slipped one of the switches into place, and the pyrometer needle +swung around and pointed to the degree of heat in the oven which it was +supposed to register.</p> + +<p>"What are those little clocks for?"</p> + +<p>"One for each oven," Mr. Nebett answered; "the keeper of the furnaces +sets them when an oven is up to the required heat. Then, you see, it is +easy to tell when they have been cooling long enough."</p> + +<p>"I should think," said Hamilton, "that making the barrel was the most +important part of a gun, because, after all, that is the only part a +bullet touches, and it must have to be exact. I've often thought of +that, how the tiniest difference at the mouth of the barrel would at a +thousand yards range cause it to be away off the mark."</p> + +<p>"It does have to be exact," his guide answered, "but that is a matter of +care rather than of difficulty. In this next building we bore the +rifle-barrels, just a simple boring process, as you see, but there are +all sorts of precautions taken to insure absolute steadiness. As soon as +a barrel is taken from the boring machine it is put through a test, to +determine whether it is correct in size to the one-half of +one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. If it is not as exact as that, it +is set aside. That is only the first of a long series of tests, too. You +would be surprised at the number of barrels that are rejected from the +time of the first selection until the gun is completed. Here, for +example, is perhaps the most sensational one."</p> + +<p>He led the boy to a small building, standing by itself in the middle of +the yard, heavily built, and looking almost like a log cabin of the old +type, made of great timbers. It was just a bit of a place, divided into +two parts by a heavy timber wall.</p> + +<p>"What in the wide world is this for?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"I'll show you in a minute, I think we're just in time," the official +said, as he led the way in. Hamilton followed him into the inner +chamber. A long row of gun barrels was the first thing the boy noticed, +the barrels all lying in slots. A gray-haired man was filling a heavy +charge of powder behind each one. The guns were pointing into a bank of +sand.</p> + +<p>"If you notice," said his guide, "you'll see that a little device, like +the old percussion cap is right by each of those charges of powder. Are +you all ready, Jim?" he queried, as the old man straightened up.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Nebett," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"All right," the other said, "we'll go into the room." He pointed out to +Hamilton, as they passed from one part of this little building to the +other, that each of these percussion caps was attached to a wire which +ran through the wall to the little room into which they were going.</p> + +<p>"Look out, Mr. Nebett," said the old man, after he had closed and +fastened the heavy door, "and you, young sir, don't be frightened," and +he pulled the wire hanging overhead.</p> + +<p>There was a terrific explosion and a roar, and though Hamilton had been +half expecting it, he jumped. Then he laughed.</p> + +<p>"I guess I did jump, after all," he said. "What was that for?"</p> + +<p>"To test the strength of the barrels," said his friend, as the old +workman slid back the heavy door. "There, you see," he added, "one of +them did burst." He pointed to one of the gun barrels rent at the side. +"Once in a while," he continued, "they just go up in pieces, and if you +look at the walls and the ceiling you'll see any number of bits of metal +driven in deeply."</p> + +<p>"But he seemed to be putting in an awfully heavy charge," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"We do that in order to be sure that we shall not expend a great deal of +labor on a barrel which in the end would fail to pass inspection, and +also to safeguard against accident," the other explained. "We do use a +very heavy charge because our guns sell all over the world, and in some +countries—England, for instance—the test is extremely severe. It's a +costly process, as it spoils a lot of barrels, but it is better to lose +material than to put out a piece of work which might not be +trustworthy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked around the proof-room carefully. Certainly it seemed to +have gone through the wars. From the thick wood huge gashes had been +rent, and the entire interior was jagged and splintered.</p> + +<p>"How much of a charge do you put to each barrel?" he asked; and when the +formula was given him for each of the different styles of rifle, the boy +whistled in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I should think that any barrels that stood that test could stand +anything afterwards," he said admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Well, they do," the other said. "It's very seldom that you hear of a +first-class gun exploding. I don't recall a case of one of ours for +years and years. And even if by some chance flaw they did, the good +ones, being nickel steel, would just make a hole in the barrel,—not fly +to pieces. But, as a matter of fact, any barrel that has been through +that 'proof-room' will have been subjected to the greatest strain it +will ever have to undergo, for there is no cartridge made that would +have one-half the power in proportion to the size of the barrel."</p> + +<p>From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of +the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and +finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed. Thus, for +example, in a receiver for a gun stock, one machine worked a bevel edge +on it, another bored it to the size of the gun barrel, accurate to the +thousandth part of an inch, another pierced the tiny screw holes, and +yet other machines made even the minute screw, done, as was explained to +Hamilton, so that the threads in each should fit with absolute +exactness.</p> + +<p>"But do you really mean to say," queried Hamilton in surprise, "that +every one of these fifty or more parts of each gun is inspected and +tested?"</p> + +<p>The official led him to a number of long rows of tables.</p> + +<p>"Here," he said, "are girls doing nothing else all day long. Here is a +testing die for a part of the ejector of one of our 1911 models. You see +that there are two spaces for all of them. It must fit into this one, it +must not fit into that, which is a thousandth of an inch smaller. If too +big, you see it won't fit into either, if too small, it would fit into +the one where it ought not. Every tiny piece is gauged on all its sides +and in every hole and at all points with this double gauge system."</p> + +<p>"That doesn't leave much for guesswork," said Hamilton. "But there is +something that's been puzzling me."</p> + +<p>"What is that?" asked his guide.</p> + +<p>"I've always heard a lot about gun-metal," Hamilton answered, "and yet +all the way through, these parts have been nothing but steel. And all +the guns I ever saw had that bluish look, as gun-metal has. For example, +my watch is what they call gun-metal," and he took it from his pocket +and showed the back of it.</p> + +<p>"Gun-metal," said the other, "is an alloy of copper and tin and once was +used almost exclusively for cannon and big guns generally. But you're +right about all guns having a bluish tinge. That is all steel, but it is +treated by a process called coloring or bluing. I'll show you—both the +old way and the new."</p> + +<p>Going down the stairs and crossing the yard, he took Hamilton into a +small building where there were a couple of open charcoal furnaces, in +which the charcoal was intensely hot, but not hot enough to catch fire. +The pieces of finished steel were buried in this charcoal, and every +few minutes the men in charge would draw them out, wipe them over with a +bunch of oiled waste, and thrust them back into the fire. It was about +the dirtiest, blackest, grimiest work the boy had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"That is the old way," Hamilton was told, "and although it is handwork +instead of machine work it is not a bit better in its results than the +new way. The modern system, besides, is much simpler and cleaner."</p> + +<p>In the next building was a row of charcoal ovens, revolving in such a +way that the parts to be blued were alternately covered and released +from the superheated charcoal, the effect of the greasing also being +done at every automatic revolution Each furnace door bore an asbestos +clock.</p> + +<p>"What are those clocks for?" asked Hamilton. "The same as those others, +I suppose, so that the man in charge can put in a number of certain +parts of a gun and leave them in for a regular length of time at a +certain heat, and pull them out all done?"</p> + +<p>"Just that," was the reply. "The only gain in the old style is that each +part being handled separately, if there is ever so little difference in +the metal, the bluer can give it a shorter or a longer time, whereas +the machine treats all alike."</p> + +<p>"Then when the gun is assembled, all the work is done?" queried +Hamilton, who was becoming a little tired from his long tramp through +the works and among the furnace-heated shops.</p> + +<p>"No," said the other. "That wouldn't do at all. A gun has not only got +to shoot, but it has got to shoot straight."</p> + +<p>"But how in the world," said Hamilton, "can you tell whether a gun will +shoot straight or not?"</p> + +<p>"One of the most important ways," said his informant, "is to let an +expert look through the barrel. One of our best men, for example, has +done nothing else all his life; his father before him was a +barrel-sighter and his son has just entered the works. He does it this +way—here, you try," and he handed a barrel to Hamilton. "Rest the +barrel in this crotch," he continued, "and look at the window. You see +there is a piece of ground glass with a thin black line running across +it. Point the barrel so that it is aimed just below that line, and if +you get it right, you will see a reflection of that line running +lengthways up the barrel."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-9-t.jpg' width='680' height='532' alt='MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton put the barrel up and looked and looked, but for a minute or +two he could not get the direction, then he caught the line. But the +reflection in the barrel was confusing, and it seemed to him that he saw +several lines.</p> + +<p>"It's awfully hard just to get that straight," the boy said, "and it's +dazzling, too."</p> + +<p>"That man you saw there," answered his guide, as they moved away, "can +tell almost to the width of a thread of a spider's web if a barrel is +straight. Here, too, is another barrel test going on. You see this man +is pushing a soft lead slug which fits the barrel snugly through the +barrel by means of a brass rod. It takes a certain amount of pressure to +push the lead slug through the barrel. Such slight variations in +diameter of the bore as one-tenth of a thousandth can be readily +detected, for if the barrel is smaller at any point than where it +entered, the slug will stick, and if it is the least bit larger at any +point, the slug will slide through too easily. Men accustomed to this +class of work can readily detect an increase or decrease in diameter of +one ten-thousandth part of an inch."</p> + +<p>"You certainly have it down fine, Mr. Nebett," Hamilton commented.</p> + +<p>"We try to," responded his guide. "Then when the barrel experts have +had their turn, the gun is assembled and goes to the action men."</p> + +<p>"Who are they?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They test the trigger pull, the cartridge ejection, the fall of the +hammer, the filling of the magazine, and all such points. They have two +sets of dummies, such as were used for testing the parts. One must fit, +the other not, and so any fault in the mechanism is detected. The same +with ejection,—we must be sure that a cartridge will not stick. Then +after that—"</p> + +<p>"Still more tests!"</p> + +<p>"Didn't I tell you that we had to be sure that a gun could be made not +only to shoot but to shoot straight? Our crack shots get the guns next."</p> + +<p>"What do they do?" asked the boy, "fire at targets?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But first a man, incased in an armored barricade, shoots a few +extra heavy cartridges in each rifle, in order to make sure that no +weakness has been caused by the various processes through which all the +parts have passed. Then he turns it over to the crack shots. They fire +half a dozen shots at a target, then look at the target through a +telescope. Those men know that they can hit the bull's eye every time, +so that if the shots are wide of the mark, either there is a defect in +the gun or the sights are not true. In nine cases out of ten it is the +fault of the sights, and they file them true."</p> + +<p>"Then really every gun has been fired before being sold?"</p> + +<p>"We turn out about sixteen hundred guns a day, and each one has been +fired several times."</p> + +<p>"Shotguns, too?"</p> + +<p>"The same standard of accuracy is needed in those. It is just as +important that a shotgun should throw a certain percentage of its shot +within a certain radius as it is that a rifle bullet should go straight. +Down in this little room," he continued, "a man stands all day shooting +down this gallery, forty yards range, and each target is brought back +and measured. In a circle with a fifteen-inch radius a boy counts the +numbers of holes made in the paper by the tiny shot. There should be +300. If there are 290 the gun is passed, but if less it is rejected. +Sometimes you get very queer shot patterns without knowing why."</p> + +<p>"Do all shotguns throw as evenly as that?"</p> + +<p>"All good ones should. It is astonishing to see how regularly the +'scatter' of a barrel will work out. Every barrel, of course, is stamped +with the number of shots it has put into the fifteen-inch circle."</p> + +<p>"And you make cartridges, too, don't you?" Hamilton asked.</p> + +<p>"That's one of the largest branches of our business," his guide replied, +"but there's not very much in that to show you, except of course the +making of the metal caps, and this is simply the punching of circular +pieces of copper or brass, turning up the edges, or 'cupping' them, as +it is called, drawing them to length, inserting the primer pocket and +heading—the filling is done in a building perpetually closed to +visitors. We think too much of our visitors," he added with a smile, "to +risk blowing them up. I don't suppose really, that there would be any +danger,—we have not had an accident for years,—but it's a business in +which accident is only prevented by extreme care, and we believe in +being thorough."</p> + +<p>Chatting pleasantly, Mr. Nebett showed Hamilton through the various +general offices, the payroll department, and the draughting and +designing room, and finally returned to the business manager's office, +where they found the schedule awaiting him, filled out in almost every +detail. A few spaces had been left blank until the boy's return, some +trifling explanation being readily answered by him.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-10-t.jpg' width='754' height='550' alt=""A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"I must thank you ever so much," said the boy, turning to the director +of the company who had taken so much trouble in showing him around, "it +has been one of the most interesting afternoons I have had in all my +life. I feel quite as though I had been witnessing the equipping of the +world's armies on the eve of a great war."</p> + +<p>"That would be all right," said the business manager, "if we were making +military rifles, but ninety-five per cent of our work is for sporting +purposes."</p> + +<p>"But how about your cartridges?"</p> + +<p>"There, perhaps," Mr. Nebett said, "The Hague tribunal would look +askance at us."</p> + +<p>Hamilton had his portfolio under his arm, but at the door he turned.</p> + +<p>"How many cartridges do you put out?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Six million a day," was the reply.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>So long as Hamilton's work dealt with the larger manufactories of the +district he encountered comparatively little trouble, as he knew enough +of the desires of the Census Bureau to be able to help those business +men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so +forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made +several very pleasant acquaintanceships during the weeks in New Haven, +and it was not until he was "checking up," going to all the small places +that had not been listed, that he really found himself in difficulties. +He anticipated trouble with the dressmakers, and consequently his +delight was great when he learned that this had been omitted from the +census since 1904 because it is a "neighborhood industry." But the +milliners proved just as bad.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Hamilton could not work up any enthusiasm over a +millinery establishment, and although he had definite instructions that +each one was to be considered as a factory and entered upon the +schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a +little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the +first weeks of the work, visiting the places in the early morning and in +the evening when the offices of the larger factories were closed. His +worst clash occurred at almost the very last one to which he went.</p> + +<p>It was a little after five o'clock, just as it was beginning to get +dark, that Hamilton, having ascertained from the Business Telephone +Directory the address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work +for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really +handsome house, and rang the bell. He did so reluctantly, for there was +no plate on the door, and he did not wish to annoy strangers. But the +address seemed straight enough.</p> + +<p>The door was opened by a becapped maid, and Hamilton was shown into a +handsomely furnished drawing room. On a table in the corner, the boy +caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was +on the right track. After a few moments' delay, a richly dressed little +Frenchwoman bustled in. She seemed surprised to see the boy, and halted +on the threshold. Hamilton rose.</p> + +<p>"I understand, Madame," he said, "that you are an 'exclusive' milliner?"</p> + +<p>The woman looked bewildered.</p> + +<p>"You make hats?" Hamilton continued, perceiving at a glance that the +woman was foreign-born.</p> + +<p>"Is it a hatter zat you want?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No, no," the boy replied, "I just want to know if you are a milliner?"</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman, not at all enlightened by this explanation, answered:</p> + +<p>"I do not make ze hats; I design zem, and ze ozzers make zem."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I thought you were the proprietor," said Hamilton; "then you don't +own this place!"</p> + +<p>"I am ze proprietor, but I do not own ze house," she said; "I pay ze +rent. But why you ask? I pay my rent!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course," answered Hamilton, "but that has nothing to do with it. +I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census, and +wanted to make sure that this was the place I was looking for."</p> + +<p>"What is zat—ze census?"</p> + +<p>"That is the way the government finds out about all the people in the +country," explained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what +they work at and how many people they employ, the wages they pay or are +paid, and all sorts of things."</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman's eyes had been getting bigger and rounder at every +sentence, and when Hamilton had finished, she said with an air of +regretful surprise:</p> + +<p>"An' they tol' me zere was no police spy in America!"</p> + +<p>"There isn't, so far as I know," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"But you—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not a police spy," the boy said, a little nettled at being +misunderstood.</p> + +<p>"No? Zen zat is all ze more strange. In my country zose are ze questions +ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge?" +she queried, pointing to the little census shield on Hamilton's coat.</p> + +<p>"That has nothing to do with the police," the boy insisted, "that's a +census badge. Madame," he added, "do I look like a policeman?"</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman, remembering the military appearance of the gendarmes +of her native land and the burly make-up of the American policeman, +shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are disguise'?" she said, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not disguised," Hamilton responded, "and the badge is just to +show that I have the right to ask you these questions."</p> + +<p>"I do not know anyzing at all about it," the milliner objected, "but if +you say you have ze right!" she shrugged her shoulders and sat down.</p> + +<p>Hamilton promptly picked up his portfolio, opened it on his knee, and +began to put some of the queries required. He got along well enough +while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so +forth were in hand, but the question about the number of hours worked +during the year made the woman most indignant.</p> + +<p>"What is ze good of a question like zat?" she asked. "What does it +matter if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand +occasion, ze wedding, ze garden party? When zey work more, zey get more +pay!"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Hamilton diplomatically, "with such a number of +society people as you deal with that must happen very often."</p> + +<p>It was a successful move. The Frenchwoman beamed on him.</p> + +<p>"In ze season, yes, perhaps twenty or thirty evenings, but even zen ze +girl go home by twelve o'clock."</p> + +<p>Hamilton smiled to himself as he did a little figuring and filled up the +schedule to show the prevailing practice followed in the establishment +during the year. He was a little dubious about asking the questions +concerning the wages paid, but he found no trouble.</p> + +<p>"In your kind of work," he said, "I suppose the girls get good wages."</p> + +<p>"Ze very best," the woman answered, and Hamilton found that this was +true. Indeed, so anxious was she to impress on him how much better were +the wages paid by her than those in other establishments that the boy +secured a large amount of unexpected valuable information. But he came +to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For +the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but +the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner really could not +give, for, as she pointed out, most of the few especial customers she +had, brought the materials to her to be made up, and she had no means +of knowing what had been paid for them. Nor would she even try to make +an estimate.</p> + +<p>"But I must know," said Hamilton, in despair. "See for yourself,—here +it says that every factory must state the total cost of all material +used during the year and the value of the products."</p> + +<p>"Factory!" the milliner jumped to her feet. "What you say—a factory! +Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze designers of ze great +Maison Chic in Paris! Zis is insult!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Hamilton was amazed at the tempest he had so suddenly +evoked; then he tried to pacify the woman.</p> + +<p>"That's just a general word," he said, "and it is used for every place +where things are made."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no," she cried, "I know bezzer zan zat. A factory has chimney, +high, high, and smoke, an' nasty smells, an' machines. I have seen zem!"</p> + +<p>"That's one kind of factory," answered the boy, "but it is only one +kind. But if you like we won't use the word at all."</p> + +<p>This time, however, Hamilton's persuasions were of no avail. The +milliner had taken offense at the word "factory," and not another word +could the boy get out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become +absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, +evidently a customer. The proprietress immediately greeted her in +voluble French, recounting as nearly as Hamilton could judge from her +gestures her sorrows and trials at the boy's hands.</p> + +<p>As soon as there was a lull, Hamilton said to the newcomer:</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, but since you seem to know French, would you mind +explaining to Madame what the census is? She seems to think I am a +police spy, or something."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the census!" the girl exclaimed. "I could not make out what it was +all about. I thought it must be some question of taxes."</p> + +<p>"No," Hamilton explained, "it is the Census of Manufactures, and +millinery places have to be counted. I got along all right, and have +finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. +If you would just ask her the cost of the materials in the hats she made +last year, I'll be through and then I won't be delaying you."</p> + +<p>But not even the girl's fluent French could bring any light on this +subject, and laughingly she had to admit to the boy that her success +had been no greater than his own.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you," said Hamilton; "I've got an idea how we could get at +it."</p> + +<p>"How?" asked the girl interestedly, for having taken a part in it, she +was American enough to be unwilling to give up; "what have you to +suggest—what is your plan?"</p> + +<p>"You are one of Madame's customers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And, of course, whatever kind of books are kept here, there must be +some sort of ledger, so that your bills can go to you every month."</p> + +<p>The girl made a little grimace.</p> + +<p>"The bills certainly come," she assured him.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Hamilton triumphantly, "if we can find out from +Madame what proportion of all her trade your account is, and if you can +make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you, we +shall come pretty close to being able to make an estimate on the cost of +goods of all her customers."</p> + +<p>"That's an excellent scheme," the girl said. "I don't know that I can +give very exact figures, but you want just a rough idea?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like it exact, of course," the boy answered, "but since that +doesn't seem easy to get, the next best thing is a close estimate."</p> + +<p>With this device in mind, very few minutes elapsed before the required +information was secured, a rough guess made at the result, and the +schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said +laughingly: "I think I should at least receive 'honorable mention' in +the dispatches as a census-taker, the same as soldiers do in war."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Hamilton, smiling in return, "I'll bear it in mind," +and thanking her heartily, he went on his way, greatly relieved that the +difficulty was over.</p> + +<p>In a piece of extra territory that Mr. Burns had assigned to the boy, +there were several factories in which there had been some difficulty in +securing properly filled schedules, partly because much of the work was +done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with +some of these factories—they were principally glass works—on the night +side first. He frequently found it necessary to work thus in the +evenings, especially after this added work, which was given him because +the district proved too large for the agent having it in charge.</p> + +<p>Little by little he worked these down until but one remained, owned by +Germans, where the boy experienced great difficulty in securing any sort +of attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and +Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for +that factory filled. This was the easier, as the night superintendent in +question had recently been promoted to that position from head +bookkeeper.</p> + +<p>One night, waiting for the superintendent to work out these figures, he +sauntered through the works. A phrase from Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man +in the Making" kept ringing through his head. It ran as follows—"It is +in the glass-factory perhaps, that the child is pushed most hopelessly +under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this +especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing +to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, +two or three of the men had come to know him by sight, and they nodded +now as he passed through. Noticing a boy that looked even younger than +himself,—for unconsciously his eye was seeking that of which he was +thinking,—he turned to one of the men who had nodded to him, and said +casually, and with an air of surprise:</p> + +<p>"Why, that chap there doesn't look any older than me!"</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose he is so very old," the man replied, "sixteen, maybe."</p> + +<p>"Seems a shame to have to start in so young," Hamilton went on, with an +assumed air of carelessness, "and I suppose he's been here some years."</p> + +<p>"Probably about four or five," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"You know," continued Hamilton, in a conversational tone, "I should +think it would be hard for a boy to start in working like that, and at +night especially."</p> + +<p>The man paused in his work an instant, and looked at the lad, passing +his hand over his forehead as he did so.</p> + +<p>"I was just ten years old when I began," he said. "I'm only thirty now. +I look fifty, don't I?"</p> + +<p>"You certainly look over thirty," Hamilton admitted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I look fifty all right, I know that, and I'm as nearly played out +as a man of fifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. +Every year that a boy is put to hard physical work before he is sixteen +is equal to five years taken off his life."</p> + +<p>"I wonder that any employer does it, and that any State permits it," +said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"There's not as much of it in Connecticut as in other States, although +the figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk +as though you had been having a session with 'the crusader,'" the +workman continued.</p> + +<p>"Who's the crusader?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you seen him, then? With your ideas, you ought to get along +well together. And," he added, more seriously, "'the crusader' will be +heard of yet."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"He's a boy who started at work in this place when he was only seven +years old," the workman answered. "He's been here eight years now, and +he's an odd genius. He taught himself to read and write, but he doesn't +read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he +knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of children +working. All the labor union people and the socialists know 'the +crusader,' young as he is, and they send him, free, nearly every book +and paper that's published."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-11-t.jpg' height='60%' alt='YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway co.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway co.)</p></div> + +<p>"But why do you call him 'the crusader'?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Because he has some crusade idea on the brain,—thinks he can start a +revolution or something that will put a stop to child labor, and he +talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as he calls it. +But everybody likes him just the same, and he's a good worker—when he's +not talking."</p> + +<p>"Which is he?" asked Hamilton. "I'd like to talk to him, if I might."</p> + +<p>"No reason why you shouldn't," the other answered "he's kept busy of +course, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' +is given special favors, anyway. That's the boy, 'carrying in' over +there."</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked with interest at the boy thus pointed out. He would have +been noticeable, even without the knowledge of his peculiar position, +but with it, his difference from his fellows became most marked. +Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this +might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his pocket, he +started to eat it, and sauntered leisurely over to where the boy was +working. He watched him for a minute or two; then, when the boy looked +up, he said casually:</p> + +<p>"Have an apple?"</p> + +<p>Almost wolfishly the work-boy took the fruit from Hamilton and commenced +to devour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a +luxury as an apple seldom fell to his lot. A few sentences passed, and +then Hamilton asked:</p> + +<p>"How long have you been in the factory here?"</p> + +<p>"Eight years," 'the crusader' replied.</p> + +<p>"You must have been just a youngster when you first came, then?"</p> + +<p>"Seven years old," was the answer, "and small at that!"</p> + +<p>"It's a shame to let little children work like that, I think," said +Hamilton, wondering whether this would have the effect of rousing the +other, "it must do them harm."</p> + +<p>But even though expecting some fiery retort, Hamilton was unprepared for +the transformation in the lad. A moment before he had been a stooped +childish figure with an old and weary face, carrying trays of hot glass +from furnace to bench and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. +The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and +passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of +his surroundings, despite the rags in which he was clothed, under the +dull glow of the furnaces and the flickering violet play of a distant +arc light he seemed the bearer of some high message as his boyish +treble, rich in the tones of a familiar despair, rang through the +factory.</p> + +<p>"The land is filled with the voice o' cryin'," he began, "an' no one +seems to hear. Tens o' thousands o' children cry themselves to sleep +every night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. +Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so +much that hope is gone, an' tired enough to die! There are twenty-five +thousand children less than ten years old in the fact'ries of America."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the people who could help don't know about it," suggested +Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"They know," the other continued, "but they don't care. They stop their +ears to the cryin' o' the children an' talk about America as the land of +opportunity. It <i>is</i> the land of opportunity—opportunity for the +children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wretched +an' to be glad to die. There's no country in the world where children +are tortured as they are in the fact'ries of the United States."</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely it can't be as bad as that," protested Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The objection only increased the "crusader's" vehemence.</p> + +<p>"There don't any children have to work anywhere as they do here," he +fairly shouted, "here where they rob the cradle for workers, where the +little voices become sad and bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, +where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where +its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Their tiny bones +unset, they make them stand in one position all day long until you hear +the children moanin' hour after hour, moanin' and no one hears, or +hearin', cares.</p> + +<p>"They send missionaries to China," cried the lad further, "but there's +no child labor there; they try to reform the 'unspeakable Turk' but +there's no atrocity upon the children there; they call the heathen lost, +though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' +lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our +fact'ries here, an' even an Indian chief that they were showin' the +sights of our great cities to, when asked what had surprised him most, +answered, 'Little—children—workin'.'"</p> + +<p>"You mean it is peculiar to America? That there is really more of it +here than in Europe?" asked Hamilton incredulously.</p> + +<p>"More? There's none there like there is here. An' it's gettin' worse all +the time, worse this year than last year, worse last year than ten years +ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. +It is a thing of yesterday, a sudden toadstool in the infernal garden.' +It is all our own," he laughed harshly, "let us be proud of it."</p> + +<p>"How many children did you say?" asked Hamilton tersely, staggered and +shocked by this statement of the facts of the case.</p> + +<p>"Enough to sink the land in shame," the speaker declared. "There were a +trifle over a hundred thousand children between the ages of six and +fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures +showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n eight hours a day, that +a large percentage were workin' twelve to sixteen hours, an' twenty-two +thousand of 'em are at night work."</p> + +<p>As he said the last words, the "crusader" hurried away in response to a +call from one of the men. He resumed his carrying in of the red-hot +bottles from the benches where the men had been molding them, to the +annealing oven, and for a time Hamilton watched him. The work was a +fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to +the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to +take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundred feet, and +watching another boy, who was working regularly, not intermittently as +was the city lad's new acquaintance, he found that seventy-two trips an +hour were made, making the distance covered in eight hours nearly +twenty-two miles.</p> + +<p>The red-hot bottles were carried in asbestos shovels, and these had to +be kept fairly straight, imposing a terrific strain upon the back. In +addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time +they came back, passing from the heat of the melting oven, in front of a +draughty open door, to the heat of the annealing oven.</p> + +<p>In order to keep up with the work, the boys had to run, for it could not +be done at a walk, and thus were alternately greatly overheated and +chilled with icy draughts.</p> + +<p>Seeing that the "crusader" would be busy for a while, but wanting to +take the matter up with him further, Hamilton strolled over to where the +glass-blowers were working. This particular factory was turning out +cheap glass bottles, and there was little of the fascination that exists +in factories where high-grade glass is made into many curious shapes and +blown with great skill into marvelous thinness. In the middle of the +room was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not +quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before +each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the +blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, +drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the +consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the +end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and +rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then +they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing the +soft glass to its proper form. The now cooling glass was broken from the +end of the blowpipe with a sharp, snapping sound, and the blowpipe was +plunged in the furnace again for another bottle. The whole had taken +but a few seconds.</p> + +<p>"Why do they have so many boys around these places?" queried Hamilton of +the workman he had been watching.</p> + +<p>"Have to, they say," the glass-blower replied, "cheap bottles mean cheap +labor. No one ever expects to pay anything for a bottle—that is thrown +in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his +little profit somewhere an' in a cheap bottle he makes it by employin' +young boys cheap an' workin' 'em till they drop."</p> + +<p>"Is it done this way everywhere?"</p> + +<p>The workman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No need to do it even here," he said. "It takes money, though, to put +in an endless belt to carry the bottles to the annealin' oven. The big +fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in +small towns where everythin' is done on a cheap scale, an' a boy's labor +is about the cheapes' thing in the United States—unless it's a girl's."</p> + +<p>Seeing that the glass-blower was being delayed in his task, Hamilton +sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" worked. +The latter broke out again as soon as he saw the boy coming.</p> + +<p>"I've been talkin' to you about children workin'," he said, "but you +haven't thought of babies bein' made to work?"</p> + +<p>"Babies!"</p> + +<p>"Of four an' five years old."</p> + +<p>"But they couldn't do any real work!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he +was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid +three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for +wrappers, and a little worker of four is good help in stripping.'"</p> + +<p>"In a cigar factory?"</p> + +<p>"Of course,—an' the children find it so hard to keep up that they are +taught to chew snuff—as a stimulant—before they are six year old. Jane +Addams, writin' o' the torture chambers they call cotton mills in parts +o' the South, said she saw on the night shift, with her teeth all +blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' +five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' +answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout +the hot summer excep' two, when 'her legs and back wouldn't let her get +up.' An' what do you suppose the fact'ry owner did—send a physician? +No, he docked her the two days' wages for the time she'd been away ill, +an' another day's fine as a punishment."</p> + +<p>"That's brutal!" cried Hamilton. "Didn't the parents protest?"</p> + +<p>"The parents? That's where the mill-owners have their strongest help. +They threaten to discharge the parents if the children don't work an' +work hard, and they force the father or mother into whippin' the child +to compel it to stay at the loom. The whole country went to war once +over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,—or at +least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,—but you can enslave +white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without +air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, you can force 'em to +be whipped, you can snatch 'em from their cradles in their homes, you +can snap your fingers at the schools, an' you can fill churchyards with +a worse Massacre o' the Innocents than history ever tells about, an' the +men and women of America don't care."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-12-t.jpg' width='600' height='380' alt=""I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway Co.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(Courtesy of the Ridgway Co.)</p></div> + +<p>"Oh, yes, they do," again protested Hamilton. "It must be that they +don't know."</p> + +<p>"How can they help but know? There are a few that have heard what Spargo +calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very few, an' +the misery an' shame goes on, gettin' worse with ev'ry year."</p> + +<p>"What's going to be done?"</p> + +<p>"The children will have to rescue the children," the boy cried. "If +men's hearts are cold and women's hearts are asleep, at least the boys +can hear. There's no power like a boy's, an' a boy will do anythin' +that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' +to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to +every mill an' fact'ry in the United States where a child is workin', +and make the owner sign a paper pledgin' himself not to employ a child +again. Give me an army of American boys an' I'll sweep the country like +a flight o' locusts."</p> + +<p>"But who would join?"</p> + +<p>"Every boy worth his salt. S'pose I came to you an' said 'In that mill +at the end o' your street, little children are bein' slaved and driven +to death because no one has the nerve to say what they think. We'll +rescue those children. Join us, we're five hundred strong!' Would you go +along?"</p> + +<p>"Guess I'd have to join," the boy agreed, "but you'd get into all sorts +of trouble."</p> + +<p>"Can I get into a worse trouble than any o' those babies have?" the +other asked indignantly. "What right have I to go on, even as I do, +knowin' how they are sufferin'. I don't care about trouble, I've had +nothin' else all my life. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could +get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like +other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't +see that carryin' bottles is goin' to help the world much, but if I can +carry hope an' health to some little boy or girl, I'm goin' to do it. +How, I don't know. But I ain't goin' to die without bein' able to +remember some poor child that's better off because lived."</p> + +<p>"What can I do to help?" asked Hamilton eagerly and aggressively, as +though he expected instant marching orders to some distant factory.</p> + +<p>"You can do somethin',—every boy can do somethin'. If nothin' else, you +can help to wake a sleepin' an' selfish nation. If the cryin' o' the +children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' +somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every day, as I do, o' +that 'spectral army of pygmy people sucked in from the hills to dance +beside the crazing wheel' and not do somethin'?"</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"Could I hear trampin' round me day an' night, the laggin' step of a +'gaunt goblin army that outwatches the sun by day an' the stars by +night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, +an' then I must go,—that there's a stain o' shame 'pon the honor of +America that'll never be wiped away until child labor is put down!"</p> + +<p>Thoughtful and subdued in spirit, Hamilton strolled back to the night +superintendent's office, where he found the figures done at last and the +completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted the offer of a +cup of coffee, from some which had just been sent in, and sat down +beside the desk.</p> + +<p>"I've been talking with the 'crusader,'" he remarked.</p> + +<p>The night superintendent looked up interestedly.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of him?" he asked, a little sharply, Hamilton +thought.</p> + +<p>"I think there's no question about his being sincere," the boy answered, +"but I can hardly believe that the figures he gives and the facts he +talks about are true."</p> + +<p>"They're true enough, I'm sorry to say," said the older man, sighing, +"but the 'crusader' usually isn't fair to the South. He blames the South +for the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large +proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are +owned by New England capitalists. I'm a New Englander by birth myself, +'naughty-two' at Yale, but I'm able to see the mistakes of the North +just the same."</p> + +<p>"I've always been taught that the North was more or less mixed up in +it," answered Hamilton. "It was shown to me a long time ago that the +slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were +no Southern vessels in the slave trade, they were all New England +skippers and New England bottoms. The shame of the slave traffic belongs +originally to the North."</p> + +<p>"And now a large share of the child labor, too," the other agreed. "But +you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the South +that made such conditions possible. I guess the blame is about even."</p> + +<p>"But is nothing being done on this child-labor business?" asked +Hamilton. "I tried to find that out from the 'crusader' but he didn't +answer."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the superintendent heartily, "a great deal is being done. +The Bureau of the Census has been of immense service, and other bureaus +of the Department of Commerce and Labor are working on it, largely +through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have +been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being +checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall be real, not +nominal. Don't let the 'crusader' persuade you that everybody is asleep +and that nothing is being done; the government is doing a good deal, +although the country as a whole is unaware of it."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is increasing?"</p> + +<p>"In spite of all that is done to prevent it, it is increasing," the +other said quietly, "that is the sad part. If it could be thought of as +a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month +hundreds of children die from enforced labor and that greater numbers +fill their places, is a sad reflection on the industrial life of +to-day."</p> + +<p>"Well, as the South progresses, that will probably take care of itself, +won't it?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>The superintendent looked at him curiously.</p> + +<p>"I think you told me last evening that you were a New York boy," he +said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Wharton," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you consider New York a fairly progressive city?"</p> + +<p>"Greatest on earth!" affirmed the boy in true Gotham style.</p> + +<p>"Yet that same progressive city," the older man declared, "is the +headquarters of several forms of industry in which large percentages of +the workers are children under fourteen years of age."</p> + +<p>"What kinds of business can those be?" asked Hamilton in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Making ostrich plumes and artificial flowers. It's not factory labor, +of course, but that doesn't alter the point that at least half the +output of artificial flowers is made by the cramped fingers of children, +generally after school and far into the night. They are not officially +reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The +disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of +them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach +them in two sections is a great help to the sweat-shop managers. But +every city has its own share of this child labor in the homes, although +in some of the smaller places, civic associations and municipalities +have taken the matter in hand with considerable success. Even that is +but a drop in the ocean."</p> + +<p>"Your 'crusader' will have to lead his crusade then, it seems," the boy +suggested.</p> + +<p>"Poor lad!" sighed the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He will never lead that crusade," the older man replied pensively.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>The man tapped his chest significantly.</p> + +<p>"He is incurably ill," he said, "partly glass-blowers' disease from +breathing the particles of glass dust. Men don't mind it so much, but it +is fatal to children when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the +'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he +gives a lot of trouble in the works with his revolutionary theories. I +haven't the heart to send him away; he couldn't get other work, and +being all alone in the world, he might starve."</p> + +<p>"You mean—"</p> + +<p>"That he will not live six months. That army of boys of which he speaks +so often will never go on the march, the banners he has designed for it +will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and +the drums will sound the final 'taps' for him before they roll for the +advance. And in that sleep, the cries of the children shall all be happy +ones."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-13-t.jpg' width='616' height='400' alt='EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!"</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The "crusader's" talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton's mind +working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy +tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent +in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children. He +chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the +Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more +detailed. Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been +overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he +would do all he could toward correcting this abuse.</p> + +<p>But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, +although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the +time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a +word about his being considered in line for the population work. It was +therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him +suddenly one morning:</p> + +<p>"So you're going over to the population side, I hear?"</p> + +<p>"Am I? I didn't know," Hamilton replied. "I had wanted to go, but not +hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved."</p> + +<p>"The Director told me this morning that you were going to be +transferred."</p> + +<p>"The Director himself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of +the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your +name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per +cent better than those of any one else in that section. So he said, +'That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble +on the population work. I'll see that arrangements for that transfer are +made,' and he scribbled something on a pad."</p> + +<p>"That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton, "to mention me +to the Director in that way."</p> + +<p>The statistician looked at him curiously.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't dealing in kindness," he said dryly, "I was dealing in +percentages. If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have +to thank, not me. I merely stated the figures, and they read in your +favor."</p> + +<p>The boy laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"I believe, Mr. Burns," he said, "that you would more easily forgive a +man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list +of figures."</p> + +<p>"Certainly I would," the statistician replied. "I could hit back in the +first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led +astray!"</p> + +<p>"Well," the boy answered, "I'm glad at any rate that my figures tallied +up all right."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to seem inquisitive," said the older man, "but when did +you get in the population examination?"</p> + +<p>"There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the +exam," said Hamilton, "because of the fact that I was doing census work +of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel +that everything had been done in the usual manner. I took the exam at +New Haven, one afternoon."</p> + +<p>"But are you going to do the population work there?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Burns," the boy explained. "The Director wrote to me that I +would be allowed to send in a formal application in the regular way +through the supervisor of the enumeration district to which I had asked +to be assigned. The supervisor of that district had said beforehand that +he would be willing to appoint me, as the section was so sparse that +enough qualified enumerators were hard to get."</p> + +<p>"Well, where are you going, then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, for sure yet, of course," the boy explained, "whether +everything will go through as planned, but if so, I shall be going to +Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"In the mountains where you had been visiting?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," the boy answered, "in another part of the State +entirely,—down toward the black belt of Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"Kentucky isn't a black belt State," his friend objected.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Burns, but there are parts where the negroes are tolerably +thickly settled. The supervisor is a friend of my older brother, and he +says that is an interesting part of the country."</p> + +<p>"But can a Board of Examiners in one district look over the papers for +the supervisor of another district?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," explained the boy, "but they can allow the examination to be +taken before them and have the papers sent to the supervisor of the +other district. It was a little irregular, I suppose, but the Director +knew all about it and it was for the good of the census, he thought, as +he had been told there were not enough enumerators in the district to +which I hoped to go."</p> + +<p>"Well," the statistician replied, "if you're headed for Kentucky I +should think you'd like to see your folks before going."</p> + +<p>"I had planned to go up on Saturday afternoon," Hamilton said. "I can +get to New York by evening and spend Saturday night and all day Sunday +there, catching the midnight train back. It brings me in early enough +for office hours."</p> + +<p>"And this is Friday," said the other thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what +to do. I can arrange for you to be off Saturday morning; it is only a +half day, and you can catch the first train out after business hours +to-day."</p> + +<p>"That would be bully!"</p> + +<p>"I estimate," the statistician said, rapidly dotting down some figures +on a pad, "that the fractions of overtime you have worked recently, +cumulatively considered, enable me to do that fairly, so that you've +earned it."</p> + +<p>"That's fine," said Hamilton, "for the family is going to Europe for the +summer, and I shouldn't see any of them at all unless I ran up to New +York now."</p> + +<p>The older man nodded his confirmation of the suggested arrangement, and +returned to his figures. During the noon hour Hamilton hurriedly packed +a grip, and was back at the office without a minute lost, for he found a +train leaving at a most advantageous hour, and by calling a taxi he was +just able to catch it.</p> + +<p>At breakfast the following morning, the conversation turned upon +immigration, and Hamilton read in a newspaper the statement that two +large liners were in New York harbor and would dock that morning, that +each carried a record passenger list of immigrants, and that Ellis +Island was making preparations for a busy day.</p> + +<p>"I've never seen Ellis Island," the boy announced "Father, do you know +if visitors are allowed over there?"</p> + +<p>"I'm fairly sure of it," his father replied, "but in any case there +ought to be no trouble for you, since the Bureau of the Census is a +part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, just as is the Bureau of +Immigration."</p> + +<p>"I think I'd like to go."</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to go," his father said. "Taking up the population +business, you ought to try to get hold of all the information you can, +ahead of time. I have been there several times, on business, and it is a +most interesting place."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the eleven o'clock boat from the Barge Office, New York,—a +pier near Castle Garden, the historic immigration station,—carried +Hamilton to the famous Ellis Island. Preferring his request, the lad +speedily found himself in the presence of the Commissioner. He stated +his wants briefly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Commissioner," he said, "I'm an assistant agent of the Census +Bureau in Washington, and I'm just going to my station as an enumerator +for the population. I have two days in New York and I'd like to learn +how things are done on the Island here. May I have a pass?"</p> + +<p>The Commissioner answered briefly.</p> + +<p>"Read this," he said, taking a sheaf of manuscript out of the drawer of +his desk, "and here's a short review for the use of visitors, and I'll +send you in to the Chief Clerk to get a pass, and if there's anything +more you want, let me know." He touched a bell. "Show this gentleman to +Mr. Tuckman, and let him be given a special pass," he said,—and +Hamilton was ushered out promptly, thinking as he went that this was +evidently one place where time was not wasted.</p> + +<p>The Chief Clerk was equally ready to assist the lad, and armed with his +special pass he started round the building, finding himself practically +free of the island. Hamilton possessed the capacity of making friends +readily, and with his alert manner and direct appeal, he usually secured +attention. Walking sharply through the place he soon found himself down +in what was called the Information Division. For the moment one of the +clerks was not busy, and Hamilton, stepping up to him, began to ply him +with questions. A tall young fellow, who was standing nearby, listened +for a few moments, then turned to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"See here," he said, "you can't learn much about Ellis Island just by +asking questions, you've got to go around and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I propose doing," Hamilton answered, "but I thought it +wouldn't be such a bad plan to get an idea of things first, and then I +should understand what I saw. There's not much use in watching things +unless you understand just what's going on. I have some knowledge of it, +of course, because the Commissioner gave me some reading matter to look +over, and I've got a special pass, so that I want to make the best use +of it."</p> + +<p>"Suppose you come along with me, then," said his new acquaintance, who +was none other than the Chief of the Information Division, "and I'll +show you round myself as far as I can spare the time. It so happens that +there are a lot of scattering things I want to look after through the +building to-day, and if you don't mind my leaving you alone, once in a +while, I'll take you through systematically. Where do you want to +begin?"</p> + +<p>"Right at the very start," rejoined Hamilton "I always think the +beginning is the most important part, and I'd hate to lose any of it."</p> + +<p>"All right," said his conductor good-humoredly; "if you want it all, you +shall have it. I notice, too," he said, as they walked along the hall +and out of the door to the well-kept lawns that stretch between the main +building and the sea wall, "that you're in good time, for there's a +barge just pulling in."</p> + +<p>"The barge is from one of the liners that came in this morning, I +suppose?" queried the lad.</p> + +<p>"Yes, one of the Hamburg boats," his guide replied.</p> + +<p>"Are those barges run by the immigration authorities?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the answer, "those are owned or managed by the steamboat +companies. They bring all the steerage passengers who can't show that +they are citizens, and all the cabin passengers who are being detained."</p> + +<p>"Cabin passengers," echoed Hamilton in surprise; "I didn't think any +cabin passengers came to Ellis Island. All second cabin, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," answered the immigration official; "there's quite a +sprinkling of first-class passengers as well. Why, during a period of +three months recently, nearly three thousand cabin passengers were +detained on the island here, and I suppose twenty per cent of them had +come over in the first-class saloon."</p> + +<p>"But why should any first-class passengers be stopped and shipped to +Ellis Island?" queried the boy. "I don't understand. I thought Ellis +Island was to keep out people who were paupers, or diseased, or were +undesirable citizens!"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-14-t.jpg' width='629' height='400' alt='THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"That's just exactly what it is for," the other replied, "but the United +States government doesn't think that having money enough to pay for a +first-class passage makes every man a desirable citizen! A first-class +berth is no insurance against an incurable disease, for example, and +there's nothing to prevent a criminal from coming over in the first +cabin." He laughed. "Most of them do, I think," he said.</p> + +<p>"It really never appealed to me just that way," the boy remarked; "I +supposed always that first-class passengers went right through if they +passed quarantine."</p> + +<p>"That would mix things up," the older man said. "Why, in that case we +should have all the mentally deficient, all the paupers, and all the +freaks landing here in shoals. Any group of friends, or any government, +for that matter, would find it cheap and easy to dump all the public +charges of Europe on our shores for the price of a first-class ticket. +Oh, no, that would never do. Once in a while, you hear passengers on the +big liners complaining of the inquiries made before they land, but it's +got to be done. You can see for yourself what would happen if we +didn't."</p> + +<p>"But if they bring plenty of money, they would not become public +charges."</p> + +<p>"No, and we can't exclude them on that ground. But money, for example, +has nothing to do with crime or anarchism or things of that sort. I tell +you, there's a big slice of our work done before ever a vessel reaches +her dock at a New York pier. Of course, problems do come up nearly every +day, such as circus freaks, for instance."</p> + +<p>"You mean the living skeleton, the tattooed lady, the fat baby, the +giant, and so forth?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Are those people to be considered desirable citizens, or not? +There is no question as to their inability to make a living by any +customary kind of work, but on the other hand it is very difficult to +prove that they could not get good money at a sideshow. If, however, +they are able to show that they have been engaged in Europe by an +American circus manager, they can come under the alien contract labor +law."</p> + +<p>"Then this string of people," said Hamilton, pointing to those who had +just been unloaded from the barge, "may be from all classes of the +ship."</p> + +<p>"They might be," his guide replied, "but the chances are that they are +all steerage. Cabin passengers that are detained usually come on the +last boat, with the inspector. We have quarters here with a little more +privacy for them, and they are kept together. But now watch this line. +Suppose we go this way," and stepping over a low iron railing, the +official, followed by Hamilton, walked briskly up beside the line. A few +yards from the door of the building, this line of people passed into a +long barred lane. At the entrance of this stood an inspector who checked +off the large ticket each immigrant had pinned on him to show his +identity, in order to prevent confusion further on. Passing before the +inspector at brief but regularly measured intervals, the immigrants +walked one by one up this barred lane to where it made a right angle.</p> + +<p>"There's the first inspecting doctor," said Hamilton's conductor, +pointing to a man standing just at the angle and watching carefully each +immigrant as he walked up. After a moment Hamilton turned to his +companion in surprise:</p> + +<p>"But he isn't doing anything!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," said the chief of the division, with a laugh, "I am afraid we +shall have to investigate this matter. Here is a lad who says that +you're doing nothing. He's watched you for a couple of minutes and you +haven't made a move."</p> + +<p>Hamilton began to protest, but the big doctor only laughed in reply, +without taking his eyes, however, from the procession of figures which +one by one walked up to him and made the turn round the angle.</p> + +<p>"If he'll wait a minute or two more," he said, "perhaps I'll have a +chance to do something, and save my reputation."</p> + +<p>There was a pause; then the doctor continued:</p> + +<p>"I think there's something doing now; watch this man coming up."</p> + +<p>"He seems to limp just the merest trifle, that's all I can see," the boy +replied.</p> + +<p>"Bone disease of some kind, or maybe joint," the doctor said, +"tuberculous hip, like as not," and as the man passed by he leaned +forward and chalked a big "B" on the shoulder of his coat. "'B' for +Bones," the doctor explained to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"What will happen to him?" asked the boy of the immigration official.</p> + +<p>"Because of that mark?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"It simply means that he will be held for 'special inquiry.' He may be +all right, but before he is passed, he will have to be examined +physically—a thorough physical examination, I mean. Now here, you see, +is another doctor."</p> + +<p>Eight or ten yards further on stood another man, all in white as the +first had been, who took up the inspection where the judge of bone +malformations had left off. A sunken chest, he explained to Hamilton, a +hectic flush, a pinched nostril, an evident difficulty in breathing, a +certain carriage of the head, a blueness of the lips, certain types of +pallor, all these and a number of little points which experience had +shown to be symptoms of organic disease his trained eye could detect at +a glance, and he, too, every few minutes, stooped forward and chalked +upon the coat of the man or the blouse of the woman, as the case might +be, a letter which told of a suspected disease.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought not to say anything," said Hamilton, "but that looks +a little 'hit-or-miss' to me. It's hard on an immigrant to be detained +on the basis of a medical examination that barely takes ten seconds."</p> + +<p>"If that were all," said the official, smiling, "it surely would be a +hardship. But you don't quite get the point. All these passengers really +are detained, and this arrangement is only a way to render the detention +shorter by letting those go through unchecked who do not need further +examination. This is not to delay the suspects, but to cause less +trouble to the others. Here, however is where most of them get stopped."</p> + +<p>He pointed to another doctor, standing close to the last, who examined +the eyes quickly and deftly (principally for a chronic and contagious +disease called "trachoma"), scrupulously cleansing fingers and +instrument between each immigrant.</p> + +<p>Passing the eye doctors the immigrants came to an inspector who stood at +a place where a large grating was built midway in the passage, dividing +it into two parts. All those who had been marked by any of the doctors, +and, in the cases of families, all those in the party of any one so +marked, passed up the right hand passage which led to the Special +Inquiry; the others were guided to the left hand side of the grating, +which led directly into the main primary inspection room.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose they understand anything of the meaning of that +division," asked Hamilton, "why some go on this side and some on the +other!"</p> + +<p>"They don't at all," was the reply. "You will notice that there are no +signs up, and that no attempt is made—at this point—to talk to the +immigrant or to try to make him understand anything. Then, too, since +all the members of a family or party are kept together, there is no +reason why they should make a disturbance. They simply go where they are +sent. If we separated the families, sending some on one side and some on +the other, then there would be trouble!"</p> + +<p>"That's true," said Hamilton, "in many cases they couldn't read the +signs, and they don't know at all what the doctors' marks mean."</p> + +<p>"Exactly, and once past the inspector, there is no getting out or coming +back, for the two passages lead directly into two series of rooms from +which there is no outlet except in a given direction."</p> + +<p>"But the others who are all right,—where do they go?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They're not safe yet," his conductor answered "They have only passed a +preliminary looking over. All that this first group of doctors does, +remember, is to detect the questionable or to pass the obviously +unquestionable—whichever way you like to put it, and thus avoid delay +in the primary inspection room."</p> + +<p>"Which group are we going to see first?"</p> + +<p>"Those who have been passed," was the reply, "because most of them will +go right out, and you can follow that more easily."</p> + +<p>Going up the stairs, Hamilton found himself in an immense room all +divided up into little lanes by bars and gratings. Each of these lanes +bore a large number suspended over its entrance, corresponding to the +number of one of the manifest sheets of the vessel, and likewise to the +number pinned on the clothing of every immigrant while he was still on +the vessel, when his name was tallied with the manifest sheet.</p> + +<p>"I see the reason of those numbers they have pinned on them now," said +Hamilton, "it's all the same principle, to avoid talk and questioning."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," his friend said, "and if you look a little closely, you +will see that in addition to the big number on the card that is pinned +on, there is also a smaller number."</p> + +<p>"I had noticed that," Hamilton answered, "and I was going to ask you +what it was for."</p> + +<p>"That is the number of the name on the manifest sheet," the other +replied. "Thus, for example if Giordano Bruno is the tenth name on the +seventh manifest sheet, this man at the top of the stairs will guide him +into aisle number seven. Then, when his turn comes and he has moved up +to the desk at the end of the line, the inspector doesn't have to waste +time questioning him, and finding the place on the manifest sheet. He +looks at the number, runs his finger down to the tenth name, and has him +at once."</p> + +<p>"It's a great system," said Hamilton admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Why you're right at the start of it," said the official with a laugh; +"wait till you get further on, if you want to find system."</p> + +<p>"Here I see, too, the questioning begins," remarked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and +they are assisted by interpreters when necessary. They hold a +responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land. You +see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest +sheet. If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands +and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds +to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has +already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a +blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the +railroad waiting rooms."</p> + +<p>"But if he hasn't?"</p> + +<p>"Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry +rooms where you saw the others going. He is given a different colored +ticket, in accordance with the expected objection. You see, the +inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case. He just +affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear. Just as before, +the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and +easily as possible. Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could +land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the +primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting +rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes. That's not much of +a hardship!"</p> + +<p>"It certainly isn't," Hamilton agreed. "And I notice that most of them +seem entitled to land."</p> + +<p>"That varies a great deal," his guide said. "I think it averages about +ninety per cent. In a few ships, especially those handling little of +the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as +five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern +and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of +the entire passenger list."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, "I guess I have that +straight. But I notice there is a third stream of people. One, you say, +is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but +how about the third?"</p> + +<p>"That's the 'temporary detention' group. I'll take you there in a +minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted. Here is +the railroad waiting room."</p> + +<p>A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad +ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or +steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada. A +money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be +turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, +even down to the fractions of a cent.</p> + +<p>"Why are they pinning on more tickets?" asked Hamilton. "I thought when +they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it."</p> + +<p>"That also is to make it easier for them," the other said. "Most of +these people are poor, and we try to make traveling as cheap for them as +possible. Nearly all the railroads run one train each day that carries +special cars for the immigrant service. They give, accordingly, a +cheaper rate to the government. Supposing, for example, that the regular +number of the Lehigh Valley train was always numbered '9,' then every +man who purchased a ticket for a point on the Lehigh Valley would be +given the ticket '9.' Then, when the boat that was taking the passengers +for Lehigh Valley points left Ellis Island, all the 9's would be +gathered together and no one would be left behind."</p> + +<p>"Nothing seems to have been forgotten," said Hamilton, "even food, for I +see there's a big counter over there."</p> + +<p>"That's quite a thing, too," the other said. "A man can get two days' +food, six meals, for a dollar, or a little over sixteen cents a meal."</p> + +<p>"And what in the wide world can he buy for that price?" exclaimed the +boy.</p> + +<p>"Here's a sample of the contents of one box," the other said; "read it, +it tells you what there is. 'Four loaves of bread, two pounds of cooked +beans, twelve ounces of sausage, one can of beef, one can of sardines, +six ham sandwiches, three pies, and four oranges.' I'm sure you wouldn't +starve on that."</p> + +<p>"No," said Hamilton, "I think I could get along if I ate it all. But why +is it that most of the immigrants here are men? Have the women been lost +in the shuffle?"</p> + +<p>The immigration official laughed.</p> + +<p>"They're not lost," he said, "most of the women pass through the +'temporary detention' rooms. We're going to visit there now. Of course +there are some women who will be able to take the train directly, but we +try to see that they go with some one, or that their being met is +assured. The tickets pinned on them are not given until an inspector has +seen their railroad tickets, and they do not land in New York streets at +all. A boat takes each group to the railroad pier, and they are escorted +to the train by an inspector, who places them in charge of the conductor +who is responsible for their arrival at their destination. Nearly all go +West or South and start from the Jersey side. It is an entirely +different matter with women and children who want to land in New York +City. In every case they are detained until called for by some relative. +And that relative has to prove to us that he really is the relative in +question."</p> + +<p>"How do they meet?"</p> + +<p>"I'll show you right now. In this room," he continued, entering another +large waiting room, "are all the people 'temporarily detained.' Most of +them will he released shortly. If you listen you can hear just how it is +done, because that clerk who has just come in has a list."</p> + +<p>As he spoke a young fellow stepped forward and read a list of nine +names. Seven of the nine were in the room and came to the front, the +clerk ticking off their names on the sheet.</p> + +<p>"Can we go on?" asked Hamilton. "I would like to see just how this +works!"</p> + +<p>"All right," responded his guide, smiling at the boy's eagerness, "go +ahead."</p> + +<p>As they reached the next room, Hamilton saw the clerk ushering the seven +immigrants behind a grating. Outside the grate was a narrow open space +and then a desk. On the farther side of the desk the friends of the +seven in question were waiting. There was one lad, just about his own +age, among the friends, and Hamilton waited curiously to see whom he was +to meet. Among the immigrants was a sweet-faced old Frenchwoman, and +Hamilton hoped that she might be the lad's relative. As it chanced, this +boy was the first to come up.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-15-t.jpg' width='643' height='400' alt='IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island.)</p></div> + +<p>"For whom are you calling?" he was asked.</p> + +<p>The young lad answered clearly and promptly, and the clerk nodded +approvingly as the questions proceeded.</p> + +<p>"You say you have an older brother," the clerk said, "and the two of you +are able to keep your grandmother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, sir," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"You are young to have come. Why didn't your brother come instead?"</p> + +<p>"He has been a waiter in a French hotel," answered the boy, "and has not +learned much English He asked me to come."</p> + +<p>A few short, sharp queries established the relationship without question +and the boy was released from the desk. The door in the grating was +opened, and to Hamilton's delight it was the old Frenchwoman who came +out. After a most affectionate greeting, they went off together, the boy +coming back to thank the clerk profusely, with true French courtesy.</p> + +<p>"I suppose all that is necessary," said Hamilton "but I'll admit I don't +see why. No one would be likely to call for some one else's +grandmother!"</p> + +<p>"We want to be sure that women who land here are really with their own +people," said the official, evading a more direct statement, "and +sometimes if the chief of the 'temporary detention' work is not +satisfied, the immigrant is sent back to 'special inquiry.'"</p> + +<p>"How long are they detained?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly all go out the same day. A few, however, have to telegraph for +their friends to meet them, and we look after that on their behalf. They +are never temporarily detained over five days, except in the case where +a child has been held in quarantine and some member of the family has to +remain until the patient is released in order to take charge of him. +That covers, you see, all those who come here except the 'special +inquiry' cases."</p> + +<p>"May I see those?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's not so easy," his friend replied, "and you wouldn't get much out +of it. They are handled, one by one, in Courts of Special Inquiry, each +court consisting of three inspectors, an interpreter, and a +stenographer, while doctors are always on call. Special Inquiry, +remember, does not mean that there is any reason for excluding the +immigrant, merely that his inclusion is not self-evident. In most cases, +answers to a few questions settle all difficulties, and the decisions to +exclude are rare. In doubtful cases, a Court of Special Inquiry takes +great pains to investigate the whole condition closely. When a decision +to exclude is reached, the immigrant is given an opportunity to 'appeal' +to the Commissioner, and these appeals vary from fifteen to seventy a +day. Further appeals may be taken in rare cases."</p> + +<p>"And when all appeals are lost?"</p> + +<p>"Then the immigrant must be deported at the expense of the steamship +company that brought him."</p> + +<p>"What are the usual grounds for deportation?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Principally persons of unsound mind, insane, diseased, paupers likely +to become a public charge, criminals, anarchists, contract laborers, and +those who by physical defect are unable to make a living."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me that you go to a great deal of trouble here," Hamilton +said, "and it must be a big expense keeping and looking after such a mob +of people."</p> + +<p>"We don't pay for their keep," the official answered; "we make the +steamship companies do that. They are expected to bring desirable, not +undesirable immigrants here, and if they bring people whom we cannot +accept, they must take the consequences and bear the expense of +deporting them. Our deporting division looks after that, and it is one +of the hardest parts of our work. We've a pathetic case there now."</p> + +<p>"You mean that Bridget Mahoney case," said an inspector, who had just +stepped up. "I beg your pardon for interrupting, but I was just going to +ask you to come and see about that case. There are some new +developments."</p> + +<p>"I'll go right in," said Hamilton's guide interestedly. "I think you +might come along, too," he added, turning to the boy.</p> + +<p>"Who is Bridget Mahoney?" Hamilton asked. "That's a good old Irish +name."</p> + +<p>"And she's a good old Irish soul," the other answered. "She landed here +about three weeks ago, fully expecting her son to meet her, but during +the five days when she was in temporary detention he failed to show up."</p> + +<p>"But why didn't you telegraph to the son?" asked Hamilton, who was +beginning to feel as though he knew all the ropes.</p> + +<p>"We couldn't find his right address."</p> + +<p>"Was he a traveling man?"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't that. The woman said she knew he lived in a town called +Johnson, or Johnston, or something like that, but she didn't know in +what State. Now there are nearly forty post-offices with that name in +America, and we sent telegrams or letters to every one of these. But we +never received a definite reply."</p> + +<p>"Well, if she's all right, as you say she is," said Hamilton, "why can't +she land and wait until her son is reached?"</p> + +<p>"Bridget's over seventy," the chief replied, "and not very strong; she'd +be a public charge, sure."</p> + +<p>"And yet she's all right?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, perfectly," he said as soon as they reached the building.</p> + +<p>"We got this telegram yesterday and I took it to your office this +morning," the newcomer answered, "to talk it over with you, but you +weren't there."</p> + +<p>The chief of the Information Division glanced at the telegram and then +turned it over to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Read that," he said. "That's the way it came, without signature or +anything."</p> + +<p>Hamilton read it eagerly, and as soon as he had finished, "that's from +Bridget Mahoney's son," he announced, with as absolute assurance as +though it had been signed.</p> + +<p>The deportation official looked up in surprise, but Hamilton's guide +made a hasty explanatory introduction.</p> + +<p>"We should like to be as sure as you are," said the deportation chief, +"although I think we all rather hope it is from him. But you see it +isn't dated Johnstown or anything like that, and it isn't signed. Just +simply the words:</p> + +<p>"'Don't—deport—my—old—mother.'"</p> + +<p>"If you notice," he continued, "it comes from away out West, and it +might apply to any one of thousands of cases. 'My Old Mother' might have +been deported weeks ago."</p> + +<p>"But this is yesterday's wire," Hamilton's friend interjected, "you said +there were new developments in the case."</p> + +<p>"There are," Farrell replied, drawing another telegram out of his +pocket. "This one came this morning, and it's just about as intelligent +as the one you have. Notice, though, that it's dated from Chicago early +yesterday evening."</p> + +<p>"What does it say?" burst out Hamilton, too eager to wait until it was +read.</p> + +<p>"It's very short," was the answer, "it just reads:</p> + +<p>"'—Hold—Mother—'"</p> + +<p>"Unsigned?"</p> + +<p>"Unsigned, just as before."</p> + +<p>"It must be from the same person," Hamilton suggested.</p> + +<p>"I think there's little doubt of that," the deportation chief agreed.</p> + +<p>"Whoever sent it must be traveling fast," the boy remarked, "that last +one was from Montana."</p> + +<p>"I've been doing my best to persuade myself that I have the right to +keep Bridget longer. Twice I've begged an extra stay from the +Commissioner, and he's been willing to consent, but he thinks she's got +to go back now. There's really no valid reason that I can give against +it."</p> + +<p>As they walked toward the desk in the deporting division, one of the +clerks called the chief. He came back a moment or two later with a +telegram in his hand.</p> + +<p>"A third one," he said, "it must have come while I was out at lunch. The +same person wrote all three, for this is almost the same as the first; +it reads:</p> + +<p>"'—Don't—deport—my—old—Mother—I—have—plenty—to—support—her—'"</p> + +<p>"Where's it dated from?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't noticed," the deportation chief replied. "Oh, yes, why it's +from Albany!"</p> + +<p>"That's pretty near here!" Hamilton said excitedly. "Oh, Mr. Farrell, +what time was that sent?"</p> + +<p>"Quarter to twelve."</p> + +<p>"Whoever sent it ought to be here by now! Mr. Farrell, I'm just as sure +as can be that is from Bridget Mahoney's son."</p> + +<p>"If it is, he may reach here in time," the other answered, "but it will +mean a great deal of trouble, because the boat sails early in the +morning long before the office here is open, and the deported aliens go +on board to-night. Indeed they are going now—-if they haven't gone."</p> + +<p>"And Bridget with them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sorry to say Bridget is with them." He strolled to the +window. "No," he continued, "they haven't gone yet, but they will in a +few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Could I see her before she goes?"</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Just to cheer her up a bit," pleaded the boy.</p> + +<p>The two men looked at each other, and Hamilton's new acquaintance +nodded.</p> + +<p>"You won't say anything about these telegrams," the chief warned him.</p> + +<p>"No—very well," said Hamilton, "but it seems a shame that she doesn't +know."</p> + +<p>The three passed through the door to the yard beside the lawns, and +there Hamilton encountered one of the most desolate groups he had ever +seen, sitting and standing in all attitudes of dejection. Among them was +a little old lady with snow-white hair, walking with a stick, but +clear-eyed and brisk-looking.</p> + +<p>"You're Mrs. Mahoney?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm Bridget Mahoney, young masther," the old Irishwoman answered, "at +your service, sorr."</p> + +<p>"I hear you haven't found your son yet," Hamilton said; "did you write +to him before you left the old country?"</p> + +<p>"I did, dear, but I intoirely disremember what I did wid the letther. I +know I intinded to give it to Mickey O'Murry, but I'll niver tell ye +whether I did give it to him, an' if I did, there's no knowin' av he +posted it. 'Tis a difficult thing to remember, this letther-postin' and +maybe he forgot."</p> + +<p>"But what did you write on the envelope? Can't you remember what you +wrote?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis I that am the poor hand for writin', young masther, but there was +no schoolin' when I was a gurrl such as there is now. Jim, that's me +son, he makes shift to read me writin', but he always sinds me a written +envelope to put me answer in so that the postman can read it. An' so I +niver learnt the address. I thought, av course, he'd be here. But he +isn't, dear, an' so I must thravel all the weary way home again."</p> + +<p>"But you don't sail till morning," said Hamilton, as cheerfully as he +could, "and maybe he'll come by then. I have a feeling, Mrs. Mahoney, +that he's just surely going to come."</p> + +<p>"I'm not thinkin' it," the old woman said bravely, "but I take it +kindly, young masther, that ye should thry an' make the goin' easy. But +it isn't easy, 'tis a hard returnin'. An' me so proud that me son should +send for his ould mother. 'Tis a great country this America, but it's +too big. I'd niver 'ave lost me Jim in the ould country. I see they're +callin' us, an' I wish ye an ould woman's blessin', young masther, for +your cheerin' me at the last."</p> + +<p>With a certain dignity, the old woman turned away and shook hands with +all the officials, with whom she had become a favorite during the three +weeks of her stay. Hamilton just ached to be able to do something, to +tell the Commissioner of the later telegrams, to appeal to the +department, to make some wild effort, but the actuality of the group for +deportation slowly making their way to the barge showed him the folly of +any such ideas. He roused himself, just as the friendly official who had +been his guide turned round with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you have seen it all now," he said, "and as the boat from New +York is just pulling in, you'll have plenty of time to board her."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked his conductor warmly, and with a final look at the +group about to be deported, the last few stragglers of whom were making +their way toward the barge, he started along the wharf in the direction +of the New York boat. He was on the opposite side of the ship and had to +walk round, but, as his friend had said, there was plenty of time. He +had a good view of the boat as she landed.</p> + +<p>The minute the bow touched the quay, before the mooring chains were on, +a middle-aged man who had been standing in the front of the boat, leaped +the light chain that runs waist high across the bow, and started on a +dead run up the bridge to the shore. One of the inspectors tried to stop +him, but he cried, as he went past:</p> + +<p>"I'm going to the Commissioner's office. Don't stop me. I'm in a hurry."</p> + +<p>Hamilton could just hear him, and it struck the boy as unnecessary for +the man to say he was in a hurry, for he showed it clearly enough. But +just before the runner reached him a sudden thought flashed into the +boy's mind.</p> + +<p>"Are you Jim Mahoney?" he called, just as the man swept by.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the other, scarcely slackening speed and passing him.</p> + +<p>Hamilton wheeled on the instant, and caught up to him in a few steps, +for the other man was older, not in training, and getting out of breath.</p> + +<p>"You'll do it, don't worry," the boy said, as he overtook him, running +along beside him. "I was talking to your mother a few minutes ago and +she was all right. But she was just starting for the steamer then. +There's not a second to lose."</p> + +<p>"What shall I do?" puffed the other.</p> + +<p>"Go in there, by that door marked 'Information.' Tell them who you are +and they'll fix things up in a hurry. Then go up and see the +Commissioner. I'll go on and tell them at the boat."</p> + +<p>Then, seeing that the man hesitated, he shouted:</p> + +<p>"Go in there," and nudged him in the direction of the door.</p> + +<p>As the man turned, Hamilton settled himself down to run. In a second he +was at the landing. The tender had just cast off her ropes and was +moving out.</p> + +<p>"Bridget," he cried, and his voice rang high and clear above the +dripping of the water from the cable, the creaking of the wheel as it +swung round, and the churning of the screw. "Bridget, Bridget Mahoney, +Jim's here!"</p> + +<p>The captain came to the window of the pilot house and called back:</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Bridget!" he shouted again. "Bridget Mahoney's Jim's here!"</p> + +<p>There was a pause, the captain not seeming to understand the situation, +but a cheer went up from the deportation officials on board and from +some of the tender's crew who knew; and the cry ran along the decks:</p> + +<p>"Bridget, Bridget Mahoney! Jim's here!"</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-16-t.jpg' width='615' height='400' alt='WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island.)</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Leaving New York the next day after his visit to the Immigration Station +on Ellis Island, Hamilton stayed only a few hours in Washington to +receive final instructions before proceeding to the southwestern part of +Kentucky where his work as a population census-taker was to begin.</p> + +<p>At the appointed place he found the supervisor awaiting him.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know," remarked his brother's friend, shaking hands, +"that I've given you a fairly well scattered district to cover. You said +you wanted to get a chance to see Kentucky as it really is, and this, +together with your mountain experience, ought to give you variety +enough."</p> + +<p>"They told me in Washington that it was largely a negro district?" the +boy said questioningly.</p> + +<p>"It is about as much of a black district as any in Kentucky," was the +reply, "but it isn't solid black by any means. Therein lies its +interest. The negroes are of all varieties, from old-time slaves who +have never left the plantation on which they were piccaninnies during +the war, to progressive negroes owning fair-sized tracts of land, most +of them still living in the one-room shacks that you see all over the +country, but a few having bought what used to be the 'big house' in +antebellum days."</p> + +<p>"That's just exactly what I was after," Hamilton said with delight. "How +do I cover it, sir? In the saddle?"</p> + +<p>"You can drive, if you want to," the supervisor replied, "and if it +wasn't for the agricultural schedules, I think it would be easier to do +the work from a buggy. But with the field work to consider, and in a +district as scattered as yours is, the saddle might work out better."</p> + +<p>"I had been thinking of that," Hamilton said, "if a farmer was on the +other side of a plowed patch, I'd have no way of getting to him in a +buggy except by tying the horse and walking, while in the saddle I could +easily take short cuts. And I imagine, in a countryside such as you say +this is, I'll probably need to see every one on the place in order to +get anything like accurate figures."</p> + +<p>"It's not at all unlikely," the supervisor rejoined. "Well, I thought +you would be needing a horse, and I've been looking round for one for +some time. I think I have the very one you will want. I told the owner +to hold back sale until you had a chance to look at her."</p> + +<p>"Then the quicker I see the owner, the better?" suggested the boy.</p> + +<p>"I think I had better go with you," the supervisor said, "and then they +won't try any over-clever work. Horse-dealing isn't always the most +guileless business, you know."</p> + +<p>"So I've understood," Hamilton said, "and I really don't know enough to +judge the fine points of a horse."</p> + +<p>"I was born and bred in the Blue Grass," his friend remarked, "and so +I've been around horses pretty much all my days. The census work is +quite a change from that."</p> + +<p>"I hope you didn't have any bother over my coming in this somewhat +irregular way?" asked Hamilton, remembering what Mr. Burns had said to +him in Washington.</p> + +<p>The supervisor laughed.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious," he said, "but there were several people who tried to +cut you out,—one of them especially. There were three applicants for +this district, and the one who was most resentful about an outsider +coming in wouldn't have been appointed under any circumstances. Indeed, +the best of the three undertook to describe the other two. His letter +was a wonder," he added, picking up one of the files; "I think I saved +it.—Yes, here it is. Read it, while I get ready to go out with you," +and he handed the letter to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The letter was as follows in every detail:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"MR. —— + +<p> "Dr. Sir I made out the Blank for a Job taking Census was a going + to make it & when I Got to the Postoffice there was such an a ray + of aplicants I concluded not to do so</p> + +<p> "in the first Place there is two of these aplicants are Habichual + Drunkards one Professor A—— the other Mr. P—— A—— was born in + Canaday & has NO Interest here Except to be Suported by his wife & + the Publick & has had his Last School to Teach in this Town. he is + so Imoral People will not Tollerate him any Longer the Wrighter has + seen him on a Saturday SO Drunk he would Fall against People he met + if that is the Kind of Man you are looking For I don't want a Job I + can get along without</p> + +<p> "I will send in my application Just the Same</p> + +<p> "Mr. P—— is Not fare behind and is Dealer in Coal & Feed & his + Father has to take Cair of the Business for him.</p> + +<p> "Dont concider him for a moment Mr</p> + +<p> "as to my self this is the Firste time I ever aske for Publick + Buisness & I am an Indipendent Belever of mans Privlages & always + lived in this County</p> + +<p> "you have this Information Without feer of any of above statements + Being Denide</p> + +<p> "I remain Resptfully</p> + +<p> "———"</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton laughed as he returned the letter to the supervisor, who had +just come back with his hat and gloves as the boy finished reading the +epistle.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I need have been afraid of any of those three as rivals," +he said, "that is, if our friend is right. His information, however, may +not be any more correct than his spelling."</p> + +<p>"It's exaggerated, of course," the supervisor answered, "that's easy to +see, but setting aside the question of jealousy there's a good deal of +truth in what he says. Selecting and teaching enumerators was no light +job, let me tell you. You take seventy-five to a hundred absolutely +green hands, who have never done anything like it before, and it is a +hard proposition to make them understand. When you have to try and teach +them in a few weeks just how to do what is really difficult to do well, +you have a heavy task on your hands."</p> + +<p>"You didn't appoint any colored enumerators, I suppose?" Hamilton +questioned.</p> + +<p>"No," the supervisor answered decidedly. "My judgment was against it to +start with and I couldn't see that any of my districts warranted it. It +may be different in counties where the proportion of colored population +runs as high as eighty and ninety per cent, but there are none like that +in Kentucky."</p> + +<p>"Just in Georgia and Mississippi?"</p> + +<p>"Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas have a few scattering 'black' +counties too," the supervisor answered, "for I wrote to several places +about this very colored enumerator question. I found the supervisors +over those districts about evenly divided for and against. I have been +able to get suitable men all through, I think, though I might have had +difficulty in securing a good appointee for your district."</p> + +<p>"It's pretty wild out there evidently," Hamilton said anticipatorily.</p> + +<p>"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, +you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess +neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of +the world at all."</p> + +<p>Hamilton whistled softly.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as +that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, +because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places +where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern."</p> + +<p>"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he +turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more +beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the +building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking.</p> + +<p>"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy.</p> + +<p>The supervisor laughed.</p> + +<p>"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's +a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked +on another twenty dollars."</p> + +<p>"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin.</p> + +<p>"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any +objections."</p> + +<p>"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you +said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that stands," his friend replied.</p> + +<p>"All right, then," said Hamilton, "I'll take her."</p> + +<p>The supervisor pulled out his pocketbook.</p> + +<p>"I had an idea," he said, "that you were just boy enough to want the +mare when you saw her and to want her right away. I made out a check for +the amount, and you can make one out to me when you get ready," and he +handed the slip to the boy.</p> + +<p>Hamilton started to thank him, but the supervisor cut him short.</p> + +<p>"If you'll come to the office this afternoon," he said, "the clerk will +give you the schedules and papers all ready made out for your district. +Here's a typewritten copy of the lectures I've been giving to the +enumerators, and while I don't suppose you really need to, you had +better read it over and return it to me when you're through with it. Now +I'm going to leave you here with this gentleman," he added, nodding to +the owner of the horse, "and you can arrange with him about getting a +saddle and so forth for the mare. Drop in at the office in the morning +as you start out and I'll make sure that nothing has been forgotten. See +you later," and with a nod to Hamilton, he stepped out of the stable.</p> + +<p>To the boy the afternoon fairly seemed to fly, there were so many things +to do; and it was not until just before closing hours that he reached +the office and secured his portfolio. He had a brief chat with the +clerk, and went back to his hotel to study carefully the map of his +district and the route suggested, and to make sure that he thoroughly +understood the population and agricultural schedules he would have to +use. They were different in form, of course, from the manufacturing +schedules which the boy knew by heart, but the essential principles were +the same, and Hamilton found that in half an hour's time he saw plain +sailing.</p> + +<p>"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half +aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard +for any one not at all used to it."</p> + +<p>By supper time—they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little +hotel—Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, +and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day +before him.</p> + +<p>The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the +journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a +moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his +good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being +well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal +had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted +him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the +first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner +started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty +houses.</p> + +<p>The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be +comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample +of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a +typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door +to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home +was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton +felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the +census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill +in."</p> + +<p>"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered +the young negro woman, who appeared at the door.</p> + +<p>"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?"</p> + +<p>"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm +no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh +jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah +jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things."</p> + +<p>"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are +about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah, yes, sah. Ah tol' mah husban' so when we were talkin' about +that yar farm business. The paper in the town gave a list o' questions, +an' Ah thought Ah would get mah Steve to help me get ready so's Ah sh'd +be able to answer yo' rightly when yo' come aroun', but he jes' said he +was too tiehed to do anythin', an' dat ar census list is the +confusin'est thing Ah eveh saw. Ah thought Ah ought to do somethin', an' +so Ah jes' took a big sheet o' wrappin' paper an' started to write the +answers to the quest'ns on that, thinkin' some o' the neighbors' +children would copy it on the sheet fo' me. But, I tell yo', sah, that +befo' I was half way through tellin' what the newspaper said we had to +tell, I was so mixed up that I was writin' mahself down as mah own +daughter and provin' that the baby was twice divo'ced."</p> + +<p>"Then you really haven't got anything ready at all," said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Nothin', sah."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll just have to ask you the questions, and put the answers down +myself," the boy said cheerfully. "We might as well start right now."</p> + +<p>"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' +pens an' ink."</p> + +<p>"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier +writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon +as he was seated, "has this house a number?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street."</p> + +<p>"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said +Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the +family. I think you said something about your husband?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years."</p> + +<p>"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?"</p> + +<p>"Lawson, sah."</p> + +<p>"He's colored, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected."</p> + +<p>"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, +Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, +and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column.</p> + +<p>"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes' +twenty-one when Ah married him."</p> + +<p>"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen +Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to +show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a +girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young."</p> + +<p>"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday."</p> + +<p>"And your name is—?"</p> + +<p>"Lily, sah."</p> + +<p>"Any other name?"</p> + +<p>"Mariamne, sah."</p> + +<p>For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife," +"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first +marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock.</p> + +<p>"You have children?"</p> + +<p>"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever, +sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!"</p> + +<p>"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful +things to help them now, you know. And he can learn a lot by reading."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, it's hard enough. But we're glad he ain't blind."</p> + +<p>"And what is his name?"</p> + +<p>"Edward Habberton, sah, an' he's jes' fo' years old, near five."</p> + +<p>Hamilton entered the name of the little deaf and dumb boy, whom he +could see sitting in an inner room, and noted down in the schedule his +age, his color, and the nature of his affliction.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lily," he continued, "were you both born in Kentucky?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," she replied, "none of us, savin' little Eddie. I'm f'om +Delaware, an' mah Steve, he's f'om Maryland, where my mother come f'om."</p> + +<p>"Wait a bit," said Hamilton, holding up his hand to stop her, "let me +get this straight. Stephen Lawson is from Maryland, you said, you're +from Delaware, and the boy was born in this State. Is that right?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah."</p> + +<p>"And you said your mother came from Maryland but I suppose since you're +from Delaware your father was from Delaware also."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah," the woman answered, "he done live in Wilmin'ton all his +life."</p> + +<p>So Hamilton put down the birthplaces of the wife's parents and in the +same fashion those of the husband, while the filling in of the columns +for the parents of the child was simply a matter of copying.</p> + +<p>"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went +on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and +he entered this also on the language column.</p> + +<p>"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query.</p> + +<p>"He's a gardener, sah."</p> + +<p>"Odd jobs?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here."</p> + +<p>"On regular wages, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week."</p> + +<p>"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only +to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on +his own account.—But you must find it hard to get along on nine a +week."</p> + +<p>"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained.</p> + +<p>"You do? How?"</p> + +<p>"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like +that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as +twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week."</p> + +<p>"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the +woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified +by the letters "O.A." in the wage column.</p> + +<p>"You both read and write—or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't +write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you."</p> + +<p>"Ah can read pretty well," the woman replied, "but Ah never had enough +schoolin' to write much; mah mother was ill all the time, an' Ah had to +stay home. But Steve, he writes beautiful, an' he makes out all mah +bills an' things like that."</p> + +<p>"I think there's only one question more," the boy said, delighted to +find that after all, even in the house of a negro laundress who did not +know how to write, the information could be so easily secured. After +jotting down a "Yes" and a "No" respectively for Husband and Wife in the +columns for literacy, he continued, "And that question is, whether this +house is owned by you or whether you rent it."</p> + +<p>"We're only rentin' it, sah. Steve wants to buy it an' put a mo'gage on, +but Ah don't know anythin' about mo'gages an' Ah won't buy until Ah can +pay the whole price right down. Don' yo' think Ah'm right?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Lily," answered the lad, as he folded up his portfolio and +prepared to go to the next house, "it would hardly do for one of Uncle +Sam's census men to come between a husband and a wife on the question +of their buying of their own home, would it?"</p> + +<p>"Ah reckon not, sah. Is that all, sah?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lily, that's all, and I'm very much obliged."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so awful bad," said the woman, with a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"It's easy enough to answer census questions when you want to make it +easy and tell a straight story," Hamilton replied, "but you see what +trouble it would be for me with some one who wasn't willing to talk, and +how hard it would be for any one to make up a story as he went along, +and find it tally at every point in all the later questions."</p> + +<p>"Well, sah," she called, in reply, as the lad passed out, "Ah jes' hope +yo' don' fin' a single one like that in this hyar whole village."</p> + +<p>"I hope not, Lily. Good-morning," he rejoined and turned toward the next +house.</p> + +<p>The enumeration of the rest of the village went on rapidly. By working +quickly Hamilton was able to complete the numbering of the village by +nightfall, and he so stated on his daily report card, which he mailed to +the supervisor that evening.</p> + +<p>The following morning he started off on his little mare, and struck +something new and puzzling at every holding he touched. The agricultural +schedule fairly made his head swim. It had certain difficulties which +the manufacturing schedule did not have, because, although the latter +contained more detailed information and required a more accurate +statement, still all manufacturers kept books. For the details needed in +the agricultural statistics no books had been kept; the negro farmer +seldom or never knew how many chickens he had, and the wild guesses that +would be made as to value of animals and land nearly turned the boy's +hair gray. Some of the white farmers were every bit as careless, one man +valuing his horses at $200 apiece and the next at $50; one man +estimating his land at $150 an acre and the next at $10.</p> + +<p>A typical case was that of Patrick Meacham. Hamilton secured the facts +for his population schedule with comparatively little trouble from the +Meacham household, although he had to listen to a great deal of +unnecessary family history. There was no great difficulty, moreover, in +finding out that the farm consisted of 80 acres owned and 10 rented, but +a snag of the first magnitude was encountered on the question as to how +much of it was improved.</p> + +<p>"Sure, 'tis all improved," the farmer said; "it was in horrible shape +whin I bought it."</p> + +<p>"I don't mean improved that way," Hamilton objected, "what I want to +know is how much of it is good for pasture, is prepared for crops, and +so forth."</p> + +<p>"Sure, it's all good for somethin'," the Irishman answered; "what for +should I buy it if it wasn't good for anythin"?"</p> + +<p>"Have you a wood-lot?" asked Hamilton, deciding to try and get at the +question in another way.</p> + +<p>"I have a wood-lot. But I built a good strong fence around it, since I +came here,—ye don't mean to tell me that doesn't improve it? If ye +lived here, ye'd know better."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Mr. Meacham, it makes it better all right, but it +isn't counted in as 'improved land.' I'll put it down specially though. +There's ten acres of it, you said."</p> + +<p>"And there's ten acres of swamp land that ye couldn't improve unless ye +built it on piles," the farmer said.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to refer that to the Reclamation Service, I guess," the boy +answered, "anyhow for the time we'll just call it 'unimproved' and let +it go at that."</p> + +<p>The next few questions passed off without a hitch, but an inquiry +concerning the number of animals born on the place during the year was +like opening the flood-gates of a dam. If Meacham had been as good a +farmer as a yarn-spinner there would have been no question as to his +success, for he had some story to tell about every yearling on the +place, and they were inimitably told. It was with great reluctance that +Hamilton found himself obliged to head off the man's eloquence and make +him stick to hard facts. An inquiry as to the number of eggs sold was +somewhat of a puzzle, but the farmer's wife knew the amount of the +"trade" she had received at the grocery store in the nearest town in +return for eggs, and at an average sale price of nine cents a dozen, +this was easily computed. She was also the authority on the amount of +butter made and sold, and on the garden truck.</p> + +<p>The business man of the house was a twelve-year-old boy. Not far away, a +neighbor had forty acres in clover and some fruit trees, and knowing the +value of bees for pollinating the fruit, he was glad to have this boy +keep six hives near the orchard and field. A good share of the honey had +gone to the neighbor, and the family themselves had used all they +wanted, but still the boy's profit for what he had sold amounted to +sixty dollars. He was keen to have Hamilton enter him on the schedule as +an independent apiarist on his own account, but Hamilton pointed out to +him that a $250 farm was the smallest one allowed to be listed.</p> + +<p>This low limit was almost reached the next day when Hamilton found +himself on a peanut farm for the first time. He had always known that +peanuts, unlike all other "nuts," grew underground but he had made the +common mistake of supposing them to grow on the roots of the peanut +plant like the tubers of a potato, instead of really being a true nut, +developing from a flower the elongation of the lower portion of which +reaches to the ground. The farm was run by an orphaned colored girl +nineteen years old and her four younger brothers.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-17-t.jpg' width='412' height='600' alt='ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.</p></div> + +<p>"Jes' as soon as the young-uns gits big enough," she said to Hamilton, +when discussing the statistics of her little holding, "we're goin' to +buy a big patch o' peanut land. Ah'd like to grow peanuts every year, +but these hyar gov'nment papers say yo' shouldn't. They say once in +every fo' years is enough fo' peanuts, but Ah'm goin' to try it every +other year."</p> + +<p>"Aren't they a very troublesome crop?"</p> + +<p>"'Bout the same as potatoes, Ah reckon. But they pay a good price fo' +picked peanuts, an' Ah can get these boys hyar to do the pickin'. In one +o' the papers Ah saw up to Colonel 'Gerius' place the other day, one the +gov'nment puts out, thar's a list showin' this country has to send to +foreign countries fo' twelve million bushels o' peanuts every year. Ah'm +goin' to try raisin' a real big crop, and Dicky hyar," she added, +pointing to the oldest boy, "thinks jes' as I do about it."</p> + +<p>Hamilton was distinctly impressed with the evidence that this young +negro girl and her younger brothers not only knew enough about the +peanut business to be able to make it pay, but that they were reading +the government bulletins.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," he said hastily, "that you people—" and he stopped +suddenly, realizing the ungracious ending to his sentence.</p> + +<p>"You mean us colored folks,—you didn't think we troubled 'bout such +things? Yas, sah, we don' have all the advantages o' white folks but +we're improvin' right along. Colonel 'Gerius jes' does all he can, an' +he gets us gov'nment seeds an' papers, an' advises every one fo' miles +aroun'. Yas, sah, we're gettin' on. If yo' have to go to Bullertown, +sah, yo'll fin' as nice a li'l place as thar is f'om one end o' the +United States cla'r to the other, an' thar's not one white person in +it."</p> + +<p>"Bullertown?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I'm glad to hear it, for +that's the next place on my map."</p> + +<p>"We're all proud of it hyar, sah, an' it 'pears to me, Bullertown owes +jes' everythin' to the folks at the Big House and to Mistah Ephraim +Jones. Yo'll see Mistah Jones, sah, an' I'd take it kindly if yo'll +remember me to him."</p> + +<p>"All right, Delia, I will," said Hamilton. "Let's see, I did get all the +figures, didn't I?"</p> + +<p>"Yo' said yo' had them all, sah," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Good enough. Well, I guess I'll go along. I'll not forget your message. +Good-by—" and the boy set his horse on a canter down the narrow road. +Throughout the rest of the day the census-gathering was of similar +character, and it was drawing toward dark when the boy saw before him a +well-ordered array of houses which he felt sure must be Bullertown. +Asking his way to the hotel from the first darky that he met, he was +answered most courteously.</p> + +<p>"Thar's no hotel hyar, sah," the negro said, "but Mr. Ephraim Jones +entertains the visitin' strangehs, sah, an' if yo' go right on to that +big yaller house an' ask fo' Mr. Jones, sah, Ah jes' knows yo'll be +right welcome."</p> + +<p>Hamilton felt diffident about quartering himself upon a perfect stranger +in this way, but it seemed to be the custom of the place, and since +there was no hotel, there seemed nothing else to do, and he rode on to +the gate. Tethering his mare to a tie-post in front of the house he +started up the walk, carrying his portfolio, so that in the event of any +mistake he might be able to make it appear that he had merely come to +take the census. But before he reached the door it was opened by a +wrinkled and old, but dignified darky.</p> + +<p>"Walk in, sah, walk right in," he said. "Ah'll sen' one o' the boys to +look after yo' horse. Tom!" he called, "yo' take the gen'leman's horse +to the stable, rub him down with a wisp, an' give him some hay. In half +an hour water him, an' give him a feed o' oats."</p> + +<p>"I'm obliged to you," said Hamilton, "for taking all this trouble, but +perhaps I had better explain who I am."</p> + +<p>"That's jes' as yo' like, sah."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Hamilton, "I'm the census-taker for this district, and I +was looking for a hotel where I could stay the night and begin work in +the morning. A man I met on the street told me that this town had no +hotel and suggested that if I came to you, I might be advised where to +go."</p> + +<p>"We have no hotel in Bullertown, sah," the old negro preacher answered, +"but the gen'lemen that come hyar do me the honor us'ally, sah, of bein' +my guests. Ah have a guest-room, sah, jes' 'sclusively fo' gen'lemen who +are not people of color."</p> + +<p>Hamilton found himself flushing at the consciousness that this very +thought had been in his mind, and in order to cover any possible signs +that might have appeared in his expression, he answered hastily:</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right,—it wouldn't have mattered."</p> + +<p>The old preacher looked at him quietly and a little reproachfully and +said:</p> + +<p>"If you don' jes' mean things like that, young sah, don' say them. We +know. We find, sah, that it is mos' desirable for every one concerned. +If yo' like, sah, an' if yo're ready, Ah'll show yo' to yo'r room."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-18-t.jpg' width='600' height='447' alt='IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-19-t.jpg' width='600' height='392' alt='IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton could not help contrasting this reception with that which he +would have received in any town not entirely a negro community, and he +expressed this feeling to his host as they went up the stairs.</p> + +<p>"It is entirely different hyar, sah," the latter said, "yo' see we are +isolated, an' a guest is rare. Then this community is a syndicate an' is +not run like a town. Thar's no quest'n hyar, sah, about colored and +white people bein' the same,—we know they're different. An' we believe, +sah, that it is in preservin' the color line, not in tryin' to hide it, +that the future good of our race lies. An' so thar's not a foot o' land +in Bullertown owned by any other than people o' color, an' not a white +person lives hyar."</p> + +<p>"You own all the land, then?"</p> + +<p>"The syndicate does, yes, sah."</p> + +<p>"Then you must have some wealthy men among you?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah, not one. The town was begun, sah, by the kindness of Colonel +Egerius."</p> + +<p>"Colonel—he was, that is, he is—" began Hamilton, stammering.</p> + +<p>"He is not a negro, sah," the old man answered finishing the boy's +embarrassed sentence for him with entire self-possession. "Colonel +Egerius, sah, was a plantation owner, befo' the war. Ah was one o' his +slaves, an' mos' o' the people in Bullertown are the children o' those +born in the plantation quarters."</p> + +<p>"And he started the town?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, in a way. He fought with Lee, sah, an' my brother was his +body-servant all through the war. When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came +back to the old plantation. Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was +quite a few left still. He called us to the big house an' tol' us to +stay by the ol' place an' he would pay us wages. Some—Ah was not one o' +them, though Ah see now they were right,—said the quarters were not fit +to live in."</p> + +<p>"But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master? How could +that be if the quarters were so bad?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," he said, "Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was +fair an' ready to help a willin' worker. But his slaves was his slaves +an' they had no rights. Thar wasn't any whippin' or any o' that sort o' +thing, but it was work all day, f'om befo' daylight till afteh dark, an' +we lived jes' anyhow."</p> + +<p>"How came he to start the town, then?" queried Hamilton. "Your +description of him doesn't sound as though he were a man who would do +much for you."</p> + +<p>"It was jes' because o' that, Ah think, that he did, sah. He was just, +sah. He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves. +Now that the negro was not a slave any mo', thar was no reason to make +him live like one. He used to say the South was now pledged to help the +nation instead o' the Confederacy, an' while he did not agree, he would +live up to that pledge."</p> + +<p>"That seems as fair as anything could be."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it. Thar was no +money in the place, the slaves hadn' had wages, an' yo' can't build +houses without money, an' money was scarce afteh the war."</p> + +<p>"How in the wide world did you manage it?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"As Ah was sayin', sah, it was Colonel Egerius' doin'. He got a surveyor +from the town an' hunted over the plantation to fin' the best site fo' +a village,—the surveyor's name was Buller."</p> + +<p>"That's where the town got its name, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, Ah jes' wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn't +hear of it. Then all o' the ol' slaves that wanted to stay by the place +got together, an' the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o' syndicate. +Then he sol' us the land jes' as low as it could be made, payment to be +in labor on the plantation, so in a few years' work every man who wanted +to stay reg'lar on the job got title to his lan' an' his house, an' took +wages afteh that."</p> + +<p>"That was a wise move," said the boy after a moment's thought. "He sold +his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, +established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the +same time fixed it all right for you."</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," the old negro answered, "an' now every man in the town +either owns his house or is buyin' one f'om the syndicate, an' we have +bought up all the surveyed property f'om the Colonel. Now, sah," +continued the preacher, "if yo' will excuse me, Ah will see that yo'r +supper is got ready. Hyar, sah," he added, opening the door into a +small room, "is yo'r sittin' room, an' yo'r supper will be served hyar."</p> + +<p>As much surprised as gratified at the excellent arrangements for his +comfort, Hamilton refreshed himself after his dusty ride, and was as +hungry as a wolf when supper arrived. A little darky girl, black as the +ace of spades, waited at table, and in conversation Hamilton learned +that she was the adopted daughter of the eldest son of the negro +preacher, the son being a professor in one of the negro colleges. After +supper Hamilton asked to see his host in order that he might secure the +details of the family for the census, and thus make use of a disengaged +evening.</p> + +<p>"So your son is Professor of English at the University," said Hamilton, +as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio. "Do, +you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he +ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?"</p> + +<p>"Thar should be one good university," said the old preacher, "with very +difficult admission examinations. It would be a good thing fo' colored +lawyers an' doctors, an' if the standard were high—higher even than in +white colleges—these men would get standin' fo' themselves an' give +standin' to the colored race. But, even then, I'd have them keep away +f'om the other lawyers an' doctors."</p> + +<p>"You're strong on that color line, Ephraim," the boy remarked. "Surely +you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>"As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do," was the unexpected answer, "an' +thar's no place fo' the negro in the city. He can't beat the white man, +an' thar's no chance o' his securin' a monopoly o' any trade. Thar's +nothin' fo' him in the city savin' jes' labor an' bein' a servant, a +porter, or somethin' o' that kind."</p> + +<p>"You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities," the boy +remarked, "they're mostly elevator runners and in positions of that +kind."</p> + +<p>"It is in the No'th that trouble lies," the old man said, "the South has +settled hers."</p> + +<p>"How do you make that out?" cried the boy. "You say the South has +settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, +down here and in the Gulf States."</p> + +<p>The old negro preacher shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than +two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was +grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of +America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the +land lease it on a share basis known as the métayer system, but more'n +more o' them are owners every year."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all," said +Hamilton thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to +the New England States is owned by the colored race," was the reply, +"makin' in the United States a negro country larger than plenty o' +kingdoms."</p> + +<p>"And is that land worth much?"</p> + +<p>"Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' +it's worth a lot mo' now."</p> + +<p>"But," said Hamilton, "the negro doesn't seem able to make use of it. +Even if he does own the land and is making money, he still goes on +living in a shiftless way. One would hardly believe the kind of shacks +I've seen in the last couple of days."</p> + +<p>"Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah," the old negro answered, "Ah +reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in +one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, +women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along."</p> + +<p>"They ought," said the boy, "if they're working on cotton, because, I've +been told, that is always a cash crop. But why does every one leave the +cotton crop to the negro. It isn't a hard crop to raise, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah," the preacher +answered. "It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in +summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' +until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have +much cool weather down hyar."</p> + +<p>"You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?" asked the boy, who had +never seen a cotton plantation and wanted to know something about it.</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' +hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh +night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant +doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it +that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go +pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on +yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' +labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' +headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe +it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a +mulatto th'n a full-blood negro."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-20-t.jpg' width='673' height='400' alt=""'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (Brown Bros.)" title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>"'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<p>"You would make all the negroes cotton planters?"</p> + +<p>"Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah," the +old man answered, "an' the trade schools would provide fo' all the +workers in towns in the cotton district, an' in solid negro towns thar'd +be room fo' all the colored doctors an' lawyers an' preachers."</p> + +<p>"I see your idea," said Hamilton. "You would just make the cotton +section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?"</p> + +<p>"No, sah," the other answered decidedly. "It's jes' those No'thern +niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up +No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored +people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk +about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good +many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. +But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let +yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his +host, "if that isn't a whole lot more likely to be true than the +alarmist stories you read in magazines."</p> + +<p>The following morning, after Hamilton had almost finished covering one +side of the street in collecting the census statistics, he heard the +trot of horses' hoofs, and looking up, saw a tall, stern-visaged +soldierly-looking gentleman, with iron-gray hair, riding a powerful +iron-gray horse. Beside him rode a young fellow, evidently his son. Both +reined up when they saw Hamilton. Seeing that he was expected to +introduce himself, he stepped forward.</p> + +<p>"My name is Hamilton Noble," he said; "I'm the census enumerator for +this district. I presume you are Colonel Egerius?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Noble," the old Confederate leader replied. "Ephraim sent me +word that you were here, and I received a letter a week ago from the +supervisor, whom I have known for some time, telling me that you were a +friend of his. I wanted to bid you welcome, sir, and to express the hope +that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at dinner with us +to-night."</p> + +<p>Hamilton bowed.</p> + +<p>"I shall enjoy coming, Colonel Egerius," he said. "At what hour?"</p> + +<p>"Six-thirty," the Colonel replied, "we keep early hours in the country. +By the way," he added, "have you heard anything of this peonage business +here this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," the boy answered, "I started out with my schedules bright and +early."</p> + +<p>"I purpose to hold an inquiry after lunch," the planter continued. "You +are lunching at Ephraim's of course?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Colonel Egerius," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"Very well," was the reply, "we will lunch together if you have no +objection. Since I heard of your expected arrival I have been looking +forward to your visit. Now that you are here, sir, we must make the most +of you. Allow me to present my son Percy."</p> + +<p>Hamilton made a suitable reply, and consulting his watch found that it +was almost lunch time.</p> + +<p>"I will join you in half an hour, Colonel Egerius," he said, "and shall +look forward to the evening with great pleasure."</p> + +<p>"You play a good knife and fork, I trust," said the old gentleman, +smiling, as he gathered up the reins.</p> + +<p>"Almost good enough to do justice even to Southern hospitality," +answered Hamilton with a smile. The old soldier nodded approvingly. +"Remember now," he said, as he rode away, "we'll hold you to your word."</p> + +<p>At lunch Hamilton took occasion to remark on the well-being of +Bullertown.</p> + +<p>"I was surprised," he said, "to find a village so well managed and +looked after, and all by negroes."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing surprising in that," the Colonel answered. "How could +they do anything different? I have shown them every step they were to +take; all that they had to do was to continue."</p> + +<p>"You mean they couldn't have done it by themselves?"</p> + +<p>"The negro never has done anything by himself," the old Confederate +replied. "He has lived as far back as time goes in one of the most +fertile and well-watered countries of the world,—Africa—and he never +had enough initiative to rise out of tribal conditions."</p> + +<p>"But he seems to be doing all right now," suggested Hamilton. "I hear +the negro is getting to own quite a share of the cotton crop."</p> + +<p>"He has not done so well as appearances would show," the soldier +replied; "he has learned a few—only a few—of the tricks of modern +civilization, and those only outwardly. The few cases of leadership such +as that of Booker T. Washington, for instance, are due to the white +strain, not the negro."</p> + +<p>"I thought Booker T. Washington was a pure negro!" exclaimed Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He is not," was the emphatic reply. "In his own writings he states that +his father was a white man. His mother was a negress. He gets his brains +from his father and his color from his mother."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the negroes will ever marry enough with the white to +become all white?"</p> + +<p>"Not now," the Southerner answered. "It is a crime in many States and +punishable with imprisonment."</p> + +<p>"Then what's going to be done?"</p> + +<p>"I'm unreconstructed yet," the old Colonel said grimly. "I think still +the negroes were better off as slaves. They're always going to be +slaves, anyway, whether in name or not. And as for their relation to +the cotton crop. You say they are succeeding in it. Perhaps. But did +they learn the uses of cotton, did they develop machinery to clean and +spin it, or devices for weaving? Was it negroes who worked out the best +means of cultivating the cotton or experimented on the nature of the +most fertile soils? Not a bit of it. They simply grow cotton the way the +white folks showed them."</p> + +<p>"But they seem to be getting a big share of it!"</p> + +<p>"I see you've been talking to Ephraim. What good would it do the negroes +if they owned every foot of the cotton land? They would still have to +depend on the man that buys the crop, and the cotton exchange wouldn't +be run for the benefit of the negro. In slavery days, too, there was +some one to take an interest in the negro and help him. Now he's got to +do it for himself, and he can't do anything but go on in the same old +groove."</p> + +<p>"You think it was better in the old days?"</p> + +<p>"In some ways for the negro, yes. But it was harder for the people of +the South. There was always trouble of some kind in the slave quarters. +Before the war you had to support all the old, the sick, the children, +and the poor workers. Under present conditions you hire just whom you +want. The cost is about even, and the responsibility is less. Now," he +added, lunch being over, "if you've finished we'll go and see what this +peonage business is. Ephraim," he called, "is that man here?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah," answered the old negro. "He's hyar."</p> + +<p>"Bring him in, then."</p> + +<p>In a minute or two the old darky returned, bringing with him a gaunt, +emaciated negro, who cringed as he entered the room. He was followed by +a brisk, young mulatto.</p> + +<p>"If yo' please, Massa," said the old preacher, dropping unconsciously +into the familiar form of address, "this is Peter, young Peter's +father."</p> + +<p>"I've seen him before," the Colonel said abruptly "Peter, were you on +this plantation?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, Massa."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with him, Ephraim?" queried the old soldier. "He +looks to me as though he hadn't had enough to eat."</p> + +<p>"It isn't only that, Massa," said the negro, "he's been whipped 'most to +death."</p> + +<p>"Whipped!" cried Hamilton, startled. Then, remembering suddenly that +the matter was not his concern, he flushed and turned to the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "I forgot."</p> + +<p>The old soldier, who had been a stern disciplinarian in his time, had +drawn himself up indignantly at the boy's interruption, but his +immediate apology caused the old gentleman to see that it was just a +flash of boyish indignation, so he merely turned and said:</p> + +<p>"Let him tell his story."</p> + +<p>"Ah was born hyar durin' the war," the negro began. "Ah c'n jes' +remember Missis, an' Ah've often heard mah mother cry when we was livin' +in Atlanta an' trouble come, 'If only Ah could go to Missis.'"</p> + +<p>"Get to your story, boy," said the Colonel, "I haven't time to waste."</p> + +<p>"Ah was brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, an' times was always hard. Six +years ago Ah hired out to a lumber man in Florida. Thar were sixty of us +hired together. The pay was good. The day we come, we were put into a +group o' huts with a stockade 'roun', an' men with rifles guarded us +night an' day. Ah reckon thirty men was shot tryin' to escape durin' the +years I was thar."</p> + +<p>"Thirty?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah, leastways I know of five, an' heard o' the rest."</p> + +<p>"Talk about what you know, not what you've heard," admonished the old +soldier. "Go on."</p> + +<p>"It was killin' work. We had to be in the woods by daylight an' stay +thar until it was too dark to see. Thar was trouble enough at first but +the worst come later. About three years ago a lot mo' huts was put up +an' the stockade was made bigger. We thought things would be easier as +the new men would get all the knockin' about. Nex' week the new crowd +came,—they were convic's hired for the job."</p> + +<p>"Excuse my interrupting, Colonel Egerius," asked the lad, "but can that +be true? Does any State hire out its convicts to forced labor?"</p> + +<p>"Some do," was the reply, "and Florida is one of them. Go on, boy."</p> + +<p>"Floggin's started in when the convicts come, an' thar was no difference +made between us an' them. We were supposed to be paid, but our pay was +always in tickets to the comp'ny store, an' they charged double prices +for everythin'. They never gave us a cent o' money. A lot of us got +together an' decided to escape, but when it come to doin' it, only +three would go. One got away entirely, one was shot, an' Ah was caught. +They took me to the stockade an' whipped me 'mos' to death, three days +runnin'. The third day Ah was so near dead that they didn't tie me up, +an' when, hours later, Ah did stagger to mah feet, they jes' pointed to +the fields whar the hands was workin'. Ah heard one o' the guards say, +'He won't go far,' an' Ah hid in the woods, Ah don' know how long, jes' +livin' on berries, an' at las' Ah got away. Ah knew Ah would be safe in +Kentucky."</p> + +<p>The Colonel looked at the man closely.</p> + +<p>"I believe you've been a bad nigger," he said, "and I wouldn't believe +any more of your story than I had to. But it's easy enough to see that +you have been abused, and that you need help right now. I'll give you a +chance. Peter, your father is staying with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yas, sah."</p> + +<p>"Ephraim," the Colonel said, turning to the old preacher, "put this man +on the payroll as a field hand, beginning from to-morrow, but don't send +him to the field for a couple of weeks. Behave yourself," he added, +turning to the peonage victim, "and you'll be all right here."</p> + +<p>The negro thanked him profusely, and went out, his wretched frame +showing up miserably in the strong sunlight as he passed by the window +of the dining room.</p> + +<p>"But that's worse than any slavery I ever heard of," burst out Hamilton +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Peonage?" answered the old veteran. "Oh, yes, much worse."</p> + +<p>"And it still goes on?"</p> + +<p>"There were several hundred stockades in operation last year," was the +reply, "and that's a fair sample of their work."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-21-t.jpg' width='600' height='395' alt='HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>HOBOES ON THE TRAMP</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Although he realized that his lines had fallen in pleasant places for +the enumeration work, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction +that Hamilton entered up what was marked on the map as the last house, +and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and +was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire +district in the appointed time. In order to make his record as good as +possible the lad thought he would get an early start and be in the +supervisor's office before noon, thus emphasizing his punctuality. +Accordingly it was but a little after seven o'clock when he was in the +saddle and on the road.</p> + +<p>Knowing from experience that the highway made quite a circuit to reach a +little group of three houses, which he had already enumerated, Hamilton +struck out across country, using a little footpath through some woods. +At that early hour of the morning he was not expecting to meet any one, +and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later +he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one +with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as +though ready to show aggressiveness to any intruder, the other two on +the ground, one sitting, and one lying half asleep on some boughs +carelessly thrown down. As Hamilton was still in his enumeration +district and felt that here were some people who might not have been +registered, he pulled up.</p> + +<p>"'Morning, boys!" he said ingratiatingly.</p> + +<p>"Howdy!" the impromptu cook replied, and waited for the boy to go on.</p> + +<p>"I'm the census-taker for this district," the boy continued, "and I knew +this was a short cut across the fields; but I didn't know I should find +you here."</p> + +<p>"Inform the gentleman, Bill," spoke the traveler who was lying down, +"that we were equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting +but that we would have been better prepared to meet him had he sent a +courier to announce his coming."</p> + +<p>"You heard him," the first speaker supplemented jerking his thumb over +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I heard him all right," answered Hamilton, dropping immediately into +the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he had +left his town residence for this convenient and airy country house."</p> + +<p>"As I live, an intelligent reply!" was the response in tones of +surprise, and the speaker sat up on his rough couch.</p> + +<p>To Hamilton the situation was a little difficult. There would be no +trouble in merely exchanging a few greetings and then passing along on +his journey, but the boy was above all things conscientious, and he +could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books +of the census, and that now, on the very last day of census-taking, they +were in his district. And he knew well enough, that if he broached the +question it would not be favorably received. However he thought he saw a +way out.</p> + +<p>"If you have a pannikin of tea to spare," he said, "I'd enjoy it."</p> + +<p>"If you like to put up with what we've got, join us an' welcome," the +tall tramp said.</p> + +<p>"All right," Hamilton answered, "I will."</p> + +<p>"Permit me to do the honours!" said the second tramp. "This is 'Hatchet' +Ben Barclay, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith—not +because of his humor but because of his powers of persuasion, and I am +Harry Downe, very much at your service."</p> + +<p>"Better known as the 'Windy Duke,'" interjected the tea-maker, who had +by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was busy +frying slices of ham on a piece of stick over the hot wood coals.</p> + +<p>"I'm Hamilton Noble," the boy answered in return, "and I've just got +through taking the census for this district. I've got all the names in +here," he added, tapping his portfolio, "and now I'm going to the +supervisor's office to turn in my reports."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid your census will be incomplete," said 'Windy,' "for, so far +as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be lacking the names +and distinction of this gallant little company."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you been listed?" asked Hamilton, glad that the subject should +have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating +himself on the success of his device to secure the friendship of the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"Nary a list," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "the rustlers of the Ringling Circus +told us that they had been enumerated four times, once for every week +they played, an' that not a blessed one of the census men would believe +they had been taken before; but they cut us out entire."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I had better take you right now," said Hamilton. "I've +room on the census sheet for a few more names."</p> + +<p>"You can count me out," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not lookin' for that +kind of fame."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's fair to the country to let it know who you are?"</p> + +<p>"What's the census to me?" the other said defiantly. "I calc'late a +country that doesn't give a fellow a livin' doesn't care much about his +name."</p> + +<p>"But you're getting a living, just the same," answered Hamilton, "and +you're an American, anyhow, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"New York State," the tramp replied.</p> + +<p>"And you?" asked Hamilton, turning to the orator of the party.</p> + +<p>"I'm an Oxford man," answered the 'Windy Duke,' "classical tripos—if +you know what that means."</p> + +<p>"I do," answered Hamilton, "but why—" and he stopped.</p> + +<p>"You were going to ask me why I prefer to wander afield rather than be +'cribbed and confined' within narrow walls. I am but one of many, an +educated man without any knowledge of how to use his learning. Do you +care for Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I +can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to +none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I +am—in my humble way—quite an authority. But these magnificent +talents," he added with a self-depreciatory smile, "do not enable me to +run a business as successfully as a Greek fruit peddler or a Russian Jew +vender of old clothes."</p> + +<p>"You could teach," suggested Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Only my friends," replied the scholar. "To teach requires pedagogy and +numerous devices for improving the youthful mind. I do not greatly +admire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore +it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim +originality in this rôle; there have been 'scholar gypsies' before this. +The phrase sounds better than 'educated hobo,' but the meaning is the +same."</p> + +<p>"And you?" queried Hamilton of the third speaker.</p> + +<p>"Plain American," the other said simply, "born and raised in Ohio. Not a +Yankee, not a Westerner, not a Southerner,—nothin', jest plain +Middle-West American."</p> + +<p>"Well," suggested Hamilton, "I think you chaps ought to let me put you +down in the schedule here. We need white men in this country badly +enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest +showing we can. Two Americans and an Englishman will help the average +just that much. Part of the 'white man's burden,'" he added with a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"If you put it that way," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I calc'late after all I'm +elected for one. Anything I can do to put down, even on paper, these +foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, +I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob from the south o' Europe bein' +dumped down here by the hundred thousand every year, an' you can take +that straight from me."</p> + +<p>"It's a little curious," said Hamilton, noting down the facts as they +came up in conversation, not wanting to work directly upon the schedule +for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be Americans and one an +Englishman. Somehow, one always thinks of an American as making good, +not tramping it."</p> + +<p>"Nearly all hoboes are Americans," 'Hatchet Ben' explained, "there's a +few English, and a few Swedes. Lots of races in this country you never +meet on the road."</p> + +<p>"Trampdom," said 'Windy,' "is a most exclusive circle. For example, you +never saw a Jew hobo, did you?"</p> + +<p>"No," Hamilton said. "Never."</p> + +<p>"And you're never likely to," 'Hatchet Ben' interjected, "there's no +money in it, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. +There are a few French Canadians, but no real Frenchmen on the road, and +the Dagoes never take to it."</p> + +<p>"I wonder why?" Hamilton queried.</p> + +<p>"I purpose writing a monograph upon the subject of the nationality of +the Hobo Empire," the 'Windy Duke' broke in, "and therein I shall +enlarge upon my theory that the life of a tramp requires more +independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that +usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who +will not drop to the level of the horde below them and who consequently +take to the life of the road in protest against the usage of an +ill-arranged social state. That, for example, is the condition of my two +friends here."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind my asking what made you take to the road?" said +Hamilton, turning to the first speaker.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," 'Hatchet Ben' replied. "It's a very usual story. I'm a +steel worker by trade, an' when I was workin' I was reckoned among the +best in the plant."</p> + +<p>"What did you quit it for?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Slovaks," the man answered. "Every year or two the Pittsburg operators +would get together an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start +comin' to the West. They seemed to know where to come, an' started work +the mornin' after they got there, without even seein' the boss."</p> + +<p>"But that could hardly be, I should think," said Hamilton; "that would +be importing contract labor and they would be stopped at Ellis Island."</p> + +<p>"Not much fear of that," the steel worker answered "the operators keep +men in Europe just trainin' the foreigners what to say. These men come +over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary, +the amount of money to enable them to land, buy their railroad tickets +at this end, an' all the rest of it."</p> + +<p>"Dangerous business if they got caught at it!"</p> + +<p>"They're paid to take chances," the other replied. "Then, when these +foreigners come, they know nothin' about the scale of wages in America +only that the pay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their +own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter +what wages they receive they can put money aside every week. The boss +doesn't see any use in payin' them at a high rate, when they work just +as well for small, an' down goes the wages."</p> + +<p>"But they get a poorer grade of labor that way," objected Hamilton, "I +shouldn't think that would pay."</p> + +<p>"They make up for it by increasin' the power of machinery, by givin' a +man less and less to learn and more and more of some simple thing to +do."</p> + +<p>"In a way that ought to be good, too," the boy persisted, "for the more +a machine does, the bigger wages the man who runs it gets."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a machinist," the tramp replied, "an' even if I were I should +be in competition with the Swedes all along the line. Bein' just a +steel worker, I stood for one reduction in wages because they promised +to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a +gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every +chance I got to talk 'union' to these men, showin' them how they could +just as easily get more pay than they were bein' given. That didn't suit +the company at all, so I was fired, an' they put me on the black list."</p> + +<p>"And you couldn't get any more work there at all?"</p> + +<p>"Not there, or at any place in the district. Or, for that matter, in any +place in the United States unless I gave a false name. Steel workin' is +my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the +United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the +country won't let me earn my livin' by working for it, it'll have to +give me a livin' without. But I'd go to work to-morrow, if I had the +chance."</p> + +<p>"Not me," began 'Jolly Joe,' as soon as the tall tramp had finished, +"I'd sooner be a hobo th'n anythin' else I know. In the first place, I'm +not like 'Hatchet Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I +have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this +business. If you think it isn't a trick to rustle grub for three hungry +men, just you try it. An' while I've been on the road for nearly six +years, I've never had a dog set on me yet."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"There's always grub on a farm if you know the right way to go about +getting it," was the reply "and there's very few places I ever go away +from without some bread or a hunk of ham or a pie. Lots of chickens get +lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to +nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the +farmers never could find. If you watch the bees closely, there's nearly +always some swarm that's got away an' made a nest in a dead tree. The +trouble is that most people are too busy to lie still all day an' watch, +an' those that aren't busy don't know."</p> + +<p>"But you don't rustle tea that way," said Hamilton, touching the tin +pannikin with his knuckle.</p> + +<p>"'Windy' looks after that."</p> + +<p>"I am not without some small means," explained the 'Windy Duke,' "but my +income would not permit my living in any sufficiently attractive city +in a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, +however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to +my sister, and still retain sufficient to share up with my +fellow-adventurers when times are hard or 'Jolly's' persuasive tongue is +not quite up to the mark."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't tell me," said Hamilton, turning to 'Jolly Joe,' "why +you started going on the road. You said you didn't like work, but where +had you tried it?"</p> + +<p>"I'll make the story short," was the reply. "I'm a railroad section +hand, an' was lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I +had a pile of friends among the men just above me, and I believe I would +have worked up pretty rapidly."</p> + +<p>"You would be president of the road by now, 'Jolly,'" put in the 'Duke.'</p> + +<p>"I'd be goin' up, anyhow," the other replied. "But one day an order came +along from headquarters changin' the make-up of the gangs, an' next week +I found myself the only American on an Italian gang, under an Italian +foreman. All of us were shifted around the same way. The foreman knew a +little English—not much—an' he tried to give me orders in mixed +English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to +do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me +with every bad name he'd heard since he landed, why, I gave him a +hammerin'. So, just as 'Hatchet Ben' here was driven out by Slovaks, it +was a gang of Italians that gave me my throw-down. I tell you America's +all right for everybody but the American He doesn't stand a show."</p> + +<p>"That sounds hard for the American working-man," the boy said, "but +there must be a lot of them working somewhere, they're not all tramping +it."</p> + +<p>"The back-country farmer is an American nearly every time," 'Hatchet +Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get so far away from the cities and +towns. I don't know why."</p> + +<p>"I think I know the reason of that," volunteered Hamilton. "I heard some +census men talking about it, and one of them had spent a long time in +Italy. He said that while it was true plenty of the peasants worked in +the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the +fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,—our average-sized +farm here would make five or six of them,—and so the village idea +can't be made to work in this country, and the Italians won't stand for +being separated from the nearest neighbor by a mile or two."</p> + +<p>"I can quite understand that," the Englishman said thoughtfully; "it +would be far less pleasant living in this care-free fashion of ours if +one were doing it alone."</p> + +<p>"It may be rather pleasant," Hamilton admitted slipping back into his +pocket the necessary details for the schedule which he had secured from +the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I think a day or +two of it would be enough for me, and I certainly wouldn't like your end +of it, 'Jolly'!"</p> + +<p>"Well," the other replied, as Hamilton strolled over to his mare and +lightly swung himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' +yesterday you would have gone without breakfast this mornin' or at +least, without this kind of breakfast."</p> + +<p>"And mighty good it was," the boy replied, "I don't know when I've +enjoyed a meal so much. I'm ever so much obliged, boys. Good-by."</p> + +<p>The incident gave Hamilton plenty to think about on the rest of the ride +to town, and he found himself genuinely sorry not to have a chance to +see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that +under proper conditions they would be just as fine citizens of the +country as any one could be, and the phrase "Nearly all hoboes are +Americans" kept running in his head.</p> + +<p>He reached the supervisor's office just as a young fellow, but little +older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamilton's +portfolio and said, a little mischievously, the boy thought:</p> + +<p>"How many, if I may ask?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-two hundred and six," answered Hamilton, rightly supposing the +question to refer to the number of people he had enumerated.</p> + +<p>The other threw up his hands.</p> + +<p>"I pass," he said, "you beat me by nearly a hundred," and he laughed and +went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervisor's office. +The boy exchanged greetings with his friend, who said:</p> + +<p>"I heard you talking with that young chap who just left, when you were +coming into the office. Do you know him at all?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," replied Hamilton, and he quoted the brief +conversation.</p> + +<p>"There's quite a story about that case," the supervisor said, settling +himself back in his chair, "and though I'm as busy as an angry hornet +I'll stop just long enough to tell you. When I was picking the +enumerators for the Gullyville district—that's away at the other end of +the section from where you were—I found an unusual number of +applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who stood head +and shoulders above the rest. One was the principal of a village school, +and another was the chap you saw. His name is Wurtzi, and he gave his +occupation as a student and his age as nineteen."</p> + +<p>"I didn't think he looked even as old as that," commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's nineteen. As I was saying, the choice seemed to lie between +these two. Wurtzi's paper was a few points better than the other, indeed +I think it was one of the best tests turned in to me from any center. On +the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large +colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts +of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew everybody. That +was why, when I sent the papers to Washington, I recommended him for +appointment instead of the boy, of whom I knew nothing except that his +examination paper was slightly the better of the two."</p> + +<p>"Yet the boy got the job!"</p> + +<p>"He did," the supervisor answered. "The government rejected my +recommendation, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi +should be appointed on his showing rather than the other unless I knew +something against him."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that was fairer," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "but I thought +that matters of that kind were left to the discretion of the +supervisor."</p> + +<p>"Generally they were, but still there were reversals in a good many +cases," was the reply. "But from everything that I've heard, suggestions +from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exactly +the right thing. They certainly were in this case. I sent the lad his +commission at once, of course."</p> + +<p>"What did the master have to say?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to that," the supervisor replied. "Two or three days later +he came into my office.</p> + +<p>"'I understand Wurtzi has secured the enumerator's job?' he said.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' I answered, 'it was a pretty close thing between you so I sent +the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the +other was more satisfactory.' The schoolmaster laughed and sat down.</p> + +<p>"'I don't know whether I ought to be angry or pleased,' he said; 'it all +depends on how you look at it whether it can be considered as a +compliment or an affront.'</p> + +<p>"I just stared at him.</p> + +<p>"'I don't follow you in the least,' I said. He laughed.</p> + +<p>"'Of course you didn't know that Wurtzi was one of the boys in my +school,' he replied, 'and more than that, he is the poorest boy in the +school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way +in which he could secure his father's permission to allow him to come to +school was that he should turn over to him the trifling sum we pay for +janitor work.'"</p> + +<p>"Pretty good stuff in the boy to want to learn under those conditions," +commented Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He wanted to educate himself, and his mother was very ambitious. She is +Polish, evidently of the better class—and, as you know, the Poles are +one of the most intellectual races of the world—and the boy gets his +brains from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy +could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he +had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two +years he had been walking barefoot three miles to school, getting there +by daybreak, making the fire, sweeping the floor, cleaning the windows, +and then settling down to prepare his morning lessons before the opening +of school.</p> + +<p>"I told Sinclair," the supervisor continued, "that I thought he ought to +be ten times prouder of the success of his pupil than of the merits of +an examination paper, because it took a higher degree of ability to +teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy +must have been wonderfully well taught to achieve so much. He agreed +with me, of course, but I could see that it irked him a little just the +same. He volunteered, however, to assist his pupil as much as he could."</p> + +<p>"That was very decent of him, I think," Hamilton said, "lots of men +would have borne a grudge. But did you say his name was Sinclair?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the supervisor answered, "Gregory Sinclair. Why?"</p> + +<p>"And you said he had been in the mountains?"</p> + +<p>"Quite a good deal."</p> + +<p>"Then that must be Bill Wilsh's teacher," exclaimed Hamilton, and he +told the supervisor the story of the "cunjer," the whittled schoolhouse +and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, +"and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder if you +would give it to him for me. Don't forget to tell him that the door was +made to appear open, to show him that he was expected back."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I shall be glad to give it to him," the supervisor answered, +"and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, though +probably only in the holidays and for a visit. Where is this carving?"</p> + +<p>"At the hotel, sir," the boy answered, "I'll bring it over this +afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the chance of seeing him myself, he +must be a fine chap."</p> + +<p>"He is," the supervisor agreed, "and he showed the stuff he was made of +in connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he +really put in a lot of time helping Wurtzi in order that he might make +good."</p> + +<p>"You said the boy was Polish?"</p> + +<p>"Polish, of the stock that's making another country out of the deserted +districts of New England. Land that has been abandoned by the Americans +the Poles are making productive. That's where the real wealth of the +future is coming in—from the people who will work the ground without +exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this +country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its +fertility will take years and years to return. These European peasants, +however, are so used to making much of a small plot that they are +redeeming the ground. You know, I'm one of those that believe in all the +immigration possible, and I've never forgotten one of Broughton +Brandenburg's sayings about it."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"That 'it is always the most ignorant immigrant that makes the best +citizen.'"</p> + +<p>"I certainly don't see that," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"He absorbs Americanism more quickly," the other explained. "For +example, there's no class hatred idea to be fought down, no anarchistic +tendencies, no desire to turn liberty into license. The ignorant +immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there +is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. There's not +one in ten thousand of that kind that does not prosper from the day he +lands. But you'll hear all sorts of ideas and suggestions in Washington. +When do you go?"</p> + +<p>"I'm leaving to-night, sir," the boy answered. "I thought it might +please the Bureau if I were there a day ahead of time."</p> + +<p>"They'll be willing enough," the supervisor answered "I imagine every +added helper is of value now, with all these schedules piling in. I'll +drop a note to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your +schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover +your district in the time. I wish you all sorts of luck, and write to me +once in a while from Washington so that I can hear what you're doing and +how you're getting along."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked the supervisor heartily, and after a word or two of +farewell returned to the house of a friend where he was to dine before +starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching +there he went directly to the Census Bureau, sent in his card, and the +Director's secretary, a keen young fellow, came out to see him.</p> + +<p>"I think I've heard Mr. Burns speak about you, Mr. Noble," he said, +looking at the card he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy +right now, but he said when you came you were to go down to Mr. Cullern; +I'd take you there myself but I'm needed here."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's really no necessity, Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell +me where it is and I'll find my way."</p> + +<p>But the other beckoned to an attendant.</p> + +<p>"Show this gentleman to Mr. Cullern," he said. Then, turning with a +smile to the boy, he said, "You'll be all right, I guess."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked him, and the secretary hurried back through the +swinging half length door to the inner office. Following the messenger, +Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines +clicking on every side of him. The chief of the floor looked at the +card, turned it over, read what had been penciled on the back, and said +promptly:</p> + +<p>"I think I'll start you on one of the punching machines."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," the boy answered, "I want to learn everything I can."</p> + +<p>"I have a vacant machine," the other continued, "one of the men is away +on sick leave. If you want to begin right away you can start this +afternoon. Here," he said, picking up a pamphlet from a pile which lay +on a table near by, "is a list of instructions."</p> + +<p>"I'm quite ready to start now," Hamilton declared.</p> + +<p>"Your machine is over here, then," his new superior said, leading the +way to a far corner of the room. "You had better try to find out as much +as you can from the instructions, and one of the foremen will be 'round +to tell you more about the working of it a little later."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," the boy replied, sitting down at the machine, "I think +I can get on to it without much trouble."</p> + +<p>The keyboard was entirely strange to Hamilton. It looked not unlike that +of a big typewriter, or resembled even more closely a linotype keyboard, +only it was divided off into sections each one of which was brightly +colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The +instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the +boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book that +he did not notice the coming of the sub-section foreman, who looked down +at the boy for a moment or two with an amused smile. Presently he +coughed, and Hamilton looked up suddenly to see him standing there.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," asked the boy, "were you speaking?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the newcomer, "but I was going to before long. You seem to be +just eating up that book."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long," said +Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought +the more I knew about it before you came, the better it would be all +'round."</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything about census work?" was the next question.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I was an assistant special agent on the +manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day +before yesterday."</p> + +<p>"I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work," the +foreman answered, "coming in to-day, just when that end of the work +closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I +wonder why they sent you to this department; I should have supposed that +you would be editing schedules."</p> + +<p>"I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently," the boy +explained, "and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various +parts of the work by doing them myself. Judging from this book, it +doesn't seem hard."</p> + +<p>"Let me hear what you know about it."</p> + +<p>Hamilton closed the book.</p> + +<p>"I think I have it fairly straight," he said. "These first four columns +on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that +right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the older man replied, "that is looked after in another way. The +district and State and all that sort of thing go in that section, and +that is arranged by what we call a gang-punch."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how that works," the boy said, "this list of instructions +to the punching clerk doesn't say anything about it."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't need to," his informant answered, "for the simple reason +that the punching clerk has nothing to do with it. But I'll tell you if +you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration districts +in the United States, and all we have to do is to set the gang-punch to +the number of the district."</p> + +<p>"But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything +like it," the boy cried, "all told there are only forty-eight places in +those four columns."</p> + +<p>"That works by the permutation of numbers," was the reply. "You can +arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures +in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty +ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; +ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them +around—and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. +The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get +by reference to the schedule."</p> + +<p>"That's enough!" cried Hamilton. "I can see now. It would take a sheet +of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures."</p> + +<p>"If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that +forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write +them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz +the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of +easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be +arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter +like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the +gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the +schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Hamilton, "and I suppose a number is put on the card which +corresponds with every district number on the schedule. Then I come in +on all the rest of the card."</p> + +<p>"Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk."</p> + +<p>"But this machine doesn't seem to punch," the boy objected; "I put in a +canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, +nothing happened, the key just stayed down."</p> + +<p>"It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready," the other +explained. "You depress into position the various keys you want until +all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance +over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed +keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you +can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card +being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card +corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this +makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule."</p> + +<p>"But how is the punching done, then?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"You press the bar," the foreman explained, "and that throws in the +motor attached to the punching mechanism, which brings the entire die +and card up against the end of the punches which have been depressed by +the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate +the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatically into +either the 'male' or the 'female' compartments of the machine, the +location of the hole tilting the slide that determines on which side the +punched card shall fall."</p> + +<p>"So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same +operation as the punching of the card," the boy remarked; "I see now. +That's a first-class idea."</p> + +<p>"It saves a great deal of work," the older man said. "Then, too, with +the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is +in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in +rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring +the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has +to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a +line because of an error of eyesight."</p> + +<p>"I can understand that now," the boy answered "Now let me see whether I +really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third +column—though it is really the fifth—I punch either 'Hd' for the Head +of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' +for Other?"</p> + +<p>"That's right."</p> + +<p>"Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's +easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' +for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for +Japanese, and 'In' for Indian."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," the foreman said, "you're not likely to go wrong as yet."</p> + +<p>"The age seems clear, too," said Hamilton, "you punch the five-year +period nearest to the age and then add on. For instance, the way it +looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the +'15' and then the '1' in that little cornerwise bit at the bottom of the +next section. But I don't see what the '5' is for."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-22-t.jpg' width='70%' alt='FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.</p></div> + +<p>"That's for babies in the sixth division of the first year, or from nine +to eleven months old; the first division means under one month, and the +rest either one, two, or three months apiece."</p> + +<p>"I see it all now," exclaimed the boy, "you have to punch two holes for +age for every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' +as well as the '10,' I suppose, to make sure he isn't older and the +extra years forgotten."</p> + +<p>"That's the reason exactly."</p> + +<p>"The meaning of the section next to the age is easy, too," Hamilton +continued. "'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for +Divorced, 'Un' for unknown, any one could guess. But this 'Mother +Tongue' business has me going."</p> + +<p>"I thought it would," was the reply. "But it's not so hard if you +remember a few things, particularly that the language of a country is +not always spoken by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the +mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do +not speak Welsh. Thus an English-speaking Welshman's card would be +punched 'OL,' meaning Other Language, or the language next in +importance to the mother language of the country."</p> + +<p>"On that basis," said Hamilton, "if the second most important language +of Denmark is German a card that was punched 'Den' for the country would +have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had +spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spoken Danish, +which is the native tongue of the country. But I should think there +would be some cases that would not come under that rule."</p> + +<p>"There are—a few," the foreman replied, "but the way in which those are +to be punched will be noted on the schedule by the schedule editors."</p> + +<p>"Some schedules need a good deal of editing, I suppose," exclaimed +Hamilton thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"You may be sure of that," the other answered. "If you think for a +moment how impossible it would be to have all the supervisors and +enumerators work exactly in the same style, you can see how necessary it +must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all +uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mistakes that the +editors remedy before the card is punched ready for tabulation. But go +on with your explanation, so that I can see if you really do understand +it."</p> + +<p>"The parent columns run the same way, of course," Hamilton continued, +"'U.S.' meaning any one born in the United States, and 'Un.' cases in +which the parentage is unknown. Then 'NP' means native-born parents, and +'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' +stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' +unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean that the foreign-born can +speak English, 'Ot' that he can only speak some tongue other than +English. The year of immigration, of course, is obvious. But this +occupation, I can't make head or tail of!"</p> + +<p>"That you have to learn," the instructor said. "There is a printed list +here for reference that contains the principal kinds of employment in +the United States and classifies them. In a very little while you will +find that you can remember the numbers which signify the more common of +these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation +returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched +later by a special force of clerks. Holes punched for those out of work +and the number of weeks unemployed are all easy. At the top of the last +column, too, 'Emp' means Employer, 'W' Wage Earner, while 'OA' means +working on his or her own account, and 'Un' is for Unemployed."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," Hamilton replied, "I think I can do it now. I should +find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things just +exactly as they are here on population schedules for the last month."</p> + +<p>"It makes an astonishing difference," the experienced man agreed, "you +know the why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this +old test schedule and I will give you fifty blank cards, and we will see +how they come out."</p> + +<p>Through the rest of the afternoon, Hamilton worked steadily over this +set of cards, not only doing the work, but getting the principles of the +whole thing thoroughly in his mind, and, as he had said to the +sub-section chief, knowing just the manner in which the schedules had +been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, +therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at +his machine a real schedule, not the test that he had been working on +the afternoon before; the exact number of cards required for his +schedule all ready in the hopper of the machine, and it was pointed out +to him that error was not permissible and that he must account for every +card.</p> + +<p>"Why is that?" asked Hamilton, "what difference would a card or two +make?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't the cards, it's the numbering," the other explained. "Don't +you remember that each card was numbered, and so, if one card is wrong +it would throw all the succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a +chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have +touched the lever and the card is punched it slides into its own +compartment. You have all the chance you want to look over your +arrangement of depressed keys before the card is punched, but none +after."</p> + +<p>Before a week had passed by, Hamilton was so thoroughly at home with the +machine that the work seemed to him to become more or less mechanical, +and his interest in it began to wane. As—under government +regulations—he left work early, he sauntered over several times to the +verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine +used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it +seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, and he was +curious to know the principle on which it worked. Generally every one +quit at half-past four o'clock, just as he did, but sometimes a man +would work a few minutes longer to finish a batch of cards, and the boy +would go to watch him.</p> + +<p>When he was over there one day, after hours, Hamilton saw Mr. Cullern on +the floor.</p> + +<p>"Still looking for information?" questioned the older man, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I've been watching this machine and I've +spoken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but +they none of them seem to know. They knew how to run it, and that was +about all."</p> + +<p>"The principle is simple enough," the chief replied, "but it would be a +bit hard to understand the combination unless you had the clew. Then it +is all as clear as day, although the machine itself is a little +complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on +this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noticed that these +holes correspond with the points on the card, and that the way in which +the card is fed into the machine insures that the holes shall coincide +exactly."</p> + +<p>"That I saw," Hamilton answered, "and I could see, of course, that +this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and that upon +it a good deal of the exactness of the work depended."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-23-t.jpg' width='418' height='600' alt='TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"It does," the other replied. "Now if you look into those holes in the +plate you can see a little cup of bright metal under each hole. What do +you suppose that is?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure, of course," the boy responded, "but it looks very much +like quicksilver."</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what it is, quicksilver, or mercury. Now mercury, you +ought to know, can transmit an electric current, so that if an +electrically charged pin comes down into the cup of mercury, the cup +itself being attached to an electric current, a circuit is formed."</p> + +<p>"Now I'm beginning to see," the boy said, "but what is the idea of the +cup of mercury; could not the pin just as well touch on a metal plate?"</p> + +<p>"It could, of course, but a piece of dust between would prevent contact, +the pins would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, +by the pin just dropping into the mercury there is no friction and no +fear of a missed contact."</p> + +<p>"The pins are in that square box at the end of the long arm which comes +down every time a card is put on the plate, aren't they, Mr. Cullern?" +asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and if there is no card there and the pins in the square box are +started down, they are automatically stopped before they reach the +mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card were +there without any holes punched, none of the pins would reach the +mercury and no contact would be made."</p> + +<p>"But with a punched census card," interrupted the boy, eager to show +that he understood, "the pins go through the holes in the cards and do +not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of +holes in the card is registered. But still, there's so much difference +in the cards that I don't see how this machine can verify them, can tell +which are right and which wrong!"</p> + +<p>"There is variety enough," answered the chief, "for of the hundred +million cards punched, no two are exactly the same, they could not be."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't it happen perhaps that two people of the same age should do +the same work, be both married and so forth?" asked the boy +interestedly.</p> + +<p>"They would have to live in the same district, they would have to be +employed the same way, they would have both to be married and have the +same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then—the +cards would be different for they would represent different numbers on +the schedule on which their names were registered. No, there are not two +cards in the entire series punched alike."</p> + +<p>"Then I don't see how in the wide world this machine can tell which +cards are right among millions so entirely different from each other."</p> + +<p>"They don't verify by finding the cards that are right," was the answer, +"but by picking out the cards that are wrong."</p> + +<p>"What's the difference?"</p> + +<p>"There is a wide difference. You can see that it would be easy enough to +arrange that machine so that if a wrong combination of contacts were +made the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but +you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires +are satisfied, as it were, and the bell rings; for an error, one wire, +cut in on by a wrong wire, breaks the contact, and the bell does not +ring."</p> + +<p>"But what do you mean by a wrong grouping?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"You ought to be able to guess that," the chief said reproachfully. +"For instance if a card is punched 'Wf' for Wife and also is punched +'Male' that card is sure to be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is +punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a +three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are twenty-three +different possibilities of error which are checked by this verification +machine, and for any one of these twenty-three reasons a card is thrown +out."</p> + +<p>"For example if 'Na' for naturalized is punched on the same card as 'N' +for native-born, and things of that sort, I suppose?" the boy +questioned.</p> + +<p>"And many others of similar character," the older man agreed.</p> + +<p>"But how about insufficiently punched cards?" queried Hamilton. "I can +see that it would be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad +inconsistencies, but supposing a figure were only left out, there would +be no contact made to show the error."</p> + +<p>"Except in the age column," was the reply, "there is supposed to be a +punch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a +contact from every card registers its disapproval by throwing out that +card."</p> + +<p>"And what happens to the rejected cards?" asked Hamilton, with interest.</p> + +<p>"A checker-up compares them with the original schedules, and if +incorrectly punched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, +punches the missing place. But the number of cards found wrong does not +reach a high percentage."</p> + +<p>"You know I've been thinking," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "that while I +suppose it is all right getting all those holes punched in a card, and +so forth, I should think it would be fearfully hard to handle the card +afterwards. All these little holes look so much alike."</p> + +<p>"To the eye, perhaps," the chief said, "but you must remember that these +cards are never sorted by eyesight. And you must remember that the +sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the +verifying and the tabulating is handled in a purely mechanical fashion. +You remember that each card was punched with a gang-punch?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," the boy said, "that was to specify the district."</p> + +<p>"We keep all those together from the time they are punched till after +we are through with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain +enumeration district, and of every section in that district, are kept +together in a separate box."</p> + +<p>"My word," Hamilton exclaimed, "what a storage you must have!"</p> + +<p>"You ought to go down and see it some time," the other said. "It's big +enough, with every State and every county and every district in the +country having its own place, and every little village in that district +right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, +and district. I'm telling you this just to show you that we don't have +to sort the cards for location at all, and that in itself saves us a lot +of labor and time."</p> + +<p>"And they were sorted into sexes on the punching machine, I remember," +Hamilton remarked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and that prevents another handling of every card, you see," the +chief went on, "so that without any further special division, every card +is divided by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when +it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating +machine—which is just the same as the verification, only instead of the +electrical connections being made through relays only, they are +sometimes made direct to counters."</p> + +<p>"Just how, Mr. Cullern?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"Well," the other continued, "when the pin, passing through the hole in +the card, drops into the little cup of mercury it closes a current +passing through an electro-magnet controlling a counter or a dial +corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and +for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The +tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and printing +system, somewhat along the stock ticker plan, connected with each dial. +When desired, touching an electric button will cause every dial to print +automatically the number recorded on a ribbon of paper."</p> + +<p>"That is before sorting?"</p> + +<p>"Or after. Cards may be tabulated along a lot of different lines. And +the sorting device depends again upon another machine, operated by the +same principle."</p> + +<p>The chief led the boy to another portion of the floor.</p> + +<p>"This sorter," he said, "can be set for thirteen different compartments. +In determining the country of birth, for example, at any given point on +the card, an electrically charged brush finds the hole punched and +directs the card in between two of those finely divided wire levels, +where a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point +where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest +compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile +of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the +operator clearing away the pile from each division as it becomes full. +As you can see, that feed knife moves so rapidly and the endless band +fingers carry the cards out of the way in such a hurry that they move +along in a steady stream. We have only twenty of these machines and they +handle all the cards."</p> + +<p>"It's hard to believe," said Hamilton wonderingly, "that these machines +don't think."</p> + +<p>"We're just building one in here," the supervisor replied, leading the +way into a little partitioned-off section of the room, "that has an +uncanny ingenuity. This machine feeds itself with cards, verifies and +tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the +adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the work +of the next census amazingly, just as the machines you saw have made the +old hand punching machines of former times seem very cumbersome. But +this one," he added, "is a gem."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-24-t.jpg' width='643' height='400' alt='PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"It's a little like magic, it seems to me," said Hamilton, "to think of +every person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot +of little holes in it, and practically the whole history on it. It +certainly is queer."</p> + +<p>"There is something mysterious in it," the chief answered with a laugh. +"One feels as though all the secrets of the United States were boxed up +and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the +Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web of +organization, whose skill and knowledge have unlocked commercial +secrets, and whose perception has always seen the essential fact."</p> + +<p>"It's great work to have a share in," the boy declared enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"To make us all feel that," his superior replied "is the chiefest spell +of the Director of the Census."</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH</h3> +<br /> + +<p>"This is surely one blazing day," said Hamilton one day early in June, +as after the noon hour, he settled back at his work on the punching +machine.</p> + +<p>"We'll cool you off all right," responded the foreman, who was coming up +at the moment and heard the boy's remark, "for I understand they're +looking for editors on the Alaskan schedules. A big batch of them has +just arrived and I happen to know that your name has been recommended. +Mr. Cullern asked me to send you to him just as soon as you came in."</p> + +<p>"I should like that above all things," Hamilton replied, "partly because +I've always been interested in Alaska, and also because this work has +got a little monotonous. I hadn't thought of the Alaskan census," he +continued, "and that's strange too; I should think census-taking up in +that country must have been full of excitement and adventure."</p> + +<p>"Probably it was," responded his friend, "but you won't find any +thrilling yarns on the schedules; they'll be just like any other +schedules, I should imagine, only that the occupations will be of a +different variety. But you had better go along and see the chief."</p> + +<p>Hamilton went gladly, thinking that no matter how formal the schedules +might be that dealt with Alaska they could not help but show to some +extent the character of the conditions in which they had been secured +and the difficulties attaching to work in that isolated land.</p> + +<p>"How would you like to try your hand at the editing of the Alaska +schedules, Noble?" asked the chief of the division when the boy appeared +before him a few moments later.</p> + +<p>"Very much indeed, Mr. Cullern," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"I understand that you have shown a great deal of interest in your work +while you have been here," the chief said, "and when I was asked +yesterday if I had any one to recommend I thought of you at once. Having +had experience in the manufactures end, as well as in the population, +ought to help you a good deal in the work. You were a special agent in +the manufactures, were you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "but I don't think any of the places to +which I went resembled in any way the conditions in Alaska."</p> + +<p>"Probably not," the chief said dryly, "New England isn't usually +considered in that light. But the underlying principles are the same, of +course, all the way through. Well, if you want to try it, here is your +chance."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," Hamilton answered promptly. "I shall be glad to take +it up."</p> + +<p>The boy waited a moment, but as there seemed nothing more to be said, he +walked back to his machine, to straighten up before leaving.</p> + +<p>"As soon as you're through with that schedule," the foreman in charge of +the sub-section told him, "let me know, and then you can go to Mr. +Barnes, who is in charge of the Alaskan schedules."</p> + +<p>"I've nearly finished," answered the boy, "I'll be done in a quarter of +an hour anyway."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, a little later, Hamilton found his way to another part of +the building, where he met his new superior, a small, alert, nervous, +quick-spoken man, who, as Hamilton afterwards found out, had the +capacity of working at lightning speed, and then stopping and wanting to +talk at intervals. He said very little when Hamilton first came to him, +merely handing him a number of schedules to edit.</p> + +<p>Hamilton watched him furtively several times and noted the amazing +rapidity of his work. Secretly he knew he could not attain that speed, +but he thought he had better make as good a showing as he could, and so +he, too, buckled to the job for all he was worth. When the boy had done +two or three schedules, each containing fifty names, Mr. Barnes reached +out for those that had been edited and went through them closely. He +made one or two corrections.</p> + +<p>"That's not half bad, Noble," he said suddenly, "but I can see from one +or two little things you let go by that you are not entirely familiar +with that country. I'll tell you more about it later, but in the +meantime you had better look over some of the reports the supervisors +have sent in; they give you an insight into what those enumerators out +there had to go through in order to secure anything like complete +schedules. Here in one from the Fourth District, for example, there is a +graphic description of the work which I think you ought to enjoy. It's +good writing, too."</p> + +<p>"My enumeration work was in Kentucky," said Hamilton, "so I haven't much +line on the conditions in the North. But I've always enjoyed books and +stories about Alaska, and I'd like to read the report."</p> + +<p>"It will give you the atmosphere," said Barnes, "listen to this +paragraph, for example: 'The work was performed during the severest +winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers there. There +did not appear to be a man who did not have a pride in his work, an +anxiety to create a record for traveling time, a desire to enumerate all +the people in the district assigned to him, and to have to his credit +less loss of time because of weather than any of the other agents.'"</p> + +<p>"I guess," said Hamilton, "that supervisor had those enumerators just +breaking their necks to beat out the other agents, and he worked on +their pride to get up their speed."</p> + +<p>"'That the service lost none of its men from freezing to death, and that +every man returned safely, is a matter for congratulation and of good +fortune, from the fact that there were in this part of Alaska more +deaths from the weather this winter than all preceding years in total; +cases in which those who met such deaths did not begin to go through the +sacrifice and privation that these agents of the service did.'"</p> + +<p>"Makes you proud to have been an enumerator, doesn't it?" asked the boy. +"But it always seems difficult to realize hardship unless you have been +there."</p> + +<p>"I spent a winter in Alaska," said Barnes emphatically, "and I can feel +the thrill of it in every line. He knows what he's writing of, too, this +man. Hear how he describes it: 'All the men in the service,'" he +continued, "'covered hundreds of miles over the ice and snow, in weather +ranging from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the average temperature +probably being about 40 below. Because of the absolute lack of beaten +trails—' I wonder," he broke off, "if any one who hasn't been there can +grasp what it means!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton waited.</p> + +<p>"No beaten trail," Barnes said reminiscently, "means where stunted +willows emphasize by their starved and shivering appearance the nearness +of the timber; where the snow-drifts, each with its little feather of +drifting snow sheering from its crest, are heaped high; where the snow +underfoot is unbroken; where under snow-filled skies a wind studded +with needle-sharp ice crystals blows a perfect gale; where the lonely +and frozen desolation is peopled only by the haunting shape of fear that +next morning a wan and feeble sun may find you staggering still blindly +on, hopelessly lost, or fallen beside a drift where the winter's snows +must melt before your fate is known."</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly and went on with his schedule. Hamilton worked on in +silence. Presently, as though there had been no pause, Barnes resumed +his quotation from the supervisor's report:</p> + +<p>"'Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails, and the fact that the +snow lies so loosely on the ground like so much salt, no matter what its +depth may be, it was necessary through all their work to snow-shoe ahead +of the dog-teams. When one considers their isolation,—often traveling +for days without other shelter than a tent and fur robes—it can be +understood what sacrifices some of these men made to visit far-away +prospectors' cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part +of the country ever considers that there is any hardship, unless there +is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, +though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.'"</p> + +<p>He tossed over the report to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Look it over," he said. "I tell you there's some stirring stuff in +that, and just the bald reports of the enumerators' trips leave the +stories of explorers in the shade."</p> + +<p>The boy took up the report as he was bidden, and read it with avidity. +Presently, upon a boyish exclamation, the other spoke:</p> + +<p>"What's that one you've struck?"</p> + +<p>"It's the enumerator from the district of Chandler," answered Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead and read it aloud," Barnes said, "I can go on with these +schedules just as well while you do."</p> + +<p>"'At no time after he left Fairbanks,'" read the boy, "'did the +thermometer get above 30 degrees below zero. His long journey away from +a base of supplies made it impossible for him to carry a sufficient +supply of grub, and he was obliged to live off the country, killing +moose, mountain sheep, and other fresh meat. He froze portions of his +face several times, and on one occasion dropped into six feet of open +water, nearly losing his life in consequence.'"</p> + +<p>"That would be fearful," said Barnes, "unless he could pitch camp right +there, put up a tent, build a fire, and change into dry clothing."</p> + +<p>"There seems to have been mighty little wood for that up there," +Hamilton remarked, "because, speaking of this same enumerator, the +supervisor says, further on, 'In crossing the Arctic Range and in +returning he traveled above timber line eighteen hours in both +directions, which, in a country where fire is a necessity, can be +understood is a very considerable sacrifice. He traveled in many places +where a white man had never been before, and as there are no beaten +trails or government roads in the district anywhere, he was obliged, +everywhere, to snow-shoe ahead of his team to beat down a trail.'"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever snow-shoe?" asked Barnes abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Once," answered Hamilton, "when I went to Canada to visit some cousins; +they had a snow-shoe tramp and insisted on my coming along. But I was +stiff for a week."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the editor, "when you try to break trail and have to keep +ahead of a dog-team coming along at a fair clip, it's just about the +hardest kind of work there is."</p> + +<p>"They all seem to have had their own troubles," said Hamilton, who had +been glancing down the pages of the report: "here's the next chap, who +got caught in a blizzard while accompanying the mail carrier, and if it +hadn't been for the fact that the people of the nearest settlement knew +that the mail carrier was expected on that day and sent out a rescue +party to search for him, neither of the two men would ever have been +found, and the census would have lost a man."</p> + +<p>"That was up in the Tanana region, wasn't it?" queried Barnes, but +without looking up from his work.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the boy, "and from all accounts that must be a wild part +of the country. Speaking of that same enumerator, the supervisor says: +'That this agent survived the work during the stormy period and came +back alive was the wonder of the older inhabitants of the country. No +less than four times this man was found by other travelers in an +exhausted condition, not far from complete collapse, and assisted to a +stopping place. He lost three dogs, and suffered terribly himself from +frost-bite. In the same district, during the same time, eight persons +were frozen to death, six men and two women.' There's quite a story +here, too, telling how he himself rescued a couple of trappers in the +last stages of hunger, exposure, and exhaustion."</p> + +<p>"It's fearful to think of," the other commented; "just imagine those +agonizing journeys in the teeth of an Arctic wind, traveling over +hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness to get less than one-tenth as +many people as a city enumerator would find in one block!"</p> + +<p>"But why do it in winter?" asked Hamilton. "It's hot up there in summer, +I've heard, and driving in the warm weather is pleasant enough; there's +no hardship in that!"</p> + +<p>"You can't drive where there are no roads, and you can't ride where +there are no horses. Then the time available is short."</p> + +<p>"Why is it so short?"</p> + +<p>"You haven't a railroad going to every point in Alaska," Barnes pointed +out, "there's usually a trip of several hundred miles before you get to +the place from which to start. And when are you going to make that +journey?"</p> + +<p>"In the spring," Hamilton said, "as soon as it gets mild."</p> + +<p>"I reckon you don't know much about Alaska," the older man remarked. +"When the snow thaws, the creeks overflow, and the rivers become raging +torrents. You can't ride, and if you walk, how are you going to cross a +swollen river, filled with pieces of ice the size of this room? Those +Alaska rivers are huge bodies of water, many of them, and there are no +bridges."</p> + +<p>"How about boats?"</p> + +<p>"You mean traveling on those ice-filled rivers? It couldn't be done."</p> + +<p>"But as soon as the ice goes out?"</p> + +<p>"That's pretty well into June, to start with, and then you would have to +pole up against the current all the way, and the currents of most of the +rivers are very swift. Did you ever pole a boat up against a swift +mountain river?—I thought not. Suppose, by very hard work, you could +make two or three miles an hour up stream,—at that rate how long would +it take you to go up to the highest settlement? And then you would have +to go all the way down again and ascend the next stream; and even then +more than half the settlements would be on streams and creeks you could +not get to with boats because of falls, of rapids, of long portages, and +things of that kind."</p> + +<p>"I guess they couldn't use a boat," said Hamilton, "but still I don't +see why they couldn't ride!"</p> + +<p>"Ride what? Dogs? Or reindeer? I suppose you mean to take a horse up +there?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I was thinking of," Hamilton admitted.</p> + +<p>"How would you get him up there? Take him in a dog-sled the preceding +winter? You know a horse couldn't travel on the snow like a dog-team. +And if you did get him up to the starting point during the winter, on +what would you feed him? Dried salmon? That's all there is, and while it +makes good enough dog-feed, a horse isn't built that way. There's no +hay-cutting section up there, and your horse would starve to death +before you had a chance to ride him. And even supposing that you could +keep him alive,—I don't believe you could ride him over the tundra +swamps; there is no horse made that could keep his footing on those +marshy tussocks."</p> + +<p>"I see you're right," said Hamilton, "I hadn't thought of all that."</p> + +<p>The older man continued: "There are horses in the towns of southern +Alaska, because, you know, there is one narrow strip that runs a long +way south, and there the weather is not severe. But the north is +another matter entirely. The pay that you would have to offer in order +to lure the men away from the gold-diggings would be enormous. No, it +had to be a winter job, and in the Geography section—where I was last +year—it took us all our time to estimate satisfactory enumeration +districts for Alaska."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-25-t.jpg' width='600' height='438' alt='OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>"The Geography section?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I hadn't heard +of that. What is that part of the census work for?"</p> + +<p>"To map out the enumeration districts," his superior explained. "That is +a most important part of the work. You remember that the enumeration +district was supposed to provide exactly a month's work for each man?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Hamilton answered, "I know I had to hustle in order to get mine +done in the month."</p> + +<p>"Supposing," said the other, "that all the people that were on your +schedule had lived in villages close together, would it have taken you +as long to do?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," Hamilton replied, "I could have done it in half the +time. What delayed things was riding from farm to farm, and they were +scattered all over the countryside."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," Barnes continued, "but I suppose you never stopped to think +that the number of people in each district and the nature of the ground +to be covered both had to be considered. Then allowance had to be made +for the enumeration of those not readily accessible, and for such +natural obstacles as unbridged rivers; all these had to be mapped out +and gone over by the Census Bureau before the sections were assigned."</p> + +<p>"No," the boy replied, "I never really stopped to think who it was that +made up all those districts. And, now you come to speak of it, I don't +see how it could have been done without being on the ground."</p> + +<p>"Yet it is evident," the other said, "that it must have been done. It +wouldn't be fair to tell a man to finish a district that represented +seven or eight weeks' work, nor to promise a month's work to a man and +then give him a district that had only two or three weeks' employment. +You couldn't alter the districts afterwards, either, as everything had +to be prepared in Washington for enumeration and tabulation by the +original districts as mapped out."</p> + +<p>"You mean," said Hamilton, "that every square mile of territory in the +United States, the number of people on it, the kind of land it was, the +roads and trails, the distance from the nearest town, the rivers, and +the location of bridges across them, and all that sort of thing had to +be worked out in advance?"</p> + +<p>"Every acre," was the reply, "and the worst of it was that there was +very little to go by. The lists for the last Decennial Census were only +of use in the Eastern districts, for in the West large towns had grown +up that were mere villages then. Whole sections of territory which were +uninhabited ten years ago are thick with farms today and the 'Great +American Desert' of a few years ago is becoming, under irrigation, the +'Great American Garden.'"</p> + +<p>"The Survey maps helped, I should think," said Hamilton. "I have a +friend, Roger Doughty, on the Geological Survey, and he told me all +about the making of the Topographic maps."</p> + +<p>"They helped, of course, but even with those it was hard to work out +some of the queerly shaped districts. The supervisors helped us greatly +after the larger districts had been planned, but the Geography division +had to keep in touch with every detail until the entire country was +divided into proportionately equal sections.</p> + +<p>"And you had to do that for Alaska, as well!"</p> + +<p>"As far as we could. Of course it was difficult to determine routes of +travel there, and to a large extent that had to be left to the +supervisors, but they merely revised our original districting. It took a +lot of figuring in Alaska because of the tremendous travel difficulties +there and the thousands of miles of territory still unsurveyed."</p> + +<p>"I had never realized the need of all that preparatory work," the boy +admitted.</p> + +<p>"There's a great deal of the work that has to be done in the years +before the census and in the years after," he was informed, "and the +Bureau is kept just as busy as it can be, all the while. The Decennial +Census, although it is the biggest part of the census work, is only one +of its many branches, and then there are always other matters being +looked after, like the Quinquennial Census of Manufactures, and such +numberings as those of the Religious Bodies and the Marriage and Divorce +Statistics of a few years ago."</p> + +<p>"I understood the Bureau had regular work all the year round?" Hamilton +said.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it has. All the births and deaths that are registered are +tabulated here, and a number of tables of vital statistics are worked +out which are of immense value to doctors not only in the United States +but all over the world. Then, as I think you know, we have for years +made a special study of cotton crop conditions, and there is a bulletin +published at stated intervals showing the state of the cotton industry +in the United States. Then there is all the statistical work on cities +of over 30,000 inhabitants, and there is scarcely a question which has +reference to the population or the manufacturing interests of the +country that is not referred sooner or later to the Bureau of the +Census."</p> + +<p>"You work with the Forest Service, too, I believe," said Hamilton. +"Wilbur Loyle, a forest ranger whom I knew very well, showed me some +figures that the Bureau had prepared."</p> + +<p>"Only in the collection and publication of statistics of forest +products," said Barnes, rising and changing his office coat,—for the +conversation had run on long after office hours,—"owing to their +co-operation the task is not cumbersome; questions of information or +special statistics asked for by Congress or by the executive departments +take up a great deal of time when added to an already extensive routine +work."</p> + +<p>Editing the schedules of the population of Alaska, just as Hamilton had +expected, proved to be of the most intense interest, since, despite the +closest desire on the part of the enumerators to confine themselves +strictly to official facts, the wildness of the frontier life would +creep in. An example of this was the listing of an Eskimo girl on the +schedule as having "Sun" and "Sea" for her parents with an explanatory +note to the effect that she had been found as a tiny girl upon a heap of +sea moss on the beach. Another was when an enumerator wrote on his +schedule under 'language spoken,' "Some pesky lingo; I know most of +their talk, but this was too much for me and the hut was too strong to +stay in long."</p> + +<p>Such comments made it easy to create a picture of the semi-savagery of +the fur-clad fishers on the shores of the Arctic Sea.</p> + +<p>Another schedule, one which interested the boy greatly, was that in +which the age of an Indian was described as "200 snows." To try to get +this worked out to the probably true age of 80 or 90 years evidently had +been quite a task. The enumerator wrote:</p> + +<p>"This Indian ain't 200 years old. He says he's 200 snows, but I can't +quite figure it out. He says he was 20 snows when he got first woman, +kept her 4 snows, then she go away! He complained that 'he had no +women 4 suns and catch no women 4 snows.' He 'got more woman, keep her 5 +snows, then she eat cold (frozen to death). Got no woman 20 snows, she +good woman.' He could not give any clue about his children only that +'his chickens 30 to 45 snows!' They reckon here only from what they can +remember, so this buck is probably counting from about ten years old. +That would make him thirty when he first got a wife, thirty-four when +she died, thirty-eight when he got his next wife, and forty-three when +she died. Counting his oldest child at 45 this would make him about +seventy-five. Where the '200 snows' comes in, I don't see."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-26-t.jpg' width='624' height='400' alt='THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>A great treat to the boy came, however, when one of the enumerators from +the Second District of Alaska, who had been summoned East in the spring +on business concerning some property with which he was associated, and +had come as soon as the break-up permitted travel, dropped into the +Census Bureau. He made himself known to the Director, and the latter, +always ready to show attention and being really proud of the Census +Bureau staff, arranged to have him shown around the building. The +Alaskan was a small fellow, hard as nails, given to stretches of +silence, but with a ready, infectious laugh and the ability to tell a +good yarn after he got started. Presently, just before quitting time, he +reached the desk where Barnes and Hamilton were editing schedules.</p> + +<p>"This ought to interest you," said the Bureau official who was showing +him around, "these men are just going over the Alaskan schedules before +sending them to the machines to be punched and tabulated."</p> + +<p>Looking interested, the man bent forward and, with a muttered word of +apology, picked up the schedule on which Hamilton was working at the +time. "This must be one o' mine!" he said, with an air of surprise.</p> + +<p>"But that is marked, 'Copy'!" said Hamilton "I was just wondering where +the original was."</p> + +<p>"I'm willin' to gamble quite a stack, son," was the surprising reply, +"that you'd have been wonderin' a whole lot more if the original had +come down to you."</p> + +<p>"Why, how's that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I reckon I c'n handle dogs better'n I can a pen," he said, "an' +when you come to try an' write one o' these schedules on scraps o' dried +skin you c'n count it sure's shootin' there's some decipherin' got to +be done."</p> + +<p>Barnes looked at the official who was showing the Alaskan 'round the +building, and knowing him very well, he said to the visitor, "Spin us +the yarn; I've been up there and I'd like to hear it myself, and I know +the lad is just wild to hear it."</p> + +<p>"I want to be a part of that audience, too," said the official, with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to hold up the job!" the visitor suggested hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," his conductor answered. "Here we are all waiting, and it's +nearly half-past four anyway."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, it was up in the Noatak Pass—" he was beginning, when +Hamilton stopped him.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to interrupt, right at the start," he said, "but where is +that pass?"</p> + +<p>"I should have told you," said the miner goodhumoredly, "it's the pass +between the Endicott an' the Baird ranges, at the extreme northern end +of the Rockies. I hated to go through it, an' I wouldn't have, most +times, not unless there was a mighty big pull to get me over there, but +I had promised to count every one in my district, an' so, of course, +there was nothin' else to do but go, even though I knew there was no one +on the other side but a bunch of Eskimos. Well, we were halfway up the +pass when the Indian guide stopped the dogs an' listened. It was just +about noon an' the travelin' was good, so that, wantin' to make time, I +got good an' mad at the stop. Knowin' my Indian, I kep' quiet just the +same, always bein' willin' to bet on an Indian bein' right on the trail. +First off, I could notice nothin', then, when I threw back my parka hood +I could hear a boomin' in the air as though some one was beatin' a gong, +miles and miles away. It was so steady a sound that after you had once +heard it for a while you wouldn't notice it, an' you would have to +listen again real hard to see if it was still goin' on."</p> + +<p>"Like distant thunder?" queried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. It was high, like a gong, an' it wasn't any too good to +hear. The dogs knew it, too, for though we had been stopped nearly five +minutes none of them had started to fight."</p> + +<p>"Do dogs fight every time they stop?"</p> + +<p>"Just about. They try to, anyway. In the traces, of course, they can't +do much but snap an' snarl, but that they're always doin'. This time, +however, all save one or two of them stood upright sniffin' uneasily.</p> + +<p>"'Wind?' I asked the Indian.</p> + +<p>"'Heap wind!' he answered. 'Go back?'</p> + +<p>"Now you may lay ten to one that when an Indian is the first to suggest +goin' back, trouble with a big 'T' is right handy. I reckon that was the +first time I ever did hear an Indian propose goin' back. 'Why go back, +Billy?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Heap wind,' he repeated, 'old trail easy.' He pointed ahead, 'No +trail!'"</p> + +<p>"He meant, I suppose," Hamilton interjected, "that if you doubled on +your tracks the trail would have been broken before, and it would be +easy going."</p> + +<p>"That's the bull's-eye, and if a storm did come up we'd have a trail to +follow and not get lost."</p> + +<p>"Did you go back?"</p> + +<p>"I did not. I figured that while we were about a day's journey to a +settlement either way, we were perhaps an hour nearer where we were +goin' than where we had come from, an' that perhaps the storm would hold +off long enough for us to make it. Those storms last for days, +sometimes, an' we'd have the trip to make anyway, even if we did go +back. Besides, I didn't want to lose the time. 'No, Billy,' I called to +the Siwash, 'go on!'</p> + +<p>"I was sorry the minute I said it, because I knew the Siwash thought me +wrong, although, bein' an Indian, of course he never showed a sign. He +started up the dogs without a word. I knew he thought it reckless and +dangerous, but tortures wouldn't have made him say so. In half an hour's +time, I began to be sure he was right."</p> + +<p>"Did the storm strike as soon as that?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"No. If it had, I think I should have gone back. But at the end of that +half-hour, we topped a rise that gave a view of the country ahead an' +showed it to be broken an' bad travelin'. I shouldn't have liked the +look of it at any time, but with a storm brewin' an' the Indian wantin' +to go back, it sure did look ugly. But the faint roarin' of the distant +storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the +wind no higher,—an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' +plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast +lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like +a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was +behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An +hour went by, an' I was just beginnin' to think that we would be able to +cover the greater part of the distance, when a huge white shape rose +from the snow near by, passed in front of the sledge, and disappeared. +I've been scared once in my life. This was that once."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" asked Hamilton breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"I watched," the Alaskan continued, "an' presently about a hundred yards +away, an' a little to the right of the sled, the snow began to move. I +couldn't feel a breath of wind. But the snow seemed to writhe an' stir +as though some monster from the Arctic night was wakin' from his winter +sleep, an' a wisp of snow hurled upwards; then, with a heave the snow +crust broke an' fell apart an' a column of snow shot up like a geyser +swirlin' into a pillar a hundred feet high.</p> + +<p>"A moment it stood; then swayed over an' begun to move slowly at first, +but gatherin' speed every second, noiselessly, save for a sound like the +indrawin' of a breath and a faint crackin' as the hard snow crust +shivered into atoms where it struck. Aimlessly, yet seemin' to have a +hidden purpose as though wreathin' the figures of some Boreal dance, it +come near us and fell back; moved away an' threatened again; then swept +upon us till its icy breathin' gripped our throats, an' our hearts stood +still.</p> + +<p>"An' in the silence, one dog whined.</p> + +<p>"Behind the sled there stirred the snow anew, an' in a moment or two +another column threw itself at the sky, and behind us an' around, other +of these columns rose an' moved like spectral dancers under the +slate-green clouds of the snow-filled sky. No wind, no sound but the +lone leader of the team howlin' in utter fear."</p> + +<p>"A dancing blizzard!" said Barnes, in an awed tone, under his breath.</p> + +<p>"If there had been anythin' to do, it would have been easier," the +Alaskan continued, "but to move was not more dangerous than to stay +still. In answer to a sign, the Indian started up the dogs again, an' we +went on, though the road ahead looked like the ice-forest of a +disordered dream. Presently, without a moment's warnin' one of the huge +snow pillars came rushin' straight at us, an' I braced myself by the +sledge to hold to it if I could, but it swerved before it reached us an' +ran along beside the trail. About fifty feet ahead it swerved again and +cut across the trail, an' the extreme edge caught the Indian, picked +him up in the air, an' threw him at least thirty feet."</p> + +<p>"Was he hurt?" cried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit, for there was nothin' to fall on but snow. He picked himself +up, looked carefully at his snow-shoes to see that they had not been +damaged, an' resumed his place at the head of the dogs. What would have +become of him if he had been plucked into the middle of the whirlwind is +hard to say. I wouldn't have counted on seein' him again anyway."</p> + +<p>"But you never really got caught by any?"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't be here talkin', if I had," was the reply. "But when we come +to the track of that whirlwind column, it was a puzzle how to get +across. The column, goin' like a railroad train, had cut a gully in the +hard snow full ten feet deep,—the sides as clean cut as though done +with a knife, or rather with a scoop, because the edge was slightly +scolloped all the way along."</p> + +<p>"How did you get across?"</p> + +<p>"Axes," was the brief reply. "We cut through the snow crust and beat +down a steep path on both sides of the gully an' made the dogs take it. +Dog harness is strong, but I was afraid of the strain on it that time."</p> + +<p>"How long did the blizzard last?"</p> + +<p>"You mean the whirlwinds?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered.</p> + +<p>"Not very long,—quarter of an hour, perhaps. Then I felt a slight +breeze, an' at the same moment the columns, bendin' their heads like +grass before the wind, swept to the right of us, an' were out of sight +in a moment. The Indian yelled and pointed to the left, throwin' himself +on the ground as he did so."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" cried Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"It looked like a solid wall of snow, an' before I realized it was +comin', the storm struck, hurled me to the ground, an' rolled me over +an' over in the snow. I wasn't hurt, of course, but it took me so long +to get my breath that I thought it was never goin' to come, an' that I +should suffocate. But after that first burst, the blizzard settled down +to the regular variety, an' we all felt more at home. But even at that, +it was the worst one I ever saw in the North, an' I've been there nine +winters."</p> + +<p>"What did you do? Go back?"</p> + +<p>"No use tryin' to go back," the traveler said, "because those whirlwinds +had cut gullies across the snow in every direction so that our old trail +was no use to us. We went ahead a bit, as far as we could, but soon +realized that there was nothin' to do but camp right where we were an' +wait for the blizzard to blow over. Usually two days is enough for the +average storm to let up a little, but it was not until the third day +that there was any chance of startin', an' even then it was almost as +bad as could be for travel. But I had to make a start then."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Hamilton, who always wanted to know the details of +everything.</p> + +<p>"Because we were runnin' short of dog-feed, an' you can't let your dogs +die of hunger, for then you can't get anywhere. But the blizzard had +drifted everything an' was still driftin', so that the snow was hard in +some places and soft in others; the travelin' was almost impossible, an' +you couldn't see twenty yards ahead. Then while the blizzard had filled +the gullies made by the whirlwinds, the snow in them was not packed down +as hard as the rest of the surface, an' dogs an' sled an' Indian an' +myself would all go flounderin' into the drift, an' it would be a tough +pull to get the sled out again.—That was a hard trip.</p> + +<p>"The worst of it came when, without a bit of warnin', without our even +knowin' where we were, the hard crust of the snow gave way beneath us, +an' the sled, the dogs, and myself fell headlong down a slope an' into a +stream of runnin' water, the sled upside down, of course."</p> + +<p>"How about the Indian?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"He saved himself from goin' into the water, an' it was a good thing +that he did, for he was able to help in pullin' us out. But, from one +point of view, the accident was a help, for it told the Indian just +where we were. There was only one stream of that size in that +neighborhood, an' until we found it, we were hopelessly lost. But from +that time we knew that the settlement we were headin' for was straight +up the stream, an' all we had to do was to follow it. But it was a race +for life, in order to get to camp before frozen clothin' and various +frostbites crippled me entirely."</p> + +<p>"But how about the dogs?" queried Hamilton. "I should think it would be +worse for them than for you."</p> + +<p>The Alaskan shook his head.</p> + +<p>"A 'husky' can stand just about anythin' in the way of cold," he said, +"an' my leaders 'Tussle' and 'Bully' were a couple of wonders. Only one +of the dogs gave out. Well, we made the camp finally, pretty well done +up all round. The worst of it was, that when we come to unpack the +sled—we did it with an ax because everythin' was frozen solid—the +census pouch was missin'. Luckily there was no past work in it,—only +blank schedules, information papers, an' things of that sort. So I made +up the schedules on odd bits of paper and skins, as I told you, an' the +supervisor copied them on the schedule to send in, an' that schedule you +have in your hand is the copy of those very pieces of skin."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-27-t.jpg' width='900' height='543' alt='CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton glanced at the paper with redoubled interest.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was no use trying to get the pouch back," he said.</p> + +<p>"I didn't think it would be," the Alaskan replied "but I tried to reach +the place where the sled had been overturned, an' each time the weather +drove me back. On the third day I got a chance to go with some Eskimos +with reindeer to a little settlement about twenty miles off, an' so I +went along and got the names there, comin' back on a reindeer sled. +That's the only time I ever felt like Santa Claus. I'm sure I don't look +it."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-28-t.jpg' width='800' height='504' alt='TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census.)</p></div> + +<p>Hamilton looked at his spare figure and laughed.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "I don't think an artist would be likely to pick you for +the part. How did you like the reindeer, though? I've always wondered +that they didn't use them more in Alaska. The government keeps a herd, +doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," was the reply, "but that is more for fresh meat than for travel. +A good reindeer is a cracker-jack of an animal when he wants to be, but +when he takes a streak to quit, it doesn't matter where it is or what +you do to him, he won't go another step. A balky mule is an angel of +meekness beside a reindeer. You can always make a mule see what you want +him to do—although the odds are that he won't do it even then—but when +a reindeer gets stubborn,—why, he just can't be made to understand +anythin'!"</p> + +<p>"Yet I've read that they use them a good deal in Lapland!" said the boy +in surprise.</p> + +<p>"They have domesticated them more thoroughly, I guess," the Northerner +replied. "In time they may be worked up here in the same way, and when +you consider how short a time the government has had to do what is +already accomplished, it seems to me the result is wonderful. Of course, +so far as traffic is concerned there are dogs enough, and they do the +work in mighty good shape."</p> + +<p>"How did you work back from the settlement which you had got to with +such difficulty?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"I came back another way, in order to take in a little group of houses +on a small pay-creek," was the reply. "But it was comin' back from that +trip, on the Koatak River, that I had quite a time, although I was not +the sufferer. We had been havin' a hard spell of weather, but there come +a week when conditions on the trail were much better an' we were reelin' +off the miles in great shape. I hadn't a place on my map for about sixty +miles, when in the distance I saw a little hut, just in the fringe of +some stunted cottonwoods and some scraggy willows, for we were not far +from the timber limit.</p> + +<p>"'Billy,' I called to the Indian, 'ever see that hut before?'</p> + +<p>"The Indian shook his head, but knowin' that I wanted to see an' count +everybody in the district, he turned off the trail—he said it was a +trail but I couldn't see it—an' led the way to the hut. I went in an' +found a man lying on a couple of planks, just about dead. He was one of +the survivors of the wrecked steamer <i>Filarleon</i>, and had frozen all +the fingers of both hands. Two or three were turnin' gangrenous; an' one +of these had got so bad that with his other crippled hand, he had sawed +off the decomposin' member with his pocket-knife. One foot also was +frozen an' had turned black, but that afterwards recovered."</p> + +<p>"What did you do for him?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Put him on the sled, of course," the Alaskan answered, "an' took him to +the nearest settlement. I afterwards heard that a doctor happened in to +camp soon after I left, an' got at his hurts right away, an' that he was +put back into fair condition all but the one finger.—That's no +tenderfoot's country up there."</p> + +<p>"I wonder you stuck it out," said Hamilton. "But then," he added a +moment later, "I can see how a fellow would hate to quit."</p> + +<p>"It was tough," reluctantly admitted the narrator, "an' I'll tell you +what I did. I'm not much of a hand with the pen, but right in the middle +of the work I found a man who was goin' down the river, an' I sat down +and wrote a long letter to the supervisor. It was about as plaintive a +thing as I ever read. I had no reason to expect an answer, but by chance +another party was comin' up that way, an' some weeks later I received a +reply. What do you suppose he said!"</p> + +<p>"I haven't the least idea," answered the boy.</p> + +<p>"His answer read just this way:</p> + +<p>"'I chose you because you were experienced in the treeless coast. Go to +it. We are expecting you to make good.'"</p> + +<p>"And," Hamilton said, his eyes shining, "I'll bet you did!"</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a><h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The sidelights that Hamilton had received on the Alaskan enumeration had +given him a greater zest for census work than ever, and he devoted not a +little of his spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. +Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when +he reached home, he worked out the route of the enumerator whose +schedules he had edited during that day's work. He had secured the big +geological reconnaissance map of Alaska for the purpose. Consequently, +it was with a sense of regret that he faced the day when the last of the +Alaskan schedules had been edited.</p> + +<p>"What next, I wonder, Mr. Barnes?" said Hamilton, laying down his pen +and glancing round to his companion. "How about Porto Rico? They had a +census this spring, too, didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"I imagine the Porto Rico work is about done," his friend replied, "at +least I know that most of it came in some weeks ago. How are you on +Spanish?"</p> + +<p>"I can read it all right," Hamilton answered, "although I don't write +particularly well. But are the schedules all in Spanish?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said the other.</p> + +<p>"I don't think simple Spanish would bother me at all," Hamilton replied. +"I knew a chap who was going to the Philippines and he wanted some one +to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to +keep him company, I hammered at it too. But, after a bit, he joined a +class, so I dropped out, although I did study once in a while so as not +to forget it altogether."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you suggest that you know Spanish," remarked Barnes, "and +perhaps you'll get the chance."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when a little later, the final copy on the Alaskan +schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto Rican work, +and ventured his slight familiarity with Spanish.</p> + +<p>"We have several translators," replied the chief, "but still, I suppose +Mr. Alavero can make you useful. I'll let you know later on."</p> + +<p>In a few moments he returned and beckoned to the boy, who followed him, +with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of the Alaskan +schedules with whom he had enjoyed working greatly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Alavero," the official said, introducing Hamilton, "this is Noble. +I don't know what his Spanish is like, but I think he may be of some use +to you in getting out the manufactures statistics, as he did some work +along that line early in the year and has been with the census ever +since."</p> + +<p>The editor smiled affably at the boy and shook hands with heartiness.</p> + +<p>"The schedule work is all done," he said, "but it will take some time +preparing the report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because +there is so much American capital invested in Porto Rico that a detailed +analysis will be of value."</p> + +<p>"It is real editorial work, then!" Hamilton said, with a note of +pleasure in his voice.</p> + +<p>"I think," said the chief dryly, "that Mr. Alavero will do the editorial +work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you are to assist him in +preparing tables and matters of that kind."</p> + +<p>But no sooner had the Bureau official gone than the Porto Rican came +forward.</p> + +<p>"If you like," he said, "we'll try to arrange some part of the work that +you can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will +be 'real' editorial work, and you'll be able to see your own writing in +print."</p> + +<p>Hamilton thanked him fervently, and from that day on would have done +anything for his new superior.</p> + +<p>"This is a considerable change, Mr. Alavero," said Hamilton the +following morning, when he found himself at a table littered with maps +and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with +reports and circulars containing pictures of the sub-tropical landscapes +and towns of Porto Rico. "I have been doing nothing but Alaska for a +month past."</p> + +<p>"Too cold!" the Porto Rican cried, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I was +in Washington this last winter and I thought I should die of freezing."</p> + +<p>"You are from Porto Rico yourself, Mr. Alavero?"</p> + +<p>"I was never away from the island at all," was the reply, "never even on +a steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to +show the people in your Congress that the coffee growers of Porto Rico +need help."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Porto Rican coffee is the finest in the world," the editor answered +with a graphic gesture, "and when Porto Rico was Spanish we could sell +in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United +States includes us, and our coffee is taxed so that we cannot sell it. +And the American market is satisfied with Brazilian coffee, which is of +a cheaper grade."</p> + +<p>"Is coffee the principal crop down there?" queried the boy. "I notice +that nearly half these papers and books deal with coffee plantations."</p> + +<p>"It is still, but not as it once was," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar +and tobacco are the other big crops."</p> + +<p>"Coffee is easy to grow, isn't it?" asked the boy. "It doesn't want all +the attention that cotton does?"</p> + +<p>"After a grove is well-established, no, though we prune a great deal; +but sugar, yes. That's not such an obstacle though. There is plenty of +labor on the island."</p> + +<p>"Isn't the bulk of the island colored?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, no," answered the Porto Rican, shaking his finger in emphatic +denial, "more than three-fifths are pure white, a much smaller +proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The +negroes were slaves, but Spain freed them in 1873. There was no war." He +smiled. "We are a most peaceful people."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-29-t.jpg' width='400' height='612' alt='GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(Courtesy of the Department of War.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(Courtesy of the Department of War.)</p></div> + +<p>"Not like our other accession from Spain," Hamilton commented. "I mean +the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it +seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them."</p> + +<p>"Wild? You do not know the half!" said the excitable little editor, who, +despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his +explanations was busily working with diagrams the while. "You know there +was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't until this morning," the boy answered "but as I see that most +of these tables are compared with that year it is evident that there +must have been."</p> + +<p>"There was a census," the editor went on, after a pause during which he +had been working over a column of figures, "and my uncle was a +supervisor. Mr. Gatten—you know him?"</p> + +<p>"Only by name," Hamilton replied.</p> + +<p>"He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in +the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, +because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? +You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, +because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the +census began."</p> + +<p>"Did any one get killed by hostile natives?" asked Hamilton, scenting a +story.</p> + +<p>"Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But"—and he waggled a +finger warningly—"there were plenty of places where the census was only +estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even +with the soldiers taking the census and going with other census men, it +was very risky among the uncivilized tribes."</p> + +<p>"They are really wild?" said Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those +jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies."</p> + +<p>"Pygmies!" exclaimed Hamilton in surprise. "I didn't know that the Stars +and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in +Africa!"</p> + +<p>"The Negritos are pygmies," answered the editor, "seldom over four feet +ten inches for the man and the woman two or three inches shorter; they +use their toes like fingers, they wear only a loin-cloth, their hair is +fuzzy like a black bush, and they seldom use fire, even for cooking."</p> + +<p>"How do they live?" asked Hamilton. "We have got used to thinking of the +Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem +outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" was the answer. "A few have rough huts, but most of them +wander in the forests."</p> + +<p>"But where do they sleep?"</p> + +<p>"On the ground."</p> + +<p>"I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts," the boy remarked.</p> + +<p>"There are very few in the Philippines," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"How about snakes, then?" queried the lad.</p> + +<p>"They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely +ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping +man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as +possible."</p> + +<p>"Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and +swallow a man."</p> + +<p>"He could, but he doesn't," the Porto Rican pointed out; "rabbits are +more his size, or a young fawn. The Negritos are safe enough, as far as +that goes."</p> + +<p>"What do they live on?"</p> + +<p>"Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all +they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as +straight as you could shoot a bullet."</p> + +<p>"We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers," suggested +Hamilton with a grin. "But it really must have been an awful job +enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!—No thank you, +I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?"</p> + +<p>"No," was the reply, "the Negrito is dying out, just as the aboriginal +tribes all over the world are doing. There are only about twenty-three +thousand of the Pygmies left now."</p> + +<p>"But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?" queried the +boy.</p> + +<p>"Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types +of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The +aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as +any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, +and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of +the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are +Malays."</p> + +<p>"Even the head-hunters?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,—apparently of two +periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long +time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts +themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so +forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and +some,—like the Ilongots—to this day carry out the savage custom that +'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his +bride with a human head.'"</p> + +<p>"That is certainly savage," Hamilton agreed; "one never thinks that sort +of thing can be going on still, and certainly not under the American +flag!"</p> + +<p>"It is, though," the Porto Rican replied. "The third group," he +continued, "the Moros and so forth, are all Mohammedans, and they seem +to have come to the islands after the semi-civilization of the Malay +archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty +and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to +the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the Moros drove the +Igorots. They are largely pure Malay, warlike and cruel, but shrewd and +capable of culture. They assume an over-lordship over all other tribes +and their Dattos can generally enforce it."</p> + +<p>"It seems strange," the boy said, "to think of going among those savages +and asking them the same questions that United States citizens were +asked, writing the answers on the same kind of schedules, and counting +these ferocious head-hunters on a tabulating machine."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the editor reminded him, "the Philippine census last time +was taken by the War Department, although the Bureau is even now +considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it +have to take the next Philippine census, as it probably will. But while +it was primitive, the work wasn't so very different. They were able to +use advance schedules, for example."</p> + +<p>The boy stared, and his informant laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"They were a little different," he explained, "and it was during the +enumeration of the Igorots and similar tribes. It was soon found that +they could count up to ten but no further. A certain number of them +could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was +sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these +sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he had. +In some of the villages so my uncle told me, the supervisor had a +branding iron made with which he had branded on the tally sticks the +figure of a pig, or a house, or a chicken or whatever it might be."</p> + +<p>"That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the +way of census-taking," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country +negro farmers were barbaric—especially when I came across some +voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant."</p> + +<p>"There's just as much savagery—of a kind—right in the heart of +civilization," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are +little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to +remember it."</p> + +<p>"Why should I remember it especially?" asked Hamilton in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that +he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports +of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you +along, if the Director was willing."</p> + +<p>"You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work."</p> + +<p>"That would be just splendid," said Hamilton, his eyes shining, "but how +about the Porto Rican report, Mr. Alavero?"</p> + +<p>"I think I can manage it," the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a +smile, "and the chapter that you were working on is nearly done, isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I can finish it in a couple of days."</p> + +<p>"That will be in plenty of time," the editor assured him. "I don't think +Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week."</p> + +<p>Before many days had passed Hamilton found the correctness of the Porto +Rican's information, for as he was busily engaged in compiling a big +tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of +the provinces of the island, his friend the special agent of +manufactures, under whom he had been at New Haven, strolled into the +office.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Burns," the boy said delightedly, jumping up and shaking +hands, "I haven't seen you for ever so long."</p> + +<p>"I haven't been in Washington more than twenty-two per cent of the +time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the eleven-fifty next +Tuesday evening. Do you want to come along?"</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"The Director said, if you wanted to come, I could take you."</p> + +<p>"Where are we going, Mr. Burns?"</p> + +<p>"New York."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Seems to me, Alavero," said the Inspector, turning to the Porto Rican, +"that you've been teaching this lad to ask questions. Out of the four +remarks he has made since I came in, two have been questions. Fifty per +cent is a high average. Well, I'll tell you," he added, turning to the +boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied +with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand +inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, +decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of these the +Bureau investigates. Perhaps ten or a dozen in the entire country get a +recount. The Bureau doesn't officially recognize some of them but sends +an inspector to look over the ground, and see if everything was done +right. That's what we're going to do in New York."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hamilton briefly.</p> + +<p>"You'll be on that train?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Burns," the boy answered. "Eleven-fifty P.M., Tuesday."</p> + +<p>The opportunity was one which Hamilton had been coveting, for he felt +that if he only had a chance to get at the city methods he would have +covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial +Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, still +the novelty appealed to him greatly, and in spite of his former chief's +mathematical conversation, Hamilton was genuinely fond of him.</p> + +<p>"I've been wondering, Mr. Burns," the boy said, as they stood in the +great concourse of the Union Station at Washington, "whether there would +not be a very large number of protests about census figures,—people +always seem to have such an exaggerated idea of the size of their own +towns."</p> + +<p>"There is to some extent," Burns replied. "I think something like a +hundred places filed protests in this last census."</p> + +<p>"Then I read something, too, about census frauds," Hamilton said, "soon +after the taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some +enumerators—who were paid per capita—had bolstered up the figures in +order to get more out of it."</p> + +<p>"There was a little of that," the Inspector said, "but by far the +greatest amount of fraud was due to the desire on the part of the +inhabitants of a town or city to make the place appear larger and more +important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, +why, they padded 32,527 names there, and even when the Census had made a +recount they tried to repeat the same performance, complaining of the +results and demanding a second recount."</p> + +<p>"Was this granted?"</p> + +<p>"It was," the Inspector replied, "largely in order that the Census +Bureau itself might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its +methods. The second recount was performed by expert statisticians and +with extreme care."</p> + +<p>"And how did it come out?" the boy asked.</p> + +<p>"It substantiated the first recount in every way. It was, indeed, a +wonderful object lesson in showing how small is the margin of error in +the United States Census."</p> + +<p>"But was there really much fraud among the enumerators and supervisors, +Mr. Burns?"</p> + +<p>"With perhaps one exception, no criticism could be made of the +supervisors, but you can't have 70,000 enumerators, chosen for temporary +work, and expect perfection! There was quite a little over-counting, +caused by entering hotel transients as having permanent residences, by +numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant +difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; +where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have been due to +the unauthorized activity of committees of boards of trade or other +commercial organizations, giving lists of names all ready to be copied +on the enumerator's schedule, which the latter did not take the time and +trouble to verify."</p> + +<p>"Then do you think the net result of the census is to make it seem that +there are more people in the country than really are here?"</p> + +<p>"No," the Inspector replied confidently, "the total figures are an +understatement, probably of about one per cent, maybe a little less, but +certainly not much more."</p> + +<p>"I think that's mighty close," Hamilton said. "But do towns never wish +to have small numbers announced?"</p> + +<p>"There was only one case, so far as I know," the other replied, "in +which a Business Men's Association wrote and demanded a recount on the +ground that the figures were too big. The reason was a dispute about +raising city salaries when a certain population mark was reached.</p> + +<p>"And now, Noble," he continued, moving on toward the train platform, "we +want to look into the question of statistics in New York carefully. +Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, and I +know the Director is satisfied, but one or two little matters have come +up, which want looking into."</p> + +<p>Being on a midnight train, Hamilton had no chance for further talk with +the Inspector; but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing +through the great tunnels under the Hudson River, he found himself next +morning among the skyscrapers of New York again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose every one feels the same way about his own town," Hamilton +said, "but it always seems to me that you feel the bigness of things +more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of +time to do everything you want, but New York is just made up of hustle. +You've got to know what you want in this city and you've got to do it in +a hurry, before some one else gets there first."</p> + +<p>"New York certainly is hurried and restless; I can't say I like the +noise and the skyscrapers," replied Burns.</p> + +<p>"But it's great the way those buildings tower up," the boy exclaimed +enthusiastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller +cities look as though they were made for dwarfs, after living in the New +York streets."</p> + +<p>"Yet there are taller buildings, in other places, even in Europe," the +statistician remarked.</p> + +<p>"Spires!" answered the boy, "propped up by buttresses and flying +buttresses and all the rest of it so as to keep them from falling. Look +at those," he added, pointing at the skyscrapers before him, "they're +not afraid to stand by themselves; they mean something, they have a use, +while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of +no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what +people say about those crazy old tumble-down buildings of the Middle +Ages, they may be beautiful and all that, but they're useless nowadays. +The New York skyscraper is the greatest example of architecture in the +world because it best does what it was built to do."</p> + +<p>"You are enthusiastic, Noble," said his friend.</p> + +<p>"I'm a New Yorker all the way through," the lad continued, "and I want +to feel that I'm right in the whirl of things, where there is so much to +do that you can't crowd it into a day, where the fun is at the same +speed as the work. No backwaters for me, I want to be right out in the +center. I don't say that I'm going to win, but I want to be a game sport +and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or +swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, +and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,—right here +in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there +is to it is capital plus brains, and New York is the furnace that melts +them down into that quickness and grip on things we call the American +spirit. Millions from every race of the world come here, and the Statue +of Liberty is the first symbol, and the skyscrapers of lower New York +the first reality they see of the Land of Promise."</p> + +<p>"How about the inside of these great shells of structure?"</p> + +<p>"No such office buildings in the world," the boy answered +enthusiastically. "The salt winds from over three thousand miles of +ocean blow around them; in their steel walls there are lots of windows; +lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the +second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard +that the marble mosaic entrances of the larger of them put the Italian +palaces to shame. I don't know Europe, but I do know New York, and I +believe, Mr. Burns, if you knew it as I do, you'd be as proud of it +too."</p> + +<p>The Inspector looked at the boy quietly.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong," he said soberly, "in thinking that I don't know New +York. To-morrow morning you do a little work in a section of the city in +which you have probably never been, and I think we'll hear less tall +talk. If you could count the tens of thousands of families who live in +rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many +thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till +far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis district nurses +what conditions they find, you might then do a little thinking on your +own account. It's only right you should be proud of New York, but you'd +better see both sides before you are sure of yourself. Now, I suppose +you're going home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Hamilton, a little taken aback by his friend's rebuke.</p> + +<p>"Call at my hotel early to-morrow morning and I'll start you on a +'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharply, the +Inspector swung himself aboard a passing cross-town car.</p> + +<p>Nine o'clock the next morning found Hamilton in one of the worst +districts he had ever seen. Thronged as it was, the boy was sufficiently +conscious of his difference from the people he met to feel +uncomfortable. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out +during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him +verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly +incorrect. This was to be done in a dozen or so districts, and if the +information was found to be adequate, showing that the enumerators' +work had been faithfully done, there would be no need for further +inspection.</p> + +<p>The home manufacture of ostrich feathers first gave Hamilton a clear +insight into poverty. Four or five rooms each occupied by a family of +several persons he entered in one tenement, and in each he found three +or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high +speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted conditions carefully, +and was amazed to find that each of the little strands was wired—he had +always supposed that plumes grew upon the ostrich the way that they are +sold.</p> + +<p>In one such family dejection seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. The +window looked out on a court,—a court that was never cleaned and where +all manner of rubbish was thrown. Although it was morning and a +brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to +work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been +washed for months and diminished still further the little light there +was; a mattress in the opposite corner from a shaky cooking gas-burner +showed that this room was the entire home.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-30-t.jpg' width='600' height='412' alt='TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.</p></div> + +<p>"Where is your husband?" asked the boy, noting on the schedule a man's +name as head of the family.</p> + +<p>"In hospital—perhaps dead. See!"</p> + +<p>The woman pointed to a telegram which had fallen to the floor. Hamilton +picked it up. It read:</p> + +<p>"John Sobieski worse. Come at once," and was signed with the name of one +of the large hospitals.</p> + +<p>"Did you go?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>The woman shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Two hours lost, if I go. No good. Two hours' work means twenty-four +cents. What's the use?"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>"Consumption. I die soon, next year, perhaps. All the children sick."</p> + +<p>The boy looked around at 'all the children.' There were five of them in +that room, and all—even the youngest, a baby four years old—were +knotting the feathers on the plume. The baby could hardly do it, but he +was learning.</p> + +<p>"Many hands make light work," said Hamilton as cheerfully as he could. +"With so many little workers you ought to get along finely."</p> + +<p>"Yes," the woman answered listlessly, "we get along. Some days we make +as much as a dollar!"</p> + +<p>"Each of you?"</p> + +<p>"Do we look so rich? One dollar for everybody. But that is only +sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a little more than five +dollar the week, by working all the time."</p> + +<p>The boy hastily asked the remaining questions on the schedule, found +everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giving a +little help out of his own pocket, he left for the next place.</p> + +<p>On the floor below was a family working on fur, every one of them with +hacking coughs caused by tiny particles of fur in the lungs.</p> + +<p>"We work or we starve," was again the unanswerable explanation.</p> + +<p>In the house next door, embroidering rich cloaks, Hamilton found a +family of which several of the members had a bad infectious skin +disease. Chancing to meet a health inspector soon afterwards he told him +about this family and gave him their address.</p> + +<p>"I can stop it, as far as this family is concerned," the health officer +said, "and I suppose I ought to. But you know what it means, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"It means, if I take their work away, they will starve to death in a +couple of weeks."</p> + +<p>"And if you don't?"</p> + +<p>"If I don't, they'll go on spreading disease. Oh, I'll have to put a +stop to it, of course, but tell me what is going to happen to the +family."</p> + +<p>"They ought to go to a hospital," Hamilton said.</p> + +<p>The health officer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"They are not hospital cases," he said. "None of them need more medical +attention than they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which +they applied would treat them in an Out-Patient department. They would +have to take in more work, or die."</p> + +<p>"But where would they get the work?"</p> + +<p>"Any of these sweatshop jobbers will give it to them. It makes no +difference to the middlemen where the work is done or out of what dens +it comes, as long as it is done cheap."</p> + +<p>"And is all clothing open to the same risk?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>The health inspector shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Cheap clothing is not," he said, "because even the cheapest kind of +labor is more expensive than machinery, and machine-made clothes are +clean. But costly dresses which need hand embroidery are sent to +sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep +thousands of women and children working day and night the year round. +The more elaborate the gown, the longer is it likely to have been in a +tenement that the future wearer would not even allow her dog to enter."</p> + +<p>From house to house Hamilton went, finding misery at every step, with +the single consolation that the schedule showed in almost every case +that the son or the daughter who was working had moved out of the slums, +or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. +Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seemed to have been +dowered with promise, and as Burns had suggested, the sole comfort and +hope for the future lay in the fact that the New York slum is a +one-generation slum.</p> + +<p>It was growing toward noon when Hamilton finished the short list that +the Inspector had given him in that poorest section, and he was glad +when he was able to leave the pressure of the poverty behind him. His +next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew +that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was +enough of the community spirit among the Italians to prevent such +conditions as he had witnessed and enough frugality among them to enable +them to make the best of all they had.</p> + +<p>Feeling that it was time for lunch, the boy hunted around a while for +some restaurant that looked as though it would serve a meal that would +not be too distasteful. After a little search he found a small place +that seemed to be just the thing. The sign board was in Italian and the +list of dishes pasted on the windows was in Italian, but Hamilton's +Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. +At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the +entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind +him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the paper on +which he had been writing, and jumped to his feet so quickly that the +chair on which he had been sitting overturned, and he stumbled as he +stepped back a pace or two. He glared threateningly at the boy, who +apologized for startling him. But it was evident that the man did not +understand a word of English.</p> + +<p>Hearing the clatter the proprietor came out from an inner room, and +seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passionate torrent of +speech, all utterly unintelligible to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"I hava told heem," he explained to the boy, "that I not wanta heem in +this-a place at all."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think you would," said Hamilton, "I don't like his looks. +Can I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had +just taken from his pocket, for the boy when alone always read at his +meals.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sair," and the proprietor rattled off a string of dishes +from which the boy made a copious selection, for he was hungry.</p> + +<p>But he noticed that the man who had been sitting at the table had not +left the place but was furtively watching, a few steps away. He was an +ugly-looking customer, and Hamilton, full of grit as he was, felt +uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed +the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a +heavy shadow as though there were a drawing on the other side. His pulse +beat a little faster as an idea came into his mind, but he showed no +sign until the proprietor returned to set the table.</p> + +<p>"I think," he said, watching the stranger carefully as he spoke, "that +gentleman left a paper behind him. Ask him."</p> + +<p>The proprietor, looking much puzzled, put a question in Italian, to +which was evidently returned a sharp denial.</p> + +<p>Still watching him, Hamilton slowly reached out his hand for the paper +which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the book, and turning it +over laid it flat upon the white cloth.</p> + +<p>It was the Black Hand.</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-31-t.jpg' width='461' height='600' alt='FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (Brown +Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (Brown +Bros.)</p></div> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /> +<a name='CHAPTER_X'></a><h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL</h3> +<br /> + +<p>There was a moment's utter silence. The bright little restaurant had +suddenly become charged with mystery, the slinking stranger seemed to +have become in a moment allied to secret powers of evil, and the whole +atmosphere seemed baneful in the sinister significance of that drawing +on the table. A glance at the restaurant-keeper dispelled all question +of complicity. His jaw had fallen, his face was ashen, his lips bluish.</p> + +<p>The other saw his advantage in the terror the mere display had excited, +and stepping forward, he reached out his hand to pick up the paper, +saying in English:</p> + +<p>"Mine!"</p> + +<p>Before the Italian had time to grasp the sketch, Hamilton quietly took +it and folded it in half.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't be so ready to claim it, if I were you," he said, knowing +that the other might not understand the words but could tell the tone.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" queried the restaurant-keeper in a hoarse +whisper. "They will kill-a me!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton thought hard for a moment or two. In the first place the matter +had nothing to do with the Census Bureau, and the boy felt that while he +was on duty in that work and wearing the census badge he was not a +private citizen. Again, it was not a crime to draw a hand on a piece of +paper, and the space obviously left for the blackmail message had not +been filled in, and thirdly he could not swear that he saw him draw the +hand; he only saw the paper in the man's possession.</p> + +<p>"Tell him," he said to the restaurant-keeper, "that I shall say nothing +about it, that I am not a policeman, nor a spy; tell him that so far as +I am concerned I do not know that he had anything to do with it, and +return him the paper."</p> + +<p>And bending forward, he reached out the paper to the Italian, who first +snatched it eagerly, and then, having secured it, made a ceremonious +bow. The proprietor of the restaurant translated the boy's words, and +with a brief reply, which Hamilton rightly construed to be thanks, the +stranger left the store. No sooner was he gone than the restaurateur, +with a word of apology, sank into the nearest chair, fairly exhausted +with fright.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, sair," he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "I +had-a nothing at all to do with that-a man."</p> + +<p>"It's pretty hard to know about these things," said Hamilton, who was +somewhat unnerved himself, "but I don't believe you had. Anyway, there's +no harm done. I've always heard about the Black Hand society, but I +didn't expect to run across it first thing, that way."</p> + +<p>"There is no Black-a Hand society," the Italian said, "at least I do not +think there is."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean there's no Black Hand?" asked Hamilton a little +indignantly, "haven't I just seen it?"</p> + +<p>The Italian shook his head.</p> + +<p>"What were you so scared about, then?" queried the boy impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Mafia," said the other, his lips just shaping the syllables.</p> + +<p>"You mean that the Mafia use the Black Hand?"</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"And that it is the sign of the Mafia?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the restaurant proprietor. "It is this-a way. When the Mafia +was all-a broken up in-a the Sicily, the chiefs come to America. But the +people are so far away it is difficult-a to speak-a to them all. One day +one of the Mafia leaders write a letter threatening to kill. His—what +you call it—nickname was 'Il Mano Nera'—"</p> + +<p>"That means 'The Black Hand,' doesn't it?" queried the boy.</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"He sign at the bottom with a Black Hand because the man-a to whom he +write, once was member of the Mafia. The police see the letter, a +newspaper print-a big long story about Italian society which have the +Black-a Hand for its sign, and saying that much recent murders was done. +Everybody become-a frightened, and the Mafia and the Camorra right away +both begin-a to use Black Hand. So you see when I say there is no +Black-a Hand society, no chief, no place-a to meet, no meetings, no +plan-a to share money, no oath, it is quite true, but if I say there is +a society which used the Black-a Hand that is true, too. But all I +want-a to do is to be let alone. Now, I will get you your dinner, sair."</p> + +<p>Hamilton felt distinctly uncomfortable in being left alone, not feeling +at all sure that the man who had been there before would not suddenly +dash in upon him unawares and stab him in the back with a stiletto to +make sure of his not talking, nor that the restaurant-keeper might not +put some poison in his coffee. Take it all in all, it was the most +nerve-racking meal he had ever eaten.</p> + +<p>Chatting with the Inspector that evening over his Black Hand experiences +he found that his chief took a very serious view of the question.</p> + +<p>"If we were receiving immigrants from the north of Italy," he said, "it +would be an entirely different matter, but all the Italians who are +coming in now are from the 'toe' and the 'heel' of Italy, and from +Sicily. You see, the north of Italy are really Celts, like the French +and Irish, being descended from the Lombards, but the Sicilians and +Calabrians are a mixture of the old pirates, the Moors, and the +degenerated Latin races that were left when the Roman Empire fell to +pieces. The endeavor to break up the Mafia sent all the leaders of that +nefarious Sicilian society here, and now the attack upon the Neapolitan +Camorra lands another criminal group. Italy has sent us a larger +proportion of criminals than any other country, and under our present +laws, if they have been three years here, they cannot be deported. The +Vincenzo Abadasso case was a good example of the folly of that rule."</p> + +<p>"Who was he?" asked Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"He was an Italian immigrant who had been arrested twenty-seven times +and convicted twenty-five and who came over here a couple of years ago. +Within a few months of his arrival he was arrested here and sentenced to +three years' imprisonment And now, although he is a professed criminal, +they won't be able to deport him, because when his prison term is up, he +will have been in the United States three years."</p> + +<p>"I suppose there are a lot of Italians coming over now?" said Hamilton +questioningly.</p> + +<p>"A little over three weeks ago," was the reply, "as I heard from a +friend in the Immigration Bureau, there was a funeral in a small village +near Naples and not enough able-bodied civilians could be found in the +place to carry the casket. All of them were in America. There are scores +of towns in southern Italy where all the work—of every kind—is done +now by the women, because the men have emigrated."</p> + +<p>"What do you think about this Black Hand business?"</p> + +<p>"I think your friend the restaurant-keeper was nearly right, only that +it is being used by all sorts of crooks as well, who have no connection +with either the Mafia or the Camorra. Mark you, I think those two secret +societies are apt to be much misrepresented, just as the Jesuits were +during the Middle Ages and the Freemasons were at other periods. The +Camorra was once simply the Tammany Hall of Naples. But when, as +happened last year, there were six hundred and fourteen Black Hand +outrages in two States in four months it is idle to say that it does not +exist in America. The Camorrist trials over the Cuocolo murders at +Viterbo, perhaps the most sensational in the world since the Dreyfus +case, have shown its power to be more dangerous than any one could for a +moment have imagined. And the danger lies here—there are more +Camorrists in New York than in Naples!"</p> + +<p>For a moment the boy looked at the Inspector, astounded.</p> + +<p>"You mean—" he began, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"I mean that the worst elements of the two worst societies in Europe are +concentrating in New York, and that unless rigorous measures are taken +to keep them down, America will harbor graver dangers than any it has +yet known. Russian nihilism, Polish anarchism, German socialism may join +hands with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra to institute a +criminal organization such as the world has never seen before. There are +enough ignorant immigrants to yield to a wave of fear, and the Black +Hand thrives and grows on terror. But, wisely held in check until they +learn, these very Sicilians and Neapolitans bring much that is of value +to the making of an American people."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there couldn't be any real danger!" Hamilton exclaimed. "The spirit +of American institutions would prevent such a happening; that could only +be in some old-world city like Naples. The Camorra comes down from the +Middle Ages, anyway."</p> + +<p>The Inspector shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," he said, "and I only trust you may be right," and he turned +the subject to the actual work in hand.</p> + +<p>It so chanced that the very next day Hamilton had an opportunity of +seeing, in a mild way, how truly the Inspector had spoken with regard to +the alienizing of the crowds in the streets of New York. He had been +working steadily several hours, and early in the afternoon he noticed a +great deal of shouting in the streets. Being curious, and noticing that +numbers of women were hurrying past, gesticulating violently, Hamilton +followed, until almost before he was aware, the crowd grew so dense as +to engulf him, and he was carried along, whether he would or no, up the +street. Some of the women were crying, some shrieking, and all wore a +furtive, strained expression as though in great distress.</p> + +<p>Although there was a great deal of shouting, not a word was in a +language familiar to Hamilton, and although he questioned every one +around him he could find no one that understood his questions. All that +he could gather was from some one in the front of the crowd who kept on +crying out in English at irregular intervals:</p> + +<p>"Our children, we want our children!"</p> + +<p>Even if the boy had desired to break through the crowd to return to his +work he could not have done so, and he really did not wish to,—he was +too much interested in following the purposes of the throng. Finally the +people stopped, but the boy was so far back that he could see nothing of +what was going on at the head of the crowd. Being determined, however, +Hamilton elbowed his way by main force and reached the woman who was +still crying:</p> + +<p>"Our children, we want our children!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton spoke to her, but the woman paid no heed. Finally, seeing that +she would not listen, he shouted at her as harshly as he could. Then she +turned and tried to answer his questions.</p> + +<p>"What's all the row about?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"They rob us. Steal our children. Make them walk far away, never see our +children any more. Oh, my Mario, oh, my Petronilla. Oh, our children, we +want our children!"</p> + +<p>Further information the boy could not get. He worked his way clear to +the front of the mob and saw the police gathering on all sides. Breaking +through the front rank he stepped up to the nearest policeman, who +merely shifted his grip on his night stick.</p> + +<p>"That's quite a mob," he said in a conversational tone.</p> + +<p>"It is that, sorr," said the policeman, recognizing immediately that the +boy was not one of the rioters.</p> + +<p>"I'm a census officer," the boy continued, "and I was doing some +inspection work for the census when I got caught in the crowd. What's +the matter with them?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis a bunch of dummies they are," was the reply; "'tis thinkin' they +are that the schools are goin' to steal their children. As if any one +would be wantin' their brats. The most of us has enough of our own to +keep."</p> + +<p>"But why should the school want to steal their children? Do you mean +that they don't want them to go to school?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis not that, sorr," the Irishman answered, "but 'tis due to some +'fire drill' business. The little ones are taught in the school that +when a bell rings—'tis the fire bell I'm m'anin'—they sh'd all march +out dacintly and in order. 'Tis a good idea, that same, an' I'm favorin' +it. But it's hard to make the children see it, so that they have to +drill them often."</p> + +<p>"That all seems right enough," Hamilton answered.</p> + +<p>"Ye would think so, sorr," continued the policeman "But most of these +mothers come from countries on the other side where they make them +soldiers whether they want to be or not, an' this drillin' business +scares the old folks 'most to death."</p> + +<p>"But if it continues and nothing happens, I don't see why they should go +on being scared. You would think the children had grown used to it."</p> + +<p>"The children! They're not makin' any trouble, it's all the parents."</p> + +<p>"Then what started it?"</p> + +<p>"There was some street corner lecturer here the day before yisterday, +tryin' to teach the people that children were the cause of poverty an' +that the only way to prevent poverty was to get rid of the children, +either by havin' fewer or by shippin' off the existin' surplus."</p> + +<p>"It's silly for them to heed a man like that!"</p> + +<p>"It's worse than silly, sorr," the policeman said. "But even then I +don't believe there would have been trouble. But yisterday, some rich +lady, plannin' to give the children a picnic this afternoon and a treat, +told them they were all goin' out to the country and that they must tell +their mothers they wouldn't be home until late."</p> + +<p>"What about that?" asked the boy. "I should think they would be glad +that the children should have some pleasure. From all I've seen recently +of the way people live in this neighborhood, I don't believe the +children have any too much good times."</p> + +<p>"An' so they should be glad, sorr, but they won't see it that way. They +know the children have been drilled for weeks an' weeks; they know a man +on the street corner said the children ought to be shipped away; an' the +next day they are told that the children are goin' to be taken into the +country, an' they don't believe the children'll ever come back."</p> + +<p>"Surely they can't be as silly as all that! And what do you suppose they +want to do?"</p> + +<p>"They don't know what they want," the policeman answered, "but it's a +bad business when a crowd gathers. Look there now!"</p> + +<p>Hamilton looked where the man was pointing. On the outskirts of the +crowd the boy noted a number of half-grown toughs, hoodlums, and +trouble-makers generally. The cries were increasing, and the boy could +see that these men were doing all they could to stir up the rest of the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"Where they come from, I don't know," the police officer said, "but any +time that there's a little trouble, they'll make it as big as they can."</p> + +<p>"But the whole thing's so absurd," the boy said. "What do they think +they're going to do,—raid the school?" He laughed.</p> + +<p>The policeman turned on him quickly.</p> + +<p>"'Tis absurd, as ye say, sorr," he said rebukingly "but there's many a +good man been hurt with less cause than this. That crowd's growin' by +thousands. Do you slip away, sorr, I'm afraid there's goin' to be +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Not much," Hamilton answered, "now I'm in this far, I'm going to stay +and see the fun out."</p> + +<p>"Well then, sorr," advised the policeman, "ye'd better slip through the +school gates. Show your census badge, and the other men at the gate will +let ye through."</p> + +<p>Thanking him, Hamilton walked across the narrow stretch of road between +the foremost ranks of the crowd and the little group of policemen +gathered in front of the school entrance. As he did so, a bottle came +whizzing at his head with deadly aim. Fortunately he had been keeping +his head partly turned curiously toward the crowd, and he saw the +missile in time to dodge. It missed him and went hurtling on, just +passing between two policemen and smashing on the iron bars of the +railing.</p> + +<p>"You nearly got hit that time," said one of the policemen, as Hamilton +showed his badge and was let through. "How did you get in with them?"</p> + +<p>"Just doing my work," the boy answered, "and got carried right along. I +was curious at first,—then when I wanted to get out I found I couldn't. +I think," he added, a little nervously, for the flying jagged bottle had +startled him not a little, "that's the first time I've been in front of +a mob."</p> + +<p>"I wish it was the last I'm likely to be," was the reply, "especially a +crowd of women like that. Men you know what to do with."</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose they'll do?" asked the boy. "Try to rush the +school?"</p> + +<p>"They did once not far from here," the policeman answered, "it was a +school on the East Side, where nearly all the children were Jewish, and +in order to make it easier for the poorer children the school +authorities had opened a sort of restaurant where the kids could get +lunch for three cents. The story got abroad that the children were +getting ham and pork, and the whole section rose in arms. We tried to +disperse them and couldn't. There was no way of reasoning with them, +there was nothing they could do, but they just hung around."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Waiting a chance to burn the school down, every one seemed to think. +They did make one rush toward the end of the afternoon, and several +people were wounded. One of our men was badly stabbed, but he got over +it. Watch now," he added, in a sharp voice. "There's something doing!"</p> + +<p>The crowd hushed a moment, and a man's voice could be heard, but whether +pacifying the women or inflaming them, Hamilton could not make out. The +next moment answered him. Without any apparent preparation, the whole +face of the crowd suddenly seemed to burst, the end closed in, and in a +second one of the wildest hordes Hamilton had ever seen was at the +school gates. There was a brief struggle and nightsticks were drawn. The +crowd rolled back, then surged on, more angrily than before. But the +bluecoats stood firm, and when the crowd rolled back the second time a +number showed broken heads.</p> + +<p>"Son," called the police lieutenant, "you scamper along, and tell the +principal to hurry up with letting out the school. I sent him one +message now this means business."</p> + +<p>Hamilton turned and ran for all he was worth toward the building, but +just as he reached there, he saw the children marching in regular order +out of the rear door, and he came back immediately to report. As he did +so he found that the crowd was getting ready to make a third attempt to +attack the police, when, turning the corner, sauntering down the narrow +lane between the crowd and the police, came an Italian boy, about +fourteen years old, with half a dozen other ragged boys at his heels. On +seeing him, the lieutenant turned to Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"That's Caesar," he said, with a sigh of relief. "I've known him for the +past year or two, and he'll settle all this trouble."</p> + +<p>The boy looked at the police lieutenant with surprise. The police force +had had trouble enough, and what could a boy do? He voiced his query.</p> + +<p>"His father's a 'Man of Silence,'" was the reply, "and Caesar himself +knows all there is to know. You'll see."</p> + +<p>Arriving at the center of the crowd, just by the school gate, the boy +turned, and speaking to the nearest officer, said, in English, without a +trace of foreign accent, shrugging his shoulders:</p> + +<p>"Some of them won't ever learn!"</p> + +<p>For a moment he scanned the mob, called the names of two or three men on +the outskirts, and Hamilton could see them wince as this +fourteen-year-old lad named them; then he commenced a speech, which +seemed,—so far as Hamilton could tell—to be ridiculing them for their +fears.</p> + +<p>The crowd relaxed, and for a moment Hamilton thought the whole trouble +was over; but suddenly a man sprang to the front of the rioters, and +gesticulating wildly, answered the boy in what seemed to be a +threatening tone. The young Italian lad heard him through patiently, +then almost without raising his voice, uttered one crisp sentence. The +man turned white to the lips and slunk away.</p> + +<p>"Ask him," said Hamilton to a policeman, "what he said?"</p> + +<p>"I only asked him," the Italian said, "if he wanted me to find out his +name—so that you would know it if you wanted to arrest him of course," +he added, as an afterthought.</p> + +<p>The policeman looked at him and pulled the boy's ear, in fun.</p> + +<p>"Av I knew as much about some things as you do," he said, "they'd make +me chief. Maybe, though," he added, "I wouldn't hold it long. But what +about this, Caesar, is it all over?"</p> + +<p>The Italian nodded.</p> + +<p>"See," he said, "they all go!"</p> + +<p>It was as the boy said; Hamilton could see that little by little the +crowd was dispersing and that the members of the boyish gang were going +all through the groups, evidently explaining that the trouble was all +over.</p> + +<p>"Ye see what we're up against," the policeman said to Hamilton. "Here's +a slip of a lad that c'n just make a crowd do what he says because his +father is a leader in the Mafia. There's never any one gives credit +enough to the force for keepin peace, between all these foreigners and +the Chinks; this ain't an American city, it's a racial nightmare."</p> + +<p>"Do the Chinese give much trouble, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not such a great deal usually, but they do once in a while. There's +bloody murder in Chinatown going on now, or going to begin mighty soon. +Three were killed yesterday and the word was given out at Headquarters +this morning that the Tongs were out."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-32-t.jpg' width='600' height='396' alt='THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.</p></div> + +<p>"Have we Tongs in New York?" asked Hamilton. "I've heard all about the +troubles in the West. Before the fire in San Francisco, I know, there +were fifteen organized Tongs of Highbinders, each with its paid band of +'Hatchet Men' for no other purpose than to rule Chinatown. The man who +got up the report for the government told me that 'Frisco Chinatown was +far more under Tong rule and had far more crimes in proportion than any +city in China."</p> + +<p>"There are six strong Tongs in New York that I know about," the +policeman answered, "and I guess there are a lot more. But I reckon it's +the same in 'Frisco as it is here, they keep their killings to +themselves, and they don't let any white men get mixed up in it at all. +That's why you never can tell anything about it. But right now Chinatown +is pretty dangerous, and all the sight-seeing business there has been +shut off. No one is going into Mott and Pell Streets now."</p> + +<p>"Pell Street!" exclaimed the boy. "Is that in Chinatown?"</p> + +<p>"Right in the heart of it," was the reply. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I'm headed there now," Hamilton answered, taking from his +pocket the schedule he had been given by Burns to check up, and showing +it to the officer.</p> + +<p>"That's Chinatown all right," the policeman said, "just look at the +names!"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't looked at it closely," the boy remarked, "why, yes, so it is. +Well, Tong or no Tong, I suppose I've got to chance it, if those are +orders."</p> + +<p>The policeman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Looks to me as though you'd have to wait a while. Take some other +district first and come back next week."</p> + +<p>"Can't," the boy answered. "The Census Inspector and I have to go to +'Frisco to straighten out a Chinese tangle over the census there. The +Chinese refused point-blank to have anything to do with the census, and +there was a heap of trouble."</p> + +<p>"What was it?" asked the policeman, walking along beside Hamilton in the +direction of Chinatown, his beat extending to the limits of that +section.</p> + +<p>"When the rule for the census was issued, so they told me in +Washington," Hamilton answered, "in order to make sure that the Chinese +would not place any obstacles in the way, not only was a copy of the +President's proclamation in Chinese pasted all over the walls of the +city, but, in addition a decree was made by the Chinese consul-general +that it was the wish of the Chinese government that the population in +the city be properly numbered."</p> + +<p>"That was a good idea," said the policeman approvingly.</p> + +<p>"It would have been," said Hamilton, "if the Chinese had paid any +attention to it. Instead of that, some of the Tongs got together and had +a brief threat printed and pasted across the face of the President's +proclamation, as well as that of the consul, that no Chinaman was to +give any information to a census officer, unless he wanted to come under +the displeasure of the Tongs."</p> + +<p>"The nerve of them!"</p> + +<p>"At this," continued the boy, "the consul put out a second order, +sharper than the first, not only commanding obedience, but pointing out +that refusal would lay the person refusing open to fine or imprisonment. +Over these second orders again was pasted the former threat of the +Tongs. A few days later the enumerators, each accompanied by a +policeman, went through Chinatown. The Chinese wouldn't understand any +language, not even their own. They didn't refuse to give information, +they simply answered, 'No understand' when any question was asked."</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>TRANSLATION OF THE PROCLAMATION + +<p> Whereas, the Director of the Census Bureau of the Department of + Commerce and Labor of the United States, in a letter to His + Excellency Chang, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, requests that, since it + has been the custom of the United States to take a census of the + population once in every ten years, many of which have been taken + and are on record, and since the present year is the time for + taking another such census, which is to include the people of every + nationality residing within the territory of the United States, and + as the Chinese residents of this country, through possible + ignorance of the English language, may mistake the object of the + enumerators to be that of ascertaining what the people possess and + its value, in order to impose taxes, or that of investigating the + certificates of registration, etc., a proclamation be issued fully + explaining the matter to the Chinese people;</p> + +<p> And whereas, instructions have been received from His Excellency to + the effect that, the taking of a census being merely to ascertain + the population of the country, and having no connection in any way + with the imposing of taxes or the examination of certificates by + the customs authorities of the Treasury Department, and for fear + that our countrymen may not understand the purpose and make trouble + through a mistaken notion of the whole proceeding, the + Consul-General at San Francisco and the Consul at New York shall + publish and make known to all Chinese residing in every part of the + United States that it is the custom of the United States to take a + census at stated intervals, that this proceeding has no connection + with the laying of taxes or the examination of certificates of + residence, that our countrymen have no cause for suspicion or + alarm, but, as soon as the enumerators present themselves, they + should answer the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law:</p> + +<p> Now, therefore, we, Li Yung Yew, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's + Consul-General at the port of San Francisco, and Yang Yu Ying, His + Imperial Chinese Majesty's Consul at the port of New York, in + pursuance of instructions as aforesaid, do hereby publish and make + known that inasmuch as it is the custom of the United States to + take a census of the population thereof once in every ten years, + and as this proceeding has no connection whatever with the laying + of taxes or the examination of certificates of residence, and as + all persons irrespective of nationality are to be enumerated under + the provisions of the law, our countrymen should not be alarmed or + cherish any suspicion, but, as soon as the proper officers of the + Census Bureau present themselves with this Consular proclamation, + should answer all the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law.</p> + +<p> A list of the questions to be answered is hereby appended for the + information of all concerned:</p> + +<p> Population schedule (32 questions).</p> + +<p> Agriculture schedule (59 questions).</p> + +<p> Dated Hsuan Tung, second year, First moon (February, 1910), and + sealed with our respective seals of office.</p></div> + +<center>THIRTEENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES</center> +<br /> +<center>CHINESE CONSULAR PROCLAMATION</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/chinese.png' height='60%' alt='Chinese text' title=''> +</center><br /> +<br /> +<center>(SEE TRANSLATION ABOVE)</center> + +<p>"What was finally done?" the policeman queried.</p> + +<p>"The Consul-General had to ask the Five Companies to back up the census +order, and they did. The fifth layer of paper was put on the billboards, +and the Five Companies, without beating around the bush, just ordered +the Chinese to do as they were told."</p> + +<p>"I've always heard that the Five Companies were stronger on the Pacific +coast than they are here. I wonder why?"</p> + +<p>"I asked that very question," Hamilton said, "and the man who told me +all about this explained that it was because they controlled the Chinese +slave traffic to America."</p> + +<p>"'Tis like enough," the policeman agreed, "and of course the most of +that would be on the other slope. But there's enough of it here, just +the same, and half the trouble between the Tongs is because of it."</p> + +<p>"That was what started the trouble in Oakland between the Hop Sings +and the Bing Gongs," Hamilton said, "and there were eight men killed in +that. It began over the possession of a slave girl who had been given as +security for debt. But they never caught any one for that."</p> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-33-t.jpg' width='630' height='400' alt='ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.</p></div> + +<p>"You can't ever catch a Chinaman," the policeman said. "I've arrested a +dozen myself—but it never did any good. Look at Boston—it was open +talk that there were two regular executioners under Tong law, but the +Chinks got out of it by tellin' the judge that there never had been any +executions and that it was merely an ancient title!"</p> + +<p>"There have been cases in New York, too," the boy said, "that they +haven't found out yet!"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter what the case is—you can never prove it on them. +Look at that young girl, a missionary, who was killed! And that's only +one of dozens. And they can shoot, and shoot straight, too!" he added. +"Look at the shooting galleries," the two were walking down the Bowery, +"they've been kept going for years by the practice of the Tong marksmen. +You'd never think it, but some of those Highbinders could make our crack +shots do their best to keep an even score. Well," he broke off, "here +we are at Mott Street. Bob," he called to the policeman across the +street, "here's a young fellow wants to go into Chinatown."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, sir," said the other, a great big burly fellow, coming forward +to meet them, "but orders are strict. No one going in at all, unless on +business."</p> + +<p>"It is on business, officer," said Hamilton. "I'm a census agent and the +Inspector told me to check up some names on this schedule."</p> + +<p>The policeman took it and looked it over.</p> + +<p>"I think those are all right, sir," he said, "I know most of 'em by +name. But that's one of those underground places and we don't any of us +go down there any more than we have to. Of course when we have to +go—why, that's another matter. I think, sir, you can take it those +names are about all right."</p> + +<p>"I don't feel that I could make a report like that," Hamilton answered. +"I was sent to check it up personally, and don't you think I'd better do +it? There's a chap there," he added, pointing to a young fellow standing +a few yards up the street, "he doesn't look Chinese."</p> + +<p>"He's a reporter, sir," the policeman said, "an' he's like us,—it's +part of his business to take chances."</p> + +<p>"Mine, too," said Hamilton; "only he represents a newspaper and I'm here +for the government."</p> + +<p>The policeman scratched his chin in perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Do you wait here," he said, "and I'll call up the station."</p> + +<p>He came back in a minute or two.</p> + +<p>"The lieutenant says it'll be all right," he said. "I told him that I +hadn't seen any sign of trouble—not that that means anything," he +added, "but if you wait a minute the other man will be up this way; he's +patrollin' the streets and you can go along with him."</p> + +<p>"How many of you are there here?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"Generally half a dozen in these two or three streets," the policeman +answered, "but I guess right now there's twice that number."</p> + +<p>Just as he had expected, another policeman appeared shortly, and +Hamilton was passed on to him. His conductor was taciturn, and the boy +was glad when the reporter joined them. In reply to a question, Hamilton +told his purpose, and the reporter, scenting a story, volunteered to +accompany them. The boy was willing enough, especially as he found the +reporter had the Chinese district as his regular assignment and was well +known in Chinatown.</p> + +<p>The address given, as the first policeman had said, was merely that +painted over a stairway.</p> + +<p>"I guess we go down here," Hamilton said.</p> + +<p>The policeman answered not a word, he simply pushed past the boy and +went down first; Hamilton followed, and the reporter came next. At the +bottom of the stair the policeman rapped on a door with his nightstick, +a good loud rap. It was opened, and he strode in, followed by the two +boys. A few questions from Hamilton verified one or two items of +information, but details about the rest of the house were not +forthcoming. In answer to questions the Chinaman simply pointed to the +ground.</p> + +<p>"Next floor down, I reckon," the reporter said.</p> + +<p>"But we're in the cellar now," objected Hamilton</p> + +<p>The reporter laughed.</p> + +<p>"We build above ground, the Chinese below," he said. "Lots of these +houses have five stories underground, and nearly all have either two or +three. A Chinaman doesn't care about fresh air at all, and he won't +waste money in fuel when he can keep warm in an underground burrow. Come +on, I guess we'll go down some more."</p> + +<p>The policeman still leading the way, three of them went down a rickety +stair, not much better than a ladder, and found themselves in a sort of +storehouse.</p> + +<p>"They don't keep things to eat here!" exclaimed Hamilton, scarcely able +to breathe the foul air and the exhalations from decaying food-stuffs.</p> + +<p>"Sure," the reporter answered. "Cheerful, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Hamilton gave a little shiver of repugnance, but taking out his +schedule, asked the underground store-keeper all the personal questions +on it. Then, realizing that he would be able to know about his +customers, the lad quickly made enough inquiries to assure him that +there was no fault to find with the work, and started for the upper air. +Just as they passed out of the stairway, the policeman, who was the +last, still being on the steps, Hamilton heard a shot, and a bullet came +whizzing by his head. It was answered by a fusillade of shots.</p> + +<p>The boy's first instinct was to duck back under the cover of the +staircase from which he had just come out, but the policeman, as he +left it, roughly gave him a push, as much as to say, "Keep out of +there," and started on a dead run for the group where the firing was +going on.</p> + +<p>"That's the Hip Sings," the reporter said, pulling Hamilton into the +shadow of a doorway, "the Ong Leongs have been waiting for them, ever +since that affair in the theater."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked Hamilton, although more interested in the +immediate excitement than the story.</p> + +<p>"Time of the Chinese New Year," the reporter answered in short, crisp +sentences. "There was a gala performance in the theater with suppers and +banquets before and after. Everybody brought fire-crackers to the +theater, and at a certain time all the fire-crackers were set off. When +the noise stopped eighteen men were found shot dead, all members of the +Ong Leong Tong. The Hip Sing men were blamed for it, but none ever +caught."</p> + +<p>"What's up now?" cried Hamilton, in alarm.</p> + +<p>As he spoke two men dashed out of a building near by, and fired at the +group beyond. The others turned and made a rush. The two newcomers cut +across the street, thus for a moment diverting the line of fire which +had been perilously close to where the two boys were standing.</p> + +<p>"This is too hot for me," said the reporter, "we'd better get out of +here as fast as we know how. We'll go to the end of this street and turn +to the right. Are you ready? Come along."</p> + +<p>Out from the doorway like a couple of frightened hares the two lads +bolted, pursued by a few shots which, they flew so far over their heads, +Hamilton surmised were intended as a warning to keep out of the way +rather than as attempts to shoot them. In the few seconds that had +elapsed it seemed that the streets had become full of running policemen, +and Hamilton looked back.</p> + +<p>As he did so, he saw one of the men in the nearest group stagger +sideways and stand for an instant alone in the center of the street. +There was the sharp bark of a sawed-off revolver, and the wounded man +just reached the shelter of a doorway as the bullet sang over the spot +on which he had stood a second before.</p> + +<p>The sight unnerved Hamilton. He clutched the reporter's arm.</p> + +<p>"Chinese, Camorrists, sweatshop workers, and negroes!" he cried, a +hysterical note in his voice. "Are there no Americans in an American +city?"</p> + +<p>The reporter grasped his shoulder and pointed to where, a block or two +away, the towering framework of a Titanic building pierced the sunlit +air, far above the sordid savagery of the human rat-holes near by. +Guiding monster beams into place, sure-set upon the frailest foothold, +forms of men, made tiny by the distance, were silhouetted against the +sky.</p> + +<p>"The post of honor is the post of danger," he said; "it is in work like +that, where skill is linked to daring, where brain is joined to nerve, +that the Yankee stands. If you want to see the American in America, +don't look down, look up!"</p> +<br /> + +<center> +<img src='images/image-34-t.jpg' width='600' height='438' alt='WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<br /> +<center> +<img src='images/image-35-t.jpg' width='600' height='425' alt='WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)' title=''> +</center> +<div class='caption'><p>WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (Brown Bros.)</p></div> + +<h4>THE END</h4> +<br /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy With the U.S. Census +by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + +***** This file should be named 13181-h.htm or 13181-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/8/13181/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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0000000..35baf81 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13181-h/images/image-9-t.jpg diff --git a/old/13181.txt b/old/13181.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad58f27 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13181.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9016 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Boy With the U.S. Census, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boy With the U.S. Census + +Author: Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +Release Date: August 15, 2004 [EBook #13181] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + + +[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. The welcome of New York, the +gateway of the New World, to all races and peoples of the earth. +(_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + +BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER + +[Illustration: The Boy With the U.S. Census] + +With Thirty-eight Illustrations, principally from +Bureaus of the United States Government + + +November, 1911 + + + + +To My Son Roger's Friend + +HAMILTON DAY + + + + +PREFACE + +Life in America to-day is adventurous and thrilling to the core. Border +warfare of the most primitive type still is waged in mountain +fastnesses, the darkest pages in the annals of crime now are being +written, piracy has but changed its scene of operations from the sea to +the land, smugglers ply a busy trade, and from their factory prisons a +hundred thousand children cry aloud for rescue. The flame of Crusade +sweeps over the land and the call for volunteers is abroad. + +In hazardous scout duty into these fields of danger the Census Bureau +leads. The Census is the sword that shatters secrecy, the key that opens +trebly-guarded doors; the Enumerator is vested with the Nation's +greatest right--the Right To Know--and on his findings all battle-lines +depend. "When through Atlantic and Pacific gateways, Slavic, Italic, and +Mongol hordes threaten the persistence of an American America, his is +the task to show the absorption of widely diverse peoples, to chronicle +the advances of civilization, or point the perils of illiterate and +alien-tongue communities. To show how this great Census work is done, +to reveal the mysteries its figures half-disclose, to point the paths to +heroism in the United States to-day, and to bind closer the kinship +between all peoples of the earth who have become "Americans" is the aim +and purpose of + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + +CHAPTER II +RESCUING A LOST RACE + +CHAPTER III +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + +CHAPTER IV +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + +CHAPTER V +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + +CHAPTER VI +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + +CHAPTER VII +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + +CHAPTER VIII +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + +CHAPTER IX +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + +CHAPTER X +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Statue of Liberty (_Frontispiece_) +Taking the Census in Old Kentucky +Kentucky Mountaineer Family +Moonshining +Bill Wilsh's Home in the Gully +Bill Wilsh in the School +Alligator-Catching +The Census Building +Making Gun-sights True +"A Bull's-eye Every Time!" +Young Boys from the Pit +"I 'ain't Seen Daylight for Two Years" +Eight Years Old and "Tired of Working" +The Biggest Liner in the World Coming in +Immigration Station, Ellis Island +Where the Workers Come from +On a Peanut Farm +In an All-Negro Town +"'Way down Yonder in de Cotton Fiel'" +How Most of the Negroes Live +Facsimile of Punched Census Card +Tabulating Machine +Pin-box and Mercury Cups +Over the Trackless Snow with Dog-team +The Census in the Aleutian Islands +"Can We Make Camp?" +To Eskimo Settlements by Reindeer +Gathering Cocoanuts +Taking the Census in a City +Festa in the Italian Quarter +The Fighting Men of the Tongs +Arrested as the Firing Stops +Work for Americans + + + + +THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS + + +CHAPTER I + +A BLOOD FEUD IN OLD KENTUCKY + + +"Uncle Eli," said Hamilton suddenly, "since I'm going to be a +census-taker, I think I'd like to apply for this district." + +The old Kentucky mountaineer, who had been steadily working his way +through the weekly paper, lowered it so that he could look over the top +of the page, and eyed the boy steadfastly. + +"What for?" he queried. + +"I think I could do it better than almost anybody else in this section," +was the ready, if not modest, reply. + +"Wa'al, perhaps yo' might," the other assented and took up the paper +again. Hamilton waited. He had spent but little time in the mountains +but he had learned the value of allowing topics to develop slowly, even +though his host was better informed than most of the people in the +region. Although not an actual relative, Hamilton always called him +"Uncle" because he had fought with distinguished honor in the regiment +that Hamilton's father commanded during the Civil War, and the two men +ever since had been friends. + +"I don't quite see why any one sh'd elect to take a hand in any such +doin's unless he has to," the Kentuckian resumed, after a pause; "that +census business seems kind of inquisitive some way to me." + +"But it seems to me that it's the right kind of 'inquisitive.'" + +"I reckon I hadn't thought o' there bein' more'n one kind of +inquisitiveness," the mountaineer said, with a smile, "but if you say +so, I s'pose it's all right." + +"But don't you think the questions are easy enough?" asked the boy. + +"They may be easy, but thar's no denyin' that some of 'em are mighty +unpleasant to answer." + +"But if they are necessary?" + +"Thar's a-plenty o' folks hyeh in the mount'ns that yo' c'n never make +see how knowin' their private affairs does the gov'nment any good." + +"But you don't feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?" + +"Wa'al, I don' know. Settin' here talkin' about it, I know it's all +right, an' I'm willin' to tell all I know. But I jes' feel as sure as +c'n be, that befo' the census-taker gets through hyeh, I'm goin' to be +heated up clar through." + +"But why?" queried the lad again. "The questions are plain enough, and +there was practically no trouble at the last census. I think it's a fine +thing, and every one ought to be glad to help. And it's so important, +too!" + +"Important!" protested the old man. "Did yo' ever see any one that ever +sat down an' read those tables an' tables o' figures?" + +"Not for fun, perhaps," the boy admitted. "But it isn't done for the +sake of getting interesting reading matter; it's because those figures +really are necessary. Why there's hardly a thing that you can think of +that the census isn't at the back of." + +"I don't see how that is. They don't ask about a man's politics, I +notice," the mountaineer remarked. + +"No," answered Hamilton promptly, "but the number of members a State +sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the +census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his +seat is based on their information." + +"I suppose you'd say the same about schools, too." + +"Of course," the boy answered. + +"But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information +about the crops an' the number of pigs kept an' all that sort o' stuff." + +"Don't you think the food of all the people of the United States is +important enough, Uncle Eli? And then the railroads, too,--they depend +on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as +freight." + +"You seem to know a lot about it," the mountaineer said, looking +thoughtfully at the boy. + +"I ought to," Hamilton said, "because I'm going to be an assistant +special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away. I applied last +October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this +visit." + +"What makes yo' so cocksure that you've passed the examination?" he was +asked. + +"I didn't find it so hard," Hamilton replied, "figures have always been +easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered +accountant business I learned a lot from him." + +"Your dad, he was a great hand fo' figures, so I s'pose yo' come by it +naturally enough. An' you're jes' sure you've passed?" + +"I haven't heard one way or the other," said Hamilton, "but I'm pretty +sure." + +"Wa'al, thar's no use sayin' anythin' if you're all sot, but it's the +business of the gov'nment, an' I'd let them do it." + +"But I'm hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle +Eli," the boy explained "either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of +Statistics or some work like that. And anyway, if it's the government's +business, I'm an American and it's my business." + +"Yo' have the right spirit, boy," the old man said, "an' I like to see +it, but you're huntin' trouble sure's you're born. S'posin' yo' asked +the questions of some ol' sorehead that wouldn' answer?" + +"He'd have to answer," replied Hamilton stoutly, "there's a law to make +him." + +"I don't believe that law's used much," hazarded the old man. + +"It isn't," Hamilton found himself forced to admit. "I believe there +were not very many arrests all over the country last census. But the +law's there, just the same." + +"It wouldn' be a law on the Ridge," the mountaineer said, "an' I don' +believe it would do yo' any good anywhar else. On the mount'ns, I know, +courtesy is a whole lot bigger word than constitution. Up hyeh, we +follow the law when we're made to, follow an idee backed up by a +rifle-barrel because we have to, but there's not many men hyeh that won' +do anythin' yo' ask if yo' jes' ask the right way." + +"But there are always some that give trouble," Hamilton protested, +trying to defend his position. + +The old Kentuckian slowly shook his head from side to side. + +"If yo' don' win out by courtesy," he said, "it's jes' because yo' +haven' been courteous enough, because yo' haven' taken yo' man jes' +right. Thar isn't any such thing as bein' too gracious. An' anyway, a +census-taker with any other idee up hyeh would be runnin' chances right +along." + +"You mean they would shoot him up?" asked Hamilton. + +"I think if he threatened some folks up hyeh an' in the gullies thar +might be trouble." + +"But the fact that he represented the government would insure him from +harm, I should think." + +"I don't think much of that insurance idee," the old man said. "I can't +remember that it helped the revenue men sech a great deal. The only +insurance I ever had was a quick ear, an' even now, I c'n hear a twig +snap near a quarter of a mile away. An' that used to be good insurance +in the ol' days when, if yo' weren't gunnin' for somebody, thar was +somebody gunnin' fo' you." + +"But there's no one 'gunning' for you now, is there, Uncle Eli?" asked +the boy amusedly. + +"I haven't b'n lookin' out especially," the Kentuckian responded, with +an answering slow smile, "an' I reckon sometimes that I might jes' as +well leave the ol' rifle in the house when I go out." + +"But you never do," put in Hamilton quickly. + +"I reckon that's jes' a feelin'," rejoined the mountaineer, "jes' one o' +these habits that yo' hate to give up. I'd sort o' be lost without it +now, after all these years. Thar's no one to worry about, anyway, +savin' Jake Howkle, an' I don' believe he's hankerin' for +blood-lettin'." + +"Jake? Oh, never," Hamilton replied with assurance; "why, he's only +about my age." + +"That's only partly why," the old man said, "not only because he's your +age, but because he's b'n at school. Shootin' an' schoolin' don' seem to +hit it off. I reckon thar would have b'n a sight less trouble in the +mount'ns if thar had b'n mo' schools." + +"There are plenty of schools in the mountains now, aren't there?" asked +Hamilton. "It must be very different here, Uncle Eli, from what it was +when you were a boy." + +"Thar has been quite a change, an' the change is comin' faster now. But +thar's still a lot o' folk who a'nt altered a bit sence the war. You +city people call us slow-movin' up hyeh, an' as long as thar's any o' +the ol' spirit abroad thar's a chance o' trouble. If yo' really are +goin' in for this census-takin', I'd keep clar o' the mount'ns." + +"You really would?" queried the boy thoughtfully. + +"An' what's more," continued his Uncle, "I would jes' as soon that yo' +didn' have anythin' to do with it near hyeh. I don' want to see any +little differences between families, such as census-takin' is likely +to provoke." + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN OLD KENTUCKY: Typical conditions of +an enumerator's work in the mountain districts. (_Courtesy of Art +Manufacturing Co., Amelia, O._)] + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" cried Hamilton in amazement, "you talk as though the +days of the feuds were not over." + +"Are yo' sure they're all over?" the Kentuckian said. + +"I had supposed so," the boy replied. "I thought the Kentucky 'killings' +had stopped ten or fifteen years ago." + +"It's a little queer yo' sh'd bring that up today," the old man said, +"for I was jes' readin' in the paper some figures on that very thing. +Yo' like figures, this will jes' suit you. Where was it now?" he +continued, rustling the paper; then, a moment later, "Oh, yes, I have +it." + +"'During the terms of the last three Kentucky governors,'" he read, +"'over thirteen hundred criminals have been pardoned, five hundred of +them being for murder or manslaughter.' It says fu'ther on," the old man +added, "that pardonin' is jes' as frequent now as it ever was. I don' +believe it is, myself, but if thar is such a lot o' pardonin' goin' on +for shootin', thar must have been a powerful lot o' shootin'." + +"But that's for all the State," objected the boy, "not for the +mountains only. That must be for crimes in the cities and all sorts of +things. You can't make the feuds responsible for those." + +"Not altogether," the mountaineer agreed, "the real ol'-time feud is +peterin' out, an' it's mainly due to the schoolin'. The young folks +ain't ready fo' revenge now, an' that sort o' swings the women around. +An' up hyeh in the mount'ns, same as everywhar else, I reckon, the idees +o' the women make a pile o' difference." + +"But I should have thought the women would always have been against the +feuds," said Hamilton. + +"Yo'd think so, but they weren't. They helped to keep up the grudges a +whole lot." + +"Aunt Ab hasn't changed much," volunteered the lad. + +"She hasn't for a fact. Ab is powerful sot. She holds the grudge against +the Howkles in the ol' style. But the feelin' is dyin' out fast, an' +soon it'll be like history,--only jes' read of in books." + +"What I never could see," remarked Hamilton, "was what started it all. +It isn't as if the people in the mountains had come from some part of +the world where vendettas and that sort of thing had been going on for +generations. There must have been some kind of reason for it in this +section of the country. Feuds don't spring up just for nothing." + +"Thar was a while once we had a powerful clever talker up hyeh," the +Kentuckian answered, "actin' as schoolmaster for a few weeks. I reckon +he'd offered to substitute jes' to get a chance to see for himself what +life in the mount'ns was like. He was writin' a book about it. We got +right frien'ly, an' he knew he was always welcome hyeh, an' one day I +asked him jes' that question. It was shortly befo' he lef' an' I wanted +to know what he thought about us all up hyeh." + +The mountaineer leaned back in his chair and chuckled with evident +enjoyment of the recollection. + +"I jes' put the question to him," he said, "in the mildes' way, an' he +started right in to talk. Thar was no stoppin' him, an' I couldn' +remember one-half o' what he said. But I reckon he had it about right." + +"How did he explain the feuds, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, with a short laugh, "he begun by sayin' +we were savages." + +"Savages?" + +"Not jes' with war-paint an' tomahawk, yo' understan'," continued the +old man, enjoying the boy's astonishment, "but uncivilized an' wild. +Thar an't any finer stock in the world, he said, than the mount'neers o' +the Ridge, clar down to Tennessee, an' he said, too, that they were o' +the good old English breed, not foreigners like are comin' in now." + +"That's right enough," Hamilton agreed, "and, what's more, they were +gentlemen of good birth, most of them; there was not much of the peasant +in the early colonists." + +"So this author chap said. But he explained that was the very reason +they got so wild." + +"I don't see that," objected Hamilton, "and I certainly don't see where +the 'savage' idea comes in." + +"Wa'al, he said that when you slid down from a high place it was harder +to climb back than if the fall had b'n small. An' that's why it's so +hard for those who have gone down,--they can see the depth o' the fall." + +Hamilton, who was of an argumentative turn of mind, would have protested +at this, but the old mountaineer proceeded. + +"When the pioneers settled in the mount'ns they kind o' stuck. Those +that went on, down into the Blue Grass region, went boomin' right ahead, +but those that stayed in the mount'ns had no chance." + +"I don't see why not?" objected the boy. + +"They were jes' cut off from everywhar. We are to-day, for that matter. +When a place gets settled, an' starts to try an' raise somethin' to +sell, the product has got to be taken to market. But thar was no +railroad up in the mount'ns. Children were easy to raise, an' a +population grew up in a hurry, but the land was too poor for good +farmin', the roads were too bad for takin' corn to market, an' thar was +no way o' gettin' to a town." + +"You are pretty well cut off," said Hamilton. + +"We were more so then," the mountaineer said. "An' so, while all the +country 'round was advancin' up in the mount'ns, fifty years ago, we +were livin' jes' like pioneers. An' some, not bein' able to keep up the +strain, fell back." + +"So it really isn't the fault of the mountaineers at all," cried the +boy, "but because they were sort of marooned." + +"It was unfortunate," replied the old man, "but it really was our own +fault. If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have +developed it; if not, we should have left." + +"I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton. + +"Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a +most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every +man is his own master. But, thar bein' no available market if they did +work hard, what was the use o' workin'? Some o' them, 'specially down in +the gullies, got lazy an' shif'less. But they hung on all the harder to +the idees o' the old times,--honor an' hospitality." + +"I've always understood," said Hamilton, "that there was more +hospitality to be found up here in the mountains than in almost any +place on the globe." + +"As yo' said," the old man continued, "we're jes' like a crew o' +shipwrecked sailors marooned on an island without a boat, without any +means o' gettin' away. If some o' the families high up in the gullies +are ignorant, it's because they've had no schoolin', not because they +haven' got the makin's o' good citizens; if they're a bit careless about +religion, it's because they've had no churchin', an' if they don' pay +much heed to law, it's because the law has never done much for them. +The ocean o' progress," went on the mountaineer, with a flourish, "has +rolled all 'roun' the mount'ns, but of all the fleets o' commerce in all +these years, thar has not been one to send out a boat to help the +marooned mount'neer." + +"Didn't they ever try to get help?" queried the boy. + +"We're not askin' help," the Kentuckian said, "thar's no whinin' on the +mount'ns. I jes' tell yo' that when the time comes for the mount'neers +o' Kentucky an' Virginia an' Tennessee an' Carolina to get a fair +chance, they'll show yo' as fine a race o' men an' women as the Stars +an' Stripes flies over." + +"They are mighty fine right now, I think," the boy said. + +"They have their good points," the Kentuckian agreed; "thar's nothin' +sneakin' in the men up hyeh, an' thar an't any lengths to which a man +won't go, to do what he thinks is the squar thing. You've heard about +the Beaupoints?" + +"No," the boy answered, "what was that?" + +"It was jes' an incident in one o' these feuds that you were talkin' of, +an' I'm goin' to tell yo' about it, to show yo' what a mount'neer's +idee o' honor is like. Thar was a family livin' on the other side o' the +Ridge, not a great ways from hyeh, by the name o' Calvern, an' in some +way or other--I never heard the rights of it--they took to shootin' up +the Beaupoints every chance that come along. One day Dandie Beaupoint +found a little girl that had hurt herself, an' he picked her up in his +arms an' was carryin' her home when one o' the Calvern boys shot him in +his tracks. One o' the Beaupoint brothers was away at the time, but the +others felt that the Calverns hadn't b'n playin' fair, an' they reckoned +to lay them all out. They did, too, all but one, an', although they had +a chance to nail him, they let him alone." + +"Why was he let off?" queried Hamilton. + +"I reckon it was because he had a young wife an' a little child," the +old man answered. "Now Jim Beaupoint, the one that had been away, he +come home after a while, an' hadn't happened to hear about the wipin' +out o' the Calverns. On his way home, he had to pass the Calvern place, +an' so he made a wide cast aroun' the hill to keep out o' sight, when +suddenly, up a gully, he saw this Hez Calvern standin' there with his +rifle on his arm, an', quick as he could move, Jim grabbed his gun an' +fired. It was a long shot an' a sure one." + +"Was it--" the boy began, but the old man waved the interruption aside +and proceeded. + +"Reloadin' his rifle, Jim Beaupoint rode slowly to whar Hez Calvern was +lyin', when suddenly, from a clump o' bushes close by, there come a +rifle shot, an' the rider got the bullet in his chest. Befo' fallin' +from the saddle, however, the young fellow fired at the bushes from +which smoke was driftin', an' a shrill scream told him that the +sharpshooter was a woman." + +"Some one who had been with Hez Calvern?" asked Hamilton. + +"His wife. Well, although Jim was mortally hurt an' sufferin'--as the +tracks showed afterwards--he tried to drag himself to the bushes in +order to help the woman who had shot him an' who he had shot unknowin'; +but he was too badly hurt, an' he died twenty yards from the place whar +he fell." + +"Was the woman dead, too?" asked Hamilton. + +"No, but terrible badly hurt. What I was wantin' to tell yo', though, +was the result of all this. Wa'al, the Beaupoints took the woman to +their home an' nursed her night an' day for five long years. She was +helpless, only for her tongue, an' she lashed an' abused them till the +day she died, an' never once, in all those years, did any one o' the +Beaupoints reproach her in return." + +"And the youngster?" + +"They took the boy, too, an' reared him the bes' they knew how, jes' the +same as one o' their own. One o' the Beaupoint boys went an' lived on +the Calvern place, an' worked it,--worked it fair an' squar', an' put +aside every cent that come out o' the farm. For thirteen years the +Beaupoints looked after the farm an' reared the boy. On the day he was +fourteen year old, Jed Beaupoint--that was the father--called the lad, +told him the whole story, give him a new rifle an' a powder horn, an' +handed over the little bag o' coin that represented thirteen years o' +work on the Calvern holdin'." + +"There certainly couldn't be anything squarer than that!" exclaimed +Hamilton. "And he gave the boy the farm, too?" + +"Every inch of it. Jed Beaupoint was a squar' man, cl'ar through. An' he +said to the boy--he tol' me the story himself--'Johnny Calvern, thar's +yo' farm an' yo' rifle. Now, if yo're willin', I'll see that thar's no +trouble until yo're twenty-one, an' then yo' c'n go huntin' revenge if +yo've a mind to, or, if you're willin', we'll call the trouble off now, +an' thar won't be any need o' rakin' it up again.'" + +"He made it up on the spot, of course?" questioned Hamilton. + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"He did not," he replied. "The boy thought a minute or two an' then said +he'd wait until he was grown up, an' let him know then." + +"Although he had been brought up by the Beaupoints!" exclaimed the boy +in surprise. "But surely it never came up again." + +"Well, not exac'ly. When Johnny Calvern was about nineteen he got +married, an' a few days befo' the time when he would be twenty-one, he +rode up to the Beaupoint place, an' tol' the ol' man that he was willin' +to let the feud rest another ten years, because of his wife an' little +baby, but that he would be ready to resume shootin' at that time." + +"But he had no real grudge against the Beaupoints had he, Uncle Eli? +They had always been kind to him, you said." + +"Not a bit o' grudge," the mountaineer answered, "they were good +friends. An' I reckon it wasn't Johnny that wanted the trouble to begin +again, but thar's always a lot o' hotheads pryin' into other folks' +business. However, ol' Jed Beaupoint didn't mind; he agreed to another +ten years' truce, an' all went on peacefully as befo'. Durin' those ten +years, however, Johnny's wife died, an' he got married again, this time +to the sister o' a wanderin' preacher, a girl who had once lived in +cities, an' she soon showed him that the ol' feud business must be +forgotten. But it is a mite unusual, even hyeh, to farm a man's land an' +bring up his child fo' thirteen years, an' then give him everythin' yo' +can with the privilege o' shootin' yo' at sight for all the favors +done." + +"It doesn't sound a bit like the usual feud story," said Hamilton, "one +always thinks of those as being cold-blooded and cruel." + +"Thar an't a mite o' intentional cruelty in them; it's jes' that life is +held cheap. Most o' them begun over some small thing like an election." + +"There were quite a number of them, Uncle Eli, weren't there?" + +"One ran into the other so easily that one feud would often look like +half a dozen, an' trouble would be goin' on in various places. But +there were really seven of them, all big ones." + +[Illustration: KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEER FAMILY. In the heart of the feud +district, where the rifle is never out of reach. (_Courtesy of the +Spirit of Missions._)] + +"What were they, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, thar was the McCoy-Hatfield feud in Pike County, that started +over the ownership o' two plain razorback hogs, but afterwards got very +bitter, owin' to the friendship o' one o' the McCoy girls with the son +o' Bad Anse Hatfield. Then thar was the Howard-Turner feud in Harlan +County. An' then--" + +"What started the Howard-Turner feud?" interrupted the boy. + +"That was over a game o' cards. One o' the Howards had been winnin', an' +Jim Turner, with a pistol, forced him to give back the money he had won. +That affair raged a long time. The Logan-Tolliver feud in Rowan County +was over an election fo' sheriff. The Logans elected their candidate, +an' so the Tollivers killed one o' the Logans at the polls and wounded +three others." + +"That's expressing dissatisfaction with an election with some spirit," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Then thar was the French-Eversole feud in Perry County," continued the +Kentuckian, reminiscently. "Ol' Joe Eversole was a merchant in a town +called Hazard, an' he helped Fulton French to start a little store. In +time French almos' drove Eversole out o' business. That was a strange +fight, because neither French nor Eversole ever got into the +shootin',--indeed they remained frien'ly even when their supporters were +most bitter." + +"Who carried on the feud, then?" asked Hamilton in surprise, "if the +principals didn't?" + +"Wa'al, I guess the worst was a minister, the Rev. Bill Gambrill. Ho ran +the French side an' kep' the trouble stirred up all the time." + +"I think I've heard of the Turner war, too," said the boy. "Was that the +same as the Howard-Turner fighting?" + +"All of them were mixed up in each other's feuds in that Turner family," +the Kentuckian replied, "but the 'Turner War' or the 'Hell's Half-Acre' +feud was in Bell County, an' it started over some question o' water +rights in Yellow Creek. It was a sayin' down in Bell County that it +couldn't rain often enough to keep Hell's Half-Acre free from stains o' +blood." + +"It is a fearful record, Uncle Eli, when you put them together that +way," the boy said. + +"An' I haven't even mentioned the worst o' them, the Hargis-Cockrill +feud in Breathitt County. That lasted for generations, an' started over +some election for a county judge. I don' know that any one rightly +remembers the time when Breathitt County wasn't the scene of some such +goin's on." + +"But they are all over now, aren't they?" + +"I was jes' goin' to tell yo'. They're all over but one, an' that one is +sometimes called the Baker-Howard or the Garrard-White feud, for all +four families were mixed up in it. Not so very long ago I was talkin' to +the widow o' one o' the men slain in that fightin', an' sayin' to her +how good it was that the feelin' had all died out, an' she said--thar +was a lot of us thar at the time--'I have twelve sons. Each day I tell +them who shot their father. I'm not goin' to die till one o' them shoots +him.' I'm reckonin' to hear o' trouble in Clay County mos' any time, but +I really think that is the last o' them." + +"What started that?" + +"An argument over a twenty-five dollar note," was the response. "But you +don't want to think these were the real causes; they were usually jes' +firebrands that made things worse. Most o' these hyeh feuds date back to +enmities made in the Civil War an' in moonshinin'." + +"But why the war?" asked Hamilton. "I thought nearly all the +mountaineers in Kentucky fought for the North--I know you were with Lee, +of course, but I thought that was exceptional." + +"None o' them fought for the No'th!" exclaimed the old Confederate +soldier indignantly. + +"Why, Uncle Eli!" said Hamilton, in surprise, "I was sure that most of +them went into the Union army." + +"So they did, boy, so they did, but those who did it thought they were +fightin' for the nation, not for the No'th. An' the slavery question +didn' matter much hyeh. Don' yo' let any one tell yo' that the Union +army was made up o' abolitionists, because it wasn't. It was made up o' +bigger men than that. It was made up o' patriots. I thought them wrong +then,--I do yet; but thar ain't no denyin' that they were fightin' for +what they thought was right." + +"But why did you join the South, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. "I can +understand father doing it, because he was a South Carolinian." + +"I was workin' fo' peace," the mountaineer rejoined "When No'th and +South was talkin' war, Kentucky, as yo' will remember havin' read, +decided to remain neutral, an' organized the State Guards to preserve +that neutrality. I was willin' to let well enough alone, but when the +No'th come down an' tried to force the State Guards to join their cause, +I went with the rest to Dixie. I don' believe," added the old man +solemnly, "that thar ever was a war like that befo', where every man on +both sides fought for a principle, an' where there was no selfish motive +anywhere." + +"The Howkles were with the Federals, weren't they?" prompted Hamilton, +fearing lest the old man should drift into war reminiscences, when he +wanted to hear about feuds. + +"Ol' Isaac Howkle was," the mountaineer replied "an' that was how the +little trouble we had begun. At least, it had a good deal to do with it. +Isaac an' I had never got along, an' jes' befo' the war, we had some +words about the Kentucky State Guards. But I wasn't bearin' any grudge, +an' I never supposed Isaac was. However, in a skirmish near Cumberland +Gap, I saw that he was jes' achin' to get me, an' the way he tried was +jes' about the meanes' thing I ever heard o' any one doin' on the +Ridge." + +"How was it, do tell me?" pleaded Hamilton, his eyes shining with +interest. + +"Howkle was with Wolford's cavalry, an' I was under 'Fightin'' +Zollicoffer, as they called him," the old man began. "Thar had been a +little skirmish,--one o' these that never get into the dispatches that +don' do any good, but after which thar's always good men lef' lyin' on +the ground. We had driven 'em back a bit, an' I was comin' in when I saw +a lad--he didn't look more'n about fifteen--lyin' in a heap an' +groanin'. Knowin' a drink would do him more good than an'thin' else, I +reached for my canteen, an' stooped down. Jes' about then, a horseman +dashed out o' the scrub an', almos' befo' I could think o' what was +comin', he struck at me with his sabre." + +"When you were giving drink to a wounded soldier!" cried Hamilton +indignantly. "What a cowardly trick!" + +"It was ol' Isaac Howkle," nodded his uncle, "an' I s'pose he reckoned +this was a chance to get even on the ol' grudge. But I rolled over on +the grass jes' out o' reach o' his stroke, an' he missed. I grabbed my +rifle an' blazed at him as soon as I could get on my feet, but he had +reached the shelter of the trees again an' I missed him." + +"That's about the meanest thing I ever heard," said the boy. + +"So I thought," the Kentuckian answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to +think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his +lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' +to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't +blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of +his own sufferin's." + +"That was grit," said Hamilton approvingly. "Did he die, Uncle Eli?" + +"Not a bit of it. We got him back into our lines an' he was exchanged, I +believe. Anyway, I know he was livin' after the war, fo' I saw his name +once on a list o' veterans. But most o' the boys were like that--mostly +young, too--an' men o' the stripe of Isaac Howkle were very few." + +"But you got him in the end, didn't you?" + +The old mountaineer looked intently at the boy's excited face. + +"I didn't," he said, "an' I don' rightly know that it's good for yo' to +be hearin' all these things. Yo' might hold it against Jake Howkle." + +"That I wouldn't," protested Hamilton. "Jake isn't to blame for his +father's meanness." + +"That's the right way to talk," the old soldier agreed. "Wa'al, if yo' +feel that way about it, I reckon thar's no harm in my tellin' yo' the +rest of it, now that I've got started. When the war was all over an' I +got back hyeh, I remembered what had happened, an' I sent word to Isaac +Howkle that I didn' trust him, an' after what he had done I was +reckonin' that he was waitin' his chance to get me, an' that he'd better +keep his own side o' the mountain." + +"But, Uncle Eli," said the boy, "that didn't make a feud surely; that +was only a warning." + +"I wasn't reckonin' to start a feud at all," said the old man +thoughtfully, "an' it really never was one. It was jes' a personal +difference between Isaac Howkle an' me. Thar was lots o' times that I +could have picked off either o' his two brothers, but I was jes' +guardin' myself against Isaac." + +"But you said he got there first!" said the boy. "Did he shoot some one +in your family?" + +"Wa'al, yes, he did," the mountaineer admitted "Yo' never knew the one. +He was my brother-in-law,--Ab's younges' sister's first husband. He had +been married jes' two months, an' was only a hundred yards from this +house when Isaac shot him." + +"How did you know for sure that it was Howkle who had done the +shooting?" asked Hamilton. + +"We didn't know for sure, at first. A week or two after, a boy from the +Wilshes' place come up with a message sayin' that Isaac Howkle had tol' +him to say that he'd get the ol' man nex' time." + +"I shouldn't have thought a boy would have had the nerve to bring such a +message," said Hamilton thoughtfully. "Wouldn't bringing word like that +look like taking sides, and wouldn't it bring his own family into the +trouble!" + +The old man shook his head in instant denial. + +"Po' white trash from the gullies," he said, "no, they don't count one +way or the other." + +"What happened after you got that message?" asked the boy. + +"Nothin' much, for a while, though I was snoopin' aroun' the mount'ns +consid'rable. I met the brothers sev'ral times, an' I know they could +have had me. But I had nothin' against them, nor they me, an' so it was +jes' left to Isaac an' me. Once I found him over near our pasture, but +he saw me an' got into cover. At last I found him in the open near our +house again, an' in easy range." + +"Did you fire right away?" asked Hamilton excitedly. + +"I didn't shoot. I got a lead on him, sure, but I jes' couldn't shoot +without warnin' him. It seemed kind o' mean to shoot him unawares, an' +as I didn't want to take an unfair advantage, I shouted to him. It was +pretty far off to be heard, but I could see that he recognized me. I was +only waitin' long enough to let him get his gun to his shoulder when +some one fired jes' behin' me. Howkle's bullet went through my arm, but +he dropped in his tracks. He thought I had shot him but my gun was never +fired off." + +"Who was it that fired, Uncle Eli!" + +"The brother o' the young fellow he had shot befo'." + +"Was he dead?" asked the boy. + +"Wa'al," said the mountaineer, a little grimly, "I didn' go down to see +an' wait aroun' 'till all his friends gathered. But I reckon he was dead +when they found him later." + +"And the brothers?" + +"They never came into the story at all. I'm jes' mentionin' this to yo' +to show yo' that thar's reason in my advisin' yo' to keep clar o' this +district. If you're reckonin' on doin' census work, yo' go somewhar that +you're not known to any one. Thar's trouble enough even for a stranger +in the mount'ns, an' a stranger would find it easier than any one else." + +"Why is that, Uncle Eli?" asked the boy. + +"In the first place, yo' can't show discourtesy to a stranger, an' yo' +know that if he doesn' do things jes' the way yo' like to have 'em done, +it's because he doesn' know, an' so he's not to blame. I like your +spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' +if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but +leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a +stranger." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RESCUING A LOST RACE + + +That same evening, as it chanced, one of the younger Wilsh boys came up +to the house on an errand from a neighbor, and Hamilton, remembering +that the messenger's father had been a go-between in the feud story he +had been hearing, noted the lad with interest. Indeed, his appearance +was striking enough in itself, with his drooping form, his extreme +paleness, and his look of exhaustion. + +"How far is it from the Burtons, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton. + +"Eight miles," was the reply. + +Hamilton stared at the mountain boy. Judging from his looks he was not +strong enough to walk a hundred yards, yet he had just come eight miles, +and evidently was intending to walk back home that evening. Then +Hamilton remembered that this lad was one of the "poor whites" of whom +he had read so much, and he strolled toward the messenger who was +sitting listlessly on one of the steps. + +"Howdy!" said the newcomer in a tired voice. + +Hamilton answered his greeting, and, after a few disjointed sentences, +said: + +"You look tired. It must be a long walk from the Burtons." + +"Jes' tol'able," the boy answered. "I'm not so tired. You f'm the city?" +he queried a few minutes later, evidently noting the difference between +Hamilton's appearance and that of the boys in the neighborhood. + +"Yes, New York," answered Hamilton. + +But the stranger did not show any further curiosity and Hamilton was +puzzled to account for his general listlessness. He thought perhaps it +might be that the boy was unusually dull and so he asked: + +"Are you still going to school?" + +A negative shake of the head was the only reply. + +"Why not? Isn't there a school near where you live?" + +"Close handy, 'bout five miles," was the reply. + +"Then why don't you go there?" questioned Hamilton further. + +"Teacheh's gone." + +"Funny time for holidays," the city boy remarked. + +"Not gone fo' holidays." + +"Oh, I see," said Hamilton, "you mean he's gone for good. But aren't you +going to have another one?" + +"Dunno if he's gone for good," the mountain boy answered. + +Hamilton stared in bewilderment. + +"Cunjer got him," the other continued. + +But this did not explain things any better. + +"Cunjer?" repeated Hamilton. "You mean magic?" + +The mountain boy nodded. + +"Yes, cunjer," he affirmed. + +"You're fooling, aren't you?" said Hamilton questioningly, "you can't +mean it. I never heard of 'cunjer' as a real thing. There's lots about +it in books, of course, but those are fairy tales and things of that +sort." + +"An' yo' never saw a cunjer?" + +"Of course not." + +"Reckon they don' know as much in cities as they think they do," the +youngster retorted. + +"Just what do you mean by 'cunjer'?" asked Hamilton, knowing that it +would be useless to argue the conditions of a modern city with a boy who +had never seen one. + +"Bein' able to put a cunjer on, so's the one yo' cunjer has got to do +anythin' yo' want." + +"Sort of hypnotism business," commented the older boy. + +"Dunno' what yo' call it in the city. Up hyeh in the mount'ns we call it +cunjer, an' thar's some slick ones hyeh, too." + +"But how did the teacher get mixed up in it?" queried Hamilton. "It +doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to find a schoolmaster +doing." + +"He wasn't doin' it, it was again' him," the mountain boy explained. +"The folks hyeh suspicioned as he was tippin' o' the revenoo men." + +"Who did? Moonshiners?" + +"Easy on that word, Hamilton," suddenly broke in the old Kentuckian, who +had overheard part of the conversation, "thar's plenty up hyeh that don' +like it." + +"All right, Uncle Eli, I'll remember," the boy answered; then, turning +to his companion, he continued "You were saying that some of the people +in the mountains thought the schoolmaster was giving information to the +revenue men." + +"Some said he was. I don' believe it myself, an' most of us boys didn' +believe it, but then the teacheh was allers mighty good to us." + +"Did the revenue officers come up here!" + +The mountain lad nodded his head. + +"Often," he said, "an' when they come to the stills they seemed to know +ev'rythin' an' ev'rybody. An' then some one tol' that it could be proved +on the teacheh. It never was, but thar was a plenty o' people who +believed the story. I didn't, but then the teacheh was allers good to +me." + +"But what did the revenue men have to do with the 'cunjering'?" asked +Hamilton, desiring to keep his informant to the point. + +"They didn't, it was the men on the Ridge." + +"Do you know how it happened?" + +"I know all about it," the lad answered, with a slightly less listless +air, "for I was in school that mornin'. For a week or more we boys had +seen ol' Blacky Baldwin sort o' snoopin' aroun' near the school, but as +we allers crossed our fingers an' said nothin' so long as he was in +hearin', we weren't afraid." + +"What did you do that for?" + +The younger boy looked at the city-bred lad with an evident pity for his +ignorance. + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail. (_Brown +Bros._)] + +[Illustration: MOONSHINING. Revenue officers hot on the trail; the fire +is burning, the still working, and the moonshiner's coat hangs on a +tree. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"So's he couldn't cunjer us, O' course," he said. "Don' yo' even know +that? Ol' Blacky Baldwin is a first-class cunjer, an' any one o' them +can cunjer you with the words he hears yo' sayin'." + +"But if this 'cunjer-fellow' was hanging around the school," suggested +Hamilton, "why didn't you tell the master?" + +"An' get Blacky down on us? You-all can bet we kep' quiet an' didn' even +talk about Blacky to each other. Wa'al, that went on for a week or two. +Then, one mornin', while we was all in school, a big storm come up, +thunder an' lightnin' an' all. Suddenly, jes' after a clap o' thunder +that sounded almos' as if it had hit the schoolhouse Ol' Blacky Baldwin +walked through the door an' up to the teacheh's table. He was carryin a +twisted thing in his hand, like a ram's horn, an' I knew it was his +cunjerin' horn, although I hadn't even seen it befo'." + +"What did the master say when he came in?" + +"Nary a word. It was awful dark an' the thunder was rumbling aroun' +among the hills. I took one look at Ol' Blacky Baldwin's face, an' then +hid my eyes. I reckon the others did the same." + +"Why?" + +"His face was all shiny with a queer green light, sendin' up smoke, +like ol' dead wood does sometimes after a rain." + +"Phosphorus evidently," muttered Hamilton to himself, but he did not +want to interrupt the lad now that he had started, and therefore did not +discuss the point. + +"He walked right up to the teacheh's table," continued the younger boy, +"an' he pointed the horn at him, accordin' to one o' the boys who says +he was peepin' through his fingers. I wasn't lookin', I wasn't takin' +any chances. And then we all heard him say to the teacheh: + +"'You air goin' to have a fall an' be killed. You air goin' to have a +fear o' fallin' all your days, an' you air goin' to be drove to places +where you're like to fall. By night you air goin' to dream o' fallin', +an', wakin' an' sleepin', the fear is laid upon you.'" + +"And that was all?" + +"That was all," the mountain boy replied. "After a bit, I looked up and +Ol' Blacky Baldwin was gone; the teacheh looked peaked an' seemed kind +o' skeered, but he didn't say anythin'." + +"Well, it was a little scary," said Hamilton. "I don't wonder it shook +him up." + +"That was only the beginnin'," the storyteller went on. "About half an +hour after that, one o' the boys dropped his slate pencil on the floor +an' it broke, so he asked the teacheh for a new one. The slates 'n' +pencils was kep' on a shelf over the teacheh's chair, an' he got on the +chair to reach one down. We was all watchin' him, when suddintly he give +a groan an' his eyes rolled back so's we couldn't see nothin' but the +whites; his face got all pale, an' his lips sort o' blue; he reeled an' +was jes' goin' to fall when he sort o' made a grab at the shelf an' hung +on as though he was fallin' off a cliff. + +"Two of the bigger boys, thinkin' he had a stroke or somethin', went up +an' spoke, but he didn't answer, jes' hung on to that shelf. Standin' on +the chair as he was, of course the boys couldn' make him let go, an' +they couldn' make him hear or understan' a mite. So they pulled up a +bench and one of 'em climbed up an' forced his hand open. Jes' like a +flash Teacheh grabbed him so hard that he yelled." + +"Just with one hand?" Hamilton queried. + +"One hand. Wa'al, they pretty soon made Teacheh let go the other hand, +an' helped him down fr'm the chair an' sat him down in it. As soon as +his feet touched the floor, he let go the feller's shoulder an' sort o' +lay back in his chair. He sat there for a bit an' then he leaned +forward, put his hands on the desk, an' stared right in front of him, +jes' as if we wa'n't there at all. + +"'I thought I was fallin',' he said gruffly. + +"We waited a while for him to begin agin, but he jes' sit there, lookin' +straight in front of him, an' repeatin' ev'ry minute or two: 'I thought +I was fallin'! I thought I was fallin'!'" + +Hamilton shivered a little, for the mountain boy told the story as +though he were living through the scene again. + +"I don't wonder you got scared," he said. "Did he come to?" + +"Not right then," the boy answered. "We waited a while an' then some of +the fellers got up an' went out sof'ly. I went, too, an' the teacheh +never even seemed to see us go." + +"Didn't you think he had gone crazy?" + +"We all knew it was cunjerin'," the lad rejoined "an' when we got +outside the door thar was Ol' Blacky Baldwin waitin', lookin' jes' the +same as usual. As I come by, he said, jes' as smooth, 'School's out +early to-day, boys.' But I don't think any of us answered him. I know I +didn't. I jes' took and run as hard as I knew how. An' when I got to the +top o' the hill an' looked back, an' saw Blacky goin' into the +schoolhouse again, I couldn' get home fast enough." + +"Was that what broke up the school?" + +"Not right away," the other replied. "Thar was some that never come nigh +the place agin, but befo' two weeks most of us was back. Teacheh allers +seemed diff'rent; ev'ry once in a while, one of us would see him walkin' +on the edge of a cliff, or fin' him dizzily hangin' on to somethin' for +fear o' fallin'." + +"How long did that go on?" queried Hamilton. + +"'Bout a month, I reckon. An' Teacheh was in trouble more'n more all the +time, because folks wouldn' have him boardin' 'roun', same's he'd allers +done." + +"Why not?" + +"Wa'al, he'd wake up in the night screamin', 'I'm fallin', I'm fallin',' +and no one wanted to have a ha'nted teacher in the house. An' Blacky +Baldwin, he jes' hung aroun' the school, and we-all would see him every +day, mutterin' an' laughin' to himself. Then, suddintly, Teacheh +disappeared, an' though we hunted fo' him everywhar, he wasn' found. +We-all reckoned he had fallen somewhars, but I've thought sence that +p'r'aps he jes' went away, goin' back to the city, and leavin' no tracks +so's to make Ol' Blacky Baldwin believe he'd be'n killed." + +"That sounds likely enough," Hamilton said. "But even if he did get +away, I don't believe that he'd want to come back." + +"I reckon not," the mountain boy agreed. "Anyway, the school's shut up +now." + +"How about the revenue men?" asked Hamilton. + +"They haven't be'n here sence Teacheh went away," was the reply. "An' I +reckon they're not wanted." + +The boy stopped short as the old mountaineer came over to where he was +squatting and gave him a long answer to the message he had brought. The +old man read it to him from a sheet of paper on which he had penciled it +roughly. Bill Wilsh listened in a dreamy way, and Hamilton wondered at +his seeming carelessness. The old man read it twice, then, rising to his +feet, the boy repeated it word for word and without so much as a nod to +Hamilton, slouched off in a long, lazy stride that looked like loafing, +but which, as Hamilton afterwards found out, covered the ground rapidly. + +"Do you suppose he'll remember all that, Uncle Eli?" asked Hamilton in +surprise. + +"He? Oh, yes," the mountaineer replied, "word for word, syllable for +syllable--that is, fo' to-day." + +"He must have a good memory," the boy exclaimed "I'm sure I couldn't." + +"But he'll forget every word by to-morrow," the other continued, "almost +forget that he was hyeh to-day at all. That's why they're so hard to +teach, those po' whites, what they learn doesn't stick. I heard him +tellin' yo' about the disappearance o' the last teacheh." + +"Yes, he was putting it down to 'cunjering.' Is there much of that sort +of idea in the mountains?" + +"None among the mount'neers proper," replied the old man. "Some o' the +po' whites down in the gullies talk about it, but thar's mo' difference +between the folks in the gullies an' on the Ridge th'n there is between +the mount'ns an' the Blue Grass. They are different, an' they look +different, too." + +"Bill Wilsh certainly does," agreed Hamilton, "but I thought at first it +was because he was tired out with a long walk after a day's work." + +The Kentuckian shook his head. + +"They're all that way," he said. "They jes' look all beaten out as if +they hadn't any life left in them at all. I reckon the most o' them have +hookworm, too, an' they just look fit to drop." + +"Hookworm, Uncle Eli? What is that?" asked the boy. + +"It's a queer kind o' disease," the old man answered, "that comes from +goin' barefoot. There's a kind o' grub in the soil, and it works its way +in. It's only jes' recently that it's be'n found out that the po' whites +are peaked and backward because they're sick, and now they know a cure +fo' it, why hookworm is being driven right out o' the South." + +"Was there so much of it?" + +"Puttin' an end to it will make useful American citizens out o' +thousands o' poor critters that never knew what ailed them." + +"But where did the 'poor whites' come from, Uncle Eli? What made them +that way?" + +"Whar they come from I jes' don' rightly know. I reckon I saw more o' +them when I was down in Georgia, but the Florida 'crackers' are still +worse off. Thar's not so many in the mount'ns an' those that are here +live 'way up in the gullies. The sure 'nough po' whites, or 'Crackers' +as they call them, belong to the pine belt, between the mount'ns an' the +swamps o' the coast." + +"Why are they called 'Crackers'?" + +"I don' know, unless because they live on cracked corn and razor-back +hog. It an't so easy to say how they begun. Thar's a lot o' French +names, an' thar's a tradition that two shiploads o' Huguenots were +wrecked off Georgia in the early days an' foun' their way inland, +settlin' down without anythin' to start with, an' not knowin' for a +generation or two whar any settlements could be foun'. An' thar's a lot +o' folks that have just drifted down, down,--livin' jes' like the +'Crackers' an' often taken to be the same. An' the slavery system made +it worse because thar was no middle white class--either rich or po', +thar was nothin' between,--that is, down in that part o' the country. +But yo' mus' remember that thar has been a great change in the last +twenty years, an' that the children o' 'Cracker' families are doin' jes' +as well as anybody in the South." + +"How is that, Uncle Eli?" + +"Wa'al, in the days befo' the war, the po' whites were jes' trash. The +planters wouldn' have 'em, because the slaves did all the work; they +wouldn' work themselves, an' they didn' own slaves. So they were worse +off than the negroes an' even the black race looked down on 'em. But the +war waked them up." + +"They all fought for the South, didn't they?" + +"Mos'ly all. They were food fo' powder, but I always reckoned they +hindered more'n they helped. For the 'Cracker,' however, the war meant +everythin'. It placed him side by side with the Southern gentleman, it +strengthened the color line, an' jes' enough o' them made good to show +the others thar was a chance fo' them, too." + +"Then they started in to improve right after the war, did they?" + +The Kentuckian shook his head negatively. + +"No," he said, "at first they were far worse off than befo' because the +Freedman's Bureau an' the carpet-baggers made trouble right an' lef'. +The No'th had a fine chance, but the carpet-baggers were jes' blind to +everythin' excep' the negro, an' the po' white was jes' as shabbily +treated by the No'th as he had be'n by the South. Now that everybody is +seein' that yo' can't make a negro jes' the same as a white man by +givin' him a vote, thar's a chance fo' the po' white. I reckon the +'Cracker' as a 'Cracker' is goin' to be extinct pretty soon, an' the +South is goin' to be proud o' the stock it once despised. Atlanta is the +fastes' growin' city in the South, an' Atlanta is jes' full o' men whose +folks weren't much more'n 'Crackers.' The po' white, in a few years, is +goin' to be only a memory like the backwoodsman o' the time o' Dan'l +Boone." + +"That promises well for the South," said Hamilton. + +"The boom o' the South is jes' beginnin'," the old man said, "an' if +you're goin' to do census work this next year, yo' jes' watch the +figures an' see whar the old South comes in. It's a pity you're goin' +back to Wash'n'ton to-morrow, as I think yo' ought to see more o' this +country befo' yo' go." + +"I'd like to, ever so much, Uncle Eli," the boy answered, as he got up +from the step and started for the big loft where he slept with the +mountaineer's two sons, "but, even if I don't get a chance, I've learned +a lot from you about the folk on the mountains and about the South +generally." + +The mountaineer nodded a good-night as the boy disappeared. + +"Now thar," he said to his wife, who had been knitting stockings during +the latter part of the conversation, and occasionally interjecting a +word, "thar is a boy that is really achin' to know things. I wish Rube +and Eph were more like him." + +"Nothin' but hounds an' vittles worries them," the woman replied +sharply, "but they an't none like city boys, an' I'd ruther have 'em the +way they air than to come pesterin' with questions like Hamilton does +you. I don't set any sort o' stock in it, an' I don't encourage him in +sech nonsense." + +The big Kentuckian smiled, and filled his corn-cob leisurely as he +turned the talk to other things. + +Early the next morning, Hamilton and the oldest of the two boys started +on their fourteen-mile ride to the station, where the lad was to take an +afternoon train for Washington. They had gone about three miles, when +they came upon Bill Wilsh sitting on the stump of a tree by the +roadside. + +"I reckoned you-all would come along this way," he said, "an' I've be'n +thinkin' more'n more 'bout Teacheh havin' likely gone to the city, an' +not bein' dead after all. Yo' goin' to the city now?" + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH'S HOME IN THE GULLY. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, +Page & Co._)] + +[Illustration: BILL WILSH IN THE SCHOOL. (_Courtesy of Doubleday, Page +& Co._)] + +"I'm going to Washington, Bill," Hamilton answered. + +"Is that the city?" + +"It's one of them." + +"Do yo' s'pose that'd be the city Teacheh went to?" + +"I couldn't say, Bill," the lad replied, "there's no way of knowing, but +it's likely enough." + +"I was thinkin'--" the mountain boy began then he broke off suddenly. +"I'm mighty partial to whittlin'," he continued irrelevantly. + +"The best ever," interjected Hamilton's companion. "Yo' ought to have +shown him some of your work, Bill." + +"I was allers hopin' Teacheh would come back," said the boy in his +listless, passionless way, "an' he seemed so fond o' the school that I +whittled a piece to give him when he showed up agin. But now I reckon he +an't a-goin' to come back. Does you-all reckon he'll come back from the +city?" + +Hamilton looked down at the lad, and wanted to cheer him up, but he +could not see what would be likely to bring the schoolmaster back, and +so he answered: + +"I'm afraid not, Bill. But he might, you know." + +"I reckon not. But I'd like him to know he a'nt fo'gotten in the +mount'ns. I want yo' to tell him that thar a'nt be'n a week sence he +went away that I an't be'n down to the school an' swep' the floor an' +seen that his books was in the place he liked to have 'em be. I wouldn' +want him to come back from his wanderin', if he still is wanderin', an' +think he was fo'gotten. It an't much, I know, to sweep a floor," he +added, looking up to Hamilton, "but yo' tell him an' he'll understan'. +It's about all that I kin do. He'll understan' if yo' tell him." + +Neither of the other boys spoke, and after a moment the mountain lad +went on: + +"An' when yo' see him, give him this, an' tell him it comes from Bill, +his 'tryin' scholar.' He used to call me that because, although I wasn't +learnin' much, I was always tryin'. An' yo' can tell him I'm tryin' +still." + +Reaching his hand into the bosom of his ragged shirt the boy pulled out +a slab of wood four inches square. It was carved as a bas-relief, +showing the schoolhouse in the foreground in high relief, with the +wooded hills beyond. + +"That's great!" exclaimed Hamilton. "I don't believe I ever saw better +carving than that anywhere." + +A momentary gleam of pleasure flashed into the boy's dull eyes, but he +went on again in the same lifeless voice. + +"Thar's the schoolhouse jes' as it was when he was here last, but it's +never looked the same to me sence. I want yo' to give this to him an' +show him, if yo' will, that I whittled it with the door open, jes' to +show him we're lookin' for him back." + +"But supposing I shouldn't meet him in the city?" queried Hamilton +gently. "Washington is a large place and there are many other cities." + +"I reckon you-all have mo' chance o' findin' him thar than I have hyeh. +I reckon he an't goin' to come back hyeh, an' then he'd never know that +we an't fo'gotten him, an' he'd think we was ungrateful. But yo'll try +an' find him?" + +Hamilton was conscious of a lump in his throat at the simple +faithfulness of the mountain boy, and he said gently: + +"Very well, Bill, if you feel that way about it, of course I'll try. +But you haven't told me his name as yet." + +"I was thinkin' o' that," the boy answered. Then he took from his pocket +a home-made gum-wood case, and opening it, took out a small piece of +paper and handed it to Hamilton. + +"Be keerful of it," he said, "that paper tears mighty easy." + +Hamilton smoothed the paper out on the palm of his hand, and looked at +it carefully. It was a "copy," merely of pothooks, done in lead pencil, +the strokes wavering and of differing slopes, and the whole so smudged +as scarcely to be recognizable But, down in the corner, written in ink, +in a firm, bold hand, were the words, "Very Good, Gregory Sinclair." + +Hamilton copied the name into his notebook and, refolding the paper as +carefully as possible in the same folds, he handed it to the barefooted +boy standing on the road beside his horse's head. + +"Did you-all read it?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Hamilton. + +"Did you-all see that he said 'Very Good'?" + +"'Very Good' was what was written," agreed Hamilton, thinking of the +wavering and smudged pothooks. + +"I c'n do better now," the boy said quietly, "an' I've been tryin' jes' +as hard as though Teacheh was in yonder schoolhouse. But thar's no one +to write 'Very Good' on 'em any mo', an' I reckon thar an't goin' to be. +But I'm trustin' that you'll fin' him an' you'll tell him that he an't +fo'gotten." + +Without a word of farewell, the boy struck into the woods and was lost +to sight. The two lads started on their way, but they had not ridden a +hundred yards when they heard a hail; looking back, they saw the +mountain boy standing on a point of the ridge; and echoing down to them +came the lonely cry: + +"Fin' him, an' tell him he an't fo'gotten." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MANUFACTORY OF RIFLES + + +Settling himself comfortably in the train for his long journey to the +capital, one of the first things that Hamilton did was to take from his +pocket the little carving that had been given him by the mountain lad +and put it away carefully in his grip. Examining it closely as he did +so, the boy was astonished to note the fineness of the work, and he +realized that it must have taken Bill Wilsh all the spare moments of a +long winter to finish it. The work was all the more surprising, Hamilton +thought, since it had been done just with a single tool, a common +pocketknife, and was yet as fine and delicate as though carved with a +set of costly tools. He made up his mind to buy a set and send them to +Bill Wilsh with the first pay that he got from his Census Bureau work. + +Seated across the aisle from him was another lad about his own age, with +whom Hamilton rather wanted to make acquaintance, but the opportunity +did not arrive until the first meal, when, by chance, they found +themselves on opposite sides of one of the small tables in the dining +car. The usual courtesies of the table led to conversation, in the +course of which Hamilton's companion dropped the word "census" in a +manner which showed his familiarity with the progress of the work of +preparation. + +"Are you interested in the census?" asked Hamilton promptly. + +"Rather," the other replied. "I'm going to work in the Bureau. As a +matter of fact, I'm just going to Washington to get my appointment now." + +"You are!" exclaimed Hamilton. "Why, that's exactly what I'm doing. It's +queer we should meet this way." + +"Are you going as an assistant special agent, too?" his new friend +asked. + +"I'm going to start in that way," the boy replied + +"How do you mean 'start'?" the other queried. "I understand that work on +the manufactures will last three or four months, and by that time all +the other census-taking will be over." + +"I'm going to try to get some of the population work as well," Hamilton +explained. "I think it will be even more fun than the manufactures end, +and I heard that they're going to put on a few population enumerators +from those who have been on the manufactures work, admitting them +without an exam. I think the population census gathering will be fine." + +The other boy shook his head. + +"I don't think I'd want it," he said, "at least not in a city, and I'm +going to do the manufacturing work, of course, in a city." + +"Where are you going to be?" asked Hamilton. + +"I took the exam in 'Frisco," the older boy replied; "that's my home +town, and I expect to work out there." + +"That's quite a walk from here!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"I had to come to Washington," the boy answered "and so my people wanted +me to go and see my sister down in Florida. She married a fellow who's +busy reclaiming some swamp land down there, and he promised me a try at +alligator hunting." + +"That sounds prime," suggested Hamilton, "and I should think that in +that reclamation work there would be lots of chance for it. It would +be worth watching, too, just to see how they got at that work. I should +think they would find themselves up against a pretty stiff job, +engineering down in those swamps. And then there must be barrels of +snakes, too?" + +[Illustration: ALLIGATOR-CATCHING. The sport at its best; tackling a +fair sized reptile with bare hands. (_Courtesy of Outing Magazine._)] + +"Water moccasins and copper-heads mostly," said his friend cheerfully, +"but you soon get so used to them that you don't mind them. It's very +seldom that you ever hear of any one being bitten by a snake. They all +seem more anxious to get out of your way than you out of theirs." + +"And you're anxious enough, too!" remarked Hamilton. + +"That's pretty good security, don't you think?" queried the older boy +with a laugh. "When both sides want to get away, there's not much chance +of a meeting." + +"But how about the alligators?" + +"That was real good sport," the other rejoined. "But I kept down to the +smaller chaps most of the time. I don't suppose there's really very much +danger, even in the big fellows, as long as you know just how to handle +them." + +"I don't think I'm particularly keen about handling them," answered +Hamilton. "I shouldn't think the big ones would want more than about one +bite to put you out of business." + +"That's all right," the older boy admitted, "but what's the use of +giving one that chance? Anyway, so I learned down there, it's not so +much the bite that the hunters are afraid of as the stroke of the tail. +It doesn't take such a big alligator to break your leg like a pipestem +with a sweep of that long, scaly tail of his." + +"But how do they catch them?" + +"With a noose, when they're sunning themselves. An alligator lies on a +bank, half in and half out of the water, most of the time, with his eyes +shut. Sometimes he really is asleep, and sometimes he isn't. That's +where the fun comes in. Of course, if you can get the boat right up to +where he is, close enough to slip the noose over his jaws, you've got +him all right. There's a knob on the snout that keeps the noose from +slipping off, and he sort of strangles when you tow him through the +water. But if you can't get there with the boat you have to go it on +foot." + +"You mean you have to get out of the boat and walk right up to his +jaws?" + +"Yes, just that." + +"It doesn't sound particularly good to me," Hamilton remarked. + +"It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds," the other replied. "As long as +you don't make too much noise, and keep out of reach of his tail, you're +all right. If you slip up, you want to jump out of the way about as +lively as you know how. But he'll never come after you, or mighty +seldom. If you get a slip-knot over his snout, and can throw a +half-hitch over his tail, why, the biggest of them is easy enough to +handle." + +"But what are they caught for?" + +"There's quite a steady sale. The big fellows are sometimes sold alive +to parks and aquariums and circuses, but most of them are killed and the +whole skins dressed and used for hanging on the walls of dens, like +trophies. The real market is for the skins of the little fellows, which +are made up into all sorts of alligator leather bags. Most of that stuff +is imitation, but still quite a lot of it is real. It's plenty of fun +catching the little 'gators, because even the smallest of them can give +you quite a nip and a reptile three feet long is a handful. I did well +enough out of it, because in addition to the sport I had, my +brother-in-law let me have the skins of all those I caught myself. Some +people, too, want to have baby ones as pets, but I don't think I'd want +to have them around, myself, after they grew to any size," he added, as +the boys rose and went back to the Pullman. + +By the time the train had reached Washington the two had become +thoroughly friendly, and Hamilton liked his new acquaintance so much +that he would gladly have seen more of him than merely as a traveling +companion. But as the other lad was going out to San Francisco, there +was no likelihood of their being thrown together at all. Indeed, on his +arrival, Hamilton found that he had been assigned to an Eastern city, so +he had to bid his new-made friend "Good-by." + +The exterior of the Census Bureau building was a disappointment to +Hamilton, by reason of its unimposing appearance. Indeed, it was +altogether too small for the purposes of the census, and during the rush +of the decennial work, there were departments of the census scattered +through various other buildings, adding no little inconvenience to the +work. Accustomed to the New York structures, towering tens of stories +into the air, the two-story red brick building of the census looked +small to Hamilton, though comfortable and pleasant to work in. It was +deceiving in its size, however, for the floor space was big and not +much broken, and there seemed to be plenty of room. But it was not until +the boy returned after his population work some months later, that he +saw this building as the center of unparalleled activity. + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS BUILDING. Where Hamilton learned the immense +importance of this great function of the government. (_Walden +Fawcett._)] + +"I understand," said the chief of the manufacturing division to him, +"that you are desirous of coming to the Census Bureau as one of the +permanent force, not just for the decennial period only?" + +"Yes, Mr. Clan," was the boy's reply, "that is, if the Bureau is +willing." + +"That will depend entirely on the work you do. I didn't see your papers +personally, but I understand you received a high rating, and that you +have had a good deal to do with figures.--That is, for a youngster," he +added, noting the youthfulness of the lad standing before him. + +"Yes, sir, I have," answered Hamilton. + +"What made you think of taking this work up?" was the next question. + +"Because I like it, sir." + +The divisional chief leaned back in his chair, put his fingers together +in characteristic attitude, and smiled. + +"Eh," he said, "you are sure you will like the work?" + +"Quite, sir," said Hamilton in his decided way. "I looked it all over, +and I know." + +"You will be less sure of the future when you are older," the Scotchman +said, "but if you 'know,' there's nothing more to be said. I'm going to +put you under the care of Mr. Burns, and he will instruct you further in +the work." + +"But, Mr. Clan--" began the boy. + +"Well?" + +"Where am I going, sir?" + +"New Haven, Connecticut--a good town, and one that will give you plenty +of work. You'd better start for there to-night. I hope you will like it +as much as you expect." + +"Thank you, sir," Hamilton replied, seeing that his superior deemed the +interview at an end. "I'll do the very best I can." + +On arriving in New Haven the following day, Hamilton made his way to the +local Census Office opened by his new leader. He found Mr. Burns to be a +typical statistician, to whom figures had a meaning beyond themselves, +but to whom little was of value unless it could be expressed in figures. +Hamilton introduced himself briefly. + +"You're Noble," the other said abruptly. "When will you be ready to +begin?" + +"Any time," answered Hamilton. "Right after lunch, sir, if you want me +to make a start." + +"There's a portfolio," the census agent answered, "take it along and you +can begin just as soon as you're ready." + +"What instructions have you to give me, sir?" asked Hamilton. + +"I save eleven and a half per cent of the time given to instructions by +writing them. You'll find a copy in there," he said, pointing to the +portfolio. + +"Very well, sir," the boy replied, "I'll go ahead, and if I find +anything I don't understand, shall I come and ask you?" + +"Telephone!" the census agent said. "Quicker to 'phone even if only in +the next room. Average conversation, six minutes; average telephone +conversation, two minutes; average value of my time for six minutes, +eighteen cents; average cost of 'phone for two minutes, one cent; direct +saving to me seventeen cents, not counting time of your traveling to +come and talk. No! Telephone!" + +"All right, sir," Hamilton answered, "I'll 'phone," and realizing that +his new chief had the question of the valuation of time down to a fine +point, he hurried away. + +On reaching the hotel he examined his portfolio with a great deal of +curiosity. The schedules were familiar, for one of the features of the +examination he had taken had been the filling out of such a census +schedule from financial statements of a group of factories. The written +instructions, however, were thoroughly characteristic of the man, and +percentage figures were scattered around like punctuation marks. But the +explanations were clear as crystal, none the less, and gave no +opportunity even for telephoning. + +An old New England center, and a college town, New Haven proved a most +interesting field in which to work. By far the larger number of people +with whom the boy came in contact were of old American stock and gave +him every assistance possible. + +"The census-taker?" one old man said, when Hamilton called. "Come right +in the office and sit down. Now tell me what I can do for you," and when +the boy mentioned the principal items of the schedule, the manufacturer +spent a good hour working over the books with his office force to get +out the figures desired. When Hamilton thanked him, he replied: + +"I'm an American, Mr. Noble, and one of the stones they moved from the +old churchyard of the Old Center Church and that bore the date 1681 was +the tombstone of my direct ancestor. I think you'll find most of the New +England stock proud of the United States and only too glad to do +anything they can to help the government in its census or anything else +for the good of the country." + +"I'm sure of it," the boy said heartily, "but there's mighty few of that +old type left. There's not ten per cent of the people in the country now +that are real bred-in-the-bone Americans." + +"It is a pity," the old man said, shaking his head, "and the worst of it +is that even that ten per cent lives principally in the country. It's +the cities that influence the progress of the nation. We talk about +making these foreigners over into our idea of what Americans should be, +and we forget that all the time they are influencing us to become the +kind of Americans they think we ought to be." + +"I guess that's true," the boy said, "because in New York, where my +folks live, the old New Yorkers seem entirely strange and out-of-place +in the dash and glitter." + +"Of course," the New Englander replied. "The real Americans are plain, +solid people; it's the Jewish strain in New York that has brought about +the display of wealth, and to the large number of Southern Europeans are +due the colors, the lights, the music, the public dining, and all the +rest of it. It may be the American of to-day, but it isn't what +Americanism meant a few years ago." + +"A good deal of New York life does seem foreign in a kind of way," said +Hamilton, "and I'm glad," he added, as he closed his portfolio, "that +the Census Bureau put me at work in one of the old-fashioned towns +first." + +As the boy went on in his work he came to find how thoroughly the spirit +of Yale was felt in the town. Almost all the leading business men were +Yale graduates, and instead of displaying the "town and gown" hostility +of some university places, New Haven was inordinately proud of its +college. Of course, even in such a town, there was quite a proportion of +foreign-born manufacturers but the boy found that the Jewish +establishments were even easier to tabulate than those owned by +Americans, the Hebrew understanding of the details of business being so +thorough. + +"That's not so very detailed!" one of these remarked to Hamilton when +the boy had come to the end of his list of questions. + +"It's a relief to hear somebody say that," answered the young +census-taker with a laugh, "because I hear a dozen times a day the +complaint that no one could be expected to know as much about a business +as these schedules require." + +It was not to be expected that the work would proceed without an +occasional hitch, and Hamilton had one such with a firm of Italian +marble-cutters in which the bookkeeping had been of so curious a +character that it was next to impossible to get out the kind of figures +the government wanted. Another was in a small Chinese place, where they +made little trinkets to sell to tourists in the "Chinatown" districts of +the larger cities, representing them to be imported articles of value. +Another was with a small place run by two brothers, Persians, making +fringes and tassels for fraternal order badges and matters of that kind. +It was interesting to the lad, for he had the chance to see the works in +a number of cases, and he learned a lot about the way many queer things +were made. + +But Hamilton's hopes were set on visiting one especial manufacturing +plant in New Haven, and he had determined to ask that he be allowed to +go over it before he left the town. This was the great sporting gun +works. Hamilton was passionately fond of sport, and had owned a +Winchester ever since he was twelve years old. Indeed, he had read up on +guns a good deal, and it was one of his hobbies. + +His delight was great, therefore, when at the end of a long day, after +he had turned in his schedule to his chief, the latter said: + +"Noble, your work is good. Johnson is faster. Up to last night he had +turned in one, decimal five-two per cent more establishments than you, +but your proportion of capital invested is larger, showing that the +works you went to took more time. Your schedules are better. This takes +a little over one-fifth more of my own time than I had figured at first. +I was going to do the Winchester works myself. I think you can do it. +You had better go ahead. It's complicated, but they'll help you all they +can. There's not much time left." + +"Very well, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton decisively with the +characteristic raising and lowering of his eyebrows, "I'll get all there +is, all right." + +The next morning, about ten o'clock, Hamilton presented himself at the +general offices of the company on the outskirts of the town, about a +mile from the college. He asked to see the business manager, and was +granted an interview. + +"Mr. Arverne," said the boy, "I called with regard to securing the +figures for the census of nineteen hundred and ten." + +"But you are not the special agent surely?" said the manager, looking at +him sharply. + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "Mr. Burns is the special agent, and I am +one of his assistants." + +"I should have thought Mr. Burns would have come himself," the man said; +"you are young for this work, aren't you?" + +Hamilton flushed at this reference to his boyish appearance, but he +answered steadily: "Yes, sir, I believe I am younger than most of the +assistant special agents, but I have had a good deal to do with +figures." + +"Burns is a good man," the manager continued. "If the government has +men of that stamp all over the country, the statistics will be +invaluable. You know Mr. Burns?" he added suddenly. + +"Only just since this work began, Mr. Arverne," the boy replied. + +"Queer chap. I don't believe he eats a bit of food or drinks a glass of +water without mentally figuring the nutritious percentage in the food, +and the effect of his drink upon the water supply of the world." + +Hamilton laughed. + +"He is a little that way, sir," he said. + +"A little!" the manager exclaimed. "But to return to the point. You +didn't tell me why Mr. Burns didn't come himself." + +"He said that the office work was piling up, sir," answered the boy, +"and--if you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Arverne--he spoke of it as an +opportunity for me, since it was the largest plant in the city and my +schedules had been the most complete of those turned in to him." + +The manager eyed the boy keenly. + +"Mr. Burns doesn't make many mistakes," he said, after a moment, "and if +he has confidence in you, he knows what he is talking about. This is a +country of young men anyway, and it seems to be getting younger all the +time. Where is the schedule?" + +Hamilton handed him the paper and sat back, waiting. Several minutes +passed, while the manager went over the questions item by item. + +"Yes," he said at last, "I think our books can answer every question +there without difficulty. We keep very complete books. I am not so sure, +Mr. Noble," he continued, "that I can give you those figures immediately +in just exactly that form." + +"In what points do your books differ?" asked Hamilton quietly. + +"Not in any essentials, but in a few minor points," the manager replied. +"For example, you want to know here the exact number of employees on our +pay roll on December 15th. Now I could have the pay roll department--we +keep it as an entirely separate department here--turn up instantly the +payments for the week in which that date occurs, but in order to +separate that one day from the week, reference will have to be made to +the Employment Bureau to find out what workers left, and how many were +added, and the day of the week on which each of these left or began +work in that week, and to add or to deduct such sums from the weekly +pay roll." + +"That difficulty has come up several times," said Hamilton, "because not +many people pay their employees by the day. But in nine cases out of +ten, an average for that week is usually struck, figuring in some cases +by the days and in others by the hours. I suppose you noticed that the +schedule itself states that what is sought is 'a normal day'?" + +"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it +is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even +that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions." + +"No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch +usually comes just at the point you're looking at now--the cost of +materials." + +"That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great +deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with +all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion." + +"What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. +"That seems rather a curious phrase." + +"Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of +guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen +working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to +enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, +right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a +great deal of designing." + +"Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton. + +"We call them so," was the reply. + +"I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, +feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings +of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these +works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also +machinery and tools." + +"But those are for our own use!" objected the manager. + +"Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them +yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the +schedule it would make the figures all wrong." + +"How would it?" + +"Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and +you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without +getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the +machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost +price or at whatever figure you name." + +"I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems +a very roundabout way of getting at it." + +"I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery +you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you +make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried +to the capital account." + +"Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and +in that light these departments might be called productive, although not +directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out +pretty well for a youngster," he added. + +"I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing +nothing else for the past two weeks." + +"Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can +tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?" + +"No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous +expense." + +"Very well," the official said, "if you come back at four o'clock this +afternoon I will have the schedule ready for you." Then, seeing that the +boy hesitated, he said, "Did you want it before then?" + +"Oh, no, Mr. Arverne, thank you," the boy answered "that wasn't what I +had in mind at all. I was wondering whether, if I came back at three +o'clock, I would be allowed to see something of the works. In quite a +number of places I have been shown through the plant, sometimes because +I had to get figures from managers of different departments, sometimes +because I had a few minutes to spare while a clerk was filling up the +schedule. But I've always been so interested in guns, and especially in +Winchesters, that I really should like to find out how they're made." + +The business manager shook his head dubiously. + +"We very rarely show any one over the plant," he said, "because there +is very little to be gained by it. And in any case, there are some +portions of the works where visitors are never allowed, such as +ammunition rooms where there are quantities of powder about, and similar +places." + +"I'd like to be able to say that there was a desire on the part of the +Census Bureau for a report," said Hamilton, "but honestly I haven't the +right to say so. I'm only asking as a favor. At the same time I have +seen special reports on selected industries issued by the Bureau, and +possibly my information might chance to be of value to the special agent +who was getting it up." + +"Come back at two o'clock, then," said the manager. "One of the members +of the Board, Mr. Nebett, is here to-day, and if he has no objection +I'll try to find some one to show you round." + +Promptly at the appointed hour, Hamilton handed his card to the doorman, +who showed him into a waiting-room. In a few minutes the door opened, +and a keen-looking, well-set-up man appeared who came forward and held +out his hand. + +"I've been hearing about you from Mr. Arverne," he said, "and he tells +me that you want to look over the works." + +"Mr. Nebett?" queried the boy, and in response to an affirmative nod, +he continued, "Yes, sir, I'm very anxious to see part of it at any rate. +I can see that it's a huge place, but gun-making must be so interesting +that I'd like to see how it's done." + +"I think Mr. Arverne said something to me about your writing up a +special report, a summary or something of that kind." + +"That was just a suggestion, Mr. Nebett," the boy replied. "I told Mr. +Arverne that the Census Bureau did issue special bulletins on selected +industries, and that perhaps I might have an opportunity to make use of +some information. But that's a personal idea of mine only, because most +of those bulletins are written by experts in the Bureau." + +"Well," was the reply, "I don't see that it can do us any harm, anyway, +and if you are so interested you can come along with me. I like to go +through the works every once in so often, and perhaps I can tell you +more about these things than any other man in the place, because I get a +chance to see it as a whole." + +"If you would," began the boy. + +"Come along, then," said the official, without further parley, and he +led the way out of the general offices and across the street to the +first of a huge group of buildings. Walking through the yard the two +came presently to a long structure running alongside the railroad +sidings. "This," Hamilton was informed, "is just the storeroom for raw +material as it comes off the cars." + +He turned half round as though to leave the building, but Hamilton +stopped him with a question. + +"Steel, principally?" he asked. + +"Steel." + +"What kind of steel?" persisted Hamilton. + +"Oh, different kinds." + +"Why different kinds?" continued the boy, working his eyebrows, as was +his habit when in earnest. "For different kinds of guns?" + +"Yes," answered the older man, evidently deciding that he would have to +go into the matter thoroughly with Hamilton, and passing on into the +storehouse. "We get mostly three kinds of steel, nickel steel, carbon +steel, and soft steel, with a small proportion of other forms. We do +that for the very reason you mentioned, that they are used for different +kinds of work. Nickel steel we do not use for the cheaper grades of +guns, because it is so much harder, and costs so much more to work. +Indeed, very few gun-makers use nickel steel for barrels at all, but we +do on all our high-grade work." + +"I notice," Hamilton said, "that all the steel here is stored in bars +and rods. Do you buy it that way, or have you a rolling mill in +connection with the plant?" + +"Buy it," the other said immediately. "You can't run a rolling mill at a +profit except on a large scale, and, anyway, this is too far from the +source of supply. We get our copper in ingots, but not our steel." + +"I notice," the boy continued, fingering a long ticket attached to a +bundle of steel rods by a wire, "that you say here, 'Do not disturb +until report from laboratory is received.'" + +"Certainly," said the other, "every order as it comes in is tested. We +have two laboratories, a physical and a chemical, and not a scrap of +material is used until it is found to be fully up to the specifications. +There's no guesswork there, but the most rigid scientific tests. That +keeps any poor material from slipping through. + +"Now," he continued, "I'll show you what happens to those bars." + +He led the way to a small building where the bars were cut into certain +recognized lengths for the men at the drop forges to handle. + +"This forging shop," the manufacturer said, entering it as he spoke, "is +where most of the metal parts of the gun are first roughly shaped, and +this man is working on part of a cartridge ejector. Watch him now," he +went on, following the action of the workman; "he takes a piece of steel +out of the furnace behind him, lays it on the die, touches a lever, and +the big drop-hammer comes down,--once, twice. He turns it over, brings +the drop-hammer down again, once, twice, and the piece is shaped. It has +rough edges all round, of course, and so he takes it, while it is still +glowing red, to a more exact die, and brings the drop-hammer down once, +and turns it over, then brings down the hammer again once. Now the shape +is almost perfect but for that fringe of metal all round. He picks it +up, puts it on that die on this next machine close by his hand, touches +a lever, and a knife, exactly the shape of the die comes down, crunch! +shaving off the iron clean all round, and there is your forging done, +and all with the one heating. Of course it isn't finished off, but you +can see for yourself that the rough work is done, and all in the space +of a few moments." + +Hamilton found it hard to tear himself away, for while the principle was +the same, all the different forges were turning out different parts, and +it was a fascination to the boy to see those glowing lumps of steel come +out of the furnace and with the few strokes of the drop-hammer, fall a +few seconds later, the shaped part of a rifle. Some of the machines were +making receivers for the stock, the largest piece of metal, and other +small parts like the trigger or the hammer, while still others were +preparing the barrels of the gun for drilling. + +"It is not likely to occur to you," said his guide, "that it would not +do to let all those various parts cool off by chance. For example, in +winter they would cool more rapidly than in summer, and those near the +door more quickly than those in the inner part of the forging house. +That would make them of varying hardness. So, in order to make sure that +they shall be the same, all those pieces you have seen being made are +annealed." + +"How is the annealing done?" asked Hamilton. + +"That is simple enough," was the reply. "All that has to be done is to +heat them again all to the same degree of heat, then let the oven cool +at a certain rate. Here are the annealing ovens." + +"This is certainly a hot place," said the boy, as he stepped into the +next building. "Whew! I wonder any one stays in here." + +"No one does," his conductor answered. "We have this arranged so that +all the furnaces are filled in the morning, when they are cold, and +there are pyrometers to tell when the right heat is reached. All the +ovens, you see, are managed by these switches near the door. Look +here--" + +He slipped one of the switches into place, and the pyrometer needle +swung around and pointed to the degree of heat in the oven which it was +supposed to register. + +"What are those little clocks for?" + +"One for each oven," Mr. Nebett answered; "the keeper of the furnaces +sets them when an oven is up to the required heat. Then, you see, it is +easy to tell when they have been cooling long enough." + +"I should think," said Hamilton, "that making the barrel was the most +important part of a gun, because, after all, that is the only part a +bullet touches, and it must have to be exact. I've often thought of +that, how the tiniest difference at the mouth of the barrel would at a +thousand yards range cause it to be away off the mark." + +"It does have to be exact," his guide answered, "but that is a matter of +care rather than of difficulty. In this next building we bore the +rifle-barrels, just a simple boring process, as you see, but there are +all sorts of precautions taken to insure absolute steadiness. As soon as +a barrel is taken from the boring machine it is put through a test, to +determine whether it is correct in size to the one-half of +one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. If it is not as exact as that, it +is set aside. That is only the first of a long series of tests, too. You +would be surprised at the number of barrels that are rejected from the +time of the first selection until the gun is completed. Here, for +example, is perhaps the most sensational one." + +He led the boy to a small building, standing by itself in the middle of +the yard, heavily built, and looking almost like a log cabin of the old +type, made of great timbers. It was just a bit of a place, divided into +two parts by a heavy timber wall. + +"What in the wide world is this for?" asked the boy. + +"I'll show you in a minute, I think we're just in time," the official +said, as he led the way in. Hamilton followed him into the inner +chamber. A long row of gun barrels was the first thing the boy noticed, +the barrels all lying in slots. A gray-haired man was filling a heavy +charge of powder behind each one. The guns were pointing into a bank of +sand. + +"If you notice," said his guide, "you'll see that a little device, like +the old percussion cap is right by each of those charges of powder. Are +you all ready, Jim?" he queried, as the old man straightened up. + +"Yes, Mr. Nebett," was the reply. + +"All right," the other said, "we'll go into the room." He pointed out to +Hamilton, as they passed from one part of this little building to the +other, that each of these percussion caps was attached to a wire which +ran through the wall to the little room into which they were going. + +"Look out, Mr. Nebett," said the old man, after he had closed and +fastened the heavy door, "and you, young sir, don't be frightened," and +he pulled the wire hanging overhead. + +There was a terrific explosion and a roar, and though Hamilton had been +half expecting it, he jumped. Then he laughed. + +"I guess I did jump, after all," he said. "What was that for?" + +"To test the strength of the barrels," said his friend, as the old +workman slid back the heavy door. "There, you see," he added, "one of +them did burst." He pointed to one of the gun barrels rent at the side. +"Once in a while," he continued, "they just go up in pieces, and if you +look at the walls and the ceiling you'll see any number of bits of metal +driven in deeply." + +"But he seemed to be putting in an awfully heavy charge," said the boy. + +"We do that in order to be sure that we shall not expend a great deal of +labor on a barrel which in the end would fail to pass inspection, and +also to safeguard against accident," the other explained. "We do use a +very heavy charge because our guns sell all over the world, and in some +countries--England, for instance--the test is extremely severe. It's a +costly process, as it spoils a lot of barrels, but it is better to lose +material than to put out a piece of work which might not be +trustworthy." + +Hamilton looked around the proof-room carefully. Certainly it seemed to +have gone through the wars. From the thick wood huge gashes had been +rent, and the entire interior was jagged and splintered. + +"How much of a charge do you put to each barrel?" he asked; and when the +formula was given him for each of the different styles of rifle, the boy +whistled in amazement. + +"I should think that any barrels that stood that test could stand +anything afterwards," he said admiringly. + +"Well, they do," the other said. "It's very seldom that you hear of a +first-class gun exploding. I don't recall a case of one of ours for +years and years. And even if by some chance flaw they did, the good +ones, being nickel steel, would just make a hole in the barrel,--not fly +to pieces. But, as a matter of fact, any barrel that has been through +that 'proof-room' will have been subjected to the greatest strain it +will ever have to undergo, for there is no cartridge made that would +have one-half the power in proportion to the size of the barrel." + +From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of +the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and +finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed. Thus, for +example, in a receiver for a gun stock, one machine worked a bevel edge +on it, another bored it to the size of the gun barrel, accurate to the +thousandth part of an inch, another pierced the tiny screw holes, and +yet other machines made even the minute screw, done, as was explained to +Hamilton, so that the threads in each should fit with absolute +exactness. + +"But do you really mean to say," queried Hamilton in surprise, "that +every one of these fifty or more parts of each gun is inspected and +tested?" + +The official led him to a number of long rows of tables. + +"Here," he said, "are girls doing nothing else all day long. Here is a +testing die for a part of the ejector of one of our 1911 models. You see +that there are two spaces for all of them. It must fit into this one, it +must not fit into that, which is a thousandth of an inch smaller. If too +big, you see it won't fit into either, if too small, it would fit into +the one where it ought not. Every tiny piece is gauged on all its sides +and in every hole and at all points with this double gauge system." + +"That doesn't leave much for guesswork," said Hamilton. "But there is +something that's been puzzling me." + +"What is that?" asked his guide. + +"I've always heard a lot about gun-metal," Hamilton answered, "and yet +all the way through, these parts have been nothing but steel. And all +the guns I ever saw had that bluish look, as gun-metal has. For example, +my watch is what they call gun-metal," and he took it from his pocket +and showed the back of it. + +"Gun-metal," said the other, "is an alloy of copper and tin and once was +used almost exclusively for cannon and big guns generally. But you're +right about all guns having a bluish tinge. That is all steel, but it is +treated by a process called coloring or bluing. I'll show you--both the +old way and the new." + +Going down the stairs and crossing the yard, he took Hamilton into a +small building where there were a couple of open charcoal furnaces, in +which the charcoal was intensely hot, but not hot enough to catch fire. +The pieces of finished steel were buried in this charcoal, and every +few minutes the men in charge would draw them out, wipe them over with a +bunch of oiled waste, and thrust them back into the fire. It was about +the dirtiest, blackest, grimiest work the boy had ever seen. + +"That is the old way," Hamilton was told, "and although it is handwork +instead of machine work it is not a bit better in its results than the +new way. The modern system, besides, is much simpler and cleaner." + +In the next building was a row of charcoal ovens, revolving in such a +way that the parts to be blued were alternately covered and released +from the superheated charcoal, the effect of the greasing also being +done at every automatic revolution Each furnace door bore an asbestos +clock. + +"What are those clocks for?" asked Hamilton. "The same as those others, +I suppose, so that the man in charge can put in a number of certain +parts of a gun and leave them in for a regular length of time at a +certain heat, and pull them out all done?" + +"Just that," was the reply. "The only gain in the old style is that each +part being handled separately, if there is ever so little difference in +the metal, the bluer can give it a shorter or a longer time, whereas +the machine treats all alike." + +"Then when the gun is assembled, all the work is done?" queried +Hamilton, who was becoming a little tired from his long tramp through +the works and among the furnace-heated shops. + +"No," said the other. "That wouldn't do at all. A gun has not only got +to shoot, but it has got to shoot straight." + +"But how in the world," said Hamilton, "can you tell whether a gun will +shoot straight or not?" + +"One of the most important ways," said his informant, "is to let an +expert look through the barrel. One of our best men, for example, has +done nothing else all his life; his father before him was a +barrel-sighter and his son has just entered the works. He does it this +way--here, you try," and he handed a barrel to Hamilton. "Rest the +barrel in this crotch," he continued, "and look at the window. You see +there is a piece of ground glass with a thin black line running across +it. Point the barrel so that it is aimed just below that line, and if +you get it right, you will see a reflection of that line running +lengthways up the barrel." + +[Illustration: MAKING GUN-SIGHTS TRUE. Marksmen firing new-made rifles +and adjusting the sights until every weapon carries perfectly. +(_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +Hamilton put the barrel up and looked and looked, but for a minute or +two he could not get the direction, then he caught the line. But the +reflection in the barrel was confusing, and it seemed to him that he saw +several lines. + +"It's awfully hard just to get that straight," the boy said, "and it's +dazzling, too." + +"That man you saw there," answered his guide, as they moved away, "can +tell almost to the width of a thread of a spider's web if a barrel is +straight. Here, too, is another barrel test going on. You see this man +is pushing a soft lead slug which fits the barrel snugly through the +barrel by means of a brass rod. It takes a certain amount of pressure to +push the lead slug through the barrel. Such slight variations in +diameter of the bore as one-tenth of a thousandth can be readily +detected, for if the barrel is smaller at any point than where it +entered, the slug will stick, and if it is the least bit larger at any +point, the slug will slide through too easily. Men accustomed to this +class of work can readily detect an increase or decrease in diameter of +one ten-thousandth part of an inch." + +"You certainly have it down fine, Mr. Nebett," Hamilton commented. + +"We try to," responded his guide. "Then when the barrel experts have +had their turn, the gun is assembled and goes to the action men." + +"Who are they?" asked the boy. + +"They test the trigger pull, the cartridge ejection, the fall of the +hammer, the filling of the magazine, and all such points. They have two +sets of dummies, such as were used for testing the parts. One must fit, +the other not, and so any fault in the mechanism is detected. The same +with ejection,--we must be sure that a cartridge will not stick. Then +after that--" + +"Still more tests!" + +"Didn't I tell you that we had to be sure that a gun could be made not +only to shoot but to shoot straight? Our crack shots get the guns next." + +"What do they do?" asked the boy, "fire at targets?" + +"Yes. But first a man, incased in an armored barricade, shoots a few +extra heavy cartridges in each rifle, in order to make sure that no +weakness has been caused by the various processes through which all the +parts have passed. Then he turns it over to the crack shots. They fire +half a dozen shots at a target, then look at the target through a +telescope. Those men know that they can hit the bull's eye every time, +so that if the shots are wide of the mark, either there is a defect in +the gun or the sights are not true. In nine cases out of ten it is the +fault of the sights, and they file them true." + +"Then really every gun has been fired before being sold?" + +"We turn out about sixteen hundred guns a day, and each one has been +fired several times." + +"Shotguns, too?" + +"The same standard of accuracy is needed in those. It is just as +important that a shotgun should throw a certain percentage of its shot +within a certain radius as it is that a rifle bullet should go straight. +Down in this little room," he continued, "a man stands all day shooting +down this gallery, forty yards range, and each target is brought back +and measured. In a circle with a fifteen-inch radius a boy counts the +numbers of holes made in the paper by the tiny shot. There should be +300. If there are 290 the gun is passed, but if less it is rejected. +Sometimes you get very queer shot patterns without knowing why." + +"Do all shotguns throw as evenly as that?" + +"All good ones should. It is astonishing to see how regularly the +'scatter' of a barrel will work out. Every barrel, of course, is stamped +with the number of shots it has put into the fifteen-inch circle." + +"And you make cartridges, too, don't you?" Hamilton asked. + +"That's one of the largest branches of our business," his guide replied, +"but there's not very much in that to show you, except of course the +making of the metal caps, and this is simply the punching of circular +pieces of copper or brass, turning up the edges, or 'cupping' them, as +it is called, drawing them to length, inserting the primer pocket and +heading--the filling is done in a building perpetually closed to +visitors. We think too much of our visitors," he added with a smile, "to +risk blowing them up. I don't suppose really, that there would be any +danger,--we have not had an accident for years,--but it's a business in +which accident is only prevented by extreme care, and we believe in +being thorough." + +Chatting pleasantly, Mr. Nebett showed Hamilton through the various +general offices, the payroll department, and the draughting and +designing room, and finally returned to the business manager's office, +where they found the schedule awaiting him, filled out in almost every +detail. A few spaces had been left blank until the boy's return, some +trifling explanation being readily answered by him. + +[Illustration: "A BULL'S-EYE EVERY TIME!" The expert looking through +telescope at target which he has fired at with new guns to test their +accuracy. (_Courtesy of Winchester Repeating Arms Co._)] + +"I must thank you ever so much," said the boy, turning to the director +of the company who had taken so much trouble in showing him around, "it +has been one of the most interesting afternoons I have had in all my +life. I feel quite as though I had been witnessing the equipping of the +world's armies on the eve of a great war." + +"That would be all right," said the business manager, "if we were making +military rifles, but ninety-five per cent of our work is for sporting +purposes." + +"But how about your cartridges?" + +"There, perhaps," Mr. Nebett said, "The Hague tribunal would look +askance at us." + +Hamilton had his portfolio under his arm, but at the door he turned. + +"How many cartridges do you put out?" he asked. + +"Six million a day," was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BOY LEADER OF A CRUSADE + + +So long as Hamilton's work dealt with the larger manufactories of the +district he encountered comparatively little trouble, as he knew enough +of the desires of the Census Bureau to be able to help those business +men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so +forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made +several very pleasant acquaintanceships during the weeks in New Haven, +and it was not until he was "checking up," going to all the small places +that had not been listed, that he really found himself in difficulties. +He anticipated trouble with the dressmakers, and consequently his +delight was great when he learned that this had been omitted from the +census since 1904 because it is a "neighborhood industry." But the +milliners proved just as bad. + +In the first place, Hamilton could not work up any enthusiasm over a +millinery establishment, and although he had definite instructions that +each one was to be considered as a factory and entered upon the +schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a +little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the +first weeks of the work, visiting the places in the early morning and in +the evening when the offices of the larger factories were closed. His +worst clash occurred at almost the very last one to which he went. + +It was a little after five o'clock, just as it was beginning to get +dark, that Hamilton, having ascertained from the Business Telephone +Directory the address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work +for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really +handsome house, and rang the bell. He did so reluctantly, for there was +no plate on the door, and he did not wish to annoy strangers. But the +address seemed straight enough. + +The door was opened by a becapped maid, and Hamilton was shown into a +handsomely furnished drawing room. On a table in the corner, the boy +caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was +on the right track. After a few moments' delay, a richly dressed little +Frenchwoman bustled in. She seemed surprised to see the boy, and halted +on the threshold. Hamilton rose. + +"I understand, Madame," he said, "that you are an 'exclusive' milliner?" + +The woman looked bewildered. + +"You make hats?" Hamilton continued, perceiving at a glance that the +woman was foreign-born. + +"Is it a hatter zat you want?" she asked. + +"No, no," the boy replied, "I just want to know if you are a milliner?" + +The Frenchwoman, not at all enlightened by this explanation, answered: + +"I do not make ze hats; I design zem, and ze ozzers make zem." + +"Oh, I thought you were the proprietor," said Hamilton; "then you don't +own this place!" + +"I am ze proprietor, but I do not own ze house," she said; "I pay ze +rent. But why you ask? I pay my rent!" + +"Oh, of course," answered Hamilton, "but that has nothing to do with it. +I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census, and +wanted to make sure that this was the place I was looking for." + +"What is zat--ze census?" + +"That is the way the government finds out about all the people in the +country," explained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what +they work at and how many people they employ, the wages they pay or are +paid, and all sorts of things." + +The Frenchwoman's eyes had been getting bigger and rounder at every +sentence, and when Hamilton had finished, she said with an air of +regretful surprise: + +"An' they tol' me zere was no police spy in America!" + +"There isn't, so far as I know," the boy answered. + +"But you--" + +"I'm not a police spy," the boy said, a little nettled at being +misunderstood. + +"No? Zen zat is all ze more strange. In my country zose are ze questions +ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge?" +she queried, pointing to the little census shield on Hamilton's coat. + +"That has nothing to do with the police," the boy insisted, "that's a +census badge. Madame," he added, "do I look like a policeman?" + +The Frenchwoman, remembering the military appearance of the gendarmes +of her native land and the burly make-up of the American policeman, +shook her head. + +"Perhaps you are disguise'?" she said, with a smile. + +"No, I'm not disguised," Hamilton responded, "and the badge is just to +show that I have the right to ask you these questions." + +"I do not know anyzing at all about it," the milliner objected, "but if +you say you have ze right!" she shrugged her shoulders and sat down. + +Hamilton promptly picked up his portfolio, opened it on his knee, and +began to put some of the queries required. He got along well enough +while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so +forth were in hand, but the question about the number of hours worked +during the year made the woman most indignant. + +"What is ze good of a question like zat?" she asked. "What does it +matter if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand +occasion, ze wedding, ze garden party? When zey work more, zey get more +pay!" + +"Of course," said Hamilton diplomatically, "with such a number of +society people as you deal with that must happen very often." + +It was a successful move. The Frenchwoman beamed on him. + +"In ze season, yes, perhaps twenty or thirty evenings, but even zen ze +girl go home by twelve o'clock." + +Hamilton smiled to himself as he did a little figuring and filled up the +schedule to show the prevailing practice followed in the establishment +during the year. He was a little dubious about asking the questions +concerning the wages paid, but he found no trouble. + +"In your kind of work," he said, "I suppose the girls get good wages." + +"Ze very best," the woman answered, and Hamilton found that this was +true. Indeed, so anxious was she to impress on him how much better were +the wages paid by her than those in other establishments that the boy +secured a large amount of unexpected valuable information. But he came +to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For +the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but +the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner really could not +give, for, as she pointed out, most of the few especial customers she +had, brought the materials to her to be made up, and she had no means +of knowing what had been paid for them. Nor would she even try to make +an estimate. + +"But I must know," said Hamilton, in despair. "See for yourself,--here +it says that every factory must state the total cost of all material +used during the year and the value of the products." + +"Factory!" the milliner jumped to her feet. "What you say--a factory! +Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze designers of ze great +Maison Chic in Paris! Zis is insult!" + +For a moment Hamilton was amazed at the tempest he had so suddenly +evoked; then he tried to pacify the woman. + +"That's just a general word," he said, "and it is used for every place +where things are made." + +"No, no, no," she cried, "I know bezzer zan zat. A factory has chimney, +high, high, and smoke, an' nasty smells, an' machines. I have seen zem!" + +"That's one kind of factory," answered the boy, "but it is only one +kind. But if you like we won't use the word at all." + +This time, however, Hamilton's persuasions were of no avail. The +milliner had taken offense at the word "factory," and not another word +could the boy get out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become +absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, +evidently a customer. The proprietress immediately greeted her in +voluble French, recounting as nearly as Hamilton could judge from her +gestures her sorrows and trials at the boy's hands. + +As soon as there was a lull, Hamilton said to the newcomer: + +"I beg your pardon, but since you seem to know French, would you mind +explaining to Madame what the census is? She seems to think I am a +police spy, or something." + +"Oh, the census!" the girl exclaimed. "I could not make out what it was +all about. I thought it must be some question of taxes." + +"No," Hamilton explained, "it is the Census of Manufactures, and +millinery places have to be counted. I got along all right, and have +finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. +If you would just ask her the cost of the materials in the hats she made +last year, I'll be through and then I won't be delaying you." + +But not even the girl's fluent French could bring any light on this +subject, and laughingly she had to admit to the boy that her success +had been no greater than his own. + +"I'll tell you," said Hamilton; "I've got an idea how we could get at +it." + +"How?" asked the girl interestedly, for having taken a part in it, she +was American enough to be unwilling to give up; "what have you to +suggest--what is your plan?" + +"You are one of Madame's customers?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, whatever kind of books are kept here, there must be +some sort of ledger, so that your bills can go to you every month." + +The girl made a little grimace. + +"The bills certainly come," she assured him. + +"Well, then," said Hamilton triumphantly, "if we can find out from +Madame what proportion of all her trade your account is, and if you can +make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you, we +shall come pretty close to being able to make an estimate on the cost of +goods of all her customers." + +"That's an excellent scheme," the girl said. "I don't know that I can +give very exact figures, but you want just a rough idea?" + +"I'd like it exact, of course," the boy answered, "but since that +doesn't seem easy to get, the next best thing is a close estimate." + +With this device in mind, very few minutes elapsed before the required +information was secured, a rough guess made at the result, and the +schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said +laughingly: "I think I should at least receive 'honorable mention' in +the dispatches as a census-taker, the same as soldiers do in war." + +"Very well," said Hamilton, smiling in return, "I'll bear it in mind," +and thanking her heartily, he went on his way, greatly relieved that the +difficulty was over. + +In a piece of extra territory that Mr. Burns had assigned to the boy, +there were several factories in which there had been some difficulty in +securing properly filled schedules, partly because much of the work was +done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with +some of these factories--they were principally glass works--on the night +side first. He frequently found it necessary to work thus in the +evenings, especially after this added work, which was given him because +the district proved too large for the agent having it in charge. + +Little by little he worked these down until but one remained, owned by +Germans, where the boy experienced great difficulty in securing any sort +of attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and +Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for +that factory filled. This was the easier, as the night superintendent in +question had recently been promoted to that position from head +bookkeeper. + +One night, waiting for the superintendent to work out these figures, he +sauntered through the works. A phrase from Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man +in the Making" kept ringing through his head. It ran as follows--"It is +in the glass-factory perhaps, that the child is pushed most hopelessly +under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this +especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing +to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, +two or three of the men had come to know him by sight, and they nodded +now as he passed through. Noticing a boy that looked even younger than +himself,--for unconsciously his eye was seeking that of which he was +thinking,--he turned to one of the men who had nodded to him, and said +casually, and with an air of surprise: + +"Why, that chap there doesn't look any older than me!" + +"I don't suppose he is so very old," the man replied, "sixteen, maybe." + +"Seems a shame to have to start in so young," Hamilton went on, with an +assumed air of carelessness, "and I suppose he's been here some years." + +"Probably about four or five," was the reply. + +"You know," continued Hamilton, in a conversational tone, "I should +think it would be hard for a boy to start in working like that, and at +night especially." + +The man paused in his work an instant, and looked at the lad, passing +his hand over his forehead as he did so. + +"I was just ten years old when I began," he said. "I'm only thirty now. +I look fifty, don't I?" + +"You certainly look over thirty," Hamilton admitted. + +"Oh, I look fifty all right, I know that, and I'm as nearly played out +as a man of fifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. +Every year that a boy is put to hard physical work before he is sixteen +is equal to five years taken off his life." + +"I wonder that any employer does it, and that any State permits it," +said Hamilton. + +"There's not as much of it in Connecticut as in other States, although +the figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk +as though you had been having a session with 'the crusader,'" the +workman continued. + +"Who's the crusader?" asked Hamilton. + +"Haven't you seen him, then? With your ideas, you ought to get along +well together. And," he added, more seriously, "'the crusader' will be +heard of yet." + +"Why?" + +"He's a boy who started at work in this place when he was only seven +years old," the workman answered. "He's been here eight years now, and +he's an odd genius. He taught himself to read and write, but he doesn't +read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he +knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of children +working. All the labor union people and the socialists know 'the +crusader,' young as he is, and they send him, free, nearly every book +and paper that's published." + +[Illustration: YOUNG BOYS FROM THE PIT. A group of workers in a coal +mine during dinner-time. Many even younger work on the night shift. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway co._)] + +"But why do you call him 'the crusader'?" asked Hamilton. + +"Because he has some crusade idea on the brain,--thinks he can start a +revolution or something that will put a stop to child labor, and he +talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as he calls it. +But everybody likes him just the same, and he's a good worker--when he's +not talking." + +"Which is he?" asked Hamilton. "I'd like to talk to him, if I might." + +"No reason why you shouldn't," the other answered "he's kept busy of +course, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' +is given special favors, anyway. That's the boy, 'carrying in' over +there." + +Hamilton looked with interest at the boy thus pointed out. He would have +been noticeable, even without the knowledge of his peculiar position, +but with it, his difference from his fellows became most marked. +Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this +might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his pocket, he +started to eat it, and sauntered leisurely over to where the boy was +working. He watched him for a minute or two; then, when the boy looked +up, he said casually: + +"Have an apple?" + +Almost wolfishly the work-boy took the fruit from Hamilton and commenced +to devour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a +luxury as an apple seldom fell to his lot. A few sentences passed, and +then Hamilton asked: + +"How long have you been in the factory here?" + +"Eight years," 'the crusader' replied. + +"You must have been just a youngster when you first came, then?" + +"Seven years old," was the answer, "and small at that!" + +"It's a shame to let little children work like that, I think," said +Hamilton, wondering whether this would have the effect of rousing the +other, "it must do them harm." + +But even though expecting some fiery retort, Hamilton was unprepared for +the transformation in the lad. A moment before he had been a stooped +childish figure with an old and weary face, carrying trays of hot glass +from furnace to bench and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. +The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and +passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of +his surroundings, despite the rags in which he was clothed, under the +dull glow of the furnaces and the flickering violet play of a distant +arc light he seemed the bearer of some high message as his boyish +treble, rich in the tones of a familiar despair, rang through the +factory. + +"The land is filled with the voice o' cryin'," he began, "an' no one +seems to hear. Tens o' thousands o' children cry themselves to sleep +every night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. +Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so +much that hope is gone, an' tired enough to die! There are twenty-five +thousand children less than ten years old in the fact'ries of America." + +"Perhaps the people who could help don't know about it," suggested +Hamilton. + +"They know," the other continued, "but they don't care. They stop their +ears to the cryin' o' the children an' talk about America as the land of +opportunity. It _is_ the land of opportunity--opportunity for the +children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wretched +an' to be glad to die. There's no country in the world where children +are tortured as they are in the fact'ries of the United States." + +"Oh, surely it can't be as bad as that," protested Hamilton. + +The objection only increased the "crusader's" vehemence. + +"There don't any children have to work anywhere as they do here," he +fairly shouted, "here where they rob the cradle for workers, where the +little voices become sad and bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, +where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where +its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Their tiny bones +unset, they make them stand in one position all day long until you hear +the children moanin' hour after hour, moanin' and no one hears, or +hearin', cares. + +"They send missionaries to China," cried the lad further, "but there's +no child labor there; they try to reform the 'unspeakable Turk' but +there's no atrocity upon the children there; they call the heathen lost, +though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' +lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our +fact'ries here, an' even an Indian chief that they were showin' the +sights of our great cities to, when asked what had surprised him most, +answered, 'Little--children--workin'.'" + +"You mean it is peculiar to America? That there is really more of it +here than in Europe?" asked Hamilton incredulously. + +"More? There's none there like there is here. An' it's gettin' worse all +the time, worse this year than last year, worse last year than ten years +ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. +It is a thing of yesterday, a sudden toadstool in the infernal garden.' +It is all our own," he laughed harshly, "let us be proud of it." + +"How many children did you say?" asked Hamilton tersely, staggered and +shocked by this statement of the facts of the case. + +"Enough to sink the land in shame," the speaker declared. "There were a +trifle over a hundred thousand children between the ages of six and +fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures +showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n eight hours a day, that +a large percentage were workin' twelve to sixteen hours, an' twenty-two +thousand of 'em are at night work." + +As he said the last words, the "crusader" hurried away in response to a +call from one of the men. He resumed his carrying in of the red-hot +bottles from the benches where the men had been molding them, to the +annealing oven, and for a time Hamilton watched him. The work was a +fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to +the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to +take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundred feet, and +watching another boy, who was working regularly, not intermittently as +was the city lad's new acquaintance, he found that seventy-two trips an +hour were made, making the distance covered in eight hours nearly +twenty-two miles. + +The red-hot bottles were carried in asbestos shovels, and these had to +be kept fairly straight, imposing a terrific strain upon the back. In +addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time +they came back, passing from the heat of the melting oven, in front of a +draughty open door, to the heat of the annealing oven. + +In order to keep up with the work, the boys had to run, for it could not +be done at a walk, and thus were alternately greatly overheated and +chilled with icy draughts. + +Seeing that the "crusader" would be busy for a while, but wanting to +take the matter up with him further, Hamilton strolled over to where the +glass-blowers were working. This particular factory was turning out +cheap glass bottles, and there was little of the fascination that exists +in factories where high-grade glass is made into many curious shapes and +blown with great skill into marvelous thinness. In the middle of the +room was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not +quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before +each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the +blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, +drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the +consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the +end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and +rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then +they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing the +soft glass to its proper form. The now cooling glass was broken from the +end of the blowpipe with a sharp, snapping sound, and the blowpipe was +plunged in the furnace again for another bottle. The whole had taken +but a few seconds. + +"Why do they have so many boys around these places?" queried Hamilton of +the workman he had been watching. + +"Have to, they say," the glass-blower replied, "cheap bottles mean cheap +labor. No one ever expects to pay anything for a bottle--that is thrown +in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his +little profit somewhere an' in a cheap bottle he makes it by employin' +young boys cheap an' workin' 'em till they drop." + +"Is it done this way everywhere?" + +The workman shook his head. + +"No need to do it even here," he said. "It takes money, though, to put +in an endless belt to carry the bottles to the annealin' oven. The big +fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in +small towns where everythin' is done on a cheap scale, an' a boy's labor +is about the cheapes' thing in the United States--unless it's a girl's." + +Seeing that the glass-blower was being delayed in his task, Hamilton +sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" worked. +The latter broke out again as soon as he saw the boy coming. + +"I've been talkin' to you about children workin'," he said, "but you +haven't thought of babies bein' made to work?" + +"Babies!" + +"Of four an' five years old." + +"But they couldn't do any real work!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"Do you know what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he +was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid +three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for +wrappers, and a little worker of four is good help in stripping.'" + +"In a cigar factory?" + +"Of course,--an' the children find it so hard to keep up that they are +taught to chew snuff--as a stimulant--before they are six year old. Jane +Addams, writin' o' the torture chambers they call cotton mills in parts +o' the South, said she saw on the night shift, with her teeth all +blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' +five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' +answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout +the hot summer excep' two, when 'her legs and back wouldn't let her get +up.' An' what do you suppose the fact'ry owner did--send a physician? +No, he docked her the two days' wages for the time she'd been away ill, +an' another day's fine as a punishment." + +"That's brutal!" cried Hamilton. "Didn't the parents protest?" + +"The parents? That's where the mill-owners have their strongest help. +They threaten to discharge the parents if the children don't work an' +work hard, and they force the father or mother into whippin' the child +to compel it to stay at the loom. The whole country went to war once +over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,--or at +least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,--but you can enslave +white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without +air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, you can force 'em to +be whipped, you can snatch 'em from their cradles in their homes, you +can snap your fingers at the schools, an' you can fill churchyards with +a worse Massacre o' the Innocents than history ever tells about, an' the +men and women of America don't care." + +[Illustration: "I 'AIN'T SEEN DAYLIGHT FOR TWO YEARS." Trapper boy +working a twelve-hour day below ground, often too tired to go up in the +cage at the end of the day and sleeping on the ground beside the track. +(_Courtesy of the Ridgway Co._)] + +"Oh, yes, they do," again protested Hamilton. "It must be that they +don't know." + +"How can they help but know? There are a few that have heard what Spargo +calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very few, an' +the misery an' shame goes on, gettin' worse with ev'ry year." + +"What's going to be done?" + +"The children will have to rescue the children," the boy cried. "If +men's hearts are cold and women's hearts are asleep, at least the boys +can hear. There's no power like a boy's, an' a boy will do anythin' +that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' +to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to +every mill an' fact'ry in the United States where a child is workin', +and make the owner sign a paper pledgin' himself not to employ a child +again. Give me an army of American boys an' I'll sweep the country like +a flight o' locusts." + +"But who would join?" + +"Every boy worth his salt. S'pose I came to you an' said 'In that mill +at the end o' your street, little children are bein' slaved and driven +to death because no one has the nerve to say what they think. We'll +rescue those children. Join us, we're five hundred strong!' Would you go +along?" + +"Guess I'd have to join," the boy agreed, "but you'd get into all sorts +of trouble." + +"Can I get into a worse trouble than any o' those babies have?" the +other asked indignantly. "What right have I to go on, even as I do, +knowin' how they are sufferin'. I don't care about trouble, I've had +nothin' else all my life. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could +get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like +other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't +see that carryin' bottles is goin' to help the world much, but if I can +carry hope an' health to some little boy or girl, I'm goin' to do it. +How, I don't know. But I ain't goin' to die without bein' able to +remember some poor child that's better off because lived." + +"What can I do to help?" asked Hamilton eagerly and aggressively, as +though he expected instant marching orders to some distant factory. + +"You can do somethin',--every boy can do somethin'. If nothin' else, you +can help to wake a sleepin' an' selfish nation. If the cryin' o' the +children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' +somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every day, as I do, o' +that 'spectral army of pygmy people sucked in from the hills to dance +beside the crazing wheel' and not do somethin'?" + +"But--" + +"Could I hear trampin' round me day an' night, the laggin' step of a +'gaunt goblin army that outwatches the sun by day an' the stars by +night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, +an' then I must go,--that there's a stain o' shame 'pon the honor of +America that'll never be wiped away until child labor is put down!" + +Thoughtful and subdued in spirit, Hamilton strolled back to the night +superintendent's office, where he found the figures done at last and the +completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted the offer of a +cup of coffee, from some which had just been sent in, and sat down +beside the desk. + +"I've been talking with the 'crusader,'" he remarked. + +The night superintendent looked up interestedly. + +"What do you think of him?" he asked, a little sharply, Hamilton +thought. + +"I think there's no question about his being sincere," the boy answered, +"but I can hardly believe that the figures he gives and the facts he +talks about are true." + +"They're true enough, I'm sorry to say," said the older man, sighing, +"but the 'crusader' usually isn't fair to the South. He blames the South +for the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large +proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are +owned by New England capitalists. I'm a New Englander by birth myself, +'naughty-two' at Yale, but I'm able to see the mistakes of the North +just the same." + +"I've always been taught that the North was more or less mixed up in +it," answered Hamilton. "It was shown to me a long time ago that the +slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were +no Southern vessels in the slave trade, they were all New England +skippers and New England bottoms. The shame of the slave traffic belongs +originally to the North." + +"And now a large share of the child labor, too," the other agreed. "But +you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the South +that made such conditions possible. I guess the blame is about even." + +"But is nothing being done on this child-labor business?" asked +Hamilton. "I tried to find that out from the 'crusader' but he didn't +answer." + +"Yes," said the superintendent heartily, "a great deal is being done. +The Bureau of the Census has been of immense service, and other bureaus +of the Department of Commerce and Labor are working on it, largely +through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have +been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being +checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall be real, not +nominal. Don't let the 'crusader' persuade you that everybody is asleep +and that nothing is being done; the government is doing a good deal, +although the country as a whole is unaware of it." + +"Yet it is increasing?" + +"In spite of all that is done to prevent it, it is increasing," the +other said quietly, "that is the sad part. If it could be thought of as +a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month +hundreds of children die from enforced labor and that greater numbers +fill their places, is a sad reflection on the industrial life of +to-day." + +"Well, as the South progresses, that will probably take care of itself, +won't it?" queried the boy. + +The superintendent looked at him curiously. + +"I think you told me last evening that you were a New York boy," he +said. + +"Yes, Mr. Wharton," answered Hamilton. + +"I suppose you consider New York a fairly progressive city?" + +"Greatest on earth!" affirmed the boy in true Gotham style. + +"Yet that same progressive city," the older man declared, "is the +headquarters of several forms of industry in which large percentages of +the workers are children under fourteen years of age." + +"What kinds of business can those be?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Making ostrich plumes and artificial flowers. It's not factory labor, +of course, but that doesn't alter the point that at least half the +output of artificial flowers is made by the cramped fingers of children, +generally after school and far into the night. They are not officially +reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The +disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of +them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach +them in two sections is a great help to the sweat-shop managers. But +every city has its own share of this child labor in the homes, although +in some of the smaller places, civic associations and municipalities +have taken the matter in hand with considerable success. Even that is +but a drop in the ocean." + +"Your 'crusader' will have to lead his crusade then, it seems," the boy +suggested. + +"Poor lad!" sighed the superintendent. + +"Why?" asked Hamilton. + +"He will never lead that crusade," the older man replied pensively. + +"Why not?" + +The man tapped his chest significantly. + +"He is incurably ill," he said, "partly glass-blowers' disease from +breathing the particles of glass dust. Men don't mind it so much, but it +is fatal to children when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the +'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he +gives a lot of trouble in the works with his revolutionary theories. I +haven't the heart to send him away; he couldn't get other work, and +being all alone in the world, he might starve." + +"You mean--" + +"That he will not live six months. That army of boys of which he speaks +so often will never go on the march, the banners he has designed for it +will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and +the drums will sound the final 'taps' for him before they roll for the +advance. And in that sleep, the cries of the children shall all be happy +ones." + +[Illustration: EIGHT YEARS OLD AND "TIRED OF WORKING." Boy in Southern +cotton mill who has been employed "two summers and a winter before +that."] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"DON'T DEPORT MY OLD MOTHER!" + + +The "crusader's" talk on the child-labor question set Hamilton's mind +working, and as soon as he got back to Washington and was busy +tabulating the manufacturing statistics which had been gathered and sent +in, he tried to learn something about the employment of children. He +chanced to meet one of the photographers who had been with the +Congressional commission, and the tales this man told were even more +detailed. Hamilton found that the figures quoted had not been +overstated, and he determined that just as soon as he grew old enough he +would do all he could toward correcting this abuse. + +But Hamilton found the actual statistical work not a little tedious, +although it was work which usually he enjoyed, and this sense of the +time dragging was largely due to the fact that the boy had not heard a +word about his being considered in line for the population work. It was +therefore a considerable relief to him when Mr. Burns said to him +suddenly one morning: + +"So you're going over to the population side, I hear?" + +"Am I? I didn't know," Hamilton replied. "I had wanted to go, but not +hearing anything about it, I was afraid the plan had been shelved." + +"The Director told me this morning that you were going to be +transferred." + +"The Director himself?" + +"Yes. I had a talk with him about the figures for the manufactures of +the New England States, and we happened to mention you; he knew your +name, so I told him that your schedules had averaged six and a third per +cent better than those of any one else in that section. So he said, +'That reminds me, I had almost forgotten that I had decided to put Noble +on the population work. I'll see that arrangements for that transfer are +made,' and he scribbled something on a pad." + +"That was awfully kind of you, Mr. Burns," said Hamilton, "to mention me +to the Director in that way." + +The statistician looked at him curiously. + +"I wasn't dealing in kindness," he said dryly, "I was dealing in +percentages. If that turned out well for you, it is yourself you have +to thank, not me. I merely stated the figures, and they read in your +favor." + +The boy laughed outright. + +"I believe, Mr. Burns," he said, "that you would more easily forgive a +man who attacked you personally than one who gave you an incorrect list +of figures." + +"Certainly I would," the statistician replied. "I could hit back in the +first case, but in the second who can tell how far I might be led +astray!" + +"Well," the boy answered, "I'm glad at any rate that my figures tallied +up all right." + +"I don't want to seem inquisitive," said the older man, "but when did +you get in the population examination?" + +"There was some talk of my being accepted without going through the +exam," said Hamilton, "because of the fact that I was doing census work +of a more difficult character already, but I thought I would rather feel +that everything had been done in the usual manner. I took the exam at +New Haven, one afternoon." + +"But are you going to do the population work there?" + +"No, Mr. Burns," the boy explained. "The Director wrote to me that I +would be allowed to send in a formal application in the regular way +through the supervisor of the enumeration district to which I had asked +to be assigned. The supervisor of that district had said beforehand that +he would be willing to appoint me, as the section was so sparse that +enough qualified enumerators were hard to get." + +"Well, where are you going, then?" + +"I don't know, for sure yet, of course," the boy explained, "whether +everything will go through as planned, but if so, I shall be going to +Kentucky." + +"In the mountains where you had been visiting?" + +"Oh, no," the boy answered, "in another part of the State +entirely,--down toward the black belt of Kentucky." + +"Kentucky isn't a black belt State," his friend objected. + +"No, Mr. Burns, but there are parts where the negroes are tolerably +thickly settled. The supervisor is a friend of my older brother, and he +says that is an interesting part of the country." + +"But can a Board of Examiners in one district look over the papers for +the supervisor of another district?" + +"No, sir," explained the boy, "but they can allow the examination to be +taken before them and have the papers sent to the supervisor of the +other district. It was a little irregular, I suppose, but the Director +knew all about it and it was for the good of the census, he thought, as +he had been told there were not enough enumerators in the district to +which I hoped to go." + +"Well," the statistician replied, "if you're headed for Kentucky I +should think you'd like to see your folks before going." + +"I had planned to go up on Saturday afternoon," Hamilton said. "I can +get to New York by evening and spend Saturday night and all day Sunday +there, catching the midnight train back. It brings me in early enough +for office hours." + +"And this is Friday," said the other thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what +to do. I can arrange for you to be off Saturday morning; it is only a +half day, and you can catch the first train out after business hours +to-day." + +"That would be bully!" + +"I estimate," the statistician said, rapidly dotting down some figures +on a pad, "that the fractions of overtime you have worked recently, +cumulatively considered, enable me to do that fairly, so that you've +earned it." + +"That's fine," said Hamilton, "for the family is going to Europe for the +summer, and I shouldn't see any of them at all unless I ran up to New +York now." + +The older man nodded his confirmation of the suggested arrangement, and +returned to his figures. During the noon hour Hamilton hurriedly packed +a grip, and was back at the office without a minute lost, for he found a +train leaving at a most advantageous hour, and by calling a taxi he was +just able to catch it. + +At breakfast the following morning, the conversation turned upon +immigration, and Hamilton read in a newspaper the statement that two +large liners were in New York harbor and would dock that morning, that +each carried a record passenger list of immigrants, and that Ellis +Island was making preparations for a busy day. + +"I've never seen Ellis Island," the boy announced "Father, do you know +if visitors are allowed over there?" + +"I'm fairly sure of it," his father replied, "but in any case there +ought to be no trouble for you, since the Bureau of the Census is a +part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, just as is the Bureau of +Immigration." + +"I think I'd like to go." + +"I think you ought to go," his father said. "Taking up the population +business, you ought to try to get hold of all the information you can, +ahead of time. I have been there several times, on business, and it is a +most interesting place." + +Accordingly, the eleven o'clock boat from the Barge Office, New York,--a +pier near Castle Garden, the historic immigration station,--carried +Hamilton to the famous Ellis Island. Preferring his request, the lad +speedily found himself in the presence of the Commissioner. He stated +his wants briefly. + +"Mr. Commissioner," he said, "I'm an assistant agent of the Census +Bureau in Washington, and I'm just going to my station as an enumerator +for the population. I have two days in New York and I'd like to learn +how things are done on the Island here. May I have a pass?" + +The Commissioner answered briefly. + +"Read this," he said, taking a sheaf of manuscript out of the drawer of +his desk, "and here's a short review for the use of visitors, and I'll +send you in to the Chief Clerk to get a pass, and if there's anything +more you want, let me know." He touched a bell. "Show this gentleman to +Mr. Tuckman, and let him be given a special pass," he said,--and +Hamilton was ushered out promptly, thinking as he went that this was +evidently one place where time was not wasted. + +The Chief Clerk was equally ready to assist the lad, and armed with his +special pass he started round the building, finding himself practically +free of the island. Hamilton possessed the capacity of making friends +readily, and with his alert manner and direct appeal, he usually secured +attention. Walking sharply through the place he soon found himself down +in what was called the Information Division. For the moment one of the +clerks was not busy, and Hamilton, stepping up to him, began to ply him +with questions. A tall young fellow, who was standing nearby, listened +for a few moments, then turned to Hamilton. + +"See here," he said, "you can't learn much about Ellis Island just by +asking questions, you've got to go around and see for yourself." + +"That's just what I propose doing," Hamilton answered, "but I thought it +wouldn't be such a bad plan to get an idea of things first, and then I +should understand what I saw. There's not much use in watching things +unless you understand just what's going on. I have some knowledge of it, +of course, because the Commissioner gave me some reading matter to look +over, and I've got a special pass, so that I want to make the best use +of it." + +"Suppose you come along with me, then," said his new acquaintance, who +was none other than the Chief of the Information Division, "and I'll +show you round myself as far as I can spare the time. It so happens that +there are a lot of scattering things I want to look after through the +building to-day, and if you don't mind my leaving you alone, once in a +while, I'll take you through systematically. Where do you want to +begin?" + +"Right at the very start," rejoined Hamilton "I always think the +beginning is the most important part, and I'd hate to lose any of it." + +"All right," said his conductor good-humoredly; "if you want it all, you +shall have it. I notice, too," he said, as they walked along the hall +and out of the door to the well-kept lawns that stretch between the main +building and the sea wall, "that you're in good time, for there's a +barge just pulling in." + +"The barge is from one of the liners that came in this morning, I +suppose?" queried the lad. + +"Yes, one of the Hamburg boats," his guide replied. + +"Are those barges run by the immigration authorities?" + +"No," was the answer, "those are owned or managed by the steamboat +companies. They bring all the steerage passengers who can't show that +they are citizens, and all the cabin passengers who are being detained." + +"Cabin passengers," echoed Hamilton in surprise; "I didn't think any +cabin passengers came to Ellis Island. All second cabin, I suppose?" + +"Not a bit of it," answered the immigration official; "there's quite a +sprinkling of first-class passengers as well. Why, during a period of +three months recently, nearly three thousand cabin passengers were +detained on the island here, and I suppose twenty per cent of them had +come over in the first-class saloon." + +"But why should any first-class passengers be stopped and shipped to +Ellis Island?" queried the boy. "I don't understand. I thought Ellis +Island was to keep out people who were paupers, or diseased, or were +undesirable citizens!" + +[Illustration: THE BIGGEST LINER IN THE WORLD COMING IN. Ocean steamship +with thousands of immigrants on board entering New York harbor; the +Statue of Liberty in the distance. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"That's just exactly what it is for," the other replied, "but the United +States government doesn't think that having money enough to pay for a +first-class passage makes every man a desirable citizen! A first-class +berth is no insurance against an incurable disease, for example, and +there's nothing to prevent a criminal from coming over in the first +cabin." He laughed. "Most of them do, I think," he said. + +"It really never appealed to me just that way," the boy remarked; "I +supposed always that first-class passengers went right through if they +passed quarantine." + +"That would mix things up," the older man said. "Why, in that case we +should have all the mentally deficient, all the paupers, and all the +freaks landing here in shoals. Any group of friends, or any government, +for that matter, would find it cheap and easy to dump all the public +charges of Europe on our shores for the price of a first-class ticket. +Oh, no, that would never do. Once in a while, you hear passengers on the +big liners complaining of the inquiries made before they land, but it's +got to be done. You can see for yourself what would happen if we +didn't." + +"But if they bring plenty of money, they would not become public +charges." + +"No, and we can't exclude them on that ground. But money, for example, +has nothing to do with crime or anarchism or things of that sort. I tell +you, there's a big slice of our work done before ever a vessel reaches +her dock at a New York pier. Of course, problems do come up nearly every +day, such as circus freaks, for instance." + +"You mean the living skeleton, the tattooed lady, the fat baby, the +giant, and so forth?" asked Hamilton. + +"Exactly. Are those people to be considered desirable citizens, or not? +There is no question as to their inability to make a living by any +customary kind of work, but on the other hand it is very difficult to +prove that they could not get good money at a sideshow. If, however, +they are able to show that they have been engaged in Europe by an +American circus manager, they can come under the alien contract labor +law." + +"Then this string of people," said Hamilton, pointing to those who had +just been unloaded from the barge, "may be from all classes of the +ship." + +"They might be," his guide replied, "but the chances are that they are +all steerage. Cabin passengers that are detained usually come on the +last boat, with the inspector. We have quarters here with a little more +privacy for them, and they are kept together. But now watch this line. +Suppose we go this way," and stepping over a low iron railing, the +official, followed by Hamilton, walked briskly up beside the line. A few +yards from the door of the building, this line of people passed into a +long barred lane. At the entrance of this stood an inspector who checked +off the large ticket each immigrant had pinned on him to show his +identity, in order to prevent confusion further on. Passing before the +inspector at brief but regularly measured intervals, the immigrants +walked one by one up this barred lane to where it made a right angle. + +"There's the first inspecting doctor," said Hamilton's conductor, +pointing to a man standing just at the angle and watching carefully each +immigrant as he walked up. After a moment Hamilton turned to his +companion in surprise: + +"But he isn't doing anything!" he said. + +"Doctor," said the chief of the division, with a laugh, "I am afraid we +shall have to investigate this matter. Here is a lad who says that +you're doing nothing. He's watched you for a couple of minutes and you +haven't made a move." + +Hamilton began to protest, but the big doctor only laughed in reply, +without taking his eyes, however, from the procession of figures which +one by one walked up to him and made the turn round the angle. + +"If he'll wait a minute or two more," he said, "perhaps I'll have a +chance to do something, and save my reputation." + +There was a pause; then the doctor continued: + +"I think there's something doing now; watch this man coming up." + +"He seems to limp just the merest trifle, that's all I can see," the boy +replied. + +"Bone disease of some kind, or maybe joint," the doctor said, +"tuberculous hip, like as not," and as the man passed by he leaned +forward and chalked a big "B" on the shoulder of his coat. "'B' for +Bones," the doctor explained to Hamilton. + +"What will happen to him?" asked the boy of the immigration official. + +"Because of that mark?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"It simply means that he will be held for 'special inquiry.' He may be +all right, but before he is passed, he will have to be examined +physically--a thorough physical examination, I mean. Now here, you see, +is another doctor." + +Eight or ten yards further on stood another man, all in white as the +first had been, who took up the inspection where the judge of bone +malformations had left off. A sunken chest, he explained to Hamilton, a +hectic flush, a pinched nostril, an evident difficulty in breathing, a +certain carriage of the head, a blueness of the lips, certain types of +pallor, all these and a number of little points which experience had +shown to be symptoms of organic disease his trained eye could detect at +a glance, and he, too, every few minutes, stooped forward and chalked +upon the coat of the man or the blouse of the woman, as the case might +be, a letter which told of a suspected disease. + +"I suppose I ought not to say anything," said Hamilton, "but that looks +a little 'hit-or-miss' to me. It's hard on an immigrant to be detained +on the basis of a medical examination that barely takes ten seconds." + +"If that were all," said the official, smiling, "it surely would be a +hardship. But you don't quite get the point. All these passengers really +are detained, and this arrangement is only a way to render the detention +shorter by letting those go through unchecked who do not need further +examination. This is not to delay the suspects, but to cause less +trouble to the others. Here, however is where most of them get stopped." + +He pointed to another doctor, standing close to the last, who examined +the eyes quickly and deftly (principally for a chronic and contagious +disease called "trachoma"), scrupulously cleansing fingers and +instrument between each immigrant. + +Passing the eye doctors the immigrants came to an inspector who stood at +a place where a large grating was built midway in the passage, dividing +it into two parts. All those who had been marked by any of the doctors, +and, in the cases of families, all those in the party of any one so +marked, passed up the right hand passage which led to the Special +Inquiry; the others were guided to the left hand side of the grating, +which led directly into the main primary inspection room. + +"Do you suppose they understand anything of the meaning of that +division," asked Hamilton, "why some go on this side and some on the +other!" + +"They don't at all," was the reply. "You will notice that there are no +signs up, and that no attempt is made--at this point--to talk to the +immigrant or to try to make him understand anything. Then, too, since +all the members of a family or party are kept together, there is no +reason why they should make a disturbance. They simply go where they are +sent. If we separated the families, sending some on one side and some on +the other, then there would be trouble!" + +"That's true," said Hamilton, "in many cases they couldn't read the +signs, and they don't know at all what the doctors' marks mean." + +"Exactly, and once past the inspector, there is no getting out or coming +back, for the two passages lead directly into two series of rooms from +which there is no outlet except in a given direction." + +"But the others who are all right,--where do they go?" asked the boy. + +"They're not safe yet," his conductor answered "They have only passed a +preliminary looking over. All that this first group of doctors does, +remember, is to detect the questionable or to pass the obviously +unquestionable--whichever way you like to put it, and thus avoid delay +in the primary inspection room." + +"Which group are we going to see first?" + +"Those who have been passed," was the reply, "because most of them will +go right out, and you can follow that more easily." + +Going up the stairs, Hamilton found himself in an immense room all +divided up into little lanes by bars and gratings. Each of these lanes +bore a large number suspended over its entrance, corresponding to the +number of one of the manifest sheets of the vessel, and likewise to the +number pinned on the clothing of every immigrant while he was still on +the vessel, when his name was tallied with the manifest sheet. + +"I see the reason of those numbers they have pinned on them now," said +Hamilton, "it's all the same principle, to avoid talk and questioning." + +"Certainly," his friend said, "and if you look a little closely, you +will see that in addition to the big number on the card that is pinned +on, there is also a smaller number." + +"I had noticed that," Hamilton answered, "and I was going to ask you +what it was for." + +"That is the number of the name on the manifest sheet," the other +replied. "Thus, for example if Giordano Bruno is the tenth name on the +seventh manifest sheet, this man at the top of the stairs will guide him +into aisle number seven. Then, when his turn comes and he has moved up +to the desk at the end of the line, the inspector doesn't have to waste +time questioning him, and finding the place on the manifest sheet. He +looks at the number, runs his finger down to the tenth name, and has him +at once." + +"It's a great system," said Hamilton admiringly. + +"Why you're right at the start of it," said the official with a laugh; +"wait till you get further on, if you want to find system." + +"Here I see, too, the questioning begins," remarked Hamilton. + +"Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and +they are assisted by interpreters when necessary. They hold a +responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land. You +see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest +sheet. If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands +and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds +to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has +already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a +blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the +railroad waiting rooms." + +"But if he hasn't?" + +"Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry +rooms where you saw the others going. He is given a different colored +ticket, in accordance with the expected objection. You see, the +inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case. He just +affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear. Just as before, +the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and +easily as possible. Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could +land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the +primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting +rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes. That's not much of +a hardship!" + +"It certainly isn't," Hamilton agreed. "And I notice that most of them +seem entitled to land." + +"That varies a great deal," his guide said. "I think it averages about +ninety per cent. In a few ships, especially those handling little of +the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as +five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern +and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of +the entire passenger list." + +"All right," said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, "I guess I have that +straight. But I notice there is a third stream of people. One, you say, +is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but +how about the third?" + +"That's the 'temporary detention' group. I'll take you there in a +minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted. Here is +the railroad waiting room." + +A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad +ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or +steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada. A +money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be +turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, +even down to the fractions of a cent. + +"Why are they pinning on more tickets?" asked Hamilton. "I thought when +they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it." + +"That also is to make it easier for them," the other said. "Most of +these people are poor, and we try to make traveling as cheap for them as +possible. Nearly all the railroads run one train each day that carries +special cars for the immigrant service. They give, accordingly, a +cheaper rate to the government. Supposing, for example, that the regular +number of the Lehigh Valley train was always numbered '9,' then every +man who purchased a ticket for a point on the Lehigh Valley would be +given the ticket '9.' Then, when the boat that was taking the passengers +for Lehigh Valley points left Ellis Island, all the 9's would be +gathered together and no one would be left behind." + +"Nothing seems to have been forgotten," said Hamilton, "even food, for I +see there's a big counter over there." + +"That's quite a thing, too," the other said. "A man can get two days' +food, six meals, for a dollar, or a little over sixteen cents a meal." + +"And what in the wide world can he buy for that price?" exclaimed the +boy. + +"Here's a sample of the contents of one box," the other said; "read it, +it tells you what there is. 'Four loaves of bread, two pounds of cooked +beans, twelve ounces of sausage, one can of beef, one can of sardines, +six ham sandwiches, three pies, and four oranges.' I'm sure you wouldn't +starve on that." + +"No," said Hamilton, "I think I could get along if I ate it all. But why +is it that most of the immigrants here are men? Have the women been lost +in the shuffle?" + +The immigration official laughed. + +"They're not lost," he said, "most of the women pass through the +'temporary detention' rooms. We're going to visit there now. Of course +there are some women who will be able to take the train directly, but we +try to see that they go with some one, or that their being met is +assured. The tickets pinned on them are not given until an inspector has +seen their railroad tickets, and they do not land in New York streets at +all. A boat takes each group to the railroad pier, and they are escorted +to the train by an inspector, who places them in charge of the conductor +who is responsible for their arrival at their destination. Nearly all go +West or South and start from the Jersey side. It is an entirely +different matter with women and children who want to land in New York +City. In every case they are detained until called for by some relative. +And that relative has to prove to us that he really is the relative in +question." + +"How do they meet?" + +"I'll show you right now. In this room," he continued, entering another +large waiting room, "are all the people 'temporarily detained.' Most of +them will he released shortly. If you listen you can hear just how it is +done, because that clerk who has just come in has a list." + +As he spoke a young fellow stepped forward and read a list of nine +names. Seven of the nine were in the room and came to the front, the +clerk ticking off their names on the sheet. + +"Can we go on?" asked Hamilton. "I would like to see just how this +works!" + +"All right," responded his guide, smiling at the boy's eagerness, "go +ahead." + +As they reached the next room, Hamilton saw the clerk ushering the seven +immigrants behind a grating. Outside the grate was a narrow open space +and then a desk. On the farther side of the desk the friends of the +seven in question were waiting. There was one lad, just about his own +age, among the friends, and Hamilton waited curiously to see whom he was +to meet. Among the immigrants was a sweet-faced old Frenchwoman, and +Hamilton hoped that she might be the lad's relative. As it chanced, this +boy was the first to come up. + +[Illustration: IMMIGRATION STATION, ELLIS ISLAND. The greatest center of +racial activity in the world, where a million aliens yearly pass through +to American citizenship. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis +Island._)] + +"For whom are you calling?" he was asked. + +The young lad answered clearly and promptly, and the clerk nodded +approvingly as the questions proceeded. + +"You say you have an older brother," the clerk said, "and the two of you +are able to keep your grandmother?" + +"Yes, indeed, sir," was the reply. + +"You are young to have come. Why didn't your brother come instead?" + +"He has been a waiter in a French hotel," answered the boy, "and has not +learned much English He asked me to come." + +A few short, sharp queries established the relationship without question +and the boy was released from the desk. The door in the grating was +opened, and to Hamilton's delight it was the old Frenchwoman who came +out. After a most affectionate greeting, they went off together, the boy +coming back to thank the clerk profusely, with true French courtesy. + +"I suppose all that is necessary," said Hamilton "but I'll admit I don't +see why. No one would be likely to call for some one else's +grandmother!" + +"We want to be sure that women who land here are really with their own +people," said the official, evading a more direct statement, "and +sometimes if the chief of the 'temporary detention' work is not +satisfied, the immigrant is sent back to 'special inquiry.'" + +"How long are they detained?" + +"Nearly all go out the same day. A few, however, have to telegraph for +their friends to meet them, and we look after that on their behalf. They +are never temporarily detained over five days, except in the case where +a child has been held in quarantine and some member of the family has to +remain until the patient is released in order to take charge of him. +That covers, you see, all those who come here except the 'special +inquiry' cases." + +"May I see those?" asked Hamilton. + +"That's not so easy," his friend replied, "and you wouldn't get much out +of it. They are handled, one by one, in Courts of Special Inquiry, each +court consisting of three inspectors, an interpreter, and a +stenographer, while doctors are always on call. Special Inquiry, +remember, does not mean that there is any reason for excluding the +immigrant, merely that his inclusion is not self-evident. In most cases, +answers to a few questions settle all difficulties, and the decisions to +exclude are rare. In doubtful cases, a Court of Special Inquiry takes +great pains to investigate the whole condition closely. When a decision +to exclude is reached, the immigrant is given an opportunity to 'appeal' +to the Commissioner, and these appeals vary from fifteen to seventy a +day. Further appeals may be taken in rare cases." + +"And when all appeals are lost?" + +"Then the immigrant must be deported at the expense of the steamship +company that brought him." + +"What are the usual grounds for deportation?" asked Hamilton. + +"Principally persons of unsound mind, insane, diseased, paupers likely +to become a public charge, criminals, anarchists, contract laborers, and +those who by physical defect are unable to make a living." + +"It seems to me that you go to a great deal of trouble here," Hamilton +said, "and it must be a big expense keeping and looking after such a mob +of people." + +"We don't pay for their keep," the official answered; "we make the +steamship companies do that. They are expected to bring desirable, not +undesirable immigrants here, and if they bring people whom we cannot +accept, they must take the consequences and bear the expense of +deporting them. Our deporting division looks after that, and it is one +of the hardest parts of our work. We've a pathetic case there now." + +"You mean that Bridget Mahoney case," said an inspector, who had just +stepped up. "I beg your pardon for interrupting, but I was just going to +ask you to come and see about that case. There are some new +developments." + +"I'll go right in," said Hamilton's guide interestedly. "I think you +might come along, too," he added, turning to the boy. + +"Who is Bridget Mahoney?" Hamilton asked. "That's a good old Irish +name." + +"And she's a good old Irish soul," the other answered. "She landed here +about three weeks ago, fully expecting her son to meet her, but during +the five days when she was in temporary detention he failed to show up." + +"But why didn't you telegraph to the son?" asked Hamilton, who was +beginning to feel as though he knew all the ropes. + +"We couldn't find his right address." + +"Was he a traveling man?" + +"It wasn't that. The woman said she knew he lived in a town called +Johnson, or Johnston, or something like that, but she didn't know in +what State. Now there are nearly forty post-offices with that name in +America, and we sent telegrams or letters to every one of these. But we +never received a definite reply." + +"Well, if she's all right, as you say she is," said Hamilton, "why can't +she land and wait until her son is reached?" + +"Bridget's over seventy," the chief replied, "and not very strong; she'd +be a public charge, sure." + +"And yet she's all right?" + +"Oh, perfectly," he said as soon as they reached the building. + +"We got this telegram yesterday and I took it to your office this +morning," the newcomer answered, "to talk it over with you, but you +weren't there." + +The chief of the Information Division glanced at the telegram and then +turned it over to Hamilton. + +"Read that," he said. "That's the way it came, without signature or +anything." + +Hamilton read it eagerly, and as soon as he had finished, "that's from +Bridget Mahoney's son," he announced, with as absolute assurance as +though it had been signed. + +The deportation official looked up in surprise, but Hamilton's guide +made a hasty explanatory introduction. + +"We should like to be as sure as you are," said the deportation chief, +"although I think we all rather hope it is from him. But you see it +isn't dated Johnstown or anything like that, and it isn't signed. Just +simply the words: + +"'Don't--deport--my--old--mother.'" + +"If you notice," he continued, "it comes from away out West, and it +might apply to any one of thousands of cases. 'My Old Mother' might have +been deported weeks ago." + +"But this is yesterday's wire," Hamilton's friend interjected, "you said +there were new developments in the case." + +"There are," Farrell replied, drawing another telegram out of his +pocket. "This one came this morning, and it's just about as intelligent +as the one you have. Notice, though, that it's dated from Chicago early +yesterday evening." + +"What does it say?" burst out Hamilton, too eager to wait until it was +read. + +"It's very short," was the answer, "it just reads: + +"'--Hold--Mother--'" + +"Unsigned?" + +"Unsigned, just as before." + +"It must be from the same person," Hamilton suggested. + +"I think there's little doubt of that," the deportation chief agreed. + +"Whoever sent it must be traveling fast," the boy remarked, "that last +one was from Montana." + +"I've been doing my best to persuade myself that I have the right to +keep Bridget longer. Twice I've begged an extra stay from the +Commissioner, and he's been willing to consent, but he thinks she's got +to go back now. There's really no valid reason that I can give against +it." + +As they walked toward the desk in the deporting division, one of the +clerks called the chief. He came back a moment or two later with a +telegram in his hand. + +"A third one," he said, "it must have come while I was out at lunch. The +same person wrote all three, for this is almost the same as the first; +it reads: + +"'--Don't--deport--my--old--Mother--I--have--plenty--to--support--her--'" + +"Where's it dated from?" asked the boy. + +"I hadn't noticed," the deportation chief replied. "Oh, yes, why it's +from Albany!" + +"That's pretty near here!" Hamilton said excitedly. "Oh, Mr. Farrell, +what time was that sent?" + +"Quarter to twelve." + +"Whoever sent it ought to be here by now! Mr. Farrell, I'm just as sure +as can be that is from Bridget Mahoney's son." + +"If it is, he may reach here in time," the other answered, "but it will +mean a great deal of trouble, because the boat sails early in the +morning long before the office here is open, and the deported aliens go +on board to-night. Indeed they are going now---if they haven't gone." + +"And Bridget with them?" + +"Yes, I'm sorry to say Bridget is with them." He strolled to the +window. "No," he continued, "they haven't gone yet, but they will in a +few minutes." + +"Could I see her before she goes?" + +"What for?" + +"Just to cheer her up a bit," pleaded the boy. + +The two men looked at each other, and Hamilton's new acquaintance +nodded. + +"You won't say anything about these telegrams," the chief warned him. + +"No--very well," said Hamilton, "but it seems a shame that she doesn't +know." + +The three passed through the door to the yard beside the lawns, and +there Hamilton encountered one of the most desolate groups he had ever +seen, sitting and standing in all attitudes of dejection. Among them was +a little old lady with snow-white hair, walking with a stick, but +clear-eyed and brisk-looking. + +"You're Mrs. Mahoney?" the boy asked. + +"I'm Bridget Mahoney, young masther," the old Irishwoman answered, "at +your service, sorr." + +"I hear you haven't found your son yet," Hamilton said; "did you write +to him before you left the old country?" + +"I did, dear, but I intoirely disremember what I did wid the letther. I +know I intinded to give it to Mickey O'Murry, but I'll niver tell ye +whether I did give it to him, an' if I did, there's no knowin' av he +posted it. 'Tis a difficult thing to remember, this letther-postin' and +maybe he forgot." + +"But what did you write on the envelope? Can't you remember what you +wrote?" + +"'Tis I that am the poor hand for writin', young masther, but there was +no schoolin' when I was a gurrl such as there is now. Jim, that's me +son, he makes shift to read me writin', but he always sinds me a written +envelope to put me answer in so that the postman can read it. An' so I +niver learnt the address. I thought, av course, he'd be here. But he +isn't, dear, an' so I must thravel all the weary way home again." + +"But you don't sail till morning," said Hamilton, as cheerfully as he +could, "and maybe he'll come by then. I have a feeling, Mrs. Mahoney, +that he's just surely going to come." + +"I'm not thinkin' it," the old woman said bravely, "but I take it +kindly, young masther, that ye should thry an' make the goin' easy. But +it isn't easy, 'tis a hard returnin'. An' me so proud that me son should +send for his ould mother. 'Tis a great country this America, but it's +too big. I'd niver 'ave lost me Jim in the ould country. I see they're +callin' us, an' I wish ye an ould woman's blessin', young masther, for +your cheerin' me at the last." + +With a certain dignity, the old woman turned away and shook hands with +all the officials, with whom she had become a favorite during the three +weeks of her stay. Hamilton just ached to be able to do something, to +tell the Commissioner of the later telegrams, to appeal to the +department, to make some wild effort, but the actuality of the group for +deportation slowly making their way to the barge showed him the folly of +any such ideas. He roused himself, just as the friendly official who had +been his guide turned round with outstretched hand. + +"I think you have seen it all now," he said, "and as the boat from New +York is just pulling in, you'll have plenty of time to board her." + +Hamilton thanked his conductor warmly, and with a final look at the +group about to be deported, the last few stragglers of whom were making +their way toward the barge, he started along the wharf in the direction +of the New York boat. He was on the opposite side of the ship and had to +walk round, but, as his friend had said, there was plenty of time. He +had a good view of the boat as she landed. + +The minute the bow touched the quay, before the mooring chains were on, +a middle-aged man who had been standing in the front of the boat, leaped +the light chain that runs waist high across the bow, and started on a +dead run up the bridge to the shore. One of the inspectors tried to stop +him, but he cried, as he went past: + +"I'm going to the Commissioner's office. Don't stop me. I'm in a hurry." + +Hamilton could just hear him, and it struck the boy as unnecessary for +the man to say he was in a hurry, for he showed it clearly enough. But +just before the runner reached him a sudden thought flashed into the +boy's mind. + +"Are you Jim Mahoney?" he called, just as the man swept by. + +"Yes," answered the other, scarcely slackening speed and passing him. + +Hamilton wheeled on the instant, and caught up to him in a few steps, +for the other man was older, not in training, and getting out of breath. + +"You'll do it, don't worry," the boy said, as he overtook him, running +along beside him. "I was talking to your mother a few minutes ago and +she was all right. But she was just starting for the steamer then. +There's not a second to lose." + +"What shall I do?" puffed the other. + +"Go in there, by that door marked 'Information.' Tell them who you are +and they'll fix things up in a hurry. Then go up and see the +Commissioner. I'll go on and tell them at the boat." + +Then, seeing that the man hesitated, he shouted: + +"Go in there," and nudged him in the direction of the door. + +As the man turned, Hamilton settled himself down to run. In a second he +was at the landing. The tender had just cast off her ropes and was +moving out. + +"Bridget," he cried, and his voice rang high and clear above the +dripping of the water from the cable, the creaking of the wheel as it +swung round, and the churning of the screw. "Bridget, Bridget Mahoney, +Jim's here!" + +The captain came to the window of the pilot house and called back: + +"What's that?" + +"Bridget!" he shouted again. "Bridget Mahoney's Jim's here!" + +There was a pause, the captain not seeming to understand the situation, +but a cheer went up from the deportation officials on board and from +some of the tender's crew who knew; and the cry ran along the decks: + +"Bridget, Bridget Mahoney! Jim's here!" + +[Illustration: WHERE THE WORKERS COME FROM. Family of German +immigrants, passing through Ellis Island on their way to the Middle +West. (_Courtesy of U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island._)] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEGRO CENSUS FROM THE SADDLE + + +Leaving New York the next day after his visit to the Immigration Station +on Ellis Island, Hamilton stayed only a few hours in Washington to +receive final instructions before proceeding to the southwestern part of +Kentucky where his work as a population census-taker was to begin. + +At the appointed place he found the supervisor awaiting him. + +"I suppose you know," remarked his brother's friend, shaking hands, +"that I've given you a fairly well scattered district to cover. You said +you wanted to get a chance to see Kentucky as it really is, and this, +together with your mountain experience, ought to give you variety +enough." + +"They told me in Washington that it was largely a negro district?" the +boy said questioningly. + +"It is about as much of a black district as any in Kentucky," was the +reply, "but it isn't solid black by any means. Therein lies its +interest. The negroes are of all varieties, from old-time slaves who +have never left the plantation on which they were piccaninnies during +the war, to progressive negroes owning fair-sized tracts of land, most +of them still living in the one-room shacks that you see all over the +country, but a few having bought what used to be the 'big house' in +antebellum days." + +"That's just exactly what I was after," Hamilton said with delight. "How +do I cover it, sir? In the saddle?" + +"You can drive, if you want to," the supervisor replied, "and if it +wasn't for the agricultural schedules, I think it would be easier to do +the work from a buggy. But with the field work to consider, and in a +district as scattered as yours is, the saddle might work out better." + +"I had been thinking of that," Hamilton said, "if a farmer was on the +other side of a plowed patch, I'd have no way of getting to him in a +buggy except by tying the horse and walking, while in the saddle I could +easily take short cuts. And I imagine, in a countryside such as you say +this is, I'll probably need to see every one on the place in order to +get anything like accurate figures." + +"It's not at all unlikely," the supervisor rejoined. "Well, I thought +you would be needing a horse, and I've been looking round for one for +some time. I think I have the very one you will want. I told the owner +to hold back sale until you had a chance to look at her." + +"Then the quicker I see the owner, the better?" suggested the boy. + +"I think I had better go with you," the supervisor said, "and then they +won't try any over-clever work. Horse-dealing isn't always the most +guileless business, you know." + +"So I've understood," Hamilton said, "and I really don't know enough to +judge the fine points of a horse." + +"I was born and bred in the Blue Grass," his friend remarked, "and so +I've been around horses pretty much all my days. The census work is +quite a change from that." + +"I hope you didn't have any bother over my coming in this somewhat +irregular way?" asked Hamilton, remembering what Mr. Burns had said to +him in Washington. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"Nothing serious," he said, "but there were several people who tried to +cut you out,--one of them especially. There were three applicants for +this district, and the one who was most resentful about an outsider +coming in wouldn't have been appointed under any circumstances. Indeed, +the best of the three undertook to describe the other two. His letter +was a wonder," he added, picking up one of the files; "I think I saved +it.--Yes, here it is. Read it, while I get ready to go out with you," +and he handed the letter to Hamilton. + +The letter was as follows in every detail: + + "MR. ---- + + "Dr. Sir I made out the Blank for a Job taking Census was a going + to make it & when I Got to the Postoffice there was such an a ray + of aplicants I concluded not to do so + + "in the first Place there is two of these aplicants are Habichual + Drunkards one Professor A---- the other Mr. P---- A---- was born in + Canaday & has NO Interest here Except to be Suported by his wife & + the Publick & has had his Last School to Teach in this Town. he is + so Imoral People will not Tollerate him any Longer the Wrighter has + seen him on a Saturday SO Drunk he would Fall against People he met + if that is the Kind of Man you are looking For I don't want a Job I + can get along without + + "I will send in my application Just the Same + + "Mr. P---- is Not fare behind and is Dealer in Coal & Feed & his + Father has to take Cair of the Business for him. + + "Dont concider him for a moment Mr + + "as to my self this is the Firste time I ever aske for Publick + Buisness & I am an Indipendent Belever of mans Privlages & always + lived in this County + + "you have this Information Without feer of any of above statements + Being Denide + + "I remain Resptfully + + "------" + +Hamilton laughed as he returned the letter to the supervisor, who had +just come back with his hat and gloves as the boy finished reading the +epistle. + +"I don't think I need have been afraid of any of those three as rivals," +he said, "that is, if our friend is right. His information, however, may +not be any more correct than his spelling." + +"It's exaggerated, of course," the supervisor answered, "that's easy to +see, but setting aside the question of jealousy there's a good deal of +truth in what he says. Selecting and teaching enumerators was no light +job, let me tell you. You take seventy-five to a hundred absolutely +green hands, who have never done anything like it before, and it is a +hard proposition to make them understand. When you have to try and teach +them in a few weeks just how to do what is really difficult to do well, +you have a heavy task on your hands." + +"You didn't appoint any colored enumerators, I suppose?" Hamilton +questioned. + +"No," the supervisor answered decidedly. "My judgment was against it to +start with and I couldn't see that any of my districts warranted it. It +may be different in counties where the proportion of colored population +runs as high as eighty and ninety per cent, but there are none like that +in Kentucky." + +"Just in Georgia and Mississippi?" + +"Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas have a few scattering 'black' +counties too," the supervisor answered, "for I wrote to several places +about this very colored enumerator question. I found the supervisors +over those districts about evenly divided for and against. I have been +able to get suitable men all through, I think, though I might have had +difficulty in securing a good appointee for your district." + +"It's pretty wild out there evidently," Hamilton said anticipatorily. + +"Not so much wild as isolated. Kentucky is scarcely a railroad center, +you know. Out of twenty-one counties in my district, fourteen possess +neither railroad, telegraph, nor telephone connection with the rest of +the world at all." + +Hamilton whistled softly. + +"I hadn't realized that there was any part of Kentucky as isolated as +that," he said, "even in the mountains. But I'm glad, just the same, +because these isolated communities are much more fun than the places +where everybody seems to be cut out by the same pattern." + +"You'll find all the variety you want," the supervisor remarked, as he +turned into a big stable building, "and you'll need four legs more +beside your own two." He led the way to a stall near the far end of the +building, and brought out the little mare of which he had been speaking. + +"What a beauty!" exclaimed the boy. + +The supervisor laughed. + +"That's no way to buy a horse," he said, turning to the stableman; "it's +a good thing I arranged the price before he came, or you'd have tacked +on another twenty dollars." + +"Easy, and more than that," said the owner, with a grin. + +"Well, Noble," said his friend, "I don't hear yon raising any +objections." + +"I haven't any," the boy replied promptly. "And the price is what you +said to me?" he queried, turning to the supervisor. + +"Yes, that stands," his friend replied. + +"All right, then," said Hamilton, "I'll take her." + +The supervisor pulled out his pocketbook. + +"I had an idea," he said, "that you were just boy enough to want the +mare when you saw her and to want her right away. I made out a check for +the amount, and you can make one out to me when you get ready," and he +handed the slip to the boy. + +Hamilton started to thank him, but the supervisor cut him short. + +"If you'll come to the office this afternoon," he said, "the clerk will +give you the schedules and papers all ready made out for your district. +Here's a typewritten copy of the lectures I've been giving to the +enumerators, and while I don't suppose you really need to, you had +better read it over and return it to me when you're through with it. Now +I'm going to leave you here with this gentleman," he added, nodding to +the owner of the horse, "and you can arrange with him about getting a +saddle and so forth for the mare. Drop in at the office in the morning +as you start out and I'll make sure that nothing has been forgotten. See +you later," and with a nod to Hamilton, he stepped out of the stable. + +To the boy the afternoon fairly seemed to fly, there were so many things +to do; and it was not until just before closing hours that he reached +the office and secured his portfolio. He had a brief chat with the +clerk, and went back to his hotel to study carefully the map of his +district and the route suggested, and to make sure that he thoroughly +understood the population and agricultural schedules he would have to +use. They were different in form, of course, from the manufacturing +schedules which the boy knew by heart, but the essential principles were +the same, and Hamilton found that in half an hour's time he saw plain +sailing. + +"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half +aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard +for any one not at all used to it." + +By supper time--they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little +hotel--Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, +and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day +before him. + +The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the +journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a +moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his +good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being +well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal +had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted +him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the +first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner +started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty +houses. + +The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be +comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample +of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a +typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door +to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home +was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton +felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked. + +"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the +census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill +in." + +"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered +the young negro woman, who appeared at the door. + +"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?" + +"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm +no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh +jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah +jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things." + +"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are +about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family." + +"Yes, sah, yes, sah. Ah tol' mah husban' so when we were talkin' about +that yar farm business. The paper in the town gave a list o' questions, +an' Ah thought Ah would get mah Steve to help me get ready so's Ah sh'd +be able to answer yo' rightly when yo' come aroun', but he jes' said he +was too tiehed to do anythin', an' dat ar census list is the +confusin'est thing Ah eveh saw. Ah thought Ah ought to do somethin', an' +so Ah jes' took a big sheet o' wrappin' paper an' started to write the +answers to the quest'ns on that, thinkin' some o' the neighbors' +children would copy it on the sheet fo' me. But, I tell yo', sah, that +befo' I was half way through tellin' what the newspaper said we had to +tell, I was so mixed up that I was writin' mahself down as mah own +daughter and provin' that the baby was twice divo'ced." + +"Then you really haven't got anything ready at all," said Hamilton. + +"Nothin', sah." + +"Then I'll just have to ask you the questions, and put the answers down +myself," the boy said cheerfully. "We might as well start right now." + +"Won't yo' come in, sah?" the woman suggested. "Yo'll need a table, an' +pens an' ink." + +"I have a fountain pen," the lad answered, "but it would be easier +writing on a table. I guess I will come in. Now," he continued, as soon +as he was seated, "has this house a number?" + +"Yas, sah," the woman replied, "seventeen, High Street." + +"And this is the first family I've seen, and the first house," said +Hamilton, entering a "1" in both columns. "Now for the head of the +family. I think you said something about your husband?" + +"Yas, sah, Steve, he's my husban'. We done been married six years." + +"You say his name is Stephen? What is his other name?" + +"Lawson, sah." + +"He's colored, I suppose." + +"Yas, sah, he's quite dark complected." + +"And you're his first wife?" queried the boy, as he wrote "Lawson, +Stephen," in the name column, the word "Head" in the relation column, +and the letter "B" for black, under the color or race column. + +"Ah reckon Ah'm his first wife," the woman replied, "he was jes' +twenty-one when Ah married him." + +"And you've been married six years," the boy went on, entering Stephen +Lawson's age as 27, the number of years married as "6," and "M. 1," to +show that he was married, and married only once. "But you look like a +girl still," he added, "you must have been married very young." + +"Ah was jes' sixteen," she answered; "we was married on mah birthday." + +"And your name is--?" + +"Lily, sah." + +"Any other name?" + +"Mariamne, sah." + +For a moment or two Hamilton wrote busily, filling in "Lily M.," "Wife," +"F" for female, "Mu" for mulatto, "22" for present age, "M. 1" for first +marriage, and "6" for the number of years in wedlock. + +"You have children?" + +"One li'l boy, sah, but he's deaf an' dumb. An' so quick an' clever, +sah, in other ways, yo' wouldn' believe!" + +"That's hard luck," said Hamilton kindly, "but they do such wonderful +things to help them now, you know. And he can learn a lot by reading." + +"Yas, sah, it's hard enough. But we're glad he ain't blind." + +"And what is his name?" + +"Edward Habberton, sah, an' he's jes' fo' years old, near five." + +Hamilton entered the name of the little deaf and dumb boy, whom he +could see sitting in an inner room, and noted down in the schedule his +age, his color, and the nature of his affliction. + +"Now, Lily," he continued, "were you both born in Kentucky?" + +"No, sah," she replied, "none of us, savin' little Eddie. I'm f'om +Delaware, an' mah Steve, he's f'om Maryland, where my mother come f'om." + +"Wait a bit," said Hamilton, holding up his hand to stop her, "let me +get this straight. Stephen Lawson is from Maryland, you said, you're +from Delaware, and the boy was born in this State. Is that right?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"And you said your mother came from Maryland but I suppose since you're +from Delaware your father was from Delaware also." + +"Yes, sah," the woman answered, "he done live in Wilmin'ton all his +life." + +So Hamilton put down the birthplaces of the wife's parents and in the +same fashion those of the husband, while the filling in of the columns +for the parents of the child was simply a matter of copying. + +"There's no need to find out about your naturalization then," he went +on, "of course you're both Americans. And you both speak English," and +he entered this also on the language column. + +"What does your husband work at?" was the boy's next query. + +"He's a gardener, sah." + +"Odd jobs?" + +"Oh, no, sah, in the big nu'sery here." + +"On regular wages, then?" + +"Yas, sah, nine dollahs a week." + +"I don't have to put down how much he earns," the boy explained, "only +to state whether he is paying wages, or being paid wages, or working on +his own account.--But you must find it hard to get along on nine a +week." + +"Ah make mo 'n he does," the woman explained. + +"You do? How?" + +"Washin', sah. An' Ah take a lot o' fine washin', laces an' things like +that, which the ladies want jes' as carefully done! Ah make as high as +twelve an' sometimes fifteen dollahs a week." + +"That helps a lot," said Hamilton, as he noted down the facts that the +woman was a laundress, and that she worked on her own account, typified +by the letters "O.A." in the wage column. + +"You both read and write--or, wait a bit, I think you said you couldn't +write, and that you have to get the neighbors' children to help you." + +"Ah can read pretty well," the woman replied, "but Ah never had enough +schoolin' to write much; mah mother was ill all the time, an' Ah had to +stay home. But Steve, he writes beautiful, an' he makes out all mah +bills an' things like that." + +"I think there's only one question more," the boy said, delighted to +find that after all, even in the house of a negro laundress who did not +know how to write, the information could be so easily secured. After +jotting down a "Yes" and a "No" respectively for Husband and Wife in the +columns for literacy, he continued, "And that question is, whether this +house is owned by you or whether you rent it." + +"We're only rentin' it, sah. Steve wants to buy it an' put a mo'gage on, +but Ah don't know anythin' about mo'gages an' Ah won't buy until Ah can +pay the whole price right down. Don' yo' think Ah'm right?" + +"Well, Lily," answered the lad, as he folded up his portfolio and +prepared to go to the next house, "it would hardly do for one of Uncle +Sam's census men to come between a husband and a wife on the question +of their buying of their own home, would it?" + +"Ah reckon not, sah. Is that all, sah?" + +"Yes, Lily, that's all, and I'm very much obliged." + +"It wasn't so awful bad," said the woman, with a sigh of relief. + +"It's easy enough to answer census questions when you want to make it +easy and tell a straight story," Hamilton replied, "but you see what +trouble it would be for me with some one who wasn't willing to talk, and +how hard it would be for any one to make up a story as he went along, +and find it tally at every point in all the later questions." + +"Well, sah," she called, in reply, as the lad passed out, "Ah jes' hope +yo' don' fin' a single one like that in this hyar whole village." + +"I hope not, Lily. Good-morning," he rejoined and turned toward the next +house. + +The enumeration of the rest of the village went on rapidly. By working +quickly Hamilton was able to complete the numbering of the village by +nightfall, and he so stated on his daily report card, which he mailed to +the supervisor that evening. + +The following morning he started off on his little mare, and struck +something new and puzzling at every holding he touched. The agricultural +schedule fairly made his head swim. It had certain difficulties which +the manufacturing schedule did not have, because, although the latter +contained more detailed information and required a more accurate +statement, still all manufacturers kept books. For the details needed in +the agricultural statistics no books had been kept; the negro farmer +seldom or never knew how many chickens he had, and the wild guesses that +would be made as to value of animals and land nearly turned the boy's +hair gray. Some of the white farmers were every bit as careless, one man +valuing his horses at $200 apiece and the next at $50; one man +estimating his land at $150 an acre and the next at $10. + +A typical case was that of Patrick Meacham. Hamilton secured the facts +for his population schedule with comparatively little trouble from the +Meacham household, although he had to listen to a great deal of +unnecessary family history. There was no great difficulty, moreover, in +finding out that the farm consisted of 80 acres owned and 10 rented, but +a snag of the first magnitude was encountered on the question as to how +much of it was improved. + +"Sure, 'tis all improved," the farmer said; "it was in horrible shape +whin I bought it." + +"I don't mean improved that way," Hamilton objected, "what I want to +know is how much of it is good for pasture, is prepared for crops, and +so forth." + +"Sure, it's all good for somethin'," the Irishman answered; "what for +should I buy it if it wasn't good for anythin"?" + +"Have you a wood-lot?" asked Hamilton, deciding to try and get at the +question in another way. + +"I have a wood-lot. But I built a good strong fence around it, since I +came here,--ye don't mean to tell me that doesn't improve it? If ye +lived here, ye'd know better." + +"That's all right, Mr. Meacham, it makes it better all right, but it +isn't counted in as 'improved land.' I'll put it down specially though. +There's ten acres of it, you said." + +"And there's ten acres of swamp land that ye couldn't improve unless ye +built it on piles," the farmer said. + +"I'll have to refer that to the Reclamation Service, I guess," the boy +answered, "anyhow for the time we'll just call it 'unimproved' and let +it go at that." + +The next few questions passed off without a hitch, but an inquiry +concerning the number of animals born on the place during the year was +like opening the flood-gates of a dam. If Meacham had been as good a +farmer as a yarn-spinner there would have been no question as to his +success, for he had some story to tell about every yearling on the +place, and they were inimitably told. It was with great reluctance that +Hamilton found himself obliged to head off the man's eloquence and make +him stick to hard facts. An inquiry as to the number of eggs sold was +somewhat of a puzzle, but the farmer's wife knew the amount of the +"trade" she had received at the grocery store in the nearest town in +return for eggs, and at an average sale price of nine cents a dozen, +this was easily computed. She was also the authority on the amount of +butter made and sold, and on the garden truck. + +The business man of the house was a twelve-year-old boy. Not far away, a +neighbor had forty acres in clover and some fruit trees, and knowing the +value of bees for pollinating the fruit, he was glad to have this boy +keep six hives near the orchard and field. A good share of the honey had +gone to the neighbor, and the family themselves had used all they +wanted, but still the boy's profit for what he had sold amounted to +sixty dollars. He was keen to have Hamilton enter him on the schedule as +an independent apiarist on his own account, but Hamilton pointed out to +him that a $250 farm was the smallest one allowed to be listed. + +This low limit was almost reached the next day when Hamilton found +himself on a peanut farm for the first time. He had always known that +peanuts, unlike all other "nuts," grew underground but he had made the +common mistake of supposing them to grow on the roots of the peanut +plant like the tubers of a potato, instead of really being a true nut, +developing from a flower the elongation of the lower portion of which +reaches to the ground. The farm was run by an orphaned colored girl +nineteen years old and her four younger brothers. + +[Illustration: ON A PEANUT FARM. Caesar and his sister at work when +Hamilton came to take the census.] + +"Jes' as soon as the young-uns gits big enough," she said to Hamilton, +when discussing the statistics of her little holding, "we're goin' to +buy a big patch o' peanut land. Ah'd like to grow peanuts every year, +but these hyar gov'nment papers say yo' shouldn't. They say once in +every fo' years is enough fo' peanuts, but Ah'm goin' to try it every +other year." + +"Aren't they a very troublesome crop?" + +"'Bout the same as potatoes, Ah reckon. But they pay a good price fo' +picked peanuts, an' Ah can get these boys hyar to do the pickin'. In one +o' the papers Ah saw up to Colonel 'Gerius' place the other day, one the +gov'nment puts out, thar's a list showin' this country has to send to +foreign countries fo' twelve million bushels o' peanuts every year. Ah'm +goin' to try raisin' a real big crop, and Dicky hyar," she added, +pointing to the oldest boy, "thinks jes' as I do about it." + +Hamilton was distinctly impressed with the evidence that this young +negro girl and her younger brothers not only knew enough about the +peanut business to be able to make it pay, but that they were reading +the government bulletins. + +"I didn't know," he said hastily, "that you people--" and he stopped +suddenly, realizing the ungracious ending to his sentence. + +"You mean us colored folks,--you didn't think we troubled 'bout such +things? Yas, sah, we don' have all the advantages o' white folks but +we're improvin' right along. Colonel 'Gerius jes' does all he can, an' +he gets us gov'nment seeds an' papers, an' advises every one fo' miles +aroun'. Yas, sah, we're gettin' on. If yo' have to go to Bullertown, +sah, yo'll fin' as nice a li'l place as thar is f'om one end o' the +United States cla'r to the other, an' thar's not one white person in +it." + +"Bullertown?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I'm glad to hear it, for +that's the next place on my map." + +"We're all proud of it hyar, sah, an' it 'pears to me, Bullertown owes +jes' everythin' to the folks at the Big House and to Mistah Ephraim +Jones. Yo'll see Mistah Jones, sah, an' I'd take it kindly if yo'll +remember me to him." + +"All right, Delia, I will," said Hamilton. "Let's see, I did get all the +figures, didn't I?" + +"Yo' said yo' had them all, sah," was the reply. + +"Good enough. Well, I guess I'll go along. I'll not forget your message. +Good-by--" and the boy set his horse on a canter down the narrow road. +Throughout the rest of the day the census-gathering was of similar +character, and it was drawing toward dark when the boy saw before him a +well-ordered array of houses which he felt sure must be Bullertown. +Asking his way to the hotel from the first darky that he met, he was +answered most courteously. + +"Thar's no hotel hyar, sah," the negro said, "but Mr. Ephraim Jones +entertains the visitin' strangehs, sah, an' if yo' go right on to that +big yaller house an' ask fo' Mr. Jones, sah, Ah jes' knows yo'll be +right welcome." + +Hamilton felt diffident about quartering himself upon a perfect stranger +in this way, but it seemed to be the custom of the place, and since +there was no hotel, there seemed nothing else to do, and he rode on to +the gate. Tethering his mare to a tie-post in front of the house he +started up the walk, carrying his portfolio, so that in the event of any +mistake he might be able to make it appear that he had merely come to +take the census. But before he reached the door it was opened by a +wrinkled and old, but dignified darky. + +"Walk in, sah, walk right in," he said. "Ah'll sen' one o' the boys to +look after yo' horse. Tom!" he called, "yo' take the gen'leman's horse +to the stable, rub him down with a wisp, an' give him some hay. In half +an hour water him, an' give him a feed o' oats." + +"I'm obliged to you," said Hamilton, "for taking all this trouble, but +perhaps I had better explain who I am." + +"That's jes' as yo' like, sah." + +"Well," said Hamilton, "I'm the census-taker for this district, and I +was looking for a hotel where I could stay the night and begin work in +the morning. A man I met on the street told me that this town had no +hotel and suggested that if I came to you, I might be advised where to +go." + +"We have no hotel in Bullertown, sah," the old negro preacher answered, +"but the gen'lemen that come hyar do me the honor us'ally, sah, of bein' +my guests. Ah have a guest-room, sah, jes' 'sclusively fo' gen'lemen who +are not people of color." + +Hamilton found himself flushing at the consciousness that this very +thought had been in his mind, and in order to cover any possible signs +that might have appeared in his expression, he answered hastily: + +"Oh, that's all right,--it wouldn't have mattered." + +The old preacher looked at him quietly and a little reproachfully and +said: + +"If you don' jes' mean things like that, young sah, don' say them. We +know. We find, sah, that it is mos' desirable for every one concerned. +If yo' like, sah, an' if yo're ready, Ah'll show yo' to yo'r room." + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +[Illustration: IN AN ALL-NEGRO TOWN. Residents of Bullertown on the day +that the census was taken. (_Brown Bros._)] + +Hamilton could not help contrasting this reception with that which he +would have received in any town not entirely a negro community, and he +expressed this feeling to his host as they went up the stairs. + +"It is entirely different hyar, sah," the latter said, "yo' see we are +isolated, an' a guest is rare. Then this community is a syndicate an' is +not run like a town. Thar's no quest'n hyar, sah, about colored and +white people bein' the same,--we know they're different. An' we believe, +sah, that it is in preservin' the color line, not in tryin' to hide it, +that the future good of our race lies. An' so thar's not a foot o' land +in Bullertown owned by any other than people o' color, an' not a white +person lives hyar." + +"You own all the land, then?" + +"The syndicate does, yes, sah." + +"Then you must have some wealthy men among you?" + +"No, sah, not one. The town was begun, sah, by the kindness of Colonel +Egerius." + +"Colonel--he was, that is, he is--" began Hamilton, stammering. + +"He is not a negro, sah," the old man answered finishing the boy's +embarrassed sentence for him with entire self-possession. "Colonel +Egerius, sah, was a plantation owner, befo' the war. Ah was one o' his +slaves, an' mos' o' the people in Bullertown are the children o' those +born in the plantation quarters." + +"And he started the town?" + +"Yas, sah, in a way. He fought with Lee, sah, an' my brother was his +body-servant all through the war. When Lee surrendered, the Colonel came +back to the old plantation. Some of the slaves had gone, but thar was +quite a few left still. He called us to the big house an' tol' us to +stay by the ol' place an' he would pay us wages. Some--Ah was not one o' +them, though Ah see now they were right,--said the quarters were not fit +to live in." + +"But I thought you said Colonel Egerius was a kind master? How could +that be if the quarters were so bad?" + +"No, sah," he said, "Ah should never call the old massa kind, he was +fair an' ready to help a willin' worker. But his slaves was his slaves +an' they had no rights. Thar wasn't any whippin' or any o' that sort o' +thing, but it was work all day, f'om befo' daylight till afteh dark, an' +we lived jes' anyhow." + +"How came he to start the town, then?" queried Hamilton. "Your +description of him doesn't sound as though he were a man who would do +much for you." + +"It was jes' because o' that, Ah think, that he did, sah. He was just, +sah. He said that while we were slaves we should be treated as slaves. +Now that the negro was not a slave any mo', thar was no reason to make +him live like one. He used to say the South was now pledged to help the +nation instead o' the Confederacy, an' while he did not agree, he would +live up to that pledge." + +"That seems as fair as anything could be." + +"Yas, sah, but it was easier to say that than to do it. Thar was no +money in the place, the slaves hadn' had wages, an' yo' can't build +houses without money, an' money was scarce afteh the war." + +"How in the wide world did you manage it?" asked Hamilton. + +"As Ah was sayin', sah, it was Colonel Egerius' doin'. He got a surveyor +from the town an' hunted over the plantation to fin' the best site fo' +a village,--the surveyor's name was Buller." + +"That's where the town got its name, then?" + +"Yas, sah, Ah jes' wanted it called Egerius, but the Colonel wouldn't +hear of it. Then all o' the ol' slaves that wanted to stay by the place +got together, an' the Colonel showed us how to make a sort o' syndicate. +Then he sol' us the land jes' as low as it could be made, payment to be +in labor on the plantation, so in a few years' work every man who wanted +to stay reg'lar on the job got title to his lan' an' his house, an' took +wages afteh that." + +"That was a wise move," said the boy after a moment's thought. "He sold +his land at a fair price, got the money back that he put into buildings, +established a regular supply of labor for his plantation, and at the +same time fixed it all right for you." + +"Yas, sah," the old negro answered, "an' now every man in the town +either owns his house or is buyin' one f'om the syndicate, an' we have +bought up all the surveyed property f'om the Colonel. Now, sah," +continued the preacher, "if yo' will excuse me, Ah will see that yo'r +supper is got ready. Hyar, sah," he added, opening the door into a +small room, "is yo'r sittin' room, an' yo'r supper will be served hyar." + +As much surprised as gratified at the excellent arrangements for his +comfort, Hamilton refreshed himself after his dusty ride, and was as +hungry as a wolf when supper arrived. A little darky girl, black as the +ace of spades, waited at table, and in conversation Hamilton learned +that she was the adopted daughter of the eldest son of the negro +preacher, the son being a professor in one of the negro colleges. After +supper Hamilton asked to see his host in order that he might secure the +details of the family for the census, and thus make use of a disengaged +evening. + +"So your son is Professor of English at the University," said Hamilton, +as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio. "Do, +you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he +ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?" + +"Thar should be one good university," said the old preacher, "with very +difficult admission examinations. It would be a good thing fo' colored +lawyers an' doctors, an' if the standard were high--higher even than in +white colleges--these men would get standin' fo' themselves an' give +standin' to the colored race. But, even then, I'd have them keep away +f'om the other lawyers an' doctors." + +"You're strong on that color line, Ephraim," the boy remarked. "Surely +you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?" + +"As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do," was the unexpected answer, "an' +thar's no place fo' the negro in the city. He can't beat the white man, +an' thar's no chance o' his securin' a monopoly o' any trade. Thar's +nothin' fo' him in the city savin' jes' labor an' bein' a servant, a +porter, or somethin' o' that kind." + +"You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities," the boy +remarked, "they're mostly elevator runners and in positions of that +kind." + +"It is in the No'th that trouble lies," the old man said, "the South has +settled hers." + +"How do you make that out?" cried the boy. "You say the South has +settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, +down here and in the Gulf States." + +The old negro preacher shook his head. + +"Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than +two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was +grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of +America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the +land lease it on a share basis known as the metayer system, but more'n +more o' them are owners every year." + +"I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all," said +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to +the New England States is owned by the colored race," was the reply, +"makin' in the United States a negro country larger than plenty o' +kingdoms." + +"And is that land worth much?" + +"Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' +it's worth a lot mo' now." + +"But," said Hamilton, "the negro doesn't seem able to make use of it. +Even if he does own the land and is making money, he still goes on +living in a shiftless way. One would hardly believe the kind of shacks +I've seen in the last couple of days." + +"Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah," the old negro answered, "Ah +reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in +one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, +women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along." + +"They ought," said the boy, "if they're working on cotton, because, I've +been told, that is always a cash crop. But why does every one leave the +cotton crop to the negro. It isn't a hard crop to raise, is it?" + +"Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah," the preacher +answered. "It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in +summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' +until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have +much cool weather down hyar." + +"You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?" asked the boy, who had +never seen a cotton plantation and wanted to know something about it. + +"Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' +hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh +night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant +doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it +that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go +pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on +yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' +labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' +headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe +it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a +mulatto th'n a full-blood negro." + +[Illustration: "'WAY DOWN YONDER IN DE COTTON FIEL'." Typical picking +scene. Working under a blazing sun and a haze of heat, without any shade +in sight. (_Brown Bros._)] + +"You would make all the negroes cotton planters?" + +"Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah," the +old man answered, "an' the trade schools would provide fo' all the +workers in towns in the cotton district, an' in solid negro towns thar'd +be room fo' all the colored doctors an' lawyers an' preachers." + +"I see your idea," said Hamilton. "You would just make the cotton +section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?" + +"No, sah," the other answered decidedly. "It's jes' those No'thern +niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up +No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored +people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk +about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good +many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. +But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let +yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'." + +"I wonder," said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his +host, "if that isn't a whole lot more likely to be true than the +alarmist stories you read in magazines." + +The following morning, after Hamilton had almost finished covering one +side of the street in collecting the census statistics, he heard the +trot of horses' hoofs, and looking up, saw a tall, stern-visaged +soldierly-looking gentleman, with iron-gray hair, riding a powerful +iron-gray horse. Beside him rode a young fellow, evidently his son. Both +reined up when they saw Hamilton. Seeing that he was expected to +introduce himself, he stepped forward. + +"My name is Hamilton Noble," he said; "I'm the census enumerator for +this district. I presume you are Colonel Egerius?" + +"Yes, Mr. Noble," the old Confederate leader replied. "Ephraim sent me +word that you were here, and I received a letter a week ago from the +supervisor, whom I have known for some time, telling me that you were a +friend of his. I wanted to bid you welcome, sir, and to express the hope +that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you at dinner with us +to-night." + +Hamilton bowed. + +"I shall enjoy coming, Colonel Egerius," he said. "At what hour?" + +"Six-thirty," the Colonel replied, "we keep early hours in the country. +By the way," he added, "have you heard anything of this peonage business +here this morning?" + +"No, sir," the boy answered, "I started out with my schedules bright and +early." + +"I purpose to hold an inquiry after lunch," the planter continued. "You +are lunching at Ephraim's of course?" + +"Yes, Colonel Egerius," the boy answered. + +"Very well," was the reply, "we will lunch together if you have no +objection. Since I heard of your expected arrival I have been looking +forward to your visit. Now that you are here, sir, we must make the most +of you. Allow me to present my son Percy." + +Hamilton made a suitable reply, and consulting his watch found that it +was almost lunch time. + +"I will join you in half an hour, Colonel Egerius," he said, "and shall +look forward to the evening with great pleasure." + +"You play a good knife and fork, I trust," said the old gentleman, +smiling, as he gathered up the reins. + +"Almost good enough to do justice even to Southern hospitality," +answered Hamilton with a smile. The old soldier nodded approvingly. +"Remember now," he said, as he rode away, "we'll hold you to your word." + +At lunch Hamilton took occasion to remark on the well-being of +Bullertown. + +"I was surprised," he said, "to find a village so well managed and +looked after, and all by negroes." + +"There's nothing surprising in that," the Colonel answered. "How could +they do anything different? I have shown them every step they were to +take; all that they had to do was to continue." + +"You mean they couldn't have done it by themselves?" + +"The negro never has done anything by himself," the old Confederate +replied. "He has lived as far back as time goes in one of the most +fertile and well-watered countries of the world,--Africa--and he never +had enough initiative to rise out of tribal conditions." + +"But he seems to be doing all right now," suggested Hamilton. "I hear +the negro is getting to own quite a share of the cotton crop." + +"He has not done so well as appearances would show," the soldier +replied; "he has learned a few--only a few--of the tricks of modern +civilization, and those only outwardly. The few cases of leadership such +as that of Booker T. Washington, for instance, are due to the white +strain, not the negro." + +"I thought Booker T. Washington was a pure negro!" exclaimed Hamilton. + +"He is not," was the emphatic reply. "In his own writings he states that +his father was a white man. His mother was a negress. He gets his brains +from his father and his color from his mother." + +"Do you think that the negroes will ever marry enough with the white to +become all white?" + +"Not now," the Southerner answered. "It is a crime in many States and +punishable with imprisonment." + +"Then what's going to be done?" + +"I'm unreconstructed yet," the old Colonel said grimly. "I think still +the negroes were better off as slaves. They're always going to be +slaves, anyway, whether in name or not. And as for their relation to +the cotton crop. You say they are succeeding in it. Perhaps. But did +they learn the uses of cotton, did they develop machinery to clean and +spin it, or devices for weaving? Was it negroes who worked out the best +means of cultivating the cotton or experimented on the nature of the +most fertile soils? Not a bit of it. They simply grow cotton the way the +white folks showed them." + +"But they seem to be getting a big share of it!" + +"I see you've been talking to Ephraim. What good would it do the negroes +if they owned every foot of the cotton land? They would still have to +depend on the man that buys the crop, and the cotton exchange wouldn't +be run for the benefit of the negro. In slavery days, too, there was +some one to take an interest in the negro and help him. Now he's got to +do it for himself, and he can't do anything but go on in the same old +groove." + +"You think it was better in the old days?" + +"In some ways for the negro, yes. But it was harder for the people of +the South. There was always trouble of some kind in the slave quarters. +Before the war you had to support all the old, the sick, the children, +and the poor workers. Under present conditions you hire just whom you +want. The cost is about even, and the responsibility is less. Now," he +added, lunch being over, "if you've finished we'll go and see what this +peonage business is. Ephraim," he called, "is that man here?" + +"Yas, sah," answered the old negro. "He's hyar." + +"Bring him in, then." + +In a minute or two the old darky returned, bringing with him a gaunt, +emaciated negro, who cringed as he entered the room. He was followed by +a brisk, young mulatto. + +"If yo' please, Massa," said the old preacher, dropping unconsciously +into the familiar form of address, "this is Peter, young Peter's +father." + +"I've seen him before," the Colonel said abruptly "Peter, were you on +this plantation?" + +"Yas, Massa." + +"What's the matter with him, Ephraim?" queried the old soldier. "He +looks to me as though he hadn't had enough to eat." + +"It isn't only that, Massa," said the negro, "he's been whipped 'most to +death." + +"Whipped!" cried Hamilton, startled. Then, remembering suddenly that +the matter was not his concern, he flushed and turned to the Colonel. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "I forgot." + +The old soldier, who had been a stern disciplinarian in his time, had +drawn himself up indignantly at the boy's interruption, but his +immediate apology caused the old gentleman to see that it was just a +flash of boyish indignation, so he merely turned and said: + +"Let him tell his story." + +"Ah was born hyar durin' the war," the negro began. "Ah c'n jes' +remember Missis, an' Ah've often heard mah mother cry when we was livin' +in Atlanta an' trouble come, 'If only Ah could go to Missis.'" + +"Get to your story, boy," said the Colonel, "I haven't time to waste." + +"Ah was brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, an' times was always hard. Six +years ago Ah hired out to a lumber man in Florida. Thar were sixty of us +hired together. The pay was good. The day we come, we were put into a +group o' huts with a stockade 'roun', an' men with rifles guarded us +night an' day. Ah reckon thirty men was shot tryin' to escape durin' the +years I was thar." + +"Thirty?" + +"Yas, sah, leastways I know of five, an' heard o' the rest." + +"Talk about what you know, not what you've heard," admonished the old +soldier. "Go on." + +"It was killin' work. We had to be in the woods by daylight an' stay +thar until it was too dark to see. Thar was trouble enough at first but +the worst come later. About three years ago a lot mo' huts was put up +an' the stockade was made bigger. We thought things would be easier as +the new men would get all the knockin' about. Nex' week the new crowd +came,--they were convic's hired for the job." + +"Excuse my interrupting, Colonel Egerius," asked the lad, "but can that +be true? Does any State hire out its convicts to forced labor?" + +"Some do," was the reply, "and Florida is one of them. Go on, boy." + +"Floggin's started in when the convicts come, an' thar was no difference +made between us an' them. We were supposed to be paid, but our pay was +always in tickets to the comp'ny store, an' they charged double prices +for everythin'. They never gave us a cent o' money. A lot of us got +together an' decided to escape, but when it come to doin' it, only +three would go. One got away entirely, one was shot, an' Ah was caught. +They took me to the stockade an' whipped me 'mos' to death, three days +runnin'. The third day Ah was so near dead that they didn't tie me up, +an' when, hours later, Ah did stagger to mah feet, they jes' pointed to +the fields whar the hands was workin'. Ah heard one o' the guards say, +'He won't go far,' an' Ah hid in the woods, Ah don' know how long, jes' +livin' on berries, an' at las' Ah got away. Ah knew Ah would be safe in +Kentucky." + +The Colonel looked at the man closely. + +"I believe you've been a bad nigger," he said, "and I wouldn't believe +any more of your story than I had to. But it's easy enough to see that +you have been abused, and that you need help right now. I'll give you a +chance. Peter, your father is staying with you?" + +"Yas, sah." + +"Ephraim," the Colonel said, turning to the old preacher, "put this man +on the payroll as a field hand, beginning from to-morrow, but don't send +him to the field for a couple of weeks. Behave yourself," he added, +turning to the peonage victim, "and you'll be all right here." + +The negro thanked him profusely, and went out, his wretched frame +showing up miserably in the strong sunlight as he passed by the window +of the dining room. + +"But that's worse than any slavery I ever heard of," burst out Hamilton +indignantly. + +"Peonage?" answered the old veteran. "Oh, yes, much worse." + +"And it still goes on?" + +"There were several hundred stockades in operation last year," was the +reply, "and that's a fair sample of their work." + +[Illustration: HOW MOST OF THE NEGROES LIVE. Type of shack usually seen +in Southern States, though the owners are not always in poor +circumstances.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HOBOES ON THE TRAMP + + +Although he realized that his lines had fallen in pleasant places for +the enumeration work, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction +that Hamilton entered up what was marked on the map as the last house, +and started for the supervisor's office. He was a day ahead of time, and +was congratulating himself on his success in having covered the entire +district in the appointed time. In order to make his record as good as +possible the lad thought he would get an early start and be in the +supervisor's office before noon, thus emphasizing his punctuality. +Accordingly it was but a little after seven o'clock when he was in the +saddle and on the road. + +Knowing from experience that the highway made quite a circuit to reach a +little group of three houses, which he had already enumerated, Hamilton +struck out across country, using a little footpath through some woods. +At that early hour of the morning he was not expecting to meet any one, +and it was a great surprise to him when he heard voices. A moment later +he reached a small clump of trees, and came right upon three men, one +with a tea-pot in his hand, standing up and leaning a little forward as +though ready to show aggressiveness to any intruder, the other two on +the ground, one sitting, and one lying half asleep on some boughs +carelessly thrown down. As Hamilton was still in his enumeration +district and felt that here were some people who might not have been +registered, he pulled up. + +"'Morning, boys!" he said ingratiatingly. + +"Howdy!" the impromptu cook replied, and waited for the boy to go on. + +"I'm the census-taker for this district," the boy continued, "and I knew +this was a short cut across the fields; but I didn't know I should find +you here." + +"Inform the gentleman, Bill," spoke the traveler who was lying down, +"that we were equally unaware of the unexpected pleasure of this meeting +but that we would have been better prepared to meet him had he sent a +courier to announce his coming." + +"You heard him," the first speaker supplemented jerking his thumb over +his shoulder. + +"I heard him all right," answered Hamilton, dropping immediately into +the spirit of the thing, "but tell him that I was unaware that he had +left his town residence for this convenient and airy country house." + +"As I live, an intelligent reply!" was the response in tones of +surprise, and the speaker sat up on his rough couch. + +To Hamilton the situation was a little difficult. There would be no +trouble in merely exchanging a few greetings and then passing along on +his journey, but the boy was above all things conscientious, and he +could not forget that these men were probably not entered upon the books +of the census, and that now, on the very last day of census-taking, they +were in his district. And he knew well enough, that if he broached the +question it would not be favorably received. However he thought he saw a +way out. + +"If you have a pannikin of tea to spare," he said, "I'd enjoy it." + +"If you like to put up with what we've got, join us an' welcome," the +tall tramp said. + +"All right," Hamilton answered, "I will." + +"Permit me to do the honours!" said the second tramp. "This is 'Hatchet' +Ben Barclay, the gentleman sitting down is 'Jolly' Joe Smith--not +because of his humor but because of his powers of persuasion, and I am +Harry Downe, very much at your service." + +"Better known as the 'Windy Duke,'" interjected the tea-maker, who had +by this time returned to his task of preparing breakfast, and was busy +frying slices of ham on a piece of stick over the hot wood coals. + +"I'm Hamilton Noble," the boy answered in return, "and I've just got +through taking the census for this district. I've got all the names in +here," he added, tapping his portfolio, "and now I'm going to the +supervisor's office to turn in my reports." + +"I am afraid your census will be incomplete," said 'Windy,' "for, so far +as I am aware, the rolls of the United States will be lacking the names +and distinction of this gallant little company." + +"Haven't you been listed?" asked Hamilton, glad that the subject should +have seemed to come up in so natural a way and mentally congratulating +himself on the success of his device to secure the friendship of the +crowd. + +"Nary a list," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "the rustlers of the Ringling Circus +told us that they had been enumerated four times, once for every week +they played, an' that not a blessed one of the census men would believe +they had been taken before; but they cut us out entire." + +"Well, I guess I had better take you right now," said Hamilton. "I've +room on the census sheet for a few more names." + +"You can count me out," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I'm not lookin' for that +kind of fame." + +"Don't you think it's fair to the country to let it know who you are?" + +"What's the census to me?" the other said defiantly. "I calc'late a +country that doesn't give a fellow a livin' doesn't care much about his +name." + +"But you're getting a living, just the same," answered Hamilton, "and +you're an American, anyhow, aren't you?" + +"New York State," the tramp replied. + +"And you?" asked Hamilton, turning to the orator of the party. + +"I'm an Oxford man," answered the 'Windy Duke,' "classical tripos--if +you know what that means." + +"I do," answered Hamilton, "but why--" and he stopped. + +"You were going to ask me why I prefer to wander afield rather than be +'cribbed and confined' within narrow walls. I am but one of many, an +educated man without any knowledge of how to use his learning. Do you +care for Greek? There are some clever scenes from Aristophanes that I +can give you, or if you have a taste for satire I yield second place to +none in my interpretation of Juvenal. On the pre-Cadmean alphabets I +am--in my humble way--quite an authority. But these magnificent +talents," he added with a self-depreciatory smile, "do not enable me to +run a business as successfully as a Greek fruit peddler or a Russian Jew +vender of old clothes." + +"You could teach," suggested Hamilton. + +"Only my friends," replied the scholar. "To teach requires pedagogy and +numerous devices for improving the youthful mind. I do not greatly +admire the youthful mind and it bores me. I am informed that I also bore +it. Hence I prefer rather to wander than to teach. I do not claim +originality in this role; there have been 'scholar gypsies' before this. +The phrase sounds better than 'educated hobo,' but the meaning is the +same." + +"And you?" queried Hamilton of the third speaker. + +"Plain American," the other said simply, "born and raised in Ohio. Not a +Yankee, not a Westerner, not a Southerner,--nothin', jest plain +Middle-West American." + +"Well," suggested Hamilton, "I think you chaps ought to let me put you +down in the schedule here. We need white men in this country badly +enough in all conscience, and we might as well make the strongest +showing we can. Two Americans and an Englishman will help the average +just that much. Part of the 'white man's burden,'" he added with a +laugh. + +"If you put it that way," said 'Hatchet Ben,' "I calc'late after all I'm +elected for one. Anything I can do to put down, even on paper, these +foreigners that live on nothin' and drive a decent man out of a job, +I'll do. I'm down on this jabberin' mob from the south o' Europe bein' +dumped down here by the hundred thousand every year, an' you can take +that straight from me." + +"It's a little curious," said Hamilton, noting down the facts as they +came up in conversation, not wanting to work directly upon the schedule +for fear of rebuffs, "that two of you should be Americans and one an +Englishman. Somehow, one always thinks of an American as making good, +not tramping it." + +"Nearly all hoboes are Americans," 'Hatchet Ben' explained, "there's a +few English, and a few Swedes. Lots of races in this country you never +meet on the road." + +"Trampdom," said 'Windy,' "is a most exclusive circle. For example, you +never saw a Jew hobo, did you?" + +"No," Hamilton said. "Never." + +"And you're never likely to," 'Hatchet Ben' interjected, "there's no +money in it, not unless it is organized and run on a percentage basis. +There are a few French Canadians, but no real Frenchmen on the road, and +the Dagoes never take to it." + +"I wonder why?" Hamilton queried. + +"I purpose writing a monograph upon the subject of the nationality of +the Hobo Empire," the 'Windy Duke' broke in, "and therein I shall +enlarge upon my theory that the life of a tramp requires more +independence and more address than any profession I know. I find that +usually those who adopt this unromantic gypsy career are the men who +will not drop to the level of the horde below them and who consequently +take to the life of the road in protest against the usage of an +ill-arranged social state. That, for example, is the condition of my two +friends here." + +"Would you mind my asking what made you take to the road?" said +Hamilton, turning to the first speaker. + +"Not at all," 'Hatchet Ben' replied. "It's a very usual story. I'm a +steel worker by trade, an' when I was workin' I was reckoned among the +best in the plant." + +"What did you quit it for?" asked Hamilton. + +"Slovaks," the man answered. "Every year or two the Pittsburg operators +would get together an' pretty soon gangs of foreigners would start +comin' to the West. They seemed to know where to come, an' started work +the mornin' after they got there, without even seein' the boss." + +"But that could hardly be, I should think," said Hamilton; "that would +be importing contract labor and they would be stopped at Ellis Island." + +"Not much fear of that," the steel worker answered "the operators keep +men in Europe just trainin' the foreigners what to say. These men come +over in the steerage with the immigrants, advance them, if necessary, +the amount of money to enable them to land, buy their railroad tickets +at this end, an' all the rest of it." + +"Dangerous business if they got caught at it!" + +"They're paid to take chances," the other replied. "Then, when these +foreigners come, they know nothin' about the scale of wages in America +only that the pay is so much larger than anythin' they can get in their +own country, an' they live even here in so cheap a way that no matter +what wages they receive they can put money aside every week. The boss +doesn't see any use in payin' them at a high rate, when they work just +as well for small, an' down goes the wages." + +"But they get a poorer grade of labor that way," objected Hamilton, "I +shouldn't think that would pay." + +"They make up for it by increasin' the power of machinery, by givin' a +man less and less to learn and more and more of some simple thing to +do." + +"In a way that ought to be good, too," the boy persisted, "for the more +a machine does, the bigger wages the man who runs it gets." + +"I'm not a machinist," the tramp replied, "an' even if I were I should +be in competition with the Swedes all along the line. Bein' just a +steel worker, I stood for one reduction in wages because they promised +to give me a better job. But this supposed better job was just bossin' a +gang of these foreigners, an' they got after me because I took every +chance I got to talk 'union' to these men, showin' them how they could +just as easily get more pay than they were bein' given. That didn't suit +the company at all, so I was fired, an' they put me on the black list." + +"And you couldn't get any more work there at all?" + +"Not there, or at any place in the district. Or, for that matter, in any +place in the United States unless I gave a false name. Steel workin' is +my trade, an' I don't know any other; the men that run that trade in the +United States refuse to let me work at it; very well, then, if the +country won't let me earn my livin' by working for it, it'll have to +give me a livin' without. But I'd go to work to-morrow, if I had the +chance." + +"Not me," began 'Jolly Joe,' as soon as the tall tramp had finished, +"I'd sooner be a hobo th'n anythin' else I know. In the first place, I'm +not like 'Hatchet Ben,' I don't like work an' I don't do any unless I +have to, an' then besides, there's more exercise for my talents in this +business. If you think it isn't a trick to rustle grub for three hungry +men, just you try it. An' while I've been on the road for nearly six +years, I've never had a dog set on me yet." + +"How do you mean?" asked the boy. + +"There's always grub on a farm if you know the right way to go about +getting it," was the reply "and there's very few places I ever go away +from without some bread or a hunk of ham or a pie. Lots of chickens get +lost, too, an' you find them wanderin' about in the woods, belongin' to +nobody, an' there's plenty of nests that hens lay astray that the +farmers never could find. If you watch the bees closely, there's nearly +always some swarm that's got away an' made a nest in a dead tree. The +trouble is that most people are too busy to lie still all day an' watch, +an' those that aren't busy don't know." + +"But you don't rustle tea that way," said Hamilton, touching the tin +pannikin with his knuckle. + +"'Windy' looks after that." + +"I am not without some small means," explained the 'Windy Duke,' "but my +income would not permit my living in any sufficiently attractive city +in a manner suitable to my desires. By adopting this vagrant life, +however, I am able to relinquish a part of my very moderate annuity to +my sister, and still retain sufficient to share up with my +fellow-adventurers when times are hard or 'Jolly's' persuasive tongue is +not quite up to the mark." + +"But you didn't tell me," said Hamilton, turning to 'Jolly Joe,' "why +you started going on the road. You said you didn't like work, but where +had you tried it?" + +"I'll make the story short," was the reply. "I'm a railroad section +hand, an' was lookin' to be made a foreman on a section near New York. I +had a pile of friends among the men just above me, and I believe I would +have worked up pretty rapidly." + +"You would be president of the road by now, 'Jolly,'" put in the 'Duke.' + +"I'd be goin' up, anyhow," the other replied. "But one day an order came +along from headquarters changin' the make-up of the gangs, an' next week +I found myself the only American on an Italian gang, under an Italian +foreman. All of us were shifted around the same way. The foreman knew a +little English--not much--an' he tried to give me orders in mixed +English an' Italian. I told him I wouldn't do anythin' I wasn't told to +do in straight American, an' when he started in jabberin' and abusin' me +with every bad name he'd heard since he landed, why, I gave him a +hammerin'. So, just as 'Hatchet Ben' here was driven out by Slovaks, it +was a gang of Italians that gave me my throw-down. I tell you America's +all right for everybody but the American He doesn't stand a show." + +"That sounds hard for the American working-man," the boy said, "but +there must be a lot of them working somewhere, they're not all tramping +it." + +"The back-country farmer is an American nearly every time," 'Hatchet +Ben' replied, "the foreigners don't get so far away from the cities and +towns. I don't know why." + +"I think I know the reason of that," volunteered Hamilton. "I heard some +census men talking about it, and one of them had spent a long time in +Italy. He said that while it was true plenty of the peasants worked in +the fields, they usually lived together in villages and went to the +fields in the morning. Then the farms are very small,--our average-sized +farm here would make five or six of them,--and so the village idea +can't be made to work in this country, and the Italians won't stand for +being separated from the nearest neighbor by a mile or two." + +"I can quite understand that," the Englishman said thoughtfully; "it +would be far less pleasant living in this care-free fashion of ours if +one were doing it alone." + +"It may be rather pleasant," Hamilton admitted slipping back into his +pocket the necessary details for the schedule which he had secured from +the three men while breakfast was being prepared, "but I think a day or +two of it would be enough for me, and I certainly wouldn't like your end +of it, 'Jolly'!" + +"Well," the other replied, as Hamilton strolled over to his mare and +lightly swung himself in the saddle, "if I hadn't done some rustlin' +yesterday you would have gone without breakfast this mornin' or at +least, without this kind of breakfast." + +"And mighty good it was," the boy replied, "I don't know when I've +enjoyed a meal so much. I'm ever so much obliged, boys. Good-by." + +The incident gave Hamilton plenty to think about on the rest of the ride +to town, and he found himself genuinely sorry not to have a chance to +see more of the three. He could not help admitting to himself that +under proper conditions they would be just as fine citizens of the +country as any one could be, and the phrase "Nearly all hoboes are +Americans" kept running in his head. + +He reached the supervisor's office just as a young fellow, but little +older than Hamilton himself was stepping out. He noticed Hamilton's +portfolio and said, a little mischievously, the boy thought: + +"How many, if I may ask?" + +"Twenty-two hundred and six," answered Hamilton, rightly supposing the +question to refer to the number of people he had enumerated. + +The other threw up his hands. + +"I pass," he said, "you beat me by nearly a hundred," and he laughed and +went on, while Hamilton continued on his way to the supervisor's office. +The boy exchanged greetings with his friend, who said: + +"I heard you talking with that young chap who just left, when you were +coming into the office. Do you know him at all?" + +"Not in the least," replied Hamilton, and he quoted the brief +conversation. + +"There's quite a story about that case," the supervisor said, settling +himself back in his chair, "and though I'm as busy as an angry hornet +I'll stop just long enough to tell you. When I was picking the +enumerators for the Gullyville district--that's away at the other end of +the section from where you were--I found an unusual number of +applicants. At the examination, however, there were two who stood head +and shoulders above the rest. One was the principal of a village school, +and another was the chap you saw. His name is Wurtzi, and he gave his +occupation as a student and his age as nineteen." + +"I didn't think he looked even as old as that," commented Hamilton. + +"Yes, he's nineteen. As I was saying, the choice seemed to lie between +these two. Wurtzi's paper was a few points better than the other, indeed +I think it was one of the best tests turned in to me from any center. On +the other hand, the schoolmaster was a graduate of one of the large +colleges, had lived most of his life here and in the mountain districts +of the State, was prominent in church affairs, and knew everybody. That +was why, when I sent the papers to Washington, I recommended him for +appointment instead of the boy, of whom I knew nothing except that his +examination paper was slightly the better of the two." + +"Yet the boy got the job!" + +"He did," the supervisor answered. "The government rejected my +recommendation, and I got a letter from the Director stating that Wurtzi +should be appointed on his showing rather than the other unless I knew +something against him." + +"I suppose that was fairer," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "but I thought +that matters of that kind were left to the discretion of the +supervisor." + +"Generally they were, but still there were reversals in a good many +cases," was the reply. "But from everything that I've heard, suggestions +from Washington seem to have had the knack of being just about exactly +the right thing. They certainly were in this case. I sent the lad his +commission at once, of course." + +"What did the master have to say?" asked Hamilton. + +"I'm coming to that," the supervisor replied. "Two or three days later +he came into my office. + +"'I understand Wurtzi has secured the enumerator's job?' he said. + +"'Yes,' I answered, 'it was a pretty close thing between you so I sent +the papers to Washington to decide, and the Director ruled that the +other was more satisfactory.' The schoolmaster laughed and sat down. + +"'I don't know whether I ought to be angry or pleased,' he said; 'it all +depends on how you look at it whether it can be considered as a +compliment or an affront.' + +"I just stared at him. + +"'I don't follow you in the least,' I said. He laughed. + +"'Of course you didn't know that Wurtzi was one of the boys in my +school,' he replied, 'and more than that, he is the poorest boy in the +school. He lives about three miles out of the village, and the only way +in which he could secure his father's permission to allow him to come to +school was that he should turn over to him the trifling sum we pay for +janitor work.'" + +"Pretty good stuff in the boy to want to learn under those conditions," +commented Hamilton. + +"He wanted to educate himself, and his mother was very ambitious. She is +Polish, evidently of the better class--and, as you know, the Poles are +one of the most intellectual races of the world--and the boy gets his +brains from her. The school-master told me that two years ago the boy +could neither read nor write his own name, and yet, within that time he +had learned to rival his teacher in a fair contest! And during those two +years he had been walking barefoot three miles to school, getting there +by daybreak, making the fire, sweeping the floor, cleaning the windows, +and then settling down to prepare his morning lessons before the opening +of school. + +"I told Sinclair," the supervisor continued, "that I thought he ought to +be ten times prouder of the success of his pupil than of the merits of +an examination paper, because it took a higher degree of ability to +teach well than merely to answer a set of test questions, and the boy +must have been wonderfully well taught to achieve so much. He agreed +with me, of course, but I could see that it irked him a little just the +same. He volunteered, however, to assist his pupil as much as he could." + +"That was very decent of him, I think," Hamilton said, "lots of men +would have borne a grudge. But did you say his name was Sinclair?" + +"Yes," the supervisor answered, "Gregory Sinclair. Why?" + +"And you said he had been in the mountains?" + +"Quite a good deal." + +"Then that must be Bill Wilsh's teacher," exclaimed Hamilton, and he +told the supervisor the story of the "cunjer," the whittled schoolhouse +and the "trying" scholar. "I've got the carving still," he concluded, +"and as you probably will see Mr. Sinclair again soon, I wonder if you +would give it to him for me. Don't forget to tell him that the door was +made to appear open, to show him that he was expected back." + +"Of course, I shall be glad to give it to him," the supervisor answered, +"and from what I know of Sinclair, I feel sure he will go back, though +probably only in the holidays and for a visit. Where is this carving?" + +"At the hotel, sir," the boy answered, "I'll bring it over this +afternoon. I'm sorry not to have had the chance of seeing him myself, he +must be a fine chap." + +"He is," the supervisor agreed, "and he showed the stuff he was made of +in connection with this poor lad in his school. I happen to know that he +really put in a lot of time helping Wurtzi in order that he might make +good." + +"You said the boy was Polish?" + +"Polish, of the stock that's making another country out of the deserted +districts of New England. Land that has been abandoned by the Americans +the Poles are making productive. That's where the real wealth of the +future is coming in--from the people who will work the ground without +exhausting it as reckless landowners formerly have done all through this +country. Many a farm has had its soil so robbed of nourishment that its +fertility will take years and years to return. These European peasants, +however, are so used to making much of a small plot that they are +redeeming the ground. You know, I'm one of those that believe in all the +immigration possible, and I've never forgotten one of Broughton +Brandenburg's sayings about it." + +"What was that?" asked the boy. + +"That 'it is always the most ignorant immigrant that makes the best +citizen.'" + +"I certainly don't see that," Hamilton replied. + +"He absorbs Americanism more quickly," the other explained. "For +example, there's no class hatred idea to be fought down, no anarchistic +tendencies, no desire to turn liberty into license. The ignorant +immigrant comes to work, he gets a job immediately, he finds that there +is good pay and steady employment for a man who does work. There's not +one in ten thousand of that kind that does not prosper from the day he +lands. But you'll hear all sorts of ideas and suggestions in Washington. +When do you go?" + +"I'm leaving to-night, sir," the boy answered. "I thought it might +please the Bureau if I were there a day ahead of time." + +"They'll be willing enough," the supervisor answered "I imagine every +added helper is of value now, with all these schedules piling in. I'll +drop a note to the Director to-night, telling him of your work; your +schedules are in good shape, and I think you've done very well to cover +your district in the time. I wish you all sorts of luck, and write to me +once in a while from Washington so that I can hear what you're doing and +how you're getting along." + +Hamilton thanked the supervisor heartily, and after a word or two of +farewell returned to the house of a friend where he was to dine before +starting on the night train for Washington. Immediately on reaching +there he went directly to the Census Bureau, sent in his card, and the +Director's secretary, a keen young fellow, came out to see him. + +"I think I've heard Mr. Burns speak about you, Mr. Noble," he said, +looking at the card he held in his hand. "The Director is very busy +right now, but he said when you came you were to go down to Mr. Cullern; +I'd take you there myself but I'm needed here." + +"Well, there's really no necessity, Mr. Russet," the boy replied, "tell +me where it is and I'll find my way." + +But the other beckoned to an attendant. + +"Show this gentleman to Mr. Cullern," he said. Then, turning with a +smile to the boy, he said, "You'll be all right, I guess." + +Hamilton thanked him, and the secretary hurried back through the +swinging half length door to the inner office. Following the messenger, +Hamilton found himself on the main floor with hundreds of machines +clicking on every side of him. The chief of the floor looked at the +card, turned it over, read what had been penciled on the back, and said +promptly: + +"I think I'll start you on one of the punching machines." + +"Very well, sir," the boy answered, "I want to learn everything I can." + +"I have a vacant machine," the other continued, "one of the men is away +on sick leave. If you want to begin right away you can start this +afternoon. Here," he said, picking up a pamphlet from a pile which lay +on a table near by, "is a list of instructions." + +"I'm quite ready to start now," Hamilton declared. + +"Your machine is over here, then," his new superior said, leading the +way to a far corner of the room. "You had better try to find out as much +as you can from the instructions, and one of the foremen will be 'round +to tell you more about the working of it a little later." + +"All right, sir," the boy replied, sitting down at the machine, "I think +I can get on to it without much trouble." + +The keyboard was entirely strange to Hamilton. It looked not unlike that +of a big typewriter, or resembled even more closely a linotype keyboard, +only it was divided off into sections each one of which was brightly +colored, giving the arrangement of the keys quite a gay effect. The +instructions were very clear, and with the machine in front of him the +boy quickly saw its principles. He was so deeply sunk in the book that +he did not notice the coming of the sub-section foreman, who looked down +at the boy for a moment or two with an amused smile. Presently he +coughed, and Hamilton looked up suddenly to see him standing there. + +"I beg your pardon," asked the boy, "were you speaking?" + +"No," said the newcomer, "but I was going to before long. You seem to be +just eating up that book." + +"Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long," said +Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman, "and I thought +the more I knew about it before you came, the better it would be all +'round." + +"Do you know anything about census work?" was the next question. + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I was an assistant special agent on the +manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day +before yesterday." + +"I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work," the +foreman answered, "coming in to-day, just when that end of the work +closes, but I didn't know, of course, you had been doing manufactures. I +wonder why they sent you to this department; I should have supposed that +you would be editing schedules." + +"I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently," the boy +explained, "and I was anxious to have a chance to learn all the various +parts of the work by doing them myself. Judging from this book, it +doesn't seem hard." + +"Let me hear what you know about it." + +Hamilton closed the book. + +"I think I have it fairly straight," he said. "These first four columns +on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that +right?" + +"Yes," the older man replied, "that is looked after in another way. The +district and State and all that sort of thing go in that section, and +that is arranged by what we call a gang-punch." + +"I don't know how that works," the boy said, "this list of instructions +to the punching clerk doesn't say anything about it." + +"It doesn't need to," his informant answered, "for the simple reason +that the punching clerk has nothing to do with it. But I'll tell you if +you want to know. There are about seventy thousand enumeration districts +in the United States, and all we have to do is to set the gang-punch to +the number of the district." + +"But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything +like it," the boy cried, "all told there are only forty-eight places in +those four columns." + +"That works by the permutation of numbers," was the reply. "You can +arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures +in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty +ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; +ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them +around--and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. +The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get +by reference to the schedule." + +"That's enough!" cried Hamilton. "I can see now. It would take a sheet +of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures." + +"If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that +forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write +them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz +the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of +easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be +arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter +like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the +gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the +schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it." + +"I see," said Hamilton, "and I suppose a number is put on the card which +corresponds with every district number on the schedule. Then I come in +on all the rest of the card." + +"Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk." + +"But this machine doesn't seem to punch," the boy objected; "I put in a +canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, +nothing happened, the key just stayed down." + +"It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready," the other +explained. "You depress into position the various keys you want until +all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance +over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed +keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you +can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card +being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card +corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this +makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule." + +"But how is the punching done, then?" queried Hamilton. + +"You press the bar," the foreman explained, "and that throws in the +motor attached to the punching mechanism, which brings the entire die +and card up against the end of the punches which have been depressed by +the operator, including, of course, the gang-punch, and these perforate +the card. It is then immediately withdrawn, and drops automatically into +either the 'male' or the 'female' compartments of the machine, the +location of the hole tilting the slide that determines on which side the +punched card shall fall." + +"So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same +operation as the punching of the card," the boy remarked; "I see now. +That's a first-class idea." + +"It saves a great deal of work," the older man said. "Then, too, with +the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is +in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in +rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring +the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has +to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a +line because of an error of eyesight." + +"I can understand that now," the boy answered "Now let me see whether I +really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third +column--though it is really the fifth--I punch either 'Hd' for the Head +of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' +for Other?" + +"That's right." + +"Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's +easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' +for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for +Japanese, and 'In' for Indian." + +"Go ahead," the foreman said, "you're not likely to go wrong as yet." + +"The age seems clear, too," said Hamilton, "you punch the five-year +period nearest to the age and then add on. For instance, the way it +looks to me is that if a fellow was sixteen, you would first punch the +'15' and then the '1' in that little cornerwise bit at the bottom of the +next section. But I don't see what the '5' is for." + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PUNCHED CENSUS CARD. Example of record made +for every person in the United States, this card being the actual record +of the author.] + +"That's for babies in the sixth division of the first year, or from nine +to eleven months old; the first division means under one month, and the +rest either one, two, or three months apiece." + +"I see it all now," exclaimed the boy, "you have to punch two holes for +age for every person. For a boy of ten, you would have to punch the '0' +as well as the '10,' I suppose, to make sure he isn't older and the +extra years forgotten." + +"That's the reason exactly." + +"The meaning of the section next to the age is easy, too," Hamilton +continued. "'S' for Single, 'M' for Married, 'Wd' for Widowed, 'D' for +Divorced, 'Un' for unknown, any one could guess. But this 'Mother +Tongue' business has me going." + +"I thought it would," was the reply. "But it's not so hard if you +remember a few things, particularly that the language of a country is +not always spoken by the greatest number of its inhabitants. Now the +mother tongue of Wales is Welsh, but a large proportion of the people do +not speak Welsh. Thus an English-speaking Welshman's card would be +punched 'OL,' meaning Other Language, or the language next in +importance to the mother language of the country." + +"On that basis," said Hamilton, "if the second most important language +of Denmark is German a card that was punched 'Den' for the country would +have to be punched 'OL' if the person whose census was registered had +spoken German as his native tongue, but 'LC' if he had spoken Danish, +which is the native tongue of the country. But I should think there +would be some cases that would not come under that rule." + +"There are--a few," the foreman replied, "but the way in which those are +to be punched will be noted on the schedule by the schedule editors." + +"Some schedules need a good deal of editing, I suppose," exclaimed +Hamilton thoughtfully. + +"You may be sure of that," the other answered. "If you think for a +moment how impossible it would be to have all the supervisors and +enumerators work exactly in the same style, you can see how necessary it +must be for some group of persons to go over them to make them all +uniform. Besides which, there are a lot of obvious mistakes that the +editors remedy before the card is punched ready for tabulation. But go +on with your explanation, so that I can see if you really do understand +it." + +"The parent columns run the same way, of course," Hamilton continued, +"'U.S.' meaning any one born in the United States, and 'Un.' cases in +which the parentage is unknown. Then 'NP' means native-born parents, and +'FP' foreign-born parents. Further on, 'Na' means Naturalized, 'Al' +stands for Alien, 'Pa' that first papers have been taken out, and 'Un' +unknown. Down the column, 'En' seems to mean that the foreign-born can +speak English, 'Ot' that he can only speak some tongue other than +English. The year of immigration, of course, is obvious. But this +occupation, I can't make head or tail of!" + +"That you have to learn," the instructor said. "There is a printed list +here for reference that contains the principal kinds of employment in +the United States and classifies them. In a very little while you will +find that you can remember the numbers which signify the more common of +these and you will need to refer to the list but seldom. All occupation +returns not contained in the printed list will be classified and punched +later by a special force of clerks. Holes punched for those out of work +and the number of weeks unemployed are all easy. At the top of the last +column, too, 'Emp' means Employer, 'W' Wage Earner, while 'OA' means +working on his or her own account, and 'Un' is for Unemployed." + +"All right, sir," Hamilton replied, "I think I can do it now. I should +find it harder, though, if I hadn't been writing all those things just +exactly as they are here on population schedules for the last month." + +"It makes an astonishing difference," the experienced man agreed, "you +know the why and wherefore of everything. Now you had better take this +old test schedule and I will give you fifty blank cards, and we will see +how they come out." + +Through the rest of the afternoon, Hamilton worked steadily over this +set of cards, not only doing the work, but getting the principles of the +whole thing thoroughly in his mind, and, as he had said to the +sub-section chief, knowing just the manner in which the schedules had +been made up helped him to an extraordinary degree. He was well pleased, +therefore, when he came down to work the following morning, to find at +his machine a real schedule, not the test that he had been working on +the afternoon before; the exact number of cards required for his +schedule all ready in the hopper of the machine, and it was pointed out +to him that error was not permissible and that he must account for every +card. + +"Why is that?" asked Hamilton, "what difference would a card or two +make?" + +"It isn't the cards, it's the numbering," the other explained. "Don't +you remember that each card was numbered, and so, if one card is wrong +it would throw all the succeeding numbers out? Besides, you never have a +chance to see whether a card is right or not, because after you have +touched the lever and the card is punched it slides into its own +compartment. You have all the chance you want to look over your +arrangement of depressed keys before the card is punched, but none +after." + +Before a week had passed by, Hamilton was so thoroughly at home with the +machine that the work seemed to him to become more or less mechanical, +and his interest in it began to wane. As--under government +regulations--he left work early, he sauntered over several times to the +verification department to become familiar with the work of the machine +used there. There was a fascination to the boy in this machine, for it +seemed almost to possess human intelligence in its results, and he was +curious to know the principle on which it worked. Generally every one +quit at half-past four o'clock, just as he did, but sometimes a man +would work a few minutes longer to finish a batch of cards, and the boy +would go to watch him. + +When he was over there one day, after hours, Hamilton saw Mr. Cullern on +the floor. + +"Still looking for information?" questioned the older man, with a smile. + +"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I've been watching this machine and I've +spoken to one or two of the operators about the principle of it, but +they none of them seem to know. They knew how to run it, and that was +about all." + +"The principle is simple enough," the chief replied, "but it would be a +bit hard to understand the combination unless you had the clew. Then it +is all as clear as day, although the machine itself is a little +complicated. You noticed, of course, that the operator lays a card on +this plate which is full of holes, and you probably noticed that these +holes correspond with the points on the card, and that the way in which +the card is fed into the machine insures that the holes shall coincide +exactly." + +"That I saw," Hamilton answered, "and I could see, of course, that +this was one of the most important parts of the machine, and that upon +it a good deal of the exactness of the work depended." + +[Illustration: TABULATING MACHINE. Mechanism whereby the punched cards +are verified and every error prevented, and which also tabulates and +numbers all records taken. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It does," the other replied. "Now if you look into those holes in the +plate you can see a little cup of bright metal under each hole. What do +you suppose that is?" + +"I'm not sure, of course," the boy responded, "but it looks very much +like quicksilver." + +"That's exactly what it is, quicksilver, or mercury. Now mercury, you +ought to know, can transmit an electric current, so that if an +electrically charged pin comes down into the cup of mercury, the cup +itself being attached to an electric current, a circuit is formed." + +"Now I'm beginning to see," the boy said, "but what is the idea of the +cup of mercury; could not the pin just as well touch on a metal plate?" + +"It could, of course, but a piece of dust between would prevent contact, +the pins would wear away quickly, and the plate would get worn, whereas, +by the pin just dropping into the mercury there is no friction and no +fear of a missed contact." + +"The pins are in that square box at the end of the long arm which comes +down every time a card is put on the plate, aren't they, Mr. Cullern?" +asked Hamilton. + +"Yes, and if there is no card there and the pins in the square box are +started down, they are automatically stopped before they reach the +mercury so as not to make a contact on every point. Also if a card were +there without any holes punched, none of the pins would reach the +mercury and no contact would be made." + +"But with a punched census card," interrupted the boy, eager to show +that he understood, "the pins go through the holes in the cards and do +not go through where no holes are punched, so that somehow the number of +holes in the card is registered. But still, there's so much difference +in the cards that I don't see how this machine can verify them, can tell +which are right and which wrong!" + +"There is variety enough," answered the chief, "for of the hundred +million cards punched, no two are exactly the same, they could not be." + +"Couldn't it happen perhaps that two people of the same age should do +the same work, be both married and so forth?" asked the boy +interestedly. + +"They would have to live in the same district, they would have to be +employed the same way, they would have both to be married and have the +same number of children and a whole lot more things, and even then--the +cards would be different for they would represent different numbers on +the schedule on which their names were registered. No, there are not two +cards in the entire series punched alike." + +"Then I don't see how in the wide world this machine can tell which +cards are right among millions so entirely different from each other." + +"They don't verify by finding the cards that are right," was the answer, +"but by picking out the cards that are wrong." + +"What's the difference?" + +"There is a wide difference. You can see that it would be easy enough to +arrange that machine so that if a wrong combination of contacts were +made the bell would not ring. Such wiring might be highly complex, but +you see the idea is simple. For a right group of contacts, all the wires +are satisfied, as it were, and the bell rings; for an error, one wire, +cut in on by a wrong wire, breaks the contact, and the bell does not +ring." + +"But what do you mean by a wrong grouping?" asked the boy. + +"You ought to be able to guess that," the chief said reproachfully. +"For instance if a card is punched 'Wf' for Wife and also is punched +'Male' that card is sure to be wrong, and if 'Emp' for employer is +punched on the same card as an age punch showing the person to be a +three-year-old youngster, the card is wrong. There are twenty-three +different possibilities of error which are checked by this verification +machine, and for any one of these twenty-three reasons a card is thrown +out." + +"For example if 'Na' for naturalized is punched on the same card as 'N' +for native-born, and things of that sort, I suppose?" the boy +questioned. + +"And many others of similar character," the older man agreed. + +"But how about insufficiently punched cards?" queried Hamilton. "I can +see that it would be easy to arrange the wires so as to catch really bad +inconsistencies, but supposing a figure were only left out, there would +be no contact made to show the error." + +"Except in the age column," was the reply, "there is supposed to be a +punch in every field and only one. Any field which does not have a +contact from every card registers its disapproval by throwing out that +card." + +"And what happens to the rejected cards?" asked Hamilton, with interest. + +"A checker-up compares them with the original schedules, and if +incorrectly punched, punches a new card, if only insufficiently punched, +punches the missing place. But the number of cards found wrong does not +reach a high percentage." + +"You know I've been thinking," Hamilton said thoughtfully, "that while I +suppose it is all right getting all those holes punched in a card, and +so forth, I should think it would be fearfully hard to handle the card +afterwards. All these little holes look so much alike." + +"To the eye, perhaps," the chief said, "but you must remember that these +cards are never sorted by eyesight. And you must remember that the +sorting process is done by machinery all the way along, just as the +verifying and the tabulating is handled in a purely mechanical fashion. +You remember that each card was punched with a gang-punch?" + +"Of course," the boy said, "that was to specify the district." + +"We keep all those together from the time they are punched till after +we are through with the verifying, so that all the cards of a certain +enumeration district, and of every section in that district, are kept +together in a separate box." + +"My word," Hamilton exclaimed, "what a storage you must have!" + +"You ought to go down and see it some time," the other said. "It's big +enough, with every State and every county and every district in the +country having its own place, and every little village in that district +right where it belongs in a box of its own, under that State, county, +and district. I'm telling you this just to show you that we don't have +to sort the cards for location at all, and that in itself saves us a lot +of labor and time." + +"And they were sorted into sexes on the punching machine, I remember," +Hamilton remarked. + +"Yes, and that prevents another handling of every card, you see," the +chief went on, "so that without any further special division, every card +is divided by village, district, county, and State, as well as sex, when +it leaves the punching machine From there it comes to the tabulating +machine--which is just the same as the verification, only instead of the +electrical connections being made through relays only, they are +sometimes made direct to counters." + +"Just how, Mr. Cullern?" the boy asked. + +"Well," the other continued, "when the pin, passing through the hole in +the card, drops into the little cup of mercury it closes a current +passing through an electro-magnet controlling a counter or a dial +corresponding with each possible item of information on the card, and +for each contact made to each dial, an added unit is registered. The +tabulating process is completed by an automatic recording and printing +system, somewhat along the stock ticker plan, connected with each dial. +When desired, touching an electric button will cause every dial to print +automatically the number recorded on a ribbon of paper." + +"That is before sorting?" + +"Or after. Cards may be tabulated along a lot of different lines. And +the sorting device depends again upon another machine, operated by the +same principle." + +The chief led the boy to another portion of the floor. + +"This sorter," he said, "can be set for thirteen different compartments. +In determining the country of birth, for example, at any given point on +the card, an electrically charged brush finds the hole punched and +directs the card in between two of those finely divided wire levels, +where a traveling carrier picks it up and runs it along to the point +where the wires stop, the top wire extending to the furthest +compartment. As the card falls, it is tilted into place against the pile +of preceding cards, an automatic receiver holding them together, the +operator clearing away the pile from each division as it becomes full. +As you can see, that feed knife moves so rapidly and the endless band +fingers carry the cards out of the way in such a hurry that they move +along in a steady stream. We have only twenty of these machines and they +handle all the cards." + +"It's hard to believe," said Hamilton wonderingly, "that these machines +don't think." + +"We're just building one in here," the supervisor replied, leading the +way into a little partitioned-off section of the room, "that has an +uncanny ingenuity. This machine feeds itself with cards, verifies and +tabulates at an incredible speed. It took some time to perfect all the +adjustments, but it is running finely now, and it will simplify the work +of the next census amazingly, just as the machines you saw have made the +old hand punching machines of former times seem very cumbersome. But +this one," he added, "is a gem." + +[Illustration: PIN-BOX AND MERCURY CUPS. Details of mechanism which +almost magically detects mistakes in any census card. (_Courtesy of the +Bureau of the Census._)] + +"It's a little like magic, it seems to me," said Hamilton, "to think of +every person in this whole country being registered on a card with a lot +of little holes in it, and practically the whole history on it. It +certainly is queer." + +"There is something mysterious in it," the chief answered with a laugh. +"One feels as though all the secrets of the United States were boxed up +and in the storage vaults of the building. But the magician is the +Director. He is the man whose spells have woven this web of +organization, whose skill and knowledge have unlocked commercial +secrets, and whose perception has always seen the essential fact." + +"It's great work to have a share in," the boy declared enthusiastically. + +"To make us all feel that," his superior replied "is the chiefest spell +of the Director of the Census." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CENSUS HEROES OF THE FROZEN NORTH + + +"This is surely one blazing day," said Hamilton one day early in June, +as after the noon hour, he settled back at his work on the punching +machine. + +"We'll cool you off all right," responded the foreman, who was coming up +at the moment and heard the boy's remark, "for I understand they're +looking for editors on the Alaskan schedules. A big batch of them has +just arrived and I happen to know that your name has been recommended. +Mr. Cullern asked me to send you to him just as soon as you came in." + +"I should like that above all things," Hamilton replied, "partly because +I've always been interested in Alaska, and also because this work has +got a little monotonous. I hadn't thought of the Alaskan census," he +continued, "and that's strange too; I should think census-taking up in +that country must have been full of excitement and adventure." + +"Probably it was," responded his friend, "but you won't find any +thrilling yarns on the schedules; they'll be just like any other +schedules, I should imagine, only that the occupations will be of a +different variety. But you had better go along and see the chief." + +Hamilton went gladly, thinking that no matter how formal the schedules +might be that dealt with Alaska they could not help but show to some +extent the character of the conditions in which they had been secured +and the difficulties attaching to work in that isolated land. + +"How would you like to try your hand at the editing of the Alaska +schedules, Noble?" asked the chief of the division when the boy appeared +before him a few moments later. + +"Very much indeed, Mr. Cullern," Hamilton replied. + +"I understand that you have shown a great deal of interest in your work +while you have been here," the chief said, "and when I was asked +yesterday if I had any one to recommend I thought of you at once. Having +had experience in the manufactures end, as well as in the population, +ought to help you a good deal in the work. You were a special agent in +the manufactures, were you not?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "but I don't think any of the places to +which I went resembled in any way the conditions in Alaska." + +"Probably not," the chief said dryly, "New England isn't usually +considered in that light. But the underlying principles are the same, of +course, all the way through. Well, if you want to try it, here is your +chance." + +"Very well, sir," Hamilton answered promptly. "I shall be glad to take +it up." + +The boy waited a moment, but as there seemed nothing more to be said, he +walked back to his machine, to straighten up before leaving. + +"As soon as you're through with that schedule," the foreman in charge of +the sub-section told him, "let me know, and then you can go to Mr. +Barnes, who is in charge of the Alaskan schedules." + +"I've nearly finished," answered the boy, "I'll be done in a quarter of +an hour anyway." + +Accordingly, a little later, Hamilton found his way to another part of +the building, where he met his new superior, a small, alert, nervous, +quick-spoken man, who, as Hamilton afterwards found out, had the +capacity of working at lightning speed, and then stopping and wanting to +talk at intervals. He said very little when Hamilton first came to him, +merely handing him a number of schedules to edit. + +Hamilton watched him furtively several times and noted the amazing +rapidity of his work. Secretly he knew he could not attain that speed, +but he thought he had better make as good a showing as he could, and so +he, too, buckled to the job for all he was worth. When the boy had done +two or three schedules, each containing fifty names, Mr. Barnes reached +out for those that had been edited and went through them closely. He +made one or two corrections. + +"That's not half bad, Noble," he said suddenly, "but I can see from one +or two little things you let go by that you are not entirely familiar +with that country. I'll tell you more about it later, but in the +meantime you had better look over some of the reports the supervisors +have sent in; they give you an insight into what those enumerators out +there had to go through in order to secure anything like complete +schedules. Here in one from the Fourth District, for example, there is a +graphic description of the work which I think you ought to enjoy. It's +good writing, too." + +"My enumeration work was in Kentucky," said Hamilton, "so I haven't much +line on the conditions in the North. But I've always enjoyed books and +stories about Alaska, and I'd like to read the report." + +"It will give you the atmosphere," said Barnes, "listen to this +paragraph, for example: 'The work was performed during the severest +winter known in this part of Alaska by the oldest settlers there. There +did not appear to be a man who did not have a pride in his work, an +anxiety to create a record for traveling time, a desire to enumerate all +the people in the district assigned to him, and to have to his credit +less loss of time because of weather than any of the other agents.'" + +"I guess," said Hamilton, "that supervisor had those enumerators just +breaking their necks to beat out the other agents, and he worked on +their pride to get up their speed." + +"'That the service lost none of its men from freezing to death, and that +every man returned safely, is a matter for congratulation and of good +fortune, from the fact that there were in this part of Alaska more +deaths from the weather this winter than all preceding years in total; +cases in which those who met such deaths did not begin to go through the +sacrifice and privation that these agents of the service did.'" + +"Makes you proud to have been an enumerator, doesn't it?" asked the boy. +"But it always seems difficult to realize hardship unless you have been +there." + +"I spent a winter in Alaska," said Barnes emphatically, "and I can feel +the thrill of it in every line. He knows what he's writing of, too, this +man. Hear how he describes it: 'All the men in the service,'" he +continued, "'covered hundreds of miles over the ice and snow, in weather +ranging from 30 to 70 degrees below zero, the average temperature +probably being about 40 below. Because of the absolute lack of beaten +trails--' I wonder," he broke off, "if any one who hasn't been there can +grasp what it means!" + +Hamilton waited. + +"No beaten trail," Barnes said reminiscently, "means where stunted +willows emphasize by their starved and shivering appearance the nearness +of the timber; where the snow-drifts, each with its little feather of +drifting snow sheering from its crest, are heaped high; where the snow +underfoot is unbroken; where under snow-filled skies a wind studded +with needle-sharp ice crystals blows a perfect gale; where the lonely +and frozen desolation is peopled only by the haunting shape of fear that +next morning a wan and feeble sun may find you staggering still blindly +on, hopelessly lost, or fallen beside a drift where the winter's snows +must melt before your fate is known." + +He stopped abruptly and went on with his schedule. Hamilton worked on in +silence. Presently, as though there had been no pause, Barnes resumed +his quotation from the supervisor's report: + +"'Because of the absolute lack of beaten trails, and the fact that the +snow lies so loosely on the ground like so much salt, no matter what its +depth may be, it was necessary through all their work to snow-shoe ahead +of the dog-teams. When one considers their isolation,--often traveling +for days without other shelter than a tent and fur robes--it can be +understood what sacrifices some of these men made to visit far-away +prospectors' cabins and claims. However, no man who travels in this part +of the country ever considers that there is any hardship, unless there +is loss of life, and they take their work stoically and good-naturedly, +though they drop in their tracks at the end of the day.'" + +He tossed over the report to Hamilton. + +"Look it over," he said. "I tell you there's some stirring stuff in +that, and just the bald reports of the enumerators' trips leave the +stories of explorers in the shade." + +The boy took up the report as he was bidden, and read it with avidity. +Presently, upon a boyish exclamation, the other spoke: + +"What's that one you've struck?" + +"It's the enumerator from the district of Chandler," answered Hamilton. + +"Go ahead and read it aloud," Barnes said, "I can go on with these +schedules just as well while you do." + +"'At no time after he left Fairbanks,'" read the boy, "'did the +thermometer get above 30 degrees below zero. His long journey away from +a base of supplies made it impossible for him to carry a sufficient +supply of grub, and he was obliged to live off the country, killing +moose, mountain sheep, and other fresh meat. He froze portions of his +face several times, and on one occasion dropped into six feet of open +water, nearly losing his life in consequence.'" + +"That would be fearful," said Barnes, "unless he could pitch camp right +there, put up a tent, build a fire, and change into dry clothing." + +"There seems to have been mighty little wood for that up there," +Hamilton remarked, "because, speaking of this same enumerator, the +supervisor says, further on, 'In crossing the Arctic Range and in +returning he traveled above timber line eighteen hours in both +directions, which, in a country where fire is a necessity, can be +understood is a very considerable sacrifice. He traveled in many places +where a white man had never been before, and as there are no beaten +trails or government roads in the district anywhere, he was obliged, +everywhere, to snow-shoe ahead of his team to beat down a trail.'" + +"Did you ever snow-shoe?" asked Barnes abruptly. + +"Once," answered Hamilton, "when I went to Canada to visit some cousins; +they had a snow-shoe tramp and insisted on my coming along. But I was +stiff for a week." + +"Well," said the editor, "when you try to break trail and have to keep +ahead of a dog-team coming along at a fair clip, it's just about the +hardest kind of work there is." + +"They all seem to have had their own troubles," said Hamilton, who had +been glancing down the pages of the report: "here's the next chap, who +got caught in a blizzard while accompanying the mail carrier, and if it +hadn't been for the fact that the people of the nearest settlement knew +that the mail carrier was expected on that day and sent out a rescue +party to search for him, neither of the two men would ever have been +found, and the census would have lost a man." + +"That was up in the Tanana region, wasn't it?" queried Barnes, but +without looking up from his work. + +"Yes," answered the boy, "and from all accounts that must be a wild part +of the country. Speaking of that same enumerator, the supervisor says: +'That this agent survived the work during the stormy period and came +back alive was the wonder of the older inhabitants of the country. No +less than four times this man was found by other travelers in an +exhausted condition, not far from complete collapse, and assisted to a +stopping place. He lost three dogs, and suffered terribly himself from +frost-bite. In the same district, during the same time, eight persons +were frozen to death, six men and two women.' There's quite a story +here, too, telling how he himself rescued a couple of trappers in the +last stages of hunger, exposure, and exhaustion." + +"It's fearful to think of," the other commented; "just imagine those +agonizing journeys in the teeth of an Arctic wind, traveling over +hundreds of miles of trackless wilderness to get less than one-tenth as +many people as a city enumerator would find in one block!" + +"But why do it in winter?" asked Hamilton. "It's hot up there in summer, +I've heard, and driving in the warm weather is pleasant enough; there's +no hardship in that!" + +"You can't drive where there are no roads, and you can't ride where +there are no horses. Then the time available is short." + +"Why is it so short?" + +"You haven't a railroad going to every point in Alaska," Barnes pointed +out, "there's usually a trip of several hundred miles before you get to +the place from which to start. And when are you going to make that +journey?" + +"In the spring," Hamilton said, "as soon as it gets mild." + +"I reckon you don't know much about Alaska," the older man remarked. +"When the snow thaws, the creeks overflow, and the rivers become raging +torrents. You can't ride, and if you walk, how are you going to cross a +swollen river, filled with pieces of ice the size of this room? Those +Alaska rivers are huge bodies of water, many of them, and there are no +bridges." + +"How about boats?" + +"You mean traveling on those ice-filled rivers? It couldn't be done." + +"But as soon as the ice goes out?" + +"That's pretty well into June, to start with, and then you would have to +pole up against the current all the way, and the currents of most of the +rivers are very swift. Did you ever pole a boat up against a swift +mountain river?--I thought not. Suppose, by very hard work, you could +make two or three miles an hour up stream,--at that rate how long would +it take you to go up to the highest settlement? And then you would have +to go all the way down again and ascend the next stream; and even then +more than half the settlements would be on streams and creeks you could +not get to with boats because of falls, of rapids, of long portages, and +things of that kind." + +"I guess they couldn't use a boat," said Hamilton, "but still I don't +see why they couldn't ride!" + +"Ride what? Dogs? Or reindeer? I suppose you mean to take a horse up +there?" + +"That's what I was thinking of," Hamilton admitted. + +"How would you get him up there? Take him in a dog-sled the preceding +winter? You know a horse couldn't travel on the snow like a dog-team. +And if you did get him up to the starting point during the winter, on +what would you feed him? Dried salmon? That's all there is, and while it +makes good enough dog-feed, a horse isn't built that way. There's no +hay-cutting section up there, and your horse would starve to death +before you had a chance to ride him. And even supposing that you could +keep him alive,--I don't believe you could ride him over the tundra +swamps; there is no horse made that could keep his footing on those +marshy tussocks." + +"I see you're right," said Hamilton, "I hadn't thought of all that." + +The older man continued: "There are horses in the towns of southern +Alaska, because, you know, there is one narrow strip that runs a long +way south, and there the weather is not severe. But the north is +another matter entirely. The pay that you would have to offer in order +to lure the men away from the gold-diggings would be enormous. No, it +had to be a winter job, and in the Geography section--where I was last +year--it took us all our time to estimate satisfactory enumeration +districts for Alaska." + +[Illustration: OVER THE TRACKLESS SNOW WITH DOG-TEAM. Census agents in +Alaska starting on perilous journeys in the most severe winter ever +known in sub-Arctic regions. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +"The Geography section?" queried Hamilton in surprise. "I hadn't heard +of that. What is that part of the census work for?" + +"To map out the enumeration districts," his superior explained. "That is +a most important part of the work. You remember that the enumeration +district was supposed to provide exactly a month's work for each man?" + +"Yes," Hamilton answered, "I know I had to hustle in order to get mine +done in the month." + +"Supposing," said the other, "that all the people that were on your +schedule had lived in villages close together, would it have taken you +as long to do?" + +"Of course not," Hamilton replied, "I could have done it in half the +time. What delayed things was riding from farm to farm, and they were +scattered all over the countryside." + +"Exactly," Barnes continued, "but I suppose you never stopped to think +that the number of people in each district and the nature of the ground +to be covered both had to be considered. Then allowance had to be made +for the enumeration of those not readily accessible, and for such +natural obstacles as unbridged rivers; all these had to be mapped out +and gone over by the Census Bureau before the sections were assigned." + +"No," the boy replied, "I never really stopped to think who it was that +made up all those districts. And, now you come to speak of it, I don't +see how it could have been done without being on the ground." + +"Yet it is evident," the other said, "that it must have been done. It +wouldn't be fair to tell a man to finish a district that represented +seven or eight weeks' work, nor to promise a month's work to a man and +then give him a district that had only two or three weeks' employment. +You couldn't alter the districts afterwards, either, as everything had +to be prepared in Washington for enumeration and tabulation by the +original districts as mapped out." + +"You mean," said Hamilton, "that every square mile of territory in the +United States, the number of people on it, the kind of land it was, the +roads and trails, the distance from the nearest town, the rivers, and +the location of bridges across them, and all that sort of thing had to +be worked out in advance?" + +"Every acre," was the reply, "and the worst of it was that there was +very little to go by. The lists for the last Decennial Census were only +of use in the Eastern districts, for in the West large towns had grown +up that were mere villages then. Whole sections of territory which were +uninhabited ten years ago are thick with farms today and the 'Great +American Desert' of a few years ago is becoming, under irrigation, the +'Great American Garden.'" + +"The Survey maps helped, I should think," said Hamilton. "I have a +friend, Roger Doughty, on the Geological Survey, and he told me all +about the making of the Topographic maps." + +"They helped, of course, but even with those it was hard to work out +some of the queerly shaped districts. The supervisors helped us greatly +after the larger districts had been planned, but the Geography division +had to keep in touch with every detail until the entire country was +divided into proportionately equal sections. + +"And you had to do that for Alaska, as well!" + +"As far as we could. Of course it was difficult to determine routes of +travel there, and to a large extent that had to be left to the +supervisors, but they merely revised our original districting. It took a +lot of figuring in Alaska because of the tremendous travel difficulties +there and the thousands of miles of territory still unsurveyed." + +"I had never realized the need of all that preparatory work," the boy +admitted. + +"There's a great deal of the work that has to be done in the years +before the census and in the years after," he was informed, "and the +Bureau is kept just as busy as it can be, all the while. The Decennial +Census, although it is the biggest part of the census work, is only one +of its many branches, and then there are always other matters being +looked after, like the Quinquennial Census of Manufactures, and such +numberings as those of the Religious Bodies and the Marriage and Divorce +Statistics of a few years ago." + +"I understood the Bureau had regular work all the year round?" Hamilton +said. + +"Indeed it has. All the births and deaths that are registered are +tabulated here, and a number of tables of vital statistics are worked +out which are of immense value to doctors not only in the United States +but all over the world. Then, as I think you know, we have for years +made a special study of cotton crop conditions, and there is a bulletin +published at stated intervals showing the state of the cotton industry +in the United States. Then there is all the statistical work on cities +of over 30,000 inhabitants, and there is scarcely a question which has +reference to the population or the manufacturing interests of the +country that is not referred sooner or later to the Bureau of the +Census." + +"You work with the Forest Service, too, I believe," said Hamilton. +"Wilbur Loyle, a forest ranger whom I knew very well, showed me some +figures that the Bureau had prepared." + +"Only in the collection and publication of statistics of forest +products," said Barnes, rising and changing his office coat,--for the +conversation had run on long after office hours,--"owing to their +co-operation the task is not cumbersome; questions of information or +special statistics asked for by Congress or by the executive departments +take up a great deal of time when added to an already extensive routine +work." + +Editing the schedules of the population of Alaska, just as Hamilton had +expected, proved to be of the most intense interest, since, despite the +closest desire on the part of the enumerators to confine themselves +strictly to official facts, the wildness of the frontier life would +creep in. An example of this was the listing of an Eskimo girl on the +schedule as having "Sun" and "Sea" for her parents with an explanatory +note to the effect that she had been found as a tiny girl upon a heap of +sea moss on the beach. Another was when an enumerator wrote on his +schedule under 'language spoken,' "Some pesky lingo; I know most of +their talk, but this was too much for me and the hut was too strong to +stay in long." + +Such comments made it easy to create a picture of the semi-savagery of +the fur-clad fishers on the shores of the Arctic Sea. + +Another schedule, one which interested the boy greatly, was that in +which the age of an Indian was described as "200 snows." To try to get +this worked out to the probably true age of 80 or 90 years evidently had +been quite a task. The enumerator wrote: + +"This Indian ain't 200 years old. He says he's 200 snows, but I can't +quite figure it out. He says he was 20 snows when he got first woman, +kept her 4 snows, then she go away! He complained that 'he had no +women 4 suns and catch no women 4 snows.' He 'got more woman, keep her 5 +snows, then she eat cold (frozen to death). Got no woman 20 snows, she +good woman.' He could not give any clue about his children only that +'his chickens 30 to 45 snows!' They reckon here only from what they can +remember, so this buck is probably counting from about ten years old. +That would make him thirty when he first got a wife, thirty-four when +she died, thirty-eight when he got his next wife, and forty-three when +she died. Counting his oldest child at 45 this would make him about +seventy-five. Where the '200 snows' comes in, I don't see." + +[Illustration: THE CENSUS IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. Enumerator on a +schooner skirting the icy shores of the glacier-fed waters of the +Behring Sea. (_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +A great treat to the boy came, however, when one of the enumerators from +the Second District of Alaska, who had been summoned East in the spring +on business concerning some property with which he was associated, and +had come as soon as the break-up permitted travel, dropped into the +Census Bureau. He made himself known to the Director, and the latter, +always ready to show attention and being really proud of the Census +Bureau staff, arranged to have him shown around the building. The +Alaskan was a small fellow, hard as nails, given to stretches of +silence, but with a ready, infectious laugh and the ability to tell a +good yarn after he got started. Presently, just before quitting time, he +reached the desk where Barnes and Hamilton were editing schedules. + +"This ought to interest you," said the Bureau official who was showing +him around, "these men are just going over the Alaskan schedules before +sending them to the machines to be punched and tabulated." + +Looking interested, the man bent forward and, with a muttered word of +apology, picked up the schedule on which Hamilton was working at the +time. "This must be one o' mine!" he said, with an air of surprise. + +"But that is marked, 'Copy'!" said Hamilton "I was just wondering where +the original was." + +"I'm willin' to gamble quite a stack, son," was the surprising reply, +"that you'd have been wonderin' a whole lot more if the original had +come down to you." + +"Why, how's that?" + +"Well, I reckon I c'n handle dogs better'n I can a pen," he said, "an' +when you come to try an' write one o' these schedules on scraps o' dried +skin you c'n count it sure's shootin' there's some decipherin' got to +be done." + +Barnes looked at the official who was showing the Alaskan 'round the +building, and knowing him very well, he said to the visitor, "Spin us +the yarn; I've been up there and I'd like to hear it myself, and I know +the lad is just wild to hear it." + +"I want to be a part of that audience, too," said the official, with a +smile. + +"I don't want to hold up the job!" the visitor suggested hesitatingly. + +"Go ahead," his conductor answered. "Here we are all waiting, and it's +nearly half-past four anyway." + +"Well, then, it was up in the Noatak Pass--" he was beginning, when +Hamilton stopped him. + +"I don't want to interrupt, right at the start," he said, "but where is +that pass?" + +"I should have told you," said the miner goodhumoredly, "it's the pass +between the Endicott an' the Baird ranges, at the extreme northern end +of the Rockies. I hated to go through it, an' I wouldn't have, most +times, not unless there was a mighty big pull to get me over there, but +I had promised to count every one in my district, an' so, of course, +there was nothin' else to do but go, even though I knew there was no one +on the other side but a bunch of Eskimos. Well, we were halfway up the +pass when the Indian guide stopped the dogs an' listened. It was just +about noon an' the travelin' was good, so that, wantin' to make time, I +got good an' mad at the stop. Knowin' my Indian, I kep' quiet just the +same, always bein' willin' to bet on an Indian bein' right on the trail. +First off, I could notice nothin', then, when I threw back my parka hood +I could hear a boomin' in the air as though some one was beatin' a gong, +miles and miles away. It was so steady a sound that after you had once +heard it for a while you wouldn't notice it, an' you would have to +listen again real hard to see if it was still goin' on." + +"Like distant thunder?" queried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit. It was high, like a gong, an' it wasn't any too good to +hear. The dogs knew it, too, for though we had been stopped nearly five +minutes none of them had started to fight." + +"Do dogs fight every time they stop?" + +"Just about. They try to, anyway. In the traces, of course, they can't +do much but snap an' snarl, but that they're always doin'. This time, +however, all save one or two of them stood upright sniffin' uneasily. + +"'Wind?' I asked the Indian. + +"'Heap wind!' he answered. 'Go back?' + +"Now you may lay ten to one that when an Indian is the first to suggest +goin' back, trouble with a big 'T' is right handy. I reckon that was the +first time I ever did hear an Indian propose goin' back. 'Why go back, +Billy?' I asked. + +"'Heap wind,' he repeated, 'old trail easy.' He pointed ahead, 'No +trail!'" + +"He meant, I suppose," Hamilton interjected, "that if you doubled on +your tracks the trail would have been broken before, and it would be +easy going." + +"That's the bull's-eye, and if a storm did come up we'd have a trail to +follow and not get lost." + +"Did you go back?" + +"I did not. I figured that while we were about a day's journey to a +settlement either way, we were perhaps an hour nearer where we were +goin' than where we had come from, an' that perhaps the storm would hold +off long enough for us to make it. Those storms last for days, +sometimes, an' we'd have the trip to make anyway, even if we did go +back. Besides, I didn't want to lose the time. 'No, Billy,' I called to +the Siwash, 'go on!' + +"I was sorry the minute I said it, because I knew the Siwash thought me +wrong, although, bein' an Indian, of course he never showed a sign. He +started up the dogs without a word. I knew he thought it reckless and +dangerous, but tortures wouldn't have made him say so. In half an hour's +time, I began to be sure he was right." + +"Did the storm strike as soon as that?" asked the boy. + +"No. If it had, I think I should have gone back. But at the end of that +half-hour, we topped a rise that gave a view of the country ahead an' +showed it to be broken an' bad travelin'. I shouldn't have liked the +look of it at any time, but with a storm brewin' an' the Indian wantin' +to go back, it sure did look ugly. But the faint roarin' of the distant +storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the +wind no higher,--an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' +plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast +lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like +a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was +behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An +hour went by, an' I was just beginnin' to think that we would be able to +cover the greater part of the distance, when a huge white shape rose +from the snow near by, passed in front of the sledge, and disappeared. +I've been scared once in my life. This was that once." + +"What was it?" asked Hamilton breathlessly. + +"I watched," the Alaskan continued, "an' presently about a hundred yards +away, an' a little to the right of the sled, the snow began to move. I +couldn't feel a breath of wind. But the snow seemed to writhe an' stir +as though some monster from the Arctic night was wakin' from his winter +sleep, an' a wisp of snow hurled upwards; then, with a heave the snow +crust broke an' fell apart an' a column of snow shot up like a geyser +swirlin' into a pillar a hundred feet high. + +"A moment it stood; then swayed over an' begun to move slowly at first, +but gatherin' speed every second, noiselessly, save for a sound like the +indrawin' of a breath and a faint crackin' as the hard snow crust +shivered into atoms where it struck. Aimlessly, yet seemin' to have a +hidden purpose as though wreathin' the figures of some Boreal dance, it +come near us and fell back; moved away an' threatened again; then swept +upon us till its icy breathin' gripped our throats, an' our hearts stood +still. + +"An' in the silence, one dog whined. + +"Behind the sled there stirred the snow anew, an' in a moment or two +another column threw itself at the sky, and behind us an' around, other +of these columns rose an' moved like spectral dancers under the +slate-green clouds of the snow-filled sky. No wind, no sound but the +lone leader of the team howlin' in utter fear." + +"A dancing blizzard!" said Barnes, in an awed tone, under his breath. + +"If there had been anythin' to do, it would have been easier," the +Alaskan continued, "but to move was not more dangerous than to stay +still. In answer to a sign, the Indian started up the dogs again, an' we +went on, though the road ahead looked like the ice-forest of a +disordered dream. Presently, without a moment's warnin' one of the huge +snow pillars came rushin' straight at us, an' I braced myself by the +sledge to hold to it if I could, but it swerved before it reached us an' +ran along beside the trail. About fifty feet ahead it swerved again and +cut across the trail, an' the extreme edge caught the Indian, picked +him up in the air, an' threw him at least thirty feet." + +"Was he hurt?" cried Hamilton. + +"Not a bit, for there was nothin' to fall on but snow. He picked himself +up, looked carefully at his snow-shoes to see that they had not been +damaged, an' resumed his place at the head of the dogs. What would have +become of him if he had been plucked into the middle of the whirlwind is +hard to say. I wouldn't have counted on seein' him again anyway." + +"But you never really got caught by any?" + +"Wouldn't be here talkin', if I had," was the reply. "But when we come +to the track of that whirlwind column, it was a puzzle how to get +across. The column, goin' like a railroad train, had cut a gully in the +hard snow full ten feet deep,--the sides as clean cut as though done +with a knife, or rather with a scoop, because the edge was slightly +scolloped all the way along." + +"How did you get across?" + +"Axes," was the brief reply. "We cut through the snow crust and beat +down a steep path on both sides of the gully an' made the dogs take it. +Dog harness is strong, but I was afraid of the strain on it that time." + +"How long did the blizzard last?" + +"You mean the whirlwinds?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered. + +"Not very long,--quarter of an hour, perhaps. Then I felt a slight +breeze, an' at the same moment the columns, bendin' their heads like +grass before the wind, swept to the right of us, an' were out of sight +in a moment. The Indian yelled and pointed to the left, throwin' himself +on the ground as he did so." + +"What was it?" cried Hamilton. + +"It looked like a solid wall of snow, an' before I realized it was +comin', the storm struck, hurled me to the ground, an' rolled me over +an' over in the snow. I wasn't hurt, of course, but it took me so long +to get my breath that I thought it was never goin' to come, an' that I +should suffocate. But after that first burst, the blizzard settled down +to the regular variety, an' we all felt more at home. But even at that, +it was the worst one I ever saw in the North, an' I've been there nine +winters." + +"What did you do? Go back?" + +"No use tryin' to go back," the traveler said, "because those whirlwinds +had cut gullies across the snow in every direction so that our old trail +was no use to us. We went ahead a bit, as far as we could, but soon +realized that there was nothin' to do but camp right where we were an' +wait for the blizzard to blow over. Usually two days is enough for the +average storm to let up a little, but it was not until the third day +that there was any chance of startin', an' even then it was almost as +bad as could be for travel. But I had to make a start then." + +"Why?" asked Hamilton, who always wanted to know the details of +everything. + +"Because we were runnin' short of dog-feed, an' you can't let your dogs +die of hunger, for then you can't get anywhere. But the blizzard had +drifted everything an' was still driftin', so that the snow was hard in +some places and soft in others; the travelin' was almost impossible, an' +you couldn't see twenty yards ahead. Then while the blizzard had filled +the gullies made by the whirlwinds, the snow in them was not packed down +as hard as the rest of the surface, an' dogs an' sled an' Indian an' +myself would all go flounderin' into the drift, an' it would be a tough +pull to get the sled out again.--That was a hard trip. + +"The worst of it came when, without a bit of warnin', without our even +knowin' where we were, the hard crust of the snow gave way beneath us, +an' the sled, the dogs, and myself fell headlong down a slope an' into a +stream of runnin' water, the sled upside down, of course." + +"How about the Indian?" asked the boy. + +"He saved himself from goin' into the water, an' it was a good thing +that he did, for he was able to help in pullin' us out. But, from one +point of view, the accident was a help, for it told the Indian just +where we were. There was only one stream of that size in that +neighborhood, an' until we found it, we were hopelessly lost. But from +that time we knew that the settlement we were headin' for was straight +up the stream, an' all we had to do was to follow it. But it was a race +for life, in order to get to camp before frozen clothin' and various +frostbites crippled me entirely." + +"But how about the dogs?" queried Hamilton. "I should think it would be +worse for them than for you." + +The Alaskan shook his head. + +"A 'husky' can stand just about anythin' in the way of cold," he said, +"an' my leaders 'Tussle' and 'Bully' were a couple of wonders. Only one +of the dogs gave out. Well, we made the camp finally, pretty well done +up all round. The worst of it was, that when we come to unpack the +sled--we did it with an ax because everythin' was frozen solid--the +census pouch was missin'. Luckily there was no past work in it,--only +blank schedules, information papers, an' things of that sort. So I made +up the schedules on odd bits of paper and skins, as I told you, an' the +supervisor copied them on the schedule to send in, an' that schedule you +have in your hand is the copy of those very pieces of skin." + +[Illustration: CAN WE MAKE CAMP? A last rush for shelter as the blizzard +strikes, wiping out all landmarks.] + +Hamilton glanced at the paper with redoubled interest. + +"I suppose it was no use trying to get the pouch back," he said. + +"I didn't think it would be," the Alaskan replied "but I tried to reach +the place where the sled had been overturned, an' each time the weather +drove me back. On the third day I got a chance to go with some Eskimos +with reindeer to a little settlement about twenty miles off, an' so I +went along and got the names there, comin' back on a reindeer sled. +That's the only time I ever felt like Santa Claus. I'm sure I don't look +it." + +[Illustration: TO ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS BY REINDEER. Census enumerator +using half-wild animals when dog-team was too exhausted to go farther. +(_Courtesy of the Bureau of the Census._)] + +Hamilton looked at his spare figure and laughed. + +"No," he said, "I don't think an artist would be likely to pick you for +the part. How did you like the reindeer, though? I've always wondered +that they didn't use them more in Alaska. The government keeps a herd, +doesn't it?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "but that is more for fresh meat than for travel. +A good reindeer is a cracker-jack of an animal when he wants to be, but +when he takes a streak to quit, it doesn't matter where it is or what +you do to him, he won't go another step. A balky mule is an angel of +meekness beside a reindeer. You can always make a mule see what you want +him to do--although the odds are that he won't do it even then--but when +a reindeer gets stubborn,--why, he just can't be made to understand +anythin'!" + +"Yet I've read that they use them a good deal in Lapland!" said the boy +in surprise. + +"They have domesticated them more thoroughly, I guess," the Northerner +replied. "In time they may be worked up here in the same way, and when +you consider how short a time the government has had to do what is +already accomplished, it seems to me the result is wonderful. Of course, +so far as traffic is concerned there are dogs enough, and they do the +work in mighty good shape." + +"How did you work back from the settlement which you had got to with +such difficulty?" the boy asked. + +"I came back another way, in order to take in a little group of houses +on a small pay-creek," was the reply. "But it was comin' back from that +trip, on the Koatak River, that I had quite a time, although I was not +the sufferer. We had been havin' a hard spell of weather, but there come +a week when conditions on the trail were much better an' we were reelin' +off the miles in great shape. I hadn't a place on my map for about sixty +miles, when in the distance I saw a little hut, just in the fringe of +some stunted cottonwoods and some scraggy willows, for we were not far +from the timber limit. + +"'Billy,' I called to the Indian, 'ever see that hut before?' + +"The Indian shook his head, but knowin' that I wanted to see an' count +everybody in the district, he turned off the trail--he said it was a +trail but I couldn't see it--an' led the way to the hut. I went in an' +found a man lying on a couple of planks, just about dead. He was one of +the survivors of the wrecked steamer _Filarleon_, and had frozen all +the fingers of both hands. Two or three were turnin' gangrenous; an' one +of these had got so bad that with his other crippled hand, he had sawed +off the decomposin' member with his pocket-knife. One foot also was +frozen an' had turned black, but that afterwards recovered." + +"What did you do for him?" asked the boy. + +"Put him on the sled, of course," the Alaskan answered, "an' took him to +the nearest settlement. I afterwards heard that a doctor happened in to +camp soon after I left, an' got at his hurts right away, an' that he was +put back into fair condition all but the one finger.--That's no +tenderfoot's country up there." + +"I wonder you stuck it out," said Hamilton. "But then," he added a +moment later, "I can see how a fellow would hate to quit." + +"It was tough," reluctantly admitted the narrator, "an' I'll tell you +what I did. I'm not much of a hand with the pen, but right in the middle +of the work I found a man who was goin' down the river, an' I sat down +and wrote a long letter to the supervisor. It was about as plaintive a +thing as I ever read. I had no reason to expect an answer, but by chance +another party was comin' up that way, an' some weeks later I received a +reply. What do you suppose he said!" + +"I haven't the least idea," answered the boy. + +"His answer read just this way: + +"'I chose you because you were experienced in the treeless coast. Go to +it. We are expecting you to make good.'" + +"And," Hamilton said, his eyes shining, "I'll bet you did!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CONFRONTED WITH THE BLACK HAND + + +The sidelights that Hamilton had received on the Alaskan enumeration had +given him a greater zest for census work than ever, and he devoted not a +little of his spare time to the study of conditions in the far North. +Indeed, the lad became so enthusiastic about it that every evening, when +he reached home, he worked out the route of the enumerator whose +schedules he had edited during that day's work. He had secured the big +geological reconnaissance map of Alaska for the purpose. Consequently, +it was with a sense of regret that he faced the day when the last of the +Alaskan schedules had been edited. + +"What next, I wonder, Mr. Barnes?" said Hamilton, laying down his pen +and glancing round to his companion. "How about Porto Rico? They had a +census this spring, too, didn't they?" + +"I imagine the Porto Rico work is about done," his friend replied, "at +least I know that most of it came in some weeks ago. How are you on +Spanish?" + +"I can read it all right," Hamilton answered, "although I don't write +particularly well. But are the schedules all in Spanish?" + +"Yes, indeed," said the other. + +"I don't think simple Spanish would bother me at all," Hamilton replied. +"I knew a chap who was going to the Philippines and he wanted some one +to take up Spanish with him so that he wouldn't be alone in it; and to +keep him company, I hammered at it too. But, after a bit, he joined a +class, so I dropped out, although I did study once in a while so as not +to forget it altogether." + +"Why don't you suggest that you know Spanish," remarked Barnes, "and +perhaps you'll get the chance." + +Accordingly, when a little later, the final copy on the Alaskan +schedules was turned in, Hamilton asked concerning the Porto Rican work, +and ventured his slight familiarity with Spanish. + +"We have several translators," replied the chief, "but still, I suppose +Mr. Alavero can make you useful. I'll let you know later on." + +In a few moments he returned and beckoned to the boy, who followed him, +with a word of farewell and thanks to the editor of the Alaskan +schedules with whom he had enjoyed working greatly. + +"Mr. Alavero," the official said, introducing Hamilton, "this is Noble. +I don't know what his Spanish is like, but I think he may be of some use +to you in getting out the manufactures statistics, as he did some work +along that line early in the year and has been with the census ever +since." + +The editor smiled affably at the boy and shook hands with heartiness. + +"The schedule work is all done," he said, "but it will take some time +preparing the report. It is going to be fuller than most of them because +there is so much American capital invested in Porto Rico that a detailed +analysis will be of value." + +"It is real editorial work, then!" Hamilton said, with a note of +pleasure in his voice. + +"I think," said the chief dryly, "that Mr. Alavero will do the editorial +work, as you call it, since he is the editor; you are to assist him in +preparing tables and matters of that kind." + +But no sooner had the Bureau official gone than the Porto Rican came +forward. + +"If you like," he said, "we'll try to arrange some part of the work that +you can do all yourself, writing and everything else, so that it will +be 'real' editorial work, and you'll be able to see your own writing in +print." + +Hamilton thanked him fervently, and from that day on would have done +anything for his new superior. + +"This is a considerable change, Mr. Alavero," said Hamilton the +following morning, when he found himself at a table littered with maps +and drawings of the island, with papers in Spanish and English, with +reports and circulars containing pictures of the sub-tropical landscapes +and towns of Porto Rico. "I have been doing nothing but Alaska for a +month past." + +"Too cold!" the Porto Rican cried, with a shrug of the shoulders. "I was +in Washington this last winter and I thought I should die of freezing." + +"You are from Porto Rico yourself, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I was never away from the island at all," was the reply, "never even on +a steamboat until I came to the United States last autumn; I came to +show the people in your Congress that the coffee growers of Porto Rico +need help." + +"Why?" + +"Porto Rican coffee is the finest in the world," the editor answered +with a graphic gesture, "and when Porto Rico was Spanish we could sell +in Europe at high prices, but now the European tariff against the United +States includes us, and our coffee is taxed so that we cannot sell it. +And the American market is satisfied with Brazilian coffee, which is of +a cheaper grade." + +"Is coffee the principal crop down there?" queried the boy. "I notice +that nearly half these papers and books deal with coffee plantations." + +"It is still, but not as it once was," the Porto Rican answered. "Sugar +and tobacco are the other big crops." + +"Coffee is easy to grow, isn't it?" asked the boy. "It doesn't want all +the attention that cotton does?" + +"After a grove is well-established, no, though we prune a great deal; +but sugar, yes. That's not such an obstacle though. There is plenty of +labor on the island." + +"Isn't the bulk of the island colored?" + +"No, no, no," answered the Porto Rican, shaking his finger in emphatic +denial, "more than three-fifths are pure white, a much smaller +proportion of negroes than in some of your Southern States. The +negroes were slaves, but Spain freed them in 1873. There was no war." He +smiled. "We are a most peaceful people." + +[Illustration: GATHERING COCOANUTS. Where the census-taker in Porto Rico +had to wait for his figures until the head of the house climbed down. +(_Courtesy of the Department of War._)] + +"Not like our other accession from Spain," Hamilton commented. "I mean +the Philippines; you certainly couldn't call the Filipinos peaceful, it +seems to me that they come just about as wild as they make them." + +"Wild? You do not know the half!" said the excitable little editor, who, +despite the frequency of his gestures and the volubility of his +explanations was busily working with diagrams the while. "You know there +was a census in Porto Rico in 1899?" + +"I didn't until this morning," the boy answered "but as I see that most +of these tables are compared with that year it is evident that there +must have been." + +"There was a census," the editor went on, after a pause during which he +had been working over a column of figures, "and my uncle was a +supervisor. Mr. Gatten--you know him?" + +"Only by name," Hamilton replied. + +"He was in the Porto Rico census, too. Then in 1903 he went to assist in +the census of the Philippines. It was done by the War Department, +because the fighting was hardly over. You think the census difficult? +You should hear my uncle! The Dattos were not all stopped fighting, +because just as soon as the Philippine Commission thought it safe, the +census began." + +"Did any one get killed by hostile natives?" asked Hamilton, scenting a +story. + +"Several wounded, one badly, but no one killed. But"--and he waggled a +finger warningly--"there were plenty of places where the census was only +estimated! The blowpipe and the poison arrow are most dangerous. Even +with the soldiers taking the census and going with other census men, it +was very risky among the uncivilized tribes." + +"They are really wild?" said Hamilton. + +"I think the wildest people in the world, the most savage, are in those +jungles. My uncle had to go to the haunts of the Pygmies." + +"Pygmies!" exclaimed Hamilton in surprise. "I didn't know that the Stars +and Stripes floated over Pygmy tribes! I thought they were only in +Africa!" + +"The Negritos are pygmies," answered the editor, "seldom over four feet +ten inches for the man and the woman two or three inches shorter; they +use their toes like fingers, they wear only a loin-cloth, their hair is +fuzzy like a black bush, and they seldom use fire, even for cooking." + +"How do they live?" asked Hamilton. "We have got used to thinking of the +Red Indians as a part of the United States races, but the Pygmies seem +outlandish. Have they huts or do they live in caves, or how?" + +"Nothing!" was the answer. "A few have rough huts, but most of them +wander in the forests." + +"But where do they sleep?" + +"On the ground." + +"I should think they would be afraid of wild beasts," the boy remarked. + +"There are very few in the Philippines," was the reply. + +"How about snakes, then?" queried the lad. + +"They have to take chances on snakes. But you know a snake will scarcely +ever strike unless alarmed or attacked. No snake will bite a sleeping +man. Wild animals only attack for food, and man is left alone as much as +possible." + +"Haven't they pythons there? And a python could easily strangle and +swallow a man." + +"He could, but he doesn't," the Porto Rican pointed out; "rabbits are +more his size, or a young fawn. The Negritos are safe enough, as far as +that goes." + +"What do they live on?" + +"Fish, mostly, together with roots and berries; and they can get all +they want with bow and arrow, or with a stone. They can throw a stone as +straight as you could shoot a bullet." + +"We ought to import some of them for baseball pitchers," suggested +Hamilton with a grin. "But it really must have been an awful job +enumerating them. And when it comes to poisoned arrows!--No thank you, +I'd rather stick to old Kentucky. Are there many of them?" + +"No," was the reply, "the Negrito is dying out, just as the aboriginal +tribes all over the world are doing. There are only about twenty-three +thousand of the Pygmies left now." + +"But there are more natives than that in the Philippines?" queried the +boy. + +"Hundreds of thousands. You see there are really three different types +of savages in the Philippines, according to the census reports. The +aboriginal tribes are the Negritos, perhaps as close to primitive man as +any people on earth; those are the ones I have been telling you about, +and they are a race all to themselves, as different from the rest of +the Filipinos as the negro is from the white man. The true Filipinos are +Malays." + +"Even the head-hunters?" + +"Certainly. There are Filipinos of two grades,--apparently of two +periods of migration. The first came and settled the islands away a long +time back, driving the Pygmies to the forests, and occupying the coasts +themselves. These tribes, the Igorots, the Ilongots, the Bilans, and so +forth, are of the same general type as the head-hunters of Borneo, and +some,--like the Ilongots--to this day carry out the savage custom that +'no young man can be accepted in marriage until he has presented his +bride with a human head.'" + +"That is certainly savage," Hamilton agreed; "one never thinks that sort +of thing can be going on still, and certainly not under the American +flag!" + +"It is, though," the Porto Rican replied. "The third group," he +continued, "the Moros and so forth, are all Mohammedans, and they seem +to have come to the islands after the semi-civilization of the Malay +archipelago and its submission to Mohammedanism. The Moros are haughty +and assume the air of conquerors. As the Igorots drove the Negritos to +the forest and thence to the wild interior, so the Moros drove the +Igorots. They are largely pure Malay, warlike and cruel, but shrewd and +capable of culture. They assume an over-lordship over all other tribes +and their Dattos can generally enforce it." + +"It seems strange," the boy said, "to think of going among those savages +and asking them the same questions that United States citizens were +asked, writing the answers on the same kind of schedules, and counting +these ferocious head-hunters on a tabulating machine." + +"Of course," the editor reminded him, "the Philippine census last time +was taken by the War Department, although the Bureau is even now +considering what will be the best way to attack the problem should it +have to take the next Philippine census, as it probably will. But while +it was primitive, the work wasn't so very different. They were able to +use advance schedules, for example." + +The boy stared, and his informant laughed outright. + +"They were a little different," he explained, "and it was during the +enumeration of the Igorots and similar tribes. It was soon found that +they could count up to ten but no further. A certain number of them +could grasp the idea of ten groups of ten. So a bundle of sticks was +sent to each village and each man was made to cut notches in these +sticks up to ten to show how many children, or pigs, or chickens he had. +In some of the villages so my uncle told me, the supervisor had a +branding iron made with which he had branded on the tally sticks the +figure of a pig, or a house, or a chicken or whatever it might be." + +"That is about as far back, I should think, as any one could go, in the +way of census-taking," the boy said. "I thought some of my up-country +negro farmers were barbaric--especially when I came across some +voodooism, but now I see I didn't know what barbarism meant." + +"There's just as much savagery--of a kind--right in the heart of +civilization," said the Porto Rican. "The slums of a great city are +little less dangerous than a Philippine jungle, and you will do well to +remember it." + +"Why should I remember it especially?" asked Hamilton in surprise. + +"Mr. Burns, who has been made an Inspector, told me the other day that +he expected to start soon for some of the larger cities, where reports +of census frauds had been made, and that he thought he would take you +along, if the Director was willing." + +"You mean the Mr. Burns I was with in New Haven?" + +"Yes, he seems to want to have you as his assistant in that work." + +"That would be just splendid," said Hamilton, his eyes shining, "but how +about the Porto Rican report, Mr. Alavero?" + +"I think I can manage it," the other replied, endeavoring to suppress a +smile, "and the chapter that you were working on is nearly done, isn't +it?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy answered, "I can finish it in a couple of days." + +"That will be in plenty of time," the editor assured him. "I don't think +Mr. Burns intends to start until some time next week." + +Before many days had passed Hamilton found the correctness of the Porto +Rican's information, for as he was busily engaged in compiling a big +tabulation on the proportion of breadwinners per age and sex for one of +the provinces of the island, his friend the special agent of +manufactures, under whom he had been at New Haven, strolled into the +office. + +"Why, Mr. Burns," the boy said delightedly, jumping up and shaking +hands, "I haven't seen you for ever so long." + +"I haven't been in Washington more than twenty-two per cent of the +time," was the reply "and I'm going away on the eleven-fifty next +Tuesday evening. Do you want to come along?" + +"But--" + +"The Director said, if you wanted to come, I could take you." + +"Where are we going, Mr. Burns?" + +"New York." + +"What for?" + +"Seems to me, Alavero," said the Inspector, turning to the Porto Rican, +"that you've been teaching this lad to ask questions. Out of the four +remarks he has made since I came in, two have been questions. Fifty per +cent is a high average. Well, I'll tell you," he added, turning to the +boy, "it's just this: there are always some cities that aren't satisfied +with the census. I believe of the cities of over thirty thousand +inhabitants at this census there has been something like nine, +decimal-eight-one per cent protests, and the most necessary of these the +Bureau investigates. Perhaps ten or a dozen in the entire country get a +recount. The Bureau doesn't officially recognize some of them but sends +an inspector to look over the ground, and see if everything was done +right. That's what we're going to do in New York." + +"All right," said Hamilton briefly. + +"You'll be on that train?" + +"Yes, Mr. Burns," the boy answered. "Eleven-fifty P.M., Tuesday." + +The opportunity was one which Hamilton had been coveting, for he felt +that if he only had a chance to get at the city methods he would have +covered almost the entire ground of the field-work of the Decennial +Census, and while he was sorry to leave his Porto Rican friend, still +the novelty appealed to him greatly, and in spite of his former chief's +mathematical conversation, Hamilton was genuinely fond of him. + +"I've been wondering, Mr. Burns," the boy said, as they stood in the +great concourse of the Union Station at Washington, "whether there would +not be a very large number of protests about census figures,--people +always seem to have such an exaggerated idea of the size of their own +towns." + +"There is to some extent," Burns replied. "I think something like a +hundred places filed protests in this last census." + +"Then I read something, too, about census frauds," Hamilton said, "soon +after the taking of the census, in which it was suggested that some +enumerators--who were paid per capita--had bolstered up the figures in +order to get more out of it." + +"There was a little of that," the Inspector said, "but by far the +greatest amount of fraud was due to the desire on the part of the +inhabitants of a town or city to make the place appear larger and more +important. Tacoma, Washington, was the most flagrant example of this, +why, they padded 32,527 names there, and even when the Census had made a +recount they tried to repeat the same performance, complaining of the +results and demanding a second recount." + +"Was this granted?" + +"It was," the Inspector replied, "largely in order that the Census +Bureau itself might have an opportunity to check the correctness of its +methods. The second recount was performed by expert statisticians and +with extreme care." + +"And how did it come out?" the boy asked. + +"It substantiated the first recount in every way. It was, indeed, a +wonderful object lesson in showing how small is the margin of error in +the United States Census." + +"But was there really much fraud among the enumerators and supervisors, +Mr. Burns?" + +"With perhaps one exception, no criticism could be made of the +supervisors, but you can't have 70,000 enumerators, chosen for temporary +work, and expect perfection! There was quite a little over-counting, +caused by entering hotel transients as having permanent residences, by +numbering citizens both at business and home addresses, and the constant +difficulty of the floating population. Deliberate frauds were very few; +where trouble was found it was usually discovered to have been due to +the unauthorized activity of committees of boards of trade or other +commercial organizations, giving lists of names all ready to be copied +on the enumerator's schedule, which the latter did not take the time and +trouble to verify." + +"Then do you think the net result of the census is to make it seem that +there are more people in the country than really are here?" + +"No," the Inspector replied confidently, "the total figures are an +understatement, probably of about one per cent, maybe a little less, but +certainly not much more." + +"I think that's mighty close," Hamilton said. "But do towns never wish +to have small numbers announced?" + +"There was only one case, so far as I know," the other replied, "in +which a Business Men's Association wrote and demanded a recount on the +ground that the figures were too big. The reason was a dispute about +raising city salaries when a certain population mark was reached. + +"And now, Noble," he continued, moving on toward the train platform, "we +want to look into the question of statistics in New York carefully. +Personally I believe the work has been as well done as possible, and I +know the Director is satisfied, but one or two little matters have come +up, which want looking into." + +Being on a midnight train, Hamilton had no chance for further talk with +the Inspector; but it was quite a home-coming when, after passing +through the great tunnels under the Hudson River, he found himself next +morning among the skyscrapers of New York again. + +"I suppose every one feels the same way about his own town," Hamilton +said, "but it always seems to me that you feel the bigness of things +more in New York than anywhere. In Washington there always seems lots of +time to do everything you want, but New York is just made up of hustle. +You've got to know what you want in this city and you've got to do it in +a hurry, before some one else gets there first." + +"New York certainly is hurried and restless; I can't say I like the +noise and the skyscrapers," replied Burns. + +"But it's great the way those buildings tower up," the boy exclaimed +enthusiastically, "the low houses and poky ways of older and smaller +cities look as though they were made for dwarfs, after living in the New +York streets." + +"Yet there are taller buildings, in other places, even in Europe," the +statistician remarked. + +"Spires!" answered the boy, "propped up by buttresses and flying +buttresses and all the rest of it so as to keep them from falling. Look +at those," he added, pointing at the skyscrapers before him, "they're +not afraid to stand by themselves; they mean something, they have a use, +while a spire just sticks straight up, pointing at nothing and being of +no service unless it is to hang bells in a belfry. I don't care what +people say about those crazy old tumble-down buildings of the Middle +Ages, they may be beautiful and all that, but they're useless nowadays. +The New York skyscraper is the greatest example of architecture in the +world because it best does what it was built to do." + +"You are enthusiastic, Noble," said his friend. + +"I'm a New Yorker all the way through," the lad continued, "and I want +to feel that I'm right in the whirl of things, where there is so much to +do that you can't crowd it into a day, where the fun is at the same +speed as the work. No backwaters for me, I want to be right out in the +center. I don't say that I'm going to win, but I want to be a game sport +and try my strength with the rest of the crowd in the current, sink or +swim. It's all right to say that the heart of the nation is Washington, +and the backbone is the farm, but its nerve center is here,--right here +in New York. America's the wonder of the world, all right, but all there +is to it is capital plus brains, and New York is the furnace that melts +them down into that quickness and grip on things we call the American +spirit. Millions from every race of the world come here, and the Statue +of Liberty is the first symbol, and the skyscrapers of lower New York +the first reality they see of the Land of Promise." + +"How about the inside of these great shells of structure?" + +"No such office buildings in the world," the boy answered +enthusiastically. "The salt winds from over three thousand miles of +ocean blow around them; in their steel walls there are lots of windows; +lightning speed elevators make the top floor easier to get at than the +second story of a dark, old-fashioned staircase building; and I've heard +that the marble mosaic entrances of the larger of them put the Italian +palaces to shame. I don't know Europe, but I do know New York, and I +believe, Mr. Burns, if you knew it as I do, you'd be as proud of it +too." + +The Inspector looked at the boy quietly. + +"You're wrong," he said soberly, "in thinking that I don't know New +York. To-morrow morning you do a little work in a section of the city in +which you have probably never been, and I think we'll hear less tall +talk. If you could count the tens of thousands of families who live in +rooms with nothing but court windows; if you could find out in how many +thousand families children are toiling under sweatshop conditions till +far into the night; if you were to ask the tuberculosis district nurses +what conditions they find, you might then do a little thinking on your +own account. It's only right you should be proud of New York, but you'd +better see both sides before you are sure of yourself. Now, I suppose +you're going home?" + +"Yes, sir," said Hamilton, a little taken aback by his friend's rebuke. + +"Call at my hotel early to-morrow morning and I'll start you on a +'Seeing New York' trip of a new kind." And turning off sharply, the +Inspector swung himself aboard a passing cross-town car. + +Nine o'clock the next morning found Hamilton in one of the worst +districts he had ever seen. Thronged as it was, the boy was sufficiently +conscious of his difference from the people he met to feel +uncomfortable. He had one of the schedules that had been filled out +during the enumeration of the city, and the Inspector had bidden him +verify certain portions of it which were either confusing or slightly +incorrect. This was to be done in a dozen or so districts, and if the +information was found to be adequate, showing that the enumerators' +work had been faithfully done, there would be no need for further +inspection. + +The home manufacture of ostrich feathers first gave Hamilton a clear +insight into poverty. Four or five rooms each occupied by a family of +several persons he entered in one tenement, and in each he found three +or four people working over ostrich plumes, working nervously at high +speed, afraid to stop, even for a moment. He noted conditions carefully, +and was amazed to find that each of the little strands was wired--he had +always supposed that plumes grew upon the ostrich the way that they are +sold. + +In one such family dejection seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. The +window looked out on a court,--a court that was never cleaned and where +all manner of rubbish was thrown. Although it was morning and a +brilliant, sunshiny day, the light within was so dim that it was hard to +work by; yet with characteristic shiftlessness the window had not been +washed for months and diminished still further the little light there +was; a mattress in the opposite corner from a shaky cooking gas-burner +showed that this room was the entire home. + +[Illustration: TAKING THE CENSUS IN A CITY. Enumerator at a doorway, +entering in his portfolio the details of a household.] + +"Where is your husband?" asked the boy, noting on the schedule a man's +name as head of the family. + +"In hospital--perhaps dead. See!" + +The woman pointed to a telegram which had fallen to the floor. Hamilton +picked it up. It read: + +"John Sobieski worse. Come at once," and was signed with the name of one +of the large hospitals. + +"Did you go?" asked the boy. + +The woman shook her head. + +"Two hours lost, if I go. No good. Two hours' work means twenty-four +cents. What's the use?" + +"What's the matter with him?" + +"Consumption. I die soon, next year, perhaps. All the children sick." + +The boy looked around at 'all the children.' There were five of them in +that room, and all--even the youngest, a baby four years old--were +knotting the feathers on the plume. The baby could hardly do it, but he +was learning. + +"Many hands make light work," said Hamilton as cheerfully as he could. +"With so many little workers you ought to get along finely." + +"Yes," the woman answered listlessly, "we get along. Some days we make +as much as a dollar!" + +"Each of you?" + +"Do we look so rich? One dollar for everybody. But that is only +sometimes, when I am not too sick. We can get a little more than five +dollar the week, by working all the time." + +The boy hastily asked the remaining questions on the schedule, found +everything correctly reported and relieving his conscience by giving a +little help out of his own pocket, he left for the next place. + +On the floor below was a family working on fur, every one of them with +hacking coughs caused by tiny particles of fur in the lungs. + +"We work or we starve," was again the unanswerable explanation. + +In the house next door, embroidering rich cloaks, Hamilton found a +family of which several of the members had a bad infectious skin +disease. Chancing to meet a health inspector soon afterwards he told him +about this family and gave him their address. + +"I can stop it, as far as this family is concerned," the health officer +said, "and I suppose I ought to. But you know what it means, I +suppose?" + +"What?" asked the boy. + +"It means, if I take their work away, they will starve to death in a +couple of weeks." + +"And if you don't?" + +"If I don't, they'll go on spreading disease. Oh, I'll have to put a +stop to it, of course, but tell me what is going to happen to the +family." + +"They ought to go to a hospital," Hamilton said. + +The health officer shook his head. + +"They are not hospital cases," he said. "None of them need more medical +attention than they can get in a dispensary, and every hospital to which +they applied would treat them in an Out-Patient department. They would +have to take in more work, or die." + +"But where would they get the work?" + +"Any of these sweatshop jobbers will give it to them. It makes no +difference to the middlemen where the work is done or out of what dens +it comes, as long as it is done cheap." + +"And is all clothing open to the same risk?" asked the boy. + +The health inspector shook his head. + +"Cheap clothing is not," he said, "because even the cheapest kind of +labor is more expensive than machinery, and machine-made clothes are +clean. But costly dresses which need hand embroidery are sent to +sweatshops to be done. Not all, of course, but enough of them to keep +thousands of women and children working day and night the year round. +The more elaborate the gown, the longer is it likely to have been in a +tenement that the future wearer would not even allow her dog to enter." + +From house to house Hamilton went, finding misery at every step, with +the single consolation that the schedule showed in almost every case +that the son or the daughter who was working had moved out of the slums, +or that the family had progressed sufficiently to find better quarters. +Everywhere the children from these fearful homes seemed to have been +dowered with promise, and as Burns had suggested, the sole comfort and +hope for the future lay in the fact that the New York slum is a +one-generation slum. + +It was growing toward noon when Hamilton finished the short list that +the Inspector had given him in that poorest section, and he was glad +when he was able to leave the pressure of the poverty behind him. His +next district was a section of the Italian quarter, and Hamilton knew +that while he would find poverty of a certain kind there, there was +enough of the community spirit among the Italians to prevent such +conditions as he had witnessed and enough frugality among them to enable +them to make the best of all they had. + +Feeling that it was time for lunch, the boy hunted around a while for +some restaurant that looked as though it would serve a meal that would +not be too distasteful. After a little search he found a small place +that seemed to be just the thing. The sign board was in Italian and the +list of dishes pasted on the windows was in Italian, but Hamilton's +Spanish enabled him to make out what the phrases meant, and he went in. +At a table not far from the door, a man was sitting with his back to the +entrance. He did not hear the lad's step until Hamilton was just behind +him, then, with an Italian cry, he turned upon its face the paper on +which he had been writing, and jumped to his feet so quickly that the +chair on which he had been sitting overturned, and he stumbled as he +stepped back a pace or two. He glared threateningly at the boy, who +apologized for startling him. But it was evident that the man did not +understand a word of English. + +Hearing the clatter the proprietor came out from an inner room, and +seeing the Italian standing there, broke into a passionate torrent of +speech, all utterly unintelligible to Hamilton. + +"I hava told heem," he explained to the boy, "that I not wanta heem in +this-a place at all." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said Hamilton, "I don't like his looks. +Can I have some dinner?" he added, laying on the table a book he had +just taken from his pocket, for the boy when alone always read at his +meals. + +"Certainly, sair," and the proprietor rattled off a string of dishes +from which the boy made a copious selection, for he was hungry. + +But he noticed that the man who had been sitting at the table had not +left the place but was furtively watching, a few steps away. He was an +ugly-looking customer, and Hamilton, full of grit as he was, felt +uneasy. Casting his eye down to where he had laid his book, he noticed +the piece of paper sticking from beneath it, and noticed moreover, a +heavy shadow as though there were a drawing on the other side. His pulse +beat a little faster as an idea came into his mind, but he showed no +sign until the proprietor returned to set the table. + +"I think," he said, watching the stranger carefully as he spoke, "that +gentleman left a paper behind him. Ask him." + +The proprietor, looking much puzzled, put a question in Italian, to +which was evidently returned a sharp denial. + +Still watching him, Hamilton slowly reached out his hand for the paper +which lay on the table, only half-hidden by the book, and turning it +over laid it flat upon the white cloth. + +It was the Black Hand. + +[Illustration: FESTA IN THE ITALIAN QUARTER. Boys in Little Italy, New +York, preparing for one of the many characteristic holidays. (_Brown +Bros._)] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RIOTS AROUND A CITY SCHOOL + + +There was a moment's utter silence. The bright little restaurant had +suddenly become charged with mystery, the slinking stranger seemed to +have become in a moment allied to secret powers of evil, and the whole +atmosphere seemed baneful in the sinister significance of that drawing +on the table. A glance at the restaurant-keeper dispelled all question +of complicity. His jaw had fallen, his face was ashen, his lips bluish. + +The other saw his advantage in the terror the mere display had excited, +and stepping forward, he reached out his hand to pick up the paper, +saying in English: + +"Mine!" + +Before the Italian had time to grasp the sketch, Hamilton quietly took +it and folded it in half. + +"I wouldn't be so ready to claim it, if I were you," he said, knowing +that the other might not understand the words but could tell the tone. + +"What are you going to do?" queried the restaurant-keeper in a hoarse +whisper. "They will kill-a me!" + +Hamilton thought hard for a moment or two. In the first place the matter +had nothing to do with the Census Bureau, and the boy felt that while he +was on duty in that work and wearing the census badge he was not a +private citizen. Again, it was not a crime to draw a hand on a piece of +paper, and the space obviously left for the blackmail message had not +been filled in, and thirdly he could not swear that he saw him draw the +hand; he only saw the paper in the man's possession. + +"Tell him," he said to the restaurant-keeper, "that I shall say nothing +about it, that I am not a policeman, nor a spy; tell him that so far as +I am concerned I do not know that he had anything to do with it, and +return him the paper." + +And bending forward, he reached out the paper to the Italian, who first +snatched it eagerly, and then, having secured it, made a ceremonious +bow. The proprietor of the restaurant translated the boy's words, and +with a brief reply, which Hamilton rightly construed to be thanks, the +stranger left the store. No sooner was he gone than the restaurateur, +with a word of apology, sank into the nearest chair, fairly exhausted +with fright. + +"I tell you, sair," he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "I +had-a nothing at all to do with that-a man." + +"It's pretty hard to know about these things," said Hamilton, who was +somewhat unnerved himself, "but I don't believe you had. Anyway, there's +no harm done. I've always heard about the Black Hand society, but I +didn't expect to run across it first thing, that way." + +"There is no Black-a Hand society," the Italian said, "at least I do not +think there is." + +"How do you mean there's no Black Hand?" asked Hamilton a little +indignantly, "haven't I just seen it?" + +The Italian shook his head. + +"What were you so scared about, then?" queried the boy impatiently. + +"Mafia," said the other, his lips just shaping the syllables. + +"You mean that the Mafia use the Black Hand?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"And that it is the sign of the Mafia?" + +"No," said the restaurant proprietor. "It is this-a way. When the Mafia +was all-a broken up in-a the Sicily, the chiefs come to America. But the +people are so far away it is difficult-a to speak-a to them all. One day +one of the Mafia leaders write a letter threatening to kill. His--what +you call it--nickname was 'Il Mano Nera'--" + +"That means 'The Black Hand,' doesn't it?" queried the boy. + +The Italian nodded. + +"He sign at the bottom with a Black Hand because the man-a to whom he +write, once was member of the Mafia. The police see the letter, a +newspaper print-a big long story about Italian society which have the +Black-a Hand for its sign, and saying that much recent murders was done. +Everybody become-a frightened, and the Mafia and the Camorra right away +both begin-a to use Black Hand. So you see when I say there is no +Black-a Hand society, no chief, no place-a to meet, no meetings, no +plan-a to share money, no oath, it is quite true, but if I say there is +a society which used the Black-a Hand that is true, too. But all I +want-a to do is to be let alone. Now, I will get you your dinner, sair." + +Hamilton felt distinctly uncomfortable in being left alone, not feeling +at all sure that the man who had been there before would not suddenly +dash in upon him unawares and stab him in the back with a stiletto to +make sure of his not talking, nor that the restaurant-keeper might not +put some poison in his coffee. Take it all in all, it was the most +nerve-racking meal he had ever eaten. + +Chatting with the Inspector that evening over his Black Hand experiences +he found that his chief took a very serious view of the question. + +"If we were receiving immigrants from the north of Italy," he said, "it +would be an entirely different matter, but all the Italians who are +coming in now are from the 'toe' and the 'heel' of Italy, and from +Sicily. You see, the north of Italy are really Celts, like the French +and Irish, being descended from the Lombards, but the Sicilians and +Calabrians are a mixture of the old pirates, the Moors, and the +degenerated Latin races that were left when the Roman Empire fell to +pieces. The endeavor to break up the Mafia sent all the leaders of that +nefarious Sicilian society here, and now the attack upon the Neapolitan +Camorra lands another criminal group. Italy has sent us a larger +proportion of criminals than any other country, and under our present +laws, if they have been three years here, they cannot be deported. The +Vincenzo Abadasso case was a good example of the folly of that rule." + +"Who was he?" asked Hamilton. + +"He was an Italian immigrant who had been arrested twenty-seven times +and convicted twenty-five and who came over here a couple of years ago. +Within a few months of his arrival he was arrested here and sentenced to +three years' imprisonment And now, although he is a professed criminal, +they won't be able to deport him, because when his prison term is up, he +will have been in the United States three years." + +"I suppose there are a lot of Italians coming over now?" said Hamilton +questioningly. + +"A little over three weeks ago," was the reply, "as I heard from a +friend in the Immigration Bureau, there was a funeral in a small village +near Naples and not enough able-bodied civilians could be found in the +place to carry the casket. All of them were in America. There are scores +of towns in southern Italy where all the work--of every kind--is done +now by the women, because the men have emigrated." + +"What do you think about this Black Hand business?" + +"I think your friend the restaurant-keeper was nearly right, only that +it is being used by all sorts of crooks as well, who have no connection +with either the Mafia or the Camorra. Mark you, I think those two secret +societies are apt to be much misrepresented, just as the Jesuits were +during the Middle Ages and the Freemasons were at other periods. The +Camorra was once simply the Tammany Hall of Naples. But when, as +happened last year, there were six hundred and fourteen Black Hand +outrages in two States in four months it is idle to say that it does not +exist in America. The Camorrist trials over the Cuocolo murders at +Viterbo, perhaps the most sensational in the world since the Dreyfus +case, have shown its power to be more dangerous than any one could for a +moment have imagined. And the danger lies here--there are more +Camorrists in New York than in Naples!" + +For a moment the boy looked at the Inspector, astounded. + +"You mean--" he began, and stopped. + +"I mean that the worst elements of the two worst societies in Europe are +concentrating in New York, and that unless rigorous measures are taken +to keep them down, America will harbor graver dangers than any it has +yet known. Russian nihilism, Polish anarchism, German socialism may join +hands with the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra to institute a +criminal organization such as the world has never seen before. There are +enough ignorant immigrants to yield to a wave of fear, and the Black +Hand thrives and grows on terror. But, wisely held in check until they +learn, these very Sicilians and Neapolitans bring much that is of value +to the making of an American people." + +"Oh, there couldn't be any real danger!" Hamilton exclaimed. "The spirit +of American institutions would prevent such a happening; that could only +be in some old-world city like Naples. The Camorra comes down from the +Middle Ages, anyway." + +The Inspector shook his head. + +"I hope so," he said, "and I only trust you may be right," and he turned +the subject to the actual work in hand. + +It so chanced that the very next day Hamilton had an opportunity of +seeing, in a mild way, how truly the Inspector had spoken with regard to +the alienizing of the crowds in the streets of New York. He had been +working steadily several hours, and early in the afternoon he noticed a +great deal of shouting in the streets. Being curious, and noticing that +numbers of women were hurrying past, gesticulating violently, Hamilton +followed, until almost before he was aware, the crowd grew so dense as +to engulf him, and he was carried along, whether he would or no, up the +street. Some of the women were crying, some shrieking, and all wore a +furtive, strained expression as though in great distress. + +Although there was a great deal of shouting, not a word was in a +language familiar to Hamilton, and although he questioned every one +around him he could find no one that understood his questions. All that +he could gather was from some one in the front of the crowd who kept on +crying out in English at irregular intervals: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Even if the boy had desired to break through the crowd to return to his +work he could not have done so, and he really did not wish to,--he was +too much interested in following the purposes of the throng. Finally the +people stopped, but the boy was so far back that he could see nothing of +what was going on at the head of the crowd. Being determined, however, +Hamilton elbowed his way by main force and reached the woman who was +still crying: + +"Our children, we want our children!" + +Hamilton spoke to her, but the woman paid no heed. Finally, seeing that +she would not listen, he shouted at her as harshly as he could. Then she +turned and tried to answer his questions. + +"What's all the row about?" he asked. + +"They rob us. Steal our children. Make them walk far away, never see our +children any more. Oh, my Mario, oh, my Petronilla. Oh, our children, we +want our children!" + +Further information the boy could not get. He worked his way clear to +the front of the mob and saw the police gathering on all sides. Breaking +through the front rank he stepped up to the nearest policeman, who +merely shifted his grip on his night stick. + +"That's quite a mob," he said in a conversational tone. + +"It is that, sorr," said the policeman, recognizing immediately that the +boy was not one of the rioters. + +"I'm a census officer," the boy continued, "and I was doing some +inspection work for the census when I got caught in the crowd. What's +the matter with them?" + +"'Tis a bunch of dummies they are," was the reply; "'tis thinkin' they +are that the schools are goin' to steal their children. As if any one +would be wantin' their brats. The most of us has enough of our own to +keep." + +"But why should the school want to steal their children? Do you mean +that they don't want them to go to school?" + +"'Tis not that, sorr," the Irishman answered, "but 'tis due to some +'fire drill' business. The little ones are taught in the school that +when a bell rings--'tis the fire bell I'm m'anin'--they sh'd all march +out dacintly and in order. 'Tis a good idea, that same, an' I'm favorin' +it. But it's hard to make the children see it, so that they have to +drill them often." + +"That all seems right enough," Hamilton answered. + +"Ye would think so, sorr," continued the policeman "But most of these +mothers come from countries on the other side where they make them +soldiers whether they want to be or not, an' this drillin' business +scares the old folks 'most to death." + +"But if it continues and nothing happens, I don't see why they should go +on being scared. You would think the children had grown used to it." + +"The children! They're not makin' any trouble, it's all the parents." + +"Then what started it?" + +"There was some street corner lecturer here the day before yisterday, +tryin' to teach the people that children were the cause of poverty an' +that the only way to prevent poverty was to get rid of the children, +either by havin' fewer or by shippin' off the existin' surplus." + +"It's silly for them to heed a man like that!" + +"It's worse than silly, sorr," the policeman said. "But even then I +don't believe there would have been trouble. But yisterday, some rich +lady, plannin' to give the children a picnic this afternoon and a treat, +told them they were all goin' out to the country and that they must tell +their mothers they wouldn't be home until late." + +"What about that?" asked the boy. "I should think they would be glad +that the children should have some pleasure. From all I've seen recently +of the way people live in this neighborhood, I don't believe the +children have any too much good times." + +"An' so they should be glad, sorr, but they won't see it that way. They +know the children have been drilled for weeks an' weeks; they know a man +on the street corner said the children ought to be shipped away; an' the +next day they are told that the children are goin' to be taken into the +country, an' they don't believe the children'll ever come back." + +"Surely they can't be as silly as all that! And what do you suppose they +want to do?" + +"They don't know what they want," the policeman answered, "but it's a +bad business when a crowd gathers. Look there now!" + +Hamilton looked where the man was pointing. On the outskirts of the +crowd the boy noted a number of half-grown toughs, hoodlums, and +trouble-makers generally. The cries were increasing, and the boy could +see that these men were doing all they could to stir up the rest of the +crowd. + +"Where they come from, I don't know," the police officer said, "but any +time that there's a little trouble, they'll make it as big as they can." + +"But the whole thing's so absurd," the boy said. "What do they think +they're going to do,--raid the school?" He laughed. + +The policeman turned on him quickly. + +"'Tis absurd, as ye say, sorr," he said rebukingly "but there's many a +good man been hurt with less cause than this. That crowd's growin' by +thousands. Do you slip away, sorr, I'm afraid there's goin' to be +trouble." + +"Not much," Hamilton answered, "now I'm in this far, I'm going to stay +and see the fun out." + +"Well then, sorr," advised the policeman, "ye'd better slip through the +school gates. Show your census badge, and the other men at the gate will +let ye through." + +Thanking him, Hamilton walked across the narrow stretch of road between +the foremost ranks of the crowd and the little group of policemen +gathered in front of the school entrance. As he did so, a bottle came +whizzing at his head with deadly aim. Fortunately he had been keeping +his head partly turned curiously toward the crowd, and he saw the +missile in time to dodge. It missed him and went hurtling on, just +passing between two policemen and smashing on the iron bars of the +railing. + +"You nearly got hit that time," said one of the policemen, as Hamilton +showed his badge and was let through. "How did you get in with them?" + +"Just doing my work," the boy answered, "and got carried right along. I +was curious at first,--then when I wanted to get out I found I couldn't. +I think," he added, a little nervously, for the flying jagged bottle had +startled him not a little, "that's the first time I've been in front of +a mob." + +"I wish it was the last I'm likely to be," was the reply, "especially a +crowd of women like that. Men you know what to do with." + +"What do you suppose they'll do?" asked the boy. "Try to rush the +school?" + +"They did once not far from here," the policeman answered, "it was a +school on the East Side, where nearly all the children were Jewish, and +in order to make it easier for the poorer children the school +authorities had opened a sort of restaurant where the kids could get +lunch for three cents. The story got abroad that the children were +getting ham and pork, and the whole section rose in arms. We tried to +disperse them and couldn't. There was no way of reasoning with them, +there was nothing they could do, but they just hung around." + +"What for?" + +"Waiting a chance to burn the school down, every one seemed to think. +They did make one rush toward the end of the afternoon, and several +people were wounded. One of our men was badly stabbed, but he got over +it. Watch now," he added, in a sharp voice. "There's something doing!" + +The crowd hushed a moment, and a man's voice could be heard, but whether +pacifying the women or inflaming them, Hamilton could not make out. The +next moment answered him. Without any apparent preparation, the whole +face of the crowd suddenly seemed to burst, the end closed in, and in a +second one of the wildest hordes Hamilton had ever seen was at the +school gates. There was a brief struggle and nightsticks were drawn. The +crowd rolled back, then surged on, more angrily than before. But the +bluecoats stood firm, and when the crowd rolled back the second time a +number showed broken heads. + +"Son," called the police lieutenant, "you scamper along, and tell the +principal to hurry up with letting out the school. I sent him one +message now this means business." + +Hamilton turned and ran for all he was worth toward the building, but +just as he reached there, he saw the children marching in regular order +out of the rear door, and he came back immediately to report. As he did +so he found that the crowd was getting ready to make a third attempt to +attack the police, when, turning the corner, sauntering down the narrow +lane between the crowd and the police, came an Italian boy, about +fourteen years old, with half a dozen other ragged boys at his heels. On +seeing him, the lieutenant turned to Hamilton. + +"That's Caesar," he said, with a sigh of relief. "I've known him for the +past year or two, and he'll settle all this trouble." + +The boy looked at the police lieutenant with surprise. The police force +had had trouble enough, and what could a boy do? He voiced his query. + +"His father's a 'Man of Silence,'" was the reply, "and Caesar himself +knows all there is to know. You'll see." + +Arriving at the center of the crowd, just by the school gate, the boy +turned, and speaking to the nearest officer, said, in English, without a +trace of foreign accent, shrugging his shoulders: + +"Some of them won't ever learn!" + +For a moment he scanned the mob, called the names of two or three men on +the outskirts, and Hamilton could see them wince as this +fourteen-year-old lad named them; then he commenced a speech, which +seemed,--so far as Hamilton could tell--to be ridiculing them for their +fears. + +The crowd relaxed, and for a moment Hamilton thought the whole trouble +was over; but suddenly a man sprang to the front of the rioters, and +gesticulating wildly, answered the boy in what seemed to be a +threatening tone. The young Italian lad heard him through patiently, +then almost without raising his voice, uttered one crisp sentence. The +man turned white to the lips and slunk away. + +"Ask him," said Hamilton to a policeman, "what he said?" + +"I only asked him," the Italian said, "if he wanted me to find out his +name--so that you would know it if you wanted to arrest him of course," +he added, as an afterthought. + +The policeman looked at him and pulled the boy's ear, in fun. + +"Av I knew as much about some things as you do," he said, "they'd make +me chief. Maybe, though," he added, "I wouldn't hold it long. But what +about this, Caesar, is it all over?" + +The Italian nodded. + +"See," he said, "they all go!" + +It was as the boy said; Hamilton could see that little by little the +crowd was dispersing and that the members of the boyish gang were going +all through the groups, evidently explaining that the trouble was all +over. + +"Ye see what we're up against," the policeman said to Hamilton. "Here's +a slip of a lad that c'n just make a crowd do what he says because his +father is a leader in the Mafia. There's never any one gives credit +enough to the force for keepin peace, between all these foreigners and +the Chinks; this ain't an American city, it's a racial nightmare." + +"Do the Chinese give much trouble, then?" + +"Not such a great deal usually, but they do once in a while. There's +bloody murder in Chinatown going on now, or going to begin mighty soon. +Three were killed yesterday and the word was given out at Headquarters +this morning that the Tongs were out." + +[Illustration: THE FIGHTING MEN OF THE TONGS. The younger combatants of +the Five Brothers outside the impregnably guarded headquarters in +Chinatown, New York.] + +"Have we Tongs in New York?" asked Hamilton. "I've heard all about the +troubles in the West. Before the fire in San Francisco, I know, there +were fifteen organized Tongs of Highbinders, each with its paid band of +'Hatchet Men' for no other purpose than to rule Chinatown. The man who +got up the report for the government told me that 'Frisco Chinatown was +far more under Tong rule and had far more crimes in proportion than any +city in China." + +"There are six strong Tongs in New York that I know about," the +policeman answered, "and I guess there are a lot more. But I reckon it's +the same in 'Frisco as it is here, they keep their killings to +themselves, and they don't let any white men get mixed up in it at all. +That's why you never can tell anything about it. But right now Chinatown +is pretty dangerous, and all the sight-seeing business there has been +shut off. No one is going into Mott and Pell Streets now." + +"Pell Street!" exclaimed the boy. "Is that in Chinatown?" + +"Right in the heart of it," was the reply. "Why?" + +"Because I'm headed there now," Hamilton answered, taking from his +pocket the schedule he had been given by Burns to check up, and showing +it to the officer. + +"That's Chinatown all right," the policeman said, "just look at the +names!" + +"I hadn't looked at it closely," the boy remarked, "why, yes, so it is. +Well, Tong or no Tong, I suppose I've got to chance it, if those are +orders." + +The policeman shook his head. + +"Looks to me as though you'd have to wait a while. Take some other +district first and come back next week." + +"Can't," the boy answered. "The Census Inspector and I have to go to +'Frisco to straighten out a Chinese tangle over the census there. The +Chinese refused point-blank to have anything to do with the census, and +there was a heap of trouble." + +"What was it?" asked the policeman, walking along beside Hamilton in the +direction of Chinatown, his beat extending to the limits of that +section. + +"When the rule for the census was issued, so they told me in +Washington," Hamilton answered, "in order to make sure that the Chinese +would not place any obstacles in the way, not only was a copy of the +President's proclamation in Chinese pasted all over the walls of the +city, but, in addition a decree was made by the Chinese consul-general +that it was the wish of the Chinese government that the population in +the city be properly numbered." + +"That was a good idea," said the policeman approvingly. + +"It would have been," said Hamilton, "if the Chinese had paid any +attention to it. Instead of that, some of the Tongs got together and had +a brief threat printed and pasted across the face of the President's +proclamation, as well as that of the consul, that no Chinaman was to +give any information to a census officer, unless he wanted to come under +the displeasure of the Tongs." + +"The nerve of them!" + +"At this," continued the boy, "the consul put out a second order, +sharper than the first, not only commanding obedience, but pointing out +that refusal would lay the person refusing open to fine or imprisonment. +Over these second orders again was pasted the former threat of the +Tongs. A few days later the enumerators, each accompanied by a +policeman, went through Chinatown. The Chinese wouldn't understand any +language, not even their own. They didn't refuse to give information, +they simply answered, 'No understand' when any question was asked." + + TRANSLATION OF THE PROCLAMATION + + Whereas, the Director of the Census Bureau of the Department of + Commerce and Labor of the United States, in a letter to His + Excellency Chang, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's Envoy + Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, requests that, since it + has been the custom of the United States to take a census of the + population once in every ten years, many of which have been taken + and are on record, and since the present year is the time for + taking another such census, which is to include the people of every + nationality residing within the territory of the United States, and + as the Chinese residents of this country, through possible + ignorance of the English language, may mistake the object of the + enumerators to be that of ascertaining what the people possess and + its value, in order to impose taxes, or that of investigating the + certificates of registration, etc., a proclamation be issued fully + explaining the matter to the Chinese people; + + And whereas, instructions have been received from His Excellency to + the effect that, the taking of a census being merely to ascertain + the population of the country, and having no connection in any way + with the imposing of taxes or the examination of certificates by + the customs authorities of the Treasury Department, and for fear + that our countrymen may not understand the purpose and make trouble + through a mistaken notion of the whole proceeding, the + Consul-General at San Francisco and the Consul at New York shall + publish and make known to all Chinese residing in every part of the + United States that it is the custom of the United States to take a + census at stated intervals, that this proceeding has no connection + with the laying of taxes or the examination of certificates of + residence, that our countrymen have no cause for suspicion or + alarm, but, as soon as the enumerators present themselves, they + should answer the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law: + + Now, therefore, we, Li Yung Yew, His Imperial Chinese Majesty's + Consul-General at the port of San Francisco, and Yang Yu Ying, His + Imperial Chinese Majesty's Consul at the port of New York, in + pursuance of instructions as aforesaid, do hereby publish and make + known that inasmuch as it is the custom of the United States to + take a census of the population thereof once in every ten years, + and as this proceeding has no connection whatever with the laying + of taxes or the examination of certificates of residence, and as + all persons irrespective of nationality are to be enumerated under + the provisions of the law, our countrymen should not be alarmed or + cherish any suspicion, but, as soon as the proper officers of the + Census Bureau present themselves with this Consular proclamation, + should answer all the questions put to them without evasion or + reservation, in order not to incur the penalty of the law. + + A list of the questions to be answered is hereby appended for the + information of all concerned: + + Population schedule (32 questions). + + Agriculture schedule (59 questions). + + Dated Hsuan Tung, second year, First moon (February, 1910), and + sealed with our respective seals of office. + + + THIRTEENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES + + CHINESE CONSULAR PROCLAMATION + + [Illustration: Chinese text] + + (SEE TRANSLATION ABOVE) + +"What was finally done?" the policeman queried. + +"The Consul-General had to ask the Five Companies to back up the census +order, and they did. The fifth layer of paper was put on the billboards, +and the Five Companies, without beating around the bush, just ordered +the Chinese to do as they were told." + +"I've always heard that the Five Companies were stronger on the Pacific +coast than they are here. I wonder why?" + +"I asked that very question," Hamilton said, "and the man who told me +all about this explained that it was because they controlled the Chinese +slave traffic to America." + +"'Tis like enough," the policeman agreed, "and of course the most of +that would be on the other slope. But there's enough of it here, just +the same, and half the trouble between the Tongs is because of it." + +"That was what started the trouble in Oakland between the Hop Sings +and the Bing Gongs," Hamilton said, "and there were eight men killed in +that. It began over the possession of a slave girl who had been given as +security for debt. But they never caught any one for that." + +[Illustration: ARRESTED AS THE FIRING STOPS. Watching the close of a +shooting affray; the principals trying to escape the police.] + +"You can't ever catch a Chinaman," the policeman said. "I've arrested a +dozen myself--but it never did any good. Look at Boston--it was open +talk that there were two regular executioners under Tong law, but the +Chinks got out of it by tellin' the judge that there never had been any +executions and that it was merely an ancient title!" + +"There have been cases in New York, too," the boy said, "that they +haven't found out yet!" + +"It doesn't matter what the case is--you can never prove it on them. +Look at that young girl, a missionary, who was killed! And that's only +one of dozens. And they can shoot, and shoot straight, too!" he added. +"Look at the shooting galleries," the two were walking down the Bowery, +"they've been kept going for years by the practice of the Tong marksmen. +You'd never think it, but some of those Highbinders could make our crack +shots do their best to keep an even score. Well," he broke off, "here +we are at Mott Street. Bob," he called to the policeman across the +street, "here's a young fellow wants to go into Chinatown." + +"Sorry, sir," said the other, a great big burly fellow, coming forward +to meet them, "but orders are strict. No one going in at all, unless on +business." + +"It is on business, officer," said Hamilton. "I'm a census agent and the +Inspector told me to check up some names on this schedule." + +The policeman took it and looked it over. + +"I think those are all right, sir," he said, "I know most of 'em by +name. But that's one of those underground places and we don't any of us +go down there any more than we have to. Of course when we have to +go--why, that's another matter. I think, sir, you can take it those +names are about all right." + +"I don't feel that I could make a report like that," Hamilton answered. +"I was sent to check it up personally, and don't you think I'd better do +it? There's a chap there," he added, pointing to a young fellow standing +a few yards up the street, "he doesn't look Chinese." + +"He's a reporter, sir," the policeman said, "an' he's like us,--it's +part of his business to take chances." + +"Mine, too," said Hamilton; "only he represents a newspaper and I'm here +for the government." + +The policeman scratched his chin in perplexity. + +"Do you wait here," he said, "and I'll call up the station." + +He came back in a minute or two. + +"The lieutenant says it'll be all right," he said. "I told him that I +hadn't seen any sign of trouble--not that that means anything," he +added, "but if you wait a minute the other man will be up this way; he's +patrollin' the streets and you can go along with him." + +"How many of you are there here?" asked the boy. + +"Generally half a dozen in these two or three streets," the policeman +answered, "but I guess right now there's twice that number." + +Just as he had expected, another policeman appeared shortly, and +Hamilton was passed on to him. His conductor was taciturn, and the boy +was glad when the reporter joined them. In reply to a question, Hamilton +told his purpose, and the reporter, scenting a story, volunteered to +accompany them. The boy was willing enough, especially as he found the +reporter had the Chinese district as his regular assignment and was well +known in Chinatown. + +The address given, as the first policeman had said, was merely that +painted over a stairway. + +"I guess we go down here," Hamilton said. + +The policeman answered not a word, he simply pushed past the boy and +went down first; Hamilton followed, and the reporter came next. At the +bottom of the stair the policeman rapped on a door with his nightstick, +a good loud rap. It was opened, and he strode in, followed by the two +boys. A few questions from Hamilton verified one or two items of +information, but details about the rest of the house were not +forthcoming. In answer to questions the Chinaman simply pointed to the +ground. + +"Next floor down, I reckon," the reporter said. + +"But we're in the cellar now," objected Hamilton + +The reporter laughed. + +"We build above ground, the Chinese below," he said. "Lots of these +houses have five stories underground, and nearly all have either two or +three. A Chinaman doesn't care about fresh air at all, and he won't +waste money in fuel when he can keep warm in an underground burrow. Come +on, I guess we'll go down some more." + +The policeman still leading the way, three of them went down a rickety +stair, not much better than a ladder, and found themselves in a sort of +storehouse. + +"They don't keep things to eat here!" exclaimed Hamilton, scarcely able +to breathe the foul air and the exhalations from decaying food-stuffs. + +"Sure," the reporter answered. "Cheerful, isn't it?" + +Hamilton gave a little shiver of repugnance, but taking out his +schedule, asked the underground store-keeper all the personal questions +on it. Then, realizing that he would be able to know about his +customers, the lad quickly made enough inquiries to assure him that +there was no fault to find with the work, and started for the upper air. +Just as they passed out of the stairway, the policeman, who was the +last, still being on the steps, Hamilton heard a shot, and a bullet came +whizzing by his head. It was answered by a fusillade of shots. + +The boy's first instinct was to duck back under the cover of the +staircase from which he had just come out, but the policeman, as he +left it, roughly gave him a push, as much as to say, "Keep out of +there," and started on a dead run for the group where the firing was +going on. + +"That's the Hip Sings," the reporter said, pulling Hamilton into the +shadow of a doorway, "the Ong Leongs have been waiting for them, ever +since that affair in the theater." + +"What was that?" asked Hamilton, although more interested in the +immediate excitement than the story. + +"Time of the Chinese New Year," the reporter answered in short, crisp +sentences. "There was a gala performance in the theater with suppers and +banquets before and after. Everybody brought fire-crackers to the +theater, and at a certain time all the fire-crackers were set off. When +the noise stopped eighteen men were found shot dead, all members of the +Ong Leong Tong. The Hip Sing men were blamed for it, but none ever +caught." + +"What's up now?" cried Hamilton, in alarm. + +As he spoke two men dashed out of a building near by, and fired at the +group beyond. The others turned and made a rush. The two newcomers cut +across the street, thus for a moment diverting the line of fire which +had been perilously close to where the two boys were standing. + +"This is too hot for me," said the reporter, "we'd better get out of +here as fast as we know how. We'll go to the end of this street and turn +to the right. Are you ready? Come along." + +Out from the doorway like a couple of frightened hares the two lads +bolted, pursued by a few shots which, they flew so far over their heads, +Hamilton surmised were intended as a warning to keep out of the way +rather than as attempts to shoot them. In the few seconds that had +elapsed it seemed that the streets had become full of running policemen, +and Hamilton looked back. + +As he did so, he saw one of the men in the nearest group stagger +sideways and stand for an instant alone in the center of the street. +There was the sharp bark of a sawed-off revolver, and the wounded man +just reached the shelter of a doorway as the bullet sang over the spot +on which he had stood a second before. + +The sight unnerved Hamilton. He clutched the reporter's arm. + +"Chinese, Camorrists, sweatshop workers, and negroes!" he cried, a +hysterical note in his voice. "Are there no Americans in an American +city?" + +The reporter grasped his shoulder and pointed to where, a block or two +away, the towering framework of a Titanic building pierced the sunlit +air, far above the sordid savagery of the human rat-holes near by. +Guiding monster beams into place, sure-set upon the frailest foothold, +forms of men, made tiny by the distance, were silhouetted against the +sky. + +"The post of honor is the post of danger," he said; "it is in work like +that, where skill is linked to daring, where brain is joined to nerve, +that the Yankee stands. If you want to see the American in America, +don't look down, look up!" + +[Illustration: WORK FOR AMERICANS. Where skill and nerve and endurance +are required is where the true American is found. (_Copyright by Brown +Bros._)] + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy With the U.S. Census +by Francis Rolt-Wheeler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. CENSUS *** + +***** This file should be named 13181.txt or 13181.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/8/13181/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreaders. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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