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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/28315-8.txt b/28315-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c61fb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/28315-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6797 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of One Way Out, by William Carleton + +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: One Way Out + A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America + +Author: William Carleton + +Release Date: March 12, 2009 [EBook #28315] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | This e-text contains dialect and unusual spelling. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + +A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + +A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA + + +BY +WILLIAM CARLETON + + + +BOSTON +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Copyright, 1911 + +BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +(INCORPORATED) + +_Entered at Stationers' Hall_ + +Published January 28, 1911; second printing January + + +_Presswork by Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, U.S.A._ + + + + +TO HER +WHO WASN'T AFRAID + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER 1 + + II THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK 18 + + III THE MIDDLE CLASS HELL 37 + + IV WE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA 53 + + V WE PROSPECT 67 + + VI I BECOME A DAY LABORER 82 + + VII NINE DOLLARS A WEEK 94 + + VIII SUNDAY 112 + + IX PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 125 + + X THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT 146 + + XI NEW OPPORTUNITIES 165 + + XII OUR FIRST WINTER 183 + + XIII I BECOME A CITIZEN 200 + + XIV FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK 216 + + XV THE GANG 234 + + XVI DICK FINDS A WAY OUT, TOO 252 + + XVII THE SECOND YEAR 266 + +XVIII MATURING PLANS 283 + + XIX ONCE AGAIN A NEW ENGLANDER 298 + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER + + +My great-grandfather was killed in the Revolution; my grandfather +fought in the War of 1812; my father sacrificed his health in the +Civil War; but I, though born in New England, am the first of my +family to emigrate to this country--the United States of America. That +sounds like a riddle or a paradox. It isn't; it's a plain statement of +fact. + +As a matter of convenience let me call myself Carleton. I've no desire +to make public my life for the sake of notoriety. My only idea in +writing these personal details is the hope that they may help some +poor devil out of the same hole in which I found myself mired. They +are of too sacred a nature to share except impersonally. Even behind +the disguise of an assumed name I passed some mighty uncomfortable +hours a few months ago when I sketched out for a magazine and saw in +cold print what I'm now going to give in full. It made me feel as +though I had pulled down the walls of my house and was living my life +open to the view of the street. For a man whose home means what it +does to me, there's nothing pleasant about that. + +However, I received some letters following that brief article which +made the discomfort seem worth while. My wife and I read them over +with something like awe. They came from Maine and they came from +Texas; they came from the north, they came from the south, until we +numbered our unseen friends by the hundred. Running through these +letters was the racking cry that had once rended our own hearts--"How +to get out!" As we read some of them our throats grew lumpy. + +"God help them," said my wife over and over again. + +As we read others, we felt very glad that our lives had been in some +way an inspiration to them. After talking the whole matter over we +decided that if it helped any to let people know how we ourselves +pulled out, why it was our duty to do so. For that purpose, which is +the purpose of this book, Carleton is as good a name as any. + +My people were all honest, plodding, middle-class Americans. They +stuck where they were born, accepted their duties as they came, earned +a respectable living and died without having money enough left to make +a will worth while. They were all privates in the ranks. But they were +the best type of private--honest, intelligent, and loyal unto death. +They were faithful to their families and unswerving in their duty to +their country. The records of their lives aren't interesting, but they +are as open as daylight. + +My father seems to have had at first a bit more ambition stirring +within him than his ancestors. He started in the lumber business for +himself in a small way but with the first call for troops sold out and +enlisted. He did not distinguish himself but he fought in more battles +than many a man who came out a captain. He didn't quit until the war +was over. Then he crawled back home subdued and sick. He refused ever +to draw a pension because he felt it was as much a man's duty to fight +for his country as for his wife. He secured a position as head clerk +and confidential man with an old established lumber firm and here he +stuck the rest of his life. He earned a decent living and in the +course of time married and occupied a comfortable home. My mother died +when I was ten and after that father sold his house and we boarded. It +was a dreary enough life for both of us. Mother was the sort of mother +who lives her whole life in caring for her men folks so that her going +left us as helpless as babies. For a long while we didn't even know +when to change our stockings. But obeying the family tradition, father +accepted his lot stoically and as final. No one in our family ever +married twice. With the death of the wife and mother the home ceased +and that was the end of it. + +I remember my father with some pride. He was a tall, old-fashioned +looking man with a great deal of quiet dignity. I came to know him +much better in the next few years after mother died than ever before +for we lived together in one room and had few friends. I can see him +now sitting by a small kerosene lamp after I had gone to bed clumsily +trying to mend some rent in my clothes. I thought it an odd occupation +for a man but I know now what he was about. I think his love for my +mother must have been deep for he talked to me a great deal of her and +seemed much more concerned about my future on her account than on +either his own or mine. I think it was she--she was a woman of some +spirit--who persuaded him to consider sending me to college. This +accounted partly for the mending although there was some sentiment +about it too. I think he liked to feel that he was carrying out her +work for me even in such a small matter as this. + +How much he was earning and how much he saved I never knew. I went to +school and had all the common things of the ordinary boy and I don't +remember that I ever asked him for any pocket money but what he gave +it to me. It was towards the end of my senior year in the high school +that I began to notice a change in him. He was at times strangely +excited and at other times strangely blue. He asked me a great many +questions about my preference in the matter of a college and bade me +keep well up in my studies. He began to skimp a little and I found out +afterwards that one reason he grew so thin was because he did away +with his noon meal. It makes my blood boil now when I remember where +the fruit of this self-sacrifice went. I wouldn't recall it here +except as a humble tribute to his memory. + +One night I came back to the room and though it was not yet dark I was +surprised to see a crack of yellow light creeping out from beneath the +sill. Suspecting something was wrong, I pushed open the door and saw +my father seated by the lamp with a pair of trousers I had worn when a +kid in his hands. His head was bent and he was trying to sew. I went +to his side and asked him what the trouble was. He looked up but he +didn't know me. He never knew me again. He died a few days afterwards. +I found then that he had invested all his savings in a wild-cat mining +scheme. They had been swept away. + +So at eighteen I was left alone with the only capital that succeeding +generations of my family ever inherited--a common school education and +a big, sound physique. My father's tragic death was a heavy blow but +the mere fact that I was thrown on my own resources did not dishearten +me. In fact the prospect rather roused me. I had soaked in the humdrum +atmosphere of the boarding house so long that the idea of having to +earn my own living came rather as an adventure. While dependent on my +father, I had been chained to this one room and this one city, but now +I felt as though the whole wide world had suddenly been opened up to +me. I had no particular ambition beyond earning a comfortable living +and I was sure enough at eighteen of being able to do this. If I +chose, I could go to sea--there wasn't a vessel but what would take so +husky a youngster; if I wished, I could go into railroading--here +again there was a demand for youth and brawn. I could go into a +factory and learn manufacturing or I could go into an office and learn +a business. I was young, I was strong, I was unfettered. There is no +one on earth so free as such a young man. I could settle in New York +or work my way west and settle in Seattle or go north into Canada. My +legs were stout and I could walk if necessary. And wherever I was, I +had only to stop and offer the use of my back and arms in return for +food and clothes. Most men feel like this only once in their lives. In +a few years they become fettered again--this time for good. + +Having no inclination towards the one thing or the other, I took the +first opportunity that offered. A chum of mine had entered the employ +of the United Woollen Company and seeing another vacancy there in the +clerical department, he persuaded me to join him. I began at five +dollars a week. I was put at work adding up columns of figures that +had no more meaning to me than the problems in the school arithmetic. +But it wasn't hard work and my hours were short and my associates +pleasant. After a while I took a certain pride in being part of this +vast enterprise. My chum and I hired a room together and we both felt +like pretty important business men as we bought our paper on the car +every morning and went down town. + +It took close figuring to do anything but live that first year and yet +we pushed our way with the crowd into the nigger heavens and saw most +of the good shows. I had never been to the theatre before and I liked +it. + +Next year I received a raise of five dollars and watched the shows +from the rear of the first balcony. That is the only change the raise +made that I can remember except that I renewed my stock of clothes. +The only thing I'm sure of is that at the end of the second year I +didn't have anything left over. + +That is true of the next six years. My salary was advanced steadily to +twenty dollars and at that time it took just twenty dollars a week +for me to live. I wasn't extravagant and I wasn't dissipated but every +raise found a new demand. It seemed to work automatically. You might +almost say that our salaries were not raised at all but that we were +promoted from a ten dollar plane of life to a fifteen dollar plane and +then to a twenty. And we all went together--that is the men who +started together. Each advance meant unconsciously the wearing of +better clothes, rooming at better houses, eating at better +restaurants, smoking better tobacco, and more frequent amusements. +This left us better satisfied of course but after all it left us just +where we began. Life didn't mean much to any of us at this time and if +we were inclined to look ahead why there were the big salaried jobs +before us to dream about. But even if a man had been forehanded and of +a saving nature, he couldn't have done much without sacrificing the +only friends most of us had--his office associates. For instance--to +save five dollars a week at this time I would have had to drop back +into the fifteen dollars a week crowd and I'd have been as much out of +place there as a boy dropped into a lower grade at school. I remember +that when I was finally advanced another five dollars I half-heartedly +resolved to put that amount in the bank weekly. But at this point the +crowd all joined a small country club and I had either to follow or +drop out of their lives. Of course in looking back I can see where I +might have done differently but I wasn't looking back then--nor very +far ahead either. If it would have prevented my joining the country +club I'm glad I didn't. + +It was out there that I met the girl who became my wife. My best +reason for remaining anonymous is the opportunity it will give me to +tell about Ruth. I want to feel free to rave about her if I wish. She +objected in the magazine article and she objects even more strongly +now but, as before, I must have an uncramped hand in this. The chances +are that I shall talk more about her than I did the first time. The +whole scheme of my life, beginning, middle and end, swings around her. +Without her inspiration I don't like to think what the end of me might +have been. And it's just as true to-day as it was in the stress of the +fight. + +I was twenty-six when I met Ruth and she was eighteen. She came out to +the club one Saturday afternoon to watch some tennis. It happened +that I had worked into the finals of the tournament but that day I +wasn't playing very well. I was beaten in the first set, six-two. What +was worse I didn't care a hang if I was. I had found myself feeling +like this about a lot of things during those last few months. Then as +I made ready to serve the second set I happened to see in the front +row of the crowd to the right of the court a slight girl with blue +eyes. She was leaning forward looking at me with her mouth tense and +her fists tight closed. Somehow I had an idea that she wanted me to +win. I don't know why, because I was sure I'd never seen her before; +but I thought that perhaps she had bet a pair of gloves or a box of +candy on me. If she had, I made up my mind that she'd get them. I +started in and they said, afterwards, I never played better tennis in +my life. At any rate I beat my man. + +After the game I found someone to introduce me to her and from that +moment on there was nothing else of so great consequence in my life. I +learned all about her in the course of the next few weeks. Her family, +too, was distinctly middle-class, in the sense that none of them had +ever done anything to distinguish themselves either for good or bad. +Her parents lived on a small New Hampshire farm and she had just been +graduated from the village academy and had come to town to visit her +aunt. The latter was a tall, lean woman, who, after the death of her +husband had been forced to keep lodgers to eke out a living. Ruth +showed me pictures of her mother and father, and they might have been +relatives of mine as far as looks went. The father had caught an +expression from the granite hills which most New England farmers +get--a rugged, strained look; the mother was lean and kind and +worried. I met them later and liked them. + +Ruth was such a woman as my mother would have taken to; clear and +laughing on the surface, but with great depths hidden among the golden +shallows. Her experience had all been among the meadows and mountains +so that she was simple and direct and fearless in her thoughts and +acts. You never had to wonder what she meant when she spoke and when +you came to know her you didn't even have to wonder what she was +dreaming about. And yet she was never the same because she was always +growing. But the thing that woke me up most of all from the first day +I met her was the interest she took in everyone and everything. A +fellow couldn't bore Ruth if he tried. She would have the time of her +life sitting on a bench in the park or walking down the street or just +staring out the window of her aunt's front room. And that street +looked like Sunday afternoon all the week long. + +I began to do some figuring when I was alone but there wasn't much +satisfaction in it. I had the clothes in my room, a good collection of +pipes, and ten dollars of my last week's salary. A man couldn't get +married on that even to a girl like Ruth who wouldn't want much. I cut +down here and there but I naturally wanted to appear well before Ruth +and so the savings went into new ties and shoes. In this way I fretted +along for a few months until I screwed my courage up to ask for +another raise. Those were prosperous days for the United Woollen and +everyone from the president to the office boy was in good humor. I +went to Morse, head of the department, and told him frankly that I +wished to get married and needed more money. That wasn't a business +reason for an increase but those of us who had worked there some years +had come to feel like one of the family and it wasn't unusual for the +company to raise a man at such a time. He said he'd see what he could +do about it and when I opened my pay envelope the next week I found an +extra five in it. + +I went direct from the office to Ruth and asked her to marry me. She +didn't hang her head nor stammer but she looked me straight in the +eyes a moment longer than usual and answered: + +"All right, Billy." + +"Then let's go out this afternoon and see about getting a house," I +said. + +I don't think a Carleton ever boarded when first married. To me it +wouldn't have seemed like getting married. I knew a suburb where some +of the men I had met at the country club lived and we went out there. +It was a beautiful June day and everything looked clean and fresh. We +found a little house of eight rooms that we knew we wanted as soon as +we saw it. It was one of a group of ten or fifteen that were all very +much alike. There was a piazza on the front and a little bit of lawn +that looked as though it had been squeezed in afterwards. In the rear +there was another strip of land where we thought we might raise some +garden stuff if we put it in boxes. The house itself had a front hall +out of which stairs led to the next floor. To the right there was a +large room separated by folding doors with another good-sized room +next to it which would naturally be used as a dining room. In the rear +of this was the kitchen and besides the door there was a slide through +which to pass the food. Upstairs there were four big rooms stretching +the whole width of the house. Above these there was a servant's room. +The whole house was prettily finished and in the two rooms down stairs +there were fireplaces which took my eye, although they weren't bigger +than coal hods. It was heated by a furnace and lighted by electricity +and there were stained glass panels either side of the front door. + +The rent was forty dollars a month and I signed a three years' lease +before I left. The next week was a busy one for us both. We bought +almost a thousand dollars' worth of furniture on the installment plan +and even then we didn't seem to get more than the bare necessities. I +hadn't any idea that house furnishings cost so much. But if the bill +had come to five times that I wouldn't have cared. The installments +didn't amount to very much a week and I already saw Morse promoted and +myself filling his position at twenty-five hundred. I hadn't yet got +over the feeling I had at eighteen that life was a big adventure and +that a man with strong legs and a good back _couldn't_ lose. With Ruth +at my side I bought like a king. Though I never liked the idea of +running into debt this didn't seem like a debt. I had only to look +into her dear blue eyes to feel myself safe in buying the store +itself. Ruth herself sometimes hesitated but, as I told her, we might +as well start right and once for all as to go at it half heartedly. + +The following Saturday we were married. My vacation wasn't due for +another month so we decided not to wait. The old folks came down from +the farm and we just called in a clergyman and were married in the +front parlor of the aunt's house. It was both very simple and very +solemn. For us both the ceremony meant the taking of a sacred oath of +so serious a nature as to forbid much lightheartedness. And yet I did +wish that the father and mother and aunt had not dressed in black and +cried during it all. Ruth wore a white dress and looked very beautiful +and didn't seem afraid. As for me, my knees trembled and I was chalk +white. I think it was the old people and the room, for when it was +over and we came out into the sunshine again I felt all right except a +bit light-headed. I remember that the street and the houses and the +cars seemed like very small matters. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK + + +When, with Ruth on my arm, I walked up the steps of the house and +unlocked the front door, I entered upon a new life. It was my first +taste of home since my mother died and added to that was this new love +which was finer than anything I had ever dreamed about. It seemed hard +to have to leave every morning at half past six and not get back until +after five at night, but to offset this we used to get up as early as +four o'clock during the long summer days. Many the time even in June +Ruth and I ate our breakfast by lamp-light. It gave us an extra hour +and she was bred in the country where getting up in the morning is no +great hardship. + +We couldn't afford a servant and we didn't want one. Ruth was a fine +cook and I certainly did justice to her dishes after ten years of +restaurants and boarding-houses. On rainy days when we couldn't get +out, she used to do her cooking early so that I might watch her. It +seemed a lot more like her cooking when I saw her pat out the dough +and put it in the oven instead of coming home and finding it all done. +I used to fill up my pipe and sit by the kitchen stove until I had +just time to catch the train by sprinting. + +But when the morning was fine we'd either take a long walk through the +big park reservation which was near the house or we'd fuss over the +garden. We had twenty-two inches of radishes, thirty-eight inches of +lettuce, four tomato plants, two hills of corn, three hills of beans +and about four yards of early peas. In addition to this Ruth had +squeezed a geranium into one corner and a fern into another and +planted sweet alyssum around the whole business. Everyone out here +planned to raise his own vegetables. It was supposed to cut down +expenses but I noticed the market man always did a good business. + +I had met two or three of the men at the country club and they +introduced me to the others. We were all earning about the same +salaries and living in about the same type of house. Still there were +differences and you could tell more by the wives than the husbands +those whose salaries went over two thousand. Two or three of the men +were in banks, one was in a leather firm, one was an agent for an +insurance company, another was with the telegraph company, another was +with the Standard Oil, and two or three others were with firms like +mine. Most of them had been settled out here three or four years and +had children. In a general way they looked comfortable and happy +enough but you heard a good deal of talk among them about the high +cost of living and you couldn't help noticing that those who dressed +the best had the fewest children. One or two of them owned horses but +even they felt obliged to explain that they saved the cost of them in +car fares. + +They all called and left their cards but that first year we didn't see +much of them. There wasn't room in my life for anyone but Ruth at that +time. I didn't see even the old office gang except during business +hours and at lunch. + +The rent scaled my salary down to one thousand and eighty dollars at +one swoop. Then we had to save out at least five dollars a week to pay +on the furniture. This left eight hundred and twenty, or fifteen +dollars and seventy-five cents a week, to cover running expenses. We +paid cash for everything and though we never had much left over at the +end of the week and never anything at the end of the month, we had +about everything we wanted. For one thing our tastes were not +extravagant and we did no entertaining. Our grocery and meat bill +amounted to from five to seven dollars a week. Of course I had my +lunches in town but I got out of those for twenty cents. My daily car +fare was twenty cents more which brought my total weekly expenses up +to about three dollars. This left a comfortable margin of from five to +seven dollars for light, coal, clothes and amusements. In the summer +the first three items didn't amount to much so some weeks we put most +of this into the furniture. But the city was new to Ruth, especially +at night, so we were in town a good deal. She used to meet me at the +office and we'd walk about the city and then take dinner at some +little French restaurant and then maybe go to a concert or the +theatre. She made everything new to me again. At the theatre she used +to perch on the edge of her seat so breathless, so responsive that I +often saw the old timers watch her instead of the show. I often did +myself. And sometimes it seemed as though the whole company acted to +her alone. + +Those days were perfect. The only incident to mar them was the death +of Ruth's parents. They died suddenly and left an estate of six or +seven hundred dollars. Ruth insisted upon putting that into the +furniture. But in our own lives every day was as fair as the first. My +salary came as regularly as an annuity and there was every prospect +for advancement. The garden did well and Ruth became acquainted with +most of the women in a sociable way. She joined a sewing circle which +met twice a month chiefly I guess for the purpose of finding out about +one another's husbands. At any rate she told me more about them than I +would have learned in ten years. + +Still, during the fall and winter we kept pretty much by ourselves, +not deliberately but because neither of us cared particularly about +whist parties and such things but preferred to spend together what +time we had. And then I guess Ruth was a little shy about her clothes. +She dressed mighty well to my eye but she made most of her things +herself and didn't care much about style. She didn't notice the +difference at home but when she was out among others, they made her +feel it. However spring came around again and we forgot all about +those details. We didn't go in town so much that summer and used to +spend more time on our piazza. I saw more of the men in this way and +found them a pleasant, companionable lot. They asked me to join the +Neighborhood Club and I did, more to meet them half way than because I +wanted to. There we played billiards and discussed the stock market +and furnaces. All of them had schemes for making fortunes if only they +had a few thousand dollars capital. Now and then you'd find a group of +them in one corner discussing a rumor that so and so had lost his job. +They spoke of this as they would of a death. But none of those +subjects interested me especially in view of what I was looking +forward to in my own family. + +In the afternoons of the early fall the women sent over jellies and +such stuff to Ruth and dropped in upon her with whispered advice. She +used to repeat it to me at night with a gay little laugh and her eyes +sparkling like diamonds. She was happier now than I had ever seen her +and so was I myself. When I went in town in the morning I felt very +important. + +I thought I had touched the climax of life when I married Ruth but +when the boy came he lifted me a notch higher. And with him he brought +me a new wife in Ruth, without taking one whit from the old. +Sweetheart, wife and mother now, she revealed to me new depths of +womanhood. + +She taught me, too, what real courage is. I was the coward when the +time came. I had taken a day off but the doctor ordered me out of the +house. I went down to the club and I felt more one of the neighborhood +that day than I ever did before or afterwards. It was Saturday and +during the afternoon a number of the men came in and just silently +gripped my hand. + +The women, too, seemed to take a new interest in us. When Ruth was +able to sit up they brought in numberless little things. But you'd +have thought it was their house and not mine, the way they treated me. +When any of them came I felt as though I didn't belong there and ought +to tip-toe out. + +We'd been saving up during the summer for this emergency so that we +had enough to pay for the doctor and the nurse but that was only the +beginning of the new expenses. In the first place we had to have a +servant now. I secured a girl who knew how to cook after a fashion, +for four dollars a week. But that wasn't by any means what she cost +us. In spite of Ruth's supervision the girl wasted as much as she used +so that our provision bill was nearly doubled. If we hadn't succeeded +in paying for the furniture before this I don't know what we would +have done. As it was I found my salary pretty well strained. I hadn't +any idea that so small a thing as a baby could cost so much. Ruth had +made most of his things but I know that some of his shirts cost as +much as mine. + +When the boy was older Ruth insisted upon getting along without a girl +again. I didn't approve of this but I saw that it would make her +happier to try anyway. How in the world she managed to do it I don't +know but she did. This gave her an excuse for not going out--though it +was an excuse that made me half ashamed of myself--and so we saved in +another way. Even with this we just made both ends meet and that was +all. + +The boy grew like a weed and before I knew it he was five years old. +Until he began to walk and talk I didn't think of him as a possible +man. He didn't seem like anything in particular. He was just soft and +round and warm. But when he began to wear knickerbockers he set me to +thinking hard. He wasn't going to remain always a baby; he was going +to grow into a boy and then a young man and before I knew it he would +be facing the very same problem that now confronted me. And that +problem was how to get enough ahead of the game to give him a fair +start in life. I realized, too, that I wanted him to do something +better than I had done. When I stopped to think of it I had +accomplished mighty little. I had lived and that was about all. That I +had lived happily was due to Ruth. But if I was finding difficulty in +keeping even with the game now, what was I going to do when the +youngster would prove a decidedly more serious item of expense? + +I talked this over with Ruth and we both decided that somehow, in some +way, we must save some money every year. We started in by reducing our +household expenses still further. But it seemed as though fate were +against us for prices rose just enough to absorb all our little +economies. Flour went up and sugar went up, and though we had done +away with meat almost wholly now, vegetables went up. So, too, did +coal. Not only that but we had long since found it impossible to keep +to ourselves as we had that first year. Little by little we had been +drawn into the social life of the neighborhood. Not a month went by +but what there was a dinner or two or a whist party or a dance. +Personally I didn't care about such things but as Ruth had become a +matron and in consequence had been thrown more in contact with the +women, she had lost her shyness and grown more sociable. She often +suggested declining an invitation but we couldn't decline one without +declining all. I saw clearly enough that I had no right to do this. +She did more work than I and did not have the daily change. To have +made a social exile of her would have been to make her little better +than a slave. But it cost money. It cost a lot of money. We had to do +our part in return and though Ruth accomplished this by careful buying +and all sorts of clever devices, the item became a big one in the +year's expenses. + +I began to look forward with some anxiety for the next raise. At the +office I hunted for extra work with an eye upon the place above; but +though I found the work nothing came of it but extra hours. In fact I +began to think myself lucky to hold the job I had for a gradual change +of methods had been slowly going on in the office. Mechanical adding +machines had cost a dozen men their jobs; a card system of bookkeeping +had made it possible to discharge another dozen, while an off year in +woollens sent two or three more flying, among them the man who had +found me the position in the first place. But he hadn't married and he +went out west somewhere. Occasionally when work picked up again a +young man was taken on to fill the place of one of the discharged men. +The company always saved a few hundred dollars by such a shift for the +lad never got the salary of the old employee, and so far as anyone +could see the work went on just as well. + +While these moves were ominous, as I can see now in looking back, they +didn't disturb me very much at the time. I filled a little niche in +the office that was all my own. At every opportunity I had +familiarized myself with the work of the man above me and was on very +good terms with him. I waited patiently and confidently for the day +when Morse should call me in and announce his own advance and leave me +to fill his place. I might have to begin on two thousand but it was a +sure twenty-five hundred eventually to say nothing of what it led to. +The president of the company had begun as I had and had moved up the +same steps that now lay ahead of me. + +In the meanwhile the life at home ran smoothly in spite of everything. +Neither the wife, the boy nor I was sick a day for we all had sound +bodies to start with. Our country-bred ancestors didn't need a will to +leave us those. If at times we felt a trifle pinched especially in the +matter of clothes, it was wonderful how rich Ruth contrived to make us +feel. She knew how to take care of things and though I didn't spend +half what some of the men spent on their suits, I went in town every +morning looking better than two-thirds of them. I was inspected from +head to foot before I started and there wasn't a wrinkle or a spot so +small that it could last twenty-four hours. I shined my own shoes and +pressed my own trousers and Ruth looked to it that this was done well. +Moreover she could turn a tie, clean and press it so that it looked +brand new. I think some of the neighbors even thought I was +extravagant in my dressing. + +She did the same for herself and had caught the knack of seeming to +dress stylishly without really doing so. She had beautiful hair and +this in itself made her look well dressed. As for the boy he was a +model for them all. + +In the meanwhile the boy had grown into short trousers and before we +knew it he was in school. It made it lonesome for her during the day +when he began to trudge off every morning at nine o'clock. She began +to look forward to Saturdays as eagerly as the boy did. Then the next +thing we knew he'd start off even earlier on that day to join his +playmates. Sunday was the only day either of us had him to ourselves. + +After he began to go to school, Ruth and I seemed to begin another +life. In a way we felt all by ourselves once more. I didn't get home +until half past seven now and Dick was then abed. He was abed too when +I left in the morning. Of course he was never off my mind and if he +hadn't been asleep upstairs I guess I'd have known a difference. But +at the same time he was, in a small way, living his own life now +which left Ruth and me to ourselves once more. She used to go over for +me all the details of his day from the time she took him up in the +morning until she tucked him away in bed again at night and then there +would come a pause. It seemed as though there ought to be something +more, but there wasn't. The next few months it seemed almost as though +she was waiting. For what, I didn't know and yet I too felt there was +a lapse in our lives. I never loved her more. There was never a time +when she was so truly my wife and yet in our combined lives there was +something lacking. After a while I began to notice a wistful +expression in her eyes. It always came after she had said, + +"So Dicky said, 'God bless father and mother,' and then he went to +sleep." + +Then one night it dawned on me. Hers was the same heart hunger that +had been eating at me. Dick was a boy now and there was no baby to +take his place. But, good Lord, as it was I hadn't been able to save a +dollar. I knew that we were simply holding on tight and drifting. The +boat was loaded to the gunwales even now. And yet that expression in +her eyes had a right to be answered. But I couldn't answer it. I +didn't dare open my mouth. I didn't dare speak even one night when she +said, + +"He's all we have, Billy--just one." + +I gripped her hand and sat staring into the little coal hod fireplace +which we didn't light more than once a month now. Even as I watched +the flames I saw them licking up pennies. + +Just one! And I too wanted a houseful like Dick. + +I had to see that look night after night and I had to go to town +knowing I was leaving her all alone with the one away at school. And +what a mother she was! She ought to have had a baby by her side all +the time. + +As the one grew, his expenses increased. The only way to meet them was +by cutting down our own expenses still more. I cut out smoking and +made my old clothes do an extra year. Ruth spent half her time in +bargain hunting and saved still more by taking it out of herself. Poor +little woman, she worked harder for a quarter than I did and I was +working harder for that sum than I used to work for a dollar. But we +were not alone in the struggle. As we came to know more about the +people in that group of snug little houses we knew that the same grim +fight was going on in all of them. Some of them were not so lucky as +we and ran into debt while a few of them were luckier and were helped +out with legacies or by well-to-do relatives. We were as much alike as +peas in a pod. We were living on the future and bluffing out the +present. You'd have thought it would have cast a gloom over the +neighborhood--you'd have thought it would have done away with some of +the parties and dances. But it didn't. In the first place this was, to +most of us, just life. In the second place there didn't seem to be any +alternative. There was no other way of living. The conditions seemed +to be fixed; we had to eat, we had to wear a certain type of dress; +and unless we wished to exist as exiles we had to meet on a certain +plane of social intercourse. The conventions were as iron clad here as +among the nobility of England. No one thought of violating them; no +one thought it was possible. You had to live as the others did or die +and be done with it. If anyone of us had thought we might have seen +the foolishness of this but it was all so manifest that no one did +think. The only method of escape was a raise and that meant moving +into another sphere which would cover that. + +A new complication came when the boy grew old enough to have social +functions of his own. He had made many new friends and he wanted to +join a tennis club, a dancing class and contribute towards the support +of the athletic teams of the school. Moreover he was invited to +parties and had to give parties himself. Once again I tried to see +some way out of this social business. It seemed such a pitiful waste +of ammunition under the circumstances. I wanted to save the money if +it was possible in any way to eke it out, for his education. But what +could I do? The boy had to live as his friends lived or give them up. +He wasn't asked to do any more than the other boys of the neighborhood +but he was rightly asked to do as much. If he couldn't it would be at +the sacrifice of his pride that he associated with them at all. And a +just pride in a boy is something you can't safely tamper with. He had +to have the money and we managed it somehow. But it brought home the +old grim fact that I hadn't as yet saved a dollar. + +I clung more than ever now to the one ray of hope--the job ahead. It +was the only comfort Ruth and I had and whenever I felt especially +downhearted she'd start in and plan how we'd spend it. It took the +edge off the immediate thought of danger. In the meanwhile I resigned +even from the Neighborhood Club and let the boy join the tennis club. +I noticed at once a change in the attitude of the men towards me. But +I was reaching a point now where I didn't care. + +In this way, then, we lived until I was thirty-eight and Ruth was +thirty, and the boy was eleven. For the last few months I had been +doing night work without extra pay and so was practically exiled from +the boy except on Sundays. He was not developing the way I wanted. The +local grammar school was almost a private school for the neighborhood. +I should have preferred to have it more cosmopolitan. The boy was +rubbing up against only his own kind and this was making him soft, +both physically and mentally. He was also getting querulous and +autocratic. Ruth saw it, but with only one.... Well, on Sundays I took +the boy with me on long cross-country jaunts and did a good deal of +talking to him. But all I said rolled off like water off a duck. He +lacked energy and initiative. He was becoming distinctly more +middle-class than either of us, with some of the faults of the +so-called upper class thrown in. He chattered about Harvard, not as an +opportunity, but as a class privilege. I didn't like it. But before I +had time to worry much about this the crash came that I had not been +wise enough to foresee. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MIDDLE CLASS HELL + + +One Saturday afternoon, after we had been paid off, Morse, the head of +the department, whose job I had been eyeing enviously for five years +now, called me into his office. For three minutes I saw all my hopes +realized; for three minutes I walked dizzily with my whole life +justified. I could hardly catch my breath as I followed him. I didn't +realize until then how big a load I had been carrying. As a drowning +man is said to see visions of his whole past life, I saw visions of my +whole future. I saw Ruth's eager face lifted to mine as I told her the +good news; I saw the boy taken from his commonplace surroundings and +doing himself proud in some big preparatory school where he brushed up +against a variety of other boys; I saw--God pity me for the fool I +was--other children at home to take his place. I can say that for +three minutes I have lived. + +Morse seated himself in the chair before his desk and, bending over +his papers, talked without looking at me. He was a small fellow. I +don't suppose a beefy man ever quite gets over a certain feeling of +superiority before a small man. I could have picked up Morse in one +hand. + +"Carleton," he began, "I've got to cut down your salary five hundred +dollars." + +It came like a blow in the face. I don't think I answered. + +"Sorry," he added, "but Evans says he can double up on your work and +offers to do it for two hundred dollars more." + +I repeated that name Evans over and over. He was the man under me. +Then I saw my mistake. While watching the man ahead of me I had +neglected to watch the man behind me. Evans and I had been good +friends. I liked him. He was about twenty, and a hard worker. + +"Well?" said Morse. + +I recovered my wind. + +"Good God," I cried; "I can't live on any less than I'm getting now!" + +"Then you resign?" he asked quickly. + +For a second I saw red. I wanted to take this pigmy by the throat. I +wanted to shake him. He didn't give me time before exclaiming: + +"Very well, Carleton. I'll give you an order for two weeks' pay in +advance." + +The next thing I knew I was in the outer office with the order in my +hand. I saw Evans at his desk. I guess I must have looked queer, for +at first he shrank away from me. Then he came to my side. + +"Carleton," he said, "what's the matter?" + +"I guess you know," I answered. + +"You aren't fired?" + +I bucked up at this. I tried to speak naturally. + +"Yes," I said, "I'm fired." + +"But that isn't right, Carleton," he protested. "I didn't think it +would come to that. I went to Morse and told him I wanted to get +married and needed more money. He asked me if I thought I could do +your work. I said yes. I'd have said yes if he'd asked me if I could +do the president's work. But--come back and let me explain it to +Morse." + +It was white of him, wasn't it? But I saw clearly enough that he was +only fighting for his right to love as I was fighting for mine. I +don't know that I should have been as generous as he was--ten years +before. He had started toward the door when I called him back. + +"Don't go in there," I warned. "The first thing you know you'll be +doing my work without your two hundred." + +"That's so," he answered. "But what are you going to do now?" + +"Get another job," I answered. + +One of the great blessings of my life is the fact that it has always +been easy to report bad news to Ruth. I never had to break things +gently to her. She always took a blow standing up, like a man. So now +I boarded my train and went straight to the house and told her. She +listened quietly and then took my hand, patting it for a moment +without saying anything. Finally she smiled at me. + +"Well, Billy," she said, "it can't be helped, can it? So good luck to +Evans and his bride." + +When a woman is as brave as that it stirs up all the fighting blood in +a man. Looking into her steady blue eyes I felt that I had exaggerated +my misfortune. Thirty-eight is not old and I was able-bodied. I might +land something even better than that which I had lost. So instead of +a night of misery I actually felt almost glad. + +I started in town on Monday in high hope. But when I got off the train +I began to wonder just where I was bound. What sort of a job was I +going to apply for? What was my profession, anyway? I sat down in the +station to think the problem over. + +For twenty years now I had been a cog in the clerical machinery of the +United Woollen Company. I was known as a United Woollen man. But just +what else had this experience made of me? I was not a bookkeeper. I +knew no more about keeping a full set of books than my boy. I had +handled only strings of United Woollen figures; those meant nothing +outside that particular office. I was not a stenographer, or an +accountant, or a secretary. I had been called a clerk in the +directory. But what did that mean? What the devil was I, after twenty +years of hard work? + +The question started the sweat to my forehead. But I pulled myself +together again. At least I was an able-bodied man. I was willing to +work, had a record of honesty and faithfulness, and was intelligent as +men go. I didn't care what I did, so long as it gave me a living +wage. Surely, then, there must be some place for me in this alert, +hustling city. + +I bought a paper and turned to "Help Wanted." I felt encouraged at +sight of the long column. I read it through carefully. Half of the +positions demanded technical training; a fourth of them demanded +special experience; the rest asked for young men. I couldn't answer +the requirements of one of them. Again and again the question was +forced in upon me--what the devil was I? + +I didn't know which way to turn. I had no relatives to help me--from +the days of my great-grandfather no Carleton had ever quit the game +more than even. My business associates were as badly off as I was and +so were my neighbors. + +My relations with the latter were peculiar, now that I came to think +of it. In these last dozen years I had come to know the details of +their lives as intimately as my own. In a way we had been like one big +family. We knew each other as Frank, and Joe, and Bill, and Josh, and +were familiar with one another's physical ailments when any of us had +any. If any of the children had whooping cough or the measles every +man and woman in the neighborhood watched at the bedside, in a sense, +until the youngster was well, again. We knew to a dollar what each man +was earning and what each was spending. We borrowed one another's +garden tools and the women borrowed from each other's kitchens. On the +surface we were just about as intimate as it's possible for a +community to be. And yet what did it amount to? + +There wasn't a man-son of them to whom I would have dared go and +confess the fact I'd lost my job. They'd know it soon enough, be sure +of that; but it mustn't come from me. There wasn't one of them to whom +I felt free to go and ask their help to interest their own firms to +secure another position for me. Their respect for me depended upon my +ability to maintain my social position. They were like steamer +friends. On the voyage they clung to one another closer than bark to a +tree, but once the gang plank was lowered the intimacy vanished. If I +wished to keep them as friends I must stick to the boat. + +I knew they couldn't do anything if they had wanted to, but at the +same time I felt there was something wrong in a situation that would +not allow me to ask even for a letter of introduction without feeling +like a beggar. I felt there was something wrong when they made me feel +not like a brother in hard luck but like a criminal. I began to wonder +what of sterling worth I had got out of this life during the past +decade. + +However that was an incidental matter. The only time I did such +thinking as this was towards the early morning after I had lain awake +all night and exhausted all other resources. I tackled the problem in +the only way I could think of and that was to visit the houses with +whom I had learned the United Woollen did business. I remembered the +names of about a dozen of them and made the rounds of these for a +starter. It seemed like a poor chance and I myself did not know +exactly what they could do with me but it would keep me busy for a +while. + +With waits and delays this took me two weeks. Without letters it was +almost impossible to reach the managers but I hung on in every case +until I succeeded. Here again I didn't feel like an honest man +offering to do a fair return of work for pay, so much as I did a +beggar. This may have been my fault; but after you've sat around in +offices and corridors and been scowled at as an intruder for three or +four hours and then been greeted with a surly "What do you want?" you +can't help having a grouch. There wasn't a man who treated my offer as +a business proposition. + +At the end of that time two questions were burned into my brain: "What +can you do?" and "How old are you?" The latter question came as a +revelation. It seems that from a business point of view I was +considered an old man. My good strong body counted for nothing; my +willingness to undertake any task counted for nothing. I was too old. +No one wanted to bother with a beginner over eighteen or twenty. The +market demanded youth--youth with the years ahead that I had already +sold. Wherever I stumbled by chance upon a vacant position I found +waiting there half a dozen stalwart youngsters. They looked as I had +looked when I joined the United Woollen Company. I offered to do the +same work at the same wages as the youngsters, but the managers didn't +want me. They didn't want a man around with wrinkles in his face. +Moreover, they were looking to the future. They didn't intend to +adjust a man into their machinery only to have him die in a dozen +years. I wasn't a good risk. Moreover, I wouldn't be so easily +trained, and with a wider experience might prove more bothersome. At +thirty-eight I was too old to make a beginning. The verdict was +unanimous. And yet I had a physique like an ox and there wasn't a gray +hair in my head. I came out of the last of those offices with my fists +clenched. + +In the meanwhile I had used up my advance salary and was, for the +first time in my life, running into debt. Having always paid my bills +weekly I had no credit whatever. Even at the end of the third week I +knew that the grocery man and butcher were beginning to fidget. The +neighbors had by this time learned of my plight and were gossiping. +And yet in the midst of all this I had some of the finest hours with +my wife I had ever known. + +She sent me away every morning with fresh hope and greeted me at night +with a cheerfulness that was like wine. And she did this without any +show of false optimism. She was not blind to the seriousness of our +present position, but she exhibited a confidence in me that did not +admit of doubt or fear. There was something almost awesomely beautiful +about standing by her side and facing the approaching storm. She used +to place her small hands upon my back and exclaim: + +"Why, Billy, there's work for shoulders like those." + +It made me feel like a giant. + +So another month passed. I subscribed to an employment bureau, but the +only offer I received was to act as a sort of bouncer in a barroom. I +suppose my height and weight and reputation for sobriety recommended +me there. There was five dollars a week in it, and as far as I alone +was concerned I would have taken it. That sum would at least buy +bread, and though it may sound incredible the problem of getting +enough to eat was fast becoming acute. The provision men became daily +more suspicious. We cut down on everything, but I knew it was only a +question of time when they would refuse to extend our credit for the +little we _had_ to have. And all around me my neighbors went their +cheerful ways and waited for me to work it out. But whenever I thought +of the barroom job and the money it would bring I could see them shake +their heads. + +It was hell. It was the deepest of all deep hells--the middle-class +hell. There was nothing theatrical about it--no fireworks or red +lights. It was plain, dull, sodden. Here was my position: work in my +own class I couldn't get; work as a young man I was too old to get; +work as just plain physical labor these same middle-class neighbors +refused to allow me to undertake. I couldn't black my neighbors' boots +without social ostracism, though Pasquale, who kept the stand in the +United Woollen building, once confided to me that he cleared some +twenty-five dollars a week. I couldn't mow my neighbors' front lawns +or deliver milk at their doors, though there was food in it. That was +honest work--clean work; but if I attempted it would they play golf +with me? Personally I didn't care. I would have taken a job that day. +But there were the wife and boy. They were held in ransom. It's all +very well to talk about scorning the conventions, to philosophize +about the dignity of honest work, to quote "a man's a man for a' +that"; but associates of their own kind mean more to a woman and a +growing boy than they do to a man. At least I thought so at that time. +When I saw my wife surrounded by well-bred, well-dressed women, they +seemed to me an essential part of her life. What else did living mean +for her? When my boy brought home with him other boys of his age and +kind--though to me they did not represent the highest type--I felt +under obligations to retain those friends for him. I had begot him +into this set. It seemed barbarous to do anything that would allow +them to point the finger at him. + +I felt a yearning for some primeval employment. I hungered to join the +army or go to sea. But here again were the wife and boy. I felt like +going into the Northwest and preempting a homestead. That was a saner +idea, but it took capital and I didn't have enough. I was tied hand +and foot. It was like one of those nightmares where in the face of +danger you are suddenly struck dumb and immovable. + +I was beginning to look wild-eyed. Ruth and I were living on bread, +without butter, and canned soup. I sneaked in town with a few books +and sold them for enough to keep the boy supplied with meat. My shoes +were worn out at the bottom and my clothes were getting decidedly +seedy. The men with whom I was in the habit of riding to town in the +morning gave me as wide a berth as though I had the leprosy. I guess +they were afraid my hard luck was catching. God pity them, many of +them were dangerously near the rim of this same hell themselves. + +One morning my wife came to me reluctantly, but with her usual +courage, and said: + +"Billy, the grocery man didn't bring our order last night." It was +like a sword-thrust. It made me desperate. But the worst of the +middle-class hell is that there is nothing to fight back at. There you +are. I couldn't say anything. There was no answer. My eyes must have +looked queer, for Ruth came nearer and whispered: + +"Don't go in town to-day, Billy." + +I had on my hat and had gathered up two or three more volumes in my +green bag. I looked at the trim little house that had been my home for +so long. The rent would be due next month. I looked at the other trim +little houses around me. Was it actually possible that a man could +starve in such a community? It seemed like a satanic joke. Why, every +year this country was absorbing immigrants by the thousand. They did +not go hungry. They waxed fat and prosperous. There was Pasquale, the +bootblack, who was earning nearly as much as I ever did. + +We were standing on the porch. I took Ruth in my arms and kissed her. +She drew back with a modest protest that the neighbors might see. The +word neighbors goaded me. I shook my fist at their trim little houses +and voiced a passion that had slowly been gathering strength. + +"Damn the neighbors!" I cried. + +Ruth was startled. I don't often swear. + +"Have they been talking about you?" she asked suddenly, her mouth +hardening. + +"I don't know. I don't care. But they hold you in ransom like bloody +Moroccan pirates." + +"How do they, Billy?" + +"They won't let me work without taking it out of you and the boy." + +Her head dropped for a second at mention of the boy, but it was soon +lifted. + +"Let's get away from them," she gasped. "Let's go where there are no +neighbors." + +"Would you?" I asked. + +"I'd go to the ends of the earth with you, Billy," she answered +quietly. + +How plucky she was! I couldn't help but smile as I answered, more to +myself: + +"We haven't even the carfare to go to the ends of the earth, Ruth. It +will take all we have to pay our bills." + +"All we have?" she asked. + +No, not that. They could get only a little of what she and I had. They +could take our belongings, that's all. And they hadn't got those yet. + +But I had begun to hate those neighbors with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred. In silence they dictated, without assisting. For a dozen years +I had lived with them, played with them, been an integral part of +their lives, and now they were worse than useless to me. There wasn't +one of them big enough to receive me into his home for myself alone, +apart from the work I did. There wasn't a true brother among them. + +Our lives turn upon little things. They turn swiftly. Within fifteen +minutes I had solved my problem in a fashion as unexpected as it was +radical. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA + + +Going down the path to town bitterly and blindly, I met Murphy. He was +a man with not a gray hair in his head who was a sort of +man-of-all-work for the neighborhood. He took care of my furnace and +fussed about the grounds when I was tied up at the office with night +work. He stopped me with rather a shamefaced air. + +"Beg pardon, sor," he began, "but I've got a bill comin' due on the +new house--" + +I remembered that I owed him some fifteen dollars. I had in my pocket +just ten cents over my carfare. But what arrested my attention was the +mention of a new house. + +"You mean to tell me that you're putting up a house?" + +"The bit of a rint, sor, in ---- Street." + +The contrast was dramatic. The man who emptied my ashes was erecting +tenements and I was looking for work that would bring me in food. My +people had lived in this country some two hundred years or more, and +Murphy had probably not been here over thirty. There was something +wrong about this, but I seemed to be getting hold of an idea. + +"How old are you, Murphy?" I asked. + +"Goin' on sixty, sor." + +"You came to America broke?" + +"Dead broke, sor." + +"You have a wife and children?" + +"A woman and six childer." + +Six! Think of it! And I had one. + +"Children in school?" + +I asked it almost in hope that here at least I would hold the +advantage. + +"Two of them in college, sor." + +He spoke it proudly. Well he might. But to me it was confusing. + +"And you have enough left over to put up a house?" I stammered. + +"It's better than the bank," Murphy said apologetically. + +"And you aren't an old man yet," I murmured. + +"Old, sor?" + +"Why you're young and strong and independent, Murphy. You're----" But +I guess I talked a bit wild. I don't know what I said. I was +breathless--lightheaded. I wanted to get back to Ruth. + +"Pat," I said, seizing his hand--"Pat, you shall have the money within +a week. I'm going to sell out and emigrate." + +"Emigrate?" he gasped. "Where to?" + +I laughed. The solution now seemed so easy. + +"Why, to America, Pat. To America where you came thirty years ago." I +left him staring at me. I hurried into the house with my heart in my +throat. + +I found Ruth in the sitting-room with her chin in her hands and her +white forehead knotted in a frown. She didn't hear me come in, but +when I touched her arm she jumped up, ashamed to think I had caught +her looking even puzzled. But at sight of my face her expression +changed in a flash. + +"Oh, Billy," she cried, "it's good news?" + +"It's a way out--if you approve," I answered. + +"I do, Billy," she answered, without waiting to hear. + +"Then listen," I said. "If we were living in England or Ireland or +France or Germany and found life as hard as this and some one left us +five hundred dollars what would you advise doing?" + +"Why, we'd emigrate, Billy," she said instantly. + +"Exactly. Where to?" + +"To America." + +"Right," I cried. "And we'd be one out of a thousand if we didn't make +good, wouldn't we?" + +"Why, every one succeeds who comes here from somewhere else," she +exclaimed. + +"And why do they?" I demanded, getting excited with my idea. "Why do +they? There are a dozen reasons. One is because they come as +pioneers--with all the enthusiasm and eagerness of adventurers. Life +is fresh and romantic to them over here. Hardships only add zest to +the game. Another reason is that it is all a fine big gamble to them. +They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. It's the same spirit +that drives young New Englanders out west to try their luck, to +preëmpt homesteads in the Northwest, to till the prairies. Another +reason is that they come over here free--unbound by conventions. They +can work as they please, live as they please. They haven't any caste +to hamper them. Another reason is that, being on the same great +adventure, they are all brothers. They pull together. Still another +reason is that as emigrants the whole United States stands ready to +help them with schools and playgrounds and hospitals and parks." + +I paused for breath. She cut in excitedly: + +"Then we're going out west?" + +"No; we haven't the capital for that. By selling all our things we can +pay our debts and have a few dollars over, but that wouldn't take us +to Chicago. I'm not going ten miles from home." + +"Where then, Billy?" + +"You've seen the big ships come in along the water-front? They are +bringing over hundreds of emigrants every year and landing them right +on those docks. These people have had to cross the ocean to reach that +point, but our ancestors made the voyage for you and me two hundred +years ago. We're within ten miles of the wharf now." + +She couldn't make out what I meant. + +"Why, wife o' mine," I ran on, "all we need to do is to pack up, go +down to the dock and start from there. We must join the emigrants and +follow them into the city. These are the only people who are finding +America to-day. We must take up life among them; work as they work; +live as they live. Why, I feel my back muscles straining even now; I +feel the tingle of coming down the gangplank with our fortunes yet to +make in this land of opportunity. Pasquale has done it; Murphy has +done it. Don't you think I can do it?" + +She looked up at me. I had never seen her face more beautiful. It was +flushed and eager. She clutched my arm. Then she whispered: + +"My man--my wonderful, good man!" + +The primitive appellation was in itself like a whiff of salt air. It +bore me back to the days when a husband's chief function was just +that--being a man to his own good woman. We looked for a moment into +each other's eyes. Then the same question was born to both of us in a +moment. + +"What of the boy?" + +It was a more serious question to her, I think, than it was to me. I +knew that the sons of other fathers and mothers had wrestled with that +life and come out strong. There were Murphy's boys, for instance. Of +course the life would be new to my boy, but the keen competition +ought to drive him to his best. His present life was not doing that. +As for the coarser details from which he had been so sheltered--well, +a man has to learn sooner or later, and I wasn't sure but that it was +better for him to learn at an age when such things would offer no real +temptations. With Ruth back of him I didn't worry much about that. +Besides, the boy had let drop a phrase or two that made me suspect +that even among his present associates that same ground was being +explored. + +"Ruth," I said, "I'm not worrying about Dick." + +"He has been kept so fresh," she murmured. + +"It isn't the fresh things that keep longest," I said. + +"That's true, Billy," she answered. + +Then she thought a moment, and as though with new inspiration answered +me using again that same tender, primitive expression: + +"I don't fear for my man-child." + +When the boy came home from school that night I had a long talk with +him. I told him frankly how I had been forced out of my position, how +I had tried for another, how at length I had resolved to go pioneering +just as his great-grandfather had done among the Indians. As I +thought, the naked adventure of it appealed to him. That was all I +wished; it was enough to work on. + +The next day I brought out a second-hand furniture dealer and made as +good a bargain as I could with him for the contents of the house. We +saved nothing but the sheer essentials for light housekeeping. These +consisted of most of the cooking utensils, a half dozen plates, cups +and saucers and about a dozen other pieces for the table, four +tablecloths, all the bed linen, all our clothes, including some old +clothes we had been upon the point of throwing away, a few personal +gimcracks, and for furniture the following articles: the folding +wooden kitchen table, a half dozen chairs, the cot bed in the boy's +room, the iron bed in our room, the long mirror I gave Ruth on her +birthday, and a sort of china closet that stood in the dining-room. To +this we added bowls, pitchers, and lamps. All the rest, which included +a full dining-room set, a full dinner set of china, the furnishings of +the front room, including books and book case, chairs, rugs, pictures +and two or three good chairs, a full bed-room set in our room and a +cheaper one in the boy's room, piazza furnishings, garden tools, and +forty odds and ends all of which had cost me first and last something +like two thousand dollars, I told the dealer to lump together. He +looked it over and bid six hundred dollars. I saw Ruth swallow hard, +for she had taken good care of everything so that to us it was worth +as much to-day as we had paid for it. But I accepted the offer without +dickering, for it was large enough to serve my ends. It would pay off +all our debts and leave us a hundred dollars to the good. It was the +first time since I married that I had been that much ahead. + +That afternoon I saw Murphy and hired of him the top tenement of his +new house. It was in the Italian quarter of the city and my flat +consisted of four rooms. The rent was three dollars a week. Murphy +looked surprised enough at the change in my affairs and I made him +promise not to gossip to the neighbors about where I'd gone. + +"Faith, sor," he said, "and they wouldn't believe it if I told them." + +This wasn't all I accomplished that day. I bought a pair of overalls +and presented myself at the office of a contractor's agent. I didn't +have any trouble in getting in there and I didn't feel like a beggar +as I took my place in line with about a dozen foreigners. I looked +them over with a certain amount of self-confidence. Most of them were +undersized men with sagging shoulders and primitive faces. With their +big eyes they made me think of shaggy Shetland ponies. Lined up man +for man with my late associates they certainly looked like an inferior +lot. I studied them with curiosity; there must be more in them than +showed on the surface to bring them over here--there must be something +that wasn't in the rest of us for them to make good the way they did. +In the next six months I meant to find out what that was. In the +meantime just sitting there among them I felt as though I had more +elbow room than I had had since I was eighteen. Before me as before +them a continent stretched its great length and breadth. They laughed +and joked among themselves and stared about at everything with eager, +curious eyes. They were ready for anything, and everything was ready +for them--the ditch, the mines, the railroads, the wheat fields. +Wherever things were growing and needed men to help them grow, they +would play their part. They say there's plenty of room at the top, +but there's plenty of room at the bottom, too. It's in the middle that +men get pinched. + +I worked my way up to the window where a sallow, pale-faced clerk sat +in front of a big book. He gave me a start, he was such a contrast to +the others. In my new enthusiasm I wanted to ask him why he didn't +come out and get in line the other side of the window. He yawned as he +wrote down my name. I didn't have to answer more than half a dozen +questions before he told me to report for work Monday at such and such +a place. I asked him what the work was and he looked up. + +"Subway," he answered. + +I asked him how much the pay was. He looked me over at this. I don't +know what he thought I was. + +"Dollar and a half--nine hours." + +"All right," I answered. + +He gave me a slip of paper and I hurried out. It hadn't taken ten +minutes. And a dollar and a half a day was nine dollars a week! It was +almost twice as much as I had started on with the United; it was over +a third of what I had been getting after my first ten years of hard +work with them. It seemed too good to be true. Taking out the rent, +this left me six dollars for food. That was as much as it had cost +Ruth and me the first year we were married. There was no need of going +hungry on that. + +I came back home jubilant. Ruth at first took the prospect of my +digging in a ditch a bit hard, but that was only because she +contrasted it with my former genteel employment. + +"Why, girl," I explained, "it's no more than I would have to do if we +took a homestead out west. I'd as soon dig in Massachusetts as +Montana." + +She felt of my arm. It's a big arm. Then she smiled. It was the last +time she mentioned the subject. + +We didn't say anything to the neighbors until the furniture began to +go out. Then the women flocked in and Ruth was hard pressed to keep +our secret. I sat upstairs and chuckled as I heard her replies. She +says it's the only time I ever failed to stand by her, but it didn't +seem to me like anything but a joke. + +"We shall want to keep track of you," said little Mrs. Grover. "Where +shall we address you?" + +"Oh, I can't tell," answered Ruth, truthfully enough. + +"Are you going far?" + +"Yes. Oh--a long, long way." + +That was true enough too. We couldn't have gone farther out of their +lives if we'd sailed for Australia. + +And so they kept it up. That night we made a round of the houses and +everyone was very much surprised and very much grieved and very +curious. To all their inquiries, I made the same reply; that I was +going to emigrate. Some of them looked wistful. + +"Jove," said Brown, who was with the insurance company, "but I wish I +had the nerve to do that. I suppose you're going west?" + +"We're going west first," I answered. + +The road to the station was almost due west. + +"They say there are great chances out in that country," he said. "It +isn't so overcrowded as here." + +"I don't know about that," I answered, "but there are chances enough." + +Some of the women cried and all the men shook hands cordially and +wished us good luck. But it didn't mean much to me. The time I needed +their handshakes was gone. I learned later that as a result of our +secrecy I was variously credited with having lost my reason with my +job; with having inherited a fortune, with having gambled in the +market, with, thrown in for good measure, a darker hint about having +misappropriated funds of the United Woollen. But somehow their +nastiest gossip did not disturb me. It had no power to harm either me +or mine. I was already beyond their reach. Before I left I wished them +all Godspeed on the dainty journey they were making in their +cockleshell. Then so far as they were concerned I dropped off into the +sea with my wife and boy. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WE PROSPECT + + +We were lucky in getting into a new tenement and lucky in securing the +top floor. This gave us easy access to the flat roof five stories +above the street. From here we not only had a magnificent view of the +harbor, but even on the hottest days felt something of a sea breeze. +Coming down here in June we appreciated that before the summer was +over. + +The street was located half a dozen blocks from the waterfront and was +inhabited almost wholly by Italians, save for a Frenchman on the +corner who ran a bake-shop. The street itself was narrow and dirty +enough, but it opened into a public square which was decidedly +picturesque. This was surrounded by tiny shops and foreign banks, and +was always alive with color and incident. The vegetables displayed on +the sidewalk stands, the gay hues of the women's gowns, the gaudy +kerchiefs of the men, gave it a kaleidoscopic effect that made it as +fascinating to us as a trip abroad. The section was known as Little +Italy, and so far as we were concerned was as interesting as Italy +itself. + +There were four other families in the house, but the only things we +used in common were the narrow iron stairway leading upstairs and the +roof. The other tenants, however, seldom used the latter at all except +to hang out their occasional washings. For the first month or so we +saw little of these people. We were far too busy to make overtures, +and as for them they let us severely alone. They were not noisy, and +except for a sick baby on the first floor we heard little of them +above the clamor of the street below. We had four rooms. The front +room we gave to the boy, the next room we ourselves occupied, the +third room we used for a sitting-and dining-room, while the fourth was +a small kitchen with running water. As compared with our house the +quarters at first seemed cramped, but we had cut down our furniture to +what was absolutely essential, and as soon as our eyes ceased making +the comparison we were surprised to find how comfortable we were. In +the dining-room, for instance, we had nothing but three chairs, a +folding table and a closet for the dishes. Lounging chairs and so +forth we did away with altogether. Nor was there any need of making +provision for possible guests. Here throughout the whole house was the +greatest saving. I took a fierce pleasure at first in thus caring for +my own alone. + +The boy's room contained a cot, a chair, a rug and a few of his +personal treasures; our own room contained just the bed, chair and +washstand. Ruth added a few touches with pictures and odds and ends +that took off the bare aspect without cluttering up. In two weeks +these scant quarters were every whit as much home as our tidy little +house had been. That was Ruth's part in it. She'd make a home out of a +prison. + +On the second day we were fairly settled, and that night after the boy +had gone to bed Ruth sat down at my side with a pad and pencil in her +hand. + +"Billy," she said, "there's one thing we're going to do in this new +beginning: we're going to save--if it's only ten cents a week." + +I shook my head doubtfully. + +"I'm afraid you can't until I get a raise," I said. + +"We tried waiting for raises before," she answered. + +"I know, but--" + +"There aren't going to be any buts," she answered decidedly. + +"But six dollars a week--" + +"Is six dollars a week," she broke in. "We must live on five-fifty, +that's all." + +"With steak thirty cents a pound?" + +"We won't have steak. That's the point. Our neighbors around here +don't look starved, and they have larger families than ours. And they +don't even buy intelligently." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I've been watching them at the little stores in the square. They pay +there as much for half-decayed stuff as they'd have to pay for fresh +odds and ends at the big market." + +She rested her pad upon her knee. + +"Now in the first place, Billy, we're going to live much more simply." + +"We've never been extravagant," I said. + +"Not in a way," she answered slowly, "but in another way we have. I've +been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days and I see now where +we've had a great many unnecessary things." + +"Not for the last few weeks, anyhow," I said. + +"Those don't count. But before that I mean. For instance there's +coffee. It's a luxury. Why we spent almost thirty cents a week on that +alone." + +"I know but--" + +"There's another but. There's no nourishment in coffee and we can't +afford it. We'll spend that money for milk. We must have good milk and +you must get it for me somewhere up town. I don't like the looks of +the milk around here. That will be eight cents a day." + +"Better have two quarts," I suggested. + +She thought a moment. + +"Yes," she agreed, "two quarts, because that's going to be the basis +of our food. That's a dollar twelve cents a week." + +She made up a little face at this. I smiled grandly. + +"Now for breakfast we must have oatmeal every morning. And we'll get +it in bulk. I've priced it and it's only a little over three cents a +pound at some of the stores." + +"And the kind we've always had?" + +"About twelve when it's done up in packages. That's about the +proportion by which I expect to cut down everything. But you'll have +to eat milk on it instead of cream. Then we'll use a lot of potatoes. +They are very good baked for breakfast. And with them you may have +salt fish--oh, there are a dozen nice ways of fixing that. And you may +have griddle cakes and--you wait and see the things I'll give you for +breakfast. You'll have to have a good luncheon of course, but we'll +have our principal meal when you get back from work at night. But you +won't get steak. When we do get meat we'll buy soup bones and meat we +can boil. And instead of pies and cakes we'll have nourishing puddings +of cornstarch and rice. There's another good point--rice. It's cheap +and we'll have a lot of it. Look at how the Japanese live on it day +after day and keep fat and strong. Then there's cheap fish; rock cod +and such to make good chowders of or to fry in pork fat like the bass +and trout I used to have back home. Then there's baked beans. We ought +to have them at least twice a week in the winter. But this summer +we'll live mostly on fish and vegetables. I can get them fresh at the +market." + +"It sounds good," I said. + +"Just you wait," she cried excitedly. "I'll fatten up both you and the +boy." + +"And yourself, little woman," I reminded her. "I'm not going to take +the saving out of you." + +"Don't you worry about me," she answered. "This will be easier than +the other life. I shan't have to worry about clothes or dinners or +parties for the boy. And it isn't going to take any time at all to +keep these four rooms clean and sweet." + +I took the rest of the week as a sort of vacation and used it to get +acquainted with my new surroundings. It's a fact that this section of +the city which for twenty years had been within a short walk of my +office was as foreign to me as Europe. I had never before been down +here and all I knew about it was through the occasional head-lines in +the papers in connection with stabbing affrays. For the first day or +two I felt as though I ought to carry a revolver. Whenever I was +forced to leave Ruth alone in the house I instructed her upon no +circumstances to open the door. The boy and I arranged a secret +rap--an idea that pleased him mightily--and until she heard the single +knock followed by two quick sharp ones, she was not to answer. But in +wandering around among these people it was difficult to think of them +as vicious. The Italian element was a laughing, indolent-appearing +group; the scattered Jewish folk were almost timid and kept very much +to themselves. I didn't find a really tough face until I came to the +water front where they spoke English. + +On the third morning after a breakfast of oatmeal and hot +biscuit--and, by the way, Ruth effected a fifty per cent. saving right +here by using the old-fashioned formula of soda and cream of tartar +instead of baking powder--and baked potatoes, Ruth and the boy and +myself started on an exploring trip. Our idea was to get a line on +just what our opportunities were down here and to nose out the best +and cheapest places to buy. The thing that impressed us right off was +the big advantage we had in being within easy access of the big +provision centres. We were within ten minutes' walk of the market, +within fifteen of the water front, within three of the square and +within twenty of the department stores. At all of these places we +found special bargains for the day made to attract in town those from +a distance. If one rose early and reached them about as soon as they +were opened one could often buy things almost at cost and sometimes +below cost. For instance, we went up town to one of the largest but +cheaper grade department stores--we had heard its name for years but +had never been inside the building--and we found that in their grocery +department they had special mark-downs every day in the week for a +limited supply of goods. We bought sugar this day at a cent a pound +less than the market price and good beans for two cents a quart less. +It sounds at first like rather picayune saving but it counts up at the +end of the year. Then every stall in the market had its bargain of +meats--wholesome bits but unattractive to the careless buyer. We +bought here for fifty cents enough round steak for several good meals +of hash. We couldn't have bought it for less than a dollar in the +suburbs and even at that we wouldn't have known anything about it for +the store was too far for Ruth to make a personal visit and the +butcher himself would never have mentioned such an odd end to a member +of our neighborhood. + +We enjoyed wandering around this big market which in itself was like a +trip to another land. Later one of our favorite amusements was to +come down here at night and watch the hustling crowds and the lights +and the pretty colors and confusion. It reminded Ruth, she said, of a +country fair. She always carried a pad and pencil and made notes of +good places to buy. I still have those and am referring to them now as +I write this. + +"Blanks," she writes (I omit the name), "nice clean store with +pleasant salesman. Has good soup bones." + +Again, "Blank and Blank--good place to buy sausage." + +Here too the market gardeners gathered as early as four o'clock with +their vegetables fresh from the suburbs. They did mostly a wholesale +business but if one knew how it was always possible to buy of them a +cabbage or a head of lettuce or a few apples or a peck of potatoes. +They were a genial, ruddy-cheeked lot and after a while they came to +know Ruth. Often I'd go up there with her before work and she with a +basket on her arm would buy for the day. It was always, "Good morning, +miss," in answer to her smile. They were respectful whether I was +along or not. But for that matter I never knew anyone who wasn't +respectful to Ruth. They used to like to see her come, I think, for +she stood out in rather marked contrast to the bowed figures of the +other women. Later on they used to save out for her any particularly +choice vegetable they might have. She insisted however in paying them +an extra penny for such things. + +From the market we went down a series of narrow streets which led to +the water front. Here the vessels from the Banks come in to unload. +The air was salty and though to us at first the wharves seemed dirty +we got used to them, after a while, and enjoyed the smell of the fish +fresh from the water. + +Seeing whole push carts full of fish and watching them handled with a +pitch fork as a man tosses hay didn't whet our appetites any, but when +we remembered that it was these same fish--a day or two older,--for +which we had been paying double the price charged for them here the +difference overcame our scruples. The men here interested me. I found +that while the crew of every schooner numbered a goodly per cent. of +foreigners, still the greater part were American born. The new comers +as a rule bought small launches of their own and went into business +for themselves. The English speaking portion of the crews were also +as a rule the rougher element. The loafers and hangers-on about the +wharves were also English speaking. This was a fact that later on I +found to be rather significant and to hold true in a general way in +all branches of the lower class of labor. + +The barrooms about here--always a pretty sure index of the men of any +community--were more numerous and of decidedly a rougher character +than those about the square. A man would be a good deal better +justified in carrying a revolver on this street than he would in +Little Italy. I never allowed Ruth to come down here alone. + +From here we wandered back and I found a public playground and +bathhouse by the water's edge. This attracted me at once. I +investigated this and found it offered a fine opportunity for bathing. +Little dressing-rooms were provided and for a penny a man could get a +clean towel and for five cents a bathing suit. There was no reason +that I could see, however, why we shouldn't provide our own. It was +within an easy ten minutes of the flat and I saw right then where I +would get a dip every day. It would be a great thing for the boy, +too. I had always wanted him to learn to swim. + +On the way home we passed through the Jewish quarter and I made a note +of the clothing offered for sale here. The street was lined with +second hand stores with coats and trousers swinging over the sidewalk, +and the windows were filled with odd lots of shoes. Then too there +were the pawnshops. I'd always thought of a pawnshop as not being +exactly respectable and had the feeling that anyone who secured +anything from one of them was in a way a receiver of stolen goods. But +as I passed them now, I received a new impression. They seemed, down +here, as legitimate a business as the second hand stores. The windows +offered an assortment of everything from watches to banjoes and guns +but among them I also noticed many carpenter's tools and so forth. +That might be a useful thing to remember. + +It was odd how in a day our point of view had changed. If I had +brought Ruth and the boy down through here a month before, we would +all, I think, have been more impressed by the congestion and the +picturesque details of the squalor than anything else. We would have +picked our way gingerly and Ruth would have sighed often in pity and, +comparing the lives of these people with our own, would probably have +made an extra generous contribution to the Salvation Army the next +time they came round. I'm not saying now that there isn't misery +enough there and in every like section of every city, but I'll say +that in a great many cases the same people who grovel in the filth +here would grovel in a different kind of filth if they had ten +thousand a year. At that you can't blame them greatly for they don't +know any better. But when you learn, as I learned later, that some of +the proprietors of these second hand stores and fly-blown butcher +shops have sons in Harvard and daughters in Wellesley, it makes you +think. But I'm running ahead. + +The point was that now that we felt ourselves in a way one of these +people and viewed the street not from the superior height of +native-born Americans but just as emigrants, neither the soiled +clothes of the inhabitants nor the cluttered street swarming with +laughing youngsters impressed us unfavorably at all. The impassive men +smoking cigarettes at their doors looked contented enough, the women +were not such as to excite pity, and if you noticed, there were as +many children around the local soda water fountains as you'd find in a +suburban drug store. They all had clothes enough and appeared well fed +and if some of them looked pasty, the sweet stuff in the stores was +enough to account for that. + +At any rate we came back to our flat that day neither depressed nor +discouraged but decidedly in better spirits. Of course we had seen +only the surface and I suspected that when we really got into these +lives we'd find a bad condition of things. It must be so, for that was +the burden of all we read. But we would have time enough to worry +about that when we discovered it for ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +I BECOME A DAY LABORER + + +That night Ruth and I had a talk about the boy. We both came back from +our walk, with him more on our minds than anything else. He had been +interested in everything and had asked about a thousand questions and +gone to bed eager to be out on the street again the next day. We knew +we couldn't keep him cooped up in the flat all the time and of course +both Ruth and I were going to be too busy to go out with him every +time he went. As for letting him run loose around these streets with +nothing to do, that would be sheer foolhardiness. It was too late in +the season to enroll him in the public schools and even that would +have left him idle during the long summer months. + +We talked some at first of sending him off into the country to a farm. +There were two or three families back where Ruth had lived who might +be willing to take him for three or four dollars a week and we had +the money left over from the sale of our household goods to cover +that. But this would mean the sacrifice of our emergency fund which we +wished to preserve more for the boy's sake than our own and it would +mean leaving Ruth very much alone. + +"I'll do it, Billy," she said bravely, "but can't we wait a day or two +before deciding? And I think I can _make_ time to get out with him. +I'll get up earlier in the morning and I'll leave my work at night +until after he's gone to bed." + +So she would. She'd have worked all night to keep him at home and then +gone out with him all day if it had been possible. I saw it would be +dragging the heart out of her to send the boy away and made up my mind +right then and there that some other solution must be found for the +problem. Good Lord, after I'd led her down here the least I could do +was to let her keep the one. And to tell the truth I found my own +heart sink at the suggestion. + +"What do the boys round here do in the summer?" she asked. + +I didn't know and I made up my mind to find out. The next day I went +down to a settlement house which I remembered passing at some time or +other. I didn't know what it was but it sounded like some sort of +philanthropic enterprise for the neighborhood and if so they ought to +be able to answer my questions there. The outside of the building was +not particularly attractive but upon entering I was pleasantly +surprised at the air of cleanliness and comfort which prevailed. There +were a number of small boys around and in one room I saw them reading +and playing checkers. I sought out the secretary and found him a +pleasant young fellow though with something of the professional +pleasantness which men in this work seem to acquire. He smiled too +much and held my hand a bit too long to suit me. He took me into his +office and offered me a chair. I told him briefly that I had just +moved down here and had a boy of ten whom I wished to keep off the +streets and keep occupied. I asked him what the boys around here did +during the summer. + +"Most of them work," he answered. + +I hadn't thought of this. + +"What do they do?" + +"A good many sell papers, some of them serve as errand boys and others +help their parents." + +Dick was certainly too inexperienced for the first two jobs and there +was nothing in my work he could do to help. Then the man began to ask +me questions. He was evidently struck by the fact that I didn't seem +to be in place here. I answered briefly that I had been a clerk all my +life, had lost my position and was now a common day laborer. The boy, +I explained, was not yet used to his life down here and I wanted to +keep him occupied until he got his strength. + +"You're right," he answered. "Why don't you bring him in here?" + +"What would he do here?" + +"It's a good loafing place for him and we have some evening classes." + +"I want him at home nights," I answered. + +"The Y.M.C.A. has summer classes which begin a little later on. Why +don't you put him into some of those?" + +I had always heard of the Y.M.C.A., but I had never got into touch +with it, for I thought it was purely a religious organization. But +that proposition sounded good. I'd passed the building a thousand +times but had never been inside. I thanked him and started to leave. + +"I hope this won't be your last visit," he said cordially. "Come down +and see what we're doing. You'll find a lot of boys here at night." + +"Thanks," I answered. + +I went direct to the Y.M.C.A. building. Here again I was surprised to +find a most attractive interior. It looked like the inside of a +prosperous club house. I don't know what I expected but I wouldn't +have been startled if I'd found a hall filled with wooden settees and +a prayer meeting going on. I had a lot of such preconceived notions +knocked out of my head in the next few years. + +In response to my questions I received replies that made me feel I'd +strayed by mistake into some university. For that matter it _was_ a +university. There was nothing from the primary class in English to a +professional education in the law that a man couldn't acquire here for +a sum that was astonishingly small. The most of the classes cost +nothing after payment of the membership fee of ten dollars. The +instructors were, many of them, the same men who gave similar courses +at a neighboring college. Not only that, but the hours were so +arranged as to accommodate workers of all classes. If you couldn't +attend in the daytime, you could at night. I was astonished to think +that this opportunity had always been at my hand and I had never +suspected it. In the ten years before I was married I could have +qualified as a lawyer or almost anything else. + +This was not all; a young man took me over the building and showed me +the library, the reading-room, rooms where the young men gathered for +games, and then down stairs to the well equipped gymnasium with its +shower baths. Here a boy could take a regular course in gymnasium work +under a skilled instructor or if he showed any skill devote himself to +such sports as basketball, running, baseball or swimming. In addition +to these advantages amusements were provided through the year in the +form of lectures, amateur shows and music. In the summer, special +opportunities were offered for out-door sports. Moreover the +Association managed summer camps where for a nominal fee the boys +could enjoy the life of the woods. A boy must be poor indeed who could +not afford most of these opportunities. And if he was out of work the +employment bureau conducted here would help him to a position. I came +back to the main office wondering still more how in the world I'd +ever missed such chances all these years. It was a question I asked +myself many times during the next few months. And the answer seemed to +lie in the dead level of that other life. We never lifted our eyes; we +never looked around us. If we were hard pressed either we accepted our +lot resignedly or cursed our luck, and let it go at that. These +opportunities were for a class which had no lot and didn't know the +meaning of luck. The others could have had them, too--can have +them--for the taking, but neither by education nor temperament are +they qualified to do so. There's a good field for missionary work +there for someone. + +Before I came out of the building I had enrolled Dick as a member and +picked out for him a summer course in English in which he was a bit +backward. I also determined to start him in some regular gymnasium +work. He needed hardening up. + +I came home and announced my success to Ruth and she was delighted. I +suspected by the look in her eyes that she had been worrying all day +for fear there would be no alternative but to send the boy off. + +"I knew you would find a way," she said excitedly. + +"I wish I'd found it twenty years ago," I said regretfully. "Then +you'd have a lawyer for a husband instead of a--." + +"Hush," she answered putting her hand over my mouth. "I've a man for a +husband and that's all I care about." + +The way she said it made me feel that after all being a man was what +counted and that if I could live up to that day by day, no matter what +happened, then I could be well satisfied. I guess the city directory +was right when before now it couldn't define me any more definitely +than, "clerk." And there is about as much man in a clerk as in a +valet. They are both shadows. + +The boy fell in with my plans eagerly, for the gymnasium work made him +forget the study part of the programme. The next day I took him up +there and saw him introduced to the various department heads. I paid +his membership fee and they gave him a card which made him feel like a +real club man. I tell you it took a weight off my mind. + +On the Monday following our arrival in our new quarters, I rose at +five-thirty, put on my overalls and had breakfast. I ate a large bowl +of oatmeal, a generous supply of flapjacks, made of some milk that had +soured, sprinkled with molasses, and a cup of hot black coffee--the +last of a can we had brought down with us among the left-over kitchen +supplies. + +For lunch Ruth had packed my box with cold cream-of-tartar biscuit, +well buttered, a bit of cheese, a little bowl of rice pudding, two +hard-boiled eggs and a pint bottle of cold coffee. I kissed her goodby +and started out on foot for the street where I was to take up my work. +The foreman demanded my name, registered me, told me where to find a +shovel and assigned me to a gang under another foreman. At seven +o'clock I took my place with a dozen Italians and began to shovel. My +muscles were decidedly flabby, and by noon I began to find it hard +work. I was glad to stop and eat my lunch. I couldn't remember a meal +in five years that tasted as good as that did. My companions watched +me curiously--perhaps a bit suspiciously--but they chattered in a +foreign tongue among themselves and rather shied away from me. On that +first day I made up my mind to one thing--I would learn Italian before +the year was done, and know something more about these people and +their ways. They were the key to the contractor's problem and it would +pay a man to know how to handle them. As I watched the boss over us +that day it did not seem to me that he understood very well. + +From one to five the work became an increasing strain. Even with my +athletic training I wasn't used to such a prolonged test of one set of +muscles. My legs became heavy, my back ached, and my shoulders finally +refused to obey me except under the sheer command of my will. I knew, +however, that time would remedy this. I might be sore and lame for a +day or two, but I had twice the natural strength of these short, +close-knit foreigners. The excitement and novelty of the employment +helped me through those first few days. I felt the joy of the +pioneer--felt the sweet sense of delving in the mother earth. It +touched in me some responsive chord that harked back to my ancestors +who broke the rocky soil of New England. Of the life of my fellows +bustling by on the earth-crust overhead--those fellows of whom so +lately I had been one--I was not at all conscious. I might have been +at work on some new planet for all they touched my new life. I could +see them peering over the wooden rail around our excavation as they +stopped to stare down at us, but I did not connect them with myself. +And yet I felt closer to this old city than ever before. I thrilled +with the joy of the constructor, the builder, even in this humble +capacity. I felt superior to those for whom I was building. In a +coarse way I suppose it was a reflection of some artistic +sense--something akin to the creative impulse. I can say truthfully +that at the end of that first day I came home--begrimed and sore as I +was--with a sense of fuller life than so far I had ever experienced. + +I found Ruth waiting for me with some anxiety. She came into my +soil-stained arms as eagerly as a bride. It was good. It took all the +soreness out of me. Before supper I took the boy and we went down to +the public baths on the waterfront and there I dived and splashed and +swam like a young whale. The sting of the cold salt water was all the +further balm I needed. I came out tingling and fit right then for +another nine-hour day. But when I came back I threatened our first +week's savings at the supper-table. Ruth had made more hot +griddle-cakes and I kept her at the stove until I was ashamed to do it +longer. The boy, too, after his plunge, showed a better appetite than +for weeks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NINE DOLLARS A WEEK + + +The second day, I woke up lame and stiff but I gave myself a good +brisk rub down and kneaded my arm and leg muscles until they were +pretty well limbered up. The thing that pleased me was the way I felt +towards my new work that second morning. I'd been a bit afraid of a +reaction--of waking up with all the romance gone. That, I knew, would +be deadly. Once let me dwell on the naked material facts of my +condition and I'd be lost. That's true of course in any occupation. +The man who works without an inspiration of some sort is not only +discontented but a poor workman. I remember distinctly that when I +opened my eyes and realized my surroundings and traced back the +incidents of yesterday to the ditch, I was concerned principally with +the problem of a stone in our path upon which we had been working. I +wanted to get back to it. We had worked upon it for an hour without +fully uncovering it and I was as eager as the foreman to learn whether +it was a ledge rock or just a fragment. This interest was not +associated with the elevated road for whom the work was being done, +nor the contractor who had undertaken the job, nor the foreman who was +supervising it. It was a question which concerned only me and Mother +Earth who seemed to be doing her best to balk us at every turn. I +forgot the sticky, wet clay in which I had floundered for nine hours, +forgot the noisome stench which at times we were forced to breathe, +forgot my lame hands and back. I recalled only the problem itself and +the skill with which the man they called Anton' handled his crow bar. +He was a master of it. In removing the smaller slabs which lay around +the big one he astonished me with his knowledge of how to place the +bar. He'd come to my side where I was prying with all my strength and +with a wave of his hand for me to stand back, would adjust two or +three smaller rocks as a fulcrum and then, with the gentlest of +movements, work the half-ton weight inch by inch to where he wanted +it. He could swing the rock to the right or left, raise or lower it, +at will, and always he made the weight of the rock, against which I +had striven so vainly, do the work. That was something worth learning. +I wanted to get back and study him. I wanted to get back and finish +uncovering that rock. I wanted to get back and bring the job as a +whole to a finish so as to have a new one to tackle. Even at the end +of that first day I felt I had learned enough to make myself a man of +greater power than I was the day before. And always in the background +was the unknown goal to which this toil was to lead. I hadn't yet +stopped to figure out what the goal was but that it was worth while I +had no doubt for I was no longer stationary. I was a constructor. I +was in touch with a big enterprise of development. + +I don't know that I've made myself clear. I wasn't very clear in my +own mind then but I know that I had a very conscious impression of the +sort which I've tried to put into words. And I know that it filled me +with a great big joy. I never woke up with any such feeling when with +the United Woollen. My only thought in the morning then was how much +time I must give myself to catch the six-thirty. When I reached the +office I hung up my hat and coat and sat down to the impersonal +figures like an automaton. There was nothing of me in the work; there +couldn't be. How petty it seemed now! I suppose the company, as an +industrial enterprise, was in the line of development, but that idea +never penetrated as far as the clerical department. We didn't feel it +any more than the adding machines do. + +Ruth had a good breakfast for me and when I came into the kitchen she +was trying to brush the dried clay off my overalls. + +"Good Heavens!" I said, "don't waste your strength doing that." + +She looked up from her task with a smile. + +"I'm not going to let you get slack down here" she said. + +"But those things will look just as bad again five minutes after I've +gone down the ladder." + +"But I don't intend they shall look like this on your way to the +ladder," she answered. + +"All right," I said "then let me have them. I'll do it myself." + +"Have you shaved?" she asked. + +I rubbed my hand over my chin. It wasn't very bad and I'd made up my +mind I wouldn't shave every day now. + +"No," I said. "But twice or three times a week--" + +"Billy!" she broke in, "that will never do. You're going down to your +new business looking just as ship-shape as you went to the old. You +don't belong to that contractor; you belong to me." + +In the meanwhile the boy came in with my heavy boots which he had +brushed clean and oiled. There was nothing left for me to do but to +shave and I'll admit I felt better for it. + +"Do you want me to put on a high collar?" I asked. + +"Didn't you find the things I laid out for you?" + +I hadn't looked about. I'd put on the things I took off. She led me +back into the bed room, and over a chair I saw a clean change of +underclothing and a new grey flannel shirt. + +"Where did you get this?" I asked. + +"I bought it for a dollar," she answered. "It's too much to pay. I can +make one for fifty cents as soon as I get time to sew." + +That's the way Ruth was. Every day after this she made me change, +after I came back from my swim, into the business suit I wore when I +came down here, and which now by contrast looked almost new. She even +made me wear a tie with my flannel shirt. Every morning I started out +clean shaven and with my work clothes as fresh as though I were a +contractor myself. I objected at first because it seemed too much for +her to do to wash the things every day, but she said it was a good +deal easier than washing them once a week. Incidentally that was one +of her own little schemes for saving trouble and it seemed to me a +good one; instead of collecting her soiled clothes for seven days and +then tearing herself all to pieces with a whole hard forenoon's work, +she washed a little every day. By this plan it took her only about an +hour each morning to keep all the linen in the house clean and sweet. +We had the roof to dry it on and she never ironed anything except +perhaps the tablecloths and handkerchiefs. We had no company to cater +to and as long as we knew things were clean that's all we cared. + +We got around the rock all right. It proved not to be a ledge after +all. I myself, however, didn't accomplish as much as I did the first +day, for I was slower in my movements. On the other hand, I think I +improved a little in my handling of the crowbar. At the noon hour I +tried to start a conversation with Anton', but he understood little +English and I knew no Italian, so we didn't get far. As he sat in a +group of his fellow countrymen laughing and jabbering he made me feel +distinctly like an outsider. There were one or two English-speaking +workmen besides myself, but somehow they didn't interest me as much as +these Italians. It may have been my imagination but they seemed to me +a decidedly inferior lot. As a rule they were men who took the job +only to keep themselves from starving and quit at the end of a week or +two only to come back when they needed more money. + +I must make an exception of an Irishman I will call Dan Rafferty. He +was a big blue-eyed fellow, full of fun and fight, with a good natured +contempt of the Dagoes, and was a born leader. I noticed, the first +day, that he came nearer being the boss of the gang than the foreman, +and I suspect the latter himself noticed it, for he seemed to have it +in for Dan. There never was an especially dirty job to be done but +what Dan was sent. He always obeyed but he used to slouch off with his +big red fist doubled up, muttering curses that brought out his brogue +at its best. Later on he confided in me what he was going to do to +that boss. If he had carried out his threats he would long since have +been electrocuted and I would have lost a good friend. Several times I +thought the two men were coming to blows but though Dan would have +dearly loved a fight and could have handled a dozen men like the +foreman, he always managed to control himself in time to avoid it. + +"I don't wanter be after losin' me job for the dirthy spalpeen," he +growled to me. + +But he came near it in a way he wasn't looking for later in the week. +It was Friday and half a dozen of us had been sent down to work on the +second level. It was damp and suffocating down there, fifty feet below +the street. I felt as though I had gone into the mines. I didn't like +it but I knew that there was just as much to learn here as above and +that it must all be learned eventually. The sides were braced with +heavy timbers like a mine shaft to prevent the dirt from falling in +and there was the constant danger that in spite of this it might cave +in. We went down by rough ladders made by nailing strips of board +across two pieces of joist and the work down there was back-breaking +and monotonous. We heaved the dirt into a big iron bucket lowered by +the hoisting engine above. It was heavy, wet soil that weighed like +lead. + +From the beginning the men complained of headaches and one by one they +crawled up the ladder again for fresh air. Others were sent down but +at the end of an hour they too retreated. Dan and I stuck it out for a +while. Then I began to get dizzy myself. I didn't know what the +trouble was but when I began to wobble a bit Dan placed his hand on my +shoulder. + +"Betther climb out o' here," he said. "I'm thinkin' it's gas." + +At that time I didn't know what sewer gas was. I couldn't smell +anything and thought he must be mistaken. + +"You'd better come too," I answered, making for the ladder. + +He wasn't coming but I couldn't get up very well without him so he +followed along behind. At the top we found the foreman fighting mad +and trying to spur on another gang to go down. They wouldn't move. +When he saw us come up he turned upon Dan. + +"Who ordered you out of there?" he growled. + +"The gas," answered Dan. + +"Gas be damned," shouted the foreman. "You're a bunch of white livered +cowards--all of you." + +I saw Dan double up his fists and start towards the man. The latter +checked him with a command. + +"Go back down there or you're fired," he said to him. + +Dan turned red. Then I saw his jaws come together. + +"Begod!" he answered. "_You_ shan't fire me, anyhow." + +Without another word he started down the ladder again. I saw the +Italians crowd together and watch him. By that time my head was +clearer but my legs were weak. I sat down a moment uncertain what to +do. Then I heard someone shout: + +"By God, he's right! He's lying there at the bottom." + +I started towards the ladder but some one shoved me back. Then I +thought of the bucket. It was above ground and I staggered towards it +gaining strength at each step. I jumped in and shouted to the engineer +to lower me. He obeyed from instinct. I went down, down, down to what +seemed like the center of the earth. When the bucket struck the ground +I was dizzy again but I managed to get out, heave the unconscious Dan +in and pile on top of him myself. When I came to, I was in an +ambulance on my way to the hospital but by the time I had reached the +emergency room I had taken a grip on myself. I knew that if ever Ruth +heard of this she would never again be comfortable. When they took us +out I was able to walk a little. The doctors wanted to put me to bed +but I refused to go. I sat there for about an hour while they worked +over Dan. When I found that he would be all right by morning I +insisted upon going out. I had a bad headache, but I knew the fresh +air would drive this away and so it did, though it left me weak. + +One of the hardest day's work I ever did in my life was killing time +from then until five o'clock. Of course the papers got hold of it and +that gave me another scare but luckily the nearest they came to my +name was Darlinton, so no harm was done. And they didn't come within a +mile of getting the real story. When in a later edition one of them +published my photograph I felt absolutely safe for they had me in a +full beard and thinner than I've ever been in my life. + +When I came home at my usual time looking a bit white perhaps but +otherwise normal enough, the first question Ruth asked me was: + +"What have you done with your dinner pail, Billy?" + +Isn't a man always sure to do some such fool thing as that, when he's +trying to keep something quiet from the wife? I had to explain that I +had forgotten it and that was enough to excite suspicion at any time. +She kept me uneasy for ten minutes and the best I could do was to +admit finally that I wasn't feeling very well. Whereupon she made me +go to bed and fussed over me all the evening and worried all the next +day. + +I reported for work as usual in the morning and found we had a new +foreman. It was a relief because I guess if Dan hadn't knocked down +the other one, someone else would have done it sooner or later. At +that the man had taught me something about sewer gas and that is when +you begin to feel dizzy fifty feet below the street, it's time to go +up the ladder about as fast as your wobbly legs will let you, even if +you don't smell anything. + +Rafferty didn't turn up for two or three days. When he did appear it +was with a simple: + +"Mawnin, mon." + +It wasn't until several days later I learned that the late foreman had +left town nursing a black eye and a cut on one cheek such as might +have been made by a set of red knuckles backed by an arm the size of a +small ham. + +On Saturday night of that first week I came home with nine dollars in +my pocket. I'll never be prouder again than I was when I handed them +over to Ruth. And Ruth will never again be prouder than she was when, +after she had laid aside three of them for the rent and five for +current expenses, she picked out a one-dollar bill and, crossing the +room, placed it in the ginger jar. This was a little blue affair in +which we had always dropped what pennies and nickels we could spare. + +"There's our nest-egg," she announced. + +"You don't mean to tell me you're that much ahead of the game the +first week?" + +"Look here, Billy," she answered. + +She brought out an itemized list of everything she had bought from +last Monday, including Sunday's dinner. I've kept that list. Many of +the things she had bought were not yet used up but she had computed +the cost of the amount actually used. Here it is as I copied it off: + + Flour, .25 + Lard, .15 + Cream of tartar and soda, .05 + Oat meal, .04 + Molasses, .05 + Sugar, .12 + Potatoes, .20 + Rice, .06 + Milk, 1.12 + Eggs, .24 + Rye bread, .10 + Sausages, .22 + Lettuce, .03 + Beans, .12 + Salt pork, .15 + Corn meal, .06 + Graham meal, .05 + Butter, .45 + Cheese, .06 + Shin of beef, .39 + Fish, .22 + Oil, .28 + Soap, .09 + Vinegar, salt and pepper, about .05 + Can of corn, .07 + Onions, .06 + Total $4.68 + +In this account, too, Ruth was liberal in her margins. She did better +than this later on. A fairer estimate could have been made at the end +of the month and a still fairer even than that, at the end of the +year. It sounded almost too good to be true but it was a fact. We had +lived, and lived well on this amount and as yet Ruth was +inexperienced. She hadn't learned all she learned later. For the +benefit of those who may think we went hungry I have asked Ruth to +write out the bill of fare for this week as nearly as she can remember +it. One thing you must keep in mind is that of everything we had, we +had enough. Neither Ruth, the boy, nor myself ever left the table or +dinner pail unsatisfied. Here's what we had and it was better even +than it sounds for whatever Ruth made, she made well. I copy it as she +wrote it out. + + Monday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cream of tartar + biscuits, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bowl of + rice, cold coffee; for Dick and me: cold biscuits, milk, rice. + + Dinner: baked potatoes, griddle-cakes, milk. + + + Tuesday. + + Breakfast: baked potatoes, graham muffins, oatmeal, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, two hard-boiled eggs, rice, + milk; for Dick and me: cold muffins, rice and milk. + + Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Wednesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried potatoes, warmed over biscuits. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bread + pudding; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, cold biscuits, bread + pudding. + + Dinner: beef stew with dumplings, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Thursday. + + Breakfast: fried sausages, baked potatoes, graham muffins, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, cold sausage and rice; for Dick + and me: the same. + + Dinner: warmed over stew, lettuce, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Friday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried rock cod, baked potatoes, rye bread, + milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: rye bread, potato salad, rice; for Dick and + me: the same. + + Dinner: soup made from stock of beef, left over fish, boiled + potatoes, rice, milk. + + + Saturday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried corn mush with molasses, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, cheese, + rice; for Dick and me: German toast. + + Dinner: baked beans, hot biscuits. + + + Sunday. + + Breakfast: baked beans, graham muffins. + + Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, canned corn, corn cake, + bread pudding. + +A word about that bread pudding. Ruth tells me she puts in an extra +quart of milk and then bakes it all day when she bakes her beans, +stirring it every now and then. I never knew before how the trick was +done but it comes out a rich brown and tastes like plum pudding +without the raisins. She says that if you put in raisins it tastes +exactly like a plum pudding. + +So at the end of the first week I found myself with eighty dollars +left over from the old home, one dollar saved in the new, all my bills +paid, and Ruth, Dick and myself all fit as a fiddle. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SUNDAY + + +That first dollar saved was the germ of a new idea. + +It is a further confession of a middle-class mind that in coming down +here I had not looked forward beyond the immediate present. With the +horror of that last week still on me I had considered only the +opportunity I had for earning a livelihood. To be sure I had seen no +reason why an intelligent man should not in time be advanced to +foreman, and why he should not then be able to save enough to ward off +the poorhouse before old age came on. But now--with that first dollar +tucked away in the ginger jar--I felt within me the stirring of a new +ambition, an ambition born of this quick young country into which I +had plunged. Why, in time, should I not become the employer? Why +should I not take the initiative in some of these progressive +enterprises? Why should I not learn this business of contracting and +building and some day contract and build for myself? With that first +dollar saved I was already at heart a capitalist. + +I said nothing of this to Ruth. For six months I let the idea grow. If +it did nothing else it added zest to my new work. I shoveled as though +I were digging for diamonds. It made me a young man again. It made me +a young American again. It brought me out of bed every morning with +visions; it sent me to sleep at night with dreams. + +But I'm running ahead of my story. + +I thought I had appreciated Sunday when it meant a release for one day +from the office of the United Woollen, but as with all the other +things I felt as though it had been but the shadow and that only now +had I found the substance. In the first place I had not been able +completely to shake the office in the last few years. I brought it +home with me and on Sundays it furnished half the subject of +conversation. Every little incident, every bit of conversation, every +expression on Morse's face was analyzed in the attempt to see what it +counted, for or against, the possible future raise. Even when out +walking with the boy the latter was a constant reminder. It was as +though he were merely a ward of the United Woollen Company. + +But when I put away my shovel at five o'clock on Saturday that was the +end of my ditch digging. I came home after that and I was at home +until I reported for work on Monday morning. There was neither work +nor worry left hanging over. It meant complete relaxation--complete +rest. And the body, I found, rests better than the mind. + +Later in my work I didn't experience this so perfectly as I now did +because then I accepted new responsibilities, but for the first few +months I lived in lazy content on this one day. For the most part +those who lived around me did all the time. On fair summer days half +the population of the little square basked in the sun with eyes half +closed from morning until night. Those who didn't, went to the +neighboring beaches many of which they could reach for a nickel or +visited such public buildings as were open. But wherever they went or +whatever they did, they loafed about it. And a man can't truly loaf +until he's done a hard week's work which ends with the week. + +As for us we had our choice of any number of pleasant occupations. I +insisted that Ruth should make the meals as simple as possible on that +day and both the boy and myself helped her about them. We always +washed the dishes and swept the floor. First of all there was the +roof. I early saw the possibility of this much neglected spot. It was +flat and had a fence around it for it was meant to be used for the +hanging out of clothes. Being a new building it had been built a story +higher than its older neighbors so that we overlooked the other roofs. +There was a generous space through which we saw the harbor. I picked +up a strip of old canvas for a trifle in one of the shore-front +junk-shops which deal in second-hand ship supplies and arranged it +over one corner like a canopy. Then I brought home with me some bits +of board that were left over from the wood construction at the ditch +and nailed these together to make a rude sort of window box. It was +harder to get dirt than it was wood but little by little I brought +home enough finally to fill the boxes. In these we planted radishes +and lettuce and a few flower seeds. We had almost as good a garden as +we used to have in our back yard. At any rate it was just as much fun +to watch the things grow, and though the lettuce never amounted to +much we actually raised some very good radishes. The flowers did well, +too. + +We brought up an old blanket and spread it out beneath the canopy and +that, with a chair or two, made our roof garden. A local branch of the +Public Library was not far distant so that we had all the reading +matter we wanted and here we used to sit all day Sunday when we didn't +feel like doing anything else. Here, too, we used to sit evenings. On +several hot nights Ruth, the boy and I brought up our blankets and +slept out. The boy liked it so well that finally he came to sleep up +here most of the summer. It was fine for him. The harbor breeze swept +the air clean of smoke so that it was as good for him as being at the +sea-shore. + +To us the sights from this roof were marvelous. They appealed strongly +because they were unlike anything we had ever seen or for that matter +unlike anything our friends had ever seen. I think that a man's +friends often take away the freshness from sights that otherwise might +move him. I've never been to Europe but what with magazine pictures +and snap shots and Mrs. Grover, who never forgot that before she +married Grover she had travelled for a whole year, I haven't any +special desire to visit London or Paris. I suppose it would be +different if I ever went but even then I don't think there would be +the novelty to it we found from our roof. And it was just that novelty +and the ability to appreciate it that made our whole emigrant life +possible. It was for us the Great Adventure again. I suppose there are +men who will growl that it's all bosh to say there is any real romance +in living in four rooms in a tenement district, eating what we ate, +digging in a ditch and mooning over a view from a roof top. I want to +say right here that for such men there wouldn't be any romance or +beauty in such a life. They'd be miserable. There are plenty of men +living down there now and they never miss a chance to air their +opinions. Some of them have big bodies but I wouldn't give them fifty +cents a day to work for me. Luckily however, there are not many of +them in proportion to the others, even though they make more noise. + +But when you stop to think about it what else is it but romance that +leads men to spend their lives fishing off the Banks when they could +remain safely ashore and get better pay driving a team? Or what drives +them into the army or to work on railroads when they neither expect +nor hope to be advanced? The men themselves can't tell you. They take +up the work unthinkingly but there is something in the very hardships +they suffer which lends a sting to the life and holds them. The only +thing I know of that will do this and turn the grind into an +inspiration is romance. It's what the new-comers have and it's what +our ancestors had and it's what a lot of us who have stayed over here +too long out of the current have lost. + +On the lazy summer mornings we could hear the church bells and now and +then a set of chimes. Because we were above the street and next to the +sky they sounded as drowsily musical as in a country village. They +made me a bit conscience-stricken to think that for the boy's sake I +didn't make an effort and go to some church. But for a while it was +church enough to devote the seventh day to what the Bible says it was +made for. Ruth used to read out loud to us and we planned to make our +book suit the day after a fashion. Sometimes it was Emerson, sometimes +Tennyson--I was very fond of the Idylls--and sometimes a book of +sermons. Later on we had a call from a young minister who had a little +mission chapel not far from our flat and who looked in upon us at the +suggestion of the secretary of the settlement house. We went to a +service at his chapel one Sunday and before we ourselves realized it +we were attending regularly with a zest and interest which we had +never felt in our suburban church-going. Later still we each of us +found a share in the work ourselves and came to have a great +satisfaction and contentment in it. But I am running ahead of my +story. + +We'd have dinner this first summer at about half past one and then +perhaps we'd go for a walk. There wasn't a street in the city that +didn't interest us but as a rule we'd plan to visit one of the parks. +I didn't know there were so many of them or that they were so +different. We had our choice of the ocean or a river or the woods. If +we had wished to spend say thirty cents in car fare we could have had +a further choice of the beach, the mountains, or a taste of the +country which in places had not changed in the last hundred years. +This would have given us a two hours' ride. Occasionally we did this +but at present there was too much to see within walking distance. + +For one thing it suddenly occurred to me that though I had lived in +this city over thirty years I had not yet seen such places of interest +as always attracted visitors from out of town. My attention was +brought to this first by the need of limiting ourselves to amusements +that didn't cost anything, but chiefly by learning where the better +element down here spent their Sundays. You have only to follow this +crowd to find out where the objects of national pride are located. An +old battle flag will attract twenty foreigners to one American. And +incidentally I wish to confess it was they who made me ashamed of my +ignorance of the country's history. Beyond a memory of the Revolution, +the Civil War and a few names of men and battles connected therewith, +I'd forgotten all I ever learned at school on this subject. But here +the many patriotic celebrations arranged by the local schools in the +endeavor to instill patriotism and the frequent visits of the boys to +the museums, kept the subject fresh. Not only Dick but Ruth and myself +soon turned to it as a vital part of our education. Inspired by the +old trophies that ought to stand for so much to us of to-day we took +from the library the first volume of Fiske's fine series and in the +course of time read them all. As we traced the fortunes of those early +adventurers who dreamed and sailed towards an unknown continent, +pictured to ourselves the lives of the tribes who wandered about in +the big tangle of forest growth between the Atlantic and the Pacific, +as we landed on the bleak New England shores with the early Pilgrims, +then fought with Washington, then studied the perilous internal +struggle culminating with Lincoln and the Civil War, then the +dangerous period of reconstruction with the breathless progress +following--why it left us all better Americans than we had ever been +in our lives. It gave new meaning to my present surroundings and +helped me better to understand the new-comers. Somehow all those +things of the past didn't seem to concern Grover and the rest of them +in the trim little houses. They had no history and they were a part of +no history. Perhaps that's because they were making no history +themselves. As for myself, I know that I was just beginning to get +acquainted with my ancestors--that for the first time in my life, I +was really conscious of being a citizen of the United States of +America. + +But I soon discovered that not only the historic but the beautiful +attracted these people. They introduced me to the Art Museum. In the +winter following our first summer here, when the out of door +attractions were considerably narrowed down, Ruth and I used to go +there about every other Sunday with the boy. We came to feel as +familiar with our favorite pictures as though they hung in our own +house. The Museum ceased to be a public building; it was our own. We +went in with a nod to the old doorkeeper who came to know us and felt +as unconstrained there as at home. We had our favorite nooks, our +favorite seats and we lounged about in the soft lights of the rooms +for hours at a time. The more we looked at the beautiful paintings, +the old tapestries, the treasures of stone and china, the more we +enjoyed them. We were sure to meet some of our neighbors there and a +young artist who lived on the second floor of our house and whom +later I came to know very well, pointed out to us new beauties in the +old masters. He was selling plaster casts at that time and studying +art in the night school. + +In the old life, an art museum had meant nothing to me more than that +it seemed a necessary institution in every city. It was a mark of good +breeding in a town, like the library in a good many homes. But it had +never occurred to me to visit it and I know it hadn't to any of my +former associates. The women occasionally went to a special exhibition +that was likely to be discussed at the little dinners, but a week +later they couldn't have told you what they had seen. Perhaps our +neighborhood was the exception and a bit more ignorant than the +average about such things, but I'll venture to say there isn't a +middle-class community in this country where the paintings play the +part in the lives of the people that they do among the foreign-born. A +class better than they does the work; a class lower enjoys it. Where +the middle-class comes in, I don't know. + +After being gone all the afternoon we'd be glad to get home again and +maybe we'd have a lunch of cold beans and biscuits or some of the +pudding that was left over. Then during the summer months we'd go back +to the roof for a restful evening. At night the view was as different +from the day as you could imagine. Behind us the city proper was in a +bluish haze made by the electric lights. Then we could see the yellow +lights of the upper windows in all the neighboring houses and beyond +these, over the roof tops which seemed now to huddle closer together, +we saw the passing red and green lights of moving vessels. Overhead +were the same clean stars which were at the same time shining down +upon the woods and the mountain tops. There was something about it +that made me feel a man and a free man. There was twenty years of +slavery back of me to make me appreciate this. + +And Ruth reading my thoughts in my eyes used to nestle closer to me +and the boy with his chin in his hands would stare out at sea and +dream his own dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PLANS FOR THE FUTURE + + +As I said, with that first dollar in the ginger jar representing the +first actual saving I had ever effected in my whole life, my +imagination became fired with new plans. I saw no reason why I myself +should not become an employer. As in the next few weeks I enlarged my +circle of acquaintances and pushed my inquiries in every possible +direction I found this idea was in the air down here. The ambition of +all these people was towards complete independence. Either they hoped +to set up in business for themselves in this country or they looked +forward to saving enough to return to the land of their birth and live +there as small land owners. I speak more especially of the Italians +because just now I was thrown more in contact with them than the +others. In my city they, with the Irish, seemed peculiarly of real +emigrant stuff. The Jews were so clannish that they were a problem in +themselves; the Germans assimilated a little better and yet they too +were like one large family. They did not get into the city life very +much and even in their business stuck pretty closely to one line. For +a good many years they remained essentially Germans. But the Irish +were citizens from the time they landed and the Italians eventually +became such if by a slower process. + +The former went into everything. They are a tremendously adaptable +people. But whatever they tackled they looked forward to independence +and generally won it. Even a man of so humble an ambition as Murphy +had accomplished this. The Italians either went into the fruit +business for which they seem to have a knack or served as day laborers +and saved. There was a man down here who was always ready to stake +them to a cart and a supply of fruit, at an exorbitant price to be +sure, but they pushed their carts patiently mile upon mile until in +the end they saved enough to buy one of their own. The next step was a +small fruit store. The laborers, once they had acquired a working +capital, took up many things--a lot of them going into the country and +buying deserted farms. It was wonderful what they did with this land +upon which the old stock New Englander had not been able to live. But +of course in part explanation of this, you must remember that these +New England villages have long been drained of their best. In many +cases only the maim, the halt, and the blind are left and these stand +no more chance against the modern pioneer than they would against one +of their own sturdy forefathers. + +Another occupation which the Italians seemed to preëmpt was the +boot-blacking business. It may seem odd to dignify so menial an +employment as a business but there is many a head of such an +establishment who could show a fatter bank account than two-thirds of +his clients. The next time you go into a little nook containing say +fifteen chairs, figure out for yourself how many nickels are left +there in a day. The rent is often high--it is some proof of a business +worth thought when you consider that they are able to pay for +positions on the leading business streets--but the labor is cheap and +the furnishings and cost of raw material slight. Pasquale had set me +to thinking long before, when I learned that he was earning almost as +much a week as I. It is no unusual thing for a man who owns his +"emporium" to draw ten dollars a day in profits and not show himself +until he empties the cash register at night. + +But the fact that impressed me in these people--and this holds +peculiarly true of the Jews--was that they all shied away from the +salaried jobs. In making such generalizations I may be running a risk +because I'm only giving the results of my own limited observation and +experience. But I want it understood that from the beginning to the +end of these recollections I'm trying to do nothing more. I'm not a +student. I'm not a sociologist. The conditions which I observed may +not hold elsewhere for all I know. From a different point of view, +they might not to another seem to hold even in my own city. I won't +argue with anyone about it. I set down what I myself saw and let it go +at that. + +Going back to the small group among whom I lived when I was with the +United Woollen, it seems to me that every man clung to a salary as +though it were his only possible hope. I know men among them who even +refused to work on a commission basis although they were practically +sure of earning in this way double what they were being paid by the +year. They considered a salary as a form of insurance and once in the +grip of this idea they had nothing to look forward to except an +increase. I was no better myself. I didn't really expect to be head of +the firm. Nor did the other men. We weren't working and holding on +with any notion of winning independence along that line. The most we +hoped for was a bigger salary. Some men didn't anticipate more than +twenty-five hundred like me, and others--the younger men--talked about +five thousand and even ten thousand. I didn't hear them discuss what +they were going to do when they were general managers or +vice-presidents but always what they could enjoy when they drew the +larger annuity. And save those who saw in professional work a way out, +this was the career they were choosing for their sons. They wanted to +get them into banks and the big companies where the assurance of lazy +routine advancement up to a certain point was the reward for industry, +sobriety and honesty. A salary with an old, strongly established +company seemed to them about as big a stroke of luck for a young man +as a legacy. I myself had hoped to find a place for Dick with one of +the big trust companies. + +Of course down here these people did not have the same opportunities. +Most of the old firms preferred the "bright young American" and I +guess they secured most of them. I pity the "bright young American" +but I can't help congratulating the bright young Italians and the +bright young Irishmen. They are forced as a result to make business +for themselves and they are given every opportunity in the world for +doing it. And they _are_ doing it. And I, breathing in this +atmosphere, made up my mind that I would do it, too. + +With this in mind I outlined for myself a systematic course of +procedure. It was evident that in this as in any other business I must +master thoroughly the details before taking up the larger problems. +The details of this as of any other business lay at the bottom and so +for these at least I was at present in the best possible position. The +two most important factors to the success of a contractor seemed to me +to be, roughly speaking, the securing and handling of men and the +purchase and use of materials. Of the two, the former appeared to be +the more important. Even in the few weeks I had been at work here I +had observed a big difference in the amount of labor accomplished by +different men individually. I could have picked out a half dozen that +were worth more than all the others put together. And in the two +foremen I had noticed another big difference in the varying capacity +of a boss to get work out of the men collectively. In work where labor +counted for so much in the final cost as here, it appeared as though +this involved almost the whole question of profit and loss. With a +hundred men employed at a dollar and a half a day, the saving of a +single hour meant the saving of a good many dollars. + +It may seem odd that so obvious a fact was not taken advantage of by +the present contractors. Doubtless it was realized but my later +experience showed me that the obvious is very often neglected. In this +business as in many others, the details fall into a rut and often a +newcomer with a fresh point of view will detect waste that has been +going on unnoticed for years. I was almost forty years old, fairly +intelligent, and I had everything at stake. So I was distinctly more +alert than those who retained their positions merely by letting +things run along as well as they always had been going. But however +you may explain it, I knew that the foreman didn't get as much work +out of me as he might have done. In spite of all the control I +exercised over myself I often quit work realizing that half my +strength during the day had gone for nothing. And though it may sound +like boasting to say it, I think I worked both more conscientiously +and intelligently than most of the men. + +In the first place the foreman was a bully. He believed in driving his +men. He swore at them and goaded them as an ignorant countryman often +tries to drive oxen. The result was a good deal the same as it is with +oxen--the men worked excitedly when under the sting and loafed the +rest of the time. In a crisis the boss was able to spur them on to +their best--though even then they wasted strength in frantic +endeavor--but he could not keep them up to a consistent level of +steady work. And that's what counts. As in a Marathon race the men who +maintain a steady plugging pace from start to finish are the ones who +accomplish. + +The question may be asked how such a boss could keep his job. I myself +did not understand that at first but later as I worked with different +men and under different bosses I saw that it was because their methods +were much alike and that the results were much alike. A certain +standard had been established as to the amount of work that should be +done by a hundred men and this was maintained. The boss had figured +out loosely how much the men would work and the men had figured out to +a minute how much they could loaf. Neither man nor boss took any +special interest in the work itself. The men were allowed to waste +just so much time in getting water, in filling their pipes, in +spitting on their hands, in resting on their shovels, in lazy chatter, +and so long as they did not exceed this nothing was said. + +The trouble was that the standard was low and this was because the men +had nothing to gain by steady conscientious work and also because the +boss did not understand them nor distinguish between them. For +instance the foreman ought to have got the work of two men out of me +but he wouldn't have, if I hadn't chosen to give it. That held true +also of Rafferty and one or two others. + +Now my idea was this: that if a man made a study of these men who, in +this city at any rate, were the key to the contractor's problem, and +learned their little peculiarities, their standards of justice, their +ambitions, their weakness and their strength, he ought to be able to +increase their working capacity. Certainly an intelligent teamster +does this with horses and it seemed as though it ought to be possible +to accomplish still finer results with men. To go a little farther in +my ambition, it also seemed possible to pick and select the best of +these men instead of taking them at random. For instance in the +present gang there were at least a half dozen who stood out as more +intelligent and stronger physically than all the others. Why couldn't +a man in time gather about him say a hundred such men and by better +treatment, possibly better pay, possibly a guarantee of continuous +work, make of them a loyal, hard working machine with a capacity for +double the work of the ordinary gang? Such organization as this was +going on in other lines of business, why not in this? With such a +machine at his command, a man ought to make himself a formidable +competitor with even the long established firms. + +At any rate this was my theory and it gave a fresh inspiration to my +work. Whether anything came of it or not it was something to hope for, +something to toil for, something which raised this digging to the +plane of the pioneer who joyfully clears his field of stumps and +rocks. It swung me from the present into the future. It was a +different future from that which had weighed me down when with the +United Woollen. This was no waiting game. Neither your pioneer nor +your true emigrant sits down and waits. Here was something which +depended solely upon my own efforts for its success or failure. And I +knew that it wasn't possible to fail so dismally but what the joy of +the struggle would always be mine. + +In the meanwhile I carried with me to my work a note book and during +the noon hour I set down everything which I thought might be of any +possible use to me. I missed no opportunity for learning even the most +trivial details. A great deal of the information was superficial and a +great deal of it was incorrect but down it went in the note book to be +revised later when I became better informed. + +I watched my fellow workmen as much as possible and plied them with +questions. I wanted to know where the cement came from and in what +proportion it was mixed with sand and gravel and stone for different +work. I wanted to know where the sand and gravel and stone came from +and how it was graded. Wherever it was possible I secured rough prices +for different materials. I wanted to know where the lumber was bought +and I wanted to know how the staging was built and why it was built. +Understand that I did not flatter myself that I was fast becoming a +mason, a carpenter, an engineer and a contractor all in one and all at +once. I knew that the most of my information was vague and loose. Half +the men who were doing the work didn't know why they were doing it and +a lot of them didn't know how they were doing it. They worked by +instinct and habit. Then, too, they were a clannish lot and a jealous +lot. They resented my questioning however delicately I might do it and +often refused to answer me. But in spite of this I found myself +surprised later with the fund of really valuable knowledge I acquired. + +In addition to this I acquired _sources_ of information. I found out +where to go for the real facts. I learned for instance who for this +particular job was supplying for the contractor his cement and gravel +and crushed stone--though as it happened this contractor himself +either owned or controlled his own plant for the production of most of +his material. However I learned something when I learned that. For a +man who had apparently been in business all his life, I was densely +ignorant of even the fundamentals of business. This idea of running +the business back to the sources of the raw material was a new idea to +me. I had not thought of the contractor as owning his own quarries and +gravel pits, obvious as the advantage was. I wanted to know where the +tools were bought and how much they cost--from the engines and +hoisting cranes and carrying system down to pick-axes, crowbars and +shovels. I made a note of the fact that many of the smaller implements +were not cared for properly and even tried to estimate how with proper +attention the life of a pick-axe could be prolonged. I joyed +particularly in every such opportunity as this no matter how trivial +it appeared later. It was just such details as these which gave +reality to my dream. + +I figured out how many cubic feet of earth per day per man was being +handled here and how this varied under different bosses. I pried and +listened and questioned and figured even when digging. I worked with +my eyes and ears wide open. It was wonderful how quickly in this way +the hours flew. A day now didn't seem more than four hours long. Many +the time I've felt actually sorry when the signal to quit work was +given at night and have hung around for half an hour while the +engineer fixed his boiler for the night and the old man lighted his +lanterns to string along the excavation. I don't know what they all +thought of me, but I know some of them set me down for a college man +doing the work for experience. This to say the least was flattering to +my years. + +As I say, a lot of this work was wasted energy in the sense that I +acquired anything worth while, but none of it was wasted when I recall +the joy of it. If I had actually been a college boy in the first flush +of youthful enthusiasm I could not have gone at my work more +enthusiastically or dreamed wilder or bigger dreams. Even after many +of these bubbles were pricked and had vanished, the mood which made +them did not vanish. I have never forgotten and never can forget the +sheer delight of those months. I was eighteen again with a lot besides +that I didn't have at eighteen. + +My work along another line was more practical and more successful. +What I learned about the men and the best way to handle them was +genuine capital. In the first place I lost no opportunity to make +myself as solid as possible with Dan Rafferty. This was not altogether +from a purely selfish motive either. I liked the man. In a way I think +he was the most lovable man I ever met, although that seems a +lady-like term to apply to so rugged a fellow. But below his beef and +brawn, below his aggressiveness, below his coarseness, below even a +peculiar moral bluntness about a good many things, there was a strain +of something fine about Dan Rafferty. I had a glimpse of it when he +preferred going back to the sewer gas rather than let a man like the +old foreman force him into a position where the latter could fire him. +But that was only one side of him. He had a heart as big as a woman's +and one as keen to respond to sympathy. This in its turn inspired in +others a feeling towards him that to save my life I can only describe +as love--love in its big sense. He'd swear like a pirate at the +Dagoes and they'd only grin back at him where'd they'd feel like +knifing any other man. And when Dan learned that Anton' had lost his +boy he sent down to the house a wreath of flowers half as big as a +cart wheel. There was scarcely a day when some old lady didn't manage +to see Dan at the noon hour and draw him aside with a mumbled plea +that always made him dig into his pockets. He caught me watching him +one day and said in explanation, "She's me grandmither." + +After I'd seen at least a dozen different ones approach him I asked +him if they were all his grandmothers. + +"Sure," he said. "Ivery ould woman in the ward is me grandmither." + +Those same grandmothers stood him in good stead later in his life, for +every single grandmother had some forty grandchildren and half of +these had votes. But Dan wasn't looking that far ahead then. Two facts +rather distinguished him at the start; he didn't either drink or +smoke. He didn't have any opinions upon the subject but he was one of +the rare Irishmen born that way. Now and then you'll find one and as +likely as not he'll prove one of the good fellows you'd expect to see +in the other crowd. However, beyond exciting my interest and leading +me to score him some fifty points in my estimate of him as a good +workman, I was indifferent to this side of his character. The thing +that impressed me most was a quality of leadership he seemed to +possess. There was nothing masterful about it. You didn't look to see +him lead in any especially good or great cause, but you could see +readily enough that whatever cause he chose, it would be possible for +him to gather about him a large personal following. I was attracted to +this side of him in considering him as having about all the good raw +material for a great boss. Put twenty men on a rope with Dan at the +head of them and just let him say, "Now, biys--altogither," and you'd +see every man's neck grow taut with the strain. I know because I've +been one of the twenty and felt as though I wanted to drag every +muscle out of my body. And when it was over I'd ask myself why in the +devil I pulled that way. When I told myself that it was because I was +pulling with Dan Rafferty I said all I knew about it. + +It seemed to me that any man who secured Dan as a boss would already +have the backbone of his gang. I didn't ever expect to use him in this +way but I wanted the man for a friend and I wanted to learn the secret +of his power if I could. But I may as well confess right now that I +never fully fathomed that. + +In the meanwhile I had not neglected the other men. At every +opportunity I talked with them. At the beginning I made it a point to +learn their names and addresses which I jotted down in my book. I +learned something from them of the padrone system and the unfair +contracts into which they were trapped. I learned their likes and +dislikes, their ambitions, and as much as possible about their +families. It all came hard at first but little by little as I worked +with them I found them trusting me more with their confidences. + +In this way then the first summer passed. Both Ruth and the boy in the +meanwhile were just as busy about their respective tasks as I was. The +latter took to the gymnasium work like a duck to water and in his +enthusiasm for this tackled his lessons with renewed interest. He put +on five pounds of weight and what with the daily ocean swim which we +both enjoyed, his cheeks took on color and he became as brown as an +Indian. If he had passed the summer at the White Mountains he could +not have looked any hardier. He made many friends at the Y.M.C.A. They +were all ambitious boys and they woke him up wonderfully. I was +careful to follow him closely in this new life and made it a point to +see the boys myself and to make him tell me at the end of each day +just what he had been about. Dick was a boy I could trust to tell me +every detail. He was absolutely truthful and he wasn't afraid to open +his heart to me with whatever new questions might be bothering him. As +far as possible I tried to point out to him what to me seemed the good +points in his new friends and to warn him against any little +weaknesses among them which from time to time I might detect. Ruth did +the rest. A father, however much a comrade he may be with his boy, can +go only so far. There is always plenty left which belongs to the +mother--if she is such a mother as Ruth. + +As for Ruth herself I watched her anxiously in fear lest the new life +might wear her down but honestly as far as the house was concerned she +didn't seem to have as much to bother her as she had before. She was +slowly getting the buying and the cooking down to a science. Many a +week now our food bill went as low as a little over three dollars. We +bought in larger quantities and this always effected a saving. We +bought a barrel of flour and half a barrel of sugar for one thing. +Then as the new potatoes came into the market we bought half a barrel +of those and half a barrel of apples. She did wonders with those +apples and they added a big variety to our menus. Another saving was +effected by buying suet which cost but a few cents a pound, trying +this out and mixing it with the lard for shortening. As the weather +became cooler we had baked beans twice a week instead of once. These +made for us four and sometimes five or six meals. We figured out that +we could bake a quart pot of beans, using half a pound of pork to a +pot, for less than twenty cents. This gave the three of us two meals +with some left over for lunch, making the cost per man about three +cents. And they made a hearty meal, too. That was a trick she had +learned in the country where baked beans are a staple article of diet. +I liked them cold for my lunch. + +As for clothes neither Ruth nor myself needed much more than we had. I +bought nothing but one pair of heavy boots which Ruth picked up at a +bankrupt sale for two dollars. On herself she didn't spend a cent. She +brought down here with her a winter and a summer street suit, several +house dresses and three or four petticoats and a goodly supply of +under things. She knew how to care for them and they lasted her. I +brought down, in addition to my business suit, a Sunday suit of blue +serge and a dress suit and a Prince Albert. I sold the last two to a +second hand dealer for eleven dollars and this helped towards the +boy's outfit in the fall. She bought for him a pair of three dollar +shoes for a dollar and a half at this same "Sold Out" sale, a dollar's +worth of stockings and about a dollar's worth of underclothes. He had +a winter overcoat and hat, though I could have picked up these in +either a pawnshop or second hand store for a couple of dollars. It was +wonderful what you could get at these places, especially if anyone had +the knack which Ruth had of making over things. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT + + +That fall the boy passed his entrance examinations and entered the +finest school in the state--the city high school. If he had been worth +a million he couldn't have had better advantages. I was told that the +graduates of this school entered college with a higher average than +the graduates of most of the big preparatory schools. Certainly they +had just as good instruction and if anything better discipline. There +was more competition here and a real competition. Many of the pupils +were foreign born and a much larger per cent of them children of +foreign born. Their parents had been over here long enough to realize +what an advantage an education was and the children went at their work +with the feeling that their future depended upon their application +here. + +The boy's associates might have been more carefully selected at some +fashionable school but I was already beginning to realize that +selected associates aren't always select associates and that even if +they are this is more of a disadvantage than an advantage. The fact +that the boy's fellows were all of a kind was what had disturbed me +even in the little suburban grammar school. For that matter I can see +now that even for Ruth and me this sameness was a handicap for both us +and our neighbors. There was no clash. There was a dead level. I don't +believe that's good for either boys or men or for women. + +Supposing this open door policy did admit a few worthless youngsters +into the school and supposing again that the private school didn't +admit such of a different order (which I very much doubt)--along with +these Dick was going to find here the men--the past had proved this +and the present was proving it--who eventually would become our +statesmen, our progressive business men, our lawyers and doctors--if +not our conservative bankers. For one graduate of such a school as my +former surroundings had made me think essential for the boy, I could +count now a dozen graduates of this very high school who were +distinguishing themselves in the city. The boy was going to meet here +the same spirit I was getting in touch with among my emigrant +friends--a zeal for life, a belief in the possibilities of life, an +optimistic determination to use these possibilities, which somehow the +blue-blooded Americans were losing. It seemed to me that life was +getting stale for the fourth and fifth generation. I tried to make the +boy see this point of view. I went back again with him to the pioneer +idea. + +"Dick," I said in substance, "your great-great-grandfather pulled up +stakes and came over to this country when there was nothing here but +trees, rocks and Indians. It was a hard fight but a good fight and he +left a son to carry on the fight. So generation after generation they +fought but somehow they grew a bit weaker as they fought. Now," I +said, "you and I are going to try to recover that lost ground. Let's +think of ourselves as like our great-great-grandfathers. We've just +come over here. So have about a million others. The fight is a +different fight to-day but it's no less a fight and we're going to +win. We have a good many advantages that these newcomers haven't. You +see them making good on every side of you but I'll bet they can't lick +a good American--when he isn't asleep. You and I are going to make +good too." + +"You bet we are, Dad," he said, with his eyes grown bright. + +"Then," I said, "you must work the way the newcomers work. I don't +want you to think you're any better than they are. You aren't. But +you're just as good and these two hundred years we've lived here ought +to count for something." + +The boy lifted his head at this. + +"You make me feel as though we'd just landed with the Pilgrims," he +said. + +"So we have," I said. "June seventh of this very year we landed on +Plymouth Rock just as our ancestors did two centuries ago. They've +been all this time paving the way for you and me. They've built roads +and schools and factories and it's up to us now to use them. You and I +have just landed from England. Let's see what we can do as pioneers." + +I wanted to get at the young American in him. I wanted him to realize +that he was something more than the son of his parents; something more +than just an average English-speaking boy. I wanted him to feel the +impetus of the big history back of him and the big history yet to be +made ahead of him. He had known nothing of that before. The word +American had no meaning to him except when a regiment of soldiers was +marching by. I wanted him to feel all the time as he did when his +throat grew lumpy with the band playing and the stars and stripes +flying on Fourth of July or Decoration Day. + +I urged him to study hard as the first essential towards success but I +also told him to get into the school life. I didn't want him to stand +back as his tendency was and watch the other fellows. I didn't want +him to sit in the bleachers--at least not until he had proved that +this was the place for him. Even then I wanted him to lead the +cheering. I wanted him to test himself in the literary societies, the +dramatic clubs, on the athletic field. In other words, instead of +remaining passive I wanted him to take an aggressive attitude towards +life. In still other words instead of being a middle-classer I wanted +him to get something of the emigrant spirit. And I had the +satisfaction of seeing him begin his work with the germ of that idea +in his brain. + +In the meanwhile with the approach of cold weather I saw a new item of +expense loom up in the form of coal. We had used kerosene all summer +but now it became necessary for the sake of heat to get a stove. For a +week I took what time I could spare and wandered around among the junk +shops looking for a second hand stove and finally found just what I +wanted. I paid three dollars for it and it cost me another dollar to +have some small repairs made. I set it up myself in the living room +which we decided to use as a kitchen for the winter. But when I came +to look into the matter of getting coal down here I found I was facing +a pretty serious problem. Coal had been a big item in the suburbs but +the way people around me were buying it, made it a still bigger one. +No cellar accommodations came with the tenement and so each one was +forced to buy his coal by the basket or bag. A basket of anthracite +was costing them at this time about forty cents. This was for about +eighty pounds of coal, which made the total cost per ton eleven +dollars--at least three dollars and a half over the regular price. +Even with economy a person would use at least a bag a week. This, to +leave a liberal margin, would amount to about a ton and a half of coal +during the winter months. I didn't like the idea of absorbing the +half dollar or so a week that Ruth was squeezing out towards what few +clothes we had to buy, in this way--at least the over-charge part of +it. With the first basket I brought home, I said, "I see where you'll +have to dig down into the ginger jar this winter, little woman." + +She looked as startled as though I had told her someone had stolen the +savings. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +I pointed to the basket. + +"Coal costs about eleven dollars a ton, down here." + +When she found out that this was all that caused my remark, she didn't +seem to be disturbed. + +"Billy," she said, "before we touch the ginger jar it will have to +cost twenty dollars a ton. We'll live on pea soup and rice three times +a day before I touch that." + +"All right," I said, "but it does seem a pity that the burden of such +prices as these should fall on the poor." + +"Why do they?" she asked. + +"Because in this case," I said, "the dealers seem to have us where the +wool is short." + +"How have they?" she insisted. + +"We can't buy coal by the ton because we haven't any place to put it." +She thought a moment and then she said: + +"We could take care of a fifth of a ton, Billy. That's only five +baskets." + +"They won't sell five any cheaper than one." + +"And every family in this house could take care of five," she went on. +"That would make a ton." + +I began to see what she meant and as I thought of it I didn't see why +it wasn't a practical scheme. + +"I believe that's a good idea," I said. "And if there were more women +like you in the world I don't believe there'd be any trusts at all." + +"Nonsense," she said. "You leave it to me now and I'll see the other +women in the house. They are the ones who'll appreciate a good saving +like that." + +She saw them and after a good deal of talk they agreed, so I told Ruth +to tell them to save out of next Saturday night's pay a dollar and a +half apiece. I was a bit afraid that if I didn't get the cash when the +coal was delivered I might get stuck on the deal. The next Monday I +ordered the coal and asked to have it delivered late in the day. When +I came home I found the wagon waiting and it created about as much +excitement on the street as an ambulance. I guess it was the first +time in the history of Little Italy that a coal team had ever stopped +before a tenement. The driver had brought baskets with him and I +filled up one and took it to a store nearby and weighed into it eighty +pounds of coal. With that for my guide I gathered the other men of the +families about me and made them carry the coal in while I measured it +out. The driver who at first was inclined to object to the whole +proceeding was content to let things go on when he found himself +relieved of all the carrying. We emptied the wagon in no time and the +other men insisted upon carrying up my coal for me. I collected every +cent of my money and incidentally established myself on a firm footing +with every family in the house. Several other tenements later adopted +the plan but the idea didn't take hold the way you'd have thought it +would. I guess it was because there weren't any more Ruths around +there to oversee the job. Then, too, while these people are +far-sighted in a good many ways, they are short-sighted in others. +Neither the wholesale nor co-operative plans appeal to them. For one +thing they are suspicious and for another they don't like to spend any +more than they have to day by day. Later on through Ruth's influence +we carried our scheme a little farther with just the people in the +house and bought flour and sugar that way but it was made possible +only through their absolute trust in her. We always insisted on +carrying out every such little operation on a cash basis and they +never failed us. + +Ruth's influence had been gradually spreading through the +neighborhood. She had found time to meet the other families in the +house and through them had met a dozen more. The first floor was +occupied by Michele, an Italian laborer, his wife, his wife's sister +and two children. On the second floor there was Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, and his father and mother. The father was an invalid and the +lad supported the three. On the third floor lived a fruit peddler, his +wife and his wife's mother--rather a commonplace family, while the +fourth floor was occupied by Pietro, a young fellow who sold cut +flowers on the street and hoped some day to have a garden of his own. +He had two children and a grandmother to care for. + +It certainly afforded a contrast to visit those other flats and then +Ruth's. Right here is where her superior intelligence came in, of +course. The foreign-born women do not so quickly adapt themselves to +the standards of this country as the men do. Most of them as I +learned, come from the country districts of Italy where they live very +rudely. Once here they make their new quarters little better than +their old. The younger ones however who are going to school are doing +better. But taken by and large it was difficult to persuade them that +cleanliness offered any especial advantages. It wasn't as though they +minded the dirt and were chained to it by circumstances from which +they couldn't escape--as I used to think. They simply didn't object to +it. So long as they were warm and had food enough they were content. +They didn't suffer in any way that they themselves could see. + +But when Ruth first went into their quarters she was horrified. She +thought that at length she was face to face with all the misery and +squalor of the slums of which she had read. I remember her chalk-white +face as she met me at the door upon my return home one night. She +nearly drove the color out of my own cheeks for I thought surely that +something had happened to the boy. But it wasn't that; she had heard +that the baby on the first floor was ill and had gone down there to +see if there was anything she might do for it. Until then she had seen +nothing but the outside of the other doors from the hall and they +looked no different from our own. But once inside--well I guess that's +where the two hundred years if not the four hundred years back of us +native Americans counts. + +"Why, Billy," she cried, "it was awful. I'll never get that picture +out of mind if I live to be a hundred." + +"What's the matter?" I asked. + +"Why the poor little thing--" + +"What poor little thing?" I interrupted. + +"Michele's baby. It lay there in dirty rags with its pinched white +face staring up at me as though just begging for a clean bed." + +"What's the matter with it?" + +"Matter with it? It's a wonder it isn't dead and buried. The district +nurse came in while I was there and told me,"--she shuddered--"that +they'd been feeding it on macaroni cooked in greasy gravy. And it +isn't six months old yet." + +"No wonder it looked white," I said, remembering how we had discussed +for a week the wisdom of giving Dick the coddled white of an egg at +that age. + +"Why the conditions down there are terrible," cried Ruth. "Michele +must be very, very poor. The floor wasn't washed, you couldn't see out +of the windows, and the clothes--" + +She held up her hands unable to find words. + +"That _does_ sound bad," I said. + +"It's criminal. Billy--we can't allow a family in the same house with +us to suffer like that, can we?" + +I shook my head. + +"Then go down and see what you can do. I guess we can squeeze out +fifty cents for them, can't we, Billy?" + +"I guess you could squeeze fifty cents out of a stone for a sick +baby," I said. + +The upshot of it was that I went down and saw Michele. As Ruth had +said his quarters were anything but clean but they didn't impress me +as being in so bad a condition as she had described them. Perhaps my +work in the ditch had made me a little more used to dirt. I found +Michele a healthy, temperate, able-bodied man and I learned that he +was earning as much as I. Not only that but the women took in +garments to finish and picked up the matter of two or three dollars a +week extra. There were five in the family but they were far from being +in want. In fact Michele had a good bank account. They had all they +wanted to eat, were warm and really prosperous. There was absolutely +no need of the dirt. It was there because they didn't mind it. A five +cent cake of soap would have made the rooms clean as a whistle and +there were two women to do the scrubbing. I didn't leave my fifty +cents but I came back upstairs with a better appreciation, if that +were possible, of what such a woman as Ruth means to a man. Even the +baby began to get better as soon as the district nurse drove into the +parent's head a few facts about sensible infant feeding. + +I don't want to make out that life is all beer and skittles for the +tenement dwellers. It isn't. But I ran across any number of such cases +as this where conditions were not nearly so bad as they appeared on +the surface. Taking into account the number of people who were +gathered together here in a small area I didn't see among the +temperate and able-bodied any worse examples of hard luck than I saw +among my former associates. In fact of sheer abstract hard luck I +didn't see as much. In seventy-five per cent of the cases the +conditions were of their own making--either the man was a drunkard or +the women slovenly or the whole family was just naturally vicious. +Ignorance may excuse some of this but not all of it. Perhaps I'm not +what you'd call sympathetic but I've heard a lot of men talk about +these people in a way that sounds to me like twaddle. I never ran +across a family down here in such misery as that which Steve +Bonnington's wife endured for years without a whimper. + +Bonnington was a clerk with a big insurance company. He lived four +houses below us on our street. I suppose he was earning about eighteen +hundred dollars a year when he died. He left five children and he +never had money enough even to insure in his own company. He didn't +leave a cent. When Helen Bonnington came back from the grave it was to +face the problem of supporting unaided, either by experience or +relatives, five children ranging from twelve to one. She was a shy, +retiring little body who had sapped her strength in just bringing the +children into the world and caring for them in the privacy of her +home. She had neither the temperament nor the training to face the +world. But she bucked up to it. She sold out of the house what things +she could spare, secured cheap rooms on the outskirts of the +neighborhood and announced that she would do sewing. What it cost her +to come back among her old friends and do that is a particularly +choice type of agony that it would be impossible for a tenement widow +to appreciate. And this same self-respect which both Helen's education +and her environment forced her to maintain, handicapped her in other +ways. You couldn't give Mrs. Bonnington scraps from your table; you +couldn't give her old clothes or old shoes or money. It wasn't her +fault because this was so; it wasn't your fault. + +When her children were sick she couldn't send them off to the public +wards of the hospitals. In the first place half the hospitals wouldn't +take them as charity patients simply because she maintained a certain +dignity, and in the second place the idea, by education, was so +repugnant to her that it never entered her head to try. So she stayed +at home and sewed from daylight until she couldn't hold open her eyes +at night. That's where you get your true "Song of the Shirt." She not +only sewed her fingers to the bone but while doing it she suffered a +very fine kind of torture wondering what would happen to the five if +she broke down. Asylums and homes and hospitals don't imply any great +disgrace to most of the tenement dwellers but to a woman of that type +they mean Hell. God knows how she did it but she kept the five alive +and clothed and in school until the boy was about fifteen and went to +work. When I hear of the lone widows of the tenements, who are apt to +be very husky, and who work out with no great mental struggle and who +have clothes and food given them and who set the children to work as +soon as they are able to walk, I feel like getting up in my seat and +telling about Helen Bonnington--a plain middle-classer. And she was no +exception either. + +I seem to have rambled off a bit here but this was only one of many +contrasts which I made in these years which seemed to me to be all in +favor of my new neighbors. The point is that at the bottom you not +only see advantages you didn't see before but you're in a position to +use them. You aren't shackled by conventions; you aren't cramped by +caste. The world stands ready to help the under dog but before it will +lift a finger it wants to see the dog stretched out on its back with +all four legs sticking up in prayer. Of the middle-class dog who +fights on and on, even after he's wobbly and can't see, it doesn't +seem to take much notice. + +However Ruth started in with a few reforms of her own. She made it a +point to go down and see young Michele every day and watch that he +didn't get any more macaroni and gravy. The youngster himself resented +this interference but the parents took it in good part. Then in time +she ventured further and suggested that the baby would be better off +if the windows were washed to let in the sunshine and the floor +scrubbed a bit. Finally she became bold enough to hint that it might +be well to wash some of the bed clothing. + +The district nurse appreciated the change, if Michele himself didn't +and I found that it wasn't long before Miss Colver was making use of +this new influence in the house. She made a call on Ruth and discussed +her cases with her until in the end she made of her a sort of first +assistant. This was the beginning of a new field of activity for Ruth +which finally won for her the name of Little Mother. It was wonderful +how quickly these people discovered the sweet qualities in Ruth that +had passed all unnoticed in the old life. + +It made me very proud. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NEW OPPORTUNITIES + + +I had found that I was badly handicapped in all intercourse with my +Italian fellow workers by the fact that I knew nothing of their +language and that they knew but little English. The handicap did not +lie so much in the fact that we couldn't make ourselves understood--we +could after a rough fashion--as it did in the fact that this made a +barrier which kept our two nationalities sharply defined. I was always +an American talking to an Italian. The boss was always an American +talking to a Dago. This seemed to me a great disadvantage. It ought to +be just a foreman to his man or one man to another. + +The chance to acquire a new language I thought had passed with my high +school days, but down here everyone was learning English and so I +resolved to study Italian. I made a bargain with Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, who was now a frequent visitor at our flat, to teach me his +language in return for instruction in mine. He agreed though he had +long been getting good instruction at the night school. But the lad +had found an appreciative friend in Ruth who not only sincerely +admired the work he was doing but who admired his enthusiasm and his +knowledge of art. I liked him myself for he was dreaming bigger things +than I. To watch his thin cheeks grow red and his big brown eyes flash +as he talked of some old painting gave me a realization that there was +something else to be thought of even down here than mere money +success. It was good for me. + +The poor fellow was driven almost mad by having to offer for sale some +of the casts which his master made him carry. He would have liked to +sell only busts of Michael Angelo and Dante and worthy reproductions +of the old masters. + +"There are so many beautiful things," he used to exclaim excitedly in +broken English; "why should they want to make anything that is not +beautiful?" + +He sputtered time and time again over the pity of gilding the casts. +You'd have thought it was a crime which ought to be punished by +hanging. + +"Even Dante," he groaned one night, "that wonderful, white sad face of +Dante covered all over with gilt!" + +"It has to look like gold before an American will buy it," I +suggested. + +"Yes," he nodded. "They would even gild the Christ." + +Ruth said she wanted to learn Italian with me, and so the three of us +used to get together every night right after dinner. I bought a +grammar at a second hand bookstore but we used to spend most of our +time in memorizing the common every day things a man would be likely +to use in ordinary conversation. Giuseppe would say, "Ha Ella il mio +cappello?" + +And I would say, + +"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei cappello." + +"Ha Ella il di Lei pane?" + +"Si, Signore, ho il mio pane." + +"Ha Ella il mio zucchero?" + +"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei zucchero." + +There wasn't much use in going over such simple things in English for +Giuseppe and so instead of this Ruth would read aloud something from +Tennyson. After explaining to him just what every new word meant, she +would let him read aloud to her the same passage. He soon became very +enthusiastic over the text itself and would often stop her with the +exclamation, + +"Ah, there is a study!" + +Then he would tell us just how he would model whatever the picture +happened to be that he saw in his mind. It was wonderful how clearly +he saw these pictures. He could tell you even down to how the folds of +the women's dresses should fall just as though he were actually +looking at living people. + +After a week or two when we had learned some of the simpler phrases +Ruth and I used to practise them as much as possible every day. We +felt quite proud when we could ask one another for "quel libro" or +"quell' abito" or "il cotello" or "il cucchiaio." I was surprised at +how soon we were able to carry on quite a long talk. + +This new idea--that even though I was approaching forty I wasn't too +old to resume my studies--took root in another direction. As I had +become accustomed to the daily physical exercise and no longer +returned home exhausted I felt as though I had no right to loaf +through my evenings, much as the privilege of spending them with Ruth +meant to me. My muscles had become as hard and tireless as those of a +well-trained athlete so that at night I was as alert mentally as in +the morning. It made me feel lazy to sit around the house after an +hour's lesson in Italian and watch Ruth busy with her sewing and see +the boy bending over his books. Still I couldn't think of anything +that was practicable until I heard Giuseppe talk one evening about the +night school. I had thought this was a sort of grammar school with +clay modeling thrown in for amusement. + +"No, Signore," he said. "You can learn anything there. And there is +another school where you can learn other things." + +I went out that very evening and found that the school he attended +taught among other subjects, book keeping and stenography--two things +which appealed to me strongly. But in talking to the principal he +suggested that before I decided I look into the night trade school +which was run in connection with a manual training school. I took his +advice and there I found so many things I wanted that I didn't know +what to choose. I was amazed at the opportunity. A man could learn +here about any trade he cared to take up. Both tools and material +were furnished him. And all this was within ten minutes' walk of the +house. I could still have my early evenings with Ruth and the boy even +on the three nights I would be in school until a quarter past seven, +spend two hours at learning my trade, and get back to the house again +before ten. I don't see how a man could ask for anything better than +this. Even then I wouldn't be away from home as much as I often was in +my old life. There were many dreary stretches towards the end of my +service with the United Woollen when I didn't get home until midnight. +And the only extra pay we salaried men received for that was a +brighter hope for the job ahead. This was always dangled before our +eyes by Morse as a bait when he wished to drive us harder than usual. + +I had my choice of a course in carpentry, bricklaying, sheet metal +work, plumbing, electricity, drawing and pattern draughting. The work +covered from one to three years and assured a man at the end of this +time of a position among the skilled workmen who make in wages as much +as many a professional man. Not only this but a man with such training +as this and with ambition could look forward without any great +stretch of the imagination to becoming a foreman in his trade and +eventually winning independence. All this he could accomplish while +earning his daily wages as an apprentice or a common laborer. + +The class in masonry seemed to be more in line with my present plans +than any of the other subjects. It ought to prove of value, I thought, +to a man in the general contracting business and certainly to a man who +undertook the contracting of building construction. At any rate it was +a trade in which I was told there was a steady demand for good men and +at which many men were earning from three to five dollars a day. I must +admit that at first I didn't understand how brick-laying could be +taught for I thought it merely a matter of practice but a glance at the +outline of the course showed me my error. It looked as complicated as +many of the university courses. The work included first the laying of a +brick to line. A man was given actual practice with bricks and mortar +under an expert mason. From this a man was advanced, when he had +acquired sufficient skill, to the laying out of the American bond; then +the building of square piers of different sizes; then the building of +square and pigeon hole corners, then the laying out of brick footings. +The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking, +toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls; +polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and +flues. The third year advanced a man to the nice points of the trade +such as the foreign bonds--Flemish, Dutch, Roman and Old English; +cutting and turning of arches of all kinds,--straight, cambered, +semi-circular, three centred elliptical, and many forms of Gothic and +Moorish arches; also brick panels and cornices. Finally it gave +practice in the laying out of plans and work from these plans. Whatever +time was left was devoted to speed in all these things as far as it was +consistent with accurate and careful workmanship. + +I enrolled at once and also entered a class in architectural drawing +which was given in connection with this. + +I came back and told Ruth and though of course she was afraid it might +be too hard work for me she admitted that in the end it might save me +many months of still harder work. If it hadn't been for the boy I +think she would have liked to follow me even in these studies. +Whatever new thing I took up, she wanted to take up too. But as I told +her, it was she who was making the whole business possible and that +was enough for one woman to do. + +The school didn't open for a week and during that time I saw something +of Rafferty. He surprised me by coming around to the flat one +night--for what I couldn't imagine. I was glad to see him but I +suspected that he had some purpose in making such an effort. I +introduced him to Ruth and we all sat down in the kitchen and I told +him what I was planning to do this winter and asked him why he didn't +join me. I was rather surprised that the idea didn't appeal to him but +I soon found out that he had another interest which took all his spare +time. This interest was nothing else than politics. And Rafferty +hadn't been over here long enough yet to qualify as a voter. In spite +of this he was already on speaking terms with the state representative +from our district, the local alderman, and was an active lieutenant of +Sweeney's--the ward boss. At present he was interesting himself in +the candidacy of this same Sweeney who was the Democratic machine +candidate for Congress. Owing to some local row he was in danger of +being knifed. Dan had come round to make sure I was registered and to +swing me over if possible to the ranks of the faithful. + +The names of which he spoke so familiarly meant nothing to me. I had +heard a few of them from reading the papers but I hadn't read a paper +for three months now and knew nothing at all about the present +campaign. As a matter of fact I never voted except for the regular +Republican candidate for governor and the regular Republican candidate +for president. And I did that much only from habit. My father had been +a Republican and I was a Republican after him and I felt that in a +general way this party stood for honesty as against Tammanyism. But +with councillors, and senators and aldermen, or even with congressmen +I never bothered my head. Their election seemed to be all prearranged +and I figured that one vote more or less wouldn't make much +difference. I don't know as I even thought that much about it; I +ignored the whole matter. What was true of me was true largely of the +other men in our old neighborhood. Politics, except perhaps for an +abstract discussion of the tariff, was not a vital issue with any of +us. + +Now here I found an emigrant who couldn't as yet qualify as a citizen +knowing all the local politicians by their first names and spending +his nights working for a candidate for congress. Evidently my arrival +down here had been noted by those keen eyes which look after every +single vote as a miser does his pennies. A man had been found who had +at least a speaking acquaintance with me, and plans already set on +foot to round me up. + +I was inclined at first to treat this new development as a joke. But +as Rafferty talked on he set me to thinking. I didn't know anything +about the merits of the two present candidates but was strongly +prejudiced to believe that the Democratic candidate, on general +principles, was the worst one. However quite apart from this, wasn't +Rafferty to-day a better citizen than I? Even admitting for the sake +of argument that Sweeney was a crook, wasn't Rafferty who was trying +his humble best to get him elected a better American than I who was +willing to sit down passively and allow him to be elected? Rafferty at +any rate was getting into the fight. His motive may have been selfish +but I think his interest really sprang first from an instinctive +desire to get into the game. Here he had come to a new country where +every man had not only the chance to mix with the affairs of the ward, +the city, the state, the nation, but also a good chance to make +himself a leader in them. Sweeney himself was an example. + +For twenty-five years or more Rafferty's countrymen had appreciated +this opportunity for power and gone after it. The result everyone +knows. Their victory in city politics at least had been so decisive +year after year that the native born had practically laid down his +arms as I had. And the reason for this perennial victory lay in just +this fact that men like Rafferty were busy from the time they landed +and men like me were lazily indifferent. + +Three months before, a dozen speakers couldn't have made me see this. +I had no American spirit back of me then to make me appreciate it. You +might better have talked to a sleepy Russian Jew a week off the +steamer. He at least would have sensed the sacred power for liberty +which the voting privilege bestows. + +I began to ask questions of Rafferty about the two men. He didn't know +much about the other fellow except that he was "agin honest labor and +a tool of the thrusts." But on Sweeney he grew eloquent. + +"Sure," he said. "There's a mon after ye own heart, me biy. Faith he's +dug in ditches himself an he knows wot a full dinner pail manes." + +"What's his business?" I asked. + +"A contracthor," he said. "He does big jobs for the city." + +He let himself loose on what Sweeney proposed to do for the ward if +elected. He would have the government undertake the dredging of the +harbor thereby giving hundreds of jobs to the local men. He would do +this thing and that--all of which had for their object apparently just +that one goal. It was a direct personal appeal to every man toiler. In +addition to this, Rafferty let drop a hint or two that Sweeney had +jobs in his own business which he filled discreetly from the ranks of +the wavering. It wasn't more than a month later, by the way, that +Rafferty himself was appointed a foreman in the firm of Sweeney +Brothers. + +But apart from the merits of the question, the thing that impressed me +was Rafferty's earnestness, the delight he took in the contest itself, +and his activity. He was very much disappointed when I told him I +wasn't even registered in the ward but he made me promise to look +after that as soon as the lists were again opened and made an +appointment for the next evening to take me round to a rally to meet +the boys. + +I went and was escorted to the home of the Sweeney Club. It was a good +sized hall up a long flight of stairs. Through the heavy blue smoke +which filled the room I saw the walls decorated with American flags +and the framed crayon portraits of Sweeney and other local +politicians. Large duck banners proclaimed in black ink the current +catch lines of the campaign. At one end there was a raised platform, +the rest of the room was filled with wooden settees. My first +impression of it all was anything but favorable. It looked rather +tawdry and cheap. The men themselves who filled the room were pretty +tough-looking specimens. I noticed a few Italians of the fat class and +one or two sharp-faced Jews, but for the most part these men were the +cheaper element of the second and third generation. They were the +loafers--the ward heelers. I certainly felt out of place among them +and to me even Rafferty looked out of place. There was a freshness, a +bulk about him, that his fellows here didn't have. + +As he shoved his big body through the crowd, they greeted him by his +first name with an oath or a joke and he beamed back at them all with +a broad wave of his hand. It was evident that he was a man of some +importance here. He worked a passage for me to the front of the hall +and didn't stop until he reached a group of about a dozen men who were +all puffing away at cigars. In the midst of them stood a man of about +Rafferty's size in frame but fully fifty pounds heavier. He had a +quiet, good-natured face. On the whole it was a strong face though a +bit heavy. His eyes were everywhere. He was the first to notice +Rafferty. He nodded with a familiar, + +"Hello, Dan." + +Dan seized my arm and dragged me forward: + +"I want ye to meet me frind, Mister Carleton," he said. + +Sweeney rested his grey eyes on me a second, saw that I was a +stranger here, and stepped forward instantly with his big hand +outstretched. He spoke without a trace of brogue. + +"I'm very glad to meet you, Mr. Carleton," he said. + +I don't know that I'm easily impressed and I flattered myself that I +could recognize a politician when I saw one, but I want to confess +that there was something in the way he grasped my hand that instantly +gave me a distinctly friendly feeling towards Sweeney. I should have +said right then and there that the man wasn't as black as he was +painted. He was neither oily nor sleek in his manner. We chatted a +minute and I think he was a bit surprised in me. He wanted to know +where I lived, where I was working, and how much of a family I had. He +put these questions in so frank and fatherly a fashion that they +didn't seem so impertinent to me at the time as they did later. Some +one called him and as he turned away, he said to Rafferty, + +"See me before you go, Dan." + +Then he said to me, + +"I hope I'll see you down here often, Carleton." + +With that Dan took me around and introduced me to Tom, Dick and Harry +or rather to Tim, Denny and Larry. This crowd came nearer to the +notion I had of ward politicians. They were a noisy, husky-throated +lot, but they didn't leave you in doubt for a minute but what every +mother's son of them was working for Sweeney as though they were one +big family with Daddy Sweeney at the head. You could overhear bits of +plots and counter plots on every side. I was offered a dozen cigars in +as many minutes and though some of the men rather shied away from me +at first a whispered endorsement from Dan was all that was needed to +bring them back. + +There was something contagious about it and when later the meeting +itself opened and Sweeney rose to speak I cheered him as heartily as +anyone. By this time a hundred or more other men had come in who +looked more outside the inner circle. Sweeney spoke simply and +directly. It was a personal appeal he made, based on promises. I +listened with interest and though it seemed to me that many of his +pledges were extravagant he showed such a good spirit back of them +that his speech on a whole produced a favorable effect. + +At any rate I came away from the meeting with a stronger personal +interest in politics than I had ever felt in my life. Instead of +seeming like an abstruse or vague issue it seemed to me pretty +concrete and pretty vital. It concerned me and my immediate neighbors. +Here was a man who was going to Congress not as a figurehead of his +party but to make laws for Rafferty and for me. He was to be my +congressman if I chose to help make him such. He knew my name, knew my +occupation, knew that I had a wife and one child, knew my address. And +I want to say that he didn't forget them either. + +As I walked back through the brightly lighted streets which were still +as much alive as at high noon, I felt that after all this was my ward +and my city. I wasn't a mere dummy, I was a member of a vast +corporation. I had been to a rally and had shaken hands with Sweeney. + +Ruth's only comment was a disgusted grunt as she smelled the rank +tobacco in my clothes. She kept them out on the roof all the next +day. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OUR FIRST WINTER + + +This first winter was filled with just about as much interest as it +was possible for three people to crowd into six or seven months. And +even then there was so much left over which we wanted to do that we +fairly groaned as we saw opportunity after opportunity slip by which +we simply didn't have the time to improve. + +To begin with the boy, he went at his studies with a zest that placed +him among the first ten of his class. Dick wasn't a quick boy at his +books and so this stood for sheer hard plugging. To me this made his +success all the more noteworthy. Furthermore it wasn't the result of +goading either from Ruth or myself. I kept after him about the details +of his school life and about the boys he met, but I let him go his own +gait in his studies. I wanted to see just how the new point of view +would work out in him. The result as I saw it was that every night +after supper he went at his problems not as a mere school boy but +man-fashion. He sailed in to learn. He had to. There was no prestige +in that school coming from what the fathers did. No one knew what the +fathers did. It didn't matter. With half a dozen nationalities in the +race the school was too cosmopolitan to admit such local issues. A few +boys might chum together feeling they were better than the others, but +the school as a whole didn't recognize them. Each boy counted for what +he did--what he was. + +Of the other nine boys in the first ten, four were of Jewish origin, +three were Irish, one was Italian, and the other was American born but +of Irish descent. Half of them hoped to go through college on +scholarships and the others had equally ambitious plans for business. +The Jews were easily the most brilliant students but they didn't +attempt anything else. The Italian showed some literary ability and +wrote a little for the school paper. The American born Irish boy was +made manager of the Freshman football team. The other four were +natural athletes--two of them played on the school eleven and the +others were just built for track athletics and basket ball. Dick +tried for the eleven but he wasn't heavy enough for one thing and so +didn't make anything but a substitute's position with the freshmen. I +was just as well satisfied. I didn't mind the preliminary training but +I felt I would as soon he added a couple more years to his age before +he really played football, even if it was in him to play. My point had +been won when he went out and tried. + +At the end of the first four months in the school I thought I saw a +general improvement in him. He held himself better for one thing--with +his head higher and his shoulders well back. This wasn't due to his +physical training either. It meant a changed mental attitude. Ruth +says she didn't notice any difference and she thinks this is nothing +but my imagination. But she's wrong. I was looking for something she +couldn't see that the boy lacked before. Dick to her was always all +right. Of course I knew myself that the boy couldn't go far wrong +whatever his training, but I knew also that his former indifferent +attitude was going to make his path just so much harder for him. Dick, +when he read over this manuscript, said he thought the whole business +was foolish and that even if I wanted to tell the story of my own +life, the least I could do was to leave out him. But his life was more +largely my life than he realizes even now. And his case was in many +ways a better example of the true emigrant spirit than my own. + +He joined the indoor track squad this winter, too, but here again he +didn't distinguish himself. He fought his way into the finals at the +interscholastic meet but that was all. However this, too, was good +training for him. I saw that race myself and I watched his mouth +instead of his legs. I liked the way his jaws came together on the +last lap though it hurt to see the look in his eyes when he fell so +far behind after trying so hard. But he crossed the finish line. + +In the meanwhile Ruth was just about the busiest little woman in the +city. And yet strangely enough this instead of dragging her down, +built her up. She took on weight, her cheeks grew rosier than I had +seen them for five years and she seemed altogether happier. I watched +her closely because I made up my mind that ginger jar or no ginger jar +the moment I saw a trace of heaviness in her eyes, she would have to +quit some of her bargain hunting. I didn't mean to barter her good +health for a few hundred dollars even if I had to remain a day laborer +the rest of my life. + +That possibility didn't seem to me now half so terrifying as did the +old bogey of not getting a raise. I suppose for one thing this was +because we neither of us felt so keenly the responsibility of the boy. +In the old days we had both thought that he was doomed if we didn't +save enough to send him through college and give him, at the end of +his course, capital enough to start in business for himself. In other +words, Dick seemed then utterly dependent upon us. It was as terrible +a thought to think of leaving him penniless at twenty-one as leaving +him an orphan at five months. The burden of his whole career rested on +our shoulders. + +But now as I saw him take his place among fellows who were born +dependent upon themselves, as I learned about youngsters at the school +who at ten earned their own living selling newspapers and even went +through college on their earnings, as I watched him grow strong +physically and tackle his work aggressively, I realized that even if +anything should happen to either Ruth or myself the boy would be able +to stand on his own feet. He had the whole world before him down here. +If worst came to worst he could easily support himself daytimes, and +at night learn either a trade or a profession. This was not a dream on +my part; I saw men who were actually doing it. I was doing it myself +for that matter. Personally I felt as easy about Dick's future by the +middle of that first winter as though I had established an annuity for +him which would assure him all the advantages I had ever hoped he +might receive. So did Ruth. + +I remember some horrible hours I passed in that little suburban house +towards the end of my life there. Ruth would sit huddled up in a chair +and try to turn my thoughts to other things but I could only pace the +floor when I thought what would happen to her and the boy if anything +should happen to me; or what would happen to the boy alone if anything +should happen to the both of us. The case of Mrs. Bonnington hung over +me like a nightmare and the other possibility was even worse. Why, +when Cummings came down with pneumonia and it looked for a while as +though he might die, I guess I suffered, by applying his case to +mine, as much as ever he himself did on his sick bed. I used to +inquire for his temperature every night as though it were my own. So +did every man in the neighborhood. + +Sickness was a wicked misfortune to that little crowd. When death did +pick one of us, the whole structure of that family came tumbling down +like a house of cards. If by the grace of God the man escaped, he was +left hopelessly in debt by doctor's bills if in the meanwhile he +hadn't lost his job. Sickness meant disaster, swift and terrible +whatever its outcome. We ourselves escaped it, to be sure, but I've +sweat blood over the mere thought of it. + +Now if our thoughts ever took so grim a turn, we could speak quite +calmly about it. It was impossible for me ever to think of Ruth as +sick. My mind couldn't grasp that. But occasionally when I have come +home wet and Ruth has said something about my getting pneumonia if I +didn't look out, I've asked myself what this would mean. In the first +place I now could secure admission to the best hospitals in the +country free of cost. I had only to report my case to the city +physician and if I were sick enough to warrant it, he would notify +the hospital and they would send down an ambulance for me. I would be +carried to a clean bed in a clean room and would receive such medical +attention as before I could have had only as a millionaire. Physicians +of national reputation would attend me, medicines would be supplied +me, and I'd have a night and day nurse for whom outside I would have +had to pay some forty dollars a week. Not only this but if I recovered +I would be supplied the most nourishing foods in the market and after +that sent out of town to one of the quiet convalescent hospitals if my +condition warranted it. I don't suppose a thousand dollars would cover +what here would be given me for nothing. And I wouldn't either be +considered or treated like a charity patient. This was all my due as a +citizen--as a toiler. Of course this would be done also for Dick as +well as for Ruth. + +I don't mean to say that such thoughts took up much of my time. I'm +not morbid and we never did have any sickness--we lived too sanely for +that. But just as our new viewpoint on Dick relieved us of a tension +which before had sapped our strength, so it was a great relief to have +such insurance as this in the background of our minds. It took all +the curse off sickness that it's possible to take off. In three or +four such ways as these a load of responsibility was removed from us +and we were left free to apply all our energy to the task of +upbuilding which we had in hand. + +This may account somewhat for the reserve strength which Ruth as well +as myself seemed to tap. Then of course the situation as a whole was +such as to make any woman with imagination buoyant. Ruth had an active +part in making a big rosy dream come true. She was now not merely a +passive agent. She wasn't economizing merely to make the salary cover +the current expenses. Her task was really the vital one of the whole +undertaking; she was accumulating capital. When you stop to think of +it she was the brains of the business; I was only the machine. I dug +the money out of the ground but that wouldn't have amounted to much if +it had all gone for nothing except to keep the machine moving from day +to day. The dollar she saved was worth more than a hundred dollars +earned and spent again. It was the only dollar which counted. They say +a penny saved is a penny earned. To my mind a penny saved was worth +to us at this time every cent of a dollar. + +So Ruth was not only an active partner but there was another side to +the game that appealed to her. + +"The thing I like about our life down here," she said to me one night, +"is the chance it gives me to get something of myself into every +single detail of the home." + +I didn't know what she meant because it seemed to me that was just +what she had always done. But she shook her head when I said so. + +"No," she said. "Not the way I can now." + +"Well, you didn't have a servant and must have done whatever was +done," I said. + +"I didn't have time to pick out the food for the table," she said. "I +had to order it of the grocery man. I didn't have time to make as many +of your clothes as I wanted. Why I didn't even have time to plan." + +"If anyone had told me that a woman could do any more than you then +were doing, I should have laughed at them," I said. + +"You and the boy weren't all my own then," she said. "I had to waste a +great deal of time on things outside the house. Sometimes it used to +make me feel as though you were just one of the neighbors, Billy." + +I began to see what she meant. But she certainly found now just as +much time if not more to spare on the women and babies all around us. + +"They aren't neighbors," she said. "They are friends." + +I suppose she felt like that because what she did for them wasn't just +wasted energy like an evening at cards. + +But she went back again and again, as though it were a song, to this +notion that our new home was all her own. + +"You may think me a pig, Billy," she said. "But I like it. I like to +pick out all myself, every single potato you and the boy eat; I like +to pick out every leaf of lettuce, every apple. It makes me feel as +though I was doing something for you." + +"Good land--" I said. + +But she wouldn't let me finish. + +"No, Billy," she said. "You don't understand what all that means to +me--how it makes me a part of you and Dick as I never was before. And +I like to think that in everything you wear there's a stitch of mine +right close to you. And that when you and the boy lie down at night +I'm touching you because I made everything clean for you with my own +hands." + +It makes my throat grow lumpy even now when I remember the eager, +half-ashamed way she looked up into my eyes as she said this. Lord, +sometimes she made me feel like a little child and other times she +made me feel like a giant. But whichever way she made me feel at the +moment, she always left me wishing that I had in me every good thing a +man can have so that I might be half way worthy of her. There are +times when a fellow knows that as a man he doesn't count for much as +compared with any woman. And with such a woman as Ruth--well, God +knows I tried to do my best in those days and have tried to do that +ever since, but it makes me ache to think how little I've been able to +give her of all she deserves. + +In her housework Ruth had developed a system that would have made a +fortune for any man if applied in the same degree to his business. I +learned a lot from her. Instead of going at her tasks in the haphazard +fashion of most women or doing things just because her grandmother +and her mother did them a certain way, she used her head. I've already +told how she did her washing little by little every day instead of +waiting for Monday and then tearing herself all to pieces, and that's +a fair example of her method. When she was cooking breakfast and had a +good fire, she'd have half her dinner on at the same time. Anything +that was just as good warmed up, she'd do then. She'd make her stews +and soups while waiting for the biscuits to bake and boil her rice or +make her cold puddings while we were eating. When that stove was +working in the morning you couldn't find a square inch of it that +wasn't working. As a result, she planned never to spend over half an +hour on her dinner at night and by the time the breakfast dishes were +washed she was through with her cooking until then. + +She used her head even in little things; she'd make one dish do the +work of three. She never washed this dish until she was through with +it for good. And she'd find the time at odd moments during her cooking +to wash these dishes as they came along. If she spilled anything on +the floor she stopped right then and there and cleaned it up, with the +result that when breakfast was served, the kitchen looked as +ship-shape as when she began. When she _was_ busy, she was the busiest +woman you ever saw. She worked with her head, both hands, and her +feet. As a result instead of fiddling around all day, when she was +through she was through. + +When she got up in the morning she knew exactly what she had to do for +the day, just how she was going to do it and just when she was going +to do it. And you could bank that the things at night would be done, +and be done just as she had planned. She thought ahead. That's a great +thing to master in any business. + +In my own work, the plan I had outlined for myself I developed day by +day. At the end of three months I found that even what little Italian +I had then learned was a help to me. The mere fact that I was studying +their language placed me on a better footing with my fellows. They +seemed to receive it as a compliment and to feel that I was taking a +personal interest in them as a race. My desire to practise my few +phrases was always a letter of introduction to a newcomer. + +I talked with them about everything--where they came from, what made +them come, what they did before they came, how long they worked and +what pay they got in Italy, how they saved to get over here, how they +secured their jobs, what they hoped to do eventually, where they +lived, how large their families were, how much it cost them to live +and what they ate. I inquired as to what they liked and what they +disliked about their work; what they considered fair and what unfair +about the labor and the pay; what they liked and didn't like about the +foreman. Often I couldn't get any opinion at all out of them on these +subjects; often it wasn't honest and often it wasn't intelligent. But +as with my other questioning when I sifted it all down and thought it +over, I was surprised at how much information I did get. If I didn't +learn facts which could be put into words, I was left with a very +definite impression and a very wide general knowledge. + +In the meanwhile my note book was always busy. I kept jotting down +names and addresses with enough running comment to help me to recall +the men individually. I wasn't able to locate one out of ten of these +men later but the tenth man was worth all the trouble. + +As the winter advanced and the air grew frosty and the snow and ice +came, the work in a good many ways was harder. And yet everything +considered I don't know but what I'd rather work outdoors at zero than +at eighty-five. Except that my hands got numb and everything was more +difficult to handle I didn't mind the cold. There was generally +exercise enough to keep the blood moving. + +We had a variety of work before spring. After the subway job I shifted +to a big house foundation and there met another group of skilled +workmen from whom I learned much. The work was easier and the +surroundings pleasanter if you can speak of pleasant surroundings +about a hole in the ground. The soil was easier to handle and we went +to no great depth. Here too I met a new gang of laborers. I missed +many familiar faces out of the old crowd and found some interesting +new men. Rafferty had gone and I was sorry. I saw more or less of him +however during the winter for he dropped around now and then on Sunday +evenings. I don't think he ever forgot the incident of the sewer gas. + +I enjoyed too every hour in my night school. I found here a very large +per cent. of foreigners and they were naturally of the more ambitious +type. I found I had a great deal to learn even in the matter of +spreading mortar and using a trowel. It was really fascinating work +and in the instructor I made an invaluable friend. Through him I was +able to arrange my scattered fragments of information into larger +groups. Little by little I told him something of my plan and he was +very much interested in it. He gave me many valuable suggestions and +later proved of substantial help in more ways than one. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +I BECOME A CITIZEN + + +As I said, there were still many opportunities which I didn't have +time to improve. The three of us seemed to have breathed in down here +some spirit which left us almost feverish in our desire to learn. +Whether it was the opportunity which bred the desire or the desire as +expressed by all these newcomers, fresh from the shackles of their old +lives, which created the opportunity, I leave to the students of such +matters. All I know is that we were offered the best in practical +information, such as the trade schools and the night high schools; the +best in art, the best in music, the best in the drama. I am speaking +always of the newcomer--the emigrant. Sprinkled in with these was the +cheaper element of the native-born, whether of foreign or of American +descent, who spent their evenings on the street or at the cheap +theatres or in the barrooms. This class despised the whole business. +Incidentally these were the men who haunted the bread line, the +Salvation Army barracks, and were the first to join in any public +demonstration against the rich. The women, not always so much by their +own fault, were the type which keeps the charitable associations busy. +I'm not saying that among these there were not often cases of sheer +hard luck. Now and then sickness played the devil with a family and +more often the cussedness of some one member dragged down a half dozen +innocent ones with him, but I do say that when misfortune did come to +this particular class they didn't buck up to it as Helen Bonnington +did or use such means as were at their disposal to pull out of it. +They just caved in. Even in their daily lives, when things were going +well with them, they lost in the glitter and glare of the city that +spark which my middle-class friends lost by stagnation. + +Because there was no poetic romance left in their own lives, they +despised it in the lives of others and laughed at it in art. Whatever +went back into the past, they looked upon scornfully as "ancient." +They lived each day as it came with a pride in being up-to-date. As a +result, they preferred musical comedy of the horse play kind to real +music; they preferred cheap melodrama to Shakespere. They lived and +breathed the spirit of the yellow journals. + +I don't know what sort of an education it is the Italians come over +here with, but they were a constant surprise to me in their +appreciation of the best in art. And it was genuine--it was simple. +I've heard a good many jokes about the foolishness of giving them a +diet of Shakespere and Beethoven, of Mæterlinck and Mascagni, but that +sort of talk comes either from the outsiders or from the Great White +Way crowd. When you've seen Italians not only crowd in to the free +productions down here but have seen them put up good money to attend +the best theatres; when you've heard them whistle grand opera at their +work and save hard earned dollars to spend on it down town; when +you've seen them crowd the art museums on free days and spend a half +dollar to look at some private exhibition of a fellow countryman's, +you begin to think, if you're honest, that the laugh is on you. They +made me feel ashamed not only because I was ignorant but because after +I became more familiar with the works of the masters I was slower +than they to appreciate them. In many cases I couldn't. I didn't +flatter myself either that this was because of my superior frankness +or up-to-dateness. I knew well enough that it was because of a lack in +me and my ancestors. + +Scarcely a week passed when there wasn't something worth seeing or +hearing presented to these people. It came either through a settlement +house or through the generosity of some interested private patron. +However it came, it was always through the medium of a class which +until now had been only a name to me. This was the independently +well-to-do American class--the Americans who had partly made and +partly inherited their fortunes and had not yet come to misuse them. +It is a class still active in American life, running however more to +the professions than to business. Many of their family names have been +familiar in history to succeeding generations since the early +settlement of New England. They were intellectual leaders then and +they are intellectual leaders now. If I could with propriety I'd like +to give here a list of half a dozen of these men and women who came, +in time, to revive for me my belief that after all there still is +left in this country the backbone of a worthy old stock. But they +don't need any such trivial tribute as I might give them. The thing +that struck me at once about them was that they were still finding an +outlet for their pioneer instinct not only in their professions and +their business, but in the interest they took in the new pioneer. +Shoulder to shoulder with the modern Pilgrims they were pushing +forward their investigations in medicine, in science, in economics. +They were adapting old laws to new conditions; they were developing +the new West; they were the new thinkers and the new politicians. + +I don't suppose that if I had lived for fifty years under the old +conditions I would have met one of them. There was no meeting ground +for us, for we had nothing in common. I couldn't possibly interest +them and I'm sure I was too busy with my own troubles to take any +interest in them even if I had known of their existence. + +Even down here I resented at first their presence as an intrusion. +Whenever I met them I was inclined to play the cad and there's no +bigger cad on the face of the earth than a workingman who is beginning +to feel his oats. But as I watched them and saw how earnest they were +and how really valuable their efforts were I was able to distinguish +them from still another crowd who flaunted their silly charities in +the newspapers. But these other quiet men and women were of different +calibre; they were the ones who established pure milk stations, who +encouraged the young men of real talent like Giuseppe, and who headed +all the real work for good done down here. + +They came into my life when I needed them; when perhaps I was swinging +too far in my belief that the emigrant was the only force for progress +in our nation. I know they checked me in some wild thinking in which I +was beginning to indulge. + +I find I have been wandering a little. But what we thought, counted +for as much towards the goal as what we did and even if the thinking +is only that of one man--and an ordinary man at that--why, so for that +matter was the whole venture. I want to say again that all I'm trying +to do is to put down as well as I can remember and as well as I am +able, my own acts and thoughts and nothing but my own. Of course that +means Ruth's and Dick's too as far as I understood them, for they +were a part of my own. I don't want what I write to be taken as the +report of an investigation but just as the diary of one man's +experience. + +If I had had the time I could have seen at least two of Shakespere's +plays--presented by amateurs, to be sure, but amateurs with talent and +enthusiasm and guided by professionals. I could have heard at least a +half dozen good readers read from the more modern classics. I could +have listened to as many concerts by musicians of good standing. I +could have heard lectures on a dozen subjects of vital interest. Then +there were entertainments designed confessedly to entertain. In +addition to these there were many more lectures in the city itself +open free to the public and which I now for the first time learned +about. There was one series in particular which was addressed once a +week by men of international renown. It was a liberal education in +itself. Many of my neighbors attended. + +But as for Dick he was too busy with his studies and Ruth was too glad +to sit at home and watch him, to go out at night. + +What spare time I myself had I began to devote to a new interest. +Rafferty had first roused me to my duty as a citizen in the matter of +local politics and through the winter called often enough to keep my +interest whetted. But even without him I couldn't have escaped the +question. Politics was a live issue down here every day in the year. +One campaign was no sooner ended than another was begun. Sweeney was +no sooner elected than he began to lay wires for his fellows in the +coming city election who in their turn would sustain him in whatever +further political ambitions he might have. If the hold the boss had on +a ward or a city was a mystery to me at first, it didn't long remain +so. The secret of his power lay in the fact that he never let go. He +was at work every day in the year and he had an organization with +which he could keep in touch through his lieutenants whether he was in +Washington or at home. Sweeney's personality was always right there in +his ward wherever his body might be. + +The Sweeney Club rooms were always open. Night after night you could +find his trusted men there. Here the man out of a job came and from +here was recommended to one contractor or another or to the "city"; +here the man with the sick wife came to have her sent to some +hospital which perhaps for some reason would not ordinarily receive +her; here the men in court sent their friends for bail; here came +those with bigger plans afoot in the matter of special contracts. If +Sweeney couldn't get them what they wanted, he at least sent them away +with a feeling of deep obligation to him. Naturally then when election +time came around these people obeyed Sweeney's order. It wasn't +reasonable to suppose that a campaign speech or two could affect their +loyalty. + +Of course the rival party followed much the same methods but the man +in power had a tremendous advantage. The only danger he needed to fear +was a split in his own faction as some young man loomed up with +ambitions that moved faster than Sweeney's own for him. Such a man I +began to suspect--though it was looking a long way into the +future--was Rafferty. That winter he took out his naturalization +papers and soon afterwards he began an active campaign for the Common +Council. It was partly my interest in him and partly a new sense of +duty I felt towards the whole game that made me resolve to have a hand +in this. I owed that much to the ward in which I lived and which was +doing so much for me. + +In talking with some of the active settlement workers down here, I +found them as strongly prejudiced against the party in power as I had +been and when I spoke to them of Rafferty I found him damned in their +eyes as soon as I mentioned his party. + +"The whole system is corrupt from top to bottom," said the head of one +settlement house to me. + +"Are you doing anything to remedy it?" I asked. + +"What _can_ you do?" he said. "We are doing the only thing +possible--we're trying to get hold of the youngsters and give them a +higher sense of civic virtue." + +"That's good," I said, "but you don't get hold of one in ten of the +coming voters. And you don't get hold of one in a hundred of the +coming politicians. Why don't you take hold of a man like Dan who is +bound to get power some day and talk a little civic virtue into him." + +"You said he was a Democrat and a machine man," said he, as though +that settled it. + +"I don't see any harm in either fact," I said, "if you get at the good +in him. A good Democrat is a good citizen and a good machine is a +good power," I said. + +The man smiled. + +"You don't know," he said. + +"Do _you_ know?" I asked. "Have you been to the rallies and met the +men and studied their methods?" + +"All you have to do is to read the papers," he answered. + +"I don't think so," I said. "To beat an enemy you ought to study him +at first hand. You ought to find out the good as well as the bad in +him. You ought to find out where he gets his power." + +"Graft and patronage," he answered. + +"What about the other party?" I said. + +"Just as bad." + +"Then what are you going to do about it?" I asked. + +"Our only hope is education," he said. + +"Then," I said, "why not educate the young politicians? Get to know +Rafferty--he's young and simple and honest now. Help him to advance +honestly and keep him that way." + +He shook his head doubtfully but he agreed to have a talk with Dan. In +the meanwhile I had a talk with Dan myself. I told him what my scheme +was. + +"Dan," I said, "you must decide right at the beginning of your career +whether you're going to be just a tool of Sweeney's or whether you're +going to stand on your own feet." + +"Phot's the mather with Sweeney, now?" he asked. + +"In some ways he's all right," I said. "And in other ways he isn't. +But anyhow he's your boss and you have to do what he tells you to do +just as though he was your landlord back in Ireland and you nothing +but a tenant." + +"Eh?" he said looking up quick. + +I thought I'd strike a sore spot there and I made the most of it. I +talked along like this for a half hour and I saw his lips come +together. + +"He'd knife me," he said finally. "He's sore now 'cause I'm afther +wantin' to run for the council this year." + +I had heard the rumor. + +"Then," I said, "why don't you pull free and make a little machine of +your own. Some of the boys will stand by you, won't they?" + +"Will they?" he grinned. + +With that I took him around to the settlement house. Dan listened good +naturedly to a lot of talk he didn't understand but he listened with +more interest to a lot of talk about the needs of the district which +it was now getting cheated out of, which he did understand. And +incidentally the man who at first did all the talking in the end +listened to Dan. After the latter had gone, he turned to me and said: + +"I like that fellow Rafferty." + +That seemed to me the really important thing and right there and then +we sat down and worked out the basis of the "Young American Political +Club." Our object was to reach the young voter first of all and +through him to reach the older ones. To this end we had a "Committee +on Boys" and a "Committee on Naturalization." I insisted from the +beginning that we must have an organization as perfect as that of any +political machine. Until we felt our strength a little however, I +suggested it was best to limit our efforts to the districts alone. We +took a map of the city and we cut up the districts into blocks with a +young man at the head of each block. He was to make a list of all the +young voters and keep as closely in touch as possible with the +political gossip of both parties. Over him there was to be a street +captain and over him a district captain and finally a president. + +All this was the result of slow and careful study. All the workers +down here fell in with the plan eagerly and one of them agreed to pay +the expenses of a hall any time we wished to use one for campaign +purposes. At first our efforts passed unnoticed by either political +party. It was thought to be just another fanciful civic dream. We were +glad of it. It gave us time to perfect our organization without +interference. + +This business took up all the time I could spare during the winter. +But instead of finding it a drag I found it an inspiration. They +insisted upon making me president of the Club and though I would +rather have had a younger man at its head I accepted the honor with a +feeling of some pride. It was the first public office I had ever held +and it gave me a new sense of responsibility and a better sense of +citizenship. + +In the meanwhile Dan made no open break with Sweeney but it soon +became clear that he was not in such good favor as before. Although we +had not yet openly endorsed his candidacy we were doing a good deal +of talking for him. I received several visits from Sweeney's +lieutenants who tried to find out just what we were about. My answer +invariably was "No partisanship but clean politics." + +When it came time to register I was forced to register with one of the +two parties in order to take any part in the primaries. I registered +as a Democrat for the first time in my life. I also attended a primary +for the first time in my life. I also felt a new power back of me for +the first time in my life. Little by little Dan had come to be an +issue. Sweeney did not openly declare himself but it was soon evident +that he had come to the primaries prepared to knife Rafferty if it +were possible. Back of Dan stood his large personal following; back of +me stood the balance of power. Sweeney saw it, gave the nod, and Dan +was nominated. + +Six weeks later he was elected, too. You'd have thought he had been +elected mayor by the noise the small boys made. Rafferty came to me +with his big paw outstretched, + +"Carleton," he said, "the only thing I've got agin ye is thot ye ain't +an Irishmon. Faith, ye'd make a domd foine Irishmon." + +"It's up to you now," I said, "to make a damned fine American." + +It wasn't more than two months later that Dan came to me to ask my +opinion on a request of Sweeney's. It looked a bit off color and I +said so. + +"You can't do it, Dan," I said. + +"It manes throuble," he said. + +"Let it come. We're back of you with both feet." + +Dan followed my advice and the trouble came. He was fired from his job +as foreman under Sweeney. + +But you can't keep down as good a foreman as Dan was and he had +another job within a week. + +A few months later I had another job myself. I was made foreman with +my own firm at a wage of two dollars and a half a day. When I went +back and announced this to Ruth, she cried a little. Truly our cup +seemed full and running over. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK + + +My first thought when I received my advance in pay was that I could +now relieve Ruth of some of her burdens. There was no longer any need +of her spending so much time in trotting around the markets and the +department stores. Nor was there any need of her doing so much +plotting and planning in her endeavor to save a penny. Furthermore I +was determined that she should now enjoy some of the little luxuries +of life in the way of better things to wear and better things to eat. +But that idea was taken out of me in short order. + +"No," she said, as soon as she recovered from the good news. "We +mustn't spend one cent more than we've been spending." + +"But look here," I said; "what's the good of a raise if we don't use +it?" + +"What's the good of a raise if we spend it?" she asked me. "We'll use +it, Billy, but we'll use it wisely. How many times have you told me +that if you had your life to live over again you wouldn't spend one +cent over the first salary you received, if it was only three dollars +a week, until you had a bank account?" + +"I know that," I said. "But when a man has a wife and boy like you and +Dick--" + +"He doesn't want to turn them into burdens that will hold him down all +his life," she broke in. "It isn't fair to the wife and boy," she +said. + +I couldn't quite follow her reasoning but I didn't have to. When I +came home the next Saturday night with fifteen dollars in my pocket +instead of nine she calmly took out three for the rent, five for +household expenses and put seven in the ginger jar. I suggested that +at least we have one celebration and with the boy go to the little +French restaurant we used to visit, but she held up her hands in +horror. + +"Do you think I'd spend two dollars and a half for--why, Billy, you +wouldn't!" + +"I'd like to spend ten," I said. "I'd like to go there to dinner and +buy you a half dozen roses and get the three best seats in the best +theater in town," I said. + +She came to my side and patted my arm. + +"Thank you, Billy," she said. "But honest--it's just as much fun to +have you want to do those things as really do them." + +I believe she meant it. I wouldn't believe it of anyone else but for a +week she talked about that dinner and those flowers and the theater +until she had me wondering if we hadn't actually gone. Dick thought we +were crazy. + +And so, just as usual, after this she'd take her basket and start out +two or three mornings a week and walk with me as far as the market. +She'd spend an hour here and then if she needed anything more she'd go +down town to the big stores and wander around here for another hour. +But Saturday nights was her great bargain opportunity. If I couldn't +go with her she'd take Dick and the two would plan to get there at +about nine o'clock. From this time on she often picked up for a song +odd ends of meat and good vegetables which the market men didn't want +to carry over to Monday. In fact they _had_ to sell out these things +as their stock at the beginning of the week had to be fresh. I suppose +marketing at this time of day would be a good deal of a hardship for +those living in the suburbs but it was a regular lark for her. Most +everyone is good natured on Saturday night if on no other night. The +week's work is done and people have enough money from their pay +envelopes to feel rich for a few hours anyway. Then there were the +lights and the crowd and the shouting so that it was like twenty +country fairs rolled into one. + +After the excitement of coming home Saturdays with so much money wore +off, I began to forget that I _was_ earning fifteen instead of nine. +If Ruth had spent it on the table I'm sure I'd have forgotten it even +more quickly. I was getting all I wanted to eat, was warm and had a +good clean bed to sleep in and what more can a man have even if he's +earning a hundred a week? I think people are very apt to forget that +after all a millionaire can spend only about so much on himself. And +after the newness of fresh toys has worn off--like steam yachts and +private cars--he is forced to be satisfied with just what I had, no +matter how much more money he makes. He has only his five senses and +once these are satisfied he's no better off than a man who satisfies +these same senses on eight dollars a week. Generally he's worse off +because in a year or so he has probably dulled them all. Rockefeller +himself probably never in his life got half the fun out of anything +that I did in just crawling into my clean bed at night with every +tired muscle purring contentedly and my mind at rest about the next +day. I doubt if he knows the joy of waking up in the morning rested +and hungry. The only advantage he had over me that I can see is the +power he had to help others. In a way I don't believe he found any +greater opportunity even for that than Ruth found right here. + +For those interested in the details I'm going to give another +quotation from Ruth's note book. But to my mind these details aren't +the important part of our venture. The thing that counted was the +spirit back of them. It isn't the fact that we lived on from six to +eight dollars a week or the statistics of how we lived on that which +makes my life worth telling about if it _is_ worth telling about. In +the first place prices vary in different localities and shift from +year to year. In fact since we began they have almost doubled. In the +second place people have lived and are living to-day on less than we +did. I give our figures simply to satisfy the curious and to show how +Ruth planned. But no one could do as she did or do as we did merely by +aping her little economies, or accepting the result of them. Either +they would find the task impossible or look upon it as a privation and +endure it as martyrs. In this mood they wouldn't last a week. I know +that people who read this without at least a germ of the pioneer in +them will either smile or shrug their shoulders. I've met plenty of +this sort. I met them by the dozen down here. As I said, you can find +them in every bread line, in every Salvation Army barracks or the +Associated Charities will furnish you a list of as many as you want. +You'll find them in the suburbs or you'll find them marching in line +the next time there is a procession of the unemployed. + +But give me true pioneers such as our own forefathers were, such as +the young men out West are to-day, such as every steamer lands here by +the hundreds from foreign countries every week and I say you can't +down that kind, you can't kill them. I don't say that it's right to +raise the price of necessities. I don't think it is, though I don't +know much about it. But I do say that if you double the cost of food +stuffs and then double it again, though you may cruelly starve out the +weaklings, you'll find the pioneers still on their feet, still +fighting. + +It seems strange to me that men will go to Alaska and contentedly +freeze and dig all day in a mine--not of their own, but for wages--and +not feel so greatly abused or unhappy; that they will swing an axe all +day in a forest and live on baked beans and bread without feeling like +martyrs; that they will go to sea and grub on hard tack and salt pork +and fish without complaint and then will turn Anarchists on the same +fare in the East. It seems strange too that these men keep strong and +healthy, and that our ancestors kept strong and healthy on even a +still simpler diet. Why, my father fought battles--and the mental +strain must have been terrific--and did more actual labor every day in +carrying a rifle and marching than I do in a week, and slept out doors +under a blanket--all on a diet that the average tramp of to-day would +spurn. He did this for four years and if the sanitary conditions had +been decent would have returned well and strong as many a man did who +didn't run afoul typhoid fever and malaria. Men who do such things +have something in them that the men back East have lost. I call it the +romantic spirit or the pioneer spirit and I say that a man who has it +won't care whether he's living in Maine or California and that +whatever the conditions are he will overcome them. I know that we +three would have lived on almost rice alone as the Japanese do before +we'd have cried quit. That was because we were tackling this problem +not as Easterners but as Westerners; not as poor whites but as +emigrants. Men on a ranch stand for worse things than we had and have +less of a future to dream about. + +So I repeat that to my mind the house details don't count here for any +more than they did in the lives of the original New England settlers, +or the forty-niners, or those on homesteads or in Alaska to-day. +However, I'll put them in and I'll take the month of May as an +example--the first month after I was made foreman. It's fairer to give +the items for a month. They are as follows: + + Oatmeal, .17 + Corn meal, .10 + About one tenth barrel flour, .65 + Potatoes, .35 + Rice, .08 + Sugar, .40 + White beans, .16 + Pork, .20 + Molasses, .10 + Onions, .23 + Lard, .50 + Apples, .36 + Soda, etc., .14 + Soap, .20 + Cornstarch, .10 + Cocoa shells, .05 + Eggs, .75 + Butter, 1.12 + Milk, 4.48 + Meats, 1.60 + Fish, .60 + Oil, .20 + Yeast cakes, .06 + Macaroni, .09 + Crackers, .06 + Total $12.75 + +This makes an average of three dollars and nineteen cents a week. With +a fluctuation of perhaps twenty-five cents either way Ruth maintained +this pretty much throughout the year now. It fell off a little in the +summer and increased a little in the winter. It's impossible to give +any closer estimate than this. Even this month many things were used +which were left over from the week preceding and, on the other hand, +some things on this list like molasses and sugar and cornstarch went +towards reducing the total of the month following. + +This left say a dollar and seventy-five cents a week for such small +incidentals as are not accounted for here but chiefly for sewing +material, bargains in cloth remnants and such things as were needed +towards the repair of our clothes as well as for such new clothes as +we had to buy from time to time. I think we spent more on shoes than +we did clothes but Ruth by patronizing the sample shoe shops always +came home with a three or four dollar pair for which she never paid +over two dollars and sometimes as low as a dollar and a half. The boy +and I bought our shoes at the same reduction at bankrupt sales. We +gave our neighbors this tip and saw them save a good many dollars in +this way. + +On the whole these people were not good buyers; they never looked +ahead but bought only when they were in urgent need and then bought at +the cheapest price regardless of quality. They would pay two and two +and a half for shoes that wouldn't last them any time at all. Whatever +Ruth bought she considered the quality first and the price afterwards. +Then, too, she often ran across something she didn't need at the time +but which was a good bargain; she would buy this and put it away. She +was able to buy many things which were out of season for half what the +same things would cost six months later. It was very difficult to make +our neighbors see the advantage of this practice and their blindness +cost them many a good dollar. + +We also had the advantage of our neighbors in knowing how to take good +care of our clothes. The average man was careless and slovenly. In a +week a new suit would be spotted with grease, wrinkled, and all out of +shape. He never thought of pressing it, cleaning it or of putting it +away carefully when through wearing it. The women were no better about +their own clothes. This was also true of their shoes. They might +shine them once a month but generally they let them go until they +dried up and cracked. In this way their new clothes soon became +workday clothes, their new shoes, old shoes, and as such they lasted a +very few months. + +Dick and I might have done a little better than our neighbors even +without Ruth to watch us, but we certainly would not have had the +training we did have. Shoes had to be cleaned and either oiled or +shined before going to bed. If it rained we wore our old pairs whether +it was Sunday or not or else we stayed at home. Every time Dick or I +put on our good clothes we were as carefully inspected as troops on +parade. If a grease spot was found, it was removed then and there. If +a button was missing or a bit of fringe showed or a hole the size of a +pin head was found we had to wait until the defect was remedied. Every +Sunday morning the boy pressed both his suit and mine and every night +we had to hang our coats over a chair and fold our trousers. If we +were careless about it, the little woman without a word simply got up +and did them over again herself. + +These may seem like small matters but the result was that we all of us +kept looking shipshape and our clothes lasted. When we finally did +finish with them they weren't good for anything but old rags and even +then Ruth used them about her housework. I figured roughly that Ruth +kept us well dressed on about half what it cost most of our neighbors +and yet we appeared to be twice as well dressed as any of them. Of +course we had a good many things to start with when we came down here +but our clothing bill didn't go up much even during the last year when +our original stock was very nearly exhausted. She accomplished this +result about one-half by long-headed buying, and one-half by her +carefulness and her skill with the needle. + +To go back to the matter of food, I'll copy off a week's bill of fare +during this month. Ruth has written it out for me. You'll notice that +it doesn't vary very much from the earlier ones. + + + Sunday. + + Breakfast: fried hasty pudding with molasses; doughnuts, cocoa + made from cocoa shells. + + Dinner: lamb stew with dumplings, boiled potatoes, boiled onions, + cornstarch pudding. + + + Monday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, baked potatoes, creamed codfish, biscuits. + + Luncheon: for Billy: brown bread sandwiches, cold beans, + doughnuts, milk; for Dick and me: boiled rice, cold biscuits, + baked apples, milk. + + Dinner: warmed over lamb stew, baked apples, cocoa, cold biscuits. + + + Tuesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, milk toast, cocoa. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, doughnuts; + for Dick and me: warmed over beans, biscuits. + + Dinner: hamburg steak, baked potatoes, graham muffins, apple + sauce, milk. + + + Wednesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: sandwiches made of biscuits and left over + steak, doughnuts; for Dick and me: crackers and milk, hot + gingerbread. + + Dinner: vegetable hash, hot biscuits, gingerbread, apple sauce, + milk. + + + Thursday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried hasty pudding, doughnuts, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: hard-boiled eggs, cold biscuits, gingerbread, + baked apple; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, apple sauce, cold + biscuits, milk. + + Dinner: lyonnaise potatoes, hot corn bread, Poor man's pudding, + milk. + + + Friday. + + Breakfast: smoked herring, baked potatoes, oatmeal, graham + muffins. + + Luncheon: for Billy: herring, cold muffins, doughnuts; for Dick + and me: German toast, apple sauce. + + Dinner: fish hash, biscuits, Indian pudding, milk. + + + Saturday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, German toast, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, bowl of + rice; for Dick and me: rice and milk, doughnuts, apple sauce. + + Dinner: baked beans, new raised bread. + +To a man accustomed to a beefsteak breakfast, fried hasty pudding may +seem a poor substitute and griddle cakes may seem well enough to taper +off with but scarcely stuff for a full meal. All I say is, have those +things well made, have enough of them and then try it. If a man has a +sound digestion and a good body I'll guarantee that such food will not +only satisfy him but furnish him fuel for the hardest kind of physical +exercise. I know because I've tried it. And though to some my lunches +may sound slight, they averaged more in substance and variety than the +lunches of my foreign fellow-workmen. A hunk of bread and a bit of +cheese was often all they brought with them. + +Dick thrived on it too. The elimination of pastry from his simple +luncheons brought back the color to his cheeks and left him hard as +nails. + +I've read since then many articles on domestic economy and how on a +few dollars a week a man can make many fancy dishes which will fool +him into the belief that he is getting the same things which before +cost him a great many more dollars. Their object appears to be to +give such a variety that the man will not notice a change. Now this +seems to me all wrong. What's the use of clinging to the notion that a +man lives to eat? Why not get down to bed rock at once and face the +fact that a man doesn't need the bill of fare of a modern hotel or any +substitute for it? A few simple foods and plenty of them is enough. +When a man begins to crave a variety he hasn't placed his emphasis +right. He hasn't worked up to the right kind of hunger. Compare the +old-time country grocery store with the modern provision house and it +may help you to understand why our lean sinewy forefathers have given +place to the sallow, fat parodies of to-day. A comparison might also +help to explain something of the high cost of living. My grandfather +kept such a store and I've seen some of his old account books. About +all he had to sell in the way of food was flour, rice, potatoes, sugar +and molasses, butter, cheese and eggs. These articles weren't put up +in packages and they weren't advertised. They were sold in bulk and +all you paid for was the raw material. The catalogue of a modern +provision house makes a book. The whole object of the change it seems +to me is to fill the demand for variety. You have to pay for that. But +when you trim your ship to run before a gale you must throw overboard +just such freight. Once you do, you'll find it will have to blow +harder than it does even to-day to sink you. I am constantly surprised +at how few of the things we think we need we actually _do_ need. + +The pioneer of to-day doesn't need any more than the pioneer of a +hundred years ago. To me this talk that a return to the customs of our +ancestors involves a lowering of the standard of living is all +nonsense; it means nothing but a simplifying of the standard of +living. If that's a return to barbarism then I'm glad to be a +barbarian and I'll say there never were three happier barbarians than +Ruth, the boy and myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GANG + + +If I'd been making five dollars a day at this time, I wouldn't have +moved from the tenement. In the first place as far as physical comfort +went I was never better off. We had all the room we needed. During the +winter we had used the living room as a kitchen and dining room just +as our forefathers did. We economized fuel in this way and Ruth kept +the rooms spotless. We had no fires in our bedrooms and did not want +any. We all of us slept with our windows wide open. If we had had ten +more rooms we wouldn't have known what to do with them. When we had a +visitor we received him in the kitchen. Some of our neighbors took +boarders and also slept in the kitchen. I don't know as I should want +to do that but at the same time many a family lives in a one room hut +in the forest after this fashion. By outsiders it's looked upon as +rather romantic. It isn't considered a great hardship by the settlers +themselves. + +Then we had the advantage of our roof and with summer coming on we +looked forward to the garden and the joy of the warm starry nights. We +had some wonderful winter pictures, too, from that same roof. It was +worth going up there to see the house tops after a heavy snow storm. + +If I had wanted to move I could have done only one of two things; +either gone back into the suburbs or taken a more expensive flat up +town. I certainly had had enough of the former and as for the latter I +could see no comparison. If anything this flat business was worse than +the suburbs. I would be surrounded by an ordinary group of people who +had all the airs of the latter with none of their good points. I'd be +hedged in by conventions with which I was now even in less sympathy +than before. I wouldn't have exchanged my present freedom of movement +and independence of action for even the best suite in the most +expensive apartment house in the city. Not for a hundred dollars a +week. Advantages? What were they? Would a higher grade of wall paper, +a more expensive set of furniture and steam heat compensate me for +the loss of the solid comfort I found here by the side of my little +iron stove? Was an electric elevator a fair swap for my roof? Were the +gilt, the tinsel and the soft carpets worth the privilege I enjoyed +here of dressing as I pleased, eating what I pleased, doing what I +pleased? Was their apartment-house friendship, however polished, worth +the simple genuine fellowship I enjoyed among my present neighbors? +What could such a life offer me for my soul's or my body's good that I +didn't have here? I couldn't see how in a single respect I could +better my present condition except with the complete independence that +might come with a fortune and a country estate. Any middle ground, +assuming that I could afford it, meant nothing but the undertaking +again of all the old burdens I had just shaken off. + +Ruth, the boy and myself now knew genuinely more people than we had +ever before known in our lives. And most of them were worth knowing +and the others worth some endeavor to _make_ worth knowing. We were +all pulling together down here--some harder than others, to be sure, +but all with a distinct ambition that was dependent for success upon +nothing but our own efforts. + +I was in touch with more opportunities than I had ever dreamed +existed. All three of us were enjoying more advantages than we had +ever dreamed would be ours. My Italian was improving from day to day. +I could handle mortar easily and naturally and point a joint as well +as my instructor. I could build a true square pier of any size from +one brick to twenty. I could make a square or pigeonhole corner or lay +out a brick footing. And I was proud of my accomplishment. + +But more interesting to me than anything else was the opportunity I +now had as a foreman to test the value of the knowledge of my former +fellow workmen which I had been slowly acquiring. I was anxious to see +if my ideas were pure theory or whether they were practical. They had +proven practical at any rate in securing my own advance. This had come +about through no such pull as Rafferty's. It was the result of nothing +but my intelligent and conscientious work in the ditch and among the +men. And this in turn was made possible by the application of the +knowledge I picked up and used as I had the chance. It was only +because I had shown my employers that I was more valuable as a foreman +than a common laborer that I was not still digging. I had been able to +do this because having learned from twenty different men how to handle +a crowbar for instance, I had from time to time been able to direct +the men with whom I was working as at the start I myself had been +directed by Anton'. Anton' was still digging because that was all he +knew. I had learned other things. I had learned how to handle Anton'. + +I had no idea that my efforts were being watched. I don't know now how +I was picked out. Except of course that it must have been because of +the work I did. + +At any rate I found myself at the head of twenty men--all Italians, +all strangers and among them three or four just off the steamer. My +first job was on a foundation for an apartment house. Of course my +part in it was the very humble one of seeing that the men kept at work +digging. The work had all been staked out and the architect's agent +was there to give all incidental instructions. He was a young graduate +of a technical school and I took the opportunity this offered--for he +was a good-natured boy--to use what little I had learned in my night +school and study his blue prints. At odd times he explained them to me +and aside from what I learned myself from them it helped me to direct +the men more intelligently. + +But it was on the men themselves that I centred my efforts. As soon as +possible I learned them by name. At the noon hour I took my lunch with +them and talked with them in their own language. I made a note of +where they lived and found as I expected that many were from my ward. +Incidentally I dropped a word here and there about the "Young American +Political Club," and asked them to come around to some of the +meetings. I found out where they came from and wherever I could, I +associated them with some of their fellows with whom I had worked. I +found out about their families. In brief I made myself know every man +of them as intimately as was possible. + +I don't suppose for a minute that I could have done this successfully +if I hadn't really been genuinely interested in them. If I had gone at +it like a professional hand shaker they would have detected the +hypocrisy in no time. Neither did I attempt a chummy attitude nor a +fatherly attitude. I made it clearly understood that I was an American +first of all and that I was their boss. It was perfectly easy to do +this and at the same time treat them like men and like units. I tried +to make them feel that instead of being merely a bunch of Dagoes they +were Italian workingmen. Your foreign laborer is quick to appreciate +such a distinction and quick to respond to it. With the American-born +you have to draw a sharper line and hold a steadier rein. I figured +out that when you find a member of the second or third generation +still digging, you've found a man with something wrong about him. + +The next thing I did was to learn what each man could do best. Of +course I could make only broad classifications. Still there were men +better at lifting than others; men better with the crowbar; men better +at shoveling; men naturally industrious who would leaven a group of +three or four lazy ones. As well as I could I sorted them out in this +way. + +In addition to taking this personal interest in them individually, I +based my relations with them collectively on a principle of strict, +homely justice. I found there was no quality of such universal appeal +as this one of justice. Whether dealing with Italians, Russians, +Portuguese, Poles, Irish or Irish-Americans you could always get below +their national peculiarities if you reached this common denominator. +However browbeaten, however slavish, they had been in their former +lives this spark seemed always alive. However cocky or anarchistic +they might feel in their new freedom you could pull them up with a +sharp turn by an appeal to their sense of justice. And by justice I +mean nothing but what ex-president Roosevelt has now made familiar by +the phrase "a square deal." Justice in the abstract might not appeal +to them but they knew when they were being treated fairly and when +they were not. Also they knew when they were treating you fairly and +when they were not. I never allowed a man to feel bullied or abused; I +never gave a sharp order without an explanation. I never discharged a +man without making him feel guilty in his heart no matter how much he +protested with his lips. And I never discharged him without making the +other men clearly see his guilt. When a man went, he left no +sympathizers behind him. + +On the other hand I made them act justly towards their employer and +towards me. I taught them that justice must be on both sides. I tried +to make them understand that their part was not to see how little work +they could do for their money and that mine was not to see how much +they could do, but that it was up to both of us to turn out a full +fair day's work. They were not a chain gang but workmen selling their +labor. Just as they expected the store-keepers to sell them fair +measure and full weight, so I expected them to sell a full day and +honest effort. + +It wasn't always possible to secure a result but when it wasn't I got +rid of that man on the first occasion. It was very much easier to +handle in this way the freedom-loving foreigners than I looked for; +with the American-born it was harder than I expected. + +On the whole however I was mighty well pleased. I certainly got a lot +of work out of them without in any way pushing them. They didn't sweat +for me and I didn't want them to--but they kept steadily at their work +from morning until night. Then too, I didn't hesitate to do a little +work myself now and then. If at any point another man seemed to be +needed to help over a difficulty I jumped in. I not only often saved +the useless efforts of three or four men in this way but I convinced +them that I too had my employers' interests at heart. My object wasn't +simply to earn my day's pay, it was to finish the job we were on in +the shortest possible time. It makes a big difference whether a man +feels he is working by the day or by the job. I tried to make them +feel that we were all working by the job. + +Without boasting I think I can say that we cut down the contractor's +estimate by at least a full day. I know they had to do some hustling +to get the pile-drivers to the spot on time. + +On the next job I had to begin all over again with a new gang. It +seemed a pity that all my work on the other should be wasted but I +didn't say anything. For two months I took each time the men I had and +did my best with them. I had my reward in finding myself placed at the +head of a constantly increasing force. I also found that I was being +sent on all the hurry-up work. I learned something every day. Finally +when the time seemed ripe I went to the contractor's agent with the +proposition towards which I had all along been working. This was that +I should be allowed to hire my own men. + +The agent was skeptical at first about the wisdom of entrusting such +power as this to a subordinate but I put my case to him squarely. I +said in brief that I was sure I could pick a gang of fifty men who +would do the work of seventy-five. I told him that for a year now I +had been making notes on the best workers and I thought I could secure +them. But I would have to do it myself. It would be only through my +personal influence with them that they could be got. He raised several +objections but I finally said: + +"Let me try it anyhow. The men won't cost you any more than the others +and if I don't make good it's easy enough to go back to the old way." + +It's queer how stubbornly business men cling to routine. They get +stuck in a system and hate to change. He finally gave me permission to +see the men. I was then to turn them over to the regular paymaster who +would engage them. This was all I wanted and with my note book I +started out. + +It was no easy job for me and for a week I had to cut out my night +school and give all my time to it. Many of the men had moved and +others had gone into other work but I kept at it night after night +trotting from one end of the city to the other until I rounded up +about thirty of them. This seemed to me enough to form a core. I could +pick up others from time to time as I found them. The men remembered +me and when I told them something of my plan they all agreed with a +grin to report for work as soon as they were free. And this was how +Carleton's gang happened to be formed. + +It took me about three months to put all my fifty men into good +working order and it wasn't for a year that I had my machine where I +wanted it. But it was a success from the start. At the end of a year I +learned that even the contractor himself began to speak with some +pride of Carleton's gang. And he used it. He used it hard. In fact he +made something of a special feature of it. It began to bring him +emergency business. Wherever speed was a big essential, he secured the +contract through my gang. He used us altogether for foundation work +and his business increased so rapidly that we were never idle. I +became proud of my men and my reputation. + +But of course this success--this proof that my idea was a good +one--only whetted my appetite for the big goal still ahead of me. I +was eager for the day when this group of men should really be +Carleton's gang. It was hard in a way to see the result of my own +thought and work turning out big profits for another when all I needed +was a little capital to make it my own. Still I knew I must be +patient. There were many things yet that I must learn before I should +be competent to undertake contracts for myself. In the meanwhile I +could satisfy my ambition by constantly strengthening and perfecting +the machine. + +Then, too, I found that the gang was bringing me into closer touch +with my superiors. One day I was called to the office of the firm and +there I met the two men who until now had been nothing to me but two +names. For a year I had stared at these names painted in black on +white boards and posted about the grounds of every job upon which I +had worked. I had never thought of them as human beings so much as +some hidden force--like the unseen dynamo of a power plant. They were +both Irish-Americans--strong, prosperous-looking men. Somehow they +made me distinctly conscious of my own ancestry. I don't mean that I +was over-proud--in a way I don't suppose there was anything to boast +of in the Carletons--but as I stood before these men in the position +of a minor employee I suppose that unconsciously I looked for +something in my past to offset my present humiliating situation. And +from a business point of view, it was humiliating. The Carletons had +been in this country two hundred years and these men but twenty-five +or thirty and yet I was the man who stood while they faced me in their +easy chairs before their roll-top desks. It was then that I was glad +to remember there hadn't been a war in this country in which a +Carleton had not played his part. I held myself a little better for +the thought. + +They were unaffected and business-like but when they spoke it was +plain "Carleton" and when I spoke it was "Mr. Corkery," or "Mr. +Galvin." That was right and proper enough. + +They had called me in to consult with me on a big job which they were +trying to figure down to the very lowest point. They were willing to +get out of it with the smallest possible margin of profit for the +advertisement it would give them and in view of future contracts with +the same firm which it might bring. The largest item in it was the +handling of the dirt. They showed me their blue prints and their rough +estimate and then Mr. Corkery said: + +"How much can you take off that, Carleton?" + +I told him I would need two or three hours to figure it out. He called +a clerk. + +"Give Carleton a desk," he said. + +Then he turned to me: + +"Stay here until you've done it," he said. + +It took me all the forenoon. I worked carefully because it seemed to +me that here was a big chance to prove myself. I worked at those +figures as though I had every dollar I ever hoped to have at stake. I +didn't trim it as close as I would have done for myself but as it was +I took off a fifth--the matter of five thousand dollars. When I came +back, Mr. Corkery looked over my figures. + +"Sure you can do that?" he asked. + +I could see he was surprised. + +"Yes, sir," I said. + +"I'd hate like hell to get stuck," he said. + +"You won't get stuck," I answered. + +"It isn't the loss I mind," he said, "but--well there is a firm or two +that is waiting to give me the laugh." + +"They won't laugh," I said. + +He looked at me a moment and then called in a clerk. + +"Have those figures put in shape," he said, "and send in this bid." + +Corkery secured the contract. I picked one hundred men. The morning we +began I held a sort of convention. + +"Men," I said, "I've promised to do this in so many days. They say we +can't do it. If we don't, here's where they laugh at the gang." + +We did it. I never heard from Corkery about it but when we were +through I thanked the gang and I found them more truly mine than they +had ever been before. + +Every Saturday night I brought home my fifteen dollars, and Ruth took +out three for the rent, five for household expenses, and put seven in +the ginger jar. We had one hundred and thirty dollars in the bank +before the raise came, and after this it increased rapidly. There +wasn't a week we didn't put aside seven dollars, and sometimes eight. +The end of my first year as an emigrant found me with the following +items to my credit: Ruth, the boy and myself in better health than we +had ever been; Ruth's big mother-love finding outlet in the +neighborhood; the boy alert and ambitious; myself with the beginning +of a good technical education, to say nothing of the rudiments of a +new language, with a loyal gang of one hundred men and two hundred +dollars in cash. + +This inventory does not take into account my new friends, my new +mental and spiritual outlook upon life, or my enhanced self-respect. +Such things cannot be calculated. + +That first year was, of course, the important year--the big year. It +proved what could be done, and nothing remained now but time in which +to do it. It established the evident fact that if a raw, uneducated +foreigner can come to this country and succeed, a native-born with +experience plus intelligence ought to do the same thing more rapidly. +But it had taught me that what the native-born must do is to simplify +his standard of living, take advantage of the same opportunities, toil +with the same spirit, and free himself from the burdensome bonds of +caste. The advantage is all with the pioneer, the adventurer, the +emigrant. These are the real children of the republic--here in the +East, at any rate. Every landing dock is Plymouth Rock to them. They +are the real forefathers of the coming century, because they possess +all the rugged strength of settlers. They are making their own +colonial history. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DICK FINDS A WAY OUT, TOO + + +When school closed in June, Dick came to me and said: + +"Dad, I don't want to loaf all summer." + +"No need of it," I said. "Take another course in the summer school." + +"I want to earn some money," he said, "I want to go to work." + +If the boy had come to me a year ago with that suggestion I should +have felt hurt. I would have thought it a reflection upon my ability +to support my family. We salaried men used to expect our children to +be dependent on us until they completed their educations. For a boy to +work during his summer vacation was almost as bad form as for the wife +to work for money at any time. It had to be explained that the boy was +a prodigy with unusual business ability or that he was merely seeking +experience. But Dick did not fall into any of these classes. This was +what made his proposal the more remarkable to me. It meant that he +was willing to take just a plain every-day plugging job. + +And underlying this willingness was the spirit that was resurrecting +us all. Instead of acting on the defensive, Dick was now eager to play +the aggressive game. I hadn't looked for this spirit to show in him so +soon, in his life outside of school. I was mighty well pleased. + +"All right," I said, "what do you think you can do?" + +"I've talked with some of the fellows," he said, "and the surest thing +seems to be selling papers." + +I gave a gasp at that. I hadn't yet lost the feeling that a newsboy +was a sort of cross between an orphan and a beggar. He was to me +purely an object of pity. Of course I'd formed this notion like a good +many others from the story books and the daily paper. I connected a +newsboy with blind fathers and sick mothers if he had any parents at +all. + +"I guess you can get something better than that to do," I said. + +"What's the matter with selling papers?" he asked. + +When I stopped to think of the work in that way--as just the buying +and selling of papers--I _couldn't_ see anything the matter with it. +Why wasn't it like buying and selling anything? You were selling a +product in which millions of money was invested, a product which +everyone wanted, a product where you gave your customers their money's +worth. The only objection I could think of at the moment was that +there was so little in it. + +"It will keep you on the streets five or six hours a day," I said, +"and I don't suppose you can make more than a dollar a week." + +"A dollar a week!" he said. "Do you know what one fellow in our class +makes right through the year?" + +"How much?" I asked. + +"He makes between six and eight dollars a week," said Dick. + +"That doesn't sound possible," I said. + +"He told me he made that. And another fellow he knows about did as +well as this even while he was in college. He pretty nearly paid his +own way." + +"What do you make on a paper?" I asked. + +"About half a cent on the one cent papers, and a cent on the two cent +papers." + +"Then these boys have to sell over two hundred papers a day." + +"They have about a hundred regular customers," said Dick, "and they +sell another hundred papers besides." + +It seemed to me the boys must have exaggerated because eight dollars a +week was pretty nearly the pay of an able-bodied man. It didn't seem +possible that these youngsters whom I'd pitied all my life could earn +such an income. However if they didn't earn half as much, it wasn't a +bad proposition for a lad. + +I talked the matter over with Ruth and I found she had the same +prejudices I had had. She, too, thought selling papers was a branch of +begging. I repeated what Dick told me and she shook her head +doubtfully. + +"It doesn't seem as though I could let the boy do that," she said. + +If there was one thing down here the little woman always worried about +deep in her heart, it was lest the boy and myself might get coarsened. +She thought, I think, without ever exactly saying so to herself that +in our ambition to forge ahead we might lose some of the finer +standards of life. She was bucking against that tendency all the +time. That's why she made me shave every morning, that's why she made +me keep my shoes blacked, that's why she made us both dress up on +Sunday whether we went to church or not. She for her part kept herself +looking even more trig than when she had the fear that Mrs. Grover +might drop in at any time. And every night at dinner she presided with +as much form as though she were entertaining a dinner party. I guess +she thought we might learn to eat with our knives if she didn't. + +"Well," I said, "your word is final. But let's look at this first as a +straight business proposition." + +So I went over the scheme just as I had to myself. + +"These boys aren't beggars," I said. "They are little business men. +And as a matter of fact most of them are earning as much as their +fathers. The trouble is that they've been given a black eye by +well-meaning sympathizers who haven't taken the trouble to find out +just what the actual facts are. A group of big-hearted women who see +their own chickens safely rounded up at six every night, find the +newsboys on the street as they themselves are on their way to the +opera and conclude it's a great hardship and that the lads must be +homeless and suffering. Maybe they even find a case or two which +justifies this theory. But on the whole they are simply comparing the +outside of these boys' lives with the lives of their own sheltered +boys. They don't stop to consider that these lads are toughened and +that they'd probably be on the street anyway. And they don't figure +out how much they earn or what that amount stands for down here." + +Ruth listened and then she said: + +"But isn't it a pity that the boys _are_ toughened, Billy?" + +"No," I said, "it would be a pity if they weren't. They wouldn't last +a year. We have to have some seasoned fighters in the world." + +"But Dick--" + +"Dick has found his feet now. The suggestion was his own. Personally I +believe in letting him try it." + +"All right, Billy," she said. + +But she said it in such a sad sort of way that I said: + +"If you're going to worry about him, this ends it. But I'd like to see +the boy so well seasoned that you won't have to worry about him no +matter where he is, no matter what he's doing." + +"You're right," she said, "I want to see him like you. I never worry +about you, Billy." + +It pleased me to have her say that. I know a lot of men who wouldn't +believe their wives loved them unless they fretted about them all the +time. I think a good many fellows even make up things just to see the +women worry. I remember that Stevens always used to come home either +with a sick headache or a tale of how he thought he might lose his job +or something of the sort and poor Dolly Stevens would stay awake half +the night comforting him. She'd tell Ruth about it the next day. I may +have had a touch of that disease myself before I came down here but I +know that ever since then I've tried to lift the worrying load off the +wife's shoulders. I've done my best to make Ruth feel I'm strong +enough to take care of myself. I've wanted her to trust me so that +she'd know I act always just as though she was by my side. Of course +I've never been able to do away altogether with her fear of sickness +and sudden death, but so far as my own conduct is concerned I've +tried to make her feel secure in me. + +When I stop to think about it, Ruth has really lived three lives. She +has lived her own and she has lived it hard. She not only has done her +daily tasks as well as she knew how but she has tried to make herself +a little better every day. That has been a waste of time because she +was just naturally as good as they make them but you couldn't ever +make her see that. I don't suppose there's been a day when at night +she hasn't thought she might have done something a little better and +lain awake to tell me so. + +Then Ruth has lived my life and done over again every single thing +I've done except the actual physical labor. Why every evening when I +came back from work she wanted me to begin with seven-thirty A.M. and +tell her everything that happened after that. And when I came back +from school at night, she'd wake up out of a sound sleep if she had +gone to bed and ask me to tell her just what I'd learned. Though she +never held a trowel in her hand I'll bet she could go out to-day and +build a true brick wall. And though she has never seen half the men +I've met, she knows them as well as I do myself. Some of them she +knows better and has proved to me time and again that she does. I've +often told her about some man I'd just met and about whom I was +enthusiastic for the moment and she'd say: + +"Tell me what he looks like, Billy." + +I'd tell her and then she'd ask about his eyes and about his mouth and +what kind of a voice he had and whether he smiled when he said so and +so and whether he looked me in the eyes at that point and so on. Then +she'd say: + +"Better be a little careful about him"; or "I guess you can trust him, +Billy." + +Sometimes she made mistakes but that was because I hadn't reported +things to her just right. Generally I'd trust her judgment in the face +of my own. + +Then Ruth led the boy's life. Every ambition he had was her ambition. +Besides that she had a dozen ambitions for him that he didn't know +anything about. And she thought and worked and schemed to make every +single one of them come true. Every trouble he had was her trouble +too. If he worried a half hour over something, she worried an hour. +Then again there were a whole lot of other troubles in connection +with him which bothered her and which he didn't know about. + +Besides all these things she was busy about dressing us and feeding us +and making us comfortable. She was always cleaning our rooms and +washing our clothes and mending our socks. Then, too, she looked after +the finances and this in itself was enough for one woman to do. Then +as though this wasn't plenty she kept light-hearted for our sakes. +You'd find her singing about her work whenever you came in and always +ready with a smile and a joke. And if she herself had a headache you +had to be a doctor and a lawyer rolled in one to find it out. + +So I say the least I could do was to make her trust me so thoroughly +that she'd have one less burden. And I wanted to bring up Dick in the +same way. Dick was a good boy and I'll say that he did his best. + +Ruth says that if I don't tear up these last few pages, people will +think I'm silly. I'm willing so long as they believe me honest. Of +course, in a way, such details are no one's business but if I couldn't +give Ruth the credit which is her due in this undertaking, I wouldn't +take the trouble to write it all out. + +Dick told his school friend what he wanted to do and asked his advice +on the best way to go at it. The latter went with him and helped him +get his license, took him down to the newspaper offices and showed him +where to buy his papers, and introduced him to the other boys. The +newsboys hadn't at that time formed a union but there was an agreement +among them about the territory each should cover. Some of the boys had +worked up a regular trade in certain places and of course it wasn't +right for a newcomer to infringe upon this. There was considerable +talking and some bargaining and finally Dick was given a stand in the +banking district. This was due to Dick's classmate also. The latter +realized that a boy of Dick's appearance would do better there than +anywhere. + +So one morning Dick rose early and I staked him to a dollar and he +started off in high spirits. He didn't have any of the false pride +about the work that at first I myself had felt. He was on my mind +pretty much all that day and I came home curious and a little bit +anxious to learn the result. He had been back after the morning +editions. Ruth reported he had sold fifty papers and had returned +more eager than ever. She said he wouldn't probably be home until +after seven. He wanted to catch the crowds on their way to the +station. + +I suggested to Ruth that we wait dinner for him and go on up town and +watch him. She hesitated at this, fearing the boy wouldn't like it and +perhaps not over anxious herself to see him on such a job. But as I +said, if the boy wasn't ashamed I didn't think we ought to be. So she +put on her things and we started. + +We found him by the entrance to one of the big buildings with his +papers in a strap thrown over his shoulder. He had one paper in his +hand and was offering it, perhaps a bit shyly, to each passer-by with +a quiet, "Paper, sir?" We watched him a moment and Ruth kept a tight +grip on my arm. + +"Well," I said, "what do you think of him?" + +"Billy," she said with a little tremble in her voice, "I'm proud of +him." + +"He'll do," I said. + +Then I said: + +"Wait here a moment." + +I took a nickel from my pocket and hurried towards him as though I +were one of the crowd hustling for the train. I stopped in front of +him and he handed me a paper without looking up. He began to make +change and it wasn't until he handed me back my three coppers that he +saw who I was. Then he grinned. + +"Hello, Dad," he said. + +Then he asked quickly, + +"Where's mother?" + +But Ruth couldn't wait any longer and she came hurrying up and placed +her hand underneath the papers to see if they were too heavy for him. + +Dick earned three dollars that first week and he never fell below this +during the summer. Sometimes he went as high as five and when it came +time for him to go to school again he had about seventy-five regular +customers. He had been kept out of doors between six and seven hours a +day. The contact with a new type of boy and even the contact with the +brisk business men who were his customers had sharpened up his wits +all round. In the ten weeks he saved over forty dollars. I wanted him +to put this in the bank but he insisted on buying his own winter +clothes with it and on the whole I thought he'd feel better if I let +him. Then he had another proposition. He wanted to keep his evening +customers through the year. I thought it was going to be pretty hard +for him to do this with his school work but we finally agreed to let +him try it for a while anyway. After all I didn't like to think he +couldn't do what other boys were doing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE SECOND YEAR + + +Now as far as proving to us the truth of my theory that an intelligent +able-bodied American ought to succeed where millions of ignorant, +half-starved emigrants do right along, this first year had already +done it. It had also proved, to our own satisfaction at least, that +such success does not mean a return to a lower standard of living but +only a return to a simpler standard of living. With soap at five cents +a cake it isn't poverty that breeds filth, but ignorance and laziness. +When an able-bodied man can earn at the very bottom of the ladder a +dollar and a half a day and a boy can earn from three to five dollars +a week and still go to school, it isn't a lack of money that makes the +bread line; it's a lack of horse sense. We found that we could +maintain a higher standard of living down here than we were able to +maintain in our old life; we could live more sanely, breathe in higher +ideals, and find time to accept more opportunities. The sheer, naked +conditions were better for a higher life here than they were in the +suburbs. + +I'm speaking always of the able-bodied man. A sick man is a sick man +whether he's worth a million or hasn't a cent. He's to be pitied. With +the public hospitals what they are to-day, you can't say that the sick +millionaire has any great advantage over the sick pauper. Money makes +a bigger difference of course to the sick man's family but at that +you'll find for every widow O'Toole, a widow Bonnington and for every +widow Bonnington you'll find the heart-broken widow of some +millionaire who doesn't consider her dollars any great consolation in +such a crisis. + +Then, too, a man in hard luck is a man in hard luck whether he has a +bank account or whether he hasn't. I pity them both. If a rich man's +money prevents the necessity of his airing his grief in public, it +doesn't help him much when he's alone in his castle. It seems to me +that each class has its own peculiar misfortunes and that money breeds +about as much trouble as it kills. To my mind once a man earns enough +to buy himself a little food, put any sort of a roof over his head, +and keep himself warm, he has everything for which money is absolutely +essential. This much he can always get at the bottom. And this much is +all the ammunition a man needs for as good a fight as it's in him to +put up. It gives him a chance for an extra million over his nine +dollars a week if he wants it. But the point I learned down here is +that the million _is_ extra--it isn't essential. Its possession +doesn't make a Paradise free from sickness and worry and hard luck, +and the lack of it doesn't make a Hell's Kitchen where there is +nothing but sickness and trouble and where happiness cannot enter. + +As I say, I consider this first year the big year because it taught me +these things. In a sense the value of my diary ends here. Once I was +able to understand that I had everything and more that the early +pioneers had and that all I needed to do to-day was to live as they +did and fight as they did, I had all the inspiration a man needs in +order to live and in order to _feel_ that he's living. In looking back +on the suburban life at the end of this first twelve months, it seemed +to me that the thing which made it so ghastly was just this lack of +inspiration that comes with the blessed privilege of fighting. That +other was a waiting game and no help for it. I was a shadow living in +the land of shadows with nothing to hit out at, nothing to feel the +sting of my fist against. The fight was going on above me and below me +and we in the middle only heard the din of it. It was as though we had +climbed half way up a rope leading from a pit to the surface. We had +climbed as far as we could and unless they hauled from above we had to +stay there. If we let go--poor devils, we thought there was nothing +but brimstone below us. So we couldn't do much but hold on and +kick--at nothing. + +But down here if a man had any kick in him, he had something to kick +against. When he struck out with his feet they met something; when he +shot a blow from the shoulder he felt an impact. If he didn't like one +trade he could learn another. It took no capital. If he didn't like +his house, he could move; he wasn't tearing up anything by the roots. +If he didn't like his foreman, he could work under another. It didn't +mean the sacrifice of any past. If he found a chance to black boots or +sell papers, he could use it. His neighbors wouldn't exile him. He +was as free as the winds and what he didn't like he could change. I +don't suppose there is any human being on earth so independent as an +able-bodied working-man. + +The record of the next three years only traces a slow, steady +strengthening of my position. Not one of us had any set-back through +sickness because I considered our health as so much capital and +guarded it as carefully as a banker does his money. I was afraid at +first of the city water but I found it was as pure as spring water. It +was protected from its very source and was stored in a carefully +guarded reservoir. It was frequently analyzed and there wasn't a case +of typhoid in the ward which could be traced to the water. The milk +was the great danger down here. At the small shops it was often +carelessly stored and carelessly handled. From the beginning, I bought +our milk up town though I had to pay a cent a quart more for it. Ruth +picked out all the fish and meat and of course nothing tainted in this +line could be sold to her. We ate few canned goods and then nothing +but canned vegetables. Many of our neighbors used canned meats. I +don't know whether any sickness resulted from this or not but I know +that they often left the stuff for hours in an opened tin. Many of the +tenements swarmed with flies in the summer although it was a small +matter to keep them out of four rooms. So if the canned stuff _didn't_ +get infected it was a wonder. + +The sanitary arrangements in the flat were good, though here again +many families proceeded to make them bad about as fast as they could. +These people didn't seem to mind dirt in any form. It was a perfectly +simple and inexpensive matter to keep themselves and their +surroundings clean if they cared to take the trouble. + +Then the roof contributed largely towards our good health. Ruth spent +a great deal of time up there during the day and the boy slept there +during the summer. + +Our simple food and exercise also helped, while for me nothing could +have been better than my daily plunge in the salt water. I kept this +up as long as the bath house was open and in the winter took a cold +sponge and rub-down every night. So, too, did the boy. + +For the rest, we all took sensible precautions against exposure. We +dressed warmly and kept our feet dry. Here again our neighbors were +insanely foolish. They never changed their clothes until bed time, +didn't keep them clean or fresh at any time, and they lived in a +temperature of eighty-five with the air foul from many breaths and +tobacco smoke. Even the children had to breathe this. Then both men +and women went out from this into the cold air either over-dressed or +under-dressed. The result of such foolishness very naturally was +tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid and about everything else that +contributes to a high death rate. Not only this but one person +suffering from any of these things infected a whole family. + +Such conditions were not due to a lack of money but to a lack of +education. The new generation was making some changes however. Often a +girl or boy in the public schools would come home and transform the +three or four rooms though always under protest from the elders. Clean +surroundings and fresh air troubled the old folks. + +Ruth, too, was responsible for many changes for the better in the +lives of these people. Her very presence in a room was an inspiration +for cleanliness. Her clothes were no better than theirs but she stood +out among them like a vestal virgin. She came into their quarters and +made the women ashamed that the rooms were not better fitted to +receive so pure a being. You would scarcely have recognized Michele's +rooms at the end of the first year. The windows were cleaned, the +floors scrubbed, and even the bed linen was washed occasionally. The +baby gained in weight and Michele when he wanted to smoke either sat +outside on the door step or by an open window. But Michele was an +exception. + +Ruth's efforts were not confined to our own building either. Her +influence spread down the street and through the whole district. The +district nurse was a frequent visitor and kept her informed of all her +cases. Wherever Ruth could do anything she did it. Her first object +was always to awaken the women to the value of cleanliness and after +that she tried her best to teach them little ways of preparing their +food more economically. Few of them knew the value of oatmeal for +instance though of course their macaroni and spaghetti was a pretty +good substitute. In fact Ruth picked up many new dishes of this sort +for herself from among them. + +Some families spent as much for beer as for milk. Ruth couldn't change +that practice but she did make them more careful where they bought +their milk--especially when there was a baby in the house. Then, too, +she shared all her secrets of where and how to buy cheaply. Sometimes +advantage was taken of these hints, but more often not. They didn't +pay much more for many articles than she did but they didn't get as +good quality. However as long as the food tasted good and satisfied +their hunger you couldn't make them take an extra effort and get stuff +because it was more nutritious or more healthful. They couldn't think +ahead except in the matter of saving dollars and cents. + +These people of course were of the lower class. There was another +element of decidedly finer quality. Giuseppe for example was one of +these and there were hundreds of others. It was among these that +Ruth's influence counted for the most. They not only took advantage of +her superior intelligence in conducting their households but they +breathed in something of the soul of her. When I saw them send for her +in their grief and in their joy, when I heard them ask her advice +with almost the confidence with which they prayed, when I heard them +give her such names as "the angel mother," "the blessed American +saint," I felt very proud and very humble. Such things made me glad in +another way for the change which had taken her out of the old life +where such qualities were lost and brought her down here where they +counted for so much. These people stripped of convention live with +their hearts very near the surface. They don't try to conceal their +emotions and so you are brought very quickly into close touch with +them. Ruth herself was a good deal like that and so her influence for +a day among them counted for as much as a year with the old crowd. + +In the meanwhile I resumed my night school at the end of the summer +vacation and was glad to get back to it. I had missed the work and +went at it this next winter with increased eagerness to perfect myself +in my trade. + +During this second year, too, I never relaxed my efforts to keep my +gang up to standard and whenever possible to better it by the addition +of new men. Every month I thought I increased the respect of the men +for me by my fair dealing with them. I don't mean to say I fully +realized the expectations of which I had dreamed. I suppose that at +first I dreamed a bit wildly. There was very little sentiment in the +relation of the men to me, although there was some. Still I don't want +to give the impression that I made of them a gang of blind personal +followers such as some religious cranks get together. It was necessary +to make them see that it was for their interest to work for me and +with me and that I did do. I made them see also that in order to work +for me they had to work a little more faithfully than they worked for +others. So it was a straight business proposition. What sentiment +there was came through the personal interest I took in them outside of +their work. It was this which made them loyal instead of merely hard +working. It was this which made them my gang instead of Corkery's +gang--a thing that counted for a good deal later on. + +The personal reputation I had won gave me new opportunities of which I +took every advantage this second year. It put me in touch with the +responsible heads of departments. Through them I was able to acquire a +much broader and more accurate knowledge of the business as a whole. I +asked as many questions here as I had below. I received more +intelligent answers and was able to understand them more +intelligently. I not only learned prices but where to get +authoritative prices. As far as possible I made myself acquainted with +the men working for the building constructors and for those working +for firms whose specialty was the tearing down of buildings. I used my +note-book as usual and entered the names of every man who, in his +line, seemed to me especially valuable. + +And everywhere, I found that my experiment with the gang was well +known. I found also that my tendency for asking questions was even +better known. It passed as a joke in a good many cases. But better +than this I found that I had established a reputation for sobriety, +industry and level-headedness. I can't help smiling how little those +things counted for me with the United Woollen or when I sought work +after leaving that company. Here they counted for a lot. I realized +that when it came time for me to seek credit. + +In the meanwhile I didn't neglect the fight for clean politics in my +ward. + +I resigned from the presidency of the young men's club at the end of a +year and we elected a young lawyer who was taking a great interest in +the work down here to fill the vacancy. That was a fine selection. The +man was fresh from the law school and was full of ideals which dated +back to the _Mayflower_. He hadn't been long enough in the world to +have them dimmed and was full of energy. He took hold of the original +idea and developed it until the organization included every ward in +this section of the city. He held rallies every month and brought down +big speakers and kept the sentiment of the youngsters red hot. This +had its effect upon the older men and before we knew it we had a +machine that looked like a real power in the whole city. Sweeney saw +it and so did the bigger bosses of both parties. But the president +kept clear of alliances with any of them. He stood pat with what +promised to be a balance of power, ready to swing it to the cleanest +man of either party who came up for office. + +I made several speeches myself though it was hard work for me. I don't +run to that sort of thing. I did it however just because I didn't like +it and because I felt it was the duty of a citizen to do something now +and then he doesn't like for his city and his country. The old excuse +with me had been that politics was a dirty business at best and that +it ought to be left to the lawyers and such who had something to gain +from it. The only men I ever knew who went into it at all were those +who had a talent for it and who liked it. Of course that's dead wrong. +A man who won't take the trouble to find out about the men up for +office and who won't bother himself to get out and hustle for the best +of them isn't a good citizen or a good American. He deserves to be +governed by the newcomers and deserves all they hand out to him. And +the time to do the work isn't when a man is up for president of the +United States, it's when the man is up for the common council. The +higher up a politician gets, the less the influence of the single +voter counts. + +It was in the spring that some of my ideals received a set back. The +alderman from our ward died suddenly and Rafferty was naturally hot +after the vacancy. He came to see me about it, but before he broached +this subject he laid another before me that took away my breath. It +was nothing else than that I should go into partnership with him under +the firm name of "Carleton and Rafferty." I couldn't believe it +possible that he was in a position to take such a step within a couple +of years of digging in the ditch. But when he explained the scheme to +me, it was as simple as rolling off a log. A firm of liquor dealers +had agreed to back him--form a stock company and give him a third +interest to manage it. He had spoken to them of me and said he'd do it +if they would make it a half interest and give us each a quarter. + +"But good Lord, Dan," I said, "we'd have to swing a lot of business to +make it go." + +"Never you worry about thot, mon," he said. "I'll fix thot all right +if I'm elicted to the boord." + +"You mean city contracts?" I said. + +"Sure." + +I began to see. The liquor house was looking for more licenses and +would get their pay out of Dan even if the firm didn't make a cent. +But Dan with such capital back of him as well as his aldermanic power +was sure to get the contracts. He would leave the actual work to me +and my men. + +I sat down and for two hours tried to make Dan realize how this crowd +wanted to use him. I couldn't. In addition to being blinded by his +overwhelming ambition, he actually couldn't see anything crooked in +what they wanted. He couldn't understand why he should let such an +opportunity drop for someone else to pick up. He had slipped out of my +hands completely. This was where the difference between five or six +years in America as against two hundred showed itself. And yet what +was the old stock doing to offset such personal ambition and energy as +Rafferty stood for? + +"No, Dan," I said, "I can't do it. And what's more I won't let you do +it if I can help it." + +"Phot do yez mane?" he asked. + +"That I'm going to fight you tooth and nail," I said. + +He turned red. Then he grinned. + +"Well," he said, "it'll be a foine fight anyhow." + +I went to the president of the club and told him that here was where +we had to stop Rafferty. He listened and then he said, + +"Well, here's where we do stop him." + +We went at the job in whirlwind fashion. I spoke a half dozen times +but to save my life I couldn't say what I wanted to say. Every time I +stood up I seemed to see Dan's big round face and I remembered the +kindly things he used to do for the old ladies. And I knew that Dan's +offer to take me into partnership wasn't prompted altogether by +selfish motives. He could have found other men who would have served +his purpose better. + +In the meanwhile Dan had organized "Social Clubs" in half a dozen +sections. For the first few weeks of the campaign I never heard of him +except as leading grand marches. But the last week he waded in. +There's no use going into details. He beat us. He rolled up a +tremendous majority. The president of the club couldn't understand it. +He was discouraged. + +"I had every boy in the ward out working," he said. + +"Yes," I said, "but Dan had every grandmother and every daughter and +every granddaughter out working." + +Dan came around to the flat one night after the election. He was as +happy as a boy over his victory. + +"Carleton," he said, again, "it's too domd bad ye ain't an Irishmon." + +After he had gone, Ruth said to me: + +"I don't think Mr. Rafferty will make a bad alderman at all." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MATURING PLANS + + +I received several offers from other firms and as a result of these my +wages were advanced first to three dollars a day and then to three and +a half. Still Ruth refused to take things easier by increasing the +household expenses. During the third year we lived exactly as we had +lived during the first year. In a way it was easier to do this now +that we knew there was no actual necessity for it. Of course it was +easier, too, now that we had fallen into a familiar routine. The +things which had seemed to us like necessities when we came down here +now seemed like luxuries. And we none of us had either the craving for +luxuries or the time to enjoy them had we wished to spend the money on +them. In the matter of clothes we cared for nothing except to be +warmly and cleanly dressed. Strip the problem of clothes down to this +and it's not a very serious one. To realize that you've only to +remember how the average farmer dresses or how the homesteader +dresses. It's only when you introduce style and the conventions that +the matter becomes complicated. Perhaps it was easier for me to dress +as I pleased than for the boy or Ruth but even they got right down to +bed rock. The boy wore grey flannel shirts and so at a stroke did away +with collars and cuffs. For the rest a simple blue suit, a cap, +stockings and shoes were all he needed outside his under clothes which +Ruth made for him. Ruth herself dressed in plain gowns that she could +do up herself. For the street, she still had the costumes she came +down here with. None of us kept any extra clothes for parade. + +We carried out the same idea in our food, as I've tried to show; we +insisted that it must be wholesome and that there must be enough of +it. Those were the only two things that counted. Variety except of the +humblest kind, we didn't strive for. I've seen cook books which +contain five hundred pages; if Ruth compiled one it wouldn't have +twenty. Here again the farmer and the pioneer were our models. If +anyone in the country had lived the way we were living, it wouldn't +have seemed worth telling about. I find the fact which amazes people +in our experiment was that we should have tried the same standard in +the city. Everyone seems to think this was a most dangerous thing to +attempt. The men who on a camping trip consider themselves well fed on +such food as we had to eat expect to starve to death if placed on the +same diet once within sound of the trolley cars. And on the camping +trip they do ten times the physical labor and do it month after month +in air that whets the appetite. Then they come back and boast how +strong they've grown, and begin to eat like hogs again and wonder why +they get sick. + +We camped out in the city--that's all we did. And we did just what +every man in camp does; we stripped down to essentials. We could have +lived on pork scraps and potatoes if that had been necessary. We could +have worried along on hard tack and jerked beef if we'd been pressed +hard enough. Men chase moose, and climb mountains and prospect for +gold on such food. Why in Heaven's name can't they shovel dirt on the +same diet? + +So, too, about amusements. When a man is trying to clear thirty acres +of pine stumps, he doesn't fret at the end of the day because he +can't go to the theatre. He doesn't want to go. Bed and his dreams are +amusement enough for him. And he isn't called a low-browed savage +because he's satisfied with this. He's called a hero. The world at +large doesn't say that he has lowered the standard of living; it +boasts about him for a true American. Why can't a man lay bricks +without the theatre? + +As a matter of fact however we could have had even the amusements if +we'd wanted them. For those who needed such things in order to +preserve a high standard of living they were here. And I don't say +they didn't serve a useful purpose. What I do say is that they aren't +absolutely necessary; that a high standard of living isn't altogether +dependent on sirloin steaks, starched collars and music halls as I've +heard a good many people claim. + +This third year finished my course in masonry. I came out in June with +a trade at which I could earn from three dollars to five dollars a day +according to my skill. It was a trade, too, where there was pretty +generally steady employment. A good mason is more in demand than a +good lawyer. Not only that but a good mason can find work in any city +in this country. Wherever he lands, he's sure of a comfortable living. +I was told that out west some men were making as high as ten dollars a +day. + +I had also qualified in a more modest way as a mechanical draftsman. I +could draw my own plans for work and what was more useful still, do my +work from the plans of others. + +By now I had also become a fairly proficient Italian scholar. I could +speak the language fluently and read it fairly well. It wasn't the +fault of Giuseppe if my pronunciation was sometimes queer and if very +often I used the jargon of the provinces. My object was served as long +as I could make myself understood to the men. And I could do that +perfectly. + +This year I watched Rafferty's progress with something like envy. The +firm was "D. Rafferty and Co." Within two months I began to see the +name on his dump carts whenever I went to work. Within six months he +secured a big contract for repaving a long stretch of street in our +ward. I knew our firm had put in a bid on it and knew they must have +been in a position to put in a mighty low bid. I didn't wonder so much +about how Dan got this away from us as I did how he got it away from +Sweeney. That was explained to me later when I found that Sweeney was +in reality back of the liquor dealers. Sweeney owned about half their +stores and had taken this method to bring Dan back to the fold, once +he found he couldn't check his progress. + +During this year Dan bought a new house and married. We went to the +wedding and it was a grand affair with half the ward there. Mrs. +Rafferty was a nice looking girl, daughter of a well-to-do Irishman in +the real estate business. She had received a good education in a +convent and was altogether a girl Dan could be proud of. The house was +an old-fashioned structure built by one of the old families who had +been forced to move by the foreign invasion. Mrs. Rafferty had +furnished it somewhat lavishly but comfortably. + +As Ruth and I came back that night I said: + +"I suppose if it had been 'Carleton and Rafferty' I might have had a +house myself by now." + +"I guess it's better as it is, Billy," she said, with a smile. + +Of course it was better but I began to feel discontented with my +present position. I felt uncomfortable at still being merely a +foreman. When we reached the house Ruth and I took the bank book and +figured out just what our capital in money was. Including the boy's +savings which we could use in an emergency it amounted to fourteen +hundred dollars. During the first year we saved one hundred and twenty +dollars, which added to the eighty we came down here with, made two +hundred dollars. During the second year we saved three hundred and +ninety dollars. During the third year we saved six hundred dollars. +This made a total of eleven hundred and ninety dollars in the bank. +The boy had saved more than two hundred dollars over his clothes in +the last two years. + +It was Rafferty who helped me turn this over in a real estate deal in +which he was interested. I made six hundred dollars by that. +Everything Rafferty touched now seemed to turn to money. One reason +was that he was thrown in contact with money-makers all of whom were +anxious to help him. He received any number of tips from those eager +to win his favor. Among the tips were many that were legitimate enough +like the one he shared with me but there were also many that were not +quite so above-board. But to Dan all was fair in business and +politics. Yet I don't know a man I'd sooner trust upon his honor in a +purely personal matter. He wouldn't graft from his friends however +much he might from the city. In fact his whole code as far as I could +see was based upon this unswerving loyalty to his friends and +scrupulous honesty in dealing with them. It was only when honesty +became abstract that he couldn't see it. You could put a thousand +dollars in gold in his keeping without security and come back twenty +years later and find it safe. But he'd scheme a week to frame up a +deal to cheat the city out of a hundred dollars. And he'd do it with +his head in the air and a grin on his face. I've seen the same thing +done by educated men who knew better. I wouldn't trust the latter with +a ten cent piece without first consulting a lawyer. + +The money I had saved didn't represent all my capital. I had as my +chief asset the gang of men I had drilled. Everything else being equal +they stood ready to work for me in preference to any other man in the +city. In fact their value as a machine depended on me. If I had been +discharged and another man put in my place the gang would have +resolved itself again into merely one hundred day laborers. Nor was +this my only other asset. I had established myself as a reliable man +in the eyes of a large group of business men. This meant credit. Nor +must I leave out Dan and his influence. He stood ready to back me not +only financially but personally. And he knew me well enough to know +this would not involve anything but a business obligation on my part. + +With these things in mind then I felt ready to take a radical +departure from the routine of my life when the opportunity came. But I +made up my mind I would wait for the opportunity. I must have a chance +which would not involve too much capital and in which my chief asset +would be the gang. Furthermore it must be a chance that I could use +without resorting to pull. Not only that but it must be something on +which I could prove myself to such good advantage that other business +would be sure to follow. I couldn't cut loose with my men and leave +them stranded at the end of a single job. + +I watched every public proposal and analyzed them all. I found that +they very quickly resolved themselves into Dan's crowd. I kept my +ears wide open for private contracts but by the time I heard of any I +was too late. So I waited for perhaps three months. Then I saw in the +daily paper what seemed to me my opportunity. It was an open bid for +some park construction which was under the guardianship of a +commission. It was a grading job and so would require nothing but the +simplest equipment. I looked over the ground and figured out the +gang's part in it first. Then I went to Rafferty and told him what I +wanted in the way of teams. I wanted only the carts and horses--I +would put my own men to work with them. I asked him to take my note +for the cost. + +"I'll take your word, Carleton," he said. "Thot's enough." + +But I insisted on the note. He finally agreed and offered to secure +for me anything I wanted for the work. + +I went back to Ruth and we sat down and figured the matter all over +once again. We stripped it down to a figure so low that my chief +profit would come on the time I could save with my machine. I allowed +for the scantiest profit on dirt and rock though I had secured a good +option on what I needed of this. I was lucky in finding a short haul +though I had had my eye on this for some time. Of one thing I was +extremely careful--to make my estimate large enough so that I couldn't +possibly lose anything but my profit. Even if I wasn't able to carry +out my hope of being able to speed up the gang I should be able to pay +my bills and come out of the venture even. + +Ruth and I worked for a week on it and when I saw the grand total it +took away my breath. I wasn't used to dealing in big figures. They +frightened me. I've learned since then that it's a good deal easier in +some ways to deal in thousands than it is in ones. You have wider +margins, for one thing. But I must confess that now I was scared. I +was ready to back out. When I turned to Ruth for the final decision, +she looked into my eyes a second just as she did when I asked her to +marry me and said, + +"Go after it, Billy. You can do it." + +That night I sent in my estimate endorsed by Dan and a friend of his +and for a month I waited. I didn't sleep as well as usual but Ruth +didn't seem to be bothered. Then one night when I came home I found +Ruth at the outside door waiting for me. I knew the thing had been +decided. She came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder and patted +me. + +"It's yours, Billy," she said. + +My heart stopped beating for a moment and then it went on again +beating a dozen ticks to the second. + +The next day I closed up my options. I went to Corkery, gave my notice +and told him what I was going to do. He was madder than a hornet. I +listened to what he had to say and went off without a word in reply. +He was so unreasonable that it didn't seem worth it. That noon I +rounded up the men and told them frankly that I was going to start in +business for myself and needed a hundred men. I told them also that +this first job might last only four or five weeks and that while I had +nothing definite in mind after that I was in hopes to secure in the +meanwhile other contracts. I said this would be largely up to them. I +told them that I didn't want a man to come who wasn't willing to take +the chance. Of course it was something of a chance because Corkery had +been giving them steady employment. Still it wasn't a very big chance +because there was always work for such men. + +I watched anxiously to see how they would take it. I felt that the +truth of my theories were having their hardest test. When they let out +a cheer and started towards me in a mass I saw blurry. + +I'll never forget the feeling I had when I started out in the morning +that first day as an independent contractor; I'll never forget my +feeling as I reached the work an hour ahead of my men and waited for +them to come straggling up. I seemed closer than ever to my ancestors. +I felt as my great-great-grandfather must have felt when he cut loose +from the Massachusetts colony and went off down into the unknown +Connecticut. I was full enough of confidence but I knew that a month +might drive me back again. Deeper than this trivial fear however there +was something bigger--something finer. I was a free man in a larger +way than I had ever been before. It made me feel an American to the +very core of my marrow. + +The work was all staked out but before the men began I called them all +together. I didn't make a speech; I just said: + +"Men--I've estimated that this can be done by an ordinary bunch of men +in forty days; I've banked that you can do it in thirty. If you +succeed, it gives me profit enough to take another contract. Do the +best you can." + +There wasn't a mother's son among them who didn't appreciate my +position. There were a good many who knew Ruth and knew her through +what she had done for their families, and these understood it even +better. The dirt began to fly and it was a pretty sight to watch. I +never spoke again to the men. I simply directed their efforts. I spent +about half the time with a shovel in my hands myself. There was +scarcely a day when Ruth didn't come out to watch the work with an +anxious eye but after the first week there was little need for +anxiety. I think she would have liked to take a shovel herself. One +Saturday Dick came out and actually insisted upon being allowed to do +this. The men knew him and liked to see such spirit. + +Well, we clipped ten days from my estimate, which left me with all my +bills paid and with a handsome profit. Better still I had secured on +the strength of Carleton's gang another contract. + +The night I deposited my profit in the bank, Ruth quite unconsciously +took her pad and pencil and sat down by my side as usual to figure up +the household expenses for the week. We had been a bit extravagant +that week because she had been away from the house a good deal. The +total came to four dollars and sixty-seven cents. When Ruth had +finished I took the pad and pencil away from her and put it in my +pocket. + +"There's no use bothering your head any more over these details," I +said. + +She looked at me almost sadly. + +"No, Billy," she said, with a sigh, "there isn't, is there?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ONCE AGAIN A NEW ENGLANDER + + +During all those years we had never seen or heard of any of our old +neighbors. They had hardly ever entered our thoughts except as very +occasionally the boy ran across one of his former playmates. Shortly +after this, however, business took me out into the old neighborhood +and I was curious enough to make a few inquiries. There was no change. +My trim little house stood just as it then stood and around it were +the other trim little houses. There were a few new houses and a few +new-comers, but all the old-timers were still there. I met Grover, who +was just recovering from a long sickness. He didn't recognize me at +first. I was tanned and had filled out a good deal. + +"Why, yes," he said, after I had told my name. "Let me see, you went +off to Australia or somewhere, didn't you, Carleton?" + +"I emigrated," I answered. + +He looked up eagerly. + +"I remember now. It seems to have agreed with you." + +"You're still with the leather firm?" I inquired. + +He almost started at this unexpected question. + +"Yes," he answered. + +His eyes turned back to his trim little house, then to me as though he +feared I was bringing him bad news. + +"But I've been laid up for six weeks," he faltered. + +I knew what was troubling him. He was wondering whether he would find +his job when he got back. Poor devil! If he didn't what would become +of his trim little house? Grover was older by five years than I had +been when the axe fell. + +I talked with him a few minutes. There had been a death or two in the +neighborhood and the children had grown up. That was the only change. +The sight of Grover made me uncomfortable, so I hurried about my +business, eager to get home again. + +God pity the poor? Bah! The poor are all right if by poor you mean the +tenement dwellers. When you pray again pray God to pity the +middle-class American on a salary. Pray that he may not lose his job; +pray that if he does it shall be when he is very young; pray that he +may find the route to America. The tenement dwellers are safe enough. +Pray--and pray hard--for the dwellers in the trim little houses of the +suburbs. + +I've had my ups and downs, my profits and losses since I entered +business for myself but I've come out at the end of each year well +ahead of the game. I never made again as much in so short a time as I +made on that first job. One reason is that as soon as I was solidly on +my feet I started a profit sharing scheme, dividing with the men what +was made on every job over a certain per cent. Many of the original +gang have left and gone into business for themselves of one sort and +another but each one when he went, picked a good man to take his place +and handed down to him the spirit of the gang. + +Dick went through college and is now in my office. He's a hustler and +is going to make a good business man. But thank God he has a heart in +him as well as brains. He hopes to make "Carleton and Son" a big firm +some day and he will. If he does, every man who faithfully and +honestly handles his shovel will be part of the big firm. His idea +isn't to make things easy for the men; it's to preserve the spirit +they come over with and give them a share of the success due to that +spirit. + +We didn't move away from our dear, true friends until the other boy +came. Then I bought two or three deserted farms outside the +city--fifty acres in all. I bought them on time and at a bargain. I'm +trying another experiment here. I want to see if the pioneer spirit +won't bring even these worn out acres to life. I find that some of my +foreign neighbors have made their old farms pay even though the good +Americans who left them nearly starved to death. I have some cows and +chickens and pigs and am using every square foot of the soil for one +purpose or another. We pretty nearly get our living from the farm now. + +We entertain a good deal but we don't entertain our new neighbors. +There isn't a week summer or winter that I don't have one or more +families of Carleton's gang out here for a half holiday. It's the only +way I can reconcile myself to having moved away from among them. Ruth +keeps very closely in touch with them all and has any number of +schemes to help them. Her pet one just now is for us to raise enough +cows so that we can sell fresh milk at cost to those families which +have kiddies. + +Dan comes out to see us every now and then. He's making ten dollars to +my one. He says he's going to be mayor of the city some day. I told +him I'd do my best to prevent it. That didn't seem to worry him. + +"If ye was an Irishmon, now," he said, "I'd be after sittin' up nights +in fear of ye. But ye ain't." + +I'm almost done. This has been a hard job for me. And yet it's been a +pleasant job. It's always pleasant to talk about Ruth. I found that +even by taking away her pad and pencil I didn't accomplish much in the +way of making her less busy. Even with three children to look after +instead of one she does just as much planning about the housework. And +we don't have sirloin steaks even now. We don't want them. Our daily +fare doesn't vary much from what it was in the tenement. + +Ruth just came in with Billy, Jr., in her arms and read over these +last few paragraphs. She says she's glad I'm getting through with this +because she doesn't know what I might tell about next. But there's +nothing more to tell about except that to-day as at the beginning +Ruth is the biggest thing in my life. I can't wish any better luck for +those trying to fight their way out than they may find for a partner +half as good a wife as Ruth. I wouldn't be afraid to start all over +again to-day with her by my side. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 129: semed replaced with seemed | + | Page 219: exitement replaced with excitement | + | Page 231: beafsteak replaced with beefsteak | + | Page 252: dependdent replaced with dependent | + | | + | The following words are legitimate alternate spelling, | + | and left as found: | + | | + | Shakespere | + | goodby | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of One Way Out, by William Carleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + +***** This file should be named 28315-8.txt or 28315-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/1/28315/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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: One Way Out + A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America + +Author: William Carleton + +Release Date: March 12, 2009 [EBook #28315] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p> +<p class="noin">This e-text contains dialect and unusual spelling.</p> +<p class="noin" style="text-align: left;">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. +For a complete list, please see the <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/cover.jpg" width="50%" alt="cover" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>ONE WAY OUT</h2> + +<h3>A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER<br /> +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>ONE WAY OUT</h1> + +<br /> + +<h3>A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER<br /> +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>WILLIAM CARLETON</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BOSTON<br /> +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>Copyright, 1911<br /> +<br /> +<span class="sc">By Small, Maynard & Company</span><br /> +(INCORPORATED)</h4> + +<br /> +<h5><i>Entered at Stationers' Hall</i></h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>Published January 28, 1911; second printing January</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5><i>Presswork by Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, U.S.A.</i></h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>TO HER<br /> +WHO WASN'T AFRAID</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdr" width="10%" style="font-size: 80%;">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdl" width="70%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%" style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">I</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">A Born and Bred New Englander</a></td> + <td class="tdr">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">II</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Thirty Dollars a Week</a></td> + <td class="tdr">18</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">III</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">The Middle Class Hell</a></td> + <td class="tdr">37</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IV</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">We Emigrate to America</a></td> + <td class="tdr">53</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">V</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">We Prospect</a></td> + <td class="tdr">67</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VI</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">I Become a Day Laborer</a></td> + <td class="tdr">82</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Nine Dollars a Week</a></td> + <td class="tdr">94</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VIII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Sunday</a></td> + <td class="tdr">112</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IX</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Plans for the Future</a></td> + <td class="tdr">125</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">X</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">The Emigrant Spirit</a></td> + <td class="tdr">146</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XI</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">New Opportunities</a></td> + <td class="tdr">165</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Our First Winter</a></td> + <td class="tdr">183</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XIII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">I Become a Citizen</a></td> + <td class="tdr">200</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XIV</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Fifteen Dollars a Week</a></td> + <td class="tdr">216</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XV</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">The Gang</a></td> + <td class="tdr">234</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XVI</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Dick Finds a Way Out, Too</a></td> + <td class="tdr">252</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XVII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">The Second Year</a></td> + <td class="tdr">266</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XVIII</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Maturing Plans</a></td> + <td class="tdr">283</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">XIX</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Once Again a New Englander</a></td> + <td class="tdr">298</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>ONE WAY OUT</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br /> + +<h2>ONE WAY OUT</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER</h4> +<br /> + +<p>My great-grandfather was killed in the Revolution; my grandfather +fought in the War of 1812; my father sacrificed his health in the +Civil War; but I, though born in New England, am the first of my +family to emigrate to this country—the United States of America. That +sounds like a riddle or a paradox. It isn't; it's a plain statement of +fact.</p> + +<p>As a matter of convenience let me call myself Carleton. I've no desire +to make public my life for the sake of notoriety. My only idea in +writing these personal details is the hope that they may help some +poor devil out of the same hole in which I found myself mired. They +are of too sacred a nature to share except impersonally. Even behind +the disguise of an assumed name I passed some mighty uncomfortable +hours a few months ago when I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>sketched out for a magazine and saw in +cold print what I'm now going to give in full. It made me feel as +though I had pulled down the walls of my house and was living my life +open to the view of the street. For a man whose home means what it +does to me, there's nothing pleasant about that.</p> + +<p>However, I received some letters following that brief article which +made the discomfort seem worth while. My wife and I read them over +with something like awe. They came from Maine and they came from +Texas; they came from the north, they came from the south, until we +numbered our unseen friends by the hundred. Running through these +letters was the racking cry that had once rended our own hearts—"How +to get out!" As we read some of them our throats grew lumpy.</p> + +<p>"God help them," said my wife over and over again.</p> + +<p>As we read others, we felt very glad that our lives had been in some +way an inspiration to them. After talking the whole matter over we +decided that if it helped any to let people know how we ourselves +pulled out, why it was our duty to do so. For that purpose, which is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>the purpose of this book, Carleton is as good a name as any.</p> + +<p>My people were all honest, plodding, middle-class Americans. They +stuck where they were born, accepted their duties as they came, earned +a respectable living and died without having money enough left to make +a will worth while. They were all privates in the ranks. But they were +the best type of private—honest, intelligent, and loyal unto death. +They were faithful to their families and unswerving in their duty to +their country. The records of their lives aren't interesting, but they +are as open as daylight.</p> + +<p>My father seems to have had at first a bit more ambition stirring +within him than his ancestors. He started in the lumber business for +himself in a small way but with the first call for troops sold out and +enlisted. He did not distinguish himself but he fought in more battles +than many a man who came out a captain. He didn't quit until the war +was over. Then he crawled back home subdued and sick. He refused ever +to draw a pension because he felt it was as much a man's duty to fight +for his country as for his wife. He secured a position as head clerk +and confidential <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>man with an old established lumber firm and here he +stuck the rest of his life. He earned a decent living and in the +course of time married and occupied a comfortable home. My mother died +when I was ten and after that father sold his house and we boarded. It +was a dreary enough life for both of us. Mother was the sort of mother +who lives her whole life in caring for her men folks so that her going +left us as helpless as babies. For a long while we didn't even know +when to change our stockings. But obeying the family tradition, father +accepted his lot stoically and as final. No one in our family ever +married twice. With the death of the wife and mother the home ceased +and that was the end of it.</p> + +<p>I remember my father with some pride. He was a tall, old-fashioned +looking man with a great deal of quiet dignity. I came to know him +much better in the next few years after mother died than ever before +for we lived together in one room and had few friends. I can see him +now sitting by a small kerosene lamp after I had gone to bed clumsily +trying to mend some rent in my clothes. I thought it an odd occupation +for a man but I know now what he was about. I think his love for my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>mother must have been deep for he talked to me a great deal of her and +seemed much more concerned about my future on her account than on +either his own or mine. I think it was she—she was a woman of some +spirit—who persuaded him to consider sending me to college. This +accounted partly for the mending although there was some sentiment +about it too. I think he liked to feel that he was carrying out her +work for me even in such a small matter as this.</p> + +<p>How much he was earning and how much he saved I never knew. I went to +school and had all the common things of the ordinary boy and I don't +remember that I ever asked him for any pocket money but what he gave +it to me. It was towards the end of my senior year in the high school +that I began to notice a change in him. He was at times strangely +excited and at other times strangely blue. He asked me a great many +questions about my preference in the matter of a college and bade me +keep well up in my studies. He began to skimp a little and I found out +afterwards that one reason he grew so thin was because he did away +with his noon meal. It makes my blood boil now when I remember where +the fruit of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>this self-sacrifice went. I wouldn't recall it here +except as a humble tribute to his memory.</p> + +<p>One night I came back to the room and though it was not yet dark I was +surprised to see a crack of yellow light creeping out from beneath the +sill. Suspecting something was wrong, I pushed open the door and saw +my father seated by the lamp with a pair of trousers I had worn when a +kid in his hands. His head was bent and he was trying to sew. I went +to his side and asked him what the trouble was. He looked up but he +didn't know me. He never knew me again. He died a few days afterwards. +I found then that he had invested all his savings in a wild-cat mining +scheme. They had been swept away.</p> + +<p>So at eighteen I was left alone with the only capital that succeeding +generations of my family ever inherited—a common school education and +a big, sound physique. My father's tragic death was a heavy blow but +the mere fact that I was thrown on my own resources did not dishearten +me. In fact the prospect rather roused me. I had soaked in the humdrum +atmosphere of the boarding house so long that the idea of having to +earn my own living came rather as an adventure. While dependent on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>my +father, I had been chained to this one room and this one city, but now +I felt as though the whole wide world had suddenly been opened up to +me. I had no particular ambition beyond earning a comfortable living +and I was sure enough at eighteen of being able to do this. If I +chose, I could go to sea—there wasn't a vessel but what would take so +husky a youngster; if I wished, I could go into railroading—here +again there was a demand for youth and brawn. I could go into a +factory and learn manufacturing or I could go into an office and learn +a business. I was young, I was strong, I was unfettered. There is no +one on earth so free as such a young man. I could settle in New York +or work my way west and settle in Seattle or go north into Canada. My +legs were stout and I could walk if necessary. And wherever I was, I +had only to stop and offer the use of my back and arms in return for +food and clothes. Most men feel like this only once in their lives. In +a few years they become fettered again—this time for good.</p> + +<p>Having no inclination towards the one thing or the other, I took the +first opportunity that offered. A chum of mine had entered the employ +of the United Woollen Company and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>seeing another vacancy there in the +clerical department, he persuaded me to join him. I began at five +dollars a week. I was put at work adding up columns of figures that +had no more meaning to me than the problems in the school arithmetic. +But it wasn't hard work and my hours were short and my associates +pleasant. After a while I took a certain pride in being part of this +vast enterprise. My chum and I hired a room together and we both felt +like pretty important business men as we bought our paper on the car +every morning and went down town.</p> + +<p>It took close figuring to do anything but live that first year and yet +we pushed our way with the crowd into the nigger heavens and saw most +of the good shows. I had never been to the theatre before and I liked +it.</p> + +<p>Next year I received a raise of five dollars and watched the shows +from the rear of the first balcony. That is the only change the raise +made that I can remember except that I renewed my stock of clothes. +The only thing I'm sure of is that at the end of the second year I +didn't have anything left over.</p> + +<p>That is true of the next six years. My salary was advanced steadily to +twenty dollars <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>and at that time it took just twenty dollars a week +for me to live. I wasn't extravagant and I wasn't dissipated but every +raise found a new demand. It seemed to work automatically. You might +almost say that our salaries were not raised at all but that we were +promoted from a ten dollar plane of life to a fifteen dollar plane and +then to a twenty. And we all went together—that is the men who +started together. Each advance meant unconsciously the wearing of +better clothes, rooming at better houses, eating at better +restaurants, smoking better tobacco, and more frequent amusements. +This left us better satisfied of course but after all it left us just +where we began. Life didn't mean much to any of us at this time and if +we were inclined to look ahead why there were the big salaried jobs +before us to dream about. But even if a man had been forehanded and of +a saving nature, he couldn't have done much without sacrificing the +only friends most of us had—his office associates. For instance—to +save five dollars a week at this time I would have had to drop back +into the fifteen dollars a week crowd and I'd have been as much out of +place there as a boy dropped into a lower grade at school. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>remember +that when I was finally advanced another five dollars I half-heartedly +resolved to put that amount in the bank weekly. But at this point the +crowd all joined a small country club and I had either to follow or +drop out of their lives. Of course in looking back I can see where I +might have done differently but I wasn't looking back then—nor very +far ahead either. If it would have prevented my joining the country +club I'm glad I didn't.</p> + +<p>It was out there that I met the girl who became my wife. My best +reason for remaining anonymous is the opportunity it will give me to +tell about Ruth. I want to feel free to rave about her if I wish. She +objected in the magazine article and she objects even more strongly +now but, as before, I must have an uncramped hand in this. The chances +are that I shall talk more about her than I did the first time. The +whole scheme of my life, beginning, middle and end, swings around her. +Without her inspiration I don't like to think what the end of me might +have been. And it's just as true to-day as it was in the stress of the +fight.</p> + +<p>I was twenty-six when I met Ruth and she was eighteen. She came out to +the club one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>Saturday afternoon to watch some tennis. It happened +that I had worked into the finals of the tournament but that day I +wasn't playing very well. I was beaten in the first set, six-two. What +was worse I didn't care a hang if I was. I had found myself feeling +like this about a lot of things during those last few months. Then as +I made ready to serve the second set I happened to see in the front +row of the crowd to the right of the court a slight girl with blue +eyes. She was leaning forward looking at me with her mouth tense and +her fists tight closed. Somehow I had an idea that she wanted me to +win. I don't know why, because I was sure I'd never seen her before; +but I thought that perhaps she had bet a pair of gloves or a box of +candy on me. If she had, I made up my mind that she'd get them. I +started in and they said, afterwards, I never played better tennis in +my life. At any rate I beat my man.</p> + +<p>After the game I found someone to introduce me to her and from that +moment on there was nothing else of so great consequence in my life. I +learned all about her in the course of the next few weeks. Her family, +too, was distinctly middle-class, in the sense that none <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>of them had +ever done anything to distinguish themselves either for good or bad. +Her parents lived on a small New Hampshire farm and she had just been +graduated from the village academy and had come to town to visit her +aunt. The latter was a tall, lean woman, who, after the death of her +husband had been forced to keep lodgers to eke out a living. Ruth +showed me pictures of her mother and father, and they might have been +relatives of mine as far as looks went. The father had caught an +expression from the granite hills which most New England farmers +get—a rugged, strained look; the mother was lean and kind and +worried. I met them later and liked them.</p> + +<p>Ruth was such a woman as my mother would have taken to; clear and +laughing on the surface, but with great depths hidden among the golden +shallows. Her experience had all been among the meadows and mountains +so that she was simple and direct and fearless in her thoughts and +acts. You never had to wonder what she meant when she spoke and when +you came to know her you didn't even have to wonder what she was +dreaming about. And yet she was never the same because she was always +growing. But the thing that woke me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>up most of all from the first day +I met her was the interest she took in everyone and everything. A +fellow couldn't bore Ruth if he tried. She would have the time of her +life sitting on a bench in the park or walking down the street or just +staring out the window of her aunt's front room. And that street +looked like Sunday afternoon all the week long.</p> + +<p>I began to do some figuring when I was alone but there wasn't much +satisfaction in it. I had the clothes in my room, a good collection of +pipes, and ten dollars of my last week's salary. A man couldn't get +married on that even to a girl like Ruth who wouldn't want much. I cut +down here and there but I naturally wanted to appear well before Ruth +and so the savings went into new ties and shoes. In this way I fretted +along for a few months until I screwed my courage up to ask for +another raise. Those were prosperous days for the United Woollen and +everyone from the president to the office boy was in good humor. I +went to Morse, head of the department, and told him frankly that I +wished to get married and needed more money. That wasn't a business +reason for an increase but those of us who had worked there some years +had come to feel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>like one of the family and it wasn't unusual for the +company to raise a man at such a time. He said he'd see what he could +do about it and when I opened my pay envelope the next week I found an +extra five in it.</p> + +<p>I went direct from the office to Ruth and asked her to marry me. She +didn't hang her head nor stammer but she looked me straight in the +eyes a moment longer than usual and answered:</p> + +<p>"All right, Billy."</p> + +<p>"Then let's go out this afternoon and see about getting a house," I +said.</p> + +<p>I don't think a Carleton ever boarded when first married. To me it +wouldn't have seemed like getting married. I knew a suburb where some +of the men I had met at the country club lived and we went out there. +It was a beautiful June day and everything looked clean and fresh. We +found a little house of eight rooms that we knew we wanted as soon as +we saw it. It was one of a group of ten or fifteen that were all very +much alike. There was a piazza on the front and a little bit of lawn +that looked as though it had been squeezed in afterwards. In the rear +there was another strip of land where we thought we might raise some +garden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>stuff if we put it in boxes. The house itself had a front hall +out of which stairs led to the next floor. To the right there was a +large room separated by folding doors with another good-sized room +next to it which would naturally be used as a dining room. In the rear +of this was the kitchen and besides the door there was a slide through +which to pass the food. Upstairs there were four big rooms stretching +the whole width of the house. Above these there was a servant's room. +The whole house was prettily finished and in the two rooms down stairs +there were fireplaces which took my eye, although they weren't bigger +than coal hods. It was heated by a furnace and lighted by electricity +and there were stained glass panels either side of the front door.</p> + +<p>The rent was forty dollars a month and I signed a three years' lease +before I left. The next week was a busy one for us both. We bought +almost a thousand dollars' worth of furniture on the installment plan +and even then we didn't seem to get more than the bare necessities. I +hadn't any idea that house furnishings cost so much. But if the bill +had come to five times that I wouldn't have cared. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>The installments +didn't amount to very much a week and I already saw Morse promoted and +myself filling his position at twenty-five hundred. I hadn't yet got +over the feeling I had at eighteen that life was a big adventure and +that a man with strong legs and a good back <i>couldn't</i> lose. With Ruth +at my side I bought like a king. Though I never liked the idea of +running into debt this didn't seem like a debt. I had only to look +into her dear blue eyes to feel myself safe in buying the store +itself. Ruth herself sometimes hesitated but, as I told her, we might +as well start right and once for all as to go at it half heartedly.</p> + +<p>The following Saturday we were married. My vacation wasn't due for +another month so we decided not to wait. The old folks came down from +the farm and we just called in a clergyman and were married in the +front parlor of the aunt's house. It was both very simple and very +solemn. For us both the ceremony meant the taking of a sacred oath of +so serious a nature as to forbid much lightheartedness. And yet I did +wish that the father and mother and aunt had not dressed in black and +cried during it all. Ruth wore a white dress and looked very beautiful +and didn't seem afraid. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>As for me, my knees trembled and I was chalk +white. I think it was the old people and the room, for when it was +over and we came out into the sunshine again I felt all right except a +bit light-headed. I remember that the street and the houses and the +cars seemed like very small matters.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK</h4> +<br /> + +<p>When, with Ruth on my arm, I walked up the steps of the house and +unlocked the front door, I entered upon a new life. It was my first +taste of home since my mother died and added to that was this new love +which was finer than anything I had ever dreamed about. It seemed hard +to have to leave every morning at half past six and not get back until +after five at night, but to offset this we used to get up as early as +four o'clock during the long summer days. Many the time even in June +Ruth and I ate our breakfast by lamp-light. It gave us an extra hour +and she was bred in the country where getting up in the morning is no +great hardship.</p> + +<p>We couldn't afford a servant and we didn't want one. Ruth was a fine +cook and I certainly did justice to her dishes after ten years of +restaurants and boarding-houses. On rainy days when we couldn't get +out, she used to do <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>her cooking early so that I might watch her. It +seemed a lot more like her cooking when I saw her pat out the dough +and put it in the oven instead of coming home and finding it all done. +I used to fill up my pipe and sit by the kitchen stove until I had +just time to catch the train by sprinting.</p> + +<p>But when the morning was fine we'd either take a long walk through the +big park reservation which was near the house or we'd fuss over the +garden. We had twenty-two inches of radishes, thirty-eight inches of +lettuce, four tomato plants, two hills of corn, three hills of beans +and about four yards of early peas. In addition to this Ruth had +squeezed a geranium into one corner and a fern into another and +planted sweet alyssum around the whole business. Everyone out here +planned to raise his own vegetables. It was supposed to cut down +expenses but I noticed the market man always did a good business.</p> + +<p>I had met two or three of the men at the country club and they +introduced me to the others. We were all earning about the same +salaries and living in about the same type of house. Still there were +differences and you could tell more by the wives than the husbands +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>those whose salaries went over two thousand. Two or three of the men +were in banks, one was in a leather firm, one was an agent for an +insurance company, another was with the telegraph company, another was +with the Standard Oil, and two or three others were with firms like +mine. Most of them had been settled out here three or four years and +had children. In a general way they looked comfortable and happy +enough but you heard a good deal of talk among them about the high +cost of living and you couldn't help noticing that those who dressed +the best had the fewest children. One or two of them owned horses but +even they felt obliged to explain that they saved the cost of them in +car fares.</p> + +<p>They all called and left their cards but that first year we didn't see +much of them. There wasn't room in my life for anyone but Ruth at that +time. I didn't see even the old office gang except during business +hours and at lunch.</p> + +<p>The rent scaled my salary down to one thousand and eighty dollars at +one swoop. Then we had to save out at least five dollars a week to pay +on the furniture. This left eight hundred and twenty, or fifteen +dollars and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>seventy-five cents a week, to cover running expenses. We +paid cash for everything and though we never had much left over at the +end of the week and never anything at the end of the month, we had +about everything we wanted. For one thing our tastes were not +extravagant and we did no entertaining. Our grocery and meat bill +amounted to from five to seven dollars a week. Of course I had my +lunches in town but I got out of those for twenty cents. My daily car +fare was twenty cents more which brought my total weekly expenses up +to about three dollars. This left a comfortable margin of from five to +seven dollars for light, coal, clothes and amusements. In the summer +the first three items didn't amount to much so some weeks we put most +of this into the furniture. But the city was new to Ruth, especially +at night, so we were in town a good deal. She used to meet me at the +office and we'd walk about the city and then take dinner at some +little French restaurant and then maybe go to a concert or the +theatre. She made everything new to me again. At the theatre she used +to perch on the edge of her seat so breathless, so responsive that I +often saw the old timers watch her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>instead of the show. I often did +myself. And sometimes it seemed as though the whole company acted to +her alone.</p> + +<p>Those days were perfect. The only incident to mar them was the death +of Ruth's parents. They died suddenly and left an estate of six or +seven hundred dollars. Ruth insisted upon putting that into the +furniture. But in our own lives every day was as fair as the first. My +salary came as regularly as an annuity and there was every prospect +for advancement. The garden did well and Ruth became acquainted with +most of the women in a sociable way. She joined a sewing circle which +met twice a month chiefly I guess for the purpose of finding out about +one another's husbands. At any rate she told me more about them than I +would have learned in ten years.</p> + +<p>Still, during the fall and winter we kept pretty much by ourselves, +not deliberately but because neither of us cared particularly about +whist parties and such things but preferred to spend together what +time we had. And then I guess Ruth was a little shy about her clothes. +She dressed mighty well to my eye but she made most of her things +herself and didn't care much about style. She didn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>notice the +difference at home but when she was out among others, they made her +feel it. However spring came around again and we forgot all about +those details. We didn't go in town so much that summer and used to +spend more time on our piazza. I saw more of the men in this way and +found them a pleasant, companionable lot. They asked me to join the +Neighborhood Club and I did, more to meet them half way than because I +wanted to. There we played billiards and discussed the stock market +and furnaces. All of them had schemes for making fortunes if only they +had a few thousand dollars capital. Now and then you'd find a group of +them in one corner discussing a rumor that so and so had lost his job. +They spoke of this as they would of a death. But none of those +subjects interested me especially in view of what I was looking +forward to in my own family.</p> + +<p>In the afternoons of the early fall the women sent over jellies and +such stuff to Ruth and dropped in upon her with whispered advice. She +used to repeat it to me at night with a gay little laugh and her eyes +sparkling like diamonds. She was happier now than I had ever seen her +and so was I myself. When I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>went in town in the morning I felt very +important.</p> + +<p>I thought I had touched the climax of life when I married Ruth but +when the boy came he lifted me a notch higher. And with him he brought +me a new wife in Ruth, without taking one whit from the old. +Sweetheart, wife and mother now, she revealed to me new depths of +womanhood.</p> + +<p>She taught me, too, what real courage is. I was the coward when the +time came. I had taken a day off but the doctor ordered me out of the +house. I went down to the club and I felt more one of the neighborhood +that day than I ever did before or afterwards. It was Saturday and +during the afternoon a number of the men came in and just silently +gripped my hand.</p> + +<p>The women, too, seemed to take a new interest in us. When Ruth was +able to sit up they brought in numberless little things. But you'd +have thought it was their house and not mine, the way they treated me. +When any of them came I felt as though I didn't belong there and ought +to tip-toe out.</p> + +<p>We'd been saving up during the summer for this emergency so that we +had enough to pay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>for the doctor and the nurse but that was only the +beginning of the new expenses. In the first place we had to have a +servant now. I secured a girl who knew how to cook after a fashion, +for four dollars a week. But that wasn't by any means what she cost +us. In spite of Ruth's supervision the girl wasted as much as she used +so that our provision bill was nearly doubled. If we hadn't succeeded +in paying for the furniture before this I don't know what we would +have done. As it was I found my salary pretty well strained. I hadn't +any idea that so small a thing as a baby could cost so much. Ruth had +made most of his things but I know that some of his shirts cost as +much as mine.</p> + +<p>When the boy was older Ruth insisted upon getting along without a girl +again. I didn't approve of this but I saw that it would make her +happier to try anyway. How in the world she managed to do it I don't +know but she did. This gave her an excuse for not going out—though it +was an excuse that made me half ashamed of myself—and so we saved in +another way. Even with this we just made both ends meet and that was +all.</p> + +<p>The boy grew like a weed and before I knew <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>it he was five years old. +Until he began to walk and talk I didn't think of him as a possible +man. He didn't seem like anything in particular. He was just soft and +round and warm. But when he began to wear knickerbockers he set me to +thinking hard. He wasn't going to remain always a baby; he was going +to grow into a boy and then a young man and before I knew it he would +be facing the very same problem that now confronted me. And that +problem was how to get enough ahead of the game to give him a fair +start in life. I realized, too, that I wanted him to do something +better than I had done. When I stopped to think of it I had +accomplished mighty little. I had lived and that was about all. That I +had lived happily was due to Ruth. But if I was finding difficulty in +keeping even with the game now, what was I going to do when the +youngster would prove a decidedly more serious item of expense?</p> + +<p>I talked this over with Ruth and we both decided that somehow, in some +way, we must save some money every year. We started in by reducing our +household expenses still further. But it seemed as though fate were +against us for prices rose just enough to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>absorb all our little +economies. Flour went up and sugar went up, and though we had done +away with meat almost wholly now, vegetables went up. So, too, did +coal. Not only that but we had long since found it impossible to keep +to ourselves as we had that first year. Little by little we had been +drawn into the social life of the neighborhood. Not a month went by +but what there was a dinner or two or a whist party or a dance. +Personally I didn't care about such things but as Ruth had become a +matron and in consequence had been thrown more in contact with the +women, she had lost her shyness and grown more sociable. She often +suggested declining an invitation but we couldn't decline one without +declining all. I saw clearly enough that I had no right to do this. +She did more work than I and did not have the daily change. To have +made a social exile of her would have been to make her little better +than a slave. But it cost money. It cost a lot of money. We had to do +our part in return and though Ruth accomplished this by careful buying +and all sorts of clever devices, the item became a big one in the +year's expenses.</p> + +<p>I began to look forward with some anxiety <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>for the next raise. At the +office I hunted for extra work with an eye upon the place above; but +though I found the work nothing came of it but extra hours. In fact I +began to think myself lucky to hold the job I had for a gradual change +of methods had been slowly going on in the office. Mechanical adding +machines had cost a dozen men their jobs; a card system of bookkeeping +had made it possible to discharge another dozen, while an off year in +woollens sent two or three more flying, among them the man who had +found me the position in the first place. But he hadn't married and he +went out west somewhere. Occasionally when work picked up again a +young man was taken on to fill the place of one of the discharged men. +The company always saved a few hundred dollars by such a shift for the +lad never got the salary of the old employee, and so far as anyone +could see the work went on just as well.</p> + +<p>While these moves were ominous, as I can see now in looking back, they +didn't disturb me very much at the time. I filled a little niche in +the office that was all my own. At every opportunity I had +familiarized myself with the work of the man above me and was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>on very +good terms with him. I waited patiently and confidently for the day +when Morse should call me in and announce his own advance and leave me +to fill his place. I might have to begin on two thousand but it was a +sure twenty-five hundred eventually to say nothing of what it led to. +The president of the company had begun as I had and had moved up the +same steps that now lay ahead of me.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile the life at home ran smoothly in spite of everything. +Neither the wife, the boy nor I was sick a day for we all had sound +bodies to start with. Our country-bred ancestors didn't need a will to +leave us those. If at times we felt a trifle pinched especially in the +matter of clothes, it was wonderful how rich Ruth contrived to make us +feel. She knew how to take care of things and though I didn't spend +half what some of the men spent on their suits, I went in town every +morning looking better than two-thirds of them. I was inspected from +head to foot before I started and there wasn't a wrinkle or a spot so +small that it could last twenty-four hours. I shined my own shoes and +pressed my own trousers and Ruth looked to it that this was done well. +Moreover she could turn a tie, clean and press <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>it so that it looked +brand new. I think some of the neighbors even thought I was +extravagant in my dressing.</p> + +<p>She did the same for herself and had caught the knack of seeming to +dress stylishly without really doing so. She had beautiful hair and +this in itself made her look well dressed. As for the boy he was a +model for them all.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile the boy had grown into short trousers and before we +knew it he was in school. It made it lonesome for her during the day +when he began to trudge off every morning at nine o'clock. She began +to look forward to Saturdays as eagerly as the boy did. Then the next +thing we knew he'd start off even earlier on that day to join his +playmates. Sunday was the only day either of us had him to ourselves.</p> + +<p>After he began to go to school, Ruth and I seemed to begin another +life. In a way we felt all by ourselves once more. I didn't get home +until half past seven now and Dick was then abed. He was abed too when +I left in the morning. Of course he was never off my mind and if he +hadn't been asleep upstairs I guess I'd have known a difference. But +at the same time he was, in a small way, living <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>his own life now +which left Ruth and me to ourselves once more. She used to go over for +me all the details of his day from the time she took him up in the +morning until she tucked him away in bed again at night and then there +would come a pause. It seemed as though there ought to be something +more, but there wasn't. The next few months it seemed almost as though +she was waiting. For what, I didn't know and yet I too felt there was +a lapse in our lives. I never loved her more. There was never a time +when she was so truly my wife and yet in our combined lives there was +something lacking. After a while I began to notice a wistful +expression in her eyes. It always came after she had said,</p> + +<p>"So Dicky said, 'God bless father and mother,' and then he went to +sleep."</p> + +<p>Then one night it dawned on me. Hers was the same heart hunger that +had been eating at me. Dick was a boy now and there was no baby to +take his place. But, good Lord, as it was I hadn't been able to save a +dollar. I knew that we were simply holding on tight and drifting. The +boat was loaded to the gunwales even now. And yet that expression in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>her eyes had a right to be answered. But I couldn't answer it. I +didn't dare open my mouth. I didn't dare speak even one night when she +said,</p> + +<p>"He's all we have, Billy—just one."</p> + +<p>I gripped her hand and sat staring into the little coal hod fireplace +which we didn't light more than once a month now. Even as I watched +the flames I saw them licking up pennies.</p> + +<p>Just one! And I too wanted a houseful like Dick.</p> + +<p>I had to see that look night after night and I had to go to town +knowing I was leaving her all alone with the one away at school. And +what a mother she was! She ought to have had a baby by her side all +the time.</p> + +<p>As the one grew, his expenses increased. The only way to meet them was +by cutting down our own expenses still more. I cut out smoking and +made my old clothes do an extra year. Ruth spent half her time in +bargain hunting and saved still more by taking it out of herself. Poor +little woman, she worked harder for a quarter than I did and I was +working harder for that sum than I used to work for a dollar. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>But we +were not alone in the struggle. As we came to know more about the +people in that group of snug little houses we knew that the same grim +fight was going on in all of them. Some of them were not so lucky as +we and ran into debt while a few of them were luckier and were helped +out with legacies or by well-to-do relatives. We were as much alike as +peas in a pod. We were living on the future and bluffing out the +present. You'd have thought it would have cast a gloom over the +neighborhood—you'd have thought it would have done away with some of +the parties and dances. But it didn't. In the first place this was, to +most of us, just life. In the second place there didn't seem to be any +alternative. There was no other way of living. The conditions seemed +to be fixed; we had to eat, we had to wear a certain type of dress; +and unless we wished to exist as exiles we had to meet on a certain +plane of social intercourse. The conventions were as iron clad here as +among the nobility of England. No one thought of violating them; no +one thought it was possible. You had to live as the others did or die +and be done with it. If anyone of us had thought we might have seen +the foolishness of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>but it was all so manifest that no one did +think. The only method of escape was a raise and that meant moving +into another sphere which would cover that.</p> + +<p>A new complication came when the boy grew old enough to have social +functions of his own. He had made many new friends and he wanted to +join a tennis club, a dancing class and contribute towards the support +of the athletic teams of the school. Moreover he was invited to +parties and had to give parties himself. Once again I tried to see +some way out of this social business. It seemed such a pitiful waste +of ammunition under the circumstances. I wanted to save the money if +it was possible in any way to eke it out, for his education. But what +could I do? The boy had to live as his friends lived or give them up. +He wasn't asked to do any more than the other boys of the neighborhood +but he was rightly asked to do as much. If he couldn't it would be at +the sacrifice of his pride that he associated with them at all. And a +just pride in a boy is something you can't safely tamper with. He had +to have the money and we managed it somehow. But it brought home the +old grim fact that I hadn't as yet saved a dollar.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>I clung more than ever now to the one ray of hope—the job ahead. It +was the only comfort Ruth and I had and whenever I felt especially +downhearted she'd start in and plan how we'd spend it. It took the +edge off the immediate thought of danger. In the meanwhile I resigned +even from the Neighborhood Club and let the boy join the tennis club. +I noticed at once a change in the attitude of the men towards me. But +I was reaching a point now where I didn't care.</p> + +<p>In this way, then, we lived until I was thirty-eight and Ruth was +thirty, and the boy was eleven. For the last few months I had been +doing night work without extra pay and so was practically exiled from +the boy except on Sundays. He was not developing the way I wanted. The +local grammar school was almost a private school for the neighborhood. +I should have preferred to have it more cosmopolitan. The boy was +rubbing up against only his own kind and this was making him soft, +both physically and mentally. He was also getting querulous and +autocratic. Ruth saw it, but with only one.... Well, on Sundays I took +the boy with me on long cross-country jaunts and did a good deal of +talking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>to him. But all I said rolled off like water off a duck. He +lacked energy and initiative. He was becoming distinctly more +middle-class than either of us, with some of the faults of the +so-called upper class thrown in. He chattered about Harvard, not as an +opportunity, but as a class privilege. I didn't like it. But before I +had time to worry much about this the crash came that I had not been +wise enough to foresee.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE MIDDLE CLASS HELL</h4> +<br /> + +<p>One Saturday afternoon, after we had been paid off, Morse, the head of +the department, whose job I had been eyeing enviously for five years +now, called me into his office. For three minutes I saw all my hopes +realized; for three minutes I walked dizzily with my whole life +justified. I could hardly catch my breath as I followed him. I didn't +realize until then how big a load I had been carrying. As a drowning +man is said to see visions of his whole past life, I saw visions of my +whole future. I saw Ruth's eager face lifted to mine as I told her the +good news; I saw the boy taken from his commonplace surroundings and +doing himself proud in some big preparatory school where he brushed up +against a variety of other boys; I saw—God pity me for the fool I +was—other children at home to take his place. I can say that for +three minutes I have lived.</p> + +<p>Morse seated himself in the chair before his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>desk and, bending over +his papers, talked without looking at me. He was a small fellow. I +don't suppose a beefy man ever quite gets over a certain feeling of +superiority before a small man. I could have picked up Morse in one +hand.</p> + +<p>"Carleton," he began, "I've got to cut down your salary five hundred +dollars."</p> + +<p>It came like a blow in the face. I don't think I answered.</p> + +<p>"Sorry," he added, "but Evans says he can double up on your work and +offers to do it for two hundred dollars more."</p> + +<p>I repeated that name Evans over and over. He was the man under me. +Then I saw my mistake. While watching the man ahead of me I had +neglected to watch the man behind me. Evans and I had been good +friends. I liked him. He was about twenty, and a hard worker.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Morse.</p> + +<p>I recovered my wind.</p> + +<p>"Good God," I cried; "I can't live on any less than I'm getting now!"</p> + +<p>"Then you resign?" he asked quickly.</p> + +<p>For a second I saw red. I wanted to take this pigmy by the throat. I +wanted to shake <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>him. He didn't give me time before exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Very well, Carleton. I'll give you an order for two weeks' pay in +advance."</p> + +<p>The next thing I knew I was in the outer office with the order in my +hand. I saw Evans at his desk. I guess I must have looked queer, for +at first he shrank away from me. Then he came to my side.</p> + +<p>"Carleton," he said, "what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I guess you know," I answered.</p> + +<p>"You aren't fired?"</p> + +<p>I bucked up at this. I tried to speak naturally.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "I'm fired."</p> + +<p>"But that isn't right, Carleton," he protested. "I didn't think it +would come to that. I went to Morse and told him I wanted to get +married and needed more money. He asked me if I thought I could do +your work. I said yes. I'd have said yes if he'd asked me if I could +do the president's work. But—come back and let me explain it to +Morse."</p> + +<p>It was white of him, wasn't it? But I saw clearly enough that he was +only fighting for his right to love as I was fighting for mine. I +don't know that I should have been as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>generous as he was—ten years +before. He had started toward the door when I called him back.</p> + +<p>"Don't go in there," I warned. "The first thing you know you'll be +doing my work without your two hundred."</p> + +<p>"That's so," he answered. "But what are you going to do now?"</p> + +<p>"Get another job," I answered.</p> + +<p>One of the great blessings of my life is the fact that it has always +been easy to report bad news to Ruth. I never had to break things +gently to her. She always took a blow standing up, like a man. So now +I boarded my train and went straight to the house and told her. She +listened quietly and then took my hand, patting it for a moment +without saying anything. Finally she smiled at me.</p> + +<p>"Well, Billy," she said, "it can't be helped, can it? So good luck to +Evans and his bride."</p> + +<p>When a woman is as brave as that it stirs up all the fighting blood in +a man. Looking into her steady blue eyes I felt that I had exaggerated +my misfortune. Thirty-eight is not old and I was able-bodied. I might +land something even better than that which I had lost. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>So instead of +a night of misery I actually felt almost glad.</p> + +<p>I started in town on Monday in high hope. But when I got off the train +I began to wonder just where I was bound. What sort of a job was I +going to apply for? What was my profession, anyway? I sat down in the +station to think the problem over.</p> + +<p>For twenty years now I had been a cog in the clerical machinery of the +United Woollen Company. I was known as a United Woollen man. But just +what else had this experience made of me? I was not a bookkeeper. I +knew no more about keeping a full set of books than my boy. I had +handled only strings of United Woollen figures; those meant nothing +outside that particular office. I was not a stenographer, or an +accountant, or a secretary. I had been called a clerk in the +directory. But what did that mean? What the devil was I, after twenty +years of hard work?</p> + +<p>The question started the sweat to my forehead. But I pulled myself +together again. At least I was an able-bodied man. I was willing to +work, had a record of honesty and faithfulness, and was intelligent as +men go. I didn't care what I did, so long as it gave me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>a living +wage. Surely, then, there must be some place for me in this alert, +hustling city.</p> + +<p>I bought a paper and turned to "Help Wanted." I felt encouraged at +sight of the long column. I read it through carefully. Half of the +positions demanded technical training; a fourth of them demanded +special experience; the rest asked for young men. I couldn't answer +the requirements of one of them. Again and again the question was +forced in upon me—what the devil was I?</p> + +<p>I didn't know which way to turn. I had no relatives to help me—from +the days of my great-grandfather no Carleton had ever quit the game +more than even. My business associates were as badly off as I was and +so were my neighbors.</p> + +<p>My relations with the latter were peculiar, now that I came to think +of it. In these last dozen years I had come to know the details of +their lives as intimately as my own. In a way we had been like one big +family. We knew each other as Frank, and Joe, and Bill, and Josh, and +were familiar with one another's physical ailments when any of us had +any. If any of the children had whooping cough or the measles every +man and woman in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>the neighborhood watched at the bedside, in a sense, +until the youngster was well, again. We knew to a dollar what each man +was earning and what each was spending. We borrowed one another's +garden tools and the women borrowed from each other's kitchens. On the +surface we were just about as intimate as it's possible for a +community to be. And yet what did it amount to?</p> + +<p>There wasn't a man-son of them to whom I would have dared go and +confess the fact I'd lost my job. They'd know it soon enough, be sure +of that; but it mustn't come from me. There wasn't one of them to whom +I felt free to go and ask their help to interest their own firms to +secure another position for me. Their respect for me depended upon my +ability to maintain my social position. They were like steamer +friends. On the voyage they clung to one another closer than bark to a +tree, but once the gang plank was lowered the intimacy vanished. If I +wished to keep them as friends I must stick to the boat.</p> + +<p>I knew they couldn't do anything if they had wanted to, but at the +same time I felt there was something wrong in a situation that would +not allow me to ask even for a letter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>of introduction without feeling +like a beggar. I felt there was something wrong when they made me feel +not like a brother in hard luck but like a criminal. I began to wonder +what of sterling worth I had got out of this life during the past +decade.</p> + +<p>However that was an incidental matter. The only time I did such +thinking as this was towards the early morning after I had lain awake +all night and exhausted all other resources. I tackled the problem in +the only way I could think of and that was to visit the houses with +whom I had learned the United Woollen did business. I remembered the +names of about a dozen of them and made the rounds of these for a +starter. It seemed like a poor chance and I myself did not know +exactly what they could do with me but it would keep me busy for a +while.</p> + +<p>With waits and delays this took me two weeks. Without letters it was +almost impossible to reach the managers but I hung on in every case +until I succeeded. Here again I didn't feel like an honest man +offering to do a fair return of work for pay, so much as I did a +beggar. This may have been my fault; but after you've sat around in +offices and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>corridors and been scowled at as an intruder for three or +four hours and then been greeted with a surly "What do you want?" you +can't help having a grouch. There wasn't a man who treated my offer as +a business proposition.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time two questions were burned into my brain: "What +can you do?" and "How old are you?" The latter question came as a +revelation. It seems that from a business point of view I was +considered an old man. My good strong body counted for nothing; my +willingness to undertake any task counted for nothing. I was too old. +No one wanted to bother with a beginner over eighteen or twenty. The +market demanded youth—youth with the years ahead that I had already +sold. Wherever I stumbled by chance upon a vacant position I found +waiting there half a dozen stalwart youngsters. They looked as I had +looked when I joined the United Woollen Company. I offered to do the +same work at the same wages as the youngsters, but the managers didn't +want me. They didn't want a man around with wrinkles in his face. +Moreover, they were looking to the future. They didn't intend to +adjust a man into their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>machinery only to have him die in a dozen +years. I wasn't a good risk. Moreover, I wouldn't be so easily +trained, and with a wider experience might prove more bothersome. At +thirty-eight I was too old to make a beginning. The verdict was +unanimous. And yet I had a physique like an ox and there wasn't a gray +hair in my head. I came out of the last of those offices with my fists +clenched.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile I had used up my advance salary and was, for the +first time in my life, running into debt. Having always paid my bills +weekly I had no credit whatever. Even at the end of the third week I +knew that the grocery man and butcher were beginning to fidget. The +neighbors had by this time learned of my plight and were gossiping. +And yet in the midst of all this I had some of the finest hours with +my wife I had ever known.</p> + +<p>She sent me away every morning with fresh hope and greeted me at night +with a cheerfulness that was like wine. And she did this without any +show of false optimism. She was not blind to the seriousness of our +present position, but she exhibited a confidence in me that did not +admit of doubt or fear. There was something almost awesomely beautiful +about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>standing by her side and facing the approaching storm. She used +to place her small hands upon my back and exclaim:</p> + +<p>"Why, Billy, there's work for shoulders like those."</p> + +<p>It made me feel like a giant.</p> + +<p>So another month passed. I subscribed to an employment bureau, but the +only offer I received was to act as a sort of bouncer in a barroom. I +suppose my height and weight and reputation for sobriety recommended +me there. There was five dollars a week in it, and as far as I alone +was concerned I would have taken it. That sum would at least buy +bread, and though it may sound incredible the problem of getting +enough to eat was fast becoming acute. The provision men became daily +more suspicious. We cut down on everything, but I knew it was only a +question of time when they would refuse to extend our credit for the +little we <i>had</i> to have. And all around me my neighbors went their +cheerful ways and waited for me to work it out. But whenever I thought +of the barroom job and the money it would bring I could see them shake +their heads.</p> + +<p>It was hell. It was the deepest of all deep hells—the middle-class +hell. There was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>nothing theatrical about it—no fireworks or red +lights. It was plain, dull, sodden. Here was my position: work in my +own class I couldn't get; work as a young man I was too old to get; +work as just plain physical labor these same middle-class neighbors +refused to allow me to undertake. I couldn't black my neighbors' boots +without social ostracism, though Pasquale, who kept the stand in the +United Woollen building, once confided to me that he cleared some +twenty-five dollars a week. I couldn't mow my neighbors' front lawns +or deliver milk at their doors, though there was food in it. That was +honest work—clean work; but if I attempted it would they play golf +with me? Personally I didn't care. I would have taken a job that day. +But there were the wife and boy. They were held in ransom. It's all +very well to talk about scorning the conventions, to philosophize +about the dignity of honest work, to quote "a man's a man for a' +that"; but associates of their own kind mean more to a woman and a +growing boy than they do to a man. At least I thought so at that time. +When I saw my wife surrounded by well-bred, well-dressed women, they +seemed to me an essential part of her life. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>What else did living mean +for her? When my boy brought home with him other boys of his age and +kind—though to me they did not represent the highest type—I felt +under obligations to retain those friends for him. I had begot him +into this set. It seemed barbarous to do anything that would allow +them to point the finger at him.</p> + +<p>I felt a yearning for some primeval employment. I hungered to join the +army or go to sea. But here again were the wife and boy. I felt like +going into the Northwest and preempting a homestead. That was a saner +idea, but it took capital and I didn't have enough. I was tied hand +and foot. It was like one of those nightmares where in the face of +danger you are suddenly struck dumb and immovable.</p> + +<p>I was beginning to look wild-eyed. Ruth and I were living on bread, +without butter, and canned soup. I sneaked in town with a few books +and sold them for enough to keep the boy supplied with meat. My shoes +were worn out at the bottom and my clothes were getting decidedly +seedy. The men with whom I was in the habit of riding to town in the +morning gave me as wide a berth as though I had the leprosy. I guess +they were afraid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>my hard luck was catching. God pity them, many of +them were dangerously near the rim of this same hell themselves.</p> + +<p>One morning my wife came to me reluctantly, but with her usual +courage, and said:</p> + +<p>"Billy, the grocery man didn't bring our order last night." It was +like a sword-thrust. It made me desperate. But the worst of the +middle-class hell is that there is nothing to fight back at. There you +are. I couldn't say anything. There was no answer. My eyes must have +looked queer, for Ruth came nearer and whispered:</p> + +<p>"Don't go in town to-day, Billy."</p> + +<p>I had on my hat and had gathered up two or three more volumes in my +green bag. I looked at the trim little house that had been my home for +so long. The rent would be due next month. I looked at the other trim +little houses around me. Was it actually possible that a man could +starve in such a community? It seemed like a satanic joke. Why, every +year this country was absorbing immigrants by the thousand. They did +not go hungry. They waxed fat and prosperous. There was Pasquale, the +bootblack, who was earning nearly as much as I ever did.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>We were standing on the porch. I took Ruth in my arms and kissed her. +She drew back with a modest protest that the neighbors might see. The +word neighbors goaded me. I shook my fist at their trim little houses +and voiced a passion that had slowly been gathering strength.</p> + +<p>"Damn the neighbors!" I cried.</p> + +<p>Ruth was startled. I don't often swear.</p> + +<p>"Have they been talking about you?" she asked suddenly, her mouth +hardening.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I don't care. But they hold you in ransom like bloody +Moroccan pirates."</p> + +<p>"How do they, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"They won't let me work without taking it out of you and the boy."</p> + +<p>Her head dropped for a second at mention of the boy, but it was soon +lifted.</p> + +<p>"Let's get away from them," she gasped. "Let's go where there are no +neighbors."</p> + +<p>"Would you?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I'd go to the ends of the earth with you, Billy," she answered +quietly.</p> + +<p>How plucky she was! I couldn't help but smile as I answered, more to +myself:</p> + +<p>"We haven't even the carfare to go to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>ends of the earth, Ruth. It +will take all we have to pay our bills."</p> + +<p>"All we have?" she asked.</p> + +<p>No, not that. They could get only a little of what she and I had. They +could take our belongings, that's all. And they hadn't got those yet.</p> + +<p>But I had begun to hate those neighbors with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred. In silence they dictated, without assisting. For a dozen years +I had lived with them, played with them, been an integral part of +their lives, and now they were worse than useless to me. There wasn't +one of them big enough to receive me into his home for myself alone, +apart from the work I did. There wasn't a true brother among them.</p> + +<p>Our lives turn upon little things. They turn swiftly. Within fifteen +minutes I had solved my problem in a fashion as unexpected as it was +radical.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>WE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Going down the path to town bitterly and blindly, I met Murphy. He was +a man with not a gray hair in his head who was a sort of +man-of-all-work for the neighborhood. He took care of my furnace and +fussed about the grounds when I was tied up at the office with night +work. He stopped me with rather a shamefaced air.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sor," he began, "but I've got a bill comin' due on the +new house—"</p> + +<p>I remembered that I owed him some fifteen dollars. I had in my pocket +just ten cents over my carfare. But what arrested my attention was the +mention of a new house.</p> + +<p>"You mean to tell me that you're putting up a house?"</p> + +<p>"The bit of a rint, sor, in —— Street."</p> + +<p>The contrast was dramatic. The man who emptied my ashes was erecting +tenements and I was looking for work that would bring me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>in food. My +people had lived in this country some two hundred years or more, and +Murphy had probably not been here over thirty. There was something +wrong about this, but I seemed to be getting hold of an idea.</p> + +<p>"How old are you, Murphy?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Goin' on sixty, sor."</p> + +<p>"You came to America broke?"</p> + +<p>"Dead broke, sor."</p> + +<p>"You have a wife and children?"</p> + +<p>"A woman and six childer."</p> + +<p>Six! Think of it! And I had one.</p> + +<p>"Children in school?"</p> + +<p>I asked it almost in hope that here at least I would hold the +advantage.</p> + +<p>"Two of them in college, sor."</p> + +<p>He spoke it proudly. Well he might. But to me it was confusing.</p> + +<p>"And you have enough left over to put up a house?" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"It's better than the bank," Murphy said apologetically.</p> + +<p>"And you aren't an old man yet," I murmured.</p> + +<p>"Old, sor?"</p> + +<p>"Why you're young and strong and independent, Murphy. You're——" But +I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>guess I talked a bit wild. I don't know what I said. I was +breathless—lightheaded. I wanted to get back to Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Pat," I said, seizing his hand—"Pat, you shall have the money within +a week. I'm going to sell out and emigrate."</p> + +<p>"Emigrate?" he gasped. "Where to?"</p> + +<p>I laughed. The solution now seemed so easy.</p> + +<p>"Why, to America, Pat. To America where you came thirty years ago." I +left him staring at me. I hurried into the house with my heart in my +throat.</p> + +<p>I found Ruth in the sitting-room with her chin in her hands and her +white forehead knotted in a frown. She didn't hear me come in, but +when I touched her arm she jumped up, ashamed to think I had caught +her looking even puzzled. But at sight of my face her expression +changed in a flash.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Billy," she cried, "it's good news?"</p> + +<p>"It's a way out—if you approve," I answered.</p> + +<p>"I do, Billy," she answered, without waiting to hear.</p> + +<p>"Then listen," I said. "If we were living in England or Ireland or +France or Germany <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>and found life as hard as this and some one left us +five hundred dollars what would you advise doing?"</p> + +<p>"Why, we'd emigrate, Billy," she said instantly.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Where to?"</p> + +<p>"To America."</p> + +<p>"Right," I cried. "And we'd be one out of a thousand if we didn't make +good, wouldn't we?"</p> + +<p>"Why, every one succeeds who comes here from somewhere else," she +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"And why do they?" I demanded, getting excited with my idea. "Why do +they? There are a dozen reasons. One is because they come as +pioneers—with all the enthusiasm and eagerness of adventurers. Life +is fresh and romantic to them over here. Hardships only add zest to +the game. Another reason is that it is all a fine big gamble to them. +They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. It's the same spirit +that drives young New Englanders out west to try their luck, to +preëmpt homesteads in the Northwest, to till the prairies. Another +reason is that they come over here free—unbound by conventions. They +can work as they please, live as they please. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>They haven't any caste +to hamper them. Another reason is that, being on the same great +adventure, they are all brothers. They pull together. Still another +reason is that as emigrants the whole United States stands ready to +help them with schools and playgrounds and hospitals and parks."</p> + +<p>I paused for breath. She cut in excitedly:</p> + +<p>"Then we're going out west?"</p> + +<p>"No; we haven't the capital for that. By selling all our things we can +pay our debts and have a few dollars over, but that wouldn't take us +to Chicago. I'm not going ten miles from home."</p> + +<p>"Where then, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"You've seen the big ships come in along the water-front? They are +bringing over hundreds of emigrants every year and landing them right +on those docks. These people have had to cross the ocean to reach that +point, but our ancestors made the voyage for you and me two hundred +years ago. We're within ten miles of the wharf now."</p> + +<p>She couldn't make out what I meant.</p> + +<p>"Why, wife o' mine," I ran on, "all we need to do is to pack up, go +down to the dock and start from there. We must join the emigrants <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>and +follow them into the city. These are the only people who are finding +America to-day. We must take up life among them; work as they work; +live as they live. Why, I feel my back muscles straining even now; I +feel the tingle of coming down the gangplank with our fortunes yet to +make in this land of opportunity. Pasquale has done it; Murphy has +done it. Don't you think I can do it?"</p> + +<p>She looked up at me. I had never seen her face more beautiful. It was +flushed and eager. She clutched my arm. Then she whispered:</p> + +<p>"My man—my wonderful, good man!"</p> + +<p>The primitive appellation was in itself like a whiff of salt air. It +bore me back to the days when a husband's chief function was just +that—being a man to his own good woman. We looked for a moment into +each other's eyes. Then the same question was born to both of us in a +moment.</p> + +<p>"What of the boy?"</p> + +<p>It was a more serious question to her, I think, than it was to me. I +knew that the sons of other fathers and mothers had wrestled with that +life and come out strong. There were Murphy's boys, for instance. Of +course the life would be new to my boy, but the keen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>competition +ought to drive him to his best. His present life was not doing that. +As for the coarser details from which he had been so sheltered—well, +a man has to learn sooner or later, and I wasn't sure but that it was +better for him to learn at an age when such things would offer no real +temptations. With Ruth back of him I didn't worry much about that. +Besides, the boy had let drop a phrase or two that made me suspect +that even among his present associates that same ground was being +explored.</p> + +<p>"Ruth," I said, "I'm not worrying about Dick."</p> + +<p>"He has been kept so fresh," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"It isn't the fresh things that keep longest," I said.</p> + +<p>"That's true, Billy," she answered.</p> + +<p>Then she thought a moment, and as though with new inspiration answered +me using again that same tender, primitive expression:</p> + +<p>"I don't fear for my man-child."</p> + +<p>When the boy came home from school that night I had a long talk with +him. I told him frankly how I had been forced out of my position, how +I had tried for another, how at length I had resolved to go pioneering +just as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>his great-grandfather had done among the Indians. As I +thought, the naked adventure of it appealed to him. That was all I +wished; it was enough to work on.</p> + +<p>The next day I brought out a second-hand furniture dealer and made as +good a bargain as I could with him for the contents of the house. We +saved nothing but the sheer essentials for light housekeeping. These +consisted of most of the cooking utensils, a half dozen plates, cups +and saucers and about a dozen other pieces for the table, four +tablecloths, all the bed linen, all our clothes, including some old +clothes we had been upon the point of throwing away, a few personal +gimcracks, and for furniture the following articles: the folding +wooden kitchen table, a half dozen chairs, the cot bed in the boy's +room, the iron bed in our room, the long mirror I gave Ruth on her +birthday, and a sort of china closet that stood in the dining-room. To +this we added bowls, pitchers, and lamps. All the rest, which included +a full dining-room set, a full dinner set of china, the furnishings of +the front room, including books and book case, chairs, rugs, pictures +and two or three good chairs, a full bed-room set in our room and a +cheaper one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>in the boy's room, piazza furnishings, garden tools, and +forty odds and ends all of which had cost me first and last something +like two thousand dollars, I told the dealer to lump together. He +looked it over and bid six hundred dollars. I saw Ruth swallow hard, +for she had taken good care of everything so that to us it was worth +as much to-day as we had paid for it. But I accepted the offer without +dickering, for it was large enough to serve my ends. It would pay off +all our debts and leave us a hundred dollars to the good. It was the +first time since I married that I had been that much ahead.</p> + +<p>That afternoon I saw Murphy and hired of him the top tenement of his +new house. It was in the Italian quarter of the city and my flat +consisted of four rooms. The rent was three dollars a week. Murphy +looked surprised enough at the change in my affairs and I made him +promise not to gossip to the neighbors about where I'd gone.</p> + +<p>"Faith, sor," he said, "and they wouldn't believe it if I told them."</p> + +<p>This wasn't all I accomplished that day. I bought a pair of overalls +and presented myself at the office of a contractor's agent. I didn't +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>have any trouble in getting in there and I didn't feel like a beggar +as I took my place in line with about a dozen foreigners. I looked +them over with a certain amount of self-confidence. Most of them were +undersized men with sagging shoulders and primitive faces. With their +big eyes they made me think of shaggy Shetland ponies. Lined up man +for man with my late associates they certainly looked like an inferior +lot. I studied them with curiosity; there must be more in them than +showed on the surface to bring them over here—there must be something +that wasn't in the rest of us for them to make good the way they did. +In the next six months I meant to find out what that was. In the +meantime just sitting there among them I felt as though I had more +elbow room than I had had since I was eighteen. Before me as before +them a continent stretched its great length and breadth. They laughed +and joked among themselves and stared about at everything with eager, +curious eyes. They were ready for anything, and everything was ready +for them—the ditch, the mines, the railroads, the wheat fields. +Wherever things were growing and needed men to help them grow, they +would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>play their part. They say there's plenty of room at the top, +but there's plenty of room at the bottom, too. It's in the middle that +men get pinched.</p> + +<p>I worked my way up to the window where a sallow, pale-faced clerk sat +in front of a big book. He gave me a start, he was such a contrast to +the others. In my new enthusiasm I wanted to ask him why he didn't +come out and get in line the other side of the window. He yawned as he +wrote down my name. I didn't have to answer more than half a dozen +questions before he told me to report for work Monday at such and such +a place. I asked him what the work was and he looked up.</p> + +<p>"Subway," he answered.</p> + +<p>I asked him how much the pay was. He looked me over at this. I don't +know what he thought I was.</p> + +<p>"Dollar and a half—nine hours."</p> + +<p>"All right," I answered.</p> + +<p>He gave me a slip of paper and I hurried out. It hadn't taken ten +minutes. And a dollar and a half a day was nine dollars a week! It was +almost twice as much as I had started on with the United; it was over +a third of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>what I had been getting after my first ten years of hard +work with them. It seemed too good to be true. Taking out the rent, +this left me six dollars for food. That was as much as it had cost +Ruth and me the first year we were married. There was no need of going +hungry on that.</p> + +<p>I came back home jubilant. Ruth at first took the prospect of my +digging in a ditch a bit hard, but that was only because she +contrasted it with my former genteel employment.</p> + +<p>"Why, girl," I explained, "it's no more than I would have to do if we +took a homestead out west. I'd as soon dig in Massachusetts as +Montana."</p> + +<p>She felt of my arm. It's a big arm. Then she smiled. It was the last +time she mentioned the subject.</p> + +<p>We didn't say anything to the neighbors until the furniture began to +go out. Then the women flocked in and Ruth was hard pressed to keep +our secret. I sat upstairs and chuckled as I heard her replies. She +says it's the only time I ever failed to stand by her, but it didn't +seem to me like anything but a joke.</p> + +<p>"We shall want to keep track of you," said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>little Mrs. Grover. "Where +shall we address you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't tell," answered Ruth, truthfully enough.</p> + +<p>"Are you going far?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Oh—a long, long way."</p> + +<p>That was true enough too. We couldn't have gone farther out of their +lives if we'd sailed for Australia.</p> + +<p>And so they kept it up. That night we made a round of the houses and +everyone was very much surprised and very much grieved and very +curious. To all their inquiries, I made the same reply; that I was +going to emigrate. Some of them looked wistful.</p> + +<p>"Jove," said Brown, who was with the insurance company, "but I wish I +had the nerve to do that. I suppose you're going west?"</p> + +<p>"We're going west first," I answered.</p> + +<p>The road to the station was almost due west.</p> + +<p>"They say there are great chances out in that country," he said. "It +isn't so overcrowded as here."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," I answered, "but there are chances enough."</p> + +<p>Some of the women cried and all the men shook hands cordially and +wished us good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>luck. But it didn't mean much to me. The time I needed +their handshakes was gone. I learned later that as a result of our +secrecy I was variously credited with having lost my reason with my +job; with having inherited a fortune, with having gambled in the +market, with, thrown in for good measure, a darker hint about having +misappropriated funds of the United Woollen. But somehow their +nastiest gossip did not disturb me. It had no power to harm either me +or mine. I was already beyond their reach. Before I left I wished them +all Godspeed on the dainty journey they were making in their +cockleshell. Then so far as they were concerned I dropped off into the +sea with my wife and boy.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>WE PROSPECT</h4> +<br /> + +<p>We were lucky in getting into a new tenement and lucky in securing the +top floor. This gave us easy access to the flat roof five stories +above the street. From here we not only had a magnificent view of the +harbor, but even on the hottest days felt something of a sea breeze. +Coming down here in June we appreciated that before the summer was +over.</p> + +<p>The street was located half a dozen blocks from the waterfront and was +inhabited almost wholly by Italians, save for a Frenchman on the +corner who ran a bake-shop. The street itself was narrow and dirty +enough, but it opened into a public square which was decidedly +picturesque. This was surrounded by tiny shops and foreign banks, and +was always alive with color and incident. The vegetables displayed on +the sidewalk stands, the gay hues of the women's gowns, the gaudy +kerchiefs of the men, gave it a kaleidoscopic effect that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>made it as +fascinating to us as a trip abroad. The section was known as Little +Italy, and so far as we were concerned was as interesting as Italy +itself.</p> + +<p>There were four other families in the house, but the only things we +used in common were the narrow iron stairway leading upstairs and the +roof. The other tenants, however, seldom used the latter at all except +to hang out their occasional washings. For the first month or so we +saw little of these people. We were far too busy to make overtures, +and as for them they let us severely alone. They were not noisy, and +except for a sick baby on the first floor we heard little of them +above the clamor of the street below. We had four rooms. The front +room we gave to the boy, the next room we ourselves occupied, the +third room we used for a sitting-and dining-room, while the fourth was +a small kitchen with running water. As compared with our house the +quarters at first seemed cramped, but we had cut down our furniture to +what was absolutely essential, and as soon as our eyes ceased making +the comparison we were surprised to find how comfortable we were. In +the dining-room, for instance, we had nothing but three <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>chairs, a +folding table and a closet for the dishes. Lounging chairs and so +forth we did away with altogether. Nor was there any need of making +provision for possible guests. Here throughout the whole house was the +greatest saving. I took a fierce pleasure at first in thus caring for +my own alone.</p> + +<p>The boy's room contained a cot, a chair, a rug and a few of his +personal treasures; our own room contained just the bed, chair and +washstand. Ruth added a few touches with pictures and odds and ends +that took off the bare aspect without cluttering up. In two weeks +these scant quarters were every whit as much home as our tidy little +house had been. That was Ruth's part in it. She'd make a home out of a +prison.</p> + +<p>On the second day we were fairly settled, and that night after the boy +had gone to bed Ruth sat down at my side with a pad and pencil in her +hand.</p> + +<p>"Billy," she said, "there's one thing we're going to do in this new +beginning: we're going to save—if it's only ten cents a week."</p> + +<p>I shook my head doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you can't until I get a raise," I said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>"We tried waiting for raises before," she answered.</p> + +<p>"I know, but—"</p> + +<p>"There aren't going to be any buts," she answered decidedly.</p> + +<p>"But six dollars a week—"</p> + +<p>"Is six dollars a week," she broke in. "We must live on five-fifty, +that's all."</p> + +<p>"With steak thirty cents a pound?"</p> + +<p>"We won't have steak. That's the point. Our neighbors around here +don't look starved, and they have larger families than ours. And they +don't even buy intelligently."</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?"</p> + +<p>"I've been watching them at the little stores in the square. They pay +there as much for half-decayed stuff as they'd have to pay for fresh +odds and ends at the big market."</p> + +<p>She rested her pad upon her knee.</p> + +<p>"Now in the first place, Billy, we're going to live much more simply."</p> + +<p>"We've never been extravagant," I said.</p> + +<p>"Not in a way," she answered slowly, "but in another way we have. I've +been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days and I see now where +we've had a great many unnecessary things."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>"Not for the last few weeks, anyhow," I said.</p> + +<p>"Those don't count. But before that I mean. For instance there's +coffee. It's a luxury. Why we spent almost thirty cents a week on that +alone."</p> + +<p>"I know but—"</p> + +<p>"There's another but. There's no nourishment in coffee and we can't +afford it. We'll spend that money for milk. We must have good milk and +you must get it for me somewhere up town. I don't like the looks of +the milk around here. That will be eight cents a day."</p> + +<p>"Better have two quarts," I suggested.</p> + +<p>She thought a moment.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she agreed, "two quarts, because that's going to be the basis +of our food. That's a dollar twelve cents a week."</p> + +<p>She made up a little face at this. I smiled grandly.</p> + +<p>"Now for breakfast we must have oatmeal every morning. And we'll get +it in bulk. I've priced it and it's only a little over three cents a +pound at some of the stores."</p> + +<p>"And the kind we've always had?"</p> + +<p>"About twelve when it's done up in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>packages. That's about the +proportion by which I expect to cut down everything. But you'll have +to eat milk on it instead of cream. Then we'll use a lot of potatoes. +They are very good baked for breakfast. And with them you may have +salt fish—oh, there are a dozen nice ways of fixing that. And you may +have griddle cakes and—you wait and see the things I'll give you for +breakfast. You'll have to have a good luncheon of course, but we'll +have our principal meal when you get back from work at night. But you +won't get steak. When we do get meat we'll buy soup bones and meat we +can boil. And instead of pies and cakes we'll have nourishing puddings +of cornstarch and rice. There's another good point—rice. It's cheap +and we'll have a lot of it. Look at how the Japanese live on it day +after day and keep fat and strong. Then there's cheap fish; rock cod +and such to make good chowders of or to fry in pork fat like the bass +and trout I used to have back home. Then there's baked beans. We ought +to have them at least twice a week in the winter. But this summer +we'll live mostly on fish and vegetables. I can get them fresh at the +market."</p> + +<p>"It sounds good," I said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>"Just you wait," she cried excitedly. "I'll fatten up both you and the +boy."</p> + +<p>"And yourself, little woman," I reminded her. "I'm not going to take +the saving out of you."</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about me," she answered. "This will be easier than +the other life. I shan't have to worry about clothes or dinners or +parties for the boy. And it isn't going to take any time at all to +keep these four rooms clean and sweet."</p> + +<p>I took the rest of the week as a sort of vacation and used it to get +acquainted with my new surroundings. It's a fact that this section of +the city which for twenty years had been within a short walk of my +office was as foreign to me as Europe. I had never before been down +here and all I knew about it was through the occasional head-lines in +the papers in connection with stabbing affrays. For the first day or +two I felt as though I ought to carry a revolver. Whenever I was +forced to leave Ruth alone in the house I instructed her upon no +circumstances to open the door. The boy and I arranged a secret +rap—an idea that pleased him mightily—and until she heard the single +knock followed by two quick sharp ones, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>she was not to answer. But in +wandering around among these people it was difficult to think of them +as vicious. The Italian element was a laughing, indolent-appearing +group; the scattered Jewish folk were almost timid and kept very much +to themselves. I didn't find a really tough face until I came to the +water front where they spoke English.</p> + +<p>On the third morning after a breakfast of oatmeal and hot +biscuit—and, by the way, Ruth effected a fifty per cent. saving right +here by using the old-fashioned formula of soda and cream of tartar +instead of baking powder—and baked potatoes, Ruth and the boy and +myself started on an exploring trip. Our idea was to get a line on +just what our opportunities were down here and to nose out the best +and cheapest places to buy. The thing that impressed us right off was +the big advantage we had in being within easy access of the big +provision centres. We were within ten minutes' walk of the market, +within fifteen of the water front, within three of the square and +within twenty of the department stores. At all of these places we +found special bargains for the day made to attract in town those from +a distance. If one rose early and reached <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>them about as soon as they +were opened one could often buy things almost at cost and sometimes +below cost. For instance, we went up town to one of the largest but +cheaper grade department stores—we had heard its name for years but +had never been inside the building—and we found that in their grocery +department they had special mark-downs every day in the week for a +limited supply of goods. We bought sugar this day at a cent a pound +less than the market price and good beans for two cents a quart less. +It sounds at first like rather picayune saving but it counts up at the +end of the year. Then every stall in the market had its bargain of +meats—wholesome bits but unattractive to the careless buyer. We +bought here for fifty cents enough round steak for several good meals +of hash. We couldn't have bought it for less than a dollar in the +suburbs and even at that we wouldn't have known anything about it for +the store was too far for Ruth to make a personal visit and the +butcher himself would never have mentioned such an odd end to a member +of our neighborhood.</p> + +<p>We enjoyed wandering around this big market which in itself was like a +trip to another <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>land. Later one of our favorite amusements was to +come down here at night and watch the hustling crowds and the lights +and the pretty colors and confusion. It reminded Ruth, she said, of a +country fair. She always carried a pad and pencil and made notes of +good places to buy. I still have those and am referring to them now as +I write this.</p> + +<p>"Blanks," she writes (I omit the name), "nice clean store with +pleasant salesman. Has good soup bones."</p> + +<p>Again, "Blank and Blank—good place to buy sausage."</p> + +<p>Here too the market gardeners gathered as early as four o'clock with +their vegetables fresh from the suburbs. They did mostly a wholesale +business but if one knew how it was always possible to buy of them a +cabbage or a head of lettuce or a few apples or a peck of potatoes. +They were a genial, ruddy-cheeked lot and after a while they came to +know Ruth. Often I'd go up there with her before work and she with a +basket on her arm would buy for the day. It was always, "Good morning, +miss," in answer to her smile. They were respectful whether I was +along or not. But for that matter I never knew anyone who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>wasn't +respectful to Ruth. They used to like to see her come, I think, for +she stood out in rather marked contrast to the bowed figures of the +other women. Later on they used to save out for her any particularly +choice vegetable they might have. She insisted however in paying them +an extra penny for such things.</p> + +<p>From the market we went down a series of narrow streets which led to +the water front. Here the vessels from the Banks come in to unload. +The air was salty and though to us at first the wharves seemed dirty +we got used to them, after a while, and enjoyed the smell of the fish +fresh from the water.</p> + +<p>Seeing whole push carts full of fish and watching them handled with a +pitch fork as a man tosses hay didn't whet our appetites any, but when +we remembered that it was these same fish—a day or two older,—for +which we had been paying double the price charged for them here the +difference overcame our scruples. The men here interested me. I found +that while the crew of every schooner numbered a goodly per cent. of +foreigners, still the greater part were American born. The new comers +as a rule bought small launches of their own and went into business +for themselves. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>English speaking portion of the crews were also +as a rule the rougher element. The loafers and hangers-on about the +wharves were also English speaking. This was a fact that later on I +found to be rather significant and to hold true in a general way in +all branches of the lower class of labor.</p> + +<p>The barrooms about here—always a pretty sure index of the men of any +community—were more numerous and of decidedly a rougher character +than those about the square. A man would be a good deal better +justified in carrying a revolver on this street than he would in +Little Italy. I never allowed Ruth to come down here alone.</p> + +<p>From here we wandered back and I found a public playground and +bathhouse by the water's edge. This attracted me at once. I +investigated this and found it offered a fine opportunity for bathing. +Little dressing-rooms were provided and for a penny a man could get a +clean towel and for five cents a bathing suit. There was no reason +that I could see, however, why we shouldn't provide our own. It was +within an easy ten minutes of the flat and I saw right then where I +would get a dip every day. It would be a great thing for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>boy, +too. I had always wanted him to learn to swim.</p> + +<p>On the way home we passed through the Jewish quarter and I made a note +of the clothing offered for sale here. The street was lined with +second hand stores with coats and trousers swinging over the sidewalk, +and the windows were filled with odd lots of shoes. Then too there +were the pawnshops. I'd always thought of a pawnshop as not being +exactly respectable and had the feeling that anyone who secured +anything from one of them was in a way a receiver of stolen goods. But +as I passed them now, I received a new impression. They seemed, down +here, as legitimate a business as the second hand stores. The windows +offered an assortment of everything from watches to banjoes and guns +but among them I also noticed many carpenter's tools and so forth. +That might be a useful thing to remember.</p> + +<p>It was odd how in a day our point of view had changed. If I had +brought Ruth and the boy down through here a month before, we would +all, I think, have been more impressed by the congestion and the +picturesque details of the squalor than anything else. We would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>have +picked our way gingerly and Ruth would have sighed often in pity and, +comparing the lives of these people with our own, would probably have +made an extra generous contribution to the Salvation Army the next +time they came round. I'm not saying now that there isn't misery +enough there and in every like section of every city, but I'll say +that in a great many cases the same people who grovel in the filth +here would grovel in a different kind of filth if they had ten +thousand a year. At that you can't blame them greatly for they don't +know any better. But when you learn, as I learned later, that some of +the proprietors of these second hand stores and fly-blown butcher +shops have sons in Harvard and daughters in Wellesley, it makes you +think. But I'm running ahead.</p> + +<p>The point was that now that we felt ourselves in a way one of these +people and viewed the street not from the superior height of +native-born Americans but just as emigrants, neither the soiled +clothes of the inhabitants nor the cluttered street swarming with +laughing youngsters impressed us unfavorably at all. The impassive men +smoking cigarettes at their doors looked contented enough, the women +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>were not such as to excite pity, and if you noticed, there were as +many children around the local soda water fountains as you'd find in a +suburban drug store. They all had clothes enough and appeared well fed +and if some of them looked pasty, the sweet stuff in the stores was +enough to account for that.</p> + +<p>At any rate we came back to our flat that day neither depressed nor +discouraged but decidedly in better spirits. Of course we had seen +only the surface and I suspected that when we really got into these +lives we'd find a bad condition of things. It must be so, for that was +the burden of all we read. But we would have time enough to worry +about that when we discovered it for ourselves.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I BECOME A DAY LABORER</h4> +<br /> + +<p>That night Ruth and I had a talk about the boy. We both came back from +our walk, with him more on our minds than anything else. He had been +interested in everything and had asked about a thousand questions and +gone to bed eager to be out on the street again the next day. We knew +we couldn't keep him cooped up in the flat all the time and of course +both Ruth and I were going to be too busy to go out with him every +time he went. As for letting him run loose around these streets with +nothing to do, that would be sheer foolhardiness. It was too late in +the season to enroll him in the public schools and even that would +have left him idle during the long summer months.</p> + +<p>We talked some at first of sending him off into the country to a farm. +There were two or three families back where Ruth had lived who might +be willing to take him for three or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>four dollars a week and we had +the money left over from the sale of our household goods to cover +that. But this would mean the sacrifice of our emergency fund which we +wished to preserve more for the boy's sake than our own and it would +mean leaving Ruth very much alone.</p> + +<p>"I'll do it, Billy," she said bravely, "but can't we wait a day or two +before deciding? And I think I can <i>make</i> time to get out with him. +I'll get up earlier in the morning and I'll leave my work at night +until after he's gone to bed."</p> + +<p>So she would. She'd have worked all night to keep him at home and then +gone out with him all day if it had been possible. I saw it would be +dragging the heart out of her to send the boy away and made up my mind +right then and there that some other solution must be found for the +problem. Good Lord, after I'd led her down here the least I could do +was to let her keep the one. And to tell the truth I found my own +heart sink at the suggestion.</p> + +<p>"What do the boys round here do in the summer?" she asked.</p> + +<p>I didn't know and I made up my mind to find out. The next day I went +down to a settlement house which I remembered passing at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>some time or +other. I didn't know what it was but it sounded like some sort of +philanthropic enterprise for the neighborhood and if so they ought to +be able to answer my questions there. The outside of the building was +not particularly attractive but upon entering I was pleasantly +surprised at the air of cleanliness and comfort which prevailed. There +were a number of small boys around and in one room I saw them reading +and playing checkers. I sought out the secretary and found him a +pleasant young fellow though with something of the professional +pleasantness which men in this work seem to acquire. He smiled too +much and held my hand a bit too long to suit me. He took me into his +office and offered me a chair. I told him briefly that I had just +moved down here and had a boy of ten whom I wished to keep off the +streets and keep occupied. I asked him what the boys around here did +during the summer.</p> + +<p>"Most of them work," he answered.</p> + +<p>I hadn't thought of this.</p> + +<p>"What do they do?"</p> + +<p>"A good many sell papers, some of them serve as errand boys and others +help their parents."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>Dick was certainly too inexperienced for the first two jobs and there +was nothing in my work he could do to help. Then the man began to ask +me questions. He was evidently struck by the fact that I didn't seem +to be in place here. I answered briefly that I had been a clerk all my +life, had lost my position and was now a common day laborer. The boy, +I explained, was not yet used to his life down here and I wanted to +keep him occupied until he got his strength.</p> + +<p>"You're right," he answered. "Why don't you bring him in here?"</p> + +<p>"What would he do here?"</p> + +<p>"It's a good loafing place for him and we have some evening classes."</p> + +<p>"I want him at home nights," I answered.</p> + +<p>"The Y.M.C.A. has summer classes which begin a little later on. Why +don't you put him into some of those?"</p> + +<p>I had always heard of the Y.M.C.A., but I had never got into touch +with it, for I thought it was purely a religious organization. But +that proposition sounded good. I'd passed the building a thousand +times but had never been inside. I thanked him and started to leave.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>"I hope this won't be your last visit," he said cordially. "Come down +and see what we're doing. You'll find a lot of boys here at night."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I answered.</p> + +<p>I went direct to the Y.M.C.A. building. Here again I was surprised to +find a most attractive interior. It looked like the inside of a +prosperous club house. I don't know what I expected but I wouldn't +have been startled if I'd found a hall filled with wooden settees and +a prayer meeting going on. I had a lot of such preconceived notions +knocked out of my head in the next few years.</p> + +<p>In response to my questions I received replies that made me feel I'd +strayed by mistake into some university. For that matter it <i>was</i> a +university. There was nothing from the primary class in English to a +professional education in the law that a man couldn't acquire here for +a sum that was astonishingly small. The most of the classes cost +nothing after payment of the membership fee of ten dollars. The +instructors were, many of them, the same men who gave similar courses +at a neighboring college. Not only that, but the hours were so +arranged as to accommodate workers of all classes. If you couldn't +attend in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>daytime, you could at night. I was astonished to think +that this opportunity had always been at my hand and I had never +suspected it. In the ten years before I was married I could have +qualified as a lawyer or almost anything else.</p> + +<p>This was not all; a young man took me over the building and showed me +the library, the reading-room, rooms where the young men gathered for +games, and then down stairs to the well equipped gymnasium with its +shower baths. Here a boy could take a regular course in gymnasium work +under a skilled instructor or if he showed any skill devote himself to +such sports as basketball, running, baseball or swimming. In addition +to these advantages amusements were provided through the year in the +form of lectures, amateur shows and music. In the summer, special +opportunities were offered for out-door sports. Moreover the +Association managed summer camps where for a nominal fee the boys +could enjoy the life of the woods. A boy must be poor indeed who could +not afford most of these opportunities. And if he was out of work the +employment bureau conducted here would help him to a position. I came +back to the main <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>office wondering still more how in the world I'd +ever missed such chances all these years. It was a question I asked +myself many times during the next few months. And the answer seemed to +lie in the dead level of that other life. We never lifted our eyes; we +never looked around us. If we were hard pressed either we accepted our +lot resignedly or cursed our luck, and let it go at that. These +opportunities were for a class which had no lot and didn't know the +meaning of luck. The others could have had them, too—can have +them—for the taking, but neither by education nor temperament are +they qualified to do so. There's a good field for missionary work +there for someone.</p> + +<p>Before I came out of the building I had enrolled Dick as a member and +picked out for him a summer course in English in which he was a bit +backward. I also determined to start him in some regular gymnasium +work. He needed hardening up.</p> + +<p>I came home and announced my success to Ruth and she was delighted. I +suspected by the look in her eyes that she had been worrying all day +for fear there would be no alternative but to send the boy off.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>"I knew you would find a way," she said excitedly.</p> + +<p>"I wish I'd found it twenty years ago," I said regretfully. "Then +you'd have a lawyer for a husband instead of a—."</p> + +<p>"Hush," she answered putting her hand over my mouth. "I've a man for a +husband and that's all I care about."</p> + +<p>The way she said it made me feel that after all being a man was what +counted and that if I could live up to that day by day, no matter what +happened, then I could be well satisfied. I guess the city directory +was right when before now it couldn't define me any more definitely +than, "clerk." And there is about as much man in a clerk as in a +valet. They are both shadows.</p> + +<p>The boy fell in with my plans eagerly, for the gymnasium work made him +forget the study part of the programme. The next day I took him up +there and saw him introduced to the various department heads. I paid +his membership fee and they gave him a card which made him feel like a +real club man. I tell you it took a weight off my mind.</p> + +<p>On the Monday following our arrival in our new quarters, I rose at +five-thirty, put on my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>overalls and had breakfast. I ate a large bowl +of oatmeal, a generous supply of flapjacks, made of some milk that had +soured, sprinkled with molasses, and a cup of hot black coffee—the +last of a can we had brought down with us among the left-over kitchen +supplies.</p> + +<p>For lunch Ruth had packed my box with cold cream-of-tartar biscuit, +well buttered, a bit of cheese, a little bowl of rice pudding, two +hard-boiled eggs and a pint bottle of cold coffee. I kissed her goodby +and started out on foot for the street where I was to take up my work. +The foreman demanded my name, registered me, told me where to find a +shovel and assigned me to a gang under another foreman. At seven +o'clock I took my place with a dozen Italians and began to shovel. My +muscles were decidedly flabby, and by noon I began to find it hard +work. I was glad to stop and eat my lunch. I couldn't remember a meal +in five years that tasted as good as that did. My companions watched +me curiously—perhaps a bit suspiciously—but they chattered in a +foreign tongue among themselves and rather shied away from me. On that +first day I made up my mind to one thing—I would learn Italian before +the year was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>done, and know something more about these people and +their ways. They were the key to the contractor's problem and it would +pay a man to know how to handle them. As I watched the boss over us +that day it did not seem to me that he understood very well.</p> + +<p>From one to five the work became an increasing strain. Even with my +athletic training I wasn't used to such a prolonged test of one set of +muscles. My legs became heavy, my back ached, and my shoulders finally +refused to obey me except under the sheer command of my will. I knew, +however, that time would remedy this. I might be sore and lame for a +day or two, but I had twice the natural strength of these short, +close-knit foreigners. The excitement and novelty of the employment +helped me through those first few days. I felt the joy of the +pioneer—felt the sweet sense of delving in the mother earth. It +touched in me some responsive chord that harked back to my ancestors +who broke the rocky soil of New England. Of the life of my fellows +bustling by on the earth-crust overhead—those fellows of whom so +lately I had been one—I was not at all conscious. I might have been +at work on some new planet for all they touched my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>new life. I could +see them peering over the wooden rail around our excavation as they +stopped to stare down at us, but I did not connect them with myself. +And yet I felt closer to this old city than ever before. I thrilled +with the joy of the constructor, the builder, even in this humble +capacity. I felt superior to those for whom I was building. In a +coarse way I suppose it was a reflection of some artistic +sense—something akin to the creative impulse. I can say truthfully +that at the end of that first day I came home—begrimed and sore as I +was—with a sense of fuller life than so far I had ever experienced.</p> + +<p>I found Ruth waiting for me with some anxiety. She came into my +soil-stained arms as eagerly as a bride. It was good. It took all the +soreness out of me. Before supper I took the boy and we went down to +the public baths on the waterfront and there I dived and splashed and +swam like a young whale. The sting of the cold salt water was all the +further balm I needed. I came out tingling and fit right then for +another nine-hour day. But when I came back I threatened our first +week's savings at the supper-table. Ruth had made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>more hot +griddle-cakes and I kept her at the stove until I was ashamed to do it +longer. The boy, too, after his plunge, showed a better appetite than +for weeks.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>NINE DOLLARS A WEEK</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The second day, I woke up lame and stiff but I gave myself a good +brisk rub down and kneaded my arm and leg muscles until they were +pretty well limbered up. The thing that pleased me was the way I felt +towards my new work that second morning. I'd been a bit afraid of a +reaction—of waking up with all the romance gone. That, I knew, would +be deadly. Once let me dwell on the naked material facts of my +condition and I'd be lost. That's true of course in any occupation. +The man who works without an inspiration of some sort is not only +discontented but a poor workman. I remember distinctly that when I +opened my eyes and realized my surroundings and traced back the +incidents of yesterday to the ditch, I was concerned principally with +the problem of a stone in our path upon which we had been working. I +wanted to get back to it. We had worked upon it for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>an hour without +fully uncovering it and I was as eager as the foreman to learn whether +it was a ledge rock or just a fragment. This interest was not +associated with the elevated road for whom the work was being done, +nor the contractor who had undertaken the job, nor the foreman who was +supervising it. It was a question which concerned only me and Mother +Earth who seemed to be doing her best to balk us at every turn. I +forgot the sticky, wet clay in which I had floundered for nine hours, +forgot the noisome stench which at times we were forced to breathe, +forgot my lame hands and back. I recalled only the problem itself and +the skill with which the man they called Anton' handled his crow bar. +He was a master of it. In removing the smaller slabs which lay around +the big one he astonished me with his knowledge of how to place the +bar. He'd come to my side where I was prying with all my strength and +with a wave of his hand for me to stand back, would adjust two or +three smaller rocks as a fulcrum and then, with the gentlest of +movements, work the half-ton weight inch by inch to where he wanted +it. He could swing the rock to the right or left, raise or lower it, +at will, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>and always he made the weight of the rock, against which I +had striven so vainly, do the work. That was something worth learning. +I wanted to get back and study him. I wanted to get back and finish +uncovering that rock. I wanted to get back and bring the job as a +whole to a finish so as to have a new one to tackle. Even at the end +of that first day I felt I had learned enough to make myself a man of +greater power than I was the day before. And always in the background +was the unknown goal to which this toil was to lead. I hadn't yet +stopped to figure out what the goal was but that it was worth while I +had no doubt for I was no longer stationary. I was a constructor. I +was in touch with a big enterprise of development.</p> + +<p>I don't know that I've made myself clear. I wasn't very clear in my +own mind then but I know that I had a very conscious impression of the +sort which I've tried to put into words. And I know that it filled me +with a great big joy. I never woke up with any such feeling when with +the United Woollen. My only thought in the morning then was how much +time I must give myself to catch the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>six-thirty. When I reached the +office I hung up my hat and coat and sat down to the impersonal +figures like an automaton. There was nothing of me in the work; there +couldn't be. How petty it seemed now! I suppose the company, as an +industrial enterprise, was in the line of development, but that idea +never penetrated as far as the clerical department. We didn't feel it +any more than the adding machines do.</p> + +<p>Ruth had a good breakfast for me and when I came into the kitchen she +was trying to brush the dried clay off my overalls.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens!" I said, "don't waste your strength doing that."</p> + +<p>She looked up from her task with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to let you get slack down here" she said.</p> + +<p>"But those things will look just as bad again five minutes after I've +gone down the ladder."</p> + +<p>"But I don't intend they shall look like this on your way to the +ladder," she answered.</p> + +<p>"All right," I said "then let me have them. I'll do it myself."</p> + +<p>"Have you shaved?" she asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>I rubbed my hand over my chin. It wasn't very bad and I'd made up my +mind I wouldn't shave every day now.</p> + +<p>"No," I said. "But twice or three times a week—"</p> + +<p>"Billy!" she broke in, "that will never do. You're going down to your +new business looking just as ship-shape as you went to the old. You +don't belong to that contractor; you belong to me."</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile the boy came in with my heavy boots which he had +brushed clean and oiled. There was nothing left for me to do but to +shave and I'll admit I felt better for it.</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to put on a high collar?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you find the things I laid out for you?"</p> + +<p>I hadn't looked about. I'd put on the things I took off. She led me +back into the bed room, and over a chair I saw a clean change of +underclothing and a new grey flannel shirt.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get this?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I bought it for a dollar," she answered. "It's too much to pay. I can +make one for fifty cents as soon as I get time to sew."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>That's the way Ruth was. Every day after this she made me change, +after I came back from my swim, into the business suit I wore when I +came down here, and which now by contrast looked almost new. She even +made me wear a tie with my flannel shirt. Every morning I started out +clean shaven and with my work clothes as fresh as though I were a +contractor myself. I objected at first because it seemed too much for +her to do to wash the things every day, but she said it was a good +deal easier than washing them once a week. Incidentally that was one +of her own little schemes for saving trouble and it seemed to me a +good one; instead of collecting her soiled clothes for seven days and +then tearing herself all to pieces with a whole hard forenoon's work, +she washed a little every day. By this plan it took her only about an +hour each morning to keep all the linen in the house clean and sweet. +We had the roof to dry it on and she never ironed anything except +perhaps the tablecloths and handkerchiefs. We had no company to cater +to and as long as we knew things were clean that's all we cared.</p> + +<p>We got around the rock all right. It proved not to be a ledge after +all. I myself, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>however, didn't accomplish as much as I did the first +day, for I was slower in my movements. On the other hand, I think I +improved a little in my handling of the crowbar. At the noon hour I +tried to start a conversation with Anton', but he understood little +English and I knew no Italian, so we didn't get far. As he sat in a +group of his fellow countrymen laughing and jabbering he made me feel +distinctly like an outsider. There were one or two English-speaking +workmen besides myself, but somehow they didn't interest me as much as +these Italians. It may have been my imagination but they seemed to me +a decidedly inferior lot. As a rule they were men who took the job +only to keep themselves from starving and quit at the end of a week or +two only to come back when they needed more money.</p> + +<p>I must make an exception of an Irishman I will call Dan Rafferty. He +was a big blue-eyed fellow, full of fun and fight, with a good natured +contempt of the Dagoes, and was a born leader. I noticed, the first +day, that he came nearer being the boss of the gang than the foreman, +and I suspect the latter himself noticed it, for he seemed to have it +in for Dan. There never was an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>especially dirty job to be done but +what Dan was sent. He always obeyed but he used to slouch off with his +big red fist doubled up, muttering curses that brought out his brogue +at its best. Later on he confided in me what he was going to do to +that boss. If he had carried out his threats he would long since have +been electrocuted and I would have lost a good friend. Several times I +thought the two men were coming to blows but though Dan would have +dearly loved a fight and could have handled a dozen men like the +foreman, he always managed to control himself in time to avoid it.</p> + +<p>"I don't wanter be after losin' me job for the dirthy spalpeen," he +growled to me.</p> + +<p>But he came near it in a way he wasn't looking for later in the week. +It was Friday and half a dozen of us had been sent down to work on the +second level. It was damp and suffocating down there, fifty feet below +the street. I felt as though I had gone into the mines. I didn't like +it but I knew that there was just as much to learn here as above and +that it must all be learned eventually. The sides were braced with +heavy timbers like a mine shaft to prevent the dirt from falling in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>and there was the constant danger that in spite of this it might cave +in. We went down by rough ladders made by nailing strips of board +across two pieces of joist and the work down there was back-breaking +and monotonous. We heaved the dirt into a big iron bucket lowered by +the hoisting engine above. It was heavy, wet soil that weighed like +lead.</p> + +<p>From the beginning the men complained of headaches and one by one they +crawled up the ladder again for fresh air. Others were sent down but +at the end of an hour they too retreated. Dan and I stuck it out for a +while. Then I began to get dizzy myself. I didn't know what the +trouble was but when I began to wobble a bit Dan placed his hand on my +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Betther climb out o' here," he said. "I'm thinkin' it's gas."</p> + +<p>At that time I didn't know what sewer gas was. I couldn't smell +anything and thought he must be mistaken.</p> + +<p>"You'd better come too," I answered, making for the ladder.</p> + +<p>He wasn't coming but I couldn't get up very well without him so he +followed along behind. At the top we found the foreman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>fighting mad +and trying to spur on another gang to go down. They wouldn't move. +When he saw us come up he turned upon Dan.</p> + +<p>"Who ordered you out of there?" he growled.</p> + +<p>"The gas," answered Dan.</p> + +<p>"Gas be damned," shouted the foreman. "You're a bunch of white livered +cowards—all of you."</p> + +<p>I saw Dan double up his fists and start towards the man. The latter +checked him with a command.</p> + +<p>"Go back down there or you're fired," he said to him.</p> + +<p>Dan turned red. Then I saw his jaws come together.</p> + +<p>"Begod!" he answered. "<i>You</i> shan't fire me, anyhow."</p> + +<p>Without another word he started down the ladder again. I saw the +Italians crowd together and watch him. By that time my head was +clearer but my legs were weak. I sat down a moment uncertain what to +do. Then I heard someone shout:</p> + +<p>"By God, he's right! He's lying there at the bottom."</p> + +<p>I started towards the ladder but some one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>shoved me back. Then I +thought of the bucket. It was above ground and I staggered towards it +gaining strength at each step. I jumped in and shouted to the engineer +to lower me. He obeyed from instinct. I went down, down, down to what +seemed like the center of the earth. When the bucket struck the ground +I was dizzy again but I managed to get out, heave the unconscious Dan +in and pile on top of him myself. When I came to, I was in an +ambulance on my way to the hospital but by the time I had reached the +emergency room I had taken a grip on myself. I knew that if ever Ruth +heard of this she would never again be comfortable. When they took us +out I was able to walk a little. The doctors wanted to put me to bed +but I refused to go. I sat there for about an hour while they worked +over Dan. When I found that he would be all right by morning I +insisted upon going out. I had a bad headache, but I knew the fresh +air would drive this away and so it did, though it left me weak.</p> + +<p>One of the hardest day's work I ever did in my life was killing time +from then until five o'clock. Of course the papers got hold of it and +that gave me another scare but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>luckily the nearest they came to my +name was Darlinton, so no harm was done. And they didn't come within a +mile of getting the real story. When in a later edition one of them +published my photograph I felt absolutely safe for they had me in a +full beard and thinner than I've ever been in my life.</p> + +<p>When I came home at my usual time looking a bit white perhaps but +otherwise normal enough, the first question Ruth asked me was:</p> + +<p>"What have you done with your dinner pail, Billy?"</p> + +<p>Isn't a man always sure to do some such fool thing as that, when he's +trying to keep something quiet from the wife? I had to explain that I +had forgotten it and that was enough to excite suspicion at any time. +She kept me uneasy for ten minutes and the best I could do was to +admit finally that I wasn't feeling very well. Whereupon she made me +go to bed and fussed over me all the evening and worried all the next +day.</p> + +<p>I reported for work as usual in the morning and found we had a new +foreman. It was a relief because I guess if Dan hadn't knocked down +the other one, someone else <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>would have done it sooner or later. At +that the man had taught me something about sewer gas and that is when +you begin to feel dizzy fifty feet below the street, it's time to go +up the ladder about as fast as your wobbly legs will let you, even if +you don't smell anything.</p> + +<p>Rafferty didn't turn up for two or three days. When he did appear it +was with a simple:</p> + +<p>"Mawnin, mon."</p> + +<p>It wasn't until several days later I learned that the late foreman had +left town nursing a black eye and a cut on one cheek such as might +have been made by a set of red knuckles backed by an arm the size of a +small ham.</p> + +<p>On Saturday night of that first week I came home with nine dollars in +my pocket. I'll never be prouder again than I was when I handed them +over to Ruth. And Ruth will never again be prouder than she was when, +after she had laid aside three of them for the rent and five for +current expenses, she picked out a one-dollar bill and, crossing the +room, placed it in the ginger jar. This was a little blue affair in +which we had always dropped what pennies and nickels we could spare.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>"There's our nest-egg," she announced.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to tell me you're that much ahead of the game the +first week?"</p> + +<p>"Look here, Billy," she answered.</p> + +<p>She brought out an itemized list of everything she had bought from +last Monday, including Sunday's dinner. I've kept that list. Many of +the things she had bought were not yet used up but she had computed +the cost of the amount actually used. Here it is as I copied it off:</p> + +<div class="block"> +<p class="noin"> + Flour, .25<br /> + Lard, .15<br /> + Cream of tartar and soda, .05<br /> + Oat meal, .04<br /> + Molasses, .05<br /> + Sugar, .12<br /> + Potatoes, .20<br /> + Rice, .06<br /> + Milk, 1.12<br /> + Eggs, .24<br /> + Rye bread, .10<br /> + Sausages, .22<br /> + Lettuce, .03<br /> + Beans, .12<br /> + Salt pork, .15<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> Corn meal, .06<br /> + Graham meal, .05<br /> + Butter, .45<br /> + Cheese, .06<br /> + Shin of beef, .39<br /> + Fish, .22<br /> + Oil, .28<br /> + Soap, .09<br /> + Vinegar, salt and pepper, about .05<br /> + Can of corn, .07<br /> + Onions, .06<br /> + Total $4.68</p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<p>In this account, too, Ruth was liberal in her margins. She did better +than this later on. A fairer estimate could have been made at the end +of the month and a still fairer even than that, at the end of the +year. It sounded almost too good to be true but it was a fact. We had +lived, and lived well on this amount and as yet Ruth was +inexperienced. She hadn't learned all she learned later. For the +benefit of those who may think we went hungry I have asked Ruth to +write out the bill of fare for this week as nearly as she can remember +it. One thing you must keep in mind is that of everything we had, we +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>had enough. Neither Ruth, the boy, nor myself ever left the table or +dinner pail unsatisfied. Here's what we had and it was better even +than it sounds for whatever Ruth made, she made well. I copy it as she +wrote it out.</p> + +<div class="block"><p class="cen">Monday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cream of tartar +biscuits, milk.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bowl of +rice, cold coffee; for Dick and me: cold biscuits, milk, rice.</p> + +<p>Dinner: baked potatoes, griddle-cakes, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Tuesday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: baked potatoes, graham muffins, oatmeal, milk.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, two hard-boiled eggs, rice, +milk; for Dick and me: cold muffins, rice and milk.</p> + +<p>Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, hot biscuits, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Wednesday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, fried potatoes, warmed over biscuits.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>hard-boiled eggs, bread +pudding; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, cold biscuits, bread +pudding.</p> + +<p>Dinner: beef stew with dumplings, hot biscuits, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Thursday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: fried sausages, baked potatoes, graham muffins, milk.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, cold sausage and rice; for Dick +and me: the same.</p> + +<p>Dinner: warmed over stew, lettuce, hot biscuits, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Friday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, fried rock cod, baked potatoes, rye bread, +milk.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: rye bread, potato salad, rice; for Dick and +me: the same.</p> + +<p>Dinner: soup made from stock of beef, left over fish, boiled +potatoes, rice, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Saturday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, fried corn mush with molasses, milk.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, cheese, +rice; for Dick and me: German toast.</p> + +<p>Dinner: baked beans, hot biscuits.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>Sunday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: baked beans, graham muffins.</p> + +<p>Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, canned corn, corn cake, +bread pudding.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<p>A word about that bread pudding. Ruth tells me she puts in an extra +quart of milk and then bakes it all day when she bakes her beans, +stirring it every now and then. I never knew before how the trick was +done but it comes out a rich brown and tastes like plum pudding +without the raisins. She says that if you put in raisins it tastes +exactly like a plum pudding.</p> + +<p>So at the end of the first week I found myself with eighty dollars +left over from the old home, one dollar saved in the new, all my bills +paid, and Ruth, Dick and myself all fit as a fiddle.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>SUNDAY</h4> +<br /> + +<p>That first dollar saved was the germ of a new idea.</p> + +<p>It is a further confession of a middle-class mind that in coming down +here I had not looked forward beyond the immediate present. With the +horror of that last week still on me I had considered only the +opportunity I had for earning a livelihood. To be sure I had seen no +reason why an intelligent man should not in time be advanced to +foreman, and why he should not then be able to save enough to ward off +the poorhouse before old age came on. But now—with that first dollar +tucked away in the ginger jar—I felt within me the stirring of a new +ambition, an ambition born of this quick young country into which I +had plunged. Why, in time, should I not become the employer? Why +should I not take the initiative in some of these progressive +enterprises? Why should I not learn this business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>of contracting and +building and some day contract and build for myself? With that first +dollar saved I was already at heart a capitalist.</p> + +<p>I said nothing of this to Ruth. For six months I let the idea grow. If +it did nothing else it added zest to my new work. I shoveled as though +I were digging for diamonds. It made me a young man again. It made me +a young American again. It brought me out of bed every morning with +visions; it sent me to sleep at night with dreams.</p> + +<p>But I'm running ahead of my story.</p> + +<p>I thought I had appreciated Sunday when it meant a release for one day +from the office of the United Woollen, but as with all the other +things I felt as though it had been but the shadow and that only now +had I found the substance. In the first place I had not been able +completely to shake the office in the last few years. I brought it +home with me and on Sundays it furnished half the subject of +conversation. Every little incident, every bit of conversation, every +expression on Morse's face was analyzed in the attempt to see what it +counted, for or against, the possible future raise. Even when out +walking with the boy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>the latter was a constant reminder. It was as +though he were merely a ward of the United Woollen Company.</p> + +<p>But when I put away my shovel at five o'clock on Saturday that was the +end of my ditch digging. I came home after that and I was at home +until I reported for work on Monday morning. There was neither work +nor worry left hanging over. It meant complete relaxation—complete +rest. And the body, I found, rests better than the mind.</p> + +<p>Later in my work I didn't experience this so perfectly as I now did +because then I accepted new responsibilities, but for the first few +months I lived in lazy content on this one day. For the most part +those who lived around me did all the time. On fair summer days half +the population of the little square basked in the sun with eyes half +closed from morning until night. Those who didn't, went to the +neighboring beaches many of which they could reach for a nickel or +visited such public buildings as were open. But wherever they went or +whatever they did, they loafed about it. And a man can't truly loaf +until he's done a hard week's work which ends with the week.</p> + +<p>As for us we had our choice of any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>number of pleasant occupations. I +insisted that Ruth should make the meals as simple as possible on that +day and both the boy and myself helped her about them. We always +washed the dishes and swept the floor. First of all there was the +roof. I early saw the possibility of this much neglected spot. It was +flat and had a fence around it for it was meant to be used for the +hanging out of clothes. Being a new building it had been built a story +higher than its older neighbors so that we overlooked the other roofs. +There was a generous space through which we saw the harbor. I picked +up a strip of old canvas for a trifle in one of the shore-front +junk-shops which deal in second-hand ship supplies and arranged it +over one corner like a canopy. Then I brought home with me some bits +of board that were left over from the wood construction at the ditch +and nailed these together to make a rude sort of window box. It was +harder to get dirt than it was wood but little by little I brought +home enough finally to fill the boxes. In these we planted radishes +and lettuce and a few flower seeds. We had almost as good a garden as +we used to have in our back yard. At any rate it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>was just as much fun +to watch the things grow, and though the lettuce never amounted to +much we actually raised some very good radishes. The flowers did well, +too.</p> + +<p>We brought up an old blanket and spread it out beneath the canopy and +that, with a chair or two, made our roof garden. A local branch of the +Public Library was not far distant so that we had all the reading +matter we wanted and here we used to sit all day Sunday when we didn't +feel like doing anything else. Here, too, we used to sit evenings. On +several hot nights Ruth, the boy and I brought up our blankets and +slept out. The boy liked it so well that finally he came to sleep up +here most of the summer. It was fine for him. The harbor breeze swept +the air clean of smoke so that it was as good for him as being at the +sea-shore.</p> + +<p>To us the sights from this roof were marvelous. They appealed strongly +because they were unlike anything we had ever seen or for that matter +unlike anything our friends had ever seen. I think that a man's +friends often take away the freshness from sights that otherwise might +move him. I've never been to Europe but what with magazine pictures +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>snap shots and Mrs. Grover, who never forgot that before she +married Grover she had travelled for a whole year, I haven't any +special desire to visit London or Paris. I suppose it would be +different if I ever went but even then I don't think there would be +the novelty to it we found from our roof. And it was just that novelty +and the ability to appreciate it that made our whole emigrant life +possible. It was for us the Great Adventure again. I suppose there are +men who will growl that it's all bosh to say there is any real romance +in living in four rooms in a tenement district, eating what we ate, +digging in a ditch and mooning over a view from a roof top. I want to +say right here that for such men there wouldn't be any romance or +beauty in such a life. They'd be miserable. There are plenty of men +living down there now and they never miss a chance to air their +opinions. Some of them have big bodies but I wouldn't give them fifty +cents a day to work for me. Luckily however, there are not many of +them in proportion to the others, even though they make more noise.</p> + +<p>But when you stop to think about it what else is it but romance that +leads men to spend their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>lives fishing off the Banks when they could +remain safely ashore and get better pay driving a team? Or what drives +them into the army or to work on railroads when they neither expect +nor hope to be advanced? The men themselves can't tell you. They take +up the work unthinkingly but there is something in the very hardships +they suffer which lends a sting to the life and holds them. The only +thing I know of that will do this and turn the grind into an +inspiration is romance. It's what the new-comers have and it's what +our ancestors had and it's what a lot of us who have stayed over here +too long out of the current have lost.</p> + +<p>On the lazy summer mornings we could hear the church bells and now and +then a set of chimes. Because we were above the street and next to the +sky they sounded as drowsily musical as in a country village. They +made me a bit conscience-stricken to think that for the boy's sake I +didn't make an effort and go to some church. But for a while it was +church enough to devote the seventh day to what the Bible says it was +made for. Ruth used to read out loud to us and we planned to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>make our +book suit the day after a fashion. Sometimes it was Emerson, sometimes +Tennyson—I was very fond of the Idylls—and sometimes a book of +sermons. Later on we had a call from a young minister who had a little +mission chapel not far from our flat and who looked in upon us at the +suggestion of the secretary of the settlement house. We went to a +service at his chapel one Sunday and before we ourselves realized it +we were attending regularly with a zest and interest which we had +never felt in our suburban church-going. Later still we each of us +found a share in the work ourselves and came to have a great +satisfaction and contentment in it. But I am running ahead of my +story.</p> + +<p>We'd have dinner this first summer at about half past one and then +perhaps we'd go for a walk. There wasn't a street in the city that +didn't interest us but as a rule we'd plan to visit one of the parks. +I didn't know there were so many of them or that they were so +different. We had our choice of the ocean or a river or the woods. If +we had wished to spend say thirty cents in car fare we could have had +a further choice of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>beach, the mountains, or a taste of the +country which in places had not changed in the last hundred years. +This would have given us a two hours' ride. Occasionally we did this +but at present there was too much to see within walking distance.</p> + +<p>For one thing it suddenly occurred to me that though I had lived in +this city over thirty years I had not yet seen such places of interest +as always attracted visitors from out of town. My attention was +brought to this first by the need of limiting ourselves to amusements +that didn't cost anything, but chiefly by learning where the better +element down here spent their Sundays. You have only to follow this +crowd to find out where the objects of national pride are located. An +old battle flag will attract twenty foreigners to one American. And +incidentally I wish to confess it was they who made me ashamed of my +ignorance of the country's history. Beyond a memory of the Revolution, +the Civil War and a few names of men and battles connected therewith, +I'd forgotten all I ever learned at school on this subject. But here +the many patriotic celebrations arranged by the local schools in the +endeavor to instill patriotism and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>the frequent visits of the boys to +the museums, kept the subject fresh. Not only Dick but Ruth and myself +soon turned to it as a vital part of our education. Inspired by the +old trophies that ought to stand for so much to us of to-day we took +from the library the first volume of Fiske's fine series and in the +course of time read them all. As we traced the fortunes of those early +adventurers who dreamed and sailed towards an unknown continent, +pictured to ourselves the lives of the tribes who wandered about in +the big tangle of forest growth between the Atlantic and the Pacific, +as we landed on the bleak New England shores with the early Pilgrims, +then fought with Washington, then studied the perilous internal +struggle culminating with Lincoln and the Civil War, then the +dangerous period of reconstruction with the breathless progress +following—why it left us all better Americans than we had ever been +in our lives. It gave new meaning to my present surroundings and +helped me better to understand the new-comers. Somehow all those +things of the past didn't seem to concern Grover and the rest of them +in the trim little houses. They had no history and they were a part of +no history. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>Perhaps that's because they were making no history +themselves. As for myself, I know that I was just beginning to get +acquainted with my ancestors—that for the first time in my life, I +was really conscious of being a citizen of the United States of +America.</p> + +<p>But I soon discovered that not only the historic but the beautiful +attracted these people. They introduced me to the Art Museum. In the +winter following our first summer here, when the out of door +attractions were considerably narrowed down, Ruth and I used to go +there about every other Sunday with the boy. We came to feel as +familiar with our favorite pictures as though they hung in our own +house. The Museum ceased to be a public building; it was our own. We +went in with a nod to the old doorkeeper who came to know us and felt +as unconstrained there as at home. We had our favorite nooks, our +favorite seats and we lounged about in the soft lights of the rooms +for hours at a time. The more we looked at the beautiful paintings, +the old tapestries, the treasures of stone and china, the more we +enjoyed them. We were sure to meet some of our neighbors there and a +young artist who lived on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>second floor of our house and whom +later I came to know very well, pointed out to us new beauties in the +old masters. He was selling plaster casts at that time and studying +art in the night school.</p> + +<p>In the old life, an art museum had meant nothing to me more than that +it seemed a necessary institution in every city. It was a mark of good +breeding in a town, like the library in a good many homes. But it had +never occurred to me to visit it and I know it hadn't to any of my +former associates. The women occasionally went to a special exhibition +that was likely to be discussed at the little dinners, but a week +later they couldn't have told you what they had seen. Perhaps our +neighborhood was the exception and a bit more ignorant than the +average about such things, but I'll venture to say there isn't a +middle-class community in this country where the paintings play the +part in the lives of the people that they do among the foreign-born. A +class better than they does the work; a class lower enjoys it. Where +the middle-class comes in, I don't know.</p> + +<p>After being gone all the afternoon we'd be glad to get home again and +maybe we'd have a lunch of cold beans and biscuits or some of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>the +pudding that was left over. Then during the summer months we'd go back +to the roof for a restful evening. At night the view was as different +from the day as you could imagine. Behind us the city proper was in a +bluish haze made by the electric lights. Then we could see the yellow +lights of the upper windows in all the neighboring houses and beyond +these, over the roof tops which seemed now to huddle closer together, +we saw the passing red and green lights of moving vessels. Overhead +were the same clean stars which were at the same time shining down +upon the woods and the mountain tops. There was something about it +that made me feel a man and a free man. There was twenty years of +slavery back of me to make me appreciate this.</p> + +<p>And Ruth reading my thoughts in my eyes used to nestle closer to me +and the boy with his chin in his hands would stare out at sea and +dream his own dreams.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>PLANS FOR THE FUTURE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>As I said, with that first dollar in the ginger jar representing the +first actual saving I had ever effected in my whole life, my +imagination became fired with new plans. I saw no reason why I myself +should not become an employer. As in the next few weeks I enlarged my +circle of acquaintances and pushed my inquiries in every possible +direction I found this idea was in the air down here. The ambition of +all these people was towards complete independence. Either they hoped +to set up in business for themselves in this country or they looked +forward to saving enough to return to the land of their birth and live +there as small land owners. I speak more especially of the Italians +because just now I was thrown more in contact with them than the +others. In my city they, with the Irish, seemed peculiarly of real +emigrant stuff. The Jews were so clannish that they were a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>problem in +themselves; the Germans assimilated a little better and yet they too +were like one large family. They did not get into the city life very +much and even in their business stuck pretty closely to one line. For +a good many years they remained essentially Germans. But the Irish +were citizens from the time they landed and the Italians eventually +became such if by a slower process.</p> + +<p>The former went into everything. They are a tremendously adaptable +people. But whatever they tackled they looked forward to independence +and generally won it. Even a man of so humble an ambition as Murphy +had accomplished this. The Italians either went into the fruit +business for which they seem to have a knack or served as day laborers +and saved. There was a man down here who was always ready to stake +them to a cart and a supply of fruit, at an exorbitant price to be +sure, but they pushed their carts patiently mile upon mile until in +the end they saved enough to buy one of their own. The next step was a +small fruit store. The laborers, once they had acquired a working +capital, took up many things—a lot of them going into the country and +buying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>deserted farms. It was wonderful what they did with this land +upon which the old stock New Englander had not been able to live. But +of course in part explanation of this, you must remember that these +New England villages have long been drained of their best. In many +cases only the maim, the halt, and the blind are left and these stand +no more chance against the modern pioneer than they would against one +of their own sturdy forefathers.</p> + +<p>Another occupation which the Italians seemed to preëmpt was the +boot-blacking business. It may seem odd to dignify so menial an +employment as a business but there is many a head of such an +establishment who could show a fatter bank account than two-thirds of +his clients. The next time you go into a little nook containing say +fifteen chairs, figure out for yourself how many nickels are left +there in a day. The rent is often high—it is some proof of a business +worth thought when you consider that they are able to pay for +positions on the leading business streets—but the labor is cheap and +the furnishings and cost of raw material slight. Pasquale had set me +to thinking long before, when I learned that he was earning almost as +much a week as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>I. It is no unusual thing for a man who owns his +"emporium" to draw ten dollars a day in profits and not show himself +until he empties the cash register at night.</p> + +<p>But the fact that impressed me in these people—and this holds +peculiarly true of the Jews—was that they all shied away from the +salaried jobs. In making such generalizations I may be running a risk +because I'm only giving the results of my own limited observation and +experience. But I want it understood that from the beginning to the +end of these recollections I'm trying to do nothing more. I'm not a +student. I'm not a sociologist. The conditions which I observed may +not hold elsewhere for all I know. From a different point of view, +they might not to another seem to hold even in my own city. I won't +argue with anyone about it. I set down what I myself saw and let it go +at that.</p> + +<p>Going back to the small group among whom I lived when I was with the +United Woollen, it seems to me that every man clung to a salary as +though it were his only possible hope. I know men among them who even +refused to work on a commission basis although they were practically +sure of earning in this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>way double what they were being paid by the +year. They considered a salary as a form of insurance and once in the +grip of this idea they had nothing to look forward to except an +increase. I was no better myself. I didn't really expect to be head of +the firm. Nor did the other men. We weren't working and holding on +with any notion of winning independence along that line. The most we +hoped for was a bigger salary. Some men didn't anticipate more than +twenty-five hundred like me, and others—the younger men—talked about +five thousand and even ten thousand. I didn't hear them discuss what +they were going to do when they were general managers or +vice-presidents but always what they could enjoy when they drew the +larger annuity. And save those who saw in professional work a way out, +this was the career they were choosing for their sons. They wanted to +get them into banks and the big companies where the assurance of lazy +routine advancement up to a certain point was the reward for industry, +sobriety and honesty. A salary with an old, strongly established +company seemed to them about as big a stroke of luck for a young man +as a legacy. I myself had hoped to find a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>place for Dick with one of +the big trust companies.</p> + +<p>Of course down here these people did not have the same opportunities. +Most of the old firms preferred the "bright young American" and I +guess they secured most of them. I pity the "bright young American" +but I can't help congratulating the bright young Italians and the +bright young Irishmen. They are forced as a result to make business +for themselves and they are given every opportunity in the world for +doing it. And they <i>are</i> doing it. And I, breathing in this +atmosphere, made up my mind that I would do it, too.</p> + +<p>With this in mind I outlined for myself a systematic course of +procedure. It was evident that in this as in any other business I must +master thoroughly the details before taking up the larger problems. +The details of this as of any other business lay at the bottom and so +for these at least I was at present in the best possible position. The +two most important factors to the success of a contractor seemed to me +to be, roughly speaking, the securing and handling of men and the +purchase and use of materials. Of the two, the former appeared to be +the more important. Even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>in the few weeks I had been at work here I +had observed a big difference in the amount of labor accomplished by +different men individually. I could have picked out a half dozen that +were worth more than all the others put together. And in the two +foremen I had noticed another big difference in the varying capacity +of a boss to get work out of the men collectively. In work where labor +counted for so much in the final cost as here, it appeared as though +this involved almost the whole question of profit and loss. With a +hundred men employed at a dollar and a half a day, the saving of a +single hour meant the saving of a good many dollars.</p> + +<p>It may seem odd that so obvious a fact was not taken advantage of by +the present contractors. Doubtless it was realized but my later +experience showed me that the obvious is very often neglected. In this +business as in many others, the details fall into a rut and often a +newcomer with a fresh point of view will detect waste that has been +going on unnoticed for years. I was almost forty years old, fairly +intelligent, and I had everything at stake. So I was distinctly more +alert than those who retained their positions merely by letting +things <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>run along as well as they always had been going. But however +you may explain it, I knew that the foreman didn't get as much work +out of me as he might have done. In spite of all the control I +exercised over myself I often quit work realizing that half my +strength during the day had gone for nothing. And though it may sound +like boasting to say it, I think I worked both more conscientiously +and intelligently than most of the men.</p> + +<p>In the first place the foreman was a bully. He believed in driving his +men. He swore at them and goaded them as an ignorant countryman often +tries to drive oxen. The result was a good deal the same as it is with +oxen—the men worked excitedly when under the sting and loafed the +rest of the time. In a crisis the boss was able to spur them on to +their best—though even then they wasted strength in frantic +endeavor—but he could not keep them up to a consistent level of +steady work. And that's what counts. As in a Marathon race the men who +maintain a steady plugging pace from start to finish are the ones who +accomplish.</p> + +<p>The question may be asked how such a boss could keep his job. I myself +did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>understand that at first but later as I worked with different +men and under different bosses I saw that it was because their methods +were much alike and that the results were much alike. A certain +standard had been established as to the amount of work that should be +done by a hundred men and this was maintained. The boss had figured +out loosely how much the men would work and the men had figured out to +a minute how much they could loaf. Neither man nor boss took any +special interest in the work itself. The men were allowed to waste +just so much time in getting water, in filling their pipes, in +spitting on their hands, in resting on their shovels, in lazy chatter, +and so long as they did not exceed this nothing was said.</p> + +<p>The trouble was that the standard was low and this was because the men +had nothing to gain by steady conscientious work and also because the +boss did not understand them nor distinguish between them. For +instance the foreman ought to have got the work of two men out of me +but he wouldn't have, if I hadn't chosen to give it. That held true +also of Rafferty and one or two others.</p> + +<p>Now my idea was this: that if a man made a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>study of these men who, in +this city at any rate, were the key to the contractor's problem, and +learned their little peculiarities, their standards of justice, their +ambitions, their weakness and their strength, he ought to be able to +increase their working capacity. Certainly an intelligent teamster +does this with horses and it seemed as though it ought to be possible +to accomplish still finer results with men. To go a little farther in +my ambition, it also seemed possible to pick and select the best of +these men instead of taking them at random. For instance in the +present gang there were at least a half dozen who stood out as more +intelligent and stronger physically than all the others. Why couldn't +a man in time gather about him say a hundred such men and by better +treatment, possibly better pay, possibly a guarantee of continuous +work, make of them a loyal, hard working machine with a capacity for +double the work of the ordinary gang? Such organization as this was +going on in other lines of business, why not in this? With such a +machine at his command, a man ought to make himself a formidable +competitor with even the long established firms.</p> + +<p>At any rate this was my theory and it gave <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>a fresh inspiration to my +work. Whether anything came of it or not it was something to hope for, +something to toil for, something which raised this digging to the +plane of the pioneer who joyfully clears his field of stumps and +rocks. It swung me from the present into the future. It was a +different future from that which had weighed me down when with the +United Woollen. This was no waiting game. Neither your pioneer nor +your true emigrant sits down and waits. Here was something which +depended solely upon my own efforts for its success or failure. And I +knew that it wasn't possible to fail so dismally but what the joy of +the struggle would always be mine.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile I carried with me to my work a note book and during +the noon hour I set down everything which I thought might be of any +possible use to me. I missed no opportunity for learning even the most +trivial details. A great deal of the information was superficial and a +great deal of it was incorrect but down it went in the note book to be +revised later when I became better informed.</p> + +<p>I watched my fellow workmen as much as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>possible and plied them with +questions. I wanted to know where the cement came from and in what +proportion it was mixed with sand and gravel and stone for different +work. I wanted to know where the sand and gravel and stone came from +and how it was graded. Wherever it was possible I secured rough prices +for different materials. I wanted to know where the lumber was bought +and I wanted to know how the staging was built and why it was built. +Understand that I did not flatter myself that I was fast becoming a +mason, a carpenter, an engineer and a contractor all in one and all at +once. I knew that the most of my information was vague and loose. Half +the men who were doing the work didn't know why they were doing it and +a lot of them didn't know how they were doing it. They worked by +instinct and habit. Then, too, they were a clannish lot and a jealous +lot. They resented my questioning however delicately I might do it and +often refused to answer me. But in spite of this I found myself +surprised later with the fund of really valuable knowledge I acquired.</p> + +<p>In addition to this I acquired <i>sources</i> of information. I found out +where to go for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>real facts. I learned for instance who for this +particular job was supplying for the contractor his cement and gravel +and crushed stone—though as it happened this contractor himself +either owned or controlled his own plant for the production of most of +his material. However I learned something when I learned that. For a +man who had apparently been in business all his life, I was densely +ignorant of even the fundamentals of business. This idea of running +the business back to the sources of the raw material was a new idea to +me. I had not thought of the contractor as owning his own quarries and +gravel pits, obvious as the advantage was. I wanted to know where the +tools were bought and how much they cost—from the engines and +hoisting cranes and carrying system down to pick-axes, crowbars and +shovels. I made a note of the fact that many of the smaller implements +were not cared for properly and even tried to estimate how with proper +attention the life of a pick-axe could be prolonged. I joyed +particularly in every such opportunity as this no matter how trivial +it appeared later. It was just such details as these which gave +reality to my dream.</p> + +<p>I figured out how many cubic feet of earth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>per day per man was being +handled here and how this varied under different bosses. I pried and +listened and questioned and figured even when digging. I worked with +my eyes and ears wide open. It was wonderful how quickly in this way +the hours flew. A day now didn't seem more than four hours long. Many +the time I've felt actually sorry when the signal to quit work was +given at night and have hung around for half an hour while the +engineer fixed his boiler for the night and the old man lighted his +lanterns to string along the excavation. I don't know what they all +thought of me, but I know some of them set me down for a college man +doing the work for experience. This to say the least was flattering to +my years.</p> + +<p>As I say, a lot of this work was wasted energy in the sense that I +acquired anything worth while, but none of it was wasted when I recall +the joy of it. If I had actually been a college boy in the first flush +of youthful enthusiasm I could not have gone at my work more +enthusiastically or dreamed wilder or bigger dreams. Even after many +of these bubbles were pricked and had vanished, the mood which made +them did not vanish. I have never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>forgotten and never can forget the +sheer delight of those months. I was eighteen again with a lot besides +that I didn't have at eighteen.</p> + +<p>My work along another line was more practical and more successful. +What I learned about the men and the best way to handle them was +genuine capital. In the first place I lost no opportunity to make +myself as solid as possible with Dan Rafferty. This was not altogether +from a purely selfish motive either. I liked the man. In a way I think +he was the most lovable man I ever met, although that seems a +lady-like term to apply to so rugged a fellow. But below his beef and +brawn, below his aggressiveness, below his coarseness, below even a +peculiar moral bluntness about a good many things, there was a strain +of something fine about Dan Rafferty. I had a glimpse of it when he +preferred going back to the sewer gas rather than let a man like the +old foreman force him into a position where the latter could fire him. +But that was only one side of him. He had a heart as big as a woman's +and one as keen to respond to sympathy. This in its turn inspired in +others a feeling towards him that to save my life I can only describe +as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>love—love in its big sense. He'd swear like a pirate at the +Dagoes and they'd only grin back at him where'd they'd feel like +knifing any other man. And when Dan learned that Anton' had lost his +boy he sent down to the house a wreath of flowers half as big as a +cart wheel. There was scarcely a day when some old lady didn't manage +to see Dan at the noon hour and draw him aside with a mumbled plea +that always made him dig into his pockets. He caught me watching him +one day and said in explanation, "She's me grandmither."</p> + +<p>After I'd seen at least a dozen different ones approach him I asked +him if they were all his grandmothers.</p> + +<p>"Sure," he said. "Ivery ould woman in the ward is me grandmither."</p> + +<p>Those same grandmothers stood him in good stead later in his life, for +every single grandmother had some forty grandchildren and half of +these had votes. But Dan wasn't looking that far ahead then. Two facts +rather distinguished him at the start; he didn't either drink or +smoke. He didn't have any opinions upon the subject but he was one of +the rare Irishmen born that way. Now and then you'll find one and as +likely as not he'll prove one of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>the good fellows you'd expect to see +in the other crowd. However, beyond exciting my interest and leading +me to score him some fifty points in my estimate of him as a good +workman, I was indifferent to this side of his character. The thing +that impressed me most was a quality of leadership he seemed to +possess. There was nothing masterful about it. You didn't look to see +him lead in any especially good or great cause, but you could see +readily enough that whatever cause he chose, it would be possible for +him to gather about him a large personal following. I was attracted to +this side of him in considering him as having about all the good raw +material for a great boss. Put twenty men on a rope with Dan at the +head of them and just let him say, "Now, biys—altogither," and you'd +see every man's neck grow taut with the strain. I know because I've +been one of the twenty and felt as though I wanted to drag every +muscle out of my body. And when it was over I'd ask myself why in the +devil I pulled that way. When I told myself that it was because I was +pulling with Dan Rafferty I said all I knew about it.</p> + +<p>It seemed to me that any man who secured <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>Dan as a boss would already +have the backbone of his gang. I didn't ever expect to use him in this +way but I wanted the man for a friend and I wanted to learn the secret +of his power if I could. But I may as well confess right now that I +never fully fathomed that.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile I had not neglected the other men. At every +opportunity I talked with them. At the beginning I made it a point to +learn their names and addresses which I jotted down in my book. I +learned something from them of the padrone system and the unfair +contracts into which they were trapped. I learned their likes and +dislikes, their ambitions, and as much as possible about their +families. It all came hard at first but little by little as I worked +with them I found them trusting me more with their confidences.</p> + +<p>In this way then the first summer passed. Both Ruth and the boy in the +meanwhile were just as busy about their respective tasks as I was. The +latter took to the gymnasium work like a duck to water and in his +enthusiasm for this tackled his lessons with renewed interest. He put +on five pounds of weight and what with the daily ocean swim which we +both enjoyed, his cheeks took on color and he became as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>brown as an +Indian. If he had passed the summer at the White Mountains he could +not have looked any hardier. He made many friends at the Y.M.C.A. They +were all ambitious boys and they woke him up wonderfully. I was +careful to follow him closely in this new life and made it a point to +see the boys myself and to make him tell me at the end of each day +just what he had been about. Dick was a boy I could trust to tell me +every detail. He was absolutely truthful and he wasn't afraid to open +his heart to me with whatever new questions might be bothering him. As +far as possible I tried to point out to him what to me seemed the good +points in his new friends and to warn him against any little +weaknesses among them which from time to time I might detect. Ruth did +the rest. A father, however much a comrade he may be with his boy, can +go only so far. There is always plenty left which belongs to the +mother—if she is such a mother as Ruth.</p> + +<p>As for Ruth herself I watched her anxiously in fear lest the new life +might wear her down but honestly as far as the house was concerned she +didn't seem to have as much to bother her as she had before. She was +slowly getting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>the buying and the cooking down to a science. Many a +week now our food bill went as low as a little over three dollars. We +bought in larger quantities and this always effected a saving. We +bought a barrel of flour and half a barrel of sugar for one thing. +Then as the new potatoes came into the market we bought half a barrel +of those and half a barrel of apples. She did wonders with those +apples and they added a big variety to our menus. Another saving was +effected by buying suet which cost but a few cents a pound, trying +this out and mixing it with the lard for shortening. As the weather +became cooler we had baked beans twice a week instead of once. These +made for us four and sometimes five or six meals. We figured out that +we could bake a quart pot of beans, using half a pound of pork to a +pot, for less than twenty cents. This gave the three of us two meals +with some left over for lunch, making the cost per man about three +cents. And they made a hearty meal, too. That was a trick she had +learned in the country where baked beans are a staple article of diet. +I liked them cold for my lunch.</p> + +<p>As for clothes neither Ruth nor myself needed much more than we had. I +bought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>nothing but one pair of heavy boots which Ruth picked up at a +bankrupt sale for two dollars. On herself she didn't spend a cent. She +brought down here with her a winter and a summer street suit, several +house dresses and three or four petticoats and a goodly supply of +under things. She knew how to care for them and they lasted her. I +brought down, in addition to my business suit, a Sunday suit of blue +serge and a dress suit and a Prince Albert. I sold the last two to a +second hand dealer for eleven dollars and this helped towards the +boy's outfit in the fall. She bought for him a pair of three dollar +shoes for a dollar and a half at this same "Sold Out" sale, a dollar's +worth of stockings and about a dollar's worth of underclothes. He had +a winter overcoat and hat, though I could have picked up these in +either a pawnshop or second hand store for a couple of dollars. It was +wonderful what you could get at these places, especially if anyone had +the knack which Ruth had of making over things.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT</h4> +<br /> + +<p>That fall the boy passed his entrance examinations and entered the +finest school in the state—the city high school. If he had been worth +a million he couldn't have had better advantages. I was told that the +graduates of this school entered college with a higher average than +the graduates of most of the big preparatory schools. Certainly they +had just as good instruction and if anything better discipline. There +was more competition here and a real competition. Many of the pupils +were foreign born and a much larger per cent of them children of +foreign born. Their parents had been over here long enough to realize +what an advantage an education was and the children went at their work +with the feeling that their future depended upon their application +here.</p> + +<p>The boy's associates might have been more carefully selected at some +fashionable school <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>but I was already beginning to realize that +selected associates aren't always select associates and that even if +they are this is more of a disadvantage than an advantage. The fact +that the boy's fellows were all of a kind was what had disturbed me +even in the little suburban grammar school. For that matter I can see +now that even for Ruth and me this sameness was a handicap for both us +and our neighbors. There was no clash. There was a dead level. I don't +believe that's good for either boys or men or for women.</p> + +<p>Supposing this open door policy did admit a few worthless youngsters +into the school and supposing again that the private school didn't +admit such of a different order (which I very much doubt)—along with +these Dick was going to find here the men—the past had proved this +and the present was proving it—who eventually would become our +statesmen, our progressive business men, our lawyers and doctors—if +not our conservative bankers. For one graduate of such a school as my +former surroundings had made me think essential for the boy, I could +count now a dozen graduates of this very high school who were +distinguishing themselves in the city. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>boy was going to meet here +the same spirit I was getting in touch with among my emigrant +friends—a zeal for life, a belief in the possibilities of life, an +optimistic determination to use these possibilities, which somehow the +blue-blooded Americans were losing. It seemed to me that life was +getting stale for the fourth and fifth generation. I tried to make the +boy see this point of view. I went back again with him to the pioneer +idea.</p> + +<p>"Dick," I said in substance, "your great-great-grandfather pulled up +stakes and came over to this country when there was nothing here but +trees, rocks and Indians. It was a hard fight but a good fight and he +left a son to carry on the fight. So generation after generation they +fought but somehow they grew a bit weaker as they fought. Now," I +said, "you and I are going to try to recover that lost ground. Let's +think of ourselves as like our great-great-grandfathers. We've just +come over here. So have about a million others. The fight is a +different fight to-day but it's no less a fight and we're going to +win. We have a good many advantages that these newcomers haven't. You +see them making good on every side of you but I'll bet they can't lick +a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>good American—when he isn't asleep. You and I are going to make +good too."</p> + +<p>"You bet we are, Dad," he said, with his eyes grown bright.</p> + +<p>"Then," I said, "you must work the way the newcomers work. I don't +want you to think you're any better than they are. You aren't. But +you're just as good and these two hundred years we've lived here ought +to count for something."</p> + +<p>The boy lifted his head at this.</p> + +<p>"You make me feel as though we'd just landed with the Pilgrims," he +said.</p> + +<p>"So we have," I said. "June seventh of this very year we landed on +Plymouth Rock just as our ancestors did two centuries ago. They've +been all this time paving the way for you and me. They've built roads +and schools and factories and it's up to us now to use them. You and I +have just landed from England. Let's see what we can do as pioneers."</p> + +<p>I wanted to get at the young American in him. I wanted him to realize +that he was something more than the son of his parents; something more +than just an average English-speaking boy. I wanted him to feel the +impetus of the big history back of him and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>big history yet to be +made ahead of him. He had known nothing of that before. The word +American had no meaning to him except when a regiment of soldiers was +marching by. I wanted him to feel all the time as he did when his +throat grew lumpy with the band playing and the stars and stripes +flying on Fourth of July or Decoration Day.</p> + +<p>I urged him to study hard as the first essential towards success but I +also told him to get into the school life. I didn't want him to stand +back as his tendency was and watch the other fellows. I didn't want +him to sit in the bleachers—at least not until he had proved that +this was the place for him. Even then I wanted him to lead the +cheering. I wanted him to test himself in the literary societies, the +dramatic clubs, on the athletic field. In other words, instead of +remaining passive I wanted him to take an aggressive attitude towards +life. In still other words instead of being a middle-classer I wanted +him to get something of the emigrant spirit. And I had the +satisfaction of seeing him begin his work with the germ of that idea +in his brain.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile with the approach of cold weather I saw a new item of +expense loom up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>in the form of coal. We had used kerosene all summer +but now it became necessary for the sake of heat to get a stove. For a +week I took what time I could spare and wandered around among the junk +shops looking for a second hand stove and finally found just what I +wanted. I paid three dollars for it and it cost me another dollar to +have some small repairs made. I set it up myself in the living room +which we decided to use as a kitchen for the winter. But when I came +to look into the matter of getting coal down here I found I was facing +a pretty serious problem. Coal had been a big item in the suburbs but +the way people around me were buying it, made it a still bigger one. +No cellar accommodations came with the tenement and so each one was +forced to buy his coal by the basket or bag. A basket of anthracite +was costing them at this time about forty cents. This was for about +eighty pounds of coal, which made the total cost per ton eleven +dollars—at least three dollars and a half over the regular price. +Even with economy a person would use at least a bag a week. This, to +leave a liberal margin, would amount to about a ton and a half of coal +during the winter months. I didn't like <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>the idea of absorbing the +half dollar or so a week that Ruth was squeezing out towards what few +clothes we had to buy, in this way—at least the over-charge part of +it. With the first basket I brought home, I said, "I see where you'll +have to dig down into the ginger jar this winter, little woman."</p> + +<p>She looked as startled as though I had told her someone had stolen the +savings.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she asked.</p> + +<p>I pointed to the basket.</p> + +<p>"Coal costs about eleven dollars a ton, down here."</p> + +<p>When she found out that this was all that caused my remark, she didn't +seem to be disturbed.</p> + +<p>"Billy," she said, "before we touch the ginger jar it will have to +cost twenty dollars a ton. We'll live on pea soup and rice three times +a day before I touch that."</p> + +<p>"All right," I said, "but it does seem a pity that the burden of such +prices as these should fall on the poor."</p> + +<p>"Why do they?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Because in this case," I said, "the dealers seem to have us where the +wool is short."</p> + +<p>"How have they?" she insisted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>"We can't buy coal by the ton because we haven't any place to put it." +She thought a moment and then she said:</p> + +<p>"We could take care of a fifth of a ton, Billy. That's only five +baskets."</p> + +<p>"They won't sell five any cheaper than one."</p> + +<p>"And every family in this house could take care of five," she went on. +"That would make a ton."</p> + +<p>I began to see what she meant and as I thought of it I didn't see why +it wasn't a practical scheme.</p> + +<p>"I believe that's a good idea," I said. "And if there were more women +like you in the world I don't believe there'd be any trusts at all."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," she said. "You leave it to me now and I'll see the other +women in the house. They are the ones who'll appreciate a good saving +like that."</p> + +<p>She saw them and after a good deal of talk they agreed, so I told Ruth +to tell them to save out of next Saturday night's pay a dollar and a +half apiece. I was a bit afraid that if I didn't get the cash when the +coal was delivered I might get stuck on the deal. The next Monday I +ordered the coal and asked to have it delivered late in the day. When +I came home <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>I found the wagon waiting and it created about as much +excitement on the street as an ambulance. I guess it was the first +time in the history of Little Italy that a coal team had ever stopped +before a tenement. The driver had brought baskets with him and I +filled up one and took it to a store nearby and weighed into it eighty +pounds of coal. With that for my guide I gathered the other men of the +families about me and made them carry the coal in while I measured it +out. The driver who at first was inclined to object to the whole +proceeding was content to let things go on when he found himself +relieved of all the carrying. We emptied the wagon in no time and the +other men insisted upon carrying up my coal for me. I collected every +cent of my money and incidentally established myself on a firm footing +with every family in the house. Several other tenements later adopted +the plan but the idea didn't take hold the way you'd have thought it +would. I guess it was because there weren't any more Ruths around +there to oversee the job. Then, too, while these people are +far-sighted in a good many ways, they are short-sighted in others. +Neither the wholesale nor co-operative plans <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>appeal to them. For one +thing they are suspicious and for another they don't like to spend any +more than they have to day by day. Later on through Ruth's influence +we carried our scheme a little farther with just the people in the +house and bought flour and sugar that way but it was made possible +only through their absolute trust in her. We always insisted on +carrying out every such little operation on a cash basis and they +never failed us.</p> + +<p>Ruth's influence had been gradually spreading through the +neighborhood. She had found time to meet the other families in the +house and through them had met a dozen more. The first floor was +occupied by Michele, an Italian laborer, his wife, his wife's sister +and two children. On the second floor there was Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, and his father and mother. The father was an invalid and the +lad supported the three. On the third floor lived a fruit peddler, his +wife and his wife's mother—rather a commonplace family, while the +fourth floor was occupied by Pietro, a young fellow who sold cut +flowers on the street and hoped some day to have a garden of his own. +He had two children and a grandmother to care for.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>It certainly afforded a contrast to visit those other flats and then +Ruth's. Right here is where her superior intelligence came in, of +course. The foreign-born women do not so quickly adapt themselves to +the standards of this country as the men do. Most of them as I +learned, come from the country districts of Italy where they live very +rudely. Once here they make their new quarters little better than +their old. The younger ones however who are going to school are doing +better. But taken by and large it was difficult to persuade them that +cleanliness offered any especial advantages. It wasn't as though they +minded the dirt and were chained to it by circumstances from which +they couldn't escape—as I used to think. They simply didn't object to +it. So long as they were warm and had food enough they were content. +They didn't suffer in any way that they themselves could see.</p> + +<p>But when Ruth first went into their quarters she was horrified. She +thought that at length she was face to face with all the misery and +squalor of the slums of which she had read. I remember her chalk-white +face as she met me at the door upon my return home one night. She +nearly drove the color out of my own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>cheeks for I thought surely that +something had happened to the boy. But it wasn't that; she had heard +that the baby on the first floor was ill and had gone down there to +see if there was anything she might do for it. Until then she had seen +nothing but the outside of the other doors from the hall and they +looked no different from our own. But once inside—well I guess that's +where the two hundred years if not the four hundred years back of us +native Americans counts.</p> + +<p>"Why, Billy," she cried, "it was awful. I'll never get that picture +out of mind if I live to be a hundred."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Why the poor little thing—"</p> + +<p>"What poor little thing?" I interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Michele's baby. It lay there in dirty rags with its pinched white +face staring up at me as though just begging for a clean bed."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with it?"</p> + +<p>"Matter with it? It's a wonder it isn't dead and buried. The district +nurse came in while I was there and told me,"—she shuddered—"that +they'd been feeding it on macaroni cooked in greasy gravy. And it +isn't six months old yet."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>"No wonder it looked white," I said, remembering how we had discussed +for a week the wisdom of giving Dick the coddled white of an egg at +that age.</p> + +<p>"Why the conditions down there are terrible," cried Ruth. "Michele +must be very, very poor. The floor wasn't washed, you couldn't see out +of the windows, and the clothes—"</p> + +<p>She held up her hands unable to find words.</p> + +<p>"That <i>does</i> sound bad," I said.</p> + +<p>"It's criminal. Billy—we can't allow a family in the same house with +us to suffer like that, can we?"</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Then go down and see what you can do. I guess we can squeeze out +fifty cents for them, can't we, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"I guess you could squeeze fifty cents out of a stone for a sick +baby," I said.</p> + +<p>The upshot of it was that I went down and saw Michele. As Ruth had +said his quarters were anything but clean but they didn't impress me +as being in so bad a condition as she had described them. Perhaps my +work in the ditch had made me a little more used to dirt. I found +Michele a healthy, temperate, able-bodied man and I learned that he +was earning <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>as much as I. Not only that but the women took in +garments to finish and picked up the matter of two or three dollars a +week extra. There were five in the family but they were far from being +in want. In fact Michele had a good bank account. They had all they +wanted to eat, were warm and really prosperous. There was absolutely +no need of the dirt. It was there because they didn't mind it. A five +cent cake of soap would have made the rooms clean as a whistle and +there were two women to do the scrubbing. I didn't leave my fifty +cents but I came back upstairs with a better appreciation, if that +were possible, of what such a woman as Ruth means to a man. Even the +baby began to get better as soon as the district nurse drove into the +parent's head a few facts about sensible infant feeding.</p> + +<p>I don't want to make out that life is all beer and skittles for the +tenement dwellers. It isn't. But I ran across any number of such cases +as this where conditions were not nearly so bad as they appeared on +the surface. Taking into account the number of people who were +gathered together here in a small area I didn't see among the +temperate and able-bodied any worse examples of hard luck than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>I saw +among my former associates. In fact of sheer abstract hard luck I +didn't see as much. In seventy-five per cent of the cases the +conditions were of their own making—either the man was a drunkard or +the women slovenly or the whole family was just naturally vicious. +Ignorance may excuse some of this but not all of it. Perhaps I'm not +what you'd call sympathetic but I've heard a lot of men talk about +these people in a way that sounds to me like twaddle. I never ran +across a family down here in such misery as that which Steve +Bonnington's wife endured for years without a whimper.</p> + +<p>Bonnington was a clerk with a big insurance company. He lived four +houses below us on our street. I suppose he was earning about eighteen +hundred dollars a year when he died. He left five children and he +never had money enough even to insure in his own company. He didn't +leave a cent. When Helen Bonnington came back from the grave it was to +face the problem of supporting unaided, either by experience or +relatives, five children ranging from twelve to one. She was a shy, +retiring little body who had sapped her strength in just bringing the +children into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>the world and caring for them in the privacy of her +home. She had neither the temperament nor the training to face the +world. But she bucked up to it. She sold out of the house what things +she could spare, secured cheap rooms on the outskirts of the +neighborhood and announced that she would do sewing. What it cost her +to come back among her old friends and do that is a particularly +choice type of agony that it would be impossible for a tenement widow +to appreciate. And this same self-respect which both Helen's education +and her environment forced her to maintain, handicapped her in other +ways. You couldn't give Mrs. Bonnington scraps from your table; you +couldn't give her old clothes or old shoes or money. It wasn't her +fault because this was so; it wasn't your fault.</p> + +<p>When her children were sick she couldn't send them off to the public +wards of the hospitals. In the first place half the hospitals wouldn't +take them as charity patients simply because she maintained a certain +dignity, and in the second place the idea, by education, was so +repugnant to her that it never entered her head to try. So she stayed +at home and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>sewed from daylight until she couldn't hold open her eyes +at night. That's where you get your true "Song of the Shirt." She not +only sewed her fingers to the bone but while doing it she suffered a +very fine kind of torture wondering what would happen to the five if +she broke down. Asylums and homes and hospitals don't imply any great +disgrace to most of the tenement dwellers but to a woman of that type +they mean Hell. God knows how she did it but she kept the five alive +and clothed and in school until the boy was about fifteen and went to +work. When I hear of the lone widows of the tenements, who are apt to +be very husky, and who work out with no great mental struggle and who +have clothes and food given them and who set the children to work as +soon as they are able to walk, I feel like getting up in my seat and +telling about Helen Bonnington—a plain middle-classer. And she was no +exception either.</p> + +<p>I seem to have rambled off a bit here but this was only one of many +contrasts which I made in these years which seemed to me to be all in +favor of my new neighbors. The point is that at the bottom you not +only see advantages you didn't see before but you're in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>position to +use them. You aren't shackled by conventions; you aren't cramped by +caste. The world stands ready to help the under dog but before it will +lift a finger it wants to see the dog stretched out on its back with +all four legs sticking up in prayer. Of the middle-class dog who +fights on and on, even after he's wobbly and can't see, it doesn't +seem to take much notice.</p> + +<p>However Ruth started in with a few reforms of her own. She made it a +point to go down and see young Michele every day and watch that he +didn't get any more macaroni and gravy. The youngster himself resented +this interference but the parents took it in good part. Then in time +she ventured further and suggested that the baby would be better off +if the windows were washed to let in the sunshine and the floor +scrubbed a bit. Finally she became bold enough to hint that it might +be well to wash some of the bed clothing.</p> + +<p>The district nurse appreciated the change, if Michele himself didn't +and I found that it wasn't long before Miss Colver was making use of +this new influence in the house. She made a call on Ruth and discussed +her cases with her until in the end she made of her a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>sort of first +assistant. This was the beginning of a new field of activity for Ruth +which finally won for her the name of Little Mother. It was wonderful +how quickly these people discovered the sweet qualities in Ruth that +had passed all unnoticed in the old life.</p> + +<p>It made me very proud.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>NEW OPPORTUNITIES</h4> +<br /> + +<p>I had found that I was badly handicapped in all intercourse with my +Italian fellow workers by the fact that I knew nothing of their +language and that they knew but little English. The handicap did not +lie so much in the fact that we couldn't make ourselves understood—we +could after a rough fashion—as it did in the fact that this made a +barrier which kept our two nationalities sharply defined. I was always +an American talking to an Italian. The boss was always an American +talking to a Dago. This seemed to me a great disadvantage. It ought to +be just a foreman to his man or one man to another.</p> + +<p>The chance to acquire a new language I thought had passed with my high +school days, but down here everyone was learning English and so I +resolved to study Italian. I made a bargain with Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>was now a frequent visitor at our flat, to teach me his +language in return for instruction in mine. He agreed though he had +long been getting good instruction at the night school. But the lad +had found an appreciative friend in Ruth who not only sincerely +admired the work he was doing but who admired his enthusiasm and his +knowledge of art. I liked him myself for he was dreaming bigger things +than I. To watch his thin cheeks grow red and his big brown eyes flash +as he talked of some old painting gave me a realization that there was +something else to be thought of even down here than mere money +success. It was good for me.</p> + +<p>The poor fellow was driven almost mad by having to offer for sale some +of the casts which his master made him carry. He would have liked to +sell only busts of Michael Angelo and Dante and worthy reproductions +of the old masters.</p> + +<p>"There are so many beautiful things," he used to exclaim excitedly in +broken English; "why should they want to make anything that is not +beautiful?"</p> + +<p>He sputtered time and time again over the pity of gilding the casts. +You'd have thought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>it was a crime which ought to be punished by +hanging.</p> + +<p>"Even Dante," he groaned one night, "that wonderful, white sad face of +Dante covered all over with gilt!"</p> + +<p>"It has to look like gold before an American will buy it," I +suggested.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he nodded. "They would even gild the Christ."</p> + +<p>Ruth said she wanted to learn Italian with me, and so the three of us +used to get together every night right after dinner. I bought a +grammar at a second hand bookstore but we used to spend most of our +time in memorizing the common every day things a man would be likely +to use in ordinary conversation. Giuseppe would say, "Ha Ella il mio +cappello?"</p> + +<p>And I would say,</p> + +<p>"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei cappello."</p> + +<p>"Ha Ella il di Lei pane?"</p> + +<p>"Si, Signore, ho il mio pane."</p> + +<p>"Ha Ella il mio zucchero?"</p> + +<p>"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei zucchero."</p> + +<p>There wasn't much use in going over such simple things in English for +Giuseppe and so instead of this Ruth would read aloud something from +Tennyson. After explaining to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>him just what every new word meant, she +would let him read aloud to her the same passage. He soon became very +enthusiastic over the text itself and would often stop her with the +exclamation,</p> + +<p>"Ah, there is a study!"</p> + +<p>Then he would tell us just how he would model whatever the picture +happened to be that he saw in his mind. It was wonderful how clearly +he saw these pictures. He could tell you even down to how the folds of +the women's dresses should fall just as though he were actually +looking at living people.</p> + +<p>After a week or two when we had learned some of the simpler phrases +Ruth and I used to practise them as much as possible every day. We +felt quite proud when we could ask one another for "quel libro" or +"quell' abito" or "il cotello" or "il cucchiaio." I was surprised at +how soon we were able to carry on quite a long talk.</p> + +<p>This new idea—that even though I was approaching forty I wasn't too +old to resume my studies—took root in another direction. As I had +become accustomed to the daily physical exercise and no longer +returned home exhausted I felt as though I had no right to loaf +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>through my evenings, much as the privilege of spending them with Ruth +meant to me. My muscles had become as hard and tireless as those of a +well-trained athlete so that at night I was as alert mentally as in +the morning. It made me feel lazy to sit around the house after an +hour's lesson in Italian and watch Ruth busy with her sewing and see +the boy bending over his books. Still I couldn't think of anything +that was practicable until I heard Giuseppe talk one evening about the +night school. I had thought this was a sort of grammar school with +clay modeling thrown in for amusement.</p> + +<p>"No, Signore," he said. "You can learn anything there. And there is +another school where you can learn other things."</p> + +<p>I went out that very evening and found that the school he attended +taught among other subjects, book keeping and stenography—two things +which appealed to me strongly. But in talking to the principal he +suggested that before I decided I look into the night trade school +which was run in connection with a manual training school. I took his +advice and there I found so many things I wanted that I didn't know +what to choose. I was amazed at the opportunity. A man could learn +here about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>any trade he cared to take up. Both tools and material +were furnished him. And all this was within ten minutes' walk of the +house. I could still have my early evenings with Ruth and the boy even +on the three nights I would be in school until a quarter past seven, +spend two hours at learning my trade, and get back to the house again +before ten. I don't see how a man could ask for anything better than +this. Even then I wouldn't be away from home as much as I often was in +my old life. There were many dreary stretches towards the end of my +service with the United Woollen when I didn't get home until midnight. +And the only extra pay we salaried men received for that was a +brighter hope for the job ahead. This was always dangled before our +eyes by Morse as a bait when he wished to drive us harder than usual.</p> + +<p>I had my choice of a course in carpentry, bricklaying, sheet metal +work, plumbing, electricity, drawing and pattern draughting. The work +covered from one to three years and assured a man at the end of this +time of a position among the skilled workmen who make in wages as much +as many a professional man. Not only this but a man with such training +as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>this and with ambition could look forward without any great +stretch of the imagination to becoming a foreman in his trade and +eventually winning independence. All this he could accomplish while +earning his daily wages as an apprentice or a common laborer.</p> + +<p>The class in masonry seemed to be more in line with my present plans +than any of the other subjects. It ought to prove of value, I thought, +to a man in the general contracting business and certainly to a man who +undertook the contracting of building construction. At any rate it was +a trade in which I was told there was a steady demand for good men and +at which many men were earning from three to five dollars a day. I must +admit that at first I didn't understand how brick-laying could be +taught for I thought it merely a matter of practice but a glance at the +outline of the course showed me my error. It looked as complicated as +many of the university courses. The work included first the laying of a +brick to line. A man was given actual practice with bricks and mortar +under an expert mason. From this a man was advanced, when he had +acquired sufficient skill, to the laying out of the American bond; then +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>building of square piers of different sizes; then the building of +square and pigeon hole corners, then the laying out of brick footings. +The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking, +toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls; +polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and +flues. The third year advanced a man to the nice points of the trade +such as the foreign bonds—Flemish, Dutch, Roman and Old English; +cutting and turning of arches of all kinds,—straight, cambered, +semi-circular, three centred elliptical, and many forms of Gothic and +Moorish arches; also brick panels and cornices. Finally it gave +practice in the laying out of plans and work from these plans. Whatever +time was left was devoted to speed in all these things as far as it was +consistent with accurate and careful workmanship.</p> + +<p>I enrolled at once and also entered a class in architectural drawing +which was given in connection with this.</p> + +<p>I came back and told Ruth and though of course she was afraid it might +be too hard work for me she admitted that in the end it might save me +many months of still harder <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>work. If it hadn't been for the boy I +think she would have liked to follow me even in these studies. +Whatever new thing I took up, she wanted to take up too. But as I told +her, it was she who was making the whole business possible and that +was enough for one woman to do.</p> + +<p>The school didn't open for a week and during that time I saw something +of Rafferty. He surprised me by coming around to the flat one +night—for what I couldn't imagine. I was glad to see him but I +suspected that he had some purpose in making such an effort. I +introduced him to Ruth and we all sat down in the kitchen and I told +him what I was planning to do this winter and asked him why he didn't +join me. I was rather surprised that the idea didn't appeal to him but +I soon found out that he had another interest which took all his spare +time. This interest was nothing else than politics. And Rafferty +hadn't been over here long enough yet to qualify as a voter. In spite +of this he was already on speaking terms with the state representative +from our district, the local alderman, and was an active lieutenant of +Sweeney's—the ward boss. At present he was interesting himself in +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>candidacy of this same Sweeney who was the Democratic machine +candidate for Congress. Owing to some local row he was in danger of +being knifed. Dan had come round to make sure I was registered and to +swing me over if possible to the ranks of the faithful.</p> + +<p>The names of which he spoke so familiarly meant nothing to me. I had +heard a few of them from reading the papers but I hadn't read a paper +for three months now and knew nothing at all about the present +campaign. As a matter of fact I never voted except for the regular +Republican candidate for governor and the regular Republican candidate +for president. And I did that much only from habit. My father had been +a Republican and I was a Republican after him and I felt that in a +general way this party stood for honesty as against Tammanyism. But +with councillors, and senators and aldermen, or even with congressmen +I never bothered my head. Their election seemed to be all prearranged +and I figured that one vote more or less wouldn't make much +difference. I don't know as I even thought that much about it; I +ignored the whole matter. What was true of me was true largely of the +other men in our old neighborhood. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>Politics, except perhaps for an +abstract discussion of the tariff, was not a vital issue with any of +us.</p> + +<p>Now here I found an emigrant who couldn't as yet qualify as a citizen +knowing all the local politicians by their first names and spending +his nights working for a candidate for congress. Evidently my arrival +down here had been noted by those keen eyes which look after every +single vote as a miser does his pennies. A man had been found who had +at least a speaking acquaintance with me, and plans already set on +foot to round me up.</p> + +<p>I was inclined at first to treat this new development as a joke. But +as Rafferty talked on he set me to thinking. I didn't know anything +about the merits of the two present candidates but was strongly +prejudiced to believe that the Democratic candidate, on general +principles, was the worst one. However quite apart from this, wasn't +Rafferty to-day a better citizen than I? Even admitting for the sake +of argument that Sweeney was a crook, wasn't Rafferty who was trying +his humble best to get him elected a better American than I who was +willing to sit down passively and allow him to be elected? Rafferty at +any rate was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>getting into the fight. His motive may have been selfish +but I think his interest really sprang first from an instinctive +desire to get into the game. Here he had come to a new country where +every man had not only the chance to mix with the affairs of the ward, +the city, the state, the nation, but also a good chance to make +himself a leader in them. Sweeney himself was an example.</p> + +<p>For twenty-five years or more Rafferty's countrymen had appreciated +this opportunity for power and gone after it. The result everyone +knows. Their victory in city politics at least had been so decisive +year after year that the native born had practically laid down his +arms as I had. And the reason for this perennial victory lay in just +this fact that men like Rafferty were busy from the time they landed +and men like me were lazily indifferent.</p> + +<p>Three months before, a dozen speakers couldn't have made me see this. +I had no American spirit back of me then to make me appreciate it. You +might better have talked to a sleepy Russian Jew a week off the +steamer. He at least would have sensed the sacred power for liberty +which the voting privilege bestows.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>I began to ask questions of Rafferty about the two men. He didn't know +much about the other fellow except that he was "agin honest labor and +a tool of the thrusts." But on Sweeney he grew eloquent.</p> + +<p>"Sure," he said. "There's a mon after ye own heart, me biy. Faith he's +dug in ditches himself an he knows wot a full dinner pail manes."</p> + +<p>"What's his business?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"A contracthor," he said. "He does big jobs for the city."</p> + +<p>He let himself loose on what Sweeney proposed to do for the ward if +elected. He would have the government undertake the dredging of the +harbor thereby giving hundreds of jobs to the local men. He would do +this thing and that—all of which had for their object apparently just +that one goal. It was a direct personal appeal to every man toiler. In +addition to this, Rafferty let drop a hint or two that Sweeney had +jobs in his own business which he filled discreetly from the ranks of +the wavering. It wasn't more than a month later, by the way, that +Rafferty himself was appointed a foreman in the firm of Sweeney +Brothers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>But apart from the merits of the question, the thing that impressed me +was Rafferty's earnestness, the delight he took in the contest itself, +and his activity. He was very much disappointed when I told him I +wasn't even registered in the ward but he made me promise to look +after that as soon as the lists were again opened and made an +appointment for the next evening to take me round to a rally to meet +the boys.</p> + +<p>I went and was escorted to the home of the Sweeney Club. It was a good +sized hall up a long flight of stairs. Through the heavy blue smoke +which filled the room I saw the walls decorated with American flags +and the framed crayon portraits of Sweeney and other local +politicians. Large duck banners proclaimed in black ink the current +catch lines of the campaign. At one end there was a raised platform, +the rest of the room was filled with wooden settees. My first +impression of it all was anything but favorable. It looked rather +tawdry and cheap. The men themselves who filled the room were pretty +tough-looking specimens. I noticed a few Italians of the fat class and +one or two sharp-faced Jews, but for the most part these men were the +cheaper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>element of the second and third generation. They were the +loafers—the ward heelers. I certainly felt out of place among them +and to me even Rafferty looked out of place. There was a freshness, a +bulk about him, that his fellows here didn't have.</p> + +<p>As he shoved his big body through the crowd, they greeted him by his +first name with an oath or a joke and he beamed back at them all with +a broad wave of his hand. It was evident that he was a man of some +importance here. He worked a passage for me to the front of the hall +and didn't stop until he reached a group of about a dozen men who were +all puffing away at cigars. In the midst of them stood a man of about +Rafferty's size in frame but fully fifty pounds heavier. He had a +quiet, good-natured face. On the whole it was a strong face though a +bit heavy. His eyes were everywhere. He was the first to notice +Rafferty. He nodded with a familiar,</p> + +<p>"Hello, Dan."</p> + +<p>Dan seized my arm and dragged me forward:</p> + +<p>"I want ye to meet me frind, Mister Carleton," he said.</p> + +<p>Sweeney rested his grey eyes on me a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>second, saw that I was a +stranger here, and stepped forward instantly with his big hand +outstretched. He spoke without a trace of brogue.</p> + +<p>"I'm very glad to meet you, Mr. Carleton," he said.</p> + +<p>I don't know that I'm easily impressed and I flattered myself that I +could recognize a politician when I saw one, but I want to confess +that there was something in the way he grasped my hand that instantly +gave me a distinctly friendly feeling towards Sweeney. I should have +said right then and there that the man wasn't as black as he was +painted. He was neither oily nor sleek in his manner. We chatted a +minute and I think he was a bit surprised in me. He wanted to know +where I lived, where I was working, and how much of a family I had. He +put these questions in so frank and fatherly a fashion that they +didn't seem so impertinent to me at the time as they did later. Some +one called him and as he turned away, he said to Rafferty,</p> + +<p>"See me before you go, Dan."</p> + +<p>Then he said to me,</p> + +<p>"I hope I'll see you down here often, Carleton."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>With that Dan took me around and introduced me to Tom, Dick and Harry +or rather to Tim, Denny and Larry. This crowd came nearer to the +notion I had of ward politicians. They were a noisy, husky-throated +lot, but they didn't leave you in doubt for a minute but what every +mother's son of them was working for Sweeney as though they were one +big family with Daddy Sweeney at the head. You could overhear bits of +plots and counter plots on every side. I was offered a dozen cigars in +as many minutes and though some of the men rather shied away from me +at first a whispered endorsement from Dan was all that was needed to +bring them back.</p> + +<p>There was something contagious about it and when later the meeting +itself opened and Sweeney rose to speak I cheered him as heartily as +anyone. By this time a hundred or more other men had come in who +looked more outside the inner circle. Sweeney spoke simply and +directly. It was a personal appeal he made, based on promises. I +listened with interest and though it seemed to me that many of his +pledges were extravagant he showed such a good spirit back of them +that his speech on a whole produced a favorable effect.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>At any rate I came away from the meeting with a stronger personal +interest in politics than I had ever felt in my life. Instead of +seeming like an abstruse or vague issue it seemed to me pretty +concrete and pretty vital. It concerned me and my immediate neighbors. +Here was a man who was going to Congress not as a figurehead of his +party but to make laws for Rafferty and for me. He was to be my +congressman if I chose to help make him such. He knew my name, knew my +occupation, knew that I had a wife and one child, knew my address. And +I want to say that he didn't forget them either.</p> + +<p>As I walked back through the brightly lighted streets which were still +as much alive as at high noon, I felt that after all this was my ward +and my city. I wasn't a mere dummy, I was a member of a vast +corporation. I had been to a rally and had shaken hands with Sweeney.</p> + +<p>Ruth's only comment was a disgusted grunt as she smelled the rank +tobacco in my clothes. She kept them out on the roof all the next +day.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>OUR FIRST WINTER</h4> +<br /> + +<p>This first winter was filled with just about as much interest as it +was possible for three people to crowd into six or seven months. And +even then there was so much left over which we wanted to do that we +fairly groaned as we saw opportunity after opportunity slip by which +we simply didn't have the time to improve.</p> + +<p>To begin with the boy, he went at his studies with a zest that placed +him among the first ten of his class. Dick wasn't a quick boy at his +books and so this stood for sheer hard plugging. To me this made his +success all the more noteworthy. Furthermore it wasn't the result of +goading either from Ruth or myself. I kept after him about the details +of his school life and about the boys he met, but I let him go his own +gait in his studies. I wanted to see just how the new point of view +would work out in him. The result as I saw it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>that every night +after supper he went at his problems not as a mere school boy but +man-fashion. He sailed in to learn. He had to. There was no prestige +in that school coming from what the fathers did. No one knew what the +fathers did. It didn't matter. With half a dozen nationalities in the +race the school was too cosmopolitan to admit such local issues. A few +boys might chum together feeling they were better than the others, but +the school as a whole didn't recognize them. Each boy counted for what +he did—what he was.</p> + +<p>Of the other nine boys in the first ten, four were of Jewish origin, +three were Irish, one was Italian, and the other was American born but +of Irish descent. Half of them hoped to go through college on +scholarships and the others had equally ambitious plans for business. +The Jews were easily the most brilliant students but they didn't +attempt anything else. The Italian showed some literary ability and +wrote a little for the school paper. The American born Irish boy was +made manager of the Freshman football team. The other four were +natural athletes—two of them played on the school eleven and the +others were just built <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>for track athletics and basket ball. Dick +tried for the eleven but he wasn't heavy enough for one thing and so +didn't make anything but a substitute's position with the freshmen. I +was just as well satisfied. I didn't mind the preliminary training but +I felt I would as soon he added a couple more years to his age before +he really played football, even if it was in him to play. My point had +been won when he went out and tried.</p> + +<p>At the end of the first four months in the school I thought I saw a +general improvement in him. He held himself better for one thing—with +his head higher and his shoulders well back. This wasn't due to his +physical training either. It meant a changed mental attitude. Ruth +says she didn't notice any difference and she thinks this is nothing +but my imagination. But she's wrong. I was looking for something she +couldn't see that the boy lacked before. Dick to her was always all +right. Of course I knew myself that the boy couldn't go far wrong +whatever his training, but I knew also that his former indifferent +attitude was going to make his path just so much harder for him. Dick, +when he read over this manuscript, said he thought the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>whole business +was foolish and that even if I wanted to tell the story of my own +life, the least I could do was to leave out him. But his life was more +largely my life than he realizes even now. And his case was in many +ways a better example of the true emigrant spirit than my own.</p> + +<p>He joined the indoor track squad this winter, too, but here again he +didn't distinguish himself. He fought his way into the finals at the +interscholastic meet but that was all. However this, too, was good +training for him. I saw that race myself and I watched his mouth +instead of his legs. I liked the way his jaws came together on the +last lap though it hurt to see the look in his eyes when he fell so +far behind after trying so hard. But he crossed the finish line.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile Ruth was just about the busiest little woman in the +city. And yet strangely enough this instead of dragging her down, +built her up. She took on weight, her cheeks grew rosier than I had +seen them for five years and she seemed altogether happier. I watched +her closely because I made up my mind that ginger jar or no ginger jar +the moment I saw a trace of heaviness in her eyes, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>she would have to +quit some of her bargain hunting. I didn't mean to barter her good +health for a few hundred dollars even if I had to remain a day laborer +the rest of my life.</p> + +<p>That possibility didn't seem to me now half so terrifying as did the +old bogey of not getting a raise. I suppose for one thing this was +because we neither of us felt so keenly the responsibility of the boy. +In the old days we had both thought that he was doomed if we didn't +save enough to send him through college and give him, at the end of +his course, capital enough to start in business for himself. In other +words, Dick seemed then utterly dependent upon us. It was as terrible +a thought to think of leaving him penniless at twenty-one as leaving +him an orphan at five months. The burden of his whole career rested on +our shoulders.</p> + +<p>But now as I saw him take his place among fellows who were born +dependent upon themselves, as I learned about youngsters at the school +who at ten earned their own living selling newspapers and even went +through college on their earnings, as I watched him grow strong +physically and tackle his work aggressively, I realized that even if +anything should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>happen to either Ruth or myself the boy would be able +to stand on his own feet. He had the whole world before him down here. +If worst came to worst he could easily support himself daytimes, and +at night learn either a trade or a profession. This was not a dream on +my part; I saw men who were actually doing it. I was doing it myself +for that matter. Personally I felt as easy about Dick's future by the +middle of that first winter as though I had established an annuity for +him which would assure him all the advantages I had ever hoped he +might receive. So did Ruth.</p> + +<p>I remember some horrible hours I passed in that little suburban house +towards the end of my life there. Ruth would sit huddled up in a chair +and try to turn my thoughts to other things but I could only pace the +floor when I thought what would happen to her and the boy if anything +should happen to me; or what would happen to the boy alone if anything +should happen to the both of us. The case of Mrs. Bonnington hung over +me like a nightmare and the other possibility was even worse. Why, +when Cummings came down with pneumonia and it looked for a while as +though he might die, I guess I suffered, by applying his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>case to +mine, as much as ever he himself did on his sick bed. I used to +inquire for his temperature every night as though it were my own. So +did every man in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>Sickness was a wicked misfortune to that little crowd. When death did +pick one of us, the whole structure of that family came tumbling down +like a house of cards. If by the grace of God the man escaped, he was +left hopelessly in debt by doctor's bills if in the meanwhile he +hadn't lost his job. Sickness meant disaster, swift and terrible +whatever its outcome. We ourselves escaped it, to be sure, but I've +sweat blood over the mere thought of it.</p> + +<p>Now if our thoughts ever took so grim a turn, we could speak quite +calmly about it. It was impossible for me ever to think of Ruth as +sick. My mind couldn't grasp that. But occasionally when I have come +home wet and Ruth has said something about my getting pneumonia if I +didn't look out, I've asked myself what this would mean. In the first +place I now could secure admission to the best hospitals in the +country free of cost. I had only to report my case to the city +physician and if I were sick enough to warrant it, he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>notify +the hospital and they would send down an ambulance for me. I would be +carried to a clean bed in a clean room and would receive such medical +attention as before I could have had only as a millionaire. Physicians +of national reputation would attend me, medicines would be supplied +me, and I'd have a night and day nurse for whom outside I would have +had to pay some forty dollars a week. Not only this but if I recovered +I would be supplied the most nourishing foods in the market and after +that sent out of town to one of the quiet convalescent hospitals if my +condition warranted it. I don't suppose a thousand dollars would cover +what here would be given me for nothing. And I wouldn't either be +considered or treated like a charity patient. This was all my due as a +citizen—as a toiler. Of course this would be done also for Dick as +well as for Ruth.</p> + +<p>I don't mean to say that such thoughts took up much of my time. I'm +not morbid and we never did have any sickness—we lived too sanely for +that. But just as our new viewpoint on Dick relieved us of a tension +which before had sapped our strength, so it was a great relief to have +such insurance as this in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>the background of our minds. It took all +the curse off sickness that it's possible to take off. In three or +four such ways as these a load of responsibility was removed from us +and we were left free to apply all our energy to the task of +upbuilding which we had in hand.</p> + +<p>This may account somewhat for the reserve strength which Ruth as well +as myself seemed to tap. Then of course the situation as a whole was +such as to make any woman with imagination buoyant. Ruth had an active +part in making a big rosy dream come true. She was now not merely a +passive agent. She wasn't economizing merely to make the salary cover +the current expenses. Her task was really the vital one of the whole +undertaking; she was accumulating capital. When you stop to think of +it she was the brains of the business; I was only the machine. I dug +the money out of the ground but that wouldn't have amounted to much if +it had all gone for nothing except to keep the machine moving from day +to day. The dollar she saved was worth more than a hundred dollars +earned and spent again. It was the only dollar which counted. They say +a penny saved is a penny earned. To my mind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>a penny saved was worth +to us at this time every cent of a dollar.</p> + +<p>So Ruth was not only an active partner but there was another side to +the game that appealed to her.</p> + +<p>"The thing I like about our life down here," she said to me one night, +"is the chance it gives me to get something of myself into every +single detail of the home."</p> + +<p>I didn't know what she meant because it seemed to me that was just +what she had always done. But she shook her head when I said so.</p> + +<p>"No," she said. "Not the way I can now."</p> + +<p>"Well, you didn't have a servant and must have done whatever was +done," I said.</p> + +<p>"I didn't have time to pick out the food for the table," she said. "I +had to order it of the grocery man. I didn't have time to make as many +of your clothes as I wanted. Why I didn't even have time to plan."</p> + +<p>"If anyone had told me that a woman could do any more than you then +were doing, I should have laughed at them," I said.</p> + +<p>"You and the boy weren't all my own then," she said. "I had to waste a +great deal of time on things outside the house. Sometimes it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>used to +make me feel as though you were just one of the neighbors, Billy."</p> + +<p>I began to see what she meant. But she certainly found now just as +much time if not more to spare on the women and babies all around us.</p> + +<p>"They aren't neighbors," she said. "They are friends."</p> + +<p>I suppose she felt like that because what she did for them wasn't just +wasted energy like an evening at cards.</p> + +<p>But she went back again and again, as though it were a song, to this +notion that our new home was all her own.</p> + +<p>"You may think me a pig, Billy," she said. "But I like it. I like to +pick out all myself, every single potato you and the boy eat; I like +to pick out every leaf of lettuce, every apple. It makes me feel as +though I was doing something for you."</p> + +<p>"Good land—" I said.</p> + +<p>But she wouldn't let me finish.</p> + +<p>"No, Billy," she said. "You don't understand what all that means to +me—how it makes me a part of you and Dick as I never was before. And +I like to think that in everything you wear there's a stitch of mine +right close <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>to you. And that when you and the boy lie down at night +I'm touching you because I made everything clean for you with my own +hands."</p> + +<p>It makes my throat grow lumpy even now when I remember the eager, +half-ashamed way she looked up into my eyes as she said this. Lord, +sometimes she made me feel like a little child and other times she +made me feel like a giant. But whichever way she made me feel at the +moment, she always left me wishing that I had in me every good thing a +man can have so that I might be half way worthy of her. There are +times when a fellow knows that as a man he doesn't count for much as +compared with any woman. And with such a woman as Ruth—well, God +knows I tried to do my best in those days and have tried to do that +ever since, but it makes me ache to think how little I've been able to +give her of all she deserves.</p> + +<p>In her housework Ruth had developed a system that would have made a +fortune for any man if applied in the same degree to his business. I +learned a lot from her. Instead of going at her tasks in the haphazard +fashion of most women or doing things just because her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>grandmother +and her mother did them a certain way, she used her head. I've already +told how she did her washing little by little every day instead of +waiting for Monday and then tearing herself all to pieces, and that's +a fair example of her method. When she was cooking breakfast and had a +good fire, she'd have half her dinner on at the same time. Anything +that was just as good warmed up, she'd do then. She'd make her stews +and soups while waiting for the biscuits to bake and boil her rice or +make her cold puddings while we were eating. When that stove was +working in the morning you couldn't find a square inch of it that +wasn't working. As a result, she planned never to spend over half an +hour on her dinner at night and by the time the breakfast dishes were +washed she was through with her cooking until then.</p> + +<p>She used her head even in little things; she'd make one dish do the +work of three. She never washed this dish until she was through with +it for good. And she'd find the time at odd moments during her cooking +to wash these dishes as they came along. If she spilled anything on +the floor she stopped right then and there and cleaned it up, with the +result that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>when breakfast was served, the kitchen looked as +ship-shape as when she began. When she <i>was</i> busy, she was the busiest +woman you ever saw. She worked with her head, both hands, and her +feet. As a result instead of fiddling around all day, when she was +through she was through.</p> + +<p>When she got up in the morning she knew exactly what she had to do for +the day, just how she was going to do it and just when she was going +to do it. And you could bank that the things at night would be done, +and be done just as she had planned. She thought ahead. That's a great +thing to master in any business.</p> + +<p>In my own work, the plan I had outlined for myself I developed day by +day. At the end of three months I found that even what little Italian +I had then learned was a help to me. The mere fact that I was studying +their language placed me on a better footing with my fellows. They +seemed to receive it as a compliment and to feel that I was taking a +personal interest in them as a race. My desire to practise my few +phrases was always a letter of introduction to a newcomer.</p> + +<p>I talked with them about everything—where they came from, what made +them come, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>what they did before they came, how long they worked and +what pay they got in Italy, how they saved to get over here, how they +secured their jobs, what they hoped to do eventually, where they +lived, how large their families were, how much it cost them to live +and what they ate. I inquired as to what they liked and what they +disliked about their work; what they considered fair and what unfair +about the labor and the pay; what they liked and didn't like about the +foreman. Often I couldn't get any opinion at all out of them on these +subjects; often it wasn't honest and often it wasn't intelligent. But +as with my other questioning when I sifted it all down and thought it +over, I was surprised at how much information I did get. If I didn't +learn facts which could be put into words, I was left with a very +definite impression and a very wide general knowledge.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile my note book was always busy. I kept jotting down +names and addresses with enough running comment to help me to recall +the men individually. I wasn't able to locate one out of ten of these +men later but the tenth man was worth all the trouble.</p> + +<p>As the winter advanced and the air grew <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>frosty and the snow and ice +came, the work in a good many ways was harder. And yet everything +considered I don't know but what I'd rather work outdoors at zero than +at eighty-five. Except that my hands got numb and everything was more +difficult to handle I didn't mind the cold. There was generally +exercise enough to keep the blood moving.</p> + +<p>We had a variety of work before spring. After the subway job I shifted +to a big house foundation and there met another group of skilled +workmen from whom I learned much. The work was easier and the +surroundings pleasanter if you can speak of pleasant surroundings +about a hole in the ground. The soil was easier to handle and we went +to no great depth. Here too I met a new gang of laborers. I missed +many familiar faces out of the old crowd and found some interesting +new men. Rafferty had gone and I was sorry. I saw more or less of him +however during the winter for he dropped around now and then on Sunday +evenings. I don't think he ever forgot the incident of the sewer gas.</p> + +<p>I enjoyed too every hour in my night school. I found here a very large +per cent. of foreigners and they were naturally of the more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>ambitious +type. I found I had a great deal to learn even in the matter of +spreading mortar and using a trowel. It was really fascinating work +and in the instructor I made an invaluable friend. Through him I was +able to arrange my scattered fragments of information into larger +groups. Little by little I told him something of my plan and he was +very much interested in it. He gave me many valuable suggestions and +later proved of substantial help in more ways than one.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I BECOME A CITIZEN</h4> +<br /> + +<p>As I said, there were still many opportunities which I didn't have +time to improve. The three of us seemed to have breathed in down here +some spirit which left us almost feverish in our desire to learn. +Whether it was the opportunity which bred the desire or the desire as +expressed by all these newcomers, fresh from the shackles of their old +lives, which created the opportunity, I leave to the students of such +matters. All I know is that we were offered the best in practical +information, such as the trade schools and the night high schools; the +best in art, the best in music, the best in the drama. I am speaking +always of the newcomer—the emigrant. Sprinkled in with these was the +cheaper element of the native-born, whether of foreign or of American +descent, who spent their evenings on the street or at the cheap +theatres or in the barrooms. This class despised the whole <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>business. +Incidentally these were the men who haunted the bread line, the +Salvation Army barracks, and were the first to join in any public +demonstration against the rich. The women, not always so much by their +own fault, were the type which keeps the charitable associations busy. +I'm not saying that among these there were not often cases of sheer +hard luck. Now and then sickness played the devil with a family and +more often the cussedness of some one member dragged down a half dozen +innocent ones with him, but I do say that when misfortune did come to +this particular class they didn't buck up to it as Helen Bonnington +did or use such means as were at their disposal to pull out of it. +They just caved in. Even in their daily lives, when things were going +well with them, they lost in the glitter and glare of the city that +spark which my middle-class friends lost by stagnation.</p> + +<p>Because there was no poetic romance left in their own lives, they +despised it in the lives of others and laughed at it in art. Whatever +went back into the past, they looked upon scornfully as "ancient." +They lived each day as it came with a pride in being up-to-date. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>As a +result, they preferred musical comedy of the horse play kind to real +music; they preferred cheap melodrama to Shakespere. They lived and +breathed the spirit of the yellow journals.</p> + +<p>I don't know what sort of an education it is the Italians come over +here with, but they were a constant surprise to me in their +appreciation of the best in art. And it was genuine—it was simple. +I've heard a good many jokes about the foolishness of giving them a +diet of Shakespere and Beethoven, of Mæterlinck and Mascagni, but that +sort of talk comes either from the outsiders or from the Great White +Way crowd. When you've seen Italians not only crowd in to the free +productions down here but have seen them put up good money to attend +the best theatres; when you've heard them whistle grand opera at their +work and save hard earned dollars to spend on it down town; when +you've seen them crowd the art museums on free days and spend a half +dollar to look at some private exhibition of a fellow countryman's, +you begin to think, if you're honest, that the laugh is on you. They +made me feel ashamed not only because I was ignorant but because after +I became more familiar <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>with the works of the masters I was slower +than they to appreciate them. In many cases I couldn't. I didn't +flatter myself either that this was because of my superior frankness +or up-to-dateness. I knew well enough that it was because of a lack in +me and my ancestors.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a week passed when there wasn't something worth seeing or +hearing presented to these people. It came either through a settlement +house or through the generosity of some interested private patron. +However it came, it was always through the medium of a class which +until now had been only a name to me. This was the independently +well-to-do American class—the Americans who had partly made and +partly inherited their fortunes and had not yet come to misuse them. +It is a class still active in American life, running however more to +the professions than to business. Many of their family names have been +familiar in history to succeeding generations since the early +settlement of New England. They were intellectual leaders then and +they are intellectual leaders now. If I could with propriety I'd like +to give here a list of half a dozen of these men and women who came, +in time, to revive for me my belief that after all there still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>is +left in this country the backbone of a worthy old stock. But they +don't need any such trivial tribute as I might give them. The thing +that struck me at once about them was that they were still finding an +outlet for their pioneer instinct not only in their professions and +their business, but in the interest they took in the new pioneer. +Shoulder to shoulder with the modern Pilgrims they were pushing +forward their investigations in medicine, in science, in economics. +They were adapting old laws to new conditions; they were developing +the new West; they were the new thinkers and the new politicians.</p> + +<p>I don't suppose that if I had lived for fifty years under the old +conditions I would have met one of them. There was no meeting ground +for us, for we had nothing in common. I couldn't possibly interest +them and I'm sure I was too busy with my own troubles to take any +interest in them even if I had known of their existence.</p> + +<p>Even down here I resented at first their presence as an intrusion. +Whenever I met them I was inclined to play the cad and there's no +bigger cad on the face of the earth than a workingman who is beginning +to feel his oats. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>But as I watched them and saw how earnest they were +and how really valuable their efforts were I was able to distinguish +them from still another crowd who flaunted their silly charities in +the newspapers. But these other quiet men and women were of different +calibre; they were the ones who established pure milk stations, who +encouraged the young men of real talent like Giuseppe, and who headed +all the real work for good done down here.</p> + +<p>They came into my life when I needed them; when perhaps I was swinging +too far in my belief that the emigrant was the only force for progress +in our nation. I know they checked me in some wild thinking in which I +was beginning to indulge.</p> + +<p>I find I have been wandering a little. But what we thought, counted +for as much towards the goal as what we did and even if the thinking +is only that of one man—and an ordinary man at that—why, so for that +matter was the whole venture. I want to say again that all I'm trying +to do is to put down as well as I can remember and as well as I am +able, my own acts and thoughts and nothing but my own. Of course that +means Ruth's and Dick's too as far as I understood them, for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>they +were a part of my own. I don't want what I write to be taken as the +report of an investigation but just as the diary of one man's +experience.</p> + +<p>If I had had the time I could have seen at least two of Shakespere's +plays—presented by amateurs, to be sure, but amateurs with talent and +enthusiasm and guided by professionals. I could have heard at least a +half dozen good readers read from the more modern classics. I could +have listened to as many concerts by musicians of good standing. I +could have heard lectures on a dozen subjects of vital interest. Then +there were entertainments designed confessedly to entertain. In +addition to these there were many more lectures in the city itself +open free to the public and which I now for the first time learned +about. There was one series in particular which was addressed once a +week by men of international renown. It was a liberal education in +itself. Many of my neighbors attended.</p> + +<p>But as for Dick he was too busy with his studies and Ruth was too glad +to sit at home and watch him, to go out at night.</p> + +<p>What spare time I myself had I began to devote to a new interest. +Rafferty had first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>roused me to my duty as a citizen in the matter of +local politics and through the winter called often enough to keep my +interest whetted. But even without him I couldn't have escaped the +question. Politics was a live issue down here every day in the year. +One campaign was no sooner ended than another was begun. Sweeney was +no sooner elected than he began to lay wires for his fellows in the +coming city election who in their turn would sustain him in whatever +further political ambitions he might have. If the hold the boss had on +a ward or a city was a mystery to me at first, it didn't long remain +so. The secret of his power lay in the fact that he never let go. He +was at work every day in the year and he had an organization with +which he could keep in touch through his lieutenants whether he was in +Washington or at home. Sweeney's personality was always right there in +his ward wherever his body might be.</p> + +<p>The Sweeney Club rooms were always open. Night after night you could +find his trusted men there. Here the man out of a job came and from +here was recommended to one contractor or another or to the "city"; +here the man with the sick wife came to have her sent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>to some +hospital which perhaps for some reason would not ordinarily receive +her; here the men in court sent their friends for bail; here came +those with bigger plans afoot in the matter of special contracts. If +Sweeney couldn't get them what they wanted, he at least sent them away +with a feeling of deep obligation to him. Naturally then when election +time came around these people obeyed Sweeney's order. It wasn't +reasonable to suppose that a campaign speech or two could affect their +loyalty.</p> + +<p>Of course the rival party followed much the same methods but the man +in power had a tremendous advantage. The only danger he needed to fear +was a split in his own faction as some young man loomed up with +ambitions that moved faster than Sweeney's own for him. Such a man I +began to suspect—though it was looking a long way into the +future—was Rafferty. That winter he took out his naturalization +papers and soon afterwards he began an active campaign for the Common +Council. It was partly my interest in him and partly a new sense of +duty I felt towards the whole game that made me resolve to have a hand +in this. I owed that much to the ward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>in which I lived and which was +doing so much for me.</p> + +<p>In talking with some of the active settlement workers down here, I +found them as strongly prejudiced against the party in power as I had +been and when I spoke to them of Rafferty I found him damned in their +eyes as soon as I mentioned his party.</p> + +<p>"The whole system is corrupt from top to bottom," said the head of one +settlement house to me.</p> + +<p>"Are you doing anything to remedy it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"What <i>can</i> you do?" he said. "We are doing the only thing +possible—we're trying to get hold of the youngsters and give them a +higher sense of civic virtue."</p> + +<p>"That's good," I said, "but you don't get hold of one in ten of the +coming voters. And you don't get hold of one in a hundred of the +coming politicians. Why don't you take hold of a man like Dan who is +bound to get power some day and talk a little civic virtue into him."</p> + +<p>"You said he was a Democrat and a machine man," said he, as though +that settled it.</p> + +<p>"I don't see any harm in either fact," I said, "if you get at the good +in him. A good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>Democrat is a good citizen and a good machine is a +good power," I said.</p> + +<p>The man smiled.</p> + +<p>"You don't know," he said.</p> + +<p>"Do <i>you</i> know?" I asked. "Have you been to the rallies and met the +men and studied their methods?"</p> + +<p>"All you have to do is to read the papers," he answered.</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," I said. "To beat an enemy you ought to study him +at first hand. You ought to find out the good as well as the bad in +him. You ought to find out where he gets his power."</p> + +<p>"Graft and patronage," he answered.</p> + +<p>"What about the other party?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Just as bad."</p> + +<p>"Then what are you going to do about it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Our only hope is education," he said.</p> + +<p>"Then," I said, "why not educate the young politicians? Get to know +Rafferty—he's young and simple and honest now. Help him to advance +honestly and keep him that way."</p> + +<p>He shook his head doubtfully but he agreed to have a talk with Dan. In +the meanwhile <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>I had a talk with Dan myself. I told him what my scheme +was.</p> + +<p>"Dan," I said, "you must decide right at the beginning of your career +whether you're going to be just a tool of Sweeney's or whether you're +going to stand on your own feet."</p> + +<p>"Phot's the mather with Sweeney, now?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"In some ways he's all right," I said. "And in other ways he isn't. +But anyhow he's your boss and you have to do what he tells you to do +just as though he was your landlord back in Ireland and you nothing +but a tenant."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" he said looking up quick.</p> + +<p>I thought I'd strike a sore spot there and I made the most of it. I +talked along like this for a half hour and I saw his lips come +together.</p> + +<p>"He'd knife me," he said finally. "He's sore now 'cause I'm afther +wantin' to run for the council this year."</p> + +<p>I had heard the rumor.</p> + +<p>"Then," I said, "why don't you pull free and make a little machine of +your own. Some of the boys will stand by you, won't they?"</p> + +<p>"Will they?" he grinned.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>With that I took him around to the settlement house. Dan listened good +naturedly to a lot of talk he didn't understand but he listened with +more interest to a lot of talk about the needs of the district which +it was now getting cheated out of, which he did understand. And +incidentally the man who at first did all the talking in the end +listened to Dan. After the latter had gone, he turned to me and said:</p> + +<p>"I like that fellow Rafferty."</p> + +<p>That seemed to me the really important thing and right there and then +we sat down and worked out the basis of the "Young American Political +Club." Our object was to reach the young voter first of all and +through him to reach the older ones. To this end we had a "Committee +on Boys" and a "Committee on Naturalization." I insisted from the +beginning that we must have an organization as perfect as that of any +political machine. Until we felt our strength a little however, I +suggested it was best to limit our efforts to the districts alone. We +took a map of the city and we cut up the districts into blocks with a +young man at the head of each block. He was to make a list of all the +young voters and keep as closely in touch as possible with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>the +political gossip of both parties. Over him there was to be a street +captain and over him a district captain and finally a president.</p> + +<p>All this was the result of slow and careful study. All the workers +down here fell in with the plan eagerly and one of them agreed to pay +the expenses of a hall any time we wished to use one for campaign +purposes. At first our efforts passed unnoticed by either political +party. It was thought to be just another fanciful civic dream. We were +glad of it. It gave us time to perfect our organization without +interference.</p> + +<p>This business took up all the time I could spare during the winter. +But instead of finding it a drag I found it an inspiration. They +insisted upon making me president of the Club and though I would +rather have had a younger man at its head I accepted the honor with a +feeling of some pride. It was the first public office I had ever held +and it gave me a new sense of responsibility and a better sense of +citizenship.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile Dan made no open break with Sweeney but it soon +became clear that he was not in such good favor as before. Although we +had not yet openly endorsed his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>candidacy we were doing a good deal +of talking for him. I received several visits from Sweeney's +lieutenants who tried to find out just what we were about. My answer +invariably was "No partisanship but clean politics."</p> + +<p>When it came time to register I was forced to register with one of the +two parties in order to take any part in the primaries. I registered +as a Democrat for the first time in my life. I also attended a primary +for the first time in my life. I also felt a new power back of me for +the first time in my life. Little by little Dan had come to be an +issue. Sweeney did not openly declare himself but it was soon evident +that he had come to the primaries prepared to knife Rafferty if it +were possible. Back of Dan stood his large personal following; back of +me stood the balance of power. Sweeney saw it, gave the nod, and Dan +was nominated.</p> + +<p>Six weeks later he was elected, too. You'd have thought he had been +elected mayor by the noise the small boys made. Rafferty came to me +with his big paw outstretched,</p> + +<p>"Carleton," he said, "the only thing I've got agin ye is thot ye ain't +an Irishmon. Faith, ye'd make a domd foine Irishmon."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>"It's up to you now," I said, "to make a damned fine American."</p> + +<p>It wasn't more than two months later that Dan came to me to ask my +opinion on a request of Sweeney's. It looked a bit off color and I +said so.</p> + +<p>"You can't do it, Dan," I said.</p> + +<p>"It manes throuble," he said.</p> + +<p>"Let it come. We're back of you with both feet."</p> + +<p>Dan followed my advice and the trouble came. He was fired from his job +as foreman under Sweeney.</p> + +<p>But you can't keep down as good a foreman as Dan was and he had +another job within a week.</p> + +<p>A few months later I had another job myself. I was made foreman with +my own firm at a wage of two dollars and a half a day. When I went +back and announced this to Ruth, she cried a little. Truly our cup +seemed full and running over.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK</h4> +<br /> + +<p>My first thought when I received my advance in pay was that I could +now relieve Ruth of some of her burdens. There was no longer any need +of her spending so much time in trotting around the markets and the +department stores. Nor was there any need of her doing so much +plotting and planning in her endeavor to save a penny. Furthermore I +was determined that she should now enjoy some of the little luxuries +of life in the way of better things to wear and better things to eat. +But that idea was taken out of me in short order.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, as soon as she recovered from the good news. "We +mustn't spend one cent more than we've been spending."</p> + +<p>"But look here," I said; "what's the good of a raise if we don't use +it?"</p> + +<p>"What's the good of a raise if we spend it?" she asked me. "We'll use +it, Billy, but we'll use it wisely. How many times have you told <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>me +that if you had your life to live over again you wouldn't spend one +cent over the first salary you received, if it was only three dollars +a week, until you had a bank account?"</p> + +<p>"I know that," I said. "But when a man has a wife and boy like you and +Dick—"</p> + +<p>"He doesn't want to turn them into burdens that will hold him down all +his life," she broke in. "It isn't fair to the wife and boy," she +said.</p> + +<p>I couldn't quite follow her reasoning but I didn't have to. When I +came home the next Saturday night with fifteen dollars in my pocket +instead of nine she calmly took out three for the rent, five for +household expenses and put seven in the ginger jar. I suggested that +at least we have one celebration and with the boy go to the little +French restaurant we used to visit, but she held up her hands in +horror.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I'd spend two dollars and a half for—why, Billy, you +wouldn't!"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to spend ten," I said. "I'd like to go there to dinner and +buy you a half dozen roses and get the three best seats in the best +theater in town," I said.</p> + +<p>She came to my side and patted my arm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>"Thank you, Billy," she said. "But honest—it's just as much fun to +have you want to do those things as really do them."</p> + +<p>I believe she meant it. I wouldn't believe it of anyone else but for a +week she talked about that dinner and those flowers and the theater +until she had me wondering if we hadn't actually gone. Dick thought we +were crazy.</p> + +<p>And so, just as usual, after this she'd take her basket and start out +two or three mornings a week and walk with me as far as the market. +She'd spend an hour here and then if she needed anything more she'd go +down town to the big stores and wander around here for another hour. +But Saturday nights was her great bargain opportunity. If I couldn't +go with her she'd take Dick and the two would plan to get there at +about nine o'clock. From this time on she often picked up for a song +odd ends of meat and good vegetables which the market men didn't want +to carry over to Monday. In fact they <i>had</i> to sell out these things +as their stock at the beginning of the week had to be fresh. I suppose +marketing at this time of day would be a good deal of a hardship for +those living in the suburbs but it was a regular lark for her. Most +everyone is good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>natured on Saturday night if on no other night. The +week's work is done and people have enough money from their pay +envelopes to feel rich for a few hours anyway. Then there were the +lights and the crowd and the shouting so that it was like twenty +country fairs rolled into one.</p> + +<p>After the excitement of coming home Saturdays with so much money wore +off, I began to forget that I <i>was</i> earning fifteen instead of nine. +If Ruth had spent it on the table I'm sure I'd have forgotten it even +more quickly. I was getting all I wanted to eat, was warm and had a +good clean bed to sleep in and what more can a man have even if he's +earning a hundred a week? I think people are very apt to forget that +after all a millionaire can spend only about so much on himself. And +after the newness of fresh toys has worn off—like steam yachts and +private cars—he is forced to be satisfied with just what I had, no +matter how much more money he makes. He has only his five senses and +once these are satisfied he's no better off than a man who satisfies +these same senses on eight dollars a week. Generally he's worse off +because in a year or so he has probably dulled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>them all. Rockefeller +himself probably never in his life got half the fun out of anything +that I did in just crawling into my clean bed at night with every +tired muscle purring contentedly and my mind at rest about the next +day. I doubt if he knows the joy of waking up in the morning rested +and hungry. The only advantage he had over me that I can see is the +power he had to help others. In a way I don't believe he found any +greater opportunity even for that than Ruth found right here.</p> + +<p>For those interested in the details I'm going to give another +quotation from Ruth's note book. But to my mind these details aren't +the important part of our venture. The thing that counted was the +spirit back of them. It isn't the fact that we lived on from six to +eight dollars a week or the statistics of how we lived on that which +makes my life worth telling about if it <i>is</i> worth telling about. In +the first place prices vary in different localities and shift from +year to year. In fact since we began they have almost doubled. In the +second place people have lived and are living to-day on less than we +did. I give our figures simply to satisfy the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>curious and to show how +Ruth planned. But no one could do as she did or do as we did merely by +aping her little economies, or accepting the result of them. Either +they would find the task impossible or look upon it as a privation and +endure it as martyrs. In this mood they wouldn't last a week. I know +that people who read this without at least a germ of the pioneer in +them will either smile or shrug their shoulders. I've met plenty of +this sort. I met them by the dozen down here. As I said, you can find +them in every bread line, in every Salvation Army barracks or the +Associated Charities will furnish you a list of as many as you want. +You'll find them in the suburbs or you'll find them marching in line +the next time there is a procession of the unemployed.</p> + +<p>But give me true pioneers such as our own forefathers were, such as +the young men out West are to-day, such as every steamer lands here by +the hundreds from foreign countries every week and I say you can't +down that kind, you can't kill them. I don't say that it's right to +raise the price of necessities. I don't think it is, though I don't +know much about it. But I do say that if you double <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>the cost of food +stuffs and then double it again, though you may cruelly starve out the +weaklings, you'll find the pioneers still on their feet, still +fighting.</p> + +<p>It seems strange to me that men will go to Alaska and contentedly +freeze and dig all day in a mine—not of their own, but for wages—and +not feel so greatly abused or unhappy; that they will swing an axe all +day in a forest and live on baked beans and bread without feeling like +martyrs; that they will go to sea and grub on hard tack and salt pork +and fish without complaint and then will turn Anarchists on the same +fare in the East. It seems strange too that these men keep strong and +healthy, and that our ancestors kept strong and healthy on even a +still simpler diet. Why, my father fought battles—and the mental +strain must have been terrific—and did more actual labor every day in +carrying a rifle and marching than I do in a week, and slept out doors +under a blanket—all on a diet that the average tramp of to-day would +spurn. He did this for four years and if the sanitary conditions had +been decent would have returned well and strong as many a man did who +didn't run afoul typhoid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>fever and malaria. Men who do such things +have something in them that the men back East have lost. I call it the +romantic spirit or the pioneer spirit and I say that a man who has it +won't care whether he's living in Maine or California and that +whatever the conditions are he will overcome them. I know that we +three would have lived on almost rice alone as the Japanese do before +we'd have cried quit. That was because we were tackling this problem +not as Easterners but as Westerners; not as poor whites but as +emigrants. Men on a ranch stand for worse things than we had and have +less of a future to dream about.</p> + +<p>So I repeat that to my mind the house details don't count here for any +more than they did in the lives of the original New England settlers, +or the forty-niners, or those on homesteads or in Alaska to-day. +However, I'll put them in and I'll take the month of May as an +example—the first month after I was made foreman. It's fairer to give +the items for a month. They are as follows:</p> + +<div class="block"> +<p class="noin">Oatmeal, .17<br /> + Corn meal, .10<br /> + About one tenth barrel flour, .65<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> Potatoes, .35<br /> + Rice, .08<br /> + Sugar, .40<br /> + White beans, .16<br /> + Pork, .20<br /> + Molasses, .10<br /> + Onions, .23<br /> + Lard, .50<br /> + Apples, .36<br /> + Soda, etc., .14<br /> + Soap, .20<br /> + Cornstarch, .10<br /> + Cocoa shells, .05<br /> + Eggs, .75<br /> + Butter, 1.12<br /> + Milk, 4.48<br /> + Meats, 1.60<br /> + Fish, .60<br /> + Oil, .20<br /> + Yeast cakes, .06<br /> + Macaroni, .09<br /> + Crackers, .06<br /> + Total $12.75</p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<p>This makes an average of three dollars and nineteen cents a week. With +a fluctuation of perhaps twenty-five cents either way <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>Ruth maintained +this pretty much throughout the year now. It fell off a little in the +summer and increased a little in the winter. It's impossible to give +any closer estimate than this. Even this month many things were used +which were left over from the week preceding and, on the other hand, +some things on this list like molasses and sugar and cornstarch went +towards reducing the total of the month following.</p> + +<p>This left say a dollar and seventy-five cents a week for such small +incidentals as are not accounted for here but chiefly for sewing +material, bargains in cloth remnants and such things as were needed +towards the repair of our clothes as well as for such new clothes as +we had to buy from time to time. I think we spent more on shoes than +we did clothes but Ruth by patronizing the sample shoe shops always +came home with a three or four dollar pair for which she never paid +over two dollars and sometimes as low as a dollar and a half. The boy +and I bought our shoes at the same reduction at bankrupt sales. We +gave our neighbors this tip and saw them save a good many dollars in +this way.</p> + +<p>On the whole these people were not good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>buyers; they never looked +ahead but bought only when they were in urgent need and then bought at +the cheapest price regardless of quality. They would pay two and two +and a half for shoes that wouldn't last them any time at all. Whatever +Ruth bought she considered the quality first and the price afterwards. +Then, too, she often ran across something she didn't need at the time +but which was a good bargain; she would buy this and put it away. She +was able to buy many things which were out of season for half what the +same things would cost six months later. It was very difficult to make +our neighbors see the advantage of this practice and their blindness +cost them many a good dollar.</p> + +<p>We also had the advantage of our neighbors in knowing how to take good +care of our clothes. The average man was careless and slovenly. In a +week a new suit would be spotted with grease, wrinkled, and all out of +shape. He never thought of pressing it, cleaning it or of putting it +away carefully when through wearing it. The women were no better about +their own clothes. This was also true of their shoes. They might +shine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>them once a month but generally they let them go until they +dried up and cracked. In this way their new clothes soon became +workday clothes, their new shoes, old shoes, and as such they lasted a +very few months.</p> + +<p>Dick and I might have done a little better than our neighbors even +without Ruth to watch us, but we certainly would not have had the +training we did have. Shoes had to be cleaned and either oiled or +shined before going to bed. If it rained we wore our old pairs whether +it was Sunday or not or else we stayed at home. Every time Dick or I +put on our good clothes we were as carefully inspected as troops on +parade. If a grease spot was found, it was removed then and there. If +a button was missing or a bit of fringe showed or a hole the size of a +pin head was found we had to wait until the defect was remedied. Every +Sunday morning the boy pressed both his suit and mine and every night +we had to hang our coats over a chair and fold our trousers. If we +were careless about it, the little woman without a word simply got up +and did them over again herself.</p> + +<p>These may seem like small matters but the result was that we all of us +kept looking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>shipshape and our clothes lasted. When we finally did +finish with them they weren't good for anything but old rags and even +then Ruth used them about her housework. I figured roughly that Ruth +kept us well dressed on about half what it cost most of our neighbors +and yet we appeared to be twice as well dressed as any of them. Of +course we had a good many things to start with when we came down here +but our clothing bill didn't go up much even during the last year when +our original stock was very nearly exhausted. She accomplished this +result about one-half by long-headed buying, and one-half by her +carefulness and her skill with the needle.</p> + +<p>To go back to the matter of food, I'll copy off a week's bill of fare +during this month. Ruth has written it out for me. You'll notice that +it doesn't vary very much from the earlier ones.</p> + +<div class="block"> +<p class="cen">Sunday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: fried hasty pudding with molasses; doughnuts, cocoa +made from cocoa shells.</p> + +<p>Dinner: lamb stew with dumplings, boiled potatoes, boiled onions, +cornstarch pudding.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>Monday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, baked potatoes, creamed codfish, biscuits.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: brown bread sandwiches, cold beans, +doughnuts, milk; for Dick and me: boiled rice, cold biscuits, +baked apples, milk.</p> + +<p>Dinner: warmed over lamb stew, baked apples, cocoa, cold biscuits.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Tuesday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, milk toast, cocoa.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, doughnuts; +for Dick and me: warmed over beans, biscuits.</p> + +<p>Dinner: hamburg steak, baked potatoes, graham muffins, apple +sauce, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Wednesday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cocoa shells.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: sandwiches made of biscuits and left over +steak, doughnuts; for Dick and me: crackers and milk, hot +gingerbread.</p> + +<p>Dinner: vegetable hash, hot biscuits, gingerbread, apple sauce, +milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>Thursday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, fried hasty pudding, doughnuts, cocoa shells.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: hard-boiled eggs, cold biscuits, gingerbread, +baked apple; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, apple sauce, cold +biscuits, milk.</p> + +<p>Dinner: lyonnaise potatoes, hot corn bread, Poor man's pudding, +milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Friday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: smoked herring, baked potatoes, oatmeal, graham +muffins.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: herring, cold muffins, doughnuts; for Dick +and me: German toast, apple sauce.</p> + +<p>Dinner: fish hash, biscuits, Indian pudding, milk.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">Saturday.</p> + +<p>Breakfast: oatmeal, German toast, cocoa shells.</p> + +<p>Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, bowl of +rice; for Dick and me: rice and milk, doughnuts, apple sauce.</p> + +<p>Dinner: baked beans, new raised bread.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>To a man accustomed to a beefsteak breakfast, fried hasty pudding may +seem a poor substitute and griddle cakes may seem well enough to taper +off with but scarcely stuff for a full meal. All I say is, have those +things well made, have enough of them and then try it. If a man has a +sound digestion and a good body I'll guarantee that such food will not +only satisfy him but furnish him fuel for the hardest kind of physical +exercise. I know because I've tried it. And though to some my lunches +may sound slight, they averaged more in substance and variety than the +lunches of my foreign fellow-workmen. A hunk of bread and a bit of +cheese was often all they brought with them.</p> + +<p>Dick thrived on it too. The elimination of pastry from his simple +luncheons brought back the color to his cheeks and left him hard as +nails.</p> + +<p>I've read since then many articles on domestic economy and how on a +few dollars a week a man can make many fancy dishes which will fool +him into the belief that he is getting the same things which before +cost him a great many more dollars. Their object appears to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>be to +give such a variety that the man will not notice a change. Now this +seems to me all wrong. What's the use of clinging to the notion that a +man lives to eat? Why not get down to bed rock at once and face the +fact that a man doesn't need the bill of fare of a modern hotel or any +substitute for it? A few simple foods and plenty of them is enough. +When a man begins to crave a variety he hasn't placed his emphasis +right. He hasn't worked up to the right kind of hunger. Compare the +old-time country grocery store with the modern provision house and it +may help you to understand why our lean sinewy forefathers have given +place to the sallow, fat parodies of to-day. A comparison might also +help to explain something of the high cost of living. My grandfather +kept such a store and I've seen some of his old account books. About +all he had to sell in the way of food was flour, rice, potatoes, sugar +and molasses, butter, cheese and eggs. These articles weren't put up +in packages and they weren't advertised. They were sold in bulk and +all you paid for was the raw material. The catalogue of a modern +provision house makes a book. The whole object of the change it seems +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>to me is to fill the demand for variety. You have to pay for that. But +when you trim your ship to run before a gale you must throw overboard +just such freight. Once you do, you'll find it will have to blow +harder than it does even to-day to sink you. I am constantly surprised +at how few of the things we think we need we actually <i>do</i> need.</p> + +<p>The pioneer of to-day doesn't need any more than the pioneer of a +hundred years ago. To me this talk that a return to the customs of our +ancestors involves a lowering of the standard of living is all +nonsense; it means nothing but a simplifying of the standard of +living. If that's a return to barbarism then I'm glad to be a +barbarian and I'll say there never were three happier barbarians than +Ruth, the boy and myself.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE GANG</h4> +<br /> + +<p>If I'd been making five dollars a day at this time, I wouldn't have +moved from the tenement. In the first place as far as physical comfort +went I was never better off. We had all the room we needed. During the +winter we had used the living room as a kitchen and dining room just +as our forefathers did. We economized fuel in this way and Ruth kept +the rooms spotless. We had no fires in our bedrooms and did not want +any. We all of us slept with our windows wide open. If we had had ten +more rooms we wouldn't have known what to do with them. When we had a +visitor we received him in the kitchen. Some of our neighbors took +boarders and also slept in the kitchen. I don't know as I should want +to do that but at the same time many a family lives in a one room hut +in the forest after this fashion. By outsiders it's looked upon as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>rather romantic. It isn't considered a great hardship by the settlers +themselves.</p> + +<p>Then we had the advantage of our roof and with summer coming on we +looked forward to the garden and the joy of the warm starry nights. We +had some wonderful winter pictures, too, from that same roof. It was +worth going up there to see the house tops after a heavy snow storm.</p> + +<p>If I had wanted to move I could have done only one of two things; +either gone back into the suburbs or taken a more expensive flat up +town. I certainly had had enough of the former and as for the latter I +could see no comparison. If anything this flat business was worse than +the suburbs. I would be surrounded by an ordinary group of people who +had all the airs of the latter with none of their good points. I'd be +hedged in by conventions with which I was now even in less sympathy +than before. I wouldn't have exchanged my present freedom of movement +and independence of action for even the best suite in the most +expensive apartment house in the city. Not for a hundred dollars a +week. Advantages? What were they? Would a higher grade of wall paper, +a more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>expensive set of furniture and steam heat compensate me for +the loss of the solid comfort I found here by the side of my little +iron stove? Was an electric elevator a fair swap for my roof? Were the +gilt, the tinsel and the soft carpets worth the privilege I enjoyed +here of dressing as I pleased, eating what I pleased, doing what I +pleased? Was their apartment-house friendship, however polished, worth +the simple genuine fellowship I enjoyed among my present neighbors? +What could such a life offer me for my soul's or my body's good that I +didn't have here? I couldn't see how in a single respect I could +better my present condition except with the complete independence that +might come with a fortune and a country estate. Any middle ground, +assuming that I could afford it, meant nothing but the undertaking +again of all the old burdens I had just shaken off.</p> + +<p>Ruth, the boy and myself now knew genuinely more people than we had +ever before known in our lives. And most of them were worth knowing +and the others worth some endeavor to <i>make</i> worth knowing. We were +all pulling together down here—some harder than others, to be sure, +but all with a distinct <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>ambition that was dependent for success upon +nothing but our own efforts.</p> + +<p>I was in touch with more opportunities than I had ever dreamed +existed. All three of us were enjoying more advantages than we had +ever dreamed would be ours. My Italian was improving from day to day. +I could handle mortar easily and naturally and point a joint as well +as my instructor. I could build a true square pier of any size from +one brick to twenty. I could make a square or pigeonhole corner or lay +out a brick footing. And I was proud of my accomplishment.</p> + +<p>But more interesting to me than anything else was the opportunity I +now had as a foreman to test the value of the knowledge of my former +fellow workmen which I had been slowly acquiring. I was anxious to see +if my ideas were pure theory or whether they were practical. They had +proven practical at any rate in securing my own advance. This had come +about through no such pull as Rafferty's. It was the result of nothing +but my intelligent and conscientious work in the ditch and among the +men. And this in turn was made possible by the application of the +knowledge I picked up and used as I had the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>chance. It was only +because I had shown my employers that I was more valuable as a foreman +than a common laborer that I was not still digging. I had been able to +do this because having learned from twenty different men how to handle +a crowbar for instance, I had from time to time been able to direct +the men with whom I was working as at the start I myself had been +directed by Anton'. Anton' was still digging because that was all he +knew. I had learned other things. I had learned how to handle Anton'.</p> + +<p>I had no idea that my efforts were being watched. I don't know now how +I was picked out. Except of course that it must have been because of +the work I did.</p> + +<p>At any rate I found myself at the head of twenty men—all Italians, +all strangers and among them three or four just off the steamer. My +first job was on a foundation for an apartment house. Of course my +part in it was the very humble one of seeing that the men kept at work +digging. The work had all been staked out and the architect's agent +was there to give all incidental instructions. He was a young graduate +of a technical school and I took the opportunity this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>offered—for he +was a good-natured boy—to use what little I had learned in my night +school and study his blue prints. At odd times he explained them to me +and aside from what I learned myself from them it helped me to direct +the men more intelligently.</p> + +<p>But it was on the men themselves that I centred my efforts. As soon as +possible I learned them by name. At the noon hour I took my lunch with +them and talked with them in their own language. I made a note of +where they lived and found as I expected that many were from my ward. +Incidentally I dropped a word here and there about the "Young American +Political Club," and asked them to come around to some of the +meetings. I found out where they came from and wherever I could, I +associated them with some of their fellows with whom I had worked. I +found out about their families. In brief I made myself know every man +of them as intimately as was possible.</p> + +<p>I don't suppose for a minute that I could have done this successfully +if I hadn't really been genuinely interested in them. If I had gone at +it like a professional hand shaker they would have detected the +hypocrisy in no time. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>Neither did I attempt a chummy attitude nor a +fatherly attitude. I made it clearly understood that I was an American +first of all and that I was their boss. It was perfectly easy to do +this and at the same time treat them like men and like units. I tried +to make them feel that instead of being merely a bunch of Dagoes they +were Italian workingmen. Your foreign laborer is quick to appreciate +such a distinction and quick to respond to it. With the American-born +you have to draw a sharper line and hold a steadier rein. I figured +out that when you find a member of the second or third generation +still digging, you've found a man with something wrong about him.</p> + +<p>The next thing I did was to learn what each man could do best. Of +course I could make only broad classifications. Still there were men +better at lifting than others; men better with the crowbar; men better +at shoveling; men naturally industrious who would leaven a group of +three or four lazy ones. As well as I could I sorted them out in this +way.</p> + +<p>In addition to taking this personal interest in them individually, I +based my relations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>with them collectively on a principle of strict, +homely justice. I found there was no quality of such universal appeal +as this one of justice. Whether dealing with Italians, Russians, +Portuguese, Poles, Irish or Irish-Americans you could always get below +their national peculiarities if you reached this common denominator. +However browbeaten, however slavish, they had been in their former +lives this spark seemed always alive. However cocky or anarchistic +they might feel in their new freedom you could pull them up with a +sharp turn by an appeal to their sense of justice. And by justice I +mean nothing but what ex-president Roosevelt has now made familiar by +the phrase "a square deal." Justice in the abstract might not appeal +to them but they knew when they were being treated fairly and when +they were not. Also they knew when they were treating you fairly and +when they were not. I never allowed a man to feel bullied or abused; I +never gave a sharp order without an explanation. I never discharged a +man without making him feel guilty in his heart no matter how much he +protested with his lips. And I never discharged him without making the +other men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>clearly see his guilt. When a man went, he left no +sympathizers behind him.</p> + +<p>On the other hand I made them act justly towards their employer and +towards me. I taught them that justice must be on both sides. I tried +to make them understand that their part was not to see how little work +they could do for their money and that mine was not to see how much +they could do, but that it was up to both of us to turn out a full +fair day's work. They were not a chain gang but workmen selling their +labor. Just as they expected the store-keepers to sell them fair +measure and full weight, so I expected them to sell a full day and +honest effort.</p> + +<p>It wasn't always possible to secure a result but when it wasn't I got +rid of that man on the first occasion. It was very much easier to +handle in this way the freedom-loving foreigners than I looked for; +with the American-born it was harder than I expected.</p> + +<p>On the whole however I was mighty well pleased. I certainly got a lot +of work out of them without in any way pushing them. They didn't sweat +for me and I didn't want them to—but they kept steadily at their work +from morning until night. Then too, I didn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>hesitate to do a little +work myself now and then. If at any point another man seemed to be +needed to help over a difficulty I jumped in. I not only often saved +the useless efforts of three or four men in this way but I convinced +them that I too had my employers' interests at heart. My object wasn't +simply to earn my day's pay, it was to finish the job we were on in +the shortest possible time. It makes a big difference whether a man +feels he is working by the day or by the job. I tried to make them +feel that we were all working by the job.</p> + +<p>Without boasting I think I can say that we cut down the contractor's +estimate by at least a full day. I know they had to do some hustling +to get the pile-drivers to the spot on time.</p> + +<p>On the next job I had to begin all over again with a new gang. It +seemed a pity that all my work on the other should be wasted but I +didn't say anything. For two months I took each time the men I had and +did my best with them. I had my reward in finding myself placed at the +head of a constantly increasing force. I also found that I was being +sent on all the hurry-up work. I learned something every day. Finally +when the time seemed ripe I went to the contractor's agent with the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>proposition towards which I had all along been working. This was that +I should be allowed to hire my own men.</p> + +<p>The agent was skeptical at first about the wisdom of entrusting such +power as this to a subordinate but I put my case to him squarely. I +said in brief that I was sure I could pick a gang of fifty men who +would do the work of seventy-five. I told him that for a year now I +had been making notes on the best workers and I thought I could secure +them. But I would have to do it myself. It would be only through my +personal influence with them that they could be got. He raised several +objections but I finally said:</p> + +<p>"Let me try it anyhow. The men won't cost you any more than the others +and if I don't make good it's easy enough to go back to the old way."</p> + +<p>It's queer how stubbornly business men cling to routine. They get +stuck in a system and hate to change. He finally gave me permission to +see the men. I was then to turn them over to the regular paymaster who +would engage them. This was all I wanted and with my note book I +started out.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>It was no easy job for me and for a week I had to cut out my night +school and give all my time to it. Many of the men had moved and +others had gone into other work but I kept at it night after night +trotting from one end of the city to the other until I rounded up +about thirty of them. This seemed to me enough to form a core. I could +pick up others from time to time as I found them. The men remembered +me and when I told them something of my plan they all agreed with a +grin to report for work as soon as they were free. And this was how +Carleton's gang happened to be formed.</p> + +<p>It took me about three months to put all my fifty men into good +working order and it wasn't for a year that I had my machine where I +wanted it. But it was a success from the start. At the end of a year I +learned that even the contractor himself began to speak with some +pride of Carleton's gang. And he used it. He used it hard. In fact he +made something of a special feature of it. It began to bring him +emergency business. Wherever speed was a big essential, he secured the +contract through my gang. He used us altogether for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>foundation work +and his business increased so rapidly that we were never idle. I +became proud of my men and my reputation.</p> + +<p>But of course this success—this proof that my idea was a good +one—only whetted my appetite for the big goal still ahead of me. I +was eager for the day when this group of men should really be +Carleton's gang. It was hard in a way to see the result of my own +thought and work turning out big profits for another when all I needed +was a little capital to make it my own. Still I knew I must be +patient. There were many things yet that I must learn before I should +be competent to undertake contracts for myself. In the meanwhile I +could satisfy my ambition by constantly strengthening and perfecting +the machine.</p> + +<p>Then, too, I found that the gang was bringing me into closer touch +with my superiors. One day I was called to the office of the firm and +there I met the two men who until now had been nothing to me but two +names. For a year I had stared at these names painted in black on +white boards and posted about the grounds of every job upon which I +had worked. I had never thought of them as human beings so much as +some hidden force—like the unseen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>dynamo of a power plant. They were +both Irish-Americans—strong, prosperous-looking men. Somehow they +made me distinctly conscious of my own ancestry. I don't mean that I +was over-proud—in a way I don't suppose there was anything to boast +of in the Carletons—but as I stood before these men in the position +of a minor employee I suppose that unconsciously I looked for +something in my past to offset my present humiliating situation. And +from a business point of view, it was humiliating. The Carletons had +been in this country two hundred years and these men but twenty-five +or thirty and yet I was the man who stood while they faced me in their +easy chairs before their roll-top desks. It was then that I was glad +to remember there hadn't been a war in this country in which a +Carleton had not played his part. I held myself a little better for +the thought.</p> + +<p>They were unaffected and business-like but when they spoke it was +plain "Carleton" and when I spoke it was "Mr. Corkery," or "Mr. +Galvin." That was right and proper enough.</p> + +<p>They had called me in to consult with me on a big job which they were +trying to figure down to the very lowest point. They were willing to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>get out of it with the smallest possible margin of profit for the +advertisement it would give them and in view of future contracts with +the same firm which it might bring. The largest item in it was the +handling of the dirt. They showed me their blue prints and their rough +estimate and then Mr. Corkery said:</p> + +<p>"How much can you take off that, Carleton?"</p> + +<p>I told him I would need two or three hours to figure it out. He called +a clerk.</p> + +<p>"Give Carleton a desk," he said.</p> + +<p>Then he turned to me:</p> + +<p>"Stay here until you've done it," he said.</p> + +<p>It took me all the forenoon. I worked carefully because it seemed to +me that here was a big chance to prove myself. I worked at those +figures as though I had every dollar I ever hoped to have at stake. I +didn't trim it as close as I would have done for myself but as it was +I took off a fifth—the matter of five thousand dollars. When I came +back, Mr. Corkery looked over my figures.</p> + +<p>"Sure you can do that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>I could see he was surprised.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," I said.</p> + +<p>"I'd hate like hell to get stuck," he said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>"You won't get stuck," I answered.</p> + +<p>"It isn't the loss I mind," he said, "but—well there is a firm or two +that is waiting to give me the laugh."</p> + +<p>"They won't laugh," I said.</p> + +<p>He looked at me a moment and then called in a clerk.</p> + +<p>"Have those figures put in shape," he said, "and send in this bid."</p> + +<p>Corkery secured the contract. I picked one hundred men. The morning we +began I held a sort of convention.</p> + +<p>"Men," I said, "I've promised to do this in so many days. They say we +can't do it. If we don't, here's where they laugh at the gang."</p> + +<p>We did it. I never heard from Corkery about it but when we were +through I thanked the gang and I found them more truly mine than they +had ever been before.</p> + +<p>Every Saturday night I brought home my fifteen dollars, and Ruth took +out three for the rent, five for household expenses, and put seven in +the ginger jar. We had one hundred and thirty dollars in the bank +before the raise came, and after this it increased rapidly. There +wasn't a week we didn't put aside seven dollars, and sometimes eight. +The end of my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>first year as an emigrant found me with the following +items to my credit: Ruth, the boy and myself in better health than we +had ever been; Ruth's big mother-love finding outlet in the +neighborhood; the boy alert and ambitious; myself with the beginning +of a good technical education, to say nothing of the rudiments of a +new language, with a loyal gang of one hundred men and two hundred +dollars in cash.</p> + +<p>This inventory does not take into account my new friends, my new +mental and spiritual outlook upon life, or my enhanced self-respect. +Such things cannot be calculated.</p> + +<p>That first year was, of course, the important year—the big year. It +proved what could be done, and nothing remained now but time in which +to do it. It established the evident fact that if a raw, uneducated +foreigner can come to this country and succeed, a native-born with +experience plus intelligence ought to do the same thing more rapidly. +But it had taught me that what the native-born must do is to simplify +his standard of living, take advantage of the same opportunities, toil +with the same spirit, and free himself from the burdensome bonds of +caste. The advantage is all with the pioneer, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>adventurer, the +emigrant. These are the real children of the republic—here in the +East, at any rate. Every landing dock is Plymouth Rock to them. They +are the real forefathers of the coming century, because they possess +all the rugged strength of settlers. They are making their own +colonial history.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>DICK FINDS A WAY OUT, TOO</h4> +<br /> + +<p>When school closed in June, Dick came to me and said:</p> + +<p>"Dad, I don't want to loaf all summer."</p> + +<p>"No need of it," I said. "Take another course in the summer school."</p> + +<p>"I want to earn some money," he said, "I want to go to work."</p> + +<p>If the boy had come to me a year ago with that suggestion I should +have felt hurt. I would have thought it a reflection upon my ability +to support my family. We salaried men used to expect our children to +be dependent on us until they completed their educations. For a boy to +work during his summer vacation was almost as bad form as for the wife +to work for money at any time. It had to be explained that the boy was +a prodigy with unusual business ability or that he was merely seeking +experience. But Dick did not fall into any of these classes. This was +what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>made his proposal the more remarkable to me. It meant that he +was willing to take just a plain every-day plugging job.</p> + +<p>And underlying this willingness was the spirit that was resurrecting +us all. Instead of acting on the defensive, Dick was now eager to play +the aggressive game. I hadn't looked for this spirit to show in him so +soon, in his life outside of school. I was mighty well pleased.</p> + +<p>"All right," I said, "what do you think you can do?"</p> + +<p>"I've talked with some of the fellows," he said, "and the surest thing +seems to be selling papers."</p> + +<p>I gave a gasp at that. I hadn't yet lost the feeling that a newsboy +was a sort of cross between an orphan and a beggar. He was to me +purely an object of pity. Of course I'd formed this notion like a good +many others from the story books and the daily paper. I connected a +newsboy with blind fathers and sick mothers if he had any parents at +all.</p> + +<p>"I guess you can get something better than that to do," I said.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with selling papers?" he asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>When I stopped to think of the work in that way—as just the buying +and selling of papers—I <i>couldn't</i> see anything the matter with it. +Why wasn't it like buying and selling anything? You were selling a +product in which millions of money was invested, a product which +everyone wanted, a product where you gave your customers their money's +worth. The only objection I could think of at the moment was that +there was so little in it.</p> + +<p>"It will keep you on the streets five or six hours a day," I said, +"and I don't suppose you can make more than a dollar a week."</p> + +<p>"A dollar a week!" he said. "Do you know what one fellow in our class +makes right through the year?"</p> + +<p>"How much?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"He makes between six and eight dollars a week," said Dick.</p> + +<p>"That doesn't sound possible," I said.</p> + +<p>"He told me he made that. And another fellow he knows about did as +well as this even while he was in college. He pretty nearly paid his +own way."</p> + +<p>"What do you make on a paper?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"About half a cent on the one cent papers, and a cent on the two cent +papers."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>"Then these boys have to sell over two hundred papers a day."</p> + +<p>"They have about a hundred regular customers," said Dick, "and they +sell another hundred papers besides."</p> + +<p>It seemed to me the boys must have exaggerated because eight dollars a +week was pretty nearly the pay of an able-bodied man. It didn't seem +possible that these youngsters whom I'd pitied all my life could earn +such an income. However if they didn't earn half as much, it wasn't a +bad proposition for a lad.</p> + +<p>I talked the matter over with Ruth and I found she had the same +prejudices I had had. She, too, thought selling papers was a branch of +begging. I repeated what Dick told me and she shook her head +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem as though I could let the boy do that," she said.</p> + +<p>If there was one thing down here the little woman always worried about +deep in her heart, it was lest the boy and myself might get coarsened. +She thought, I think, without ever exactly saying so to herself that +in our ambition to forge ahead we might lose some of the finer +standards of life. She was bucking against that tendency all the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>time. That's why she made me shave every morning, that's why she made +me keep my shoes blacked, that's why she made us both dress up on +Sunday whether we went to church or not. She for her part kept herself +looking even more trig than when she had the fear that Mrs. Grover +might drop in at any time. And every night at dinner she presided with +as much form as though she were entertaining a dinner party. I guess +she thought we might learn to eat with our knives if she didn't.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "your word is final. But let's look at this first as a +straight business proposition."</p> + +<p>So I went over the scheme just as I had to myself.</p> + +<p>"These boys aren't beggars," I said. "They are little business men. +And as a matter of fact most of them are earning as much as their +fathers. The trouble is that they've been given a black eye by +well-meaning sympathizers who haven't taken the trouble to find out +just what the actual facts are. A group of big-hearted women who see +their own chickens safely rounded up at six every night, find the +newsboys on the street as they themselves are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>on their way to the +opera and conclude it's a great hardship and that the lads must be +homeless and suffering. Maybe they even find a case or two which +justifies this theory. But on the whole they are simply comparing the +outside of these boys' lives with the lives of their own sheltered +boys. They don't stop to consider that these lads are toughened and +that they'd probably be on the street anyway. And they don't figure +out how much they earn or what that amount stands for down here."</p> + +<p>Ruth listened and then she said:</p> + +<p>"But isn't it a pity that the boys <i>are</i> toughened, Billy?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said, "it would be a pity if they weren't. They wouldn't last +a year. We have to have some seasoned fighters in the world."</p> + +<p>"But Dick—"</p> + +<p>"Dick has found his feet now. The suggestion was his own. Personally I +believe in letting him try it."</p> + +<p>"All right, Billy," she said.</p> + +<p>But she said it in such a sad sort of way that I said:</p> + +<p>"If you're going to worry about him, this ends it. But I'd like to see +the boy so well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>seasoned that you won't have to worry about him no +matter where he is, no matter what he's doing."</p> + +<p>"You're right," she said, "I want to see him like you. I never worry +about you, Billy."</p> + +<p>It pleased me to have her say that. I know a lot of men who wouldn't +believe their wives loved them unless they fretted about them all the +time. I think a good many fellows even make up things just to see the +women worry. I remember that Stevens always used to come home either +with a sick headache or a tale of how he thought he might lose his job +or something of the sort and poor Dolly Stevens would stay awake half +the night comforting him. She'd tell Ruth about it the next day. I may +have had a touch of that disease myself before I came down here but I +know that ever since then I've tried to lift the worrying load off the +wife's shoulders. I've done my best to make Ruth feel I'm strong +enough to take care of myself. I've wanted her to trust me so that +she'd know I act always just as though she was by my side. Of course +I've never been able to do away altogether with her fear of sickness +and sudden death, but so far as my own conduct is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>concerned I've +tried to make her feel secure in me.</p> + +<p>When I stop to think about it, Ruth has really lived three lives. She +has lived her own and she has lived it hard. She not only has done her +daily tasks as well as she knew how but she has tried to make herself +a little better every day. That has been a waste of time because she +was just naturally as good as they make them but you couldn't ever +make her see that. I don't suppose there's been a day when at night +she hasn't thought she might have done something a little better and +lain awake to tell me so.</p> + +<p>Then Ruth has lived my life and done over again every single thing +I've done except the actual physical labor. Why every evening when I +came back from work she wanted me to begin with seven-thirty A.M. and +tell her everything that happened after that. And when I came back +from school at night, she'd wake up out of a sound sleep if she had +gone to bed and ask me to tell her just what I'd learned. Though she +never held a trowel in her hand I'll bet she could go out to-day and +build a true brick wall. And though she has never seen half the men +I've met, she knows <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>them as well as I do myself. Some of them she +knows better and has proved to me time and again that she does. I've +often told her about some man I'd just met and about whom I was +enthusiastic for the moment and she'd say:</p> + +<p>"Tell me what he looks like, Billy."</p> + +<p>I'd tell her and then she'd ask about his eyes and about his mouth and +what kind of a voice he had and whether he smiled when he said so and +so and whether he looked me in the eyes at that point and so on. Then +she'd say:</p> + +<p>"Better be a little careful about him"; or "I guess you can trust him, +Billy."</p> + +<p>Sometimes she made mistakes but that was because I hadn't reported +things to her just right. Generally I'd trust her judgment in the face +of my own.</p> + +<p>Then Ruth led the boy's life. Every ambition he had was her ambition. +Besides that she had a dozen ambitions for him that he didn't know +anything about. And she thought and worked and schemed to make every +single one of them come true. Every trouble he had was her trouble +too. If he worried a half hour over something, she worried an hour. +Then again there were a whole lot of other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>troubles in connection +with him which bothered her and which he didn't know about.</p> + +<p>Besides all these things she was busy about dressing us and feeding us +and making us comfortable. She was always cleaning our rooms and +washing our clothes and mending our socks. Then, too, she looked after +the finances and this in itself was enough for one woman to do. Then +as though this wasn't plenty she kept light-hearted for our sakes. +You'd find her singing about her work whenever you came in and always +ready with a smile and a joke. And if she herself had a headache you +had to be a doctor and a lawyer rolled in one to find it out.</p> + +<p>So I say the least I could do was to make her trust me so thoroughly +that she'd have one less burden. And I wanted to bring up Dick in the +same way. Dick was a good boy and I'll say that he did his best.</p> + +<p>Ruth says that if I don't tear up these last few pages, people will +think I'm silly. I'm willing so long as they believe me honest. Of +course, in a way, such details are no one's business but if I couldn't +give Ruth the credit which is her due in this undertaking, I wouldn't +take the trouble to write it all out.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>Dick told his school friend what he wanted to do and asked his advice +on the best way to go at it. The latter went with him and helped him +get his license, took him down to the newspaper offices and showed him +where to buy his papers, and introduced him to the other boys. The +newsboys hadn't at that time formed a union but there was an agreement +among them about the territory each should cover. Some of the boys had +worked up a regular trade in certain places and of course it wasn't +right for a newcomer to infringe upon this. There was considerable +talking and some bargaining and finally Dick was given a stand in the +banking district. This was due to Dick's classmate also. The latter +realized that a boy of Dick's appearance would do better there than +anywhere.</p> + +<p>So one morning Dick rose early and I staked him to a dollar and he +started off in high spirits. He didn't have any of the false pride +about the work that at first I myself had felt. He was on my mind +pretty much all that day and I came home curious and a little bit +anxious to learn the result. He had been back after the morning +editions. Ruth reported he had sold fifty papers and had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>returned +more eager than ever. She said he wouldn't probably be home until +after seven. He wanted to catch the crowds on their way to the +station.</p> + +<p>I suggested to Ruth that we wait dinner for him and go on up town and +watch him. She hesitated at this, fearing the boy wouldn't like it and +perhaps not over anxious herself to see him on such a job. But as I +said, if the boy wasn't ashamed I didn't think we ought to be. So she +put on her things and we started.</p> + +<p>We found him by the entrance to one of the big buildings with his +papers in a strap thrown over his shoulder. He had one paper in his +hand and was offering it, perhaps a bit shyly, to each passer-by with +a quiet, "Paper, sir?" We watched him a moment and Ruth kept a tight +grip on my arm.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "what do you think of him?"</p> + +<p>"Billy," she said with a little tremble in her voice, "I'm proud of +him."</p> + +<p>"He'll do," I said.</p> + +<p>Then I said:</p> + +<p>"Wait here a moment."</p> + +<p>I took a nickel from my pocket and hurried towards him as though I +were one of the crowd hustling for the train. I stopped in front of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>him and he handed me a paper without looking up. He began to make +change and it wasn't until he handed me back my three coppers that he +saw who I was. Then he grinned.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Dad," he said.</p> + +<p>Then he asked quickly,</p> + +<p>"Where's mother?"</p> + +<p>But Ruth couldn't wait any longer and she came hurrying up and placed +her hand underneath the papers to see if they were too heavy for him.</p> + +<p>Dick earned three dollars that first week and he never fell below this +during the summer. Sometimes he went as high as five and when it came +time for him to go to school again he had about seventy-five regular +customers. He had been kept out of doors between six and seven hours a +day. The contact with a new type of boy and even the contact with the +brisk business men who were his customers had sharpened up his wits +all round. In the ten weeks he saved over forty dollars. I wanted him +to put this in the bank but he insisted on buying his own winter +clothes with it and on the whole I thought he'd feel better if I let +him. Then he had another proposition. He wanted to keep his evening +customers through the year. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>I thought it was going to be pretty hard +for him to do this with his school work but we finally agreed to let +him try it for a while anyway. After all I didn't like to think he +couldn't do what other boys were doing.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE SECOND YEAR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Now as far as proving to us the truth of my theory that an intelligent +able-bodied American ought to succeed where millions of ignorant, +half-starved emigrants do right along, this first year had already +done it. It had also proved, to our own satisfaction at least, that +such success does not mean a return to a lower standard of living but +only a return to a simpler standard of living. With soap at five cents +a cake it isn't poverty that breeds filth, but ignorance and laziness. +When an able-bodied man can earn at the very bottom of the ladder a +dollar and a half a day and a boy can earn from three to five dollars +a week and still go to school, it isn't a lack of money that makes the +bread line; it's a lack of horse sense. We found that we could +maintain a higher standard of living down here than we were able to +maintain in our old life; we could live more sanely, breathe in higher +ideals, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>and find time to accept more opportunities. The sheer, naked +conditions were better for a higher life here than they were in the +suburbs.</p> + +<p>I'm speaking always of the able-bodied man. A sick man is a sick man +whether he's worth a million or hasn't a cent. He's to be pitied. With +the public hospitals what they are to-day, you can't say that the sick +millionaire has any great advantage over the sick pauper. Money makes +a bigger difference of course to the sick man's family but at that +you'll find for every widow O'Toole, a widow Bonnington and for every +widow Bonnington you'll find the heart-broken widow of some +millionaire who doesn't consider her dollars any great consolation in +such a crisis.</p> + +<p>Then, too, a man in hard luck is a man in hard luck whether he has a +bank account or whether he hasn't. I pity them both. If a rich man's +money prevents the necessity of his airing his grief in public, it +doesn't help him much when he's alone in his castle. It seems to me +that each class has its own peculiar misfortunes and that money breeds +about as much trouble as it kills. To my mind once a man earns enough +to buy himself a little food, put <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>any sort of a roof over his head, +and keep himself warm, he has everything for which money is absolutely +essential. This much he can always get at the bottom. And this much is +all the ammunition a man needs for as good a fight as it's in him to +put up. It gives him a chance for an extra million over his nine +dollars a week if he wants it. But the point I learned down here is +that the million <i>is</i> extra—it isn't essential. Its possession +doesn't make a Paradise free from sickness and worry and hard luck, +and the lack of it doesn't make a Hell's Kitchen where there is +nothing but sickness and trouble and where happiness cannot enter.</p> + +<p>As I say, I consider this first year the big year because it taught me +these things. In a sense the value of my diary ends here. Once I was +able to understand that I had everything and more that the early +pioneers had and that all I needed to do to-day was to live as they +did and fight as they did, I had all the inspiration a man needs in +order to live and in order to <i>feel</i> that he's living. In looking back +on the suburban life at the end of this first twelve months, it seemed +to me that the thing which made it so ghastly was just this lack of +inspiration that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>comes with the blessed privilege of fighting. That +other was a waiting game and no help for it. I was a shadow living in +the land of shadows with nothing to hit out at, nothing to feel the +sting of my fist against. The fight was going on above me and below me +and we in the middle only heard the din of it. It was as though we had +climbed half way up a rope leading from a pit to the surface. We had +climbed as far as we could and unless they hauled from above we had to +stay there. If we let go—poor devils, we thought there was nothing +but brimstone below us. So we couldn't do much but hold on and +kick—at nothing.</p> + +<p>But down here if a man had any kick in him, he had something to kick +against. When he struck out with his feet they met something; when he +shot a blow from the shoulder he felt an impact. If he didn't like one +trade he could learn another. It took no capital. If he didn't like +his house, he could move; he wasn't tearing up anything by the roots. +If he didn't like his foreman, he could work under another. It didn't +mean the sacrifice of any past. If he found a chance to black boots or +sell papers, he could use it. His neighbors wouldn't exile <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>him. He +was as free as the winds and what he didn't like he could change. I +don't suppose there is any human being on earth so independent as an +able-bodied working-man.</p> + +<p>The record of the next three years only traces a slow, steady +strengthening of my position. Not one of us had any set-back through +sickness because I considered our health as so much capital and +guarded it as carefully as a banker does his money. I was afraid at +first of the city water but I found it was as pure as spring water. It +was protected from its very source and was stored in a carefully +guarded reservoir. It was frequently analyzed and there wasn't a case +of typhoid in the ward which could be traced to the water. The milk +was the great danger down here. At the small shops it was often +carelessly stored and carelessly handled. From the beginning, I bought +our milk up town though I had to pay a cent a quart more for it. Ruth +picked out all the fish and meat and of course nothing tainted in this +line could be sold to her. We ate few canned goods and then nothing +but canned vegetables. Many of our neighbors used canned meats. I +don't know whether any sickness resulted from this or not but I know +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>that they often left the stuff for hours in an opened tin. Many of the +tenements swarmed with flies in the summer although it was a small +matter to keep them out of four rooms. So if the canned stuff <i>didn't</i> +get infected it was a wonder.</p> + +<p>The sanitary arrangements in the flat were good, though here again +many families proceeded to make them bad about as fast as they could. +These people didn't seem to mind dirt in any form. It was a perfectly +simple and inexpensive matter to keep themselves and their +surroundings clean if they cared to take the trouble.</p> + +<p>Then the roof contributed largely towards our good health. Ruth spent +a great deal of time up there during the day and the boy slept there +during the summer.</p> + +<p>Our simple food and exercise also helped, while for me nothing could +have been better than my daily plunge in the salt water. I kept this +up as long as the bath house was open and in the winter took a cold +sponge and rub-down every night. So, too, did the boy.</p> + +<p>For the rest, we all took sensible precautions against exposure. We +dressed warmly and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>kept our feet dry. Here again our neighbors were +insanely foolish. They never changed their clothes until bed time, +didn't keep them clean or fresh at any time, and they lived in a +temperature of eighty-five with the air foul from many breaths and +tobacco smoke. Even the children had to breathe this. Then both men +and women went out from this into the cold air either over-dressed or +under-dressed. The result of such foolishness very naturally was +tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid and about everything else that +contributes to a high death rate. Not only this but one person +suffering from any of these things infected a whole family.</p> + +<p>Such conditions were not due to a lack of money but to a lack of +education. The new generation was making some changes however. Often a +girl or boy in the public schools would come home and transform the +three or four rooms though always under protest from the elders. Clean +surroundings and fresh air troubled the old folks.</p> + +<p>Ruth, too, was responsible for many changes for the better in the +lives of these people. Her very presence in a room was an inspiration +for cleanliness. Her clothes were no better than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>theirs but she stood +out among them like a vestal virgin. She came into their quarters and +made the women ashamed that the rooms were not better fitted to +receive so pure a being. You would scarcely have recognized Michele's +rooms at the end of the first year. The windows were cleaned, the +floors scrubbed, and even the bed linen was washed occasionally. The +baby gained in weight and Michele when he wanted to smoke either sat +outside on the door step or by an open window. But Michele was an +exception.</p> + +<p>Ruth's efforts were not confined to our own building either. Her +influence spread down the street and through the whole district. The +district nurse was a frequent visitor and kept her informed of all her +cases. Wherever Ruth could do anything she did it. Her first object +was always to awaken the women to the value of cleanliness and after +that she tried her best to teach them little ways of preparing their +food more economically. Few of them knew the value of oatmeal for +instance though of course their macaroni and spaghetti was a pretty +good substitute. In fact Ruth picked up many new dishes of this sort +for herself from among them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>Some families spent as much for beer as for milk. Ruth couldn't change +that practice but she did make them more careful where they bought +their milk—especially when there was a baby in the house. Then, too, +she shared all her secrets of where and how to buy cheaply. Sometimes +advantage was taken of these hints, but more often not. They didn't +pay much more for many articles than she did but they didn't get as +good quality. However as long as the food tasted good and satisfied +their hunger you couldn't make them take an extra effort and get stuff +because it was more nutritious or more healthful. They couldn't think +ahead except in the matter of saving dollars and cents.</p> + +<p>These people of course were of the lower class. There was another +element of decidedly finer quality. Giuseppe for example was one of +these and there were hundreds of others. It was among these that +Ruth's influence counted for the most. They not only took advantage of +her superior intelligence in conducting their households but they +breathed in something of the soul of her. When I saw them send for her +in their grief and in their joy, when I heard them ask her advice +with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>almost the confidence with which they prayed, when I heard them +give her such names as "the angel mother," "the blessed American +saint," I felt very proud and very humble. Such things made me glad in +another way for the change which had taken her out of the old life +where such qualities were lost and brought her down here where they +counted for so much. These people stripped of convention live with +their hearts very near the surface. They don't try to conceal their +emotions and so you are brought very quickly into close touch with +them. Ruth herself was a good deal like that and so her influence for +a day among them counted for as much as a year with the old crowd.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile I resumed my night school at the end of the summer +vacation and was glad to get back to it. I had missed the work and +went at it this next winter with increased eagerness to perfect myself +in my trade.</p> + +<p>During this second year, too, I never relaxed my efforts to keep my +gang up to standard and whenever possible to better it by the addition +of new men. Every month I thought I increased the respect of the men +for me by my fair dealing with them. I don't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>mean to say I fully +realized the expectations of which I had dreamed. I suppose that at +first I dreamed a bit wildly. There was very little sentiment in the +relation of the men to me, although there was some. Still I don't want +to give the impression that I made of them a gang of blind personal +followers such as some religious cranks get together. It was necessary +to make them see that it was for their interest to work for me and +with me and that I did do. I made them see also that in order to work +for me they had to work a little more faithfully than they worked for +others. So it was a straight business proposition. What sentiment +there was came through the personal interest I took in them outside of +their work. It was this which made them loyal instead of merely hard +working. It was this which made them my gang instead of Corkery's +gang—a thing that counted for a good deal later on.</p> + +<p>The personal reputation I had won gave me new opportunities of which I +took every advantage this second year. It put me in touch with the +responsible heads of departments. Through them I was able to acquire a +much broader and more accurate knowledge of the business as a whole. I +asked as many <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>questions here as I had below. I received more +intelligent answers and was able to understand them more +intelligently. I not only learned prices but where to get +authoritative prices. As far as possible I made myself acquainted with +the men working for the building constructors and for those working +for firms whose specialty was the tearing down of buildings. I used my +note-book as usual and entered the names of every man who, in his +line, seemed to me especially valuable.</p> + +<p>And everywhere, I found that my experiment with the gang was well +known. I found also that my tendency for asking questions was even +better known. It passed as a joke in a good many cases. But better +than this I found that I had established a reputation for sobriety, +industry and level-headedness. I can't help smiling how little those +things counted for me with the United Woollen or when I sought work +after leaving that company. Here they counted for a lot. I realized +that when it came time for me to seek credit.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile I didn't neglect the fight for clean politics in my +ward.</p> + +<p>I resigned from the presidency of the young men's club at the end of a +year and we elected <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>a young lawyer who was taking a great interest in +the work down here to fill the vacancy. That was a fine selection. The +man was fresh from the law school and was full of ideals which dated +back to the <i>Mayflower</i>. He hadn't been long enough in the world to +have them dimmed and was full of energy. He took hold of the original +idea and developed it until the organization included every ward in +this section of the city. He held rallies every month and brought down +big speakers and kept the sentiment of the youngsters red hot. This +had its effect upon the older men and before we knew it we had a +machine that looked like a real power in the whole city. Sweeney saw +it and so did the bigger bosses of both parties. But the president +kept clear of alliances with any of them. He stood pat with what +promised to be a balance of power, ready to swing it to the cleanest +man of either party who came up for office.</p> + +<p>I made several speeches myself though it was hard work for me. I don't +run to that sort of thing. I did it however just because I didn't like +it and because I felt it was the duty of a citizen to do something now +and then he doesn't like for his city <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>and his country. The old excuse +with me had been that politics was a dirty business at best and that +it ought to be left to the lawyers and such who had something to gain +from it. The only men I ever knew who went into it at all were those +who had a talent for it and who liked it. Of course that's dead wrong. +A man who won't take the trouble to find out about the men up for +office and who won't bother himself to get out and hustle for the best +of them isn't a good citizen or a good American. He deserves to be +governed by the newcomers and deserves all they hand out to him. And +the time to do the work isn't when a man is up for president of the +United States, it's when the man is up for the common council. The +higher up a politician gets, the less the influence of the single +voter counts.</p> + +<p>It was in the spring that some of my ideals received a set back. The +alderman from our ward died suddenly and Rafferty was naturally hot +after the vacancy. He came to see me about it, but before he broached +this subject he laid another before me that took away my breath. It +was nothing else than that I should go into partnership with him under +the firm name of "Carleton and Rafferty." I couldn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>believe it +possible that he was in a position to take such a step within a couple +of years of digging in the ditch. But when he explained the scheme to +me, it was as simple as rolling off a log. A firm of liquor dealers +had agreed to back him—form a stock company and give him a third +interest to manage it. He had spoken to them of me and said he'd do it +if they would make it a half interest and give us each a quarter.</p> + +<p>"But good Lord, Dan," I said, "we'd have to swing a lot of business to +make it go."</p> + +<p>"Never you worry about thot, mon," he said. "I'll fix thot all right +if I'm elicted to the boord."</p> + +<p>"You mean city contracts?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Sure."</p> + +<p>I began to see. The liquor house was looking for more licenses and +would get their pay out of Dan even if the firm didn't make a cent. +But Dan with such capital back of him as well as his aldermanic power +was sure to get the contracts. He would leave the actual work to me +and my men.</p> + +<p>I sat down and for two hours tried to make Dan realize how this crowd +wanted to use him. I couldn't. In addition to being blinded by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>his +overwhelming ambition, he actually couldn't see anything crooked in +what they wanted. He couldn't understand why he should let such an +opportunity drop for someone else to pick up. He had slipped out of my +hands completely. This was where the difference between five or six +years in America as against two hundred showed itself. And yet what +was the old stock doing to offset such personal ambition and energy as +Rafferty stood for?</p> + +<p>"No, Dan," I said, "I can't do it. And what's more I won't let you do +it if I can help it."</p> + +<p>"Phot do yez mane?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"That I'm going to fight you tooth and nail," I said.</p> + +<p>He turned red. Then he grinned.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "it'll be a foine fight anyhow."</p> + +<p>I went to the president of the club and told him that here was where +we had to stop Rafferty. He listened and then he said,</p> + +<p>"Well, here's where we do stop him."</p> + +<p>We went at the job in whirlwind fashion. I spoke a half dozen times +but to save my life I couldn't say what I wanted to say. Every time I +stood up I seemed to see Dan's big round <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>face and I remembered the +kindly things he used to do for the old ladies. And I knew that Dan's +offer to take me into partnership wasn't prompted altogether by +selfish motives. He could have found other men who would have served +his purpose better.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile Dan had organized "Social Clubs" in half a dozen +sections. For the first few weeks of the campaign I never heard of him +except as leading grand marches. But the last week he waded in. +There's no use going into details. He beat us. He rolled up a +tremendous majority. The president of the club couldn't understand it. +He was discouraged.</p> + +<p>"I had every boy in the ward out working," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "but Dan had every grandmother and every daughter and +every granddaughter out working."</p> + +<p>Dan came around to the flat one night after the election. He was as +happy as a boy over his victory.</p> + +<p>"Carleton," he said, again, "it's too domd bad ye ain't an Irishmon."</p> + +<p>After he had gone, Ruth said to me:</p> + +<p>"I don't think Mr. Rafferty will make a bad alderman at all."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MATURING PLANS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>I received several offers from other firms and as a result of these my +wages were advanced first to three dollars a day and then to three and +a half. Still Ruth refused to take things easier by increasing the +household expenses. During the third year we lived exactly as we had +lived during the first year. In a way it was easier to do this now +that we knew there was no actual necessity for it. Of course it was +easier, too, now that we had fallen into a familiar routine. The +things which had seemed to us like necessities when we came down here +now seemed like luxuries. And we none of us had either the craving for +luxuries or the time to enjoy them had we wished to spend the money on +them. In the matter of clothes we cared for nothing except to be +warmly and cleanly dressed. Strip the problem of clothes down to this +and it's not a very serious one. To <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>realize that you've only to +remember how the average farmer dresses or how the homesteader +dresses. It's only when you introduce style and the conventions that +the matter becomes complicated. Perhaps it was easier for me to dress +as I pleased than for the boy or Ruth but even they got right down to +bed rock. The boy wore grey flannel shirts and so at a stroke did away +with collars and cuffs. For the rest a simple blue suit, a cap, +stockings and shoes were all he needed outside his under clothes which +Ruth made for him. Ruth herself dressed in plain gowns that she could +do up herself. For the street, she still had the costumes she came +down here with. None of us kept any extra clothes for parade.</p> + +<p>We carried out the same idea in our food, as I've tried to show; we +insisted that it must be wholesome and that there must be enough of +it. Those were the only two things that counted. Variety except of the +humblest kind, we didn't strive for. I've seen cook books which +contain five hundred pages; if Ruth compiled one it wouldn't have +twenty. Here again the farmer and the pioneer were our models. If +anyone in the country had lived the way we were living, it wouldn't +have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>seemed worth telling about. I find the fact which amazes people +in our experiment was that we should have tried the same standard in +the city. Everyone seems to think this was a most dangerous thing to +attempt. The men who on a camping trip consider themselves well fed on +such food as we had to eat expect to starve to death if placed on the +same diet once within sound of the trolley cars. And on the camping +trip they do ten times the physical labor and do it month after month +in air that whets the appetite. Then they come back and boast how +strong they've grown, and begin to eat like hogs again and wonder why +they get sick.</p> + +<p>We camped out in the city—that's all we did. And we did just what +every man in camp does; we stripped down to essentials. We could have +lived on pork scraps and potatoes if that had been necessary. We could +have worried along on hard tack and jerked beef if we'd been pressed +hard enough. Men chase moose, and climb mountains and prospect for +gold on such food. Why in Heaven's name can't they shovel dirt on the +same diet?</p> + +<p>So, too, about amusements. When a man is trying to clear thirty acres +of pine stumps, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>he doesn't fret at the end of the day because he +can't go to the theatre. He doesn't want to go. Bed and his dreams are +amusement enough for him. And he isn't called a low-browed savage +because he's satisfied with this. He's called a hero. The world at +large doesn't say that he has lowered the standard of living; it +boasts about him for a true American. Why can't a man lay bricks +without the theatre?</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact however we could have had even the amusements if +we'd wanted them. For those who needed such things in order to +preserve a high standard of living they were here. And I don't say +they didn't serve a useful purpose. What I do say is that they aren't +absolutely necessary; that a high standard of living isn't altogether +dependent on sirloin steaks, starched collars and music halls as I've +heard a good many people claim.</p> + +<p>This third year finished my course in masonry. I came out in June with +a trade at which I could earn from three dollars to five dollars a day +according to my skill. It was a trade, too, where there was pretty +generally steady employment. A good mason is more in demand than a +good lawyer. Not only that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>but a good mason can find work in any city +in this country. Wherever he lands, he's sure of a comfortable living. +I was told that out west some men were making as high as ten dollars a +day.</p> + +<p>I had also qualified in a more modest way as a mechanical draftsman. I +could draw my own plans for work and what was more useful still, do my +work from the plans of others.</p> + +<p>By now I had also become a fairly proficient Italian scholar. I could +speak the language fluently and read it fairly well. It wasn't the +fault of Giuseppe if my pronunciation was sometimes queer and if very +often I used the jargon of the provinces. My object was served as long +as I could make myself understood to the men. And I could do that +perfectly.</p> + +<p>This year I watched Rafferty's progress with something like envy. The +firm was "D. Rafferty and Co." Within two months I began to see the +name on his dump carts whenever I went to work. Within six months he +secured a big contract for repaving a long stretch of street in our +ward. I knew our firm had put in a bid on it and knew they must have +been in a position to put in a mighty low bid. I didn't wonder so much +about how Dan got this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>away from us as I did how he got it away from +Sweeney. That was explained to me later when I found that Sweeney was +in reality back of the liquor dealers. Sweeney owned about half their +stores and had taken this method to bring Dan back to the fold, once +he found he couldn't check his progress.</p> + +<p>During this year Dan bought a new house and married. We went to the +wedding and it was a grand affair with half the ward there. Mrs. +Rafferty was a nice looking girl, daughter of a well-to-do Irishman in +the real estate business. She had received a good education in a +convent and was altogether a girl Dan could be proud of. The house was +an old-fashioned structure built by one of the old families who had +been forced to move by the foreign invasion. Mrs. Rafferty had +furnished it somewhat lavishly but comfortably.</p> + +<p>As Ruth and I came back that night I said:</p> + +<p>"I suppose if it had been 'Carleton and Rafferty' I might have had a +house myself by now."</p> + +<p>"I guess it's better as it is, Billy," she said, with a smile.</p> + +<p>Of course it was better but I began to feel discontented with my +present position. I felt <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>uncomfortable at still being merely a +foreman. When we reached the house Ruth and I took the bank book and +figured out just what our capital in money was. Including the boy's +savings which we could use in an emergency it amounted to fourteen +hundred dollars. During the first year we saved one hundred and twenty +dollars, which added to the eighty we came down here with, made two +hundred dollars. During the second year we saved three hundred and +ninety dollars. During the third year we saved six hundred dollars. +This made a total of eleven hundred and ninety dollars in the bank. +The boy had saved more than two hundred dollars over his clothes in +the last two years.</p> + +<p>It was Rafferty who helped me turn this over in a real estate deal in +which he was interested. I made six hundred dollars by that. +Everything Rafferty touched now seemed to turn to money. One reason +was that he was thrown in contact with money-makers all of whom were +anxious to help him. He received any number of tips from those eager +to win his favor. Among the tips were many that were legitimate enough +like the one he shared with me but there were also many that were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>not +quite so above-board. But to Dan all was fair in business and +politics. Yet I don't know a man I'd sooner trust upon his honor in a +purely personal matter. He wouldn't graft from his friends however +much he might from the city. In fact his whole code as far as I could +see was based upon this unswerving loyalty to his friends and +scrupulous honesty in dealing with them. It was only when honesty +became abstract that he couldn't see it. You could put a thousand +dollars in gold in his keeping without security and come back twenty +years later and find it safe. But he'd scheme a week to frame up a +deal to cheat the city out of a hundred dollars. And he'd do it with +his head in the air and a grin on his face. I've seen the same thing +done by educated men who knew better. I wouldn't trust the latter with +a ten cent piece without first consulting a lawyer.</p> + +<p>The money I had saved didn't represent all my capital. I had as my +chief asset the gang of men I had drilled. Everything else being equal +they stood ready to work for me in preference to any other man in the +city. In fact their value as a machine depended on me. If I had been +discharged and another man put in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>my place the gang would have +resolved itself again into merely one hundred day laborers. Nor was +this my only other asset. I had established myself as a reliable man +in the eyes of a large group of business men. This meant credit. Nor +must I leave out Dan and his influence. He stood ready to back me not +only financially but personally. And he knew me well enough to know +this would not involve anything but a business obligation on my part.</p> + +<p>With these things in mind then I felt ready to take a radical +departure from the routine of my life when the opportunity came. But I +made up my mind I would wait for the opportunity. I must have a chance +which would not involve too much capital and in which my chief asset +would be the gang. Furthermore it must be a chance that I could use +without resorting to pull. Not only that but it must be something on +which I could prove myself to such good advantage that other business +would be sure to follow. I couldn't cut loose with my men and leave +them stranded at the end of a single job.</p> + +<p>I watched every public proposal and analyzed them all. I found that +they very quickly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>resolved themselves into Dan's crowd. I kept my +ears wide open for private contracts but by the time I heard of any I +was too late. So I waited for perhaps three months. Then I saw in the +daily paper what seemed to me my opportunity. It was an open bid for +some park construction which was under the guardianship of a +commission. It was a grading job and so would require nothing but the +simplest equipment. I looked over the ground and figured out the +gang's part in it first. Then I went to Rafferty and told him what I +wanted in the way of teams. I wanted only the carts and horses—I +would put my own men to work with them. I asked him to take my note +for the cost.</p> + +<p>"I'll take your word, Carleton," he said. "Thot's enough."</p> + +<p>But I insisted on the note. He finally agreed and offered to secure +for me anything I wanted for the work.</p> + +<p>I went back to Ruth and we sat down and figured the matter all over +once again. We stripped it down to a figure so low that my chief +profit would come on the time I could save with my machine. I allowed +for the scantiest profit on dirt and rock though I had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>secured a good +option on what I needed of this. I was lucky in finding a short haul +though I had had my eye on this for some time. Of one thing I was +extremely careful—to make my estimate large enough so that I couldn't +possibly lose anything but my profit. Even if I wasn't able to carry +out my hope of being able to speed up the gang I should be able to pay +my bills and come out of the venture even.</p> + +<p>Ruth and I worked for a week on it and when I saw the grand total it +took away my breath. I wasn't used to dealing in big figures. They +frightened me. I've learned since then that it's a good deal easier in +some ways to deal in thousands than it is in ones. You have wider +margins, for one thing. But I must confess that now I was scared. I +was ready to back out. When I turned to Ruth for the final decision, +she looked into my eyes a second just as she did when I asked her to +marry me and said,</p> + +<p>"Go after it, Billy. You can do it."</p> + +<p>That night I sent in my estimate endorsed by Dan and a friend of his +and for a month I waited. I didn't sleep as well as usual but Ruth +didn't seem to be bothered. Then one night when I came home I found +Ruth at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>outside door waiting for me. I knew the thing had been +decided. She came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder and patted +me.</p> + +<p>"It's yours, Billy," she said.</p> + +<p>My heart stopped beating for a moment and then it went on again +beating a dozen ticks to the second.</p> + +<p>The next day I closed up my options. I went to Corkery, gave my notice +and told him what I was going to do. He was madder than a hornet. I +listened to what he had to say and went off without a word in reply. +He was so unreasonable that it didn't seem worth it. That noon I +rounded up the men and told them frankly that I was going to start in +business for myself and needed a hundred men. I told them also that +this first job might last only four or five weeks and that while I had +nothing definite in mind after that I was in hopes to secure in the +meanwhile other contracts. I said this would be largely up to them. I +told them that I didn't want a man to come who wasn't willing to take +the chance. Of course it was something of a chance because Corkery had +been giving them steady employment. Still it wasn't a very big chance +because there was always work for such men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>I watched anxiously to see how they would take it. I felt that the +truth of my theories were having their hardest test. When they let out +a cheer and started towards me in a mass I saw blurry.</p> + +<p>I'll never forget the feeling I had when I started out in the morning +that first day as an independent contractor; I'll never forget my +feeling as I reached the work an hour ahead of my men and waited for +them to come straggling up. I seemed closer than ever to my ancestors. +I felt as my great-great-grandfather must have felt when he cut loose +from the Massachusetts colony and went off down into the unknown +Connecticut. I was full enough of confidence but I knew that a month +might drive me back again. Deeper than this trivial fear however there +was something bigger—something finer. I was a free man in a larger +way than I had ever been before. It made me feel an American to the +very core of my marrow.</p> + +<p>The work was all staked out but before the men began I called them all +together. I didn't make a speech; I just said:</p> + +<p>"Men—I've estimated that this can be done by an ordinary bunch of men +in forty days; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>I've banked that you can do it in thirty. If you +succeed, it gives me profit enough to take another contract. Do the +best you can."</p> + +<p>There wasn't a mother's son among them who didn't appreciate my +position. There were a good many who knew Ruth and knew her through +what she had done for their families, and these understood it even +better. The dirt began to fly and it was a pretty sight to watch. I +never spoke again to the men. I simply directed their efforts. I spent +about half the time with a shovel in my hands myself. There was +scarcely a day when Ruth didn't come out to watch the work with an +anxious eye but after the first week there was little need for +anxiety. I think she would have liked to take a shovel herself. One +Saturday Dick came out and actually insisted upon being allowed to do +this. The men knew him and liked to see such spirit.</p> + +<p>Well, we clipped ten days from my estimate, which left me with all my +bills paid and with a handsome profit. Better still I had secured on +the strength of Carleton's gang another contract.</p> + +<p>The night I deposited my profit in the bank, Ruth quite unconsciously +took her pad and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>pencil and sat down by my side as usual to figure up +the household expenses for the week. We had been a bit extravagant +that week because she had been away from the house a good deal. The +total came to four dollars and sixty-seven cents. When Ruth had +finished I took the pad and pencil away from her and put it in my +pocket.</p> + +<p>"There's no use bothering your head any more over these details," I +said.</p> + +<p>She looked at me almost sadly.</p> + +<p>"No, Billy," she said, with a sigh, "there isn't, is there?"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>ONCE AGAIN A NEW ENGLANDER</h4> +<br /> + +<p>During all those years we had never seen or heard of any of our old +neighbors. They had hardly ever entered our thoughts except as very +occasionally the boy ran across one of his former playmates. Shortly +after this, however, business took me out into the old neighborhood +and I was curious enough to make a few inquiries. There was no change. +My trim little house stood just as it then stood and around it were +the other trim little houses. There were a few new houses and a few +new-comers, but all the old-timers were still there. I met Grover, who +was just recovering from a long sickness. He didn't recognize me at +first. I was tanned and had filled out a good deal.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," he said, after I had told my name. "Let me see, you went +off to Australia or somewhere, didn't you, Carleton?"</p> + +<p>"I emigrated," I answered.</p> + +<p>He looked up eagerly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>"I remember now. It seems to have agreed with you."</p> + +<p>"You're still with the leather firm?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>He almost started at this unexpected question.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered.</p> + +<p>His eyes turned back to his trim little house, then to me as though he +feared I was bringing him bad news.</p> + +<p>"But I've been laid up for six weeks," he faltered.</p> + +<p>I knew what was troubling him. He was wondering whether he would find +his job when he got back. Poor devil! If he didn't what would become +of his trim little house? Grover was older by five years than I had +been when the axe fell.</p> + +<p>I talked with him a few minutes. There had been a death or two in the +neighborhood and the children had grown up. That was the only change. +The sight of Grover made me uncomfortable, so I hurried about my +business, eager to get home again.</p> + +<p>God pity the poor? Bah! The poor are all right if by poor you mean the +tenement dwellers. When you pray again pray God to pity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>the +middle-class American on a salary. Pray that he may not lose his job; +pray that if he does it shall be when he is very young; pray that he +may find the route to America. The tenement dwellers are safe enough. +Pray—and pray hard—for the dwellers in the trim little houses of the +suburbs.</p> + +<p>I've had my ups and downs, my profits and losses since I entered +business for myself but I've come out at the end of each year well +ahead of the game. I never made again as much in so short a time as I +made on that first job. One reason is that as soon as I was solidly on +my feet I started a profit sharing scheme, dividing with the men what +was made on every job over a certain per cent. Many of the original +gang have left and gone into business for themselves of one sort and +another but each one when he went, picked a good man to take his place +and handed down to him the spirit of the gang.</p> + +<p>Dick went through college and is now in my office. He's a hustler and +is going to make a good business man. But thank God he has a heart in +him as well as brains. He hopes to make "Carleton and Son" a big firm +some day and he will. If he does, every man who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>faithfully and +honestly handles his shovel will be part of the big firm. His idea +isn't to make things easy for the men; it's to preserve the spirit +they come over with and give them a share of the success due to that +spirit.</p> + +<p>We didn't move away from our dear, true friends until the other boy +came. Then I bought two or three deserted farms outside the +city—fifty acres in all. I bought them on time and at a bargain. I'm +trying another experiment here. I want to see if the pioneer spirit +won't bring even these worn out acres to life. I find that some of my +foreign neighbors have made their old farms pay even though the good +Americans who left them nearly starved to death. I have some cows and +chickens and pigs and am using every square foot of the soil for one +purpose or another. We pretty nearly get our living from the farm now.</p> + +<p>We entertain a good deal but we don't entertain our new neighbors. +There isn't a week summer or winter that I don't have one or more +families of Carleton's gang out here for a half holiday. It's the only +way I can reconcile myself to having moved away from among them. Ruth +keeps very closely in touch with them all and has any number of +schemes to help them. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>Her pet one just now is for us to raise enough +cows so that we can sell fresh milk at cost to those families which +have kiddies.</p> + +<p>Dan comes out to see us every now and then. He's making ten dollars to +my one. He says he's going to be mayor of the city some day. I told +him I'd do my best to prevent it. That didn't seem to worry him.</p> + +<p>"If ye was an Irishmon, now," he said, "I'd be after sittin' up nights +in fear of ye. But ye ain't."</p> + +<p>I'm almost done. This has been a hard job for me. And yet it's been a +pleasant job. It's always pleasant to talk about Ruth. I found that +even by taking away her pad and pencil I didn't accomplish much in the +way of making her less busy. Even with three children to look after +instead of one she does just as much planning about the housework. And +we don't have sirloin steaks even now. We don't want them. Our daily +fare doesn't vary much from what it was in the tenement.</p> + +<p>Ruth just came in with Billy, Jr., in her arms and read over these +last few paragraphs. She says she's glad I'm getting through with this +because she doesn't know what I might tell about next. But there's +nothing more to tell <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>about except that to-day as at the beginning +Ruth is the biggest thing in my life. I can't wish any better luck for +those trying to fight their way out than they may find for a partner +half as good a wife as Ruth. I wouldn't be afraid to start all over +again to-day with her by my side.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +Page 129: semed replaced with seemed<br /> +Page 219: exitement replaced with excitement<br /> +Page 231: beafsteak replaced with beefsteak<br /> +Page 252: dependdent replaced with dependent<br /> +<br /> +<p class="cen">The following words are legitimate alternate spelling, +and left as found:</p> + +Shakespere<br /> +goodby<br /> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of One Way Out, by William Carleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + +***** This file should be named 28315-h.htm or 28315-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/1/28315/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/28315-h/images/cover.jpg b/28315-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef72206 --- /dev/null +++ b/28315-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/28315.txt b/28315.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6755eb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/28315.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6797 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of One Way Out, by William Carleton + +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: One Way Out + A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America + +Author: William Carleton + +Release Date: March 12, 2009 [EBook #28315] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | This e-text contains dialect and unusual spelling. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + +A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + +A MIDDLE-CLASS NEW-ENGLANDER +EMIGRATES TO AMERICA + + +BY +WILLIAM CARLETON + + + +BOSTON +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Copyright, 1911 + +BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY +(INCORPORATED) + +_Entered at Stationers' Hall_ + +Published January 28, 1911; second printing January + + +_Presswork by Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, U.S.A._ + + + + +TO HER +WHO WASN'T AFRAID + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER 1 + + II THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK 18 + + III THE MIDDLE CLASS HELL 37 + + IV WE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA 53 + + V WE PROSPECT 67 + + VI I BECOME A DAY LABORER 82 + + VII NINE DOLLARS A WEEK 94 + + VIII SUNDAY 112 + + IX PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 125 + + X THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT 146 + + XI NEW OPPORTUNITIES 165 + + XII OUR FIRST WINTER 183 + + XIII I BECOME A CITIZEN 200 + + XIV FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK 216 + + XV THE GANG 234 + + XVI DICK FINDS A WAY OUT, TOO 252 + + XVII THE SECOND YEAR 266 + +XVIII MATURING PLANS 283 + + XIX ONCE AGAIN A NEW ENGLANDER 298 + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + + + + +ONE WAY OUT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER + + +My great-grandfather was killed in the Revolution; my grandfather +fought in the War of 1812; my father sacrificed his health in the +Civil War; but I, though born in New England, am the first of my +family to emigrate to this country--the United States of America. That +sounds like a riddle or a paradox. It isn't; it's a plain statement of +fact. + +As a matter of convenience let me call myself Carleton. I've no desire +to make public my life for the sake of notoriety. My only idea in +writing these personal details is the hope that they may help some +poor devil out of the same hole in which I found myself mired. They +are of too sacred a nature to share except impersonally. Even behind +the disguise of an assumed name I passed some mighty uncomfortable +hours a few months ago when I sketched out for a magazine and saw in +cold print what I'm now going to give in full. It made me feel as +though I had pulled down the walls of my house and was living my life +open to the view of the street. For a man whose home means what it +does to me, there's nothing pleasant about that. + +However, I received some letters following that brief article which +made the discomfort seem worth while. My wife and I read them over +with something like awe. They came from Maine and they came from +Texas; they came from the north, they came from the south, until we +numbered our unseen friends by the hundred. Running through these +letters was the racking cry that had once rended our own hearts--"How +to get out!" As we read some of them our throats grew lumpy. + +"God help them," said my wife over and over again. + +As we read others, we felt very glad that our lives had been in some +way an inspiration to them. After talking the whole matter over we +decided that if it helped any to let people know how we ourselves +pulled out, why it was our duty to do so. For that purpose, which is +the purpose of this book, Carleton is as good a name as any. + +My people were all honest, plodding, middle-class Americans. They +stuck where they were born, accepted their duties as they came, earned +a respectable living and died without having money enough left to make +a will worth while. They were all privates in the ranks. But they were +the best type of private--honest, intelligent, and loyal unto death. +They were faithful to their families and unswerving in their duty to +their country. The records of their lives aren't interesting, but they +are as open as daylight. + +My father seems to have had at first a bit more ambition stirring +within him than his ancestors. He started in the lumber business for +himself in a small way but with the first call for troops sold out and +enlisted. He did not distinguish himself but he fought in more battles +than many a man who came out a captain. He didn't quit until the war +was over. Then he crawled back home subdued and sick. He refused ever +to draw a pension because he felt it was as much a man's duty to fight +for his country as for his wife. He secured a position as head clerk +and confidential man with an old established lumber firm and here he +stuck the rest of his life. He earned a decent living and in the +course of time married and occupied a comfortable home. My mother died +when I was ten and after that father sold his house and we boarded. It +was a dreary enough life for both of us. Mother was the sort of mother +who lives her whole life in caring for her men folks so that her going +left us as helpless as babies. For a long while we didn't even know +when to change our stockings. But obeying the family tradition, father +accepted his lot stoically and as final. No one in our family ever +married twice. With the death of the wife and mother the home ceased +and that was the end of it. + +I remember my father with some pride. He was a tall, old-fashioned +looking man with a great deal of quiet dignity. I came to know him +much better in the next few years after mother died than ever before +for we lived together in one room and had few friends. I can see him +now sitting by a small kerosene lamp after I had gone to bed clumsily +trying to mend some rent in my clothes. I thought it an odd occupation +for a man but I know now what he was about. I think his love for my +mother must have been deep for he talked to me a great deal of her and +seemed much more concerned about my future on her account than on +either his own or mine. I think it was she--she was a woman of some +spirit--who persuaded him to consider sending me to college. This +accounted partly for the mending although there was some sentiment +about it too. I think he liked to feel that he was carrying out her +work for me even in such a small matter as this. + +How much he was earning and how much he saved I never knew. I went to +school and had all the common things of the ordinary boy and I don't +remember that I ever asked him for any pocket money but what he gave +it to me. It was towards the end of my senior year in the high school +that I began to notice a change in him. He was at times strangely +excited and at other times strangely blue. He asked me a great many +questions about my preference in the matter of a college and bade me +keep well up in my studies. He began to skimp a little and I found out +afterwards that one reason he grew so thin was because he did away +with his noon meal. It makes my blood boil now when I remember where +the fruit of this self-sacrifice went. I wouldn't recall it here +except as a humble tribute to his memory. + +One night I came back to the room and though it was not yet dark I was +surprised to see a crack of yellow light creeping out from beneath the +sill. Suspecting something was wrong, I pushed open the door and saw +my father seated by the lamp with a pair of trousers I had worn when a +kid in his hands. His head was bent and he was trying to sew. I went +to his side and asked him what the trouble was. He looked up but he +didn't know me. He never knew me again. He died a few days afterwards. +I found then that he had invested all his savings in a wild-cat mining +scheme. They had been swept away. + +So at eighteen I was left alone with the only capital that succeeding +generations of my family ever inherited--a common school education and +a big, sound physique. My father's tragic death was a heavy blow but +the mere fact that I was thrown on my own resources did not dishearten +me. In fact the prospect rather roused me. I had soaked in the humdrum +atmosphere of the boarding house so long that the idea of having to +earn my own living came rather as an adventure. While dependent on my +father, I had been chained to this one room and this one city, but now +I felt as though the whole wide world had suddenly been opened up to +me. I had no particular ambition beyond earning a comfortable living +and I was sure enough at eighteen of being able to do this. If I +chose, I could go to sea--there wasn't a vessel but what would take so +husky a youngster; if I wished, I could go into railroading--here +again there was a demand for youth and brawn. I could go into a +factory and learn manufacturing or I could go into an office and learn +a business. I was young, I was strong, I was unfettered. There is no +one on earth so free as such a young man. I could settle in New York +or work my way west and settle in Seattle or go north into Canada. My +legs were stout and I could walk if necessary. And wherever I was, I +had only to stop and offer the use of my back and arms in return for +food and clothes. Most men feel like this only once in their lives. In +a few years they become fettered again--this time for good. + +Having no inclination towards the one thing or the other, I took the +first opportunity that offered. A chum of mine had entered the employ +of the United Woollen Company and seeing another vacancy there in the +clerical department, he persuaded me to join him. I began at five +dollars a week. I was put at work adding up columns of figures that +had no more meaning to me than the problems in the school arithmetic. +But it wasn't hard work and my hours were short and my associates +pleasant. After a while I took a certain pride in being part of this +vast enterprise. My chum and I hired a room together and we both felt +like pretty important business men as we bought our paper on the car +every morning and went down town. + +It took close figuring to do anything but live that first year and yet +we pushed our way with the crowd into the nigger heavens and saw most +of the good shows. I had never been to the theatre before and I liked +it. + +Next year I received a raise of five dollars and watched the shows +from the rear of the first balcony. That is the only change the raise +made that I can remember except that I renewed my stock of clothes. +The only thing I'm sure of is that at the end of the second year I +didn't have anything left over. + +That is true of the next six years. My salary was advanced steadily to +twenty dollars and at that time it took just twenty dollars a week +for me to live. I wasn't extravagant and I wasn't dissipated but every +raise found a new demand. It seemed to work automatically. You might +almost say that our salaries were not raised at all but that we were +promoted from a ten dollar plane of life to a fifteen dollar plane and +then to a twenty. And we all went together--that is the men who +started together. Each advance meant unconsciously the wearing of +better clothes, rooming at better houses, eating at better +restaurants, smoking better tobacco, and more frequent amusements. +This left us better satisfied of course but after all it left us just +where we began. Life didn't mean much to any of us at this time and if +we were inclined to look ahead why there were the big salaried jobs +before us to dream about. But even if a man had been forehanded and of +a saving nature, he couldn't have done much without sacrificing the +only friends most of us had--his office associates. For instance--to +save five dollars a week at this time I would have had to drop back +into the fifteen dollars a week crowd and I'd have been as much out of +place there as a boy dropped into a lower grade at school. I remember +that when I was finally advanced another five dollars I half-heartedly +resolved to put that amount in the bank weekly. But at this point the +crowd all joined a small country club and I had either to follow or +drop out of their lives. Of course in looking back I can see where I +might have done differently but I wasn't looking back then--nor very +far ahead either. If it would have prevented my joining the country +club I'm glad I didn't. + +It was out there that I met the girl who became my wife. My best +reason for remaining anonymous is the opportunity it will give me to +tell about Ruth. I want to feel free to rave about her if I wish. She +objected in the magazine article and she objects even more strongly +now but, as before, I must have an uncramped hand in this. The chances +are that I shall talk more about her than I did the first time. The +whole scheme of my life, beginning, middle and end, swings around her. +Without her inspiration I don't like to think what the end of me might +have been. And it's just as true to-day as it was in the stress of the +fight. + +I was twenty-six when I met Ruth and she was eighteen. She came out to +the club one Saturday afternoon to watch some tennis. It happened +that I had worked into the finals of the tournament but that day I +wasn't playing very well. I was beaten in the first set, six-two. What +was worse I didn't care a hang if I was. I had found myself feeling +like this about a lot of things during those last few months. Then as +I made ready to serve the second set I happened to see in the front +row of the crowd to the right of the court a slight girl with blue +eyes. She was leaning forward looking at me with her mouth tense and +her fists tight closed. Somehow I had an idea that she wanted me to +win. I don't know why, because I was sure I'd never seen her before; +but I thought that perhaps she had bet a pair of gloves or a box of +candy on me. If she had, I made up my mind that she'd get them. I +started in and they said, afterwards, I never played better tennis in +my life. At any rate I beat my man. + +After the game I found someone to introduce me to her and from that +moment on there was nothing else of so great consequence in my life. I +learned all about her in the course of the next few weeks. Her family, +too, was distinctly middle-class, in the sense that none of them had +ever done anything to distinguish themselves either for good or bad. +Her parents lived on a small New Hampshire farm and she had just been +graduated from the village academy and had come to town to visit her +aunt. The latter was a tall, lean woman, who, after the death of her +husband had been forced to keep lodgers to eke out a living. Ruth +showed me pictures of her mother and father, and they might have been +relatives of mine as far as looks went. The father had caught an +expression from the granite hills which most New England farmers +get--a rugged, strained look; the mother was lean and kind and +worried. I met them later and liked them. + +Ruth was such a woman as my mother would have taken to; clear and +laughing on the surface, but with great depths hidden among the golden +shallows. Her experience had all been among the meadows and mountains +so that she was simple and direct and fearless in her thoughts and +acts. You never had to wonder what she meant when she spoke and when +you came to know her you didn't even have to wonder what she was +dreaming about. And yet she was never the same because she was always +growing. But the thing that woke me up most of all from the first day +I met her was the interest she took in everyone and everything. A +fellow couldn't bore Ruth if he tried. She would have the time of her +life sitting on a bench in the park or walking down the street or just +staring out the window of her aunt's front room. And that street +looked like Sunday afternoon all the week long. + +I began to do some figuring when I was alone but there wasn't much +satisfaction in it. I had the clothes in my room, a good collection of +pipes, and ten dollars of my last week's salary. A man couldn't get +married on that even to a girl like Ruth who wouldn't want much. I cut +down here and there but I naturally wanted to appear well before Ruth +and so the savings went into new ties and shoes. In this way I fretted +along for a few months until I screwed my courage up to ask for +another raise. Those were prosperous days for the United Woollen and +everyone from the president to the office boy was in good humor. I +went to Morse, head of the department, and told him frankly that I +wished to get married and needed more money. That wasn't a business +reason for an increase but those of us who had worked there some years +had come to feel like one of the family and it wasn't unusual for the +company to raise a man at such a time. He said he'd see what he could +do about it and when I opened my pay envelope the next week I found an +extra five in it. + +I went direct from the office to Ruth and asked her to marry me. She +didn't hang her head nor stammer but she looked me straight in the +eyes a moment longer than usual and answered: + +"All right, Billy." + +"Then let's go out this afternoon and see about getting a house," I +said. + +I don't think a Carleton ever boarded when first married. To me it +wouldn't have seemed like getting married. I knew a suburb where some +of the men I had met at the country club lived and we went out there. +It was a beautiful June day and everything looked clean and fresh. We +found a little house of eight rooms that we knew we wanted as soon as +we saw it. It was one of a group of ten or fifteen that were all very +much alike. There was a piazza on the front and a little bit of lawn +that looked as though it had been squeezed in afterwards. In the rear +there was another strip of land where we thought we might raise some +garden stuff if we put it in boxes. The house itself had a front hall +out of which stairs led to the next floor. To the right there was a +large room separated by folding doors with another good-sized room +next to it which would naturally be used as a dining room. In the rear +of this was the kitchen and besides the door there was a slide through +which to pass the food. Upstairs there were four big rooms stretching +the whole width of the house. Above these there was a servant's room. +The whole house was prettily finished and in the two rooms down stairs +there were fireplaces which took my eye, although they weren't bigger +than coal hods. It was heated by a furnace and lighted by electricity +and there were stained glass panels either side of the front door. + +The rent was forty dollars a month and I signed a three years' lease +before I left. The next week was a busy one for us both. We bought +almost a thousand dollars' worth of furniture on the installment plan +and even then we didn't seem to get more than the bare necessities. I +hadn't any idea that house furnishings cost so much. But if the bill +had come to five times that I wouldn't have cared. The installments +didn't amount to very much a week and I already saw Morse promoted and +myself filling his position at twenty-five hundred. I hadn't yet got +over the feeling I had at eighteen that life was a big adventure and +that a man with strong legs and a good back _couldn't_ lose. With Ruth +at my side I bought like a king. Though I never liked the idea of +running into debt this didn't seem like a debt. I had only to look +into her dear blue eyes to feel myself safe in buying the store +itself. Ruth herself sometimes hesitated but, as I told her, we might +as well start right and once for all as to go at it half heartedly. + +The following Saturday we were married. My vacation wasn't due for +another month so we decided not to wait. The old folks came down from +the farm and we just called in a clergyman and were married in the +front parlor of the aunt's house. It was both very simple and very +solemn. For us both the ceremony meant the taking of a sacred oath of +so serious a nature as to forbid much lightheartedness. And yet I did +wish that the father and mother and aunt had not dressed in black and +cried during it all. Ruth wore a white dress and looked very beautiful +and didn't seem afraid. As for me, my knees trembled and I was chalk +white. I think it was the old people and the room, for when it was +over and we came out into the sunshine again I felt all right except a +bit light-headed. I remember that the street and the houses and the +cars seemed like very small matters. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK + + +When, with Ruth on my arm, I walked up the steps of the house and +unlocked the front door, I entered upon a new life. It was my first +taste of home since my mother died and added to that was this new love +which was finer than anything I had ever dreamed about. It seemed hard +to have to leave every morning at half past six and not get back until +after five at night, but to offset this we used to get up as early as +four o'clock during the long summer days. Many the time even in June +Ruth and I ate our breakfast by lamp-light. It gave us an extra hour +and she was bred in the country where getting up in the morning is no +great hardship. + +We couldn't afford a servant and we didn't want one. Ruth was a fine +cook and I certainly did justice to her dishes after ten years of +restaurants and boarding-houses. On rainy days when we couldn't get +out, she used to do her cooking early so that I might watch her. It +seemed a lot more like her cooking when I saw her pat out the dough +and put it in the oven instead of coming home and finding it all done. +I used to fill up my pipe and sit by the kitchen stove until I had +just time to catch the train by sprinting. + +But when the morning was fine we'd either take a long walk through the +big park reservation which was near the house or we'd fuss over the +garden. We had twenty-two inches of radishes, thirty-eight inches of +lettuce, four tomato plants, two hills of corn, three hills of beans +and about four yards of early peas. In addition to this Ruth had +squeezed a geranium into one corner and a fern into another and +planted sweet alyssum around the whole business. Everyone out here +planned to raise his own vegetables. It was supposed to cut down +expenses but I noticed the market man always did a good business. + +I had met two or three of the men at the country club and they +introduced me to the others. We were all earning about the same +salaries and living in about the same type of house. Still there were +differences and you could tell more by the wives than the husbands +those whose salaries went over two thousand. Two or three of the men +were in banks, one was in a leather firm, one was an agent for an +insurance company, another was with the telegraph company, another was +with the Standard Oil, and two or three others were with firms like +mine. Most of them had been settled out here three or four years and +had children. In a general way they looked comfortable and happy +enough but you heard a good deal of talk among them about the high +cost of living and you couldn't help noticing that those who dressed +the best had the fewest children. One or two of them owned horses but +even they felt obliged to explain that they saved the cost of them in +car fares. + +They all called and left their cards but that first year we didn't see +much of them. There wasn't room in my life for anyone but Ruth at that +time. I didn't see even the old office gang except during business +hours and at lunch. + +The rent scaled my salary down to one thousand and eighty dollars at +one swoop. Then we had to save out at least five dollars a week to pay +on the furniture. This left eight hundred and twenty, or fifteen +dollars and seventy-five cents a week, to cover running expenses. We +paid cash for everything and though we never had much left over at the +end of the week and never anything at the end of the month, we had +about everything we wanted. For one thing our tastes were not +extravagant and we did no entertaining. Our grocery and meat bill +amounted to from five to seven dollars a week. Of course I had my +lunches in town but I got out of those for twenty cents. My daily car +fare was twenty cents more which brought my total weekly expenses up +to about three dollars. This left a comfortable margin of from five to +seven dollars for light, coal, clothes and amusements. In the summer +the first three items didn't amount to much so some weeks we put most +of this into the furniture. But the city was new to Ruth, especially +at night, so we were in town a good deal. She used to meet me at the +office and we'd walk about the city and then take dinner at some +little French restaurant and then maybe go to a concert or the +theatre. She made everything new to me again. At the theatre she used +to perch on the edge of her seat so breathless, so responsive that I +often saw the old timers watch her instead of the show. I often did +myself. And sometimes it seemed as though the whole company acted to +her alone. + +Those days were perfect. The only incident to mar them was the death +of Ruth's parents. They died suddenly and left an estate of six or +seven hundred dollars. Ruth insisted upon putting that into the +furniture. But in our own lives every day was as fair as the first. My +salary came as regularly as an annuity and there was every prospect +for advancement. The garden did well and Ruth became acquainted with +most of the women in a sociable way. She joined a sewing circle which +met twice a month chiefly I guess for the purpose of finding out about +one another's husbands. At any rate she told me more about them than I +would have learned in ten years. + +Still, during the fall and winter we kept pretty much by ourselves, +not deliberately but because neither of us cared particularly about +whist parties and such things but preferred to spend together what +time we had. And then I guess Ruth was a little shy about her clothes. +She dressed mighty well to my eye but she made most of her things +herself and didn't care much about style. She didn't notice the +difference at home but when she was out among others, they made her +feel it. However spring came around again and we forgot all about +those details. We didn't go in town so much that summer and used to +spend more time on our piazza. I saw more of the men in this way and +found them a pleasant, companionable lot. They asked me to join the +Neighborhood Club and I did, more to meet them half way than because I +wanted to. There we played billiards and discussed the stock market +and furnaces. All of them had schemes for making fortunes if only they +had a few thousand dollars capital. Now and then you'd find a group of +them in one corner discussing a rumor that so and so had lost his job. +They spoke of this as they would of a death. But none of those +subjects interested me especially in view of what I was looking +forward to in my own family. + +In the afternoons of the early fall the women sent over jellies and +such stuff to Ruth and dropped in upon her with whispered advice. She +used to repeat it to me at night with a gay little laugh and her eyes +sparkling like diamonds. She was happier now than I had ever seen her +and so was I myself. When I went in town in the morning I felt very +important. + +I thought I had touched the climax of life when I married Ruth but +when the boy came he lifted me a notch higher. And with him he brought +me a new wife in Ruth, without taking one whit from the old. +Sweetheart, wife and mother now, she revealed to me new depths of +womanhood. + +She taught me, too, what real courage is. I was the coward when the +time came. I had taken a day off but the doctor ordered me out of the +house. I went down to the club and I felt more one of the neighborhood +that day than I ever did before or afterwards. It was Saturday and +during the afternoon a number of the men came in and just silently +gripped my hand. + +The women, too, seemed to take a new interest in us. When Ruth was +able to sit up they brought in numberless little things. But you'd +have thought it was their house and not mine, the way they treated me. +When any of them came I felt as though I didn't belong there and ought +to tip-toe out. + +We'd been saving up during the summer for this emergency so that we +had enough to pay for the doctor and the nurse but that was only the +beginning of the new expenses. In the first place we had to have a +servant now. I secured a girl who knew how to cook after a fashion, +for four dollars a week. But that wasn't by any means what she cost +us. In spite of Ruth's supervision the girl wasted as much as she used +so that our provision bill was nearly doubled. If we hadn't succeeded +in paying for the furniture before this I don't know what we would +have done. As it was I found my salary pretty well strained. I hadn't +any idea that so small a thing as a baby could cost so much. Ruth had +made most of his things but I know that some of his shirts cost as +much as mine. + +When the boy was older Ruth insisted upon getting along without a girl +again. I didn't approve of this but I saw that it would make her +happier to try anyway. How in the world she managed to do it I don't +know but she did. This gave her an excuse for not going out--though it +was an excuse that made me half ashamed of myself--and so we saved in +another way. Even with this we just made both ends meet and that was +all. + +The boy grew like a weed and before I knew it he was five years old. +Until he began to walk and talk I didn't think of him as a possible +man. He didn't seem like anything in particular. He was just soft and +round and warm. But when he began to wear knickerbockers he set me to +thinking hard. He wasn't going to remain always a baby; he was going +to grow into a boy and then a young man and before I knew it he would +be facing the very same problem that now confronted me. And that +problem was how to get enough ahead of the game to give him a fair +start in life. I realized, too, that I wanted him to do something +better than I had done. When I stopped to think of it I had +accomplished mighty little. I had lived and that was about all. That I +had lived happily was due to Ruth. But if I was finding difficulty in +keeping even with the game now, what was I going to do when the +youngster would prove a decidedly more serious item of expense? + +I talked this over with Ruth and we both decided that somehow, in some +way, we must save some money every year. We started in by reducing our +household expenses still further. But it seemed as though fate were +against us for prices rose just enough to absorb all our little +economies. Flour went up and sugar went up, and though we had done +away with meat almost wholly now, vegetables went up. So, too, did +coal. Not only that but we had long since found it impossible to keep +to ourselves as we had that first year. Little by little we had been +drawn into the social life of the neighborhood. Not a month went by +but what there was a dinner or two or a whist party or a dance. +Personally I didn't care about such things but as Ruth had become a +matron and in consequence had been thrown more in contact with the +women, she had lost her shyness and grown more sociable. She often +suggested declining an invitation but we couldn't decline one without +declining all. I saw clearly enough that I had no right to do this. +She did more work than I and did not have the daily change. To have +made a social exile of her would have been to make her little better +than a slave. But it cost money. It cost a lot of money. We had to do +our part in return and though Ruth accomplished this by careful buying +and all sorts of clever devices, the item became a big one in the +year's expenses. + +I began to look forward with some anxiety for the next raise. At the +office I hunted for extra work with an eye upon the place above; but +though I found the work nothing came of it but extra hours. In fact I +began to think myself lucky to hold the job I had for a gradual change +of methods had been slowly going on in the office. Mechanical adding +machines had cost a dozen men their jobs; a card system of bookkeeping +had made it possible to discharge another dozen, while an off year in +woollens sent two or three more flying, among them the man who had +found me the position in the first place. But he hadn't married and he +went out west somewhere. Occasionally when work picked up again a +young man was taken on to fill the place of one of the discharged men. +The company always saved a few hundred dollars by such a shift for the +lad never got the salary of the old employee, and so far as anyone +could see the work went on just as well. + +While these moves were ominous, as I can see now in looking back, they +didn't disturb me very much at the time. I filled a little niche in +the office that was all my own. At every opportunity I had +familiarized myself with the work of the man above me and was on very +good terms with him. I waited patiently and confidently for the day +when Morse should call me in and announce his own advance and leave me +to fill his place. I might have to begin on two thousand but it was a +sure twenty-five hundred eventually to say nothing of what it led to. +The president of the company had begun as I had and had moved up the +same steps that now lay ahead of me. + +In the meanwhile the life at home ran smoothly in spite of everything. +Neither the wife, the boy nor I was sick a day for we all had sound +bodies to start with. Our country-bred ancestors didn't need a will to +leave us those. If at times we felt a trifle pinched especially in the +matter of clothes, it was wonderful how rich Ruth contrived to make us +feel. She knew how to take care of things and though I didn't spend +half what some of the men spent on their suits, I went in town every +morning looking better than two-thirds of them. I was inspected from +head to foot before I started and there wasn't a wrinkle or a spot so +small that it could last twenty-four hours. I shined my own shoes and +pressed my own trousers and Ruth looked to it that this was done well. +Moreover she could turn a tie, clean and press it so that it looked +brand new. I think some of the neighbors even thought I was +extravagant in my dressing. + +She did the same for herself and had caught the knack of seeming to +dress stylishly without really doing so. She had beautiful hair and +this in itself made her look well dressed. As for the boy he was a +model for them all. + +In the meanwhile the boy had grown into short trousers and before we +knew it he was in school. It made it lonesome for her during the day +when he began to trudge off every morning at nine o'clock. She began +to look forward to Saturdays as eagerly as the boy did. Then the next +thing we knew he'd start off even earlier on that day to join his +playmates. Sunday was the only day either of us had him to ourselves. + +After he began to go to school, Ruth and I seemed to begin another +life. In a way we felt all by ourselves once more. I didn't get home +until half past seven now and Dick was then abed. He was abed too when +I left in the morning. Of course he was never off my mind and if he +hadn't been asleep upstairs I guess I'd have known a difference. But +at the same time he was, in a small way, living his own life now +which left Ruth and me to ourselves once more. She used to go over for +me all the details of his day from the time she took him up in the +morning until she tucked him away in bed again at night and then there +would come a pause. It seemed as though there ought to be something +more, but there wasn't. The next few months it seemed almost as though +she was waiting. For what, I didn't know and yet I too felt there was +a lapse in our lives. I never loved her more. There was never a time +when she was so truly my wife and yet in our combined lives there was +something lacking. After a while I began to notice a wistful +expression in her eyes. It always came after she had said, + +"So Dicky said, 'God bless father and mother,' and then he went to +sleep." + +Then one night it dawned on me. Hers was the same heart hunger that +had been eating at me. Dick was a boy now and there was no baby to +take his place. But, good Lord, as it was I hadn't been able to save a +dollar. I knew that we were simply holding on tight and drifting. The +boat was loaded to the gunwales even now. And yet that expression in +her eyes had a right to be answered. But I couldn't answer it. I +didn't dare open my mouth. I didn't dare speak even one night when she +said, + +"He's all we have, Billy--just one." + +I gripped her hand and sat staring into the little coal hod fireplace +which we didn't light more than once a month now. Even as I watched +the flames I saw them licking up pennies. + +Just one! And I too wanted a houseful like Dick. + +I had to see that look night after night and I had to go to town +knowing I was leaving her all alone with the one away at school. And +what a mother she was! She ought to have had a baby by her side all +the time. + +As the one grew, his expenses increased. The only way to meet them was +by cutting down our own expenses still more. I cut out smoking and +made my old clothes do an extra year. Ruth spent half her time in +bargain hunting and saved still more by taking it out of herself. Poor +little woman, she worked harder for a quarter than I did and I was +working harder for that sum than I used to work for a dollar. But we +were not alone in the struggle. As we came to know more about the +people in that group of snug little houses we knew that the same grim +fight was going on in all of them. Some of them were not so lucky as +we and ran into debt while a few of them were luckier and were helped +out with legacies or by well-to-do relatives. We were as much alike as +peas in a pod. We were living on the future and bluffing out the +present. You'd have thought it would have cast a gloom over the +neighborhood--you'd have thought it would have done away with some of +the parties and dances. But it didn't. In the first place this was, to +most of us, just life. In the second place there didn't seem to be any +alternative. There was no other way of living. The conditions seemed +to be fixed; we had to eat, we had to wear a certain type of dress; +and unless we wished to exist as exiles we had to meet on a certain +plane of social intercourse. The conventions were as iron clad here as +among the nobility of England. No one thought of violating them; no +one thought it was possible. You had to live as the others did or die +and be done with it. If anyone of us had thought we might have seen +the foolishness of this but it was all so manifest that no one did +think. The only method of escape was a raise and that meant moving +into another sphere which would cover that. + +A new complication came when the boy grew old enough to have social +functions of his own. He had made many new friends and he wanted to +join a tennis club, a dancing class and contribute towards the support +of the athletic teams of the school. Moreover he was invited to +parties and had to give parties himself. Once again I tried to see +some way out of this social business. It seemed such a pitiful waste +of ammunition under the circumstances. I wanted to save the money if +it was possible in any way to eke it out, for his education. But what +could I do? The boy had to live as his friends lived or give them up. +He wasn't asked to do any more than the other boys of the neighborhood +but he was rightly asked to do as much. If he couldn't it would be at +the sacrifice of his pride that he associated with them at all. And a +just pride in a boy is something you can't safely tamper with. He had +to have the money and we managed it somehow. But it brought home the +old grim fact that I hadn't as yet saved a dollar. + +I clung more than ever now to the one ray of hope--the job ahead. It +was the only comfort Ruth and I had and whenever I felt especially +downhearted she'd start in and plan how we'd spend it. It took the +edge off the immediate thought of danger. In the meanwhile I resigned +even from the Neighborhood Club and let the boy join the tennis club. +I noticed at once a change in the attitude of the men towards me. But +I was reaching a point now where I didn't care. + +In this way, then, we lived until I was thirty-eight and Ruth was +thirty, and the boy was eleven. For the last few months I had been +doing night work without extra pay and so was practically exiled from +the boy except on Sundays. He was not developing the way I wanted. The +local grammar school was almost a private school for the neighborhood. +I should have preferred to have it more cosmopolitan. The boy was +rubbing up against only his own kind and this was making him soft, +both physically and mentally. He was also getting querulous and +autocratic. Ruth saw it, but with only one.... Well, on Sundays I took +the boy with me on long cross-country jaunts and did a good deal of +talking to him. But all I said rolled off like water off a duck. He +lacked energy and initiative. He was becoming distinctly more +middle-class than either of us, with some of the faults of the +so-called upper class thrown in. He chattered about Harvard, not as an +opportunity, but as a class privilege. I didn't like it. But before I +had time to worry much about this the crash came that I had not been +wise enough to foresee. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MIDDLE CLASS HELL + + +One Saturday afternoon, after we had been paid off, Morse, the head of +the department, whose job I had been eyeing enviously for five years +now, called me into his office. For three minutes I saw all my hopes +realized; for three minutes I walked dizzily with my whole life +justified. I could hardly catch my breath as I followed him. I didn't +realize until then how big a load I had been carrying. As a drowning +man is said to see visions of his whole past life, I saw visions of my +whole future. I saw Ruth's eager face lifted to mine as I told her the +good news; I saw the boy taken from his commonplace surroundings and +doing himself proud in some big preparatory school where he brushed up +against a variety of other boys; I saw--God pity me for the fool I +was--other children at home to take his place. I can say that for +three minutes I have lived. + +Morse seated himself in the chair before his desk and, bending over +his papers, talked without looking at me. He was a small fellow. I +don't suppose a beefy man ever quite gets over a certain feeling of +superiority before a small man. I could have picked up Morse in one +hand. + +"Carleton," he began, "I've got to cut down your salary five hundred +dollars." + +It came like a blow in the face. I don't think I answered. + +"Sorry," he added, "but Evans says he can double up on your work and +offers to do it for two hundred dollars more." + +I repeated that name Evans over and over. He was the man under me. +Then I saw my mistake. While watching the man ahead of me I had +neglected to watch the man behind me. Evans and I had been good +friends. I liked him. He was about twenty, and a hard worker. + +"Well?" said Morse. + +I recovered my wind. + +"Good God," I cried; "I can't live on any less than I'm getting now!" + +"Then you resign?" he asked quickly. + +For a second I saw red. I wanted to take this pigmy by the throat. I +wanted to shake him. He didn't give me time before exclaiming: + +"Very well, Carleton. I'll give you an order for two weeks' pay in +advance." + +The next thing I knew I was in the outer office with the order in my +hand. I saw Evans at his desk. I guess I must have looked queer, for +at first he shrank away from me. Then he came to my side. + +"Carleton," he said, "what's the matter?" + +"I guess you know," I answered. + +"You aren't fired?" + +I bucked up at this. I tried to speak naturally. + +"Yes," I said, "I'm fired." + +"But that isn't right, Carleton," he protested. "I didn't think it +would come to that. I went to Morse and told him I wanted to get +married and needed more money. He asked me if I thought I could do +your work. I said yes. I'd have said yes if he'd asked me if I could +do the president's work. But--come back and let me explain it to +Morse." + +It was white of him, wasn't it? But I saw clearly enough that he was +only fighting for his right to love as I was fighting for mine. I +don't know that I should have been as generous as he was--ten years +before. He had started toward the door when I called him back. + +"Don't go in there," I warned. "The first thing you know you'll be +doing my work without your two hundred." + +"That's so," he answered. "But what are you going to do now?" + +"Get another job," I answered. + +One of the great blessings of my life is the fact that it has always +been easy to report bad news to Ruth. I never had to break things +gently to her. She always took a blow standing up, like a man. So now +I boarded my train and went straight to the house and told her. She +listened quietly and then took my hand, patting it for a moment +without saying anything. Finally she smiled at me. + +"Well, Billy," she said, "it can't be helped, can it? So good luck to +Evans and his bride." + +When a woman is as brave as that it stirs up all the fighting blood in +a man. Looking into her steady blue eyes I felt that I had exaggerated +my misfortune. Thirty-eight is not old and I was able-bodied. I might +land something even better than that which I had lost. So instead of +a night of misery I actually felt almost glad. + +I started in town on Monday in high hope. But when I got off the train +I began to wonder just where I was bound. What sort of a job was I +going to apply for? What was my profession, anyway? I sat down in the +station to think the problem over. + +For twenty years now I had been a cog in the clerical machinery of the +United Woollen Company. I was known as a United Woollen man. But just +what else had this experience made of me? I was not a bookkeeper. I +knew no more about keeping a full set of books than my boy. I had +handled only strings of United Woollen figures; those meant nothing +outside that particular office. I was not a stenographer, or an +accountant, or a secretary. I had been called a clerk in the +directory. But what did that mean? What the devil was I, after twenty +years of hard work? + +The question started the sweat to my forehead. But I pulled myself +together again. At least I was an able-bodied man. I was willing to +work, had a record of honesty and faithfulness, and was intelligent as +men go. I didn't care what I did, so long as it gave me a living +wage. Surely, then, there must be some place for me in this alert, +hustling city. + +I bought a paper and turned to "Help Wanted." I felt encouraged at +sight of the long column. I read it through carefully. Half of the +positions demanded technical training; a fourth of them demanded +special experience; the rest asked for young men. I couldn't answer +the requirements of one of them. Again and again the question was +forced in upon me--what the devil was I? + +I didn't know which way to turn. I had no relatives to help me--from +the days of my great-grandfather no Carleton had ever quit the game +more than even. My business associates were as badly off as I was and +so were my neighbors. + +My relations with the latter were peculiar, now that I came to think +of it. In these last dozen years I had come to know the details of +their lives as intimately as my own. In a way we had been like one big +family. We knew each other as Frank, and Joe, and Bill, and Josh, and +were familiar with one another's physical ailments when any of us had +any. If any of the children had whooping cough or the measles every +man and woman in the neighborhood watched at the bedside, in a sense, +until the youngster was well, again. We knew to a dollar what each man +was earning and what each was spending. We borrowed one another's +garden tools and the women borrowed from each other's kitchens. On the +surface we were just about as intimate as it's possible for a +community to be. And yet what did it amount to? + +There wasn't a man-son of them to whom I would have dared go and +confess the fact I'd lost my job. They'd know it soon enough, be sure +of that; but it mustn't come from me. There wasn't one of them to whom +I felt free to go and ask their help to interest their own firms to +secure another position for me. Their respect for me depended upon my +ability to maintain my social position. They were like steamer +friends. On the voyage they clung to one another closer than bark to a +tree, but once the gang plank was lowered the intimacy vanished. If I +wished to keep them as friends I must stick to the boat. + +I knew they couldn't do anything if they had wanted to, but at the +same time I felt there was something wrong in a situation that would +not allow me to ask even for a letter of introduction without feeling +like a beggar. I felt there was something wrong when they made me feel +not like a brother in hard luck but like a criminal. I began to wonder +what of sterling worth I had got out of this life during the past +decade. + +However that was an incidental matter. The only time I did such +thinking as this was towards the early morning after I had lain awake +all night and exhausted all other resources. I tackled the problem in +the only way I could think of and that was to visit the houses with +whom I had learned the United Woollen did business. I remembered the +names of about a dozen of them and made the rounds of these for a +starter. It seemed like a poor chance and I myself did not know +exactly what they could do with me but it would keep me busy for a +while. + +With waits and delays this took me two weeks. Without letters it was +almost impossible to reach the managers but I hung on in every case +until I succeeded. Here again I didn't feel like an honest man +offering to do a fair return of work for pay, so much as I did a +beggar. This may have been my fault; but after you've sat around in +offices and corridors and been scowled at as an intruder for three or +four hours and then been greeted with a surly "What do you want?" you +can't help having a grouch. There wasn't a man who treated my offer as +a business proposition. + +At the end of that time two questions were burned into my brain: "What +can you do?" and "How old are you?" The latter question came as a +revelation. It seems that from a business point of view I was +considered an old man. My good strong body counted for nothing; my +willingness to undertake any task counted for nothing. I was too old. +No one wanted to bother with a beginner over eighteen or twenty. The +market demanded youth--youth with the years ahead that I had already +sold. Wherever I stumbled by chance upon a vacant position I found +waiting there half a dozen stalwart youngsters. They looked as I had +looked when I joined the United Woollen Company. I offered to do the +same work at the same wages as the youngsters, but the managers didn't +want me. They didn't want a man around with wrinkles in his face. +Moreover, they were looking to the future. They didn't intend to +adjust a man into their machinery only to have him die in a dozen +years. I wasn't a good risk. Moreover, I wouldn't be so easily +trained, and with a wider experience might prove more bothersome. At +thirty-eight I was too old to make a beginning. The verdict was +unanimous. And yet I had a physique like an ox and there wasn't a gray +hair in my head. I came out of the last of those offices with my fists +clenched. + +In the meanwhile I had used up my advance salary and was, for the +first time in my life, running into debt. Having always paid my bills +weekly I had no credit whatever. Even at the end of the third week I +knew that the grocery man and butcher were beginning to fidget. The +neighbors had by this time learned of my plight and were gossiping. +And yet in the midst of all this I had some of the finest hours with +my wife I had ever known. + +She sent me away every morning with fresh hope and greeted me at night +with a cheerfulness that was like wine. And she did this without any +show of false optimism. She was not blind to the seriousness of our +present position, but she exhibited a confidence in me that did not +admit of doubt or fear. There was something almost awesomely beautiful +about standing by her side and facing the approaching storm. She used +to place her small hands upon my back and exclaim: + +"Why, Billy, there's work for shoulders like those." + +It made me feel like a giant. + +So another month passed. I subscribed to an employment bureau, but the +only offer I received was to act as a sort of bouncer in a barroom. I +suppose my height and weight and reputation for sobriety recommended +me there. There was five dollars a week in it, and as far as I alone +was concerned I would have taken it. That sum would at least buy +bread, and though it may sound incredible the problem of getting +enough to eat was fast becoming acute. The provision men became daily +more suspicious. We cut down on everything, but I knew it was only a +question of time when they would refuse to extend our credit for the +little we _had_ to have. And all around me my neighbors went their +cheerful ways and waited for me to work it out. But whenever I thought +of the barroom job and the money it would bring I could see them shake +their heads. + +It was hell. It was the deepest of all deep hells--the middle-class +hell. There was nothing theatrical about it--no fireworks or red +lights. It was plain, dull, sodden. Here was my position: work in my +own class I couldn't get; work as a young man I was too old to get; +work as just plain physical labor these same middle-class neighbors +refused to allow me to undertake. I couldn't black my neighbors' boots +without social ostracism, though Pasquale, who kept the stand in the +United Woollen building, once confided to me that he cleared some +twenty-five dollars a week. I couldn't mow my neighbors' front lawns +or deliver milk at their doors, though there was food in it. That was +honest work--clean work; but if I attempted it would they play golf +with me? Personally I didn't care. I would have taken a job that day. +But there were the wife and boy. They were held in ransom. It's all +very well to talk about scorning the conventions, to philosophize +about the dignity of honest work, to quote "a man's a man for a' +that"; but associates of their own kind mean more to a woman and a +growing boy than they do to a man. At least I thought so at that time. +When I saw my wife surrounded by well-bred, well-dressed women, they +seemed to me an essential part of her life. What else did living mean +for her? When my boy brought home with him other boys of his age and +kind--though to me they did not represent the highest type--I felt +under obligations to retain those friends for him. I had begot him +into this set. It seemed barbarous to do anything that would allow +them to point the finger at him. + +I felt a yearning for some primeval employment. I hungered to join the +army or go to sea. But here again were the wife and boy. I felt like +going into the Northwest and preempting a homestead. That was a saner +idea, but it took capital and I didn't have enough. I was tied hand +and foot. It was like one of those nightmares where in the face of +danger you are suddenly struck dumb and immovable. + +I was beginning to look wild-eyed. Ruth and I were living on bread, +without butter, and canned soup. I sneaked in town with a few books +and sold them for enough to keep the boy supplied with meat. My shoes +were worn out at the bottom and my clothes were getting decidedly +seedy. The men with whom I was in the habit of riding to town in the +morning gave me as wide a berth as though I had the leprosy. I guess +they were afraid my hard luck was catching. God pity them, many of +them were dangerously near the rim of this same hell themselves. + +One morning my wife came to me reluctantly, but with her usual +courage, and said: + +"Billy, the grocery man didn't bring our order last night." It was +like a sword-thrust. It made me desperate. But the worst of the +middle-class hell is that there is nothing to fight back at. There you +are. I couldn't say anything. There was no answer. My eyes must have +looked queer, for Ruth came nearer and whispered: + +"Don't go in town to-day, Billy." + +I had on my hat and had gathered up two or three more volumes in my +green bag. I looked at the trim little house that had been my home for +so long. The rent would be due next month. I looked at the other trim +little houses around me. Was it actually possible that a man could +starve in such a community? It seemed like a satanic joke. Why, every +year this country was absorbing immigrants by the thousand. They did +not go hungry. They waxed fat and prosperous. There was Pasquale, the +bootblack, who was earning nearly as much as I ever did. + +We were standing on the porch. I took Ruth in my arms and kissed her. +She drew back with a modest protest that the neighbors might see. The +word neighbors goaded me. I shook my fist at their trim little houses +and voiced a passion that had slowly been gathering strength. + +"Damn the neighbors!" I cried. + +Ruth was startled. I don't often swear. + +"Have they been talking about you?" she asked suddenly, her mouth +hardening. + +"I don't know. I don't care. But they hold you in ransom like bloody +Moroccan pirates." + +"How do they, Billy?" + +"They won't let me work without taking it out of you and the boy." + +Her head dropped for a second at mention of the boy, but it was soon +lifted. + +"Let's get away from them," she gasped. "Let's go where there are no +neighbors." + +"Would you?" I asked. + +"I'd go to the ends of the earth with you, Billy," she answered +quietly. + +How plucky she was! I couldn't help but smile as I answered, more to +myself: + +"We haven't even the carfare to go to the ends of the earth, Ruth. It +will take all we have to pay our bills." + +"All we have?" she asked. + +No, not that. They could get only a little of what she and I had. They +could take our belongings, that's all. And they hadn't got those yet. + +But I had begun to hate those neighbors with a fierce, unreasoning +hatred. In silence they dictated, without assisting. For a dozen years +I had lived with them, played with them, been an integral part of +their lives, and now they were worse than useless to me. There wasn't +one of them big enough to receive me into his home for myself alone, +apart from the work I did. There wasn't a true brother among them. + +Our lives turn upon little things. They turn swiftly. Within fifteen +minutes I had solved my problem in a fashion as unexpected as it was +radical. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WE EMIGRATE TO AMERICA + + +Going down the path to town bitterly and blindly, I met Murphy. He was +a man with not a gray hair in his head who was a sort of +man-of-all-work for the neighborhood. He took care of my furnace and +fussed about the grounds when I was tied up at the office with night +work. He stopped me with rather a shamefaced air. + +"Beg pardon, sor," he began, "but I've got a bill comin' due on the +new house--" + +I remembered that I owed him some fifteen dollars. I had in my pocket +just ten cents over my carfare. But what arrested my attention was the +mention of a new house. + +"You mean to tell me that you're putting up a house?" + +"The bit of a rint, sor, in ---- Street." + +The contrast was dramatic. The man who emptied my ashes was erecting +tenements and I was looking for work that would bring me in food. My +people had lived in this country some two hundred years or more, and +Murphy had probably not been here over thirty. There was something +wrong about this, but I seemed to be getting hold of an idea. + +"How old are you, Murphy?" I asked. + +"Goin' on sixty, sor." + +"You came to America broke?" + +"Dead broke, sor." + +"You have a wife and children?" + +"A woman and six childer." + +Six! Think of it! And I had one. + +"Children in school?" + +I asked it almost in hope that here at least I would hold the +advantage. + +"Two of them in college, sor." + +He spoke it proudly. Well he might. But to me it was confusing. + +"And you have enough left over to put up a house?" I stammered. + +"It's better than the bank," Murphy said apologetically. + +"And you aren't an old man yet," I murmured. + +"Old, sor?" + +"Why you're young and strong and independent, Murphy. You're----" But +I guess I talked a bit wild. I don't know what I said. I was +breathless--lightheaded. I wanted to get back to Ruth. + +"Pat," I said, seizing his hand--"Pat, you shall have the money within +a week. I'm going to sell out and emigrate." + +"Emigrate?" he gasped. "Where to?" + +I laughed. The solution now seemed so easy. + +"Why, to America, Pat. To America where you came thirty years ago." I +left him staring at me. I hurried into the house with my heart in my +throat. + +I found Ruth in the sitting-room with her chin in her hands and her +white forehead knotted in a frown. She didn't hear me come in, but +when I touched her arm she jumped up, ashamed to think I had caught +her looking even puzzled. But at sight of my face her expression +changed in a flash. + +"Oh, Billy," she cried, "it's good news?" + +"It's a way out--if you approve," I answered. + +"I do, Billy," she answered, without waiting to hear. + +"Then listen," I said. "If we were living in England or Ireland or +France or Germany and found life as hard as this and some one left us +five hundred dollars what would you advise doing?" + +"Why, we'd emigrate, Billy," she said instantly. + +"Exactly. Where to?" + +"To America." + +"Right," I cried. "And we'd be one out of a thousand if we didn't make +good, wouldn't we?" + +"Why, every one succeeds who comes here from somewhere else," she +exclaimed. + +"And why do they?" I demanded, getting excited with my idea. "Why do +they? There are a dozen reasons. One is because they come as +pioneers--with all the enthusiasm and eagerness of adventurers. Life +is fresh and romantic to them over here. Hardships only add zest to +the game. Another reason is that it is all a fine big gamble to them. +They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. It's the same spirit +that drives young New Englanders out west to try their luck, to +preempt homesteads in the Northwest, to till the prairies. Another +reason is that they come over here free--unbound by conventions. They +can work as they please, live as they please. They haven't any caste +to hamper them. Another reason is that, being on the same great +adventure, they are all brothers. They pull together. Still another +reason is that as emigrants the whole United States stands ready to +help them with schools and playgrounds and hospitals and parks." + +I paused for breath. She cut in excitedly: + +"Then we're going out west?" + +"No; we haven't the capital for that. By selling all our things we can +pay our debts and have a few dollars over, but that wouldn't take us +to Chicago. I'm not going ten miles from home." + +"Where then, Billy?" + +"You've seen the big ships come in along the water-front? They are +bringing over hundreds of emigrants every year and landing them right +on those docks. These people have had to cross the ocean to reach that +point, but our ancestors made the voyage for you and me two hundred +years ago. We're within ten miles of the wharf now." + +She couldn't make out what I meant. + +"Why, wife o' mine," I ran on, "all we need to do is to pack up, go +down to the dock and start from there. We must join the emigrants and +follow them into the city. These are the only people who are finding +America to-day. We must take up life among them; work as they work; +live as they live. Why, I feel my back muscles straining even now; I +feel the tingle of coming down the gangplank with our fortunes yet to +make in this land of opportunity. Pasquale has done it; Murphy has +done it. Don't you think I can do it?" + +She looked up at me. I had never seen her face more beautiful. It was +flushed and eager. She clutched my arm. Then she whispered: + +"My man--my wonderful, good man!" + +The primitive appellation was in itself like a whiff of salt air. It +bore me back to the days when a husband's chief function was just +that--being a man to his own good woman. We looked for a moment into +each other's eyes. Then the same question was born to both of us in a +moment. + +"What of the boy?" + +It was a more serious question to her, I think, than it was to me. I +knew that the sons of other fathers and mothers had wrestled with that +life and come out strong. There were Murphy's boys, for instance. Of +course the life would be new to my boy, but the keen competition +ought to drive him to his best. His present life was not doing that. +As for the coarser details from which he had been so sheltered--well, +a man has to learn sooner or later, and I wasn't sure but that it was +better for him to learn at an age when such things would offer no real +temptations. With Ruth back of him I didn't worry much about that. +Besides, the boy had let drop a phrase or two that made me suspect +that even among his present associates that same ground was being +explored. + +"Ruth," I said, "I'm not worrying about Dick." + +"He has been kept so fresh," she murmured. + +"It isn't the fresh things that keep longest," I said. + +"That's true, Billy," she answered. + +Then she thought a moment, and as though with new inspiration answered +me using again that same tender, primitive expression: + +"I don't fear for my man-child." + +When the boy came home from school that night I had a long talk with +him. I told him frankly how I had been forced out of my position, how +I had tried for another, how at length I had resolved to go pioneering +just as his great-grandfather had done among the Indians. As I +thought, the naked adventure of it appealed to him. That was all I +wished; it was enough to work on. + +The next day I brought out a second-hand furniture dealer and made as +good a bargain as I could with him for the contents of the house. We +saved nothing but the sheer essentials for light housekeeping. These +consisted of most of the cooking utensils, a half dozen plates, cups +and saucers and about a dozen other pieces for the table, four +tablecloths, all the bed linen, all our clothes, including some old +clothes we had been upon the point of throwing away, a few personal +gimcracks, and for furniture the following articles: the folding +wooden kitchen table, a half dozen chairs, the cot bed in the boy's +room, the iron bed in our room, the long mirror I gave Ruth on her +birthday, and a sort of china closet that stood in the dining-room. To +this we added bowls, pitchers, and lamps. All the rest, which included +a full dining-room set, a full dinner set of china, the furnishings of +the front room, including books and book case, chairs, rugs, pictures +and two or three good chairs, a full bed-room set in our room and a +cheaper one in the boy's room, piazza furnishings, garden tools, and +forty odds and ends all of which had cost me first and last something +like two thousand dollars, I told the dealer to lump together. He +looked it over and bid six hundred dollars. I saw Ruth swallow hard, +for she had taken good care of everything so that to us it was worth +as much to-day as we had paid for it. But I accepted the offer without +dickering, for it was large enough to serve my ends. It would pay off +all our debts and leave us a hundred dollars to the good. It was the +first time since I married that I had been that much ahead. + +That afternoon I saw Murphy and hired of him the top tenement of his +new house. It was in the Italian quarter of the city and my flat +consisted of four rooms. The rent was three dollars a week. Murphy +looked surprised enough at the change in my affairs and I made him +promise not to gossip to the neighbors about where I'd gone. + +"Faith, sor," he said, "and they wouldn't believe it if I told them." + +This wasn't all I accomplished that day. I bought a pair of overalls +and presented myself at the office of a contractor's agent. I didn't +have any trouble in getting in there and I didn't feel like a beggar +as I took my place in line with about a dozen foreigners. I looked +them over with a certain amount of self-confidence. Most of them were +undersized men with sagging shoulders and primitive faces. With their +big eyes they made me think of shaggy Shetland ponies. Lined up man +for man with my late associates they certainly looked like an inferior +lot. I studied them with curiosity; there must be more in them than +showed on the surface to bring them over here--there must be something +that wasn't in the rest of us for them to make good the way they did. +In the next six months I meant to find out what that was. In the +meantime just sitting there among them I felt as though I had more +elbow room than I had had since I was eighteen. Before me as before +them a continent stretched its great length and breadth. They laughed +and joked among themselves and stared about at everything with eager, +curious eyes. They were ready for anything, and everything was ready +for them--the ditch, the mines, the railroads, the wheat fields. +Wherever things were growing and needed men to help them grow, they +would play their part. They say there's plenty of room at the top, +but there's plenty of room at the bottom, too. It's in the middle that +men get pinched. + +I worked my way up to the window where a sallow, pale-faced clerk sat +in front of a big book. He gave me a start, he was such a contrast to +the others. In my new enthusiasm I wanted to ask him why he didn't +come out and get in line the other side of the window. He yawned as he +wrote down my name. I didn't have to answer more than half a dozen +questions before he told me to report for work Monday at such and such +a place. I asked him what the work was and he looked up. + +"Subway," he answered. + +I asked him how much the pay was. He looked me over at this. I don't +know what he thought I was. + +"Dollar and a half--nine hours." + +"All right," I answered. + +He gave me a slip of paper and I hurried out. It hadn't taken ten +minutes. And a dollar and a half a day was nine dollars a week! It was +almost twice as much as I had started on with the United; it was over +a third of what I had been getting after my first ten years of hard +work with them. It seemed too good to be true. Taking out the rent, +this left me six dollars for food. That was as much as it had cost +Ruth and me the first year we were married. There was no need of going +hungry on that. + +I came back home jubilant. Ruth at first took the prospect of my +digging in a ditch a bit hard, but that was only because she +contrasted it with my former genteel employment. + +"Why, girl," I explained, "it's no more than I would have to do if we +took a homestead out west. I'd as soon dig in Massachusetts as +Montana." + +She felt of my arm. It's a big arm. Then she smiled. It was the last +time she mentioned the subject. + +We didn't say anything to the neighbors until the furniture began to +go out. Then the women flocked in and Ruth was hard pressed to keep +our secret. I sat upstairs and chuckled as I heard her replies. She +says it's the only time I ever failed to stand by her, but it didn't +seem to me like anything but a joke. + +"We shall want to keep track of you," said little Mrs. Grover. "Where +shall we address you?" + +"Oh, I can't tell," answered Ruth, truthfully enough. + +"Are you going far?" + +"Yes. Oh--a long, long way." + +That was true enough too. We couldn't have gone farther out of their +lives if we'd sailed for Australia. + +And so they kept it up. That night we made a round of the houses and +everyone was very much surprised and very much grieved and very +curious. To all their inquiries, I made the same reply; that I was +going to emigrate. Some of them looked wistful. + +"Jove," said Brown, who was with the insurance company, "but I wish I +had the nerve to do that. I suppose you're going west?" + +"We're going west first," I answered. + +The road to the station was almost due west. + +"They say there are great chances out in that country," he said. "It +isn't so overcrowded as here." + +"I don't know about that," I answered, "but there are chances enough." + +Some of the women cried and all the men shook hands cordially and +wished us good luck. But it didn't mean much to me. The time I needed +their handshakes was gone. I learned later that as a result of our +secrecy I was variously credited with having lost my reason with my +job; with having inherited a fortune, with having gambled in the +market, with, thrown in for good measure, a darker hint about having +misappropriated funds of the United Woollen. But somehow their +nastiest gossip did not disturb me. It had no power to harm either me +or mine. I was already beyond their reach. Before I left I wished them +all Godspeed on the dainty journey they were making in their +cockleshell. Then so far as they were concerned I dropped off into the +sea with my wife and boy. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WE PROSPECT + + +We were lucky in getting into a new tenement and lucky in securing the +top floor. This gave us easy access to the flat roof five stories +above the street. From here we not only had a magnificent view of the +harbor, but even on the hottest days felt something of a sea breeze. +Coming down here in June we appreciated that before the summer was +over. + +The street was located half a dozen blocks from the waterfront and was +inhabited almost wholly by Italians, save for a Frenchman on the +corner who ran a bake-shop. The street itself was narrow and dirty +enough, but it opened into a public square which was decidedly +picturesque. This was surrounded by tiny shops and foreign banks, and +was always alive with color and incident. The vegetables displayed on +the sidewalk stands, the gay hues of the women's gowns, the gaudy +kerchiefs of the men, gave it a kaleidoscopic effect that made it as +fascinating to us as a trip abroad. The section was known as Little +Italy, and so far as we were concerned was as interesting as Italy +itself. + +There were four other families in the house, but the only things we +used in common were the narrow iron stairway leading upstairs and the +roof. The other tenants, however, seldom used the latter at all except +to hang out their occasional washings. For the first month or so we +saw little of these people. We were far too busy to make overtures, +and as for them they let us severely alone. They were not noisy, and +except for a sick baby on the first floor we heard little of them +above the clamor of the street below. We had four rooms. The front +room we gave to the boy, the next room we ourselves occupied, the +third room we used for a sitting-and dining-room, while the fourth was +a small kitchen with running water. As compared with our house the +quarters at first seemed cramped, but we had cut down our furniture to +what was absolutely essential, and as soon as our eyes ceased making +the comparison we were surprised to find how comfortable we were. In +the dining-room, for instance, we had nothing but three chairs, a +folding table and a closet for the dishes. Lounging chairs and so +forth we did away with altogether. Nor was there any need of making +provision for possible guests. Here throughout the whole house was the +greatest saving. I took a fierce pleasure at first in thus caring for +my own alone. + +The boy's room contained a cot, a chair, a rug and a few of his +personal treasures; our own room contained just the bed, chair and +washstand. Ruth added a few touches with pictures and odds and ends +that took off the bare aspect without cluttering up. In two weeks +these scant quarters were every whit as much home as our tidy little +house had been. That was Ruth's part in it. She'd make a home out of a +prison. + +On the second day we were fairly settled, and that night after the boy +had gone to bed Ruth sat down at my side with a pad and pencil in her +hand. + +"Billy," she said, "there's one thing we're going to do in this new +beginning: we're going to save--if it's only ten cents a week." + +I shook my head doubtfully. + +"I'm afraid you can't until I get a raise," I said. + +"We tried waiting for raises before," she answered. + +"I know, but--" + +"There aren't going to be any buts," she answered decidedly. + +"But six dollars a week--" + +"Is six dollars a week," she broke in. "We must live on five-fifty, +that's all." + +"With steak thirty cents a pound?" + +"We won't have steak. That's the point. Our neighbors around here +don't look starved, and they have larger families than ours. And they +don't even buy intelligently." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I've been watching them at the little stores in the square. They pay +there as much for half-decayed stuff as they'd have to pay for fresh +odds and ends at the big market." + +She rested her pad upon her knee. + +"Now in the first place, Billy, we're going to live much more simply." + +"We've never been extravagant," I said. + +"Not in a way," she answered slowly, "but in another way we have. I've +been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days and I see now where +we've had a great many unnecessary things." + +"Not for the last few weeks, anyhow," I said. + +"Those don't count. But before that I mean. For instance there's +coffee. It's a luxury. Why we spent almost thirty cents a week on that +alone." + +"I know but--" + +"There's another but. There's no nourishment in coffee and we can't +afford it. We'll spend that money for milk. We must have good milk and +you must get it for me somewhere up town. I don't like the looks of +the milk around here. That will be eight cents a day." + +"Better have two quarts," I suggested. + +She thought a moment. + +"Yes," she agreed, "two quarts, because that's going to be the basis +of our food. That's a dollar twelve cents a week." + +She made up a little face at this. I smiled grandly. + +"Now for breakfast we must have oatmeal every morning. And we'll get +it in bulk. I've priced it and it's only a little over three cents a +pound at some of the stores." + +"And the kind we've always had?" + +"About twelve when it's done up in packages. That's about the +proportion by which I expect to cut down everything. But you'll have +to eat milk on it instead of cream. Then we'll use a lot of potatoes. +They are very good baked for breakfast. And with them you may have +salt fish--oh, there are a dozen nice ways of fixing that. And you may +have griddle cakes and--you wait and see the things I'll give you for +breakfast. You'll have to have a good luncheon of course, but we'll +have our principal meal when you get back from work at night. But you +won't get steak. When we do get meat we'll buy soup bones and meat we +can boil. And instead of pies and cakes we'll have nourishing puddings +of cornstarch and rice. There's another good point--rice. It's cheap +and we'll have a lot of it. Look at how the Japanese live on it day +after day and keep fat and strong. Then there's cheap fish; rock cod +and such to make good chowders of or to fry in pork fat like the bass +and trout I used to have back home. Then there's baked beans. We ought +to have them at least twice a week in the winter. But this summer +we'll live mostly on fish and vegetables. I can get them fresh at the +market." + +"It sounds good," I said. + +"Just you wait," she cried excitedly. "I'll fatten up both you and the +boy." + +"And yourself, little woman," I reminded her. "I'm not going to take +the saving out of you." + +"Don't you worry about me," she answered. "This will be easier than +the other life. I shan't have to worry about clothes or dinners or +parties for the boy. And it isn't going to take any time at all to +keep these four rooms clean and sweet." + +I took the rest of the week as a sort of vacation and used it to get +acquainted with my new surroundings. It's a fact that this section of +the city which for twenty years had been within a short walk of my +office was as foreign to me as Europe. I had never before been down +here and all I knew about it was through the occasional head-lines in +the papers in connection with stabbing affrays. For the first day or +two I felt as though I ought to carry a revolver. Whenever I was +forced to leave Ruth alone in the house I instructed her upon no +circumstances to open the door. The boy and I arranged a secret +rap--an idea that pleased him mightily--and until she heard the single +knock followed by two quick sharp ones, she was not to answer. But in +wandering around among these people it was difficult to think of them +as vicious. The Italian element was a laughing, indolent-appearing +group; the scattered Jewish folk were almost timid and kept very much +to themselves. I didn't find a really tough face until I came to the +water front where they spoke English. + +On the third morning after a breakfast of oatmeal and hot +biscuit--and, by the way, Ruth effected a fifty per cent. saving right +here by using the old-fashioned formula of soda and cream of tartar +instead of baking powder--and baked potatoes, Ruth and the boy and +myself started on an exploring trip. Our idea was to get a line on +just what our opportunities were down here and to nose out the best +and cheapest places to buy. The thing that impressed us right off was +the big advantage we had in being within easy access of the big +provision centres. We were within ten minutes' walk of the market, +within fifteen of the water front, within three of the square and +within twenty of the department stores. At all of these places we +found special bargains for the day made to attract in town those from +a distance. If one rose early and reached them about as soon as they +were opened one could often buy things almost at cost and sometimes +below cost. For instance, we went up town to one of the largest but +cheaper grade department stores--we had heard its name for years but +had never been inside the building--and we found that in their grocery +department they had special mark-downs every day in the week for a +limited supply of goods. We bought sugar this day at a cent a pound +less than the market price and good beans for two cents a quart less. +It sounds at first like rather picayune saving but it counts up at the +end of the year. Then every stall in the market had its bargain of +meats--wholesome bits but unattractive to the careless buyer. We +bought here for fifty cents enough round steak for several good meals +of hash. We couldn't have bought it for less than a dollar in the +suburbs and even at that we wouldn't have known anything about it for +the store was too far for Ruth to make a personal visit and the +butcher himself would never have mentioned such an odd end to a member +of our neighborhood. + +We enjoyed wandering around this big market which in itself was like a +trip to another land. Later one of our favorite amusements was to +come down here at night and watch the hustling crowds and the lights +and the pretty colors and confusion. It reminded Ruth, she said, of a +country fair. She always carried a pad and pencil and made notes of +good places to buy. I still have those and am referring to them now as +I write this. + +"Blanks," she writes (I omit the name), "nice clean store with +pleasant salesman. Has good soup bones." + +Again, "Blank and Blank--good place to buy sausage." + +Here too the market gardeners gathered as early as four o'clock with +their vegetables fresh from the suburbs. They did mostly a wholesale +business but if one knew how it was always possible to buy of them a +cabbage or a head of lettuce or a few apples or a peck of potatoes. +They were a genial, ruddy-cheeked lot and after a while they came to +know Ruth. Often I'd go up there with her before work and she with a +basket on her arm would buy for the day. It was always, "Good morning, +miss," in answer to her smile. They were respectful whether I was +along or not. But for that matter I never knew anyone who wasn't +respectful to Ruth. They used to like to see her come, I think, for +she stood out in rather marked contrast to the bowed figures of the +other women. Later on they used to save out for her any particularly +choice vegetable they might have. She insisted however in paying them +an extra penny for such things. + +From the market we went down a series of narrow streets which led to +the water front. Here the vessels from the Banks come in to unload. +The air was salty and though to us at first the wharves seemed dirty +we got used to them, after a while, and enjoyed the smell of the fish +fresh from the water. + +Seeing whole push carts full of fish and watching them handled with a +pitch fork as a man tosses hay didn't whet our appetites any, but when +we remembered that it was these same fish--a day or two older,--for +which we had been paying double the price charged for them here the +difference overcame our scruples. The men here interested me. I found +that while the crew of every schooner numbered a goodly per cent. of +foreigners, still the greater part were American born. The new comers +as a rule bought small launches of their own and went into business +for themselves. The English speaking portion of the crews were also +as a rule the rougher element. The loafers and hangers-on about the +wharves were also English speaking. This was a fact that later on I +found to be rather significant and to hold true in a general way in +all branches of the lower class of labor. + +The barrooms about here--always a pretty sure index of the men of any +community--were more numerous and of decidedly a rougher character +than those about the square. A man would be a good deal better +justified in carrying a revolver on this street than he would in +Little Italy. I never allowed Ruth to come down here alone. + +From here we wandered back and I found a public playground and +bathhouse by the water's edge. This attracted me at once. I +investigated this and found it offered a fine opportunity for bathing. +Little dressing-rooms were provided and for a penny a man could get a +clean towel and for five cents a bathing suit. There was no reason +that I could see, however, why we shouldn't provide our own. It was +within an easy ten minutes of the flat and I saw right then where I +would get a dip every day. It would be a great thing for the boy, +too. I had always wanted him to learn to swim. + +On the way home we passed through the Jewish quarter and I made a note +of the clothing offered for sale here. The street was lined with +second hand stores with coats and trousers swinging over the sidewalk, +and the windows were filled with odd lots of shoes. Then too there +were the pawnshops. I'd always thought of a pawnshop as not being +exactly respectable and had the feeling that anyone who secured +anything from one of them was in a way a receiver of stolen goods. But +as I passed them now, I received a new impression. They seemed, down +here, as legitimate a business as the second hand stores. The windows +offered an assortment of everything from watches to banjoes and guns +but among them I also noticed many carpenter's tools and so forth. +That might be a useful thing to remember. + +It was odd how in a day our point of view had changed. If I had +brought Ruth and the boy down through here a month before, we would +all, I think, have been more impressed by the congestion and the +picturesque details of the squalor than anything else. We would have +picked our way gingerly and Ruth would have sighed often in pity and, +comparing the lives of these people with our own, would probably have +made an extra generous contribution to the Salvation Army the next +time they came round. I'm not saying now that there isn't misery +enough there and in every like section of every city, but I'll say +that in a great many cases the same people who grovel in the filth +here would grovel in a different kind of filth if they had ten +thousand a year. At that you can't blame them greatly for they don't +know any better. But when you learn, as I learned later, that some of +the proprietors of these second hand stores and fly-blown butcher +shops have sons in Harvard and daughters in Wellesley, it makes you +think. But I'm running ahead. + +The point was that now that we felt ourselves in a way one of these +people and viewed the street not from the superior height of +native-born Americans but just as emigrants, neither the soiled +clothes of the inhabitants nor the cluttered street swarming with +laughing youngsters impressed us unfavorably at all. The impassive men +smoking cigarettes at their doors looked contented enough, the women +were not such as to excite pity, and if you noticed, there were as +many children around the local soda water fountains as you'd find in a +suburban drug store. They all had clothes enough and appeared well fed +and if some of them looked pasty, the sweet stuff in the stores was +enough to account for that. + +At any rate we came back to our flat that day neither depressed nor +discouraged but decidedly in better spirits. Of course we had seen +only the surface and I suspected that when we really got into these +lives we'd find a bad condition of things. It must be so, for that was +the burden of all we read. But we would have time enough to worry +about that when we discovered it for ourselves. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +I BECOME A DAY LABORER + + +That night Ruth and I had a talk about the boy. We both came back from +our walk, with him more on our minds than anything else. He had been +interested in everything and had asked about a thousand questions and +gone to bed eager to be out on the street again the next day. We knew +we couldn't keep him cooped up in the flat all the time and of course +both Ruth and I were going to be too busy to go out with him every +time he went. As for letting him run loose around these streets with +nothing to do, that would be sheer foolhardiness. It was too late in +the season to enroll him in the public schools and even that would +have left him idle during the long summer months. + +We talked some at first of sending him off into the country to a farm. +There were two or three families back where Ruth had lived who might +be willing to take him for three or four dollars a week and we had +the money left over from the sale of our household goods to cover +that. But this would mean the sacrifice of our emergency fund which we +wished to preserve more for the boy's sake than our own and it would +mean leaving Ruth very much alone. + +"I'll do it, Billy," she said bravely, "but can't we wait a day or two +before deciding? And I think I can _make_ time to get out with him. +I'll get up earlier in the morning and I'll leave my work at night +until after he's gone to bed." + +So she would. She'd have worked all night to keep him at home and then +gone out with him all day if it had been possible. I saw it would be +dragging the heart out of her to send the boy away and made up my mind +right then and there that some other solution must be found for the +problem. Good Lord, after I'd led her down here the least I could do +was to let her keep the one. And to tell the truth I found my own +heart sink at the suggestion. + +"What do the boys round here do in the summer?" she asked. + +I didn't know and I made up my mind to find out. The next day I went +down to a settlement house which I remembered passing at some time or +other. I didn't know what it was but it sounded like some sort of +philanthropic enterprise for the neighborhood and if so they ought to +be able to answer my questions there. The outside of the building was +not particularly attractive but upon entering I was pleasantly +surprised at the air of cleanliness and comfort which prevailed. There +were a number of small boys around and in one room I saw them reading +and playing checkers. I sought out the secretary and found him a +pleasant young fellow though with something of the professional +pleasantness which men in this work seem to acquire. He smiled too +much and held my hand a bit too long to suit me. He took me into his +office and offered me a chair. I told him briefly that I had just +moved down here and had a boy of ten whom I wished to keep off the +streets and keep occupied. I asked him what the boys around here did +during the summer. + +"Most of them work," he answered. + +I hadn't thought of this. + +"What do they do?" + +"A good many sell papers, some of them serve as errand boys and others +help their parents." + +Dick was certainly too inexperienced for the first two jobs and there +was nothing in my work he could do to help. Then the man began to ask +me questions. He was evidently struck by the fact that I didn't seem +to be in place here. I answered briefly that I had been a clerk all my +life, had lost my position and was now a common day laborer. The boy, +I explained, was not yet used to his life down here and I wanted to +keep him occupied until he got his strength. + +"You're right," he answered. "Why don't you bring him in here?" + +"What would he do here?" + +"It's a good loafing place for him and we have some evening classes." + +"I want him at home nights," I answered. + +"The Y.M.C.A. has summer classes which begin a little later on. Why +don't you put him into some of those?" + +I had always heard of the Y.M.C.A., but I had never got into touch +with it, for I thought it was purely a religious organization. But +that proposition sounded good. I'd passed the building a thousand +times but had never been inside. I thanked him and started to leave. + +"I hope this won't be your last visit," he said cordially. "Come down +and see what we're doing. You'll find a lot of boys here at night." + +"Thanks," I answered. + +I went direct to the Y.M.C.A. building. Here again I was surprised to +find a most attractive interior. It looked like the inside of a +prosperous club house. I don't know what I expected but I wouldn't +have been startled if I'd found a hall filled with wooden settees and +a prayer meeting going on. I had a lot of such preconceived notions +knocked out of my head in the next few years. + +In response to my questions I received replies that made me feel I'd +strayed by mistake into some university. For that matter it _was_ a +university. There was nothing from the primary class in English to a +professional education in the law that a man couldn't acquire here for +a sum that was astonishingly small. The most of the classes cost +nothing after payment of the membership fee of ten dollars. The +instructors were, many of them, the same men who gave similar courses +at a neighboring college. Not only that, but the hours were so +arranged as to accommodate workers of all classes. If you couldn't +attend in the daytime, you could at night. I was astonished to think +that this opportunity had always been at my hand and I had never +suspected it. In the ten years before I was married I could have +qualified as a lawyer or almost anything else. + +This was not all; a young man took me over the building and showed me +the library, the reading-room, rooms where the young men gathered for +games, and then down stairs to the well equipped gymnasium with its +shower baths. Here a boy could take a regular course in gymnasium work +under a skilled instructor or if he showed any skill devote himself to +such sports as basketball, running, baseball or swimming. In addition +to these advantages amusements were provided through the year in the +form of lectures, amateur shows and music. In the summer, special +opportunities were offered for out-door sports. Moreover the +Association managed summer camps where for a nominal fee the boys +could enjoy the life of the woods. A boy must be poor indeed who could +not afford most of these opportunities. And if he was out of work the +employment bureau conducted here would help him to a position. I came +back to the main office wondering still more how in the world I'd +ever missed such chances all these years. It was a question I asked +myself many times during the next few months. And the answer seemed to +lie in the dead level of that other life. We never lifted our eyes; we +never looked around us. If we were hard pressed either we accepted our +lot resignedly or cursed our luck, and let it go at that. These +opportunities were for a class which had no lot and didn't know the +meaning of luck. The others could have had them, too--can have +them--for the taking, but neither by education nor temperament are +they qualified to do so. There's a good field for missionary work +there for someone. + +Before I came out of the building I had enrolled Dick as a member and +picked out for him a summer course in English in which he was a bit +backward. I also determined to start him in some regular gymnasium +work. He needed hardening up. + +I came home and announced my success to Ruth and she was delighted. I +suspected by the look in her eyes that she had been worrying all day +for fear there would be no alternative but to send the boy off. + +"I knew you would find a way," she said excitedly. + +"I wish I'd found it twenty years ago," I said regretfully. "Then +you'd have a lawyer for a husband instead of a--." + +"Hush," she answered putting her hand over my mouth. "I've a man for a +husband and that's all I care about." + +The way she said it made me feel that after all being a man was what +counted and that if I could live up to that day by day, no matter what +happened, then I could be well satisfied. I guess the city directory +was right when before now it couldn't define me any more definitely +than, "clerk." And there is about as much man in a clerk as in a +valet. They are both shadows. + +The boy fell in with my plans eagerly, for the gymnasium work made him +forget the study part of the programme. The next day I took him up +there and saw him introduced to the various department heads. I paid +his membership fee and they gave him a card which made him feel like a +real club man. I tell you it took a weight off my mind. + +On the Monday following our arrival in our new quarters, I rose at +five-thirty, put on my overalls and had breakfast. I ate a large bowl +of oatmeal, a generous supply of flapjacks, made of some milk that had +soured, sprinkled with molasses, and a cup of hot black coffee--the +last of a can we had brought down with us among the left-over kitchen +supplies. + +For lunch Ruth had packed my box with cold cream-of-tartar biscuit, +well buttered, a bit of cheese, a little bowl of rice pudding, two +hard-boiled eggs and a pint bottle of cold coffee. I kissed her goodby +and started out on foot for the street where I was to take up my work. +The foreman demanded my name, registered me, told me where to find a +shovel and assigned me to a gang under another foreman. At seven +o'clock I took my place with a dozen Italians and began to shovel. My +muscles were decidedly flabby, and by noon I began to find it hard +work. I was glad to stop and eat my lunch. I couldn't remember a meal +in five years that tasted as good as that did. My companions watched +me curiously--perhaps a bit suspiciously--but they chattered in a +foreign tongue among themselves and rather shied away from me. On that +first day I made up my mind to one thing--I would learn Italian before +the year was done, and know something more about these people and +their ways. They were the key to the contractor's problem and it would +pay a man to know how to handle them. As I watched the boss over us +that day it did not seem to me that he understood very well. + +From one to five the work became an increasing strain. Even with my +athletic training I wasn't used to such a prolonged test of one set of +muscles. My legs became heavy, my back ached, and my shoulders finally +refused to obey me except under the sheer command of my will. I knew, +however, that time would remedy this. I might be sore and lame for a +day or two, but I had twice the natural strength of these short, +close-knit foreigners. The excitement and novelty of the employment +helped me through those first few days. I felt the joy of the +pioneer--felt the sweet sense of delving in the mother earth. It +touched in me some responsive chord that harked back to my ancestors +who broke the rocky soil of New England. Of the life of my fellows +bustling by on the earth-crust overhead--those fellows of whom so +lately I had been one--I was not at all conscious. I might have been +at work on some new planet for all they touched my new life. I could +see them peering over the wooden rail around our excavation as they +stopped to stare down at us, but I did not connect them with myself. +And yet I felt closer to this old city than ever before. I thrilled +with the joy of the constructor, the builder, even in this humble +capacity. I felt superior to those for whom I was building. In a +coarse way I suppose it was a reflection of some artistic +sense--something akin to the creative impulse. I can say truthfully +that at the end of that first day I came home--begrimed and sore as I +was--with a sense of fuller life than so far I had ever experienced. + +I found Ruth waiting for me with some anxiety. She came into my +soil-stained arms as eagerly as a bride. It was good. It took all the +soreness out of me. Before supper I took the boy and we went down to +the public baths on the waterfront and there I dived and splashed and +swam like a young whale. The sting of the cold salt water was all the +further balm I needed. I came out tingling and fit right then for +another nine-hour day. But when I came back I threatened our first +week's savings at the supper-table. Ruth had made more hot +griddle-cakes and I kept her at the stove until I was ashamed to do it +longer. The boy, too, after his plunge, showed a better appetite than +for weeks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NINE DOLLARS A WEEK + + +The second day, I woke up lame and stiff but I gave myself a good +brisk rub down and kneaded my arm and leg muscles until they were +pretty well limbered up. The thing that pleased me was the way I felt +towards my new work that second morning. I'd been a bit afraid of a +reaction--of waking up with all the romance gone. That, I knew, would +be deadly. Once let me dwell on the naked material facts of my +condition and I'd be lost. That's true of course in any occupation. +The man who works without an inspiration of some sort is not only +discontented but a poor workman. I remember distinctly that when I +opened my eyes and realized my surroundings and traced back the +incidents of yesterday to the ditch, I was concerned principally with +the problem of a stone in our path upon which we had been working. I +wanted to get back to it. We had worked upon it for an hour without +fully uncovering it and I was as eager as the foreman to learn whether +it was a ledge rock or just a fragment. This interest was not +associated with the elevated road for whom the work was being done, +nor the contractor who had undertaken the job, nor the foreman who was +supervising it. It was a question which concerned only me and Mother +Earth who seemed to be doing her best to balk us at every turn. I +forgot the sticky, wet clay in which I had floundered for nine hours, +forgot the noisome stench which at times we were forced to breathe, +forgot my lame hands and back. I recalled only the problem itself and +the skill with which the man they called Anton' handled his crow bar. +He was a master of it. In removing the smaller slabs which lay around +the big one he astonished me with his knowledge of how to place the +bar. He'd come to my side where I was prying with all my strength and +with a wave of his hand for me to stand back, would adjust two or +three smaller rocks as a fulcrum and then, with the gentlest of +movements, work the half-ton weight inch by inch to where he wanted +it. He could swing the rock to the right or left, raise or lower it, +at will, and always he made the weight of the rock, against which I +had striven so vainly, do the work. That was something worth learning. +I wanted to get back and study him. I wanted to get back and finish +uncovering that rock. I wanted to get back and bring the job as a +whole to a finish so as to have a new one to tackle. Even at the end +of that first day I felt I had learned enough to make myself a man of +greater power than I was the day before. And always in the background +was the unknown goal to which this toil was to lead. I hadn't yet +stopped to figure out what the goal was but that it was worth while I +had no doubt for I was no longer stationary. I was a constructor. I +was in touch with a big enterprise of development. + +I don't know that I've made myself clear. I wasn't very clear in my +own mind then but I know that I had a very conscious impression of the +sort which I've tried to put into words. And I know that it filled me +with a great big joy. I never woke up with any such feeling when with +the United Woollen. My only thought in the morning then was how much +time I must give myself to catch the six-thirty. When I reached the +office I hung up my hat and coat and sat down to the impersonal +figures like an automaton. There was nothing of me in the work; there +couldn't be. How petty it seemed now! I suppose the company, as an +industrial enterprise, was in the line of development, but that idea +never penetrated as far as the clerical department. We didn't feel it +any more than the adding machines do. + +Ruth had a good breakfast for me and when I came into the kitchen she +was trying to brush the dried clay off my overalls. + +"Good Heavens!" I said, "don't waste your strength doing that." + +She looked up from her task with a smile. + +"I'm not going to let you get slack down here" she said. + +"But those things will look just as bad again five minutes after I've +gone down the ladder." + +"But I don't intend they shall look like this on your way to the +ladder," she answered. + +"All right," I said "then let me have them. I'll do it myself." + +"Have you shaved?" she asked. + +I rubbed my hand over my chin. It wasn't very bad and I'd made up my +mind I wouldn't shave every day now. + +"No," I said. "But twice or three times a week--" + +"Billy!" she broke in, "that will never do. You're going down to your +new business looking just as ship-shape as you went to the old. You +don't belong to that contractor; you belong to me." + +In the meanwhile the boy came in with my heavy boots which he had +brushed clean and oiled. There was nothing left for me to do but to +shave and I'll admit I felt better for it. + +"Do you want me to put on a high collar?" I asked. + +"Didn't you find the things I laid out for you?" + +I hadn't looked about. I'd put on the things I took off. She led me +back into the bed room, and over a chair I saw a clean change of +underclothing and a new grey flannel shirt. + +"Where did you get this?" I asked. + +"I bought it for a dollar," she answered. "It's too much to pay. I can +make one for fifty cents as soon as I get time to sew." + +That's the way Ruth was. Every day after this she made me change, +after I came back from my swim, into the business suit I wore when I +came down here, and which now by contrast looked almost new. She even +made me wear a tie with my flannel shirt. Every morning I started out +clean shaven and with my work clothes as fresh as though I were a +contractor myself. I objected at first because it seemed too much for +her to do to wash the things every day, but she said it was a good +deal easier than washing them once a week. Incidentally that was one +of her own little schemes for saving trouble and it seemed to me a +good one; instead of collecting her soiled clothes for seven days and +then tearing herself all to pieces with a whole hard forenoon's work, +she washed a little every day. By this plan it took her only about an +hour each morning to keep all the linen in the house clean and sweet. +We had the roof to dry it on and she never ironed anything except +perhaps the tablecloths and handkerchiefs. We had no company to cater +to and as long as we knew things were clean that's all we cared. + +We got around the rock all right. It proved not to be a ledge after +all. I myself, however, didn't accomplish as much as I did the first +day, for I was slower in my movements. On the other hand, I think I +improved a little in my handling of the crowbar. At the noon hour I +tried to start a conversation with Anton', but he understood little +English and I knew no Italian, so we didn't get far. As he sat in a +group of his fellow countrymen laughing and jabbering he made me feel +distinctly like an outsider. There were one or two English-speaking +workmen besides myself, but somehow they didn't interest me as much as +these Italians. It may have been my imagination but they seemed to me +a decidedly inferior lot. As a rule they were men who took the job +only to keep themselves from starving and quit at the end of a week or +two only to come back when they needed more money. + +I must make an exception of an Irishman I will call Dan Rafferty. He +was a big blue-eyed fellow, full of fun and fight, with a good natured +contempt of the Dagoes, and was a born leader. I noticed, the first +day, that he came nearer being the boss of the gang than the foreman, +and I suspect the latter himself noticed it, for he seemed to have it +in for Dan. There never was an especially dirty job to be done but +what Dan was sent. He always obeyed but he used to slouch off with his +big red fist doubled up, muttering curses that brought out his brogue +at its best. Later on he confided in me what he was going to do to +that boss. If he had carried out his threats he would long since have +been electrocuted and I would have lost a good friend. Several times I +thought the two men were coming to blows but though Dan would have +dearly loved a fight and could have handled a dozen men like the +foreman, he always managed to control himself in time to avoid it. + +"I don't wanter be after losin' me job for the dirthy spalpeen," he +growled to me. + +But he came near it in a way he wasn't looking for later in the week. +It was Friday and half a dozen of us had been sent down to work on the +second level. It was damp and suffocating down there, fifty feet below +the street. I felt as though I had gone into the mines. I didn't like +it but I knew that there was just as much to learn here as above and +that it must all be learned eventually. The sides were braced with +heavy timbers like a mine shaft to prevent the dirt from falling in +and there was the constant danger that in spite of this it might cave +in. We went down by rough ladders made by nailing strips of board +across two pieces of joist and the work down there was back-breaking +and monotonous. We heaved the dirt into a big iron bucket lowered by +the hoisting engine above. It was heavy, wet soil that weighed like +lead. + +From the beginning the men complained of headaches and one by one they +crawled up the ladder again for fresh air. Others were sent down but +at the end of an hour they too retreated. Dan and I stuck it out for a +while. Then I began to get dizzy myself. I didn't know what the +trouble was but when I began to wobble a bit Dan placed his hand on my +shoulder. + +"Betther climb out o' here," he said. "I'm thinkin' it's gas." + +At that time I didn't know what sewer gas was. I couldn't smell +anything and thought he must be mistaken. + +"You'd better come too," I answered, making for the ladder. + +He wasn't coming but I couldn't get up very well without him so he +followed along behind. At the top we found the foreman fighting mad +and trying to spur on another gang to go down. They wouldn't move. +When he saw us come up he turned upon Dan. + +"Who ordered you out of there?" he growled. + +"The gas," answered Dan. + +"Gas be damned," shouted the foreman. "You're a bunch of white livered +cowards--all of you." + +I saw Dan double up his fists and start towards the man. The latter +checked him with a command. + +"Go back down there or you're fired," he said to him. + +Dan turned red. Then I saw his jaws come together. + +"Begod!" he answered. "_You_ shan't fire me, anyhow." + +Without another word he started down the ladder again. I saw the +Italians crowd together and watch him. By that time my head was +clearer but my legs were weak. I sat down a moment uncertain what to +do. Then I heard someone shout: + +"By God, he's right! He's lying there at the bottom." + +I started towards the ladder but some one shoved me back. Then I +thought of the bucket. It was above ground and I staggered towards it +gaining strength at each step. I jumped in and shouted to the engineer +to lower me. He obeyed from instinct. I went down, down, down to what +seemed like the center of the earth. When the bucket struck the ground +I was dizzy again but I managed to get out, heave the unconscious Dan +in and pile on top of him myself. When I came to, I was in an +ambulance on my way to the hospital but by the time I had reached the +emergency room I had taken a grip on myself. I knew that if ever Ruth +heard of this she would never again be comfortable. When they took us +out I was able to walk a little. The doctors wanted to put me to bed +but I refused to go. I sat there for about an hour while they worked +over Dan. When I found that he would be all right by morning I +insisted upon going out. I had a bad headache, but I knew the fresh +air would drive this away and so it did, though it left me weak. + +One of the hardest day's work I ever did in my life was killing time +from then until five o'clock. Of course the papers got hold of it and +that gave me another scare but luckily the nearest they came to my +name was Darlinton, so no harm was done. And they didn't come within a +mile of getting the real story. When in a later edition one of them +published my photograph I felt absolutely safe for they had me in a +full beard and thinner than I've ever been in my life. + +When I came home at my usual time looking a bit white perhaps but +otherwise normal enough, the first question Ruth asked me was: + +"What have you done with your dinner pail, Billy?" + +Isn't a man always sure to do some such fool thing as that, when he's +trying to keep something quiet from the wife? I had to explain that I +had forgotten it and that was enough to excite suspicion at any time. +She kept me uneasy for ten minutes and the best I could do was to +admit finally that I wasn't feeling very well. Whereupon she made me +go to bed and fussed over me all the evening and worried all the next +day. + +I reported for work as usual in the morning and found we had a new +foreman. It was a relief because I guess if Dan hadn't knocked down +the other one, someone else would have done it sooner or later. At +that the man had taught me something about sewer gas and that is when +you begin to feel dizzy fifty feet below the street, it's time to go +up the ladder about as fast as your wobbly legs will let you, even if +you don't smell anything. + +Rafferty didn't turn up for two or three days. When he did appear it +was with a simple: + +"Mawnin, mon." + +It wasn't until several days later I learned that the late foreman had +left town nursing a black eye and a cut on one cheek such as might +have been made by a set of red knuckles backed by an arm the size of a +small ham. + +On Saturday night of that first week I came home with nine dollars in +my pocket. I'll never be prouder again than I was when I handed them +over to Ruth. And Ruth will never again be prouder than she was when, +after she had laid aside three of them for the rent and five for +current expenses, she picked out a one-dollar bill and, crossing the +room, placed it in the ginger jar. This was a little blue affair in +which we had always dropped what pennies and nickels we could spare. + +"There's our nest-egg," she announced. + +"You don't mean to tell me you're that much ahead of the game the +first week?" + +"Look here, Billy," she answered. + +She brought out an itemized list of everything she had bought from +last Monday, including Sunday's dinner. I've kept that list. Many of +the things she had bought were not yet used up but she had computed +the cost of the amount actually used. Here it is as I copied it off: + + Flour, .25 + Lard, .15 + Cream of tartar and soda, .05 + Oat meal, .04 + Molasses, .05 + Sugar, .12 + Potatoes, .20 + Rice, .06 + Milk, 1.12 + Eggs, .24 + Rye bread, .10 + Sausages, .22 + Lettuce, .03 + Beans, .12 + Salt pork, .15 + Corn meal, .06 + Graham meal, .05 + Butter, .45 + Cheese, .06 + Shin of beef, .39 + Fish, .22 + Oil, .28 + Soap, .09 + Vinegar, salt and pepper, about .05 + Can of corn, .07 + Onions, .06 + Total $4.68 + +In this account, too, Ruth was liberal in her margins. She did better +than this later on. A fairer estimate could have been made at the end +of the month and a still fairer even than that, at the end of the +year. It sounded almost too good to be true but it was a fact. We had +lived, and lived well on this amount and as yet Ruth was +inexperienced. She hadn't learned all she learned later. For the +benefit of those who may think we went hungry I have asked Ruth to +write out the bill of fare for this week as nearly as she can remember +it. One thing you must keep in mind is that of everything we had, we +had enough. Neither Ruth, the boy, nor myself ever left the table or +dinner pail unsatisfied. Here's what we had and it was better even +than it sounds for whatever Ruth made, she made well. I copy it as she +wrote it out. + + Monday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cream of tartar + biscuits, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bowl of + rice, cold coffee; for Dick and me: cold biscuits, milk, rice. + + Dinner: baked potatoes, griddle-cakes, milk. + + + Tuesday. + + Breakfast: baked potatoes, graham muffins, oatmeal, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, two hard-boiled eggs, rice, + milk; for Dick and me: cold muffins, rice and milk. + + Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Wednesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried potatoes, warmed over biscuits. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, bread + pudding; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, cold biscuits, bread + pudding. + + Dinner: beef stew with dumplings, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Thursday. + + Breakfast: fried sausages, baked potatoes, graham muffins, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold muffins, cold sausage and rice; for Dick + and me: the same. + + Dinner: warmed over stew, lettuce, hot biscuits, milk. + + + Friday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried rock cod, baked potatoes, rye bread, + milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: rye bread, potato salad, rice; for Dick and + me: the same. + + Dinner: soup made from stock of beef, left over fish, boiled + potatoes, rice, milk. + + + Saturday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried corn mush with molasses, milk. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, two hard-boiled eggs, cheese, + rice; for Dick and me: German toast. + + Dinner: baked beans, hot biscuits. + + + Sunday. + + Breakfast: baked beans, graham muffins. + + Dinner: boiled potatoes, pork scraps, canned corn, corn cake, + bread pudding. + +A word about that bread pudding. Ruth tells me she puts in an extra +quart of milk and then bakes it all day when she bakes her beans, +stirring it every now and then. I never knew before how the trick was +done but it comes out a rich brown and tastes like plum pudding +without the raisins. She says that if you put in raisins it tastes +exactly like a plum pudding. + +So at the end of the first week I found myself with eighty dollars +left over from the old home, one dollar saved in the new, all my bills +paid, and Ruth, Dick and myself all fit as a fiddle. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SUNDAY + + +That first dollar saved was the germ of a new idea. + +It is a further confession of a middle-class mind that in coming down +here I had not looked forward beyond the immediate present. With the +horror of that last week still on me I had considered only the +opportunity I had for earning a livelihood. To be sure I had seen no +reason why an intelligent man should not in time be advanced to +foreman, and why he should not then be able to save enough to ward off +the poorhouse before old age came on. But now--with that first dollar +tucked away in the ginger jar--I felt within me the stirring of a new +ambition, an ambition born of this quick young country into which I +had plunged. Why, in time, should I not become the employer? Why +should I not take the initiative in some of these progressive +enterprises? Why should I not learn this business of contracting and +building and some day contract and build for myself? With that first +dollar saved I was already at heart a capitalist. + +I said nothing of this to Ruth. For six months I let the idea grow. If +it did nothing else it added zest to my new work. I shoveled as though +I were digging for diamonds. It made me a young man again. It made me +a young American again. It brought me out of bed every morning with +visions; it sent me to sleep at night with dreams. + +But I'm running ahead of my story. + +I thought I had appreciated Sunday when it meant a release for one day +from the office of the United Woollen, but as with all the other +things I felt as though it had been but the shadow and that only now +had I found the substance. In the first place I had not been able +completely to shake the office in the last few years. I brought it +home with me and on Sundays it furnished half the subject of +conversation. Every little incident, every bit of conversation, every +expression on Morse's face was analyzed in the attempt to see what it +counted, for or against, the possible future raise. Even when out +walking with the boy the latter was a constant reminder. It was as +though he were merely a ward of the United Woollen Company. + +But when I put away my shovel at five o'clock on Saturday that was the +end of my ditch digging. I came home after that and I was at home +until I reported for work on Monday morning. There was neither work +nor worry left hanging over. It meant complete relaxation--complete +rest. And the body, I found, rests better than the mind. + +Later in my work I didn't experience this so perfectly as I now did +because then I accepted new responsibilities, but for the first few +months I lived in lazy content on this one day. For the most part +those who lived around me did all the time. On fair summer days half +the population of the little square basked in the sun with eyes half +closed from morning until night. Those who didn't, went to the +neighboring beaches many of which they could reach for a nickel or +visited such public buildings as were open. But wherever they went or +whatever they did, they loafed about it. And a man can't truly loaf +until he's done a hard week's work which ends with the week. + +As for us we had our choice of any number of pleasant occupations. I +insisted that Ruth should make the meals as simple as possible on that +day and both the boy and myself helped her about them. We always +washed the dishes and swept the floor. First of all there was the +roof. I early saw the possibility of this much neglected spot. It was +flat and had a fence around it for it was meant to be used for the +hanging out of clothes. Being a new building it had been built a story +higher than its older neighbors so that we overlooked the other roofs. +There was a generous space through which we saw the harbor. I picked +up a strip of old canvas for a trifle in one of the shore-front +junk-shops which deal in second-hand ship supplies and arranged it +over one corner like a canopy. Then I brought home with me some bits +of board that were left over from the wood construction at the ditch +and nailed these together to make a rude sort of window box. It was +harder to get dirt than it was wood but little by little I brought +home enough finally to fill the boxes. In these we planted radishes +and lettuce and a few flower seeds. We had almost as good a garden as +we used to have in our back yard. At any rate it was just as much fun +to watch the things grow, and though the lettuce never amounted to +much we actually raised some very good radishes. The flowers did well, +too. + +We brought up an old blanket and spread it out beneath the canopy and +that, with a chair or two, made our roof garden. A local branch of the +Public Library was not far distant so that we had all the reading +matter we wanted and here we used to sit all day Sunday when we didn't +feel like doing anything else. Here, too, we used to sit evenings. On +several hot nights Ruth, the boy and I brought up our blankets and +slept out. The boy liked it so well that finally he came to sleep up +here most of the summer. It was fine for him. The harbor breeze swept +the air clean of smoke so that it was as good for him as being at the +sea-shore. + +To us the sights from this roof were marvelous. They appealed strongly +because they were unlike anything we had ever seen or for that matter +unlike anything our friends had ever seen. I think that a man's +friends often take away the freshness from sights that otherwise might +move him. I've never been to Europe but what with magazine pictures +and snap shots and Mrs. Grover, who never forgot that before she +married Grover she had travelled for a whole year, I haven't any +special desire to visit London or Paris. I suppose it would be +different if I ever went but even then I don't think there would be +the novelty to it we found from our roof. And it was just that novelty +and the ability to appreciate it that made our whole emigrant life +possible. It was for us the Great Adventure again. I suppose there are +men who will growl that it's all bosh to say there is any real romance +in living in four rooms in a tenement district, eating what we ate, +digging in a ditch and mooning over a view from a roof top. I want to +say right here that for such men there wouldn't be any romance or +beauty in such a life. They'd be miserable. There are plenty of men +living down there now and they never miss a chance to air their +opinions. Some of them have big bodies but I wouldn't give them fifty +cents a day to work for me. Luckily however, there are not many of +them in proportion to the others, even though they make more noise. + +But when you stop to think about it what else is it but romance that +leads men to spend their lives fishing off the Banks when they could +remain safely ashore and get better pay driving a team? Or what drives +them into the army or to work on railroads when they neither expect +nor hope to be advanced? The men themselves can't tell you. They take +up the work unthinkingly but there is something in the very hardships +they suffer which lends a sting to the life and holds them. The only +thing I know of that will do this and turn the grind into an +inspiration is romance. It's what the new-comers have and it's what +our ancestors had and it's what a lot of us who have stayed over here +too long out of the current have lost. + +On the lazy summer mornings we could hear the church bells and now and +then a set of chimes. Because we were above the street and next to the +sky they sounded as drowsily musical as in a country village. They +made me a bit conscience-stricken to think that for the boy's sake I +didn't make an effort and go to some church. But for a while it was +church enough to devote the seventh day to what the Bible says it was +made for. Ruth used to read out loud to us and we planned to make our +book suit the day after a fashion. Sometimes it was Emerson, sometimes +Tennyson--I was very fond of the Idylls--and sometimes a book of +sermons. Later on we had a call from a young minister who had a little +mission chapel not far from our flat and who looked in upon us at the +suggestion of the secretary of the settlement house. We went to a +service at his chapel one Sunday and before we ourselves realized it +we were attending regularly with a zest and interest which we had +never felt in our suburban church-going. Later still we each of us +found a share in the work ourselves and came to have a great +satisfaction and contentment in it. But I am running ahead of my +story. + +We'd have dinner this first summer at about half past one and then +perhaps we'd go for a walk. There wasn't a street in the city that +didn't interest us but as a rule we'd plan to visit one of the parks. +I didn't know there were so many of them or that they were so +different. We had our choice of the ocean or a river or the woods. If +we had wished to spend say thirty cents in car fare we could have had +a further choice of the beach, the mountains, or a taste of the +country which in places had not changed in the last hundred years. +This would have given us a two hours' ride. Occasionally we did this +but at present there was too much to see within walking distance. + +For one thing it suddenly occurred to me that though I had lived in +this city over thirty years I had not yet seen such places of interest +as always attracted visitors from out of town. My attention was +brought to this first by the need of limiting ourselves to amusements +that didn't cost anything, but chiefly by learning where the better +element down here spent their Sundays. You have only to follow this +crowd to find out where the objects of national pride are located. An +old battle flag will attract twenty foreigners to one American. And +incidentally I wish to confess it was they who made me ashamed of my +ignorance of the country's history. Beyond a memory of the Revolution, +the Civil War and a few names of men and battles connected therewith, +I'd forgotten all I ever learned at school on this subject. But here +the many patriotic celebrations arranged by the local schools in the +endeavor to instill patriotism and the frequent visits of the boys to +the museums, kept the subject fresh. Not only Dick but Ruth and myself +soon turned to it as a vital part of our education. Inspired by the +old trophies that ought to stand for so much to us of to-day we took +from the library the first volume of Fiske's fine series and in the +course of time read them all. As we traced the fortunes of those early +adventurers who dreamed and sailed towards an unknown continent, +pictured to ourselves the lives of the tribes who wandered about in +the big tangle of forest growth between the Atlantic and the Pacific, +as we landed on the bleak New England shores with the early Pilgrims, +then fought with Washington, then studied the perilous internal +struggle culminating with Lincoln and the Civil War, then the +dangerous period of reconstruction with the breathless progress +following--why it left us all better Americans than we had ever been +in our lives. It gave new meaning to my present surroundings and +helped me better to understand the new-comers. Somehow all those +things of the past didn't seem to concern Grover and the rest of them +in the trim little houses. They had no history and they were a part of +no history. Perhaps that's because they were making no history +themselves. As for myself, I know that I was just beginning to get +acquainted with my ancestors--that for the first time in my life, I +was really conscious of being a citizen of the United States of +America. + +But I soon discovered that not only the historic but the beautiful +attracted these people. They introduced me to the Art Museum. In the +winter following our first summer here, when the out of door +attractions were considerably narrowed down, Ruth and I used to go +there about every other Sunday with the boy. We came to feel as +familiar with our favorite pictures as though they hung in our own +house. The Museum ceased to be a public building; it was our own. We +went in with a nod to the old doorkeeper who came to know us and felt +as unconstrained there as at home. We had our favorite nooks, our +favorite seats and we lounged about in the soft lights of the rooms +for hours at a time. The more we looked at the beautiful paintings, +the old tapestries, the treasures of stone and china, the more we +enjoyed them. We were sure to meet some of our neighbors there and a +young artist who lived on the second floor of our house and whom +later I came to know very well, pointed out to us new beauties in the +old masters. He was selling plaster casts at that time and studying +art in the night school. + +In the old life, an art museum had meant nothing to me more than that +it seemed a necessary institution in every city. It was a mark of good +breeding in a town, like the library in a good many homes. But it had +never occurred to me to visit it and I know it hadn't to any of my +former associates. The women occasionally went to a special exhibition +that was likely to be discussed at the little dinners, but a week +later they couldn't have told you what they had seen. Perhaps our +neighborhood was the exception and a bit more ignorant than the +average about such things, but I'll venture to say there isn't a +middle-class community in this country where the paintings play the +part in the lives of the people that they do among the foreign-born. A +class better than they does the work; a class lower enjoys it. Where +the middle-class comes in, I don't know. + +After being gone all the afternoon we'd be glad to get home again and +maybe we'd have a lunch of cold beans and biscuits or some of the +pudding that was left over. Then during the summer months we'd go back +to the roof for a restful evening. At night the view was as different +from the day as you could imagine. Behind us the city proper was in a +bluish haze made by the electric lights. Then we could see the yellow +lights of the upper windows in all the neighboring houses and beyond +these, over the roof tops which seemed now to huddle closer together, +we saw the passing red and green lights of moving vessels. Overhead +were the same clean stars which were at the same time shining down +upon the woods and the mountain tops. There was something about it +that made me feel a man and a free man. There was twenty years of +slavery back of me to make me appreciate this. + +And Ruth reading my thoughts in my eyes used to nestle closer to me +and the boy with his chin in his hands would stare out at sea and +dream his own dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PLANS FOR THE FUTURE + + +As I said, with that first dollar in the ginger jar representing the +first actual saving I had ever effected in my whole life, my +imagination became fired with new plans. I saw no reason why I myself +should not become an employer. As in the next few weeks I enlarged my +circle of acquaintances and pushed my inquiries in every possible +direction I found this idea was in the air down here. The ambition of +all these people was towards complete independence. Either they hoped +to set up in business for themselves in this country or they looked +forward to saving enough to return to the land of their birth and live +there as small land owners. I speak more especially of the Italians +because just now I was thrown more in contact with them than the +others. In my city they, with the Irish, seemed peculiarly of real +emigrant stuff. The Jews were so clannish that they were a problem in +themselves; the Germans assimilated a little better and yet they too +were like one large family. They did not get into the city life very +much and even in their business stuck pretty closely to one line. For +a good many years they remained essentially Germans. But the Irish +were citizens from the time they landed and the Italians eventually +became such if by a slower process. + +The former went into everything. They are a tremendously adaptable +people. But whatever they tackled they looked forward to independence +and generally won it. Even a man of so humble an ambition as Murphy +had accomplished this. The Italians either went into the fruit +business for which they seem to have a knack or served as day laborers +and saved. There was a man down here who was always ready to stake +them to a cart and a supply of fruit, at an exorbitant price to be +sure, but they pushed their carts patiently mile upon mile until in +the end they saved enough to buy one of their own. The next step was a +small fruit store. The laborers, once they had acquired a working +capital, took up many things--a lot of them going into the country and +buying deserted farms. It was wonderful what they did with this land +upon which the old stock New Englander had not been able to live. But +of course in part explanation of this, you must remember that these +New England villages have long been drained of their best. In many +cases only the maim, the halt, and the blind are left and these stand +no more chance against the modern pioneer than they would against one +of their own sturdy forefathers. + +Another occupation which the Italians seemed to preempt was the +boot-blacking business. It may seem odd to dignify so menial an +employment as a business but there is many a head of such an +establishment who could show a fatter bank account than two-thirds of +his clients. The next time you go into a little nook containing say +fifteen chairs, figure out for yourself how many nickels are left +there in a day. The rent is often high--it is some proof of a business +worth thought when you consider that they are able to pay for +positions on the leading business streets--but the labor is cheap and +the furnishings and cost of raw material slight. Pasquale had set me +to thinking long before, when I learned that he was earning almost as +much a week as I. It is no unusual thing for a man who owns his +"emporium" to draw ten dollars a day in profits and not show himself +until he empties the cash register at night. + +But the fact that impressed me in these people--and this holds +peculiarly true of the Jews--was that they all shied away from the +salaried jobs. In making such generalizations I may be running a risk +because I'm only giving the results of my own limited observation and +experience. But I want it understood that from the beginning to the +end of these recollections I'm trying to do nothing more. I'm not a +student. I'm not a sociologist. The conditions which I observed may +not hold elsewhere for all I know. From a different point of view, +they might not to another seem to hold even in my own city. I won't +argue with anyone about it. I set down what I myself saw and let it go +at that. + +Going back to the small group among whom I lived when I was with the +United Woollen, it seems to me that every man clung to a salary as +though it were his only possible hope. I know men among them who even +refused to work on a commission basis although they were practically +sure of earning in this way double what they were being paid by the +year. They considered a salary as a form of insurance and once in the +grip of this idea they had nothing to look forward to except an +increase. I was no better myself. I didn't really expect to be head of +the firm. Nor did the other men. We weren't working and holding on +with any notion of winning independence along that line. The most we +hoped for was a bigger salary. Some men didn't anticipate more than +twenty-five hundred like me, and others--the younger men--talked about +five thousand and even ten thousand. I didn't hear them discuss what +they were going to do when they were general managers or +vice-presidents but always what they could enjoy when they drew the +larger annuity. And save those who saw in professional work a way out, +this was the career they were choosing for their sons. They wanted to +get them into banks and the big companies where the assurance of lazy +routine advancement up to a certain point was the reward for industry, +sobriety and honesty. A salary with an old, strongly established +company seemed to them about as big a stroke of luck for a young man +as a legacy. I myself had hoped to find a place for Dick with one of +the big trust companies. + +Of course down here these people did not have the same opportunities. +Most of the old firms preferred the "bright young American" and I +guess they secured most of them. I pity the "bright young American" +but I can't help congratulating the bright young Italians and the +bright young Irishmen. They are forced as a result to make business +for themselves and they are given every opportunity in the world for +doing it. And they _are_ doing it. And I, breathing in this +atmosphere, made up my mind that I would do it, too. + +With this in mind I outlined for myself a systematic course of +procedure. It was evident that in this as in any other business I must +master thoroughly the details before taking up the larger problems. +The details of this as of any other business lay at the bottom and so +for these at least I was at present in the best possible position. The +two most important factors to the success of a contractor seemed to me +to be, roughly speaking, the securing and handling of men and the +purchase and use of materials. Of the two, the former appeared to be +the more important. Even in the few weeks I had been at work here I +had observed a big difference in the amount of labor accomplished by +different men individually. I could have picked out a half dozen that +were worth more than all the others put together. And in the two +foremen I had noticed another big difference in the varying capacity +of a boss to get work out of the men collectively. In work where labor +counted for so much in the final cost as here, it appeared as though +this involved almost the whole question of profit and loss. With a +hundred men employed at a dollar and a half a day, the saving of a +single hour meant the saving of a good many dollars. + +It may seem odd that so obvious a fact was not taken advantage of by +the present contractors. Doubtless it was realized but my later +experience showed me that the obvious is very often neglected. In this +business as in many others, the details fall into a rut and often a +newcomer with a fresh point of view will detect waste that has been +going on unnoticed for years. I was almost forty years old, fairly +intelligent, and I had everything at stake. So I was distinctly more +alert than those who retained their positions merely by letting +things run along as well as they always had been going. But however +you may explain it, I knew that the foreman didn't get as much work +out of me as he might have done. In spite of all the control I +exercised over myself I often quit work realizing that half my +strength during the day had gone for nothing. And though it may sound +like boasting to say it, I think I worked both more conscientiously +and intelligently than most of the men. + +In the first place the foreman was a bully. He believed in driving his +men. He swore at them and goaded them as an ignorant countryman often +tries to drive oxen. The result was a good deal the same as it is with +oxen--the men worked excitedly when under the sting and loafed the +rest of the time. In a crisis the boss was able to spur them on to +their best--though even then they wasted strength in frantic +endeavor--but he could not keep them up to a consistent level of +steady work. And that's what counts. As in a Marathon race the men who +maintain a steady plugging pace from start to finish are the ones who +accomplish. + +The question may be asked how such a boss could keep his job. I myself +did not understand that at first but later as I worked with different +men and under different bosses I saw that it was because their methods +were much alike and that the results were much alike. A certain +standard had been established as to the amount of work that should be +done by a hundred men and this was maintained. The boss had figured +out loosely how much the men would work and the men had figured out to +a minute how much they could loaf. Neither man nor boss took any +special interest in the work itself. The men were allowed to waste +just so much time in getting water, in filling their pipes, in +spitting on their hands, in resting on their shovels, in lazy chatter, +and so long as they did not exceed this nothing was said. + +The trouble was that the standard was low and this was because the men +had nothing to gain by steady conscientious work and also because the +boss did not understand them nor distinguish between them. For +instance the foreman ought to have got the work of two men out of me +but he wouldn't have, if I hadn't chosen to give it. That held true +also of Rafferty and one or two others. + +Now my idea was this: that if a man made a study of these men who, in +this city at any rate, were the key to the contractor's problem, and +learned their little peculiarities, their standards of justice, their +ambitions, their weakness and their strength, he ought to be able to +increase their working capacity. Certainly an intelligent teamster +does this with horses and it seemed as though it ought to be possible +to accomplish still finer results with men. To go a little farther in +my ambition, it also seemed possible to pick and select the best of +these men instead of taking them at random. For instance in the +present gang there were at least a half dozen who stood out as more +intelligent and stronger physically than all the others. Why couldn't +a man in time gather about him say a hundred such men and by better +treatment, possibly better pay, possibly a guarantee of continuous +work, make of them a loyal, hard working machine with a capacity for +double the work of the ordinary gang? Such organization as this was +going on in other lines of business, why not in this? With such a +machine at his command, a man ought to make himself a formidable +competitor with even the long established firms. + +At any rate this was my theory and it gave a fresh inspiration to my +work. Whether anything came of it or not it was something to hope for, +something to toil for, something which raised this digging to the +plane of the pioneer who joyfully clears his field of stumps and +rocks. It swung me from the present into the future. It was a +different future from that which had weighed me down when with the +United Woollen. This was no waiting game. Neither your pioneer nor +your true emigrant sits down and waits. Here was something which +depended solely upon my own efforts for its success or failure. And I +knew that it wasn't possible to fail so dismally but what the joy of +the struggle would always be mine. + +In the meanwhile I carried with me to my work a note book and during +the noon hour I set down everything which I thought might be of any +possible use to me. I missed no opportunity for learning even the most +trivial details. A great deal of the information was superficial and a +great deal of it was incorrect but down it went in the note book to be +revised later when I became better informed. + +I watched my fellow workmen as much as possible and plied them with +questions. I wanted to know where the cement came from and in what +proportion it was mixed with sand and gravel and stone for different +work. I wanted to know where the sand and gravel and stone came from +and how it was graded. Wherever it was possible I secured rough prices +for different materials. I wanted to know where the lumber was bought +and I wanted to know how the staging was built and why it was built. +Understand that I did not flatter myself that I was fast becoming a +mason, a carpenter, an engineer and a contractor all in one and all at +once. I knew that the most of my information was vague and loose. Half +the men who were doing the work didn't know why they were doing it and +a lot of them didn't know how they were doing it. They worked by +instinct and habit. Then, too, they were a clannish lot and a jealous +lot. They resented my questioning however delicately I might do it and +often refused to answer me. But in spite of this I found myself +surprised later with the fund of really valuable knowledge I acquired. + +In addition to this I acquired _sources_ of information. I found out +where to go for the real facts. I learned for instance who for this +particular job was supplying for the contractor his cement and gravel +and crushed stone--though as it happened this contractor himself +either owned or controlled his own plant for the production of most of +his material. However I learned something when I learned that. For a +man who had apparently been in business all his life, I was densely +ignorant of even the fundamentals of business. This idea of running +the business back to the sources of the raw material was a new idea to +me. I had not thought of the contractor as owning his own quarries and +gravel pits, obvious as the advantage was. I wanted to know where the +tools were bought and how much they cost--from the engines and +hoisting cranes and carrying system down to pick-axes, crowbars and +shovels. I made a note of the fact that many of the smaller implements +were not cared for properly and even tried to estimate how with proper +attention the life of a pick-axe could be prolonged. I joyed +particularly in every such opportunity as this no matter how trivial +it appeared later. It was just such details as these which gave +reality to my dream. + +I figured out how many cubic feet of earth per day per man was being +handled here and how this varied under different bosses. I pried and +listened and questioned and figured even when digging. I worked with +my eyes and ears wide open. It was wonderful how quickly in this way +the hours flew. A day now didn't seem more than four hours long. Many +the time I've felt actually sorry when the signal to quit work was +given at night and have hung around for half an hour while the +engineer fixed his boiler for the night and the old man lighted his +lanterns to string along the excavation. I don't know what they all +thought of me, but I know some of them set me down for a college man +doing the work for experience. This to say the least was flattering to +my years. + +As I say, a lot of this work was wasted energy in the sense that I +acquired anything worth while, but none of it was wasted when I recall +the joy of it. If I had actually been a college boy in the first flush +of youthful enthusiasm I could not have gone at my work more +enthusiastically or dreamed wilder or bigger dreams. Even after many +of these bubbles were pricked and had vanished, the mood which made +them did not vanish. I have never forgotten and never can forget the +sheer delight of those months. I was eighteen again with a lot besides +that I didn't have at eighteen. + +My work along another line was more practical and more successful. +What I learned about the men and the best way to handle them was +genuine capital. In the first place I lost no opportunity to make +myself as solid as possible with Dan Rafferty. This was not altogether +from a purely selfish motive either. I liked the man. In a way I think +he was the most lovable man I ever met, although that seems a +lady-like term to apply to so rugged a fellow. But below his beef and +brawn, below his aggressiveness, below his coarseness, below even a +peculiar moral bluntness about a good many things, there was a strain +of something fine about Dan Rafferty. I had a glimpse of it when he +preferred going back to the sewer gas rather than let a man like the +old foreman force him into a position where the latter could fire him. +But that was only one side of him. He had a heart as big as a woman's +and one as keen to respond to sympathy. This in its turn inspired in +others a feeling towards him that to save my life I can only describe +as love--love in its big sense. He'd swear like a pirate at the +Dagoes and they'd only grin back at him where'd they'd feel like +knifing any other man. And when Dan learned that Anton' had lost his +boy he sent down to the house a wreath of flowers half as big as a +cart wheel. There was scarcely a day when some old lady didn't manage +to see Dan at the noon hour and draw him aside with a mumbled plea +that always made him dig into his pockets. He caught me watching him +one day and said in explanation, "She's me grandmither." + +After I'd seen at least a dozen different ones approach him I asked +him if they were all his grandmothers. + +"Sure," he said. "Ivery ould woman in the ward is me grandmither." + +Those same grandmothers stood him in good stead later in his life, for +every single grandmother had some forty grandchildren and half of +these had votes. But Dan wasn't looking that far ahead then. Two facts +rather distinguished him at the start; he didn't either drink or +smoke. He didn't have any opinions upon the subject but he was one of +the rare Irishmen born that way. Now and then you'll find one and as +likely as not he'll prove one of the good fellows you'd expect to see +in the other crowd. However, beyond exciting my interest and leading +me to score him some fifty points in my estimate of him as a good +workman, I was indifferent to this side of his character. The thing +that impressed me most was a quality of leadership he seemed to +possess. There was nothing masterful about it. You didn't look to see +him lead in any especially good or great cause, but you could see +readily enough that whatever cause he chose, it would be possible for +him to gather about him a large personal following. I was attracted to +this side of him in considering him as having about all the good raw +material for a great boss. Put twenty men on a rope with Dan at the +head of them and just let him say, "Now, biys--altogither," and you'd +see every man's neck grow taut with the strain. I know because I've +been one of the twenty and felt as though I wanted to drag every +muscle out of my body. And when it was over I'd ask myself why in the +devil I pulled that way. When I told myself that it was because I was +pulling with Dan Rafferty I said all I knew about it. + +It seemed to me that any man who secured Dan as a boss would already +have the backbone of his gang. I didn't ever expect to use him in this +way but I wanted the man for a friend and I wanted to learn the secret +of his power if I could. But I may as well confess right now that I +never fully fathomed that. + +In the meanwhile I had not neglected the other men. At every +opportunity I talked with them. At the beginning I made it a point to +learn their names and addresses which I jotted down in my book. I +learned something from them of the padrone system and the unfair +contracts into which they were trapped. I learned their likes and +dislikes, their ambitions, and as much as possible about their +families. It all came hard at first but little by little as I worked +with them I found them trusting me more with their confidences. + +In this way then the first summer passed. Both Ruth and the boy in the +meanwhile were just as busy about their respective tasks as I was. The +latter took to the gymnasium work like a duck to water and in his +enthusiasm for this tackled his lessons with renewed interest. He put +on five pounds of weight and what with the daily ocean swim which we +both enjoyed, his cheeks took on color and he became as brown as an +Indian. If he had passed the summer at the White Mountains he could +not have looked any hardier. He made many friends at the Y.M.C.A. They +were all ambitious boys and they woke him up wonderfully. I was +careful to follow him closely in this new life and made it a point to +see the boys myself and to make him tell me at the end of each day +just what he had been about. Dick was a boy I could trust to tell me +every detail. He was absolutely truthful and he wasn't afraid to open +his heart to me with whatever new questions might be bothering him. As +far as possible I tried to point out to him what to me seemed the good +points in his new friends and to warn him against any little +weaknesses among them which from time to time I might detect. Ruth did +the rest. A father, however much a comrade he may be with his boy, can +go only so far. There is always plenty left which belongs to the +mother--if she is such a mother as Ruth. + +As for Ruth herself I watched her anxiously in fear lest the new life +might wear her down but honestly as far as the house was concerned she +didn't seem to have as much to bother her as she had before. She was +slowly getting the buying and the cooking down to a science. Many a +week now our food bill went as low as a little over three dollars. We +bought in larger quantities and this always effected a saving. We +bought a barrel of flour and half a barrel of sugar for one thing. +Then as the new potatoes came into the market we bought half a barrel +of those and half a barrel of apples. She did wonders with those +apples and they added a big variety to our menus. Another saving was +effected by buying suet which cost but a few cents a pound, trying +this out and mixing it with the lard for shortening. As the weather +became cooler we had baked beans twice a week instead of once. These +made for us four and sometimes five or six meals. We figured out that +we could bake a quart pot of beans, using half a pound of pork to a +pot, for less than twenty cents. This gave the three of us two meals +with some left over for lunch, making the cost per man about three +cents. And they made a hearty meal, too. That was a trick she had +learned in the country where baked beans are a staple article of diet. +I liked them cold for my lunch. + +As for clothes neither Ruth nor myself needed much more than we had. I +bought nothing but one pair of heavy boots which Ruth picked up at a +bankrupt sale for two dollars. On herself she didn't spend a cent. She +brought down here with her a winter and a summer street suit, several +house dresses and three or four petticoats and a goodly supply of +under things. She knew how to care for them and they lasted her. I +brought down, in addition to my business suit, a Sunday suit of blue +serge and a dress suit and a Prince Albert. I sold the last two to a +second hand dealer for eleven dollars and this helped towards the +boy's outfit in the fall. She bought for him a pair of three dollar +shoes for a dollar and a half at this same "Sold Out" sale, a dollar's +worth of stockings and about a dollar's worth of underclothes. He had +a winter overcoat and hat, though I could have picked up these in +either a pawnshop or second hand store for a couple of dollars. It was +wonderful what you could get at these places, especially if anyone had +the knack which Ruth had of making over things. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT + + +That fall the boy passed his entrance examinations and entered the +finest school in the state--the city high school. If he had been worth +a million he couldn't have had better advantages. I was told that the +graduates of this school entered college with a higher average than +the graduates of most of the big preparatory schools. Certainly they +had just as good instruction and if anything better discipline. There +was more competition here and a real competition. Many of the pupils +were foreign born and a much larger per cent of them children of +foreign born. Their parents had been over here long enough to realize +what an advantage an education was and the children went at their work +with the feeling that their future depended upon their application +here. + +The boy's associates might have been more carefully selected at some +fashionable school but I was already beginning to realize that +selected associates aren't always select associates and that even if +they are this is more of a disadvantage than an advantage. The fact +that the boy's fellows were all of a kind was what had disturbed me +even in the little suburban grammar school. For that matter I can see +now that even for Ruth and me this sameness was a handicap for both us +and our neighbors. There was no clash. There was a dead level. I don't +believe that's good for either boys or men or for women. + +Supposing this open door policy did admit a few worthless youngsters +into the school and supposing again that the private school didn't +admit such of a different order (which I very much doubt)--along with +these Dick was going to find here the men--the past had proved this +and the present was proving it--who eventually would become our +statesmen, our progressive business men, our lawyers and doctors--if +not our conservative bankers. For one graduate of such a school as my +former surroundings had made me think essential for the boy, I could +count now a dozen graduates of this very high school who were +distinguishing themselves in the city. The boy was going to meet here +the same spirit I was getting in touch with among my emigrant +friends--a zeal for life, a belief in the possibilities of life, an +optimistic determination to use these possibilities, which somehow the +blue-blooded Americans were losing. It seemed to me that life was +getting stale for the fourth and fifth generation. I tried to make the +boy see this point of view. I went back again with him to the pioneer +idea. + +"Dick," I said in substance, "your great-great-grandfather pulled up +stakes and came over to this country when there was nothing here but +trees, rocks and Indians. It was a hard fight but a good fight and he +left a son to carry on the fight. So generation after generation they +fought but somehow they grew a bit weaker as they fought. Now," I +said, "you and I are going to try to recover that lost ground. Let's +think of ourselves as like our great-great-grandfathers. We've just +come over here. So have about a million others. The fight is a +different fight to-day but it's no less a fight and we're going to +win. We have a good many advantages that these newcomers haven't. You +see them making good on every side of you but I'll bet they can't lick +a good American--when he isn't asleep. You and I are going to make +good too." + +"You bet we are, Dad," he said, with his eyes grown bright. + +"Then," I said, "you must work the way the newcomers work. I don't +want you to think you're any better than they are. You aren't. But +you're just as good and these two hundred years we've lived here ought +to count for something." + +The boy lifted his head at this. + +"You make me feel as though we'd just landed with the Pilgrims," he +said. + +"So we have," I said. "June seventh of this very year we landed on +Plymouth Rock just as our ancestors did two centuries ago. They've +been all this time paving the way for you and me. They've built roads +and schools and factories and it's up to us now to use them. You and I +have just landed from England. Let's see what we can do as pioneers." + +I wanted to get at the young American in him. I wanted him to realize +that he was something more than the son of his parents; something more +than just an average English-speaking boy. I wanted him to feel the +impetus of the big history back of him and the big history yet to be +made ahead of him. He had known nothing of that before. The word +American had no meaning to him except when a regiment of soldiers was +marching by. I wanted him to feel all the time as he did when his +throat grew lumpy with the band playing and the stars and stripes +flying on Fourth of July or Decoration Day. + +I urged him to study hard as the first essential towards success but I +also told him to get into the school life. I didn't want him to stand +back as his tendency was and watch the other fellows. I didn't want +him to sit in the bleachers--at least not until he had proved that +this was the place for him. Even then I wanted him to lead the +cheering. I wanted him to test himself in the literary societies, the +dramatic clubs, on the athletic field. In other words, instead of +remaining passive I wanted him to take an aggressive attitude towards +life. In still other words instead of being a middle-classer I wanted +him to get something of the emigrant spirit. And I had the +satisfaction of seeing him begin his work with the germ of that idea +in his brain. + +In the meanwhile with the approach of cold weather I saw a new item of +expense loom up in the form of coal. We had used kerosene all summer +but now it became necessary for the sake of heat to get a stove. For a +week I took what time I could spare and wandered around among the junk +shops looking for a second hand stove and finally found just what I +wanted. I paid three dollars for it and it cost me another dollar to +have some small repairs made. I set it up myself in the living room +which we decided to use as a kitchen for the winter. But when I came +to look into the matter of getting coal down here I found I was facing +a pretty serious problem. Coal had been a big item in the suburbs but +the way people around me were buying it, made it a still bigger one. +No cellar accommodations came with the tenement and so each one was +forced to buy his coal by the basket or bag. A basket of anthracite +was costing them at this time about forty cents. This was for about +eighty pounds of coal, which made the total cost per ton eleven +dollars--at least three dollars and a half over the regular price. +Even with economy a person would use at least a bag a week. This, to +leave a liberal margin, would amount to about a ton and a half of coal +during the winter months. I didn't like the idea of absorbing the +half dollar or so a week that Ruth was squeezing out towards what few +clothes we had to buy, in this way--at least the over-charge part of +it. With the first basket I brought home, I said, "I see where you'll +have to dig down into the ginger jar this winter, little woman." + +She looked as startled as though I had told her someone had stolen the +savings. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +I pointed to the basket. + +"Coal costs about eleven dollars a ton, down here." + +When she found out that this was all that caused my remark, she didn't +seem to be disturbed. + +"Billy," she said, "before we touch the ginger jar it will have to +cost twenty dollars a ton. We'll live on pea soup and rice three times +a day before I touch that." + +"All right," I said, "but it does seem a pity that the burden of such +prices as these should fall on the poor." + +"Why do they?" she asked. + +"Because in this case," I said, "the dealers seem to have us where the +wool is short." + +"How have they?" she insisted. + +"We can't buy coal by the ton because we haven't any place to put it." +She thought a moment and then she said: + +"We could take care of a fifth of a ton, Billy. That's only five +baskets." + +"They won't sell five any cheaper than one." + +"And every family in this house could take care of five," she went on. +"That would make a ton." + +I began to see what she meant and as I thought of it I didn't see why +it wasn't a practical scheme. + +"I believe that's a good idea," I said. "And if there were more women +like you in the world I don't believe there'd be any trusts at all." + +"Nonsense," she said. "You leave it to me now and I'll see the other +women in the house. They are the ones who'll appreciate a good saving +like that." + +She saw them and after a good deal of talk they agreed, so I told Ruth +to tell them to save out of next Saturday night's pay a dollar and a +half apiece. I was a bit afraid that if I didn't get the cash when the +coal was delivered I might get stuck on the deal. The next Monday I +ordered the coal and asked to have it delivered late in the day. When +I came home I found the wagon waiting and it created about as much +excitement on the street as an ambulance. I guess it was the first +time in the history of Little Italy that a coal team had ever stopped +before a tenement. The driver had brought baskets with him and I +filled up one and took it to a store nearby and weighed into it eighty +pounds of coal. With that for my guide I gathered the other men of the +families about me and made them carry the coal in while I measured it +out. The driver who at first was inclined to object to the whole +proceeding was content to let things go on when he found himself +relieved of all the carrying. We emptied the wagon in no time and the +other men insisted upon carrying up my coal for me. I collected every +cent of my money and incidentally established myself on a firm footing +with every family in the house. Several other tenements later adopted +the plan but the idea didn't take hold the way you'd have thought it +would. I guess it was because there weren't any more Ruths around +there to oversee the job. Then, too, while these people are +far-sighted in a good many ways, they are short-sighted in others. +Neither the wholesale nor co-operative plans appeal to them. For one +thing they are suspicious and for another they don't like to spend any +more than they have to day by day. Later on through Ruth's influence +we carried our scheme a little farther with just the people in the +house and bought flour and sugar that way but it was made possible +only through their absolute trust in her. We always insisted on +carrying out every such little operation on a cash basis and they +never failed us. + +Ruth's influence had been gradually spreading through the +neighborhood. She had found time to meet the other families in the +house and through them had met a dozen more. The first floor was +occupied by Michele, an Italian laborer, his wife, his wife's sister +and two children. On the second floor there was Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, and his father and mother. The father was an invalid and the +lad supported the three. On the third floor lived a fruit peddler, his +wife and his wife's mother--rather a commonplace family, while the +fourth floor was occupied by Pietro, a young fellow who sold cut +flowers on the street and hoped some day to have a garden of his own. +He had two children and a grandmother to care for. + +It certainly afforded a contrast to visit those other flats and then +Ruth's. Right here is where her superior intelligence came in, of +course. The foreign-born women do not so quickly adapt themselves to +the standards of this country as the men do. Most of them as I +learned, come from the country districts of Italy where they live very +rudely. Once here they make their new quarters little better than +their old. The younger ones however who are going to school are doing +better. But taken by and large it was difficult to persuade them that +cleanliness offered any especial advantages. It wasn't as though they +minded the dirt and were chained to it by circumstances from which +they couldn't escape--as I used to think. They simply didn't object to +it. So long as they were warm and had food enough they were content. +They didn't suffer in any way that they themselves could see. + +But when Ruth first went into their quarters she was horrified. She +thought that at length she was face to face with all the misery and +squalor of the slums of which she had read. I remember her chalk-white +face as she met me at the door upon my return home one night. She +nearly drove the color out of my own cheeks for I thought surely that +something had happened to the boy. But it wasn't that; she had heard +that the baby on the first floor was ill and had gone down there to +see if there was anything she might do for it. Until then she had seen +nothing but the outside of the other doors from the hall and they +looked no different from our own. But once inside--well I guess that's +where the two hundred years if not the four hundred years back of us +native Americans counts. + +"Why, Billy," she cried, "it was awful. I'll never get that picture +out of mind if I live to be a hundred." + +"What's the matter?" I asked. + +"Why the poor little thing--" + +"What poor little thing?" I interrupted. + +"Michele's baby. It lay there in dirty rags with its pinched white +face staring up at me as though just begging for a clean bed." + +"What's the matter with it?" + +"Matter with it? It's a wonder it isn't dead and buried. The district +nurse came in while I was there and told me,"--she shuddered--"that +they'd been feeding it on macaroni cooked in greasy gravy. And it +isn't six months old yet." + +"No wonder it looked white," I said, remembering how we had discussed +for a week the wisdom of giving Dick the coddled white of an egg at +that age. + +"Why the conditions down there are terrible," cried Ruth. "Michele +must be very, very poor. The floor wasn't washed, you couldn't see out +of the windows, and the clothes--" + +She held up her hands unable to find words. + +"That _does_ sound bad," I said. + +"It's criminal. Billy--we can't allow a family in the same house with +us to suffer like that, can we?" + +I shook my head. + +"Then go down and see what you can do. I guess we can squeeze out +fifty cents for them, can't we, Billy?" + +"I guess you could squeeze fifty cents out of a stone for a sick +baby," I said. + +The upshot of it was that I went down and saw Michele. As Ruth had +said his quarters were anything but clean but they didn't impress me +as being in so bad a condition as she had described them. Perhaps my +work in the ditch had made me a little more used to dirt. I found +Michele a healthy, temperate, able-bodied man and I learned that he +was earning as much as I. Not only that but the women took in +garments to finish and picked up the matter of two or three dollars a +week extra. There were five in the family but they were far from being +in want. In fact Michele had a good bank account. They had all they +wanted to eat, were warm and really prosperous. There was absolutely +no need of the dirt. It was there because they didn't mind it. A five +cent cake of soap would have made the rooms clean as a whistle and +there were two women to do the scrubbing. I didn't leave my fifty +cents but I came back upstairs with a better appreciation, if that +were possible, of what such a woman as Ruth means to a man. Even the +baby began to get better as soon as the district nurse drove into the +parent's head a few facts about sensible infant feeding. + +I don't want to make out that life is all beer and skittles for the +tenement dwellers. It isn't. But I ran across any number of such cases +as this where conditions were not nearly so bad as they appeared on +the surface. Taking into account the number of people who were +gathered together here in a small area I didn't see among the +temperate and able-bodied any worse examples of hard luck than I saw +among my former associates. In fact of sheer abstract hard luck I +didn't see as much. In seventy-five per cent of the cases the +conditions were of their own making--either the man was a drunkard or +the women slovenly or the whole family was just naturally vicious. +Ignorance may excuse some of this but not all of it. Perhaps I'm not +what you'd call sympathetic but I've heard a lot of men talk about +these people in a way that sounds to me like twaddle. I never ran +across a family down here in such misery as that which Steve +Bonnington's wife endured for years without a whimper. + +Bonnington was a clerk with a big insurance company. He lived four +houses below us on our street. I suppose he was earning about eighteen +hundred dollars a year when he died. He left five children and he +never had money enough even to insure in his own company. He didn't +leave a cent. When Helen Bonnington came back from the grave it was to +face the problem of supporting unaided, either by experience or +relatives, five children ranging from twelve to one. She was a shy, +retiring little body who had sapped her strength in just bringing the +children into the world and caring for them in the privacy of her +home. She had neither the temperament nor the training to face the +world. But she bucked up to it. She sold out of the house what things +she could spare, secured cheap rooms on the outskirts of the +neighborhood and announced that she would do sewing. What it cost her +to come back among her old friends and do that is a particularly +choice type of agony that it would be impossible for a tenement widow +to appreciate. And this same self-respect which both Helen's education +and her environment forced her to maintain, handicapped her in other +ways. You couldn't give Mrs. Bonnington scraps from your table; you +couldn't give her old clothes or old shoes or money. It wasn't her +fault because this was so; it wasn't your fault. + +When her children were sick she couldn't send them off to the public +wards of the hospitals. In the first place half the hospitals wouldn't +take them as charity patients simply because she maintained a certain +dignity, and in the second place the idea, by education, was so +repugnant to her that it never entered her head to try. So she stayed +at home and sewed from daylight until she couldn't hold open her eyes +at night. That's where you get your true "Song of the Shirt." She not +only sewed her fingers to the bone but while doing it she suffered a +very fine kind of torture wondering what would happen to the five if +she broke down. Asylums and homes and hospitals don't imply any great +disgrace to most of the tenement dwellers but to a woman of that type +they mean Hell. God knows how she did it but she kept the five alive +and clothed and in school until the boy was about fifteen and went to +work. When I hear of the lone widows of the tenements, who are apt to +be very husky, and who work out with no great mental struggle and who +have clothes and food given them and who set the children to work as +soon as they are able to walk, I feel like getting up in my seat and +telling about Helen Bonnington--a plain middle-classer. And she was no +exception either. + +I seem to have rambled off a bit here but this was only one of many +contrasts which I made in these years which seemed to me to be all in +favor of my new neighbors. The point is that at the bottom you not +only see advantages you didn't see before but you're in a position to +use them. You aren't shackled by conventions; you aren't cramped by +caste. The world stands ready to help the under dog but before it will +lift a finger it wants to see the dog stretched out on its back with +all four legs sticking up in prayer. Of the middle-class dog who +fights on and on, even after he's wobbly and can't see, it doesn't +seem to take much notice. + +However Ruth started in with a few reforms of her own. She made it a +point to go down and see young Michele every day and watch that he +didn't get any more macaroni and gravy. The youngster himself resented +this interference but the parents took it in good part. Then in time +she ventured further and suggested that the baby would be better off +if the windows were washed to let in the sunshine and the floor +scrubbed a bit. Finally she became bold enough to hint that it might +be well to wash some of the bed clothing. + +The district nurse appreciated the change, if Michele himself didn't +and I found that it wasn't long before Miss Colver was making use of +this new influence in the house. She made a call on Ruth and discussed +her cases with her until in the end she made of her a sort of first +assistant. This was the beginning of a new field of activity for Ruth +which finally won for her the name of Little Mother. It was wonderful +how quickly these people discovered the sweet qualities in Ruth that +had passed all unnoticed in the old life. + +It made me very proud. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NEW OPPORTUNITIES + + +I had found that I was badly handicapped in all intercourse with my +Italian fellow workers by the fact that I knew nothing of their +language and that they knew but little English. The handicap did not +lie so much in the fact that we couldn't make ourselves understood--we +could after a rough fashion--as it did in the fact that this made a +barrier which kept our two nationalities sharply defined. I was always +an American talking to an Italian. The boss was always an American +talking to a Dago. This seemed to me a great disadvantage. It ought to +be just a foreman to his man or one man to another. + +The chance to acquire a new language I thought had passed with my high +school days, but down here everyone was learning English and so I +resolved to study Italian. I made a bargain with Giuseppe, the young +sculptor, who was now a frequent visitor at our flat, to teach me his +language in return for instruction in mine. He agreed though he had +long been getting good instruction at the night school. But the lad +had found an appreciative friend in Ruth who not only sincerely +admired the work he was doing but who admired his enthusiasm and his +knowledge of art. I liked him myself for he was dreaming bigger things +than I. To watch his thin cheeks grow red and his big brown eyes flash +as he talked of some old painting gave me a realization that there was +something else to be thought of even down here than mere money +success. It was good for me. + +The poor fellow was driven almost mad by having to offer for sale some +of the casts which his master made him carry. He would have liked to +sell only busts of Michael Angelo and Dante and worthy reproductions +of the old masters. + +"There are so many beautiful things," he used to exclaim excitedly in +broken English; "why should they want to make anything that is not +beautiful?" + +He sputtered time and time again over the pity of gilding the casts. +You'd have thought it was a crime which ought to be punished by +hanging. + +"Even Dante," he groaned one night, "that wonderful, white sad face of +Dante covered all over with gilt!" + +"It has to look like gold before an American will buy it," I +suggested. + +"Yes," he nodded. "They would even gild the Christ." + +Ruth said she wanted to learn Italian with me, and so the three of us +used to get together every night right after dinner. I bought a +grammar at a second hand bookstore but we used to spend most of our +time in memorizing the common every day things a man would be likely +to use in ordinary conversation. Giuseppe would say, "Ha Ella il mio +cappello?" + +And I would say, + +"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei cappello." + +"Ha Ella il di Lei pane?" + +"Si, Signore, ho il mio pane." + +"Ha Ella il mio zucchero?" + +"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei zucchero." + +There wasn't much use in going over such simple things in English for +Giuseppe and so instead of this Ruth would read aloud something from +Tennyson. After explaining to him just what every new word meant, she +would let him read aloud to her the same passage. He soon became very +enthusiastic over the text itself and would often stop her with the +exclamation, + +"Ah, there is a study!" + +Then he would tell us just how he would model whatever the picture +happened to be that he saw in his mind. It was wonderful how clearly +he saw these pictures. He could tell you even down to how the folds of +the women's dresses should fall just as though he were actually +looking at living people. + +After a week or two when we had learned some of the simpler phrases +Ruth and I used to practise them as much as possible every day. We +felt quite proud when we could ask one another for "quel libro" or +"quell' abito" or "il cotello" or "il cucchiaio." I was surprised at +how soon we were able to carry on quite a long talk. + +This new idea--that even though I was approaching forty I wasn't too +old to resume my studies--took root in another direction. As I had +become accustomed to the daily physical exercise and no longer +returned home exhausted I felt as though I had no right to loaf +through my evenings, much as the privilege of spending them with Ruth +meant to me. My muscles had become as hard and tireless as those of a +well-trained athlete so that at night I was as alert mentally as in +the morning. It made me feel lazy to sit around the house after an +hour's lesson in Italian and watch Ruth busy with her sewing and see +the boy bending over his books. Still I couldn't think of anything +that was practicable until I heard Giuseppe talk one evening about the +night school. I had thought this was a sort of grammar school with +clay modeling thrown in for amusement. + +"No, Signore," he said. "You can learn anything there. And there is +another school where you can learn other things." + +I went out that very evening and found that the school he attended +taught among other subjects, book keeping and stenography--two things +which appealed to me strongly. But in talking to the principal he +suggested that before I decided I look into the night trade school +which was run in connection with a manual training school. I took his +advice and there I found so many things I wanted that I didn't know +what to choose. I was amazed at the opportunity. A man could learn +here about any trade he cared to take up. Both tools and material +were furnished him. And all this was within ten minutes' walk of the +house. I could still have my early evenings with Ruth and the boy even +on the three nights I would be in school until a quarter past seven, +spend two hours at learning my trade, and get back to the house again +before ten. I don't see how a man could ask for anything better than +this. Even then I wouldn't be away from home as much as I often was in +my old life. There were many dreary stretches towards the end of my +service with the United Woollen when I didn't get home until midnight. +And the only extra pay we salaried men received for that was a +brighter hope for the job ahead. This was always dangled before our +eyes by Morse as a bait when he wished to drive us harder than usual. + +I had my choice of a course in carpentry, bricklaying, sheet metal +work, plumbing, electricity, drawing and pattern draughting. The work +covered from one to three years and assured a man at the end of this +time of a position among the skilled workmen who make in wages as much +as many a professional man. Not only this but a man with such training +as this and with ambition could look forward without any great +stretch of the imagination to becoming a foreman in his trade and +eventually winning independence. All this he could accomplish while +earning his daily wages as an apprentice or a common laborer. + +The class in masonry seemed to be more in line with my present plans +than any of the other subjects. It ought to prove of value, I thought, +to a man in the general contracting business and certainly to a man who +undertook the contracting of building construction. At any rate it was +a trade in which I was told there was a steady demand for good men and +at which many men were earning from three to five dollars a day. I must +admit that at first I didn't understand how brick-laying could be +taught for I thought it merely a matter of practice but a glance at the +outline of the course showed me my error. It looked as complicated as +many of the university courses. The work included first the laying of a +brick to line. A man was given actual practice with bricks and mortar +under an expert mason. From this a man was advanced, when he had +acquired sufficient skill, to the laying out of the American bond; then +the building of square piers of different sizes; then the building of +square and pigeon hole corners, then the laying out of brick footings. +The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking, +toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls; +polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and +flues. The third year advanced a man to the nice points of the trade +such as the foreign bonds--Flemish, Dutch, Roman and Old English; +cutting and turning of arches of all kinds,--straight, cambered, +semi-circular, three centred elliptical, and many forms of Gothic and +Moorish arches; also brick panels and cornices. Finally it gave +practice in the laying out of plans and work from these plans. Whatever +time was left was devoted to speed in all these things as far as it was +consistent with accurate and careful workmanship. + +I enrolled at once and also entered a class in architectural drawing +which was given in connection with this. + +I came back and told Ruth and though of course she was afraid it might +be too hard work for me she admitted that in the end it might save me +many months of still harder work. If it hadn't been for the boy I +think she would have liked to follow me even in these studies. +Whatever new thing I took up, she wanted to take up too. But as I told +her, it was she who was making the whole business possible and that +was enough for one woman to do. + +The school didn't open for a week and during that time I saw something +of Rafferty. He surprised me by coming around to the flat one +night--for what I couldn't imagine. I was glad to see him but I +suspected that he had some purpose in making such an effort. I +introduced him to Ruth and we all sat down in the kitchen and I told +him what I was planning to do this winter and asked him why he didn't +join me. I was rather surprised that the idea didn't appeal to him but +I soon found out that he had another interest which took all his spare +time. This interest was nothing else than politics. And Rafferty +hadn't been over here long enough yet to qualify as a voter. In spite +of this he was already on speaking terms with the state representative +from our district, the local alderman, and was an active lieutenant of +Sweeney's--the ward boss. At present he was interesting himself in +the candidacy of this same Sweeney who was the Democratic machine +candidate for Congress. Owing to some local row he was in danger of +being knifed. Dan had come round to make sure I was registered and to +swing me over if possible to the ranks of the faithful. + +The names of which he spoke so familiarly meant nothing to me. I had +heard a few of them from reading the papers but I hadn't read a paper +for three months now and knew nothing at all about the present +campaign. As a matter of fact I never voted except for the regular +Republican candidate for governor and the regular Republican candidate +for president. And I did that much only from habit. My father had been +a Republican and I was a Republican after him and I felt that in a +general way this party stood for honesty as against Tammanyism. But +with councillors, and senators and aldermen, or even with congressmen +I never bothered my head. Their election seemed to be all prearranged +and I figured that one vote more or less wouldn't make much +difference. I don't know as I even thought that much about it; I +ignored the whole matter. What was true of me was true largely of the +other men in our old neighborhood. Politics, except perhaps for an +abstract discussion of the tariff, was not a vital issue with any of +us. + +Now here I found an emigrant who couldn't as yet qualify as a citizen +knowing all the local politicians by their first names and spending +his nights working for a candidate for congress. Evidently my arrival +down here had been noted by those keen eyes which look after every +single vote as a miser does his pennies. A man had been found who had +at least a speaking acquaintance with me, and plans already set on +foot to round me up. + +I was inclined at first to treat this new development as a joke. But +as Rafferty talked on he set me to thinking. I didn't know anything +about the merits of the two present candidates but was strongly +prejudiced to believe that the Democratic candidate, on general +principles, was the worst one. However quite apart from this, wasn't +Rafferty to-day a better citizen than I? Even admitting for the sake +of argument that Sweeney was a crook, wasn't Rafferty who was trying +his humble best to get him elected a better American than I who was +willing to sit down passively and allow him to be elected? Rafferty at +any rate was getting into the fight. His motive may have been selfish +but I think his interest really sprang first from an instinctive +desire to get into the game. Here he had come to a new country where +every man had not only the chance to mix with the affairs of the ward, +the city, the state, the nation, but also a good chance to make +himself a leader in them. Sweeney himself was an example. + +For twenty-five years or more Rafferty's countrymen had appreciated +this opportunity for power and gone after it. The result everyone +knows. Their victory in city politics at least had been so decisive +year after year that the native born had practically laid down his +arms as I had. And the reason for this perennial victory lay in just +this fact that men like Rafferty were busy from the time they landed +and men like me were lazily indifferent. + +Three months before, a dozen speakers couldn't have made me see this. +I had no American spirit back of me then to make me appreciate it. You +might better have talked to a sleepy Russian Jew a week off the +steamer. He at least would have sensed the sacred power for liberty +which the voting privilege bestows. + +I began to ask questions of Rafferty about the two men. He didn't know +much about the other fellow except that he was "agin honest labor and +a tool of the thrusts." But on Sweeney he grew eloquent. + +"Sure," he said. "There's a mon after ye own heart, me biy. Faith he's +dug in ditches himself an he knows wot a full dinner pail manes." + +"What's his business?" I asked. + +"A contracthor," he said. "He does big jobs for the city." + +He let himself loose on what Sweeney proposed to do for the ward if +elected. He would have the government undertake the dredging of the +harbor thereby giving hundreds of jobs to the local men. He would do +this thing and that--all of which had for their object apparently just +that one goal. It was a direct personal appeal to every man toiler. In +addition to this, Rafferty let drop a hint or two that Sweeney had +jobs in his own business which he filled discreetly from the ranks of +the wavering. It wasn't more than a month later, by the way, that +Rafferty himself was appointed a foreman in the firm of Sweeney +Brothers. + +But apart from the merits of the question, the thing that impressed me +was Rafferty's earnestness, the delight he took in the contest itself, +and his activity. He was very much disappointed when I told him I +wasn't even registered in the ward but he made me promise to look +after that as soon as the lists were again opened and made an +appointment for the next evening to take me round to a rally to meet +the boys. + +I went and was escorted to the home of the Sweeney Club. It was a good +sized hall up a long flight of stairs. Through the heavy blue smoke +which filled the room I saw the walls decorated with American flags +and the framed crayon portraits of Sweeney and other local +politicians. Large duck banners proclaimed in black ink the current +catch lines of the campaign. At one end there was a raised platform, +the rest of the room was filled with wooden settees. My first +impression of it all was anything but favorable. It looked rather +tawdry and cheap. The men themselves who filled the room were pretty +tough-looking specimens. I noticed a few Italians of the fat class and +one or two sharp-faced Jews, but for the most part these men were the +cheaper element of the second and third generation. They were the +loafers--the ward heelers. I certainly felt out of place among them +and to me even Rafferty looked out of place. There was a freshness, a +bulk about him, that his fellows here didn't have. + +As he shoved his big body through the crowd, they greeted him by his +first name with an oath or a joke and he beamed back at them all with +a broad wave of his hand. It was evident that he was a man of some +importance here. He worked a passage for me to the front of the hall +and didn't stop until he reached a group of about a dozen men who were +all puffing away at cigars. In the midst of them stood a man of about +Rafferty's size in frame but fully fifty pounds heavier. He had a +quiet, good-natured face. On the whole it was a strong face though a +bit heavy. His eyes were everywhere. He was the first to notice +Rafferty. He nodded with a familiar, + +"Hello, Dan." + +Dan seized my arm and dragged me forward: + +"I want ye to meet me frind, Mister Carleton," he said. + +Sweeney rested his grey eyes on me a second, saw that I was a +stranger here, and stepped forward instantly with his big hand +outstretched. He spoke without a trace of brogue. + +"I'm very glad to meet you, Mr. Carleton," he said. + +I don't know that I'm easily impressed and I flattered myself that I +could recognize a politician when I saw one, but I want to confess +that there was something in the way he grasped my hand that instantly +gave me a distinctly friendly feeling towards Sweeney. I should have +said right then and there that the man wasn't as black as he was +painted. He was neither oily nor sleek in his manner. We chatted a +minute and I think he was a bit surprised in me. He wanted to know +where I lived, where I was working, and how much of a family I had. He +put these questions in so frank and fatherly a fashion that they +didn't seem so impertinent to me at the time as they did later. Some +one called him and as he turned away, he said to Rafferty, + +"See me before you go, Dan." + +Then he said to me, + +"I hope I'll see you down here often, Carleton." + +With that Dan took me around and introduced me to Tom, Dick and Harry +or rather to Tim, Denny and Larry. This crowd came nearer to the +notion I had of ward politicians. They were a noisy, husky-throated +lot, but they didn't leave you in doubt for a minute but what every +mother's son of them was working for Sweeney as though they were one +big family with Daddy Sweeney at the head. You could overhear bits of +plots and counter plots on every side. I was offered a dozen cigars in +as many minutes and though some of the men rather shied away from me +at first a whispered endorsement from Dan was all that was needed to +bring them back. + +There was something contagious about it and when later the meeting +itself opened and Sweeney rose to speak I cheered him as heartily as +anyone. By this time a hundred or more other men had come in who +looked more outside the inner circle. Sweeney spoke simply and +directly. It was a personal appeal he made, based on promises. I +listened with interest and though it seemed to me that many of his +pledges were extravagant he showed such a good spirit back of them +that his speech on a whole produced a favorable effect. + +At any rate I came away from the meeting with a stronger personal +interest in politics than I had ever felt in my life. Instead of +seeming like an abstruse or vague issue it seemed to me pretty +concrete and pretty vital. It concerned me and my immediate neighbors. +Here was a man who was going to Congress not as a figurehead of his +party but to make laws for Rafferty and for me. He was to be my +congressman if I chose to help make him such. He knew my name, knew my +occupation, knew that I had a wife and one child, knew my address. And +I want to say that he didn't forget them either. + +As I walked back through the brightly lighted streets which were still +as much alive as at high noon, I felt that after all this was my ward +and my city. I wasn't a mere dummy, I was a member of a vast +corporation. I had been to a rally and had shaken hands with Sweeney. + +Ruth's only comment was a disgusted grunt as she smelled the rank +tobacco in my clothes. She kept them out on the roof all the next +day. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OUR FIRST WINTER + + +This first winter was filled with just about as much interest as it +was possible for three people to crowd into six or seven months. And +even then there was so much left over which we wanted to do that we +fairly groaned as we saw opportunity after opportunity slip by which +we simply didn't have the time to improve. + +To begin with the boy, he went at his studies with a zest that placed +him among the first ten of his class. Dick wasn't a quick boy at his +books and so this stood for sheer hard plugging. To me this made his +success all the more noteworthy. Furthermore it wasn't the result of +goading either from Ruth or myself. I kept after him about the details +of his school life and about the boys he met, but I let him go his own +gait in his studies. I wanted to see just how the new point of view +would work out in him. The result as I saw it was that every night +after supper he went at his problems not as a mere school boy but +man-fashion. He sailed in to learn. He had to. There was no prestige +in that school coming from what the fathers did. No one knew what the +fathers did. It didn't matter. With half a dozen nationalities in the +race the school was too cosmopolitan to admit such local issues. A few +boys might chum together feeling they were better than the others, but +the school as a whole didn't recognize them. Each boy counted for what +he did--what he was. + +Of the other nine boys in the first ten, four were of Jewish origin, +three were Irish, one was Italian, and the other was American born but +of Irish descent. Half of them hoped to go through college on +scholarships and the others had equally ambitious plans for business. +The Jews were easily the most brilliant students but they didn't +attempt anything else. The Italian showed some literary ability and +wrote a little for the school paper. The American born Irish boy was +made manager of the Freshman football team. The other four were +natural athletes--two of them played on the school eleven and the +others were just built for track athletics and basket ball. Dick +tried for the eleven but he wasn't heavy enough for one thing and so +didn't make anything but a substitute's position with the freshmen. I +was just as well satisfied. I didn't mind the preliminary training but +I felt I would as soon he added a couple more years to his age before +he really played football, even if it was in him to play. My point had +been won when he went out and tried. + +At the end of the first four months in the school I thought I saw a +general improvement in him. He held himself better for one thing--with +his head higher and his shoulders well back. This wasn't due to his +physical training either. It meant a changed mental attitude. Ruth +says she didn't notice any difference and she thinks this is nothing +but my imagination. But she's wrong. I was looking for something she +couldn't see that the boy lacked before. Dick to her was always all +right. Of course I knew myself that the boy couldn't go far wrong +whatever his training, but I knew also that his former indifferent +attitude was going to make his path just so much harder for him. Dick, +when he read over this manuscript, said he thought the whole business +was foolish and that even if I wanted to tell the story of my own +life, the least I could do was to leave out him. But his life was more +largely my life than he realizes even now. And his case was in many +ways a better example of the true emigrant spirit than my own. + +He joined the indoor track squad this winter, too, but here again he +didn't distinguish himself. He fought his way into the finals at the +interscholastic meet but that was all. However this, too, was good +training for him. I saw that race myself and I watched his mouth +instead of his legs. I liked the way his jaws came together on the +last lap though it hurt to see the look in his eyes when he fell so +far behind after trying so hard. But he crossed the finish line. + +In the meanwhile Ruth was just about the busiest little woman in the +city. And yet strangely enough this instead of dragging her down, +built her up. She took on weight, her cheeks grew rosier than I had +seen them for five years and she seemed altogether happier. I watched +her closely because I made up my mind that ginger jar or no ginger jar +the moment I saw a trace of heaviness in her eyes, she would have to +quit some of her bargain hunting. I didn't mean to barter her good +health for a few hundred dollars even if I had to remain a day laborer +the rest of my life. + +That possibility didn't seem to me now half so terrifying as did the +old bogey of not getting a raise. I suppose for one thing this was +because we neither of us felt so keenly the responsibility of the boy. +In the old days we had both thought that he was doomed if we didn't +save enough to send him through college and give him, at the end of +his course, capital enough to start in business for himself. In other +words, Dick seemed then utterly dependent upon us. It was as terrible +a thought to think of leaving him penniless at twenty-one as leaving +him an orphan at five months. The burden of his whole career rested on +our shoulders. + +But now as I saw him take his place among fellows who were born +dependent upon themselves, as I learned about youngsters at the school +who at ten earned their own living selling newspapers and even went +through college on their earnings, as I watched him grow strong +physically and tackle his work aggressively, I realized that even if +anything should happen to either Ruth or myself the boy would be able +to stand on his own feet. He had the whole world before him down here. +If worst came to worst he could easily support himself daytimes, and +at night learn either a trade or a profession. This was not a dream on +my part; I saw men who were actually doing it. I was doing it myself +for that matter. Personally I felt as easy about Dick's future by the +middle of that first winter as though I had established an annuity for +him which would assure him all the advantages I had ever hoped he +might receive. So did Ruth. + +I remember some horrible hours I passed in that little suburban house +towards the end of my life there. Ruth would sit huddled up in a chair +and try to turn my thoughts to other things but I could only pace the +floor when I thought what would happen to her and the boy if anything +should happen to me; or what would happen to the boy alone if anything +should happen to the both of us. The case of Mrs. Bonnington hung over +me like a nightmare and the other possibility was even worse. Why, +when Cummings came down with pneumonia and it looked for a while as +though he might die, I guess I suffered, by applying his case to +mine, as much as ever he himself did on his sick bed. I used to +inquire for his temperature every night as though it were my own. So +did every man in the neighborhood. + +Sickness was a wicked misfortune to that little crowd. When death did +pick one of us, the whole structure of that family came tumbling down +like a house of cards. If by the grace of God the man escaped, he was +left hopelessly in debt by doctor's bills if in the meanwhile he +hadn't lost his job. Sickness meant disaster, swift and terrible +whatever its outcome. We ourselves escaped it, to be sure, but I've +sweat blood over the mere thought of it. + +Now if our thoughts ever took so grim a turn, we could speak quite +calmly about it. It was impossible for me ever to think of Ruth as +sick. My mind couldn't grasp that. But occasionally when I have come +home wet and Ruth has said something about my getting pneumonia if I +didn't look out, I've asked myself what this would mean. In the first +place I now could secure admission to the best hospitals in the +country free of cost. I had only to report my case to the city +physician and if I were sick enough to warrant it, he would notify +the hospital and they would send down an ambulance for me. I would be +carried to a clean bed in a clean room and would receive such medical +attention as before I could have had only as a millionaire. Physicians +of national reputation would attend me, medicines would be supplied +me, and I'd have a night and day nurse for whom outside I would have +had to pay some forty dollars a week. Not only this but if I recovered +I would be supplied the most nourishing foods in the market and after +that sent out of town to one of the quiet convalescent hospitals if my +condition warranted it. I don't suppose a thousand dollars would cover +what here would be given me for nothing. And I wouldn't either be +considered or treated like a charity patient. This was all my due as a +citizen--as a toiler. Of course this would be done also for Dick as +well as for Ruth. + +I don't mean to say that such thoughts took up much of my time. I'm +not morbid and we never did have any sickness--we lived too sanely for +that. But just as our new viewpoint on Dick relieved us of a tension +which before had sapped our strength, so it was a great relief to have +such insurance as this in the background of our minds. It took all +the curse off sickness that it's possible to take off. In three or +four such ways as these a load of responsibility was removed from us +and we were left free to apply all our energy to the task of +upbuilding which we had in hand. + +This may account somewhat for the reserve strength which Ruth as well +as myself seemed to tap. Then of course the situation as a whole was +such as to make any woman with imagination buoyant. Ruth had an active +part in making a big rosy dream come true. She was now not merely a +passive agent. She wasn't economizing merely to make the salary cover +the current expenses. Her task was really the vital one of the whole +undertaking; she was accumulating capital. When you stop to think of +it she was the brains of the business; I was only the machine. I dug +the money out of the ground but that wouldn't have amounted to much if +it had all gone for nothing except to keep the machine moving from day +to day. The dollar she saved was worth more than a hundred dollars +earned and spent again. It was the only dollar which counted. They say +a penny saved is a penny earned. To my mind a penny saved was worth +to us at this time every cent of a dollar. + +So Ruth was not only an active partner but there was another side to +the game that appealed to her. + +"The thing I like about our life down here," she said to me one night, +"is the chance it gives me to get something of myself into every +single detail of the home." + +I didn't know what she meant because it seemed to me that was just +what she had always done. But she shook her head when I said so. + +"No," she said. "Not the way I can now." + +"Well, you didn't have a servant and must have done whatever was +done," I said. + +"I didn't have time to pick out the food for the table," she said. "I +had to order it of the grocery man. I didn't have time to make as many +of your clothes as I wanted. Why I didn't even have time to plan." + +"If anyone had told me that a woman could do any more than you then +were doing, I should have laughed at them," I said. + +"You and the boy weren't all my own then," she said. "I had to waste a +great deal of time on things outside the house. Sometimes it used to +make me feel as though you were just one of the neighbors, Billy." + +I began to see what she meant. But she certainly found now just as +much time if not more to spare on the women and babies all around us. + +"They aren't neighbors," she said. "They are friends." + +I suppose she felt like that because what she did for them wasn't just +wasted energy like an evening at cards. + +But she went back again and again, as though it were a song, to this +notion that our new home was all her own. + +"You may think me a pig, Billy," she said. "But I like it. I like to +pick out all myself, every single potato you and the boy eat; I like +to pick out every leaf of lettuce, every apple. It makes me feel as +though I was doing something for you." + +"Good land--" I said. + +But she wouldn't let me finish. + +"No, Billy," she said. "You don't understand what all that means to +me--how it makes me a part of you and Dick as I never was before. And +I like to think that in everything you wear there's a stitch of mine +right close to you. And that when you and the boy lie down at night +I'm touching you because I made everything clean for you with my own +hands." + +It makes my throat grow lumpy even now when I remember the eager, +half-ashamed way she looked up into my eyes as she said this. Lord, +sometimes she made me feel like a little child and other times she +made me feel like a giant. But whichever way she made me feel at the +moment, she always left me wishing that I had in me every good thing a +man can have so that I might be half way worthy of her. There are +times when a fellow knows that as a man he doesn't count for much as +compared with any woman. And with such a woman as Ruth--well, God +knows I tried to do my best in those days and have tried to do that +ever since, but it makes me ache to think how little I've been able to +give her of all she deserves. + +In her housework Ruth had developed a system that would have made a +fortune for any man if applied in the same degree to his business. I +learned a lot from her. Instead of going at her tasks in the haphazard +fashion of most women or doing things just because her grandmother +and her mother did them a certain way, she used her head. I've already +told how she did her washing little by little every day instead of +waiting for Monday and then tearing herself all to pieces, and that's +a fair example of her method. When she was cooking breakfast and had a +good fire, she'd have half her dinner on at the same time. Anything +that was just as good warmed up, she'd do then. She'd make her stews +and soups while waiting for the biscuits to bake and boil her rice or +make her cold puddings while we were eating. When that stove was +working in the morning you couldn't find a square inch of it that +wasn't working. As a result, she planned never to spend over half an +hour on her dinner at night and by the time the breakfast dishes were +washed she was through with her cooking until then. + +She used her head even in little things; she'd make one dish do the +work of three. She never washed this dish until she was through with +it for good. And she'd find the time at odd moments during her cooking +to wash these dishes as they came along. If she spilled anything on +the floor she stopped right then and there and cleaned it up, with the +result that when breakfast was served, the kitchen looked as +ship-shape as when she began. When she _was_ busy, she was the busiest +woman you ever saw. She worked with her head, both hands, and her +feet. As a result instead of fiddling around all day, when she was +through she was through. + +When she got up in the morning she knew exactly what she had to do for +the day, just how she was going to do it and just when she was going +to do it. And you could bank that the things at night would be done, +and be done just as she had planned. She thought ahead. That's a great +thing to master in any business. + +In my own work, the plan I had outlined for myself I developed day by +day. At the end of three months I found that even what little Italian +I had then learned was a help to me. The mere fact that I was studying +their language placed me on a better footing with my fellows. They +seemed to receive it as a compliment and to feel that I was taking a +personal interest in them as a race. My desire to practise my few +phrases was always a letter of introduction to a newcomer. + +I talked with them about everything--where they came from, what made +them come, what they did before they came, how long they worked and +what pay they got in Italy, how they saved to get over here, how they +secured their jobs, what they hoped to do eventually, where they +lived, how large their families were, how much it cost them to live +and what they ate. I inquired as to what they liked and what they +disliked about their work; what they considered fair and what unfair +about the labor and the pay; what they liked and didn't like about the +foreman. Often I couldn't get any opinion at all out of them on these +subjects; often it wasn't honest and often it wasn't intelligent. But +as with my other questioning when I sifted it all down and thought it +over, I was surprised at how much information I did get. If I didn't +learn facts which could be put into words, I was left with a very +definite impression and a very wide general knowledge. + +In the meanwhile my note book was always busy. I kept jotting down +names and addresses with enough running comment to help me to recall +the men individually. I wasn't able to locate one out of ten of these +men later but the tenth man was worth all the trouble. + +As the winter advanced and the air grew frosty and the snow and ice +came, the work in a good many ways was harder. And yet everything +considered I don't know but what I'd rather work outdoors at zero than +at eighty-five. Except that my hands got numb and everything was more +difficult to handle I didn't mind the cold. There was generally +exercise enough to keep the blood moving. + +We had a variety of work before spring. After the subway job I shifted +to a big house foundation and there met another group of skilled +workmen from whom I learned much. The work was easier and the +surroundings pleasanter if you can speak of pleasant surroundings +about a hole in the ground. The soil was easier to handle and we went +to no great depth. Here too I met a new gang of laborers. I missed +many familiar faces out of the old crowd and found some interesting +new men. Rafferty had gone and I was sorry. I saw more or less of him +however during the winter for he dropped around now and then on Sunday +evenings. I don't think he ever forgot the incident of the sewer gas. + +I enjoyed too every hour in my night school. I found here a very large +per cent. of foreigners and they were naturally of the more ambitious +type. I found I had a great deal to learn even in the matter of +spreading mortar and using a trowel. It was really fascinating work +and in the instructor I made an invaluable friend. Through him I was +able to arrange my scattered fragments of information into larger +groups. Little by little I told him something of my plan and he was +very much interested in it. He gave me many valuable suggestions and +later proved of substantial help in more ways than one. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +I BECOME A CITIZEN + + +As I said, there were still many opportunities which I didn't have +time to improve. The three of us seemed to have breathed in down here +some spirit which left us almost feverish in our desire to learn. +Whether it was the opportunity which bred the desire or the desire as +expressed by all these newcomers, fresh from the shackles of their old +lives, which created the opportunity, I leave to the students of such +matters. All I know is that we were offered the best in practical +information, such as the trade schools and the night high schools; the +best in art, the best in music, the best in the drama. I am speaking +always of the newcomer--the emigrant. Sprinkled in with these was the +cheaper element of the native-born, whether of foreign or of American +descent, who spent their evenings on the street or at the cheap +theatres or in the barrooms. This class despised the whole business. +Incidentally these were the men who haunted the bread line, the +Salvation Army barracks, and were the first to join in any public +demonstration against the rich. The women, not always so much by their +own fault, were the type which keeps the charitable associations busy. +I'm not saying that among these there were not often cases of sheer +hard luck. Now and then sickness played the devil with a family and +more often the cussedness of some one member dragged down a half dozen +innocent ones with him, but I do say that when misfortune did come to +this particular class they didn't buck up to it as Helen Bonnington +did or use such means as were at their disposal to pull out of it. +They just caved in. Even in their daily lives, when things were going +well with them, they lost in the glitter and glare of the city that +spark which my middle-class friends lost by stagnation. + +Because there was no poetic romance left in their own lives, they +despised it in the lives of others and laughed at it in art. Whatever +went back into the past, they looked upon scornfully as "ancient." +They lived each day as it came with a pride in being up-to-date. As a +result, they preferred musical comedy of the horse play kind to real +music; they preferred cheap melodrama to Shakespere. They lived and +breathed the spirit of the yellow journals. + +I don't know what sort of an education it is the Italians come over +here with, but they were a constant surprise to me in their +appreciation of the best in art. And it was genuine--it was simple. +I've heard a good many jokes about the foolishness of giving them a +diet of Shakespere and Beethoven, of Maeterlinck and Mascagni, but that +sort of talk comes either from the outsiders or from the Great White +Way crowd. When you've seen Italians not only crowd in to the free +productions down here but have seen them put up good money to attend +the best theatres; when you've heard them whistle grand opera at their +work and save hard earned dollars to spend on it down town; when +you've seen them crowd the art museums on free days and spend a half +dollar to look at some private exhibition of a fellow countryman's, +you begin to think, if you're honest, that the laugh is on you. They +made me feel ashamed not only because I was ignorant but because after +I became more familiar with the works of the masters I was slower +than they to appreciate them. In many cases I couldn't. I didn't +flatter myself either that this was because of my superior frankness +or up-to-dateness. I knew well enough that it was because of a lack in +me and my ancestors. + +Scarcely a week passed when there wasn't something worth seeing or +hearing presented to these people. It came either through a settlement +house or through the generosity of some interested private patron. +However it came, it was always through the medium of a class which +until now had been only a name to me. This was the independently +well-to-do American class--the Americans who had partly made and +partly inherited their fortunes and had not yet come to misuse them. +It is a class still active in American life, running however more to +the professions than to business. Many of their family names have been +familiar in history to succeeding generations since the early +settlement of New England. They were intellectual leaders then and +they are intellectual leaders now. If I could with propriety I'd like +to give here a list of half a dozen of these men and women who came, +in time, to revive for me my belief that after all there still is +left in this country the backbone of a worthy old stock. But they +don't need any such trivial tribute as I might give them. The thing +that struck me at once about them was that they were still finding an +outlet for their pioneer instinct not only in their professions and +their business, but in the interest they took in the new pioneer. +Shoulder to shoulder with the modern Pilgrims they were pushing +forward their investigations in medicine, in science, in economics. +They were adapting old laws to new conditions; they were developing +the new West; they were the new thinkers and the new politicians. + +I don't suppose that if I had lived for fifty years under the old +conditions I would have met one of them. There was no meeting ground +for us, for we had nothing in common. I couldn't possibly interest +them and I'm sure I was too busy with my own troubles to take any +interest in them even if I had known of their existence. + +Even down here I resented at first their presence as an intrusion. +Whenever I met them I was inclined to play the cad and there's no +bigger cad on the face of the earth than a workingman who is beginning +to feel his oats. But as I watched them and saw how earnest they were +and how really valuable their efforts were I was able to distinguish +them from still another crowd who flaunted their silly charities in +the newspapers. But these other quiet men and women were of different +calibre; they were the ones who established pure milk stations, who +encouraged the young men of real talent like Giuseppe, and who headed +all the real work for good done down here. + +They came into my life when I needed them; when perhaps I was swinging +too far in my belief that the emigrant was the only force for progress +in our nation. I know they checked me in some wild thinking in which I +was beginning to indulge. + +I find I have been wandering a little. But what we thought, counted +for as much towards the goal as what we did and even if the thinking +is only that of one man--and an ordinary man at that--why, so for that +matter was the whole venture. I want to say again that all I'm trying +to do is to put down as well as I can remember and as well as I am +able, my own acts and thoughts and nothing but my own. Of course that +means Ruth's and Dick's too as far as I understood them, for they +were a part of my own. I don't want what I write to be taken as the +report of an investigation but just as the diary of one man's +experience. + +If I had had the time I could have seen at least two of Shakespere's +plays--presented by amateurs, to be sure, but amateurs with talent and +enthusiasm and guided by professionals. I could have heard at least a +half dozen good readers read from the more modern classics. I could +have listened to as many concerts by musicians of good standing. I +could have heard lectures on a dozen subjects of vital interest. Then +there were entertainments designed confessedly to entertain. In +addition to these there were many more lectures in the city itself +open free to the public and which I now for the first time learned +about. There was one series in particular which was addressed once a +week by men of international renown. It was a liberal education in +itself. Many of my neighbors attended. + +But as for Dick he was too busy with his studies and Ruth was too glad +to sit at home and watch him, to go out at night. + +What spare time I myself had I began to devote to a new interest. +Rafferty had first roused me to my duty as a citizen in the matter of +local politics and through the winter called often enough to keep my +interest whetted. But even without him I couldn't have escaped the +question. Politics was a live issue down here every day in the year. +One campaign was no sooner ended than another was begun. Sweeney was +no sooner elected than he began to lay wires for his fellows in the +coming city election who in their turn would sustain him in whatever +further political ambitions he might have. If the hold the boss had on +a ward or a city was a mystery to me at first, it didn't long remain +so. The secret of his power lay in the fact that he never let go. He +was at work every day in the year and he had an organization with +which he could keep in touch through his lieutenants whether he was in +Washington or at home. Sweeney's personality was always right there in +his ward wherever his body might be. + +The Sweeney Club rooms were always open. Night after night you could +find his trusted men there. Here the man out of a job came and from +here was recommended to one contractor or another or to the "city"; +here the man with the sick wife came to have her sent to some +hospital which perhaps for some reason would not ordinarily receive +her; here the men in court sent their friends for bail; here came +those with bigger plans afoot in the matter of special contracts. If +Sweeney couldn't get them what they wanted, he at least sent them away +with a feeling of deep obligation to him. Naturally then when election +time came around these people obeyed Sweeney's order. It wasn't +reasonable to suppose that a campaign speech or two could affect their +loyalty. + +Of course the rival party followed much the same methods but the man +in power had a tremendous advantage. The only danger he needed to fear +was a split in his own faction as some young man loomed up with +ambitions that moved faster than Sweeney's own for him. Such a man I +began to suspect--though it was looking a long way into the +future--was Rafferty. That winter he took out his naturalization +papers and soon afterwards he began an active campaign for the Common +Council. It was partly my interest in him and partly a new sense of +duty I felt towards the whole game that made me resolve to have a hand +in this. I owed that much to the ward in which I lived and which was +doing so much for me. + +In talking with some of the active settlement workers down here, I +found them as strongly prejudiced against the party in power as I had +been and when I spoke to them of Rafferty I found him damned in their +eyes as soon as I mentioned his party. + +"The whole system is corrupt from top to bottom," said the head of one +settlement house to me. + +"Are you doing anything to remedy it?" I asked. + +"What _can_ you do?" he said. "We are doing the only thing +possible--we're trying to get hold of the youngsters and give them a +higher sense of civic virtue." + +"That's good," I said, "but you don't get hold of one in ten of the +coming voters. And you don't get hold of one in a hundred of the +coming politicians. Why don't you take hold of a man like Dan who is +bound to get power some day and talk a little civic virtue into him." + +"You said he was a Democrat and a machine man," said he, as though +that settled it. + +"I don't see any harm in either fact," I said, "if you get at the good +in him. A good Democrat is a good citizen and a good machine is a +good power," I said. + +The man smiled. + +"You don't know," he said. + +"Do _you_ know?" I asked. "Have you been to the rallies and met the +men and studied their methods?" + +"All you have to do is to read the papers," he answered. + +"I don't think so," I said. "To beat an enemy you ought to study him +at first hand. You ought to find out the good as well as the bad in +him. You ought to find out where he gets his power." + +"Graft and patronage," he answered. + +"What about the other party?" I said. + +"Just as bad." + +"Then what are you going to do about it?" I asked. + +"Our only hope is education," he said. + +"Then," I said, "why not educate the young politicians? Get to know +Rafferty--he's young and simple and honest now. Help him to advance +honestly and keep him that way." + +He shook his head doubtfully but he agreed to have a talk with Dan. In +the meanwhile I had a talk with Dan myself. I told him what my scheme +was. + +"Dan," I said, "you must decide right at the beginning of your career +whether you're going to be just a tool of Sweeney's or whether you're +going to stand on your own feet." + +"Phot's the mather with Sweeney, now?" he asked. + +"In some ways he's all right," I said. "And in other ways he isn't. +But anyhow he's your boss and you have to do what he tells you to do +just as though he was your landlord back in Ireland and you nothing +but a tenant." + +"Eh?" he said looking up quick. + +I thought I'd strike a sore spot there and I made the most of it. I +talked along like this for a half hour and I saw his lips come +together. + +"He'd knife me," he said finally. "He's sore now 'cause I'm afther +wantin' to run for the council this year." + +I had heard the rumor. + +"Then," I said, "why don't you pull free and make a little machine of +your own. Some of the boys will stand by you, won't they?" + +"Will they?" he grinned. + +With that I took him around to the settlement house. Dan listened good +naturedly to a lot of talk he didn't understand but he listened with +more interest to a lot of talk about the needs of the district which +it was now getting cheated out of, which he did understand. And +incidentally the man who at first did all the talking in the end +listened to Dan. After the latter had gone, he turned to me and said: + +"I like that fellow Rafferty." + +That seemed to me the really important thing and right there and then +we sat down and worked out the basis of the "Young American Political +Club." Our object was to reach the young voter first of all and +through him to reach the older ones. To this end we had a "Committee +on Boys" and a "Committee on Naturalization." I insisted from the +beginning that we must have an organization as perfect as that of any +political machine. Until we felt our strength a little however, I +suggested it was best to limit our efforts to the districts alone. We +took a map of the city and we cut up the districts into blocks with a +young man at the head of each block. He was to make a list of all the +young voters and keep as closely in touch as possible with the +political gossip of both parties. Over him there was to be a street +captain and over him a district captain and finally a president. + +All this was the result of slow and careful study. All the workers +down here fell in with the plan eagerly and one of them agreed to pay +the expenses of a hall any time we wished to use one for campaign +purposes. At first our efforts passed unnoticed by either political +party. It was thought to be just another fanciful civic dream. We were +glad of it. It gave us time to perfect our organization without +interference. + +This business took up all the time I could spare during the winter. +But instead of finding it a drag I found it an inspiration. They +insisted upon making me president of the Club and though I would +rather have had a younger man at its head I accepted the honor with a +feeling of some pride. It was the first public office I had ever held +and it gave me a new sense of responsibility and a better sense of +citizenship. + +In the meanwhile Dan made no open break with Sweeney but it soon +became clear that he was not in such good favor as before. Although we +had not yet openly endorsed his candidacy we were doing a good deal +of talking for him. I received several visits from Sweeney's +lieutenants who tried to find out just what we were about. My answer +invariably was "No partisanship but clean politics." + +When it came time to register I was forced to register with one of the +two parties in order to take any part in the primaries. I registered +as a Democrat for the first time in my life. I also attended a primary +for the first time in my life. I also felt a new power back of me for +the first time in my life. Little by little Dan had come to be an +issue. Sweeney did not openly declare himself but it was soon evident +that he had come to the primaries prepared to knife Rafferty if it +were possible. Back of Dan stood his large personal following; back of +me stood the balance of power. Sweeney saw it, gave the nod, and Dan +was nominated. + +Six weeks later he was elected, too. You'd have thought he had been +elected mayor by the noise the small boys made. Rafferty came to me +with his big paw outstretched, + +"Carleton," he said, "the only thing I've got agin ye is thot ye ain't +an Irishmon. Faith, ye'd make a domd foine Irishmon." + +"It's up to you now," I said, "to make a damned fine American." + +It wasn't more than two months later that Dan came to me to ask my +opinion on a request of Sweeney's. It looked a bit off color and I +said so. + +"You can't do it, Dan," I said. + +"It manes throuble," he said. + +"Let it come. We're back of you with both feet." + +Dan followed my advice and the trouble came. He was fired from his job +as foreman under Sweeney. + +But you can't keep down as good a foreman as Dan was and he had +another job within a week. + +A few months later I had another job myself. I was made foreman with +my own firm at a wage of two dollars and a half a day. When I went +back and announced this to Ruth, she cried a little. Truly our cup +seemed full and running over. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FIFTEEN DOLLARS A WEEK + + +My first thought when I received my advance in pay was that I could +now relieve Ruth of some of her burdens. There was no longer any need +of her spending so much time in trotting around the markets and the +department stores. Nor was there any need of her doing so much +plotting and planning in her endeavor to save a penny. Furthermore I +was determined that she should now enjoy some of the little luxuries +of life in the way of better things to wear and better things to eat. +But that idea was taken out of me in short order. + +"No," she said, as soon as she recovered from the good news. "We +mustn't spend one cent more than we've been spending." + +"But look here," I said; "what's the good of a raise if we don't use +it?" + +"What's the good of a raise if we spend it?" she asked me. "We'll use +it, Billy, but we'll use it wisely. How many times have you told me +that if you had your life to live over again you wouldn't spend one +cent over the first salary you received, if it was only three dollars +a week, until you had a bank account?" + +"I know that," I said. "But when a man has a wife and boy like you and +Dick--" + +"He doesn't want to turn them into burdens that will hold him down all +his life," she broke in. "It isn't fair to the wife and boy," she +said. + +I couldn't quite follow her reasoning but I didn't have to. When I +came home the next Saturday night with fifteen dollars in my pocket +instead of nine she calmly took out three for the rent, five for +household expenses and put seven in the ginger jar. I suggested that +at least we have one celebration and with the boy go to the little +French restaurant we used to visit, but she held up her hands in +horror. + +"Do you think I'd spend two dollars and a half for--why, Billy, you +wouldn't!" + +"I'd like to spend ten," I said. "I'd like to go there to dinner and +buy you a half dozen roses and get the three best seats in the best +theater in town," I said. + +She came to my side and patted my arm. + +"Thank you, Billy," she said. "But honest--it's just as much fun to +have you want to do those things as really do them." + +I believe she meant it. I wouldn't believe it of anyone else but for a +week she talked about that dinner and those flowers and the theater +until she had me wondering if we hadn't actually gone. Dick thought we +were crazy. + +And so, just as usual, after this she'd take her basket and start out +two or three mornings a week and walk with me as far as the market. +She'd spend an hour here and then if she needed anything more she'd go +down town to the big stores and wander around here for another hour. +But Saturday nights was her great bargain opportunity. If I couldn't +go with her she'd take Dick and the two would plan to get there at +about nine o'clock. From this time on she often picked up for a song +odd ends of meat and good vegetables which the market men didn't want +to carry over to Monday. In fact they _had_ to sell out these things +as their stock at the beginning of the week had to be fresh. I suppose +marketing at this time of day would be a good deal of a hardship for +those living in the suburbs but it was a regular lark for her. Most +everyone is good natured on Saturday night if on no other night. The +week's work is done and people have enough money from their pay +envelopes to feel rich for a few hours anyway. Then there were the +lights and the crowd and the shouting so that it was like twenty +country fairs rolled into one. + +After the excitement of coming home Saturdays with so much money wore +off, I began to forget that I _was_ earning fifteen instead of nine. +If Ruth had spent it on the table I'm sure I'd have forgotten it even +more quickly. I was getting all I wanted to eat, was warm and had a +good clean bed to sleep in and what more can a man have even if he's +earning a hundred a week? I think people are very apt to forget that +after all a millionaire can spend only about so much on himself. And +after the newness of fresh toys has worn off--like steam yachts and +private cars--he is forced to be satisfied with just what I had, no +matter how much more money he makes. He has only his five senses and +once these are satisfied he's no better off than a man who satisfies +these same senses on eight dollars a week. Generally he's worse off +because in a year or so he has probably dulled them all. Rockefeller +himself probably never in his life got half the fun out of anything +that I did in just crawling into my clean bed at night with every +tired muscle purring contentedly and my mind at rest about the next +day. I doubt if he knows the joy of waking up in the morning rested +and hungry. The only advantage he had over me that I can see is the +power he had to help others. In a way I don't believe he found any +greater opportunity even for that than Ruth found right here. + +For those interested in the details I'm going to give another +quotation from Ruth's note book. But to my mind these details aren't +the important part of our venture. The thing that counted was the +spirit back of them. It isn't the fact that we lived on from six to +eight dollars a week or the statistics of how we lived on that which +makes my life worth telling about if it _is_ worth telling about. In +the first place prices vary in different localities and shift from +year to year. In fact since we began they have almost doubled. In the +second place people have lived and are living to-day on less than we +did. I give our figures simply to satisfy the curious and to show how +Ruth planned. But no one could do as she did or do as we did merely by +aping her little economies, or accepting the result of them. Either +they would find the task impossible or look upon it as a privation and +endure it as martyrs. In this mood they wouldn't last a week. I know +that people who read this without at least a germ of the pioneer in +them will either smile or shrug their shoulders. I've met plenty of +this sort. I met them by the dozen down here. As I said, you can find +them in every bread line, in every Salvation Army barracks or the +Associated Charities will furnish you a list of as many as you want. +You'll find them in the suburbs or you'll find them marching in line +the next time there is a procession of the unemployed. + +But give me true pioneers such as our own forefathers were, such as +the young men out West are to-day, such as every steamer lands here by +the hundreds from foreign countries every week and I say you can't +down that kind, you can't kill them. I don't say that it's right to +raise the price of necessities. I don't think it is, though I don't +know much about it. But I do say that if you double the cost of food +stuffs and then double it again, though you may cruelly starve out the +weaklings, you'll find the pioneers still on their feet, still +fighting. + +It seems strange to me that men will go to Alaska and contentedly +freeze and dig all day in a mine--not of their own, but for wages--and +not feel so greatly abused or unhappy; that they will swing an axe all +day in a forest and live on baked beans and bread without feeling like +martyrs; that they will go to sea and grub on hard tack and salt pork +and fish without complaint and then will turn Anarchists on the same +fare in the East. It seems strange too that these men keep strong and +healthy, and that our ancestors kept strong and healthy on even a +still simpler diet. Why, my father fought battles--and the mental +strain must have been terrific--and did more actual labor every day in +carrying a rifle and marching than I do in a week, and slept out doors +under a blanket--all on a diet that the average tramp of to-day would +spurn. He did this for four years and if the sanitary conditions had +been decent would have returned well and strong as many a man did who +didn't run afoul typhoid fever and malaria. Men who do such things +have something in them that the men back East have lost. I call it the +romantic spirit or the pioneer spirit and I say that a man who has it +won't care whether he's living in Maine or California and that +whatever the conditions are he will overcome them. I know that we +three would have lived on almost rice alone as the Japanese do before +we'd have cried quit. That was because we were tackling this problem +not as Easterners but as Westerners; not as poor whites but as +emigrants. Men on a ranch stand for worse things than we had and have +less of a future to dream about. + +So I repeat that to my mind the house details don't count here for any +more than they did in the lives of the original New England settlers, +or the forty-niners, or those on homesteads or in Alaska to-day. +However, I'll put them in and I'll take the month of May as an +example--the first month after I was made foreman. It's fairer to give +the items for a month. They are as follows: + + Oatmeal, .17 + Corn meal, .10 + About one tenth barrel flour, .65 + Potatoes, .35 + Rice, .08 + Sugar, .40 + White beans, .16 + Pork, .20 + Molasses, .10 + Onions, .23 + Lard, .50 + Apples, .36 + Soda, etc., .14 + Soap, .20 + Cornstarch, .10 + Cocoa shells, .05 + Eggs, .75 + Butter, 1.12 + Milk, 4.48 + Meats, 1.60 + Fish, .60 + Oil, .20 + Yeast cakes, .06 + Macaroni, .09 + Crackers, .06 + Total $12.75 + +This makes an average of three dollars and nineteen cents a week. With +a fluctuation of perhaps twenty-five cents either way Ruth maintained +this pretty much throughout the year now. It fell off a little in the +summer and increased a little in the winter. It's impossible to give +any closer estimate than this. Even this month many things were used +which were left over from the week preceding and, on the other hand, +some things on this list like molasses and sugar and cornstarch went +towards reducing the total of the month following. + +This left say a dollar and seventy-five cents a week for such small +incidentals as are not accounted for here but chiefly for sewing +material, bargains in cloth remnants and such things as were needed +towards the repair of our clothes as well as for such new clothes as +we had to buy from time to time. I think we spent more on shoes than +we did clothes but Ruth by patronizing the sample shoe shops always +came home with a three or four dollar pair for which she never paid +over two dollars and sometimes as low as a dollar and a half. The boy +and I bought our shoes at the same reduction at bankrupt sales. We +gave our neighbors this tip and saw them save a good many dollars in +this way. + +On the whole these people were not good buyers; they never looked +ahead but bought only when they were in urgent need and then bought at +the cheapest price regardless of quality. They would pay two and two +and a half for shoes that wouldn't last them any time at all. Whatever +Ruth bought she considered the quality first and the price afterwards. +Then, too, she often ran across something she didn't need at the time +but which was a good bargain; she would buy this and put it away. She +was able to buy many things which were out of season for half what the +same things would cost six months later. It was very difficult to make +our neighbors see the advantage of this practice and their blindness +cost them many a good dollar. + +We also had the advantage of our neighbors in knowing how to take good +care of our clothes. The average man was careless and slovenly. In a +week a new suit would be spotted with grease, wrinkled, and all out of +shape. He never thought of pressing it, cleaning it or of putting it +away carefully when through wearing it. The women were no better about +their own clothes. This was also true of their shoes. They might +shine them once a month but generally they let them go until they +dried up and cracked. In this way their new clothes soon became +workday clothes, their new shoes, old shoes, and as such they lasted a +very few months. + +Dick and I might have done a little better than our neighbors even +without Ruth to watch us, but we certainly would not have had the +training we did have. Shoes had to be cleaned and either oiled or +shined before going to bed. If it rained we wore our old pairs whether +it was Sunday or not or else we stayed at home. Every time Dick or I +put on our good clothes we were as carefully inspected as troops on +parade. If a grease spot was found, it was removed then and there. If +a button was missing or a bit of fringe showed or a hole the size of a +pin head was found we had to wait until the defect was remedied. Every +Sunday morning the boy pressed both his suit and mine and every night +we had to hang our coats over a chair and fold our trousers. If we +were careless about it, the little woman without a word simply got up +and did them over again herself. + +These may seem like small matters but the result was that we all of us +kept looking shipshape and our clothes lasted. When we finally did +finish with them they weren't good for anything but old rags and even +then Ruth used them about her housework. I figured roughly that Ruth +kept us well dressed on about half what it cost most of our neighbors +and yet we appeared to be twice as well dressed as any of them. Of +course we had a good many things to start with when we came down here +but our clothing bill didn't go up much even during the last year when +our original stock was very nearly exhausted. She accomplished this +result about one-half by long-headed buying, and one-half by her +carefulness and her skill with the needle. + +To go back to the matter of food, I'll copy off a week's bill of fare +during this month. Ruth has written it out for me. You'll notice that +it doesn't vary very much from the earlier ones. + + + Sunday. + + Breakfast: fried hasty pudding with molasses; doughnuts, cocoa + made from cocoa shells. + + Dinner: lamb stew with dumplings, boiled potatoes, boiled onions, + cornstarch pudding. + + + Monday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, baked potatoes, creamed codfish, biscuits. + + Luncheon: for Billy: brown bread sandwiches, cold beans, + doughnuts, milk; for Dick and me: boiled rice, cold biscuits, + baked apples, milk. + + Dinner: warmed over lamb stew, baked apples, cocoa, cold biscuits. + + + Tuesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, milk toast, cocoa. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, doughnuts; + for Dick and me: warmed over beans, biscuits. + + Dinner: hamburg steak, baked potatoes, graham muffins, apple + sauce, milk. + + + Wednesday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, griddle-cakes with molasses, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: sandwiches made of biscuits and left over + steak, doughnuts; for Dick and me: crackers and milk, hot + gingerbread. + + Dinner: vegetable hash, hot biscuits, gingerbread, apple sauce, + milk. + + + Thursday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, fried hasty pudding, doughnuts, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: hard-boiled eggs, cold biscuits, gingerbread, + baked apple; for Dick and me: baked potatoes, apple sauce, cold + biscuits, milk. + + Dinner: lyonnaise potatoes, hot corn bread, Poor man's pudding, + milk. + + + Friday. + + Breakfast: smoked herring, baked potatoes, oatmeal, graham + muffins. + + Luncheon: for Billy: herring, cold muffins, doughnuts; for Dick + and me: German toast, apple sauce. + + Dinner: fish hash, biscuits, Indian pudding, milk. + + + Saturday. + + Breakfast: oatmeal, German toast, cocoa shells. + + Luncheon: for Billy: cold biscuits, hard-boiled eggs, bowl of + rice; for Dick and me: rice and milk, doughnuts, apple sauce. + + Dinner: baked beans, new raised bread. + +To a man accustomed to a beefsteak breakfast, fried hasty pudding may +seem a poor substitute and griddle cakes may seem well enough to taper +off with but scarcely stuff for a full meal. All I say is, have those +things well made, have enough of them and then try it. If a man has a +sound digestion and a good body I'll guarantee that such food will not +only satisfy him but furnish him fuel for the hardest kind of physical +exercise. I know because I've tried it. And though to some my lunches +may sound slight, they averaged more in substance and variety than the +lunches of my foreign fellow-workmen. A hunk of bread and a bit of +cheese was often all they brought with them. + +Dick thrived on it too. The elimination of pastry from his simple +luncheons brought back the color to his cheeks and left him hard as +nails. + +I've read since then many articles on domestic economy and how on a +few dollars a week a man can make many fancy dishes which will fool +him into the belief that he is getting the same things which before +cost him a great many more dollars. Their object appears to be to +give such a variety that the man will not notice a change. Now this +seems to me all wrong. What's the use of clinging to the notion that a +man lives to eat? Why not get down to bed rock at once and face the +fact that a man doesn't need the bill of fare of a modern hotel or any +substitute for it? A few simple foods and plenty of them is enough. +When a man begins to crave a variety he hasn't placed his emphasis +right. He hasn't worked up to the right kind of hunger. Compare the +old-time country grocery store with the modern provision house and it +may help you to understand why our lean sinewy forefathers have given +place to the sallow, fat parodies of to-day. A comparison might also +help to explain something of the high cost of living. My grandfather +kept such a store and I've seen some of his old account books. About +all he had to sell in the way of food was flour, rice, potatoes, sugar +and molasses, butter, cheese and eggs. These articles weren't put up +in packages and they weren't advertised. They were sold in bulk and +all you paid for was the raw material. The catalogue of a modern +provision house makes a book. The whole object of the change it seems +to me is to fill the demand for variety. You have to pay for that. But +when you trim your ship to run before a gale you must throw overboard +just such freight. Once you do, you'll find it will have to blow +harder than it does even to-day to sink you. I am constantly surprised +at how few of the things we think we need we actually _do_ need. + +The pioneer of to-day doesn't need any more than the pioneer of a +hundred years ago. To me this talk that a return to the customs of our +ancestors involves a lowering of the standard of living is all +nonsense; it means nothing but a simplifying of the standard of +living. If that's a return to barbarism then I'm glad to be a +barbarian and I'll say there never were three happier barbarians than +Ruth, the boy and myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GANG + + +If I'd been making five dollars a day at this time, I wouldn't have +moved from the tenement. In the first place as far as physical comfort +went I was never better off. We had all the room we needed. During the +winter we had used the living room as a kitchen and dining room just +as our forefathers did. We economized fuel in this way and Ruth kept +the rooms spotless. We had no fires in our bedrooms and did not want +any. We all of us slept with our windows wide open. If we had had ten +more rooms we wouldn't have known what to do with them. When we had a +visitor we received him in the kitchen. Some of our neighbors took +boarders and also slept in the kitchen. I don't know as I should want +to do that but at the same time many a family lives in a one room hut +in the forest after this fashion. By outsiders it's looked upon as +rather romantic. It isn't considered a great hardship by the settlers +themselves. + +Then we had the advantage of our roof and with summer coming on we +looked forward to the garden and the joy of the warm starry nights. We +had some wonderful winter pictures, too, from that same roof. It was +worth going up there to see the house tops after a heavy snow storm. + +If I had wanted to move I could have done only one of two things; +either gone back into the suburbs or taken a more expensive flat up +town. I certainly had had enough of the former and as for the latter I +could see no comparison. If anything this flat business was worse than +the suburbs. I would be surrounded by an ordinary group of people who +had all the airs of the latter with none of their good points. I'd be +hedged in by conventions with which I was now even in less sympathy +than before. I wouldn't have exchanged my present freedom of movement +and independence of action for even the best suite in the most +expensive apartment house in the city. Not for a hundred dollars a +week. Advantages? What were they? Would a higher grade of wall paper, +a more expensive set of furniture and steam heat compensate me for +the loss of the solid comfort I found here by the side of my little +iron stove? Was an electric elevator a fair swap for my roof? Were the +gilt, the tinsel and the soft carpets worth the privilege I enjoyed +here of dressing as I pleased, eating what I pleased, doing what I +pleased? Was their apartment-house friendship, however polished, worth +the simple genuine fellowship I enjoyed among my present neighbors? +What could such a life offer me for my soul's or my body's good that I +didn't have here? I couldn't see how in a single respect I could +better my present condition except with the complete independence that +might come with a fortune and a country estate. Any middle ground, +assuming that I could afford it, meant nothing but the undertaking +again of all the old burdens I had just shaken off. + +Ruth, the boy and myself now knew genuinely more people than we had +ever before known in our lives. And most of them were worth knowing +and the others worth some endeavor to _make_ worth knowing. We were +all pulling together down here--some harder than others, to be sure, +but all with a distinct ambition that was dependent for success upon +nothing but our own efforts. + +I was in touch with more opportunities than I had ever dreamed +existed. All three of us were enjoying more advantages than we had +ever dreamed would be ours. My Italian was improving from day to day. +I could handle mortar easily and naturally and point a joint as well +as my instructor. I could build a true square pier of any size from +one brick to twenty. I could make a square or pigeonhole corner or lay +out a brick footing. And I was proud of my accomplishment. + +But more interesting to me than anything else was the opportunity I +now had as a foreman to test the value of the knowledge of my former +fellow workmen which I had been slowly acquiring. I was anxious to see +if my ideas were pure theory or whether they were practical. They had +proven practical at any rate in securing my own advance. This had come +about through no such pull as Rafferty's. It was the result of nothing +but my intelligent and conscientious work in the ditch and among the +men. And this in turn was made possible by the application of the +knowledge I picked up and used as I had the chance. It was only +because I had shown my employers that I was more valuable as a foreman +than a common laborer that I was not still digging. I had been able to +do this because having learned from twenty different men how to handle +a crowbar for instance, I had from time to time been able to direct +the men with whom I was working as at the start I myself had been +directed by Anton'. Anton' was still digging because that was all he +knew. I had learned other things. I had learned how to handle Anton'. + +I had no idea that my efforts were being watched. I don't know now how +I was picked out. Except of course that it must have been because of +the work I did. + +At any rate I found myself at the head of twenty men--all Italians, +all strangers and among them three or four just off the steamer. My +first job was on a foundation for an apartment house. Of course my +part in it was the very humble one of seeing that the men kept at work +digging. The work had all been staked out and the architect's agent +was there to give all incidental instructions. He was a young graduate +of a technical school and I took the opportunity this offered--for he +was a good-natured boy--to use what little I had learned in my night +school and study his blue prints. At odd times he explained them to me +and aside from what I learned myself from them it helped me to direct +the men more intelligently. + +But it was on the men themselves that I centred my efforts. As soon as +possible I learned them by name. At the noon hour I took my lunch with +them and talked with them in their own language. I made a note of +where they lived and found as I expected that many were from my ward. +Incidentally I dropped a word here and there about the "Young American +Political Club," and asked them to come around to some of the +meetings. I found out where they came from and wherever I could, I +associated them with some of their fellows with whom I had worked. I +found out about their families. In brief I made myself know every man +of them as intimately as was possible. + +I don't suppose for a minute that I could have done this successfully +if I hadn't really been genuinely interested in them. If I had gone at +it like a professional hand shaker they would have detected the +hypocrisy in no time. Neither did I attempt a chummy attitude nor a +fatherly attitude. I made it clearly understood that I was an American +first of all and that I was their boss. It was perfectly easy to do +this and at the same time treat them like men and like units. I tried +to make them feel that instead of being merely a bunch of Dagoes they +were Italian workingmen. Your foreign laborer is quick to appreciate +such a distinction and quick to respond to it. With the American-born +you have to draw a sharper line and hold a steadier rein. I figured +out that when you find a member of the second or third generation +still digging, you've found a man with something wrong about him. + +The next thing I did was to learn what each man could do best. Of +course I could make only broad classifications. Still there were men +better at lifting than others; men better with the crowbar; men better +at shoveling; men naturally industrious who would leaven a group of +three or four lazy ones. As well as I could I sorted them out in this +way. + +In addition to taking this personal interest in them individually, I +based my relations with them collectively on a principle of strict, +homely justice. I found there was no quality of such universal appeal +as this one of justice. Whether dealing with Italians, Russians, +Portuguese, Poles, Irish or Irish-Americans you could always get below +their national peculiarities if you reached this common denominator. +However browbeaten, however slavish, they had been in their former +lives this spark seemed always alive. However cocky or anarchistic +they might feel in their new freedom you could pull them up with a +sharp turn by an appeal to their sense of justice. And by justice I +mean nothing but what ex-president Roosevelt has now made familiar by +the phrase "a square deal." Justice in the abstract might not appeal +to them but they knew when they were being treated fairly and when +they were not. Also they knew when they were treating you fairly and +when they were not. I never allowed a man to feel bullied or abused; I +never gave a sharp order without an explanation. I never discharged a +man without making him feel guilty in his heart no matter how much he +protested with his lips. And I never discharged him without making the +other men clearly see his guilt. When a man went, he left no +sympathizers behind him. + +On the other hand I made them act justly towards their employer and +towards me. I taught them that justice must be on both sides. I tried +to make them understand that their part was not to see how little work +they could do for their money and that mine was not to see how much +they could do, but that it was up to both of us to turn out a full +fair day's work. They were not a chain gang but workmen selling their +labor. Just as they expected the store-keepers to sell them fair +measure and full weight, so I expected them to sell a full day and +honest effort. + +It wasn't always possible to secure a result but when it wasn't I got +rid of that man on the first occasion. It was very much easier to +handle in this way the freedom-loving foreigners than I looked for; +with the American-born it was harder than I expected. + +On the whole however I was mighty well pleased. I certainly got a lot +of work out of them without in any way pushing them. They didn't sweat +for me and I didn't want them to--but they kept steadily at their work +from morning until night. Then too, I didn't hesitate to do a little +work myself now and then. If at any point another man seemed to be +needed to help over a difficulty I jumped in. I not only often saved +the useless efforts of three or four men in this way but I convinced +them that I too had my employers' interests at heart. My object wasn't +simply to earn my day's pay, it was to finish the job we were on in +the shortest possible time. It makes a big difference whether a man +feels he is working by the day or by the job. I tried to make them +feel that we were all working by the job. + +Without boasting I think I can say that we cut down the contractor's +estimate by at least a full day. I know they had to do some hustling +to get the pile-drivers to the spot on time. + +On the next job I had to begin all over again with a new gang. It +seemed a pity that all my work on the other should be wasted but I +didn't say anything. For two months I took each time the men I had and +did my best with them. I had my reward in finding myself placed at the +head of a constantly increasing force. I also found that I was being +sent on all the hurry-up work. I learned something every day. Finally +when the time seemed ripe I went to the contractor's agent with the +proposition towards which I had all along been working. This was that +I should be allowed to hire my own men. + +The agent was skeptical at first about the wisdom of entrusting such +power as this to a subordinate but I put my case to him squarely. I +said in brief that I was sure I could pick a gang of fifty men who +would do the work of seventy-five. I told him that for a year now I +had been making notes on the best workers and I thought I could secure +them. But I would have to do it myself. It would be only through my +personal influence with them that they could be got. He raised several +objections but I finally said: + +"Let me try it anyhow. The men won't cost you any more than the others +and if I don't make good it's easy enough to go back to the old way." + +It's queer how stubbornly business men cling to routine. They get +stuck in a system and hate to change. He finally gave me permission to +see the men. I was then to turn them over to the regular paymaster who +would engage them. This was all I wanted and with my note book I +started out. + +It was no easy job for me and for a week I had to cut out my night +school and give all my time to it. Many of the men had moved and +others had gone into other work but I kept at it night after night +trotting from one end of the city to the other until I rounded up +about thirty of them. This seemed to me enough to form a core. I could +pick up others from time to time as I found them. The men remembered +me and when I told them something of my plan they all agreed with a +grin to report for work as soon as they were free. And this was how +Carleton's gang happened to be formed. + +It took me about three months to put all my fifty men into good +working order and it wasn't for a year that I had my machine where I +wanted it. But it was a success from the start. At the end of a year I +learned that even the contractor himself began to speak with some +pride of Carleton's gang. And he used it. He used it hard. In fact he +made something of a special feature of it. It began to bring him +emergency business. Wherever speed was a big essential, he secured the +contract through my gang. He used us altogether for foundation work +and his business increased so rapidly that we were never idle. I +became proud of my men and my reputation. + +But of course this success--this proof that my idea was a good +one--only whetted my appetite for the big goal still ahead of me. I +was eager for the day when this group of men should really be +Carleton's gang. It was hard in a way to see the result of my own +thought and work turning out big profits for another when all I needed +was a little capital to make it my own. Still I knew I must be +patient. There were many things yet that I must learn before I should +be competent to undertake contracts for myself. In the meanwhile I +could satisfy my ambition by constantly strengthening and perfecting +the machine. + +Then, too, I found that the gang was bringing me into closer touch +with my superiors. One day I was called to the office of the firm and +there I met the two men who until now had been nothing to me but two +names. For a year I had stared at these names painted in black on +white boards and posted about the grounds of every job upon which I +had worked. I had never thought of them as human beings so much as +some hidden force--like the unseen dynamo of a power plant. They were +both Irish-Americans--strong, prosperous-looking men. Somehow they +made me distinctly conscious of my own ancestry. I don't mean that I +was over-proud--in a way I don't suppose there was anything to boast +of in the Carletons--but as I stood before these men in the position +of a minor employee I suppose that unconsciously I looked for +something in my past to offset my present humiliating situation. And +from a business point of view, it was humiliating. The Carletons had +been in this country two hundred years and these men but twenty-five +or thirty and yet I was the man who stood while they faced me in their +easy chairs before their roll-top desks. It was then that I was glad +to remember there hadn't been a war in this country in which a +Carleton had not played his part. I held myself a little better for +the thought. + +They were unaffected and business-like but when they spoke it was +plain "Carleton" and when I spoke it was "Mr. Corkery," or "Mr. +Galvin." That was right and proper enough. + +They had called me in to consult with me on a big job which they were +trying to figure down to the very lowest point. They were willing to +get out of it with the smallest possible margin of profit for the +advertisement it would give them and in view of future contracts with +the same firm which it might bring. The largest item in it was the +handling of the dirt. They showed me their blue prints and their rough +estimate and then Mr. Corkery said: + +"How much can you take off that, Carleton?" + +I told him I would need two or three hours to figure it out. He called +a clerk. + +"Give Carleton a desk," he said. + +Then he turned to me: + +"Stay here until you've done it," he said. + +It took me all the forenoon. I worked carefully because it seemed to +me that here was a big chance to prove myself. I worked at those +figures as though I had every dollar I ever hoped to have at stake. I +didn't trim it as close as I would have done for myself but as it was +I took off a fifth--the matter of five thousand dollars. When I came +back, Mr. Corkery looked over my figures. + +"Sure you can do that?" he asked. + +I could see he was surprised. + +"Yes, sir," I said. + +"I'd hate like hell to get stuck," he said. + +"You won't get stuck," I answered. + +"It isn't the loss I mind," he said, "but--well there is a firm or two +that is waiting to give me the laugh." + +"They won't laugh," I said. + +He looked at me a moment and then called in a clerk. + +"Have those figures put in shape," he said, "and send in this bid." + +Corkery secured the contract. I picked one hundred men. The morning we +began I held a sort of convention. + +"Men," I said, "I've promised to do this in so many days. They say we +can't do it. If we don't, here's where they laugh at the gang." + +We did it. I never heard from Corkery about it but when we were +through I thanked the gang and I found them more truly mine than they +had ever been before. + +Every Saturday night I brought home my fifteen dollars, and Ruth took +out three for the rent, five for household expenses, and put seven in +the ginger jar. We had one hundred and thirty dollars in the bank +before the raise came, and after this it increased rapidly. There +wasn't a week we didn't put aside seven dollars, and sometimes eight. +The end of my first year as an emigrant found me with the following +items to my credit: Ruth, the boy and myself in better health than we +had ever been; Ruth's big mother-love finding outlet in the +neighborhood; the boy alert and ambitious; myself with the beginning +of a good technical education, to say nothing of the rudiments of a +new language, with a loyal gang of one hundred men and two hundred +dollars in cash. + +This inventory does not take into account my new friends, my new +mental and spiritual outlook upon life, or my enhanced self-respect. +Such things cannot be calculated. + +That first year was, of course, the important year--the big year. It +proved what could be done, and nothing remained now but time in which +to do it. It established the evident fact that if a raw, uneducated +foreigner can come to this country and succeed, a native-born with +experience plus intelligence ought to do the same thing more rapidly. +But it had taught me that what the native-born must do is to simplify +his standard of living, take advantage of the same opportunities, toil +with the same spirit, and free himself from the burdensome bonds of +caste. The advantage is all with the pioneer, the adventurer, the +emigrant. These are the real children of the republic--here in the +East, at any rate. Every landing dock is Plymouth Rock to them. They +are the real forefathers of the coming century, because they possess +all the rugged strength of settlers. They are making their own +colonial history. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DICK FINDS A WAY OUT, TOO + + +When school closed in June, Dick came to me and said: + +"Dad, I don't want to loaf all summer." + +"No need of it," I said. "Take another course in the summer school." + +"I want to earn some money," he said, "I want to go to work." + +If the boy had come to me a year ago with that suggestion I should +have felt hurt. I would have thought it a reflection upon my ability +to support my family. We salaried men used to expect our children to +be dependent on us until they completed their educations. For a boy to +work during his summer vacation was almost as bad form as for the wife +to work for money at any time. It had to be explained that the boy was +a prodigy with unusual business ability or that he was merely seeking +experience. But Dick did not fall into any of these classes. This was +what made his proposal the more remarkable to me. It meant that he +was willing to take just a plain every-day plugging job. + +And underlying this willingness was the spirit that was resurrecting +us all. Instead of acting on the defensive, Dick was now eager to play +the aggressive game. I hadn't looked for this spirit to show in him so +soon, in his life outside of school. I was mighty well pleased. + +"All right," I said, "what do you think you can do?" + +"I've talked with some of the fellows," he said, "and the surest thing +seems to be selling papers." + +I gave a gasp at that. I hadn't yet lost the feeling that a newsboy +was a sort of cross between an orphan and a beggar. He was to me +purely an object of pity. Of course I'd formed this notion like a good +many others from the story books and the daily paper. I connected a +newsboy with blind fathers and sick mothers if he had any parents at +all. + +"I guess you can get something better than that to do," I said. + +"What's the matter with selling papers?" he asked. + +When I stopped to think of the work in that way--as just the buying +and selling of papers--I _couldn't_ see anything the matter with it. +Why wasn't it like buying and selling anything? You were selling a +product in which millions of money was invested, a product which +everyone wanted, a product where you gave your customers their money's +worth. The only objection I could think of at the moment was that +there was so little in it. + +"It will keep you on the streets five or six hours a day," I said, +"and I don't suppose you can make more than a dollar a week." + +"A dollar a week!" he said. "Do you know what one fellow in our class +makes right through the year?" + +"How much?" I asked. + +"He makes between six and eight dollars a week," said Dick. + +"That doesn't sound possible," I said. + +"He told me he made that. And another fellow he knows about did as +well as this even while he was in college. He pretty nearly paid his +own way." + +"What do you make on a paper?" I asked. + +"About half a cent on the one cent papers, and a cent on the two cent +papers." + +"Then these boys have to sell over two hundred papers a day." + +"They have about a hundred regular customers," said Dick, "and they +sell another hundred papers besides." + +It seemed to me the boys must have exaggerated because eight dollars a +week was pretty nearly the pay of an able-bodied man. It didn't seem +possible that these youngsters whom I'd pitied all my life could earn +such an income. However if they didn't earn half as much, it wasn't a +bad proposition for a lad. + +I talked the matter over with Ruth and I found she had the same +prejudices I had had. She, too, thought selling papers was a branch of +begging. I repeated what Dick told me and she shook her head +doubtfully. + +"It doesn't seem as though I could let the boy do that," she said. + +If there was one thing down here the little woman always worried about +deep in her heart, it was lest the boy and myself might get coarsened. +She thought, I think, without ever exactly saying so to herself that +in our ambition to forge ahead we might lose some of the finer +standards of life. She was bucking against that tendency all the +time. That's why she made me shave every morning, that's why she made +me keep my shoes blacked, that's why she made us both dress up on +Sunday whether we went to church or not. She for her part kept herself +looking even more trig than when she had the fear that Mrs. Grover +might drop in at any time. And every night at dinner she presided with +as much form as though she were entertaining a dinner party. I guess +she thought we might learn to eat with our knives if she didn't. + +"Well," I said, "your word is final. But let's look at this first as a +straight business proposition." + +So I went over the scheme just as I had to myself. + +"These boys aren't beggars," I said. "They are little business men. +And as a matter of fact most of them are earning as much as their +fathers. The trouble is that they've been given a black eye by +well-meaning sympathizers who haven't taken the trouble to find out +just what the actual facts are. A group of big-hearted women who see +their own chickens safely rounded up at six every night, find the +newsboys on the street as they themselves are on their way to the +opera and conclude it's a great hardship and that the lads must be +homeless and suffering. Maybe they even find a case or two which +justifies this theory. But on the whole they are simply comparing the +outside of these boys' lives with the lives of their own sheltered +boys. They don't stop to consider that these lads are toughened and +that they'd probably be on the street anyway. And they don't figure +out how much they earn or what that amount stands for down here." + +Ruth listened and then she said: + +"But isn't it a pity that the boys _are_ toughened, Billy?" + +"No," I said, "it would be a pity if they weren't. They wouldn't last +a year. We have to have some seasoned fighters in the world." + +"But Dick--" + +"Dick has found his feet now. The suggestion was his own. Personally I +believe in letting him try it." + +"All right, Billy," she said. + +But she said it in such a sad sort of way that I said: + +"If you're going to worry about him, this ends it. But I'd like to see +the boy so well seasoned that you won't have to worry about him no +matter where he is, no matter what he's doing." + +"You're right," she said, "I want to see him like you. I never worry +about you, Billy." + +It pleased me to have her say that. I know a lot of men who wouldn't +believe their wives loved them unless they fretted about them all the +time. I think a good many fellows even make up things just to see the +women worry. I remember that Stevens always used to come home either +with a sick headache or a tale of how he thought he might lose his job +or something of the sort and poor Dolly Stevens would stay awake half +the night comforting him. She'd tell Ruth about it the next day. I may +have had a touch of that disease myself before I came down here but I +know that ever since then I've tried to lift the worrying load off the +wife's shoulders. I've done my best to make Ruth feel I'm strong +enough to take care of myself. I've wanted her to trust me so that +she'd know I act always just as though she was by my side. Of course +I've never been able to do away altogether with her fear of sickness +and sudden death, but so far as my own conduct is concerned I've +tried to make her feel secure in me. + +When I stop to think about it, Ruth has really lived three lives. She +has lived her own and she has lived it hard. She not only has done her +daily tasks as well as she knew how but she has tried to make herself +a little better every day. That has been a waste of time because she +was just naturally as good as they make them but you couldn't ever +make her see that. I don't suppose there's been a day when at night +she hasn't thought she might have done something a little better and +lain awake to tell me so. + +Then Ruth has lived my life and done over again every single thing +I've done except the actual physical labor. Why every evening when I +came back from work she wanted me to begin with seven-thirty A.M. and +tell her everything that happened after that. And when I came back +from school at night, she'd wake up out of a sound sleep if she had +gone to bed and ask me to tell her just what I'd learned. Though she +never held a trowel in her hand I'll bet she could go out to-day and +build a true brick wall. And though she has never seen half the men +I've met, she knows them as well as I do myself. Some of them she +knows better and has proved to me time and again that she does. I've +often told her about some man I'd just met and about whom I was +enthusiastic for the moment and she'd say: + +"Tell me what he looks like, Billy." + +I'd tell her and then she'd ask about his eyes and about his mouth and +what kind of a voice he had and whether he smiled when he said so and +so and whether he looked me in the eyes at that point and so on. Then +she'd say: + +"Better be a little careful about him"; or "I guess you can trust him, +Billy." + +Sometimes she made mistakes but that was because I hadn't reported +things to her just right. Generally I'd trust her judgment in the face +of my own. + +Then Ruth led the boy's life. Every ambition he had was her ambition. +Besides that she had a dozen ambitions for him that he didn't know +anything about. And she thought and worked and schemed to make every +single one of them come true. Every trouble he had was her trouble +too. If he worried a half hour over something, she worried an hour. +Then again there were a whole lot of other troubles in connection +with him which bothered her and which he didn't know about. + +Besides all these things she was busy about dressing us and feeding us +and making us comfortable. She was always cleaning our rooms and +washing our clothes and mending our socks. Then, too, she looked after +the finances and this in itself was enough for one woman to do. Then +as though this wasn't plenty she kept light-hearted for our sakes. +You'd find her singing about her work whenever you came in and always +ready with a smile and a joke. And if she herself had a headache you +had to be a doctor and a lawyer rolled in one to find it out. + +So I say the least I could do was to make her trust me so thoroughly +that she'd have one less burden. And I wanted to bring up Dick in the +same way. Dick was a good boy and I'll say that he did his best. + +Ruth says that if I don't tear up these last few pages, people will +think I'm silly. I'm willing so long as they believe me honest. Of +course, in a way, such details are no one's business but if I couldn't +give Ruth the credit which is her due in this undertaking, I wouldn't +take the trouble to write it all out. + +Dick told his school friend what he wanted to do and asked his advice +on the best way to go at it. The latter went with him and helped him +get his license, took him down to the newspaper offices and showed him +where to buy his papers, and introduced him to the other boys. The +newsboys hadn't at that time formed a union but there was an agreement +among them about the territory each should cover. Some of the boys had +worked up a regular trade in certain places and of course it wasn't +right for a newcomer to infringe upon this. There was considerable +talking and some bargaining and finally Dick was given a stand in the +banking district. This was due to Dick's classmate also. The latter +realized that a boy of Dick's appearance would do better there than +anywhere. + +So one morning Dick rose early and I staked him to a dollar and he +started off in high spirits. He didn't have any of the false pride +about the work that at first I myself had felt. He was on my mind +pretty much all that day and I came home curious and a little bit +anxious to learn the result. He had been back after the morning +editions. Ruth reported he had sold fifty papers and had returned +more eager than ever. She said he wouldn't probably be home until +after seven. He wanted to catch the crowds on their way to the +station. + +I suggested to Ruth that we wait dinner for him and go on up town and +watch him. She hesitated at this, fearing the boy wouldn't like it and +perhaps not over anxious herself to see him on such a job. But as I +said, if the boy wasn't ashamed I didn't think we ought to be. So she +put on her things and we started. + +We found him by the entrance to one of the big buildings with his +papers in a strap thrown over his shoulder. He had one paper in his +hand and was offering it, perhaps a bit shyly, to each passer-by with +a quiet, "Paper, sir?" We watched him a moment and Ruth kept a tight +grip on my arm. + +"Well," I said, "what do you think of him?" + +"Billy," she said with a little tremble in her voice, "I'm proud of +him." + +"He'll do," I said. + +Then I said: + +"Wait here a moment." + +I took a nickel from my pocket and hurried towards him as though I +were one of the crowd hustling for the train. I stopped in front of +him and he handed me a paper without looking up. He began to make +change and it wasn't until he handed me back my three coppers that he +saw who I was. Then he grinned. + +"Hello, Dad," he said. + +Then he asked quickly, + +"Where's mother?" + +But Ruth couldn't wait any longer and she came hurrying up and placed +her hand underneath the papers to see if they were too heavy for him. + +Dick earned three dollars that first week and he never fell below this +during the summer. Sometimes he went as high as five and when it came +time for him to go to school again he had about seventy-five regular +customers. He had been kept out of doors between six and seven hours a +day. The contact with a new type of boy and even the contact with the +brisk business men who were his customers had sharpened up his wits +all round. In the ten weeks he saved over forty dollars. I wanted him +to put this in the bank but he insisted on buying his own winter +clothes with it and on the whole I thought he'd feel better if I let +him. Then he had another proposition. He wanted to keep his evening +customers through the year. I thought it was going to be pretty hard +for him to do this with his school work but we finally agreed to let +him try it for a while anyway. After all I didn't like to think he +couldn't do what other boys were doing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE SECOND YEAR + + +Now as far as proving to us the truth of my theory that an intelligent +able-bodied American ought to succeed where millions of ignorant, +half-starved emigrants do right along, this first year had already +done it. It had also proved, to our own satisfaction at least, that +such success does not mean a return to a lower standard of living but +only a return to a simpler standard of living. With soap at five cents +a cake it isn't poverty that breeds filth, but ignorance and laziness. +When an able-bodied man can earn at the very bottom of the ladder a +dollar and a half a day and a boy can earn from three to five dollars +a week and still go to school, it isn't a lack of money that makes the +bread line; it's a lack of horse sense. We found that we could +maintain a higher standard of living down here than we were able to +maintain in our old life; we could live more sanely, breathe in higher +ideals, and find time to accept more opportunities. The sheer, naked +conditions were better for a higher life here than they were in the +suburbs. + +I'm speaking always of the able-bodied man. A sick man is a sick man +whether he's worth a million or hasn't a cent. He's to be pitied. With +the public hospitals what they are to-day, you can't say that the sick +millionaire has any great advantage over the sick pauper. Money makes +a bigger difference of course to the sick man's family but at that +you'll find for every widow O'Toole, a widow Bonnington and for every +widow Bonnington you'll find the heart-broken widow of some +millionaire who doesn't consider her dollars any great consolation in +such a crisis. + +Then, too, a man in hard luck is a man in hard luck whether he has a +bank account or whether he hasn't. I pity them both. If a rich man's +money prevents the necessity of his airing his grief in public, it +doesn't help him much when he's alone in his castle. It seems to me +that each class has its own peculiar misfortunes and that money breeds +about as much trouble as it kills. To my mind once a man earns enough +to buy himself a little food, put any sort of a roof over his head, +and keep himself warm, he has everything for which money is absolutely +essential. This much he can always get at the bottom. And this much is +all the ammunition a man needs for as good a fight as it's in him to +put up. It gives him a chance for an extra million over his nine +dollars a week if he wants it. But the point I learned down here is +that the million _is_ extra--it isn't essential. Its possession +doesn't make a Paradise free from sickness and worry and hard luck, +and the lack of it doesn't make a Hell's Kitchen where there is +nothing but sickness and trouble and where happiness cannot enter. + +As I say, I consider this first year the big year because it taught me +these things. In a sense the value of my diary ends here. Once I was +able to understand that I had everything and more that the early +pioneers had and that all I needed to do to-day was to live as they +did and fight as they did, I had all the inspiration a man needs in +order to live and in order to _feel_ that he's living. In looking back +on the suburban life at the end of this first twelve months, it seemed +to me that the thing which made it so ghastly was just this lack of +inspiration that comes with the blessed privilege of fighting. That +other was a waiting game and no help for it. I was a shadow living in +the land of shadows with nothing to hit out at, nothing to feel the +sting of my fist against. The fight was going on above me and below me +and we in the middle only heard the din of it. It was as though we had +climbed half way up a rope leading from a pit to the surface. We had +climbed as far as we could and unless they hauled from above we had to +stay there. If we let go--poor devils, we thought there was nothing +but brimstone below us. So we couldn't do much but hold on and +kick--at nothing. + +But down here if a man had any kick in him, he had something to kick +against. When he struck out with his feet they met something; when he +shot a blow from the shoulder he felt an impact. If he didn't like one +trade he could learn another. It took no capital. If he didn't like +his house, he could move; he wasn't tearing up anything by the roots. +If he didn't like his foreman, he could work under another. It didn't +mean the sacrifice of any past. If he found a chance to black boots or +sell papers, he could use it. His neighbors wouldn't exile him. He +was as free as the winds and what he didn't like he could change. I +don't suppose there is any human being on earth so independent as an +able-bodied working-man. + +The record of the next three years only traces a slow, steady +strengthening of my position. Not one of us had any set-back through +sickness because I considered our health as so much capital and +guarded it as carefully as a banker does his money. I was afraid at +first of the city water but I found it was as pure as spring water. It +was protected from its very source and was stored in a carefully +guarded reservoir. It was frequently analyzed and there wasn't a case +of typhoid in the ward which could be traced to the water. The milk +was the great danger down here. At the small shops it was often +carelessly stored and carelessly handled. From the beginning, I bought +our milk up town though I had to pay a cent a quart more for it. Ruth +picked out all the fish and meat and of course nothing tainted in this +line could be sold to her. We ate few canned goods and then nothing +but canned vegetables. Many of our neighbors used canned meats. I +don't know whether any sickness resulted from this or not but I know +that they often left the stuff for hours in an opened tin. Many of the +tenements swarmed with flies in the summer although it was a small +matter to keep them out of four rooms. So if the canned stuff _didn't_ +get infected it was a wonder. + +The sanitary arrangements in the flat were good, though here again +many families proceeded to make them bad about as fast as they could. +These people didn't seem to mind dirt in any form. It was a perfectly +simple and inexpensive matter to keep themselves and their +surroundings clean if they cared to take the trouble. + +Then the roof contributed largely towards our good health. Ruth spent +a great deal of time up there during the day and the boy slept there +during the summer. + +Our simple food and exercise also helped, while for me nothing could +have been better than my daily plunge in the salt water. I kept this +up as long as the bath house was open and in the winter took a cold +sponge and rub-down every night. So, too, did the boy. + +For the rest, we all took sensible precautions against exposure. We +dressed warmly and kept our feet dry. Here again our neighbors were +insanely foolish. They never changed their clothes until bed time, +didn't keep them clean or fresh at any time, and they lived in a +temperature of eighty-five with the air foul from many breaths and +tobacco smoke. Even the children had to breathe this. Then both men +and women went out from this into the cold air either over-dressed or +under-dressed. The result of such foolishness very naturally was +tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid and about everything else that +contributes to a high death rate. Not only this but one person +suffering from any of these things infected a whole family. + +Such conditions were not due to a lack of money but to a lack of +education. The new generation was making some changes however. Often a +girl or boy in the public schools would come home and transform the +three or four rooms though always under protest from the elders. Clean +surroundings and fresh air troubled the old folks. + +Ruth, too, was responsible for many changes for the better in the +lives of these people. Her very presence in a room was an inspiration +for cleanliness. Her clothes were no better than theirs but she stood +out among them like a vestal virgin. She came into their quarters and +made the women ashamed that the rooms were not better fitted to +receive so pure a being. You would scarcely have recognized Michele's +rooms at the end of the first year. The windows were cleaned, the +floors scrubbed, and even the bed linen was washed occasionally. The +baby gained in weight and Michele when he wanted to smoke either sat +outside on the door step or by an open window. But Michele was an +exception. + +Ruth's efforts were not confined to our own building either. Her +influence spread down the street and through the whole district. The +district nurse was a frequent visitor and kept her informed of all her +cases. Wherever Ruth could do anything she did it. Her first object +was always to awaken the women to the value of cleanliness and after +that she tried her best to teach them little ways of preparing their +food more economically. Few of them knew the value of oatmeal for +instance though of course their macaroni and spaghetti was a pretty +good substitute. In fact Ruth picked up many new dishes of this sort +for herself from among them. + +Some families spent as much for beer as for milk. Ruth couldn't change +that practice but she did make them more careful where they bought +their milk--especially when there was a baby in the house. Then, too, +she shared all her secrets of where and how to buy cheaply. Sometimes +advantage was taken of these hints, but more often not. They didn't +pay much more for many articles than she did but they didn't get as +good quality. However as long as the food tasted good and satisfied +their hunger you couldn't make them take an extra effort and get stuff +because it was more nutritious or more healthful. They couldn't think +ahead except in the matter of saving dollars and cents. + +These people of course were of the lower class. There was another +element of decidedly finer quality. Giuseppe for example was one of +these and there were hundreds of others. It was among these that +Ruth's influence counted for the most. They not only took advantage of +her superior intelligence in conducting their households but they +breathed in something of the soul of her. When I saw them send for her +in their grief and in their joy, when I heard them ask her advice +with almost the confidence with which they prayed, when I heard them +give her such names as "the angel mother," "the blessed American +saint," I felt very proud and very humble. Such things made me glad in +another way for the change which had taken her out of the old life +where such qualities were lost and brought her down here where they +counted for so much. These people stripped of convention live with +their hearts very near the surface. They don't try to conceal their +emotions and so you are brought very quickly into close touch with +them. Ruth herself was a good deal like that and so her influence for +a day among them counted for as much as a year with the old crowd. + +In the meanwhile I resumed my night school at the end of the summer +vacation and was glad to get back to it. I had missed the work and +went at it this next winter with increased eagerness to perfect myself +in my trade. + +During this second year, too, I never relaxed my efforts to keep my +gang up to standard and whenever possible to better it by the addition +of new men. Every month I thought I increased the respect of the men +for me by my fair dealing with them. I don't mean to say I fully +realized the expectations of which I had dreamed. I suppose that at +first I dreamed a bit wildly. There was very little sentiment in the +relation of the men to me, although there was some. Still I don't want +to give the impression that I made of them a gang of blind personal +followers such as some religious cranks get together. It was necessary +to make them see that it was for their interest to work for me and +with me and that I did do. I made them see also that in order to work +for me they had to work a little more faithfully than they worked for +others. So it was a straight business proposition. What sentiment +there was came through the personal interest I took in them outside of +their work. It was this which made them loyal instead of merely hard +working. It was this which made them my gang instead of Corkery's +gang--a thing that counted for a good deal later on. + +The personal reputation I had won gave me new opportunities of which I +took every advantage this second year. It put me in touch with the +responsible heads of departments. Through them I was able to acquire a +much broader and more accurate knowledge of the business as a whole. I +asked as many questions here as I had below. I received more +intelligent answers and was able to understand them more +intelligently. I not only learned prices but where to get +authoritative prices. As far as possible I made myself acquainted with +the men working for the building constructors and for those working +for firms whose specialty was the tearing down of buildings. I used my +note-book as usual and entered the names of every man who, in his +line, seemed to me especially valuable. + +And everywhere, I found that my experiment with the gang was well +known. I found also that my tendency for asking questions was even +better known. It passed as a joke in a good many cases. But better +than this I found that I had established a reputation for sobriety, +industry and level-headedness. I can't help smiling how little those +things counted for me with the United Woollen or when I sought work +after leaving that company. Here they counted for a lot. I realized +that when it came time for me to seek credit. + +In the meanwhile I didn't neglect the fight for clean politics in my +ward. + +I resigned from the presidency of the young men's club at the end of a +year and we elected a young lawyer who was taking a great interest in +the work down here to fill the vacancy. That was a fine selection. The +man was fresh from the law school and was full of ideals which dated +back to the _Mayflower_. He hadn't been long enough in the world to +have them dimmed and was full of energy. He took hold of the original +idea and developed it until the organization included every ward in +this section of the city. He held rallies every month and brought down +big speakers and kept the sentiment of the youngsters red hot. This +had its effect upon the older men and before we knew it we had a +machine that looked like a real power in the whole city. Sweeney saw +it and so did the bigger bosses of both parties. But the president +kept clear of alliances with any of them. He stood pat with what +promised to be a balance of power, ready to swing it to the cleanest +man of either party who came up for office. + +I made several speeches myself though it was hard work for me. I don't +run to that sort of thing. I did it however just because I didn't like +it and because I felt it was the duty of a citizen to do something now +and then he doesn't like for his city and his country. The old excuse +with me had been that politics was a dirty business at best and that +it ought to be left to the lawyers and such who had something to gain +from it. The only men I ever knew who went into it at all were those +who had a talent for it and who liked it. Of course that's dead wrong. +A man who won't take the trouble to find out about the men up for +office and who won't bother himself to get out and hustle for the best +of them isn't a good citizen or a good American. He deserves to be +governed by the newcomers and deserves all they hand out to him. And +the time to do the work isn't when a man is up for president of the +United States, it's when the man is up for the common council. The +higher up a politician gets, the less the influence of the single +voter counts. + +It was in the spring that some of my ideals received a set back. The +alderman from our ward died suddenly and Rafferty was naturally hot +after the vacancy. He came to see me about it, but before he broached +this subject he laid another before me that took away my breath. It +was nothing else than that I should go into partnership with him under +the firm name of "Carleton and Rafferty." I couldn't believe it +possible that he was in a position to take such a step within a couple +of years of digging in the ditch. But when he explained the scheme to +me, it was as simple as rolling off a log. A firm of liquor dealers +had agreed to back him--form a stock company and give him a third +interest to manage it. He had spoken to them of me and said he'd do it +if they would make it a half interest and give us each a quarter. + +"But good Lord, Dan," I said, "we'd have to swing a lot of business to +make it go." + +"Never you worry about thot, mon," he said. "I'll fix thot all right +if I'm elicted to the boord." + +"You mean city contracts?" I said. + +"Sure." + +I began to see. The liquor house was looking for more licenses and +would get their pay out of Dan even if the firm didn't make a cent. +But Dan with such capital back of him as well as his aldermanic power +was sure to get the contracts. He would leave the actual work to me +and my men. + +I sat down and for two hours tried to make Dan realize how this crowd +wanted to use him. I couldn't. In addition to being blinded by his +overwhelming ambition, he actually couldn't see anything crooked in +what they wanted. He couldn't understand why he should let such an +opportunity drop for someone else to pick up. He had slipped out of my +hands completely. This was where the difference between five or six +years in America as against two hundred showed itself. And yet what +was the old stock doing to offset such personal ambition and energy as +Rafferty stood for? + +"No, Dan," I said, "I can't do it. And what's more I won't let you do +it if I can help it." + +"Phot do yez mane?" he asked. + +"That I'm going to fight you tooth and nail," I said. + +He turned red. Then he grinned. + +"Well," he said, "it'll be a foine fight anyhow." + +I went to the president of the club and told him that here was where +we had to stop Rafferty. He listened and then he said, + +"Well, here's where we do stop him." + +We went at the job in whirlwind fashion. I spoke a half dozen times +but to save my life I couldn't say what I wanted to say. Every time I +stood up I seemed to see Dan's big round face and I remembered the +kindly things he used to do for the old ladies. And I knew that Dan's +offer to take me into partnership wasn't prompted altogether by +selfish motives. He could have found other men who would have served +his purpose better. + +In the meanwhile Dan had organized "Social Clubs" in half a dozen +sections. For the first few weeks of the campaign I never heard of him +except as leading grand marches. But the last week he waded in. +There's no use going into details. He beat us. He rolled up a +tremendous majority. The president of the club couldn't understand it. +He was discouraged. + +"I had every boy in the ward out working," he said. + +"Yes," I said, "but Dan had every grandmother and every daughter and +every granddaughter out working." + +Dan came around to the flat one night after the election. He was as +happy as a boy over his victory. + +"Carleton," he said, again, "it's too domd bad ye ain't an Irishmon." + +After he had gone, Ruth said to me: + +"I don't think Mr. Rafferty will make a bad alderman at all." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MATURING PLANS + + +I received several offers from other firms and as a result of these my +wages were advanced first to three dollars a day and then to three and +a half. Still Ruth refused to take things easier by increasing the +household expenses. During the third year we lived exactly as we had +lived during the first year. In a way it was easier to do this now +that we knew there was no actual necessity for it. Of course it was +easier, too, now that we had fallen into a familiar routine. The +things which had seemed to us like necessities when we came down here +now seemed like luxuries. And we none of us had either the craving for +luxuries or the time to enjoy them had we wished to spend the money on +them. In the matter of clothes we cared for nothing except to be +warmly and cleanly dressed. Strip the problem of clothes down to this +and it's not a very serious one. To realize that you've only to +remember how the average farmer dresses or how the homesteader +dresses. It's only when you introduce style and the conventions that +the matter becomes complicated. Perhaps it was easier for me to dress +as I pleased than for the boy or Ruth but even they got right down to +bed rock. The boy wore grey flannel shirts and so at a stroke did away +with collars and cuffs. For the rest a simple blue suit, a cap, +stockings and shoes were all he needed outside his under clothes which +Ruth made for him. Ruth herself dressed in plain gowns that she could +do up herself. For the street, she still had the costumes she came +down here with. None of us kept any extra clothes for parade. + +We carried out the same idea in our food, as I've tried to show; we +insisted that it must be wholesome and that there must be enough of +it. Those were the only two things that counted. Variety except of the +humblest kind, we didn't strive for. I've seen cook books which +contain five hundred pages; if Ruth compiled one it wouldn't have +twenty. Here again the farmer and the pioneer were our models. If +anyone in the country had lived the way we were living, it wouldn't +have seemed worth telling about. I find the fact which amazes people +in our experiment was that we should have tried the same standard in +the city. Everyone seems to think this was a most dangerous thing to +attempt. The men who on a camping trip consider themselves well fed on +such food as we had to eat expect to starve to death if placed on the +same diet once within sound of the trolley cars. And on the camping +trip they do ten times the physical labor and do it month after month +in air that whets the appetite. Then they come back and boast how +strong they've grown, and begin to eat like hogs again and wonder why +they get sick. + +We camped out in the city--that's all we did. And we did just what +every man in camp does; we stripped down to essentials. We could have +lived on pork scraps and potatoes if that had been necessary. We could +have worried along on hard tack and jerked beef if we'd been pressed +hard enough. Men chase moose, and climb mountains and prospect for +gold on such food. Why in Heaven's name can't they shovel dirt on the +same diet? + +So, too, about amusements. When a man is trying to clear thirty acres +of pine stumps, he doesn't fret at the end of the day because he +can't go to the theatre. He doesn't want to go. Bed and his dreams are +amusement enough for him. And he isn't called a low-browed savage +because he's satisfied with this. He's called a hero. The world at +large doesn't say that he has lowered the standard of living; it +boasts about him for a true American. Why can't a man lay bricks +without the theatre? + +As a matter of fact however we could have had even the amusements if +we'd wanted them. For those who needed such things in order to +preserve a high standard of living they were here. And I don't say +they didn't serve a useful purpose. What I do say is that they aren't +absolutely necessary; that a high standard of living isn't altogether +dependent on sirloin steaks, starched collars and music halls as I've +heard a good many people claim. + +This third year finished my course in masonry. I came out in June with +a trade at which I could earn from three dollars to five dollars a day +according to my skill. It was a trade, too, where there was pretty +generally steady employment. A good mason is more in demand than a +good lawyer. Not only that but a good mason can find work in any city +in this country. Wherever he lands, he's sure of a comfortable living. +I was told that out west some men were making as high as ten dollars a +day. + +I had also qualified in a more modest way as a mechanical draftsman. I +could draw my own plans for work and what was more useful still, do my +work from the plans of others. + +By now I had also become a fairly proficient Italian scholar. I could +speak the language fluently and read it fairly well. It wasn't the +fault of Giuseppe if my pronunciation was sometimes queer and if very +often I used the jargon of the provinces. My object was served as long +as I could make myself understood to the men. And I could do that +perfectly. + +This year I watched Rafferty's progress with something like envy. The +firm was "D. Rafferty and Co." Within two months I began to see the +name on his dump carts whenever I went to work. Within six months he +secured a big contract for repaving a long stretch of street in our +ward. I knew our firm had put in a bid on it and knew they must have +been in a position to put in a mighty low bid. I didn't wonder so much +about how Dan got this away from us as I did how he got it away from +Sweeney. That was explained to me later when I found that Sweeney was +in reality back of the liquor dealers. Sweeney owned about half their +stores and had taken this method to bring Dan back to the fold, once +he found he couldn't check his progress. + +During this year Dan bought a new house and married. We went to the +wedding and it was a grand affair with half the ward there. Mrs. +Rafferty was a nice looking girl, daughter of a well-to-do Irishman in +the real estate business. She had received a good education in a +convent and was altogether a girl Dan could be proud of. The house was +an old-fashioned structure built by one of the old families who had +been forced to move by the foreign invasion. Mrs. Rafferty had +furnished it somewhat lavishly but comfortably. + +As Ruth and I came back that night I said: + +"I suppose if it had been 'Carleton and Rafferty' I might have had a +house myself by now." + +"I guess it's better as it is, Billy," she said, with a smile. + +Of course it was better but I began to feel discontented with my +present position. I felt uncomfortable at still being merely a +foreman. When we reached the house Ruth and I took the bank book and +figured out just what our capital in money was. Including the boy's +savings which we could use in an emergency it amounted to fourteen +hundred dollars. During the first year we saved one hundred and twenty +dollars, which added to the eighty we came down here with, made two +hundred dollars. During the second year we saved three hundred and +ninety dollars. During the third year we saved six hundred dollars. +This made a total of eleven hundred and ninety dollars in the bank. +The boy had saved more than two hundred dollars over his clothes in +the last two years. + +It was Rafferty who helped me turn this over in a real estate deal in +which he was interested. I made six hundred dollars by that. +Everything Rafferty touched now seemed to turn to money. One reason +was that he was thrown in contact with money-makers all of whom were +anxious to help him. He received any number of tips from those eager +to win his favor. Among the tips were many that were legitimate enough +like the one he shared with me but there were also many that were not +quite so above-board. But to Dan all was fair in business and +politics. Yet I don't know a man I'd sooner trust upon his honor in a +purely personal matter. He wouldn't graft from his friends however +much he might from the city. In fact his whole code as far as I could +see was based upon this unswerving loyalty to his friends and +scrupulous honesty in dealing with them. It was only when honesty +became abstract that he couldn't see it. You could put a thousand +dollars in gold in his keeping without security and come back twenty +years later and find it safe. But he'd scheme a week to frame up a +deal to cheat the city out of a hundred dollars. And he'd do it with +his head in the air and a grin on his face. I've seen the same thing +done by educated men who knew better. I wouldn't trust the latter with +a ten cent piece without first consulting a lawyer. + +The money I had saved didn't represent all my capital. I had as my +chief asset the gang of men I had drilled. Everything else being equal +they stood ready to work for me in preference to any other man in the +city. In fact their value as a machine depended on me. If I had been +discharged and another man put in my place the gang would have +resolved itself again into merely one hundred day laborers. Nor was +this my only other asset. I had established myself as a reliable man +in the eyes of a large group of business men. This meant credit. Nor +must I leave out Dan and his influence. He stood ready to back me not +only financially but personally. And he knew me well enough to know +this would not involve anything but a business obligation on my part. + +With these things in mind then I felt ready to take a radical +departure from the routine of my life when the opportunity came. But I +made up my mind I would wait for the opportunity. I must have a chance +which would not involve too much capital and in which my chief asset +would be the gang. Furthermore it must be a chance that I could use +without resorting to pull. Not only that but it must be something on +which I could prove myself to such good advantage that other business +would be sure to follow. I couldn't cut loose with my men and leave +them stranded at the end of a single job. + +I watched every public proposal and analyzed them all. I found that +they very quickly resolved themselves into Dan's crowd. I kept my +ears wide open for private contracts but by the time I heard of any I +was too late. So I waited for perhaps three months. Then I saw in the +daily paper what seemed to me my opportunity. It was an open bid for +some park construction which was under the guardianship of a +commission. It was a grading job and so would require nothing but the +simplest equipment. I looked over the ground and figured out the +gang's part in it first. Then I went to Rafferty and told him what I +wanted in the way of teams. I wanted only the carts and horses--I +would put my own men to work with them. I asked him to take my note +for the cost. + +"I'll take your word, Carleton," he said. "Thot's enough." + +But I insisted on the note. He finally agreed and offered to secure +for me anything I wanted for the work. + +I went back to Ruth and we sat down and figured the matter all over +once again. We stripped it down to a figure so low that my chief +profit would come on the time I could save with my machine. I allowed +for the scantiest profit on dirt and rock though I had secured a good +option on what I needed of this. I was lucky in finding a short haul +though I had had my eye on this for some time. Of one thing I was +extremely careful--to make my estimate large enough so that I couldn't +possibly lose anything but my profit. Even if I wasn't able to carry +out my hope of being able to speed up the gang I should be able to pay +my bills and come out of the venture even. + +Ruth and I worked for a week on it and when I saw the grand total it +took away my breath. I wasn't used to dealing in big figures. They +frightened me. I've learned since then that it's a good deal easier in +some ways to deal in thousands than it is in ones. You have wider +margins, for one thing. But I must confess that now I was scared. I +was ready to back out. When I turned to Ruth for the final decision, +she looked into my eyes a second just as she did when I asked her to +marry me and said, + +"Go after it, Billy. You can do it." + +That night I sent in my estimate endorsed by Dan and a friend of his +and for a month I waited. I didn't sleep as well as usual but Ruth +didn't seem to be bothered. Then one night when I came home I found +Ruth at the outside door waiting for me. I knew the thing had been +decided. She came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder and patted +me. + +"It's yours, Billy," she said. + +My heart stopped beating for a moment and then it went on again +beating a dozen ticks to the second. + +The next day I closed up my options. I went to Corkery, gave my notice +and told him what I was going to do. He was madder than a hornet. I +listened to what he had to say and went off without a word in reply. +He was so unreasonable that it didn't seem worth it. That noon I +rounded up the men and told them frankly that I was going to start in +business for myself and needed a hundred men. I told them also that +this first job might last only four or five weeks and that while I had +nothing definite in mind after that I was in hopes to secure in the +meanwhile other contracts. I said this would be largely up to them. I +told them that I didn't want a man to come who wasn't willing to take +the chance. Of course it was something of a chance because Corkery had +been giving them steady employment. Still it wasn't a very big chance +because there was always work for such men. + +I watched anxiously to see how they would take it. I felt that the +truth of my theories were having their hardest test. When they let out +a cheer and started towards me in a mass I saw blurry. + +I'll never forget the feeling I had when I started out in the morning +that first day as an independent contractor; I'll never forget my +feeling as I reached the work an hour ahead of my men and waited for +them to come straggling up. I seemed closer than ever to my ancestors. +I felt as my great-great-grandfather must have felt when he cut loose +from the Massachusetts colony and went off down into the unknown +Connecticut. I was full enough of confidence but I knew that a month +might drive me back again. Deeper than this trivial fear however there +was something bigger--something finer. I was a free man in a larger +way than I had ever been before. It made me feel an American to the +very core of my marrow. + +The work was all staked out but before the men began I called them all +together. I didn't make a speech; I just said: + +"Men--I've estimated that this can be done by an ordinary bunch of men +in forty days; I've banked that you can do it in thirty. If you +succeed, it gives me profit enough to take another contract. Do the +best you can." + +There wasn't a mother's son among them who didn't appreciate my +position. There were a good many who knew Ruth and knew her through +what she had done for their families, and these understood it even +better. The dirt began to fly and it was a pretty sight to watch. I +never spoke again to the men. I simply directed their efforts. I spent +about half the time with a shovel in my hands myself. There was +scarcely a day when Ruth didn't come out to watch the work with an +anxious eye but after the first week there was little need for +anxiety. I think she would have liked to take a shovel herself. One +Saturday Dick came out and actually insisted upon being allowed to do +this. The men knew him and liked to see such spirit. + +Well, we clipped ten days from my estimate, which left me with all my +bills paid and with a handsome profit. Better still I had secured on +the strength of Carleton's gang another contract. + +The night I deposited my profit in the bank, Ruth quite unconsciously +took her pad and pencil and sat down by my side as usual to figure up +the household expenses for the week. We had been a bit extravagant +that week because she had been away from the house a good deal. The +total came to four dollars and sixty-seven cents. When Ruth had +finished I took the pad and pencil away from her and put it in my +pocket. + +"There's no use bothering your head any more over these details," I +said. + +She looked at me almost sadly. + +"No, Billy," she said, with a sigh, "there isn't, is there?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ONCE AGAIN A NEW ENGLANDER + + +During all those years we had never seen or heard of any of our old +neighbors. They had hardly ever entered our thoughts except as very +occasionally the boy ran across one of his former playmates. Shortly +after this, however, business took me out into the old neighborhood +and I was curious enough to make a few inquiries. There was no change. +My trim little house stood just as it then stood and around it were +the other trim little houses. There were a few new houses and a few +new-comers, but all the old-timers were still there. I met Grover, who +was just recovering from a long sickness. He didn't recognize me at +first. I was tanned and had filled out a good deal. + +"Why, yes," he said, after I had told my name. "Let me see, you went +off to Australia or somewhere, didn't you, Carleton?" + +"I emigrated," I answered. + +He looked up eagerly. + +"I remember now. It seems to have agreed with you." + +"You're still with the leather firm?" I inquired. + +He almost started at this unexpected question. + +"Yes," he answered. + +His eyes turned back to his trim little house, then to me as though he +feared I was bringing him bad news. + +"But I've been laid up for six weeks," he faltered. + +I knew what was troubling him. He was wondering whether he would find +his job when he got back. Poor devil! If he didn't what would become +of his trim little house? Grover was older by five years than I had +been when the axe fell. + +I talked with him a few minutes. There had been a death or two in the +neighborhood and the children had grown up. That was the only change. +The sight of Grover made me uncomfortable, so I hurried about my +business, eager to get home again. + +God pity the poor? Bah! The poor are all right if by poor you mean the +tenement dwellers. When you pray again pray God to pity the +middle-class American on a salary. Pray that he may not lose his job; +pray that if he does it shall be when he is very young; pray that he +may find the route to America. The tenement dwellers are safe enough. +Pray--and pray hard--for the dwellers in the trim little houses of the +suburbs. + +I've had my ups and downs, my profits and losses since I entered +business for myself but I've come out at the end of each year well +ahead of the game. I never made again as much in so short a time as I +made on that first job. One reason is that as soon as I was solidly on +my feet I started a profit sharing scheme, dividing with the men what +was made on every job over a certain per cent. Many of the original +gang have left and gone into business for themselves of one sort and +another but each one when he went, picked a good man to take his place +and handed down to him the spirit of the gang. + +Dick went through college and is now in my office. He's a hustler and +is going to make a good business man. But thank God he has a heart in +him as well as brains. He hopes to make "Carleton and Son" a big firm +some day and he will. If he does, every man who faithfully and +honestly handles his shovel will be part of the big firm. His idea +isn't to make things easy for the men; it's to preserve the spirit +they come over with and give them a share of the success due to that +spirit. + +We didn't move away from our dear, true friends until the other boy +came. Then I bought two or three deserted farms outside the +city--fifty acres in all. I bought them on time and at a bargain. I'm +trying another experiment here. I want to see if the pioneer spirit +won't bring even these worn out acres to life. I find that some of my +foreign neighbors have made their old farms pay even though the good +Americans who left them nearly starved to death. I have some cows and +chickens and pigs and am using every square foot of the soil for one +purpose or another. We pretty nearly get our living from the farm now. + +We entertain a good deal but we don't entertain our new neighbors. +There isn't a week summer or winter that I don't have one or more +families of Carleton's gang out here for a half holiday. It's the only +way I can reconcile myself to having moved away from among them. Ruth +keeps very closely in touch with them all and has any number of +schemes to help them. Her pet one just now is for us to raise enough +cows so that we can sell fresh milk at cost to those families which +have kiddies. + +Dan comes out to see us every now and then. He's making ten dollars to +my one. He says he's going to be mayor of the city some day. I told +him I'd do my best to prevent it. That didn't seem to worry him. + +"If ye was an Irishmon, now," he said, "I'd be after sittin' up nights +in fear of ye. But ye ain't." + +I'm almost done. This has been a hard job for me. And yet it's been a +pleasant job. It's always pleasant to talk about Ruth. I found that +even by taking away her pad and pencil I didn't accomplish much in the +way of making her less busy. Even with three children to look after +instead of one she does just as much planning about the housework. And +we don't have sirloin steaks even now. We don't want them. Our daily +fare doesn't vary much from what it was in the tenement. + +Ruth just came in with Billy, Jr., in her arms and read over these +last few paragraphs. She says she's glad I'm getting through with this +because she doesn't know what I might tell about next. But there's +nothing more to tell about except that to-day as at the beginning +Ruth is the biggest thing in my life. I can't wish any better luck for +those trying to fight their way out than they may find for a partner +half as good a wife as Ruth. I wouldn't be afraid to start all over +again to-day with her by my side. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 129: semed replaced with seemed | + | Page 219: exitement replaced with excitement | + | Page 231: beafsteak replaced with beefsteak | + | Page 252: dependdent replaced with dependent | + | | + | The following words are legitimate alternate spelling, | + | and left as found: | + | | + | Shakespere | + | goodby | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of One Way Out, by William Carleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE WAY OUT *** + +***** This file should be named 28315.txt or 28315.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/3/1/28315/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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